Birthday's Can Be Beautiful

As I get older the excitement and anticipation of each new Birthday seems to diminish with each passing year. As a little girl, I can remember counting Birthdays with eager expectancy even announcing the half year mark with pride. It seemed to take forever until the next Birthday would arrive and I could say I was another year older. Now as the years have quickly crept up on me I accept Birthday wishes with a smile and hope that no one actually asks me how old I will be turning. This year as my Birthday was approaching, Emma, the sweet little girl who I babysit, asked me to show her on my fingers how many years old I would be turning. I guess to a four year old this was a distinct possibility. I just smiled and told her I would need several more hands to accommodate her request. I must say however, even though I do not look forward to turning another year older, I do look forward to time spent with friends who make this day so special. This year they really out did themselves. My Birthday this year fell on a Sunday. When my very best friend, Heidi, asked me what I would like to do I quickly answered that I would like to take a Saturday trip to the Strip District. Now don't worry, with a name like the Strip District your minds are probably swirling with ideas. For those of you familiar with Pittsburgh, you know that this is an area just east of the city known for it's wholesalers, restaurants and fun funky shops. There are so many ethnic groups represented in the Strip and the street vendors are plenty as well selling everything from food to T-Shirts. I was so excited to visit one of my all time favorite stores, Roxanne's Dried Flowers. Let me just show you in photos why this is one of my favorite places.......

This sweet little bird nest was so unique I just fell in love with it. I was thrilled when Heidi offered to purchase it for my Birthday. Wait until you see what I did with it... but that will have to be a post for a later time. After shopping at Roxanne's, we had a most delicious breakfast at a lovely cafe and continued on with our shopping. We purchased the most yummy biscotti, spices, gourmet popcorn, and of course some Steeler T-shirts.

This fun stove was on display at the gourmet popcorn store. Wouldn't it be amazing to have this stove in your kitchen. I just loved the color. Below are flowers for sale on the street corner. Aren't they beautiful.

Heidi and I had such a wonderful morning. I could not have asked for a better way to start off my Birthday celebration---and that was Saturday alone. I have so much more to share from other friends but I think I will do a sequel to this post.
Even though getting a year old is not one of my favorite things, Birthday's can be Beautiful spent with Beautiful friends.

Sweet Little Picture Frames

Not a long post tonight...I just wanted to share with you a little project that I have been working on. I found these adorable little picture frames as I was wondering around one of our local stores yesterday. I almost passed them by when I noticed that the mat inside of the frame was actually a thin piece of particle board. How perfect for altering. So I scooped up a bunch and hurried home to create. I just wanted something simple---sometimes less is more. Here are the first two that I completed.

The precious little girl in this frame is my mom. I just love this picture!!

This sweet little boy is none other than my husband on his first birthday.

This was a fun project to complete. I bought several more of these frames and have so many ideas on how to alter them. So off I go to create..............

"Deer" to my Heart

One of my fondest childhood memories were the times spent with my Dad looking for deer. I can remember many evenings the whole family would pile into my Dad's truck and head for the local apple orchard to "spot" for deer. He had this giant spotlight that when plugged into the cigarette lighter could light up the universe. He would drive ever so slowly while my sister and I would take turns sweeping the light across the apple orchard trying to catch the glowing eyes of unsuspecting deer. There is something to that phrase "like a deer caught in the headlights". Those poor deer were probably blinded by the light of that spotlight. As we drove on, my Dad would share with us all of his "deer wisdom".

1. Deer always travel in numbers.

2. When one deer crosses the road always wait a minute--more will follow.

3. When looking for deer, focus on the woods edge.

My Dad even took me deer hunting with him once. The key word here is ONCE. Don't worry I didn't carry a gun I just went along to spend time with him. After we made a slight adjustment to the outfit my Mom sent for me to wear in the woods, we were ready for our adventure. An adjustment you ask? Well she sent a nice warm BROWN coat and for my head-- a pretty WHITE crocheted hat with a giant WHITE pom pom. Could I have looked more like a deer? Thankfully my Dad replaced all of this with the brightest orange I ever saw. All was going well until a little field mouse popped right out of the grass and ran across my legs. I screamed so loud that I am sure deer from miles around knew of our presence. Like I said before, he only took me once. But what fond memories I have. To this day I always find myself on the look out for deer. Imagine my surprise when I looked out of my bedroom window and spotted a whole family of deer just hanging out in my neighbors yard. They didn't even mind me hanging out of my window, camera in hand, snapping pictures like a crazy woman. If I could have only read their thoughts. Here are some of the pictures I was able to capture.......

I was so excited to see these beauties so close I must have stood at my window for a half an hour just watching them. I wonder how I will feel when they return in the Spring to nibble on the tender sprouts in my flower garden....

Love Notes and a little Surprise

When I was a little girl my mom would sometimes surprise me with little notes tucked secretly in my lunch bag. What fun it was to be sitting at the lunch table to open my lunch and find this fun reminder that my mom loved me. When it was time for me to send Alex off to school with his lunch bag, I remembered how much I enjoyed finding secrete notes from my mom and I would occasionally surprise Alex with notes of his own. This was a fun tradition until one day he so sweetly reminded me he was a big boy now and that it was not so cool to find secrete notes from your mom while sitting with all of your friends. (oh did I mention that he was in the 6th grade--the poor kid) Since that time the little notes have stopped but I would like to think he will remember those little love notes fondly forever.

That memory has inspired me to create these little lunchbox love notes to add to my etsy shop.

The little brad at the top of each note allows the top scalloped circle to swing away to reveal your message.

Just for fun I made some silly aliens.

Now onto a little surprise for me. Barbara of Southern Lady's Vintage surprised me by awarding me this sweet blog award. I copied the explanation for this award from Barbara's blog.....

The authors say that blogs who receive this award are exceedingly charming. This blog invests in the PROXIMITY in space, time and relationships. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that even more friendships are propagated.

Thank you so much Barbara for thinking of me and awarding me this honor. I am truly touched. The authors of this award also ask that I pass this award on to 8 other bloggers-- which I find very hard to do. I am going to take an idea from another blog friend, Bev. She found it impossible as I do to choose only 8 bloggers as I have made so many friendships through so many lovely blogs. So as she wrote, consider this award passed on to you if you read my blog and pass it on to someone you feel deserves this as well. Thank you again Barbara for such a wonderful surprise.

Love You Forever

In keeping with the upcoming Valentine's Day holiday, I couldn't wait to create a little Valentine project using this sweet heart-shaped chipboard book. It's one from the group that I purchased from Michael's Craft Store a few days ago. If you haven't had a chance to check these little books out yet, hurry on over to Michael's. They are so easy to work with and so much fun to alter.
A perfect place to keep those special Valentine memories.

The Car Goes Beep

Have you ever been so inspired to create a project that you just can't stop working on it until it is done? That's how I was with this little chipboard car book. I was wandering around Michaels Craft Store the other day and stumbled upon a whole series of new chipboard books made by the companies ColorBok and Crayola. You will never guess what isle they were in----the dollar isle. I was so excited I could hardly believe it. There were several different styles to choose from--little cars, hearts, houses, stars, flowers, scalloped squares and circles. If you don't know me by now, yes I bought some of each design. I started with the car but I can hardly wait to create something fun with the other books as well.

This is the before picture..............

And here is the after...................

This was such a fun project to complete. I loved adding all the little details to this sweet book and I could hardly wait to share it with you. My next project will be the little heart--so look for another post soon.