Another (soldering) iron in the fire

For Christmas 2007 I hoped for and received a soldering iron and supplies. I've wanted to learn to solder for a while, ever since I first became acquainted with the work of the fabulous Miss Sally Jean. Despite my eagerness to learn, I wasn't brave enough to break out my supplies until just a few weeks ago. Given my propensity for klutziness, I was afraid I'd somehow singe my hair off or burn a hole in my carpet with the extremely hot soldering iron. I finally screwed up my courage, plugged in my cute pink iron and went to work.

What I found out is that soldering is hard. Really hard! My first piece was so bad that I didn't even take a picture, although I will keep it because someday when I finally get good at this, I can look back at where I started.

For Lucy or anyone else who wants to try their hand at soldering, the hardest thing is to resist the temptation to overwork the solder. Every time I'd think I'd just 'touch up' one little area, I ended up making it worse and then having to fix everything. I know that like everything, getting good at this is just a matter of practice, but darn it--I want to be good now, on the first try! Hmmph!

And because I'm shameless, here's a photo of my my third charm. After I took this photo I used my tiny file to smooth the bumps and rubbed some solder polish on it and though it does look better, I've a long way to go! Sally Jean need not worry about competition from me anytime soon.

It's coming...

....Can you feel it?

Fall, I mean. Can you feel it in the air? I can! I can feel it in the slanting sunlight, the cooler nights and mornings. I could definitely feel it this past weekend, when we had constant rain and high temps in the 50s. I'm thrilled! When I was younger summer was always my favorite season but now my heart lies in autumn. I love the cool nights and warm sunny days that we usually have here in Colorado. I love the warm colors and the yummy smells. And long-time readers of my blog know that I LOVE Halloween!!

I'm so excited to have joined ArtsyMama's Sweet and Sinister swap this year! My partner is Julie B, whom I attended Silver Bella with last year. We both love vintage-style Halloween things so I know it will be fun to put together a package for her. I've already started gathering ideas so that I can get cracking--it's almost September, so I need to get moving!

Have you been to Michael's this year to see the new Martha Stewart Crafts Halloween line? As usual for Halloween, Martha and her Minions didn't disappoint! You can see the whole collection here if you don't have a Mike's handy. Don't you think that big glittery black chandelier is wonderful? It looks very Wendy Addison, but at about a quarter of the price (especially if you use your 40% off coupon!) I'd already own it if I could have thought of a place to hang it in my house. I have wanted the tissue pompom kit ever since the line debuted last year so you can guess how I feel about the candy corn pompom kit! Again, the lack of a place to hang them is the only thing restraining me.

I have already purchased this fun picket fence punch, and I plan to use it on my Halloween party invitations this year. I'm sorely tempted by the drippy goo punch as well! And those darling cupcake papers? Those will be coming home with me on the next trip! It's safe to say where my 40% off coupons will be going for the next few weeks!

Last night at Target I picked up this fun t-shirt for $5.

I hate the sizing on their 'seasonal' shirts--they are sized for tiny people with no bust and short torsos, and that's before the shirt shrinks in the wash! But for $5 I'm okay with wearing it once or twice then getting rid of it. And really, how could I not buy this one? It's not just a chandelier, but a spooky chandelier! Love it. Bring on the pumpkins!

Miss Cookie Baker

You'd think August 15th would be a great day for a garage sale or a church picnic.

You'd think. However, when the thermometer still looks like this at noon and the rain hasn't quit for the last eight hours, you'd realize that a change of plans is in order!

We've checked out Mr. Cookie Baker from the library several times because Maren loves it. She can recite all the words from memory which is good because Mommy gets pretty darn tired of reading it after the 2,395th time. KWIM, fellow Mommies?

Maren has been asking me to make "sprinkle cookies, just like Mr. Cookie Baker" since we brought home the book again this week. What better time to fire up the oven and make cookies than when the weather outside is frightful? We put on our aprons and went to work.

