i love this merry card...

i love this roomie.

away and home again. that is how i feel about my last visit home. i alot of adorning trees with ornaments and seeing family. i spoke with my sister who lives away for an hour as we were driving home. we talked about family. sometimes it feels so different to live away, and to come home. in some ways things seem as normal as they have always been, and in other ways things seem so different.

this time of year one of my most favorite movies is little women, here are some of my favorite quotes:

Amy: He put snow on your ankle? With his own hands?

Marmee: I won't have my girls being silly about boys. To bed! Jo dear.

Amy: Everything lovely happens to Meg.

Meg: [Sarcastically] Oh yes, indeed.

Jo March: Well, of course Aunt March prefers Amy over me. Why shouldn't she? I'm ugly and awkward and I always say the wrong things. I fly around throwing away perfectly good marriage proposals. I love our home, but I'm just so fitful and I can't stand being here! I'm sorry, I'm sorry Marmee. There's just something really wrong with me. I want to change, but I - I can't. And I just know I'll never fit in anywhere.

Amy: We'll all grow up one day, Meg. We might as well know what we want.

photog one:Two Guitars

photog two:http://www.designspongeonline.com/2008/11/sneak-peek-paper-scissors-oranges.html

for one christmas tree......

we moved the bookcase and took everything off it.

we moved the television. twice.

we moved the tree to 3 different locations and decided on the fourth.

we moved the couch upstairs. the two of us.

we knocked the mirror off the wall while moving the couch upstairs, made a minor ding in the wall that will have to be patched up.

we moved our bedroom around to fit the couch into the room.

because we moved everything, and the tree so many times we had to vacuum all the flocking up. we ended up taking the vacuum apart and getting vacuum dust all over us at the dumpster.

because we moved our couch upstairs, i love the new space i have, so if anyone wants to buy a couch, i got one!

all for one lovely christmas tree!

i hope to come home to this....

i love the wires covered in snow. so many wires!

i am hoping for bad weather folks. this may sound strange, but i need to kick off this holiday season right. i want to go sleigh riding with bella, snowshoeing, i want to shovel the sidewalk, i want it to be cold and snowy and then when we think it is done, is just snows some more. i want the wind to blow the cold snow. i want to have to wear boots and scarfs, and have a reason for my hot cocoa. tis true.

this weekend we are heading down to utah, for some holiday cheer, thankfulness and holiday decorating. i have 6 trees to do, not including mine, which i will do tomorrow, so we can come home, to a cheery and bright home. here is a thanksgiving quote:

Thanksgiving is the holiday of peace, the celebration of work and the simple life... a true folk-festival that speaks the poetry of the turn of the seasons, the beauty of seedtime and harvest, the ripe product of the year - and the deep, deep connection of all these things with God. ~Ray Stannard Baker (David Grayson)

Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action." ~W.J. Cameron

happy thanksgiving!

photos via corbis.

This is Bryan; Ok so I don’t know how all this bloggy blog stuff works but I will try. As many of you know Dani always does a birthday post for family usually titled something like 10 things I love about "whoever" and these lists usually consist of more then 10 things, maybe no one else noticed but I think its cute; anyways Sunday is Dani's Birthday so I would like to include a list of 10 things I love about Dani

1. She keeps a very informative and inspirational blog
2. She is a great Mother to Bella
3. Dani is on a very short list of people who can make me laugh out loud consistently
4. She loves magazines she once told me "magazines are the only place you can learn things" I immediately threw my Biochemistry book in the trash
5. Dani treats people kindly; she wears herself out trying to make people happy "people pleaser" 6. She loves shoes and says things like "I'm getting low on shoes" translation I would like a new pair of shoes
7. we found drawings from when she was in like second grade of houses she had designed, with funny Floor plans and outfits for the people who would live in the houses
8. She is Bella's best friend that little girl can't live without her mommy
9. I have a beautiful festive home to come home to every day (It sounds corney but she really makes it nice)
10. She is a good friend
11. I also love everything else about her that I have not listed.
In short Happy birthday Sunday Dani!!

