Just saying HI!

ROMANTIC HOMES

How exciting! So exciting! Can I hear a Woo Hoo and Woot Woot? The latest issue of Romantic Homes magazine was delivered to the shop today. It's their holiday issue and it is filled with serious eye candy (as always) fabulous DIY projects (as always) loads of great articles (again, as always) BUT the thing that makes this issue so special to me is that I am in it! Well, OK, it's not like I'm in any way featured, no photos or articles, but, my shop name and address and contact details are in the "Dealer Listings" pages, page 106 to be exact. Seriously, how cool is that? Seriously, to me, it's very, very cool!

OMG! ANOTHER POST! or I USED TO BE SCHIZOPHRENIC BUT WE"RE OK NOW

Today was a sort of me day - no place I had to be - shop is closed - my night off from the restaurant. Had a whole lot of things I "should" do - house cleaning, shop paperwork, packaging, listing on Etsy, fall garden clean up etc., etc., etc. - but no one thing that I absolutely positively "had" to do. So I ended up visiting some blogs, and then some other blogs and then I actually posted on my blog (about another blog) and then I visited a few more blogs - guess it turned into a blog day. Found a new blog that I fell in love with and compared it to the blog I'd blogged about - that I also love - and I realized that I am still a bit schizophrenic. Ever since I had more then one room to decorate (my first apartment) I have always had two different styles going on. There has always been at least one "girly" thing happening, usually my bedroom, maybe a bathroom - something that has some pink and white and sometimes a touch of green, a bit of pale blue, maybe a small splash of yellow. Then there has always been a rustic, primitive thing with lots of texture, natural wood, chippy paint (some of it white-some not). See, a little schizy. I just can't not have both of them, all of them. Wait....maybe I'm not schizophrenic, maybe I'm just greedy. So I shared Curious Sofa earlier, then Fabulous Fifi today (see what I mean) and just a bit ago I found Lambs & Ivy (the fact that she's playing Jackson Browne didn't hurt). Visit her blog http://www.vintagesusieandwings.blogspot.com/

A POST ABOUT A POST

Since I haven't yet managed to come up with that perfect post I want to write (damn this whole perfectionism thing!!!!!) I thought I would share some (OK - today it's just going to be one) of my favorite people, places and things. That is a large part of what I admire about the blogging community; the willingness, no, the eagerness to share...not just your own stuff - be it thoughts, photos, projects or whatever, but other peoples stuff as well.

So here's some stuff from the truly Fabulous Fifi. If you have ever read an issue of Romantic Country magazine you all ready know Fifi. Visit her blog and get to know her a little better. Pour your beverage of choice, settle down in your favorite reading spot and be prepared for lots of wonderful ... well, actually, that about sums it up ... be prepared for lots of wonderful!

Oh, and speaking of wonderful, Fifi is doing a wonderful giveaway this month and you still have time to get your name in the hat (a wonderful romantic rose covered hat I'm sure).

WHY AM I HERE

So I've been doing all this fretting, worrying, stressing about blogging. I want to do it, but I so want to do it right, and since I'm not sure I can do it right I haven't really done it. I've now decided that there is no right....it just is what it is. Just as I is what I is. I'll try to share a little more of who I is and the things I is doing and those I hope to do.

CURIOUS SOFA HALLOWEEN

Who would have guessed back in 1995 when I closed my first shop and left the Kansas City area to follow my husband's career path to the great Northwest that one day I would be visiting KC often (via the Internet) for doses of inspiration and the very best eye candy ever! Deb Dusenberry - the brilliant, creative, savvy force behind Curious Sofa is who I want to be when I grow up. We have never met, I've not been back to KC since she opened her business so my knowledge of her is only through her words and photos BUT what words and what photos! If you have not yet met her and seen her work (and creating the business she has is a work of art!) run right over to her blog http://www.curioussofa.blogspot.com/

and then her online store

http://www.curioussofa.com/

I'll let her tell you her story.

To Blog or Not to Blog

Why do I so very much want to blog and why do I so struggle with it? (I'm doing that thinking thing again.) I love blogs, I adore them; they make me smile and swoon and giggle and laugh and ohh and ahh and wonder and wish. They inspire me and energize me. I so very much appreciate each and every post I read. I want to give back to all those bloggers who have made me smile, swoon, giggle, laugh... I worry that I won't.
I want to give you all great eye candy - but I so suck at taking pictures! (Really - I do! Have you scrolled down to my last photo attempt? See what I mean?)
I want to give you all what you have given me ... that feeling of being part of a great big circle of creative, curious, generous, gracious, fun, fanciful and just plain wicked awesome women.
So I'm going to try to get past the thinking (aka fretting & worrying) and just go with the doing.

JUST THINKING

I think about this blog every day. Really, I do. I think about what I want from it. I think about what I want for it. I think about why I want to do it. I think about the things I want to say & the people I want to say those things to. I think about questions I want to ask & the people I hope might answer. I think about the things I know I want to share & the things I wonder if I should share. I think I think too much. I do a whole lot of thinking but not a whole lot of doing. I think it is time to change that. What do you think?

AND JUST WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN YOUNG LADY?

Said in that tone of voice that most of us have heard and many of us have used...

Well, um, well, really, you know, it was so weird, because, like, I was there, and I was like all ready to post, and then, you know, it was like all wierd and then this really cool thing happened and I was all like "Oh Wow!"
But really this really cool thing did happen and I really was like "Oh Wow." That really cool thing is named Antonio Michael (after his grandfathers) and my daughter, my baby, is his mom - and this all weird but really cool thing happened and I am a grandmother!
I had a conversationn with my daughter before the baby was born (being the oh-so-knowing mother) and tried to tell her how amazing it was to become a mother, how when that little life is placed in your arms for the first time and you look down on that face that you fall in love in a way you never have before, it's like stepping off a cliff you didn't even knoiw was there; it's so fast and stunning, so overwhelming and strong and deep and fierce! What I didn't know was that much the same thing was going to happen to me as well.