Nesting Notions

Tweets

2012-01-22T16:31:00.018-06:00

I've been feeling a bit stalled lately...more lazy than productive...but the wheels have been turning nonetheless. Instead of putting away the folded laundry or packing away the Christmas trees and decorations I've temporarily stashed in the guest bedroom, I stand at the kitchen window, watch the birds at the feeder and note how bare the woods look out back, so brown and brittle with the busy gray road visible through the branches a few hundred yards away. In the summer the woods are so lush you can't even see the ground beneath the trees or the creek down the hill, but in the barren winter I spot foam cups and cardboard and bags that have blown from our trash or someone else's and tell myself I should trek out there with a bag and pick it all up while the temperatures are still unseasonably comfortable. But I don't. The little birds are much busier, and while there are a number of cardinal pairs that stop by, I find it sweet that my favorite little regulars--chickadee, tufted titmouse, downy woodpecker--all arrive in shades of my favorite color scheme...black and cream and gray and white. The round mourning doves huddle on the wrought-iron railing, and the back deck itself is a mess of seeds and gifts the little birds leave behind, but I don't guess I mind. If I'm not inclined to chase after the paper cups in the woods I'm probably not going to sweep of the unused deck any time soon.

Perhaps when the grass is greener I will put together some variation of this adorable project I spotted in the recent Country Gardens magazine. I know just the place here in town I could get the mini fence and other accessories, and I'm thinking the metal washtub I brought home from my Papaw's barn a few years ago, already rusted through a bit in the bottom for drainage, would work just as well as the wheelbarrow.

I've also been contemplating creating some button art like these found on pinterest and etsy. I'd like to do the word Love or Home in a script font with all white/cream buttons on linen then have it inserted in an old black frame I have, no glass. Some of these versions look stitched and others glued. I'd be going with the latter. A whole word might be too ambitious, too...not sure. I asked the boys at the flea market last week if they'd seen any jars of white buttons in the booths (of course I see them all the time until I am looking for one) and they both offered to bring me some from their treasure stashes at home.

I watched Water for Elephants yesterday afternoon; the book gave me so much to think about when I read it last year. I just couldn't bear the scenes where August mistreated Rosie so I skipped those and might have missed a few things, but I liked the movie and loved Reese's look. Tonight we'll be cheering for Ryan's 49ers in the NFC Championship. He's loved San Fran since he was 11 or so and this is the first football season I can remember in our 15+ years together that the team has done well. He's loyal, that one. I am making guacamole and cupcakes for the occasion...better get to it. Go Niners!

Book {Nook}

2012-01-03T16:35:00.007-06:00

Ryan and Macauley surprised me with a Nook Color e-reader on Christmas morning. I am an avid reader and thought I'd only be content with old-fashioned paper pages, but I'm loving this little thing. I went to Barnes & Noble and got this vintage graphic case for it by Jonathan Adler. It's got a linen lining and fits my aesthetic.

I haven't discovered all its features yet, but I have been reading and doing the crossword puzzle app, which is quite addictive. The first book I downloaded was The Dovekeepers, one I'd seen in a couple of magazines. The cover and title appealed to me. The story is not at all what I expected, but I think I will like it. I read several screens in bed Christmas night and enjoyed the story but was a bit confused. Then I realized that I had inadvertently scrolled over to page 234 of 287 or something like that and had been reading in the middle/end of the book the whole time. I will work my way back to this one.

I saw The Blind Contessa's New Machine several weeks ago at Target and also loved the cover. This is a short novel and the first I've finished on the Nook. The story is inspired by the invention of the first typewriter. It's worth reading.

I've since moved on to The Paris Wife, a book I've been wanting to read for a while now. I'm just a couple of chapters in and like it so far. Purchasing a book on the Nook is far too easy...Ryan was sweet enough to set it all up for me and I can just click away and the books show up immediately. I need to investigate the Nook Friends application you can use to lend/borrow books to and from other users. I resisted the idea of an e-reader for a long time, but now I don't know why. I'm totally Nooked.

Time/flight

2012-01-02T15:50:00.011-06:00

Time to put away the holidays and head back to school tomorrow...these luxurious days flew. I will miss the twinkling lights illuminating the house at night, the waking up with the whole day stretching out before us. Everyone seems to be looking forward, making plans for themselves and 2012...perhaps I should set some goals, too....

Silent night

2011-12-22T22:22:00.018-06:00

So relieved to be on "winter" break from school finally...I've been in my sweats (see my reflection in the ornament for proof) and on the couch since 3:47 p.m., soaking in the peace that comes with a clean, sparkly house, all gifts wrapped and ready, talk of flurries on the late news, and time to just be still and warm...

sleet against the windowpane,

or maybe a mouse in the wall...

I listen...

but silence knows no direction

outside,

heavy pine boughs,

deep in the woods

so quiet, so still

a deer steps

inside, warm,

the sound of a cat's paw

disturbs very little

as it hunts in a dream

silent as sleet

"Silent Solstice (Winter Becomes Maine)" by Denis Dunn

Gifts to gold

2011-12-11T21:13:00.008-06:00

Some shots of the dining room...just a few, as I still have some work to do in here and presents to put under the tree. Simple, gold, sparkly, with some woodsy touches.

Our shopping is 3/4 done, with all of the big stuff being accomplished this weekend. I wrapped gifts for several hours last night. Wish I'd bought more of the woodgrain ribbon @ Joann's. As I cut and taped and tied and embellished (and thought of the school week ahead), I wondered if there would be a market for a gift wrapping service...I thought through possible pricing options, bring-your-own-paper or not, keeping track of what's in them all, possible mix-up disaster scenarios and so on...I think I would enjoy wrapping gifts full-time (in my home, in my sweats, with good reruns playing on the TV, like last night). Hmmm...would anyone pay for that?

Birthday snaps

2011-12-06T10:24:00.012-06:00

Despite almost constant rain, we had a good time celebrating Macauley's birthday in Branson this past weekend, beginning with lunch and gifts with the grandparents at Cantina Laredo on the Landing.

Next stop was Build-a-Bear...kind of a birthday tradition. Macauley made Erik the penguin from Happy Feet 2, complete with a leather bomber jacket, t-shirt, flappy hat and iPad.

The rain kept us from going out to Silver Dollar City that evening, but Macauley set a record for most trips down the slide at the hotel pool.

Also, upon turning 9, he has developed an affinity for coffee. Decaf with lots of cream and sugar. He had a decaf espresso on Sunday and now thinks he needs a small coffee maker for Christmas. Funny kid.

Nine(r)

2011-12-02T22:49:00.005-06:00

My handsome, hilarious, tender-hearted boy turns 9 tomorrow. 9 is his favorite number, so it's going to be a great year...We are taking a trip to Branson to stay at a hotel with a big indoor pool. My parents are going to meet us there and if the weather is decent we will go out to Silver Dollar City for the Christmas lights in the evening. Ryan's parents will also meet us for lunch at Cantina Laredo on the Landing. We will shop and spoil our boy and celebrate all that he is and all that he means to us.

These pictures were taken on Thanksgiving out at Uncle Rob and Aunt Lauren's place in Bolivar.

It's been a wild, wonderful ride so far, my sweet boy!

I've missed the mark by Florida time, but it's still 2 December here in Missouri, so happy birthday to my Aunt Karen! Wish we could celebrate with you tomorrow, too! Love you!

{now} playing...

2011-11-20T21:53:00.014-06:00

We've had a fun weekend...starting with our visit to the brand new IMAX at Springfield 11 to see Happy Feet 2. Critics panned the film and Ryan didn't go for all the musical numbers, but Macauley and I enjoyed the little singing penguins and we all agreed the picture and sound quality of the IMAX (oh, and the ginormous goggles--Mac even upgraded to them eventually) make even the best 3D pale in comparison. We will be back...

Ryan was also sweet enough to take me to see the new Twilight movie Saturday night. We had a yummy dinner at Metro with the Rhoads then hit the late showing. I don't want to see it again, but I think I liked it and look forward to Part 2...

Last Sunday we took our passes and little Megan to SDC for the afternoon. It was such a pretty day and the park wasn't busy at all...an interesting mix of seasons with the Christmas decor surrounded by crunchy brown leaves. We had a mediocre and superexpensive buffet meal at The Mill, rode a few rides and called it a day. We plan to go back in a couple of weeks to see the park lit up with 4 million lights.

Tonight I posted final grades for the online class I've been teaching the last 10 weeks and I feel 1000 lbs. lighter without that hanging over my head. I also made it over to my little booth this afternoon to add a few things and straighten up. We've got just 2 days of school this week and then a Thanksgiving break with no big plans to venture too far from home. I'll be nesting and resting and maybe doing a little shopping if I get brave...

Local charm

2011-11-12T19:47:00.028-06:00

Some lovely, fantastical, holiday images from local neighboring shops The Thicket, Branches and The Nest, aptly located on Cinderella Road here in Springfield, whose open houses my mom, sisters and I visited last weekend...

A day for heroes

2011-11-11T10:27:00.004-06:00

(above: in Paris, shortly after WW2)

Today we honor men like my sweet Grandpa Jude, who worked as a medic on the European front during WW2, survived the Battle of the Bulge and was awarded the Bronze Star. I also honor my Papaw, a POW and survivor of the Bataan Death March. I recently had my classes construct a hero tribute using Glogster, an interactive "poster" incorporating images, links, videos and text...my example is here: http://fraserfras.edu.glogster.com/hero-grandpa-jude. I have been thinking of him a lot lately...

