I Can't Keep Up!

 Hello friends!

Just wanted to hop on and apologize that I've not put up any linky parties this week. I'm finding that, as much as I want to go back to my blogging days, I'm just not keeping up very well! I think I'm going to stick to my YouTube channel for now and maybe come back to blogging someday when life is less full! If you're still interested in following what I'm doing, feel free to follow my BookTube channel, My Granny Era. The link is in the button bar above.

Hope you are all happy and well!

Sarah

Pink Sunday #3: My Home Library Finishing Touches

 

Welcome to Pink Sunday! Feel free to link up all your PINK posts below!

This week our family took a spring break from school to focus on rearranging, decluttering, and playing Musical Daughters! One of my sons finished building a bedroom for his sister in our basement so she's moved in there, oldest daughter has moved upstairs to a room of her own, and two youngest daughters have moved downstairs to another room with the fifth daughter. Haha! 

I've been working on decluttering and decorating my library/craft room. I just finished putting up the twinkly lights before I sat down to write this post.

I started putting together this library about a year ago. One of the first things I added was this pretty pink chair and book cart. The Holly Hobbie dolls and pink pillows are gifts from my Mom. 

My Mom also gave me this neat antique mirror. I love the folk art style so I dressed it up with these cute things I found at Michaels a few years ago.

Here is one book corner. This is where I keep my own collection of nonfiction books. Most of the nonfiction books in our home are in the school library area in the dining room for now. 

Here is another book wall. The two shelves on the left house the books I've not yet read and the other two are where I keep my fiction collection that has been read.

I've got one more portion of the room to finish --- this area is where I plan to put my art desk that is currently in my bedroom. To the right of this area are shelves full of crafting supplies. I'll save that for another post.

Happy Pink Sunday!

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The Homemaking Party: Decorating For Spring!

 

Welcome to The Homemaking Party! I've been decorating for spring! I love decorating with birds this time of year --- they remind me of all my sweet babies (that are not so much babies now!) My daughter, Lynzie, made me this little pillow long ago when she was about 11 or 12 years old. It's so precious and I put it out every year.

I don't think I'd ever seen a bluebird before moving to NW Arkansas and now I see them all the time. In fact, I believe one is making a nest in the eaves of my covered porch this year! I don't mind!

Hope you've all had a great week! I'm excited to see what you've got to share for The Homemaking Party! 

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Pink Sunday #2: Silly Pink Things

 

Hi Friends! Welcome back to Pink Sunday where we show off all our pink finds of the week. Feel free to link up below and show off your pink stuff!

Friday morning I picked up some groceries at Walmart and encountered these adorable guitar shaped syrup bottles from Dolly Parton's breakfast food line. Super cute!

These salt and pepper shakers probably were never actually used regularly (they've still got the "magnetic" sticker on them) but they're adorable for kitschy shelf decor!

I also found this funny bunny across the aisle from the shakers. I love these jewel-eyed critters. If you do too, check out my post from Vintage Finds Friday where I feature my adorable Lefton bluebird!

Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend!

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Vintage Finds Friday #2: Lefton Bluebird and a Special Book

Hi friends! It's time for Vintage Finds Friday! Link up your vintage finds and see what others are sharing!

On Sunday, Jamie took me to my favorite antique shop to browse before dinner. Shortly after we arrived, I spied and settled on this adorable Lefton bluebird --- But I didn't tell him that! I wanted to see the rest of the store! haha! 

Look at its beautiful sparkly eyes! I love this so much --- It reminds me of my grandsons with those big sweet eyes. I knew it would be so cute next to my little kitty with the same colors. It's very difficult to find Lefton bluebirds, in my experience. I've only seen two others in person!

As we walked around the store a little more, I found this robin's egg blue bowl and that sealed the deal. I'm going to make some cute fabric bowl fillers to put inside in matching pinks and it's just going to be the most gorgeous display! I love it all!

Last Friday I spent the day with my friend Laura of Harvest Lane Cottage. She gave me this sweet vintage 1935 copy of Anne of Green Gables. So kind! She hadn't even finished reading it, but had a newer copy and knew I loved vintage books. What a generous friend!

