Hometown Girl

25 Things.

1. It's cold & rainy/snowy today.

2. I feel like hibernating.

3.  My bath project is done. Photos to come.

4. Baseball home opener was this weekend, we froze.

5. My lilacs are in bloom.

6. I got my haircut, short.

7.  I really want to paint furniture and sell it.

8.  We are going to an auction next week.

9.  Today we overslept.

10.  Tacos for dinner tonight.

11.  I watched Ratatouille with my little one who was home sick today.

12. I made a grey striped pillow for my daughter's room. It ties the tulle pom in really nicely. Photo to come.

13. I play words w/friends.

14. I'm looking forward to the white room challenge on HGTV tomorrow.

15.  I would love a wide angle lens.

16.  Can't believe it's almost May.

17. We are getting the shutters painted soon (it's been on my list for years)

18.  Remember to enjoy everyday. A mom from baseball died last week she was only 42.

19.  I love my kiddos.

20.  I am craving somthing sweet.

21.  I hope you are well.

22. I'm glad God loves me.

23. He loves you too.

24. Can't top that.

25. See you soon.

 

Thankful.

The house was way too quiet as the kiddos are back to school. I'm so thankful for our week with them. I finished some errands and household chores.I baked a pumpkin bundt cake for the kids to snack on after school. I had a little time so I decided to pick up my camera too. 

 

I got a call from a childhood friend today, it was so nice to catch up with her. I feel so blessed and am so grateful for so many things. Thank you all for coming by to check in on me. I really do love it!

See you soon.

Susan

Tuesday's Thoughts.

Hello friends! It's been so warm here and we've been enjoying the outdoors. The sun was in a perfect spot and I captured this shot of the front porch. I love the light. 

This is in our backyard. It's been there for many years and there is no plan to take it down. The tree will have to fall down first. Sweet reminders of the kids when they were babies swinging away....

I love this time of year. Such a sense of renewal and possibilities. I feel so blessed. I'm grateful for my sweet Dad who has been here getting our yard ready for Spring. My beautiful little family, my wonderful group of friends and for all you who stop to see what I'm up to. 

I sure am one lucky girl.

xo

Me

Winter.

"Perhaps I am a bear, or some hibernating animal underneath, for the instinct to be half asleep all winter long is so strong in me." ~ Ann Morrow Lindbergh

I hope you all have a chance to hibernate just a little bit. A chance to spend time with your friends and family, read a good book or curl up on the couch with your kiddos and watch a movie. Whatever you do, enjoy your weekend!

                                                      ~Susan

My Word for 2012.

It's taken me a long time to come up with my word for this year.  After a lot of thought and prayer I picked "Believe".

I think for many reasons it suits where I'm at. I need to whole hearted-ly believe in myself, God, the good of human kind.

I need to believe I can accomplish all the things I'd like to. All the things I want to be as a wife, mother, daughter & friend.

So my word for 2012 is Believe.

Image via Pinterest

I  hope to incorporated my word into some posts over the course of  the year.

Have a beautiful week!

Susan

p.s.

Menu is super simple this week.

Tacos.

Goulash.

Pasta.

I have so  much going on this week! I hope to be back in a day or two.

Thank you for coming by.

the Power of Prayer & a Package.

Well I've prayed to Saint Anthony twice in the last few months to help me/my family with lost items.

First it was my glasses. It's really to the point where I can't read anything small without them and reading a book they are must have. I looked everywhere. After a month of frustration I actually went to the Dollar Tree with the intention of buying a pair but I couldn't do it. As my daughter and I left the store I said St. Anthony please let me find my glasses. About an hour after we got home my daughter came down with my glasses in hand. She decided all on her own that she would clean up her room. She has a chair that collects lots of clothes and my glasses were in the chair! I had set them down when she was sick a few weeks earlier. I couldn't read the Advil bottle!

Just recently our son lost his Ipod. Missing for 10 days he began to get upset over not finding it. I really looked, and looked. I  moved things, looked in every drawer. Finally last night I said maybe we should say a prayer to St. Anthony and ask him to help us find it. This morning my husband was brain storming places that maybe we hadn't looked. He mentioned the pantry and snack cupboard. I didn't think much of it, drove the kids to school and began my morning routine of cleaning the kitchen up. As I was loading the dishwasher a little voice said you never checked the snack cupboard. I started with bottom shelf, no luck, the middle shelf no luck. Getting discouraged I moved the candy kisses he had bought the kids on a trip and there it was! His little ipod just hanging out among the snacks.

I realize these items are not life altering (the glasses might be) but it was causing us stress over losing them. And just like that we found them. Thank you Saint Anthony, I'm a believer!

Thank you if you made it through this post. I thought it was worth writing. And as if making my son happy wasn't good enough this lovely package ended up on my doorstep today. I won the sweet Victoria's giveway!

