crocs. they are comfy and fun and, okay, these are a bad color, but i have a dark brown pair too. i wear the browns outside of the home, these bright blues are for inside purposes. i was reading on the preppycafe how so many people are choosing to abhor these fabulous shoes. what?? so then i wonder if these croc-haters have ever worn them...hmmm. some are saying they are a trend. again, have they ever worn them? because i love them, my feet love them, and if you are related to me you probably have been given a pair as a gift - so i know you love them :) and did you know that crocs are anti-germ/anti-odor? bonus!

the kids are back in school and there are halloween decorations out in the stores, but it is still 95 degrees. i am a summer girl, but when it is time for fall, it is time for fall. i am ready to rid my flower boxes of their summer varieties and plant some pansies. i am ready to wear corduroy. i am ready to go to the pumpkin patch...and i am really, really ready to eat candy corn.

* photo from last october, i'm not that anxious :)

it's big, but this picture makes it look huge! i am a sucker for anything in this color, and i love that you see it a lot in modern and cottage designs, so you can really mix it up. i appreciate lots of different styles, but i will always be true to my pastel colors :)

ok, snore. closets are not very exciting. and i will not post a "before" picture, as i am not that thrilled with the "after" picture, but if you only knew the difference this has made! we have a very very loooooooooong closet that we share, argh, yes, share (go in, turn right, my side is just past the laundry baskets and the brown dresser). it's a nightmare. we are both mess pots. so this is almost spa-ish in comparison to what we were dealing with before. not only do the baskets hold the many things that were previously on the floor, but they draw your eyes up high - high enough not to notice that someone might have decided not to hang up their shirt. i was also thinking it would be even better if the walls were painted a nice fun color, why do we always paint our closets white?

it's errand day. target, cottage chic, daughter's school, grocery store.... i have been really getting organized around here lately and today i am fishishing up my closet project. i got some great baskets from target. i actually bought them out of their supply twice now, they are such a great price. i am going to have to go to a different target for a few more. if i get brave, i will share a picture of the difference these baskets have made in my closet, it's incredible! my rachel ashwell curtain panel is finally in at cottage chic, so i am going to pick it up at the store and try not to buy anything else. then it's pick up time for my daughter and off to the grocery store for more school lunch snacks. my husband keeps eating them all. happy wednesday!

so i have had this on my links list for awhile now and i visit the site each day, but i really had no idea how *fabulous* it was until yesterday. i have been wanting to extend my dining room molding about four inches down by adding a swag or border detail in stenciled plaster. harder to describe than to visualize. anyway, i e-mailed holly (the author of decor8) to ask if she could help me find the perfect stencil, and...in MINUTES she had written back with a whole list of sites to check out!! not only did she help, but we chatted for a few minutes and i sent her a picture of my stairway stencil project from a few months ago and today she featured me on her page. then, apartment therapy chicago picked it up as well. so, thanks to holly, i kind of felt famous:) she really is amazing, if you have any questions, e-mail her! check it out:

http://decor8.blogspot.com/2006/08/ask-decor8-stencil-resources.html

http://chicago.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/flickr-finds/flicker-finds-
handstenciled-fauxpaper-011810

today i received two unexpected gfts from two different people. isn't that the best? one friend happened upon this fine tinsel garland and bought me five packages! the other got me this hen. it is a salt and pepper shaker: nest is salt, hen is pepper. both friends just said they thought of me when they came upon these little treasures, so they bought them - for me! i want them to know that their kindness means so, so much. they are very special ladies and i am glad to have them as friends. and of course, i will have my eyes peeled for little baubles that remind me of them.

i got this book from amazon.com this week. i love to look at people's creative spaces. i find them so inspiring. my creative space, not so inspring, but so messy. maybe because i don't know what i am creating?? i love to collect papers and fabrics and buttons and ribbons...but i just look at them and appreciate them in all their possibility. i never seem to know what to make with them. i need to learn to sew. my friend at preppy potato keeps telling me she will teach me, i have GOT to take her up on that.

i was reading a post over at one of my favorite blogs my little cottage and it reminded me of my grandparents. you know those people who just have that knack for making a house a home...the kind of home that you enter and it is pretty and comfortable, the kind of home that smells like dinner and offers lemonade...that's my grandparent's house. it was built in 1850 (they removed siding and refurbished the logs about ten years ago). they always keep a candle lit in the upstairs window. they have a garden and a cat. my grandmother bakes almost everyday. she's the one who taught me the essentials of "the list."

everything about this house says love. i am so grateful.

