Allow Me To Reintroduce Ourselves

You may have noticed the effort I have made the last few weeks to actually blog.

I thought this would be a good time to reintroduce ourselves.

First, there is my husband, juC.  He is half way through his 30s (poor thing) and works at a job as an employee doing work.  In his free time, he enjoys reading really long books about secret spies in the government, stalking people on facebook (I'm going to get in trouble for that one, but how can you be mad at someone for telling the truth??), and driving me crazy.  He is really good at making breakfast for dinner, grocery shopping, and taking the kids off my hands so I can take naps.

 Then comes our first dear child, little jC.  He will be 5 in September and starting kindergarten.  It makes me want to cry.  He is all about cars, blocks, and numbers.  He loves little cC with all his heart and loves to torture liitle luC with all his heart. He loves going on adventures, which means he hates when it's time to leave adventures.  He also loves to dance.  And when I say loves, I mean LOVES.  jC is proof that the last 5 years of my life have gone by insanely fast.

 Next up is our little luC.  And when I say little, I mean little.  (She is 2.5 years old and is in the 5th percentile for her weight, so that gives you an idea of just how little I mean.)  But don't let her littleness fool you.  She has a massive personality.  She is sweet, compassionate, and full of love.  She is also ornery, sassy, and impatient.  She cannot be convinced to do anything she doesn't want to do.  Unless you cry, thenn you can sucker her in.  (Something jC learned all too well!)  She gives the best hugs.  In-the-entire-world!!  She loves to play with dolls and read books.  And knock cC over.

Which brings us to our newest addition.  Little cC.  And by little, I mean the youngest in the family, not little like luC little.  In fact, he's only a couple pounds lighter than her!  cC is a big old ball of happiness.  Except when he's teething, then he's a big old ball of crankiness.  He really has the best smile that quickly turns my frowns upside down.  His favorite thing to do (aside from sleeping when I want him to be awake, or being awake when I want him to be asleep) is to crawl around the house looking for things to stick in his mouth.  Which means I often find him chewing on someones shoes.  He's a sweet boy!

And last of all, it's me, aniC.  A nearly 31 year old stay at home mom, that feels like a 14 year old that got stuck playing a game of house 5 years ago that won't stop.  Seriously, my life does not feel like my life, but like I'm just going along pretending.  I keep waiting for someone to say "Ok, you can stop now." but apparently this is the real deal.  I also feel like I'm stuck between wanting a million and one babies and feeling like I'm going to lose what's left of my sanity at any minute.  So I'm just plugging along.  Doing my best to be a mediocre wife and a competent mother.  (I've found it's easier to succeed if you set your standards low.)

So, that's us.

--And if any of my loyal readers that always looked forward to "kitty Thursday" are wondering about sweet little, izC, I have bad news for you, good news for her.  izC has a new home.  One with no kids to torture her.  I miss her tremendously, but I don't miss constantly harassing my kids for constantly harassing her.

I'm in love.

When we moved into a house with a "formal living room" I knew that I needed just the perfect couch to go in it. For months I scoured Craig's list, trying to find the one. But, to no avail. Then when my sister was here, we went to one of my favorite antique spots, at which time I spotted the perfect couch. And lucky me, it was on sale. After sending a picture to juC to ask his permission, it was purchased. Then, as the cushions were getting loaded into my car, I saw that the antique dealer had left the "Salvation Army" sticker with the original price on it, for considerably less than what I paid. Oh well, I guess all that extra I paid was the finders fee...and I truly don't feel bad about the price I paid at all.

And now I have the perfect couch (for me) for our "formal living room". Or as I like to call it, our receiving room.

And I don't care what anyone thinks, I'm in love with it.

DONE!....(ish)

I got my Wall o' Loooove up!!! (the one that I mentioned first here, then made this for, and this)

What is a Wall o' Loooove?! Well, it's a wall...dedicated to love. Because, you see, like my sister LoW, I LOVE love. I love romance. Or...woahmance, as I like to call it. ("Woah, this is romantic." Thus becoming "woahmantic".)

Those that know me know there was a time that I hated love. Mostly because I thought all guys were big fat jerks and that I'd never find it. But I did find love, and I did find woahmance and it's the best thing ever!

