I Spy

Whenever I get a Pottery Barn catalog in the mail, I like to play a little game. Perhaps you play too?

I pretend I have a zillion dollars to spend. :)

After I've furnished my imaginary country estate, I like to play another game called I Spy. Often, the things that I find most intriguing in the catalog photos are not the items for sale, but rather the props that the photo stylists (who I think are 1. Very Talented and 2. reading the same blogs as the rest of us, given the number of ideas I've seen lifted straight out of blogland) are using to decorate the spaces.

I got a PB Kids catalog a little while ago that was all back-to-school stuff: monogrammed backpacks, ridiculously overpriced lunch sets, etc. I flipped through the catalog quickly because we already had a backpack for Maren, but then I had an I Spy moment when I saw this photo on one of the last pages:

Cute backpacks, right--but I was looking at what they are hanging on. Let's take a closer look:

So darn cute, right? The bright colors of the yardsticks are killing me! And does it remind you of something?

How about the yardstick coat rack that Mandi at Save it For A Rainy Day made a few months ago?

I've been on the lookout for old yardsticks all summer long at the estate sales & antique stores I've visited, but I've only found a few and only one of them is a color. Seeing this cute Pottery Barn coat rack is going to make me redouble my efforts to find the colored sticks for certain!