Run-around

2011-11-06T21:34:00.009-06:00

This has been one of the busiest weeks I've had in a while, and it ended with such an awesome day today. Lane came in from KC on Friday and my parents came up from Arkansas Saturday morning. We had lunch together and then the girls headed out for some shopping while my dad took Macauley to their hotel to swim. My sisters made a yummy lasagna dinner and we got a coconut cream and French silk from the Pie Box. In addition to gifting him with the Rock Ballads CD set he saw on an infomercial last summer, to celebrate my dad's 58th birthday, my sisters and I (and Derek's mom Melissa) ran with him in the Bass Pro Relay Marathon. We each took a leg, with Lindsay and Lane running a 10K, me running a 5K and my dad finishing with the 12K. I hadn't trained like I needed to, and I was nervous, but I managed to make it the whole 3.1 miles without walking and it really did feel great. I probably won't be able to walk tomorrow, but running in to the checkpoint to high five my dad with my sisters cheering for me and Lady Gaga blasting in my headphones, I wondered why I don't push myself to do this more often. My dad said he was shooting to finish the race at noon, but he had a really good run and finished 20 minutes earlier than that so we missed him crossing the finish line.

I don't know if heading into winter is the most opportune time for me to pick up running again, but I was so inspired by the racers and the sense of community and I know I need to sign up for another 5K and keep at it.

We celebrated at Cielito Lindo for lunch and then everyone went on home. It was so nice to have our family here and Macauley said "we just have to do this more often!"

A happy Halloween

2011-10-31T21:25:00.012-05:00

We couldn't have had a more beautiful night in Missouri to be out and about trick-or-treating. Ryan stayed behind and manned the candy bowl while Macauley and I headed out with friends to canvas our neighborhood and one over.

Macauley's ostrich rider costume was the hit of the night. A little battery-operated fan inside inflates the bird and the effect is quite comical. He'd grab the reins and run around like the ostrich was out of control. Even him dashing from house to house on those pink legs made me laugh.

It's been a long, happy, sugar-filled day...

Into the Halloween spirit{s}

2011-10-28T23:37:00.030-05:00

Macauley still hasn't chosen a costume, but we've got a Halloween-themed dining room. Several of my finds came from True Treasures in Centerton, Arkansas, and the tags throughout were gifted from Mary of Vintage Patina as part of a Halloween swap we did last year. The sparkly kitty is from HomeGoods and the sparkly pumpkins from the dollar bins at Target. Boo!

One small step...

2011-10-24T22:50:00.008-05:00

We were treated to the 3rd grade musical "Spaced Out" last week. Macauley turned down any speaking or starring roles and was content to sing back up on the numbers this time around. It was a cute little show about the planets and the galaxy, with a closing message about dreaming big and taking "one small step" that turns into something huge, a la Neil Armstrong. Made me think about my guy and all the places he will zoom off to someday. The high-pitched singing throughout gave me pause, but I still got a little teary towards the end with all the inspirational quotes about dreaming from life's little works in progress on the stage.

Per tradition, we headed out to eat afterwards at a place of our star's choosing. He picked Panda Inn for his favorite chicken lo mein.

Oh, the places our little boy will go...but I want him in my daily orbit for as long as I can keep him here...

"It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small." ~ Neil Armstrong

On that same note, this story in the news has me feeling small, too...what will become of it all?

Birds of a feather

2011-10-23T00:33:00.026-05:00

What a nice weekend. I've been coasting on low-mo (low motivation) for a few weeks now--hence the lack of blogging among other things--but with my boys gone on separate camping trips this weekend, I had some time to myself and got reconnected. I have 2 old friends that I rarely get to see but will always feel close to: dark-haired Alicia (who recently moved from Colorado to outside Chicago and looks wonderful after just having baby #4 a couple of months ago) and my "twin" Keely (who lives a couple of hours up the interstate and is in the second year of raising Gabe, her beautiful boy from Ethiopia). I met these girls in graduate school over 10 years ago. We lingered over dinner at Metropolitan Grill, exchanged early and belated birthday gifts, laughed and shared and commiserated and caught up. I must see them again soon. It did me good to be with friends I don't have to explain myself to.

I set out with another kindred spirit, my sweet Barb, for some antiquing and lunch today. We browsed Leola's and Barb bought a great old box to store some family heirlooms she recently acquired: her mom and dad's letters to one another during the War and her great-great-grandfather's journals dating back to the 1860s. I had a headache and didn't buy much but saw lots of lovely things.

Barb treated me to lunch at Spring Creek...it had been such a long time since I had that delicious salad and poppyseed dressing. We both had the veggie sandwich and it was yummy, too.

I spent this evening at home with Booker and the kitties doing several things I'd been putting off for weeks: gathering and pricing items for my poor, neglected little flea market booth, decorating my dining room for Halloween and the bunco night I'm hosting Monday, putting the finishing touches on my fall porch decor, and picking up and editing the downstairs. Perhaps I've got my mojo back...

To: Ryan

2011-10-04T23:13:00.003-05:00

lines from one of my favorite poets e.e. cummings an avant garde innovator who bucked the conventions of punctuation and capitalization. see also i carry your heart with me (i carry it in/ my heart) the poem read at the memorial service of my beloved writing professor Dr. Nancy Walker and i have found what you are like/the rain. sign for sale here. love.

My all-time fav Seedbox @ Bottoms Up

2011-09-22T22:39:00.019-05:00

I've been meaning to post these pictures of this space belonging to my friends Brian and Meloney of The Seedbox at last month's Bottoms Up show in downtown Kansas City. They can all be enlarged with a click for a closer look. I so miss their storefront and went all the way to the big city to track them down. My sister Lane and I had a great time at the show in an old warehouse in a rough part of town with such amazing potential. We both wanted to move right into this big place as is. The Seedbox, as expected, had the best stuff, like this amazing chair, lots of farm/industrial pieces, and some great shelves that Meloney says Brian has been making. I could have just loaded it all up and headed south...

My purchases for the day included this gravy boat and the rusty wire rack below, with the long wooden box, too. This show is definitely worth making the drive for, and if I have to make it find The Seebox, that alone is worth it...I'm (finally!) linking up to Debra's Vintage Inspiration Friday.

Drizzly, drowsy Saturday

2011-09-18T00:03:00.002-05:00

I've never seen this happen before. Our grouchy old Alice curling up with her much younger brother on her own accord. But it's been a cuddly, loungy type of day around here with almost constant rain. I think we're all glad to see it, to feel the heat break and the skies dull over. How nice not to squint and swelter. After picking Bub up from a sleepover this morning, I spent much of the day in my bed reading and dozing, with the sliders open in my room so I could hear and smell the raindrops on the trees. I've been trying to eat better but I caved and suggested the Villa for dinner. It had been a long time and we all agreed it was so deliciously good/bad to be back. Ryan's come down with something and we thought the ultrahot sauce might clear his sinuses. We browsed the new mega Academy Sports afterwards. We went to look at camping gear but left with a kickstand for Macauley's bike (he wants lights for Christmas) and a new pair of Crocs that he picked out on his own. Even though we have plans to visit Ryan's granddaddy Earl at the farm where he volunteers, I hope it rains again tomorrow, that the day passes as leisurely as this one before it's back to work on Monday. Last week was a hectic one for me (Open House and lots of preps at school, 3 doctor appointments including successful but surprisingly painful VNUS closure on my left leg, supporting Ryan through some major stress at work, organizing and picking up around the house that just had to be done) and I needed this kind of weekend to recoup.

To commemorate

2011-09-11T10:29:00.004-05:00

It's hard to accurately remember a day so huge, so incomprehensible, that we couldn't wrap our minds around it when it happened. Ryan and I had been married two years. I'd flown to Paris and London and back with 2 of my closest girlfriends via the Newark airport just weeks before. We were living in our first house, the one with the sunken living room and a big screen TV we pondered the purchase of for months. I was in grad school, working on my M.A. in English Lit and getting certified to be a high school teacher. Up early that day to observe at a private school here in little Springfield, Mo., I turned on the Sony Trinitron TV Ryan's mom gave him for his birthday when we were first dating, to see normally poised news anchors floundering, touching their ear pieces to see if they were hearing right, relaying the words as they came, all of us--them, too--thinking there must be some mistake. Still, I had made a commitment to be at the school and I had a paper about what I saw due the next day, so I headed that way in my Mitsubishi Eclipse, my first ever (and only) brand new car and heard from the radio that one of the towers had collapsed in on itself. I sat behind a two-way glass and watched with teenagers in a sheltered, private, progressive school as footage of the second collapse rolled. Some put their heads down; others giggled nervously, as young people sometimes do when they don't know what else to. Classes at SMS were cancelled, but people I passed in the hallways and some I worked with each day were huddled around a TV on an A/V cart in the English department office, faces washed out or clenched in disbelief, grief. At home, Ryan and I huddled on the navy blue couch he bought me for helping him with his senior thesis and stared at the images on that huge screen, wishing we weren't seeing what we did, blown up supersize just feet from us. It might have been going on for a long time, but that's the first day in my memory of the instant news feed we are so accustomed to today, the ticker tape running across the bottom of the screen with updates, answers (?) and explanations, the news itself evolving and reshaping as more and more information came in, everyone in the world there on the front row as the day unfolded, as the images looped. The visual I couldn't shake, and in fact never have, was this one of NYFD Chaplain Mychal Judge, killed by falling debris as he ran to the towers to give comfort, to save. Such a handsome older man. Wise. Distinguished. Thoughtful. He stood for peace and kindness and goodness, everything that what happened that day was not. To see him broken in that way, his sock pushed down and his bare leg showing, cradled by his men, juxtaposed on the screen with shots of him smiling, proud, looking off into the horizon thinking...alive and well...alive and good...my heart still goes all heavy when I see it.

