My Shabby Bungalow...

I'm feeling whimsical!

2012-02-24T09:45:00.009-05:00

Hello dear friends :) How is your week going? Mine has been busy, busy, busy!! We have been working on bedrooms, painting them. The drywall guy has been here working on the girls walls. Tonight Dave is bringing the sander home to do the kids bedroom floors and the hallway. Then, we are ripping up the carpet and sealing the floor in the family room so the new floor can be laid in the morning. The furniture will be delivered Monday. My house is such a mess, lol. Emily's bed is in my sitting room along with everything else from their room!! It looks horrible, lol. Sunday we can finally paint the girls room. I am so excited to see it finished. I bought the cutest huge butterfly mobile from Pottery Barn kids. I cant wait to get the decals up and the room decorated. She doesn't even have a crib yet because she is sleeping in Dave and my room still and probably will be for awhile except when Emily is here. I am afraid to have her sleep downstairs alone, even with baby monitors. But we found the cutest crib for her.

This time of year, whimsy and pastel colors really inspire me more than normal. The spring and Easter decorations are everywhere and it makes me so happy! The beautiful lily above opened yesterday from the Valentine flowers Dave bought me. It looks so pretty. The flowers are lasting forever :) That is the bad thing about roses, they don't last long enough.
Look at these cookies Dave brought home the other day! Savannah Smiles :) When I was little that was my favorite movie. It was so cute. These cookies were sooo good. I love lemon. I also love girl scout cookies! M y favorite are thin mints. And they have to be in the freezer :)
And of course I love bunnies and they come out in the spring :) So my pieces from Jenn of Eye Candy Creations always make me smile :) She makes the most whimsical things.
This is a bunny I did last spring. I sold one and kept one for myself, lol.
I gave her a basket with a velvet strawberry and a wreath of flowers around her neck :)
My favorite things of all though, are bunny fairies!!
In the spring, I like to buy a couple new pieces every year, no matter how small. I found these darling sugar bunnies the other day in the sweetest colors :)
I also couldn't resist this happy colored towel :) I so love yellow this time of year! It is my son Edison's favorite color :)

I have been busy with Savannah's birthday party too, amongst everything else that is going on! I am making a lot of the decorations for it myself. I cant wait to show you all the things I have been working on! It is all so whimsical and pastel, with bunnies, butterflies and gnomes :) I also have a few new pieces for the candy buffet. Now, I have a lot of candy to buy between now and March 17th! Yes, her party is on St. Patricks day! And if the guests wear green, they get a prize :) We ordered her cake from an amazing bakery Wednesday and I cannot wait to get it and to take pictures!! I hope it turns out right, lol. I also ordered her dress and hat from
Etsy. I went with a totally different dress and hat than I showed you before. I am really excited about it!!

On another note, it looks like my boys are going to be moving down here permanently!!! It is not for sure but I think it will be next week :) I will find out Wednesday :)

Well, I am going to go get started on things for Savannah's birthday :) Hopefully I will have a few things to show you next week :) Thank you so much for visiting me today!

XO,
Amy

chippy and tarnished....

2012-02-20T12:52:00.010-05:00

Hi there :) Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Mine was great because our kids were here :) Nothing like snuggling, cooking and baking and movies with popcorn :) Love it when they are all here!!

I so love the look of tarnished vintage silver and chippy white paint! I have been busy taking things out of my sitting room and putting new things in :)

Chippy sweet bunnies to bring in spring :)
I got this gorgeous big guy for my birthday! I loooove him so much!!! He is adorable and looks so old :)
I adore his heart that reads I love you, awww :) Super sweet and he fits right in with my other shabby bunnies that fill that room!
I also got some money for my birthday and bought this gorgeous ornate vintage silver heart! It is one of the prettiest pieces I have ever seen. I filled it with crystal knobs for a romantic look.
Love this clay tag from Junk to Joy, one of my favorite Etsy stores!!!
More tarnished silver filled with white parchment roses and an awesome tag that reads Haute Couture, from my friend Lori of Katie's Rose Cottage, another of my favorite online stores. You must check them both out if you love vintage farmhouse!!
This is one of the neatest pieces I have ever seen! What a wonderful idea, mixing tarnished silver with chippy white paint and old wood. I am always drawn to old architectural wooden pieces!!
It is a candle holder made from an old ladle!! How clever is that?? I bought it from Katie's Rose Cottage :)
Vintage egg basket full of old books tied with twine and an Eiffel Tower charm! Egg basket is from Katie's Rose Cottage as well! I love the color and the rust showing through :)
Little vignette in the corner :)

Hope you all have a wonderful week! Thank you so much for stopping by today :)

XO
Amy

Love and an Anniversary :)

2012-02-16T14:09:00.008-05:00

Hi Dolls :) Hope you are all having a great week so far and that you had a wonderful Valentine's Day! Mine was so sweet :) In case you wondered, Dave loved his red velvet hearts! He only has three left :)

He came home from work with goodies for me :) Beautiful flowers, chocolates and one of our favorite drinks :)
The flowers are so spring-y and pretty in shades of lavender. Dave said since he had just gotten me pink roses for my birthday, he wanted to get me something different. And I love these :)
Yummy Dark chocolates!! Dark chocolate is my very favorite :):)
Sooo delicious :) And I have eaten way too many already, lol. Dave isn't a big fan of dark chocolate so I cant even share them, lol.

*********************************************************************
On the topic of love, today is Dave and my first wedding anniversary. I cant believe it has already been a year! A lot has happened in the last year, lol. A baby daughter, moving to a new house and more. But I love him more everyday and am so thankful for the love and support he has given me and my boys. I truly could not ask for a better partner in life!

We actually celebrated our anniversary yesterday, since Dave has Wednesday's off. We went out to eat and shopping :) We decided for our anniversary we were going to get new furniture and flooring for our family room. It is the place we spend most of our time. So yesterday, we went and picked out our flooring and got our furniture. It is beautiful and I cant wait until it all gets done next week! Dave said he is going to make us steaks for dinner tonight :) With mushrooms and gravy, My favorite thing! Then we will go out shopping for the things we didn't get yesterday.

Yesterday, we also got some things for Savannah's nursery and her birthday party. We got THIS and THIS for her nursery and I cannot wait to put it up :) And her birthday dress is ordered :) So some things are getting done. I will show pics of everything as they are done. The drywall guy is coming next week so hopefully by the week after, her room will finally be done!

Hope you all have an amazing weekend! Thank you sooo much for visiting me today!

XO
Amy

Happy Valentine's Day Gorgeous!!

2012-02-14T15:04:00.004-05:00

Hello, Hello! Hope you are having a wonderful lover's day :) Mine wont be wonderful until my sweetie gets home from work :) Thursday is also Dave and my first wedding anniversary!! Very special for us :)

Dave and I :) Soooo in love :):)
A couple weeks ago, I won this sweet Valentine giveaway from Danielle of Danielle's heartfelt home blog. I won the cutest heart shaped measuring cups, two heart shaped cake pans and heart hot pad and glove. I love everything :) I was so excited for the heart cake pans! Thank you soooo much Danielle! Make sure you visit Danielle's beautiful blog. She has tons of delicious recipes on it!
I knew just what I was going to do for Dave for Valentine's Day :) So today, I baked up some Red Velvet heart cakes. Wrote "I love you Dave" in icing on them. Kind of looks like a kindergartner iced them, lol. But I still think he will love them. I have pasta sauce in the crockpot as well. Even though pasta is messy, I think it is the most romantic food, lol. There is just something about Italian!

Hope you all have a special day with someone you love! Thank you so much for visiting me today!

XO
Amy

2012-02-11T10:32:00.003-05:00

(super shabby hearts garland available in my shoppe in a few minutes)

Hope you all have an amazing weekend! The week of love is upon us :) Valentine's Day :) And my first wedding anniversary :) No plans here though, lol. Dave is working this weekend and then we have all of our kids next weekend. Maybe we can sneak out to dinner some night this week or something. It really doesn't matter much to me to be honest. My mind is so full of ideas and things I want to accomplish. But it is important to take time out for the love of your life, right? lol. Speaking of Valentine's Day, do you watch My Fair Wedding with David Tutera?? OMG, it is one of my favorite shows ever! If you watch it, did you see the Shabby Chic bride episode two weeks ago? That wedding was to die for! Everything vintage, all different shabby chairs, antiques brought in from antique shops!! Ohhh, I squealed through the whole show, lol. You can catch it in a rerun on We channel. Look for it, you will love it :)
I really haven't had too much to blog about lately, if you haven't already noticed! I don't like winter, so I kind of get into a "mood" this time of year. I don't feel as productive or energetic. Even though this has been a mild winter so far, it is still winter! It gets dark earlier and their are a lot of grey days. But, you just have to push through it. This week or next, I will be working on a couple spring items for my shoppe. Hopefully that will help my mood! I wont be doing too many items for spring this year. I have a couple ideas in mind but that is about it. Savannah's birthday is on my mind. I want it to be a really fun process for us. I think Dave is as excited as I am, lol. Hopefully I will have a lot of pictures to share with you of it. I tend to get so busy and caught up in the day that I don't take as many pics as I should! I think I better give that job to someone else, lol. I know our older kids will be more than happy to do it! They are little shutterbugs like me :)
Savannah is all over the place now! And she is talking up a storm. She is such a little doll! Getting lots more curly red hair like her mommy, lol. But she looks a lot like Dave in the face and her expressions. She is crawling everywhere and trying to get into everything, lol. She says Uh Oh all day long and it is sooo cute! She also says Lella and looks at Bella, lol. She just loves that dog so much! It is so much fun to watch your baby learn and do new things! Savannah loooves music!! And she dances and sings! It is the cutest thing ever. Every time she hears music on tv, she stops and looks and just watches until it is over. It is so funny. She has favorite commercials too. The Hershey's Kiss commercials and the Puffs Plus commercials with the little clay kids. Ashton loved that commercial when he was a baby too. Speaking of Ashton, he is in love!!!!!!!! My little baby has his first love. Her name is Sadie. Isn't that the prettiest name? She is a gorgeous girl and so sweet. She texts me too :) They are going rollerskating tonight. Sooo cute :)

Thank you sooo much for visiting me today!

XO
Amy

Never enough hearts...

2012-02-08T12:45:00.009-05:00

Hello there :) Hope you are all having a good week so far! It is a beautiful sunny day here today. I am so thankful so far for this mild winter we are having!

Hearts aren't just for Valentine's Day! I have added two new hearts to my shoppe and they are so pretty! Metal hearts with ornate patterns which I have painted white and embellished. Perfect for year round.

This one is for spring :)
Vintage millinery roses in pink and of course some vintage lace. So romantic!
I also added the prettiest tag with pink roses and a wonderful vintage image. This is so pretty and romantic. Imagine it hanging from a bed post. Or nestled in a shabby vignette!
This one has a French feel. Painted a shabby white, with a little burlap and cheesecloth.
I distressed a French style metal crown piece and added it to the center. I love how neutral this piece is! Perfect for any spot in your home. These both hang by seam binding as well.

Well, I am in full party planning mode here!! I have found so many wonderful things for Savannah's birthday!! I am so excited. It is a woodland fairy, bunny, spring theme. The invitations are soooo cute!! Dave wants a bunch of things around the house done by the party; so it is going to be chaotic. We have to have the girls room re-drywalled and then finish it. Yep, we have put it off for way to long, lol. Plus have some things done in the family room. New floors put in and I am hoping to get new furniture for the family room too but not sure if that will happen or not.

I have some cute spring items coming to my shop in the next couple of weeks as well. Hopefully they turn out the way I want them to, lol.

Thank you for visiting me today! Have a wonderful rest of the week :)

XO,
Amy

2012-02-06T11:44:00.001-05:00

*** May the subtle signs of spring be showing their whimsy in your world today, just as they are in mine! **

XO
Amy

Clearing the shelves...

2012-02-02T09:06:00.009-05:00

Hi! Hope you are all having an amazing week! Valentine's day is two weeks away. Plenty of time to decorate :) Sooo, I am having a huge Valentine's Day sale in my shoppe!! Making way for new items and spring items. Still lots of beautiful, romantic goodies left for Valentine's Day to be found in my little shoppe.

Thank you so much for stopping by today! I will be back next week with a "real" post, lol! All seven kids will be here this weekend and we are celebrating Gibby's birthday. Later in the month we have a bunch of projects going on inside the house and it is going to be a mess, lol. Rooms will be tore apart and it will be total chaos. So not sure how much I will be able to get on the laptop. Plus, I have a lot to do for Savannah's birthday, lol. I need to kick it in to gear!!

XO,
Amy

New shoppe items

2012-01-31T11:39:00.004-05:00

Hello sweeties :) Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Mine was filled with all seven of our children :) We had lots of fun together.

Last week, I worked on a couple items for my shoppe and wanted to share them with you.

This is an adorable super shabby extra large art tag. It has the cutest image of a cabinet card with a baby on it. Just precious and wearing the prettiest gown. I just knew I had to do something special with it. Lots of detail to this and it has a really old look. I shabbily painted a piece of cardboard for the base! Just loving that medium and look. I think I will do some more like it.
I am having so much fun making these lace roses! They are so pretty and each turns out a bit different. I used two kinds of lace for this one.
This is another burlap pouch/tote. Looove mixing rustic with romantic :)
I have also been making tons of these rolled roses! This has three on them. One burlap, two white lace. These are both in my shoppe now. More farmhouse style items in the works now. I am taking a different direction and it will also be reflected in my spring items. Less kitsch and sweet, more rustic and romantic. Lots of earth tones.

Hope you all have a wonderful week! It is sooo warm here today, you don't even need a coat! And the sun is shining so bright. This weather is playing tricks on us! Making it feel like March. I have a feeling we will pay in February, lol!

Thank you so much for visiting me!

XO,
Amy

spring countdown post 2....

2012-01-27T07:40:00.005-05:00

I just had to brag that my kitchen faucet is on the cover of the latest issue of Country Living :) I still love this faucet as much as I did the day we bought it :)

Okay, onto spring....

**pics taken last spring before I changed my blog name**

All through the long winter, I dream of my garden. On the first day of spring, I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth. I can feel its energy, and my spirits soar.
Helen Hayes

Valentine pastels...

2012-01-24T13:06:00.011-05:00

Hello! Hope you are all having a wonderful week so far. Mine has been spent creating for my shoppe! I have so many new ideas and things that I want to do. It feels good to be inspired! Tomorrow I have to go to the doctor for some tests :( And Savannah has to go in tomorrow for immunizations :( Not at all looking forward to any of it, lol. But when I went to the doctor last Monday and got weighed (no, I don't have scales in my house), I was shocked to see that I only have four more pounds to lose to get to the weight I want to be at. So that was a nice surprise :)

January is finally almost over and Valentine's Day will be coming. So I wanted to share some Valentine inspired pictures today :)

Pretty pinks and reds. Valentine's Day is the only time I like red. Other than that, I cant stand it, lol.
I loooove candles!! And it is a bonus when they come in cute packaging! This one smells so good, like strawberry cream. And I love what it says :) This smells so good that you can just leave the top off and the smell goes through the house.
And of course the beautiful Valentine issue of Romantic Homes. This one has amazing ideas in it too! I love the cupcake bar idea :)
This is another wonderful smelling candle with darling packaging :) I actually found this at Marshalls! I have this one in my sitting room with the top off and the whole room smells wonderful.
This is the cutest Valentine card that I received last year from my super sweet, supportive, wonderful friend Lisa! Be sure to visit Lisa's blog HERE.
And of course Hello Kitty and My Melody!! I looove them :) The pink hot chocolate was a Valentines gift a few years ago from my mega talented friend Jenn. Love the packaging!! So many cute things come out for Valentine's Day in the stores! Just cannot resist something cute, lol.
I have no idea why this pic is sideways, lol But I wanted to do another one of my vintage inspired candy boxes for my shoppe. Vintage flocked wallpaper, tons of vintage millinery flowers, sigh...
Pink velvet bow from one of my millinery hats and vintage rhinestones too :) This is in my shoppe now. It is the only one I am doing this year.
Gorgeous soft roses, still from my birthday :)

Thank you so much for stopping by today! Hope the rest of your week is amazing!! Hugs ~ Amy

a true thank you...

2012-01-20T15:27:00.005-05:00

Hello :) Thursday, I posted about strong bright yellow dandelions. Today, I am showing soft, delicate, fragile roses. Another side to my personality I guess, lol. I received these from my sweet David for my birthday :)

I wanted to share them with you as a thank you for your birthday wishes, kind comments, emails and words. You all made my birthday special and I thank you so much. I wish I could give you each a real rose!
Thank you for letting me share my feelings and reflections with you. It is nice to be able to do that from time to time. To just flat out be real! And I have done that, now it is time to move forward. Take the personal out of my blog for a bit...
let this be a soft place to fall when I need it. Just see the beauty and talent from other bloggers and artists. I think we all need that break! If I don't always comment on your blogs, please know I am reading them. I have been horrible about that lately and here you all are leaving me such sweet comments! I need to change that for sure. I used to comment on every blog and now I don't. I feel bad for that!!
Anyway, I want to go back to lightness here and focus on pretty things. I treated myself to a bunch of new craft and project items and I am really excited to get started on them and sharing them with you along with more countdown to spring posts.

