dreaming of summer shoes

I know it’s only mid February but I was flipping through the most recent j.jill catalog and was lured in by these sweet clogs.  I love the details… the thick strap, flower cut-outs and scalloped edges.

What did the groundhog predict again?  (hopefully spring comes sooner than later)

christy beckwith’s whimsy wit

This sweet illustration on the cover of Strut Magazine (a free local Detroit paper for sassy ladies) caught my eye while I was dining at Panera Bread yesterday… and it turns out this talented sister has lots of other whimsy works mixed with subtle humor to offer.

So the story goes… "As a child, Christy Beckwith began drawing on little note pads her mother gave her to keep her quiet in church. It didn’t work. She soon found that she could entertain her brothers by drawing humorous pictures of people in the pews ahead of them. Even though her mother eventually took away the pads of paper, Beckwith kept drawing on anything she could get her hands on. 

She attended Grand Valley State University’s fine art program, where she fully developed her whimsical and subtly humorous style. She graduated in 2005 and began working immediately. Her work can now be seen in greeting cards, a children’s book, a few magazine spots and soon, a line of rubber stamps.

When she isn’t hard at work, Beckwith, who lives in Grand Rapids, spends most of her time with her husband, Chris, and her dog, Pickles."

These are some of my favorite images…

This card says, "ewe rock" 

…and this image helps me imagine that I’m in a warm and sunny place instead of frigid Michigan.

cutting through the blog smog

We’re happy to announce that we are part of the Delightful Blog family.  This helpful directory is full of trendy blogsters writing about interesting affairs.  There are over 1000 blogs listed in over 30 categories including: shopping, art, design, mommy & family and fashion & designers  just to name a few.

Now that you know how easy it is to subscribe to blogs via feed blitz you can start building up your blog library in no time!

Please feel free to comment on some of the new favorite blogs you find…

feed blitz is fantastic

Feed Blitz is easiest way to read your favorite blogs.  Here’s how it works. 

1. Just type your email in that lovely box located in the top left corner of my blog and click the get email updates button.

2.  You’ll get a confirmation email immediately with a link that you need to click to verify your subscription…. and you’re set to go!

3.  Once a day Feed Blitz will check to see if there are any new postings on the catching fireflies blog and if there is, you’ll get an email that looks like this…

It’ll let you know how many new articles there are and have a brief description of what they’re about with a link to the actual blog if you’d like to read further.

You can also sign up to get other blogs this way by typing in their blog address at the bottom of the Feed Blitz home page.  I am currently subscribing to 6 different blogs and just get one email a day with the summary of all the new articles that were posted.  Pretty nifty!

oh… also if you’re worried about spam here is their policy:

"We will never share email address information unless required to do so by a court. We work very hard to ensure that readers are not spammed, thanks to our confirmation process. We also prevent known spambots from filling publishers’ lists with names (fake or real). All removal requests are immediately honored. Readers may choose to unsubscribe from an individual feed or from all of FeedBlitz. They may do so using the links provided in emails sent to them, from the FeedBlitz web site itself, or by emailing support and requesting to be removed.

Bounced and otherwise unresponsive addresses are automatically handled. If you search online you’ll find many people saying "I tried it and have got no spam." Try us for a while and you’ll see that we don’t spam. We have a comprehensive privacy policy that is strictly adhered to."

‘any soldier’ letter

Steve & I just received the best possible Valentine’s present from Tyler Atkinson in the mail. 

Recently I featured a charity website called anysoldier.com where you can send troops serving over seas care packages.

We had no expectations of receiving anything back after sending off some goodies so it really warmed our hearts to find this very thoughtful hand written letter in our mail box recently.

We can’t wait to send out another one… we figure it’s the least we can do to support the troops during all this chaos.

pretty pink packages

Come Valentine’s Day I enjoy selecting a combination of sweet thoughtful things to send to a few of my girlfriends and to my mom and Steve’s mom.  It’s become one of my favorite traditions for a number of reasons….

1. February is gloomy and cold so what better way to warm someone’s heart than with a fun ‘thinking of you’ package?

2. Most people don’t expect to get presents (from their girl friends at least) for Valentine’s Day and I love giving unexpected gifts… they’re just more meaningful to me.

3. I love getting packages in the mail… I have since I was little and I don’t think I’ll ever outgrow the thrill of a box sitting on my front porch with my name on it… don’t you agree?

Some of the things I chose for my gifts this year include ceramic hearts, purse flip notes, chocolate covered sunflower seeds, bulb gardens and lip balm.

Normally I just tie a simple tag on each gift, but when I saw this ‘spin the bottle’ card at Moochie & Co, I had to pick up a couple of them for the moms since they’re both smitten my our pooch Samson.  The inside of the card reads, "Bring on the kisses!"  (I think that bully needs a babe magnet dog tag)

happy birthday morgan & maddy

Our two nieces’ birthday party is next weekend so Steve and I spent part of Saturday shopping for some fun girlie goodies to put together for them. 

We couldn’t resist these punchy pink converse high tops for Morgan.  I added a couple of ‘girl power’ charms from our store’s charm-it it display for a little extra flair.

And we both fell in love with these rockin’ cowgirl boots for Madeline. The inside lining is even pink leopard print!

I enjoyed wrapping up these spunky shoes… after all it’s never too early to appreciate fancy footwear.

For a special touch, I attached personalized wire names to their packages that they can up in their room or window.

my office mates

Sometimes my afternoons at my home office feel like that Ellen DeGeneres commercial for American Express (see below)

Our bully, Samson is always eagerly perched on the edge of the love seat in our office watching the computer screen and Tuesday helps out when I need to maneuver the mouse.  I can’t rely on them for any grand business ideas; however they’re pretty talented at warming my heart.

rare bird finds feature

Rare Bird Finds likes our beer hammer.  "Great gift for that handyman/beer drinker.  Instead of a nail claw, this real hammer has a beer opener."  Thank you Rare Birds!

earthenwood studio feature

Earthenwood Studio likes to do her shopping with us.  Here’s what she has to say, "I have been frantically shopping online to get my gifts ordered while there is time to ship. But I have a few people on my list that I had a hard time shopping for and I thought about this great gallery near me called Catching Fireflies that sells my scent cookies. So I took a trip there today and was able to finish up the majority of my shopping. They have some of the neatest things, a great mix of handmade and novelty items, many of with are very girly. I am so glad I thought of it, because the mall is about the last place I want to be these days…"

A big heart felt thanks to Melanie !