Oh So Lofty

I have always loved the idea of living in a loft. A footed tub behind a dressing screen. Gigantic wall spaces for large gaudy antique portraits, industrial cabling with grommet fastened canvas room divider slides, random columns and/or beams, cool concrete floors... so basically none of this would be practical with toddlers and a big dog in a suburb, but a girl can imagine, right? Loft images from Loft Life Magazine. Love it!

To and Fro

photo by bomobob

A couple of days ago, I took my boys to see Nim's Island. A movie I had never really considered seeing before but it was all that was available.


shipwreck gown by threadbare uk


Our movie theatre has a free kid movie every Tues/Wed in the morning. I, having a hard time leaving my home during the day, decided to face the challenge and take the boys on a rare outing. I felt I had a bit (though not as extreme) in common with Alexandra in the movie who is a raging agoraphobic. We all really enjoyed the message behind the movie. And Gerard Butler. But mostly the message (and scenery).


earrings by kathryn riechert

The message that we must face our fears head on in order to conquer them. That we cannot be stifled by ideals, technology or criticsm lest we should fail to thrive. That sometimes being alone is okay, but having a confidant is even better.


photo by ds brennan

That happiness does not need to come through large means. That not even an expanse of an ocean unexplored cannot keep you from reaching your destiny. (you just need a bit of a push and make an effort to do it).


pelican by sandra healy

So, this is to my staycation this summer, trying to find ways to stay afloat amidst those currents of doubt, fear, anxiety, health, financial struggles, personal limitations...


photo by h o g n e

To aid you in your waves of inspiration, is the lovely Seaside Beauties collage by Faerie Enchantment of the Faerie Zine.

Let Us Be Men

I just read the story of Carol Decker for the first time today. You can read updates at their blog.

Almost one year ago today, Carol had an emergency ceasarian section to deliver her second baby, Safiya. Due to severe complications from hypertension from septic pneumonia, arteries to both her legs, one arm and her eyes blocked her circulation that forced amputations. Carol had both her leg's below the knees amputated, her left arm below the elbow amputated, her right ring finger amputated; and is now blind. All of that is due to ischemia from vasopressive drugs used to keep her blood pressure high enough to survive.



Carol now struggles with multiple surgeries, prosthetics complications, blindness, pain, learning to move again and being a young mother to two young little girls. She has a supportive husband who blogs about their progress, helps her function and even does her make-up. Now the Deckers are faced with medical expenses over the 2 million dollar mark and any help or words of love is always appreciated. Please see the this video from KOMO news, it is an amazing story.

I hope we all today, can be a little more thankful for what we do have in this world. That we can share a little bit of hope, prayer and service to those in need.

Carol's story and her supportive husband reminded me of this video about being a "real man". Elder D. Todd Christofferson, shares a touching personal experience and exhorts men to live by the attributes of true, Christlike manhood in this segment entitled "Let Us Be Men".



I hope you find yourselves uplifted today.

Granbury: A Shabby Weekend

By shabby, I mean, shabby good and shabby bad.



We went to Granbury, the home of a tiny historic down square, bed and breakfasts galore, a theatre stage and opera house, antiquing and homemade fudge and salsa, a drive in theatre, we even went to Granbury on our honey moon. But, so much has changed in the past 6 years. Half of the wonderful shops are gone. My favorite, The Glass Knob, is now Babe's Chicken. Every window used to have a gorgeous display, only a few remain.



The other half of the stores sell turquoise chunk jewelry and imported handbags, tourist bobbles mixed in with the shabby chic and antique treasures in the back. What happened to this quaint romantic square untouched by mass produced junk? (CUTE mass produced junk, but mass produced, none-the-less).



Only about 4 stores remained true to the roots. The quilt shop where we got our honey moon quilt was still there.



Lots of candy for the pickens, and the chitlens.



Even though I don't sew, I love fabric and I love patterns and I love wishing I could sew.