A few hours and a flour-covered floor later we had several dozen pink-frosted and be-sprinkled cookies and one happy little Miss Cookie Baker!

(And for the record, we never broke 60 degrees yesterday, setting a new record minimum high temperature for that day. Ironic, since two weeks ago it was 103 and we set a new record high! Today is shaping up to be exactly the same as yesterday. Meanwhile, it's supposed to be 101 today in Portland, OR. I think there must be some sort of rift in the space/time continuum.)

Let's call it a "Stunt Dive"

I can never go back to preschool. Maren's preschool, to be exact. After what happened this morning, I'm far too mortified to ever show my face there again! Or until 10:45 this morning, when I have to go pick her up.

My husband will tell you that although I'm not a bad dancer, I seem to display an appalling lack of physical grace at home. I can't tell you how many times I've walked into the sharp corner of the foot board of our bed, leaving a huge nasty bruise on my thigh. I regularly cut corners too close, whacking my hips on the kitchen island or slamming my upper arms on the door frames. Just yesterday I hit my knee on the lower cabinet in the bathroom, right before I was to visit a physical therapist for that very knee. Given my track record, I guess what happened today shouldn't have been much of a surprise.

I walked Maren to school and while we waited for the teachers to open the doors, she wanted to go play on the swings on the gravel playground. I left her with her friends and walked toward the classroom door to sign her in. I was in the process of saying 'hello' to a mom that I just met at a birthday party on Saturday when I caught the toe of my sandal on the lip of the blacktop and WHOOMP--down I went! Right in front of that mom, and all the other assorted moms and dads who were standing around waiting to drop off their kids. It was no small fall, either. I believe the technical, IOC-recognized term for that maneuver is "ass over teakettle". My sunglasses flew off and every shred of dignity I had went with them.

All the moms were completely shocked and horrified and asked if I was okay, to which I replied that I was, aside from being COMPLETELY MORTIFIED. I had rocks stuck in my knees and hands and the side of my leg was all scratched up. At which point I brushed off the rocks and threw my hands up in salute just like the men's gymnastics team! Okay, not really, but that would have been really funny and very a propos. What I really did was get Maren into the classroom and speedwalk across the playground just as fast as my scraped-up legs could carry me so that I could be alone with my shame and embarrassment.

When I came home I called my sweet husband, who laughed like a hyena when I told him my plight and then offered me the loan of his bike helmet for when I take Maren to school on Thursday.

Oh, it's okay, I was laughing too. Actually I was doing that hysterical lauging/crying thing because now that I think back on it, I must have looked pretty hilarious--such was the spectacle and grandeur of my fall. And now I get to be known all year by the other preschool parents as "that Mom who fell". Hey, at least they'll all know who I am, right?

While I go nurse my shattered dignity, let's watch one of my all-time favorite YouTube videos. I know it's not nice to laugh at others' misfortunes, but really, this is just hilarious.

Get a Job! (Jar)

I seem to have developed a problem getting things done around here. Shocking, no? I'm guessing it has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with the 130+ blogs in my Bloglines. Nope, nothing at all.

Ahem. So I saw this idea for a Job Jar somewhere and I've decided to give it a try and see if it improves my productivity on the housework front. I started out by making a list of household chores that take about 15 minutes. These are things that I don't need to be doing every day (like loading the dishwasher or laundry), but rather things that I tend to let pile up and never get around to until I freak out about how dirty my house is and then feel all overwhelmed and just go read more blogs. I'm talking ironing, cleaning the baseboards, dusting, cleaning window blinds, weeding, etc. Stuff that needs to get done but doesn't have to be done every single day. My list ended up at about 25 items.

Next, I made a cute label for my jar. Naturally, I used a 1950s housewife image (this is Vacuuming in High Heels and Pearls, after all) and used a retro-style font. I made the label to fit on the side of this neat vintage jar I picked up at a yard sale earlier this summer. The jar was lidless anyway so I tied some fun cherry-print ribbon around the top and added a darling cherry charm because who says chores can't be cute?

