New Blog Head

Don't you just love how Facebook reconnects you with people from your childhood?  Many thanks to Laura for creating a design for the High Cotton blog.  She just updated it recently and isn't it beautiful?!!  I am so very grateful!  You can check out her blog here.

Photography by Nicole Rogers Photography and Summer Barfield.  

Vintage School Desk

You'll never believe what my friend Lacey found at a yard sale!

Check out this amazing old school house desk she picked up for a mere $6!!!!  What a steal!  Somehow she knew that I was looking for one and snagged it for me.  Thank you Lacey!  I owe you big time!

McCord helped me scrub it down before he got distracted with playing with Rocky and the hose. 

And Wade supervised our work from the back porch.

Right now the desk is being used as a bedside table in the kids' room.  I plan to paint the metal portions of the desk and chair a high gloss fire engine red.  I've been inspired by these photos I found on pinterest.  Many, many thanks Lacey for sharing this great find with me!

A Quick Update

We are about 2 weeks out from the due date of Baby #2, and McCord and I've decided to make every day count.  While Bo's at work, we have made a pact to do something fun every single day to really enjoy our one-on-one time before Mc becomes a big brother.  Here are some of the things we did last week:

• go to the bakery and eat cookies
• play and explore at the children's museum
• meet friends at the nearby pond to feed the ducks and baby geese (so cute!)
• finger paint
• ordering pancakes for breakfast at a special restaurant
• meeting Daddy for lunch
• hanging out at the playground

This week we plan to take a picnic lunch to the local gardens, feed the gold fish, and check out the new cupcake shop. Fun, fun!

Here a few pictures of some other things that have been keeping us busy. 

Making a flower arrangement for the bank party.  Thank goodness for lots of inspiring images on pinterest!  It saved the day!

McCord spent Friday night at Poppie and Gee Gee's house (or as McCord calls them Pa and Ju Ju).  They did such a great job of making McCord feel extra-special by taking him to a place where he could feed the ducks and goats.  He even got to visit the fire department and sit in the fire truck!  Of course there was lots of time for playing baseball and golf.  He is becoming such a big boy!

 And remember those firecracker pants I made McCord a week or so ago?  I can't get enough of them so I used the same pattern to make a pair of jams for him.  We're bringing back the 80s!

I've Been Pinned!

Something funny happened a few months ago....I noticed that all of a sudden this little ole' blog was getting lots of traffic on a post I did over a year ago on making a Thanksgiving onesie.  I noticed it jump to the top of the column to the left on popular posts.  I couldn't figure it out, but I should have known that all interesting things (in blog world) come from Pinterest.  Someone found this post and pinned a onesie I made for McCord's first Thanksgiving (in 2010!).  And so High Cotton Handmade made a brief debut on Pinterest.  You can check it out here.

I feel sort of like a celebrity, but truly all the fame goes to the baby turkey.

He'll be available for autographs tomorrow after naptime.

Girls Weekend + McCord

Last weekend my mom, sister, and I had a wonderful time hanging out at the farmhouse where my mom grew up, and McCord loved playing with his cousin Calla who is about his age.  My mom has been renovating the house for the past few years and decorating it with sentimental items from her childhood. Thought I'd share some photos of the interior of the house - the vintage vignettes are so thoughtful and sentimental.  The decor makes it so warm and welcoming.

Memorabilia under the coffee table glass

We worked on this Valentine's craft



...and we made these heart-shaped crayons for McCord and his cousins



And we managed to find some time to do some thrifting.  It was a great weekend!

What A Thrill!

The Fall Festival was exciting, thrilling, and exhausting!  As we prepare this week for Thanksgiving, I can't help but reflect on the day and how thankful I am for the amazing support and encouragement I've received from family, friends, and complete strangers to grow this little dream.  This little girl was one of my first customers and she absolutely made my day.  She immediately fell in love with the green and pink giraffe and claimed it right away.  She walked it over to the other giraffes in the booth so her giraffe could "talk" to them and then she skipped off eager for the next adventure.  What a fulfilling and deeply gratifying experience to see her and others enjoying something I created. 

Here are two shots I took before the doors opened.  Can you believe my sister and I went all day manning the booth without getting a single picture of the two of us? 

