Tending the Eclectic Kinder-Garden

It’s been almost a week’s worth of red at this blog~ I’ve enjoyed fiddling some more with my camera to try to photograph each crimson, blush, and sunny red that has caught my eye, and today I thought I’d try that little flower button setting on my Kodak Easyshare to capture RUBY…

The setting helped capture my new ruby cell phone (complete with QWERTY keyboard…texting will be soooo much easier now!) as well as the floral details on the mat beneath it:

and worked even more magic when I tried to photograph all of my ruby rings at once. Do you know how many blurry shots I’ve taken over the years? The flower button just might be my new favorite setting on the camera!

You might think I have a thing for rubies… I admit red is one of my favorite colors, but I didn’t have a lot of ruby jewelry until my husband came along. Every year I get a new ring or earrings, but as I don’t usually wear more than three rings each day, I have to make sure to rotate through my stash so none of them feel left out.

Awww, poor me.

*snicker snicker*

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Off to spend time with friends at a BBQ~ hope you are having a terrific day!

Tags: collections, I Saw Red

When I discovered Kirk’s Folly jewelry and accessories on QVC years ago, I was hooked! Barrettes, necklaces, bracelets, brooches and watches all made their way to my jewelry box. Since then, I’ve purposely re-arranged my sparkly stuff each time we’ve moved to see if I can accommodate any new pieces when they catch my eye.

Here are some of my favorite “teacher” pieces. I wear them all regularly during the appropriate holiday season, and the teacher watch at all parent teacher conferences. For Halloween and Thanksgiving, it’s all about the brooches:

At Christmas and in winter, my jackets and sweaters sparkle with a patriotic snowman and a cluster of snowflakes:

Here’s an easy way to wear green in March:

My teacher watch, patriotic watch and wedding anniversary bracelet:

…and the last piece I bought before leaving Kansas:

Students always love to examine the jewelry I wear: it sparkles, it moves, and some of it even makes the best little tink-tink-tink noises!

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Just in time for Mother’s Day:

*Seasonal Delights shares a tutorial for making Gift Flowerpots

*CakeSpy has cakey/sweet/dessert treats for the Overbearing Mom!

*Smitten Kitchen shares Martha’s Macaroni and Cheese recipe…

Tags: collections, links, recipes, Show and Share

My mother started a thimble collection for me *years* ago, which thankfully several friends have continued to add to:

Pewter thimbles, porcelain thimbles, metal thimbles, figurine-style thimbles, Royal Family thimbles… though in honor of May Day, I’ll show you closeups of the floral thimbles:

A daffodil and a shamrock:

A red rose with golden leaves:

California sunflowers:

A lotus:

A vining flower on black lacquer:

Pink porcelain rosettes on glass:

A bunny hiding amongst leaves and flowers:

Old Country Roses:

Blue….what are they?

And my favorite, pink roses:

Do you know which thimble I’d find hilarious to add to my collection?

Yep, the Monopoly Thimble!

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Have you ever played the Thimble Game?

One person hides the thimble somewhere in a room. Children/family members are then allowed into the room to hunt for the thimble one by one. Once each child has found it, he/she leaves it and sits down in the middle of the room. After all the children have found it, the first one to find it gets to hide it the next round. Of course the giggles, twitters, inhales of breath, etc., make it easier for younger children to play as they take their cues from the other players who are trying their hardest to not give the location away!

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~Inspired Ideas, volume1, number 3 has arrived!

~Ez at Creature Comforts offers a “D.I.Y. Paper Wrapped Soaps” tutorial in time for Mother’s Day and Teacher Appreciation Week…

~Skip to My Lou offers some of the cutest Teacher Appreciation gift/craft ideas I’ve seen in a looooooonnnnnnnnggggggggg time!

~Laura Rebecca’s Kitchen is baking again, this time it’s Peanut Butter Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Cookies…num!

~Kelly at PhotoJojo has found a web site that will “oldify” photos you choose to upload…

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And my newest blog discovery?

Liquid Sky Arts

(go, go, go, you know you want to!)