Thank you all once again! Big hugs ~ Amy

dandelion...

2012-01-19T12:23:00.004-05:00

I woke up very early this morning. I heard my husband leave for work and couldn't get back to sleep. I lay there for over an hour thinking. I realized it was my birthday after a few minutes, lol. When you get my age, you would rather forget your birthday than remember it, lol. I mean, who wants to be 35? What child says "oh I just cant wait to turn 35!" Maybe if you are 80 you might want to be 35, lol. Anyway, I started thinking about my life. As a child I had so many hopes and dreams. I wanted to be a famous fashion designer or an interior decorator. I didn't do either. There are many many things I never did. Little things and big things. I thought about the life I have lived. I had a hard life inside. I had wonderful parents and wonderful friends. But I suffered within myself. I lived with the terrible disease of bipolar disorder for all my life, not knowing then what was wrong with me. It is a terrible thing to have. I beat myself up a lot inside over the years. I could have been so much more without it. I would have had more courage, more self esteem, more drive. Oh well, it is what it is and I guess it is for some reason that I will probably never know. To me, it is just another January day, this day I was born. As an adult, you really don't think too much about what you want. Not like a child does. Anticipating the day for weeks, wondering what gifts they will receive. I mean, at my age, what do I really want or need? Perhaps things that can never be, like a chance to do my life over again. I looked out the window from my bed and saw snow falling. Well that figures, I though to myself. My thoughts then turned to my longing for spring. I always wished I had been born in the spring.

I don't know why but dandelions came to mind. Have you ever thought about dandelions? I mean REALLY thought about them? To most adults, they are just an annoying, ugly weed. But in the eyes of a child, they are a beautiful flower, round and bright yellow like the sun. A beautiful flower that they can pick for their mommy. I picture my precious boys coming to the door with outstretched hands and a big smile on there faces as they hand me that big bouquet of dandelions. Such a simple gift. But given with such love and heart. They would beam from ear to ear as I filled a glass with water and put the dandelions in it. They sat on my counter. Yellow like the sun, so full of love. Dandelions are strong little flowers, or weeds if you prefer. You mow them down and within days they are back again. Those bright yellow spots amongst the green grass. A reminder of spring and summer. They always come back no matter what. Whether you want them or not, they are trusty little things! You can count on dandelions to be there every year. As the earth comes alive again, so do they. I realize that I am like a dandelion. THAT is what I have accomplished in my 35 years! I have become like a dandelion. Not beautiful to look at. but I have been mowed down over and over again. Somehow, I have managed to come back again. Struggles and happiness, easy or hard, I have sprouted back. That is something to me. And if I could have anything on this boring, cold January day, it would be a big bouquet of dandelions picked by my babies little hands, sitting in a glass on my counter. And to always, always be....a dandelion.

A teeny bit of organizing and a little crafting too!

2012-01-16T06:00:00.016-05:00

Hello :) hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I have a doctor appointment this morning so decided to get up extra early for some coffee and computer time before Savannah and the dogs get up. Sunday, Dave actually had an entire day off which was great! It has been a long time. It was just the three of us which was very different and very quiet, lol. Last night, we went and got some groceries. I was soooo happy when we saw grilling items, winter clothes on clearance and new spring clothes! We even saw an Easter baby bib :) So nice to see after all the wintery items. And it is bitter, bitter cold here, so it was also nice to see that everyone is getting ready for spring. Their were of course lots of super cute Valentine items too :)

I love Valentine's Day because you can keep a lot of the decor out year round. Hearts are something that is seasonless and everyone loves them :) And of course I got married February 16th :)

I worked on a couple new Valentine items for my shoppe and wanted to share them. I am so thankful to the wonderful response I have had on my Valentine items!

I did a couple of card/tag/ornaments last week. This one is so pretty with the white and lavender. Their is just something about those two colors together that is so spring like.

This one is done with a vintage crochet doily for the base:)

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I got this awesome shelf for Christmas. I just love it, it is nice and big and so perfect for organizing some of my crafting supplies! I have been wanting to get more organized so my things are easier to find, lol. I put all of my go to items on here, the things I use on almost every project. I have more to add but have a pretty good start.
Not only is the shelf useful, but so pretty too! It is a yummy chippy distressed mint green with pink peeking through.
Here you can see the colors better and oohhh how I love beadboard! So cottage cute :)
Here it is with some of my items on it.
All nice and organized :)

I filled mason jars with some of my vintage millinery flowers :) One of my very favorite things :)
Such pretty, happy colors :) I have a lot more but for now, these are what I have finished and ready to use :) It took me forever just to pluck them from their hats :)
Pretty powder blue roses with velvet centers. My favorite ones :) And a mason jar full of clothespins ready to be embellished.
Some of my favorite laces in an aqua sewing machine drawer :)
Buckets that I made look pretty :) These are filled with some ribbons and trims.
Cute correspondence :)
Cuppycake bucket full of more supplies :) Their is a lot more room on here to add more items but for now, this will do. I am taking my time with it. I want it to be pretty as well as useful. It just motivates me more to have everything looking pretty, lol.

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I am still working on my diet! I have been doing pretty good. Last night, I bought lots of fresh fruits and whole grains. Also my Vanilla Almond Special K :) That is just the best cereal! I must have that and Yoplait light thick and creamy key lime pie yogurt! They are both sooo good and taste like you are being bad, lol. I am trying to lose ten pounds and Dave is trying to gain 20, lol. What a funny pair we are. I wish I was trying to gain, lol. Lucky guy. I met Dave when I was in fifth grade and he was in eighth. And he is about the same weight he was then, lol. He looks exactly the same. We both still get carded at the bar, so I guess that is a good thing. I like being told I look 20 now that I am "middle aged", lol. I used to hate being told I look young. But now I find it flattering. I just want to be one of those mom's that always stays up on the styles and trends. You know what I mean? I guess I just dont want to grow old. But no one does. Dave and I are both metal heads though, still listening to Metallica and all the hair bands. Our kids make fun of us for listening to "old" music. I cant believe that music is considered old! But I do like some of todays music like Lady GaGa, Eminem and my most favorite song is In My Head by Jason Derulo :) It is my song to Dave. But I'm still not giving up my hair bands, lol. Okay, I got waaayyy off course here, lol. Anyway....
Have a great week and thank you so much for visiting me! Hugs ~ Amy

Bake up a little love...

2012-01-13T19:13:00.005-05:00

Hello! Just wanted to do a quick post tonight as I wait for Dave to get home and Kitchen Nightmares to start. He has been really stressed out lately and working a lot of hours. Sooo, I decided to make tuna casserole for dinner, one of his favorites and such comfort food. I also made him some pumpkin muffins to take to work as well as some gingerbread man cookies :) You are never too old for a gingerbread man :)

Pumpkin muffins are one of my favorite things!! I love anything pumpkin but pie, lol! Weird, huh? I indulged and ate three of these!! Yikes! I have been on the Special K diet for the last week trying to lose ten pounds. I had been doing so good until today :( But that is what I get for baking something I love too, lol.

My birthday is next Wednesday and I told Dave NO cake and NO candy for me!!! My youngest son Gibson's birthday is February 3rd, and I will have a cupcake then, lol. Cant let my little guy down :) But I am going to try and stay away from sweets from now on and working out again. No, it is not a resolution just something I need to get back into. I am not feeling good about myself lately. And turning 35 (gulp) does NOT help. lol

Here is a yummy recipe for the pumpkin muffins. ** NOTE** These are soooo good with a couple handfuls of chocolate chips added in! Had them at a B&B years ago and they were to die for. Your kids will like them too :) Enjoy!

Cooking spray
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-grain pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsulphered molasses
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose and whole-wheat flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.

In a large bowl, whisk the sugar, molasses, oil and 1 egg until combined. Add the other egg and whisk well. Whisk in the pumpkin and vanilla. Whisk in the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Whisk just until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to remove any air bubbles. Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of 1 of the muffins comes out clean.

Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the muffins to loosen them and unmold. Cool completely on the rack.

Bring on the hearts!!

2012-01-13T11:13:00.007-05:00

Hi there :) Hope you all had a great week! Are you looking forward to your weekend? This will be our first weekend in about a month without kids (other than Savannah of course). Ir will be very different!

The season of love is upon us! I have just filled my shoppe with lots of pretty hearts :) Dont you just love hearts? I have many decorating my home and they always make me smile. I wanted to share some of my new pieces with you. I don't think I will be doing any love note pockets this year. I would like to do a few more of the puffy heart sets though. Those were so much fun to create!

First up, I just new I wanted to do a tart tin ornament for Valentine's Day! I love the way it turned out :) This tin has a bit of a heart shape to it. I filled it with all of my favorite things, rhinestones, lace and pearls. That just screams romance to me!! I added a vial to the bottom of "love potion". Aged pink glitter and some more vintage pearls :)
I also added the title of a song called Love Lies Dreaming :) It is from my antique love song sheet music book. Perfect for Valentine's Day!
This is a scrolly heart covered in romantic wide lace. I created one of my handmade lace roses too for this and added a vintage aurora borealis button to the center. Boy does it sparkle :) This reminds me of a wedding in summertime :)
This is a vintage style candy box. I covered it in vintage flocked wallpaper and tons of millinery!! This is to die for in person. Such a beautiful display piece.
I covered the inside with tattered and torn pink tissue paper and an adorable cherub image that I heavily glittered and outlined in gimp. There are more pics in my shoppe of the inside.
And this beautiful aqua piece is full of beautiful pastels! Super pretty hanging piece :)

Hope you all have a lovely weekend and thank you soooo much for stopping by today and letting me share my creations with you!!

Julie and Amy's spring countdown post 1

2012-01-10T12:16:00.003-05:00

Hello dear friend :) Hope your week is off to a good start!

My sweet friend Julie of Idyll Hours and I are not a fan of winter ~ at all, lol! Though we appreciate it's beauty, we miss the greenery, flowers, baby woodland animals and warm days! So, we have decided to do some spring posts to get us through until it is hear! Spring is a time of renewal, and new life. The earth seems to come alive again. Just as the meaning is. My daughter Savannah Rose was even born the day after the first day of spring!

It seems it has been a looong time since I have done a "pretty" post, lol. And that is what I want this blog to mostly consist of. In fact, when I bring up my own blog, I miss seeing a pretty post, lol.

The weather this January has actually been teasing us! We don't have any snow and it has been warm. The sun has been shining bright for days, not a cloud in the sky.

Here it is streaming through my kitchen window making it sooo bright and happy in here. After taking down my Christmas decor, I decided to de clutter a bit. I like this table so much more with just a few items on it. I have really de cluttered my sitting room as well. I am liking it much better now. My son Gibson calls it the "white" room, lol. The kids seem to like to spend a lot of time in there. I think it is the brightness.
Anyway, one of the things I received for Christmas is this BIG Teena Flanner bunny! Ohhh I love her so much! And she just screams spring! White with green grass and a pretty pastel pink bow. Teena's pieces are full of so much detail. This bunny has the prettiest face. She is also drenched in the most sparkly glitter ever. It is Teena's trademark glitter. I wish my pictures showed the sparkle. She sure looks pretty with my other huge Teena bunny :) I moved her to one of the chairs to this table. She looks perfect there, kind of like she is attending a tea party :) You can kind of see her in the first photo. And I have showed her many, many times on here as well. I also got my apothecary drink dispenser back. I had to display it on this table too :) The fabric cuppycakes are another of my favorite things. Cheryl of Rosey Posey Confections made me those several years ago as a special order. And my pretty little wedding cake by Catherine of Pink Rose Pastries sits there as well. Just my favorite pieces that make me smile each day :)

I also want to clarify something because I feel bad. I didn't explain myself very well in my last post when I said Dave checks and accepts my blog comments. He only does that when I am unable to get online. For some reason he is very interested in reading my blog and my comments. He is so sweet. But I always, always read my comments and I love seeing them. They get me through rough days and it just means the world to me that you would take the time out of your busy life to read my little blog about my boring little life (lol), let alone write a comment! I love you and thank you so much more than you could know! xoxo Have a blessed day ~ Amy

Busy!

2012-01-09T07:29:00.009-05:00

Hello! Hope you all had a great weekend! I have been soooo busy with family that I haven't even been online in a few days. To be honest, I never thought about it or even cared, lol. Dave is funny because he checks my stuff and accepts my blog comments, lol. Too cute! Anyway, after being sick for a week, my weekend was so busy, it is a good thing I was feeling better by Saturday. I had a house full all weekend. We had our seven kids here, our stepdaughter Katelyn, Daves brother and our niece Eva. I spent most of the weekend in the kitchen cooking for everyone and I loved it! Making big breakfasts, fun lunches, home cooked dinners. That is what it is all about :) My house looks like a cyclone hit it and I don't even care. It is funny because a few years ago, it would have driven me nuts. It is crazy how life can cause you to change. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, sometimes for both! But honestly, I cant tell you how good it feels to just not care and enjoy the moment!! People used to ask me how I kept my house looking like a "magazine" with five boys. The answer: it was top on my priority list. How flat out STUPID is that? My grandma used to always say, "your kids aren't going to remember a clean house, they are going to remember the fun you had together." That used to go in one ear and out the other. Not anymore. Cooking, coloring and drawing pictures with Edison and Gibson, talking to my older boys and realizing just how old they are getting is far more important than a vacuumed floor. I mean, house cleaning is always going to be there, no matter how much you do it. But having your children be children wont. As I was standing in the kitchen making big batches of waffles and bacon, my son Edison came up to me and said "mom, your the best". That felt sooo good. Never have they said "mom, thank you for vacuuming today"lol!

This is why I have had enough guts to show you my ugly, over lived in family room. Remember the show Roseanne? One thing that she said on her show comes to my mind "don't mind the mess but we live here." LOL!! I love that :) Soo, here is another post showing my ugly but full of love family room :) Cuz I am gonna brag about the kids sitting within it!!

Our three girls, Katelyn, Savannah and Emily. Katelyn has a little crush on my son Ashton, awww, how cute is that??
Sweet, beautiful Bella. She is doing much better and loved being with all the kids. She spent most of the weekend waiting for them to drop food on the floor, lol. And yes, it happened a lot!
My son Colton and Katelyn, listening to music :)
My oldest, Ashton, sucking on a sucker and texting his girlfriend Sadie. That is what he did ALL weekend!! I am sooo not used to him liking a girl so much, lol.
Emily and Eddie, playing DS3 first thing in the morning.

Saturday night, I stayed up super late with Gibson, Colton and Ashton while everyone else was asleep. It was so much fun :) We watched Toot and Puddles Christmas. I love Toot and Puddle!!! I watch the cartoon on Nick Jr. allll the time, lol. I wish I could live in their little cottage in Pocket Hollow. Deep in the woods, not a care in the world. Though my boys are getting older, they were glued to the tv, watching it. That made my heart smile. They are still little boys at heart :)

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A couple weeks ago, I worked on a Valentine piece for my shoppe. I figured I better at least complete one project! This is a mixed media piece full of romantic lace.
All white of course!!
Very ethereal. I really like how it turned out. I am going to try and do some more Valentine pieces. It is coming fast though!

Thank you for visiting me today have a great week! ~ Hugs, Amy

A sweet story for the new year...

2012-01-05T10:20:00.005-05:00

Hello :) Hope your new year is off to a good start! I have been sick since Monday so I hope that isnt any indication of how this year will be, lol. So needless to say, I haven't been doing much at all this week. Monday, I wasn't feeling too terrible yet so I did take down all of my Christmas decor. Usually by the first, I cant wait to take it all down and get back to normal. I also always feel like de-cluttering and changing things up a bit. So that is what I hope to do next week. I have appointments today and tomorrow that cant be missed and Emily will be here this weekend. Her birthday was Tuesday, so we need to go shopping for her tomorrow. Dave wants to get her cupcakes from Nom Nom's, instead of a cake. I'm gonna be sad if I cant taste one, lol. Love their cupcakes.

I wanted to share a special story with you all. Do you believe in signs? I do. When I got back in contact with Dave, their were eerie signs that we should be together. Well, I had those eerie signs again last week. If you have read my blog over the last month or so, you know that my sweet husky Bella ran away. We searched and searched for her. She would appear in my dreams every night. Even if just for a second, she would just be there. Bella has always been in tune with my feelings. Well, I had given up on ever finding her again after a month or so. Monday, December 26th, Dave said he was taking me to the Humane Society to get me a new dog for Christmas. I missed having a big snuggly dog sooo much! I like a nice big dog that I can squeeze. When we got there, we looked at the dogs. I didn't see any that I really connected with. But then I saw this huge, beautiful, shiny black dog with the sweetest, saddest eyes. I said she is the one. I need to meet her. So, I went and got someone to set us up in the room with her. She was a purebred Newfoundland named Helper. Five months old, fixed and house trained. She was gorgeous and sooo sweet. She put her paws up on my shoulders and gave me a big bear hug. By the way, that is what she looks like, a bear. Dave said "wow, she loves you already!" We decided to get her. They made us go home and get Slinky first to see how they got along before we could adopt her. So, we went and got slinky and brought her to meet Helper.