Thanks for visiting today! Have a great weekend!

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The Homemaking Party @ Classical Homemaking

Thursday Favorite Things @ Katherine's Corner

Home Matters @ Modern Monticello

Dare to Share
Saturday Sparks

Pink Sunday @ Classical Homemaking

It's Time for The Homemaking Party!

Hi friends! Welcome to The Homemaking Party! I'm excited to see what everyone has to share!

This week has been fun and busy as we have had a productive school week and I've been redecorating for Spring. I'll share what I've done in Friday's and Sunday's posts. 

Every Sunday Jamie and I go out for the afternoon and evening. Usually we just get dinner and snacks and then come home to watch TV. It's the only time during the week that we stop long enough to watch TV --- Haha! This week, though, he took me to my favorite antique shop first. We had such a nice time looking around and I saw so many adorable things I'd love to have! This sweet "Miss Dainty" set was in the same booth as the prize I ultimately ended up purchasing --- I'll show you that tomorrow for Vintage Finds Friday!

Friday night, 13 year old Kynthia made this delicious chocolate mint cake for our Shabbat dinner. It was fantastic --- truly. My mom told me that my great grandma always added an extra egg to any cake recipe. I told this to Kynthia and she made the change and it was really the very best homemade cake that's ever been made in this house! Yum! Grammy was right!

Our Avalon Grace turned 16 on March 1st! Unbelievable! We usually have daffodils in bloom all over the forest by her birthday and we've made it a tradition to go pick them on her special day. This year, however, we'd just experienced a big freeze so we had to postpone. Then she got sick. Finally on Tuesday we were able to go out and gather a bouquet.

I also filmed this reading update for my BookTube channel and talked about what I've read so far in March. You can watch that here: Mid-March Reading Check In.

Those are some of the things that are going on around our home this week. What have you been up to?

Hope you're having a happy week!

Sarah

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Thursday Favorite Things @ Katherine's Corner

Home Matters @ Modern Monticello
 

Happy Homemaker Monday

Happy Monday! I'm looking forward to a fun and productive week ahead. Today I'm participating in Happy Homemaker Monday with Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. Here's what's on my mind today:

The weather.....

    Arkansas weather is so unpredictable this time of year! Last week we were in the 80s, then we had wind and highs in the mid-50s over the weekend. Today we are back up to the 70s. The warm sunshine makes me want to start my garden, but I know better! We woke up to 28º today. Gotta wait a little longer!

Right now I am....

    Preparing for our Patrick's Day celebration today. We do claim Irish ancestry, especially on my husband's side, so we like to have a special dinner: Irish Stew, special Irish cheese, soda bread, and my homemade chocolate mint fudge. It's also a good day to talk about Christian missions as Patrick was a very devoted missionary!

Thinking....

    I'm becoming a bit obsessed with tablescapes and I've been thinking about how I can make our Passover table extra pretty this year.

On my reading pile....

    I'm about 200 pages away from finishing the 860 page mammoth, New York by Edward Rutherfurd. It's been a fabulous reading experience. If you like hearing about books, you might enjoy my BookTube channel, My Granny Era.

On my TV.....

    My husband and I have been rewatching all the 90s episodes of Agatha Christie's Poirot. It's actually kind of amazing the level at which Agatha Christie understood human psychology. Our police officer son recently told us all about the interrogation techniques he is learning---how to make criminals confess without actually accusing them, so we have been picking them out as we watch these episodes. She really was a genius.

Favorite blog post last week (mine or other)....

    

Penny from Penny's Treasures showed off her beautiful spring sunroom. I've always been inspired by the pictures of her gorgeous home!

Something fun to share....

    My daughters, Avalon and Brenna, are currently experimenting with 10 techniques for mummifying apples. I just got back from buying 4 lb of baking soda and a big bag of epsom salts for this interesting homeschool project.

Blog hopping (newly discovered blog)....

    Jeanne from Selep Imaging shared a gorgeous upcycled flower mirror at my Pink Sunday link up. I love her creative use of often overlooked thrift shop finds!

    

On the menu for this week....

