A very nice person out there in blog land left me a crock pot recipe in my comments last night. I am bummed because I accidentally deleted it, while deleting 30 stupid spam comments, and I can’t get it back! I don’t remember the persons name, blog or anything. It was a chicken recipe! If you are reading this please comment again!!

On to the topics at hand!

Here are the books I have read recently.  True Evil by Greg Iles and All Fall Down by Erica Spindler. Both were suspense filled mysteries!  They were good, I don’t know that I would personally go out and buy them.  We had All Fall Down in a box of books in the basement, and our neighbor lent us True Evil. I really enjoy Greg Iles books and look forward to reading more in the future.  I am trying to read all the books in the box in the basement so I can pass them along and get rid of the box:)

On to the good mail!!

I came home the other day to a large package on my porch and had no idea what it was because I had not ordered anything??  I opened it, and to my surprise it was a vintage bread box and inside were two vintage pink shiny brites!!!   I had made a comment on a blog that I visit often, Livin’ Vintage.  I commented that I LOVED the bread box she had found on her thrifting adventures.  Emily is so sweet she sent it to me because I loved it!!  THANK YOU!!!! 

Isn’t it pretty.  I am going to add a vintage knob and line the bottom with some pretty paper! I may even use it in my sewing room, so I can enjoy while I am crafting:)

On to the swaps…

Here is a swap I sent.  It is for the Pay it Forward Parcel Swap on Flickr.  Each person lists 10 items they would love to have and you pick five of the items to send to your partner.  My partner requested:  Ephemera, so I put together a packet of goodies for her.  She also requested an orange FQ,  and aqua FQ and a polka dot FQ- they are all on top of the vintage pillow case she requested. She also asked for small super glue gel, which I found at the dollar store!!! Her last request was anything birds: so I copied a bird that Carrie had sent me in a swap awhile ago:)

Here is another I sent out recently- It was a secret Ghost swap for the five things group on flickr.  The rules were to send 5 things- one of them handmade. So I made another pumpkin and some crepe paper ruffles!

I had been on a swap break for a while and now there are a ton of amazing swaps for the holidays.  I am involved in quite a few!  I am answering the questions below for my partner for the Vintage Christmas Stocking Swap. Which is being hosted by Priscila at Casa Bella Chic, who is my partner for the Vintage Pink Christmas swap.  My partner for this swap is the wonderful Heidi at Fox Gloves Fabric & Folly, she was the hostess of the Very Vintage Halloween swap and the upcoming Very Vintage Christmas Swap.

On to the questions!

What do you collect: Everything!  Vintage quilts, pottery, aprons, Christmas decorations, milk glass-pink & white. Anything with roses on it, vintage books, and the list goes on and on!
What inspires you:  All the amazing women in blog land who are have turned their love of crafts, vintage, home decor and any other hobby into a successful business!
Favorite pastime:  I guess it would have to be knitting.  It sooths your sole, the repetition calms your mind when you are stressed out.
Whats one of your favorite vintage pieces in your home: That is a tough one, I love it all.  Maybe, my pink milk glass punch bowl!
What decoration or christmas item would you love to have:  I would love some of the little vintage houses, mercury glass anything, a vintage tinsel tree, a cloche, I could go on and on on this one too:)
What vintage piece would you love to have:  A beautiful buffet for my dining room!
Favorite Goodie or hot drink: I love milk chocolate and hot chocolate, apple cider is a fav at this time of year!
Any family tradition:  Yes, but they are going to be different this year because we are going to be here in NC while the Fam is back in CA & OR.
Greatest Christmas Memory: That is tough because I love Christmas and I mostly have great memories of them all.  When I was little I got a Barbie dream house from Santa, that was super exciting!  And the year Santa brought me diamond earrings was pretty great also.  I think my favorite memories are of the kids at Christmas, especially when they were little, it is so magical to them.  Graham should be fun to watch this year, hopefully he doesn’t try to climb the trees!!!

Time to get ready to go to the pumpkin patch.  Have a great day!

XOXO Jen

Exactly six months ago today we arrived in Jamestown, NC.  It went by so quickly.  We are all settled and unpacked, and making the house feel like home.  Over the weekend we did a lot of work in the yard.  Chad pruned and cleaned up brush.  He burned it all for two days straight.  Yes, they allow that here because we are in the county and we have no yard waste service.  I used the hedge trimmer and trimmed about a quarter of our hedges, yikes it took me forever.  I also started painting our front door, it was mostly a light yellow but someone had started to prime it so part of it was stark white, it looked STUPID.  I still have to finish touch ups and the scrolly thing above the door, I plan to work on it this weekend.  I am putting up my Halloween decorations tomorrow, which should be fun.  It will be interesting to see what the next six months have in store.

