Pumpkin, Spice and Everything nice...

Because so many favorites were begging to be added to a treasury ;) Enjoy!

The birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees

...and this thing called love.



SO it's the weekend again which means its treasury time :) I've had numerous treasury features this week myself but would rather share those I've made :).

Was out taking pictures with my sister today as well to revamp some listings that have "gathered dust" and need a fresh face for the public. :0) I'll be changing up the pics in the next few days and doing a few new lists. Etsy is so addicting. :)

As for this treasury - enjoy! :)

Gray... but not subdued..

items definitely not lacking in vitality, intensity or strength :) thank you talented etsians!



So after the upsetting treasury delete yesterday :S I got back up on the horse and made this lovely :)

Currently, as I type, this treasury is at #3 on the hotness scale for treasuries on etsy. This has never before happened to me and I must share! :) Thank you for taking the time to take a peek HERE :)

Shh...

I woke up this morning before everyone else, luckily the situation proved to be inspiration for the title! :)

Shh...

I will say, after I had the treasury up for half the day, I went to look at who had left comments and somehow hit delete :/ talk about a bummer!! Luckily I had sent the artists who were featured in the treasury each an email so I was able to piece it back together, good as new... less all the lovely comments that were originally there :( but not all was lost ;)

God is so faithful

We bought our house a little over two years ago, not long after we moved in did we realize it had water problems. So much so that one room has been left untouched with a dehumidifier to hold over the room until we could do something about it. Recently my once a mechanic husband has been swapping services with a friend of his who is a general contractor, which means we got to take a closer look at what water problems the house really has for a very fair price. Initially we thought that a sliding door toward the back of our house put in by a previous owner was the main culprit so we went ahead and purchased a new sliding door.

Upon installing the door our contracting friend found out that the people who "harry-homemade" installing the old sliding door also messed up when putting on not only the roofing causing the water to not run away from the house, but also put on "town home" gutters that are not meant to take the load of water that runs off our single family home... and in addition to finding out we need new roof... the guys peeled back bits of our siding to reveal that there was no Tyvek put down to the plywood before adding the shingles, ergo our entire house not being wrapped in a nice blanket of Tyvek means that the water was rotting our house and this was, well... not okay.

SO yay! New roof, new siding and probably some other new things we are bound to find along the way of this soon to be redid home!

But I saved the best of this story for last. When my husband was helping the contractor remove the old sliding door, they found that the harry homemaker thought it was a good idea to rig the wiring under the door and not put a protective case around said wiring. Had the wire gotten "hot" on its own and touched any metal portion of the door the next person to touch that doors handle or any other metal part of the door, well that would be the last of them. SO not COOL! If anything, let this be a witness to people who try and do things to "improve" their home on their own. BE SAFE about it. The whole house could very well end up in a pile of ashes... so believe me when I say its worth the money to get someone to do it the RIGHT way, the FIRST time. :s

My wonderful husband is out today working on his buddy contractors vehicle again, and tomorrow we'll be going over what changes we are hoping for the house, and what we can budget. But I feel its important to share not only the message of when buying a house do all that is within your power to get a house inspection (we were sure the Broker/Realtor had this done for us, but had they, really, these issues among a few others would have been brought to light and (hopefully) rectified)... but ALSO to point out how God has been so faithful to us and not giving us more than we can handle. The 1st year it was our a/c/heater that went out on us and we had to replace the entire unit - but we were able to do it financially (thank God). I'm just so thankful we hadn't known about these other issues than or I think I might have been ridiculously overwhelmed at all that was needed... baby steps. And I realize, these are not first world problems in the least... we are blessed beyond what we even realize. And having house issues I'd say is better than having a health issue. Thank God, I do. But would also appreciate prayers during this time. So far, I haven't felt over whelmed but see this as an opportunity to change some things about the house that we've wanted to since moving in... creaky flooring, soft spots in theflooring, etc.

Anyone have some housing issue stories to share? Feel free! Would love to be in understanding company ;)

On the hill...

Today's treasury:

I can scan the horizon... I can reflect... I can wish for winter in the spring of the day... and hope that my dreams will never fade away...

And I wonder... does the moon feel at home?

Does it feel loved by all the twinkling stars around it, blanketed by the blackness of the sky? ...always on a journey... back to where its been...



Today's treasury started with a few of my favorites that I'd been collecting, excited to share and put to a story of some kind :)... and it ended with a fun science artsy treasury instead! I used Etsy Search to find some new shops and their beautiful pieces :) This photo was my center piece by lovely meluseena...



Enjoy!

Little Girls Precious Granny Square Baby Blanket

About a year ago now, I was in Iowa visiting for Thanksgiving Holiday. My parents took me and my husband to a thrift store to find some knick knacks for the house and I remember at the time I was looking for a doily for the bedroom. The thrift store had their blankets and larger doilies hung up on hangers and as I went sifting through the rack I stumbled upon this thick soft rectangle blanket. I'm not sure if the creator had further provisions for this piece because it was too wide to be a scarf and not wide enough to be a lap blanket. But the yarn was beautiful and they were selling the item for a mere 50 cents! I realized that the amount of yarn in this item was at least 4 skeins and with the weight of this yarn we were looking at $5.00 per skein. So what would take $20.00 of yarn to make this unloved item was being sold for next to nothing! SOLD! My mom ended up shipping the half a blanket to me a bit ago since we had too much stuff to carry back with us for our flight as it was...once I unraveled the scarf/blanket/thingy and made my 4 balls of yarn, I knew I would make a baby blanket out of it due to the colors but not until my friend from Iowa told me she was expecting did I set to work! I have since purchased the white yarn and a few skeins and changed my mind about what colors I would put together with what.

I also did some hunting for options on how to connect granny squares and found this blog not only helpful but entertaining ;) I love the colors she uses in her creations! I ended up using the effect of "crochet as you go" to connect the squares and I'm pretty pleased with it ;)

Here is the first of two blankets I've created with the yarn from the thrift store.






I love how sweet it looks and I know my friends lil girl will make it all the more precious! :)

I'll share the other blanket once complete! :) I think it will be the boys version but still adorable as ever! :)

Thanks for reading!and yay for thrift stores! :)

Lovely Fall...

the oranges.. greens... browns... the way the trees start to bow... as their life retreats until the spring...



Okay, last day of the 3 Day weekend and I'm trying to keep the idea of going back to work out of my mind... so, here is my distraction for this morning... please enjoy this treasury... onto another project!

Delicately Refined...

Newest treasury!



Some of my new favorites mixed with a few of my older favorites. Many of my friends from the Etsy thread "We Love Vintage Do You"

There are many days I miss the solitude and the peacefulness of a walk along a dirt road in the midwest... the adventures had as a kid before there were lots of video games, we were outside much of the time... things seemed simpler then too of course. I can still appreciate the breath of fresh air the scenes of nature bring and the items that remind me of times gone by... delicately refined.

You'll forget the sun in his jealous sky... as we walk in fields of gold...

My latest treasury...always excited to share! :)



So she took her love... for to gaze awhile...upon the fields of barley

In his arms she fell as her her hair came down... among the fields of gold

~Sting

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I've had Stings song in my head lately while perusing etsy and seeing the lovely images of fall fields... I remember in high school listening to this song and dreaming about what it might look like, this field of gold and the peace that might be found there... thank God for beautiful music, talented musicians and artists of all kinds, no? Enjoy!