" i think your crate" i saw a flower shop once, and this was written in very classy writing on their window. they had flowers stuffed into crates. i always think about that photo, when i see a crate. i thought these photos were interesting, just in case you have crates lying around that you don't know what to do with........

photog:http://www.baileyshomeandgarden.com/pages/products/storage.html

this photo i posted just for the wallpaper and the wallpaper only. i love it, it reminds me of a cold, cloudy, beautiful winter day. where if you were to go outside, moonboots would be a necessity. note: bry has an actual family photo of him wearing moonboots because they could not find his shoes. and to make it better, he has his mad smile on. i love it. where are you winter?

hello button! i love these. especially the red one.

i always joke that bryan has a radio implant of fm100 in his brain, causing him to randomly sing all the songs i hate, (exept a few) that are played on fm100. he does this without knowing it. for years when we were first married it was...let's hear it for the boys...he always sang it when he wasn't paying attention. now i realize he just sings most songs on fm100. i act very bothered by this, but i really do love it. lately the tables have turned. here they have nothing on the radio stations but country and country and country. so while i am on the computer i turn on the computer and listen to the holiday sounds of you guessed it folks! fm100! bless me for fm100.

1st photog: http://beachbungalow8.blogspot.com/2008/11/what-child-is-this.html

2nd photog:http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/look/look-seven-ways-to-reuse-buttons-069500

red wreath Stephanie @ Littlebirds, green Martha Stewart.

love these photos.

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. ~Albert Schweitzer

sometimes a change a small change can make your day or your week so happy. today my friend sara came up, and stayed the better part of the day. and it was nice to eat, talk, and share stories. i think i did most the talking. but it was just soooo pleasant! after she left i was thinking about how when we were in high school, sara and i went to the 2nd street mini mart, got potato logs, and corn dogs and ate them at north ogden park and it was outstanding! then we both felt really ill. but secretly i could have eaten more. then i started thinking about all of my friends, and i thought about blogs and how nice it is to keep in touch. then i thought i hadn't talked to manda for awhile, so i decided the best thing to do would be to relive old times, and prank her at work. but then i reconsidered, and i didn't. but i did call her. we only talked shortly. hi and goodbye, but i realized to myself friends are so important. it takes work to be a friend. but the work is quite delightful. i am so lucky for all the friends that i have. even if i haven't seen some for years. seeing and old friend and rekindle-ing, is such a good, refreshing feeling. it makes you happy remembering the past and glad to look forward at whom you are growing to be.

photogs:Entry #33: READ

http://www.ohdeedoh.com/ohdeedoh/kids-color-2008-entries/ohdeedoh-kids-color-contest-entry-33-read-068366

do you want to know what i want? i want these for my christmas greeting cards. they are quite expensive, so i probably won't be buying them unless the lottery happens. nonetheless i love, LOVE, love them. like mr. darcey loves elizabeth. okay not really, but i do love them. i am going to send out christmas cards, i think it is a classy tradition. i found this quote that has nothing to do with anything but reading, and i like it so i thought i would share it...

“Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader—not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.” E.L. Doctorow

card:http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=17193475

made by:GreenwichLetterpress

cozy.

a neat and tidy collection of good things.

a little girls dream.

a little boys adventures.

this week has been quite crazy. i have calmed down from my cleaning frenzy, gotten a broken tooth fixed, cleaned... cleaned... cleaned and there is always more to clean. however tonight i content for now. outside the wind is blowing hard, and it is cold, and i have taken a hot bath and feel very cozy. i love the hum of the heater when you can hear the wind blowing outside. now i think i will go downstair and have a cup of cocoa, or a pleasant diet coke!

