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.

This little light

Brightens a dreary day. 

I like this whimsical idea, using a little terra cotta pot for a candle. The scent of this one is greenhouse from Yankee candle. Perfect for a spring fragrance in the house!

Everything Has It's Space

This is the first room in our apartment. In a small space you make do. And for my mind I need everything to have it's own place, or I will really lose it. So I'm sharing how I have divided up our living space.

This part of the room is the TV/sitting area. 

To the right of the doorway is my crafting/sewing table (made from a piano!)
As we continue moving to the right, here is the library section.

Then the entry, I must have a place to drop what I need to right by the door. The coat hooks are working out nicely in that previously empty space.

Then we have the office  area with my inspiration board and finished work. Husband is working on money matters, I'm so blessed that he enjoys the numbers part of things.

And here is the full picture. I love having a ceiling fan. It happened to match our decor so well too!
And here it is from the other side. I have gotten the urge to move things around every now and then but I wonder if all these areas could ever work so well in another way.

Coming Soon

A Baby girl will being arriving at the English household very soon (maybe even this weekend!). The shower was last night and given by the ladies at church. I would say there about 50 women there, and many high school age (it was nice to see young faces and to know they took time out of their busy schedules to come). 

Arlena gave me some patterns that she liked and I managed to put together a jumper and embroidered a onesie to match. 

They are dog people and I found this pattern in a book called sublime stitching. I added the purple bow to make it more girly.

 I'm looking forward to seeing Annalise in her dress this summer!

Kute

I'm pretty glad with how the K turned out today.  I feel so blessed to have Etsy to work with and being able to stay home with Jaren is wonderful. 

Its up on Etsy now. If anyone wants a custom one I have plenty of Dictionary left!

Candle Light

Last night was a candle lit evening with, myself. My mom was on the phone with me after my toddler and 4am-waking husband went to bed. I decided to take some photos of the candle light while the wind roared around the corners of our building.

I loved having the candle light and may try to enjoy it more often plus save on energy costs. I got the candles and holders at hobby lobby half-off. The Tazo tea bottle was too nice to recycle and I'm glad I kept it. I will have to figure out how to steady the candle in it and hold it as it burns down.

I was surprised at how nice it was to sit in the simple glow of the candle's flame. What a blessing from 'bad' weather.

 

Cheap As Free

I got some free shopping in this afternoon. My neighbor moved out yesterday and she decided to get rid of all this stuff in the dumpster. It would have been more comfortable going to the store, but I really couldn't pass up the price. The containers below were the first thing to catch my eye as we drove past the overflowing pile last night and I then determined to see what other goodies would lay in store.

The whole list turned out to be:

Glass containers

Unopened christmas paper ( I am planning to do metallics next year too!)

2 Birthday bags 

Party Decorations

Green comforter

Evergreen comforter

Shelf with hook

Toy Castle

Child's computer

Metal organizer

Mini food processor

Phonics program

Pop-out playhouse

Computer cables

Don't be ashamed to dumpster-dive. It will probably be worth it. 

My sleeping Jaren

My little one is in his toddler bed as of today! It took a little encouragement but eventually he stayed in bed. 

I made the quilt for him and finished it when he was 3 months I think. It's been on the wall till now so he is finally using it! I would like to make another, but I don't think that will happen 'till we have another child. 

What a nice hurdle to be over. But he is growing up so fast!

The Piano Table

A finished project!

I had mentioned back in july about the sewing table that we were going to make out of a friend's piano. I don't remember exactly when we actually got the piano apart but six months later it showed up in my living room, which happened to be Christmas morning. I had no clue this was going to happen!

 I had written off the project.  I only had a vauge idea about putting the table together and I didn't think it really had a chance. But I unknowingly hung out at a friends home while Rich worked away on a 'project' that I thought had something to do with their brother-in-law's christmas gift. Anywho, Rich and Darwin (an accomplished woodworker) worked on the table and snuck it into our garage during an ice storm. Then Christmas eve around 3 am Rich brought the table in and there it was! Such a great surprise and example of when patience is used with a spouse they are much more willing to help. I'm really glad I wasn't nagging him about it for 6 months! 

The Strawberry

The final Christmas present. A little late, sure... but it is finished!

Frosty morning

This morning was -11 degrees. It has made some very pretty lacework on the windows that travel across the panes in the morning light.

Hope our pipes don't freeze. Stay warm wherever you are!