Julia is so sweet.

The other day we were on a walk and I found some teeeeeny pine cones on a little branch on the ground. I took them home to photograph them because they were SO cute. When we got home, I looked down and saw I was holding a branch with no pine cones on it. Ugh! Yesterday when I got home from work, she gave me a little bag of tiny pine cones she had found for me during the day. They are so tiny and I love them! They make me kind of want fall...

P.S. Julia turned 10 years old on Monday. My big girl.

I brought you along on my lunch break today!

I just happened to have my camera in my car today and thought you might like to come with me while I browsed my favorite local shop! It's the perfect mixture of vintage and new items; many of the things I've shown you on this blog have been from here! Click pics to zoom.

It was hard to get really crisp photos because it is actually kind of dim in the shop. I had to lighten some of these quite a bit (and we all know flash pics are the worst!)






See the adorable vintage owl planter in the photo below?:

Well, there was absolutely no way I was leaving without her!

If any of you ever happen to be in the McHenry County area of Illinois, I strongly suggest visiting The Backdrop on the Woodstock Square. :D

P.S. The reason I had my camera in the car in the first place was to photograph this insanely huge bee I almost stepped on while leaving home today. It was SO big (maybe 1.5 inches long) that I had to photograph it:

ICK!!

He's taking it like a man...

He was just so matted...at least he can be cooler in this boiling hot house. Poor boy.

90 degrees and a "new" vintage blanket

Yep, it's just about 90 degrees in my house (no air conditioning- blech!), but my love of vintage blankets has prevailed.

I bought this adorable vintage blanket here the other day and I just got it (super fast shipping) and it is SOOOO perfect!

It's way more vibrant in person but these pictures are in front of the window so the colors are kind of washed out. Kudos to Julia for agreeing to pose wrapped in a blanket in a 90 degree house!! Poor girl.

Chicago Botanic Garden - lots of photos!

Today I went to the Chicago Botanic Garden, which is one of the most beautiful places! I took a lot of photos, and had trouble narrowing down which ones I should put on the blog (as you can see!). You can click on each photo for a crisper, larger view.




I really love this one below. It looks like a forest with water in the background, but it is really a close-up of a bonsai tree that was only a couple of feet tall:


The tall structure in the background of the photo below is actually an instrument! It has a number of very large bells that are operated by use of a keyboard:

One of my faves:








Doesn't the photo below look like ice? It's really just a split-second shot of a water fountain in action. I love it!





I really can't decide which photo I like best, but I think I'm partial to the coneflowers. Which is your favorite?

Free downloadable fun

Last night Julia and I made this adorable paper elephant using a free downloadable pattern from Curiosity. It turned out so cute! I originally found this on How about orange, which is an amazing blog full of links to great tutorials and free downloadable prettiness. Go check her out!

Mmmmmmm.

Browsing Etsy tonight, I came across this great coconut cream specialty sugar from LoveAbounds:

It's a blend of organic fair trade cane sugar and coconut cream with a hint of vanilla. It sounds wonderful! While I'm at it, I'd like to try it with this coconut cream pie black tea:

It has freshly toasted unsweetened coconut and I want a cup this very minute! Not only that, this shop has coconut chai and chocolate chai, which is my absolute favorite! Go check it out. :D

Bottled sunshine.

Wow. The other day I was having a not-so-good day. You know, that kind of day where you just want to cry all day long. Today I got some surprise mail from a friend who knew just what kind of day I was having. It's a little bottle of sunshine- a teeny tiny bottle of flowers and beads and prettiness wrapped in the sweetest little package you ever did see. Thank you so much, Carolina- my heart is very warm right now. :)

Make. This. Now.

What's not to like here?? Fried green tomatoes, cheese, bacon, avocado... see the full recipe for this amazing Fried Green Tomato Salad here. I cannot wait to make this!

While you're at it, follow her blog because it is amazing!

Did you win? You have to watch to find out!

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway to win some great LathersbyLinds soap. Julia picked the two winners from a bowl- come watch the video here and see if it was your lucky day!

I'll be contacting both of you shortly! :)

I want to show you what happens...

...every time I open my front door. Click here to watch. And, yes, I have icky striped wallpaper in this room, too. One of these days I will be rid of it!

P.S. Julia and I will be drawing the winners of this giveaway when I get home from work, so you have until 5:00 pm central time to enter! :D

Have I ever shown you...

my vintage sleeping bag?

Tell me that's not the cutest sleeping bag you ever did see. I got it a few months ago here and I love it!

It's all cotton so it's super soft and not that slick material of today's sleeping bags. Excuse the wrinkled look in the second pic- I actually used this sleeping bag last night because Julia and I 'camped out' on the enclosed front porch! We had tea and played games and slept with the windows open. It was nice. :D

P.S. I'm picking two the two winners of this giveaway on Wednesday morning! Do enter if you haven't done so. :)

New.

I got this new rug at Urban Outfitters today (click pic for a less blurry view). It's 3x5 feet and is going in my upstairs hallway. I love it! Of course, we had to wait for some birds to cross the street on the way there:

I just happened to have my camera in the car. ;)

Saturday stroll at the farmers market

Have you ever seen the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray? The town square featured in much of that movie is my very own town square in Woodstock, IL. If you've seen the movie, you've seen where I spend a lot of my time! I just got home from the weekend farmers market on the square where I made my own bouquet for $5.00:

I wish I'd had my camera so you could've seen all the lovely flowers from which one could choose. They give you the jar, too. Oh, and I'm definitely no flower arranger. No making fun!

I also got these sweet little owl magnets for my fridge:

Then I got this teeny vintage milk glass jar. It's only about an inch wide and you know I can't resist tiny things:

I hope you're all having a great weekend! :)

Ummm...

Kill me now. Because this is the outside of my house, and I am more scared of bees/wasps/hornets than any person you've ever met in your entire life.

Just getting this picture was terrifying.

**hurries back inside.

Something I like about my old house...

...my old doorbell on the front door. You just turn the key to make the bell sound. I think it's charming.