You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘favorite things’ category.
My e-bay packages started to arrive yesterday. Honey threatened to take away my computer, and I’m assuming, my internet access, along with it. But look how cute everything is!
The green sewing box is just as cute as its picture. Maybe cuter. Could I say ‘cute’ any more? Cute Cute Cute! There, now that that’s out of my system!
(notice how in the previous craft room photos, I didn’t show the messy closet? that wasn’t an accident.)
The wooden spools, the original reason for my looking on e-bay. Admittedly, I may have gone a little overboard, but I ended up winning 2 auctions, one for empty spools & one for spools with thread. I couldn’t resist the myriad of colors & don’t have any intentions for them other to look pretty in this jar.
This is the pincushion from mom, looking right at home next to all the lovely thread.
Monday, we got this wedding invitation from Adam’s step-cousin Kara. We spent quite a bit of time with her at Adam’s uncle Bobby’s wedding last summer, and she’s a total sweetheart. Tall, blonde, southern California, but completely unpretentious.
The invitation is by far the most elaborate, yet simple & sweet invitation I have ever received. I thought she probably had them done at a printers, but Honey, who works in a print shop & has become quite the paper connoisseur, believes they were printed on a home-printer & scorched by hand. The time that must have taken! And yes, the invitation came in the bottle.
Since today is very fall-like (who am I kidding, the entire month of July was fall-like), I turned off NPR & instead listened to “The Last Time I Saw Paris”, a cd I purchased from Williams-Sonoma ages ago. I’m not sure they sell it any longer, but if you ever come across a copy, I highly recommend you snatch it up.
My favorite cd’s tend to be soundtracks & collections like this (Pottery Barn also has some great ones), which I think is because I have the attention span of a 2 year old. Seriously. I swear to god, one time I was in mid-sentence with my co-worker James when I realized there was chocolate on the counter & I stopped to say ~ oooh, chocolate! ~ & proceeded to help myself to the chocolate. Has James let me forget this? Nooooo.
Today, Honey & I went home for lunch, and I had received another package. Honey again threatened to take away the computer. He said he’d ask me to choose between the wireless router & him, but he wasn’t sure how I might respond. I said ~ oh, honey, of course I’d choose you! I can get internet at work! And luckily he thought I was being cute as was my intention, & didn’t get grumpy.
Today’s goodie is this really great fabric. I’ve been into toilles & variations thereof for the past year or so & am still searching for the perfect pattern. This one I do love, though, and king-Riley also approves. It is designed by Jennifer Paginelli of Sis Boom, so you can’t really go wrong there. I think it’s going to be curtains for my craft room as it’s the closest fabric I’ve found to what I have pictured in my head.
And that’s all the shopping photos you should see for a while because Honey may get a little testy if this trend continues!
Bookkeeping work ~ done.
Blogging ~ done.
August Country Living, here I come!
I’m not a regular e-bayer, but every now & again, I check it out to look for something specific. Random looking will only lead to disaster with that many choices. Yesterday I was looking for vintage spools, and found this little gem!
I love textiles & love to sew, but I am still learning. My sewing machine is about as no-frills as they come, and because I haven’t figured out tension, stitch lenghts & all those important things, my thread jams no fewer than 3 times per project.
But really, how cute is this vintage sewing box? And since I only have, like, 4 spools of thread, this should suit my needs for a while!
And my sweet mama brought this over last night. I have already read it cover to cover, and I’m sure I will be drawing lots of decorating inspiration from it.
I am a lucky, lucky girl.
Happy Thursday!
TG
today’s post is getting out there a little late, but i have my priorities. 2-hour grey’s anatomy ~ hello!
i thought i would have a hard time finding pink in my house, and while pink is not a prevelant color scheme in my home, i do loves my pink dishes.
my small collection began with this sweet pitcher & glasses. i didn’t take a close-up, but they have a floral design etched in. when i spied them in the display case in a sellwood, oregon antique shop, i knew i had to have them. my grandpa bought me the pitcher and i bought the glasses. if you knew my grandpa, you are aware that this was a monumental ocassion as he was not prone to spending money on a whim. except for my wedding gift, which is an exquisite pitcher with etched stars that belonged to his mother, this was the only gift i remember him buying for me so it’s all the more special. unfortunately, i am afraid to use them but i imagine them being used on a summer evening, on a perfectly-cottaged front porch, serving a lovely after-dinner cocktail. can you picture it? 