When we walked into the humane society with Slinky, a husky was standing there. It was a male and he was gorgeous. He had an all white face, much like the one pictured above. And those haunting blue eyes that only a husky has. I got chills when I saw him and felt so sad :( He made me miss Bella so much :( Since Bella has been gone, Slinky has stopped eating, her hair is falling out and she does nothing but lay under a blanket. So I was shocked that when we got there with Slinky, a husky was there getting checked in. Anyway, they brought out Helper and immediately, the two dogs tried to fight. Well, Slinky is a mini dachshund and Helper is 150 pounds, the size of a Saint Bernard and not done growing, lol. So, the guy said it is not a match and we couldn't get her. Dave and I were both sad :( We went to Olive Garden for dinner and talked. We decided that maybe it wasn't the best time to get another dog.

Saturday, New Years Eve, I told Dave I wanted to go to the Humane Society again, just to look. So on the way to pick up my boys, we stopped in. Just to look.
And look who was there!!!! I screamed and yelled this is our dog!!! Our dog Bella!!!
Obviously we brought her home!! Bella was giving us signs all along saying, don't give up on me, I'm here!! When she saw us she jumped and twirled and howled. She knew right away she was going home. All of our kids were soooo happy!! Bella was showered with so much love all weekend :) Since she has been home, she has been very different. I don't know what happened to her in the month that she was gone. We think she was abused :( She is very skinny. Bella was normally very playful. But now, she wont come downstairs and lays on Dave and my bed with one of her balls tucked under her. A ball that she never cared about before. She was always hot and would never ever sleep under a blanket. They are sled dogs for crying out loud! But every night now, she sleeps in between Dave and I, under the covers. It is so sad to see her this way. But we are showering her with lots of love and hugs. We are just so happy to have her home!!!

Thank you for visiting me :) Have a lovely weekend!

Christmas New Year...

2012-01-02T14:27:00.016-05:00

Hello and happy new year! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season! I woke up sick today so this post will be mostly pictures and not much talk, lol. I wanted to upload all of my photos to my laptop though, so decided to do a quick post.

These pics are of our seven kids for Christmas and New Years. We had them all here and it was a blast!! We all had soooo much fun. We were sad to see it end.

All of our kids, Dylan, Ashton, Colton, Emily, Savannah, Edison and Gibson.
Colton, what is in my stocking? Ahhh, a Pillow Pe keychain :)
Lets open presents! Ashton being silly. He always poses like that, lol.

What did we get??
Nintendo DS 3D!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!

Set mine up mom!
Savannah Smiles :)
I'm so happy to have my house full of kids!!!
Edison and his DS, he played it till 3 in the morning!! I think he likes it, lol :)
Everyone and their technology...
Yeahhh, it is definitely a technological generation, lol!
This picture is so funny, lol. I wish I knew why I look so serious!!
It is almost midnight!! Time to ring in the new year once again!
Happy Happy New Year!! 2012!!

Thank you for letting me share my gorgeous, beautiful, huge family with you all!! A sweet little story coming in my next post. Hugs ~ Amy

Romantic White.....

2011-12-28T06:54:00.009-05:00

Hello there :) Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Now that Christmas is over, it is time to start thinking about hearts and love :) Yep, Valentine's Day!! I am really inspired by Valentine's Day this year! Dave and I got married on February 16th of last year. Hard to believe it has almost been a year! Being a newlywed and as in love as I am, this is a special holiday to me, obviously! So, I could not wait to get creating for it and dove right in, lol. I have some pretty ideas for creations this year.

I have finished one piece that I just added to my shop this morning. It is so pretty and soft. Very fun to create!

Everything I have been creating has been white! I am so in love with it right now. So soft, romantic and pure. These are two puffy paper mache hanging hearts. I painted them white of course! I made two rosettes from vintage pure white lace and added vintage pearls to the center. They are placed on a piece of natural cheesecloth.
I used white seam binding and more white lace snippets to hang them with. They look so pretty hanging anywhere!
This piece is called mid-winter magic. Now that the busy-ness of Christmas is over, winter sets in for its long visit. Though I am not a fan of winter, it does have a romantic beauty to it. The white, the sparkles, the quiet. That is what I wanted to capture in this piece. It is all white but with sparkly jewels and a little silver mixed in.
I created a nest from white chiffon with a silver candy tart tin in the center. I filled it with vintage rhinestone jewels, white buttons and pearls. And a pure white bird. This is perched on a pedestal with white lace. It is perfect for winter, Valentine's day and right on into spring :)

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On another romantic note, my issue of Romantic Country magazine arrived in the mail yesterday!! Have you checked it out yet?? If you haven't, you must!! This is the BEST issue they have had in a loooong time!! This is one I will refer to over and over. It features lots of aqua and white (my faves!), wonderful online shops, a wonderful article on Teena Flanner, which I was sooo over the moon to see! She is amazing, I have many pieces by her. She deserves sooo much recognition for her amazing creations! I look forward to checking out her new line every spring :) Their is also a recipe for Hummingbird Cake with cream cheese frosting. I cant wait to try it out, I looove Hummingbird Cake!! My mom makes it often. Mmmmm :)

Even the cover is so soft and pretty. Lots of gorgeous homes in this issue!

Hope you are all getting back in the swing of things after the busy month of December! Thank you for visiting me ~ Amy

2011-12-25T13:14:00.000-05:00

EVERYONE!!!

Ohhh Whimsical Christmas tree, your branches make me smile...

2011-12-19T15:19:00.028-05:00

Hello :) I hope you all had a great weekend. Ours was pretty boring. Dave helped a friend move and then he had to work on Saturday, even though it was supposed to still be his vacation :( Emily is here for a week now. I got all of my shop packages boxed up and mailed along with our Christmas cards. I don't think anyone will be buying much now until after Christmas. Poor Dave had to stand in a line out the post office door tonight. I felt so bad.

Well, I figured I better get my Christmas tree post up since it is less than a week away!

Here is a pic I took a few days ago and it had just snowed.
Here it is from another angle.
I thought I would share a few of my favorite ornaments. This is a tag ornament that was a gift from Rosemary at Ozma Of Odds.
This pretty pink vintage bulb with hearts was a gift from my friend Heather of Pretty Petals.

A favorite vintage ornament
Another vintage favorite.
This cutie was a gift from my parents. This one is Savannah's favorite one to look at. She always goes to this one first.
Cutie pie snowman was a gift from Rebecca of A Gathering Place last year.
Snowman angel :)
Pink Christmas Santa from Jenn of Eye Candy Creations
Beautiful bird from Celeste of La Rea Rose
Pretty crochet bird
Of course their has to be a bunny in there.
Polar bear with a pink scarf :)
Polar bear with aqua scarf. The pink ornament is sitting in just the right spot that when the tree lights hit it, it glows so beautifully :)

Under the tree must be pretty too :)
Two deer that I painted white, one this year and one last.
The tiny silver presents that Edison put under the tree :)
White Santa's bag with a train inside. Reminds me of my boys :)
Little village box I made a few years ago.

The angel I redid for Savannah last year.

The girly stockings are hung :)

I won this beautiful stocking last year from Brenda of Shabby Cats and Roses. I just love her work :) This is Savannah's stocking :)

This is my stocking, made by my friend Steph of Angelic Accents a few years ago for a swap we had.

And there you have it, our tree in the sitting room :) We still have to put up the green tree in the family room but we are going to do that after Christmas when we finally have all the kids together! I have had the boys here and Emily here but not together. We have opposite weekends with them!! But for the holidays we have them together. So we will put that tree up and the kids stockings when they are here. I have not started baking either because the boys told me they want us to frost cookies when they come :) So I definitely want to wait for them!! I want us to do some peanut butter cookies with stars on them and Emily wants to make acorns with the boys. My mom always does so much baking and I love it. She asked me what I want for Christmas and I said all I want is her Chex Mix (I swear hers is the best!!) and her apricot bars that are to die for!! It would not be Christmas without them!! My mom could open a bakery and just sell those apricot bars and be a nationwide success!! Everyone that ever tries them falls in love with them. Even if they say they don't like apricots, I make them try it, lol, not really. But they end up loving them anyway! I don't have the recipe and I don't want it. I just want my mom to make them, lol. Childhood memories of them for sure.

Well, Christmas is about here so I hope you all have a wonderful time! I am kind of glad that we aren't doing ours until New Years because when everyone else is done, we still have it to look forward to :) New Years Eve I will make hors d' oeuvres and we will watch movies and the kids will have sparkling juice and we will have wine :) at midnight, open gifts in the morning, make a big breakfast and I will make a big dinner. I asked Dave what he wanted and he said, ham, mashed potatoes and squash, lol. And I have to do crescent rolls and Jell-O salad for my boys. And then we wont be having Christmas with my parents until after that, lol. So for our family, it is about three to four weeks away. Fine by me!

Anyway, happy holidays to you all!! Thank you for your love and support and sticking with me through my changes. Love ~ Amy

A White and Silver Christmas Display...

2011-12-15T11:47:00.017-05:00

Hi again :) I wanted to do an actual post that wasnt just about my creations, lol. It is another yucky day here. Rainy and dark. But it is so warm, it feels like spring. Really weird for here this time of year.

Anyway, I wanted to share another of my Christmas displays with you all today. This is another in the sitting room.

I wanted to show off my love of white, tarnished silver and silver mercury glass. I put it on the little ice cream table that I have in there.
Tiered silver goodness!

The mercury glass bowl from Pottery Barn that I shared in another post. I filled it with faux snow, a little greenery and vintage silver ornaments.
The small pewter cup that I purchased from Katie's Rose Cottage is filled with more of that fab realistic faux snow, a white bottlebrush tree from Saturday Finds and a rhinestone snowflake.
This is the tree branch that I got from my yard all decorated up for Christmas with a silver deer, French tags from Katie's Rose Cottage and...
a whitewashed burlap star ornament. This came from Junk to Joy, a favorite blog :)
A couple of days ago, I bought this beautiful mercury glass cache pot from Pottery Barn. This is more of a champagne color but coordinates so well with the silver.
I filled it with fake snow, a beautiful bird and a big snowflake that is glittered.
You cant tell by the picture very well, but this is etched with a floral pattern.
Here is that amazing tree that I shared in another post! Ohhh I love it so much! I have it pictured all lit up but of course you cant see it well in the picture. It looks so beautiful at night time.
A couple weeks ago, I bought this awesome vintage egg gathering basket from Katie's Rose Cottage. I have always wanted one of these but never could find one in just the right color that was worth paying for and I didn't want to paint it. This is perfectly shabby with creamy white chippy paint and rust. I hung a big silver snowflake ornament on it with a white crochet snowflake ornament over it.
Inside, I wrapped the mason jar that the tree is in with burlap, white chiffon, silver beads, crystal garland, vintage gold and silver ornaments and a few tree branches.
This reindeer was one that Dave brought home for me to craft with. Emily painted it white and I had to keep it, lol.
A few weeks ago, I found this amazing square tray that is perfectly tarnished and has the prettiest pattern of scrolls and a rose. These will be so pretty to display year round.

Well, that is the last of my displays this year, Next I will share my tree.

I am really loving the silver and white look. I have been contemplating painting the sitting room a very light shade of grey. I love grey and have always loved to wear it. It really looks nice with white. But I love the color of aqua/tiffany that is already in there. It is so unique and very bright and happy no matter the weather. So what I think I will do is paint our bedroom a soft grey instead. And then stain the floor in a really dark walnut and the trim white. that will have such an old feel to it and will look perfect with the grey toned floral Simply Shabby Chic comforter I bought last year. I think it will all tie together nicely and be a comforting retreat at the end of the day!

I am just counting down the days until New Years Eve!!!!!! My boys will all be here, along with Emily. I have so many plans for that day! We have a lot to do to get ready for our Christmas on New Years day!!! It will be nonstop busy-ness :) Stocking decorating, cookie decorating, cake decorating, Christmas show watching, lots and lots of snuggles and hugs and kisses :):)

Thank you for visiting me today! Hugs ~ Amy

Keeping Busy With Crafting....

2011-12-14T13:03:00.006-05:00

Hello :) How are you this week? It is sooo ugly out right now, lol. It is raining really hard and is so dark, it feels like it is about five in the afternoon :( A day to stay home, drink hot chocolate and watch Christmas and girly movies all day, lol. I think that is what I will do when I get off here. Dave is playing video games, so he wont care what I watch. I am making chicken cacciatorre in the crockpot also. One of my favorites and pure comfort food.

I have also been doing a lot of crafting. Which you probably already know, lol. Yesterday, I worked on these petite collages or extra large tags. Last week, I purchased some great cardboard sheet music cards at Pottery Barn. They were in the Christmas section but I thought they would be great for crafting! Here are a couple I have finished so far.

Love this one :) I glittered the edges...
And made a rose out of burlap. Has a really romantic look to it.
This one, I did in more of a collage or tag style. I used a vintage clothing ad for a corset and then added the phrase, A beautiful corset makes a graceful gown.
Vintage lace doily as well, Super fun! I can tell I will have a lot of fun creating these. I am going to go back and get more packages of them. They are so nice and made of heavy cardboard and a perfect size. I want to make some things for Valentines day with them.

Hope you enjoy the rest of your week and weekend. What is on your Christmas list this year? I don't need a thing but have a huge wish list in my favorites on Etsy, not to mention a few of my favorite bloggers shoppes, Victoria's Secret, Ugg and Sephora, lol. Oh well, wishing is fun, right? I haven't told anyone I want these things, it is my private wish list, lol. Do you have a wish list? What is on it??

I have been thinking of what I want to do and get done in the new year. Lots of personal health issues that I want to take care of. But obviously I am not going to share them here! I am thinking of doing some more things around the house though too. Getting my craft room set up, working on Savannah's birthday.

Thanks for visiting me! ~ Amy

A gathering of Angels...

2011-12-12T13:11:00.010-05:00

Hello Sweeties :) Thank you for visiting me today! I hope you had a wonderful weekend. Dave is on vacation this week which I love. We are just staying home and relaxing. Nothing special :) I have spent the last few days working on the last of my Christmas items for my shop. Dave came home with some goodies for me to redo from one of his stores. I wasn't planning on doing any more Christmas creations for my shop but just had to do these last four! These were hideous, tacky gold and I just could not wait to turn them into something new! Thank you David, for always thinking of me :)

This angel, is the angel of belief. I did her in a French Farmhouse style I painted her pure white and German glass glittered her wings, they will tarnish over time. She holds the bible in her hands.
I put silver tinsel on the bottom of her gown and a long belt at her waist. The back of her wings are covered in French/English dictionary pages.
This is the angel of peace. She is also done in French Farmhouse style, painted pure white with silver trims.
She holds a precious bird which has been glittered in silver too :)
This is the angel of love. I decided to change her up in a shabby style of aqua pink and white.
Pink tinsel trim and halo, a belt that I shaped into a heart, added a rhinestone heart jewel and heart shaped love tag to the heart she is holding :)
This tree was done up in the French farmhouse style too. French/English dictionary pages, lots of silver glitter
The bottom is a little ornate silver tray with ruffly white crinoline edge and a beautiful big vintage snowflake brooch. Love this! I could not believe it but this sold in less than five minutes of listing it!!

Have a wonderful week. I have one more Christmas display to share with you along with my white Christmas tree :) It is so beautiful, bright and sunny today. We are just enjoying the day sipping coffee. Days like this are nice :) Hugs ~ Amy

Tiny Christmas Villages...

2011-12-09T15:42:00.018-05:00

Hello :) Another post from me already. Christmas is coming soooo fast, I cant believe it! But it always sneaks up on me so fast, I barely have time to get everything done. No matter how on the ball I think I am, I am still always running behind. It is a frigid snowy day here in Michigan which really makes it feel like the season. Some years we don't have snow for Christmas and some we do. Growing up in northern Michigan, we always had soooo much snow in the winter. 5-10 feet for Christmas at least. My parents owned a motel when I was growing up and I remember them taking a yard stick outside and measuring the snow because snowmobiler's would call and make sure their was enough snow to make it worth their while to come up, lol. It was so much fun growing up there. Lots of good memories and unique stories! I could write a book about the things that went on there, lol. Maybe I should! I do love to write which is the main reason I started this blog.

Anyway... Today I am posting my little snowy Christmas villages that I have set up in my sitting room. They are nice and small. I don't like a ton of clutter at Christmas for some reason. So I have kept them small and separated into different displays. I am almost finished decorating and ready to bake and just enjoy the season.

I am lucky I took these pictures when I did as my two youngest boys, Edison and Gibson decided to plow through the "snow" with their Hot Wheels cars, lol. Soo cute! Now, I have roads of snow through them. The snow needed plowed, lol. Another motel memory, riding in the old mint green Bronco with my dad in the winter as he plowed the huge parking lot. We thought it was so much fun to smash into the snow banks lol.

This is my reason for the season display. Made up with churches and my beautiful nativity, one of my favorite possessions which actually stays out all year.
A beautiful Christmas house...
Little churches and a little house...
Beautiful creamy white nativity display...
Tons of snow piled all around, vintage ornaments and little gifts too. My son Edison moved these little gifts to under the big white Christmas tree because he said "that is where presents belong" lol! I let him and Gibson each have one of them because they were so enamored with them. And Gibson told me his had a teeny tiny picture of me in it, so he would always remember me. sniff sniff, such precious beautiful special boys I have!!
Awesome bottle brush tree filled with all vintage ornaments including a real Putz house and..
This wonderful church scene ornament. Love this tree! I should have taken more pics of the ornaments all over it because they are awesome!

