lawn mowers and photo ops.

Something Christopher and I have never done together, is mow the lawn. We've always lived in apartments. I have memory after memory of my dad mowing our various lawns, up until I moved out. At our river front trailer home, we had a problem with garden snakes, and my dad would accidentally go over them with the mower. Ew. And the lawn mower was always breaking. I don't know if it was the same one we had throughout my childhood, but it was red, and a piece of crap. My mom never mowed the lawn. Only my dad. I never mowed either. To this day, I've still never mowed a lawn. I'm not saying I couldn't, I just haven't. Maybe its time that changes. When Christopher got off work tonight, he went to the self help store (Its like a home depot that you check things out at, library style. Another one of those weird military things that I'm thankful for) and loaded a lawn mower into the car. It was sunny and 88 today. Beautiful weather. I smothered Eleanore in sunblock, strapped some sandals on her feet, and out we went. She wanted to mow like daddy, so we brought out her plastic musical toy mower, and I watched her mow the lawn in her pretty pink dress. Such a lady. I spent the rest of the night thinking about mowing the lawn. I don't mean personally getting up and doing it, but all of the times my dad pushed around that red junker. Hearing a lawn mower is somewhat comforting. I'm sure I'm not the only one. So I did an Etsy search, looking for red lawn mower treasures. I didn't find any, but I did find an orange lawn mower print, by ConstantDreamer good enough to add to my favorites. If you know anyone that holds lawn mowers as close to their hearts as I do, make sure you point them in ConstantDreamer's direction.

Hip to the mom beat.

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Brightly colored reconstructed dresses that come in size Eleanore?! This is probably close to what my own personal heaven would look like. COURTNEYCOURTNEY, based in Chicago, makes fashions for pets, people, and for your home. I don't think I've ever seen such beautiful designs. What makes her pieces stand out the most to me, is that each one is one of a kind. And while people often toss that descriptive phrase around, I think her items should be the dictionary definition. You'd think that in between her job as a full time designer, and doing personal trunk shows for the local mama's, Courtney would be wiped out. When answering the big question about wholesale orders (which I'm sure she gets swamped with), she says, "I am one designer with two hands" ...so classy. Courtney has sold 321 (make that 322!) items since she started selling on Etsy in August of 2007. While browsing through her shop, I'm struck with glee at the sight of an Air Force dress! I've been dying for something like this. See, we happen to live on an Air Force base out in the middle of nowhere Texas. And while we like to show our Air Force pride, we're not the kind of people that decorate our cars with 593 support the troops stickers, or decorate our home with American Flags. We live in America, and most of the time that's good enough for us. I am guilty of sporting an "I heart my Airmen" sticker on the back of my mom mobile. At first it was kind of cool in an "I heart NY" sticker kind of way. But now I think its time to replace it with an "I heart bouffants" sticker. So if anyone sees one of those driving around, let me know!! When you join the Air Force, you're given about 10 billion AF shirts and sweatshirts. They fill up your closet. Literally. And while you don't mind wearing it at first, after awhile it gets old, and they get pushed to the back of the clothing rack. There they will stay until you need to color your hair or paint the walls. Courtney has done what all of us Air Forcers have tried doing, but failed at. Shes taken one of those standard closet absorbing shirts, and transformed it into the hippest baby outfit your base has ever seen. With a purple collar and purple striped sleeves, the toddler that wears it is sure to be a hit with the cart pushers at the commissary. And if you're unfamiliar with the cart pushers... well let me just tell you. So just like any other grocery store, you go into the commissary (which is just a fancy way to say grocery store on base), grab a cart, and do your shopping. Then at checkout, things get a little weird. After you unload all of your groceries and they bag them up, they take your cart away from you, and put your bags into a special parking-lot-friendly cart. ....ooook. So just as you're about to grab it and go, someone grabs it for you. So you think "All right! The commissary is great!". Until you realize that these people work on tips only. ...Crap. And if you're like us, we never carry cash, ever. We use our debit card only. So they get out to your car, open your hatchback, and put all of your brown paper bags neatly on top of your dirty baby blankets and folded up stroller. There is no nice way to tell someone you don't have money to tip them. Now that we understand how it works, Christopher will usually politely tell them no thank you, and push it himself. But if you're a mom, with a past nap time baby, you need that cart pusher, and you need them now. So if you ever find yourself on a military base, headed to the commissary, carry cash. And if you ever find yourself looking for a rockin reconstructed outfit for you, your pet, or your little one, talk to COURTNEYCOURTNEY.

