Some new pretties.....

Went back to the flea yesterday for the first time this season...my heart skipped a beat (get it?!) when I saw this heart-shaped beauty of a pin cushion. I have a small collection of them now but am so incredibly picky with what I choose. This one is large, shabby, has ruffles and velvet....in other words, it's perfect. I added the very old embroidered sacred heart that I found on ebay. I won't be using this pin cushion for it's intended use, it has a small loop on the back so I'll be hanging it in a prominent place where I can gaze at it every day and even pin pretty little things to it that have meaning for me. Sort of like my very own tiny inspiration board....:).

I also found this lovely piece (from the same vendor) that was made in Italy. My dh wants me to keep this, it's very old and will look great with my other religious artifacts that I've collected.
Another heart-shaped item, isn't that how those things seem to go?

Check out this cute little box of envelopes, it has 11 of them left inside.......I'm loving the graphics on this. It's listed in my Etsy.

This beauty is listed as well, I love the pansies on this pretty album, and the pages inside are the most beautiful shade of robin's egg blue.
It was fun going back to the flea again, I've missed it!
I also found a wonderful set of Singer sewing library booklets that are from the 1930's......also in my shop.
Hope you all had a marvelous weekend and are ready for the busy week ahead!!
Thanks for visiting!

Do you ever think that maybe you've missed your calling?

My dh sent me some images today that completely consumed my entire afternoon......the thing is, sometimes we never really know what will inspire us until we actually see it!

These are images that 'speak' to me for Halloween. I love everything about this holiday, but I REALLY love these antique images from the 1700's.
I've made some tags with them and they are available now in my Etsy shop.
Perhaps graphic art should have been my major? But then, these soooo remind me of my anatomy classes that I had in college!

My love for Autumn..........

"I meant to do
my work today

but a brown bird
sang in an apple tree
&
a butterfly flitted across a field
&
all the leaves
were calling me
&
the wind went sighing
over the land
tossing the grasses
to & fro

& a rainbow
held out it's shining hand


so what could I do
but laugh
&
go"

How I love this season with all it brings....crisp cool days, longer nights, colorful leaves,
hearty soups, football games, pumpkins, Halloween......I could go on and on.
Let's make the most of it. Let's enjoy NOW, and not wait for 'someday'.
Let's appreciate what we have, not what we don't.
Let's be happy and content. Let's build a fire in our fireplace (if we're lucky enough to have one).
Let's bring out our warmer blankets, our darker rugs, our Autumn decor, our Fall wreaths.
I have an elderly neighbor who I plan on bringing a pot of soup to....Autumn makes me happy!
How about you?

A most thoughtful friend~~~~~~~~

A while back a blogging friend was lamenting the fact that she doesn't have many thrift stores where she lives....she was looking for something specific.

She was looking for embroidery hoops. I thought, "Wow, I see those each and every time I go thrifting....they're everywhere".

So the next time I went thrifting I picked some up for her....and she was sweet enough to make me one of her oh-so-beautiful dream catchers! Using an embroidery hoop, of course!

Now Amy and I have been blogging friends for awhile now and she has the most creative mind. She just sees vision in the most ordinary of items...like the lowly embroidery hoop.
Amy, I can't thank you enough, I love owning a work of art made by your own talented hands.
If you're lucky my friends you can own one too. Amy has a beautiful Etsy shop and you can access it from her blog right here.
Go ahead, click on my link, you'll be so glad you did!
Thank you my friend!

The search for a new....smaller....tree

This was frightening to say the least......

this huge limb came crashing down from our humongous sweet gum tree in our front yard....it crashed into our neighbors yard.

clearly it had "issues".....

I'll spare you the photo of the stump waiting to be ground down........:(.

This tree was about 80' tall.....it's been there quite awhile.
We'll be putting in a cherry tree that blooms with white blossoms in the Spring and I'll plant bulbs at it's base.
Time to move on.....

Family is everything..................!

Totally blessed to have my sister and her sweet dh staying with us for a few days..........here is Katherine helping her Uncle try to figure out the best new campground for them to stay at when they leave here........me? I'm feeling slightly (o.k., totally depressed!) that they're gone.
The good news? They'll be back in October. I'm counting down the days.......we had so much fun with them! My goal is to find them a new home here so that when they come back they won't be able to resist moving here....:).
The fact is that I've NEVER had an adult sibling who lives near me throughout my adult life.....I've always envied my friends who have their family near. I'm not one of those people and I do hope they know how lucky they are.
We had all kinds of freaky things happen while they were here....our huge tree in our front yard lost a huge limb and today (my relatives last day here) they got to see a real huge tree come down. It was scary and sad. But the tree was dangerous so we'll put in a safer, smaller tree.

Can't wait til they visit us next month!
School starts tomorrow for my dd, Disneyland visit next week, lots of stuff happening here!
Bring on Fall!