Puzzling

[image from White Mountain Puzzles]
We spent Saturday night working on this fun and very detailed puzzle. They have many more states available here. There are several places included on the puzzle that I had never heard of, including the Polar Caves. It turns out that there are only caves and no polar bears, but it would be a fun day trip for the summer or fall. Take a virtual tour here. Oh, by the way, these are good puzzles with funky-shaped pieces—I can't stand it when they only have the basic shapes!

Out sick

Sorry I haven't been posting, but I have the flu! I should be back soon....

Retro Fruit

I found this cute fruit piece at a thrift store and painted the brown frame with Benjamin Moore's Pear Green. I got the idea to use these small paint sample pots for crafts from my dad who uses them to paint his model boats.

Hot Chocolate+Heart Marshmallows=Fun

More from August...

My friends adopted a baby girl this past summer, and I helped with the decorations for her welcome party. The theme of pink & brown & butterflies was incorporated into everything. One thing I made was this banner that we hung off the deck for the party, and then in her nursery. I had the idea in my head and I based it on this pattern I found from the DIY Network site. I was very happy with the results! Below are the favors with her very own logo.

Maine Caucus

So, Maine is one of the few states that hold a caucus instead of a primary. Today was my first chance to experience this, and let me tell you, I will take a voting booth any day. In addition to being totally non-private, it was unorganized, took forever, and involved standing in line, sitting in a crowded (hot!) gymnasium, and manual counting. It all seems really biased against those who have to work, take care of children, or people like me who just want to vote and be done with it. I'm all for political discussion, but that's what the months before the primaries are for. There were only 2 people who were willing to stand up and say they were undecided, so it seemed more about bashing the other side than convincing your friends and neighbors to join a certain camp. I think the numbers speak for themselves: my town has a population of 10,000 people and around 550 people came to today's Democratic caucus and 32 (!) came to the Republican one held last weekend.

Tiny Art

I had so much fun this evening at the Enormous Tiny Art Show III at Nahcotta. You can view all the pieces here. There was such a great variety and I'm hoping to go back and purchase something for my Small Wall of Art (partially pictured) I've been creating in the office.

Boots4Babes

It's been too snowy and cloudy for photos here, so how about something from August? My mom knit these cute booties for a church sale, I made the tags, and the packaging is from Martha!

New Banner

*For those of you using an RSS reader, I changed my banner. I wouldn't want you to miss out!*

Jewelry Trees

I'm fascinated by the concept of jewelry trees like these. I like the look of the organic ones (like the upper left) the best.

Shown Above
upper left: Little Birch Jewelry Stand
upper right: Bronze Empress Earring Tree
lower left: Pagoda Leaves Earring Tree
lower right: Manzanita Jewelry Tree

Shown Above
upper left: Petite Magnolia Jewelry Tree
upper right: Cherry Blossom Jewelry Tree
lower left: Metal Twig Jewelry Tree
lower right: Jewelry Tree

Anthropologie

{images from anthropologie.com}
One of the places I love to go when I'm in other cities (most recently Boston) is Anthropologie. Right now, I am having coffee out of my new mug. I've seen these on several blogs, including here on design*sponge. I was especially happy that I liked the design on the "R" because sometimes you're stuck wishing your name started with a "P".


As much as I wanted the whole store, I only bought the mug and this egg caddy to A) look cute and B) separate my hard-boiled eggs from the raw ones. I've been on a hard-boiled egg kick lately.

FYI: They have a new membership program where you get free shipping when you buy online. I think you might have to sign up in the store.

Follow Your Heart

This was my favorite Super Bowl Ad, but all the other females in the room were totally grossed out. Thoughts?

Remember This?

I'm a winner! Take a look.

free songs!

Sorry for the lack of new posts, but I'm in Boston and will have some fun things to share when I get home!

In the meantime, did you know that iTunes always has a Free Single of the Week? On the store homepage, just scroll down to FREE ON iTunes in the middle of the page. I usually forget to check it myself, but a several months ago they had Love Song by Sara Bereilles and it became one of my favorite songs before I even realized I had downloaded it for free!