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Little pastel village display...

So soft and pretty looking...

A little Fenton church with pink roof and tons of glitter... You cant tell by the pictures but the house lights up :)
Pretty houses and vintage ornaments...

My new house and tree, the only new additions to my villages this year.
Isn't this faux snow awesome?? It looks soooo real!
pretty pretty :):) Thank you for letting me share my little displays with you!

Well, I thought I was finished creating for Christmas but Dave came home from work today with a few things for me to re-do. So I will be working on those and if they turn out, they will be in my shoppe next week.

Next up, I will be sharing a new display that I have put up for Christmas this year. I just love it. And I am thinking it has inspired a re-do for my special room in the new year. We shall see!

Have a nice weekend and thank you for stopping by. Hugs ~ Amy

Rustic Romantic Winter Rose...

2011-12-08T10:58:00.005-05:00

Hello there, hope you are all having a great week. Thank you so much for your kind comments, emails and messages on facebook about my Husky Bella. We put a lost dog ad on Craigslist, drove around several times and went to and called the Humane Societies around us. No sign of our sweet girl anywhere. I have been having a really hard time dealing with it. It just isn't the same here. A year and a half ago, when my world turned upside down, I searched online for a Husky. I think they are the most beautiful breed of dog in the world and have always wanted one. Well, coincidentally, I found Bella on Craigslist and learned she was in Grayling!!! The town Dave and I met and grew up in. I knew right then and there that Bella was meant to be with us. She was 5 months old and her owner had lost his job and was losing his house and could no longer take care of her. After a lot of begging and pleading, I convinced them to hold her for me until that Saturday. A ton of people closer to them had inquired about Bella and wanted her. The second Dave got out of work that Saturday, we booked a hotel room for the night and shot up north to get sweet Bella. I am a huge animal lover. The minute I met Bella, I was in love with her. I have cried to her many times during my darkest days. She was always there for me. She would lay in the kitchen with her paws crossed looking so beautiful every time I was in there cooking. She always slept right behind my head in bed at night. One time, I fell down the stairs in the night. Bella cried and kept nudging me to get up with her nose and then laid her head on mine until I got up. She was my baby. So it has definitely affected me pretty hard. She was a stunning dog and sooo sweet. And although I love the husky breed, I would never get another one while living in the city. Huskies require a lot of exercise and a lot of space. They are very different than any other dog I have seen. They are very strong willed and love to run. Bella was a little Houdini. She could maneuver out of any harness or collar and climb over any fence. But she loved to be outside. It was where she was the happiest. I love big dogs and hate not having one. Dave told me that if we don't find her, he will get me a German Shepherd in the spring. I love them and they are wonderful watch dogs. Dave wants me to have a big protective dog since he works so early in the morning. And on another sad note, our family dog that we got for our boys years ago, was killed a couple weeks ago. Which was just devastating for all of us. My boys are having a really hard time with it. Lady was a wonderful dog and my boys first dog. So traumatic as my oldest three boys were home alone when it happened :( Their dad told me he plans to get them a German Shepherd and I think that is wonderful. Every boy should have a dog and Shepherds are very loyal, good, protective dogs. Nice and big too which I love.

Okay, enough dog talk!! Getting too sad. Lets talk about something pretty instead, lol. A couple of days ago, I felt the need to create. I wanted to make something wintery, not Christmas but non holiday. I love creating mixed media pieces, collage is one of my favorite things to do as well. I love to use all different romantic things like vintage lace, rhinestones and I am sooo loving mixing rustic textures like real wood branches and burlap! Remember in THIS post when I went in my yard and got some tree branches? I am so in love with the look of them! I have them all decorated for Christmas now :) But I am loving using that kind of stuff creating as well.

Soooo, I came up with this yummy collage in creams an whites. The background is rough silk, lots of laces, silk bow,
a tree branch covered in mica, a heart shaped piece of burlap and a vintage creamy millinery rose that I have dusted in mica to appear snow kissed.
Also, a wooden tag with a snippet of lace, vintage rhinestone and seam binding. This soft romantic piece is available in my shoppe.

Sunday, all seven kids are supposed to be here. I bought six of the cheap red felt stockings and a bunch of cute Christmas embellishments so all the kids could decorate their own stocking :) I also have tons of Christmas movies and shows dvr'd for them. We will be celebrating my son Edison's eighth birthday as well. He was actually born on the 18th but we are doing it a week early because my oldest two boys have a big wrestling tournament in Grand Rapids that day. All my boys get cupcake cakes this year so I need to go get Eddie's on Saturday. Edison was my Christmas baby and the hospital brought him to me in a stocking :) I miss those newborn days!! I cried for three days after Edison was born because I thought I would never be pregnant again, lol. Had no idea I would have two more after that :) But I love it :D

Have a wonderful weekend and thank you for visiting me today! Hugs, Amy

Whimsical Winter Candyland...

2011-12-04T02:29:00.019-05:00

Hi there :) Thank you for coming by! It is 230 in the morning and I cannot sleep. After laying in bed for over an hour, I decided to get up. Maybe writing a blog post will help me get tired enough to sleep. My beautiful Husky dog Bella somehow got her harness off earlier and ran away :( The thing about huskies is, if they get away, they do not come back! We drove around and looked everywhere for her and could not find her. Her tags were on her harness so no one knows our phone number to get ahold of us. I am so upset. I woke up thinking about her and hoped when I came downstairs, she would be sitting at the door :( No such luck. I am so worried about her. I love that dog soooo much!! Time to put flyers up all over the neighborhood. A beautiful dog like her would be easily stolen. People in the neighborhood love her and always stop to pet her. I am hoping someone will bring her back but deep down, I think someone will keep her.

Anyway... I wanted to share my winter Candyland display that I have in my kitchen. I have been putting it up for a few years now and didn't add anything new to it this year so it will look familiar to most of you that have been visiting. But I never tire of looking at Christmas things as they only come out once a year!

When I was snapping these pictures a few days ago, Bella was right there. She wanted to be your sled dog guide :) So, Bella welcomes you to our kitchen, come on in :)
A pink stocking filled with a bunny, lollipops and a sweet little bottle brush tree.
My old fashioned pink tree sits on the table. It holds bunny and dessert themed ornaments. Here you can see an adorable needle felted bunny that was a gift from the uber talented Lori ofMy Faerie Window. Lori, I miss you and your gorgeous blog!! If you visit me by chance, I hope you are doing well!
Sweet candy ornaments. The large pink candy was made by Analise of Sugar*Sugar. I love Analise's shop! The small aqua ones are actually from Walmart! They are plastic but look like mercury glass. Yummy chocolate iced cupcake with cherry on top, by Everyday Is A Holiday.
Martha Stewart strawberry ice cream sundae ornament. Looks good enough to eat!
Delicious huge rose topped cupcake ornament another created by Everyday Is A Holiday. You all know how much I love their cake art! My entire kitchen is based on it.

Dreamy pastel confections on the table.
Fabulous cupcake cottage created by Julie of Pieceful Bits. I was so excited to find the vintage gumdrop girl ornaments a few years ago! They are so perfect to play the "owners" of the cupcake cottage :)
Delicious Dove dark and milk chocolate snowflakes from my sweet Dave sit in a bowl of "snow" :)
My big Teena Flanner bunny is ready for Christmas in his pink Santa hat :)

A sled that I did a few years ago with candies and candy cane being driven by two pink pipe cleaner bunnies :) They are delivering a cupcake to the beautiful powder pink Christmas angel princess.

Here you can see the pink Christmas angel princess and her aqua trusty steed :) Beautiful deer is from my sweet friend Jenn of Eye Candy Creations.

Yummy :) Gotta have some edible goodness mixed in!
Super cute and sugary sweet!! See the cute Hello Kitty all bundled up in her winter coat? She counts down the days to Christmas :) Dave took Emily to McDonald's for lunch last weekend for some daddy/daughter time :) She got a Happy Meal and these Hello Kitty cuties were in it! When Dave saw that she was in them, he brought me a Happy Meal too :) Awwww, he is so sweet! Did you know that Happy Meals now come with a teeny tiny thing of French Fries and apples? I think that is so cool! I will be getting them from now on! Only fifteen fat grams in a hamburger meal. Not bad for when you want to treat yourself to fast food! I am addicted to their oatmeal!! It is soooo good, with fresh apples, two kinds of raisins and brown sugar. 2 fat grams, 300 calories! And it is so filling, you wont even be hungry for lunch! I get it every time we go somewhere in the morning :) It is nice to see some fast food restaurants coming out with healthy alternatives!
Speaking of food, lol, have you seen these seasonal Jell-o's?? I had to get one of each. Mmmm, turtle! Cant wait to try them all.

Well, I don't feel tired yet :( But I have to try and get some sleep!! Everyone will be here this morning at 11!! Cant wait to see them :) I gotta get up early to get the Taco Soup in the crock pot. Hope you are all sound asleep right now, with sugar plums dancing in your heads

Thank you so much for visiting me! Have a wonderful week!!
Hugs ~ Amy

Traditional Santa Ornaments

2011-12-02T10:06:00.005-05:00

Hello friends! Hope you are all having a great week! It is snowing and freezing here today and has been the last few days. We had to go up to Midland (the town where I used to live which is about 2 hours from where I am now, lol). I had to go up there on some "business". Anyway, the roads were terrible on the way up, so the two hour drive turned into three hours. And this is just the first snow so more to come. But on the way up, the sun was shining bright and the trees looked sooo stunning with the snow on the naked branches. It was breathtaking actually. On the way home was much better thank goodness. Because we had to be home by three to take Savannah to get her pictures taken. Well she was not having it, lol! She got sooo mad and cried and threw a fit, lol. But we still got some adorable pictures showing Savannah's many moods, lol. I cant wait to get them back on the 6th! That little girl is just full of personality!!

I almost have all of my Christmas displays up. I have been taking my time to enjoy it. But I want to have it all done by the time my boys are here Sunday. My white big pastel/vintage decorated tree is up in the sitting room. We have a little traditional green tree for the family room with multi colored lights. There are a few blue lights mixed in with the red and gold :( (don't like blue lights, lol, too modern) just the reds and golds. But I wanted the old fashioned multi colored lights like Grandma had :) And couldn't find a prelit without the blue. Oh well. The traditional tree really is beautiful and cozy, just good old fashioned Christmas. I wanted to have some homemade red and gold and silver ornaments for that tree. So I have been making some. I decided to make a couple for my shoppe as well.

I used vintage style Santa images for them.
They just look so happy :)

I added a snowflake to peak out the top of these. So cute and fun. These are available in my shoppe now. Christmas is almost here! The decorating and crafting are almost done, now it is time to bake and wrap :)

Next up, my little kitchen Whimsical Winter Candyland display. I am having so much fun seeing all of the fabulous Christmas decor here in blogland!! Sooo beautiful and inspiring :)

Thank you for visiting me today!!

Pretty Christmas Pastels...

2011-11-29T09:50:00.007-05:00

Hello :) Hope you are all getting back into the swing of things after a long weekend. It's hard, isn't it, lol. The next few weeks will be a whirlwind for us all and all of our hard work cooking, baking, shopping, decorating and wrapping will be gone in the blink of an eye. That makes me so sad. I think that is why so many people (myself included) get depressed after Christmas. The winter seems so long once Christmas is over. I am going to try and keep my mind busy with Easter creations and planning Savannah's birthday party. Dave took that whole week off from work so he can help me decorate and open his wallet as needed, lol Just Kidding!!!! But he did say I could make it extra special since this is my only daughter :) I am having THIS dress made for her. And a special birthday hat. I found this fab shoppe on Etsy that makes AMAZING special birthday hats!

But first, I need to concentrate on Christmas!! Dave has the whole week before Christmas off. He gets four weeks off a year because he has been there for so long. I love that! He picked his weeks for 2012 yesterday :) We are planning to have all seven kids here to have our Christmas, probably a little before Christmas day. We bought a 4 ft tall green Christmas tree for the family room to sit on a table in there. I wanted a small one because I just know our husky Bella would knock it down, lol. She probably still will but not as easily! The tree is traditional, with multi colored lights. It goes well with the lodge style of that room. Plus, I want it to be fair for Dave! I have been working on some really cute traditional colored ornaments for that tree. I will show them in another post. I plan to make a big ham dinner and have the kids open their gifts in the family room.

Have you visited the shoppe Illusive Swan on Etsy? If not, you must!! Tracey makes gorgeous Christmas decor. I have been swooning over her large vintage style Christmas trees for the last couple of years. This year, I contacted her and asked her if she could do a special order tree for me. She is sooo sweet and wonderful to work with!

I wanted a large size in whites and aqua's with a little pink mixed in for my village display. This stands about 17 inches tall!
The tree sits in a vintage style hobnail cup. It has both vintage and new ornaments and lots of multi colored rhinestones!
When I purchased this tree, I could not resist this large Christmas house! It is so pretty!
I wish you could see it in person because it is COVERED in glitter and sparkles just like snow!
It is painted in buttercream and pink. I just love the wreath and another bottle brush tree.
The little present is so cute! And all the special details she puts into her work. I am looking forward to getting my little village set up. Em and I got most of the tree decorated. I even got Dave to help, lol. I also got the little Winter Candyland display up in the kitchen. I don't like it as much this year for some reason. Maybe I am just tired of it. I mean, I love every individual piece sooo much but just am not happy with the display. I keep tweaking it but just cant seem to get it right. I took pics though and will show them in my next post.

Sunday my mom and boys will be here. I am going to get a huge tin of popcorn and we will watch Christmas movies. We used to do those shut ins all the time at Christmas. I want to keep some normal traditions for them. I am going to make a big pot of Taco Soup too. They love that. I think I will help them make a special gift together for their dad too. I think it would be nice for them to create something special together. I just need to figure out what.

I am going to be busy with appointments etc. the rest of the week. Things I don't want to do but have to, lol. You know how it goes. It is freezing here today and pouring rain :( A day when you don't feel like doing anything! I hope tomorrow is better.

Have a lovely rest of the week and stay warm! Thanks for visiting me, hugs ~ Amy

Cyber Monday Sale

2011-11-28T09:19:00.003-05:00

Hi! Just letting you know I am having a Cyber Monday Sale in my shoppe!! Great deals. I have lowered prices on most Christmas items. I just looove Cyber Monday!!! Much easier shopping, lol. And you can do it with a cup of coffee and your pajamas on!! What could be better than that?? In fact, I almost finished my shopping this morning!! Only need to get four more things!! YAY!!!

Random Nothing....

2011-11-26T10:06:00.007-05:00

Hello there, hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ours was nice, quiet. Dave had his first full day of work off in two months! So we decided to stay home and just relax. I made a big chicken dinner and we watched The Change Up which was sooo good!! I loved it. Did you go out shopping yesterday? We were not going to go shopping. But we had to go get Emily and her sister from their moms house; which is just past Novi. Savannah is getting her 8 month/Christmas pictures taken on Wednesday and we needed to get her a special dress. This weekend was the only time we would have a chance to get it before Wednesday. We really liked a dress at Gap baby which is at th Twelve Oaks mall in Novi. Talk about a nightmare at that mall!!!!!! We went to that store and then got the heck out of there, lol. Went to Chili's for lunch, went home and crashed, lol. Savannah's Christmas outfit is to die for!! I wish I had it, lol.

I wanted to share the couple of things I did over the last week for Christmas for my shoppe. These will most likely be the last pieces I do this season as this next month is going to be so busy with Christmas and my son Edison's 8th birthday.

I made another deer collage. This one is really rustic. I used burlap and twigs from the pine tree in my front yard.
This looks so pretty with a rustic and white Christmas theme. Lots of silver glitter too :)

I also did these really pretty tree ornaments with French paper, vintage laces and buttons and pearls. So romantic and all vintage. Set of four of these too!
*******************************************************************
While Emily is here this weekend, we will put up the Christmas tree and some of the decorations for Christmas. It is truly the Holiday season now!! Time to get set up and in the spirit :)

Have you received/read the winter issue of Romantic Country? If not, you are truly missing out!! I am sooo inspired by the Snow Kissed Christmas article!! I have read through it and looked at the pictures so many times! I love how it is really rustic but with romantic girly touches mixed in. The latest issue of Romantic Homes is really good to! A lot of my Winter Candyland ideas were incorporated, lol. Which I have been doing for a few years now. I haven't purchased anything new for that display yet this year. I want to get it set up and see if I feel I need any additions or not. It is pretty full. I have been concentrating more on the sitting room decor. Cant wait to get it all put together.

Well, that is my post for now. Have a wonderful rest of the weekend Thank you for visiting me! Hugs ~ Amy

Dear Pottery Barn, I heart you!!!

2011-11-22T08:48:00.008-05:00

Hello Hello!! Hope you all had an amazing weekend!! Sunday we celebrated my sons Ashton and Dylan's birthdays!!! Ashton turned 13 and Dylan turned 10! I cannot believe how old they are getting. They are so cute, funny and fun to watch, lol. It seems like just lately they have changed so much. We took them shopping at the mall to pick out their gifts. Of course they chose video games, lol. They wanted my loaded nachos so I made them those. I think they enjoyed there day :)

I want to wish you all a beautiful Thanksgiving. I hope you will be spending your day with family and loved ones. I am thankful for many things. Though the last couple of years have been hard, I could not have made it through without my supportive parents, my precious boys, wonderful husband and my two beautiful daughters. I was blessed with a beautiful baby girl that I have always dreamed of having. Married the man of my dreams, which I am so thankful for. I am thankful to have gotten medical help to get better. Thankful to have moved to a new area that I truly love. Thankful that my boys dad and I have become good friends, only wanting the best for our boys. That is a relief. Despite hard times, you can find so much to be thankful for. The things that really matter are what is left.