did you know that when i plan projects, they are often interrupted by my unplanned projects? i got some blue paint out for my bedroom 'scrap wall', but i decided to paint my garage entrance area instead. door to your left, laundry room to garage. door to your right, master bedroom. most of the time i enter my home i come this way, through the laundry room. i needed a little cheer. before it was painted with a flat ivory paint and furnished with an oversized white bench. from this picture i see i have a few details to finish. 1. that cord is bugging me 2. i still haven't finished adding all of my doorknob diamonds - did you notice? 3. i am about to hang the "s" somewhere else, so i will need something different on the table.

when i finished painting today, my daughter asked if i would paint her fingernails, too. but not blue, she said, purple. i got kind of messy, i guess :)

every year, i allow my children to choose a new lunchbox. it is a tradition from when i was a child and i suppose for many families. this year my daughter chose a disney 'princess' lunchbox. it was hard for me to let her do that. my son chose a disney 'cars' lunchbox. again, difficult. don't they see how adorable this max and ruby lunchbox is? i just love max and ruby. they live in the most perfectly decorated little cottage. i get so inspired watching that show. i may just have to get this lunchbox for myself.

finally it cooled off tonight to enjoy the porch again. my neighbors came over for dinner and we had a nice breeze while we dined. i am going to a home tour show tomorrow and i just am so excited about it! i think it is the best way to spend a day with friends. happy weekend!

the person who owned this house before us must have planted the phlox i find each summer along the side of our porch. i have no gardening ability, but i love flowers in my home, so i buy them from our local market every other week or so. i have found such gratification picking phlox out of my own yard and bringing it indoors to enjoy. for just a moment i understand what it must be like to be a farmer, how proud they must feel to produce something for themsleves and others. i would love to have a vegetable garden someday.

i am having dinner guests tomorrow night, the food part stresses me out a bit, but i can't wait to set the table! i will take pictures.

so lately i have been deep in thought with ideas for my scrap wall and the guest house decor. for the scrap wall i have chosen the photographs, some of the paint and a few stencils. for camp guest house i have chosen the paint, the flooring, a few knick-knacks, but get ready...i have one more new idea...a bunk bed room! when i was little and went away to camp, we slept in a room with a bunk bed seven beds high, nobody believes that, but it is true - 7! i slept on bed #3 (third from the bottom, the first bed was flat on the floor)and i felt very, very brave. besides camp, i had very few bunk bed experiences...a friend had a camper with the bed over the driver, never got to sleep there, but so cool, and remember different strokes? arnold and willis had a great bunk bed that was set up sideways(well, i mean in a "t")! i was so jealous. so, i know they can be dangerous which is why i didn't choose them for my children's everyday beds, but the guest house is like sleep away camp and bunk beds are such a fun treat. i think two of these from pier one kids would be perfect in one room. they also sell blue ticking twin sheet sets. so excited!

when i was a little girl, i collected paper dolls. some i never played with, but these gingham girls were my favorite. i spent hours dressing them and making them talk, i wore them out. their little necks are barely attached to their thin bodies. i didn't understand what gingham meant then, but i have been thinking about the things i loved as a child and i haven't changed much. something in me has always adored the simplicity of early america. fields of flowers, white picket fences, gates with fancy latches, front porches with rocking chairs, fishing holes, mercantiles, school bells, gobstoppers in glass jars...yes, i was a HUGE little house on the prairie fan.

if you look at my links list, you will find several of the people who have recently inspired me. today, i showed my daughter alicia paulson's **delightful** site and she quickly said she wanted to "do art." even she was inspired! so, together we made her her very own collage to hang in her room. we were too impatient to paint the background of the canvas...next time...but i think it turned out pretty well (despite the pencil markings)for a spur of the moment art project. if you haven't checked out alicia's site...get ready for something fantastic! ****

not me, she lives next door. she watered my flowers for me for ten days when i was away, and when i returned...well, do you see the vine growing behind my shutter? i keep asking her what her secret is. she has reminded me of the movie jumanji. since i've been back, i've killed two pots.

i know you would never guess this lately with all the blue, but my favorite color is pink. okay, that's all. i needed that.

photo from mooseyscountrygarden.com

i did a little scrapbooking when my children were babies. i love to look back at the things i did, but i had not been motivated to get back into it. that is until i came across heidi swapp's website a few months ago (that is her page above). she is just amazing. so lately i have done a few board books and cards and such, but being a homedaisy, i really want to do something to my home. so...i have decided to scrapbook my wall. i am serious. i am going to use all of the scrapbooking techniqes i love and make one huge layout on my bedroom wall. today i am taking some favorite pictures to kinkos to get them blown up in black and white and i am going to work on finding some favorite quotes to go with them. i don't know my color scheme yet, pink, blue or cream. probably a little bit of all three. i need some fabric, some stencils and a few special somethings...i will show my work when it really starts coming together.