Hot (or Not)?

Josh and I picked up this a-dorable little vintage side-table when we were on our anniversary trip last month. However, it sat in our garage for quite some time because I could not decide what color to paint it! I thought maybe heirloom white, or minty-green, or peacock blue, or even marigold yellow would be cute.

Well, I finally chose.

And I'm still not sure. Prepare yourselves...


...

Yes, I painted it ORANGE. (Mom, if you are reading this, just please sit down and breathe a few deep breaths. I promise your eyes will adjust soon).

I have lived with the color for a while, and honestly, I think it's growing on me. I'm not sure if it's in an algae-growing-on-a-pond sort of way, or if it's really working.

I'm dying to know what YOU think though!

Should I repaint it, or leave it as-is? Or on a totally different note, should I consider seeing a therapist?

Oh hey Fall, it's you again!

Yup, Fall is here again.

And with it comes that inexpressible joy that bubbles up every time a crunchy leaflet falls to the ground.

I love Fall.

I love hot apple cider with mulling spices on the stove, warm wool-y sweaters to wrap up in, thick layers of socks, bonfires on cool, crisp evenings, trips to the Apple Orchard. Just thinking about it is getting me all excited!

So, to celebrate these first Fallish days, I pulled together a new look for our little "mantle" above the couch.


I finally found the perfect spot for these fantastic plastic wall thingies!


My owls are right at home near this stack of books! Aren't owls supposed to be avid readers or something? I thought I heard that somewhere...

(P.S. this owl has a hollow tummy that fits a tealight, and it makes his eyes light up! Teehee. Perfect for freaking out the hubby when Halloween comes around...).

I think my favorite part of this little vignette is the picture:


I got this from my MIL- I believe it used to belong to Josh's great-grandma.

So there's a little sneak peak at what's happening around here. How about you? What is your favorite season?

The Land of Misfit Accessories

I have a rather silly confession to make.

You know how I love to thrift? And love shopping for things on sale? And love saving money and then bragging talking about it here?

Well, as much as I love those things, sometimes I find myself turning up my nose at the clearance sections at some stores. I'm talking about the end-of-the-aisle sections where store employees pile up all the lost, forgotten, hopeless items that no one wants to buy.

The china cups with chips and missing handles, the picture frames with broken glass, the lamps that don't quite stand up straight. It's the Land of Misfit Accessories.

Well, I'm here to tell you ladies that sometimes, that place can be a treasure trove. Even though I turn up my nose at the crappy things I see there sometimes, once in a while I find something that is outrageously cheap that I can take home and transform into something new and amazing!

Case in point:


Here we have a sad little jar that was sitting on the shelf, looking lost and forlorn. It had some sort of rubber ring around the neck, which said that perhaps it was missing a lid. But the thing that sold me on it was the cute little oval "chalkboard" message spot. And the price tag. $2.00.

Well, I brought the little guy home, removed the rubber noose from it's neck, and now he has found a happy new home next to the sink.


I have one more silly confession to make. Writing on chalkboards makes me feel like I'm going to puke.

But, that won't stop me from writing cute little messages on here once in a while!

Recycled Bouquet

After standing up in my new sister-in-law's wedding, I decided that my bouquet was WAY to pretty to just let it go to waste! I'm not a huge fan of dried flowers either, so I decided to "recycle" the flowers and make some pretty arrangements for our home!

I am still a little amazed at how many arrangements (albeit small) I got from 1 bouquet!


Some of the roses found new homes in Mason jars on the sink!

I put a bunch of the "filler flowers" in a bowl on our coffee table. I love the tiny buds, they are so perfect!

My clear glass teapot also got called into action.

I love these blue bud-vases, it was about time they came out of the china cupboard and made a little debut!

I even put a little arrangement in the bathroom to brighten it up a bit.


I seriously love having fresh flowers around the house! It makes such a huge difference for me, especially in the winter months, to have a little bit of nature around the house!

Some Wedding Pictures...

Josh's brother Ben and his fiance Kat got married last Saturday! It was such a beautiful wedding, we had the most perfect weather!

Josh and I were honored to be the best man and maid (oops, I mean matron!) of honor. Kat let me pick out my own dress. I found it on ebay for $50... Sometimes I just love ebay (other times I don't, but we won't go there now...).

I did my own hair too. Notice the pony-tail. Yup, that's about all I can do folks.

(I just absolutely adore this man).

Here's my lovely MIL setting up the unity candles. BTW- the ceremony was outside on a windy day, so the candles would not light. It was kinda funny, but I made a mental note to tell people who are getting married outside that it might be a better idea to stick with unity sand or something...

A friend of the family made the boutonnieres and bouquets for the wedding. Kat's was the light pink version, and mine had hot pink flowers. Love!

This is my wonderful father-in-law. He probably won't love the fact that I put this picture on here, but it give you a good view of the gazebo that they got married under! Isn't it lovely?

It was such a wonderful wedding! They kept things really simple, which was nice. There was no running around, no yelling, no bride-zilla moments (thanks Kat!). Instead, it was just a wonderful, relaxing day to celebrate the marriage of a wonderful couple!

When life hits you like a Mack-Truck...

Hello, my dear, lovely blogging friends!

As you can see, I've been on an involuntary blogging hiatus. This makes me sad, because I LOVE blogging. But, sometimes it's necessary!

It's necessary right now for several reasons that I would like to share with you:

1) I have a really freakin' busy full-time job. I work for the USDA, primarily hiring and keeping track of cotton inspection employees. It's cotton season right now- so we've been hiring 50-100 people every week! Yowza! So when I'm at work, I'm basically a mad-woman.

2) I've been experiencing some health issues. Stress is an issue for me- when I feel stressed I tend to get sick or have panic attacks. It's gotten to the point where I have had to see a doctor because of anxiety-related issues. So apparently I'm just a mad-woman in general! Hehe.

3) This is actually the EXCITING part of my news. I am in the process of (hopefully) making a career transition to being a music teacher on a part-time basis. This is exciting to me for several reasons (here come the sub-points!)...

a. I will no longer be working full-time.

b. I will be able to actually clean my house once in a while.

c. Less stress = hopefully less panic attacks.

d. I will finally get to do what I LOVE.

e. Hopefully, I will also be able to devote more time to my favorite hobby-

blogging!

So, that's what has been going on in my life recently, and hopefully it explains why I've been a little absent from this space. I'm still going to keep on blogging, just not as frequently as I would like!

Also- I wanted to thank you all for being so wonderful! Blogging has become a huge passsion of mine, and it's primarily because of the awesome friendships that I've developed. Who knew that could be possible? I love communicating with you guys and hearing/seeing your creativity and sharing what inspires me to be creative!

So please accept this digital hug! Thanks for being so awesome!

Things I would love to collect...

For our anniversary this year, J and I decided to not buy each other gifts. Instead, we opted to go to a wonderful B&B and then find something together that would help us remember the weekend!

We came home with this a-dorable set of Jadeite. *SWOON*

I seriously love Jadeite, and I'm thinking I may have to start collecting a few pieces here and there! Some of it can be ridiculously expensive, but I think it would be fun to have a little set of these dishes.

So- my question for you: What do you collect? Or, what would you collect if money was no obstacle?

I would love to hear about it. =)