Though it was about 100 degrees, my husband trudged along happily because we found some amazing homegrown salsa (D.L. Jardine's Cilantro Green Olive). He goes to craft fairs and antique malls just for the pleasure of finding his homemade salsa.



Later we went to The Brazo's Drive In (which is FOR SALE) to see Star Trek (awesome) and Night at the Mueseum 2 (awful). The website said gates open at 7pm. So we are in line when a massive thunderstorm starts rolling in. B/c we have connections, we were able to stay up to date on the weather and we high tailed it out of there. We drove several miles on empty country road till we found a safe pocket and hunkered down for the storm to hit. We did this about three times, trying to outrun the storm. At one point, the sky turned green and we saw cloudy rotations. We talked about how I would grab Caleb and David would grab Isaac and we would lay in a muddy impression of the ground as flat as possible on top of our boys should a tornado hit.

We did this for a couple of hours (honestly we felt like gung-ho storm chasers, especially my mom) and sat tight as the practically torrential rains rolled over us in thunderous, black waves. About 2 hours later, the rains stopped an we drove back to the Drive-In.



It was a good thing we left, since the field was spotted with quite damaging chunks of hail! The storm took out the drive in sound system, so the movies didn't start till almost midnight. The movie started and it was good, but the boys were out by this time. Thanks to the boredom of passing the time (and some crushed melatonin tablets we fed them by small degrees).



Aye... we were a tired bunch of souls on our drive back home, I constantly feel asleep and jolted myself awake to keep talking to David so he would remain awake as well. Though we wished we had left after Star Trek and not stayed for the second movie, it was still a fun and memorable experience. So, what did you do this weekend?

Fly Free

City Wings Headband by LA Native

One of my favorite child rearing bloggers is Zach Aboard. During a particularly stressful child rearing day (nay, week), I came across her post Enjoy the Ride. I love how she has photos of her son in a swing woven throughout the words, so fitting. My dad use to say all of the time to Enjoy Life! He had phrases with various words and used them as acronyms for his wise owl advice. One of his most famous acronyms was FLY FREE. I will have to find the detail of this one and post it sometime.



Child Costumes

Here are her words:

Everyone has sleepless nights. Everyone endures tantrums. Everyone has moments when they need the mute button on their kids. Everyone wonders if they are doing the right thing. Everyone has days when they are at the end of their rope.

But I always tell myself to remember -- he's just a little boy with a whirling twirling mind and a body bursting with energy and he's still learning this whole "how to be a person" routine.

My job is not to order or ask or expect or demand or direct. My job is to teach and guide and explain, and explain again, and then to do some more explaining and forgive and forget and hug and humor and hand hold. And most of all to listen and learn. That's right, we the parents need to listen and learn. I try to remember that it's my job to learn how to communicate with him, not his job to take orders from me.

It differs from kid to kid, mama to mama. It's just takes some patience to find your path.

Through the ups and downs, I try to remember to hold on, and enjoy the ride.

Dreaming by Ben.Doo.Dat



I took Cindy's parenting inspirational advice and framed it in a free scrapbooking page from Smile Box, so I can print it out and hang it up. They have everything you need to make online scrapbooks, even adding music, video and moving graphics (but I think you need to upgrade to a paid account to save them):



Wouldn't it look pretty to have an inspiration wall like this? You could add your own inspiration words or family photos, perhaps in a sepia tone to the pages you pick for a soft and lovely accent wall, maybe even as a headboard accent piece. Tutorial found HERE from Thrifty Decor Chick:

Vintage Clothes - New Shop Goodies!!

Every time I go thrifting and antique-ing I always see vintage clothes that I want so badly to buy and pass on to my lovely Etsy community, but I always pass those golden opportunities up! Well, today, I could no longer resist... so I came home with some beauties. Here is a sneek peek, I will try and get them all listed in my shop the next week or so.



















Do you like vintage clothes? Do you wear them? Does your man-child? What would you like to see in my shop in the future... shoes, handbags, hats, blouses, skirts, pants, mens, baby, linens, pottery, jewelry, gadgets, epherma, photos...? I would love to know!