JUST NOW

I AM JUST NOW WATCHING IT! JUST NOW!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!!!!

idolatry

My pastor said this last night....



"God hates idolatry, but loves idolaters"

It was good stuff.



Pics of city-wide sale finds tonight/tomorrow


Come back and see me!
~Kara

Wedding Inspiration

For Megan @ Wandering Dc

She's one of my blog friends and she's looking for wedding ideas. This is my ten minute inspiration board I threw together. She wants a black/white/red wedding. It's in august so I tried to keep things fun and airy. Enjoy!

Please note, I love the idea of having a silhouette artist at your wedding for your guests!

A-dorable. I also love pomador balls in summer!!

Megan, you may not like any of these (except for the ones you picked) but thanks for a fun use of my time!

Come back and see me!

~Kara

Hi Kara, this is your dream event calling...what's up?

Once upon a time a girl signed on craigslit to search the word "shabby" then the words "kitchen island." When she found nothing she thought, oh I guess I'll see what garage sales are going on this weekend.

ho hum.

Enter perfect craigslist post.

Perfect Craigslist Post: "Hey Kara, check this out ....

HUGE CITY SALE this is the BIG ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (all of st. charles county)
This sat the 27th from 8 am to 12 noon there is a city wide sale going on at the st. charles family arena parking lot! you don't want to miss this one. if you can't find what you are looking for here then it won't be found. there is over 100 vendors with there JUNK which could be your Treasure. come on out. if you park on the family arena parking lot they are charging $5.00 per car ."

Kara: HOLY CRAP!!!!

Perfect Craigslist Post: Do you think you'll check it out Kara? Iit seems like a nice post.

Kara: NICE POST? It's the promised land!

Perfect Craigslist Post: So that's a yes?

Kara: That's a hell yes.

Most likely I won't find anything, but in the meatime, the excitement builds.

Come back and see me!
~Kara

Swoon

Swoon swoon swoon

Dream Home Tour

I'm dreaming of my perfect living room.

It would have a cream slipcovered sofa.....

But it would also have one of these worn in leather sofas too.....

There might be a few of these...

I would walk around in wool socks on these kind of floors....

Then snuggle up under a quilt next to this...

With my feet propped up on something like this...

I'd look at my walls and see something along the lines of this...

Then I'd look up, and somehow see this on the ceiling, making me smile...

There'd be lots of these scattered about...

These too....

I'd look out my big picture window and see this...

And I'd fall asleep reading magazines and sipping cider

What's your dream living room look like?

Come back and see me!

~Kara

It's the most wonderful time of the year....

That song really should've been about fall. I love everything about this season. I also love The Inspired Room. She has encouraged her readers to share 20 little things they love about autumn. So here goes...

1. No more pollen allergies!!!

2. Crisp morning air

3. Seeing all the kids waiting at their bus stops in sweaters, jackets and hoodies

4. Snuggling up under my family quilt

5. Bonfires

6. Hayrides

7. Hot apple cider with cinnamon sticks

8. Apple pies

9. Carving Pumpkins

10. Sunday football with my man

11. Anticipating Christmas

12. Indian corn, hay bails, and pumpkins on the porch

13. Sitting on the porch swing with a sweater

14. Evening walks

15. Pumpkin recipes (roll, cheesecake, bread, pie, LATTE...you name it)

16. Thanksgiving, one of my favorite holidays of all time

17. Puffy vests

18. Shopping for turtlenecks

19. Windows down. Heat on.

20. Thanking God for His beautiful creation, dusted with hues of orange, amber, yellow and green

What do you love about fall?

Or, more importantly, what is your favorite pumpkin recipe?

Or just make pies all day....

If anyone gets the title reference from Patty Griffin, I love you even more than I already did.

Moving on. . .

Welcome to the new "Eye Candy Friday" series. I even made a cute little logo we'll use week to week. Each week will have a new theme.

This week's Theme?

PIE SAFES!! No particular reason for this. Other than I love them, and I want one. Enjoy!

