Along with a nice cup of coffee...

Totally blowing off all I need to be doing today to go blog-visiting. Shocking how much time that can take!

And I have been reading some library books during Bud's nap that are overdue and need to get back to the library ASAP. This is my New Favorite Book that all Mommies should buy...Not get from the library, but actually purchase.
It truly helps to get rid of some of that Mom Guilt that seems to jump out at me a few times each day.

And couldn't you just lick that book cover??

Random Thrifting

I am up to my eyeballs right now trying to get rid of some things, organize some things and figure out placement of things, run a huge pile of things to Goodwill and run a huge pile of things to the booth to sell. Plus, Brother One and Brother Two delivered my Dad's old metal office furniture, a large old wooden wardrobe and 2 big console radio/phonographs yesterday that we are working on finding the perfect places for in our home. So instead of doing any of that, I am going through old photos of thrifted items I may not have shown you yet so I can delete photo files.

Yeah.

Talk about being rawther good at procrastination!! These are all items that need to find their spot in our home as well.

I am still a sucker for a good Little Golden book and hot pads seem to be making me happy these days, too.
A great old double-sided plastic measuring cup
These crack me up...old plastic containers that you put quart cardboard milk or orange juice in to help 'sturdy them up a bit while you pour'
And old recipe clipping holder
More Little Golden
Metal coffee mug holder that I am going to alter in some way, some day.
Stencils for the kids to play with in our rainy day box
Ohhhh, Dr Seuss gets me pretty happy, too.
And an old butter churner to round out the mix. This was brought over by a wonderfully generous Girlfriend and I am still loving it, just not sure the perfect spot to put it. My instinct was to fill it with glitter and use it as a display piece at Christmas!

Everything you see here cost about 50 cents to a dollar.

Comments Will Be Welcome...

Not that I have EVER been good at taking advice, but I am willing to listen to yours now.

Please let me know if it is hard for you to read my text. I have gotten a comment on the darkness of the lettering in contrast to the page and am slightly curious now if you are seeing something that I am not.

Because when I look at it from this end, it is simply breathtaking!

Go ahead, I won't snap your head off.

Who Decorated This Place?!

Truly. Who looks at a nearly-Hundred year old Dutch Colonial and thinks "All she needs is a little track lighting to bring her up to speed".

Apparently, our homes previous owners had their own (silly) ideas on how they 'updated' our home that we have been slowly working on removing the past 10 years.

Today, our favorite electrician visited to hang some new fixtures in our kitchen area as well as the foyer.

After ripping out the lighting that was there, this is what it looks like now:


And this was our foyer lighting before:

And after:


As for the track lighting in the far back room, didn't take the 'before' photo's simply because I am trying to block out the fact that there was ever track lighting in our far back room. Hubby took that out a while back and replaced it with this:

And we took out the ceiling fan and replaced it with this (again in the far back room)
What is that on the ceiling, you ask? Behind the light? This??
Why this is ONE OF TWO SPEAKERS THAT ARE INSTALLED IN OUR CEILING THAT WAS PUT UP ABOUT THE TIME THEY INSTALLED THE TRACK LIGHTING.

Sorry, was I shouting?

Don't get me wrong...I like track lighting and ceiling speakers in the right type of house. Just not this one.

The best part of owning a home is truly making it your own, isn't it? And I am sure there will be people years after us who are ripping out our fixtures and muttering to themselves "Who does this?!"

Christmas In March

While walking through Goodwill this morning, I came across this box:

Which looked like this when I turned it around:

And pulled this out, brand-spanking new, like the day it was packaged:



Thrilled to pieces! I don't have any true cardboard houses, so this is such a treat to own. And it set me back a whopping $2. Did I mention it is a musical church that tinkles out Silent Night?

And then I had to grab these little ones since I seemed to have a Christmas theme going today while thrifting:
Aren't they just too cute? It is hard to tell in the light of the picture, but they are covered in white glitter.

This is a great time of year to pick up holiday items that are marked down low...tag sales will start popping up like tulips here in the next couple weeks and there will be fun seasonal goodies to be had that people have held onto for the past year. As long as you love it, have space to store it, then by all means, scoop it up.

Bud

Bud is down and out with the tummy flu. Sometimes a little guy just needs his favorite cat, his Daddy's blanket, a nap in Mommy and Daddy's bed and a remote near by to make it all better. Callie is sleeping at Bud's feet which she always does when one of us is not feeling well...to warm us up, perhaps? Whatever her motives, I love that she does that for each of us.

