Do any of you play with the iPhone app instagram? Such fun to share photos and browse through some of the cool photos on there. I just started using it but I’m kay5 on there if you want to follow me.

Leave your user name in the comments if you use instagram.

Why yes this is an iPhone pic. And, yes I’m having animal cookies, why do you ask?

I’m also testing out posting from my iPhone. We’ll see how that goes!!

• He’s So Proud Of Me!
• YouYou Meme part two
• New Way to Communicate
• While the Cat is Away
• Stumbleupon for Photo Blog Hopping

So, are any of you using Pinterest? They say it’s the place to catalog all things you love. (in a social media kind of way.) You place a bookmarklet on your browser and any time you see something that interest you, you “pin” it to one of your “boards” on Pinterest.

Like I have boards for Decorating, Photography Props, Photography Inspiration, Crafty Things, Branding, Sayings and Quotes, etc. Really fun. I signed up with my Facebook account and I guess it ties into your friends on Facebook (if they are also on Pinterest) and shows you things they’ve pinned. Besides pinning something you find on the internet, you can “repin” something you see on Pinterest and add it to one of your boards.

Boards show up like this:

You can follow anyone’s board that interests you. I think it will really be great for grabbing decorating ideas, photography inspiration and things like that. Yes, like I need another online time sink, but…whatever. It’s really fun, and I’ve found some amazing things and fabulously inspiring photography on there. You can search by keywords, or just browse through what they serve up to you. Fun.

Are any of you using Pinterest? If so, leave your link below and I’ll follow you on there. It’s fun! Try it! (It might take a few days for you to get an invite after you sign up.)

Here’s my Pinterest link if anyone wants to follow my eclectic choice of boards.

• Life in Focus-Glass
• Obsession
• Following My Dreams
• YouYou Meme part two
• What is Twitter

I have to share with you my adorable jewelry find! It’s a hand stamped necklace. I got it from Chantelle Nicole Designs . She has lots of designs, or you can order a custom design.  Get your kids’ names, or your favorite saying. Very cute.

She sent it in this cute little cloth sack in the glass tube. I know, adorable packaging, right? She also has a blog you might enjoy.

Here it is next to a dime to give you an idea of the size.

She also has bracelets and other goodies, and a Greek collection if  you know a sorority girl.

You’re welcome. Happy shopping! Just sharing the love…

• writing or blog designs??
• An Adorable Find
• Making Mama Happy
• Christmas Shopping Poll
• The Evolution of a Flower Girl

I know! I’m late getting my post up today! We were out of town all weekend with no internet. Good and bad.

Anyway, in my antiquing expeditions I’ve been collecting old Trixie Beldon books. They go for a pretty penny, but they were one of my favorite series growing up. How about you? Did you read them? Other favorites were The Little House on the Prairie books, Little Women books, The Williamsburg series by Elswyth Thane. I loved series books. Still do.

Did you have a favorite series of books as a child?

• More Male Tricks
• I’m back
• Kindle Love
• All Good Things
• Harry Potter Revisited

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. ~Anna Quindlen

This is the homemade, built in bookcase that SuperGuy built for me a few years ago. A woman can never have enough bookcases. I’m hoping I passed this fact onto my children.

Which brings me to…I’ve gone over to the darkside…

I confess….

After much resistance….

I broke down an bought Stephanie Meyer’s first book in her Twilight Series. Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1)
I am weak. Too much chatter on the internet about these books. I’m not much into vampires and such, but I heard this series is wonderful. So comment away about the series if you want…but no spoilers!!! Or tell me that you have more bookcases than a library, so I’ll feel better.

If Twilight is as good as they say and you don’t see me out and about on the web….you’ll know what happened.

• Space the final frontier
• From the Past
• A Little Rain Must Fall
• Mother’s Day
• Bill the Bride

Speaking of the stages of the apartment… and decorating around a much loved object…I basically decorated the apartment around this wonderful mahogany gate leg table. I had been wanting a gate leg table for a long time. A few years ago I saw one I really liked at an antique mall in Columbia when I was there visiting the boys. Long before SuperGuy worked over there. But I didn’t buy it… Then they closed the antique mall. :sad: Later, we found out they had opened a new antique mall and it had some of the same booths as the old mall. People had transferred their stuff over.

