Me and Red Flannel

This is where I slept Thursday night. I was on the couch, Miles was on the Roll-Away Bed. His is the bed with red flannel, mine with pink roses and stripes.

Late Thursday night, Miles suddenly had one of those weird stomach bugs that just erupts suddenly. Not wanting to risk him erupting all over my bed (which is also too far from the bathroom) and having no where to sleep with him in his room (and not wanting to risk him sleeping in there alone and erupting all over that room) I opted to sleep with him in the living room, close to the bathroom, and close to him. As we went to sleep he held my hand across the little bit of space that divided our temporary beds. His little hand was so soft and warm, peaking out from his blankets. Thankfully, no more eruptions occurred that night, and by 8AM he was begging for hot dogs. Of course I am completely confidant that if I had not set up this arrangement, he would have been sick a dozen times over...

The blanket on his bed is the blanket I took with me as a freshman to college. I fell in love with as soon as I saw it. It has lived on several beds throughout the years, and has held up nicely. Now it generally lives at the foot of Miles' bed. Even though I am pink lovin' girl, I have always had a weakness for red plaid flannel. And what is even stranger is how much I love how it looks next to my pink cotton striped & flowerdy bed linens.

If we are every lucky enough to have a little fishing cabin, you can be sure there will be a lot of red plaid flannel and pink cotton stripes. I just can't help myself...

In other Red Flannel news, here are some vintage goodies for sale at Storia VINTAGE...

Setting down the glitter for a moment...

My life right now is all about the glitter. Glitter and banners. Banners and glitter. I am a glitterin' fool.

This is what my dining room table looked like 2 nights ago with orders ready to be put in mailers and sent out. My table will probably look a lot like this again tonight.

But enough about work; How are you all? I have missed you this week! This morning I sat down to read through as many blogs as I could in the 1/2 hour I had before I had to get Miles to school. Looks like a lot of you have begun your Christmas decorating extravaganza's.

We won't start till Sunday, the first day of Advent. We will go find a nice scraggly tree on Saturday and Sunday night we start the process of spreading Christmas cheer all over the house. Meanwhile here are a few vintage goodies I found last week during a frivolous moment of flea marketing!

First I found these really old "Made in Japan," Christmas village houses tucked away behind a some other very non - Christmas items. As if someone just stuck them in their booth on a whim, not at all appreciating the treasure that they had! Well to bad for them, and oh happy day for me! I think I actually squealed when I found these and then saw their price tag - $8 for the whole set! I can't wait to put them in the china hutch with my other vintage items and snowy village houses.

I also found this box of vintage balls. Some of these are going to be used for a fun project for the Shoppes Open House on Sunday (and maybe for the Etsy shoppe too...) But the pink ones are all mine!

This is some fabric that I bought on our trip to Iowa and Missouri. The blue stripe might be vintage, I am not sure - I only have a wee bit of it. But I love all 3 and I love how they go together. I haven't decided how they will be used yet, but I loved to pull them out and think on it... Their colors remind me of the ones in the vintage Christmas balls. I think it is interesting how my color pallet is so consistant across all seasons and holidays.

I may not post much between now and Monday - there is so much to do! But I will be back with much more merriment then, I promise!

Shameless Plugging

My mom has opened an Etsy shop for Christmas and has stuffed it with adorable stockings at shockingly affordable rates!!!

Drop bye and say hi and tell her I sent ya!

Shoppe Update

There are some fun Christmas goodies over at Storia VINTAGE, including Shiny Brite ornaments...

Vintage lace and wallpaper packs coming later next week for all your vintage holiday gift wrapping needs!