Today there is football on, laundry to put away and a week of school and work to prepare for. We've lived in five houses since that September, bought other couches and a flat screen, traded in the sports car for one SUV and then another. We've brought a little boy into this big world, one where evil comes flying in on an airplane and catches us unaware, but also one where there are beautiful people like this man I didn't know but won't forget. In many ways, my comfortable little slice of the world hasn't changed much. I didn't lose a sister or a father or a friend in those towers. Despite the downhill slope of the economy since that day, I've never wanted for a thing. I don't look to the skies in my little city and think what if. There are thousands of people who this day is about, and I am not one of them. My life was touched that day, but it might have been more of a tap, not the shattering shove of someone I love being taken in such a violent and senseless way, or having my feet knocked out from under me as my sense of security and home collapsed in a tragic and messy heap. We were there--but we weren't, you know?--that September day 10 years ago. Regardless, our flag is out front this morning, at half staff, its edge brushing the pink zinnias that have grown lush and tall around the boxwoods in the flowerbeds. I will treasure the insulation I have from the fear and the grief all these miles from Ground Zero and think of those who cannot say the same.

ten days in

2011-09-07T22:33:00.006-05:00

My blogging always goes by the wayside when school zaps me of time and energy, but so far we seem to be off to a good start on the year. Macauley answers, "Awesome!" every day when I pick him up from third grade and ask how his day went, even if we're both still having trouble getting up in the morning. Ryan and I were up until after midnight last night trying to coerce a opossum out of our garage (turns out they are hard to budge--he finally left on his own accord early this morning after being holed up under a cabinet in there for a number of days, looking young and scared more than the nasty and aggressive you might imagine), which left me a bit groggy cruising into school at 7:30 in the A.M. But my seniors are nice and the days go by quickly, so I don't guess I'll retire. This month.

The lazy days of summer have come and gone and we've been busy since. I've done some great antiquing I need to blog about, we took a fun Labor Day weekend trip to KC and I have some wonderful pictures of the Renaissance Fair we ended up at on Sunday. I've also got my summer reading to review and several other things I hope to get into print before I forget them all. Only two days til the weekend...maybe I'll get some thoughts down then. So we're 10 days in...just 160ish more days to go!

35

2011-08-30T15:54:00.002-05:00

I guess I'm really a grown up. There's just something about this age I turned today that seems, not old, but...established. In my head, I linger down around 24 or so, but on paper...here I am. And it's fine.

In the beginning

2011-08-24T22:39:00.005-05:00

Even when my room is ready and my copies are made and I've got the first couple of weeks planned, my stomach still always flutters at the thought of the first day of school. Tomorrow is day 1 of my eighth year teaching high school English...

I'm always anxious about my classes, the dynamic, getting to know 90+ seniors and them getting to know me, and it almost always turns out just fine after that first day awkwardness. We've got a new schedule this year and I'm a little nervous about making that work, but I'll be used to it after a couple of weeks, I think.

Wish I could be here to send my little boy off to day 1 of grade 3, but I've got all his things laid out and his dad is a morning pro. And heck, I'm a pro at what I do, too, if I do say so myself...it's all going to be okay. Maybe even better than okay...

"I like a teacher who gives you something to take home and think about besides homework." ~Lily Tomblin

Birthday girl too

2011-08-21T19:34:00.005-05:00

My wise and beautiful friend Barb turned 60 yesterday and her family put on a fabulous surprise party for her Friday evening at her daughter's cute vintage home in University Heights. Janice and I gave Barb this flea market sampler I found and reframed. I'll be thinking of my friend this week as she travels to Florida instead of starting the school year along with the rest of us. Her daddy is not well and needs his girl.

Birthday grrrl

2011-08-17T22:54:00.003-05:00

My funny old gray kitty Allie turns 15 today. I still remember the night, that first summer Ryan and I were dating, when we returned to my parents' house in Cassville after our family trip to Minnesota and found a batch of newborn kittens under their deck. Ryan reached in and scooped each one out and a couple of months later we drove back and chose this one for our very own. I felt terrible about taking her from her mom and family then, but we're all the family she's ever known I guess. She's been with us almost as long as we've been with each other. She's always preferred Ryan but she's become increasingly cuddly in her old age and often sleeps on my shoulder at night, with her paws on my neck. She used to be more rotund, more vibrant, more fiesty, but she's still very vocal and Macauley and I love to imitate her meows, with are really r-ows. She's down well below 10 pounds now and almost feels like a whisper of what she once was when I pick her up, like a frail, elderly lady. According to the catcalculator and the catster site, our girl is 77 in human years, and you really can feel it in her bones. We'll wait to officially celebrate when Macauley gets back from camp but I'm thinking of our old gray girl tonight and how she's been with us from the very start.

Pins

2011-08-15T10:43:00.009-05:00

I haven't tried Pinterest yet, but when or if I do these images from the recent Pottery Barn catalogue would make my boards. Just things I like...

The adorable wire task lamp is from Pottery Barn Teen and I'd rather have it on my desk than pinned on a virtual inspiration board. It's on sale and my birthday is in only a couple of weeks, Ryan...wink.

Doing our duty

2011-08-14T14:49:00.024-05:00

This past week was ours to be on duty for the neighborhood pool, which I interpreted as unlocking and locking the gates and bathrooms at 10 A and 10 P each day, although there might be more involved I wasn't aware of. We went down a little early Friday night and let Macauley get in for a night swim before we closed up shop.

While Macauley was underwater, Ryan surprised him by jumping in even though he hadn't worn his trunks and they did a little roughhousing. Boys will be boys...

Then yesterday afternoon we attended Pacs for Pups downtown at the 1984 Arcade, a fundraiser for a local animal rescue group called the Killuminati Foundation.

I've never been especially skilled at video games, but there's something about these familiar 80s graphics (whoa, ultravampy Ms. PacMan!) that fills me with nostalgia...The other day we were driving and Macauley was asking me about when I grew up and why we didn't ever wear seatbelts and, having had this same conversation several times before, I just shook my head and said we didn't know better or something. He was quiet for a bit then shrugged and said with a pensive exhale, "It was just a simpler time...a simpler time." Indeed.

We lunched at Maria's then, our duty done, hit the pool again and spent a relaxing afternoon/evening at home...

Pale and interesting

2011-08-11T11:20:00.010-05:00

A bag of thrift store glitter rehoused in a jelly jar with an itty wooden scoop

This book is on my birthday list, along with The Paris Wife and Patina Style. I was just thinking that, my Florida tan having now faded, the title could also be applied to my skin these days. Must get some color before I head back to school in a week or so. I knowing being tan is not so good down the road but it always makes me feel so much better in the short-term. I've added some pale and interesting flea market finds around my house recently...

Mini cloches on ironstone butter pats, just chandelier votives turned upside down--thanks, Shannon for that idea long ago...

Relishing the days around the house before school starts...the clock is ticking.

Metaphorically speaking

2011-08-10T17:50:00.011-05:00

We went to Bolivar last night to celebrate my father-in-law Michael's birthday. Ryan set up an Apple TV for his parents and Linda made a yummy dinner of manicotti and a very interesting salad that was so different and really good. I've always thought Ryan most resembled his mom, but I can really see a father-son resemblance in this picture. From his father, Ryan has inherited a number of traits, including, I think, his loving and affectionate nature (Michael adores Linda; Ryan makes me feel the same), his sharp business sense and--for better or worse--a propensity for worrying.

Such is the fate of fathers, I suppose (or parents in general for that matter). I just finished House Rules, Jodi Picoult's book about a teen with Asperger's and a fixation on forensics and CSI who puts his whole family through all sorts of trials, both figurative and literal. I dog-eared a passage from the perspective of one of the detectives in the book that echoes the mind-blowing worry and panic having a child can incite:

Mrs. Ogilvy leans forward. Her eyes are red-rimmed. "Do you have a daughter, Detective?" she asks.

Once, at a fairground, Sasha and I were walking through the midway when a rowdy group of teenagers barreled between us, breaking the bond between our hands. I tried to keep my eye on her, but she was tiny, and when the group was gone, so was Sasha. I found myself standing in the middle of the fairground, turning circles and screaming her name, while all around me rides spun in circles and wisps of cotton candy flew from their metal wheels onto a spool and the roar of chain saws spitting through wood announced the lumberjack contest. When I finally found her, petting the nose of a Jersey calf in a 4-H barn, I was so relieved that my legs gave out; I literally fell to my knees.

I haven't even responded, but Mrs. Ogilvy puts her hand on her husband's arm. "See, I told you, Claude," she murmurs. "He understands."