For the jobs, I went through my patterned paper stash and picked out a bunch of red scraps. I cut them into rectangles roughly 1" by 3" though I didn't actually measure, just eyeballed it. I am a pack rat and paper hoarder so I had plenty of cute scraps to choose from. I wrote each chore on a slip of paper and then used a pair of scissors to curl the paper as you would curling ribbon. If that sounds like a good way to cut your fingers off, you can just roll them around a pencil or marker. Drop them in the jar, and that's it! I like that it's easy for me to add or subtract jobs as I see fit or as the seasons change. Maybe I need to include jobs like "Go eat a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich" or "go check Two Peas NSBR to see the latest drama." Those will get done for sure!

My plan is that during the day when I get sucked in by the internets (which is often, I shamefully admit) that I can tear myself away and go be productive for at least 15 minutes at a time, which will hopefully motivate me to do even more. This way things will get done but I don't have to feel like all I ever do around here is clean. I'll let you know how it works. And now, I do believe it's time to go pick a job out of the jar!

The Tale of a Table

A friend with similar taste in junk recently clued me in to a fabulous store here in town called Patina. Isn't that a great name? The store is filled to bursting with the things that you and I love--fabulous, interesting antiques, chippy paint, tarnished silver, bowls of neat old game pieces, skeleton keys--are you drooling yet? Their displays are inventive and unusual and inspiring and although I've only been there twice, it's already my favorite place to shop!

On my first visit to Patina I spied a table in the window display that immediately caught my eye. I've never seen anything like it and I was instantly taken by it, but I knew that like many things in the store, its price tag would be similarly awe-inspiring. However, I could not stop thinking about it! I talked about it with my friend, I told my mom about it, I even made a sketch of it so that I would remember it in case I ever came across the materials to make it.

Last week in honor of my birthday I decided to splurge and get a babysitter during the day so that I could do a few errands, including a visit to Patina. When I got there I looked anxiously toward the window to see the table again but it was gone. I wasn't surprised; it had been several weeks since my last visit and something that eye-catching surely wouldn't last long. I shopped and enjoyed myself and when it was time to pay for my purchases I waited my turn at the register. And then I turned around...

And there was my table! It wasn't gone, it had simply been moved and I had walked right past it several times without noticing. I checked the price tag--GULP!--and continued to stare at it, when I got a wild idea. What if I just...bought it? Threw caution (and good financial sense) to the wind and just...took it home with me? And so I did! So, you wanna see my new table?

Oh, it makes my heart go pitter-pat. Right now it is filled with beautiful, shiny, bright Jelly Bellies, but the glass top is removable so I can fill up the cups with anything I like. I'm already thinking of what I can do for Halloween...Christmas....Valentine's...all the little trinkets I pick up when thrifting like dice, dominoes, old keys, game pieces, spools etc. It has a million possibilities and I love thinking about them.

Now, to be completely honest: now that I have it home, I know that I paid too much for it. WAY too much. I'm a little shocked at myself, really--I'm not one for big impulse purchases at all. But really, I do love this so much! The only thing about it that I wish I could change is that the antique table it is made from has splayed legs, so it doesn't sit flat against a wall and is too large to sit diagonally in a corner.

If you get a wild hair and want to make one to match, it's simply a table with the top pulled off. The oversize muffin tin (it's huge--had to have been used for something much larger like pies) is screwed to the two top pieces. Four of those rubber stopper things are stuck to the corners and a custom piece of glass with rounded corners rests on the top. Really, it wouldn't be hard to make at all. The hardest thing to find would be the huge baking tin. It looks like something commercial rather than what a home cook would use.


And now, I had better get my eBay-selling rear in gear! I need to pay for my new treasure!

Cupcake Update

Today in cupcake-related news...