They Came. They Ate. You See.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving here, how was yours? With 16 people coming for dinner, we ended up setting up 3 tables (2 big, 1 small) in the dinning room and living room. Luckily the the rooms open into each other a bit, so we didn't feel too separated during the meal
To be honest I have been so busy with banner orders and Life in General that I hadn't put much thought into how I was going to set the table until Thanksgiving Day. I settled on using faded red tablecloths as a background because that is what I had the most off. Then I mixed the Tiffany blue and some white with the napkins, candlesticks and some of the china - again, because it's what I had the most of (I was setting 16 places after all!)
I had purchased the orange pumpkin picks at Hobby Lobby (at 80% off,) so I used those as the napkin rings, just twisting the wire pick part around the napkin and tying some fall ribbon over the top. For the centerpiece on the main table I through some styro pumpkins and a bunch of wine corks (that Jemimah had sent me from Germany) onto a tray, then lit the candles on either end and called it DONE! I think it looked lovely despite the lack of planning....

The rest of this post is mostly for Jemimah and Adam and Judea and Frank and Jenni who couldn't be with us yesterday- please excuse the overload of family photo's!!
Notice I didn't get my dad or my MIL or Puddin because they were the busy bees all day, helping with the kids and keeping things refilled and adjusted, and in Puddin's case, dancing around...lol... I guess they never sat still long enough for me to point and click!

Here is the Family Album from Thanksgiving 2007:

This is my Paw, my mom's dad.






















This is my Maw, my mom's mom.

This is my Aunt Zada and my Nana, my dad's Mom.

This is my Grandaddy, my dad's dad. And Zada's big brother.


This is Milesy Man.



This is the Wy Guy.

This is the Turkey. I mean Turkey Chef, AKA, My Sweet Man.


This is my Father-in-Law Patrick, and my brother Joshua.

This is Joshua's girlfriend Brandi. Must be serious, he never brings a girl home and they stayed the WHOLE time! Shocking!


















Somebody - I was never sure who - decided the boys should eat in the living room and the ladies should eat in the dinning room. As much as this looks like some crazy anti-feminist idea, everyone agreed it actually made for some of the best Thanksgiving meal conversation ever - for both tables.



















Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Give Thanks

May your Thanksgiving be filled with love, laughter and great food!

Thank you for all the joy and inspiration you bring to into my life, I am very blessed indeed.

Many Happy Returns,

Jerusalem

Grateful (and giddy) to be seen...

on yesterdays Home Page of Etsy.com, (to my surprise and glee) was my HoHoHo Banner... (do you see it there, down in the left hand corner?)























and here, both my Merry Christmas and HoHoHo Banners were shown in the Etsy article on Traditional Christmas Decorating!

To say that this was a bright spot in my day would be a huge understatement! After working till 3AM some nights filling orders, it was so exciting to see this... and in the company so many other great items too!

I love how they added the Banner over the window, what a cute idea.

Grateful at last...

Today I am grateful for a moment to post, getting Fall decorations up in time to Host Thanksgiving, the 80% Off Sale at Hobby Lobby, new friends who like to eat lunch and share deep thoughts (and cute t-shirts,) the ability to be creative for a living, a husband who knows how to change the sheets, a washing machine that works, The Family Stone, and online banking. Oh, and resisting the impatient urge to buy the new issue of Country Living and finding it waiting for me in my mail box when I arrived home!

Grateful on Saturday...

Today I am grateful for orders getting mailed.

Today I am grateful for the first fire of the winter.

Today I am grateful to be home.

Grateful for Old Things and Swap Partners

One of the great things about this blog thing, especially amongst crafters, is all the giving and trading and swapping of goodies that goes on.

This month I participated in the Happy Miscellany Swap hosted by the gals at Domestic Bliss. I was a little late getting my package off to miss Jenn (and forgot to take pictures,) but hopefully she will love all the bits and pieces I sent, and be inspired!

Bristol from Cottage by the River sent me my package, and I couldn't feel more spoiled!

Look at all the vintage goodies she sent - some of which had real sentimental value to her!

It is no secret that I love old things, I always have really. Even as a kid I loved to garage sale with my mom, hunting for vintage clothes, or cool things for my room. I always loved going through the old pictures and clothing at my grandmothers homes.

Today I am so grateful for not only Old Things, but also for all the other people out there who love them too. Customers, blog and non-blog friends, family members, even my kids. I love both giving and receiving vintage gifts because I feel like it is really like having 2 gifts in one - the gift itself and the history & story behind it as well...