You love raisins.

Who here has seen Better Off Dead? My favorite part is when the glob of raisin filled green goo walks off of Lane's plate. I think that has to be my favorite movie of all time. "Frahnch fries, frahnch dressing, frahnch bread. And to drink, Peru!". Anyways, haha. I met this girl in the Etsy forums last fall maybe? We both had a temporary obsession with those annoying buy and replace games that hog the promotions section. You can't help but get sucked in every once in awhile, know-what-i'm-sayin? How we met is blurry. I just know we both could quote every line from Better Off Dead. And you know how these Etsy friendships start. Someone says something funny or clever that ignites a spark, and then the other sends them a convo to make sure said spark turns into an eternal flame, and then voila, an ETSY bff relationship has formed. I remember one time sitting at the computer, laughing hysterically at something she had said to me in a convo, while Christopher stood at the kitchen sink with a disgusted look on his face. Oh wait, it was jealousy. And later he said "why don't I have any Etsy best friends?". Awww, there there. His time will come I'm sure.

I've been gushing about racheltrouble of course. Her Etsy shop is totally wicked. Everything she makes is totally unique, and I'm not gonna lie, creeps me out! But thats what I love about her items. ...Flashback ...When I was younger, I would spend every day at my Grandma's house, which was big, and I'm almost positive, was haunted. It was a two story house, built on a hill. The front door took you into the upstairs, the back door would lead you out through the basement. Does that make sense? Well the stairs that led to the lower level are what scared me the most. They were in the middle of the house, in what I can only describe as a double wide hallway. And hanging on the wall directly above the stairs, was a golden colored cherub faced wall statue. I don't remember if it held candles or not, but It was long, with and I want to say it did. Every time I'd walk down the hallway, I was afraid the cherubs eyes would follow me. They were always watching me. As soon as it started getting dark outside, I wouldn't be able to walk down the hallways past them, I'd have to run. I think thats what intrigues me so much about Rachel's Black Angel series. It gives me back the feeling I had as a 5 year old in my Grandma's haunted hallway. The Black Angel trinket box that she makes is gorgeous. Theres just something about it. When you were younger, did you ever watch movies like the Secret Garden and wish you had secret places to hide your things? I grew up out in the woods, with no cable tv. We had a river in our front yard, and trees all around us. I would go outside and play pretend for hours, imagining that I lived in a castle and had treasures to hide away from my evil stepmother. Or I'd play Secret Garden, and pretend I had a skeleton key that needed to be kept away from everyone. So when I see this trinket box, I think of that. And just like a little kid, I fantasize about all of the fantastic things I could hide away inside of it. For $12, Rachel's Black Angel Series Trinket Box could be yours. Shes also got some beautiful Black Angel Candle Holders, that come with bleeding candles. How metal is that? The candle holders measure about 4 inches long x 2 1/2 inches up. I can think of a million different places to put these. And seriously... bleeding candles? Somebody needs these. Next time you're looking for troubled artwork, or someone to spice up a BnR, visit http://www.racheltrouble.etsy.com/.

So we're blogging now, or something like that?

Its about time we start a blog. Because boy do we have a lot to say! Who knows what we'll end up writing about. Our new cat, Kitty Bomber, who we adopted last night. Our 1 year old daughter, Eleanore Sue, who is always doing ridiculous things that I'm sure nobody other than us really wants to hear about. And most likely, things that we find online that we wish we had. Maybe we'll toss in some of our crazy vegan allergen free recipes, incase theres someone else out there that has to figure out 893 different ways to eat a leaf. But back to the things that we find online that we wish we had. Might as well start with that right now, huh. So remember 5 sentances ago when we mentioned our new cat, Kitty Bomber? Well we don't have any pictures of her yet, which I bet you dog people are greatful for. Theres this etsy shop that we found the other day while pouncing (we're totally addicted to pounce, in a sick way).SwallowKisses.etsy.com "Tattoo Inspired Accessories for People & Pets". Ugh, I'm sick with cuteness right now. Kitty Bomber so needs that. Click on the picture if you want that as bad as I do.

Customize with your pet's name and frosting color. Letters will be made larger or smaller, depending on the amount of letters. Tags can accommodate 1-9 letters. Name will be written in handwritten cursive, similar to that shown on "Mollie". Tag is suitable for cats and dogs. Tag is approx. 1.5" x 1.5" in size. Collar not included.