Oh, dear readers, what have I gotten myself into??? You may all run away after you see this. But please don’t. I would be so lonesome! I want honest feedback!

John and Michaela were most intrigued by their mother sitting over here at the computer with the . . . → Read More: Long Side Swept Bangs Up-Do and Perfect Denim Midi!]]>  

Oh, dear readers, what have I gotten myself into??? You may all run away after you see this. But please don’t. I would be so lonesome! I want honest feedback!

• Want to see more.
• Never show one of these again.

John and Michaela were most intrigued by their mother sitting over here at the computer with the webcam making a video. I am approved, they say, as long as I don’t go too crazy and start singing and dancing.

Do I have a southern accent?  I guess I say GIT instead of GET…?

Now, and I can assure you that I do say NOW a lot in real life. I am not sure how many times I said it in the video, but I said it. Yeah. I want to show you some things I have fallen in love with at LuLu’s!

See Thru Soul midi denim skirt

Do you not ADORE this entire look?  This skirt is not so short that I wouldn’t wear it.  The boots are gorgeous!  And they have heels!  Ahhh, be still my heart.  The shirt is modest and bright.

As far as a handbag, I SOOOO want this bag.

Melie Bianco Joanna Handbag in Red

It is perfect!  I might just have to treat myself when I get my tax money back!    What do you think?

Enjoy this day!

If . . . → Read More: Care To Bet?]]> I am going into Goodwill.  Think I’ll find anything?

If so, what?

xoxo

Let’s get right down to business, shall we?  Because I (once again) have a ton of work to do today! I admit, if I could get away with it, I’d sit here all day and have fun, but alas somebody’s gotta pay the bills!

You may have noticed lately that the face of my blog . . . → Read More: A Beaded Bag Full of Treasures]]> Happy Tuesday Morning!

Let’s get right down to business, shall we?  Because I (once again) have a ton of work to do today! I admit, if I could get away with it, I’d sit here all day and have fun, but alas somebody’s gotta pay the bills!

You may have noticed lately that the face of my blog is changing a bit.  I have changed the header, put more of my affiliate links in the sidebar and cleaned up some of the blog roll.  Over the next few days to weeks, you may see even more changes as sections of links are moved to where they make more sense.  I suppose I felt the need to tell you all this because I don’t want to seem like I suddenly feel like I am “all that” and that I don’t need to have the links of friends, blogs and resources in my sidebar!  No.  Not at all.  It is just that my life has changed, and with that the focus of this blog has changed.  In all honesty, I do not expect to live here in this apartment for the rest of my life, and who I become in the future (another Mrs?…  an adoptive mother?…  a new career?…) could change as well, so the focus of this blog could change yet again!    I do hope one day to have loads of garden pictures and creature pictures here again.

In the meantime, I have fallen in love with fashion and thrifting again.  It is like a treasure to me right now.  Ahh friends, you know (I hope you do) that I know the difference between a want and a need, and a real treasure and just a fading treasure.  Fashion is a fading treasure — like youth, like looks, like lots of things.  But it is fun nonetheless!  I have gained some new blog lurkers and readers lately (Welcome!! — and I treasure your comments, while we are on the subject of treasures!) and I want the  blog to make sense to everyone who visits.  Over time, the still active links will be put in a safe place (I do have other websites, you know) and sorted to make more sense.

Can you tell which treasures are mine and which are Annie’s?

Recently I found a pretty, black, beaded bag to sling around my shoulder when I walk Annie.  It holds my apartment keys, my phone, and her treats.  I guess looking on the outside a person could never guess what is on the inside.  Pieces of dog food?  Really?  Sometimes I feel exposed over the fact that I will very soon be divorced.  It goes against every grain of my makeup when it comes to marriage.  After all, I used to write articles about the importance of a marriage staying together:  Bittersweet Magnolia Memories

From the outside it might look like I gave up.  Or changed.  But if a person jumps off of a sinking ship into a life raft, did they give up?  Actually they were getting away with whatever they could salvage and hoping to just stay alive.  I fully intend to stand by my original decision to not air it all here, but as my life changes, I want all of my dear internet friends to know that my beliefs about vows and marriage never changed, even as I moved away from the home I had lived in for 23 years.

Once Annie realizes I am holding a treat and have my walking boots and beaded bag ready to go, she’ll get her lazy self up from her warm, snuggly spot in my bed and be at the door stretching!  We do enjoy our walks.

black boots:  X-Appeal thrifted
petticoat skirt:  ginger thrifted
lacy dress:  hazel thrifted
long-sleeve lacy shirt:  Energie new from Rugged Wearhouse
black beaded bag: thrifted

I hope your day is full of JOY.  Lots of typing and errand-running in my future, as in today!

