Utah, here I come....

I'm off to Utah in the morning for four fun-filled days of art with some of my favorite gals at ArtNest!! My little scrapbook is ready, with all sorts of odds and ends all sewn together to tuck in bits and pieces from the trip. These ladies are ready to be traded off in a mass art "swap". They are mini-books like the one above filled with vintage paper. Complete with bags embellished with spring finery. A couple of gifts for the amazing duo of Candice and Julie, our "mother birds" at the nest.
Piles of goodies to sell at the art sale.

Toodles~ I'll see you all back here in a week!!

Totally crazy....

Raise your hand if you would stand outside for an hour outside someone's house that you don't know, on a cold Minnesota day, with the temperature hovering around 10 degrees? All for an estate sale that you have no idea if there is anything good.
The person I stood with for that hour is my estate sale partner-in-crime Jennifer Murphy who made it much more tolerable by recounting her recent trip to Rome and other delights. Still sound crazy? These were some of my treasures. Totally worth it!

Hope you have a fantastic weekend.

Working on....

trades for ArtNest next week! Can't wait to take classes from

these

fantastic

ladies!

The morning after....

We had a nice, mellow Valentine's Day with the kids. We went to my parents house for a great meal last night which included chocolate and wine and homemade raspberry pie. Then we woke up this morning, the morning after. The flowers still looked gorgeous and put a smile on my face.

My parents took the kids for a bit and Joe and I had a wonderful breakfast together. Such a treat!

I found some fun estate sale treasures.

I bought an entire mini-tree full of these little cotton people. Some are more Christmassy than others. These little ladies captured my heart. Anyone know the age of something like these?

Lots of beautiful vintage paper napkins and notecards.
Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day!

~Wishing you the sweetest of days!~

Feel the love...

We've really been enjoying the lovefest around here. Tea parties and school parties every day. Chloe set up the tablescape below for one of her impromtu gatherings. Lowell's room was so festive this morning, I wanted to share the kids wonderful creations.

The kids working hard on their Valentine's.

Lowell passing out his collaged Valentine hearts. Doesn't get much better than that!

Easy peasy Valentine's....

Valentine's Day was definitely on our mind this past weekend as the kids get ready for their parties this week at school. I really didn't want to do store bought Valentine's this year, but I needed something easy that the kids could help with. Here were the two projects we created.Chloe created this super cute cupcake drawing, I wrote You're Sweet and then we scanned it. I printed six to a page, we cut them out and Chloe signed them all. Super easy, super sweet!

For Lowell we needed to have many, many Valentine's since he has a few different classes. I opted for the collage approach. We covered construction paper with various scrapbook papers ripped and haphazardly glued down with a glue stick.
I let them dry for a few minutes under some books to flatten it all out, then we cut out hearts for Lowell to sign. Again, easy and fun!

I received another fabulous package for the All the I Love swap. My partner was Kathy in Belgium. This heart garland is so beautiful. She layered and stitched on each heart and it is just gorgeous!

As if that wasn't enough she filled her package with lovely papers, trims, chocolates (yum!) and this too cute for words little satchett with a mushroom appliqued on. I love everything.

Thanks, Kathy!

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Can't wait to see what everyone else is up to for Valentine's Day!

February survival guide...

I've been following Amanda Soule's winter manifesto on her blog SouleMama. I thought I'd play along. The manifesto quotes are taken from Amanda's blog. She explained her project as,

"an effort to stay mindful and aware...{it is a} Wintry Weather sanity-survival guide of sorts. Just little reminders - in words and pictures - of some of the joys that really are all around us this season. (Even if we have to look a bit harder that usual!)"

Number One ::
Follow the sun wherever you find it. Rejoice in the slowly-growing-longer days. I'm in love with my new pillow from Tracy B Designs. Also love the play of morning light here with my shadow in the photo looking through my camera lens.

Number Two ::
Make Stuff.

Artist's at work.

Lowell didn't take it seriously for too long!
Lowell's was more a study of the glaze of the vase:)
Number Three ::
With gratitude for the labor of summer and fall, do everything in front of the fire. Morning, Noon, and Night.
Ok, we don't have a fireplace, so our couch serves as our headquarters for snuggling, reading and the like. (Yes, Chloe is in her swim suit! She wears it all the time unless we are outside in cold).

Number Four ::
Get out there everyday, no matter how cold or quick the visit may be.
Through crunchy snow underfoot and breath-warmed wool on your face, remember the magic and wonder of it all.
Try not to take it for granted.
It's been warmer here the last few days and it looks like a great weekend ahead. Our snowman is in serious need of repair.

Lowell had to check on the new shed that daddy built over the summer and fall.

Who says you can't swing like a hot summer day?!

This was a fun exercise, I hope to keep up with Amanda's manifesto over the next couple of weeks. Have a great weekend!

All that I love...

The Valentine swap that I hosted over on A Year of Color blog was called All that I Love. The goal was to get to know your partner and what they love. Then send them a package full of goodies they'll adore for Valentine's Day. My package from one of my partners, Linda Crispell arrived the other day. Look at all the fun CUTE goodies! Thanks, Linda!

This handmade snow globe has one image on the front and one on the back and came inside this box made from a vintage gameboard.

So clever!
Another neat vintage handmade piece from Linda. Lots and lots of vintage supplies.She filled some old candy tins with treasures. My favorite!

Retro candy for my endless sweet tooth. The frozen fluff box is fabulous and the mushroom just cracks me up!

Speaking of sweets, I just couldn't pass up this amazing banner from Analise's etsy shop. With Chloe's birthday coming up in a few months I can already sense the rationalizing for fun decor for me....I mean her!! Remember last year? I had a whole swap related to the big event. hehe.

Every little details is sweet as candy.