Things I Love

Here are a few things from the past week that I love  . . .

1.)  Vintage finds . . . 

Some wooden spools of thread from my Grandma . . . Inspiration!

Check out that price on the spool on the left.  15 cent.  Love the colors :)

2.)  Finding little pieces of paper around the house with notes on them . . .

 

This made me laugh.  Adrianna must have been pretty upset with Ava to write this! 

3.)  The bare patches under the swings in the back yard.

  I smile every time I look out of my kitchen window and see dirt where grass once was under those swings.  I think about those little feet that made those bare patches and I find this is one of my favorite things about my yard!

3.)  Yoda watching over our house . . .

He sands guard over the back yard.  Placed just so he can watch over the swing set.  "Watch over the kids, I will."  May the force be with you!

4.)  Family time . . .

A rare moment :)

5.)  Visiting with my Grandma . . .

And my Mom :)

6.)  January bike rides . . .

We had a beautiful weekend so we spent some time outside.  

7.)  Trips to the library . . .

It's one of our favorite places to go!

8.)  Sister time . . .

They really do love each other!

9.)  Books and crochet . . .

10.)  Having breakfast with my family . . .

Priceless.  Even if I did have to get up at the crack of dawn in order to fit in breakfast at Biscuitville with my family before school.  It was totally worth it.

My favorite quote of the week came from Ava.  She had a friend over this weekend and we were sitting down to eat dinner.  Someone mentioned how quite and peaceful it was at the time.   Ava said “It’s peaceful because it’s home.”  So true my deep little thinker.  So true.

Natalie

A doughnut truck, hot chocolate, and embroidery . . .

I saw this on my way to work this morning.  I snapped a pic (at the stop light!) and sent it to Aaron :)

My rear is still hurting.  I'm still using ice but it makes my whole body cold when I ice it.  Another trip to the chiropractor today helped!

I had some time after lunch before my appointment so I went to my two favorite places.  Hobby Lobby and Barnes & Noble.  I want to make a few sets of cloth napkins to use at home so I went in search of some fun material to make them out of.  I wasn't feeling very inspired as I was shopping.  Not that HL doesn't have some really cute fabric because they do.  It's just that I really want to paint my kitchen and Aaron and I have yet to decide on a color and I want my napkins to coordinate.  I did get some red gingham . . . since the red from my cabinet is growing on me I thought it would make some cute napkins.

Then I went into B&N to kill some time before my chiropractic appointment this afternoon.  I really wanted a good coffee or something so I stood in line forever at the Starbuck's in B&N and ordered a Skinny Salted Caramel Mocha.  I love salted dark chocolate or salted caramel.  There is a candy store in the mountains we like to visit that makes and sells gourmet chocolate.  They have a chocolate covered caramel candy with sea salt that it swoon worthy.  Using deductive reasoning and common sense, I decided that this was the drink for me.  I.  Was.  Wrong.

It.

Was.

Disgusting.

I don't know if the girl who made it just really messed it up or what but I couldn't drink it.  As a matter of fact, I gagged.  Never again will I step out of my caramel latte comfort zone and try anything different at Starbucks.  I poured my $4.55 down the drain.

I was really disappointed about missing out on a fancy drink so after my chiropractic appointment I went home and made some real hot chocolate.  You know with milk, Hersey's Cocoa powder, sugar, salt and vanilla.  It was wonderful and much cheaper.

 So I sat down (on a hard chair and with some ice) with my hot chocolate and computer to catch up on some blogs I like to read.  Then my hiney starting hurting so I got up and finished up some things I started for my craft room that still does not exist. 

I stitched this dress makers form using a Sublime Stitching pattern and framed it in a metal hoop that was my Grandma's . . .

and this cameo which is also in a metal hoop from Grandma's . . .

and I embroidered embroidery in this wooden hoop (not vintage) . . .

All to eventually hang on a wall in my craft room . . . sometime . . .

A few weeks ago I found a pillow case that Ava and I had started a long time ago and never finished.  She had almost finished one of the birds :)  I finished up the other bird then made a second pillow case for Adrianna.

