Genuine~

hello all!  how are you today?  how am I? Let's see... I am 33.  Yikes!  Where have my years gone?  I don't enjoy wrinkles or a less than 20 bum, but I have always liked birthdays.  And I think I sort of look at them a bit differently.  Just like my true Mother's Day doesn't happen in the middle of May.  My Mother's Day happens at the beginning of sweltering August when baby hughes was born.  I sort of look at my birthdays as my New Year.  I think if you think on it, you might too.  It is the beginning of your New Year, your next one.  You have 365 days behind you of good memories and 365 before you of a blank slate.  365 days to be what you want to be.  Now, I am realistic, I am 33 and NASA stopped the big Space Program so I am not going to be an astronaut.  And, I am never going to have a wonderful singing voice or be 5'10." Many people choose a word on January 1st that they want to define their year, so here is mine *Genuine*

First off, doesn't it have a lovely ring to it?  I love the word!  And, up to this day, I have strived to be just that, genuine, even though I never really put it into thoughts or words.  I think it is the best way to be.  Am always successful?  Nope.  I do try though.  So, what do I mean by being *genuine*  I guess it just boils down to being yourself.... good and bad.  Recognizing your faults (ugh!) and try to do more good than harm.  For instance, I know that I am a sponge.... I am so affected by other's moods.  So, I try to surround myself with positive, happy people.  Deep down, I am a happy person even if I let foul moods affect mine.  

yes, I own this shirt... maybe I will wear it today... found here

This New Year, I want to be the best, most genuine Michelle I can be.  Extra silly, sort of clumsy, off key singer, Harry Potter reader, absent minded, loud talker.   I want this word to define me for the next year.  I want people to know what they mean to me.  I want to be a better mom and wife and friend and daughter and sister.  

I look back over all the changes that have occurred in the past 365 days and all the possibilities that lie ahead in the next 365.  I would like to think that I didn't get here by being who people want me to be, but by being myself, in the best way I can.  This next year, I am going to own this word.  

Thanks to all of you for all of your wonderful support over this past year.  It has been one of the best... but I always say that *wink*  I will be back soon with some Christmas decor... but today, I am going to enjoy my cupcake.

bye for now!


in true Michelle fashion. I drug the 1st image from somewhere in the depths of pinterest instead of pinning it... maybe it wasn't working properly.  So, I am taking a long way to say, I don't know exactly where it came from.  Let me know if you know and I will give credit to the source!

An Early Birthday Present

hello and happy Tuesday!  I am starting to like Tuesdays...not as much as Thursdays, but I like them. Is it terrible that I like Tuesdays because of a TV show?  Keep in mind I truly only watch like 2 a week... most of the time the TV is on something like Mighty Machines is on.  Why do little boys find this so interesting? Anyhow, I love the New Girl and I think my little hyena has a crush on Zooey.  He goes around singing  the theme song.  That is okay... she is on the preapproved list of people allowed to be crushed on by the males in this house.

The other day I got a little early birthday present.  Most men buy their wives jewelry.  My Mr. bought me the stuff to create my own!

I have always loved necklaces. And I love vintage inspired jewelry.  Simple necklaces are probably my favorite.  

So he found these little tokens by accident and thought they would make great necklaces.  And they do!  Many of them have little initials, some have fun little bells and trolleys.  And, while I really love my necklace, I love the supplies he designed for me.

He is the intricate artist of the family.... I sketch ideas, but when it comes to drawing detail work, it is the Mr. that is the artist.  I have been after him to create me a little coat of arms for Vintage Junky for quite some time (I adore shield shapes!)  And I was so happy to get a stamp with this little coat of arms... it plays a little off of the stamps on English Ironstone...they have a unicorn and lion flanking the center design.  I have a jackrabbit and a labrador... quite fitting for me *seriously tearing up thinking about my sweet lab*

So there it is... my very own line of simple jewelry.  

So, I am looking at a half bare Christmas tree.  It needs some attention and so does the rest of the house.  I am going slowly this year... just putting up a bit at a time, but I hope to have it all finished by the end of the week.  We have a busy few days ahead of us... or as my Thomas loving boy says "we have a lot of special jobs to do!"

bye for now!

Restocked!

Hello and Happy Saturday!  We have been having a fun day at the shoppe... hazel is here and baby hughes and Mr. Hughes are enjoying the semi- not- cold weather outside with her.  I did a quick etsy restock of some of the little  toy trucks towing tiny trees... some of these have trailers!  I may die from alliteration happiness!

okay, that's all!  Back to work *wink*  Back soon with some Christmas decorating (I hope!)

bye for now!

Advent

hello and happy December!  There is frost on the ground this morning and it will be chilly on our way to the shoppe today.  I like a good chill now and then..... I make exceptions for December. But, after the New Year, I want warmer temps pronto!!

