Busy bunny

This afternoon, I nestled these sweet little bunnies (found at Feathered Nest in Crown Center on our KC trip) on the huge ironstone platter my sisters gave me for my birthday last August. I've been running without rest at school this week after a leisurely spring break, coming up with new ideas to teach one of my all-time favorites, To Kill a Mockingbird, and lots of other little bits and pieces I've had to work on and track down. Our evenings have been busy, too, and despite being rather exhausted I've slept restlessly the last few nights. So I'm a little worn down and my mind is off in all sorts of directions, but I've been trying to hop around and get things done around the house. I came home today, put on my sweats and tennis shoes, and dug into the laundry piles, school paper piles, purchase piles, etc. scattered throughout the place. Made it about halfway through all I wanted/needed to do then had to work on more school stuff.

The bunnies reminded me of my little family...and I love their sweet little expressions. We're going to say I'm the little "mama bunny" on the left, even though with all I ate on spring break (and before and after, who am I kidding?) I'm more like the "fluffier" one on the right.

I got the big baskets at another super fabulous stop on our trip that I still need to blog about, and I had picked up the chalkboard crates at the Maxx the week before. I had a piece of linen just kind of tacked up over the opening of my dining room hutch, but I pulled it off today and stashed all the contents, mostly table linens organized by holidays/seasons, in these containers.

I wanted to get the house spruced up and ready because my sister Lane will be here tomorrow! She's coming into town to work on hiring for the new Francesca's opening in our mall later this spring and gets to stay through Sunday. I'm not sure just how we'll spend our time, but we always find lots to talk and laugh about and I'm looking forward to having her here...

Hanging on

Just hanging on to my last few moments of spring break, thinking about going back to school tomorrow but also about this pretty window display at Anthropologie on the Plaza. Made completely out of hangers! The kind you get from the dry cleaner, hooked together and rolled in all sorts of interesting ways to create a beautiful dress with a flowing train and even a chandelier...how creative!

KC Day 1

We began our little spring break getaway with a stop on Sunday in Leawood for some coupon shopping at the Gap and a quick lunch at ingredient. My build-your-own salad was good, but Ryan's Yard Bird chicken sandwich wasn't cooked all the way through (he got sick later that night).

Next we met the Turner Family at Union Station, a big, beautiful historical place. Our main purpose was to visit the Planetarium, which was much different than I expected. We watched a very factual 45 minute film on the planets in the solar system, which put almost all of us to sleep at one point or another. I guess I thought it would be like a big telescope or something. We did a little browsing at the Adventure Store and let the kids fly the little copters they bought all over the wide open spaces.

Then we checked in at the Embassy Suites near the Plaza, one of our favorite places to stay. The kids made themselves right at home...

Dinner at the The Cheesecake Factory rounded out the night, as well as an after dinner swim in the hotel pool. Good times...

VIF: Raised in Cotton

We've just returned from a fun 4 days in Kansas City--lots of eating and lots of shopping--and I came back with a mess of photos, new shoes and tops and a pair of capris, and a whole head full of inspiration. Ryan was sweet enough to venture off the highway on the way home today so I could visit Raised in Cotton, a shop I've read about in magazines and on Carol's blog, and it was quite a treat.

I bought a few lovely things, but I'm kind of wishing I'd also bought these sweet Nest blocks and the beauty shop sign...

Our visit left me imagining all sorts of possibilities for the treasures I bought there at the shop and at a few other places in KC, and the nice lady working there gave me some info for other interesting shops and events nearby that I'll have to make time for on another trip. I hope that tomorrow between sleeping in (it's supposed to be rainy in the morning--prime lazy conditions) and doing mounds and mounds of laundry I'll feel some "vintage inspiration" and find homes for all my new treasures...

A little green in/on the face

We got home from a classmate's Laser Tag birthday party at Incredible Pizza tonight to find not 1 but 2 large piles of cat hack in the guest bedroom (and some unidentifiable piles of something on the bathroom rug). As I got to work with various stain removers and a whole roll of paper towels, Macauley gagged and moaned and ended up puking a forest green liquid all over the carpet in the office, just steps away from the toilet in his bathroom. The cat piles are mostly gone but the green--roughly the same shade as the cupcake frosting stains on his lips and nose when I picked him up from school today--remains...

At least we're now officially on Spring Break. Macauley and I cashed in all our loose change at the big green CoinStar machine after the party ($23.79!) and used our greenbacks (sensing the theme?) to buy some books for our trip to Kansas City. We'll be spending a few days at the Embassy Suites on the Plaza, shopping and doing some kid stuff with our friends the Turners. We hope to see Lane a bit before she leaves on another business trip to Denver, and we'll meet up with my parents who are camping in nearby Lawrence so Macauley can head home with them for a few days.

