Just a few random photos

Over Thanksgiving I scoured a couple thrift and consignment stores for some new books. Since our Xmas present to ourselves was a vacation (just got back!) I wanted a few new books to read. I read through Three Bags Full in a day and a half. Throughly mindless entertainment which what I was going for. I rarely read fiction, so it was a nice escape and had me laughing out loud at times. And I am over half way on the Handmade Life. I stopped flagging recipes in the book since I was flagging every other one! Lots of cooking inspiration in there. I didn't read as much as I thought I would. The hot tub and massages took up a lot of time!

Before we left for vacation, Jeff hung up a new coat rack in the mudroom. I found it Ikea and just tried to find a link to it, but had no luck. I wanted extra hooks to allow guests to always have a spot to hang up their coats but it had to have a slim profile to not interfere with the door opening and closing from the garage. It is a perfect fit! And to our amazement, the predetermined spots on the back of the coat rack where it is suppose to attach to screws mounted in your wall were actually spaced to accommodate mounting into wall studs. So it is very secure!

And I spent a little time in my cashmere stash and made this sweet broach using this tutorial located on Holidash. I made use of my glue gun with this project because I decided I just had to have it made in one evening. I used my most favorite vintage sparkling button for the center. I want to make a few more because they would make super sweet gifts. And I'd like to make a smaller one for my hair. After completing this project, I decided I need to grow dahlia's in the garden this year. The root stock is crazy expensive, but I ran into a local gardener over the summer that says each year she digs up her dahlia roots and they double in size each year allowing her to split them and have free plants each year. Too bad I didn't get her number! If any gardener is reading this and finds that they have too many dahlia plants, I'll trade you some canna lilies for them! :P

And because my husband is amazing he also surprised me with this and this for Xmas!