Almost every time we get in the car, Macauley steers the subject toward what vehicle he will have when he is 16. I don't know how many times I have told him we would worry about whether he will get an itty bitty "adorable" SMARTCar or Ford Fiesta (his dream cars of the moment--isn't that funny?) or the more sturdy Hummer or Sequoia I have in mind (gas-guzzlers, yes, but more metal between my baby and all the dangers of the road) in another 8 years or so. As we flew down 13 last night, my mind took off in all sorts of worrisome directions, thinking of what it will be like to watch the one thing I treasure more than anything in this whole world back out of our driveway and zoom down the road, toward freedom and fun and adult responsibility but also all sorts of danger I can't grab the wheel and protect him from. Surely Michael still feels this way when his sweet Ryan pulls away from his childhood home with his own family...so I cut him some slack on the worrying bit.

It's hard not to let the fear creep in and make me irrational myself. But it's what parents do: Let go more and more every day in so many ways. It's such a heart-twisting feeling to love something so much and let it run wild in this big scary world that I sometimes wonder why generation after generation keep signing up for it. Macauley says he only wants to move a few blocks away when he graduates (Class of 2021!) and promises that he will visit me every day and drive me to the flea market. He's been asking when he can get a cell phone (he thinks 10 is a reasonable age; I have no idea) and a while back he said, "Mom? When I get my own phone will you put me on your Favorites list on yours?" I told him I absolutely would and asked him if he'd do the same for me. "For sure," he nodded. I hope I'm always one of his favorite people to call, to drive around with, that we always talk, that he always knows just what I think of him. Ryan and his dad talk often. I talk to my parents regularly, too. Another passage in Picoult's book, where that same detective laments not keeping in touch with his own father, reminded me of how many people out there can't say the same:

"My dad used to say that living with regrets was like driving a car that only moved in reverse," I smile faintly. "He had a stroke a few years ago. Before that, I used to screen his calls because I didn't have time to talk about whether the Sox would make it to the playoffs. But afterward, I started to call him. Every time, I'd finish by saying I loved him. We both knew why; and it didn't sit right after all the time I hadn't said it. It was like trying to bail out an ocean of water with a teaspoon."

The days of summer have seemed luxuriously slow of late, but I'm very aware this car is zooming down the highway, that I'll blink and my only son will be pulling in to my driveway with his own family to celebrate my 60-something birthday on a warm August night. I'm buckling in.

Premiere party

2011-08-08T10:54:00.011-05:00

Phineas and Ferb is one of Macauley's favorite shows right now, and meeting them at Disney's Hollywood Studios was probably more important than tracking down the famous mouse or any other characters there. We stood in line for quite a while for this meet and greet and it was worth it. Perry the Platypus was only a cutout that kept popping up from behind the fence, but we found a stuffed version (that makes a platypus sound when you squeeze its front paw) to take home as a souvenir.

We decided to celebrate the world premiere of the duo's new movie on Disney Channel this past Friday evening with some themed food (pictured sideways below?) and serving ware and a little family time in front of the big screen. It's fun to make a big deal of the little things...

We also celebrated my middle sister Lindsay's graduation on Friday. My mom got to sneak away from camp to attend the ceremony at MSU where Linds was hooded as a Master of Science in Education Administration. Now she can be a principal and maybe she'll be my boss one day!

Great value to boot{s}

2011-08-06T14:25:00.006-05:00

No, I am not one of those extreme couponers. I never remember to use coupons. I am not even that much of a value shopper, but my little boy has acquired a curious attachment to store brands. As he explained, "Why spend more when you can save and get something just as good?" I believe it began with his purchase a few weeks back of a box of Cocoa Cool cereal, Walmart's knock-off of Cocoa Puffs. Then he chose Best Choice cream soda to take to the lake with Lindsay and Tyson. After being gone to Florida, we had to restock most of our groceries early last week, and he talked me into all of these value alternatives for items on our list. I think it's a funny fixation and I'm horrible at telling him no at the grocery store (and lots of other places actually). Once when he was still pretty little, in the car with my mom and dad, he asked (conjuring a familiar TV ad campaign), "Nana, don't you like to save more and live better?"

Rather than bargains, I've had boots on the brain despite it being so hot outside it's hard to imagine temps that would call for such. I like these by Frye. The ones below are taller, over the knee, and from the Victoria's Secret catalogue.

What got me thinking were these I saw at Marshall's the other day, more of a value price I suppose. But do I want to save more or live in better boots? For now, I'll just let it simmer. Boot season is still a ways off.

I've been loving this sweet (bargain!) bracelet I bought on etsy, echoing my favorite Beatles song and some lyrics to live by. To value. Greatly.

Been around the WDWorld and back

2011-08-01T16:52:00.002-05:00

(Booker in the guest bed at the Frasers' house in Bolivar last week)

We made it home from our week at Disney yesterday afternoon and have since been recouping and doing piles of laundry and cleaning up all sorts of surprises our old kitties deposited here and there for us, out of loneliness or mutiny, I'm not sure. Ryan is back at work and Macauley and I are soaking up the final weeks of summer. I've got lots of pictures to sort through and some scrapbooking I'd like to do, and I think some back-to-school wardrobe shopping is in order, too. Disney is a lot of work (and it was so, so, so hot) but we saw and did lots of fun things and we'll have a lot of great memories from our big trip. For now, though, home feels super sweet.

Where (we hope) the magic happens...

2011-07-24T10:13:00.004-05:00

Oh my goodness. We're leaving for Disney World today! I have never been and Ryan hasn't been since he was a kid. We were thinking that Macauley, at 8, is the perfect age to enjoy the magic (although he has only a fuzzy familiarity with the classic characters, with more modern shows like Phineas and Ferb more on his radar). We used a travel company specializing in Disney vacations and I have a huge folder of tips and our itinerary they designed...quite a lot to take in. The company's owner visited our house yesterday morning in Mickey ears and a lanyard full of traded pins (something I guess you can do while you're there) delivered the folder and a box of pixie dust she said we could use to "make your own magic." Our flight leaves from Branson at 6 this evening. Guess I should start packing. I'm kind of information overload right now, but I'm still trying to figure this huge place out and would love any tips or suggestions (expert April Cole!). Wish I could see my Aunt Karen while we're there but it looks really far from Tallahassee... We'll be there for a week and have Park Hopper passes to do it all!

VIF: Summer Kitchen

2011-07-22T12:11:00.037-05:00

Just some shots of my kitchen--click pictures to enlarge...linking up with Debra @ Common Ground for Vintage Inspiration Friday...Happy weekend.

Happy Bday Catherine

2011-07-21T11:21:00.005-05:00

Our sweet little friend Catherine Bay Rhoads turned 7 this week and planned her party all by herself with a "Justin Beiber Water Party" theme. To prepare, Macauley and I watched Never Say Never. And now I understand the phenomenon. The crowd was small, just 3 girls and 3 boys, with the water hose and oversized squirt guns as the entertainment and bagels and fruit for brunch.

We gave Catherine the Beiber notebook and an American Girls journal and some colorful pens. I also couldn't resist the cute chick tshirt at Target. Have you seen their new Vintage Varsity line inspired by vintage typefaces and graphics housed at the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum?

These two have been friends since before they even knew it...hope they always are.

Family Float Twenty-Eleven

2011-07-20T11:37:00.018-05:00

We did our second annual "family float" and campout on the Buffalo River in Arkansas this past weekend, and despite the blazing temps, the 6 mile trip out of BRO was a success. We joined our good friends the Turners and the Rhoads, my sister Lane and her boyfriend Derek, and two other families, the Lindstroms from here in town and the Barones, who were visiting the Turners from sunny (but apparently cooler) San Diego. In all we were a party of 20, with a gaggle of kids. The Barone's poor little 1 1/2 year old Chloe cried about half of the float, bugged by her lifejacket and the heat and not being able to get comfortable. Occasional tears aside, the kids enjoyed swimming in the river and playing just as much as they did last year, and this year, there was no torrential rainstorm.

The Buffalo is known for its beautiful bluffs. I like this photo of the whole gang gathered in front of one that you could canoe right up under, as Lane and Derek are below. They brought along Chuck the pug and Cricket the yorkie.

We camped 2 nights this year, and I will say that tent camping in July, at least in this party of the country, is kuh-ray-zee. I ordered the Coleman Instant Tent for Ryan's birthday in May, and it really does live up to the name. It just pops up and comes down so easily. We invested in some battery-powered fans, including a Coleman ceiling fan, and they did help, but wow, it was hot. To further exacerbate matters, our air mattress bed wasn't inflating enough, ending up in a waterbed effect when we laid down and if I turned on my side my shoulder dug into the bottom of the tent. I woke up after the first fitful night feeling like I had been in a car accident, my neck so stiff and body so sore and battered. On night two, Ryan figured out the bed inflated better if he just blew it up and we slept better, probably just so exhausted from being on the river all day.
I'm not the best of campers, but my boys sure are. I think we'd like to make another trip to this same campground this fall with our friends, when the temperatures are cooler.

Where this blogger creates...

2011-07-14T23:00:00.067-05:00

Just inside our front door and to the left is my favorite room in the house. I call it my "office" and I do in fact "work" in here from time to time (I teach some online courses a few times a year), but mostly I'm on the computer blogging, shopping, googling and emailing. I also love to scrapbook (though I do so in spurts and not on a regular basis) and have all my supplies and photos fairly organized in this space. Overall, this room is filled with lots of little bits and bobbles that make me happy and inspire me and give you a glimpse into who I am and what I like.

