morning's light

99 cents

Yes, folks, this skirt I'm wearing to work today was a mere 99 cents. It is cute, pink, cotton, and just below my knee. The shape is perfect..and I was on the hunt for a skirt JUST LIKE THIS all spring and summer. When did I find it? Almost-November and at Kmart.

After finding this bargain, I may or may not spend the weekend prowling from kmart to kmart to look for more skirts like this on clearance. Gas is "only" $2.39/gallon around here..so why not? (Not that long ago it was $4.19 a gallon.) I had no idea Jaclyn Smith's clothing line had cute skirts!

[jenna lyons: jcrew]

The beautiful home of Jenna Lyons, art director for J.Crew, is featured in the new issue of Domino.  Loving the dramatic, deep colors, the well chosen furnishings, and just the overall look.  Swooning over it actually.

 

corn maze + pumpkin farm

Visited Treinen Farm (home of Wisconsin's largest corn maze) on Saturday. A cold, windy day - but still worth the drive.  The farm is beautiful with so many things to see and do.  We had so much fun!

 

I don't know this woman or her daughter...but thought they were fashionably dressed!

Linda made rice krispie treats in the shapes/colors of leaves and wrapped them up tidily in a pretty parcel tied with ribbon.

 

These turkeys were being chased by kids...and responded by squawks that sounded just like a dog's bark.  Quite entertaining.

 

I walked around around to get photos of some items I found charming.  The faded, older items appealed to me as I love to mix them with bright, shiny new things!  So this was right up my alley (apart from the moment I spent in the "baby chicks" barn.  One whiff and I was okay to leave that building).

 

This mobile (above + below) was adorable. 

 

 

Every sign was as cute as this one.

 

One building held a fun fort in which kids could play.  A bin held so much corn that it was the ideal place for kids to play in.  Most chose to lie down and make....corn angels?!  Throwing the corn was discouraged.

 

Here's Linda - in the actual corn maze - at the end of a 90 minute walk to find the 8 boxes which held the 8 clues.  Along the way, we wondered why there is no reality show out there that is a combination of "Biggest Loser" and "The Amazing Race"??  People could do incredible workouts in exotic locations around the world.  I'd watch that show.

 

When you found your pumpkins, you could tote them to your car in this little wagon. Naturally, what else would you want to carry them in?!

 

 

I have plans for these signs.  Well, these photos of the signs.  My apartment entrance is on the ground floor. Once you enter the front door, you immediately ascend 20 steps to find yourself in my dining room.  I'd like to enlarge these two photos above and post them where you'd see the "welcome" one as you arrived and "thank you" as you left.  

 

The farm was crowded on Saturday.  So many families!

 

Okay - this picture was on the wall at the restaurant in Madison, and most of us stared at it during dinner.  Tell me this does not look like two men??!  We know it's supposed to be a husband/wife portrait.  When I mentioned that I was thinking  that if I posted this photo here, someone might write in and say "Hey - that's my grandmother in the photo!", Dan said "Who? The one on the left?!"  (ouch!  I know they were told to not smile for photos...but still...)

UPDATE:  We are officially receiving our first snow of the season.  WHAT?!!! Yet I see it out my window right now. 

triples

Kalette, one of my junior high girls, shown here.....taught me more about my mobile phone today while we played cards. K. is in her 2nd year in my junior high group and she's matured immensely in these two years....from a bouncy, hyper 10 year old (the first year of the youth ministry) to this "young woman" as adults like to say.

The weekend is going well. Saturday was a visit to Wisconsin's largest corn maze (in the shape of a dragonfly.it was beautiful) and pumpkin patch. Photos coming soon.

Settling in here for a nap and an evening with a good book. May find time to watch The Amazing Race as well.

Hope your weekend is going well!!

{what we do}

beautiful apartment!  found at what we do

[specials]

It's Wednesday, and in my world, it's called Youth Group Night!  My girls are 7th grade girls - 9 of 'em, and last week was our third week meeting together and we hadn't talked about guidlines while we meet together.  The group decided on the above guidelines...and it worked pretty smoothly.

Eighteen different times (or eighteen hundred times) various girls would start to tell a random story about: a butterfly, the Jonas Brothers, a classmate, a cousin's girlfriend's great grandmother, a shoelace or another "related" topic to our discussion, but to my surprise (each time!) they'd stop the story, remember the guideline about "don't speak randomly" and they'd say "never mind". 