So about a year ago we went to the new antique mall. I saw my gate leg table again!

This time I didn’t hesitate to buy it. It needed some work but, of course, that’s what I have SuperGuy for!

So he refinished the table. He’s handy like that!

We didn’t really have a good place for in our house though. I had it tucked under the dining room window…but we had to move it out anytime we had everyone over and extended the dining room table full size.

So over it came with us. Back to Columbia where it started. To The Love Nest. (The table actually looks the deep shades of the above photo. In the photo below at the apartment I had to use the flash because it was dark when I took the picture) The legs swing out to hold the drop leaf sides, but it folds up to make a nice sized table for lamp, and we can open it up for more table space when we have the gaggles of males over to feed them. Yes, that’s part of the reason I like the dinette table we bought too. It has the mahogany edging on it so it ties into this table. Now we have lots of seating for feeding hungry males.

I heart this table. A. Lot. Don’t you?

Okay, I’m going to stop writing about decorating for awhile. At least until I have something special to show you guys. Or until I just want to go on and on again about The Love Nest. I do have other things going on in my life besides just decorating The Love Nest you know… see tomorrow’s post…

• Stages of Life
• Great Joy at The Love Nest
• A Typical Night at The Love Nest
• When a man does a chore
• Is This Normal?

I don’t know how most of you make your decorating decisions…but mine seem to be based on emotions. No fancy interior designer here! (well, that may become painfully obvious as I go along with the decorating expedition of mine…)

Here is my cute little galley kitchen.

Notice the color coordination of the sage towels to my family room. But more importantly, see the black countertop appliances? The black toaster? The black coffee maker? See, at home our countertop appliances are a mix up of white, black, chrome and a cute red kitchenaide mixer. But here, since I got them all at once, I settled on black.

WHY did I settle on black? Well for a perfectly logical reason…

My best friend gave me this darling little black teapot for an apartment warming present! So, logically, I had to decorate the kitchen around it!

How about you? Have you ever decorated a room around one much loved object?

• Saying Goodbye
• One Way Ticket
• Stages of Life
• Splashes of Color
• SuperGuy Gets a New Toy

I bet you thought that this was going to be a post with photos of the gorgeous autumn foliage, didn’t you? Surprise! I’m still talking about The Love Nest.

I’m finally getting some splashes of color added to the apartment:

Looking at this photo, I can see I have too much plain and need to add some pattern to this area. I’m sure photos on the wall will help that some. Still not feeling the love for the big, bulky TV in the corner though…

But look! Lamps, the final frontier! I finally have some lamps!! I love a light room!

I added a brick red mat by the front door so we won’t be tracking icky stuff all over our beige carpet. This city uses this horrible cinder/chemical black stuff to melt the ice and snow. Oh, and they only plow if it’s over 4 inches of snow. Even if it’s an icy 4 inches. I don’t much like winters here. Didn’t when I was in college here, don’t like them now.

But, as usual, I digressed. Back to the apartment decorating…

This is all I’ve done to the extra bedroom. Isn’t it lovely?? Well, I do love that bentwood rocker. I’ve rocked many a baby to sleep in the rocker. Why do we have two bedrooms you ask? Good question! Because that’s the apartment that became available. I’ll make this bedroom into an office/study/den thingie. (technical decorating term, I’m sure.)

Then there is the bedroom. Yes, that’s still just the blow up mattress…and it’s so not very comfortable. We’re still waiting on the Sleep Number Bed to get delivered. Yes, those are packing boxes for bedtables. That’s it for this room so far :shock:

But, for the record, I’m having a blast decorating this place. I can’t wait to go through my bazillions of photos and pick out some to blow up for the walls. Oh, and I got a bathroom wastebasket. Must get a photo of that I guess.

I’m thinking the falls colors are influencing my decorating decisions though, since I’ve never gone with sages, loden green, or brick red colors before. What colors do you tend to use when you decorate?

