The Look for Less

I am a huge fan of anthropologie. The catalogs are so beautiful. I keep back issues and use them for inspiration in my own design work. This handbag is from the summer '05 issue. I wanted it but did not want to pay full price for it. As far as I know it never went on sale. As I still want one of these, I decided to make one like it. I know right. I-d-e-n-t-i-c-a-l. I can hardly tell the two apart. Oh, not so much? Hey, I already had this fabric. I did not have any vintage kimono fabric that is just a shade off watermelon. The project really went south when I realized I had a vintage silk tie that matched perfectly, and was crying out to be bag handles. Voila.
You know I'm not really seeing it either. I'm not quite sure how this happened. Back to the
drawing board.

I'm trendy. Who knew?

In Seattle according to this link you can rent a goat for $25 per week. The goats are tether-trained and all you have to do is move said goats around your weedy yard and give them water. Free fertilizer!! Also known as organic weed control.

Meet Smokey.

Smokey is a real force to be reckoned with. Yes, he is as small as he looks. Okay again yes, he still sucks from his mama. You just wait. He's eyeing those bad weeds right now.

strawberry shortcake memories

I am the oldest child in a family of thirteen. As you can imagine we are all fairly close in age. My mother gave birth to me and fourteen months later gave me a baby brother. Growing up we were close and he was one of my best friends. He was protective and treated me more like he was older.

Mom always put in a big garden and we had our own strawberry patch. Sometimes we had enough strawberries to actually have a shortcake.

One summer evening when I was about fourteen we were hanging out in the backyard with our shortcakes. I was going over my day (in detail as I was inclined to do) and Greg was my ever attentive audience. I should have clued in as he was a little more attentive than usual. So I am all blah, blah, blah he doesn't say a word. All of a sudden he falls to the ground laughing so hard. Okay, I thinking I'm funny but maybe not that funny. What? He cannot even tell me he's laughing so hard. When he finally catches his breath he said, "You just ate a fly." Followed by much more doubled over hilarity. You know now that I think about it maybe he wasn't one of my best friends.