NumberNineteen

Flower Frog & Family Photos

I'd almost forgotten about this little gem, but I now think that its my favorite find from last month's big flea--this flower frog!   I had almost forgotten about it, but spied it again yesterday & dug out these copies of old family photos.  I love it!  I've always thought that using flower frogs in this way was so clever (as seen in many blogs & magazines) & I'm so excited that it looks as nice in my house as it does in the pictures. 


I love how it lends a little personal touch to the spot & is also a bit rustic in comparison to the things around it. 

By the way, the small photo is of my maternal grandparents with my aunt, circa 1943 & the other photo is of my mom with her sister & cousins, circa 1947.  I believe that Mom is the kiddo with the tuft of hair in the center of her head!! 

In Praise of Hobby Lobby

Oh, you lucky, lucky mid-westerners!  I am officially jealous because you have Hobby Lobby .  Oh, what a mecca of crafty goodness & cheap, charming decorating goodies!  A recent trip to visit family in Indiana included my second trip to a Hobby Lobby... I left with so many items that I had to leave some at my mother in law's house (for a future delivery from her).

For those of you who don't know what in the world I'm talking about, Hobby Lobby is a wonderful, huge craft supply & home decor store in the mid-western U.S.  Its bigger & better than Michaels (for the international visitors, Michaels is another large craft store).  And, has much more in the way of decorative objects.  On this visit, they had about 20 rows of seasonal items for the fall & Christmas--4 rows of Christmas ornaments alone!  Of course, I had to snatch a few.  I can't show you the ornaments right now, because those were left behind in Indiana.  But, I'll point out what I *did* bring home....

In the photo above, you'll see the big gold H for Hope's collection, silk ranuculus, and the "Hope" stocking hanger.  The ranuculus is for my milk bottles:

And, the stocking hanger was just so pretty that I had to get it(sorry about the blurry photo)....

We already have a set of stocking hangers for our Christmas stockings, so  I'll probably hang some sort of pretty thing from it in Hope's room, as a year-round decorative item.

I also got some really great scrapbook paper that I didn't take photos of.

The purchase of these fun items & the related decorative puttering  is helping me feel like I'm getting back to my old self!

Back in the Saddle

I'm sorry that I've been so remiss in posting recently, but things have been quite topsy-turvy around here.  Lots of activity & changes that left me quite exhausted.  But, I think that I'm headed into a good period.

The big change is that I will be starting a new job after Labor Day.  I interviewed at several places the first week of August & was made an offer last week.  While this was going on, work at my current job continued at its normal crazy pace & we were traveling to family & friend events.  So, I've spent the past few weeks trying to keep track of it all. 

I'm very hopeful about my new position, which will be at a much smaller company.  I've been promised shorter hours and more flexibility with my time.  I really liked the women with whom I interviewed, so I'm really looking forward to working with them.  They seem really positive.  I'm currently wrapping things up at my current position & training my replacement.  Despite my feeling that the change will be good, I am quite sad that I'm leaving such a good group of people that I like so well.

Because I'm feeling that I'm winding down at my current job, I actually came in on time today (instead of 6:45am as I had been) & left on time.  And, on the way home, I thought, "Why don't I go to the Salvation Army?  I haven't been there in so long!".  I went & had such a good time & found some goodies....

This shirt is so much like one that I've been coveting in J.Crew that I had to snatch it up!:

without flash so that you can see the ruffle detail....

with flash so that you can see the color....

the J. Crew version...

My version: $2.99
J. Crew version: $128

Next, I found the key piece for a kid whose father grew up on a farm (Hope), Oshkosh overalls.  Unfortunately, I took a picture & apparently, have deleted it!  Oh well, I think that you know what overalls look like :) I paid $1.99 for those.

Finally, I got this great basket for onions & potatoes in the storage area of my basement:

(I already had the candle, but put it in the photo, because I thought that the basket looked lonely by itself ).  Incidentally, this basket is part of an organization scheme that I'm working on in the basement.  I'll share more on that in a future post.

All in all, I'm feeling more like myself for the first time in a very long time.  All summer, I haven't been able to craft, decorate, treasure hunt, or do much of anything other than work.  It has literally masked out everything else to the point that I was beginning to be afraid that I'd lost who I once was.  Which is why I have to make the change.  I'm really looking forward to feeling more & more like myself and spending more time on the things that matter so much to me.  I'm hoping that this means that I'll thus have much more to blog about!

Girl's Night In

Glenn's out for the evening, so I have the chance to catch up on a few things that I've been meaning to do--check out all of my favorite blogs, straighten up around the house & get Hope's birthday party invites all ready to go.  Last year, we had a huge 1st birthday party for her.  We invited all of our friends, our parents, every kid we knew, so on & on.  It was at our house & I went crazy making it just perfect.  It totally wore me out! 

This year, I've decided to do something more low key, but I think will be very enjoyable for everyone.  A picnic in the park!  The kids will get to run around & be crazy on the slides & jungle gyms while the parents chat.  After they are worn out, we'll have simple finger food and cupcakes and everyone will go home for naps.  Sounds just about perfect to me!

The only thing is  (I need your prayers here...), we need good weather.  You can can always bet that if I've planned a party, its going to rain.  If I've planned an outdoor party, it will be a monsoon.  So, start thinking sunny thoughts towards Northern Virginia for the mid-September timeframe :)

The party is also my excuse to do a little crafting that I so woefully miss.  I found an Anna Griffin invite online that I loved, but I couldn't stomach the $20/10 price.  So, I re-created them using cardstock & my color printer.  I'm pretty excited with how they turned out! :

I hope that you are having a great week!