I lack creativity. I knew it the minute I posted the picture of the bunny with sea shells the week before fall began. And everyone was so sympathetic...just put a few leaves and acorns on the bunny's serving tray and it will look like fall. So I added some candy corn. Doesn't it look festive?
I really have been under the weather with the asthma, going on 9 straight days. You might say that I am lacking oxygen to the brain. What feels real is that I may be lacking a creativity chip. Blogging has helped a little, but I sometimes can't help but think, am I inspired or am I imitating? 
Daughter Emily is in her last year of interior design school. This is the project she is working on now. 
See the gorgeous upholstery job she is working on? Well, not just the upholstery part, she is building the chair as well. I don't suppose we would exactly choose to take on a project like this, but the thing is, she's really having a ball and I am loving the process as well, considering I have never upholstered or built anything in my life.
I watched with pride as she worked on this yesterday. I even helped with the stapling of it {I had never used a staple gun before}.
After she left, I sat wondering about many things. She dived into this project like she does most things. She came home from Joann Fabrics and sat down on the floor and got right to work. I would have pondered the whole project for awhile and taken baby steps. I would have been on my second coat of paint today after carefully letting the first dry all night. That's just how I roll. I still think about that beautiful sewing machine that I bought and then got stuck on the threading part. I joke about it but the thing is...once it's threaded, I feel something is expected of me, that I will expect something of myself, and what if I fail?
The lack of oxygen has really slowed me down. I haven't cooked all week, I love my carry out menu book. Yesterday I was just tired of sitting or lying in bed. I found a box of chicken broth, cooked up some onion and chicken in butter and olive oil, threw in some broccoli, carrots and sugar snap peas and made some chicken soup. Not exactly the traditional veggies, but it worked.
It was delicious. 
Lying in bed last night with my jammies and Vicks on, magazines and dogs all around, I thought about gifts. I thought about talent; things we are born with and things we hone. I am so darn proud of my kids, my heart wants to burst. But I don't give myself credit for the things that I love to do...the things I've learned and what comes naturally. Maybe I will teach my future daughter in law how to cook, maybe I will write a book. Maybe I will thread that sewing machine and make quilts and pillows all winter long. Anything is possible, I have learned that from my children. And I am passing it on to myself.
This picture doesn't look like fall, does it?. Maybe I am suffering from fall overload {or maybe I just haven't unpacked my fall things}, but this little bunny 'man servant'
makes me smile and he is out year round. I have really been under the weather with asthma for the past 5 days. Usually it affects me when I have a cold, but I don't. To make matters worse, my doctor is on vacation and it doesn't seem his partner knows quite how to treat me {or doesn't want to treat me without seeing me, for which he has no time...see what I am getting to here?}. So I am doing as little as possible so I don't get out of breath; reading, watching t.v., and drinking a lot of strong coffee and tea, which really helps me breathe. I also do medicated breathing treatments every 4 hours and that helps a lot. Woe to me.
Son Kevin and his fiance, Mary Clare are supposed to come to dinner tomorrow {if I feel up to it}. I am thinking of making chicken because Kevin is such a meat & potatoes man and I don't know what Mary Clare likes. It would be neat if she was wide open because I have really gotten away from having company for dinner since my mother in law and my good friend Henry passed away. I used to make huge dinners...nothing simple about what I do, and just had the most fun spending all day with the cookbooks flung open and the kitchen a mess. I really have to get to know this girl better. Dinner was Kevin's idea and I think he is more interested in having a good meal then he is in showing off Mary Clare.
We leave for Vegas next week, our yearly trip with the whole gang of couples. I hope I am not sick. I guess I can lie by a pool as easily as I can in my bed. I have gotten away from playing the slots as much as when we first started going. Those tokens just don't seem like money to me. And I have gone from playing the dollar slots to the quarter slots. Now I just need to go out and do some clothes shopping. In spite if the heat in Vegas, the casinos are cold. I usually live in jeans and nice tops unless we are doing something fancy. And I don't know what fancy thing we are doing this year, last year it was seeing Cher. Again, I hope I'm not sick. Woe to me.
Well, this is about all I have to ramble on about today...I'll just be taking it easy and waiting this asthma out. When I feel better, I'll head out to Kohls and Macy's to check out the clothes. I suppose ruffles are still in style. I look like an idiot in ruffles. Woe to me.
Happy Friday! It really has been a beautiful week with just the right temperatures. The leaves haven't changed yet but the sun has taken on that hazy slant that it does when the days get shorter. It is only light out until about 7:00 p.m. and that is about the time that I like to curl up with a good book or a movie. The perfect time of year.
Daughter Emily and I have lost our better halves to Football, so Sunday afternoon we took a ride to Marshall's. I had a gift card from Mother's Day to spend {yes, I know, I can be a bit spacey}. They have so many pretty things for fall and as always, the prices are great. I picked up the little duck in the above picture, just couldn't resist.