Just thought I would remind everyone that tomorrow is the last day to enter the giveaway, so leave a comment to be entered to win 20$ worth of merchandise from the shoppe.

I finished a couple more books. The Isle of Palms by Dorthea Benton Frank, was a fun easy read, and I enjoyed it a lot. It is set in the south, so it gave me insight into the area I now live in. The next book I finished was not a lighthearted read. It was Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult. It is about a death row inmate, and involves many religions and spirituality in general. I am not a religious person, I do believe in God and in being a spiritual person and living in a moral manner. I started to say a lot more about this but decided that religion and politics are very personal matters and I don’t want to offend any one. This book reminds me a bit of the Divinci Code in the religious aspect, not in the suspense/mystery aspect. It was a very good book, I had a hard time putting it down.

The last bit of news is sort of exciting, I was interviewed by another blogger and she posted the interview on her blog. Here is the link to the interview, check it out. You have to scroll down a bit to see it.

Graham is asleep so I am heading to the sewing room to make some fun Halloween items. Sorry for the lack of pictures, my laptop is freaking out again. Ugg, I have only had it about 8 months and this will be the second time the screen has done this, hopefully they can fix it for good.

XOXO Jen

Let’s start with books, I read The Woods by Harlan Coben. It was a good suspense/mystery book, I had a hard time putting it down. If you like a good mystery, then this is a good one. I had not read one of Harlan Coben’s books before, but I enjoyed his writing style a lot. I am currently reading a book Called the Isle of Palms, which is set right here in the south, South Carolina to be specific. It is a great book and gives me an insight into what true southerners think. I will be done with it tonight and I have had a hard time putting this one down as well.

Next order of business is: Graham went to preschool yesterday!! He will be going every Monday to the Jamestown Methodist Church preschool program from 9-12. I was worried that he would cry being that he is hardly ever away from me, but he was fine when I left. Phew, nothing is worse than when they cry every time you leave them, Gwen was the WORST. Apparently Mr Graham did well until it was time to go outside, he wasn’t to sure about leaving the safety of the classroom. However once he got outside he was FINE, and then when it was time to go back in he cried again because he DID NOT want to go back inside because he loves to be OUTSIDE! It should be interesting to see how he does next week. It was great for me, I got a ton done yesterday and the best part was that he was tired when he got home, so more time to accomplish things.

Goof ball all ready for his first day of preschool.

I received a swap for the group I am in where we swap Fat Quarters, the theme this time was for Halloween. I love the goodies I got. I still have to finish getting together the one I am sending out, I have it about half ready, it is not due until the end of the month. Also due at the end of the month is another Halloween Swap I am participating in. It is called the Very Vintage Halloween Swap- Hosted at Foxglovesfabric&folly. My partner lives in Southern CA, I have started making things for her, I will post photos of these later in the month.

Isn’t the vintage inspired fabric so cute, I can’t wait to make something out of it.

I finished a baby gift for one of my very dear friends Jenny Mccall. If you are reading this Jenny, stop here and come back after you open the gift!!!! I am so sad to miss being there for the shower and seeing the baby when he is born, because for SOME reason my friends in Napa can not figure out how to send me photos!!

This is my second knitted baby blanket, I love how it turned out. The yarn is a super soft cotton, perfect for cuddling up with.

Here is the whole gift. Blankie, matching newborn hat, burpie and wrapped around it is a navy pacifier clip.

While I was at it I made a burp cloth for the Shoppe. I started making these when I was pregnant with Graham and they became my favorite. My favorite use to be cloth diapers, but these are way cuter, they wash really well and the Chenille is super absorbent. I also decided it was time to get back to making tooth fairy pillows, I started making these a few years back and they were quite popular. So, I decided to get back to them and I am really happy with how this one came out. I will be making more, hopefully this week. You can find this one in the Shoppe under Little Ones.

I love this vintage inspired fabric.

The square vintage doily on the front is actually the pocket for the tooth.

Here is the back!!

North Carolina has introduced us to more nature than I have seen my whole life. Saturday Chad called me outside to look at something, and that something was a SNAKE. EEEEK I said to him that does not look like a good kind of snake, its markings made me think of a rattler. I knew it was not a rattler because there was no rattle. Chad had all ready killed it, so Gab and I took some pictures and the girls went and got our neighbor Brad. He said” I think it is a Copper Head.” YIKES. I ran in an and Googled copper head snakes and sure enough our friend was a copper head. OMG they are not good snakes and Chad being the nieve city boy could have been bitten while he was trying to kill it with the shovel. Apparently he missed a few times, so he was lucky. I am now freaked out about snakes running rampant through our yard. I could barley go to sleep last night, because I was thinking about the kids playing in the yard and getting bitten by a poisonous snake. Welcome to country livin’.