My desk was a taller, primitive sofa table purchased several years ago from my friend Colleene's shop. I cut the legs down and made a black ticking skirt to hide the computer and other storage pieces. I always have little notepads and articles clipped from magazines next to the keyboard, either under the cute kitty paperweight or corralled in the little Hobby Lobby crate. Ryan ordered the bunny tape dispenser for me as a surprise after noticing me admiring it in a little shop in Memphis where we went to buy a wedding gift for a friend there a few years ago.

I looked at this Table Talk Pastry Co. crate several times at the flea market and finally bought it when it went on sale for half off. I keep clips and pins and photo corners in the rusty muffin tins and photos and papers in the drawers. I like the metal and wood combo of the spools and the big roll of black thread on the ironstone pedestal is from Ella Elaine's booth in McKinney.

I have a collection of several vintage cameras, but this toy version might be my favorite of all. This chippy white chest of drawers is from The Seedbox. I recently organized some of my office supplies, paints and sewing notions in the drawers, which I lined with book pages.

This room was originally a dark paneled "study" with tobacco stained wood and red walls. Very nice, really, but not my style. I had all the whole thing painted out white, with the walls my latest favorite shade, Benjamin Moore's Gray Ghost (which incidentally is the name of the novel Dill Harris says he'll give Jem Finch if he is brave enough to run up and touch the Radley house in To Kill a Mockingbird, another favorite). Wainscoting runs neck-high around the space, and I've filled the ledges with lots of my little treasures, taking creative license with the cluttered, collage look of it all. I bought the glittered LOVE garland in Stillwater, Minnesota on a visit with my friend Shannon. My mom had the printer's tray hanging in our house growing up and let me have it. I guess I like minis, as I've got lots of them in this space. Most are little bobbles I've found at flea markets but a few have sentimental connections to family and travel. Like many people I love typography and numbers. My lucky #3 is everywhere in this room. I also have lots of little dogs and cats and other animals.

Ryan and I bought this table for the dining room in our first house 12 years ago. It makes a great work table, and even though it probably looks better centered in the room under the big chandelier, I've found I prefer it pushed over in front of the windows leaving the rest of the room open. I'm short and just skim under the large hanging fixture but poor Ryan forgets and bumps it all the time. It provides major lighting when I need it, but I like the soft glow of just lamps better. Macauley was just asking me a couple of days ago if I would help him buy furniture and things for his house when he moves out someday (of course I will!) and I told him that my dad let me pick out the floor lamp (near the window with the H) from the JC Penney home store when Ryan and I had our first apartment. It might be the only piece from my college years that made the cut in my "grown up" houses. The tall windows look out onto the front porch. I found the bird collage at Winnie & Tallulah's in Athens, Texas the day Macauley and I met Debbie and Cat Daddy.

I thought I could use this big basket to hold scrapbook pages in progress, but right now I've got my flea market binder (with all the pages of sold tags from the 3 years I've had my little booth) and some other odds and ends. I can't resist little drawers when I see them out shopping. These are 2 of my favorites and I've got them filled with stacks of photos I want to scrapbook.

Cats have always been equated with "home" for me, and I love having my old Allie or my pretty black Maya hang out with me when I'm on the computer or working at the table.

I've got all sorts of stuff stashed in this wall of built in cabinets, some of it functional and some of it just for pretty.

I backed 4 of the taller shelves with these French memo boards (from Gordman's, a gift from my parents a couple of Christmases back). I've got ticket stubs and old postcards and flea market finds tucked in the ribbons, even a picture of my Grandpa Jude taken in Paris when he was a soldier during World War 2.

I've got craft supplies in the baskets and drawers and magazines gathered here and there. I love reading magazines but have been making a concerted effort to pare down which ones I keep the last few years. I keep some in this upright drawer, which my Nanny treated me to several years back on a trip to a now defunct shop called Pat's in Bentonville, Arkansas.

I organized the built-ins during the Blizzard of 2011, which looks much better but it seems like when my projects are "out of sight and out of mind" I forget what I have or need to do. I've got a small TV in one of the lower cabinets. I like to watch E! and Bravo and One Tree Hill and 90210 reruns on Soap Net while I work on the computer or do projects. I also just like the background noise.

Some words to live by and my Papaw's folding ruler...

I backed the French doors with burlap. If the room's a big mess, I can just close it off and not greet guests in the foyer with a view of papers and projects everywhere. My friend Amy gave me the book page wreath for Christmas this year.

I feel lucky to have the "room of one's own" Virginia Woolf stressed the importance of, a place to think and create and write and fill with treasures that make me happy, and I spend a lot of time in this room. I'm excited to have a peek at other bloggers' creative spaces via Karen's blog party, and I'm also linking with Debra.

Just daydreaming...

2011-07-13T12:54:00.012-05:00

Love this...

Wouldn't it be a cool project to take an old barn, like these (3 itty bitty pictures above) I found on The Barn Pages and turn it into a home with high ceilings, old beams and whatever else you could dream up? I love the pictures on The Barn People, and Heritage Barns, too.

Might as well add a pool while you're at it...

Paws for thought

2011-07-06T21:46:00.008-05:00

Macauley and I took Booker and cousin Meena out for a spin around the neighborhood this evening, thinking it would be cooler now that it's dark but it wasn't really. Most times when I "walk the dog" it's really the dog walking me. Not that Booker tugs me along out of control or anything, but he's definitely out in front and we're weaving back and forth across the street, curb to curb, with him piloting our course. In the past I've kind of hurried him along, even yanked him a bit when he wouldn't move on from some spot he'd burrowed his nose down into, wanting to just get on with it already. But after seeing a brief review of this book in People last month, I've softened significantly and try to let my B mosey along at his own pace and move on when he's good and ready.

According to reviewer Kim Hubbard: "Debunking the advice of many celebrity trainers, animal behavior expert John Bradshaw urges understanding, not dominance, as the key to human-canine relations." She paraphrases a few of his key suggestions, including using rewards rather than confusing punishments and fending off separation anxiety by practicing your leaving and returning. But this is the one that's stuck with me since I read the brief article:

"Let them sniff. Finding out what's been going on in the neighborhood is the most important part of a dog's day, apart from talking to you. You wouldn't snatch the newspaper out of your partner's hands--so try not to pull your dog away when he's sniffing."

Duly noted. How could I refuse this sweet face anything, much less a few whiffs of the neighborhood gossip?

{4th} snaps

2011-07-05T11:34:00.017-05:00

Rainstorms on the 3rd...neighborhood party at the pool dampened
Maya Angleou sleeps inside next to Bubby all night

Pool shark on the 4th...pets and guests around the house

Chocolate fondue inspired by this recipe

Lanterns floating into the night sky

Neighborhood friends sharing fireworks and giant punks

My boys, my home, my freedom...what a lucky girl

Of thee I sing

2011-07-03T15:09:00.017-05:00

This year's patriotic dining room...sans centerpiece flowers. It's already been a fun weekend...looking forward to fireworks in the culdesac tonight and relaxing tomorrow. Happy 4th!

Playing pug/opossum

2011-06-25T20:46:00.005-05:00

Quite the commotion last night around 11:00 at our house. Meenie Beens is staying the weekend with us and Macauley and I let Booker and her out through the screened porch for a bedtime bathroom break. Macauley heard something on the steps scatter and Booker of course shot out in pursuit while Meena followed at her usual adorable pace. I've been feeding birds this summer and have attracted a number of (greedy, I must say) squirrels and I wasn't sure if we had a raccoon back there or what at that time of night. Our backyard was pitch black so I sent Macauley for a flashlight. The halo of light landed on a petrified opossum curled up at the foot of the stairs with Booker inches from its face and Meena wiggling her way toward it. Fearing rabies or who knows what, I overreacted and shrieked for Macauley to "Get Dad!" Both dogs came back up the stairs with a "what's the big deal?" expression on their faces before Ryan made it to the rescue. From the safety of the screened porch we shined the light back to the spot and saw only a bloody splat where the opossum had been. Ryan googled it and found that opossums don't actually "play" dead on purpose but rather pass out from fear in stressful situations and often throw up or spit and "squirt" (they don't spray evidently) at the same time, making themselves as unappealing to predators as possible, so maybe the "blood" was something else. Gross nevertheless. I had to sponge off a streak of this horrific smelling opossum juice from Booker's side but haven't made it down for a closer look or clean up of the blob on the stepping stone at the bottom of the stairs yet.

I grew up in the country and have of course seen opossums many times, up close, far away, stiff on the side of the road, even climbing along the top of a neighbor's privacy fence. But having my sweet B and Lindsay's Meener within striking distance got me all riled up! And it gave Macauley bad dreams. He woke up at 4 am quite distraught and explained his "nightmare" to me as I walked him to the bathroom. In short, he dreamed that "a raccoon was making all these dishes." In my mind, I went straight to pottery, like a raccoon throwing plates on a potter's wheel, but he meant cooking, like a raccoon chef, and feeding the berry concoctions to me as Macauley watched. "And then I said, 'Mom? Mom!' and you just looked at me and said, 'I don't know who you are,' and you had a golden, glowing ring around your head for, like, 5 minutes, until you recognized me again." He went on to explain that the raccoon set out a "feast" of the memory-blocking berries buffet-style and that he had to swipe all the food off the table forcefully to keep me from eating it. Then I was on the internet trying to buy some of the raccoon's food and he had to hammer in the power button on my computer to keep me from it. Even awake in the bathroom he was very upset by this scenario and told me this morning he couldn't get it out of his head all night and didn't sleep well. None of us did, actually.