****************************************************************
I mentioned in my last post that Dave and I went to my favorite mall last Wednesday. I wanted to share the couple of things I purchased. I cannot wait to start decorating for Christmas!!! I have so many ideas, pretty much the same as usual. But I love having different displays to reflect my different tastes. Anyway...I have Christmas on the brain right now as most of us do. My favorite mass merchandise store for decor is Pottery Barn!!!!!!!!!! Ohhhh how I love that store, lol. Every time the latest catalog comes in the mail, I get sooo excited. It is just like a favorite magazine has arrived. Their displays and staging is just amazing. So many details. Every time you look, you find something new. So of course, I had to go there. I could have spent hours in there. But Dave and Savannah were there so I didn't want to be selfish and make them suffer. However, I did pick up a few of the things I had hoped to get.

They had a display of the cutest vintage inspired Christmas correspondence items. I wish I had gotten the Santa stickers also :( But, I did get this pretty bird tag. Vintage inspired papers, silver glitter, so yummy! It has a little tag attached to add it to a package and then doubles as an ornament! It was only $3.50! Such a perfect little extra gift to add to your packages.
I went in there intending to get a larger version of this deer. But after thinking of the display I wanted to create, I just wasn't sure about it. So I decided to wait until I get the vignette set up to see if it will fit in or not. But I love it so much that I decided to get the little ornament :) I love silver and reindeer so I could not resist walking away without this version. It is a nice large size. The antlers are so pretty, they are flowers :)
This mercury glass tree was the piece I wanted soooo badly!! It is gorgeous in person. The larger sized one is ugly in my opinion (lol) but I just love this medium sized one. They call it an antique mercury glass tree. Obviously it is not antique but looks as though it is. You insert a strand of clear Christmas lights inside. It gives off the prettiest glow. I cant wait to set this up.
I couldn't resist this gorgeous mercury glass bowl. It is so pretty and I can fill it with different things depending on my mood and the season. I want to put some silver ornaments and greenery inside this for Christmas. The little silver sprig was cute so I grabbed that and some awesome fake snow. I am usually not a fan of fake snow but this looks so real, I couldn't resist.
This fabulous duvet cover is the other thing I went to get. But they didn't have it in the store :( I was sad. I will have to order it from the site. I think this is just so pretty and perfect for winter!! I can just picture snuggling under this with the snow falling in the window behind my bed :)

Thank you for visiting me today!! Have a lovely Thanksgiving and rest of the week! Hugs ~ Amy

Score!....

2011-11-17T09:53:00.014-05:00

Hello! Hope you are having a wonderful week so far. Are you in the mood for Christmas yet? I am really getting into it already. I cant wait to start pulling my decorations up from the basement and rediscover things I have forgotten and set up vignettes etc.! But I figure I better at least wait until Thanksgiving, lol. Yesterday, Dave was home from work by 6am. After lazing around half the day, we decided to go out for an early dinner and then to the Novi mall (the best mall in Michigan in my opinion). So glad I live just minutes away! We mainly went to window shop, get ideas for Christmas and just get out of the house. Santa was there and they had the neatest set up for him that I have ever seen! I wanted to get the three of us together with Santa but Savannah wasn't dressed for it. We plan to go back and get it done. Anyway, they had this huge igloo that looked like an ornament, with huge TV screens on each side showing arctic animals. Inside the igloo, "snow" fell all over you so that when you got to the part where Santa was sitting, you would have snow in your hair. Sooo cute. Inside, kids could play in the "snow" and interact with things. It was super cute! I was surprised there wasn't more people in the mall shopping. But I guess everyone is waiting for black Friday. You cant get me to go out that day!! We are hoping to finish up our Christmas shopping for the kids next Wednesday. We just want it done, lol. We went to GAP Baby/kids and I think we found Savannah's Christmas dress and shoes!! Oh my goodness, it is gorgeous!! I think I am going to put it in a shadowbox frame for her after Christmas to hang in her room and then when she grows up she will have her first Christmas dress as a keepsake. I saw an outfit I want to get Emily in there too. My boys favorite clothing store is Aeropostale. So I would go there for them. I did pick up a few things and will share them in another post. Do you have your Christmas shopping done or started? Or are you brave enough to venture out on black Friday?

Today I wanted to share some vintage finds from the last week.

I found an entire box of mid-century mercury glass ornaments!! I was soooo excited. Perfect addition to my collection :)
Look at all these yummy colors!! Such pretty pastels and bright pinks and blues.
Even lavender which I haven't seen often! Those and the aqua are my favorites :)

There were also three shaped ornaments in perfect colors.
And yummy silver and a few gold. I am so in love with silver right now! Especially tarnished and mercury glass in silver.
These will look perfect with my silver Christmas display. It will be a new addition to my displays this year, lol. Kitschy whimsy sweets in the kitchen, vintage and silver in the sitting room and traditional Christmas in the family room.
I bought this awesome pewter cup from Katie's Rose Cottage, one of my favorite web stores. If I could, I would buy everything in her shop, lol. This cup is so perfect for different vignette displays and to fill with seasonal goodies. Here I have some of my vintage bling in it :)
Snow white seam binding and a snowflake brooch :)
Look at the patina on these :)
Mercury glass pumpkin from Pottery Barn. I love this and am not sure I will be able to put it away after Thanksgiving! It may just find itself on the silver table. You can put lights in this and it glows.

Insomnia struck me again last night, ugghh. I hate it so much. I finally got up at 330 and went ahead and made coffee. I knew I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. But I did get the floors mopped two loads of laundry done and pot roast in the crockpot, lol. So that feels good! But now I am soooo tired. Savannah is asleep so I think I will go lay on the couch and use my Husky as a pillow, lol. Hope you all have a great rest of the week and thanks so much for visiting me!

Shabby white Christmas

2011-11-14T11:00:00.008-05:00

Hello there :) Thank you for stopping by today to visit. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

I have been working on a couple more Christmas items for my shoppe that I want to share with you.

This is a pretty white shadow box that is sooo sparkly and pretty! Goes with so many types of decor. I used sparkly diamond German glass glitter on the back and sides of the box and it looks just like real glistening snow. Four different Christmas songs sheet music adorn the sides and back along with a vintage sepia Christmas card with deer.
Gorgeous creamy bottle brush tree that I have added vintage pearls and a vintage rhinestone snowflake to the top. Also, a gold and rhinestone snowflake under the tree.
White Santa and a vintage flocked deer that I painted white. More rhinestone jewels sit in the "snow" I made snow using tissue paper and glittered it and the deer with silver glitter.

And a set of three more of my tart tin ornaments :) These tart tins are a triangular shape. Very romantic and full of everything vintage! I cut hearts from French book pages as well and added some silver glitter.

These can be found in my Etsy shoppe.

Thank you for visiting me today! Have a great week ~ Amy

Random Nothing....

2011-11-10T08:02:00.005-05:00

Hello there, welcome to My Shabby Bungalow :) Thank you for stopping by and reading a post about nothing, lol.

Not too much to say today but I wanted to pop in and say "Hi". Not to much to blog about. Dave and I haven't been doing anything fun lately lo. Except Sunday was a wonderful day! We took all five of the boys ( just Dave, my five boys and I, my parents watched Savannah) which was nice because we were able to do what we wanted.). After lunch we went to the tridge which is a three way bridge that has a nice park on the furthest side. The other side leads to a private trail that goes deep in the woods and along the river. I decided to go the way of the trail. I showed the boys the house that my mom lived in when she was born. It is tucked in the woods and neat to think that my mom was brought home from the hospital to there and that is was my grandparents first home :) The boys were quite interested in that. Then we walked on the trail and saw lots of cool things :) There were big openings in the woods and I told the boys that we should build a little cottage there :) The boys saw lots of trees and logs that they thought would be perfect to build a house, it was so cute :) Then we came across this huge neat old tree that was like a treehouse. All the boys sat in it and I so wished I had my camera at that point! There were also huge old drain tubes that are no longer in use. We looked in one and someone had it set up as a home! Obviously a homeless. person. You never see homeless people in that area so it was quite a shock! But they sure had a beautiful view. Dave and the boys walked through one of the tubes and came out by the water. They did it over and over again, lol. They also swung on huge branches. We just had a lot of fun, good memories for sure! The weather was so beautiful and the fresh air felt so good. It was a couple mile hike.

I also want to thank you all for your kind comments and purchases of my Christmas items!! It means so much to me. Some pieces are still available. Two of my favorite pieces are still in there!

Romantic creamy lace pieces. Vintage lace and rhinestones are two of my very favorite things to craft and decorate with. They are the main things I look for when I antique and shop Etsy. I love romance. I have one more piece that I am working on for my shop. Then, I am going to start decorating and do some things around my own home. I want to do things a bit different this year. My pink cupcake/bunny tree and little cupcake/candy village will go on the kitchen ice cream table, in the sitting room I will do my religious display and house display and I want to do a vintage, silver and mercury glass display in there too. My white tree will also be in there, like it was last year. In the family room, I want to do a traditional green tree with reds and golds. That is where the kids will open presents. Last year, I put everything up late and this year I want to put it up earlier, to enjoy it longer. I am hoping to have a big Thanksgiving dinner here and want it up for that. This would be the first gathering I have had here. My boys always ask me to cook for them because they miss it, lol. So I want to go all out for them. Maybe I will even make some pies from scratch ~ scratch that ~ I will leave that to someone else, lol. I will hopefully be able to share some Christmas pretties with you next week.

My oldest son Ashton's birthday is the 21st and my middle son Dylan's birthday is the 23rd! So I am going to make them whatever they want for dinner and two cakes. Cant wait for that! And believe it or not, I am already planning Savannah's first birthday party, lol. I literally have a book full of ideas. I have been planning this for years and years,. I am having a cupcake, princess, tea party theme with some Hello Kitty thrown in. I am having a gown made for her, a bunny petting zoo, candy buffet, several small mad hatter cakes and I am hoping to find an entertainer to come that is dressed as Hello Kitty, if not, it will be a princess. Lots of big plans so I want to start on it right after Christmas. I will only have three months to get it done!! No, she wont remember it, but I sure will!!

Well, that is my post about nothing, lol Thank you for stopping by. Have a great weekend ~ Amy

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

2011-11-04T16:26:00.012-04:00

in my shoppe at least :)

I have been battling insomnia for a few months now. I wake up at like four or five in the morning. I get up and make some coffee and get out my crafting items and create. I have about four good hours of alone time before Miss Savannah wakes up. I kind of enjoy that quiet time to be honest. I just keep the TV off, drink coffee and make things. It seems like I work better at that time as well. I like to text Dave a little note of encouragement when I get up too. Hopefully to help start his day off a little better :) I think it is nice to send spouses and kids a little note of encouragement or appreciation for there hard work and efforts in school, especially when you are a stay at home parent or spouse. Just something to think about.

I have been working on Christmas items over the last couple weeks and wanted to show what I have done this season for my Etsy Shoppe. I have been working on a lot of ornaments and a couple of decorative boxes.

These are so pretty and were a lot of fun to make. Little clear glass heart ornaments that I have filled with old cream buttons, pearls and a tiny silver glittered deer. Vintage lace is tied around the top.

Pink and aqua :) Little round ornate frame that I glittered. Inside, I added part of an old Christmas card. I came across two gorgeous old Christmas cards in shades of pink, aqua and mint. I also put a pretty vintage pearly earring in pinks and some aqua seam binding.
I also did some French inspired items in whites. Loving white with silver and French accents so much right now. This is a set of three paper mache stars that I painted white and sprinkled with silver glitter. I put a piece of muslin hand stamped with Joyeux Noel and a rhinestone snowflake on each star that I took from an old bracelet. I came across a nice sized lot of vintage broken snowflake jewelry pieces! I love them and they are perfect for Christmas crafting.
I loved this one so much, I made myself one and one to share :) Ornate silver plated little tray, vintage lace, Joyeux Noel, pearls, tiny glittered deer and one of the wonderful snowflake pieces I found.
This is a shadowbox ornament with bottle brush trees, a little flock of tiny deer, inside is sheet music of Deck the Halls, rhinestone pieces, lace. On the bottom I hung a silver glittered bell and a silver ornament. Dave brought home a box of the little silver ornaments from one of his stores for me to craft with. I have found so many uses for them!
This is probably my favorite piece I did. Aqua and pink :) Dave also brought me home the reindeer in the next two pieces. They were really ugly and he knew it. LOL but he said he knew I could work some magic on them. Nothing a little paint cant fix! So I did one in pink and 2 in white. Emily wanted me to keep one. The image on the front of this is another of the cards I talked about. It is so perfect!! Deer, bunnies and a pink tree with aqua background. I had this piece of aqua millinery velvet trim for a long time. It ended up being perfect for this. I put it through an old rhinestone buckle.
I put pink ruffled crepe paper on the side. I also found the vintage crochet trim with the bells hanging off it. Perfect for Christmas :) I put it all the way around the top. On the top is mica, the pink deer, two pink bottle brush trees and the most beautiful aqua/turquoise tree purchased from Diane of Saturday Finds. She makes the prettiest hand dyed trees and the ruffled crepe paper is also by Diane.
My last piece is another reindeer box. This one is French inspired. I covered the bottom with pages from a French book. Look at the gorgeous huge snowflake rhinestone brooch I found! It is so beautiful and not missing any rhinestones.

That was a long post, lol. I am working on one more piece and then I am going to take a break. I have got to get some things around this house done! I have been so neglectful lately, lol.

thank you for visiting me today. Have a great weekend!

The cutest tricker treater of all :)

2011-11-01T13:20:00.007-04:00

Hello :) Hope you all had a great Halloween! I just wanted to stop in and show Savannah's first Halloween pictures. She of course, was a fluffy pink bunny!! Come on, did you expect anything else?? LOL

She looked soooo cute in her costume! Notice she chose a full sized candy bar to grab out of the bowl, lol
We gave the little kids full size and the teenagers little ones, lol. I know we are soooo mean. You should have seen the little ones faces. One little girl ran off the porch showing her big candy bar and yelling to the other kids "look what they gave me" Too cute for words :)

Just had to share our precious bunny with you all :)

Now, Christmas is coming fast and I am working on lots of creations. A few new things are in my shoppe now. Thank you so much for stopping by! Have a great week ~ Amy

Creamy Dreamy Lacey Christmas...

2011-10-28T13:20:00.007-04:00

Hello there. Hope you are having a great week. I have been busy working on items for my Christmas shoppe. I seem to have a clear theme this year without even trying to, lol. Creamy colors, romance, crochet lace, deer and rhinestones, lol.

I thought I would share the few pieces I have finished and listed in my shoppe.

Swans are so pretty! This is a diorama with a swan and tons of mica and glitter. Has a very old look to it.
I adore these ornaments! You cant get more romantic than creamy antique crochet lace! These canvases are just drenched in different crochet lace trims.
And yummy vintage rhinestone jewels. They would all look so pretty displayed together in a tarnished silver dish full of lace! Or mercury glass ornaments, swoooon!!
And this is a collage made with lots of different items for texture and dimension. Including a vintage tart tin!

I have a TON more items in the works for Christmas as well that I will be listing over the next few weeks. You can get to my shoppe at the top of my blog if interested.

Thank you for stopping by, have a lovely weekend! ~ Amy

family...

2011-10-24T13:22:00.010-04:00

Hi there. Hope you all had a great week and weekend. Dave was on vacation all week. We didn't really do anything. It rained the entire week until Saturday. We had a nice weekend with family though.

Emily was here all weekend and carved pumpkins for Savannah and her.
Love this picture of her and her dad :)
Emily and I made these yummy acorns. They are so easy and fun to make! And soooo good too!
Sunday we went to Midland to my parents house with all the kids. My grandma and my aunt were there as well. The weather was so warm and nice, we were able to eat outside! My mom made yummy chili, pumpkin muffins and no bake cookies. It was a lot of fun.
My mom giving Vanny a taste :)
The kids throwing apples, lol
My second oldest son Colton and I. He is 12 an as tall as me!
Dave and I.
Me being stupid eating a pumpkin muffin, lol.
After the picnic, we went bowling. It was a really fun day!

Now it is back to real life :( I am working on a ton of Christmas items for my shop this week. Looking forward to that!

Have a great week, thank you for visiting me!! ~ Amy

Happy Sweetest Day!!

2011-10-15T14:34:00.006-04:00

I'm not supposed to be blogging, lol!! BUT David is taking a nap and I am watching a marathon of My Fair Wedding on We (one of my favorite shows!!) so I figured it would be okay to sneak on and do a little Sweetest Day post. A lot of people do not acknowledge this day. But we sure do :) Everyday is sweetest day around this house.

