My sweet (and talented) cousin has just opened her own etsy shop!
Check it out HERE.

If I was a teacher, or a sylish homeschooler for that matter, I would buy these posters to inspire both science and design. Since I am neither I shall merely drool from my Cube at their brilliance and then shut the browser promptly to remind myself that I am saving for a Subaru damnit.

1. Stoneware Egg Cup - to hold pretty little treasures that little girls are so good at aquiring. 2. Wooden Fishing Play Set - Play it in the sunshine or on a rainy day, girls and boys can both have fun with this one! 3. I am a Child of God - Love this print to prop in a child's bookshelf and remind them what Easter is all about. 4. Crayon Rocks - Spring is here and these beautiful crayon rocks are a fun way to celebrate the art of creation. 5. The Curious Garden - The cover alone makes me want to frame this book up and hang it on the wall, adorable. 6. Baby Forest Animal Set - Outside in the dirt and grass and rocks, these animals need to live along with some imaginative play. 7. Building Game Tree - I am completely curious about this put-together tree and where we might display it.

The latest edition of the online magazine LMNOP was in my inbox this morning.

A quick scroll through the pages and I found THIS puzzle which I am loving.

Pretty sure this is not only beautiful but also educational and really needs to belong to a sweet baby in my life soon... seems like something Sue would especially like!

Paul Ferney's Let Them Eat Cake collection

Jordan of Oh Happy Day is one of my absolute favorite bloggers. Everything she posts makes me smile, which lately has included highlights of her recent move to France and photos of her adorable children - along with amazing design projects always.
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Last year her husband painted these delicious cakes and had a beautiful show in CA. Now he is offering prints for $25 and I'm pretty sure that this might be the perfect cake for my 30th birthday!

THIS is a very fun way to enjoy an apple a day.

Anytime an email subject reads: Thought of You I know its gonna be fun. What exactly does one come across and say either, "How lovely, wouldn't Katie enjoy this".... or the other, "Oh dear, you know what this screams? Katie Schultz!"
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Luckily my sweet friend Kate knows me well, and thought THESE story books from Anthropologie might suite my fancy. She was right! My favorite is The Secret Garden but they're all lovely and would be precious sitting on a dresser atop a pretty little shelf in a pretty little (clean) room!

1. Dresses - You won't be catching this sweet girl in pants anytime soon. She loves a comfy dress ("comfy" being a most important descriptor, not even second to trendy, sparkly or pink).
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2. Art Kits - When Carolyn goes to Target she never asks to go to the toy aisle, but rather the "art section" and she is always enamoured with the art kits to make jewelry or something similar. This fashion kit from MindWare looks right up her artistic-little-alley.
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3. Games - When Julia thinks we should go out for ice cream, or I suggest a trip to the library, C laments "Can't we just stay home and play a game or something?" She is extremely competitive (seriously, its kind of frightening) and loves a good game.
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4. Jammies - She probably shouldn't admit to her classmates that she still loves her footed-jammies but she does. And beautiful princess nightgowns as well. She would live in her pajamas all day everyday if her Daddy would let her.
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5. Fun things to cook with - These are the kind of kits you see at a store like PaperSource or Hallmark and Carolyn always begs to take them home. She doesn't love food, but she does love to make food look pretty.
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6. Legos - This has been the year of discovering the joys of Legos, and they are many. She builds a new house almost daily, and lately she's taken to creating trees and flowers as well.
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7. Books - Carolyn is a budding reader (I'm smiling as I type this, can you tell?)
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8. Art Supplies - Her current art class at the Nelson has taught her all about painting, sketching, modeling and collage. Collage is her very favorite so far.
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9. Decorations - Inevitably I come home to winter scarves strung up my banister, or paper garland adorning the entry-way. My girly loves to decorate and these garland could be used for art projects, too when they're worn out as decor.
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10. Drawing Books - I love these drawing books by Ed Emberley to inspire the creative faces C draws daily.
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11. Shoes - The only prerequisite C has for shoes is that they are pink and spakley, luckily TOMs knows whats up, as well as Target.
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12. Accessories - On a very special day, especially if there will be many photos taken or plenty of eyes to look upon her, C will be sure to grab as many accessories as she can convince her parents to let her wear out of the house. Personally I enjoy the headbands to keep the whispies away.
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13. Watch - Because she needs more accessories... oh ya and she needs to learn how to tell time, too.
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14. iPod (with Apps) - I don't really intend for this to find its way to her Christmas stocking or anything, but man would she love it.