I was thinking we might settle in and watch the newer Alice in Wonderland tonight, but something tells me that particularly kooky adventure might trigger a recurrence of the dream about the raccoon peddling mind-erasing berries. This time it might be stuck in my head, though...

Who are the people in your neighborhood?

2011-06-24T15:56:00.013-05:00

Do you know your neighbors? Just enough to wave as you press the down button on your garage door? Enough to stop for a quick hello as you walk by with the dog? Or enough to ring the doorbell and pop in for a sit down visit on a whim? We advanced toward the latter one evening this week with a progressive dinner at the homes of our nearest neighbors, several of whom are new to the block. First stop was appetizers with Kelly and Travis, who built a beautiful new house on the site two doors down from us where Lance's home burned to the ground last July. They've got 2 baby girls, just 13 months apart! Sydney is 17 months and Garrett is 4 months. They're in the restaurant business and served drinks and apps from Macaroni Grill. Next stop was our house for salad.

After the best tomato soup ever at Chris and Laurie's across the street and diagonal from us (where we got to meet their sweet little 2-year-old Ethan), we had the main course, baked ziti and rolls, next door at Derek and Jennifer's. They've got 3 girls, which reminds me of my family growing up: Paige, Claire and Delaney.

And finally dessert just across the street at Wayne and Stacy's, where Macauley frequently plays with Rex, 4, and Rachel, 8. Everyone loved the huge USA map Stacy recently had decoupaged and painted on her living room wall, ala Restoration Hardware. Very cool.

Turns out we've got some great new friends just steps outside our front door. The moms: Stacy, me, Kelly, Jennifer and Laurie. So glad we made the effort to go beyond honk and wave status...

"They're the people that you meet, when you're walking down the street--they're the people that you meet each day..." (Sesame Street. Remember?)

My busy day

2011-06-23T23:20:00.008-05:00

In general, I fancy myself a fairly productive gal most days, but today was not one of them. The house was quiet and I allowed myself the luxury of nestling in to my puffy bed, under the ceiling fan, reading and watching TV while the hours just ticked away. I got up a handful of times--made some sweet tea, broke up a cat brawl on the back porch, took a bunch of random pictures of my kitchen--but kept ending up back in the comfy nest of clean sheets and double comforters.

Ellen. The OC. Two hours of 90210. Two hours of One Tree Hill. Reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan during commercials.

Payton is prego. Now Brooke has to redesign her wedding gown a third time.

My only nourishment for the day. Plus the sweet tea.

Now it's bedtime and Alice and I are wide awake.

What $5 will buy you in Bolivar, Mo...

2011-06-20T11:46:00.006-05:00

Pure bliss, that's what. A large peach sno cone plus a tip for the girl working in the little trailer. Courtesy of a folded bill from Grandma and Grandpa as we left their house and headed back home to Springfield last Thursday afternoon.

"Safety first, Mom. Really. Right?" ~Macauley Fraser

{our} father

2011-06-19T11:51:00.013-05:00

We celebrated Father's Day last night, with my parents in town from Arkansas and Lane in from KC. Sweet Papa took Macauley to our neighborhood pool and then we made a yummy dinner (well, mostly Lindsay made a yummy dinner--I boiled water and set the table) of grilled chicken, salad, cheesy potatoes, corn on the cob, watermelon and a chocolate cake to celebrate Lane's most recent promotion to Big Wig @ Francesa's, then chatted well into the evening. After a quick breakfast this morning, everyone has gone (Macauley went back to camp with my parents). The house is quiet.

Thank you, Ryan, for working so hard to take good care of us, being the Bad Cop to my Good, and for always making me feel like one hot mama. Thank you, Dad, for always showing us the way, not by pointing a finger or twisting an arm, but by walking the Right Way yourself and letting us follow.

"Gus has been asleep for the past two days. Not once does he open his eyes or speak. She wants so much to hear him call her "daughter" again. She's never heard anyone--not even her mother--call her this. It is such a nice word when she thinks about it. Daughter. Dot...her. Like a punctuation mark. It says, This one here, she's mine."

~Heather Gudenkauf (These Things Hidden)

When you care enough to send the very best...

2011-06-17T12:09:00.026-05:00

I suppose this in itself is a "vintage" post, since it was almost 4 months ago that we visited the Hallmark Visitors' Center at Crown Center in Kansas City during our spring break. The place isn't large, but it is charmingly packed with a history of the greeting card company, and since I love finding and reading vintage postcards at flea markets, I was taken in by the variety of antique and vintage cards, toys and mementos displayed chronologically beginning with the formation of the company in the early 1900s...

...and continuing to present day, featuring characters like Santa, Minnie Mouse (Disney and Hallmark have had a long-standing relationship), one of my all-time favorites--the adorable Miss Piggy, and the company's iconic, crabby Maxine. Another case featured postcards sent while traveling, by land and sea.

One hallway featured a series of Christmas trees decorated to honor company founder Joyce C. Hall, a tradition started in 1966. The 1972 tree reminded me of all the sparkly art I see in flea markets made from old costume jewelry and the framed tree made from jewels that belonged to Ryan's glamorous grandmother Jinx that hangs in Pop's living room, having never been taken down since she passed away just before Christmas in 1993. Another tree celebrated the year I was born, the Bicentennial, Nineteen and Seventy Six. The basket tree from the 80s brought to mind the aesthetic of all the Country Living magazines my mom collected during that decade. I asked her then, as a little girl, if I had to decorate my house "country" like her when I grew up. She said no. Turns out the apple doesn't fall far from the tree however...

Another display traced the history of Hall's department store...

An interactive section showed how some of the company's cards and other products are made and featured a modern printing press machine and a bow machine. The kids could run through the place with a "passport" to be stamped at 6 stations around the museum.

In a small living area, flat screens played trailers for many of the Hallmark Hall of Fame movies we've all seen and looped many of the sentimental, lump-in-throat, tear-in-eye commercials from TV, many of them "vintage." Case in point: Ed's Required Reading. Bawl. Every. Time.

We really stumbled on the museum inadvertently and had made our way to Crown Center initially to visit the interactive children's art exhibit Kaliedoscope, where we had a lot of fun making our own crowns and cards, crafts and puzzles. Both were fun and both were free.

"I just don't like to sit around and wait for something to happen; it is more fun making it happen." ~J.C. Hall

Agenda

2011-06-16T10:52:00.003-05:00

With just a few alterations/additions to this pre-planned schedule, we made it through the first sleepover of the summer last night. We hosted Macauley's old pal Trevor, who has been in Macauley's class every year since kindergarten (the age they are pictured below at their kindergarten play) but had never visited us at home before. The boys had a blast and were up quite early this morning. They veered from the plan and went with Cinnamon Toast Crunch before Trevor was off to soccer camp for the day.

{good} night

2011-06-14T22:51:00.009-05:00

The boys fell asleep before me night before last. I'm a night owl and it took just a couple of days of summer for me to abandon my 6 am wakeup, to slide right back into my preferred stay-up-late-sleep-in mode. Poor Ryan doesn't get the summer off and I'm sure me slinking into bed an hour after him and flipping the lamp on so I can read into the night annoys him, even though I usually get nothing more than a huffy rolling over in response, or a pillow over his eyes and a long, knowing exhale.

This night, though, our boy had curled up beside his dad for some TV while I puttered in my office, and they'd both drifted off while watching Through the Wormhole, a Science/Discovery Channel show that plays into the curiosity they both harbor regarding space and how this crazy world works. I shuffled pillows and stuffed animals and made a pallet from our new comforter on the floor for our little bub, thinking of that word "pallet" and how my cousins and I were always content, excited even, to make one on the hard floor at my grandparents' house when we were growing up, wondering if other families use(d) that word for makeshift sleeping arrangements. I thought of its similarity to a word in a Maya Angelou essay I like: palliative. Relief without cure. To temporarily comfort. Not a permanent solution but short term relief. The way you felt when, scared by a storm or a nightmare as a child, you crawled into bed with your mom and dad or curled up on their floor. The bad dream might strike again tomorrow night, the thunder and lightning might, too, but for now, for then, you were safe.

Even with the volume down a little, I could still make out Morgan Freeman's unmistakable narration coming from the big pine armoire as I tiptoed around my room. I half-listened to him calmly pondering the deep, deep mysteries of the universe, of life and what comes after, and I pondered a few mysteries of my own...the first being how my house had gotten so embarrassingly messy just a day after the cleaning lady had visited and when we'd hardly even been home; the second being, as I lifted my little sleeper and moved him to his spot for the night, just when it was my baby boy got so tall, so lean but so heavy. He's a good sleeper (a late-to-bed-sleep-in night owl like me actually) and does fine in his room up the stairs and across the house from us, but he loves to sleep in our room when we let him. I tend to indulge him on this often, knowing already that the day will come when he won't want (or need) to make a pallet just steps away from me, remembering a cheesy but true country song whose lyrics have always stuck with me for some reason...

"Let them cry, let them giggle...let them sleep in the middle...oh, but let them be little..."