I read an online review of these today and now I'm on an URGENT mission to find some in my area! I lurrrve ice cream cakes but due to the cost and the fact that there's never any room in my freezer, they have bene relegated to an occasional birthday treat. Since there are only three of us to have birthdays, the opportunities are few and far between, much too sparse for this ice-cream-cake-loving person. These little ice cream cupcakes are the perfect solution--I'm sure I can find room for them in the freezer and perhaps more importantly, I'm not tempted to eat a whole ice cream cake by myself! The nutrional info for the cupcakes isn't all that bad, either. Now I just have to find them!

And speaking of cupcakes, the other night a sweet friend had us over for dinner to celebrate my birthday and made the most delicious Boston Cream Pie cupcakes for dessert! The recipe came from this magazine, which I then had to run to Barnes & Noble to buy. Now, I need a Paula Deen chocolate recipe book like I need a hole in the head (seriously, I might as well just tape half the magazine to each thigh and try and put my pants on over the top) but the recipes in this magazine are uniformly drool-inducing. (Here's a link to a blog with the cupcake recipe in case you don't want to risk serious thigh-enlargement and buy the whole book.)



And now for a cupcake without any calories, look at this super-cute cupcake play food set I bought for Maren. It all comes in a darling satiny-and-sequiny cupcake tote and I think it would make a darling birthday present for a little girl. I say that I bought it for Maren, but who are we kidding--that sucker's for me!

Ballerina Behaving Badly

Thank you and Thrift Thursday

Thank you all SO VERY MUCH for the lovely birthday wishes you left! They truly did make my day even happier. :) I had a great birthday, even though our original plans didn't work out. I enjoyed eating a yummy dinner here with my little family, and Maren even acted like a human child (rather than a young chimpanzee) in the restaurant. We made a quick stop by Whole Foods to ogle the desserts and load up a container with Chicken Korma for tonight's dinner, then home for presents and cake & ice cream.

A few of you commented about the Texas Sheet Cake--Pioneer Woman has a version here (with step-by-step instructions) that is very similar to my recipe. In fact, I may try her recipe next time, just to see how it stacks up against mine. I'm definitely going to try her version of the frosting, because for some reason the measurements on my recipe were off and things went a little wonky. And really, I think it's the frosting that really makes this cake the best, so you want it to be perfect.

Because it's so easy and makes so much, this is a great cake to take to a function where you need to feed a whole lotta folks. Or you can just make it for yourself and eat it for breakfast and dessert and every meal in between every day for a week, like I usually do. :) Seriously, we ate plenty last night I sent two big plates-full to work with the Mister this morning and I still have half a cake left. And I'll have you know that it is taking every ounce of self-control I possess to not be in there scarfing it down straight out of the pan right this very second.

I haven't posted anything for Thrift Thursday in a while, but don't let that fool you into thinking I've quit shopping. Ha! Here's a little something I found more than a month ago, but I just now got around to photographing (albeit poorly. Maybe I should have asked for photography lessons for my birthday. sheesh.)

This cutie pie little chair was a mere $3 at the thrift. Actually, it might even have been $2 now that I think about it. Either way, it was ridiculously cheap for such a perfectly pink, delightfully shabby little chair! I wonder if perhaps it might have been a sewing table chair as it's quite small, but not small enough to be for a child. The top has a big crack so I thought it might be homemade, but I flipped it over and there is the manufacturer's stamp. It has been repainted though, and the cotton-candy colored paint is chipping in the most perfect way! I have not one single place in my house to put this and I had sworn off buying orphaned chairs, but for less than the price of a Happy Meal I simply couldn't pass this up! On the same shopping trip I also found the matching pink vintage tablecloth with a gorgeous gold Greek-style motif. Watch out, Sarah! I'm catching up to you--only about 150 more to go! :)

Happy Birthday to ME!

