walk for emma

our march of dimes walk was this morning.
the weather was beautiful and we were right by the water this year.



thank you to all who supported our walk.
our team, tiny sprouts, raised $1800 this year!

friday find

we hit our street's thrift store today. love that place.
this is my friday find

$3. love it.
I thought I found the vintage pyrex nesting bowls that I want but they had the some design on the side that reminded me of 1970 and not 1930.
the hunt continues

picture of the day

I love this picture.

we visited the indianapolis zoo. it was so nice out and
so fun to walk around and see animals!

I was so glad this guy wasn't a member of the circus

my little nephew is growing up so quickly.
love seeing my hubby toting him around

one day I hope to be as good as mom as my sister is.
she is so patient and loving.

have a great rest of your day!

dream home

c.1897-1898 Queen Anne house, 2,800 square feet. Features original woodwork. Includes three bedrooms and an upstairs office, two baths, living room, dining room, kitchen and a HUGE attic.


by the looks of it you would say I am crazy. okay, so maybe I am a little. I visited this house yesterday. it is AWESOME. it needs a ton of work but how rewarding it would be in the end.

original staircase with a closet underneath.

original doors and trim that needs to be stripped. I think having the original doors, trim, windows and floors in an older home are the most important factors.

crazy about this bathrooom! I LOVE that sink. I can picture it when it is finished and the sink and tub would stay.

love this room for a dining room. I think fireplaces
in dining rooms are so romantic.

love the built-in

the kitchen. I was crazy about it! it has a set of stairs to the left that lead to the upstairs (I guess this was called the servant's stairs) and to the right lead to a back porch. and did you see the beadboard?

huge front porch which has always been a dream of mine. and it has beadboard on the ceiling. or most of it!

please look past the mold and turquoise walls and notice the pocket doors. when you entered the home you had this room directly in front past the foyer (with the nice staircase) and to the right was the family room with another set of pocket doors.

back of the house

with the purchase the outside is rehabbed for you in the original state. so that would mean a house that would look like this when finished:

outraged

my friend sent me this email the morning to sign a petiton to ban this jackass from exhitibiting his "art".



this is what the email said:
"In the 2007, the 'artist' Guillermo Vargas Habacuc, took a dog from the street, he tied him to a rope in an art gallery, starving him to death.
For several days, the 'artist' and the visitors of the exhibition have watched emotionless the shameful 'masterpiece' based on the dog's agony, until eventually he died.
Does it look like art to you?
But this is not all... the prestigious Visual Arts Biennial of the Central American decided that the 'installation' was actually art, so that Guillermo Vargas Habacuc has been invited to repeat his cruel action for the biennial of 2008."



I signed the petition in a heartbeat and hoped that they could capture this man, tie him to a rope, starve him to death and display him as art.



are you outraged? if so, you can sign the petition. here is the link:
www.petitiononline.com/ea6gk/petition.html

simple

they have the coolest shoes. for christmas my swil (sis-wis-in-law) asked for a pair of their flip flops. after reading about them I bought her a pair, me a pair, my husband a pair and an additional loafer for me. here is a little about the shoes you buy:

*The women's Toe Foo contains no animal byproducts or even regular animal products. This shoe is vegan friendly and veggie friendly.
*Hemp and organic cotton uppers
*Lined in bamboo
*Hemp wrapped latex topsole with a cushy arch cookie
*Natural crepe rubber outsole
*Uses water-based cements
*100% post consumer paper pulp foot forms
*Ships in our fantastic biodegradable bags… dig it, bury it, buh-bye
*Contains LATEX

the great thing about these shoes/flops is they last, last, last.

these are on my list for summer shoes:


and for every day:


find more styles at www.simpleshoes.com

paradise

we just returned home. so sad. we had a wonderful time and enjoyed relaxing and being on no time schedules. you know one of the best parts on our trip? NO CELL PHONES!!!! it was so refreshing not seeing everyone texting, talking loudly while at a store and just having them out of site.
our first stop was to be at cococay. the weather was bad (and chilly!) so we went to nassau first. it was nice. we took a tour of the city with a local named max. he was sweet.

this was a waterfall at the Queen's Staircase

and these steps were carved by slaves. 66 steps. can you imagine?

cute little houses

and little shops with all things from china!

our last stop was at cococay and it was on our anniversary! so I got my wish of lying on the beach. it was SO nice!

palm trees and blue water. peace and quiet.

I would love to live here a few months out of the year as long as our dogs could be with us (we missed them) and if this could be my new tiny sprouts office

you've got to love vacations!

I'll have the drink of the day

that is what I will say as soon as I board our cruise in about 12 hours! yahoo! I can't believe it is finally here. I just read online that the cruise does have internet access but you have to pay for it. this will keep me from being online as I do need to soak up the sun with spf 45 on.

here are some pictures of our last cruise:

this was in the heart of the belize. I loved this sign.


we rented a jeep for the day in cozumel. it was so fun.


meet colin tucker. he hand carves anything you'd like out of wood. he starts with a stump. he was very talented.
I would love to revisit him again one day.


have a great week!

here comes the sun

summer in florida. oh, my. so hot, humid and ick. they make me grouchy. just when I think I can't take it any more, I fly to indy to get a break. I know I have posted about this house but goodness, I just wish we could move in. I L-O-V-E our house now but know if we bought this sweet one, we'd be at home that night.

circa 1936, 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, full basement (we could finish it)
and a full, HUGE attic with pull down steps.