Have you ever seen something raw... like in its original state and completely see something else... what it could be?  Well, I did this summer.  Mr. Hughes brought home a big buffet for me to paint and I saw this velvet board set aside.  Now, I have painted a few buffets and I have seen a few of these boards that go in the silverware drawer.  But there was something about this board's faded color and its perfect velvet-y-ness (fact: the Mr. doesn't like velvet.) I immediately brought it into the house and told him that whatever he was planning on doing with it would not work.  That it would be our Advent calender.

Immediately the wheels started tuning and I starting thinking... brass window/ screen door tacks... I have some of those... but I don't have a whole set... off to etsy/ ebay I go!!  But they were a bit pricier than I remembered. I eventually found some goldy brass, not the white brass.  I looked and saw #1, #2, and #25... okay they are all there... add to my basket.

When I got them, they weren't #1- 25.  Oh well, I will use what I have.  And I did... I pulled together some random numbered tacks and now have a complete, perfectly mismatched set.

The idea behind the calender was to add one item each day of December to our little tree.  After we add the item to the tree, then we write our favorite memory of the day and place it in the envelope to save.  So, we will have an empty board, full tree and hopefully at least 25 perfect Christmas memories.  

 

I thought this would be an easy way for baby hughes, who doesn't really grasp time in weeks and days... it is "now" and "in a minute" to him.  And, I have seen so many fun interviewing things done with kids and just thought it would be great to hear what he thought the most important part of our day was.

I quickly put this together last night so we will have it ready for tonight.  I truly wanted fun little ornaments that he would like, but I couldn't find any small ornaments, so I used what we had.  These are small, and either durable or un- precious.

I really can't wait until tonight to see what his favorite part of the day was.  I may ask Mr. Hughes and write mine down as well.  This is really the important part of the season for me.  Besides, the Reason, of course.  It is making these little memories.  This year will be busier than I expected when I quit my job in June.  The shoppe wasn't in the plan, or in ours anyhow, back then.  I still think that we can make great memories, even if we are working a little more than expected. It will be special memories that only we have created.  Maybe I won't be crafting each and every day or baking cookies til we all explode.  But, I bet we can manage to fill all 25 of those envelopes with happy little memories to share for years to come.

What is something YOU do to celebrate this season?  Any fun traditions?  Okay, time to wake up the boys and get this day started!

bye for now!

Something Christmas-y

Hello there!  I finally went to see Breaking Dawn today with a sweet friend.  That little break was SO needed.  Before I left though, I did my first Christmas-y, wintry thing for the house.  I think if you have seen my house at Christmas, you know I have a thing for snowflakes... I have it bad, folks.  And, I am sort of obsessed this year with kraft and white.  So, after I finished doing a doormat for the shoppe, I decided to use the other (which I bought for the back door... or in case I messed the 1st one up!) for our house.  I am one of those people who really likes a new doormat... it is almost as good as a new toothbrush or a haircut.  Anyhow, I figured let's combine a long time love affair with snowflakes and a new lusting for kraft on white.  Oh, and this is an official Vintage Junky DIY... ha!  I am so bad at tutorials!

Okay, so I started with a very plain doormat.  

Then, I cut a bunch of snowflakes out of printer paper.  I even noticed that on the front of this printer paper that it now has a paper snowflake.  See... they are on to us... they know we don't use a ream of paper for printing anymore.  And, if you don't cut snowflakes as often as I do and you forgot how to fold them, here is a little tutorial with some fun cuts that I asked the Mr. to put together a few years ago.  He is much better with that sort of thing than I am *wink*

So, I then pinned them all in place.

Then I asked myself... Michelle, could you have picked a worse day to spray paint... and I answered.. yes, I could have.  Yesterday it was raining/ snowing. Today is is a warm 30. 

Besides, I think those directions on the back of the can are for best results.  And I just wanted results.

So I sprayed.  And sprayed. And warmed up and sprayed again.

Now, if you are wanting a really BOLD design with loads of contrast, then you would want to pounce and stencil... and it would  be mighty frustrating to stencil paper over coir.  So, this is the method I chose.  If you had a metal or plastic stencil, it would be much easier, and BOLDER.  I knew there would be some overspray and it would be a bit softer.  I wanted snowflakes.  I had paper.  This is what I got:

The overspray wasn't too bad... it didn't leak under the paper too much... I used quite a few pins.  If you do this, don't spray at an angle, it will muddy your snowflake shapes.

And here it is all happy in front of my door.  Sort of a faded Fairisle Sweater/ Nordic look.   Now, I need to get to decorating the rest of this house (still not clean!)  Okay, I am off to work on our Advent calender... something I have been planning since this summer, yet did not really start it until tonight!  I have some ideas though *wink*

bye for now!