EEK, Yikes, Creepy!

Yesterday I used the rest of the peaches and made a peach crisp, it was gobbled up in less than 24hrs. Tonight I made apple turnovers with more of the apples. I love that they look like the ones you buy at the store. I still have at least 3 dozen apples left. I have no idea what I am going to make next??

Yummy!!

That about sums up the last few days. I guess I should go clean or sew or something while the little dude is napping. XOXO Jen

I have read a few books lately so I will give you my review of them. The first book I finished was Miss Julia Strikes Back by Ann B. Ross. This is the 6th or 7th book in the Miss Julia series, I have read them all so far. They are easy reads, the nice thing about them is they are very sweet and innocent. Miss Julia is an older lady with very high moral standards, which makes the stories comical.

The Next Book I read was Three Weeks In Paris by Barbara Taylor Bradford. This wasn’t a book I would normally pick to read, but I had it in a box of books and thought I would give it a try. It was ok, I wouldn’t go out and buy it.

The last book I read was Blood Memory by Greg Iles. Chad got it from our neighbor and he put it on my nightstand, and I avoided reading it for a while because of the title. It sounds like a gory book, but it wasn’t too creepy. I actually couldn’t put it down, it was a great mystery.

I actually finished a book while waiting t0 finish this post which I started over the weekend. My Grandma gave it to me to read while she was here. It was set in the mid to late 1930’s and was an interesting story. It is Atonement By Ian Mcewan. It was a good historical fiction, I liked it but didn’t Love it. For some reason I can not add the book photo. Oh well.

On to the next topic: I received a blogger award! Yippee! Mary at Now Entering Momville so nicely gave me this Blogger award. Mary is such a sweet gal and she has a ton of great give aways.

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Here are a few of the newest items I have listed in the Shoppe.  I still have a ton more to add.  It is a bit of a process with three children running around, especially when the little dude decides to climb on top of me while I am typing. So here are the  items…

This lovely plate is a vintage Limoges, wouldn’t it look lovely hanging on the wall.

This is a darling little vintage tin, it would look so cute in a vintage kitchen.

This sweet little vintage pottery shoe would look darling in a baby’s room and it would make a nice gift.

Go green with these lovely reusable shopping bags, which are extra green because they are made from vintage pillow cases. They are not only cute, but are sturdy and hold quite a bit.

These darling vintage French flash cards are perfect for all your crafting needs. Collage, scrap booking or for display.  You can find all these items in the Shoppe.

I finished this book last week, it was wonderful. I can’t wait to see what hubby thinks of it.  It is a lovely story about circus life during prohibition.  The story is so entertaining, I found myself reading until the wee hours, and everyone I have talked to about it, loved it too.  So if you haven’t read it, you should.

XOXO Jen

I finished a couple of books and thought I would share with you. I have been staying up way to late at night reading, I just can’t stop my self, maybe in the back of my mind I know everyone will sleep in until at least 8:30-9am. The first book I finished was -Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich, which I finished in four days and who knows when her next book will be out. l crack up every time I read these books, the situations are hysterical. If you haven’t read this series, start with number One-ONE for the money, you will not be sorry!

The second book I finished was “Twenty Wishes” by Debbi Macomber. It was the fourth in the Blossom Street Series, which are all great books especially if you are a knitter. It was a great story about a group of woman who each wrote down twenty wishes and each one tries to complete these wishes. Makes you want to write a list of your own. Who knows maybe I will.

I just started a new book called Water for Elephants, I am only a few pages into it.  I will have to report on it when I am done.  Heather at Blhum Studios gave it rave reviews, so I am excited to read more of it.

This is my little dude’s feet in his Salt Water Sandals. My girls had them when they were little so I had to get them for Mr. Graham. They are the best. You can wear them in the water, pool, ocean, bath or whatever you can come up with. They still look like new and he has worn them a lot. He wears them when we go to the pool and I take him in the pool with them on. This works well for when we get out of the pool, it keeps his little feet of the hot ground. People at the pool have to let me know that he still has his shoes on, and I so nicely have to let them know that- I know and it is ok. Are salt water sandals like flocked trees in North Carolina-NON existent??? I did order these on eBay and they came from Sacramento CA.  So many things to get use to over on this side of the US.

There are a few days left to enter my give away, so post a comment letting me know you want to be considered for the drawing.

XOXO Jen