I also found this cute acorn there also and it looks good on my table. I put out some fall looking place mats, too. I haven't looked at the stuff I have packed away yet, I'm very slow in all that I do. A little at a time is good for me.
The candles are from Target as well as the little pedestals and they were only $3.99. These will work year round with different colored candles. 
I was really thrilled at Marshall's when I came to the pillow aisle and saw this cute little ruffley guy that matches my new duvet so perfectly. No...I still haven't put it on my bed. The European shams are back ordered until December, but I have decided that I am going to get regular shams which are in stock. So I bought this throw pillow and a cream colored one. I hope it is not too matchy~matchy. My kids think I have gone nuts with pillows.
In honor of Marty's cloche party, I threw in a picture of a floral arrangement I made under a cloche. I'm not joining the party because I have shown this cloche before and I didn't have a post ready with anything else. It's always fun to go to the party and see all the ideas though.
I made this with a bunch of silk flowers with reindeer and Spanish moss all around. There is a little bird somewhere in there, too
Finally, I have some very big news...my son Kevin became engaged Wednesday to his girlfriend, Mary Clare!! We are all so excited. I have known for awhile that he was going to propose. He really did it the old fashioned way...secretly shopping for a ring, asking permission to marry her. He took her out to dinner Wednesday night and then to the North Avenue beach where he proposed under the moonlight. Meanwhile, family and friends waited for them at a little pub called Cork & Kerry, where we celebrated when they returned. I am so excited to have a daughter in law and we all love Mary Clare to bits. Her family is wonderful, too.
Well, this is about all I have to say for this week. I hope all of you have had cool sunshiny days and that your weekend is marvelous!! :-)
I am the Queen of shopping online and this time of year I love to sit with a cup of coffee and browse through my favorite online shops. I think some of the larger ones [Macy's, Kohls, Target...} know me by name. Since I started blogging I have also discovered Etsy shops and am loving those, too. My method is to make a list of all the things I fall in love with, and when the list is long enough, I get out my credit card and shop. That way the boxes seem to come at once in a steady parade and I feel like a kid at Christmas. Last week I did a bit of shopping, stopping off first at Pottery Barn. It's a rare occurrence that I pay full price at PB, but I fell in total and complete love with the blue and cream duvet cover that you see above. This is called the Allessandra.
I keep the color of my walls in my bedroom a neutral cream color so that I can change out the bed linens whenever I want. The pillow shams are back ordered so that is why it's still in the plastic. I can't wait to make my bed. ;-D
Shown below is a really nice heavy blanket I bought for those cold Chicago winters. It's from Overstock.com and it is perfect. Nice and heavy... layered for the winter or alone in the summer. I think it will look nice folded at the end of the bed with the PB duvet.
This is the duvet cover I have on my bed now. It worked really well through the summer with cream colored lace drapes, but I am looking forward to decorating in blues. This duvet is also from Pottery Barn Online where I found it in the clearance section for $99.99. It is named Leslie and since that's the name of my late sister, I thought it was meant to be. 
On the bed I have these two new purchases from Barb at The French Elements. I mentioned the tea towel she made me that was in my last post. You have to visit her for the neatest pillows and tea towels. They are well made and so pretty!
This is another pillow Barb made that I am going to bring to the lakehouse. I love the Adirondack chairs on the beach. And I love the look of burlap.
And this is my last one that is going to look good with the new bedding.
I have one more box of goodies coming from Farmhouse Wares {and you just HAVE to check out this website}. They have everything the name says. I'll give you a peek of that when it comes.
In closing, I want to tell you about a party Lori from Family Trees May Contain Nuts is having on Tuesday, September 14th. it's called the Retro Glamour Shots Party and it's your chance to dig through old photos of yourself from back in the day...glamorous photo's {or at least good pictures of yourself}, maybe even from yesterday. Mine will definitely be b.c., or Before Children. You can get to Lori's blog by hitting the button on my sidebar.
From Layla and I, have a Happy Weekend! :-)
Good morning! Nothing new to report on the home front other than a winner for the Target gift card has been picked {through my random generator, Emily who chose #67, Laurie from Heaven's Walk. Laurie, please email your address and I will mail the card out to you. Thanks everyone for participating. Have a great week!
I have more of my fall decorations out and we are going to just skim through them quickly because there is so much out there to see and to be inspired from. I won't keep you here. The planters above are on my kitchen window sill...pretty fall colors.
A cabinet in my living room is decorated with a white pumpkin, a mercury glass squash and a sweet enamel pitcher holding fall colored flowers. The pitcher is from Farmhouse Wares. This picture was taken at night...
...and this during the day.
These day shots still came out dark as it is early evening and the sun has passed over my house.
Sort of hard to see.
The animals were up to their cute antics this morning so I got a shot of them lounging on the sofa with Abby. Layla is doing her Meer Cat impersonation and Milo is just looking handsome as always!
