Um, no. We can’t claim the sandcastle above . Ours was a bit more…well…rustic?

Seeing this photo…doesn’t it look like Jerusalem or something? hmm. It may have lacked in finesse but we tried to make up for that in size!

Our kids are back in school but its been hard for me to get back into that mode. I’m squeezing every last bit out of the summer! Hope you are enjoying it as well!

Can’t wait to share our latest junking finds…we were traveling so sharing will have to wait til this coming Monday!

Ah, I needed a bike. We had sold my mountain bike before moving from Colorado because with the kids little I just wasn’t riding it much. Now that they are both riding, I can’t keep up unless I feel like going for a real run. This bike will be great for our flat and smooth Greenway trail. Judging from the tires and the little nubbies that are still on them as well as the perfect leather on the seat and handles, it seems to have only been ridden once or twice.

I’m honestly a little hung up on the vintage-style and single speed as we live in the mountains and are more into mountain bike riding. Single speed and hills just don’t go together. So we’ll see…if it doesn’t work for the type of riding I’ll do it was such a steal at $60 that we can resell it and put the profits toward a bike that will work.

I love that about buying second-hand. Often we’ll see something that is valuable but we feel uncertain if it will work perfect for us. Knowing that we can resell it easily for more than we paid if it doesn’t end up fitting our needs makes it a quick decision to head to the check-out.

Any finds for you this week? Us treasure-hunters have to stick together! I’m linking up with Southern Hospitality and Apron Thrift Girl…both are blogs which share their finds on Mondays.

Since our shopping was a bit more special this week, we went “to the city” to buy polo shirts and lunch boxes. Getting out of the mountains is always a treat. Especially when “Target” is on the list of places to go. Can you believe we don’t have a Target? I could go on and on about that.

Anyway, we did stop by a couple second hand stores amidst our school shopping. I always need more cashmere and wool to make my pillows and scarves so anytime we are out, we squeeze in Goodwill if there is one close. I scored a lot of great cashmere colors which was great and much needed.

Cashmere and wool is a given and I could share those finds every week, but that would be boring! it is much more fun to have other things to share here. We had been diligently watching for a third fan. Being in the mountains, our temps are cool enough not to need air conditioning. But we do need that extra bit of help to get the cool air in…especially in the evening when the kids rooms get stuffy and they are trying to go to sleep. Just knowing that a used fan would turn up if we had a little patience, we decided to wait a few weeks before purchasing one at the big box stores.

I’m glad we waited!  Vintage fans are so much cooler than anything we could have found new in town. Jeff scored this one killing time with the kids while I was in school orientation meetings. I love the color! And it is a powerful little thing for just $3!

And coincidentally, a matching find. During our trip to the city last weekend, I made a beeline for this blouse/jacket as I walked into a goodwill. I still have the Anthropologie catalog from when this jacket came out (it’s from a few years ago). Happy day when you find anthro at goodwill. It is waiting in my studio for one of the hook and eye’s to be tightened but with that done, and a cleaning, it will be great for fall!

What about you? Any frugal finds this past week? I’ll be linking up with a couple blogs (here and here) that share frugal finds on Monday’s.

Last year about this time, while playing around with felted wool scraps, I began this blanket idea. And finished just one row. When I realized what a wonderful scarf that one row made, I kept going with the scarves (made and sold 400!) but never went back to creating the original throw blanket idea.

But here it is finally! Making this intricate blanket was time consuming but the outcome was well worth it. Seeing that navy is replacing blacks and browns as a updated neutral, I chose all navy tones. Intermixing them made for a wonderfully eclectic throw.

Size: 60″ x 30″

Fabric: recycled sweaters which I felt in very hot water. These are all 100% wool and wool blends which have a 80% or higher wool content. So…very little synthetic fiber!

Available in my etsy shop.

And if you hadn’t seen them yet…the first round of 2010’s scarves are ready here on this website. Click the links at the upper left to view all sorts of colors and lengths.

Happy Wednesday!

Sweet Claudia is well! Thinner, but well. Amazing. 1 of 9 lives used up?

1 of 5 heavily laden apple trees.

The reason we headed out on our walk today. My sweet girl planted surprise seeds at the edge of our vegetable garden. Though it was quickly apparent over the past couple months what they were, I feigned surprise this morning to see that they turned into giant sunflowers.

Creation is mind-bogglingly amazing.

My “Thrift Share Monday” find is school-related and though not from a thrift, it did save us $80. thrifty to be sure!

In our new school work space (which is part of our newly finished basement which I shared a bit about here) is a long wall perfect for a large map. I had it narrowed down to this wall map from Ikea and this one from National Geographic. With shipping to include on the NG one, they came to about the same price but I still couldn’t pull the trigger easily on either one. I’m guess I’m just spoiled by the cheaper prices at thrift stores! $150 was a lot to swallow. That is until we found one in the As-Is section of Ikea for 50% off! I was pumped. The guy helping in that section  mentioned that there was nothing wrong with it except for damage to the box. He was right, the map itself was still sealed in the cardboard tube. Score!

Jeff hung it this weekend…bonus that is is stretched on a frame rather than glued to the wall like the NG map. We couldn’t be more excited to be able to point out locations while we do school work with the kids in a few weeks!

How about you? Any thrifty finds to share? I’m linking up with Apron Thrift Girl and Southern Hospitality’s weekly shares and you can too!

Happy to say the first round is available!

Click the links to the left for scarflette (30-31″), medium (48″) or long (55″ and up).

In coming weeks, I’ll share photos of how versatile these are…seriously, I don’t just say that because I designed them. Dressed up or dressed down, there is a scarf in the bunch for any style you are after! And if there’s not, contact me and I’ll make you one.

Sometimes working from home just doesn’t look like a lot of working from home. I achieved next to nothing today! That tends to be how it goes. Some days you get a ton done, and others you can’t even check off one thing on the to-do list.

Our sweet kitty is feeling quite ill today. She’s an outdoor cat and something must have happened last night. Physically we can’t see anything wrong but she’s definitely not well. So we’ve been worried about her and I think it’s making me feel lethargic as well. This photo is about a year old…isn’t she sweet. Poor Claudie.

Claudia as a kitten last year.

We are sad too because good friends of ours are moving in a couple days (coincidentally, the same family we got Claudia from as a kitten). We will sure miss them! When first moving to NC, we met these friends. They were also new to the area and moved across the country for the same reason as us…to be a part of Samaritan’s Purse. We had them over for dinner last night and it was easy to see that they are well into the “wiped out from packing and moving out” stage. Ugh. But there next home is Africa! Again. They lived there for a long time doing mission work. A special family to be sure. Last year in my “should I be a photographer?” days, they humored me by letting me practice on them.

We’ll miss you guys!

On top of thinking about our friends moving away and our very sick kitty, I double sold a pillow today. Ugh! I always feel awful when I make an unintentional error like that. I’m soooo hoping the customer is understanding and will allow me to make it up to them.

I feel a bit like a loser. Yes, sirreee…just keeping it real. I’ll be back to my peppy self soon I’m sure. Hoping sweet Claudia is as well.