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Don’t forget to leave a comment here for my blue wreath giveaway!

Tags: collections, giveaway, links, recipes, Show and Share

The post-wide yard sale was a success yesterday, at least in our neck of the woods. We sold enough functional-but-no-longer-for-us furniture (the bookcases with glass doors, the pink wingback recliner, our daughter’s computer desk, two televisions and vcr’s… a kitchen cabinet, a dryer in need of a new heating element, the toddler’s bed, some area rugs and runners), some kitchen odds and ends (single glasses, mugs, pots with no lids, lids with no pots-heh heh heh, no, they didn’t match!- the toddler’s old plastic Playtex bottles, baby spoons), clothes (toddler, adult, teen), home decor (some of my handmade seasonal wreaths, tchotchkes I didn’t want to try to renew/refurbish), toys, books, and magazines. It was rather funny, all of my British Home and Gardens and Country Living style magazines sold while my husbands biker-type mags didn’t. Yard saling ladies know what to avoid, apparently!

I’m not sure we lightened our load significantly however. For you non-military family readers, soldiers and their families have a weight limit on their household items based on the soldier’s rank. My husband’s promotion in October added a thousand pounds to our allowance, but I’m guessing we’ll still be close. While in the Bordertown, our daughter got a new double bed and two new chests of drawers, the toddler upgraded to a twin bed, I purchased a desk and bookcase set for my cubby, and the family gave me a kitchen cart/island for Christmas. Dear Husband added a bookcase to his study and our kitchen microwave is huge compared to our old one. We’ll see.

It was very easy for me to NOT go yard saling yesterday! Though the weight limit has consistently asserted itself in the back of my mind for the past five years, I also know we’re moving back to the land of antique malls, thrift stores, and hidden treasures this summer! My husband and I have decided that we are willing to spend the next two years searching for just the right pieces for our home: “real” barrister bookcases, complete with leaded glass panes in the doors
,
an overstuffed low-backed leather chair
,
drop leaf tables
,
a new desk for our daughter
,
and various styles of storage furniture~ file drawers
,
map chests
,
card catalog drawers…

Yes, the weight limit will be blown off its doors when my husband retires!

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Of course, I’ll also be on the look-out for “vintage bling” so I can make photo frames like Cupid’s Charm …

Michelle at Scribbit posted a delicious sounding French Onion Soup recipe that just might become my post-furniture-shopping-trip-treat…

…and if I stumble across one of these, I will in fact NOT buy it, though I certainly will try it!

Tags: collections, family, military life

Thankfully, these don’t growl:

I mentioned in a previous Show and Share Thursday post that my husband has a thing for bears. Consequently, so do I!

The first bear figurine to mark our relationship was the one with our favorite animal posed at a computer desk. The reason I purchased it was because one of the first photos I’d ever seen of my husband had been of him sitting, leg crossed over, at his computer:

One of the first holidays we celebrated together was Christmas (in Alaska), so naturally the snow globe had to join our technically proficient bear.

When we married, we wanted a bear family that matched our own (little did we know that cub number 4, our toddler, would arrive two years after we were wed!), so we adopted the bear couple, a standing bear for my stepson, the pair of bears playing (it’s actually a napkin ring!) for my two children, and the extra bear because he was too cute to leave at the store (it’s probably what guaranteed the toddler’s addition to the family!):

My husband had this bear tucked away in his bachelor belongings:

…and we purchased this bear family on the road trip from Oz to the Bordertown last summer:

We hadn’t found a new bear to add to our collection for quite a few months, and then lo and behold, Polly sent us the cutest coaster set/figurine that I’ve turned into a candleholder:

We are always on the lookout for a new bear to add to our collection~ yes, we’re “beary” happy when we find just the right one!

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~Sky Manor shares a recipe for Teddy Bear Bread
~ Author Jez Alborough has written some of my favorite teddy bear books (kids love them too!):

~ Here are the lyrics to The Teddy Bear’s Picnic
~ What are polar bears called when they’re caught in the rain? Drizzly Bears!
~ Bear activities for kids at DLTK’s Growing Together

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Tags: books, collections, links, Show and Share

Hello, my name is Michaele, and I’m an addict. A Vera Bradley Addict.