"Fresh-baked berry pies were a seasonal rarity on a pioneer homestead, and they needed protection from small children and other varmints. Cook's answer was a pie safe: a cabinet with tight joints and close-fitting doors to exclude pests and retain enough humidity to keep pies moist, but also featuring tiny, ant and gnat excluding perforations in the door so air could circulate to prevent mold." Motherearthnews.com

My two favorites follow...

If you have a pie safe you would like to show off in your home, if you've made your own pie safe or if there is a pie safe out there you are dying to have, post it! I'd love to see :) And, I'm sure everyone else would too!

And with all of this talk of pie, you may be hungry...

So make this pie with your mom (like I do), or daughter...or son...or alone...

Come back and see me!

~Kara

Lordy what a day...

I spent several hours with a girlfriend of mine at the hospital today. She is pregnant and they thought she may have had a blood clot in her lung, everything is ok. Praise God!!! I got to play babysitter for the day, picking up her two sons from daycare and spending some quality time in the McDonald's play place. Quite the departure from my normal evening of watching tv, home projects, and checkin' in on my blogs!!!

Still no camera, still a dead battery. So THANKFULLY Tricia Anne over at Notes of Sincerity tagged me with the challenge to share "6 random things" about myself.

So here goes....

1. Growing up, I wanted to either be a tour guide or a QVC host as a profession. I would lead my parents on "tours" on vacation. I remember being a child on a trip to Napa giving them all the ins and outs at a winery. That must have been hilarious. I also would video tape myself video taping myself "selling" things from by bedroom on my own QVC show. Yeah, I still kind of wish I had that job.

2. I am an only child.

3. My favorite food in the whole world is the potato. Potatoes are my version of manna raining from heaven. Baked, fried, sweet, salad, frozen, raw (i know). I love them all. I remember sitting out my Grandma's front porch peeling potatoes and sneaking bites of the raw bits. Gross to most, wonderful to me.

4. I religiously get my hair done every 7-9 weeks. I pay way too much, but I could never cheat on my hair girl. I love her. If you live in the STL and need someone wonderful, let me know.

5. I really hate two colors of ink on one sheet of paper. Black or blue people. You just can't have it both ways.

6. I love going to the NHRA drag races.

Instead of tagging more of you ( I love you all too much) ... let's shoot for a comment frenzy.

What is the MOST random fact about yourself you can think of. What a wonderful way to get to know each other a little better :)

Come back and see me!

~Kara

Shopping at Mom's House

I stole my Dad's camera this evening, and thank goodness because I found some treasures in my mom's basement. I think over my desk I'm going to do a mismatch, random display of old pictures, a lot of which will be the ones you see below. I think they will get some new distress-y frames, but maybe not.

I love digging through old pictures, old books, old frames, really anything old. And, now I'm paying for it through lots and lots of sneezes. I don't know when I developed a love for such old stuff, but my mom was telling me today how much she loves that I appreciate our past. Aaahh Chooo!!! Excuse me.

I apologize in advance for the photography, but get a load of this stuff. I happen to find it a-mazing.

Now if only I could find a chair like the one I fell in love with at the store today. Like I'm going to pay fifty bucks for a chair someone just painted...Please, I've learned better from you ladies!

Here we go. Lot's of Pictures, but can you blame me? I've been in picture withdrawal...

Here's a collection of old pictures. See those old books up in the right hand corner? Sitting on top of those is a newspaper about fashion trends from Paris from 1938. Yeah, drawings of girls in vintage dresses, those are getting framed...


This is someone from our family, we aren't quite sure who though. He seems tall!!


This is one of my mom's engagement pictures. I like it with the old wood frame floating around it...


This is a re-print of a school house shot. My great-grandpa is in there...


My parents got this little picture made out of their names when I was four...


Sketches from the Jack Daniel's distillery, apparently they used to give you these suckers free when you visited...


Lil barn in the mountains...


I never get over old books...


Can we say adorable? This is my grandpa's old travel Scrabble set. I see an apothecary jar comin' on...


I'm really excited about this stuff! I can't wait to dig into my Grandpa's old copy of Pride and Prejudice.

Alright ladies, what should I name the tall man? He needs a name! Come on, get creative.

Come back and see me!
~Kara

Finally

No unread items...



Feels good.

Move That Bus!!!