I love the brick and the little front porch
this kitchen was the original and we loved it

I love these little drawers

I LOVE the sink faucet. so old-school

little breakfast room

sweet built-ins EVERYWHERE.

dining that is open to the family room. love that.
and of course, built-ins on each side

fireplace is a must. leaded glass windows
in the dining, breakfast and family rooms

sweet attic with original wood floors

and this bathroom. I might just sleep in it
I loved it so much. 2 built-in armoires

original pedestal

awesome basement for my husband's game room.
he already started his football helmet collection for it.

and my favorite picture of that day.
elsa, my niece, was looking for me and opening
all the doors saying "tia?"

three years and counting

I can't believe it has been almost 3 years since we got married! I was reminiscing today and found my favorite photo from our wedding day.



I still have yet to put together our wedding album or book. that day brings back so many mixed emotions that I have put it off. most of our photos are awful and when I look at them I just get so mad at the photographer! I love my dress!

I wish you could smell my house right now. it is 2:25 a.m. and I just finished baking tomato-basil italian whole wheat bread.


I think I could eat the whole loaf right now. nice and hot with lots of butter.

rock me baby

I bought some really cool vintagy looking fabric a while ago (yes, vintagy, not hippy). I couldn't decide what to have made with it.
pillows, a purse, curtains for the baby room? (I know I am psycho)


OH YEAH, how about a chair cushion! we bought this rocker in 2005 at a store similiar to my favorite furniture store. it was $10 and I loved the color. I even pretended to be rocking a baby in it when I sat in it for the first time. so since we would like to add a baby to our fam, when my mom was visiting, she made me this chair cushion. she is making a cream back cushion too and the flower fabric will be the piping.


OMG. my favorite part of the ensemble? that it doesn't match.

botanical dog

I have been researching lately about our dogs switching to an all natural diet. how even though bags of dog food say "natural" it is far from it. I want them to live as long as possible so I think the change might be good. this started when sophie started to eat her tail. it always happens after a bath. I think she has sensitive skin. so during my research I came across this site.
then it got me to thinking how bad it probably is to have all those chemicals on them every month. so I found by reading that if you supplement your pets food with brewer's yeast and garlic that fleas are offended by it.
I also picked up natural shampoo as it is good for flea control, too.
so a book is on its way to teach me how to feed my dogs a natural vegetarian diet. I am really excited about it. I picked up some really great vitamins "eNZYmes-Pro". it contains a lot of great stuff:

Multi-Digestive Plant Enzymes

Micro-encapsulated Pre & Probiotics,

Active Antioxidants

Active Natural Vitamins

Active Chelated Minerals

Active Herbs

Active Super Green Food

I love natural living!

coolest jute holder

I have been awaiting the delivery of this for over a year. my dad gave me the coolest christmas gifts in 2006. we thought we'd be moving to indianapolis at the beginning of the year so I left them there. when we realized our move was not going to happen as soon as I'd like, my dad packed these up and brought them down on his visit this past weekend.

check out my new jute holder


it is an old paper holder. how cool, huh? and my cute dad put a little plate on there that says "Tiny Sprouts Est 2005"


as I was packaging today, I looked at that plate
and burst into tears. I love sentimental things.

so irritated!

if today could not get any worse already, I pulled up our itinerary for our cruise. on our anniversary we were to be in nassau. this is specifically why I booked THIS cruise. it was the only cruise that was docked on our anniversary. apparently it was changed. so now instead of laying on the beach in nassau we will be stuck on the ship! not only does it stink but royal caribbean didn't seem to care!

funny dog

today our dog stewart saw a fly and was freaked out.
he ran outside and hasn't come back in since. we found him in the
corner of our fence like this.

a few of my favorite things

my cute friend did a post of a few of her favorite things
and I thought I should do one.

* a shopping day at joann's with no time limit

* crickets chirping at night when there is a
cool breeze and we have our windows open

* postal holidays. it is the BEST. it means I can
stitch all day and not have to worry about making the mail

* fresh flowers

* seeing old people together holding hands. I especially love it when
the grandpa has on plaid pants and a cardigan

* phone messages from my niece

* having uninterrupted time with my best friend
and my sister (since they have kids this is hard to do)

* going to the movies and eating LOTS of popcorn

* vacations with my husband-6 DAYS AND COUNTING!!!!!!

baby update

I saw these cards on a blog today (can't remember which) and I thought they were so neat.
-they look vintage
-they have the inks chocolate and yellow
-they come on textured cream paper
-they are short and sweet

more pillows coming soon!

this is a sneak peek of a new product we will be adding soon!



we actually have about 5 new projects going on right now and I LOVE them! stay tuned, it should be the end of april by the time it is all complete and I have professional photos of it all!

I didn't realize it had been almost a week since my last post. I had family in town the whole week. it was great. my mom was here and we started a lot of projects. that is always fun. I love new ideas and new products to keep everything fresh. at the end of the week my dad and step-mom came for a few days. that was nice as well. it is always sad when everyone leaves. our dogs wander around the house looking for them for a few days and finally give up.

sneak peek II



we leave for our cruise a week from today. I am so excited yet a little stressed. I have 85 orders that I have to ship BEFORE we leave and a full basket of ones that must be completed on the drive there and back. good thing I LOVE my job!

sneak peek III

earth month celebration

we are celebrating earth month with a great special! with any purchase made from april 1st-april 10th (unless our ribbon supply runs out) you will receive a large canvas tote on us. you can find it here



you choose from 2 ribbons. should you want it personalized, it is $12.

we think these bags are great for groceries, target trips, book bags for your kids, gym bag, the list goes on.

this special is only good IF you make an additional purchase. please follow the rules and make sure you add it to your cart!
NOT VALID ON ORDERS PLACED BEFORE APRIL 1ST!