    Monday: Irish stew, soda bread, Irish cheese, chocolate mint fudge

    Tuesday: Marry Me Chicken, couscous, potatoes, salad

    Wednesday: Veggie Chicken Pasta, bread, fruit

    Thursday: taco pizza

    Friday: unsure, kids have a church event

    Saturday: most of the kids will be gone so Jamie, Lynzie, and I might have salmon dinner!

    Sunday: taco dip, chips for movie night

On my to do list....

    Today I need to make a couple videos for my YouTube channels, finish decorating for spring, and work on five orders for my Etsy shop.

In the craft basket....

    Besides what I'm doing for my shop, I need to put a drawstring in a skirt I've made. I also have a plan for a craft tutorial I'd like to get up in time for Vintage Finds Friday. We'll see...

Looking forward to this week....

    It's a pretty chill week. I don't think I have to leave the house until Thursday afternoon. I'm looking forward to getting the house all pretty for spring and finishing this good book I'm on.

Looking around the house....

    There are a lot of clutter piles to take care of. haha!

From the camera....

Our oldest son Michael and his family spent a good part of Saturday and Sunday hanging out at our house. When little brother Daxton saw my bed, he said "Night night" and wanted to be tucked in. Older brother Emerson wanted to be included, too, so we tucked them both in. It lasted about 2 minutes but it was long enough to get a picture!

Bible verse, Devotional....

    

Have a great week, friends!

Pink Sunday Linky Party #1: A Visit to SW Missouri and Special Gifts from Mom

Welcome to our first Pink Sunday Linky Party! I created this party in honor of Beverly from How Sweet the Sound who hosted Pink Saturday for so many years! This party is all about showing off your pink things! Anything pink counts!

Early last week I received a box in the mail from my Mom. She included some special books and fabric, returned a few books she'd borrowed. But, the most special part of it all were these gorgeous hot pads she made for me! I love them so much --- they've got such cute fabrics in them and they're huge for all my big family casseroles!

Friday I spent the day in SW Missouri visiting my friend Laura from Harvest Lane Cottage. There is a specific town I love that has so many gorgeous and huge old homes. Here's a pretty pink one.

This poster was hanging in the bathroom of the coffee shop we went to. Cracked me up!

Laura's beautiful tulip tree was in full bloom! Gorgeous!

That's all my pinks for this week! Can't wait to see what you've got to share! 

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Vintage Finds Friday #1: A New Link Party! | Vintage Butter Mold or Cookie Press?

 

Hi friends! I'm excited to be back to blogging with a few new link parties to celebrate! I'll share the details about two of them at the end of this post, but first let's celebrate Vintage Finds Friday!

This morning Lynzie and I headed out to do some errands and get groceries; but first, we stopped in to visit our friend, Christine, at the flea market where she works. I was looking for some sweet little thing to share for my first Vintage Finds Friday and Lynzie pointed out this adorable device.

I love Scandinavian-inspired things in my home and she knew this would fit my style perfectly. The tag attached read, "Vintage Cookie Press." However, the more I look at this, the more I think it's actually a butter press. 

The fit isn't tight enough to actually pour butter into this as a mold, but a ball of partially softened butter could definitely be shaped and pressed with this cute owl design... and yes, I do think it would work great as a cookie stamp, too! What do you think?

Perhaps on a future week I'll share some of the other vintage wooden things I have in this Scandinavian style. For now, be sure to link up your vintage finds below and come back to join me for the following link parties also taking place each week:

Pink Sunday: For years I linked up my pink finds with Beverly at Pink Saturday. Since returning to blogging, I've found that her blog is no longer public. (If someone could update me privately, I'd really appreciate it!) In the spirit of this fun party that was such a core part of my blog, I'll be hosting Pink Sunday. Come back every Sunday to show off your pink stuff --- anything pink counts!

The Homemaking Party: This is my original party that I've hosted for over a decade! Anything related to homemaking is welcome. This party runs every Thursday.

I've missed my blogging friends! I'm looking forward to reconnecting and making new friends.

Have a great week everyone!

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Thursday Favorite Things

Saturday Sparks