I Saw Red: Ruby Saturday

It's been almost a week's worth of red at this blog~ I've enjoyed fiddling some more with my camera to try to photograph each crimson, blush, and sunny red that has caught my eye, and today I thought I'd try that little flower button setting on my Kodak Easyshare to capture RUBY...

The setting helped capture my new ruby cell phone (complete with QWERTY keyboard...texting will be soooo much easier now!) as well as the floral details on the mat beneath it:





and worked even more magic when I tried to photograph all of my ruby rings at once. Do you know how many blurry shots I've taken over the years? The flower button just might be my new favorite setting on the camera!



You might think I have a thing for rubies... I admit red is one of my favorite colors, but I didn't have a lot of ruby jewelry until my husband came along. Every year I get a new ring or earrings, but as I don't usually wear more than three rings each day, I have to make sure to rotate through my stash so none of them feel left out.

Awww, poor me.

*snicker snicker*

*****

Off to spend time with friends at a BBQ~ hope you are having a terrific day!

Show and Share Thursday: Spangles, Dangles, and Jangles

When I discovered Kirk's Folly jewelry and accessories on QVC years ago, I was hooked! Barrettes, necklaces, bracelets, brooches and watches all made their way to my jewelry box. Since then, I've purposely re-arranged my sparkly stuff each time we've moved to see if I can accommodate any new pieces when they catch my eye.



Here are some of my favorite "teacher" pieces. I wear them all regularly during the appropriate holiday season, and the teacher watch at all parent teacher conferences. For Halloween and Thanksgiving, it's all about the brooches:



At Christmas and in winter, my jackets and sweaters sparkle with a patriotic snowman and a cluster of snowflakes:



Here's an easy way to wear green in March:



My teacher watch, patriotic watch and wedding anniversary bracelet:



...and the last piece I bought before leaving Kansas:



Students always love to examine the jewelry I wear: it sparkles, it moves, and some of it even makes the best little tink-tink-tink noises!

*****

Just in time for Mother's Day:

*Seasonal Delights shares a tutorial for making Gift Flowerpots

*CakeSpy has cakey/sweet/dessert treats for the Overbearing Mom!

*Smitten Kitchen shares Martha's Macaroni and Cheese recipe...

Show and Share Thursday: Thimbles

My mother started a thimble collection for me *years* ago, which thankfully several friends have continued to add to:



Pewter thimbles, porcelain thimbles, metal thimbles, figurine-style thimbles, Royal Family thimbles... though in honor of May Day, I'll show you closeups of the floral thimbles:

A daffodil and a shamrock:

A red rose with golden leaves:

California sunflowers:

A lotus:

A vining flower on black lacquer:

Pink porcelain rosettes on glass:

A bunny hiding amongst leaves and flowers:

Old Country Roses:

Blue....what are they?

And my favorite, pink roses:


Do you know which thimble I'd find hilarious to add to my collection?


Yep, the Monopoly Thimble!

*****

Have you ever played the Thimble Game?

One person hides the thimble somewhere in a room. Children/family members are then allowed into the room to hunt for the thimble one by one. Once each child has found it, he/she leaves it and sits down in the middle of the room. After all the children have found it, the first one to find it gets to hide it the next round. Of course the giggles, twitters, inhales of breath, etc., make it easier for younger children to play as they take their cues from the other players who are trying their hardest to not give the location away!

*****

~Inspired Ideas, volume1, number 3 has arrived!

~Ez at Creature Comforts offers a "D.I.Y. Paper Wrapped Soaps" tutorial in time for Mother's Day and Teacher Appreciation Week...

~Skip to My Lou offers some of the cutest Teacher Appreciation gift/craft ideas I've seen in a looooooonnnnnnnnggggggggg time!

~Laura Rebecca's Kitchen is baking again, this time it's Peanut Butter Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Cookies...num!

~Kelly at PhotoJojo has found a web site that will "oldify" photos you choose to upload...

*****

And my newest blog discovery?

Liquid Sky Arts

(go, go, go, you know you want to!)

*****

Don't forget to leave a comment here for my blue wreath giveaway!

Furniture Fan...Fanatic?

The post-wide yard sale was a success yesterday, at least in our neck of the woods. We sold enough functional-but-no-longer-for-us furniture (the bookcases with glass doors, the pink wingback recliner, our daughter's computer desk, two televisions and vcr's... a kitchen cabinet, a dryer in need of a new heating element, the toddler's bed, some area rugs and runners), some kitchen odds and ends (single glasses, mugs, pots with no lids, lids with no pots-heh heh heh, no, they didn't match!- the toddler's old plastic Playtex bottles, baby spoons), clothes (toddler, adult, teen), home decor (some of my handmade seasonal wreaths, tchotchkes I didn't want to try to renew/refurbish), toys, books, and magazines. It was rather funny, all of my British Home and Gardens and Country Living style magazines sold while my husbands biker-type mags didn't. Yard saling ladies know what to avoid, apparently!

I'm not sure we lightened our load significantly however. For you non-military family readers, soldiers and their families have a weight limit on their household items based on the soldier's rank. My husband's promotion in October added a thousand pounds to our allowance, but I'm guessing we'll still be close. While in the Bordertown, our daughter got a new double bed and two new chests of drawers, the toddler upgraded to a twin bed, I purchased a desk and bookcase set for my cubby, and the family gave me a kitchen cart/island for Christmas. Dear Husband added a bookcase to his study and our kitchen microwave is huge compared to our old one. We'll see.

