Creativity and My Take.

Okay, we shall attempt to resurrect this dead site. Sometimes I come here to check on things and I half expect it to be gone.

I
love when ya`ll leave me comments-- so thank you. I always read them,
and even if I don`t always know who you are, I do try to figure out if
I know you. Please don`t stop-- it gets pretty boring throwing up
pictures and mumbo jumbo if there isn`t YOU to interact with . :) I
know that I have a lot less readers since I left xanga-- sometimes I
really miss the community there.

But I do like being here too.
I think every time I read a comment from a  new reader I am always
amazed that anyone ever finds me out here "in the sticks" ha.


Here
is my newest edition of Country Living. The girls were in the kiddie
pool today (ok, so it would be more accurate to say Laila was in the
stroller with her sunshade on) ,and I FINALLY, after many days found
some time to looky through it.

WOW, OH, WOW-- would I  ever love to work there or some how absorb all their cool, cool ideas!

I
am such a magazine nerd. If I get ahold of one that I like, it might
take me hours to page through it and get all the "info" I want from it.
I daydream a lot too. How do you read magazines? And which ones do you
like?

 
Here
was a spread I really loved. Sometimes I kinda dream about having a
bare bones house to start all over with and just play with ideas all
day.

I used to feel really guilty because I didn`t feel
spiritual with my gift. I don`t think there is anything I love more--
than "trying" to take something ugly or dirty and making something of
it. I love to use my hands and mind to create things. 

The other day G came home from work, and literally it looked like someone had taken our house and dumped it upside down.

And I mean literally. I don`t even think supper was made.

I told him matter of factly, "Sorry Galen, I was making stuff and I just can`t do that and keep house too".

I
feel so blessed that I have a husband that doesn`t care, "gets me" AND,
that even appreciates this about me. But anyways, I often feel shallow
or afraid that my love for beautiful or cool things is materialistic.
Which is funny because at the same time, I often feel really close to
God when I work on stuff.

Almost like... WORSHIP...
 
And
then one day I realized God likes to do the same stuff I do! He created
this world out of nothing-- and guess what! He sure made it beautiful
too, and I know it gave him pleasure. This was such a special thought
to me. I think of it so much now.

I can just picture the way
He admired the lush GREEN of the tall trees, and how it off set the
deep REDS and ORANGES of the flowers. All nestled under the canopy of a
wide open bright BLUE sky.

It`s just so cool. Most people are
good at singing and they worship when they do it. Honestly, I can`t
sing worth a hoot and so when I do,  it`s not even a little bit fun for me. It`s nice to know that God is creative, and He gives us gifts to praise Him with, that WE enjoy too.


You
can`t really see it, but on the left side there is a little, airy,
flowered tent set up with all kinds of fun, grass green, pillows and
gear scattered around. Adorable!

Sigh. Do people really live like that? Everything matching and cute and darling?

Oh well, it`s fun to feast the eyes on anyways. 

And
on the right, if you look really close-- that white/green plaque that
says, "LAKE" with the hand pointing? Well, I bet one could make that--
with just right stencils, the right paint and the right board. But I
don`t have the stuff or the time so... yeah, possibly never.


I like to snap pictures of cool stuff I see or that I see every day at home. Here is like a month`s worth of built up photos.

This is our room. I love my hall tree. Fun to keep all my favorite things on it.


I bought this lovely green plate for 25 cents last week at a garage sale. I SO LOVE IT!


This little pot sits on my windowsill and smiles at me everyday.






I got those little brown, beaded coasters at Pier 1 the other day for $3! They had been like 20 something...

The B & W pictures remind us of how much we have aged...


I
love flower pins and kind of collect them. I can`t get up enough guts
to actually WEAR them-- but I love them on purses and bags and on my
dresser...!


My favorite "mommy would still love to be cool and not carry a real diaper bag" bag. :)


I was going to wear this to church this morning but G said it was "too much".

The
fashion world (and Providence church) will never know what they missed
out on, when G stifled Jenny`s love for huge, fluffy flower pins.

Sigh.


The blur editing makes it look romantic, don`t you think.. ha




It rained a lot here, all my rugs got muddy and wet.

I saw enough beauty in them drying here to use this as a picture post?? I guess.


I WASHED MY WINDOWS ON FRIDAY. Is pretty fun standing at the kitchen sink now. ,

I
talked to a sweet mother of 3 once, that told me windows were "her
obsession" and that she washes her every week. (I understood
COMPLETELY, because vacuuming is my mine) But ever since that, I have
felt some guilt because honestly, I bet I wash my windows once a
year...

If there was anything I could change about myself it would be that I wasn`t so lazy with window washing... (for starters).


I wired this gorgeous flower to a washcloth caddy to hold our incoming mail.

It makes me happier than how we used to do it-- a big stack of scattered mail all over my kitchen counter.


Flowers are doing well. I pretty much just look at them whenever I run out the door in passing.

The rain waters them and they dead-head themselves... Life is good.


Love this summer look out the back door.


I am bonkers, nuts for anything with that nautical,/globe/map look. Pottery Barn does it a lot.


And I was growing more and more NOT so fond of this huge picture that hung in our room for years now.

Back when I was wealthier-- I used up all of my working gift cards and saved up for this big, BIG geranium themed picture.

Proud I was indeed.


So
I brought down a real, crumpled map down from the attic, ironed it, and
decided to cut away at the back of this geranium picture-- to see if I
could somehow open it up, and frame something else with it.

Like say, maybe, this map?! I am serious.

I
took a few tools to let me get into this picture. They really love to
keep things complicated at P Graham Dunn (guessing here)-- and they
apparently would like to keep the picture they assembled-- together
FOREVER.

But I outsmarted them. With a lot of sweat, these strong hands, and a few bad words in my head that I did not say.


This is how it looks. I would have said at first, that it is TOTALLY what I dreamed of!

But
then... G said it should be a map of the world and not a map of the
USA, and that it looks like it belongs in a schoolhouse.

That ruined it a bit for me, a little.

BUT I AM PLUCKY, I am.

And I still like it, even odd as it is. 


Windows gleam in the bedroom too.

JOY!




I LOVE and I repeat LOVE collecting little vintage-y purses for Elle. These are 2 of our, no, my favorites.

She doesn`t really appreciate them yet. But ONE day!


50 cents bought me this one from a yard sale.

Cute, cute and more cuteness.


I am obsessed with lamplight. I think it makes everything prettier.

Erika, this was the $3 shade I bought at your yard sale. Look who`s laughing now!

I don`t know why I said that. She didn`t laugh at me at all when I bought it.


I love this blue and white.

Every
time Elle walks out the front door, and down the front steps, she holds
onto this plant with her little hands so she won`t fall.

And I everytime I see it, I hold my breath... and feel a little guilty for wanting to spare my plant when she is so cute.


My grandma from KY divided up all her goods. I got some really cool things.

This yellow egg basket was one of them. Maybe one day I`ll show you more of what I got from her.

Both times I typed "got"-- I felt really greedy and rude. Funny how the word "got" can make you feel that way.


I collect these for Elle. She likes to take her bath with them.

I guess they are more fun than the traditional, square shaped, washcloth.


Laila sleeping. Just so you know we still have and love her.


Natural, no sugar added, peanut butter, and a little jam on a graham cracker. Then MILK-- cold.

A right good little snack-io!

Baby crying-- I got to git! Leave me some love-- cuz here is mine to you.