of course, there would be dessert of something cool & fruity, and they would be served in these little beauties. at the moment i can’t for the life of me remember where i got them or who may have given them to me. i’m thinking they were from my mom, who i really need to have come over & help me inventory all my family heirlooms. at any rate, i love the detail on them. they don’t quite match the pitcher & glasses but that’s the best part of a dishware collection. and i cannot have enough dishware, despite what my husband says. these dessert cups get used pretty frequently. they’re great for dips, but they really love to house german raspberries, which are just so yummy.
i do know the pink dessert plates were from mom one christmas. she likes to get creative with the holidays, and this particular year us kids each had a theme. mine was entertaining. since adam doesn’t eat sweets (just wrong, i know), we generally don’t eat a lot of cake or pie or anything requiring a dessert plate. they have, however, become the official plate for birthday cake. the pink platter was also from mom, picked out special for me from my grandparent’s belongings. it is the palest of pale pinks & i love it.
up until a couple weeks ago, my house was still decidedly fallish, requiring a spring-decorating fix pronto. what’s a girl to do? lay out as much pink as possible! these are all from mom ~are you sensing a trend here? the hanky in the middle photo was from jerusalem’s etsy shop, as well as the spring nest in the background. just promise me that when you check out her shop, you’ll leave some goodies for me.
till tomorrow!
day three ~ green!
my favorite plant ~ started from a plant belonging to my mom, which came from her grandmother. apparently, the grandkids got a plant while the great-grandkids got a quilt. my mother felt jilted for years, and never told me the quilt i loved as a child was actually mine until last year! anyway, the plant refused to grow for months. it just sat there, doing nothing. i swear we didn’t do anything differently, but one day it just started to grow & hasn’t stopped since.
a really lovely clock i purchased in leavenworth, washington last summer. as much as i love it, it pained me to see it in a catalog for less than half the price. ouch. the candlestick is part of a set that we got as a wedding gift. you can see bits of my favorite plant, and the wall in this photo (you’ll see befores & afters eventually, I promise) is painted saybrook sage, and says “cottage” perfectly. even my mom says so.
this last photo, also worthy of a before & after, is of my entertainment center door. it was one of the first projects i did when we moved into the house, and one that i actually finished. except that it still needs shelves built where there used to be drawers. currently, we are using leftover flooring as the shelves. crafty, eh? the knob is from anthropology ~ don’t they have the coolest stuff?
day 2 of jerusalem’s week of color ~
who doesn’t love roses? these were from honey a few weeks ago. the rotary clubs sell them every year, and he is sweet enough to buy them for me every year.
i used to have a lot of red in my last apartment. well, i had a red kitchen, anyway. it was very red indeed. red walls even, with a pale yellow wall as an accent. i loved it for a time, but a red kitchen grows old quickly. now all that is left are these remnants: my red toaster, my red kitchen aide, and this little collection of always-used ingredients on a tole tray purchased off e-bay, kept next to the stove.
so i’m being a totally bad hostess because i’m writing this post when i should be entertaining my brother & his fiance, who are here for dinner. i’ll be quick!
first up ~ what i see outside right now ~ BLUE SKY! after a week of rain, this is a spring miracle!
next up are my acorn slippers ~ love acorns. these were a christmas gift from my dad & step-mom jill. i live in my slippers from the moment i get home to the moment i crawl into bed. they’re warm & fuzzy, have a rubber soul, and most importantly, are washable!
this is hanging outside our bedroom door. it was a weddng gift, and i love seeing it every day.
the item which made my bathroom complete! my coveted sign, purchased for me by my mom. sadly, my camera does nothing for my wall color.
my blue birds. these were a trinket from my bridal shower hosted by mother-in-law mary in spokane.
my new blue binders from russell & hazel. i’m tring to get more organized…you’d think i’d already be pretty organized as i am incredibly anal about where stuff goes (where it belongs where else?) but i just need a really good system. and it should look cute, too. plus, i just haven’t found where everything should live since we bought our house last august.see you tomorrow!