Sorrry Menu Monday will be a day late. It was a busy day.

See you soon. Susan

p.s. The idea book I wrote about my winter table with some photos that I never published is up over at Houzz  if you want to check it out.

It's a New Year.

Hello! Happy New Year. I hope you all had a good Holiday with your families.

This last week with my family has been really nice. We played games, I stayed in my PJ's all day. I didn't clean the house like a crazy person. I got beat at Scrabble way too many times. We really didn't do much but I really enjoyed our time together. We ended up getting a Nook tablet with the change we saved and the B&N gift cards we got for Christmas. So far it's been lots of fun and it was much more affordable than the ipad. Maybe someday we'll get one but for now I think this will work just fine. If you are a B&N member you get $25 off it too so that was a bonus.

I'm excited to try and grow the shop and blog. None of my employment inquires have worked out and I'm thinking that maybe it's a sign that I need to move forward with what I've already started here. I've been jotting down all my ideas and I feel renewed to jump back in.  I hope to tackle some new projects this year and fill the shop with some pretty new/old things. I'm looking forward to getting the house more organized (it's a constant battle for me!).

I hope you all will continue to join me on  this journey, wherever it may take us! 

Kids go back tomorrow so it's our last day to get ourselves together and get back to our routine.

Thank you for being you!

Susan

Friday, Friday.

I'm so happy it's Friday! I love the weekends with my little family.

A couple things I wanted to share with you.

Jen is having a giveaway to celebrate her new collection, stop by and see her lovely new things and enter her giveaway.

I watched an episode of Extreme Couponing, have you seen this?

My ruffled shirt is in the new issue of Altered Couture :)

I made a batch of homemade granola it makes the house smell so good!

I'm a pinning fool!

I'm making this for dinner.

Have a super weekend whatever you do!

See you Monday,

Susan

 

In the Kitchen.

I made another batch of sauce using fresh tomatoes since there were no leftovers. I made a huge batch and used it for a couple different dinners.  This is the tomatoes after blanching. When the skin separates then you can pull them out and peel once cool.

You can find the very simple recipe and instructions here.

 

 

I also made a batch of white chocolate chip cookies for the kids. I used a basic recipe and just swapped out the chips since that is what I had on hand. They are a bit sweeter than the chocolate but no one seemed to mind!

 

 

I hope you all are well! I know I've been a bad blog friend but I promise I will be around soon to visit. I've been so busy cleaning drawers and closets. I'm in major purge mode and I figure I better run with it til I can't anymore! I finished the boy's room and my drawers and closet. Everyday there are bags being donated and the house is feeling pretty organized. Still a long way to go if I look at the big picture but in a week's time I've crossed quite a few things off my long list.

I'm very slowly adjusting to my quiet days. I'm hoping it'll get easier as time passes. Just trying to be productive and keep busy!

 

Thank you for coming by, it makes this girl smile. Take care, Susan

p.s. I have loaded up the shop with vintage slips, aprons, hankies if you're interested. All priced for resale! Click here.

Riding the Wave.

Do you ever feel like you are riding a wave? The peaks and valleys so to speak? Life is kind of like that. Highs and lows. I find my creativity is no different. Some days I'm overwhelmed by the ideas swirling around in my head, other days it's pretty quiet in that respect. Some days I feel like I can conquer any project and other ones I'm just lucky to get through the day. My interests come and go much like the seasons. My love of cooking, photography, decorating, creating all suffer from this same problem.

Maybe with the change of season upon us my love of cooking has emerged more than in the summer months. I want to be close to home, I'm in that nesting mode. I want things to be cozy and inviting. I often wonder if it's just me or many of you feel this way too? Today I want to sell every craft item I own. I want to redo my craft space and make it a true work space instead of storage for all my junk. A pretty, comfortable space where I'll be inspired. I enrolled in my on line design class and am anxious to get started. I think it will give me the confidence to move forward with my on line design services. Am I wrong to want to purge everything else?

I guess I'm just trying to decide what I want to do when I grow up! I have large groups of things I want to sell off like vintage slips, pins, ribbon, etc. and I will continue to add those to  Paperhillfabrics for the upcoming weeks.

I have reserved susanduane.etsy.com and think I may eventually close Paperhill once my inventory is gone. I got some advice when starting my blog about using my name as the blog url and I did not take the advice, I wish I had listened. At the time I thought it was rather indulgent to use my name, after all who am I? Anyway, years later it makes sense, you really are building your "brand" for lack of a better way to put it. Without much trouble I can do this on Etsy.

Geesh, am I long winded today! If you made it to the end of this post, thank you! If not, I totally understand.

I'll leave  you with some inspiration photos from my Pinterest boards.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm grateful for you!, thank you for coming by!

Susan