If you are like me...

...you probably have a ton of books. I have a few bookshelves, but nothing particularly interesting (though I do have a few really cute vintage ones!). A while back, my friend over at The Lost Earring introduced me to a blog that shows nothing but photos of the coolest bookshelves! Here are a few of my faves:





See more here. Thanks, Kelly!

It's been way too quiet around here...

I apologize for my silence lately! There have been some new developments in my life which have taken me away from blogging a bit- I'll try to be better, and will fill you in on some things in the coming month. In the meantime, I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas! I got some really nice things, including a couple of Etsy gifts. I am SO lucky to have gotten this amazing vintage cup and saucer set from craftydill:

I had my eye on it ever since the first time I saw it. I love the square shape and it's my favorite color, too! I was also overjoyed to get this gorgeous necklace from anoriginaljewelry:

It's SO dainty in person, and the green is absolutely perfect!

...is it wrong that I already have a new wish list? I'm drooling over the following items and trying my hardest not to buy them all this very second:

Adorable 2010 cloth calendar from 1canoe2.

Gorgeous vintage set of tea cups from littlebyrdvintage.

Journal made from an old book of Charles Dickens' works by moonmothpress. For those of you who haven't followed this blog long enough to know, Charles Dickens is kind of my boyfriend. ;)

On a closing note, I'd love your advice! I had this adorable vintage tea towel calendar that was a bit damaged. I decided to salvage the good parts and give the towel new life as a little snap pouch. I can't decide if I should use the part with the actual calendar on the front of the pouch, or put that part on the back and use the flowers as the front piece. Opinions, anyone???


Thanks in advance!

To all my blog friends...

Here I am somewhere around the mid-80s at a family holiday party. Yep, I'm at the kids' table. Remember the kids' table? And I just KNOW you couldn't wait for the day you were old enough to move up to table with all the adults. Am I right?! Of course I am. :)

Sending warm holiday wishes to each and every one of you. xoxo

**Apologies to my brother and cousin for sharing this ridiculous photo with the world.

So pretty

From lainedesign. I love how it can be worn as a capelet or a cowl. The color combo is perfect, too! Do check out her shop for more pretty things.

It all started with...

...a teeny tiny table and chairs. Photographer Machel Spence photographed them beneath the most perfect tiny mushroom umbrella. Then she got the clever idea of sending the tiny table and chairs to other photographers around the US and Canada to photograph the set in their own way. Being a lover of all things tiny and things from far away, there was no way I could resist posting this! Click here to see the flickr pool of the photos taken so far. So cute!

Make sure to visit Machel's etsy shop, as well. She does such great work!

Best. Fabric. Ever.

Is it possible to be in love with fabric? I mean, if it's really gorgeous, vintage 1950s loveliness? Because I'm in love. But don't tell the fabric- I mean, we have to work together and I don't want it getting awkward or anything.

Double AND triple strand 1950s loveliness in the shop now.

Once a nerd...

...always a nerd. Remember when you were in grade school, there would be those fundraisers and your parents and family would be trapped into buying candy and cheese and sausage and other things they didn't really need? And remember how if you sold a certain amount of items you'd get to pick a really cool prize? Well, this is proof I have always 1. been a nerd, and 2. loved tiny things. Here is one of the amazingly cool prizes I chose for myself when the rest of the kids were picking glow-in-the-dark stickers and toys and sports equipment and who knows what else:


This tiny calculator (it's under two inches tall) is really one of my prized possessions! Yes, after 24 years (I think I picked it in 2nd grade), it still works! It is worn and most of the gold coloring has worn off the buttons, and you can barely see the numbers, but I will never throw this little gem away. And you know what? I bet all those kids aren't still sitting here today with their stickers and nerf balls. I'm proud I picked the calculator! I actually used this all the way up to high school, until the basic functions just weren't cutting it anymore. Yay for nerds!

Just a few things I want...

...but know I don't really need. But, oh, how I want them!

Tiny pies on sticks. I can't say no to pie, and TINY pies?! You know how I love tiny! By Skipping Skones.

Super tiny suitcase. It's really a coin pouch! By Miss Ireen.