For those of you who visited my booth on Saturday, for all of you who have offered words of encouragement, and those of you who have been following this dream of mine via blogland and facebook, thank you. 

I am truly grateful. 

I plan to take a few days off for Thanksgiving and then list a few random items I have left (and some new creations) on my etsy site in time for Christmas.  Stay tuned and I'll announce here first before listing items. 

Guest Bath Inspiration

Just dropping in to share a few inspriational photos I've been stockpiling in my pinterest account for our bathroom reno.  Walls were plumbed last week and our subfloor was replaced today.  We're making progress.

I'm loving shiplap walls, antique dressers converted into vanities, lanterns, and sconces in the bathroom, and small hexagonal tile on the floor.

Sources for images can be found here. 

And this picture made me laugh out loud.

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Remembering

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God of all creation, our hearts are broken over the destruction and loss we remember this day. And we acknowledge, O Lord, that on that day of human carnage yours was the first heart to break. In our remembering, may we stand with those who mourn and those who cannot stop mourning. Through remembering, may we find new comfort in your care. In our remembering, may we be drawn to a new hope for the whole world and may we gain for ourselves a measure of your peace.

You who can turn the shadow of night into the bright promise of a new day, empower us to shape a world marked by ways of life that lead to justice and peace for all peoples. Fashion in us a people who are more ready to grow in understanding than eager to judge those who are different from us. Form us as a people determined to heal wounds rather than inflict them.

We pray at last that you would cultivate such love in us that we may reach out in compassion to all those who are still wounded by the events of that day; and in seeking to heal others, may we experience a love that makes us whole. This we pray in the strong name of Jesus our Christ. Amen

(Source: National Council of Churches, prepared by Rev. Eileen W. Lindner, Ph.D., pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Tenafly, N.J., and the Rev. Jon Brown, a Presbyterian minister and Pastor of Old Bergen Church, Jersey City, N.J.)

This is a prayer our minister shared with us today, and I have been comforted by it and wanted to share it with all of you.

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Today on our morning walk, Bo and McCord and I saw a white dove flying overhead.  I've never seen one before in the wild.  It kept circling overhead and was very symbolic. 

Repurposing a Vintage Coke Crate

I've been in love with these rolling storage crates from Serena and Lilly for quite some time.

But I can honestly say that I don't love the price tag (they start at $88!).  So I repurposed an old wooden Coke crate that was my uncle's by buying just a few items from Lowes. 

Here's how to do it:

This was my crate before adding the wheels.  It didn't get a lot of use before adding the casters, because the grids inside the crate are fixed and I couldn't fit much inside it.  But it's the right size for McCord's cars and figurines, so this will be a perfect way to contain toys in the playroom.

I bought 4 caster wheels from Lowes (1 1/4") {If you live in my area, these are in aisle 19 all the way down on the right} and a handful of screws to fit the size of the holes in the casters. 

  

 Then I placed the casters on the underside of the wooden box and marked where I wanted to drill my holes.

Then I predrilled the holes and installed each caster.  I was able to get away with only securing 2 screws for each caster instead of 4.  This box won't be holding much weight, so I think we'll be okay with just a few screws. 

I had intended to insert the screws at the edge of the box where the bottom and the side meet, but as you can see from the picture below, the wood was bowed out on one side.  This means my screws went all the way inside the box, through the wood, and poked up on the inside.  I was afraid McCord might hurt his hands on the screws poking through, so I put a strip of adhesive felt padding on each set of screws (on the inside of the box).  This is the felt that you can get to stick on the bottom of wood furniture so it doesn't scratch your floors.  Problem solved.

 And that's it!

I already had the box, but all of the hardware probably cost $10, and now we have a great caddy for all of McCord's treasures. 

And while we're talking vintage, check out the new chair I picked up this weekend.  I love her chippy paint and mint greenish color.  I'm not sure what room she will end up in, but for now she's settling in the playroom. McCord's teething right now (molars, perhaps?!) and so we put some miles on the new rocker today - just the two of us - reading books, singing songs, and cuddling.  What a great feeling it is to know that you are a comfort to someone just by being present. 

Today I felt purposeful.