Just Wondering

Which arrangement do you like better?

Relaxing with produce

I am relaxing this afternoon with my first tomato produce from the garden!

Some beautiful mozzarella and sun dried tomato vinaigrette work perfectly with the early garden tomatoes.

Have a lovely weekend!

Lauren

Just a block away

Down the street and around the corner sat a bookshelf on the curb. I drove past it twice and waited till an opportune time (when husband was with me) to pick it up. It was heavy.

There were tons of stickers on the side. Regular and car bumper ones. A hairstylist friend told me that vinegar was a stripper so a spray of that mixed with water, let it soak in and they came off pretty well using the ice scraper (only thing I could find quickly to use).

I had been wanting some more grown up shelves for Jer Bear's room. The baskets in the changing table were working but there wsan't much room for him to use for toys. Plus the pajamas were getting out of control. I took the pic after removing all his pants from the top shelf.

Three cans of blue spray paint later. Lots of room or clothes and toys! One afternoon and that gets checked off my list for the cost of paint!

You can check out more projects at Kimba's for DIY Day!

P.S. The same house provided our sled last winter. If they give us anything else I may need to write a thank you note for the great discards!

I Heart Crate and Barrel

Helloooo out there!

Stacy over at 19butternut shared some new things from Pottery Barn today and it inspired me to share about one of my favorite places, Crate & Barrel. So thanks to Stacy my blog is alive again. It's not that I don't have ideas to write about but more like too many and I'd rather read than write so I read everyone else's posts and never get to my own. Whew! Hopefully that is gonna change. Starting Today!

So these are screen captures from their online Fall catalog. I LOVE Screen captures. If the photos don't drag off your blog and onto my desktop I will capture it and gather them into my growing files of inspiration. I may share some of them with you pretty soon.

Now back to C&B wonderfulness.

I am pretty much an organizational enthusiast. So these benches (which I have been eyeing for years) are always a fave.

This is a similar idea. Liking the white panel look and the shelves to stash. They would be great for library books. Cushions are always nice too :).

I have always liked glass front shelves. This one is so sweet and a great size.

More pretty shelves. I especially like the rear one with the offset horizontal lines.

All my fave colors right there and such cheery design on a rug!

So I first loved some C&B when it moved into the local Easton Town Center Mall about 6 years ago. It was perfect timing for me to then browse for my wedding registry and we got these amazing dishes as gifts. They were so affordable that we received every piece we asked for and some other pretty things thrown in. They still look great with everything and they are still available!

Finally here we have this adorable bag! What a great size and I am LOVING the lettuce print! For some reason it makes me want to laugh or giggle or something. Maybe cause its a little unexpected.

Hope you enjoyed my self indulgence as much as I did!

P.S. C&B has no Idea I am here, writing. But I'm glad you do.

Hope to post again, next week. Happy weekend!

Lauren

I'm Loaded

I'm loaded with projects. Two baby showers and three weddings coming up! Not Much else I can do today. Hope to post some finished projects soon! 

Note; Flannel falls apart when embroidered. Going to find some glue.

Good Reading

I am loving this book. As Rich and I are praying about homeschooling I am researching as many books as possible. to want to feel ready, but I don't know if thats possible. I'm hoping to get my feet wet at least before I jump in. But this book is so reassuring and specific about texts and teaching examples, and thats just what I need to direct us into being an active learning household. It is also neat that many of the books mentioned are ones that my Mom used with me and my sisters for the two years she taught us. I still really like the Narration approach and I think they will work well together. This book gave me more of a specific place to start.

I have also been mending jeans, and embroidering wedding and baby shower gifts. And I have many more to go! Hope to share pics with you soon!

Another chance

We found this shelving unit nailed into our apartment's garage wall. I asked Rich, why don't we just pull it off, paint it and hang it in the kitchen? (I wanted shelves for my glass hostess set that was hidden away.) This is what it looked like immediately after I brought it into the house.  

I thought the curves definitely had potential but the nubs on the bottom reallly had to go. One was missing anyway(far right), so we sawed them off and sanded the edges. Here it is dusted and ready to paint. It looked like it had never seen any kind of sealer or finish before and we probably should have sanded it or something but that is an extra step, and with me getting the project finished fast is the objective. 

So here we are painting. This was the first of three coats of wall paint that our landlords let us use to match the shelves to the wall. Plus, it was free.

Here it is hung on our dining area wall with cup hooks attached. Rich had to use the drill to make holes first and then screw them in, but it didn't take long. We mounted it with six screws we found in the garage as well. 

So that is the story of how we gave that sad shelf another chance. Out of the garage and into the sunshine, holding beautiful things and making me smile every day.