I was upstairs yesterday and came down to get Savannah a bottle and there was Dave sitting in the family room! I did not expect him for another four hours or so! I was sooo happy to see him :) Now he is on vacation and that was celebration enough for me :)

But then he gave me these sweet surprises :) Gorgeous huge bouquet of flowers...
and the prettiest pink rose cupcake :) I didn't even want to eat it. But...of course...I did...within minutes, lol. And it was soooo yummy! :)

Hope you are all having a great weekend. I don't even know for sure what we are doing this week. The weather is supposed to be yucky all week. So I think a trip up north might be out. Hopefully we will do something. Not too much to blog about after this. So not sure when I'll be back with a REAL post, lol.

Thank you for stopping by ~ Amy

Vintage Petite Collages...

2011-10-14T14:45:00.007-04:00

Hello :) hope you have had a great week. I am still on a blog break but wanted to stop in and show you my latest creations for my shoppe.

I was ecstatic when I came across these beautiful, ornate, vintage silver plated little trays/coasters. They measure just 4x4. I embellished them with the prettiest vintage supplies.

I found the prettiest cabinet card photo of a lady holding roses. I knew it would be perfect for this.
Would make such a beautiful ornament too.
This one is so sweet! A beautiful vintage photo of a couple at their wedding!

These are so pretty in "person". They look lovely nestled amongst lace and jewelry. Sooo romantic! These are now in my SHOPPE

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Dave is on vacation for a week starting Sunday. So I definitely wont be blogging until after that. He has been working over 70 hours a week for awhile now and I want to spend every minute of his vacation with him! We are going to try and sneak away for a couple of days to the town we met/grew up in. It is in northern Michigan and the fall leaves are sooo pretty up there. We want to walk some private trails we know of. So hopefully I will come back with some pretty pics to share :)

thank you for stopping by ~ Amy

Fall on my porch...

2011-10-10T00:31:00.012-04:00

Hello :) Thank you so much for stopping by my blog. I hope you had a great weekend. Ours was very nice. Saturday, Dave and I went shopping and just hung out around town. Sunday, we spent the day with my boys. It was crazy because we spent the day at the lake! That is unheard of here in Michigan in October! Normally by now, it would be quite chilly. But it has been in the 80's-90's! It was so crazy to see the beautiful fall leaves and yet see the boys swimming in the lake. But we all had so much fun and we grilled out there too. I don't know exactly how long this weather will last but I am sure going to enjoy it while it is here. I guess it is supposed to last for most of this week.

I have also been spending a little time decorating my porch for fall. We moved into this house a year ago October 8th. So technically this is our second fall here. But last year at this time we were busy moving in, getting settled as well as doing a lot of projects inside the house. Plus I was pregnant and did not have a lot of energy. So this season, I wanted to decorate the porch. I usually don't decorate at all for fall! This year, I feel much different about it. I have been having fun too!

This is the house before. Very boring and in need of a makeover. I decided to paint the door red. I thought it would really pop with the black trim and beautiful stone.
This is the after and I absolutely love it!! It is amazing how such a small change can make such an impact.
Red doors are so classic. And it just seems bungalow-ish, lol.
A cute scarecrow to welcome you at the front door :)
Straw bails with little pumpkins that I wrote FALL on, Emily's big pumpkin she picked out at the pumpkin patch. And a cute scare"crow".
I used my shabby chippy fence in front of the straw bails and decorated it with fall leaves, pine cones and berries.

A big pot of the prettiest mums. I love the color and fullness of them. A bushel basket filled with white pumpkins as well as a couple soft orange gourd pumpkins :)
the other side of the door is decorated with a corn stalk and fall leaves, large pumpkin and a beautiful large pot of bright yellow mums.
And Dave picked out this adorable pumpkin ghost at a nursery.

Well, that is my decor for fall this year. I think I will add a couple of mum hanging plants on the porch as well. I just love mums, they are so pretty. Now it is time to start looking for winter and Christmas things for the porch :) I want to use a lot of evergreen, red plaid and gold.

I just received my fall/winter issue of Romantic Country magazine and it is just beautiful! I love the rustic winter home article. Everything is just so pretty.

I think I am going to take a bit of a blog break So if you don't see any posts from me for a bit, that is why :)

Thank you for visiting me today ~ Amy

Latest shoppe creations...and Etsy Cottage Style Market Monday Week

2011-10-06T10:40:00.003-04:00

Hello :) Hope you are all having a great week so far. Any plans for the weekend? It is supposed to be in the 90's here this weekend! I cannot believe that in October! Sunday we are spending the entire day out and about with the boys :) Dave mentioned going bowling. I think my boys would looooove that! Plus it is too hot out to pick and make caramel apples, lol. We can do that maybe next weekend when Em is with us. I still want to see Real Steel too though. Dave is an amazing bowler and used to play on leagues with his co-workers. I am no good at it and haven't bowled in about 11 years, lol. I am hoping he can teach me how!

Yesterday I woke up at 4 when Dave left for work. I laid there about an hour and said forget it and got up, lol. I knew I had about three hours of alone time before Savannah and the dogs woke up so I spent it crafting. Here are the things I made for my shoppe.

I covered this paper mache pumpkin with French/English dictionary pages. Glittered the stem completely with silver glitter and added a silk bow with the coolest old rhinestone earring.
I made this collage using vintage clothing/millinery hat ads, lace, rhinestone brooch, a wooden tag that says vintage on it. And an antique cabinet card photo of a lady in a beautiful hat.
More tart tin tags. I found these adorable Gem photos of little girls and knew they would be perfect for these! Each is a little different.

Three different burlap gift bags. They are so pretty and measure 5x7, perfect for favor bags!

Also, it is Etsy Cottage Style Market Monday Week!! Be sure to click HERE to check out all the wonderful shops!!

I hope you have an amazing weekend. I am hoping to get lots of pictures on Sunday :) I started decorating my front porch too and will show pics of that next week as well.

Thank you so much for visiting me! Hugs ~ Amy

Fall Family Fun...

2011-10-04T11:48:00.015-04:00

Hello hello sweet friends! Hope you all had a great weekend! Ours was really nice. A couple posts ago, I mentioned that Dave and I had planned a day to take our seven kids to a great pumpkin patch down here. (not Charlie Brown great pumpkin, a great pumpkin Patch, LOL) I was super excited about it. Wednesday, I was going to surprise the boys by telling them about the day. When I told them, they told me they had already went to a pumpkin patch with their dad and his girlfriend. I felt so upset inside. But what are you gonna do, divorce is what it is, lol. But then the boys told me they thought it was stupid and boring, lol. So I am glad I know that. Sunday, we are going to have a special day together doing something else. I would like to take them to Hugh Jackman's new movie, Real Steel. And maybe pick apples and make the gourmet apples I have a new recipe for. I already know they love to make caramel apples!! And if they already have seen Real Steel, I'm gonna scream!! Lol, just kidding.

Anyway, we had Emily over the weekend and she really wanted to go to a pumpkin patch and so did I. The weather cleared up Saturday afternoon so we decided to go to a smaller one in Plymouth just a few miles from our home. We had a really nice time. Of course I took pics and thought I would share them with you.

Cute wagon to greet you.
Isn't this Eeyore adorable?? I just love donkey's. I am such an animal person though. I wanted to take this sweetie home with me, lol.
Cute goats eatin'
Aren't these little guys cute? I want a pygmy goat soooo bad!!! I have for years. I told Dave if we got one, he wouldn't have to mow the lawn anymore, lol.

Emily and Dave petting this cute little cow. He was so sweet and loved attention. Emily is wearing her dads coat :) so cute.
Black cat Emily :)
Cute daisy Emily :)
Adorable little bundled up Savannah. She is such a doll!!

Emily on the John Deere. Tractors are so cool. All of my boys went through a farm/tractor stage. Edison is still really into it and wants to be a farmer when he grows up :) And the tractor toys he gets HAVE to be John Deere. Don't think about another brand of tractor, lol.
Dave and I in front of the tractor. We didn't do the hay ride because it was a bit cold and windy. I was worried about Savannah.

Well I haven't crafted in almost a week! I was going to yesterday but I decided to pack up Savannah and have a girls day out shopping :) So we went to Canton and shopped for four hours, lol. Savannah never cried ONCE the ENTIRE time!!! She is such a good baby, I cant believe it!
I got her the cutest corduroy jumper for winter, it has kittens on it :) Believe it or not, I only had THREE warm sweaters/tops for winter!! Because I never went out much in the winter. But that is gonna change. So I got myself some super cute sweaters, jeans and tops. Cant wait to wear them out :) But it is going to be in the high 60's all week! It is so hot today I may have to turn on the air. Michigan weather is so crazy, lol. Now, I need to get crafting :) Lots of ideas to come. I did do three little burlap gift bags on Friday and those are in my shoppe now.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!! Thank you so much for visiting me today. Hugs ~ Amy

A little fall inside, my style...

2011-10-01T10:45:00.011-04:00

Hello and happy Saturday :) Due to the weather today, our plans have changed. So when Dave gets home from work, we are going to go shopping for clothes and craft supplies :) He is such a sweetie to shop with me at stores he hates, lol. Since we haven't left yet, I decided to do a post showing the little bit of fall decor I have done in my home. Above is a cake pedestal plate with my new mercury glass pumpkin that I LOVE, some real little orange pumpkins and some little pumpkins that I covered in vintage papers, some music sheet and silver glittered stick candles (which are my gift with purchase for my shoppe :) ) and cinnamon sticks tied with twine :) A tree branch ties in fall :)

I have never really been one decorate for fall or Halloween. But for some reason I am really into it this year, lol. I get really into the costume part for my kids' sake but not the decorating part. But I think because this house is bigger than my last one, I am more into it. I usually get really depressed when summer if over. But with the things I have been through the last couple of years, I am trying to change my attitude and embrace things, lol. Dave loves Halloween and dresses up every year. He likes to dress up as Spiderman and hide silly string in his sleeve and spray the kids as they come up to get candy like a web. The kids think it is just the coolest thing, lol. He is just like a big kid and that is just one of the many things I love about him. It helps me to lighten up a lot and I needed that :)

This is the little bit I have done in my sitting room. White, black silver and some orange. I have used a lot of the things I made for my shoppe in this display. I figured why not. It is better than putting it on a shelf! I hung the tart collage tags on the tree branches.
Shabby crate of white pumpkins and three hedgehogs that were a gift from my sweet friend Julie. She sent Emily, Savannah and I each one. We both love woodland animals and she knows hedgehogs are one of my favorites :), the cool spooky lady pumpkin I made and the cake plate of fall goodies.I love these stripedy pumpkins! They are real, one is white and orange, the other white and green. And they have the cutest stems!

Spooky looking tree :)
And in the spirit of fall, I baked Dave some apple cinnamon muffins last night :) I wanted to send him to work this morning with some baked goodness. These were super good. I will be making some pumpkin ones too. I looove anything pumpkin flavored!! I always go to Bob Evans restaurant and buy a loaf of their pumpkin bread. It is the best. And their is nothing like pumpkin doughnuts and cider!
Last night, on the way home from work, Dave stopped and bought me these peachy orange fall roses :) He is such a sweetie. I love the unique color of these. They are the same color as the millinery roses I found last month! I used some of them on the fall bags in my shoppe. It is not an ugly invasive orange but soft and pretty :)

I hope to do some outdoor decorating over the next few weeks. Have you started decorating for fall? I am loving seeing all the fall pretties in blogland!! Sooo much talent out there!

Have a lovely weekend and I will hopefully be back next week with the creations I am working on right now.

Thank you so much for visiting me today. Hugs ~ Amy

Giveaway Winner A Day Early...

2011-09-30T12:23:00.004-04:00

Hey All! Hope you had a great week! I am drawing a winner for my giveaway a day early. I am going to be gone tomorrow so I figured I better do it today. I have given quite awhile for everyone to enter, so I think it is okay to draw today, lol.

I picked a winner the old fashioned way, everyone's name in a bowl :)
And the winner is.... Jenn of WhineNRoses!!! Congratulations Jenn!!! I will get this off to you soon. Just email me your address. My email is on the profile page of my blog.

Working on lots of pretty French-y vintage-y pretties to come for my shop! They should be done by next week, along with a post on the teeny tiny bit of autumn decor inside my house. Have a wonderful weekend! It is cold and dreary here and sooo windy. I am ready for some sun!

Thanks so much for stopping by and don't forget to stop by Jenn's pretty blog and say "Hi"! ~ Amy

Last Day for my giveaway...

2011-09-29T11:44:00.005-04:00

Hello, just a reminder that today is the last day to sign up for my giveaway!

You will receive this tote bag made by me...
A bag of girly comfort, including this magazine that is really good :) Some chocolates, a box of tea and a candle. A pumpkin created by me and a hanging embellished mason jar that I have repurposed. If you would like a chance to win this, you can sign up HERE. I will draw a winner tomorrow evening.
Thanks so much ~ Amy

Fall Midwest Living....

2011-09-26T16:40:00.007-04:00

Hello :) Hope you had a nice weekend. Ours was quiet and peaceful. We didn't do much at all. I cleaned a lot and did a ton of laundry which felt good! Caught up on all my DVR'd TV shows :) Project Runway, Teen Mom, Downsized etc, lol. Last night, Dave and I ordered pizza and rented Bridesmaids, On Demand. Have you seen that movie yet? It is CRAZY and funny, lol. Our jaws hit the ground a few times, lol.

I live in Michigan, which is obviously in the Midwest, llol. One of my favorite magazines is Midwest Living!! This months fall edition is sooo good!! I have poured over it several times.

Love the cover :)
DeLiCiOuS recipes!! Oh my gosh. Fall offers some of my favorite foods such as pumpkin, pear, cranberry and apple!! I could eat pumpkin anything any day of the week, lol. In fact, Wednesday I am baking up a batch of delicious pumpkin spice muffins for my boys and cider of course :) Dave is working 14+ hours today :( Poor guy :( So I made some comforting beef stew in the crockpot and will make some cornbread to have ready when he gets home. He works so hard!!
Beautiful front porch ideas for fall!!!! Trust me, I am taking many of these ideas for my porch decor this year. That is going to be my main focus for fall this year, decorating outside.

I am REALLY changing up my decor right now and my taste has changed sooo much. You will see many changes to come, just as you have been seeing with my creating. I am keeping the sitting room aqua but having tons of white in there, some sepia, rough and soft textures and lots of silver. I am obsessed with silver right now!! I am excited. I am planning on redoing a lot of my kitchen too!! I am going more the farmhouse direction. I have been wanting to do this for awhile but have put it off. I love my oak cabinets and my new countertops, I want to work with those and have more of the browns, creams and brushed silvers. BUT, it might be a waste of time, lol. Because Dave and I have been househunting again, lol! Ha, a surprise to my family for sure, lol. We want to move to a different town and be out of the city. We would both ultimately like to have a farm. I am not going to talk too much about it right now until more progresses. We have so many ideas and things we want to do and we don't want to make any hasty decisions.

I have more creations in the works to show you the end of the week, also a post on the little tiny bit of autumn decor I have done. The weekend of October 8th, we are planning to take all the kids HERE and I plan on taking advantage of all the great natural pieces I can bring home to decorate with!

I almost forgot to tell you, THE WINNER OF MY GIVEAWAY WILL RECEIVE A COPY OF THIS WONDERFUL MAGAZINE included with the tote bag! You can enter HERE.

romantic creations...

2011-09-23T13:07:00.008-04:00

Hello there :) Hope you all had a great week! Dave was supposed to be on vacation this week but was asked to work instead. So he has been working, but getting home early. I have been enjoying having him home early :) We haven't been doing anything much but I don't care. I love being home. Wednesday we were with our kids, we went to my parents house. My parents have four apple trees in there yard. Dave and the boys were playing ball with apples, lol. It was so cute. We took our husky Bella and our dachshund Slinky with us. The boys love when we bring them, The dogs were having so much fun with the apples too, lol.

I have been busy creating away again. I am a creatin' fool right now, lol. I love the romantic neutral direction I am taking. Whether anyone buys anything or not, I am having a blast creatin' it!

However, I think some people are missing the cutesy pink things they are used to seeing from me :) It is funny how we evolve from time to time and our tastes change! I still love pink but am slowly taking it out of my home. With getting married and moving to a new home, I am wanting to change things here to move on with my life so to speak. BUT, I decided to do a pretty pink pumpkin :)
I painted the creases of the pumpkin a soft aqua and then painted the entire pumpkin a soft pink and let the aqua show through. I completely glittered the pumpkin to look like frost. It is so pretty to see frost on pumpkins on a sunny fall morning :) Venice lace around the top, seam binding bows and a pretty rolled rose with aqua appliqued leaf and vintage pink earring in the middle. Unique and so pretty!

***************************************************************

My latest line and my latest obsession, lol! Vintage tart tin collage tags!!

they are sooo romantic! Each a little different with vintage laces, rhinestones, stamps and tiny antique Charlotte dolls. I have done them in sets of two. More of these guys to come :)
I about died when I found this gorgeous antique lace cuff!! The lady told me it is from the 1800's! Still has the original buttons on the bottom too.
I had to re purpose this into a pretty, romantic display piece! I added two kinds of old crochet lace, part of a rhinestone bracelet, a big rhinestone button, dupioni lace and vintage earring. Hard to part with this piece. It looks so pretty in a vintage dish with lace and the tart tin tags!

You can find all these pieces in My Etsy Shoppe.

latest creations...