Which reminds me of the time my brother and I used to let caterpillars crawl on us because it was fun.  Remember those days?  The hot sun, bugs buzzing in the background, the shade of a tree, playing outside all day long....umm... why on earth is there a guideline about talking randomly???

This is the first group I've had in three years that has worked together as a group and supported each other.  One week a girl, L.,  didn't want to sit at our table...even though we made room for her.  I asked her to join us.  Then the rest of the girls said things like "It's not the same without you!"...."Our circle isn't complete!"  "Come sit with us!"  And so...L. sat with us.

We were looking for a name for our group so it wasn't just someone saying in a flat voice, "Yeah - the seventh grade girls meet in that room"...now they can shout with enthusiasm, "You're in 7th grade?  GREAT!  THE SPECIALS MEET IN ROOM 104!!" 

 

 

Specials

Special Girls

Special 7's

???

We need a name. 

Every girl wants to make a sign to put on our door....but signs need names.  Suggestions now being gladly accepted below.

paper sets

 

Aren't these paper sets adorable? Blogged about here: sfgirlbybay.  When my brother Randy and I were younger, we'd make little sets out of paper. He'd make a paper briefcase with items inside also made of paper, while I would make a paper purse with paper lipstick, paper comb, etc.

apple

Apple Pool, originally uploaded by aremac.

CRUNCH
CRUNCH


yumm.

I'd forgotten how good an apple tastes.

Apples = Fall


CRUNCH
CRUNCH

ooohh..alpha bits

Post / Archies Coupon Offer, originally uploaded by Waffle Whiffer.

hey - do they still make alpha bits, the cereal? That was a treat when I was younger. And look, Archie Comics. Was exciting to spend my allowance on the bigger comic books...that I devoured in moments and then tossed aside.

So I've done a bit of research online since my "WOO HOO I USE COUPONS!" post yesterday. WHEW... it's an entire Coupon World..did you KNOW that???? holy. cow.

I visited a site and my head is still spinning (quite inconvenient, you know, when you're trying to get through items on a to-do list.... apparently need to add "stop-head-from-spinning" to the list)

I read so much lingo, abbreviations and such and saw photos of people with their "loot" - getting hundreds of items for $10 out of pocket.

Too much going on here to jump into this hobby/full time job of couponing.... I'll remain an amateur and use coupons combined with sales to stock up on items I really need and use, and leave the frenzied buying to others! (Others who have quite impressive stories to share about their treasures!)

documenting

Here's Kalette (she's one of my junior high girls) .....we played cards and drank yummy beverages and took over a table for a few hours Sunday afternoon.  Taught K how to play "shanghai rummy" and we played two full games - a fun way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Speaking of "documenting", here's the same photo transformed at this site.  Looks to me like this was clipped from an old, old newspaper instead of snapped Sunday.

{three wrapped frames}

Hello. I'm not crafty, but last night, I created something new out of something old - which I think qualifies as "crafty".  I have had a set of frames from IKEA's "as-is" section and a roll of pretty wrapping paper - and all has just sat in a closet for two years. Last night I grabbed the frames and in ten minutes had covered the frames with wrapping paper and hung them on my dining room wall which had been barer than bare.

The set of IKEA frames had been $5 because two of the four paper-covered-frames had tears on the front.  No matter - the wrapping paper covered those nicely.

Then I discovered the World o' Coupons - a new savings that I had ignored, not thinking about the benefits. I picked up a copy of the Sunday paper but will get two copies next week for duplicates on the coupons.  This morning was an immersion into saving money.  I spent $18 at Walgreens but had a recorded amount of savings (through coupons, Walgreens coupons and store savings) of more than $21.

OLD SCENARIO:  At home I run out of toilet paper, paper towels, laundry detergent, and dish detergent all at the same time.  "Crapola!" says I, "Now I need them all!" and thus plan a trip to the store where the items are bought at (gasp, I know) full price.  No longer. 

NEW LIFE WITH COUPONS: Today I picked up items for cheap (most less than half price): plastic cups for my game night this weekend, Ajax, Reynolds wrap, chicken stock, paper towels and my favorite lipstick/lipgloss (via Nothing But Bonfires): Covergirl Lipslicks in "Daring"  ($1 off one, and buy one get one 50% off) and my shampoo and conditioner ($3 for both AND I get a free haircut too for that $3.  not bad). 