What’s surprising is that I wasn’t aware of the extent of my addiction until today, as I went through the hutch in our dining room to find Easter-ish or Spring-ish place mats or tablecloths for this weekend.

I kept pulling out set after set of VB place mats and realized that there were still *more* sets packed away with the Christmas decor! In fact, the photos I’m sharing today don’t include my VB tablecloths, napkins, table runners, purses/handbags, or clothing items… and the sets shown above aren’t ALL, since I’m using several sets in our barrister bookcases and throughout the living room and kitchen for spring accents:

I’m guessing my love of Vera Bradley table decor is linked to my love for quilts- each of these place mats are quilted with a coordinating fabric on the back. I’m always on the look-out for retired patterns and colors on Ebay, Petit Point, Black Walnut, and Maison Blue especially:

What’s not to love? They’re machine washable, patterned enough to hide a small stain here or there, and instantly dress up a table or other surface beautifully. With a toddler and busy family, EASE and FUNCTIONALITY are essentials in our home, but in case you were wondering, no, I simply cannot resist PRETTINESS.

No, no, I’m NOT a Vera Bradley salesperson or store representative- though I wish I were if it would get me a discount on the new line of RUGS available online! Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!

If you’d like something a bit more romantic, “foofy” even for table decor, try April Cornell, another favorite of mine!

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Easter/Spring Projects:

~Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home has made some beautiful egg-shaped pocket cards and walks you through, step by step…

~ Lisa at Celebrate Creativity in All its Forms shows us how to decorate a new vase, just in time for those spring bouquets, though I think I’ll use her techniques and advice on a few storage containers I’ve been saving up lately for my desk…

~ Terry at Bent Objects expresses some Easter humor with a chocolate bunny, some raisins and Raisinets, a nice change from the deluge of Peep dioramas that many others have produced this year…

~ Laura Rebecca’s Kitchen tells us how to make perfect hard boiled eggs (still on my to-do list for today!)

~ Angry Chicken shares a recipe for birds’ nests (edible!) that kindergarten teachers, their students and families are sure to enjoy!

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Recent Blog Discoveries:

ModernJune

Tammy Gilley Studios

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I forgot to mention that while I was playing with Scrabble tiles and tongue-twisters the other day, I also made a Scrabble rack to go with my Easter decor in the epergne:

Happy Spring!

Tags: Easter, links, recipes, Show and Share

Whenever I admire and/or purchase a quilt, I’m asked if I myself, quilt. My response is always the same: “Nope, but I’m happy to support other quilters’ nasty habit!” Smiles and laughter follow, and if the seller’s husband is around (nope, haven’t bought from a male quilter…yet!), he thanks me, then mumbles under his breath something along the lines of “great, now my wife can go buy *more* fabric, mutter mutter mutter.”

Most of my quilts are wall-hanging or crib sized, easy to use as classroom or home decor.

While I do have three or four full-sized quilts, one is my favorite: the Bear Paw made for me and my husband when we married.

While in Alaska, I worked at a school that was RICH in quilters. Almost every female teacher had a fabric stash *somewhere* and every male teacher offered up his wife’s sewing services when retirement or baby quilts were made for colleagues and their families. When asked what I would like from the staff as a wedding gift, I stammered, shocked that no one knew- of course, I had hoped for a quilt.

My colleagues had been my surrogate family for a decade, had helped me raise my children, had seen me through good times and bad. They’d even put my then-fiancé through a good-natured “application process” when we first started dating, since my mother had moved out of state. When Miss Mary Ann, quilter extraordinaire asked me to choose a pattern, I knew it had to be something my husband, a fan of bears, would appreciate. The Bear Paw it was. I loved pinks, my husband preferred greens. Batik was the answer. And as a special nod to my husband’s appreciation for all things Harley Davidson, the lining fabric was hogs on Harleys.

Each “paw” square was done by a colleague at school, and they all managed to keep their work hidden from me, right up until our wedding day. They mounted the topper as a wall display in the hall where we held our ceremony and reception, and I saw it for the first time as I walked down the aisle.