The Ilee letterpress calendar is a must-have at our house. It sits in the office and makes me happy everytime I walk into the room. The 2011 calendar just came out (I know this, you see, because I check back daily to the ilee site starting in early September for the premier!) I think the July lemon is perfect, wouldn't you agree? Must...order...now!

The new Garnett Hill catalog arrived tonight. Jessica and I spent our evening in the dance studio lobby planning outfits for fall. She has a photo shoot with a handsome photographer I happen to know, and we decided boots, leggins and new fall dresses for her girls would make the whole experience perfect.
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If you're thinking fall family photos sound like a great idea, too - I know a great photographer. He's booking up for the fall now, so email me and I'll get you on the schedule. I promise he's more affordable than Garnett Hill clothes!

Silhouettes have been very popular the last few years. Probably prompted, in part, by Stephanie Nielsen when she used to make these for people (pre-plane crash). Even I have tried my hand at the whole process, see HERE.
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However, Tim Arnold a.k.a. "The Silhouette Man" takes this whole trend to a new level. To an artistic level that warrants the "can I have your autograph" feel, which conveniently is included on every print.
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Talk about an amazing piece of original art. I would love to order these for Christmas to replace my mediocre home-made numbers, and to tuck away for the girls to adorn their sweet homes someday not so long from now.

I love the specialty pieces, especially Noah's ark. Just amazing. And the craziest thing, he said the standard silhouette takes about 3 minutes to make. 3 minutes, ya, amazing.

necklace from The Rusted Chain

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I should like very much to give this to my sister. And I should like very much to include a little note with the following as well:

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Those who hope in the Lord

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.

- Isaiah 40:31

Tonight there is much total randomness in my head... I shall share a bit because I am too bumbled and disjointed to put all of this randomness into a coherent post.

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First - my friend Amy told me about these adorable bunnies...very cute. From Inchmark. Amy knows me well: felt + cute stuffed animals to hold keepsakes like baby teeth that cost me a fortune to maintain but consequently fall out of my children's head and into the adorable pocket of a bunny rabbit and thereby making it all alright. Amy rocks.

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Second - This Felt Scandinavian Bag (from Design*Sponge) caught my eye in a round-up from thelongthread. She always find amazing stuff - which speaking of you should check out her 50 Summer Crafts for Kids!

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The whole Scandinavian thing really fit with my book this week - O Pioneers! by Willa Cather. I was so captivated in Cubeville (I listened to it on my headphones) that I almost skipped a meeting, but then I thought better of that plan - that it might make my boss frown, or my mom.

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Then while browsing back over the archives I came across this voicemail from my sweet C - and it made me smile, hope it does the same for you.

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And I saw mention of my name on the Pumpkin Patch, which was really very sweet... though I am pondering her perception that I don't think I'm beautiful... which I don't, but I didn't know it was so obvious... and by beautiful I mean like a model, not like a child of God. Which is one of the tumblings inside my head lately. But seriously thank you sweet Kendra, that was very thoughtful and awesome of you - made my day!

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The handsome one is working late tonight, as he has done more-and-more lately, what with his photos and the launch of his new website (a collaborative effort with him and his BFF Ross... whose website B designed and you can see HERE) - it's all very exciting and I am a happy and proud wife of his efforts finally paying off.

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And finally (are you exhausted yet, cause I've only just begun... just kidding) - I have my eyes on these stamps for house warming gifts to the many people in my life in transition to new abodes. I can't decide which is my favorite, but it is definitely a "need". Seriously this would be useful.

