Pay It Forward

Amy over at Obsessive Creative Disorder is hosting a Pay it Forward event. Following are the rules, copied straight from her blog:

"Who doesn't love new, beautiful, unique handmade items? How about if you could get that new, beautiful, unique handmade item for free? How about if you then shared your talents with others? Now I know that last one sometimes makes people nervous...but I know there are enough of you out there that are up to the challenge. So please, read on and leave a comment. For all bloggers who leave a comment with blog address or email on this post and commit to do the same pay-it-forward on their blogs I will do the following:
1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I send you. But you may be pleasantly surprised.
2. What I send will be made just for you, with love, by my own hands. You'd be surprised how much of our personalities come through online.
3. I will complete all gifts this year - 2009 (scary I know!).
4. I will not give you any clue what it’s going to be. It will be something made in the real world, that you can touch and feel, and not something cyber.
5. I reserve the right to do something strange. It may be weird or beautiful. Or it may be monstrous and annoying. If you find it truly horrendous, just let me know. Perhaps you'll send it forward to someone who will absolutely love it.
6. In return, all you need to do is post this text on your blog and make 5 things for the first 5 to respond to your blog post (one for each).
7. Send your mailing address - after I contact you to confirm. I am willing to post overseas (I am in the US)."

So that's it. Leave me a comment and, if you are one of the first five, I will send you a gift handmade by me just for you. In return, you must link to Amy's blog (and to mine), post the original rules, and agree to send a handmade gift to the first 5 people who comment on your post.

Sounds easy, doesn't it? And fun? My favorite rule is #5 which (paraphrased) says "If you don't like it, I'm okay with that. Give it to someone else who will either abhor it also or could very well have worse taste than you and absolutely love it!"

Game on!
Leslie

Pink Saturday

I was walking around the house with my camera in hand just a few minutes ago, looking for something pink to catch my eye for this post. Miss B stopped me to watch a video of a song that she really likes. I like it too so I decided to add it to this post and since I was able to add a pink border to it, I'm letting it stand on it's own. Please take three minutes and watch/listen to it--I promise it's worth your time! Before you play it, scroll down to the bottom of my page & pause my playlist.

Don't forget to go visit Beverly at How Sweet The Sound for the official list of all this week's Pink Saturday participants!

A Bracelet Giveaway

Marie at lemondropvintage is having a giveaway. She's made a wonderful charm bracelet full of vintagey things sprinkled in & among some newer things. Go ahead & check out her blog & enter to win...just don't get in my way because I really, really hope to win her giveaway! But if you win, I promise to be happy for you. As long as I get to borrow it sometimes!

I wear bracelets more often than I wear necklaces. I don't like matchy-matchy earrings & necklaces and I pick my earrings first. I don't have but a couple go-with-everything necklaces. I wear scarves much more frequently. I do like to add a bracelet or six though! Currently I'm wearing five stretchy beaded ones in reds & blues. I'd wear a dozen of these if I could sit still long enough to make that many. Usually I top out at three or four of one color and move on.

What jewelry do you wear most often? Why?

Vintage or Ugly?

What do you think of this sofa? A friend of mine who both blogs and frequents Craiglist posted it along with some commentary on how to preview pictures on Craiggy without having to click on the whole post. She titled this an ugly sofa.
I commented by wondering what it says about me that I like this sofa (but the orange carpeting has to go) and another friend commented back that she just knew I would and she called me a Vintage Vamp!
I kinda' like that (can you see me smiling?).

Friday Treasures

As I mentioned yesterday, Dr. Love has today off from work. We went together this morning to drop off Charlie at school and run some errands.

We started with breakfast at IHOP where I had the stuffed french toast with strawberry topping and I sneaked some of the Dr.'s hashbrowns to go with them. Yum!

Then we stopped to get the oil changed in the van, got the chemicals needed to close the pool for the winter, stopped at a few garage sales (bless his heart!), went by the library, stopped at Goodwill (isn't this a neat-o sewing/Christmas thingy?!), stopped at a few more garage sales (he has LOTS of gold stars today!), then finished by opening up a separate account for SmallPeoples House where I deposited my first paycheck. That was exciting!

The following goodies are from our stop at Goodwill:

an 8" Berenguer vinyl babydoll for 99 cents

2 vintage Playskool puzzles for $1.99.

Both of these items are for SmallPeoples House, of course!

Once again, enjoy Labor Day!

Leslie

My Week

Since tomorrow is a holiday for my dear Dr. Love, today is officially the end of my week! I was very busy...SmallPeoples House (my new in-home childcare business got off the ground, I did some sewing and I tried three new recipes (no, I haven't ironed anything this week).

Here's a picture of the flowers Dr. Love brought home to me. He knows that I looooooove tulips, and slightly used flowers (these were the centerpiece at a dinner he attended) don't bother me in the least (I worked for a funeral home & got "used" flowers all the time!). These white tulips are particularly beautiful to me, especially against my red wall.

Here's a couple of pictures of the new pillow slipcovers that I did (except for the crocheted-looking one):

I gave myself a pat on my back for thinking to remove the previous cover on that bolster, tear it apart and use it for a pattern!

And here are SmallPeoples House pictures:

My $15 Craigslist changing table with the new changing pad I purchased and a .99 cent Henry the Octopus toy from Goodwill.

The $1.00 garage sale high chair with the towel that I used for a bib. I need to sew ties onto it!

Two of four gates to limit access around the house. The wooden gate I purchased new to fit the wide entryway to the game room where there are numerous Legos and other assorted choking-sized toys. The plastic gate keeps my second story off-limits and was $1.00 at the same garage sale as the high chair.

Toys, all from Goodwill or Once Upon A Child. The basket has a bunch in it too.

Little Missy K's favorite toy (I like it, too!):

And, best of all, our napping chair!

Wishing you all a wonderful Labor Day Weekend!

Grace & Peace,

Leslie

SmallPeoples House

It's September 1st and the official opening day of SmallPeoples House! Today was a short & easy day: I had only Miss K and only for 31/2 hours. After her Mommy left, we played a bit, had a snack of strawberries, bananas, orange bell pepper & dry cereal. Then we had a little walk outside where we looked at some flowers and picked up a leaf. After a diaper change (every girl likes to be clean!) we read a book for a while and then Miss K fell asleep in my lap. She got in a good 1/2 hour before Mommy came to get her. Everything went well and now she officially my first "client!" I get to visit with her again on Thursday.

SmallPeoples House is my new childcare busi.ness, operating in my ho.me. In order for us to be able to send Charlie to a pr.ivate school, I need to ea.rn an inco.me too. I am excited about this new venture.....way better in my book than having to dress a certain way, be to work on time & take orders from someone else! I have another client lined up....he's a 1 1/2 week newborn and he'll start coming when his Momma goes back to work in November.

And now, I'm ready for my nap!
Leslie