2011-09-20T14:08:00.006-04:00

Hello Hello :) Just wanted to show you my latest creations! I just updated my shop and wanted to share the things I have been working on.

Burlap tote bag with lace, rose and wooden tag...

I just love this pumpkin :) I covered it in old sheet music. I found the coolest antique cabinet card that was a bit "spooky" and thought it would be perfect on a pumpkin! I love ghost stories and she reminds me of a ghost you would see in an old Victorian home. If it doesn't sell, I might find myself shopping in my own Etsy store, lol.
Romantic heart ornaments with silk, vintage lace and more...

teeny tiny burlap bag with vintage laces and rhinestone.

These things are all listed in my Etsy right now.

I'm working on some tags that will be in my shop in a week or two. And a couple more things as well.

thank you for visiting me!

Giveaway Extension...

2011-09-20T09:53:00.002-04:00

Candy for movie night :) Don't know why I posted this pic but wanted to at least have one picture on this post, LOL!!

I woke up super early this morning, even earlier than Dave! So I decided to get up and make him some coffee :) A rare treat since I am never up when he leaves! After he left, I still wasn't tired, so I decided to stay up and create! My creative juices were flowing so I took advantage of it while Vanny and the doggies slept :) I finished a special order tote bag that needed to get done, along with four things for my shoppe :) Stay tuned for a post on those later today. The sun is shining so want to get them photographed. We will be gone all day tomorrow and then it is supposed to rain after that :(

I know I said I would draw a winner for my giveaway today but I have decided to keep it open until October 1st!! I want to give everyone a chance to enter and I also want to add some more surprises to it :) So you definitely want to enter this one :):) MAYBE I will take pics of all of it at some point, lol. Who knows though. But it is for one of my tote bags and you can enter by clicking HERE

Have a great day!!! ~ Amy

thank you....

2011-09-19T10:35:00.002-04:00

I want to thank you all so much for your beautiful, kind comments, thoughts and prayers on my previous post. Saturday was my grandmas funeral and it was a beautiful celebration of my grandma and how much she meant to so many people. It was such a comfort knowing that she is no longer suffering and is in such a better place than we all are. She looked beautiful as always. She picked out her own outfit to be buried in, her nail polish color and even her own beautiful casket. Some may think that is odd. But to us, it was just grandma. Always made up and looking beautiful, even with a pink casket with roses on it. My entire family was there, many I had not seen in a couple of years. Both of my brothers were there and it was wonderful to have our little family together. Your kind words were such a comfort to me and again, I thank you all.

Please remember that I am having a giveaway for the tote bag pictured above, along with some other goodies that I have not pictured. You can enter two posts down.

I am creatin' crazy right now!!! Tons of things that I am working on. Lots of new things that I have not done before. I hope to have some of them listed in my Etsy by the end of the week. I have found a ton of great supplies over the last couple of weeks, so that is what I am doing, besides taking care of my home, Savannah and Dave of course, lol. It is dreary and pouring rain out today. Hopefully by the time I want to take pics it will stop and be sunny! It looks and feels like fall today so I am getting the crockpot out and making chicken stew! October 8th we are going to a punkin patch/apple orchard. Whaaa, lol! Oh well, nothing we can do but roll with it. By reading many of your blogs, this is most of your favorite time of year! So enjoy :) We have been looking for costumes for Savannah. My super sweet bunny sis Kathy said she saw a cuppycake costume at her Marshall's! That is exactly what we want Savannah to be! But of course, ours doesnt have that. It does have a cupcake fairy but all sizes are too big. She might be a princess or a daisy instead. No matter what though, she will be adorable. I am getting ready to decorate the front porch for fall. I would like to do something kind of like they show in Romantic Country. The front entrance with the stacked pumpkins is so cute! How are you decorating for fall? I am working on some pumpkins for my shop right now that are pretty cool! I think I may have to do a couple for me too, lol :)

Thank you for stopping by! Hugs ~ Amy

A heavy heart...

2011-09-16T11:10:00.004-04:00

Wednesday, we lost my sweet grandma to pancreatic cancer. She had been fighting hard for three years and lived two and a half years longer than expected. She suffered terribly the last two weeks. We are all so glad she is in a better place and no longer suffering. She was such an inspiration to her entire family. She raised six wonderful children, one of them being my sweet daddy. He is and always will be the most wonderful man I have ever known. He was very close to my grandma; which I think is so wonderful. He saw her struggle, as my grandpa was a long haul truck driver. She was home alone often, raising her children by herself. She worked hard. My dad learned how to treat women through his respect for his mom. My grandma was beautiful and so feminine. She told us she better have her nails painted when they bury her. I get that from her :) I have been told I look just like she did when she was young :) When I was four years old, my grandparents packed up and moved to a little town here in Michigan called Grayling. They had purchased a motel there. My dad told my grandpa to find us a motel there to buy and he did. When I was four, we packed up and bought our own motel there in Grayling. It was a wonderful life and a wonderful place to live. My grandparents were just a few miles from our home. We all saw a lot of neat and different things running motels! Eventually, my grandparents bought two more motels in Grayling. My grandma worked hard running it and waiting on customers all hours of the night. She was a strong women who never let anything stand in her way. She will be missed. But our memories will remain with us forever. She is now in heaven, reunited with my grandpa once again. I love you grandma, as I know you are watching us all now. I am thankful she was able to see Savannah before she died. She loved her great grandchildren so much.

*****Please dont forget to sign up for my giveaway. You can enter by commenting on the previous post. You may enter until September 20th.*****

It's Giveaway time!!!!!!

2011-09-13T11:03:00.007-04:00

Hello thoere :) Happy Tuesday! It has been a looong time since I have had a giveaway! So I decided to change that! As you may know, I have been making tote bags and other items for my shop. I have been having so much fun making these tote bags that I have decided to give one away!

This pretty bag reminds me so much of my grandmas. It has such an old feel. My grandma always had hankies and I have several of them. The one on this bag is shaped like a bow and has a little sachet in the center and the original sticker. It has crochet lace trim and crochet heart with rhinestone in the center. It is an adorable small size, perfect for display or holding supplies. If you would like to win this, please leave a comment on this post. Due to the prices of international shipping, I can only open this to US visitors. I am so sorry :( This giveaway is open until September 20th. I will throw in a couple extra goodies as well :) If you post this giveaway on your blog, I will throw in another two votes.

Some people have not been able to comment on my blog. If you are unable to leave a comment, please email me or shoot me a message on facebook. Dont be afraid to enter if you have never commented or havent in awhile :) I'm not mad atcha, lol :):) I love my visitors!

Thank you so much and have a great week! ~ Amy

A shabby, frilly, romantic valance...

2011-09-11T12:21:00.009-04:00

Hello :) Hope you are all enjoying your weekend. It rained for days here but the sun is finally out today. Dave and I have been watching a LOT of movies. We just don't feel like doing much with the rain and dark skies. It is just so draining. Yesterday,when Dave came home from work, he brought me a hot caramel apple cider from Tim Horton's. Sooo good and it even tasted better
with the weather we have been having. If you have Tim Horton's in your state, I highly recommend it! I love how my guy always thinks of me. It truly is the little things!

I wanted to share this little project I did for my sitting room. It is so romantic, soft and girly. Just my style :)
I was visiting my friend Rachel's shop and she had this GORGEOUS crinoline for sale with tons of layers of ruffles. I just had to get it.
Look at all these amazing frilly ruffles, eek!! I just swooned and melted, lol. Love me some ruffly, girly goodness! And I knew just what I wanted to do with some of it too :) Yep, I cut it up believe it or not! And I have been using the leftovers for my tote bags and other projects.
I made part of the crinoline into a beautiful valance for the smaller window in my sitting room. I doubled up the ruffles to make it even thicker and "rufflier". I LOVE the way it turned out. View from the bottom up. Savannah loves to stare up at this. I hope it means she will be a girly girl :)
Front view.
I hung a piece on the coat rack I purchased from a favorite blogger and shop, Post Road Vintage. If you want to oohh and ahhh, check out her blog! She is a Michigander like me and lives in one of my favorite places to visit :)

My sitting room. It was so bright out, it looks dark, lol. If that makes any sense! I just love hanging out in this room!! I could sit in here all day. Right now it doesn't look that pretty though. It is overrun with crafting items and all my shop goodies, lol. Gotta remedy that soon! I would hate for someone to come over and see that mess! I have been so overwhelmed with life lately, that I have kinda let things go around here. I am going to deep clean on Friday. If nothing comes up before that, I never know with our life!
I just purchased some great vintage goodies for some more projects for my shop. And I have a custom order for a tote bag as well. Busy busy and my shop is fuller than ever. Pretty proud of that :)

Wednesday is BOTH Dave and my second born, Colton's birthday. I am making Colton's favorites, my loaded nachos and chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and French vanilla ice cream :) I love cooking for my boys!! I will make something special for Dave on Saturday, when Emily is here.

Thank you for visiting me and I hope to post again next week or early the following. Hugs, Amy

Just a few more....

2011-09-09T16:39:00.003-04:00

because I dont want this to become a blog all about my shop creations!

Two fall inspired tote bags with orange millinery roses, so pretty. And of course vintage lace.
This one has a rhinestone brooch shaped like a leaf.
Re-purposed NEW pint sized ball jar... lots of pretty detail. So sweet to hold white buttons or clothes pins...

These can be found HERE

Shabby fall pretties...

2011-09-08T10:25:00.007-04:00

Hello dear friend :) Hope you are having a wonderful week. It has been raining here for days. Making us all feel tired and yucky. Hoping for some sun soon!

With the chill in the air and the rain, it certainly feels like fall. So this is a perfect time to create things for this new season. I made a couple more things to add to my shop and want to share them with you.

I found this wonderful shabby box that I just new would be perfect to make over. It is like a little crate and has so many uses! I have shown just an example of how it would look with little pumpkins, burlap, and cinnamon sticks. You could change this out for all the seasons. It would be darling with vintage ornaments in it for Christmas!
I added two kinds of pretty vintage lace and a really pretty grey toned millinery rose.
I found a wonderful hat just full of roses in shades of grey, white and orange! Couldn't be more perfect for fall!
This is a darling bucket that says pumpkins. It started out a deep brown and I painted it white.
Then added vintage crochet lace and a millinery rose. I also aged the pumpkin image.
Super cute filled with little pumpkins and I think it would be darling as a hostess gift! Fill with packets of spiced hot apple cider, a caramel dipped spoon, candies and cinnamon sticks and you have the sweetest gift!

Today, we are heading to Midland to spend the afternoon with my parents, the kids and my grandma before she heads to Florida for the winter. Wish the rain would go away. Oh well. I cant wait to see my boys and take some pics :)

Have a lovely day and thank you for visiting me today! Hugs, Amy

The first day...and fall sneaks in...

2011-09-06T11:24:00.012-04:00

Hello there :) I hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

Well, today six of my seven kids went back to school :( I always feel so sad on the first day. I have those typical mommy worries! Will they be able to find where to go? Do they have nice teachers, friends in there class? Friends to sit with in their lunch hour? Will they know what bus to get on? Will anyone be mean to them? I think it stresses me out more than them, lol. But they are wonderful kids and in my heart I am sure they will be fine. The summer just flew by; it seems like just yesterday they got out for the summer!

While getting groceries the other day, I found these new strawberry Hostess cupcakes. I love hostess cupcakes, lol. They don't taste nearly as good as homemade. But there is something about the way they look, with the swirls of white icing on the top and the creamy middle. I wish there was two in every pack, not just the gas station ones, lol. I thought these strawberry ones were cute, so I had to get them. I didn't even eat one of them, lol. Dave ate them. I mostly wanted them cuz they are cute. I think they would be cute for an impromptu tea party, when you don't have time to bake. Or fancied up for a special after school snack :)

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What did you do for Labor Day weekend? Dave worked all weekend. It was in the 90's Friday and Saturday and then Sunday and Monday in the high 50's, low 60's! Talk about a drastic change!! It was so chilly, it sure felt like fall! Dave was home by ten in the morning yesterday so we decided to go to breakfast and shopping. Not barbecuing like most Labor Day's!

We went to ihop and had caramel apple pancakes and crepes. Very fallish but sooo yummy. We decided to go to the mall and stores to do some fall shopping. It was so cold, all you could think of was warm blankets and sweaters, lol. Savannah does not have any cold weather clothes so shopping for her was in order! We got her some super cute things and since we all looove baby clothes, I thought I would share some with you :)

Cutie pie puppy slippers to wear around the house :) I always wear slippers no matter how hot it is, so I wanted Vanny to have some too. She has the cutest feet and chubby legs :) She has big feet and long toes like her daddy :)
This has got to be one of the cutest outfits I have ever seen! We both flipped, lol. The little vest is so cute and the pants are soft but have pockets like jeans.
The cutest faux fir hoodie...
Even the shirt underneath is cute with the rainbow and flowers :) Cant wait to take her out in this!
Had to get this snuggly fleece Peter Rabbit sleeper with hood. I wish I could wear this, lol. It looks so soft and warm. This will be nice for sleeping and around the house.
Sweet little boots :) She looks darling in these!
I loooooove boots!!! I am kind of obsessed with them. I shouldn't have even stopped and looked, lol. Because I fell in love with these Michael Kors boots. They are soooo comfortable too and I like the tall height of them too. I felt guilty getting them but Dave insisted. He is sooo sweet. Cant wait to wear these with skinny jeans, leggings and even a long dress. I love brown to wear. Brown and cream are my two favorite colors to wear. I have my eye on an adorable long sweater that would be super cute with these :) But I will be good...for now, lol.

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After a long day of shopping, we came home in time for a late dinner. Instead of grilling like we had planned,
I made Italian sausage marinara with linguine. And for the first time in weeks, I was able to turn on my oven. So we had garlic toast too. It tasted good with the chill in the air. I think I need to stop doing food posts. It is pretty sad when your husband checks with you before cutting into his meat to see if you want to take a picture, lol.
I went to work with Dave for awhile yesterday at one of his Meijers. It was going to take awhile with the busy holiday. So I decided to get groceries while I waited. I stopped and grabbed some hot apple cider, our winter favorite. I felt sad getting it, lol, but it just sounded so good. I just cant believe how cold it is now!

I have to share this super funny story with you, lol. It is a bit personal but too funny. I needed new underwear. I always get them at Victoria's Secret. I know my size there and the perfect fit for low rise jeans. But I felt guilty for getting the boots. So, I decided to buy Hanes in a package. 7 pairs are as much as 1 at VS!! Anyway, the Hanes comes in a package, so I couldn't see them, I went by what the package said. When we got home, I opened them and they were HUGE granny panties!!!!! Dave laughed so hard, he fell off the couch, lol. I was so mad. He told me he was going to take a picture of them and put them on my blog! I said, I don't think my readers want to see my underwear!! But now I have told you about them so what is the difference, lol. Needless to say, I am going back to my trusted VS!!

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This season, I am feeling very inspired by the rich, warm colors of fall. I bought some more supplies for creations the last few days. New pieces will be in my shop later this week. Believe it or not, there will be some orange, browns and of course creams.

Thank you so much for stopping by today :) Hugs, Amy

The great white pumpkin...

2011-09-02T14:59:00.004-04:00

I shutter to even think that summer is ending! But when you are creating, you have to think ahead. So I have created a white pumpkin for my shop.

Vintage lace, skeleton key, millinery rose, crinkled seam binding, vial of mica flakes and an antique frozen Charlotte. All of my favorite things :)

You can find it HERE :) Lots of ways to display this!

Latest creations...

2011-09-01T16:29:00.009-04:00

I have been working on a beautiful new line of tote bags for my shop...

Lots of gorgeous vintage details! You can find them HERE .

A stroll around my neighborhood...

2011-09-01T10:54:00.014-04:00

Hello! Well, I guess I lied, lol. Another post. Oh well, why not? After a stressful day yesterday, I need to do something I enjoy!

We like to go for a walk in the evenings when it is cool enough. It is relaxing and gets Savannah out in the fresh air. When I first moved down here, it was a HUGE change. Much bigger and busier than the tiny town I lived in before. And I lived out in the country with hardly any neighbors. I wasn't sure I would like it or be able to deal with it. But now, I LOVE it!! Beautiful flower shops and antique stores are just a few miles away, wonderful malls and the huge city of Detroit is 20 minutes from my house, so lots of fun things to do are right within our reach. Where I lived before, there was nothing to do! You had to drive a long time to get anywhere. One of my favorite towns, Novi is only 15 minutes away too! Wonderful restaurants and my favorite mall in Michigan is there :) We go a lot too, lol.

It was also a huge change to move into our neighborhood! Neighbors are all around, much smaller properties and lots of people and kids in the neighborhood which I was not used to. But we have fallen in love with this cute area. It is a wonderful mature neighborhood with beautiful trees and the most beautiful old homes! People that live here are either older couples that have lived here for many many years and families with children. Everyone around here take pride in there home and yard. Every yard is beautifully manicured. And it is so cute because most of the houses are bungalows like ours! Our yard needs LOTS of work though as the previous owners were unfortunately neglectful of it and had lots of dogs. We have a lot of work to do outside but we are looking forward to it and have many plans. Lucky for me, Dave loves to work in the yard. So do my boys! They all love to help me plant flowers.

Let's take a stroll...

