It's been one of those days. I started this post this morning amidst of cloud of chaos surrounding me. I was desperately trying to get some quiet time to drink my coffee and whip up a few words, but interruptions were the theme of the morning. One of those mornings with too much laundry, too many dishes in the sink, too much dog hair swirling around the hardwood floors, too many toddler catfights going on in other room.
Lately, I've been feeling a little overwhelmed with the inside of the house. Maybe because we've been hiding out inside with the air conditioning all week. We've been here since April, so really I should be more patient. But the call of warm weather and swimming pools, gardens and bicycles has kept most of our attention on the out of doors.
But as I look around our place I see little corners where things have been shoved until later "dealing with", rooms that don't have curtains or pictures on the walls, toys that are beginning to overpopulate....And I'm getting really antsy to make the place more comfortable. 'Soft' is a word that comes to mind. I'd love some color on the walls besides white, but that will have to wait. That's Dan's department, but he's focused on lawn-mowing and garden-weeding....
So I'm left to work on the things that I can change....curtains, some children's artwork hung here and there, maybe a throw rug, or some fresh flowers. So many of my favorite pictures and paintings are still hanging in our old house in Wisconsin, mingled with most of our furniture, attempting to make the place look a little lived in while strangers wander through the halls deciding if it will be the perfect new home for them.
So to start, we headed out this afternoon looking for my favorite kind of curtains--twin flat sheets that can easily be stitched up into curtains, but nothing caught my eye. Chaos still ensued--hissy fits over riding in the shopping cart, a lost flip-flop, and a potty training toddler not making it to the potty in time (we were in the stall, just didn't make it on the toilet)--but I guess these moments of pull-your-hair-out-if-my-husband-only-knew-the-fixes-I-get-in-everday- are all part of being a mother. I don't always take them in stride at the moment, but I know they're all part of the package. And I opened the package and I love what's inside, all of it.

Phew. I feel better all ready.
Meanwhile, a wonderful package arrived for me yesterday from the lovely Claudia.

She sent me a sweet package as part of Sally's vintage button swap. The buttons and perfect little box they came in would have been enough, but she also included, some fantastic horse fabric, a beautiful little bag for fall and an oil cloth zipper pouch for my pottery tools. Claudia, if you'd peeked inside my pottery notebook, you'd see one of my last notes is a list of things I need. One thing on my list is something to hold my tools. It's perfect. Just what I was looking for.

And lastly my work in progress for this week.

Seeing all these wonderful appliqued tees and onesies from Blair, and Sally and Stephanie these past few weeks has inspired me to try a few more myself. This time it will be horses. Everything around here is all about horses now that Emma has started taking riding lessons. So horses it is. One for each of them. A nice peaceful, naptime, Friday afternoon project while I wait for a storm to roll through and wipe away the heat.

More vintage button swap pictures: mine and theirs
More works in progress: here