Yes....I'm going on and on.  Like no one has ever used coupons before or been thriftily crafty at home before.  Any hints/tips you could share?

pretty bride in a Swedish wedding [image via red house]

simple bedroom

a london store

Last night was pretty calm. I had taken photos at Target of ten books I wanted to read and wondered if my county library system had them.  The library had nine of the ten books and three came in last night. So I stacked them up on a shelf at home and gazed at them...wondering which one to read first.  Chose Upside Down Inside Out by Monica McInerney. But also made time to watch How I Met Your Mother because I laugh out loud every time.  Then because of taking cough syrup to manage a cough, I faded away and fell asleep really early, so not one page in the book was read.  That is the goal today at lunch. Eat a pb&j sandwich and start the book. An achievable goal for sure.

overheard

1. Three year old girl at Target, alone, perusing the princess costumes, singing "Baby come back!"

2. Four year old boy at the movie theater, holds the door for me, then runs to join his parents while saying, "Boom Chicka BOW WOW!"

3. Group of teens in the theater hallway, contemplating which movie to crash, and a girl says, "Are we going to the Chalupa one?" *friends stare blankly* Girl realizes it's the "chihuahua" movie, not the taco bell food item movie.

Weekend was good. Saw "nights at rodanthe". Cheesy, cliche of a film. Giggled through it all with my friend. Saturday was dinner and a movie - saw "Read After Burning"... oops..let me try that again.. "Burn After Reading"! LOVED it. Made up for the previous night's cheesy movie. Sunday - played cards and cleaned house for guests arriving next weekend.

How was your weekend?

gwyneth/GOOP

Gwyneth Paltrow has a new website (GOOP) all about style, home and health.  The newsletter is new and was just sent out.  Here are some glimpses.  I'm in love. (and yes, I say that a lot).  I adore the color combo of black/gray/white and would use black tights intead of leggings.

Then I've also, as you know, been going on and on about the Bahia haircut (chin length bob) but a stylist who is also a youth leader with me at church announced that cut would not be right for me but that it should be a bob that is above the shoulder, has some swing to it, and is longer than chin length.  Seems Gwyneth's haircut fits the requirements.  Now if I could just BE Gwyneth by wearing those clothes and having her hair.....

 

 

 

fun with spelling

A coworker addressed an outgoing invoice with - "technoogies" instead of "technologies" in the company TITLE! good thing he's changing it. but he was calling it "technojeez" and I was all "uh..no. that's techNUHgeez - like noogie...when someone rubs the top of your head.."

[I think.]

ring by "bead & toggle jewelry design"

ring by "bead & toggle jewelry design", originally uploaded by sunnygirlwi.

Here's the ring I found at the craft festival on Saturday. The designer is Valerie M. Erato of "Bead & Toggle Jewelry Design".

You know you've made a good purchase when you catch a glimpse of it and smile.

rummaging rewards

The weekend flew by but was full and happy.  How was yours?

FRIDAY  Left a comment on Chez Larsson's post to do a casual swap with someone.  I'm in the U.S. and love Scandinavian style decor magazines and French magazines.  You can still get in on the swapping by leaving a comment on this Chez Larsson post.    Then went out with FreakyBlair to play cards at a local cafe.  By relaxing there for three hours, we were witnesses to quite a bit of drama.  Didn't know my little city had that much drama in it.

SATURDAY Met up with Kirsten to visit a private school's annual barn sale/fundraiser.  I found a few French books and a wire basket while Kirsten found an antique rake (a little hand-held one). We checked out a public school's sale across the road and I found this adorable little desk for three dollars.  Not yet sure how or where I'll use the desk but am happy with the purchase!

 

At a craft festival, Kirsten and I each bought a ring from a local artist. The rings were adorable and quite the bargain in the ten dollar range. 

SUNDAY  Church then lunch and a movie with a friend.  Saw the Simon Pegg film How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.  I saw Simon Pegg months ago in Run, Fatboy, Run and enjoyed that movie a whole lot more. 

{cute!}

My niece, Mimo!

Her hair has, uh, changed a bit!

some prettiness for you {pia ulin}

 

Was out with a cold/flu/fever yesterday and slept the entire day/night away.  Feeling much better now. So much better that I found loads of photos for you! 

On emmasblog were photos by photographer Pia Ulin. Of the 884 photos by Pia Ulin on "Link Image", here are my favorites!