Summer in the City

2011-06-13T12:42:00.019-05:00

We took our season passes and hit SDC on Saturday. Lindsay left Tyson's family's lakehouse and met us there. We got there late in the afternoon and swarms of people were leaving as we walked in, so we thought we'd avoid the crowds and lines but we were wrong. I had my heart set on some corn on the cob but the stand was closed. Everywhere we walked the line was long, the ride was closed (someone had thrown up on Thunderation and Fire in the Hole was "broken") or the skillets were cold and clean. So we settled for frozen lemonade, a chat with our retired high school Social Studies teacher who works at the park, and a visit to the Critter Corral.

Even the sweet bunnies were hot--this little one hopped over and plopped herself in front of the box fan just outside their hutch.

We did eventually ride the cleaned up Thunderation and waited in line for The Lost River. There's always one person in the raft on The Lost River that gets more soaked than everyone else. This time that person was me. "Bathtub Wet" as the sign proclaimed. We sat in the kids' area for me to dry out (I didn't) and let Macauley get even more drenched then dripped our way back out to the car and headed home.

Friday night lights

2011-06-12T14:41:00.007-05:00

Our first week of summer vacation flew by in a flash. We spent our first Friday of freedom at the Springfield Cardinals game, attending on a whim after being offered tickets from our neighbor at the last minute. Macauley isn't much of a sports fan, but he was up for it. We had great seats, sixth row right behind home plate.

The game went into 10 innings, which made for a long night, but it ended with a bang when one of the Cardinals cracked the winning hit and the sky immediately lit up with Friday Night Fireworks. I've always loved fireworks like that, but there's just nothing like seeing them through the eyes of my delighted little boy...

That dark day

2011-06-07T17:42:00.006-05:00

It's been two Sundays since Ryan called Macauley and me just as we'd walked through the door at Walmart and said, "Get home--a bad storm is coming." We walked right back out and drove home with a sense of urgency, but not panic, as the radio bleated storm warnings. I heard something about a Pizza Hut being "flattened" but I didn't hear where. Safe in our big sturdy house, the 3 of us stood around in the kitchen, watching the TV's choppy satellite picture, listening to the tan Dream Machine clock radio I've had since I was a teenager--wondering, waiting. Ryan had suggested Macauley and I put on "real" shoes, not flipflops, so we put on our rain boots and I thought to grab my purse in case we had to take shelter in the storage room under our house. Booker sat worriedly beside me near the kitchen island instead of lounging on the couch like he usually does. The danger passed for us in Springfield not long after, but I will remember the way we all stood there in the kitchen with such a feeling of unease. Time to think about what to do but questioning if any of it was necessary. Like many of my neighbors, I emerged from the house to see the sky's eerie orange glow, light and dark at the same time. From the back of our house, you could just barely see a rainbow, a double one, stretching across our side of town.

Still not knowing what had really transpired just an hour down the interstate from us, we made a spontaneous trip to Andy's, Macauley in his pajamas (even though it was only early evening) and a pair of my sparkly flipflops he'd found in the car once we arrived and he realized he had left the house barefooted.

A few others were out and about, too, most of us gazing west--quietly, curiously--at the strange sky, snapping pictures with our phones and little cameras that couldn't really capture what we saw. It was only later that word started coming in about our neighbors in Joplin, the EF 5 that had shaken their town to the core while we milled about in our kitchen. It could have been us. It wasn't. I wonder why.

One more day...

2011-06-02T19:44:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow is the last day of school. I can hardly believe it. The year seems to have flown by but the last couple of weeks always drag. I spent hours working on our annual publication of notable student and teacher writing and photography only to have it arrive from the publisher today with the spacing completely off, in a totally random and nonsensical way. Almost $500 for 60 copies. 141 pages I poured over until they were perfect. There is no way I am passing it out and I've been on the verge of tears all day today with the stress of it all. I've put in a message (email only--the website lists no phone number) to the site's support to discuss options but I haven't heard anything. I've just had to come to terms with it not being given to the writers published until next fall and I guess I'll figure something out. Uggg.

I just need to shake off that little speed bump and concentrate on getting into the swing of summer--lazy days, shopping, reading, road trips, more blogging (I've got 2 or 3 weeks of life I've been wanting to document), organizing, scrapbooking, sleeping in...After my 6 a.m. wakeup tomorrow I can put that little black alarm clock in my nighstand drawer for almost 3 months!

For the birds

2011-05-09T18:56:00.022-05:00

Inspiration struck this past weekend and I turned this chippy cupboard door I've had for a while into a sign I hope to hang on my back patio. I printed the letters out and did the old-fashioned lead pencil across the backs then traced it so it left a faint impression of the letters on the board. I kind of just freehanded it after that. I made up the name Sweet Song Birdseed Co., in part because I'm really enjoying feeding all the little birds in my backyard and hearing them chirp back and forth to one another in the woods back there. Does that mean I'm getting old?

Macauley and Ryan got me this new feeder for Mother's Day, along with some seed. After our lunch at Lola's in Nixa, we ran back by the hardware store (still couldn't talk Ryan into that chicken coop) and I got the little feeder to stick on my kitchen window (above the windowboxes I planted out Saturday) and a couple of bags of the seed they sell in big bins with self-serve scoops.

I moved the other feeder down below with the birdbath, squirrel feeder and the seed bell, which was half-eaten after only one afternoon out.

Ryan gave me this bluebird house as part of my anniversary gift, along with a sledgehammer. That sounds funny, but I had been asking him to put up another birdhouse (found with my mom at the giant garage sale this past winter) on a post for a while and that was the tool needed for the job. Kind of a honey-do gift, I suppose.

So the birds around here have mulitiple dining and lodging options, but I'm the lucky one because my father-in-law made me this amazing potting bench out of salvaged pallets and a couple of pieces of architectural salvage. Love it! I haven't accessorized/utilized it just yet.

I had the trim piece with the hooks, something I made as a coat rack for our old house, and the drawer was a flea market find I was using in my office. What I really love, though, is the scrap of a sign across the top. It came off the grocery store in Bolivar that Ryan's grandpa owned for years.

The new bird feeder is just outside this screened window where my old indoor kitty Alice Cooper is perched. I'd like to think she's too old now to catch a bird, but given the chance I'm afraid her instincts would kick in...best to keep her contained. Now that the feeders are up and I've done a little planting, I feel compelled to hop into my blue polka-dot rubber boots and putter around back there all the time watering and filling and thinking of the possibilities.

The best day

2011-05-08T17:47:00.014-05:00

Ryan was busy with his dad yesterday (you should see the amazing potting bench Michael made for me and delivered!) so Macauley and I headed out for some flower shopping in Nixa. I had seen this place in 417 Magazine and wanted to check it out. They had lots of nice shrubbery and trees, but we really just wanted begonias and other basics for our flowerbeds. The plants were expensive and some seemed kind of rough...I don't know. One girl helping us was friendly but others weren't so much and I just left with an off-vibe, like we weren't entirely welcome even though we spent a fair amount of money there. Macauley, though, couldn't get enough of pulling our cart around and loving on the cute garden kitty he named Sunshine.

Next we stopped at Nixa Hardware, where the marquee announced Chick Day. Macauley and I loved this backyard coop and immediately began formulating our case to persuade Ryan to get us one of these and a handful of the adorable chicks and ducklings on display (which looked way too crammed to be happy and comfortable but what do I know?).

We puttered around the yard for a while when we got home and then sat down on the patio to frozen cheese pizzas. As we chatted, Macauley sighed and said, "We've just had the best day, haven't we?" For sure.

First Friday

2011-05-07T22:56:00.015-05:00

We hit the pavement downtown last night for First Friday Art Walk, or at least a couple of pieces of it. Macauley was supposed to go to a birthday party but the little birthday girl got sick and the party was cancelled. So while we waited to get in for dinner at Maria's, we walked down to the Kickapoo First 40 Years Exhibit at Obelisk Home, passing a fun mural and a defunct landmark along the way. An eccentric variety of people come out for Art Walk, and Macauley was quite protective of me for some reason, holding my hand everywhere we walked and shifting me from side to side to avoid coming into close proximity with anyone he saw as questionable. Very sweet.

I had been in the Obelisk Home store once before, but this time we got to poke around through the whole building, which has been renovated top to bottom. In love. Ryan's company did a lot of working on the wiring, phones and computer networking. There are lofts we didn't get to see.

We even made it to the rooftop before giving in to our grumbling tummies and heading back toward dinner. Being downtown always makes me think about what it would be like to live there, renovate an awesome building like this one, be "urban" in our little city/big smalltown. I just can't see how this little boy would fit into a life like that...and a life without him would be no life at all...

Behold(en)

2011-05-05T19:19:00.006-05:00

I could probably spend all of tonight and the rest of the weekend for that matter searching around for beautiful pictures of how I'd do my wedding if I had to do it all over again, but I've got schoolwork to do and laundry to put away and probably a little TV to watch. We got married on 1 May 1999 and my taste has changed so much since then. I did want to commit to memory, though, this beautiful dress from Anthroplogie's BHLDN line that I'd sure be tempted to plunk down my pennies for if I were getting married today. Perhaps a vow renewal at 15 years? Or maybe next year for lucky number 13, going for an odd number like Ramona Singer on the Real Housewives of New York did for her 18th?

It wasn't the Royal Wedding...

2011-05-01T12:29:00.003-05:00

(What could have been...us in the Prom King and Queen crowns I gave out Friday night)

...but 12 years ago today I married my Prince. And I'd do it all over again...

All that I'm after

is a life full of laughter

as long as I'm laughing with you...

I'm thinking all that still matters

is love ever after--

after this life we've been through...

and I know there's no life after you.

