Jen Bowles Design

(Makes Me) Happy Friday

I've been furiously making notes on my teeny tiny paper this week as I browsed around the world wide web of wonder--making a list of what's making me happy...

• How about these Celebration Candles from Crate & Barrel?? Love the look of the tall, thin candles and next month is our big birthday month around here.  They're on sale for 95 cents a package--maybe I should stock up : )
• Speaking of celebrations, what celebration couldn't be made better with a parasol..0r 9??  The selection at Luna Bazaar is incredible and reasonably priced.  Ebby and I both like this fuschia one with the swirl.   Just scrolling through all the colors available makes me happy!
• My real life friend 'Miss Candy' (we taught together at preschool, what can I say) has lovely etsy shop stocked with custom birth announcements & Candy's stunning nature photography.  She designed this adorable announcement herself--and captured the newborn in the photo as well.  She's a woman of many talents for sure!
• Speaking of talented women, meet Sarah Parrott of Parrott Design Studio.  Sarah's Press & Post kit was featured on decor8 this week.  I love these vintage stamps and what paper lover can resist the weight and texture of a hand letterpressed card??  Her studio is in Providence, RI.  Hmmm, that's only about an hour away from here...

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

{all photos are property of the person/website linked in this post}

Patriotic Etsy Update

My summer job (not the entertaining the kids one) has officially begun.  I'm going to be an Etsian for the summer (and perhaps beyond).  Etsians list new items in their shop frequently, promote their items, give great customer service, and contribute to the family bank account so the mom can afford to buy groceries to make nutritious & exciting dinners like pasta, pancakes, and chicken dinos.
This afternoon I posted 3 new USA handmade banners and 1 new (old) fabric USA banner (on sale!).  Take a peek, tell your friends, neighbors and co-workers : )
Thank you kindly.       

I have a few more red, white & blue items in progress and then I'm going to move on to non-seasonal themed items (i.e. baby, birthday, wedding).  I've been rediscovering my stash over the past few days and this weekend our project involves cleaning out & organizing the garage.  Who knows what treasures have yet to be unpacked in there!

       

Windows, finally treated

Let's see.  We've lived in our current home for almost a year.  Which is both a long time and not very long at all.  For instance, just this afternoon I took a box down from the shelf in the boys' closet and they unpacked a bunch of sports trophies and Floam creations.  Hadn't seen those in over a year.  There are plenty more unpacked boxes scattered about the house (& the garage...).  It's a process, definitely a process.
Last summer I painted most of the downstairs rooms.  Just this spring I've been getting around to putting up window treatments.  The dining room was the last room with bare windows.  And it was really starting to bug me.  I'd decided that I should make curtains out of fabric that I already had.  Especially since I purchased 5 yards of special order home dec fabric (on sale, at least) from Joann last summer that I ended up not using.  I just couldn't decide which fabric out of my stash to use.  Or what type of window treatments to make.
So the windows remained bare.
When my pal Kathy was here over Memorial Day weekend, we had a window consult.  We took turns holding up fabric.  She told me what she thought I should do.
And last weekend, I did!
Nothing fancy, just straight valances with trim hot-glued on.  I did try pretty hard to center the pineapple design (per Kathy's suggestion) and I was able to use some plain metal curtain rods we already had.  Yeeees!

Here's another set of before & after shots, with all three windows. And the mess on the console table--oops.

So here's to friends, motivation and no more naked windows. 
Well, downstairs anyway ; )

It's June?!

Only 15 more days of freedom school!