Feel better, Buddy.

A Typical Tuesday Morning...

I get in the car:

To drive down the road:

To look around here:

And find something like this:


That makes Hubby raise an eyebrow.

Watkins? Seriously??

Oh, it was such a nice weekend getaway! And now we are back and getting unpacked and settled back in.

I picked up some Fabulous-smelling all purpose cleaner while wandering around the Minnetonka Target...Buy some for yourself if you can find it. The scent of aloe/green tea makes me want to spritz some on the floor to roll around and languish in. Or put in my bathwater.

It is that good.

So I have been spritzing around the house, cleaning all morning, much to my family's delight. Why didn't I buy more??

And by cleaning and doing laundry, I am able to keep so busy that I can put off dealing with this mess until at least tomorrow:
I will do some more picture taking (I have such wonderful things to show you!) after I get the 'holding area' figured out. This is just one area of it so I have a whole lot of work ahead of me...thank goodness it is fun work!

Glittering!

When I am in Thrift Mode, I am most likely not in Create or Craft Mode. If I am spending the majority of my time gathering, I am typically thinking of what I want to do with things, but not necessarily doing those things. I am gathering for Someday. And then needing to purge to be able to have more room for other stuff I want to do something with Someday.

Then I get these bursts of creativity and get my little projects done, sometimes trying to do everything all at once. Which leaves me a little breathless as well as more than a bit irritated with myself that I didn't take time each day to do something that I love to do.

I wouldn't ever consider myself an Artist. Thrifter, Yes. Glitterer, Yes. House-Decorator for our home, Yes. Booth Renter, Yes. But Artist? No.

I have always had this preconceived notion that if I am going to be any kind of creative Artist, I would have to live an isolated life.
In a loft apartment.
In Greenwich Village.
With a whole lot of quiet.

Which is so far way from my life right now, the life we have created together as a family, which I LOVE. I don't want that other life of isolation!

So how to the two combine?

I picked up the extremely inspiring book by Julia Cameron while at the library the other day entitled The Artist's Way. I am only two chapters in, but already I am realizing that I do not need to buy into my previous fantasies of how I need to live to be an Artist. I just need to unblock and do. I am living in the perfect time and space to do what I want to do...I just need to do.

And taking baby steps, I am writing. And I am creating...maybe not from the ground up, but am doing those little things that I have set aside to do later.


Remember These?




This is what I was able to get done in the early morning hours while sipping my first cup of coffee. Glittering is one of my favorite things to do. It is so relaxing for me and I feel like I am getting some of my 'creating' out. I don't need to make the little deer from clay from my own hands. I can thrift those little deer and do what I want with them.






Little Steps.

Capturing Every Single Moment

I have been taking pictures of EVERYTHING today with this fabulous camera my family gifted me with this morning...It is truly making everything more beautiful.

Or maybe it's the blueberry pomegranate martinis I have been mixing up all day since it is My Birthday!


I jest.

But this camera is pretty cool, even if I barely know how to use it.

What I Woke Up To!

Birthday shouts, phone calls and emails...and these taken with my brand-spankin' new Nikon:







Do you have any idea how much FUN it is to be woken up in the morning by a flock of Flamingo's that arrived sometime in the middle of the night? Oh my goodness!

My first question was "Do I get to keep them??"

"Um, I am almost positive you don't"

I simply might be having the Best Birthday Ever. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Springtime

I was so happy this morning to break out my capri's and my favorite black shoes from last year...and yes, those are chew marks on the straps from the cat and they could use a good buffing, but I am going to wear them anyway.

Let The Celebration BEGIN!

When we returned home today, all four of us immediately noticed there was a package stuffed into our mailbox. Hmmmm...Package? For Me, perhaps? Because my Birthday is Monday? From my Girlfriend down in Oklahoma?? Hurray!

And because I am horrible, HORRIBLE at waiting, let alone for two more whole days...I opened it.

And this is what I found!



A package of *18* different fine ground Martha Stewart glitters! Look at all those gorgeous colors.

Does this girl know me or does this girl know me?

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!! Birthdays are the best!

What I Am Loving: Ephemera and Letters

Oh, the little interests one gathers along the way...I seem to have some trouble passing by letters and cardboard children's game pictures. Sometimes, I even let Bud play with them before I squirrel the items away to be used somehow, someway in the not so distant future!