Happy Monday morn!  It will be an extremely busy Monday here.  There is much work for me today, with my transcription job.  Lots and lots of work!  It’s hard to even explain just how much work there is.

But I am happy; I am truly saying happy Monday morn.  Life at best is brief.  It’s . . . → Read More: Valentine Vignette and a Modestly Bejeweled Dress]]> My Dear Readers,

Happy Monday morn!  It will be an extremely busy Monday here.  There is much work for me today, with my transcription job.  Lots and lots of work!  It’s hard to even explain just how much work there is.

But I am happy; I am truly saying happy Monday morn.  Life at best is brief.  It’s so easy to focus on a little thing that’s not just right.  A worry.  A problem.  Health.  Money.  The list goes on, but the gift of life itself is so precious!  I want to just keep trying to be the best I can be in the moment.  Really, what else do I have?

Today I was in the mood to wear something prairie-ish.  That side of me has gone nowhere, folks.  She is here and alive and looking forward to being all smocked and apron-ed up and in a garden again someday.

I recently found an off white cotton dress with the prettiest little glitter-like sprinkle of beads at each shoulder and across the upper back.  Other than that, it is simply cut, simply plain, and very country-like.

Dress:  JCrew thrifted $4.00
Silky flowers: Added by yours truly.

I wanted all off-white today.  Something pure bright to match our cloudy-gray-white but bright skies this morning.  I want to feel when I walk Annie like I am not going to stop.  Like I am walking on over the hills, to a planted field where the men are working and the women are taking out a lunch.  A girl can dream…

Sheer long-sleeve shirt:  Only Hearts thrifted $3.00
Laugh lines and wrinkles:  Free, but hard won.

White cotton “petticoat” skirt: Thrifted ginger $4.00
Boots:  Riding boots that were a gift from my sweet sister from when she lived in Germany and rode for awhile; the best sister anyone could ever want in this world.  Sort of like my mom.  I have the best sister ever and I just won’t argue about it.  

chopsticks: Clearance item from Pier I Imports, shortened to make hair sticks.

Hair is a messy bun again today, held up with combs and chopsticks.

Dear friends, I am still enjoying the Alice Tree as is.  Yes, and I think I just cannot bear to tear it apart and make a Valentine tree.  In fact, I am thinking of selling the whole tree on Etsy.  Perhaps a shop owner would want it for their display window?  Anyway, it was a friend’s idea and I sort of like it.  Yes I do.  I think THE ALICE TREE should stay in one piece.  Well, it would have to be taken apart for shipping, but then could go right back up and be a most magical display in a city tea shop or something. 

The little Japanese-American doll sits in a Valentine box with some red and white candy.  There are touches of pink and red all around Lynn’s Rose Cottage.

So, it is off to work right now.  Yeah.  I see lots of hot tea in my future.  Today, that is.  I try not to look too far beyond today.

Enjoy this day!

Well, I ain’t dead, even though when I was 17 . . . → Read More: What Kinda Pose Is That?]]> It is just the kind of question a teenager asks when his mom is posing in front of a camera.  You know, by herself, with the camera set up on a timer.  And goodness me! if old mother should do anything other than just stand looking lost.

Well, I ain’t dead, even though when I was 17 I also thought my mother was old.  Ya.  But now I realize how very young 49 is!  Yup.  I am on the heels of 49 years old.  Come March, with its blowin’ wind one day and lamb-like nature the next, I will be 49 years young.

So when I was modeling in front of my dreamy English cottage (I wish) and my 17-year-old son said with a big smile on his face, “What kinda pose is that?” I smiled right back at him.

It’s the kinda pose your mama does because she has a blog that about a dozen people like to read and you have to take pictures if you have a blog.”

He laughed and said, “Oh.”

Not to take a single thing away from my amazing son, who tells me multiple times every day that he loves me, but I get the drift.  And that was the end of that.  Anyway, would you just look at this delightful English cottage I have picked out?  Can you hear the tea kettle whistling inside? Please come visit me there soon.

Actually, dears, the reason I had to strike such a pose was to show you the new lavender-flower-covered summer dress I found!  With its perfectly fitted waist and its little cotton slip ready made into the dress.  But it is truly made for summer, so into the closet it goes this last day of January, to wait a few more months.

In the meantime…

You are seeing the polka dotted skirt again, but mostly because I love it so much and because I especially liked it with this long very-dark-blue smock-style shirt with a perfect little black Peter Pan collar.