Hooray! It's my birthday!! :) Today is my golden birthday--I'm turning 30 on the 30th. The image above is a fab vintage birthday card from my collection--you know I love anything with a vintage space theme! It is a fun card because when you open it up there is a hat that you can cut out and tape together. Looks like one heck of a goofy hat, but whatever. Love the light bulb sticking out of the little astronaut's forehead!

No big plans for the day. Maren and I went to the swimming pool this morning for a while, and now I'm off to clean up the kitchen so I can bake my birthday cake. I'm making Texas Sheet Cake, which is my most favorite cake of all time--and that's saying a lot, because I'm a cake fiend. The Mister and I had hoped to go out tonight for dinner and a movie but we called three different babysitters with no luck, so it looks like we'll have to do something else and see if we can postpone until Friday night instead. Maybe we'll get takeout and go to the park so Maren can run.

Thanks for all of your comments about my sweet ilttle girl yesterday. :) The preschool is held at the local elementary school which is on a year-round schedule, hence the early start date. Maren will go Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 8:10 to 10:45 a.m. which is really just a bit longer than she goes to the church nursery on Sundays. I've heard nothing but rave reviews for her teacher and I think Maren is just going to thrive! I'm so happy for her. I used to think it was crazy to send a three-year-old to preschool, but now that I have one who is MORE than ready to go, I understand! I'm obviously looking forward to a few hours alone each week, although 2.5 hours isn't much, especially when many stores don't open until 10:00. Yesterday I did some computer stuff and ran to JoAnn's. Tomorrow I'm going to go workout and then go grocery shopping--BY MYSELF! Yippee!

And now, my KitchenAid is calling...

Maren's first day of Preschool

It was a success! Hip Hip Hooray!

After the rain

Photos just taken out my back window. It's a double rainbow and the color was absolutely brilliant!

A few weeks ago I blogged about a sweet friend who lent me her absolutely darling curtains to hang in my kitchen. Rachel is a dear person and I wanted to make her a little something fun to thank her. I had just read about these charming rickrack dahlias and since Rachel and I share an obsessive love for rickrack, I tried my hand at making a few.

Rachel loves pink, black and white so I chose those colors from my considerable stash of rickrack. I put pin backs on them so she can pin them to her bag or whatever.

I also made her a little stationery set:


I used a PSX template to make the little folder--I've loved that template and have used it over and over. Before I folded it, I sprayed the cardstock with spray adhesive and lightly pressed a vintage pattern piece to it, intentionally keeping the folds and ripples. The button and hook/eye cards were from my stash, but the spool of thread and the ruler on the side are from a great little K & Company packet I picked up at Michael's. And it's hard to see in the photo, but for the tie I used some cute twill ribbon printed to look like a measuring tape.

Inside are a set of cards made from the images on vintage patterns:

Easy stuff, but I'm happy with how it turned out. Hope she likes it!

Summer Reading

Hello, friends! Last week was crazy busy--three evening events (two of which were held at my house), days spent getting ready for said events, an out-of-town guest, swimming lessons for Maren every morning, and the usual running around--a week that didn't lend itself well to blogging. I'm going to try to be more regular about blogging for a while.

For me, with the warm weather of summer comes the desire to READ READ READ! I think it is a holdover from my youth--from middle school onward through college, summer meant the end of school and long-awaited freedom to finally read whatever I wanted, instead of books assigned by teachers and professors. I'm a long way out of college now, but my desire to devour books in the summertime hasn't disappeared. Here's what has been keeping me busy the past few weeks:


Bringing Home the Birkin, by Michael Tonello. This one caught my eye at the library--I'm not ashamed to admit that I totally judge books by their covers! The clever cover and intriguing title piqued my interest, and by the first chapter in I was sold by the chatty and entertaining prose. It's pretty fluffy--the topic is *the* status symbol bag for the glitterati, after all--but not every book needs to make you contemplate the cosmos, KWIM? A good beach or poolside read for sure.


