We have been adding autumnal touches around the house these past few weeks. Pottery Barn’s seasonal decor ideas are increasingly my favorite resource. Not too mod (ala some of the most popular craft blogs)and not too cheesey. As Goldilocks would say, they are ‘just right’ for my taste.  Not quite as right for my budget comfort, however. We have solved this problem rather easily though. Enter Walmart. <g> Literally and figuratively. 

Perusing the home, floral, and craft aisles netted several knock off’s for next to nothing. A ‘for instance’ – we picked up this wooden dough riser/kneader piece for $5. It looked just like the one featured as a centerpiece in September’s Country Living mag. We filled it with some tiny pumpkins.

In the floral aisle they had many shapes and sizes of glass vases similar to those in the PB pages.  I can’t see any measurable difference in a $5 glass container vs a $25 version. It is what they are stuffed with that makes them attractive. A bag of cranberries costs less than $3 at the grocery. We had some time while the kids were in choir practice on Sunday so Kieran and I gathered a bagful of pinecones from under a tree in the planter outside. They look stunning in those oversized glass vases or in open bowls. Walmart had several wood bowls in the kitchen/dishware section as salad bowls. They would make really classy  displays of natural fall-ish stuffers. Their pillar candles would look great stuck inside those glass vases with stuffers like berries or acorns surrounding.

I am finding with this many people in the house my tastes are leaning towards the clean lines and simple graphic-style displays vs lots of small stuff which is soon tipped over or dusty.  In fact, anything with ‘clean’ in the description fits the bill. ; )   I far prefer using these natural materials to the  cartoonish commercially available holiday standby’s.

Oh, another project in the works here are the rattan chargers shown at left. (from PB too) I thought they would look so nice on our mission cherry table.  We spotted some round placemats in the seasonal sale section at Walmart. (below)I have seen them paint these on HGTV and think that a coat of walnut paint would produce a lovely set of knock off chargers for waaaay less than $18ea. I will keep you posted : )

This is right up there with, "Whose socks are on the chandelier."  I went to grab something from the freezer the other day and had to do a double take.

"Why is there a man in the freezer??" 

Something about playing house and needing a drink and ice cubes and forgetting…. <g>  Ah well. They keep you on your toes! The Funschool flickr has been updated with more letter activity images btw. Have a wonderful day!

You hear about it everyday don’t you?  Road rage, bottlenecks, traffic coming to a standstill. We are not immune.  No sirree-bob. When you least expect it you might turn around a mountain bend and find trouble….

thugs even…

always a ringleader or two …

passing on the left…

hard tellin’ where it might all end.  I would suspect a corral however. : )

Oh bliss!  Oh tumultuous joy! Oh everlasting happy!  Ok perhaps I overstate that but man, oh man, the printer is BACK!

Hello Teacherfilebox.com! Hello labels! Hello scrapbook titles!  Hello loooong sweet narrations dictated by little people!

Hello exclamation marks…. ; D 

If you printed Funschool plans already please note this addition:

Golf tees! Buy some this week from your sporting goods section. We will have another manipulative using them next week. We made a great game with a remnant of pegboard leftover from a garage organization project. Put some large wooden beads or scrap 1by 2 wood on the bottoms so it is elevated a few inches when it sits on the table or floor. The children make pictures, letters, patterns with colored golf tees dropped into the holes. HOURS of fun. Like the geoboards I found the kids go back to this game over and over over and…….  I will get pics uploaded this weekend.

Words escape me.  Not that I won’t pursue them relentlessly. ; )  The big brown truck brought me Stacy Julian’s The Big Picture this week and I think I have read every word on every scrapbook page shown.  I think my son has read every one too. It is addictive. It makes you think. It makes you think about writing and photography and your life.  This is without a doubt THE best book on the scrapbooking I have. If you buy only one, buy this one, even if you don’t think you are a scrapbooker.

Each section of the book begins with an envelope containing a handwritten (ok, its handwritten and then printed 5 million times obviously) note with random thoughts about things like personal style (she thinks its over-rated) photos (its not about the photos) and simplicity.  She makes the point that you could conceivably scrap all your photos and never tell your story.  That is something to think about. Its not about the pictures. 

The message is to take fewer photos of ‘events" and more photos of everyday moments, things like perfect pancakes, sleeping children, your stack of library books, your grocery cart, the toy box. These are the "nothing-special-here kind that in just a few years become so real, so nostalgic."  This is your life.  Are you taking note?  It goes so darn fast. Don’t miss a thing. : )

Can you guess what I am up to?  On the hunt for more art journal/scrapbooking inspiration. So far I found this and this and then this.   Hope your weekend is beautiful. : )

   Today was the day. Does anyone else follow the funnies like I do?  Every time the paper arrives I run through the same sequence: first For Better or Worse, then Funky Winkerbean, then Baby Blues, and Zits.  You have pretty much got life’s whole spectrum right there.  Today you got the end of life’s spectrum when Funky’s Lisa Moore died from a breast cancer recurrence. It’s the funnies. It’s not real. Still, I sorta got a knot in my stomach opening the paper the last couple weeks watching her move through chemo and then hospice care. The story was compelling. It hits home because an old friend of mine was recently diagnosed with breast cancer herself. I worry.

This is a fictional account of many people’s real life. None of us gets out of here alive of course, but sadly, many of us go way too soon. Funky Winkerbean’s artist/author has established Lisa’s Legacy to help those living this story today.   Lisa’s Story – The Other Shoe is a compilation of the strips where can catch the whole story if you missed it in the paper this year.   

Gosh, I LOVE to teach.  LOVE love LOVE to teach my kids… my kids and their friends…my kids and co-op’ers…    This is such a tremendous joy and it is a blessing to find others who are as enthusiastic about learning. Dr Jean is one of those people. Her site is chock full of great ideas for multisensory educational ideas. If you hover over any of the left sidebar subtitles you will link to many activities across the curriculum. Give yourself some time. You will be here awhile. <g>

Alice and Meredith tagged me for the  Blogger Reflections award and I must issue public apologies that I have taken so long to thank them.  An author I am reading these days has said "The unexamined life is not worth living."  To that he added that the unlived life is not worth examining and I have to voice my hearty agreement. Blogging has helped me to reflect upon my life and my decisions and to articulate those for others. Living that life and making those decisions takes time, however, and I don’t want to miss a thing.

Many of my favorite blogs have been tagged for this award which "should make you reflect on five bloggers who have been an encouragement, a source of love, impacted you in some way, or have been a Godly example to you. Five Bloggers who when you reflect on them you get a sense of pride and joy… of knowing them and being blessed by them."  Here are a few you might enjoy:

Once again I have to tag the Lady of Virtue, even if we haven’t had coffee irl yet. : )  If you haven’t visited in a while do go for some encouragement and excellent resources. I think Sherry tagged me in recent weeks as well. Agh. I am so behind.  Apologies!!

Although Donna at Christopherus and I come from different theological backgrounds her insight about who children are and how we can best help them grown are challenging and inspiring to me.

Stacy MacDonald reminds women daily of their Sacred Calling. She is convicting!