Monday: something to love

Happy Monday everyone!! Only 5 days until Christmas...which means I need to get my Christmas shopping done...yikes!

Unexpected and lovely handmade Christmas gifts...so fun!! This is a necklace made out of a piece of driftwood that my friend picked up on the beach in New Zealand.


Also, I have a special love of fortunes from fortune cookies. If I eat out it is usually Chinese food, and while I don't place much stock in fortunes I do believe that God can speak to us through all things, so sometimes I keep them because of that or just because they are good or funny. These are a few that I have floating around.

multinational scarf collection

A while back I posted photos of my shell collection for a photo competition. One of the collections that I had thought about photographing was my scarf collection. However, I couldn't really think of a good way to photograph it, so I didn't. Since then, though, I have been taking pictures of my scarves when I wear them.

In honor of colder weather, I decided to go ahead and give you a taste of my scarf collection. This is by no means the entire collection. I haven't had to really dig out my heavy winter scarves yet, but maybe soon. That being said, I may end up posting again about scarves, but for now this is a good start.

Both of this lovely scarves I picked up on my trip to New Zealand. God bless the boys for allowing me to do a little shopping.

Hmm...black scarf...not sure where it came from...maybe JCPenny's?

My roommate brought this one back from Malaysia for me.

London scarf...from the store on the corner of my street...I think it was called Fusion.

This scarf came from a little shop on my street corner in London.
And I spy some red TOMS!! :)

This lovely scarf (one of my favorites) a dear friend got for me on a trip to Alaska.

I picked up this red scarf from a street vendor in London.

A dear friend brought this back from Malaysia for me.

Another friend brought this scarf back from a summer missions trip to Uganda for me.

I wear scarves a lot...almost every day...that and my TOMS are my favorite accessories. Be prepared for more random posts about my scarves. Winter is difficult for me because of the cold, but I try to focus on the positive about the season...like getting to wear scarves and drink hot chocolate and decorate for Christmas.

Monday: something to love II

And one more thing to love today.

A while back I entered a photo contest that Sarah from on the brightside... hosted. My collection that I photographed was my shell collection. Well, I won!! So I got to choose something off of her perfectly lovely etsy site. Let me tell you it was a difficult decision...especially since I'm not particularly good at making decisions in the first place. So anyway...this is what I chose.

Thank you Sarah!!

collections

Sarah from on the brightside... is having a photo contest on collections. I thought about it for a long time, because I don't really have any collections...

but then I realized that I actually do. I have a scarf collection (from around the world). I have a shoe collection. I have a mug collection. I have a smile collection (yes, I collect people's smiles in my mind...please don't judge me).

The collection that I decided to photograph, though, is my shell collection. I have shells from all the beaches that I have visited, and I have this glass jar that a friend gave me a while back. So I decided to put the two together, and I now have a jar full of shells that bring back many memories for me.

There are shells in here from the gulf coast of Florida, from the Atlantic coast of Florida, from Manhattan Beach, California, from Auckland, New Zealand, from St. Croix, and a couple of rocks from the shore of Lake Taupo, New Zealand. Every time I go somewhere there is a beach, I pick up a few shells to take back and put in my jar. It's a free souvenir packed with memories...just the kind I like. So here you go...my shell collection.