I'm seriously late to the party for this one (it's been an Oprah book for eight years) but I finally got around to reading The Poisonwood Bible because a friend lent me her copy. It's long and involved but amazingly well-written and the story is very moving. This was one I had a hard time putting down, and I'd like to explore some of Barbara Kingsolver's other works, now that I've gotten a taste of her talent.




Somehow I managed to get through school without ever being assigned to read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I have always known about it, but never read it for some reason--I think I always associated it with The Yearling, and didn't want to read a book about a deer. I finally checked it out, so now I can cross that one off the list of Classics everyone should read. I thought it was only okay; I didn't love it. I know that I was very bothered by the fact that people just seemed to be so mean to each other. I read that the story is rather autobiographical, so I wonder if that was an accurate representation of people, or simply how the author remembered it as a child? Anyone want to weigh in?


Tuesday night my book club met to discuss Under the Tuscan Sun, by Frances Mayes. If you're on a diet, this is not the book for you! The author's descriptions of the glorious, fresh, earthy food she found and prepared in Tuscany never failed to leave me ravenous. The book was slow, but its pace seemed to mirror the slower pace of the author's time spent in her Italian home. The book also includes recipes, and for book club we each chose one to make at home and then bring to share. And I've never seen the movie, but from what I understand it's completely different from the book.

I checked out Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression after seeing it mentioned on this blog. There's no particular plot, rather it is a collection of the author's memories about her childhood. It was very interesting to read about life on the farm--how and what they cooked, what they did to have fun, etc. I find it interesting that although this covers the same time period as A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, the whole feeling was much different--there was none of the meanness that I mentioned being bothered by before.


Along the way I also started Lonesome Dove (which has 800 pages so I'm in no hurry) and Pawley's Island, which I've designated my official pool book. Next up for book club is These is My Words, a book I think I'm really going to like even though I haven't opened it yet. I've also checked out Water for Elephants, a book I've seen recommended practically everywhere (what is my obsession with the Depression this summer?).

What are you reading this summer?

Pikes Peak or Bust!

Saturday was a big day for my little family. DH has been the Company Commander for a Military Intelligence company here in the Colorado Ntl. Guard for two years. He built the company from the ground up and has done an amazing job! He has really won the respect of both his superiors in Colorado and Vermont and the soldiers under him. His time as a commander is over now, so he chose for the change of command ceremony to take place up on Pikes Peak, a nod to his company's status as part of the famed 10th Mountain Division.

It's quite a drive to the top of the mountain. It takes about two hours just to get from here to the base of the mountain, and then the 16-mile drive to where the ceremony was held took nearly another hour. This is not a drive you want to take if you have any fear of heights! One of my passengers did, so she spent the drive looking straight ahead and trying to ignore the sheer dropoffs and dizzying views just outside her window, bless her heart. Very narrow roads (most without guardrails!), hairpin turns galore, and a grade so steep we were in 2nd gear most of the time. Whew!After the ceremony was over we drove three more miles up to the very top of the mountain. The summit of Pikes Peak sits at 14, 110 ft. above sea level. Needless to say, the views are incredible! In fact, those views are what inspired Katherine Lee Bates in 1894 to write the words that later became "America the Beautiful."
At the summit we took in the view,

snapped a few photos,
and sampled the famous Pikes Peak donuts, which have been made with the same recipe for the past 100 years (although they're now fried in oil, as opposed to bear fat!).

This coming weekend is the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, an event that can only have been thought up as a dare. The first race was held in 1916 (it's the 2nd oldest auto race in the U.S.) and racers go up those same twisty, narrow, nerve-wracking, guardrail-free roads that we drove, only they do it at speeds up to 130 mph! Just the thought of that makes me want to wet my pants, I'll tell you. The current record of 10:01 minutes to the top was set last year and there's a $25,000 bonus prize offered to anyone who can break the 10 minute mark this year. I'll be watching for sure!

It's curtains for you!

