Good for the Soul

First things first, did you see the new 'About Us' page? huh? HUH?!
--If not, you probably should...just sayin'--

Is anyone else creating a garden this year? We're planting some amazing things in the backyard and I simply cannot wait for the delicious results. I convinced my father that we needed jalepeno peppers and cilantro so I can make a giant thing of salsa and can it for later. Can anyone say pan-fried Chicken smothered in pico de gallo? I think I can.

My brother and his lovely wife and twins came over yesterday. We had a really good time together, the kids played and wrestled. My daughter, being the only girl, did not like the amount of wrestling going on. She preferred to scream when tackled. We grilled steak, Mrs. Ginny made some absolutely amazing potato salad, there was bread, there was 'grillin beans', all in all--good day.

Until. Until I wrenched my left hip out of socket. It was one of those experiences that can only be defined as "lightning shooting through your spine" but in this case, it was lightning all over. I did the ice thing, then the pills thing, there was a hospital in there somewhere but honestly, when I woke up late in this morning, I don't remember much of last night. Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude... the colors....

No, seriously.

So a few days ago, I glanced outside and saw what looked like one of the ten plagues of Egypt going through my backyard. It's not locusts or flies or boils and sores; no-- it's bees.
Bees I tell you. Everywhere. I've never seen so many in all my life. According to the beekeeper I called to get them, there were over 30,000 bees in one tree forming a new nest around their queen. The beekeeper (Monna) had to leave and come back because she didn't bring a box big enough to handle them! Could you believe the panic that ensued when she told me that she was going to leave? My friends, I am allergic to bees. Not the deathly allergic kind but with that amount of swarm going on in the back yard..are you kidding? Monna was stung nearly 20 times through her jeans!

But they're gone now, and that is good!

So, as you can imagine not a whole lot of crafty things happened yesterday or today. But I did find a very cool thing while stretching my leg out on the farm:
This was part of the leftovers of the bee hive!

Tomorrow's To-Do List does include crafting, painting, a little gardening, laundry, and playing with my Penelope and Jack. Have a great Memorial Day folks! Celebrate our Freedom and our brave men and women who made (and still makes) it possible!

-Mellissa

Headers and Buttons

I could not sleep last night. It's one of those things where your mind just will not. shut. off. So, I went back into my living room, propped open Coco (my glamorous name for my lappy) and played an episode or two of Grey's Anatomy. I started finding ways for creating pretty, pretty headers and buttons for the blog and I made one!! Most excellent.

**Sidenote: When I am in my 50s and 60s, I will wear my hair long, don handmade crowns and wear purple. . . and let me never forget Midnight Margaritas (could've used one last night!). I found this gif on Tumblr and love it!

As we move along to the quickly approaching weekend, I will be showing new concoctions of delicious proportions and seeing my big brother, Mikey, and his family come in from Indiana.

There's a fantastic little carnival happening at Young's Jersey Dairy, if you are in the Springfield, Ohio area come on down!!

Thinking about doing a tribute box or two to warewolves, thoughts? While you think on that, Warren Zevon shall serenade me: "I saw a warewolf drinkin' a pina colada at Trader Vic's, and his hair was perfect."

Fantastic. - Mellissa

Well Hey, Howdy, Hey!

Hi there! Welcome to the first post of The Original Notions Company!

We're a company straight out from Springfield, Ohio (home of the heartland, dontcha know) working on creating and designing "gloriously fun things" for your home! We love and adore Renaissance, Gothic and Turn-of-the-Century styles, anything French, especially the calligraphy, and we're complete Anglophiles over here. No matter how many times we've seen it, any time Pride and Prejudice or even My Fair Lady comes on the television and all sense of time and space are quickly cast aside to watch people with a beautiful British Accent and gorgeous, I mean gorgeous costumes.

Also have to throw in the Roarin' 20's, Hippies (because we were born in the wrong decade) and Bohemian Loves.

I, Mellissa, work on this company with my Momma, Ms. Genny. We love to craft and craft together. It's like a family thing!

As my mom and I were perusing the crafts store, looking for deals, waiting for projects to sort of shout at us, Mom came up with an interesting idea. People want and need an escape. A little glimmer of fantasy. And whether that be fairy tales, vampires or zombies, you should have a piece of that escape. So, with that in mind we set out for some cool escapee nesting boxes. They're like hat boxes but for all different types of storage!

The first set shall be an experiment for Vampires!

Cute, right??

Just as a side note, even though we use glitter on our boxes--there will be no inspiration of, or hailing to any vampire that "sparkles". We're old school here. **And by old school, I mean we use 200 year old poetry on our stuff and dream of Gary Oldman with those fantastic blue smoked glasses he wore, just sayin'.** -M