Here are the two finished pillow cases.

Just for fun, here are some pretty vintage spools of thread that belonged to my Grandmother.

Aren't thy pretty!  Coats and Clark 15 cent.

*all embroidery patterns are from Sublime Stitching

Natalie

An instagram afternoon

I had a few hours to myself this afternoon!  I got off work at lunch time because I had a dentist appointment scheduled for 2:00.  That left a few hours for me go to Hobby Lobby and Barnes and Noble :).  While at B&N I found these cool journals . . .

apparently there are a whole lot of people who like to make lists therefore a market for journals just for this purpose . . .

totally need this one for "my amazing life"

I did take pictures of the molds my dentist made of my teeth before I started wearing aligners and of the one they did yesterday.  Major difference in only about 2 months.  I'll spare you those pics :)

Since my mother in law picked the kiddos up from school this afternoon, there was no need for me to rush home.  So I enjoyed a trip to Wal-mart by myself.  I know, how exciting!  I can tell you are jealous.  No pictures from Wal-mart.  I was too busy trying to remember what I needed.  What?  No list?  It was a spur of the moment thing so no list.

As I got in my car to leave I remembered I needed to get a gift for someone and happily made a very slight detour on the way home to Clay St.  Hey, I was driving past anyway.  Thinking, Oh, I'll just run in here and get what I need, I trusted that my frozen and cold stuff would stay that way until I returned.  I can't show you a pic today of what gift I got - maybe another day - I hope she likes it :).  After purchasing the gift I remembered seeing this in the window of one of the many antique stores downtown . . .

now that's an old typewriter.  love it!  you may remember this post I did about my Grandmother's typewriter.

Since I was already on Clay St. and had no reason to rush besides the cold stuff in my car, I decided to check out some more of the stores.  I don't get to do this often and I love walking around downtown.  Plus, it was pretty chilly today so I didn't worry too much about my  groceries.

I went into one of my favorite stores called The Elegant Relic.  They have the most beautiful things  in there!  Also a great place to buy a gift for someone.  As I was headed upstairs I spied these . . .

magnets made from keyboard keys.  genius!  that's what you can do with those old keyboards - yank the keys off and stick a magnet on them.  seriously, i think i may do this if i ever have a keyboard i can rip apart.  or i guess you could also use old calculator keys . . .

Nothing picture worthy in the next store I went into so I continued to mosey across the street to another favorite local shop.  Solgarden.  Now, this is the place to shop for a unique gift.  Love this store.  I even get my Charlie's soap there.  While I was there I saw this and had to snap a pic to keep the typewriter picture trend I had going on. 

plus it's a journal and i like the quote on the front.  what a good reminder. . . 

Then I saw these and I get a kick out of this stuff wherever I see it!

paper and notebooks made from poo.  as in animal poo.  you can read more about it here on the poopoopaper website.  you can order from here as well.  you can even "shop by poop type"

Enough about that.  I have a confession, I actually went there to get something for myself . . .

i saw this wallet last week when i went to get my laundry soap.  it caught my eye because it reminded me of my pillowcase that i had been working on.  which i finished up this weekend.  see . . . 

i think it was meant to be for me to have that wallet.  plus i'm supporting local businesses!  just doing my part :)

After that I came home and put my groceries up.  They all made it in case you were wondering.  The kids had finished their homework except for reading . . .

i never have to worry about her reading for 30 minutes every night.   most nights i have to make her turn her lamp off by her bed and go to sleep.  i even catch her with her book light sneaking in a few more pages sometimes.  so teachers, if she'd grumpy at school it's because she stays up too late reading.

Then it was bath and dinner time.  We have no real schedule around here.  It's just whatever whenever.  It was too cold to play outside this afternoon so Adrianna went ahead and took a bath.  She wanted to dry her hair afterwards with the hairdrier.  Ok . . .

she is crazy.  her hair is so thin it dries in a minute yet i realized she had been in there around 8 minutes with the hairdrier going.  she was watching her hair blow in different directions and warming her feet with it.  not surprised . . .