Window coverings seem to be the bane of my decorating existence. On HGTV they make it look so simple but for me, finding decent window coverings and actually getting them installed has been a monumental task. A task that is still not complete, even though we're inching up on FOUR years spent living in this house. I don't know if it's just us being home-improvement idiots, but hanging curtain rods always turns into a ridiculous affair replete with curse words, extraneous holes in the wall and stripped drill bits (it would appear that all our doors/windows are framed out in titanium).

Last year we finally hung curtain rods over the kitchen window and the adjacent sliding glass door and ever since then I've been on the hunt for appropriate window fashions. The slider is a problem all its own: it needs full-length curtains because we get the dreaded fish-bowl effect from the house that backs up to ours. I found some plain but serviceable insulated curtains from J.C.Penny, which finally arrived in February and have been sitting in their bag at the base of the window ever since. Ahem.

When we installed the curtain rod last year, we did so ignorant of the important information that curtains are generally sold in specific lengths. So naturally, the height at which we hung the curtain rod (a feat that was only achieved after the aforementioned swearing, etc.) is COMPLETELY wrong, so now the curtains hang about 6" above the ground: the drapery equivalent of high-water pants.


Remedying this problem means we're going to have to reinstall the curtain rods, something I dread so much that I'm very seriously considering hiring a handyman. I may be cheap, but not having to deal with that blankety-blank curtain rod again would be worth the money, plus I can have him install the matching rod over the sofa window at the same time. I ordered matching valances with the curtains, so it's possible that I could actually have real live curtains on not one but three windows in my house! At the same time! A new personal record!

Lucky for me, the kitchen window is already taken care of, thanks to the generosity of a dear friend. My sweet girlfriend Rachel shares my love for vintage design and offered to let me borrow a set of curtains she and her mother made.



They ordered the fabric from Repro Depot and Rachel's mother hand cut and sewed all those adorable scallops at the bottom. The fat red rickrack on the top is the perfect touch. These are the curtains of my dreams! I love them so much that I want to marry them.

Here's another photo of the valance where you can see the vintage repro light fixture we hung over the kitchen sink. It's from a fancy-schmancy place called Rejuvenation and I bought it at a thrift for a buck! It is unfortunately yet another in my litany of home improvement projects that should have been so easy but turned out to be nightmares--if you look close you can see the extraneous holes in the ceiling sticking out from under the silver base. Nice. What's the number for that handyman again?

Shoes, School and a Swap

The only thing better than new red shoes for me?


New red shoes for Maren! Jen posted about Salt-Water sandals the other day and that reminded me that I wanted a red pair for Maren. Thanks to the wonders of eBay and quick shipping, I had them just a few days later, right in time to wear with her cute Fourth of July dresses.

Our Fourth holiday was good--quiet, but still nice. We grilled hot dogs and ate outside on the patio, then headed to a neighboring town for the fireworks show. We'd actually never been to watch fireworks here in Denver--for two of the previous three years we were in Utah and the one year we stayed here it rained so we stayed home. We've been a bit unsure of the best place to go to see fireworks so took a gamble and drove a few miles south. We ended up with prime seats and with a big bag of fresh kettle corn for Mommy & Daddy (really, they should call that stuff kettle crack) and a brand new tube of glow bracelets for Maren, we sat back and enjoyed what turned out to be a really great show.

This morning Maren and I walked down to the school where she will be attending preschool to meet her new teachers and see her classroom. The school is on a year-round schedule so while three of the tracks begin tomorrow, Maren doesn't start until the end of July. That gives us just enough time to fit in a couple of weeks of swimming lessons, which will start next week. Maren will only go to school two days a week for about three hours in the morning, but that will be enough for her to have some fun and learn new things and for me to have a little break (yay!).

I received the most amazing package from my Parasols, Pink Lemonade and Polka Dots swap partner, the fabulous ArtsyMama! I can tell that Kari took much time in selecting items that I would love--and she was right!

