made...

my niece's birthday was on friday and we are going to celebrate today prior to Trick-or-Treating. she likes to do crafty things so i knew i had to make her something [and quick, since i always wait til the last minute :)]. i used a free Knook Piggy Pattern created by Amy Gaines, added my own touches and decided to make it into a money holder by adding a pocket. here are the results...

she's not perfect, that's for sure, but i know my niece will love it and that's all that really matters, right?

everyone having a wonderful weekend?

treasury

and this one...

treasury

i LOVE this treasury!

[des moines, iowa] american pickers...

or that's what my mom and i like to call ourselves :) can't really call ourselves the iowan pickers since the American Pickers guys are from iowa too...

in the last year, we've been lucky to have two friends of my parents connect us to others looking to have someone help them with a loved one's belongings. ultimately they are looking to sell whatever they can and we are looking to buy whatever interests us. but it's also rewarding to guide them on how and where to go to take care of what we're not wanting to buy and they seem appreciative for the help. a third time, my awesome friend Stephanie, called me and said that her parents were sitting at her house with a truck full of goodies they were looking to sell cheap...i was over to her house in under 10 minutes!

we've also been lucky that there has been really awesome finds at these picks! the one last month was just in time for the Valley Junction Antique Jamboree and the June Market Day. here's less than a fourth of what we brought home in June :

and here are pictures from the Antique Jamboree that include items from all of our picks [and then some]:

we make a good team, my mom and i! we have very similar tastes but with some variation...she knows a lot about depression glass, figurines and such and i love vintage kitchen and pottery.

i'm a guest

Sarah of sarahndipities has welcomed the new arrival of her sweet daughter and she has kindly allowed me to share my doily bowl tutorial over at her blog while she takes care of her growing family. so, if you're so inclined, you can check it out here...

love

giving you the bird

the iowa state bird, the goldfinch, that is...


do you see him? i love spotting these little birds as their yellow feathers are so very bright and beautiful. one day earlier this spring, that cherry blossom tree was full of chirps and probably 8 - 10 pairs of goldfinches. they would constantly fly in and out and they don't sit still long, so i'm lucky to have captured them in focus at all. 

[a sad/funny/one-in-a-million chance story including an iowa goldfinch and rob lowe, the actor... a few years ago rob lowe came to des moines to play in the pro-am golf tournament associated with the Principal Charity Classic- a senior pga event. during that tournament, rob lowe hit a golf ball which then collided with a goldfinch, our state bird, in flight! unfortunately, the poor creature flew no more :(
but rob lowe did survive the aftermath in the media and as the butt of many a local joke, which probably much to his relief, did not include a certain videotape scandal... :) ]

here's another goldie -or maybe it's the same one- in a different tree:



for being in an urban setting, there is a lot of bird activity around my house. here's a female cardinal sitting on our roof:



and her fella in his brightest red feathers in our back yard



we also have nuthatches, house & purple finches, sparrows [pests!], robins, blue jays, hawks and more. you can always tell when a hawk is soaring above- all of a sudden, all of the birds in the hood go silent and it gets eerily quiet. 

what kind of birds flutter around your neighborhood?