• Sleep Number Bed Setup
• Full Circle
• Decorating with Photos
• It’s All in the Details
• Decorating Decisions

Looking for an easy, elegant holiday present or hostess gift? How about a homemade antique teacup candle? We made a whole batch of these last year. Very easy. Inexpensive.

First we haunted the antique malls looking for old teacups.

SuperGuy and I had a deal. None of them could be over $5.00 for this project. That just added to the fun!

I’m partial to the teacups that have pearly insides and cut outs on the saucer like this one.

Buy some container wax at your local craft store such as Michael’s or Hobby Lobby. If you’re really lucky, I’ll send my kitty over to help you make your candles too! No, I’m thoughtful that way. I can’t tell you how helpful my kitty was on this project…

Then you’ll need wicks. The ones I got are pre-waxed wire wicks, 3 1/2 inches long. They came in a pack of 12. If you want to add fragrance you can melt some fragrance in with the wax. Like this yummy coffee bean fragrance.

I got this pouring pot to use because I didn’t want to melt wax in any of my pots. Call me crazy not wanting to use my nice cooking pots.

Place wick in bottom of teacup. Press down to hold into place.

Line your pretty teacups up besides the stove with the wicks all in place.

Place pouring pitcher in a pot of water on the stove top. My wax had me melt it until it reached 180 degrees F. (check on the packaging on your wax to see if your wax melting instructions are the same as mine, if not, well…follow the instructions on your wax to melt it!). Let cool to about 175 degrees F. Add scent.

Stir well and pour into teacups. (hopefully not while trying to take a picture of the process at the same time…!!!) Save some wax. After the candles have set up for about 30 minutes, poke hole in wax near the wick to let air escape. Reheat the saved wax to about 170 F. Cap off the candles with the remaining wax. (this keeps them from having a sunken center around the wick) After the candle cools, trim wick.

I hot glued the teacup to the saucer…just in case someone (or some kitty) might knock over the teacup. It’s more secure when attached to the saucer.

They look so creamy and cute.

There you have it, a darling holiday gift. Perfect for a teacher gift, or hostess gift…or to keep one or two for yourself. I’m posting this a bit early, because if you’re anything like me, you put off doing any holiday shopping and gift making until it stresses you out. So go hit your craft stores and indulge in a fun trip to an antique store or flea market and get a jump on your holiday gifts!

Honestly, don’t you think these are just adorable? Makes me want to go set one beside the tub, grab a glass of wine and relax in a long, hot bubble bath.

• Take Me Away from Winter
• An Adorable Find
• Road Trip
• A Man and a Woman at an Antique Mall
• Mason Jars

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. A new find.

Artful Blogging Magazine.

Oh. My.

It’s like an eye candy festival of blogs. Blogs of people who do art and crafts. All photographed so cleverly as to make you drool. Honest. Or photography blogs where the bloggers use photography to tell a story. Or blogs just like ours. Real live bloggers who share themselves and their art. Whatever their art might be.

Page after page of lust worthy photos and brilliantly written words. Their tag line on their magazine? Visually Inspiring Online Journals.

There are just so many creative people out there with very creative blogs!

I browse the magazine, then go browse the actual website.

I linger over the articles…and find some wonderful new sites.

The magazine is big and has wonderful thick pages. It’s glossy and colorful. The words the bloggers write are inspiring.

The art ranges from photography to papercrafts to drawings to cards to quilts to embellished clothes and back to photography. And everything in between. Really. Go pick up this magazine and see if you can walk away without buying it. They include partial posts from the bloggers, many of them writing about what blogging has meant to them and changed their lives. In the back they have a column where they show blog banners they love. Some really creative banners/headers are shown there.

The magazine is published quarterly by Somerset Studios. It’s $14.99 and worth every darn penny. I’ve found mine at Borders or Barnes and Noble. Or you can order it online here. No, I didn’t get paid to write this review. I just wanted to share my wonderful find with you, my blogging buddies. Pick one up. Sit back immerse yourself in a gloriously inspiring journey spotlighting some talented bloggers. And I thought decorating magazines were addictive… Have any of you seen this magazine?

• Why Do You Blog
• A weird thing happened
• Pinterest Anyone?
• What is a Blog Carnival
• Tips for New Bloggers…