Set off with a brooch, the collar is in fact very striking.  Hair’s a bit in the way, but this is sort of a hair post anyway, so I figured we’d work around that.

Thought I would share a picture of what the long hair looks like after a night of being braided.  One of the challenges of having long hair is finding ways to style it.  It’s a big plus to have long, unlayered hair when you are in the mood for a long-hair up-do.  On the other hand, it’s a huge challenge to find a way to wear it up each day.  I occasionally remind myself that I love having long hair by wearing it down from time to time.

I love the little heart-shaped, fabric covered buttons at the sleeves.  It’s a good shirt.

Well, tons of stuff to do today!  It’s bright and wonderful here today!  I even have a window open!  Little Annie sleeps close by on the purple chair.  My to-do list has been dented severely this morning.  It’s a good day!

Enjoy this day!

xoxoxo

I wanted to share with you just a couple . . . → Read More: A Heart of Pressed Flowers]]> Happy Saturday, dear friends!  I do hope the weekend is good to us all.  Today is a work day for me, but I am so grateful to be working from home and to have a job that allows me to support myself and my children.  All is well.

I wanted to share with you just a couple of things.  First, a little, most humble gift I made for a sweet friend in a nursing home.

It is a bunch of pressed flowers, from last year from The Wild Little Garden.   I put them in the shape of a heart (never discount even individual petals that seem to be uselessly falling apart, for they allowed the heart to take shape!

I placed them in a laminating sleeve and then ran it through the laminator.

While not fancy at all, it can be handled without hurting anyone (no glass) and it is pretty hanging in a window.  It will keep its color for about a year, maybe more, depending on how much sun it gets.

In fashion news, I wanted to show you one of the bright dresses I found a couple of months back at G.W. Boutique — a 4 dollar treasure!  If ever I feel down, I just slip this particular dress on and I feel like a flower in a garden!  You will see once again the favorite black shoes and my trademark white stockings, but look for some new shoes to be posted about soon!  I found two really cute pairs today!  Even now, my feet are covered in vitamin E lotion and dressed in thick socks, trying to make these 40-something-year-old feet as pretty as possible!

Thanks, mom, for taking pictures!  Excuse the grainier ones.  All were taken with a phone! 

Do enjoy the day!  I heard a little commentary on the radio last week.  The bottom line was this: 

Winners are not those who never fail, but those who refuse to give up! 

May we all keep trying!

Happy Thursday morning to us all!  I am thankful to be alive this morning.  For health and strength, a warm apartment, birds singing outside, freedom, happy children, food, fabric, and all important and frivolous things that make life so wonderful!

I wanted to share with you a new polka dot skirt that I fell in . . . → Read More: Polka Dots and Some Blog Love]]> My Dear Friends,

Happy Thursday morning to us all!  I am thankful to be alive this morning.  For health and strength, a warm apartment, birds singing outside, freedom, happy children, food, fabric, and all important and frivolous things that make life so wonderful!

I wanted to share with you a new polka dot skirt that I fell in love with on first glance.  I felt simply RETRO the moment I clapped eyes on it.  So home it went with me, a 4-dollar steal of a deal that was washed up, put on a hanger and worn the very next day.  Forgive the grainy picture; it was taken with my phone!

I say, who is not happy in polka dots?  Do not dots feel the most retro of all?  Perhaps my own natural “dots” — my freckles — are what make me lean toward the retro, the old, the impulsive, the elusive.  Then again, the dark hair and fair skin that hails from that old isle Ireland and its sister country Scotland do lend to a melancholy and dark disposition, so what a mix!  By the Alice Tree. Me.  And my polka-dots.

Stockings.  Strappy leather shoes.  Vintage garden chair.  Bright floral fabric.

I finished up another millinery pin, and this one is, to me, perfection.  I love the satiny fabric and the touch of golden-bronze around the edges.  Currently testing for durability and compliments — it has already had a few — and then will have to get my polka-dotted self busy and get them in The Shop.  My oh my.  Orders are being prepared to go out.  More things need to go in!

And now, without further ado, I want to express some great big blog love for a blog I came across a few days ago.  It is called Esme and the Laneway and I think you’ll be busy there for awhile if you decide to visit.

Talk about a fashion darling!  She is lovely and has the most amazing collection of vintage clothing ever!  If only I looked so adorable in vintage dresses!  The following photos are from Esme and the Laneway, taken with permission from her darling blog.

Enjoy this day!  I am on to errands, a couple of thrift store walk-throughs, and a bit of letter writing.

xoxoxo