All the goodies in this post are from Bristol and I love each bit so much - they are full of fun and creative inspiration, but I must confess that I have a favorite:

The best of the best ... A 1956 Here's the Bride Paper Doll Set...

I could spend hours dressing and re-dressing the entire wedding party. There were so many pieces to this set I couldn't photograph them all!! I can not wait to have a moment to play with these lovelies and maybe even stage a photo shoot! How fun would that be???




Happy Friday to everyone!

Grateful for Twinkle Lights and Poetry

There is a lot going on around here right now... A lot of buzzing activity centered around Banner Makin' and Client Meetin's and Car Fixin' and Child Rearin'. My hands are cramped from pinking the edges of (what seems like) a million circles, all in an attempt to get all the Christmas banners shipped in a timely fashion. The laundry has piled up, and the kids are scrounging for socks in the mornings. I am keeping at bay the urge to completely overhaul my business website and this blog, realizing instead that those projects will have to wait till January when no one wants new furniture OR banners, because they are recovering instead from Christmas Overload - both sensory and fiscally.

Yesterday I bought a 4ft lit tinsel tree at Target so that I could have something to photograph the new Holiday Gift Cones on. Miles was very excited to help me set up the first tree of the season. Somewhere along the way, I have turned into one of those people who has a tree in every room. I didn't set out to be this person, but it has happened... So now I will have a Studio Tree too - a lovely vintage looking tinsel tree to display my goodies on and brighten my work days. As I was setting up the tree and taking these pictures, I was thinking of all the things I need to do, want to do, will have to do.., and as usual, I was not quite sure how they were all going to get done. How I would pull it all off this time. Then that great line from You've Got Mail started running through my head... "I'm not sure what to do, but in the mean time...I'm putting up more twinkle lights."

I love that movie. So many great lines. So many things that just say it the way you would want to say it if you could. Oh, to have Nora Ephron writing the script for your life... But thinking of You've Got Mail made me think about how grateful I am for not only More Twinkle Lights (because frankly, how could you not be grateful for those???) But also for my sweet man. My sweet man who got my computer to play DVD's for me so I could watch all my favorite movies while I craft... I am very grateful for Nathan, I really am. Our marriage is not perfect, it is a process, but it is real and honest and full of things that I am truly blessed to have.


Recently during the office/studio shuffle, I came across a poem he wrote for a creative writing class he had a few years ago. The poem is about us. About about his acts of love for me, and I am so grateful for them, even the smallest, simplest act, because when you string them all together, over time, the impact is lovely, and heartwarming and full of hope. Like twinkle lights.


Things That Sustain Her
by Nathaniel Greer

It is not like changing the air filter for the central heat
Or cutting the grass out of a sense of obligation
More like an obsessed greaser polishing his street machine
When I massage her neck until my hands cramp from motion.

Nor like taking out the trash or washing the silverware.
But like a gardener kneeling in moist dirt
Gently nurturing each sweet scented and soft flower
When I switch off the small screen and surrender the night.

Like a voyager out of matches who must regularly nourish
His fire to survive, I am grateful and glad
To take her window gazing at furniture,
Clothes and fixtures I could never afford.

These activities mean no more to me
Than any other time spent together
But yielding the remote or bringing home sweets
Are things that sustain her.



(PS - He got an "A" on this poem, which of course I thought he completely deserved!)

P.S.

Have you seen this???



Christmas is coming... Time to start planning your gift giving!

Visit Vintage Indie's great & unique online Vintage Holiday Gift Guide!

You know how I love all things vintage...

Grateful for Inspiration

I still haven't chosen a color for the master bedroom... I am stuck. But that is OK. I am willing to be stuck until I KNOW which way I want to go... I know I want cozy. My bedroom is my retreat... But I don't know how light or dark I want to go...

These 2 rooms are my prime inspirations right now... The first pic is from ME Home Companion back in Feb. I think. I adore the painted floors, the red sheets and other pops over color with all the white....