It was very easy for me to NOT go yard saling yesterday! Though the weight limit has consistently asserted itself in the back of my mind for the past five years, I also know we're moving back to the land of antique malls, thrift stores, and hidden treasures this summer! My husband and I have decided that we are willing to spend the next two years searching for just the right pieces for our home: "real" barrister bookcases, complete with leaded glass panes in the doors
,
an overstuffed low-backed leather chair
,
drop leaf tables
,
a new desk for our daughter
,
and various styles of storage furniture~ file drawers
,
map chests
,
card catalog drawers...


Yes, the weight limit will be blown off its doors when my husband retires!

*****

Thank you to Sarah, a.k.a. Slouching Mom for sharing the following with me and her many readers:

*****

Of course, I'll also be on the look-out for "vintage bling" so I can make photo frames like Cupid's Charm ...

Michelle at Scribbit posted a delicious sounding French Onion Soup recipe that just might become my post-furniture-shopping-trip-treat...

...and if I stumble across one of these, I will in fact NOT buy it, though I certainly will try it!

Show and Share Thursday: Vera Bradley...an Addiction

Hello, my name is Michaele, and I'm an addict. A Vera Bradley Addict.



What's surprising is that I wasn't aware of the extent of my addiction until today, as I went through the hutch in our dining room to find Easter-ish or Spring-ish place mats or tablecloths for this weekend.







I kept pulling out set after set of VB place mats and realized that there were still *more* sets packed away with the Christmas decor! In fact, the photos I'm sharing today don't include my VB tablecloths, napkins, table runners, purses/handbags, or clothing items... and the sets shown above aren't ALL, since I'm using several sets in our barrister bookcases and throughout the living room and kitchen for spring accents:







I'm guessing my love of Vera Bradley table decor is linked to my love for quilts- each of these place mats are quilted with a coordinating fabric on the back. I'm always on the look-out for retired patterns and colors on Ebay, Petit Point, Black Walnut, and Maison Blue especially:



What's not to love? They're machine washable, patterned enough to hide a small stain here or there, and instantly dress up a table or other surface beautifully. With a toddler and busy family, EASE and FUNCTIONALITY are essentials in our home, but in case you were wondering, no, I simply cannot resist PRETTINESS.

No, no, I'm NOT a Vera Bradley salesperson or store representative- though I wish I were if it would get me a discount on the new line of RUGS available online! Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!

If you'd like something a bit more romantic, "foofy" even for table decor, try April Cornell, another favorite of mine!

***********************************************************

Easter/Spring Projects:

~Kelli at There's No Place Like Home has made some beautiful egg-shaped pocket cards and walks you through, step by step...

~ Lisa at Celebrate Creativity in All its Forms shows us how to decorate a new vase, just in time for those spring bouquets, though I think I'll use her techniques and advice on a few storage containers I've been saving up lately for my desk...

~ Terry at Bent Objects expresses some Easter humor with a chocolate bunny, some raisins and Raisinets, a nice change from the deluge of Peep dioramas that many others have produced this year...

~ Laura Rebecca's Kitchen tells us how to make perfect hard boiled eggs (still on my to-do list for today!)

~ Angry Chicken shares a recipe for birds' nests (edible!) that kindergarten teachers, their students and families are sure to enjoy!

***********************************************************

Recent Blog Discoveries:

ModernJune

Tammy Gilley Studios

***********************************************************

I forgot to mention that while I was playing with Scrabble tiles and tongue-twisters the other day, I also made a Scrabble rack to go with my Easter decor in the epergne:



Happy Spring!

Show and Share Thursday: Quilts

Whenever I admire and/or purchase a quilt, I'm asked if I myself, quilt. My response is always the same: "Nope, but I'm happy to support other quilters' nasty habit!" Smiles and laughter follow, and if the seller's husband is around (nope, haven't bought from a male quilter...yet!), he thanks me, then mumbles under his breath something along the lines of "great, now my wife can go buy *more* fabric, mutter mutter mutter."



Most of my quilts are wall-hanging or crib sized, easy to use as classroom or home decor.



While I do have three or four full-sized quilts, one is my favorite: the Bear Paw made for me and my husband when we married.



While in Alaska, I worked at a school that was RICH in quilters. Almost every female teacher had a fabric stash *somewhere* and every male teacher offered up his wife's sewing services when retirement or baby quilts were made for colleagues and their families. When asked what I would like from the staff as a wedding gift, I stammered, shocked that no one knew- of course, I had hoped for a quilt.



My colleagues had been my surrogate family for a decade, had helped me raise my children, had seen me through good times and bad. They'd even put my then-fiancé through a good-natured "application process" when we first started dating, since my mother had moved out of state. When Miss Mary Ann, quilter extraordinaire asked me to choose a pattern, I knew it had to be something my husband, a fan of bears, would appreciate. The Bear Paw it was. I loved pinks, my husband preferred greens. Batik was the answer. And as a special nod to my husband's appreciation for all things Harley Davidson, the lining fabric was hogs on Harleys.

Each "paw" square was done by a colleague at school, and they all managed to keep their work hidden from me, right up until our wedding day. They mounted the topper as a wall display in the hall where we held our ceremony and reception, and I saw it for the first time as I walked down the aisle.

My husband and I had no idea that we'd be relocated the following year, and the quilt has traveled with us from Alaska to New Mexico to Kansas, to Texas, and apparently, *back* to Kansas this summer. It has been draped across the foot of our bed, has been mounted on the wall for display, and during the toddler's messy stage, has been folded neatly on top of one of our shelves in our bedroom closet, easily within reach when messy fingers and drippy juice cups are out of the vicinity.

I love quilts- they're my "grown up" blankies!