Magazines

I have a confession to make. Decorating magazines are like crack to me. Every few years I go on a binge...I can't get enough. I buy as many as I can find and then tap my nails on the coffee table until the next month's mags hit the stands.

In some ways I am a very visual person. I get a satisfaction from witnessing beauty. Art feeds me. Patterns, contrast and color are like condiments spread on the "meat" of the artistic piece; a canvas, a photograph or a computer screen. It's all good...and all fascinating to me.

I can stare at the pictures for hours, and then stare again, never tiring of the eye-candy.  Occasionally I will find an article worth reading, but I really just buy them to look at. I pore over every detail, then I dog-ear pages or tear them out and add them to my file of magazine clippings. Most of the time, I find it difficult to throw them away, because I know I will get the same rush if I look at them again, later. (and I do!)

It's a sickness, I know.

I especially love magazines that zero-in on specific things, like instead of a craft magazine, I'd like a knitting-with-hand-spun-yarns magazine. So when it comes to decorating, of course, I like to buy magazines that feature certain styles. I subscribe to Traditional Home magazine for this reason. I also enjoy magazines like Veranda and Renovation Style. But when I saw a magazine devoted solely to "Lighting",
I knew I had to have it.

I paid for mine off the newsstand, but YOU CAN GET IT FREE! I have provided you a link below, in case you are "quirky" like me and would like to take a look at some of the new concepts in lighting. Sconces, pendants, chandeliers...they have it all! Click the link below to request your free copy.

http://www.americanlightingassoc.com/

Now, let the visual feasting begin!

The List (well, one of them)

I feel like all we have done is remodel this summer. But that cannot be true can it? 

I mean, somewhere in there, we watched MVP earn his yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do.

We took a family day off at a water park and local ice creamery.

 The Princess turned SEVEN! *sniff sniff*

Sugar and Skillet have also been super busy, but I have guess I have no photos to prove it. 

Sugar will test for his blue belt in 2 weeks.

The summer is whizzing by quickly, so it's time for me to make my list. Each year, I make an unofficial list of the things we'd like to do before the kids go back to school. This year, the list has to include mostly activities that are free or cheap (moving is more expensive than I remembered!) 

We want to travel to a nearby town to visit their zoo.

We want to visit a beach.

I want to take Princess to see Ramona and Beezus at the kids free theater.

I want to take the kids' pictures with sparklers using a slow shutter speed and a tripod. Have you seen this technique? Even though I have had almost ZERO time for photography, I really want to make time for this one. Here's an example from the fabulous Lisa Leonard.

I hope you are all having a great time. Do you have a summer wish list?