The other picture, I am ashamed to admit I can not remember where I stole it from. So if you know feel free to speak up. I am coveting the very french/burlap/linen bedding. The stripe on the quilt reminds me of my duvet cover... Ooh la la...

Somewhere in the middle of these 2 pictures is where I want to be. Until I figure out exactly how I want to proceed, I am grateful that I have lots of inspiration all around me, at my very fingertips...

Grateful for Service

There are a lot of men in my life who have served - my grandfather, my father, my father-in-law and now my brother in-law.

At Miles' preschool most of the families are military and many of those mom's who drop their kids off 3 days a week, are doing it all on their own while their husbands are deployed for 12 -15 months. Most of them are not from Arkansas and do not have family around to help - they only have each other, the school, their churches and friends.

I am surrounded by people whose lives have been and still are affected by war, and all things military.

From what I can tell it is not an easiest way to live. It is not a convenient choice; Military life is not predictable, or even conducive to a "normal" family life most times. But I see the dedication of so many people who serve. I see how there are people who are dedicated to serving our country - no matter what that looks like, because it is their job and their choice. They are committed in a way that seems unfathomable to me, but that makes me so very grateful at the same time. I am so grateful that there are people who are willing to make sacrifices - here at home and abroad- because they are simply serving our country. For that I am truly grateful today.

To all all who have served, and continue to serve thank you. To all who have encouraged and supported those who have served, thank you also.

Grateful for Small Mercies

I don't really talk a lot about church or God or my faith on this blog. Well, I don't talk about them directly, but they are there, part of the fiber of me. Mostly I don't talk about those things because I don't want to be preachy or whiny or bore you with my personal crisis' as related to the subject.

But any of you who know me well, or who have read this blog since the beginning, or have read my sweet man's blog post about it, know that about 2 years ago Nathan and I made the hard decision to leave a church that we were very involved in, that we loved completely and that was led by a family member. The decision - even though it was the right one - was not easy, and the journey since has not been easy either. Actually it has been heart breaking at times, and we are always surprised when some remnant of the hurt rises back up and smacks us in the face, even 2 years later. We found our current church almost immediately after leaving our old one, but it has not been a seamless, easy transition. There have been plenty of bumps along the way... Lot's of feeling out of place, frustrated, confused and alone...

I know that some of our issues are because we are so darn opinionated. And I blame that on the fact that Nathan and I are both preachers kids, and because I have been on staff at a church before, and he has been on worship teams and because frankly, I am just wired to see things a little differently than most church goers... I care, really strongly (sometimes too strongly I am sure) about things related to how church gets done. I have seen both the good and the bad and the really ugly when it comes to church, and I know how it can destroy people's faith and hope and unleash oceans of cynicism in their hearts. I know it has at times in mine...

They say that when you move to a new place it takes 2 years to feel at home. I think that applies to moving churches as well. Luckily in the last 9 months or so the tide has begun to turn for us. We have slowly began to find our footing, our voice, our crowd, and our friends at our new church... Nathan has begun to play with the worship team more and more, Wylie has made great friends and now runs around the building like he owns it (which is always a sign that a kid is comfortable at church, and is great to me.) And we are beginning to feel less alone, less confused, a little more at home.

There are still moments, services, statements and conversations that leave me pulling my hair out. Times when I wonder why we have landed there, and what the purpose is... But I now have a place to go with those thoughts, and people who care, like I do and as much as I do, about these sorts of things.

Today something that will seem small happened that really isn't that small to me. I stayed late talking to people after church... I stayed so late, that Nathan was able to load all his gear in the car and wait, hands on hips in the parking lot. Oh, that did my little heart so much good. At our old church that was what a typical Sunday was like, me having to make the rounds, chatting it up with everyone, him anxious to go get lunch, hands on hips, waiting on me...

So I am grateful for the little bit of "normal" that we felt at church this morning- Nathan playing with the band, Wylie running around with his buddies, feeling at home, me talking too long with friends....

Today I am grateful that I can see that maybe it is all going to be OK after all and I won't die of a broken heart.... Just maybe.


(these pics are from our Missouri trip in September...)