Among the treasures she sent were a lovely blown glass bottle in my favorite turquoise color, a darling vintage hankie and apron, a fun bag with an ice cream cone on the front (perfect for the pool!)

a trio of vintage paper parasols--so perfect for the theme!--a gorgeous vintage hat and a bunch of neat old millinery flowers, the cutest little ice-cream patterned pennant banner, a little pink wagon for Maren, and one of Kari's pieces of original collage artwork, which I have happily displayed in my craft room.

There were lots of other goodies as well, and it was such a treat to pull out treasure after treasure. Kari was a fantastic swap partner! As usual, I forgot to photograph the package I sent to her before I got it all in the box (WHEN will I learn? Sheesh.) so you'll have to check out her blog in a few days when she returns from vacation. Also, if you're a fellow swapper and haven't yet uploaded your photos to the Flickr group, please head over there and do so! I love checking out all the ways that people interpreted the theme. I'm heading over to upload my photos right now!

Happy Fourth of July!

This is my country! Land of my birth!

This is my country! Grandest on earth!

I pledge thee my allegiance, America, the bold,

For this is my country to have and to hold.

What difference if I hail from North or South

Or from the East or West

My heart is full of love for all of these.

I only know I swell with pride and deep within my breast,

I thrill to see old glory paint the breeze!

This is my country! Land of my choice!

This is my country! Hear my proud voice!

I pledge thee my allegiance, America, the bold,

For this is my country to have and to hold.

*lyrics by Don Raye*

Hurrah for the Red, White and Blue

One of my favorite things to do is to decorate my house for each holiday. I do it with gusto even when the holiday's traditional colors look a bit out of place with the rest of my decor (orange & black with navy & scarlet? Yikes) but I must admit that I take a special pleasure in decorating for Flag Day and the Fourth of July. The walls in my front room are a beautiful shade of red and the walls in my family room are navy with red and patriotic accents I keep out all year round, so my Fourth of July decorations look right at home! I took a few photos of the things I decorated with this year and since there are so many photos, I'm making them small (click on them to enlarge).

One new thing this summer is an idea from the book Celebrating Home by Seasons of Cannon Falls. I've been on the lookout for this book for a while since I read about it on this blog. My library does not have it and I hate to spend money on a book sight-unseen. I was thrilled when I found it used in a booth at the antique mall! This was one of my immediate favorite ideas:


So easy, but perfect! A big glass vase filled with poker chips and flags stuck in the top. How many times have I passed up poker chips while out thrifting? Not any more!

Here's my version:I already had the apothecary jar and the flags which left only the poker chips to find. Be advised, this project takes a whole lot of chips! I found a box at the thrift store, came home and dumped them in the jar and they filled up about two inches. I kept looking and shortly found another larger box of chips, and the addition of those chips made enough to anchor the flags. I did notice one thing--the first box of chips I bought were red, ivory and navy but the second (much larger) box were red, white and royal blue. I like the look of the ivory and navy much better but I didn't notice the difference until I got home with the others, and that thrift store doesn't accept returns. Oh well! It works, but just keep that in mind if ever you want to do something similar.

Next is some great old sheet music that I bought for a song :) at an estate sale a few weeks ago. The "Yankee Doodle Dandy" music was a treat from a sweet friend last year.

I was tickled to find this darling kit from Jenni Bowlin and was lucky enough to buy one before they sold out. It was very easy to put together (a series of large & small chipboard stars, embellished with patterned paper and trinkets) but I LOVE how it turned out! I have mine in an old blue glass jar that is partially filled with rock salt.
Last is my old chippy dresser and mirror. I loved using the fringed red/white/blue striped cloth that I bought in Alamosa earlier this year. The vintage arithmetic flash card in the flags from a local store called Patina (my new favorite place to shop in Denver) and the picture frame was from my neighbor's garage sale back in May. I've since replaced the bucket of lollipops with the jar of Jenni Bowlin stars, which I like better and aren't such a temptation for Maren!

Thanks for checking out my decor! :)