Finally home..

...and hoping to have the family back on a schedule soon, since school
will be starting next week. Macy and I have just returned from Des Moines,
Iowa where she competed in the Junior Olympics. Tired, but never too
tired to see a new movie! We viewed Julie and Julia on Friday night.
Please run at your earliest convenience to see this precious movie! Meryl Streep and Amy Adams star in this very delightful movie.
As usual, Meryl Streep gives a wonderful performance and has
you believing she is Julia Child indeed! You need not be a fan
of Julia Child or cooking to enjoy this movie. I can't wait for it to
come out on DVD and even went to the bookstore after the movie
to purchase Julia's cookbook. Not to be seen as the only over eager
Julia fan, two other women raced over to the same bookstore and
the three of us about cleaned them out of Julia Child cookbooks.
I plan to make Boeuf Bourguignon in the near future!

Switching gears back to the Des Moines trip. After the competition,

we headed half way home and stayed in St. Charles, Missouri.

A feast for the eyes with its main street charm. How about a police

officer on horse......very nice.

We didn't eat at this restaurant, but I loved the sign and such a cute name.

The flowers were beautiful to gaze upon and if I had more time,

I would have loved to rest on this bench and take in all of

the scenery on Main Street.

There are many stores in this city, and I found 2 sewing stores side by side.

Yes, I would love to have this pretty in pink Atlas sewing machine, if only

just to gaze upon it everyday.

I also enjoyed this wall of buttons....so many choices!

Here's my sweet daughter marking her spot for the long jump competition.

She is the one in the middle with the blue warm up suit on.

We had a wonderful mother-daughter time together. Although, I could forego

the early wake up call of 5:15 am!! It was a vacation after all. But a mom

must do what she must to support her favorite girl!

Re-purposing

Here's a close up photograph of my inspiration board from
Jenni's class. I have added two pieces of inspiration,
old photos (even better when they are of family) and
vintage jewelry. Every week we will add more.

I decided to paint my old, gold frame (see last post) with off white paint. I

really like the finished product. I went with textured fabric

for the background.

Since I went with a large frame, I will have quite a bit

of room for several inspiration pieces! Jenni has asked

us to make a "top ten" list of items that we seem to be

most drawn to. I am not sure that I have ten, but

here are a few of mine:

vintage jewelry

vintage buttons

old photographs

vintage wallpaper

old ledger paper

old metal pieces/locks/keys

So, what inspires you??

An inspiration board and my inspiration....

I am working on an inspiration board for Jenni Bowlin's
class over here. I actually bought this frame months ago
at Jenni's antique booth in Hermitage, Tn.

I love the molding on the top of the frame. It is a bit worn and
I am thinking about painting it first. Here is the before shot
and hopefully, I will have an after shot soon. Jenni says that
if you see something that you love at the flea market or antique
store, but aren't sure what you will do with it, buy it anyway.
The inspiration will come later and that is what happened
with this frame!


I am glad to be home from Florida. We enjoyed 3 nights at
my parents condo, in Ormond Beach, Fl. My parents bought
this condo when I was 14, so it seems like a second home. My
parents moved to Florida about 18 years ago and also have a
house over on the riverside.



Macy and my dad, Jim. We ate pasta most every night leading up
to the track meet in Orlando! Macy competed at Disney's Wide
World of Sports for a national AAU meet.


This is Macy and her track mate and friend Courtney, who will be
running track for Indiana University starting in August!! She is
such a talented young lady.

Macy competed in 3 events and only the top 6 finishers get to move

on to the Junior Olympics in Iowa. She qualified for the 100 hurdles

and the long jump! It was stressful to watch! She worked so hard and

in very hot/muggy weather. She is my inspiration!

Two very happy faces after she qualified! We were thankful

for the overcast skies which allowed for a more tolerable day.

We will be off to Iowa soon and can only hope the weather will

be more pleasant there.

Kana

Happy 4th of July!

I believe this vintage post card says it all....the land of the free
and the home of the brave. We do indeed have a wonderful
homeland.

I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend! I am off
for a few days to visit my parents and to watch my
daughter run track. See you in blogland soon. Kana

Twenty years ago..

I married this man....Mark. Here we are happily strolling down
the church aisle. Notice the smiles, I think we were very
relieved at this point!

This is one of my favorite photos of my dad and me, just
about to walk down the aisle.

Just in case you are wondering....BIG 80's hair was still in

style in 1989! Mine was tucked into a french braid, but

the bangs were big.

Heading out of the car and into the reception. It rained hard ALL day and

my brother had to carry us from the front of the church around back

to avoid getting wet. Don't you just love the patterned hose??!!

Switching the subject to some beautiful linen fabrics I picked up last

week. They are similar to bark cloth, but with a better price tag.

The button and earrings came from an antique store and are

waiting to be used for some vintage project.

Also picked this up at an antique store. It was a window

panel and the brown and pink linen looks so pretty teamed

up with the pink velvet trim. I believe this may become an

apron. Signing off for now....happy evening!

A senior moment and Bella fat book inspiration

Well, it is finally here.....my daughter is a senior.

We spent the afternoon at the Gwynn Castle in Arrington, Tennessee.

Most of the photographs were shot outside. For any Taylor Swift fans

out there, this is the location of the castle where she shot her

award winning video, Love Story.

I love the behind the scene shots. The drape doesn't look so lovely in

this view! And look, no arms.

It seems a little weird to see her in the cap and gown. I can

definately wait until next May for it to be real!

The photographer was kind enough to capture a shot with my camera.

A mom needs a few photos for the scrapbook. And yes, sad but true, my

legs are that white! (This is the staircase that Taylor runs down to

meet her Romeo...kinda romantic, huh?)

Switching gears now.....a few more photos of Susan Edmonson's

beautiful fabric artwork. I have signed up for a Silver Bella

swap, called Bella Holiday fat book.

I will be making 11 fabric pages filled with buttons, lace and

other pretty embellishments.

Susan's lovely work provides plenty of inspiration for me!

Luckily, I have about 3 months to get all of this done, and

I will need every bit of it! Kana

Happy Father's Day.....

...to this wonderful fella, my dad Jim. I stumbled across
a few family photographs from my grandmother's
collection and wanted to share this one.

Wishing everyone a happy first day of summer!
Theses 2 gals look to be enjoying their beachy day.

I prefer this cooler looking gal, decked out in blue

and hopefully a little shade. I am hoping for

cooler days ahead! Kana