This Joy’s Life

I’m so excited about this mobile that I just purchased for Sydney’s room at The Wonderland Studio’s Etsy shop.  It is mesmerizing, especially at 3 a.m. going on only a few hours of sleep. It twists and twirls so lazily over the crib; I love it! And so does miss Clara. She wants one for her room now, so I think I know what Santa will be bringing . . . I’m even thinking about getting one to hang over my desk. These mobiles are super cool and not just for kids, I’d say!

Oh, and, if you are interested, the I got the prints on the wall in the background through an Etsy shop as well – Cosas Minimas by Blancha Gomez.  They are “Rainy Day”, “Summer Girl” and “Monsieur I.”

I wish I could take credit for stumbling across this lamp at Ikea and thinking that it would look so great in my house! But, alas, it is modern in design and that’s not typically my thing, so I probably passed right by it on a couple visits before it was highlighted over in a post at dooce.com (scroll down for pictures) in Heather’s daughter’s room. Seeing it there, I knew it would be perfect in Clara’s room over the little drafting table she has.

However, our rooms our quite small in our house, not near as big as the room Heather @Dooce has for her daughter and the ceiling fan we have in that room makes adding another hanging light too much and, in truth, unnecessary. I was disappointed until I realized that our “TV” room lacks any built in ceiling lighting and I’m ALWAYS complaining about how dark it is in there. The answer, aside from installing recessed lighting?  Add this great looking ceiling lamp in the corner. Viola!

No more poor lighting complaints from me. Yippy Skippy!

There is nothing going on. Not really. I’ve been nesting like I was in my third trimester, but I’m not even pregnant. Nope, this nesting, I’ve decided, is more like I’m in my third trimester OF LIFE. I think I’m more affected than I’ve realized from the car accident, house robbery and the recent sudden death of a dear friend. It’s left me feeling like there is NO TIME and I’m desperately trying to – I don’t know what – clean out all but my most meaningful possessions that I would want to tell some kind of story about me after I’m gone. The blue sweater I’ve had since high school, but never wear because it is stretched out like a potato sack has GOT to go. No special meaning there, except in the lesson that if it can’t survive the dryer I should never have bought it in the first place.

Though I’m on a self-imposed spending freeze since Christmas (aren’t we all), I have become addicted to Etsy and am constantly looking for items that are ME and reflect where I think my sense of style is today. (Of course, I use the excuse of finding meaningful gifts FOR OTHERS as reasoning to log on and start shopping there.)

I find I’m influenced a lot by Heather over at Dooce, though her style is very modern and I only like to do modern in moderation. I am a Pottery Barn girl at heart. I love that Heather shows us what trinkets make her heart go pitter patter in her Daily Style section and it’s why I started my This Joys Stuff: What Brings You Joy? blog, but I’ve not been very good about updating it. And since I’m on a spending freeze right now, I mostly just saving things to my favorites in Etsy and hope that they sell before I come back and hit the “pay now” button.

Here are some of my etsy favorites at this point in time:

Nebula Mobile, in Kaleidoscope by thewonderlandstudio

Rainy Day Print by blancucha

Kiwi Conundrum (Set of 5 mini-notecards) by time2cre8

Carnival Sampler by Carnival

Deep Blue Bracelet by enticements

2009 Wall Calendar by Sugarcube Design

Soon, I’ll try to share a couple of items that I have hit the “pay now” button on (shhh, don’t tell Chad).

I bought this beautiful 2009 letterpress calendar from the paperedtogether etsy store. The picture portion of the calendar can be seperated from the calendar and sent off in the mail as a card. It even came with envelopes. I’m so excited to give this gift! Can’t wait ’til Christmas Day to share it!

This mouse dish/trivet is one I found on MnMTreasures etsy store. It was a Christmas gift for a cousin who enjoys woodworking himself and with whom I have an inside joke about a mouse, so it was perfect! He seemed to agree because he emailed this picture of it in use.

I did so much Christmas shopping via etsy stores that it is now my go to place for gifts of any kind. The worst part is that so many of the gifts I had shipped straight to the recipients, so I won’t get to see them myself first. But, I did manage to find a few wonderful things for myself that I will be super excited to showcase here and brag to the world about. Go Etsy!

I saw this dress (not the one pictured above) in the Daily Style section of the blogger I’d most like to emulate and LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it. So, I checked out her etsy store suggestions (everything etsy is handmade) and found the dress Clara is wearing above at the CourtneyCourtney shop.

I had to have this particular dress if only as a shout out to my Georgia girl, Allison, who I was reminded on our trip to the Grand Canyon LOVES all things whale:

In fact, we did our Senior physics project in high school on the echolocation of whales. Of course, we got an A.

I’m really loving Etsy and am trying to talk my friend Sandra into putting the jewelry she’s making (which I hope to feature here soon) up on an etsy store.

Etsy, Etsy, Etsy! I heart Etsy!!

*UPDATE: Angela now has an etsy store, yay! If you want one of her AMAZING apron dresses for your own little one, click here to make the purchase!