Walk, Knock, and Gawk

That's what Ken's cousin called her open house today. She and her family recently moved back in to their home after having it extensively renovated. They invited family, friends, neighbors, and passers by to come on over this afternoon and take a look around. It was beautiful, of course. They added on more square footage at the back of the house to create a modern sized kitchen. As for the rest of the house, it's more like they restored it than renovated it. I didn't walk around taking pictures of everything I loved, but here is one detail I had to pass along:

For a mailbox she had a custom made leather saddlebag done to her specifications on size, detail, and hardware. She actually googled to find someone who could do the job, and found a leather craftsman less than a mile away from her own home.

I don't think you'd need a custom made saddlebag to make this idea work - I'm sure even Ken and I could rig up some hardware to attach a recovered/used leather saddlebag and use it as a mailbox.

In our current home this idea would look really out of place, but Ken says we can remember it for our future retirement home in Montana (his new plan is for us to live in Iron Horse in Whitefish when he retires).

I've got some happy mail to post:

My friend and former neighbor, Amy, sent a beautiful birth announcement and a thank you for a baby gift. This picture was definitely taken in her new house - I'd recognize those floors anywhere - so I'm thinking she took that photo herself. Beautiful baby, beautiful photograph.

Next I have a thank you from Kristi that I forgot to crop before I uploaded it. She's so good about using exact postage. I'll over pay postage by quite a bit if I don't have any penny stamps.

I got a surprise package from Kelly A. for winning a contest on her blog. Love the big pink envelope, Kelly. I knew I had good mail as soon as I opened my mailbox.

I've already put the pink envelope to good use: I folded and sent off my mom's Mother's Day present in this envelope bright enough to call wrapping paper. I have some thrifting to post, and the gift for my mom loosely translates as thrifting. I found it antiquing, actually. The main difference between thrifting and antiquing is the $$$, but the cost of antiquing is no more offensive than the odor of thrift stores, so I'm going to call it even.

My mom grew up in Raymond, Alberta, which has (had? is it still operational? i don't really know) a sugar beet factory. When I was antiquing during my corporate retreat trip I found this cloth sugar sack from her home town. The bag is about the size of a king sized pillowcase, and it is so cool. My dad has a rule about not giving them gifts that they have to store, so I often give tickets, but I figure this can fold up and fit in their linen closet quite nicely and painlessly.

When I was looking for corporate retreat dress up clothes at Value Village, I found this great cowgirl outfit. Too small for me, perfect for my girls. They go to a country school and have Western Days all the time.

My little girls like me to tell them this story, but we didn't have the book up until now. This copy closely follows the 'Barb' version, plus when I opened the book and saw the cute inside cover, I was instantly sold - 49 cents? O.K.!

Saturday I passed a garage sale in my neighborhood, and this old cruiser bike was a free give away. It is in perfect working condition, has a blue sparkle vinyl seat - all it needs is a basket! We don't lack for bikes around here, but Jaclyn and I have been sharing a bike which interferes with family bike rides. If she doesn't want to ride this baby, I'm happy to.

Mother-daughter date

Carmen and I took the train downtown after school yesterday to go to an opening reception at an art gallery for a friend of mine who is enjoying some amazing success. Actually, my mirror image SPT has a painting by my friend, Rachelle, in the background. Carmen loves getting creative and messy, therefore she loves art - she was the perfect date for this event.

Taking the train was also a draw for Carmen to come along - it's a real novelty for her.





Gotta get a picture of us together - I have lost all self conciousness when it comes to taking self portraits in public places.


Our destination - a building downtown that houses many galleries.

Rachelle's sister in law, and a closer friend of mine, had told me how much better Rachelle has become in the last few years (since she did the painting that hangs in my house) but I was still so impressed. To see more of her art go here: Rachelle Kearl, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click on artworks.

Spring Is Here #3 - 2007

acrylic on canvas, 14 in x 11 in

[part of tripytch]

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Funky Flowers - 2006

acrylic on canvas, 28 in x 22 in

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New Mother - 2007

acrylic on canvas, 36 in x 24 in

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Carmen and I also had fun looking around at the other galleries - we saw paintings, sculptures, fabrics, and glass beads. I learned I had to take a quick evaluating glance at the door of a gallery before I walked in with Carmen. Why is so much art not suitable for younger audiences? I think I did a good job sheilding her without freaking out - I didn't want to arouse her curiosity about why we went in some galleries and not others.

Free at last

Well, it had to be done. The trunk door couldn't go unused forever. A trip to Costco sprung my Value Village treasures. I'm not a gifted thrift store shopper; when it comes to treasure hunting I'm more of a Winners girl (that's T.J. Maxx to most of you), but here's my latest second hand purchases:

This suede jacket fits me like a glove (can't move if I snap it up), and goes great with a skirt I have. The down side: not a good choice for warmth. The up side: $12.

Chloe and I have good times with this Madeline game because I let her win. Carmen and Chloe have a little less fun because it gets competative. The little Madeline playing pieces are adorable.


These hand stitched funky pictures (about 11" x 14") are still hidden away, so my resident readers - husband and oldest daughter, Jaclyn - are going to see these on my blog before they see them in real life. I have big plans for these, and I'll post when I've pulled it all together.

Sadly, the picture just doesn't do my mint condition vintage purse justice at all. I have the perfect dress to go with this purse (from Winners). I don't normally transfer all my purse contents from bag to bag to match my outfit, but in this case I'll make an exception.

There was one thing I passed up and I'm regretting it big time. I saw this old wooden bread box that was so cool, but I don't want more stuff on my kitchen counter, so I passed. Now I know what I would have done with it: I would have made it into a charging station for our cordless electronic gadgets, and kept it on the telephone desk. I saw my inspiration for this idea in Blueprint magazine long ago, but I didn't think of it as I was standing in the store. Most unfortunate.