a little craft fair

Storia HOME will be in the craft way tomorrow morning.
This is a wee craft fair at my little church & I will not be "fully" stocked up, but I will have some fun holiday treats to peddle.
Also there will be free cookies and coffee, so if you are near stop by

R Street Community Church from 9-5

pie-off

The time is coming to make some pies for Thanksgiving and Martha's 1st Annual Pie Off (I swear I will get off my Martha kick after this post - at least until the end of November!) I am extremely inspired. I made my first pie last Thanksgiving (using Martha's pie crust recipe - easy peasy!)


I think this year I want to make some sort of chocolate-pecan pie and maybe an apple pie? Or some other fruit perhaps?


Do you have a favorite pie recipe I should try? Do you make pies for Thanksgiving?

things I have learned about myself

as I have gotten older...

if I have to clean my house, it helps me to have cute tools.

Thanks to my pal Sara I now don't mind doing the pots and pans.
I never realized how much I HATED greasy dirty dishwater until these pink ladies came along.
Now I do the dishes without any fear or hesitation and now
thanks to Marfa (@ Macy's) I can now dust in style.

tabletop trees

This is my new (hand-me-down!) bench that now sits in front of the living room window.
I am totally in-love with this bench and am already thinking of all the things I can stack and display on it (besides people's behinds when we have a full house!)

The one thing I am positive about, is that this year we will have a live "table tree" in a metal bucket sitting on it for sure.
I have always loved table tree's and can't wait to play with this idea in a few weeks!

Here are a few of my favorite table trees:

Martha is the QUEEN of table trees. This is cover of one of her Christmas books.


This is one inside it's pages...


This is one from Country Living's Christmas book.
(great book by the way!)

And of course, from Martha's website.
This is more the size I think ours will be, but I hope to display the presents all around like pictures 2 & 3, on and below the bench.

Oh, I can't wait!

good enough fairy tales and such

Sometimes "good enough" is really good enough.

Sometimes it really is just about showing up, being present and doing what you can in the moment....

Yesterday was just one of those days.

When we arrived at school Friday, I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to pay for Wylie's field trip and had no idea what time they were leaving and that I had forgotten to remind Nathan who was chaperoning!
After handling that minor crisis in the office (God bless those ladies!!,) I started to head upstairs to the Middle School floor, but before I got very far, here came Miles around the corner with big 'ole tears in his eyes. See, I had also forgotten it was "Fairytale Character Day" in Kindergarten.
After some careful (yet speedy) discussion we decided that he could be a King and I would run into the teachers lounge and whip him up a Crown and a Sword, while he went and finished his breakfast.
So using what I could find (paper for crown, wooden ruler and paper for sword) and swathing him in my blue scarf as his "sash" I quickly created a costume fit for a King. Or at least one that was good enough. Miles was pleased as punch and happily trotted off to class, slaying dragons as his went. When we got home at the end of the day (having shed the cumbersome sash by then) he found an old cellophane Halloween treat bag, cut it up and made a cape all by himself. He then added a gold belt, and Voila! King Miles II was born.
I once heard about a study that said that mothers were the determining factor in whether their children turn into primarily optimistic or pessimistic adults.

I am going to take Miles adaptability regarding the potential fairy take costume debacle as a sign I am doing my job well.
Or at least that I did it well on Friday.

On the home front, my Thanksgiving decorating is also falling under the "good enough" category. This bowl of little pumpkins and a banner are about as far as I have gotten.
But you know what? It really is good enough!

new logo

In my spare time (ha!) I am trying to get a new logo done...something that is whimsical, fun, vintage in feel, but clean and simple at the same time.
What do you think so far?

daily things

Thanks to all the great exposure I got from Decor 8 featuring my banners last week, I am full up on Holiday Banner orders! Of course as anyone who knows me well knows, "if the banner orders are up, the housekeeping is down!"
Well, so be it. If this means extra- spending money for Christmas adventures like trips to the theatre and not worrying about the bills while I am off (unpaid) during Thanksgiving Break, then I will gratefully live with the dust bunnies in the corners, and the piles of papers on the dining room table, and the dishes that never seem to get completely washed and put away.

Sometimes you just have to remember what is what in this life.

I was reminded of that again, as the boys and I left school yesterday evening.


This is our school building, on the side of the street we enter and exit most. This year the building - which used to be a newspaper building - is 100 years old. It is a pretty neat place to go to school and work in, with all that history contained in the walls and the original tile floors and marble stairs. The school is downtown and very urban.
There are many evenings when we leave school that we have to walk to our car a few blocks away, in my assigned parking lot.

Last evening was just one of those sorts of evenings, and when we walked outside I was immediately taken with how beautiful the sky was, all shades of pink, orange and blue. Just perfect, and waiting there for me, if I looked up. I am so glad I did, and I am so glad the boys where there to share it with me.

These walks have been one of the many happy surprises of our new school/work situation.
Some of the walks can be those sorts of times where the boys ask all kinds of great questions, or where we just simply walk, hand-in-hand, enjoying just being together outside.
Of course probably more often than not, the truth is that I am in a hurry and rush them to get back to the car, stressed, tired and impatient.
But then other times, like yesterday, I can see the moment for what it is, and I realize that it is fleeting.
They will not remember the dust bunnies. They will remember these walks.


And so will I.

marfa, marfa

It has been a while since I had looked through some of Martha Stewart's crafty archives for Christmas, so I thought I would go back through and take a look to see what sort of inspiration I could find. Of course I found tons.
*Sigh* I just love Marfa (as Miles calls her) and her crafty team...

Here are my favorites:


love the colors and simplicity of this. I am thinking I need to make some small circle garlands like this for my tree this year... This is simple enough the boys could help!

OK, just too adorable. Somehow I missed this craft along the way and just now discovered it.
Thinking this would be a great craft at a Cookie Exchange Party, and also as gift tags!

Of course when it comes to gift tags this is my favorite because I always love things with letters...
Wouldn't a whole row of faux wrapped gifts lined up on the mantle of the bookcase, with the letters attached and spelling out a word like MERRY or NOEL, look cute??

I already do something somewhat similar to this, but of course Martha's simplicity in this is divine. Her stylist make even the most basic craft look ingenious!

I did these cute little mitten clips a few years ago and used them to clip closed bags of cookies that we gave away as gifts. That was about 8 years ago, so I am thinking I can make these again for all the people who didn't get one back then. With all the changes we have had in the past 4 years, our world is so much larger- which is such a lovely blessing!

This picture I just love because. I don't think I will make anything from it, I just love the composition of the photo.

So that is my tour of Marfa inspirations. Who is inspiring you this year??

(oh, and stay tuned, I will be trying all your ideas for pipe cleaner dying next soon!!)