Five for Friday

A few of my favorite things...



Now that I have that song stuck in your head, here are a few things I love...

1. Anything handmade. I've mentioned before, I'm not sure what it is about baby #3 that has given me this sudden urge to MAKE things (I was perfectly content to buy a onesie at Baby Gap before, and never felt like I needed to sew anything onto it!). I decided to try sewing and knitting around the same time, and I must say that sewing gives you much more immediate gratification! My first knitting attempt was a baby hat, and after the fifth time I pulled out all the stitches in frustration, I decided (or rather my husband suggested) I start with something simpler, like a scarf. Good idea. I'm almost done, and thank heaven, because a scarf takes a long time to make, and is pretty boring. Well, you can make it more exciting, but I didn't. One color, garter stitch. I'm getting pretty sick of it and am ready to move on to a baby hat. I only have a month left, though, so we'll see if I finish in time.

2. Teacups. I collect them, and it's fun to see where they've all come from. Some were handed down from my grandmother, others have been gifts, souvenirs from far away (this set was purchased for me in Spain!)...and it's twofold, because I also love tea. And coffee. And hot chocolate. Most warm beverages, really. And I love that it's starting to get cooler and warm beverages are getting more and more cozy.

3. Books. The evolution of my bookshelf would be an interesting one to study. For years all the books were children's books, or education books, having spent my first career as a teacher. Gradually the education books were passed along to other teachers, and replaced with photography books. And now that shelf shares space with lots of creative books on photography, sewing, knitting, embroidery...I wonder how this shelf will have evolved in 5 or 10 years. Hmmm...you can learn a lot about someone based on their bookshelf.

4. Photos. Well, duh. ;) I love that my home is filled with photos of our family - big ones, little ones, museum mounts, frames, refrigerator magnets...I'm always anxious to find fun new ways to display photos. My son loves to look through his baby scrapbook and just the plain ol' photo sleeves albums, where I put photos from his birthday parties, or digital albums from his blog. I start getting bored with the albums I find in the stores, and have my eye on some from here. They have beautiful covers on plan ol' photosleeves albums, some really sweet baby books and even growth charts.

5. Fun blogs. I'm a little bit of a blog addict, I admit. I'll love one blog for a while, and then get tired of it and obsess over another one. Photography blogs, then business blogs, then sewing blogs...Pioneer Woman is always a favorite, I think partly because she always has a little bit of everything, and I just found a new one I'm really into called Creative Mama - I'm liking sites with variety and not just photography, or just sewing, or just business...and leaning toward more variety in my blog as well (although it doesn't seem like that lately with my slew of sneak previews).

This is going to have to be continued, because I have more than five favorite things...