Sharing a Smile--Cactus

Happy Monday, everyone!  Can you believe it's August already!?!  My oldest has started summer band practice already and I'm in denial that school starts in three weeks.  I'm already filling up our calendar with game schedules and practices--so not ready for that.  Craftberry Bush's latest calendar makes it a little less painful. I have this downloaded on my desktop, but she also has some cute backgrounds formatted for iPhones.   I LOVE the cactus background and she is offering some other gifts for sale in her shop with her beautiful art.

Purchase here.

This 12x12 framed print is perfectly minimal and beautiful at the same time.

Purchase here.

This 16x16 throw pillow cover would be a great way to change up your decor 

for a cowboy/Southwest kind of vibe.

Purchase here.

I thought this iPhone case was super cute--love the pink background!

And, speaking of cactus, I follow Southern Trends on Instagram.  A couple of weeks ago, they featured the cutest little Saguaro cactus necklace.  It's a piece Little Sis and I can share and it is really sweet and dainty, just like the description says.

Dainty Cactus Necklace-purchase here.

Hope you all have a wonderful Monday--have a great day!

Sharing a Smile: Easiest Cuff Bracelet EVER!

How cute is this!!  She-Sheds are the new Man-Caves!

Little sis and I made a trip to Michael's to pick up some supplies for a new light fixture I'm making for my latest work-in-progress:  a "She-Shed".  We have a great storage building in our backyard that has electricity, cabinets and paneled walls and it is currently holding a hodgepodge of camping gear, horse blankets and tack and a few bicycles.  My plan is to clean that out and make it another gathering place or a hiding place, as the mood strikes.  More on that to come!

As I was in the jewelry section to find some cute pieces to add to the light shade, my trusty helper found a cute and easy craft for us to make.  I love a leather cuff bracelet and Shortcuts from Blue Moon Beads makes it super easy and fast to make one.

First you choose the cuff you want.

I chose the hot pink to try something different and sister chose the gold.  

They come with little clips on them and you get to pick out the metal connector 

you want to add to the middle:

Steps involved:

1. Remove cuff and connector from packages
2. Snap connector onto clips on cuff
3. Put it on!

I chose a silver wing and little sis chose a gold cross cut-out.

The cuff and the connector are $3.99 each, but this past weekend they were on sale for 50% off.  I don't think they're on sale this week, but there's always the magic 40% off coupon!

Hope you enjoyed this complicated tutorial.  Never fear--with a pair of scissors and 90 seconds, you too can create this intricate piece of jewelry!  Have a great day, friends!

Artistic photo shoot fail  :-)

PB Teen Junk Gypsy Collection-Blue Jeans and Turquoise Heaven!

Pottery Barn Junk Gypsy Collection

When I saw the new Pottery Barn Junk Gypsy collection on Junk Gypsy's Instagram, I commented "I wanna be a teenager again!"  They responded "This collection is for every age"--and they're right!  It is so fun--cowgirl chic, a little junk-tique and a lot of rebel.  I've been dying to go to JG World Headquarters in Round Top, Texas, for ages and this may prompt a road trip in my very near future.  I haven't gotten to watch their show on GAC because we don't get that channel (grrr!), but there's tons of eye candy on their website and their Instagram feed is a bright spot when I've got a minute to scroll through.  Clothes, decor and jewelry--what's not to love?  I've got my eye on this cuff:

The Pottery Barn JG Collection has some great furniture, chandeliers, throw pillows and bedding.  What I liked most were the art pieces, and of course PB's styling was just perfection.

A little pallet art DIY in my future?

I loved this owl pillow and the sweet bedding takes off a little of the edge of the rest of the room.  And, of course, the El Paso throw and pillow are just the right kind of 

Southwestern vibe with a girly palette.

We've got some old galvanized tin we need to rip off an outbuilding on our land.  

I'm thinking a flying heart may be a great way to repurpose some of it.

Love this!

This chandelier may be making its way to my little home office very soon:

There is a lot more to the collection.  Give it a look and tell me what you think! 

 Are you wishing you were a teenager again?  :-)

I'm so glad you visited my blog and would love it if you would subscribe by email 

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Sharing a Smile: Happy First Day of Summer...

...and a big Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there!  I've been blessed with a wonderful Dad and a terrific husband who is the best Dad to our kids.

It's been unseasonably cool here and I am ready for some summer heat.  I know I'll regret those words come August, but I really love having seasons and I don't mind a little heat after the cold winter we had this year.

So, speaking of summer, here is a great watercolor of a VW bug and surfboard to put us in the mood.  Craftberry Bush puts out some of the cutest printables and is so generous in sharing some of those as free downloads.  Check out this cutie!

She is offering it as a free download until June 30th.  Be sure and check out her blog for other awesomeness.  I always look forward to her monthly calendars to use as the image on my desktop--here is the June calendar:

Enjoy this longest day of the year and give those Dads in your lives a big hug and thank you!

Sharing a Smile-#1

Each Monday I'm going to try to share something that made me smile--a blog, podcast, website, book--just something that got my attention and might bring a smile to your face, too.  

While driving to New Mexico this weekend, my daughter snapped this photo through the car window:  

We drove through miles and miles of Texas, to quote Bob Wills, that looked exactly like this.  Scrub brush, interspersed with cotton  fields and pump jacks, was all you could see in the fading daylight.  There aren't any radio stations out here and I didn't want to argue over playlists, so, we listened to several podcasts I had downloaded.  One of them was 99% Invisible.  From the iTunes website:   "Design is everywhere in our lives, perhaps most importantly in the places where we've just stopped noticing. 99% Invisible (99 Percent Invisible) is a weekly exploration of the process and power of design and architecture. From award winning producer Roman Mars, KALW in San Francisco, and Radiotopia from PRX."  That sounds a little high brow and maybe even a little boring, but it's a GREAT podcast.  The episode we listened to was #157, called Devil's Rope.

For those of you from ranching or farming backgrounds, you know they're talking about barbed wire (or bob wire, if you're from West Texas).  The podcast gave the history of the range wars, referenced Lonesome Dove (which kicked it up a notch in my husband's opinion) and was very informative.  And THEN, right at the end, was the tidbit I had never heard before.  The one use of barbed wire that wasn't for keeping people and animals in or out of places was... the telephone.  

This was brilliant, especially when you looked at the landscape we were driving through.  Rural telephone cooperatives were springing up to bring this new invention to homes and farms and it would take thousands of miles of wires.  Guess what they used?  Barbed wire!  It made the connection a little fuzzy, but using the fencing that connected all these farms, allowed these families living out far from town to be a little more connected to family and friends.  That, to me, is great design and even though it's in plain sight, barbed wire fencing is definitely 99% invisible--just something we see without noticing.

Here's a link to that podcast.  I hope you check it out!

99% Invisible Podcast