~Daughtry

{dusk} at No. 5380

2011-04-28T20:55:00.018-05:00

I went for it last week and painted the front door black, and then I applied the vinyl address I ordered even though the instructions suggested I let the paint "cure" for 3 weeks before doing so. I am impatient and haphazard when it comes to projects, I guess, which is why I took photos as the evening was rolling in tonight--the paint dried in all sorts of different textures and the door still needs some work. But I'm happy with the overall look.

I couldn't resist the ferns outside all the stores around here for the last few weeks--I've put them in urns and pots and buckets. With all the rain we've been getting everything is so green and plush. I'll be adding some annuals to the front flower beds, maybe for some color, but I'll probably end up going with my favorite, hardy white begonias.

Another haphazard project move led to the purchase of this new rug. I worked on painting my porch swing a couple of weekends ago, just put a tarp under it and painted it on the chains. Ryan asked me to help chase Booker down for a bath and when I got back to the swing the wind had blown the tarp and dumped the can of black paint all over that end of the porch. Not thinking it all through, I used some paint remover on the black spot, which took up the paint and also took up the concrete stain. So there's a big acid washed spot under the rug, but now that I see it there it looks like I needed a rug in that area all along.

Someday I'd like to have a tree planted on this left side of the yard, something big like a sugar maple or something, and the sidewalk needs something soft and puffy like monkey grass along the edges. We've got stacked brick retaining walls at the end of the yard toward the street that really need ivy or something cascading over them, too. I've also got to replace the spiral bush on the porch swing side to match the one near the garage. It bit the dust (spider mites?) and Ryan finally pulled it up last weekend. Landscaping: so much work. Manual labor. I have to get really fired up for it and that doesn't happen very often. That or shell out for someone else to do it, and I am not at all opposed to that.

The backyard needs lots of attention, too, but it is looking better than in years past because we have the stairs off the back patio now. I put in some homemade flower beds and plan to try moonflowers trained to climb the lattice. When my neighbor's house burned down last summer he let me dig up all the hostas in his backyard before the place was bulldozed. They've come back in full force despite my hasty planting. I'll plant some annuals in with those and mulch in the next few weeks. I'll probably move those stepping stones, also salvaged from the burned house and plopped there.

More ferns flanking the doors to our storage area under the house, which people around here call a John Deere Room. I recently laid the little concrete porch, and my father-in-law is kindly constructing me the most fabulous potting bench from salvaged wood that I'll be placing nearby.

The picture of the back patio is dark but hides all the debris blown around from our last round of storms. Our house backs up to woods and it's almost impossible to keep the patio clear of all the tree droppings that fall. I moved my iron bakers rack from McKinney, Texas out back and put some dwarf Alberta spruces in planters on each side. I had envisioned twinkle lights out back since we moved in and there they are. I want to put some succulents in little pots on the rack and I'll do some votives, too.

I moved my bird feeder up here a few weeks ago and I've seen the cutest little birds flock to it. Sadly, though, I also found a mess of feathers and a streak of blood below, which I can only guess happened at the hands of my murderous outdoor cat, Maya Angelou.

While my dad was visiting this past weekend he helped Ryan put some galvanized panels along the bottoms of these screened doors leading to the porch. One of them was coming apart for some reason. They're hard to see in this dark picture, but they look like something you'd see on an old general store door, I think. Very cute, Dad!

Maybe the temperatures will hold out and the rain will hold off this weekend so I can do some planting in the window boxes I hung back here. There's still a lot of work to do at No. 5380...and that's a good thing. I get restless when there's not. I'm linking to Debra's...

A lucky somebunny

2011-04-27T21:37:00.002-05:00

We had a nice Easter weekend despite the continual rain. Lane and Derek were in town and my parents came up from Rogers. We didn't do anything major, but the Easter Bunny found us...in addition to lots of chocolate, he also brought tabletop ping pong, SpongeBob swim goggles, a harmonica and a Mushable PotBellies lion.

The rain finally stopped today, but the forecast shows it will be back this weekend. I've had a busy week at school and we've got lots going on in the next few days. My cousin Julie and her family are stopping over tomorrow night on their way from OKC to a baseball tournament in Lamar, Mo. We're excited to have them...

Down the rabbit hole in Atchison, KS

2011-04-15T09:16:00.035-05:00

I suppose this is old news now, but I wanted to post some pictures from day three of our spring break last month, when we met my mom and dad in Atchison, about an hour from KC. We started with lunch at a charming little place called Marigolds, then made our way down the street for some shopping.

Our main purpose for choosing this little Kansas town as our rendezvous spot was for my mom and me to finally visit the famous Nell Hill's. It did not disappoint. We walked circles around the place, looking again and again, and it really did feel like falling down a rabbit hole, with one cute thing leading to another.

We both walked out with some lovely selections. I put the two big baskets in my dining room hutch. My parents' 39th wedding anniversary was the next day, and my dad picked out two plates and two red glasses for the occasion. Atchison is also the birthplace of aviator Amelia Earhart, and there are tributes to her all around town.

Macauley took off with my parents and Ryan and I headed back to Kansas City, passing the formidable federal prison in Leavenworth (it really is so big and foreboding--quite intimidating to drive by). We zoomed down flat, open roads, farmland on either side, under the puffiest clouds I think I'd ever seen. The sky seemed huge and we seemed so small...dust in the wind?

"Don't hold on...

nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky."

~ Kansas

Welcome b(l)ack

2011-04-10T15:16:00.006-05:00

You'd think I would be deterred by the messy, messy spill of the black paint I dealt with yesterday, but I'm seriously considering painting my front door black. I am especially inspired by the door with the white letters, and I think a No. 5380 in a pretty font would be the crowing touch. Hmmm...

I heart weekends

2011-04-09T19:42:00.003-05:00

What a pretty weekend it has been. I visited with some friends after school yesterday then drove by myself to Billings for Pheona's Vintage Market. So much cute stuff, but also a lot of people and I couldn't seem to find my shopping mojo. I did come home with some great ironstone pieces, but I sure wish I would have snagged this really big old picture frame with burlap in it when I first saw it. By the time I went back for it someone else had seen its beauty, too. On my way back to Springfield I stopped at Orscheln Farm and Home to pick up a gift certificate and took a little time to browse their adorable chick selection, which included baby ducks and turkeys, too. Not something I'm in the market for right now, I suppose, but I can see how so many people are launching their own backyard flocks.

This morning Ryan and I joined my friend Amy for the American Heart Association's HeartWalk, which started at Walnut Lawn and National, snaked down Jefferson past Kickapoo and then up to Montclair and back around. I think it was probably 3 miles, and I was amazed at the mobs of people who showed up to do it. Amy has weathered 4 heart surgeries and was in St. Louis yesterday trying to get to bottom of some new problems she's been having. I'm so thankful to have a healthy heart and hope that my friend's shapes up and works the way it's supposed to. She's a supermom to 2 adorable little boys, everyone's favorite guidance counselor at Kickapoo, and an awesome friend to me. We were glad to walk in her honor...Love ya, my friend.

We made a quick stop at the flea market to pay my rent and check my little booth (mostly empty and neglected--I had 2 checks waiting for almost $260!) then met the Rhoads at Maria's for lunch. I've spent the rest of the afternoon puttering around the yard (I just stare and stare at the backyard wondering what to do with it) and repainting my wicker out front. While Ryan and I chased scaredy-cat Booker around trying to give him a decent bath, the tarp I had spread out under my porch swing got caught in the wind and dumped half a can of thick black paint onto the concrete porch. Yikes. I got paint all over me from head to toe in the process of trying to clean it up--much of it still won't come off my hands and legs--and have been online looking for a quick fix. We're thinking of going to see True Grit at the dollar movies tonight, but I'd be just as content to curl up in my messy house and read magazines or something. Macauley went camping with Ryan's parents (got to leave school early yesterday, which was such a thrill for him) so we're enjoying the quiet even though we miss him.

Getting my goat(s)

2011-04-07T21:29:00.012-05:00

Been thinking a lot about animals lately...what their lives are like, what part I want them to play (or not play rather) in my everyday diet, but this post is more about my complete and utter pipe dream of raising a couple of little goats in my backyard. Let's just ignore for a moment the fact that although I eat up the stories about Brownie and friends at Over Good Ground, I know absolutely nothing about raising farm animals. I'm also pretty sure my dream wouldn't fly with the rather rigid HOA in my subdivision. But how adorable would it be to have a little boy and girl, maybe Pygmies or Nigerian Dwarfs, and name them Romeo and Juliet and let them live happily ever after being spoiled rotten by my family and me? Very adorable, that's how.

Karma chameleon

2011-04-01T23:33:00.003-05:00

So glad it's the weekend and that my youngest sister is here with us. Lane, Macauley and I went for a long walk on the greenway trail after work this afternoon and then went straight to dinner at Prima's and to the dollar movies in our sweats. Tangled was quite an adorable movie, much better than I was expecting, and Macauley fell hard for the charming little chameleon always looking out for the princess. When the king, queen and their palace sent up the floating lanterns to call their lost daughter home, Macauley reached over and took my hand, held it on his lap, then asked me in a whisper if he could sleep in my room tonight. I whispered back yes.

Busy bunny

2011-03-30T21:32:00.008-05:00

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

2011-03-27T12:44:00.005-05:00

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

2011-03-26T16:10:00.014-05:00

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...