So you see, I had to devote a wall to love. Because love is great, and it deserves a wall.

The Wall o' Looooove

What's that? Oh, yes...there is an empty frame. (thus the DONE!...(ish) title)Because I still have one more quote I'm putting in the frame, but haven't been able to do it yet, but I was determined, DETERMINED I tell you, to get this up!

So, as you see, I got my wreath that I made, the framed quote that I made, my button hearts that I made, and the tree of love that I made.

Everything else? Antique stores, because that's how I roll!

I got these postcards a couple years ago antiquing with my sisters in my home town. Oh, how I love them. I love that they are now over 100 years old. And I still wish I knew what happened to the couples that sent them!

I thought this framed silhouette was so sweet. When I bought it, the woman asked if I collected silhouettes, and I said "No, romantic stuff." She may have looked at me like I was off my rocker.

This has got to be one of my most favorites EVER. Sleeping Cupid and Awake Cupid. So, so sweet!

And, I don't know about you, but Norman Rockwell rocks my world. I love this picture and when I saw it knew that I had to get it for the wall.

And this cute wittle cross stitched piece? How could I resist it for 50 cents?

I'm so excited that it's done. And as it usually happens, I got it all hung up, then looked at it and felt like it's "off". Like I didn't position things right, that there is "empty spaces", etc. But that just means I get to keep hunting for perfect things to add to it, which of course is a bonus.

It WAS my birthday, and now it's almost Halloween!

Nearly two months ago, on August 9, the whole world celebrated the anniversary of my birth. Some people didn't even know that's what they were celebrating, but that's beside the point.

Nearly a month after that, using the money my mother and mother-in-law so generously gave me, I bought one of the best birthday presents ever.

You see, back at the beginning of the year I was out shopping for some antiques (I know, shocking!) and I came across a fabulous brown wool coat. I wanted it. Ohhhh how I wanted it. But I knew my husband wouldn't be very happy with me for spending the money on it when I already have plenty of coats.

Every.single.time. I went back to that antique store, I would go see if that coat was there. And every.single.time. it was still there and I thought "This must be a sign that I should have this coat." But my husbands voice kept popping into my head: "You don't need that coat!"

But when I went, equipped with my birthday money...there was NOTHING to stop me. And miracle of miracles...about 8 months after first spotting the coat, it was still there! (I'm so glad other people weren't cool enough to realize how great this coat was!)(No offense.)

And not only was it still there, but the lady working there called the owner of the coat and let her know that I had been eyeing it for 8 months, and she knocked 20% off the price! So for only sixty bucks I have this:

Check out those buttons!

It's from Woodward and Lothrop. Which, according to the lovely lady at the antique store was THE place to shop in Washington D.C. back in the day. It was like D.C.s own version of NY's Macys. Her dad would take her there around Christmas to see the huge window display they'd do. And the sentimental part of me thinks it's even more awesome that it's from right here in this area.

But, back to the coat.

I love it. And I almost don't even look pregnant when I wear it. Almost.

Now on to a completely different subject, have I mentioned the best part about my antique mantle?

Decorating for holidays!!And thanks to my favorite antique spot it Buckeystown, MD, I have these cute blocks someone made using vintage Halloween pictures to decorate it with.

Having a mantle to decorate truly makes this time of year so much better. Let the holidays begin!!

pearing up

In an effort to keep my mind off of my BIG appointment tomorrow morning (I'm getting my ultrasound and should be finding out if we are having a boy or girl) I'm going to finally blog about something I've been meaning to blog about FOREVER!

Back in April, my sweet, loving, and kind husband, juC, let me have an entire day to myself to do as I wish. My plan was to drive around and take pictures of old barns, because I DO love me some old barns. But, I also do love me some antiques, and my love of antiques mostly outweighed my love of barns that day.

That love brought me to a lovely little town that is dear to my heart, called Funkstown (isn't it obvious by the name why it's so dear to my heart??) I ended up in the oddest old house that is a flower shop....with lots of old...stuff...for sale. And all the way in the back, on top of a big huge pile of junk and randomness, I saw it. I kept my eyes on it, and I knew I had to have it.

And for $10, it was mine!!! I love it just as much as my mantel and my vanity!!

This big pear canister has a hold of my heart. Now if I can just figure out where to put it!