rosey little things

Go To the New Blog

2008-07-11T18:24:00.000-07:00

Please visit the new blog at http://roseylittlethings.com If you have problems reaching the new site please email me at roseylittlethings@gmail.com! A couple of people have had a problem with the new site. Thanks, Jen

Say Good bye!!

2008-05-20T20:43:00.001-07:00

This is the last post for this site, it has been fun, but I am moving over to http://roseylittlethings.com/blog So change your book marks, links and bloglines! Sorry for the hassle, but the new site is soo pretty!

Bye Bye little Blog!!!

Catching Up

2008-05-13T07:17:00.000-07:00

This may be one of the last posts from this site, the new site is almost done, so exciting!!! I have been bad about posting swaps, so here are all the ones I have done since we moved, and a few vintage finds thrown in for good measure. I am only participating in a couple swaps right now because I really want to focus on getting the new site up and going.

Today is Gab's 11th birthday and I took cupcakes to her class, and ate lunch with her. As I was leaving I realized that was the LAST time I will bring her cupcakes to school, and it made me sad:( We got her a pink adult size beach cruiser and she looks adorable on it, I will post a pic in the near future, she wants to get a basket for it.

A funny thing happened today, I was going to the post office to mail some swaps. I parked and removed the 3 packages from the car and set them on the ground between my car and the car next to me. I was next to this cars passenger side. I got Graham out of his seat and while I was mentaly trying to figure out how to carry him and the packages he is leaning way down and waving to the man in the car next to us and the man was waving back. The man gets out of his car and puts his arms out to Graham and he goes right to him. This man had a black cowboy hat on and reminded me of my Papa, he was sweet. He carried Graham into the post office so i could carry the packages. Why didn't I use the stroller you ask, I was in a hurry. We walk into the post office and the this older lady has a very perplexed look on her face as she stares at this man holding Graham and I walk in behind them. He hands little dude to me and I thank him and off he goes. As the perplexed lady passes me on the way out she nicely says that was my husband, and I said he was so sweet to help me out, and she said" He can be nice once in a while." They had obviously been married for about 50 years.

I sent this swap for Vintage, Shabby, retro.

Sent for FAA Lucky Parcel.

Received for Vintage Shabby,Retro, so pretty.

She hand made these pins! LOVE THEM!!

My friend Shara at Monkeybox sent me this package just for fun, I am excited about the CA Zinnias. It was such a nice unexpected surprise.

Love the vintage fisher price toys, got this one at a garage sale for 50 cents. Graham loves it.

Just a photo of my growing collection of vintage aqua pottery, I just unpacked it and put it on top of the TV cabinet.

Here is the cute black chair I got a few weekends ago for a couple of bucks. The seat needs recovering, but it is sturdy and the shape is darling.

Here is the mantle I got for 2$ at the same sale, it came from an old nursery farm house here in Greensboro, they tore it down and built a school. I think it will become a shelf to hold some of my goodies!

I got this vintage ceramic Christmas tree over the weekend at a garage sale and it was 1$!!! I have about 5 others and this one will be a nice addition to the collection.

I got these vintage music books at a church sale over the weekend, I plan on keeping one and selling the others for all you colagers out there.

This is a swap I received from Heidi over at Spiritual Knitter. We were partners in the vintage apron swap hosted by Mama&Jack. She was only required to send ONE apron and she got carried away and sent a bunch of pretty flowery stuff and the cute vintage apron below.
I sent this for the Pink and Brown swap, I knitted the pink wash cloth.

I sent this for the Fat Quarters Just for you swap and my partner is a blue bottle collector, I found both of these at the thrift.

Here is a pic of all the great goodies I received from Heidi at Vacuuming in High Heels and Pearls. We were partners in the Sweet Goodness Paris swap. I really enjoyed being partnered with Heidi!!!

A close up of the sweet vintage tea cup she sent.

Bath salts for the girls vintage Paris themed bath room.

This is now hanging in th girls bathroom, it looks super cute, once we paint I will post a photo.

