REDnesday: Cute baby edition

I hope you'll indulge me...(photo-heavy post ahead)

Today this little monkey is five months old!

Here are some things about Porter at five months:

He's such a happy little guy. People remark all the time at how pleasant he is and how little he fusses or cries.He adores his big sister Maren. She's the only one who can make him belly laugh! (she's also who he was looking at when was taking these photos)He's a chow hound and eats like he's starving every time. He's just started eating rice cereal and seems to really like it.Mommy calls him Porter Pie, Daddy calls him P-Mac, and Maren calls him Goo Goos.He is starting to sleep better through the night (BIG sigh of relief from Mommy!) He usually goes to bed around 10:30 pm and wakes up around 5:00 am.
He still has big hands a feet, just like a little puppy. :) Looks like he may follow the rest of the Morgan boys and be TALL!He can roll both directions now and wants desperately to be able to sit up.Porter is a joy to have in our home! It's so fun to watch him grow and discover new things. I look forward to learning more about who he is and see his personality.

To see more RED things, visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for her REDnesday party every week!

REDnesday: Valentine edition

A peek at the display for Valentine's Day atop my china cabinet this year:
Proud to say that nearly everything in my display was purchased from a thrift store or on super-clearance from a retail store!

--The three largest mercury glass candlesticks are from 75% off post-Christmas clearance at Target, as were the four smaller votive holders.
--The other four mercury glass candlesticks were purchased at a thrift.--The silver bowl with silk roses was purchased at a thrift store, 50% off just before Christmas.
--The large silver champagne bucket was thrifted as well.
--The red tinsel tree was bought several years ago 90% off post-Christmas clearance at Target.
--The red candle holder was purchased years ago after Christmas at Target but was probably only50% off.--The antique beveled-edge mirror was thrifted a few years ago.
--The striped ribbon on the candles was after-Christmas clearance from JoAnn's, and the grosgrain and organdy ribbons were thrifted.

Not too bad! The jeweled vinyl frame on the mirror is from House of 3. They won't stick to my heavily-textured walls, but I love how they look on mirrors! I got my inspiration for the ribbon & heart ornaments on the pillar candles from Joy at Joys of Home.

Another bit of RED in my house this week:My first RED lipstick from MAC. Russian Red, to be exact, which the salesgirl told me was originally developed for Madonna back in the 1980s. I think I'll pair it with my shiny red heels for our Valentine's date. Look out, Major Hottie! Woo-woo!

Every Wednesday is REDnesday at Sue's place! Visit It's a Very Cherry World to see the rest of the players. Andie (my fellow RED-lover and my MAC lipstick idol also has great red stuff on her blog today, including a quilted carry-on that I COVET.)

REDnesday: New RED things at my house

Some of the new RED things popping up at my house lately…

Went on a bit of a (husband-sanctioned, even encouraged) shoe-buying binge last week, all beautiful but all guaranteed to make my feet hurt by the end of the night. But for candy apple RED Ralph Lauren patent platform peep-toe Mary Janes, the pain will be SO worth it. I also elected to join the 21st century and get a new phone that will allow me to send text messages. I just sent my first ever text last week, so I’m obviously screaming right into the technological future, eh?

(And while I’m on the subject, I just cannot make myself write in that pidgin texting language, forsaking all grammar and spelling rules. The word nerd in me just won’t let it happen, so I’ll continue to laboriously send my correctly written messages. I won’t be winning any speed-texting contests anytime soon.)

Pair #2 of hawt RED shoes scored last week. Not even as crippling as they may appear on first glance. More about where I wore these later.

The RED thing that I had, and then returned:

My beloved toaster oven unexpectedly gave up the ghost, providing me an opportunity to replace it with something much prettier (incidentally, did you know Target’s website has a page just for RED appliances? How convenient!)

Even though it perfectly matched Ruby and Bea (so named because she’s an Osterizer Beehive blender), the toaster oven had to be returned because its poor design meant it took up a ridiculous amount of counter space. Boo. I suppose it's just as well, as that toaster oven had rotten reviews on the Target website anyway.

For more good RED stuff, go visit Sue at It’s a Very Cherry World and see the rest of the participants for REDnesday!

It's Rednesday and Vintage Christmas Monday (two days late)

I've been out of town so I'm a bit behind at blogging. Actually, I'm a bit behind in life in general right now, but I'm doing my best to get out of the weeds...

For Sue's Rednesday party, I have this to share:a vintage Rudolph story book that I bought on Monday at an antique store. It's not in great shape (taped spine, ick) but it was el cheapo and it's cute and I can read it to Maren. It's flanked by two vintage flocked red reindeer, both found this year in my thrifting.

I'm two days late but I'm going to join Joan's Vintage Christmas Monday for this week anyway. These photos are of some of the vintage Christmas lovelies at my parents' house. It's fun to share an addiction, although I suffer a far more severe case than they have!

I believe this neat Santa candy container came from a garage sale, lovingly stored in its original box:

Another set of St. Nick and his coursers, this one I found at a thrift and gave to my dad:
This snowman ornament belonged to my great-grandpa and my dad found it in his shed. It has a hole in one side (about 1.5" diameter) and was found with red cellophane sticking out of the hole. We can't figure out what it is--does anyone have any ideas? My first thought was a candy container but it seems a bit impractical for that because the hole is so small. We're stumped!

I bought this tree topper from an antique store. Love the graphics and bright red and green!
And some favorite ornaments from the tree:

It's Rednesday--vintage spaghetti ware Santa

My favorite color is RED (has been for years) so it's only fitting that I join in Sue's Rednesday party!Today's RED item would also fit for Vintage Christmas Monday. Oh heck, most of what I post this month would probably fall under that category! I found this guy a few weeks ago at the thrift. I bought him to sell, but as it seems to happen all too often, I think I like him too much to let him go.I'm not usually one for figurines (aka dust collectors), but come on--isn't he darling? I love the spaghetti 'fur' trim.
It's so rare to find something like this at the thrift and have it be intact, but he's perfect--not even any chipping on the spaghetti trim! I think I need to find some candy canes or barber poles to fill his sack.

We had a self-imposed snow day today. It was snowing and the wind chill was 4 degrees this morning when I got up, and I just couldn't face going out in that to take Maren to preschool. I haven't yet figured out a good solution for keeping the baby warm and wrapped up while I take Maren to school. The stroller is a pain (especially in the snow) and carrying him in the bucket carrier is unwieldy and heavy, but just holding him in my arms wrapped up in blankies doesn't seem warm enough, and I sometimes worry that I'll slip and fall with disastrous results. I've got to get something figured out though, because we have about 5 more months of cold mornings to look forward to here in Colorado! Right now the wind chill is a whopping 10 degrees, and tomorrow morning won't be much of an improvement from today. It has been a good day to stay inside and work on crafts and decorations--hope to have some to share tomorrow!