Hand Me Downs

** I'm interrupting myself to say...I don't know whether or not you ever read the (In)Courage blog that is in my link list to the left, but if you don't...and you are waiting on something to come to fruition in your life, read today's post. It's simple, beautiful, honest, and thought provoking. Not surprising...a big chunk of it made its way into my journal. Check it out if that's your season of life right now! Okay...back to my regularly scheduled programming. **


I don't know whether or not you're a fan of hand-me-downs, but I have absolutely no aversion to them.

Maybe that's because I did not grow up at the same time my sisters did, so even as the youngest kid, I wasn't forced to wear their leftovers. Maybe that made hand-me-downs fun for me...who knows!?

Last week, the secretary in our office cleaned out her closet and brought me a huge shopping bag full of clothes to try on. I was able to get seven things (some tops, some skirts) for $15 from her! It was like my own little garage sale! (And she buys way, way, way better brands than I'd ever dream of, so even her leftovers are better than my originals!)

And while I definitely appreciated that blessing...it's also a great blessing to get free hand-me-downs. Don't you just love 'em?

This has been a great month for freebies for me!

Mom has a little entry way at her house, and she does a beautiful job of decorating it for every month. She happened to mention to me that she had more snowmen for January than she could fit in that little room. I suggested she build a bigger entry way. (HA!) She said if I could use any of them, I was welcome to "borrow" them and she'd let me know if she needed them back. (We both know she's not going to do that.) So check out some of my new snowmen. Love the way they look!

Thanks, Mom!

And here was my other fun acquisition for January...

On Christmas, I insisted on a family picture. (No one was excited about that, but I didn't care. And I won.) My brother-in-law, Tom, found it rather amusing that I started borrowing recently opened gifts to make a stack of boxes high enough for the camera to rest for my picture. (He has no idea that I do such things on a regular basis at home!) So while I was busy stacking away, he said, "Hey Julie, don't we have a tripod at home that we never use?"

Last week, I came home to find a box on my porch:

It's going to revolutionize my picture taking life. Words cannot express.