photogs:http://www.cafemom.com/dailybuzz/home_garden/1014/hula_seventy_Show_Tell_Home_Tour via:hula seventy: Show & Tell Home Tour

i think this is so simple and perfect.


today i did it. i gave my big BIG big, bin of shoesies to goodwill. and i gave away 5 bags of clothes. and honestly my heart is aching a bit. but i figure i am turning over a new me. i don't need the amount of shoes that i had. but now for now in my life i need just a few really good ones that i love. the good ones. sometimes i wonder why i kept my life collection of shoes for so long, holding on. there is no way i can wear all those shoes. my feet are bigger, not to mention my painful bunions. now i must say when i bought each pair of shoes, i did love them all, or i would not have bought them. is it silly to say that i remember each occasion i got those shoes? birthdays, christmas, a hot date... why has this happened? why for some reason looking in my closet seeing that big bin with shoes spilling over bothered me. is it strange that sometimes you look at something every day that bothers you and you don't do anything about it. well today i did something about it. tomorrow i might be in despair, but who knows maybe tomorrow my purse will be organized......


photogs:http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/house-tours/house-call-diana-fayt-031421

some things. this weekend i screenprinted over 17 tea towels, our apartment does not have room for 17 towels. we had clothes pins and jute strung everywhere in the kitchen. today i was finally was able to screenprint my gingerbread boy and girl. however i have to wait on towels, and use a different color the gold ended up not my favorite. i feel like i did not sit down all weekend! no tomorrow i will have to clean clean clean. sometimes i feel the strong urge to just throw everything away that is bothering me. to just dispose of the mess. but i am resisting this urge. i think i could sound totally crazy, but my nervous eye twitch is kicking in. so tomorrow this house is going to get a good cleaning.

i love when people collect things. it is so interesting to me what people collect, the story of the start of their collection. i found this quote...

1,739. Collecting

"The pride or the pleasure of making collections, if it be restrained by prudence or morality, produces a pleasing remission after more laborious studies; furnishes an amusement not wholly unprofitable for that part of life, the greater part of many lives, which would otherwise be lost in idleness or vice; it produces an useful traffick between the industry of indigence and the curiosity of wealth; it brings many things to notice that would be neglected; and, by fixing the thoughts upon intellectual pleasures, resists the natural encroachments of sensuality, and maintains the mind in her lawful superiority."Johnson: Idler #56 (May 12, 1759)

photog:http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/house-tours/house-tour-eves-warm-and-witty-loft-montreal-066922

speaking of eleanor...this is the photo that i got from rainbow with jenny hirschi. this is the photo that bryan returned because he said it was too big. it was big. we almost couldn't get it in the car. it said this at the bottom: "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." in case you were wondering i still love it, and her autobiography is one of the best reads to read.

now this is pretty. and it is so so so soft to the touch.

she thinks so too. looks fabulous with my red couch.

Do you want to know what? the other night i woke up to a thunderstorm, a huge one! i heard the rain, and the wind and the lightening. it has been years since a great storm has awoken me. it was so cozy to lay there and listen to this great storm.

i love this home. i like the pictures above the mantel.
i have been thinking about this room for days. this is Ritakonig's home featured in the domino i think october issue. i cannot find this issue. but for some reason all week i have been thinking about her heart shaped sheets, and her wallpaper, and her wall sconce. i love this room. i even love her plaid blanket. so it took some effort and i finally found the pictures online so i can adorn them, even though i lost my issue..... enough with that mumbo jumbo, i have a good quote from eleanor roosevelt... Have convictions. Be friendly. Stick to your beliefs as they stick to theirs. Work as hard as they do. ..You can never really live anyone else's life, not even your child's. The influence you exert is through your own life, and what you've become yourself.

photog:http://mydecofile.dominomag.com/DecoBookViewer.asp?Gid=GkvDxvVMQ1CrWgEXKYI0w&More=1

we had one jolly hallowe'en. hope you all did too!