A Kite Festival, soccer game, early morning wedding prep, dress shopping, and a date with the Handsome one and I'm exhausted. B got some great shots of the kites, which I'll gladly share when my eyes are staying open voluntarily - but for now I'll share this sweet 'polaroid-esque' photo my friend Melanie (from Our Family Pics) shot of us at the Festival with her Fujifilm Instax MINI .. which was so fun and handy and of course I want to own now (shocking, I'm sure).

Facebook is in my brain.
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The FB ads told me I would love Mod Cloth Retro Indie Clothing - and I'll be darned if they weren't totally right - LOVE THEM. Consequently I do have about a dozen bridal showers and weddings to attend in the next few months, perhaps I'll have to make one of these little beauties mine.

After work I had to address the 'low oil' light, so I stopped at Valvoline. It's my very favorite place lately, as they change my oil in a friendly type manner, and they will top it off anytime for free afterward. Plus they have great magazines for me to browse as I wait. Today's selection of ESPN, Details, Men's Health, and RedBook were all things I had not yet seen - so I browsed away.

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In my browsing I came upon a link to BeadforLife.org - an organization that creates sustainable opportunities for women to lift their families out of extreme poverty by connecting people worldwide in a circle of exchange that enriches everyone. How cool is that? I love groups that help women in such a positive way. And their handmade beads are gorgeous and affordable. Win-win-win.

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The browsing wasn't all so edifying and inspiring - though I did think the "Hollywood Weight Loss Secrets" was intriguing. And I was baffled by all of the men's magazine covers, and why none of them mentioned losing weight...baffling.

picture by Creative.ly
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Lying in bed, all four in a row, waking up to a Saturday morning...
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C: When I have kids, I'm going to name them Katie and Brandon!
J: When I have kids, I'm going to name them Miles and Joseph
K: Those are nice names...
C: Ok, well, I'm going to name mine Joseph and Jonah!
J: Ok, well...hmmm...I'm going to name my Miles and Jesus AND GOD!
[Beat that]
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And in other random thoughts this beautiful Saturday morning - the world could use more Anthropologie Dish Towels. There's just something about them.

I don't always wear nametags so my kid knows who I am, only sometimes. The learning toys of choice for the evening - Colorforms (oh where have you been all my life, one of my absolute favorites for creating art with a unique and reusable medium) and the See and Spell from Melissa and Doug (yet again with the See and Spell, they're incredibly popular around these parts).

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PS - I hate my lips in pictures, probably in real life too but I never have to look at them there

The girls are loving their Melissa and Doug See and Spell from Christmas. I am loving the progress we are slowly (but surely) making on the office/art space. But there is still a long way to go both on their learning to read and my satisfaction with complete organization...if that's even possible.

Through Amanda Soule's (author of The Creative Family) blog Soule Mama, I found Nova Natural Toys and Crafts. Which I cannot stop browsing through. Fantastic natural toys that encourage learning and are affordable! Thank goodness we have a birthday party to go to in a few weeks, so I had an excuse to make a purchase.
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1. Ping-pong Catapult. The gift of choice for my nephew, what boy doesn't love projectiles? And ping-pong balls make for a perfect projectile at that. ($25)
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2. Tea Set. The girls are all about tea parties lately, inviting all of the dolls and stuffed animals to sit down for a cup or two. ($43)
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3. Little Sailboat. Put it in the tub or a puddle in the spring (ah, spring, how we can't wait to see you again). $14
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4. Window Crayons. Carolyn would go nuts over these. ($14)
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5. Child's Lap Loom. Someday I want my girls to have this, and I want them to wear their bonnets as they loom-it-up. ($39)
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6. Skittles. Why they call them skittles I do not know, but its a bowling set to me and that looks like fun, not as much as Wii bowling fun, but more natural and affordable. ($20)
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7. Pocket Doll. I'm a sucker for sweet tiny soft dolls, and these can fit right in the pocket of a little one who needs a softie to cuddle with. ($6)
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8. All Year Round. A book outlining celebrations throughout the year. A great place to get ideas for family traditions to start, which we always love a good tradition around the Schultz household! ($20)