Walking out of the driveway..
Beautiful street with beautiful trees that canopy over the streets

This is one of my favorite houses. It is so enchanting and makes me feel like elves would live there with fairies frolicking around. I didn't want to stand in front of the house and take a picture, lol. They might think I was a weirdo!
Here is a little closer look, I love the moss growing on it and the porch is beautiful.
Ahhh this house is sooo pretty!!
My FAVORITE house!!! I wish I could have got a picture of the front of it!! I love the rounded door, the windows, the way they have it landscaped. I told Dave I want this house for Christmas, LOL!! He said, "well then you better tell the people that live there to get out." lol!
They have a double lot yard :)
And our home sweet home. This has beautiful actual stone on the front that I love. But we plan to paint the trim, tear out the boxwood shrubs (we both hate them), fill the front with flowers and the porch with big pots of flowers and get a new front door. I want to hang lots of hanging plants along the front as well next spring. We also will be putting a white privacy fence all around the back and then white picket in the front with an arbor on a small path that we have that leads to the back yard. Lots of pretty plans!!

Have a great weekend and thank you for visiting me today. Almost done with some of my projects for my shop :) Hugs, Amy

Summer's Bounty....

2011-08-30T11:07:00.010-04:00

Hello :) I am posting way too much lately! I have to stop after this or I might run out of things to blog about, lol! Just kidding. Well, summer is sadly winding down :( Spring and summer, my two favorite seasons will be saying goodbye for another year. So, I wanted to do a little post celebrating this bountiful season.

The other day, I was eating a fruit salad. I get them every single time I go to the store, I have to get a huge fruit salad. But anyway, it was just sooo delicious, like the best thing you could put in your mouth. And I started thinking, God has provided us with the most amazing foods that are natural to this earth. Not man made in a factory but grown in our amazing soil, bushes and trees. There really is nothing that tastes better than natures candy. I love fruits and vegetables. I love brussel sprouts and broccoli, something that most people don't like. I love mostly all fruits and veggies. And I like the vegetables steamed, not covered in butter or cheese. I eat baked and sweet potatoes plain. I guess I like that earthy taste. Summer provides most of it's fruits and vegetables at their peek.

And they are so pretty to look at. Huge raspberries, the size of strawberries. And one of my very favorites, blueberries.
Fresh garden tomatoes from a friends garden, the perfect garnish for Dave's amazing grilled burgers. And Aunt Millies buns of course!! Is there any other bread? I dont think so, lol.
I loooove watermelon! More than I should, lol. I have made myself sick on it on many occasions, lol. I am worse than a kid with a pillowcase full of Halloween candy!
Ohhh those Michigan cherries!! Nothing like a Traverse City cherry! I was lucky enough to grow up a few miles from Travers City and get to pick them from those beautiful orchards. I remember going with my grandma :)There is even a wonderful cherry festival in July, featuring many fresh cherry desserts, mmmm.
One of my favorite snacks! I have eaten this about every day this summer and have never grown tired of it. 130 calories and fat free, yet it tastes so sinful. Thick and creamy lemon meringue yogurt topped with blueberries. Blueberry and lemon are a wonderful combination.
A gift of blueberries all prettied up.
A few days ago, Dave said he was hungry for lemon bars. Of course I had to make them for my sweetie pie :) They were delicious if I do say so myself. Emily helped me make them :)
I made some beautiful pink rose filled ice cubes. A beautiful and special summer treat, in a simple mason jar with cold water. Cute for a ladies garden party! They looks so much prettier in real life too. Roses are edible and taste so good. I love rosebud loose leaf tea. I have some wildflower ones in the freezer right now too. They are bright and pretty.

My little tribute to summer that is leaving all too quickly. Now, I am going to try not to post for a few days, lol. I used to only post once a week! But I have many things brewing right now that I want to show you. My latest creations will hopefully be in my shop this weekend or early next week. Dave is encouraging me to have a little booth in a local antique/craft store that I go to often here in town. If they do well in the shop, I am going to check into it. Also, I have found the courses in floral design that I am going to take!! I am soooo excited!! I start them in a few months. Thank you all for being encouraging when I brought it up :) I am hoping to work in a floral shop two days a week and when Savannah starts preschool, going to full time. Emily went to a wonderful private preschool just miles from our home. It is Christian based and really gets children ahead before starting kindergarten. Savannah will be going to a local private school as we feel it will be better for her than public. Due to my interest in baking and cakes, my school friend has asked me to take a cake decorating class with her. So Emily and I will be doing that. Lots of exciting things to come, hopefully it all works out well :)

Thank you so much for stopping by! Hopefully I will be back early next week with my new items. If all goes as planned that is! Have a wonderful week and thank you for visiting me today :)

A fun Sunday

2011-08-29T10:32:00.009-04:00

Hello :) Thank you all so much for the wonderful feedback on my post yesterday! I forgot to mention that I do get comments on my blog on facebook. And also for quite awhile people have not been able to leave comments on my blog. I wish I knew why because it is quite frustrating. But I am happy to know that I am not the only one that has had a decline in comments. And you are all right, there are soooo many blogs now! Way more than when I started years ago.

I hope you all had a nice Sunday. Ours was soooo nice! Dave generally works seven days a week. On Sundays though, he is home by 9am. So we have to enjoy that day together as it is pretty much the only day we have, other than Wednesdays, which is when we spend time doing special things with all the kids together. Sunday's Dave and I have alone, except when Emily is here of course. And she is here for a week right now.

Yesterday, we decided to go to the park and feed the ducks before they fly south. We were the only ones there, so they were happy to see us :) With Dave being a bread man, we always have bread, lol!!
They came right up to us hand took bread from our hands and let us pet them. They know Dave well because he always stops and gives the bread. As soon as they see his bread truck, they come waddling over to him.

Dave and Savannah :) We didn't even get any pics of Emily because she was snapping the pictures.

After we fed the ducks, we went to Target to look around. I love the decor they offer there :) Then, we went to Longhorns for steaks. We had the BEST cheesecake there. Oh my goodness, it was to die for!! And it wasn't a small piece like most places, it was huge! I was sooo full, I didn't eat anything else for the rest of the day. I love steaks with sweet potatoes :) Longhorns also has the best bread.

After lunch, we stopped at my most favorite antique store, The Town Peddler.
I got this pretty old sewing machine drawer that was already painted a pretty aqua! And I love the cute little re purposed beaded handle too. This will be great to hold craft supplies. I also found some great items for the projects I am working on for my shop. I cannot wait to show them to you!!! I am really proud of them. Hoping to have them listed by the end of the week.
Emily got this darling white chair for her American Girl doll and a small pink crystal elephant. She collects elephants.
I had to share these beautiful pink roses with you. I got them a few days ago and they opened up so pretty. Don't they look soft?

After we got home last night, we all snuggled up on the couch and watched Yogi Bear and Alice in Wonderland. Don't you just love that story? I could watch that movie every week and never tire of it. Johnny Depp is so funny in it and I love all the whimsical effects.

What did you do this weekend? I hope it was wonderful. And I hope all of you that are near hurricane Irene are safe!!

Thank you for visiting me today! Hugs, Amy

Thinking out loud...

2011-08-28T09:33:00.005-04:00

Hello and happy Sunday!! Hope you are enjoying your weekend. I was laying in bed last night thinking about blogging, lol. And I had a lot of questions in my mind about it. So, I thought I would ask them to all of you and see what you think! Who better to ask than fellow bloggers and readers.

When I had Bunny Rose Cottage, I had tons of visitors and comments. I usually had at least 20 comments per post! Now, I am lucky to have four! And I genuinely thank those commenters because I love hearing from my readers. Have any of you that blog noticed a decline in comments? Or is it just me? Is the content of my new blog, since my life has changed uninteresting? I mean, I know this is my public journal to say what I please. But since I have moved, gotten married and had a daughter, immediately my comments declined. I wonder if some people are mad or don't like me now? LOL which is stupid because no one really "knows" me or what went on in my home or life. I am madly in love with my husband and I DO talk about him a lot. But I don't see what is wrong with that. Why not celebrate your love? I have talked about my illnesses a bit and my struggles with that. But I am being REAL. And maybe I can help someone that is going through the same things. I do also blog about my home, children, crafts and so forth like I did in my other blog. But I could just as easily journal privately with a closed blog and journal for myself, which I do anyway. Just thinking out loud this morning and hoping I didn't defend anyone. I am NOT at all begging for comments, I am just curious. I don't comment on other blogs nearly as much as I did before I moved. But I do still visit and read them all pretty much every day. Maybe the popularity of blogging isn't what it used to be? I have been doing this about four years. Or maybe people are just busy. What do you think? And don't be afraid to be honest. With all I have been through, I am as far from onion skinned as you can get, lol.

At the end of the day, it is our blogs to journal and say as we please and our choice to make them public whether people like it or not, lol.
Thank you for visiting me and have a wonderful day! ~ Amy

Sweet Surprises...

2011-08-26T14:12:00.011-04:00

Hey there :) How are you? Hope you all had a great week. I have about a months worth of posts photographed, loll! So I will be posting them as I have the time to do so.

I received some sweet surprises last week! I ordered something from my friend Rachel of Chippy Cottage Charm blog last week. I will show in another post what I purchased, it is GORGEOUS and has been wonderful to work with. In the package was some beautiful and unexpected treasures, which totally made my day!!

Rachel and I both have five sons! And hers are close in age like mine. There is nothing like having five precious boys close in age. They are just so much fun. And the closeness in age makes it wonderful, as they are good friends and always have someone to play with. I feel that if you are going to have a big family, they should be one or two years apart. It is so fun to have them under the same roof, rather than five or ten years apart. That is why Dave and I plan to have another baby in a couple years so Savannah is not alone. Dave and my children are 12,11,10,9,7, 6 and 5 mos. It is wonderful! That is why Chuck E. Cheese was so much fun because it was like a party! And Christmas morning rocks when you get to see all of your children run to the tree in the morning :) ANYWAY, lol, Rachel sent me the darling card pictured above. See all those boys? She said, "doesn't it sometimes feel like you have that many boys" lol. YES, it does! But I think big families are wonderful and I am always happy to see other families with lots of kids close in age :)
Rachel also sent me this beautiful pink rose hankie (love hankies!!), a darling antique baby dress which I will be hanging in Savvy's nursery :)
And this beautiful necklace that she made! I love this and wore it out last night :) It says Bella, my huskies name, beautiful :)
Check out this gorgeous cuff that Rachel made!! I was so happy when I saw this! Can you believe the base of this is a cereal box?
Crochet pink and white lace, a rolled, frayed muslin rose and pink stone :) This looks so pretty with the rosette tank I showed in a previous post.
Wonderful craft supplies and gold Eiffel Tower key chain. Rachel doesn't know this but I collect key-chains :)
A darling white vintage bunny, LOVE this!!
And some wonderful handmade clay roses to use in projects, I have just the idea in mind for these too :)
Thank you so much Rachel, I love everything and you are just too sweet!! Make sure you visit Rachel's blog, you can find it HERE

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This is just the cutest story ever! I got a text a few days ago from Dave saying, "There is an antique store next to this store that I am delivering at. Think I will go in and check it out." I had to read it again to make sure I read it right. And then I about fell off my chair, lol. Before I got back together with Dave, he had never even set foot in an antique store!

I am SO lucky to be with such a thoughtful, sweet, funny, good looking man that loves me sooo much!! Sometimes I have to pinch myself that it is real, lol

He came home with the sweetest things for me :)
This darling bunny candle :):)

This beautiful jar. He got it because he says I am such a good mom and he knows how much I miss my boys, awww, love him so much!
He also got me an adorable bunny teapot and the cutest Welcome sign with a bunny on it for the front door :) He took me back there that night and I hit the jackpot with supplies for my upcoming projects!

Speaking of projects, I am working on things for my shop right now! I am really excited about them as it is a new direction for me! I hope to have some listed in my shop next week :)

Well, I better go, Dave is taking me to dinner tonight and I need to go get ready. Red Lobster, yummy!!

Thank you for visiting me, have a great weekend :)

A fun time :)

2011-08-25T10:17:00.024-04:00

Hello :) Just a proud mommy post today :) Yesterday, we went to Chuck E Cheese. It was so much fun!! Except Dylan wasn't able to come :( Of course I had to take pics :)

Ashton and Colton playing Mario Kart. I love this game :)
Emily and Savannah on the big rocking horse

Colton, Gibson, Edison, Emily, Dave and Savannah
Ashton and Colton. LOOK at Ashton's hair, lol! He refuses to get it cut because he thinks he looks "hot" when he straightens it LOL. Ohhh that silly boy!!

Edison and Gibson flying high :)

Eddie and Chuck E.
Gibson "riding" the Gemini "at" Cedar Point :)
Cute action photo.
Ashton, Dave and Edison. Ashton rocked at this game and got soooo many tickets! Everyone was giving Ashton there tokens to win them tickets, lol! Even Dave!!
All of us :)

I have tons of posts photographed and ready to share in the upcoming weeks.
Have a great day! Amy

Cookbooks For The Seasons...

2011-08-22T14:05:00.025-04:00

Hello! Hope you all had a nice weekend. Ours was nice. Dave worked Saturday, then when he got home, we took a three hour nap, along with Savannah of course! Then we watched Inception. Not a very eventful day but still relaxing. Yesterday, we picked up Emily for a week. I was happy because I love having children around, even if it just a couple of them at a time :( When we got to her mom's to get her, she ran out and jumped in the van and said " Amy, I have sooo many things to show you!" I never know what fun things she will have to tell us or show us, lol. The elderly couple across from her mom's were having a garage sale. Being the sweetie that she is, she helped them set it up. The lady told Emily to take whatever she wanted for helping her. Emily got some adorable thngs for her and Savannah's room that go right with the woodland theme :) A darling little doll that is swinging on a swing, it will be cute hanging from the tree we are painting! She also got a butterfly pillow, cute pink and green birdhouse windchimes Emily says windchines, lol. And a beautiful light pink and purple blanket that the lady crochet.

When we got home, I was in the kitchen making tacos. Emily said and I got these for you because they reminded me of you :) Awww :)

Two wonderful cookbooks that I absolutely love! This one is The Cozy Home from Gooseberry Patch. I know many of you have this cookbook. I have always wanted it but never bought it. Emily said it reminded her of me because it says A Cozy Home, lol. What a wonderful compliment that she thinks we have a cozy home!
I love the adorable illustrations in this as well as the yummy sounding recipes. I cant wait to make some of them!

Recipes for all four seasons with decorative ideas too :) And who doesn't love Gooseberry Patch?

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This next cookbook is absolutely beautiful! I am not going to talk much about it but show lots of pictures. It has lots of recipes for Christmas, ALL desserts :) It also has the history of the desserts and tons of vintage images.

Bunny supper :)

This looks so pretty! I would like to do a centerpiece like this on our holiday table.

This is such a cute idea for a container to hold a gift of cookies. I think I might try this for Christmas. I wouldn't do a cone though but a container.

This cookie is so cute :)

Cupcakes :)
This New Year post card is so pretty :)

I am not at all ready for winter or Christmas, lol. I don't want summer to end! But of course it will. And these cookbooks will be so fun to use. I love Emily so much, she is just the sweetest little girl. The other day, she listed me as her mom on facebook! I almost cried. I sure got lucky that she likes me and accepts me, you just never know! And my boys like and accept Dave a lot too. I was worried about that. But we are a huge family and you've gotta stick together :) It is cute when all 7 of the kids are together, they get along so good :)

Well, Hell's Kitchen is on and Dave is waiting for me to come watch it :) Have a lovely week and thank you for visiting me.

Bunny Branded!!!!

2011-08-20T12:39:00.008-04:00

Hello! I hadn't planned on doing another post this soon, lol. But I wanted to share with you what I did get at the Gibralter Trade Center. I have been saying for a couple of years now that I wanted to get another tattoo and that I wanted it on my lower back. I knew just what I wanted too. It is no surprise to anyone that knows me that it would be a bunny, lol. The guy that did it was so awesome too. He worked with me for a long time, doing sketches and listening to me to achieve just what I wanted. If you are going to brand yourself with something for life, you better REALLY like it, lol. I learned that the hard way because I have one on my chest that I got when I was 18 that I hate. I am going to have him redo it with Hello Kitty.

This is my adorable tattoo! And I love it. I wanted a chubby bunny with lop ears, sexy feminine eyes with long eyelashes and stunning wings. I love things that are mystical and fantasy. I am going to go back and have a banner put on the other side of my lower back that swirls all around and comes up by the bunny, with all seven of my kids names in it and a heart with Dave's name in it. Don't even tell me not to get his name because I am not going to listen to you, lol.
This was more than a tattoo to me. It was a symbol of many things. This was quite painful to get. Especially the wings. As the pain began, it stood for all of the hard things I have experienced, my illnesses and struggling with them over the years, bad marriage and relationships, missing my boys and so on. When he started, he said, I will put on music to help take your mind off the pain. When he turned it on, THIS song came on

It is a song that reminds me of my boys. We used to always sing it together. So everything I was feeling went into them and how much I love them. After it was done, I realized the wings stood for freedom and letting go of soo many things. I like to challenge myself with pain and see how much I can go through. It makes me feel stronger.

I just wanted to share this with you real quick today :) Have a great weekend!!