Inspired Vignette

I'm sad to say that the past few years I have hardly been garage sale-ing / antiquing.  I'm sure I've passed up countless deals and cute stuff because I've had a "it's all just stuff that'll collect dust" attitude. Shame on me, I know.  And my house poor shows it.  Looking around the other day, I realized that  - aside from a few clusters here and there - my house doesn't feel as homey as I'd like it to {my Mom disagreed with me and said it does feels homey}.  But I think I can step it up a few notches for a few dollars.   In fact, I stopped at a garage sale today and came home with a couple of treasures.  I'm excited to find them a perfect place!  I'm thinking about spray painting the basket a dull black... I'm not digging the green.  What do you think?

I've been perusing Google Images for spring decorating ideas {no joke, I could be on GI for days and not get bored}.  Now my virtual "Design Ideas" folder is busting at its poor gigabyte seams.

My goal for the next couple of weeks is going to be the mantle.  It's been pretty "wah-wah" with black frames and a few tea lights.  But we're taking baby steps here until I can come up with enough fun stuff to fill it.  Enter, the bathroom and it's new vignette:

What do you think of my paper doily wrapped soap pump?  At least for a few days until it starts getting splashed.  But hey, a package of 40 was at the dollar store. No complaints when it does get wet and ruined.  I think some lace ribbon to tie on the top of my lotion dispenser would add a nice touch too.  Bonus: see that little empty space between the broach and hair pins?  A place to put my ring at night!  

What are your favorite places to go antiquing/"junking"? 

Coming Soon - My "Inspiration Board" for Emmalyn's first birthday! :)

I Hate the Circle of Life...

... Especially when it happens in my backyard.

I went to let the dogs in tonight, and Chelsea had a baby rabbit on the back porch... After finally getting her to leave it alone and go in the house, I hollered for Chris to come get it thinking it was dead.  But worse yet, it wasn't.  It's back end was dragging.  I start crying.  Wonderful husband "took care" of it (I definitely couldn't have done it). I have to tell myself it was best/only thing for the poor thing. Still sad :(  Stupid dogs.

Reminds me of a very vivid memory I have of when I was little.  A baby bird had fallen out of the nest.  I wanted so bad to take it to the vet.  I just knew that they could help it.  But my Mom assured me there was nothing they could do for it.  I remember sitting on her lap crying.  And hearing her heartbeat.  It was so comforting.  She told me that not even a bird dies without God knowing about it.

I've always been sensitive when it comes to animals, especially baby animals.  And I'm pretty sure being a mom now makes it about ten times worse.

I'll leave you with a funny story of the same subject.  When I was younger, we went through our fair share of hamsters.  When one in particular died, I remember burying it in an old check box in the backyard.  I put food in the box, just in case it wasn't really dead.  Hahaha.  That's the extent of what I remember.  But apparently I dug it up a couple times... Well, every time the story gets told, my brother adds more times that I dug it up.  It was not seven times, or eight.  Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I dug it up to put food in the box, then maybe one more time to make sure it hadn't "woken up" and started eating the food.  Ahh, kids.