Candy Colored Bullseye

I {heart} this Target commercial - I love it, love it...thinkin' about being it for Halloween. The electric candy colored suits are gorgeous and the acrobats make my heart race like I just ate a pound of coffee grounds. Alouette, the French Canadian {eh} song of choice in the background sets a fantastic mood - the song is actually about plucking feathers from a lark - weird but dreamy.

video courtesy of YouTube

Landscaper's Delight

So Coco surprised me with the landscaping plan for our new home-to-be {ya know, the 50's mid century mod...drool...}. We previously talked about what we would want our new backyard to be like and we came down to {drumroll...} a chicken and a pool. Yes folks, that's all we want in life. A couple of chickens for eggs with a sweet little coop, and a small pool. You can see in Coco's drawing, she placed herself in it with a look of terror on her face because she's actually scared when the chickens run after her, but I call that a good life lesson and just don't let them see the white's of your eyes. Run Coco, run...

Can chickens swim? We'll let you know...

image courtesy of coco

Puff The Magic Clouds

Just think...above those cloud-filled skys outside, this is the view above it. Makes my day a bit better with that thought. I was cruising through pics on my phone and came across this one - I took it on a recent trip to Schenectady, NY {no it was not for pleasure but it did look a lot like the burbs of NC}.

Enjoy the view...

image courtesy of me

Sweet!

These huge Sweet Cakes from Dutch production designer Beerd Van Stokkum are super cool, obviously a cheeky nod to the fantastically beautiful cupcake liners - of course I want a set in pink. You can use these as planters, dog beds, sandboxes, tubs, etc., etc. I envision them on a front stoop with a mound of carnations or daisies in each or better yet tons of colorful plastic balls. Me want...me want bad...

image courtesy of Blomma Finds

My Cup Runneth Over

I love.

Valentine's Day is truly my favorite holiday of the year {Talk Like a Pirate Day is a close second on 9/19}. I'm not exactly sure why, it just is...maybe because it's represented by my favorite color combo of red, pink, and white, maybe it's because I {heart} hearts, better yet I {love} love.

I'm so lucky, I'm filled with love. I love my parents and the fact they've been married for 55 years. As you can see above, my dear dad delivered my heart box full of chocolates.  It's the one thing I can depend on - I bet he has given me that same Valentine's gift for at least 35 years, never missing a year.  That red heart makes my heart swell and I love him beyond words.  I love my three older brothers, Eric, Frank, and Tony; the older we get, the closer we get.  I love my besties - Lani, Trish, Bridget, Ashley, Wanda, Taryl, Luissa.  I love my co-workers, they make me smile and laugh the day away.

I love my daughter, Chloe-Bella, she is simply the best part of me.  She worked feverishly on my huge Valentine's Day card shown above - I could not love anything more.  She makes every single day a better day and I consider myself the luckiest gal in the world as I have the pleasure of being her mother and watching her grow and turn into her own person, her own spirit, her own tender heart.

Above all, I love Him.  God is good.  He has provided all of these wonderful people in my life and I am so completely thankful.

Make no mistake, I do {love} love...indeed, my cup runneth over.

images courtesy of me

Nah Nah Nah Nah Hey Hey Hey Goodbye

I can't believe I'm using this image since it has the dreaded smiley face {gross} but it's perfect for the post.  So over the last week I have been prepping my house for sale as I'm now on borrowed time before listing day; I've worked harder in the last three days than I probably have in three years.  My Type A personality can be a curse when it comes to projects like this, thinking that every single thing has to be perfect which in turn just stresses me out.  Anyway, I'm bidding GOOD RIDDANCE to all the clutter in my house.  I sucessfully took four car loads of who knows what to Goodwill for donation, and when I say car loads, I mean doors busting at the seams car loads...the kind of car loads that you can't see out of any window but the windshield...the kind of car loads that when I opened my hatch, the wide-eyed attendant simply said, "wow."

During this whole process, I thought to myself, "where does all this come from?"  I keep my house pretty cleaned out to begin with, but I could not believe the amount of "stuff."  I cleaned out every closet {which included me donating 2/3 of my wardrobe}, every drawer, every cupboard...it felt so good.  Regardless of whether the house sells or not, each day is better with less "stuff" in my life.  You should try it...and don't forget your tax deductible receipt.

image courtesy of Worldstudio

Moving On

So it's settled, I've decided to put my house up for sale...yes, even in this economy.  After I did my last blog posting I really started thinking about what I want my life to be like in the next five years, and downsizing and simplifying was yet again the answer, among other things.  So, there is no better time than the present.  Therefore, within a blink of an eye I produced a nice long to-do list to get the house ready for the market as my realtor wants to list it by the end of the month.  Apparently the buying/selling season has already kicked off and remember, all it takes is one buyer.  The next few weeks will be quite busy for me and Coco - ok, it will actually be busy for me running around behind Coco telling her not to touch anything and not to make a mess!  It's either that or just plain tying her up to keep the place clean...decisions, decisions...

image courtesy of The Social Penguin Blog