Wren's Nest

St. Francis and the Lady

I've had a busy few days of collecting - my newest obsession - the santos! I've recently purchased 2 (reproductions - the antique/vintage ones are a little out of reach for now), though there are some amazing ones here (now I need a reason to go to LA so I can visit that shop).

I got a sweet St. Francis at a great boutique called Queen Bee that's near me. St. Francis is one of my favorites. I went to Assisi in college and it was absolutely the most beautiful and peaceful place ever! I would love to go back.

I also got this lady santos from the same place. She's very pretty and fits into the living room just great.

Off to try to get some things sewn before picking up kids and doing the whole baseball thing for the 3rd night in a row!!

3 Beets and a Carrot

Here are some fun things I've been working on lately - they're all pincushions (but look good enough to eat)!!

Enjoy your Monday!!

Santos

I've recently discovered these beautiful, amazing figures while perusing various blogs and websites. They are called Santos and were used in religious celebrations and parades back in the day. I'm on sort of a big religious iconography (is that a word?) kick right now - looking for items like these, big artistic iron crosses, beautiful tiles a la Sid Dickens, etc. I bought one of those (it's not a Sid Dickens, but it looks similar) yesterday - I'll share it tomorrow. I don't know what it is about all this stuff- it just all seems very cool to me and in the remodeled house, I actually have room to put things like these Santos figures. Here are some that are so lovely I have to share (all pictures used by permission of the shop owners).

This one is from The Curious Sofa in Kansas City - how badly do I want to go to this shop! If you live in that area - lucky you - if not, her website and blog are fantastic and very inspiring!

The Curious Sofa also has this amazing collection of crosses - WOW!

Next is a lovely from Sadie Olive, she has quite a few in her wonderful online boutique (where I am a frequent customer, admittedly).

She also has this amazing St. Francis - I love the little birdie!!

Yesterday, I got my new Ballard Design catalog (I'm also a frequent customer of theirs, though I do really like supporting the smaller, independent boutiques) and they've jumped on the bandwagon - though they are calling their figures "Flemish Dollmaker Forms" - theirs are resin, not wood, but I thought it was interesting. Looks like my Santos have gone mainstream! (Mind you, I still don't actually own one, but I'm hoping!)

Macro Challenge Day 30

It's the last day of the Macro Challenge and, again, what a great time I've had taking these pictures. I know I'll continue experimenting with this setting! Here are 3 pictures I took with my new Lensbaby macro 4 lens. So much fun to play with!

The light wasn't too good on this one - it's on my porch and it was late afternoon, but I thought it was sort of cool anyway, so I made it black and white in iphoto and I like how it looks!

Here is a mosaic of all the macro pics I took during the challenge - it's fun to see them all together.

Day 29

I'm so sad that it's the next to last day of the Macro Challenge. I've really enjoyed working with the macro setting on my camera - it's opened my eyes to looking at things differently. I've even just got a macro lens for my lensbaby, so I'll try that out tomorrow!

Here are some pretty woolies - a sample ring from Blackberry Primitives.

Where Does the Time Go?

Macro challenge Day 28

We just started our weekend and now it's Monday all over again...the whole cycle starts over! Time has been going by so quickly lately - it feels a little out of control and with end of the school year activities coming up and baseball continuing - I don't think this feeling will end anytime soon. Looking forward to some relaxing summer days...

Knobs and Pulls

 

Macros and My Girl

My girl is 11 today! How the time flies! She's quite a young lady - very sweet and friendly and creative. She's also determined and persistent and stubborn (all actually good things, when you think about it- the stubborn part comes right from her mommy). She loves nature, horses and little kids - she'd like to be a teacher and a farmer when she grows up. We're so lucky to have her!!

I thought I'd get my macro shots in today by copying Jen (hope you don't mind Jen!). 

and who wouldn't love to have this hair!! (OK, it's a nightmare to comb, but hey, it looks great).

Happy Birthday Miss Meg!!

Day 23

Macro Challenge Day 22

Being home yesterday with two sick kids, I took a bunch of pictures and will share them this week for the macro challenge. I have found the whole macro process really inspiring - such a great way to look at things around the house.