My husband and I had no idea that we’d be relocated the following year, and the quilt has traveled with us from Alaska to New Mexico to Kansas, to Texas, and apparently, *back* to Kansas this summer. It has been draped across the foot of our bed, has been mounted on the wall for display, and during the toddler’s messy stage, has been folded neatly on top of one of our shelves in our bedroom closet, easily within reach when messy fingers and drippy juice cups are out of the vicinity.

I love quilts- they’re my “grown up” blankies!

Tags: collections, crafts, family, friends, Show and Share

With spring just around the corner, our dark winter decor has been taken down, laundered, and packed away, and the “spring stuff” has been put up in its place. But there are a few characters, fluffy spirits, that stay up year ’round in our house, albeit in one little corner of my bedroom:

My bunnies. “Bunnies by the Bay Bunnies” to be exact. These aren’t the ones you might find in Hallmark stores around the country, these are PRE-Hallmark. I place the blame for my love of them squarely on three peoples’ shoulders: Karen, her mother Ginny, and brother David. There’s only one bunny that’s not in this photo, and it’s the one that started it all: my angel Christmas tree topper bunny that Ginny made for me when I visited Oak Harbor, WA, too many years ago. Ginny helped me choose the fabric and details for bunny’s dress, and David graciously donated his kitchen table to serve as Ginny’s workspace one afternoon. Several hours later, I had a beautiful tree topper. She’s carefully packed away with our Christmas decor, but is never far from my thoughts thanks to her relatives:

These two are dressed warmly with knit caps and long bloomers…

This one *had* to be mine after we were stationed in Kansas for two years…

These twins sit on top of my dresser, watching over my perfume bottles, crystal dish, and silver-tone dresser set…

…and this patriotic beach-goer sits in my magazine basket, next to my bed.

Yes, this thirty-eight year old woman has bunnies in her bedroom, but somehow, my collection doesn’t inspire that awful “Ewww, stuffed animals…” comment when friends see them.

And my husband hasn’t pitched them out the door. Good thing, because I know how to track them down on eBay. And will continue to do so. So there. Nyeah.

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More bunny love:

Betty Crocker Bunny Cupcakes

Check out “Fun with Max and Ruby” on Rosemary Wells’ homepage (it’s a link to the left on her page) for coloring pages and games with some of my favorite (bunny) characters created by the author of:

Here’s a very cute crochet bunny pattern at Lion Brand Yarn:

And finally, despite the cuteness factor, toy or chocolate bunnies are the best choices when it comes to deciding how to fill up your child’s Easter basket. The House Rabbit Society provides lots of helpful information that will explain the reasons why live rabbits are NOT good Easter gifts.

Tags: home decor, links, Show and Share

M is for *mukluks*, though I know some of you might refer to them as “moccasins.” As girlie as I am, Manolos aren’t for me. Cold feet? Never when I have these on, and for good reason: the first pair (from the left) are made of sealskin with wolf trim, the next pair are calfskin and wolf, the red pair are felt and moosehide, and the fourth are rabbit and leather. All but the red boots are lined, so a pair of comfy socks are all I need to wear when I slip these on in the winter. I had several opportunities to wear them last year in Oz, but alas, this year they have remained tucked away in the coat/boot closet here in Texas.

These mukluks (both pair) were made by my Aaka (Grandmother), Ruth. Yes, *made.*

It was obviously the pretty beadwork on these Athabaskan boots that caught my eye, little promises of spring in the middle of winter.

The fur on the mukluks and Cree rabbit boots (last pair) has started to wear thin a bit, and some of the beadwork on the other two pair has loosened, mostly due to my students! Any kindergarten teacher will tell you, when it’s storytime and you’re surrounded by five year olds, hands and fingers will inevitably end up on your feet (legs if you’re wearing something texturally interesting).

