I like sunshine.  I like snow too.  But the sunshine at the end of the week here has been everything I ever needed, standing right in front of me ….. (Oops.  I’m slipping into Greatest Showman songs.  It happens more often than you would care to know.)

Today is Friday and even though this weekend holds an early Saturday morning away soccer game (which should probably be illegal – DO YOU HEAR ME, YMCA?) I’m still excited for the two days that start with an “S” and represent a change of the regular routine.

 

 

funny

 

If you live long enough every style circles back around.

This time it is fanny packs.

Now.  I understand their usefulness.  Say you’re a contestant on The Amazing race.  Those fanny packs would come in quite handy then.  Sure.  Grab that passport conveniently stowed at waist level.  Hiking?  Sure maybe the same idea.

I personally still do not care to wear one.  They have a purpose, though, in certain situations.  But, please, don’t try to tell me they’re fashionable or cute.

This is a “story” in a current issue of Family Circle or some such magazine that keeps appearing in my mailbox.

 

 

fashionable

 

This week my fashionable is …. a Travelers Rest Here hat.  (I told you I would “officially” share them soon.)

You guys.  This part is so fun.  I’ve wanted to make TRH hats for a long time actually.  Originally I imagined the embroidered patch on the trucker hat look.  And I still do want to try those too.  I’m working on them but the price is higher and the method is more complicated and takes longer and I can’t find quite as many hat options that I like with the lower brim.  (The tall trucker hats that are stiff are not my favorite so I’m holding out for the kind I really want to wear myself.)

 

 

So I started looking at other options.  Which led me right to my town and a talented maker and friend who owns a shop called TR Makers Co.  She makes hand carved blocks (in reverse – my brain cannot even handle thinking about that) and then “stamps” them onto the hat.

She decided to conquer our logo and give it a shot and I had no idea how much I would LOVE the result.

And, for real and even better, I had no idea how much other people would love them too!

I ordered ten hats to begin with, just to see how it would go.  (And because I’m a small business, so I start with everything in small amounts because that’s how I can roll right now.)  I wanted to stay safe and try regular colors so I ordered most in black or blue but I couldn’t resist two red ones tossed in there.  I kept one red one because I liked it.  I think it’s been a week or so and I have already sold all of the rest with requests for more!  What a fun surprise!

They turned out really great – Kristin did a fantastic job – and the hats are wonderfully comfortable and fit well.  I’m placing an order for more tomorrow!  (So hey, if you want to order your own TRH hat, I can make that happen!)

By the way, I took this next picture while I was waiting in the car during soccer practice.  I looked hilarious.  Also, even funnier, my friend Sarah was watching me and laughing.  So there’s that.

 

 

flavorful

 

Last week at group my friend Meredith pulled out this little jar of Trader Joe’s salad dressing.

It was very green and looked like something I would skip over on the shelf.

I can’t remember what we were even eating – I think they were some sort of taco bowls or something.  I just know I added this Green Goddess Dressing and my life was forever changed.

 

 

That’s extreme.

But it was really surprisingly so good.  She left the bottle at the house so I had to later that week on a salad.  And on tostitos.  And today I poured what was left in the bottle on my toasted turkey sandwich.  It made everything taste better.

 

 

faithful

 

I always talk about the little things.  Because I continue to be convinced that the little things trump all the big things.  (Usually.)

Almost to the day,  three years ago, an army of dear friends invaded on our home while we were out of town, in Virginia, at the farm, battling the flu.  They scrubbed floors, washed sheets, painted both the kitchen and bathroom, opened up our shelves, freshened up our entire house and breathed life and hope into our walls and our spirits.

Last week one of those same friends cheerfully and effortlessly responded to my request to bring his drill to community group and to hang up a darling little mug rack.  Brent doesn’t care about charming new mug racks that I find on sale randomly online.  But he does care about meeting our family’s needs – even the little ones.

(Every mug on that rack tells a story.  I like my possessions to share a tale.  But check out that upper left corner one.  I think it’s circa 1994.)

 

 

feels

 

These two.

 

 

Their friendship reminds me of the friendship I shared growing up with their Uncle Douglas, my baby brother.  (A kid who spent his childhood trying to prove that he wasn’t the baby.  Sorry Bro – life just set you up that way.)

These two are best friends but they can also be shamefully brutal to one another.  (Naturally, I prefer the friend vibes.)

They both share the Eibert tooth gap but Pipe inherited all of the family’s freckles.

I love them together, reading copies of Calvin and Hobbes, pretending to be Pillow Saints (you guys, the ludicrous games these two create at night) and playing their own version of every board game we own.

 

 

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