Vintage vignette by dottieangel. You get everything in the photo. I want it all!

Butter cookie tea by NotJustTea. I already bought a sample of the coconut vanilla chai and it's so good! This will be my next flavor.

New addition

I cannot express how much I love this new cuff! It is old and worn and perfect. I found a piece of this great old eyelet at a local antique shop on my lunch break this week. It was cut from a very old dress- the button is very old and worn and shows it, too. I love that the materials in this cuff once had a very different life. In the shop today.

Mine, all mine!

A while back I won a really amazing giveaway - my prize was a bag of my choice, made to order, from bee gee bags! I assure you, this was no easy decision to make! Go take a look at all the clutches available; they are absolutely adorable! After a lot of thought, I decided on the bag pictured above. Isn't it gorgeous?! I just got it yesterday and cannot wait to use it. It really makes me want sunshine and a warm breeze and a nice summer day. I think I'm going to have to wait a while for that. ;)

Thank you so much, Brooke- I love it!

Back to the drawing board

Yesterday's photo of my granny square-in-progress was deceiving. It made one of the colors look creamy rather than the pale (but somehow NEON!) orange it really was. I should never have started using that color at night before I saw it in daylight! Anyway, I couldn't bear to look at it any longer. It was like an eyesore and I knew I had to get rid of that color altogether. Sadly, I took apart pretty much the entire square last night and started over. I now have this:

It still has far too much dark fuschia for my taste, considering that wasn't a color I'd even considered when I first pictured this afghan in my head. At any rate, I'm not taking it apart again! I'll just keep going with these four colors without that nasty little strip of pale neon orange.

Afghan-to-be

Back in September, I showed you my first attempt at making a granny square in about 15 years. Three months, later, I now have a whopping 1.5 finished granny squares! I decided last night I would NEVER finish enough squares to make an afghan. Because of this, I decided to just make an afghan consisting of one giant granny square. It seems to be a way faster and easier process. The only problem is I think I ruined it. I added a row of a buttercream color and a kind of dark fuschia, and I don't think these two rows match at all.

At first I only had the olive green, aqua and oatmeal (not white!). I knew I wanted two more colors, but both stores I checked only had frosty blues and periwinkles in this same brand/type of cotton yarn. The buttercream and fuschia seemed to be the best way to go. Now I wish I'd pulled them out before I kept going! Oh, well. I'm going to keep going with my giant granny square and hope I get used to these colors by the time it's finished!

***EDIT- I just got the first look of this thing in natural daylight and it is not buttercream at all- more like the color of orange sherbet. I'm not liking it at all!

Little things around the house

An ancient keyhole.

A kitty's pink nose.

Some dried flowers in a vintage mug.

A doll head planter.

A pretty chair.

A favorite mug.

I hate when I do this.

An adorable vintage cup and saucer. My favorite color. My favorite song!! Yet I waited...I thought maybe I should save and not spend. And now it's gone. Why do I always do this?!

Watch a book come alive...

My friend Kelly over at The Lost Earring sent me a link to this amazing video and the minute I saw it I knew I had to share it with all of you! It's a promotional video from The New Zealand Book Council made to entice people to read and to embrace the work of local writers. I think it makes its point! Have a look:

My little protector

Last night Julia and I were upstairs when we heard some scary noises downstairs...kind of a pounding noise. We thought it might be the cats but they were both upstairs with us. We brushed it off but every few minutes we heard another noise. I must say, I get scared easily and these noises were freaking me out. Well, Julia disappeared into her room and came out looking like this:
Pretty fierce, huh? Click the pic for a close-up. As you can see, she gathered every toy weapon from her room, along with a helmet, and said "Mom, I'm goin' down." What you can't see is she had a screwdriver in one pocket and some sour spray candy in the other. Her defense for the candy was that it was old and would hurt if she sprayed it in the "intruder's" eyes. My little protector! She went right down those stairs like the brave little girl she is. Of course, I tried to go down first, but she pushed right ahead. We never did find the source of the noise, and I'm happy to say we were safe and sound the entire night. I love my brave girl.

Heaven knows...

Wrote Charles Dickens, "Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts."
-Great Expectations

In the shop today.