When I lived and taught in Alaska, wearing my mukluks didn’t garner a second look- ever. In New Mexico and Kansas however, I was often stopped and asked politely for an explanation of my footwear. The walrus and moose appliqués on my sealskin mukluks were of particular interest. I’m doubting Texans here in the Bordertown will be subjected to my foot fashion for the remainder of our stay, but our family is keeping our fingers crossed in the hopes that Uncle Sam sends us someplace that annually features snow in its winter scenery.

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Don’t forget M-n-M’s! Did you know you can order your own custom printed candies now? Head here to find more M-n-M fun!

Tags: fashion, Show and Share

Friends, family and students know I *love* jewelry, the sparklier the better! Whether it’s a new teacher-themed brooch, necklace or earrings, or a new bauble from Zales, I enjoy adding finishing touches to all of my outfits daily. My wooden apple necklace goes with my ABC jumper for the first day of school, my Kirk’s Folly heart necklaces and brooches see regular rotation throughout February, and I enjoy wearing a different “right hand ring” each day thanks mostly to my husband. I support his Harley habit, he supports my jewelry habit, talk about a match made in Heaven!

My love for jewelry started when I was a child. My mother and grandmother had jewelry boxes that sat on their dressers, and I remember realizing that for the ladies in my family, it was an absolute necessity to go through them each day, selecting something to wear before ever stepping out of the apartment. Going out without a bracelet, earrings, or a ring on was like going out into public naked! Now I can’t leave the house without having visited my jewelry box first.

Cameos hold a special appeal for me. My grandmother has a cameo ring, bezel set, that she says I used to teethe upon as a baby. The face on the shell has been blurred, rubbed smooth over time, and it rattles in its setting. My mother has a brooch that she also wears as a pendant, and it somehow marks all of my childhood memories of her. Touring Europe as a teenager, my mother was with me when I purchased my first cameo ring, a treasure I inadvertently lost when in a state of delirium, I went on a cleaning spree and tossed everything in my dresser drawers into the trash (chicken pox at age thirteen was NOT a good experience, let me tell you!).

She replaced the ring for my first wedding, a gift that was just for me. It’s the smaller of the two cameo rings in the photo. The larger ring I received when my mother-in-law passed away last year. Helping my sister go through Betty’s belongings, we came across a stash of jewelry given to her by a lover from many years past. Rubies, diamonds, loose stones, pearls, and the cameo ring. The story goes that she, the cameo, was hardly if ever worn, because of her size. On me, she covers up my middle knuckle on my ring finger, and hasn’t been worn while I’ve been doing the stay-at-home-mom thing, though never fear, she keeps good company with my other cameos. The brooch was an Ebay find- I couldn’t resist when I saw the simple cameo set with the millefiori flowers… it’s a fun little riot of color to wear on rainy days.

There’s even a cameo on the charm bracelet I started for myself last year though I can’t remember who it belonged to before that (sorry Mom!). A small ivory bear, lockets, charms, pendants, and even a lone earring keep her company. Transferring all of my rarely-if-ever-worn pendants to the bracelet was a good choice for me (I have some more charms to add to it), and it’s a piece that my students always love to examine when I wear it. They love the blue topaz (“A topaz?? A topaz?!?! Amongst *my* jewels?!?!”), the bear, all of the hearts, and the jingly sound made when I move my hand. I love wearing it because I enjoy knowing that there is a story behind each charm.

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I’ve spent most of this week attempting to recover from a doozie of a cold. Thankfully I’ve had crafts and reading to keep me sane while spending almost every minute indoors. Thank you for the messages and emails wishing me a speedy recovery, every good thought has helped! Here are some links that caught my eye:

Schools Matter shares the story of an elementary school in California that has turned down Title I funds in order to go “NCLB-Free.” Incredible and inspiring.

Cakespy coaxed two incredible dessert recipes from Michael’s Kitchen in Miami: White Chocolate Raspberry Rice Krispie Deep Dish Pizza and Twinkie Tiramisu. Num, num, num!

Planning With Kids charmed me with her advocacy of family time as well as her post of “10 Things to do Before School Holidays End.” She’s in Australia, so it was fun comparing her list to what parents here in the States tend to do.

Tags: collections, Hi Mom, links, recipes, Show and Share