Then I decided I better get to crackin on dinner!  It's pizza night.  We usually do pizza on Friday's but we haven't had it in a while and I was really wanting pizza.  Plus I really had no inspiration tonight.  So my little sous chef and I spent some time together in the kitchen. 

  

 she is so good at putting the cheese on :)

 yummy!  

During dinner Aaron and I referenced Seinfeld twice.  There is a Seinfeld episode for everything.  Tonight it was junior mints and loud talker.  If you watch Seinfeld you know what I'm talking about.  

Well, now I'm full and tired.  I'm going to hang out with the girls for a little while before bedtime then catch up on some TV shows and finish up another embroidered pillow case. . . 

Finally . . .

 I finally got to bring home a piece of furniture that has been sitting at my Mom's house for a while.  It is a cabinet that belonged to my Grandmother.  I know my Mom is thrilled to have it out of her garage!  I went over to Mom's house yesterday to get it but before it was loaded into the van (yes, it fit in the van!) I got to spend some time with my Mom cleaning the cabinet.  I know that sounds silly but it was nice to be able to have a conversation with her without kids interrupting every few seconds :)  I was expecting the cabinet to be really dusty, dirty and covered with spider webs from sitting such a long time in her garage but it was surprisingly clean.  Not a single cobweb or spider web!

We wiped it down with warm water and vinegar to get the dingy grime off. It cleaned up nicely.  I really thought I was going to have to give it a complete overhaul stripping and repainting but I think it looks great the way it is.  Yes, there are a few places where the paint it chipping and the sicker design on the windows is pealing but this is what gives it character, right?

I couldn't wait to load it up with my turquoise pottery.  I have more packed in boxes that I need to get out of the garage.  Maybe I'll do that next weekend.  I'm still not sure about the red.  It may be growing on me . . . We'll see. . .

I'm In Stitches!

Embroidery stitches that is.  Ever since I was a little girl I have loved a needle and thread.  I remember getting a black sewing basket with pink flowers on it with embroidery thread, needles, hoops and a cross-stitch pattern book when I was in elementary school.  I took that basket with me everywhere.  So here I am, 20 plus 10 years later doing the same thing.  I think seeing some of the things that my Grandmother had made a few years back put the needle and thread itch back in my fingers.  With the resurgence of all things handcrafted, people don't normally think of hand embroidery with all the high tech - yet very expensive - embroidery machines available (that make very beautiful, neat and perfect appliques, designs, and monograms).  It's very easy to have someone embroider something for you.  I find that I love the satisfaction of doing some things myself by hand.  I love the imperfections in handmade items.  Not just imperfections in stuff I make but in any handcrafted item.  Especially if you receive an handcrafted item as a gift, it just shows you that someone really put a lot of love and cared enough to spend the amount of time it took to make something just for you. 

So after finding a few things my Grandmother stitched I went in search of some patterns.  I ended up falling in love with the patterns at Sublime Stitching.  With some of Grandma's hoops and some new thread in hand, I ordered a few patterns.  I've put my stitches on a whole bunch of stuff since then but here are a few things I've been working on lately.

 

 I love stitch samplers!  This was fun to do and I loved picking the colors for it.  That's one of my Grandmother's wooden hoops.  It' my favorite hoop :)

 

Now that it's finished I need to get a frame for it.  This will be hanging in my craft room as soon as that gets finished. . . 

I started on a pillowcase for myself this weekend. . .

This is my favorite embroidery book along with a few more of my Grandmother's embroidery hoops.  I plan on stitching some pretty things that fit inside these hoops as they will also be decorating the walls of my craft room.  Both the sampler pattern and the pattern I'm using for my pillowcase came from this book, Embroidered Effects by Jenny Hart (check out her website here).

On a side note, Ava loves to embroider.  She will sit with me for hours working on something.  Adrianna likes to do it as well but she had the attention span of a gnat so she quickly gets bored with it.  A few years ago I had them each draw a picture then I transferred the pictures onto hand towels and we embroidered a bunch of them for Christmas gifts.  They turned out very cute!  I'll have to see if I can find pictures of those . . . 

Have a great weekend!