Latest Obesession

Not that I need another "thing", but I have been noticeably enamored with vintage mercury glass ornaments. If you know me, you know I love vintage and and I LOVE color. And I love pretty and shiny, too... just for the record. *cough*

 

 

 

I've been on the hunt for them this year... I need them specifically for my little white tree I have in the front room. It's pretty much my favorite place in the house right now, so it's pretty important business. ;) I've been lucky; I found a box of small ones at the last Junk in the Trunk market I went to. I also found a couple of vendors at The Brass Armadillo who had some real cuties (and really delightful displays, too). I lucked out and found a couple of boxes at the local Goodwill today (This is when it's pretty awesome living near a lot, a lot, a lot of old folks).

 

It's feeling merry around here! How's the decorating coming along for you?

 

 

 



Simple Framed Art { frame a greeting card }

I love wall art. I love prints, I loved framed photos, I love metal or wood signage. Just love it.

 I always seem like I want to buy it.

But I've learned that restraint is important; for the wallet,

and also so your home doesn't end up looking a wall at TGI Friday's.

Here's the easy way I get my kicks: Greeting cards. Did you know standard greeting cards are 5x7"?  And as fun and artistic as they are these days, they happen to look great matted and framed. It's such a super, super simple way to refresh your decor. I change mine out seasonally and for holidays, or whenever I find something cute.

And to boot, it's totally inexpensive! I got this pretty little card for a BUCK at Michael's.

(Get it? Deer? Buck? Punny!)

The frame came with a mat. I found her on clearance at Target a couple of years ago.

Now go! Go browse those greeting cards!

Winding Down

Hi! Are you busy enjoying your summer?

Guess what?

My summer is almost over.

(Telling my kiddos that elicits dramatic groans.) I am knee-deep in backpacks and fresh pairs of shoes, and I couldn't be happier. Naturally, I think my kids are awesome and I love them to pieces, but you know what they say about absence making the heart grow fonder and such.

We recently got back from our family trip to San Diego. (I was told that a getaway with the kids is called a trip. A getaway without the kids is a vacation. I'm still waiting for a vacation.) It started out great: we stayed on beautiful Coronado Island.

The kids had a blast riding boogie boards and splashing in the waves. There was a seal sighting. They collected shells.

Three full days and three amusement parks later, my youngest fella was pleading with us to leave SeaWorld... or begging me to take him to the van so he could take a nap. Oh my gosh.... is that remotely normal???

Not this kid of mine, though. He was over-the-moon the entire time.

God bless him. And the tween daughter really took one for the team at Legoland. Minimal eyerolling. I am so proud.

So, soon I hope to be back to serious stuff, like painting furniture and re-doing my kitchen table. If only the weather would cooperate. (106 degrees AND monsoon season humidity? Come on!)

In the meantime, I shall continue to visit my boys' "cushion houses" (We used to just make forts!) and try not to get mad when I see they ripped all the blankets and pillows off their beds to make them with.

Happy summering!

Hot and Fresh!

I did it. I finally got around to creating these fun, new hair pretties that I've had whirling in my mind the past couple of months!

Fun, right? Right now, I have them available on your choice of clip or headband (I love that they can be worn by practically any age.), but I'm thinking of offering them as a clip with interchangeable bands. Still working on perfecting that notion.

There is a GIVEAWAY for a $25 shop credit on my Facebook Page. Sound tempting? Check it out!

This morning I am chugging chamomile tea, trying to chase away my sore throat and general cold-yuckiness I've been battling for, oh.... forever now. Going to a rib fest to see KC and the Sunshine Band tonight with The Husband, woo! (Guess which one of us likes which of those two things, right?)

Hope you enjoy your weekend!

There's No Place Like Home (I suppose)

So, who has two thumbs and is definitely not moving to England?! -This Gal!-

Don't you feel sad for me? If you don't, that's ok. I had a pity party big enough for all of us. We found out last Thursday that The Husband's orders had been cancelled. We kind of had an inkling that it might happen, but it still felt like very bad news. I was very sad. No pretty little English house. No day trips to London. An even slimmer chance of befriending David and Victoria Beckham. 

sigh

But, que sera sera. It just wasn't part of the plan. Actually, all of my family are happy about it. And my friends, too. Except the one who felt emboldened by our international move and decided to let her husband look for a new job in another state -across the country- and now is moving herself, this summer. Sorry about that. Totally not my fault. Sad, though.

So, thankfully we don't have to get our house ready to rent (I was going to have to paint it all neutral. NEUTRAL, people!), I don't have to sell my beloved old mom-van, send our elderly dog to live with her grandparents, and most importantly, I can continue to enjoy all of my fun lamps (which wouldn't have worked in the UK)!

 

However, I do have a new Union Jack pillow that I've had to put away. It's not going to match anything in my Arizona house. Besides, any time I saw it I might feel compelled to gently weep.

Or not. It's pretty dang cute.

Clean up, clean up...

You know what my initial reaction was to finding out we're moving to England? (Well, aside from "OMG, maybe I'll run into Posh and Becks"!) 

I have so much stuff to get rid of!

I immediately hit up Craigslist and unloaded a couple of furniture items. Then I began to attempt to clean up my craft closet. I got about oh, a third into it, threw away some bits and bobs, organized some wrapping paper and then gave up. I still have a few months, after all. Anyway, I did determine that I MUST downsize my stock. I'm still undecided as to whether I'll even continue my hair accessory business once overseas...

So, in the everything must go spirit, my etsy shop is 50% off with coupon code LEAPYEAR! Help a sister out and go shopping, ok?

xoxo, 

Surprise!

Um. So. I've maybe taken a smidge too much time off blogging.

*crickets*

I suspect I'm not a good multi-tasker... even with my own thoughts. I can only obsess about one thing at a time. And in my defense, I've had a couple of doozies to focus on.

First, The Husband is becoming an old man somehow injured himself and has a herniated disc (C-6 C-7) in his neck. I don't know which is worse: seeing him in pain or listening to him talk about how quickly he's going to recover and become a beast in the gym again. I don't know why he hasn't just completely healed himself using shear will like he usually does (Right, honey?). It must be serious. He's scheduled for surgery on Monday. Pray. Seriously.

 Second, (and I think this is better news?) right before Christmas The Husband received orders to RAF Mildenhall. Civilian translation: We are moving to England. Surprise! We didn't see it coming at all. We moved here two years ago and bought our first house because we thought we'd be here a good 4-5 years or more. Now we'll have to rent the house. And sell the cars (because they drive on the "wrong" side of the road in the UK, you know). And completely purge and downsize a lot of our belongings because our home in England will likely be half the size of our current home. And anything that has a plug will not work over there, either, because both the electrical voltage as well as the outlets themselves are different than what we have in the states. (I admit, this bothers me because I have a lot of really cute lamps.) There are really a slew of complications and inconvenient details involved. The move itself is the pits. I know because we lived in Germany for four years. However, I swear I am not Debbie Downer about this. Because it's England! And I like England! We'll be about 90 minutes north of London. I can quite easily hop on a train and spend the day there.

The other night, I had a dream that I became friends with Victoria Beckham. It was awesome.

 (This is my actual wee Posh figurine courtesy of my pal Myrinda. XOXO Oh, I should specify that I've had her for a couple of years and can't bear to remove her from the factory sealed box.)