Top Two Tuesday: Things I collect

I'm not big into collecting things. I like to keep our living spaces as clutter free as possible, so collecting things just to collect wouldn't work for us!

I do have a few things that I can't help buy a lot of though.

Number 1- Dresses.

I probably have over 100 dresses- and maybe 20 shirts. I just love wearing dresses so much more than pants/shirts.

This is about 2/3 of my dresses- it doesn't look like that much, but all of those hangers are filled, so some dresses must have just been shoved behind the others.

And Second, little Swedish decorations. All the ones I have I have bought in Sweden over the last few years whenever I go. A lot of them are from thrift shops that I just couldn't pass up.

 My ' Welcome' signs, and a few class plates. All of these were bought at thrift stores in Karlstand and Stockholmg- except for the blue sign, that was bought here in CO at the Swedish Midsummer Festival up in Estes Park.

 The flag to the left my friends from Sweden brought for our wedding to put on the table where we had Swedish food. The one on the right was a thrift store find. The buy sitting on the wine barrel is def. not Swedish- my dad brought it over from Italy in October. Figured I needed to represent my moms heritage also and not just my dads. (Fun fact- after I got that Italian guy I was watching old episodes of Giulianna and Bill- and they got one for a wedding present just like that from I think her brother or something)

Some more little Swedish guys- all Thrift store finds except for the little santa guys, and the little blonde boy kissing the girl was my grandmother's in Sweden that my dad had me take with me when I left there in January before she passed away. The little tray says "The best that we have is each other" - Love it. It was $2. Story behind the little santa guys-growing up in Sweden we were told about these little tomten (santa) are always in the forest watching us as we were playing all year long to make sure we were being good. My friends and I would go on little tomten hunts, seeing if we could find one, but those little suckers were super good at hiding, so we never did catch one. But we made sure to play nicely so they wouldn't report to santa that we weren't being good! Some people had them in the house all year long- so you even had to behave in your own home because they were watching!! So I have continued on the tradition with our little santa's in the house, watching us all year long.


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Top Two Tuesday: Strange Addictions

When I saw the topic for today's top two tuesday I had to ask my hubby what my 'strange addictions' are, since I don't find any of my 'addictions' too strange. Here's what he came up with.

1. The first thing Drew came up with was 'my weird addiction to keeping my closet super clean'. Maybe this isn't strange to some of you, but I'm not the cleanest person in the world- another HUGE goal of mine- becoming more organized and better at cleaning!!! But he finds the fact that my bathroom can look like a complete disaster and I'm okay with it, but have this need to keep my clothes clean and organized a bit strange.

While I was taking pictures of my closet..this might count as a strange addiction as well- tights. I have a TON. This sadly isn't all of them- when they are all clean and in the same place they take up the whole drawer. But fi I buy another black pair- somebody Please slap me.

2. He claims I'm addicted to 'face and eye crap'- AKA all of my anti- again lotions and eye creams. But that's not strange right? That's just smart. ha. Says the 24 (and a half) year old who gets carded at rated R movies. I've always looked younger than I am- but when I hit 24 for some reason I freaked out and now if I see a cream that says 'anti aging' I have to buy it. Yes, sad, but strange? Not so sure.

Sadly these aren't even half of it, these are just the ones in my bathroom, I have several on my nightstands, the other bathroom, in my purse, my suitcase I still haven't unpacked from Iowa...

3rd. I asked for another one and he said ' that, what you are doing right now'. I have this thing if I'm wearing a t-shirt or sweatshirt I have to pull it up over my mouth. Not sure why- I don't even notice that I do it. It just feels nice. Sometimes this leads to me chewing on said shirt also..kiinda gross I guess, but I can't help it!

Okay fess up, what are your strange addictions?

And we're back..

We got back yesterday afternoon from our week and a half in Iowa.We had a great time with family and friends and an awesome Christmas. It was harder for me to get into the Christmas Spirit this year, as I found out the week before that my grandma in Sweden isn't doing good, and is getting moved to hospice. This has been hard to deal with so far away, and I was trying to get there the day after Christmas- but by then she had taken a turn for the worse over night and is on so much morphine she is pretty much asleep 24 hrs a day. Very sad.

I figured I'd join up with Taylor's Top Two today to get back into blogging after my time off so here it is.

Top Two New Years Resolutions

1. Lose the last 5 lbs. I've been wanting to lose for Ever. We want to have another baby in the nearish future- but before getting pregnant I'd love to lose those last few lbs. To do this I plan on  trying to cut out all pop--eeeek!, drink a lot more water and do 20-30 min a day on my elliptical I bought as a wedding present to myself in November.

2. Get and stay more organized. I'm not a very organized person by nature, but I WANT to be, so I plan on spending some time at the Container Store very soon and figuring out a better system, especially for Jasper's millions of toys.

What are some of your new years resolutions?

Top Two Tuesday:Favorite gifts

Since 24 yrs is a Long time for receiving gifts I'm going to do top two fav. wedding gifts. We got a lot of wonderful gifts- but my favorites were from the people that know us best and are really meaningful.

Number 1- Art mirror w/ favorite Swedish saying. We have a local artist in the town I grew up in Iowa who does Amazing, whimsical sings. Her husband does pottery pieces and the two of them are so talented. I have many special pieces of hers- some bought from the gift shop, some from them as gifts (went to school w/ her son and church with the family) and a couple as gifts from my mom. I have an awesome gift box my mom had her make for me for my high school graduation- its completely one of a kind.

The mirror is so special because my mom had her make it- the colors are beautiful and it's a great Swedish saying on it- it doesn't translate as well in English and it rhymes in Swedish and flows so well- but it's basically about learning lifes big lessons/riddle- how to love, forgive and forget. Again- one of a kind (the artist was at our wedding- and our gift from them was painting with our last name on it :)

Another favorite is a gift from my grandmother and uncle in Sweden- my Swedish friends brought it over (sofie's fiance works w/ my uncle Lasse) and I started crying as I was opening it. She had an artist in Sweden (from the town I grew up in) paint a picture of "us" on our wedding day, which a church in the background, our names and wedding date. It's so special. It's antique looking and just perfect. Thanks Farmor and Lasse!!

And since it's across the wall from the mirror and also special here's another favorite art piece and gift. It's from Drews parents as an engagement present and is a coat rack made by one of my favorite artists- also from Iowa. If you haven't heard of Story People you should google it- very whimsical and amazing sayings on prints.  It says "We sat side by side in the morning light and looked out on our future together". Beautiful saying.