As mentioned yesterday, I was able to go to the taping of the BIG reveal for the Extreme Makeover Home Edition here in St. Louis. It was an AMAZING experience. The house is beautiful, and surprisingly quite modest. This is the smallest lot the show has ever worked with, and the family wanted to make sure their house "fit in" to the neighborhood, so they requested that they not build any taller than the other homes in the neighborhood, but I assure you that house is DEEP. It goes all the way to the back of the lot. I love the house, and I knew my blog friends would too.

I just want to mention that this is such a positive community experience. Every volunteer I spoke with really cared for this family (they have two special needs children). What an amazing example of what it means to have a servant's heart. Did I mention I love this show? Moving on.

Warning!! Lots of pictures to follow, but I thought you guys would enjoy!! So here goes...

There were signs everywhere....


Members of the design team came out to say hello. The guy in blue shirt is the one with an accent....

The house and the crowd....

More of the house. I LOVE the colors, the columns, the stone, there were even beautiful stained glass windows....

The local school, where the family's daughter attends, paraded down the streets with signs and balloons. This is where I started crying...

These kids were SO excited....

Designer Paige, complete with her pink tool belt...

Oh, you may know this guy, he came over to personally say Hi to me. Well, ok, maybe not but still. He was CLOSE....

The family pulls up in their limo....

Ty talking to the family before the big reveal....

Welcome home Martinez family!!!!

I tried to MOVE THAT BUS. It wouldn't budge. No need to focus on my god-given (ugh) hips, but check out the weird bendiness my finger is up to!! What is with that? It's like some sort of elf-finger or something.


Tomorrow, a fun gift wrapping project, and an AWARD from one of my favorite bloggers...ever!!!

Come back and see me!

~Kara

Fall Begins

I'm just settling into fall. Which means it's time for fall decorations. I just got into Fall Nesting last year, so needless to say I don't have much to work with. However, some shopping is in the works....



What are your best Fall Nesting on a Budget tips? It's time for more sharing ladies!

P.S. This afternoon I'm headed to watch the BIG REVEAL for an episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition. I'll be one of those people in the crowd yelling, "MOVE THAT BUS!" I can't wait. Seriously, it's my favorite show. Pictures to follow tonight.

Craving sweets? Pop over to Kara Cooks for a great Nanner Puddin' recipe.

Come back and see me!
~Kara

Because I feel Like Sharing...

Here are all the wonderful reading recommendations I got over the past two days. Now it's time to update my google reader! Thanks to all of those who pitched in on helpin' a girl out with some new reading material. Several of these ladies are already on my "must reads" but I'll include them here anyway because I love them so much! Enjoy! Maybe you all can find someone new as well!!

http://j-a-girl.blogspot.com/
http://thepaintedhouse.blogspot.com/
http://19butternut.blogspot.com/
http://smallplacestyle.blogspot.com/
http://barnhousebh.blogspot.com/
http://deardaisycottage.typepad.com/
http://becausewendisaidso.blogspot.com/
http://themcmommychronicles.blogspot.com/
http://nestingplacenc.blogspot.com/
http://susieharris.blogspot.com/
http://thedavisfamilynwa.blogspot.com/
http://byebyepie.typepad.com/
http://asoftplacetoland-kimba.blogspot.com/
http://www.myfirstkitchen.net/blog/
http://emmafree.blogspot.com/
http://glamlifehousewife.blogspot.com/
http://theletteredcottage.blogspot.com/
http://joysofhome.blogspot.com/
http://heatherjslife.blogspot.com/
http://oldladyinateenager.blogspot.com/
http://craftandfound.blogspot.com/
http://crazydaysandnights.net/
http://www.mattlogelin.com/
http://www.africankelli.com/
http://rosylittlethings.typepad.com/
http://www.masondixonknitting.com/



Also, my friend Aria sent me a link today to Megan McCain's blog about her experience campaigning with her Dad. I love it! It's awesome to see her so excited about and proud of her father!

I can relate. I love my Dad very much. He is devoted God, to my Mom and I, and to serving others. I feel proud of him all the time, and honored to be his daughter. He's also hilarious. As you can see....

Come back and see me!

~Kara