Wren's Nest

Feeling Stitchy Banner Contest

Just in case you hadn't heard...there is a contest to stitch a new banner over at Feeling Stitchy. There is one more week, so get stitching and you could win some great prizes, plus have your stitched banner on the blog. It's such a fun blog with so much information if you're a stitcher, or just like to look at beautiful embroidery. I'm over there guest blogging every Tuesday with mosaics of wonderful embroideries from Flickr. So, show off your design and stitching talent and join in!!

I am so lucky

to live around some really great shops! I've talked before about my new obsession with religious iconography and I've been fortunate to find some beautiful things in shops around me (and online). Now, don't get me wrong, the religious items have nothing really to do with religion for me right now (though I was raised Catholic and have a sort of on again/off again relationship with the church) - I just think they're amazingly cool. My husband is teasing me that our house is going to look like something out of The Tudors soon.

This is hanging in our family room - it's a cool architectural piece from a store here in Walnut Creek called Filthy Gorgeous. The giant wood bead rosary is from there too. My husband surprised me with it. He just got back from Rome and I asked him to bring me a cool wood bead rosary from there - what he brought me was like prayer beads or something (it's little) - he's not Catholic, so he had no real idea what he was looking for, but I had mentioned this cool rosary at Filthy Gorgeous on more than one occasion, so he got it for me.

The next piece is a Santos (she's an angel) with a cool tin skirt and wings. She's wearing an ex voto and she's from American Harvest in Pleasanton. I had a great talk with Sharon, the owner about ex votos and crowns and all those cool things when I was there. Very fun to find someone else who finds all this fascinating!

Then there are the crowns - wow - these are fun to collect!! The big one is from a shop in Lafayette called Queen Bee (they don't have a website)- it weighs a ton! The little one is from The Present Past (online) and I love it! Heather has a new one in her online shop and I'm thinking about it...

A Little Nestie

A little nestie I made - it's a pincushion. I've made lots of nests with eggs, but these I beaded with little pearl beads. I kind of like the "new" look. It's also part of the Shades of Inspiration Cream and White theme this week.

Ivy

I love ivy (though I usually kill it soon after getting it). I got this ivy and cute container at a great little shop near me called "The Store" - it has great gifty stuff and I always get in trouble there (spending-wise).

This is the last day of the green week in Shades of Inspiration - next week on to cream and white!

I hope all the dads out there have a great Father's Day. My husband will be getting home VERY late tonight (just in time, in fact for Father's Day). He's been in Rome since Wednesday and has been stuck in Washington DC for hours this afternoon. He's FINALLY on his way...I can't wait!! It's been a long week!

More Green...

Some more green things around my house - in fact, one of them IS my house!!

Here is some pretty thyme on my front porch - it's my favorite herb - I love to come out the door and snip it - it smells so good! My little herb garden here - courtesy of Trader Joe's!

 

Going Green

Green is harder than I thought, but here's some! (I would post more pics, but I'm having trouble with Typepad, so maybe tomorrow...)

and again...

A beautiful summer tomato! I love these heirlooms that are funny shapes and beautiful colors! We had a funkier looking one, but we ate it.

So tired today - we had three little earthquakes in the night, and I felt them - they woke me up! My husband is in Chicago, so I'm not sleeping well anyway and after the first one (at 2am) I had trouble going back to sleep - yikes!!

So glad it's almost the weekend!

Seeing Red Again

I haven't been so good about keeping up on the Seeing Red idea. I've been looking...I used to have TONS of red in my house, but we've gone to more light tones it appears. Here's some lovely red thread. I do have lots of quilts with red.

Off to field day at my younger kid's school - I'll be the lady handing out the otter pops...oh, there's red there!!

Have a lovely Thursday!

I Saw Red

Here is another fun photo challange - over at Sadie Olive.
















In continuing to try to use my camera more and figure out what all those settings mean - I love these challenges since they force me to use the camera and think about what I'm doing. I love the color red and this seemed just right. I see red in this fabulous blanket that is on our bed. It's part one of the bed face lift. We are still waiting for our quilt to come. It's a great, cozy red color and I do enjoy sleeping under it!!

Today I made cupcakes for the family the bought our "cupcake of the month" at the school auction - they were pretty easy and I think turned out cute. Hope they like them! They're Lemon Poppyseed Butterfly Cakes from the Cupcake book by Elinor Klivans.

Pretty

This was a Mother's Day gift from my husband. I had told him about this amazing website and blog by this lovely lady- Lisa Leonard, who has quite a story and just seems like someone you want to be friends with. I love her jewelry and will, I'm sure be ordering more! We ordered this lovely on Mother's Day and I chose which piece I wanted. I got it a couple of days ago and haven't stopped wearing it. It's all 3 kid's initials and I love it!