So I've got piles of laundry and some packing to do--and those stains could probably use another vigorous scrub--but Macauley and I are going to settle in and watch Beezus & Ramona. Macauley saw it in the theatre (and already warned me about a sad pet moment but reminded me that it's just a movie and not real) but I read the books when I was young and want to (avoid chores and) see it for myself.

Thinking green

I don't know if it's the impending holiday or my new neighbor's landscaper working next door this afternoon, but my thoughts have turned to what sorts of shrubbery I want to add to my porches once it warms up. I've been thinking about doing some containers flanking my front door, with a boxwood or something simple rather than the miscellaneous pots I usually spread around. I like the size and shapes of the bushes above, but maybe in something more like the Smith & Hawken planters below.

Looks like my neighbor has the same idea...hope she doesn't think I'm a copycat. Looks like she's going more spiral, and I think I like the round or "teardrop" shaped boxwoods.

I'd like to do some succulents out back...the hen and chicks remind me of my Nanny and Papaw's house, and I have a few that I took from there a long time ago that I think are still hanging in there in a pot on my side porch. We're supposed to reach 70+ degrees tomorrow, so maybe I'll start by trimming the dead branches from what I've already got and see what green I've got left to work with after such a cold and snowy winter. Or is it too early to do that?

###s

After seeing a darling post by BJ over at Sweet Nothings about a little metal stool she had painted her husband's old football number on, I hopped right up and added some bits around a paper 8 card I had to form my own hubby's number. I would have loved to have known him when we were in high school, when he was playing football. I know he enjoyed it a lot. We figure we must have crossed paths at several track meets over the years without knowing it. I think the 8 is a table marker, maybe from a diner, with the waitress Bettie's name penciled across the top. I don't know...but cute.

The sun is shining and it's beautiful out today (so why do I still feel like snuggling up in my dark bedroom and reading the new People?) but I'd sure like to have a sweet pair of these when early spring showers start popping up. I entered the random number drawing over at Pretties and Posies. She's giving away a pair of these Hunter Wellies from Zappos to celebrate her 500th post. I'm up to over 400 posts, I think...

It took me about 20 tries this morning to get my new contacts in. The right one was no problem but I could not for the life of me get the left one to pop in. I was having trouble even telling if it was inside out or not. I'm going to have to get up 10 minutes earlier before school now, I guess.

Once I had them in, I got to pick up my old friend Alicia for lunch and mani-pedis while she's visiting from Colorado. We didn't get nearly all caught up in just 3 hours together, but there's just nothing like an old friend, is there?

{eye} must report...

Some firsts for us around here this week, one being Macauley's first "research paper." Of all the U.S. Presidents to study he selected our current Chief, and I am pleased with his choice. I'm not a particularly political person myself, but I find Obama to be so distinguished, charismatic and educated, a real family man doing the best he can to pull us all back up. When he was elected, I remember one of my friends saying she didn't really want to tell her little boy that he was the "first African-American President." She thought she'd rather him not think anything of it to have a black man elected, to preserve her son's sense of being in a world where we all treat each other the same, you know? Last night we had to do some editing and write up the "final copy" (to be typed in computer class today--I can only imagine how long that would take for little second grade fingers to hunt and peck that all out!). Poor boy with the English teacher mom--I suggested some major revisions of the first draft and we eventually worked through it. The end result:

The other big one is my transition to contacts today. I've had a cute pair of black Dolce & Gabbana frames that I am reluctant to wear anywhere but at home for a while now, and I decided I was finally ready to face the reality that at 34 my vision could be a lot better. I just find my glasses so uncomfortable. It drives me crazy to have something touching my face and ears all day and I will admit I was a bit self-conscious in them (even though Ryan loves my "sexy teacher" look :) ). Turns out I have an astigmatism and I was right in saying that I could see just fine--but only objects, not details. The little discs felt foreign to me only at first. Just an hour or so later I think I've already acclimated to them. And, wow, the world was much crisper when I walked out of the store! So I'll have to get used to fishing around in my eyeball putting them in and out, but I think this will be a good solution for me.

I'll probably tune in my new eyes to this book this weekend--looks really good...

And I can't wait to see these seeds I bought today tucked under the rocky Missouri soil in my backyard, ready to stretch and spread all along the new trellises under the stairs and deck. I know we're still a few weeks out, but I'm already anticipating how lovely spring will look this time around.