One Item, Three Ways

Usually when I buy something for the house, I have an idea of how/where I'll use it, but I also think about other things I can do with it. I like to get my money's worth. And sometimes you just wanna mix things up without going out and buying something new.

I bought a little rectangular plant pot at an estate sale over a year ago because it's the prettiest shade of green ever. I've used it for just about everything so far but a plant. I've re-created a few uses here to give you an idea.

It's held teas in our kitchen (that's my mom's ah-mazing date-nut bread):



I've used it to hold loose photos to rifle through for easy viewing:

And the way I'm using it now, and think I'll continue to use it, at least for awhile, is to hold mail supplies on our coffee table, because that's where I sort mail and pay bills. It houses our address labels, stamps, and pens. (My dad made those pens! How cool are my parents?):

So there you have it. Three uses for one little item. I'd say it was worth the $2 I paid for it.

What's an item you use for multiple purposes in your house?

Linking to:

25 Things to do with Avery

I can't wait to:

• bake cookies
• go for walks after dinner
• go to museums
• have Easter egg hunts
• have pancakes on Saturday mornings
• collect shells at the beach
• have tea parties - real and pretend
• teach her to love animals
• teach her to share
• play dress-up
• have movie nights at home with popcorn
• dance to the ipod - I'm gonna teach her my sweet moves, lucky girl
• get ice cream cones on a hot day
• carve pumpkins
• teach her to be kind to everyone
• go to storytime at the library
• finger paint
• go to the mountains to play in the snow
• go to Disney World
• take a mommy-and-me class
• lay on the lawn and watch for shooting stars
• ride bikes
• pull her in a wagon in the 4th of July parade
• play board games
• take a billion pictures of her

I tell her all the time all the things her daddy and I are going to do with her, and mostly I get a blank stare, but every so often I get a smile. I think she gets all the fun we're gonna have. Or it's gas.

Decisions, decisions

For the past year and a half that we've lived in this house, I've been thinking about what should go above the living room fireplace. Art of some sort or a mirror, art or a mirror...back and forth. After much debate (with myself because, thank the goodness, Mark leaves these matters to me or we'd have car parts everywhere and posters on the walls), I've decided it must be a gold framed mirror. Preferably a shape more unique than circular or rectangular.

Here's the mantle today:


And these are some of my inspiration photos:

I've been looking at yard and estate sales and thrift stores, but no luck yet. I should start checking Craigslist and Ebay. And we're going to the Rose Bowl Flea Market next month, so I have high hopes for that (although things can be wildly overpriced there). I'll find one if it kills me!

The weekend was...

Nothing like I planned. We were going to get a few things done around the house and spend Sunday morning at the farmer's market as usual, maybe grocery shop and do some cooking. Instead, I was in the hospital getting my appendix out.



I woke at 2:30am on Saturday to feed Avery and I had a bit of a stomach ache, but that seemed about right since I had eaten an entire bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs on Friday. But by the time I finished feeding the baby, I was feeling worse. So I went to the bathroom.

Then I went to the bathroom again.

Then I threw up four times.

I knew something was wrong when puking didn't relieve the pain. And by 6am, I couldn't sit, stand, lay, curl up into a ball, nothing. No matter what I tried, death was clearly imminent. So my parents came to watch the little lady and Mark took me to the hospital. They took me right away because I looked THAT BAD, and shot me up with the good stuff so I could at least answer questions and ya know, stay conscious during the tests to see what was wrong.

I knew what it was without all the tests though. The time had finally come. I've been dreading having to have my appendix out since I was eleven and my friend at the time had hers out. Ever since then, anytime I had even the slightest twinge on my right side I thought THIS IS IT! And this time it was.

I'd never had surgery before, and the thought of it horrifies me. Not the surgery itself, because you're knocked out, but the recovery. How much pain will there be? Will I get blood clots that travel to my lungs and kill me? Will I be horribly scarred for life?

So two days post-surgery I'm way more weirded out than I was that day. I think I'm supposed to be changing my band-aids, but I can't bring myself to do it. I'm not ready to see stitches. And I'm annoyed because I was just feeling back to normal after giving birth.

When will the day come that I don't have to plan ahead to go to the bathroom because it takes me five whole minutes to get out of bed?