Here are the goodies I sent her.

A close up of the vintage scrabble tile necklace I made.

Another close up.

I knitted this market bag for her, it is suppose to stretch and hold a lot. I think it turned out great and it was super easy to make.

Received for Fat Quarters just for your, love the colors.

Other goodies she sent me, so pretty and pink!

Received from 5 things owl finally, Love the pink owl, she is so cute and will take up residence in my sewing room!

The rest of the 5 things.

Pink and brown received, LOVE the little deer, she is going in the sewing room too! My partner made the pin cushion, it is so pretty!

The rest of the goodies.

The fabric made me drool, I can't wait to use it!

This is what it all came in.

Gabby modeling the darling apron my partner made.

All the goodies back in the box!

Off to bed!!

Back From The Beach

2008-05-08T12:05:00.000-07:00

I wasn't planning on being away from the blog for so long, however we got invited to go to the beach with my neighbor Robin. Her family has a beach house in Holden Beach, NC. She invited us Fri., so I emailed Gab's teacher to see what her though of us being gone until Wed. He was not happy about it so I told him we would be back Tues. night so she would be in school Wed.-Fri. He told me that I am persistent and he was glad we came to a compromise. When we got back, Gwen's teacher told her to tell me not to take them to the beach during school next time. Whatever, she is in second grade for goodness sake. Poor Ol' Chad had to leave for Canada Mon. am, so he missed all the beach fun, he gets back tonight:)!!!!

Thursday I took Robin shopping for some new clothes, she literally had clothes from the 80's still in her closet. So we started by going through her closet and I told her what to get rid of, then we headed off to the stores. We had fun and we found her some nice things, she still needs to find a nice dark pair of jeans, some cute shoes , a purse and some undergarments. So there will be another day of shopping in our future. Her hubby called me yesterday and asked if I would go with him Sat. am and help him pick her out a dress for Mother's Day.
I spent Sat. getting everyone packed and I chopped off the girls hair, they both look a lot better. We got up at 7am Sunday and headed out at 9am. It is a 4 hour drive to the beach, and along the way I got a speeding ticket, UGGGGGGG It was a 60mph zone, which no one was going less than 70 in, however I was going 80 because I thought it was a 70 zone. I know 80 is not 70, however you are driving on this wide open freeway, with only trees to look at and I had to pee really bad. Any way , I now have to pay $150. SHEESH I am so unlucky, every time I have ever been pulled over, I have been given a ticket. For example two years ago March, I got pulled over for a stupid failure to yield and I said it's my birthday, which it really was and the STUPID JERK, still gave me a ticket! BTW, 1 mile down the road from where I got pulled over the speed changed to 70, you would think they would give me a warning when they realized I just moved here as I still have dealer plates and a CA license. NOOO such luck for me!

We arrived in Holden Beach at 1ish and we unloaded the car an got in our suits and headed to the beach. The beach was amazing, way different then the Northern CA beaches I am use to. Did i mention, no steep drop off, no sea weed, and no major undertow.The weather was in the high 70's-to mid 80's, which in Nor Cal, in the middle of summer is a slim possibility. Robin was great, she took the girls shelling, ghost crabbing, to the beach when Graham was asleep. We also made a trip to the aquarium. Lots of photos below.
Here is the little digger dude, he looks like he posed for this one~

Could he be any cuter???Here we are! Apparently I need to get to the gym and do some serious ARM work~ Yikes

I have never in my whole life seen so many shells on the beach, they were every where. The girls collected these in the first half hour.

G=-Girls Ghost Crabbing.
Here is my car on the ferry going across the Inter -Coastal Water Way, I was excited to drive my car on the ferry as I had never done that before. All the ferries in Nor Cal are not car carriers. The silly things we get excited about.
Gab looking at a fishy!
Me and the 3 G's on the ferry! Yikes my hair gets crazy at the beach!
Miss Gwenzie-Lou~
Cute baby toes and fingers in the sand.
Big loves for sissy!!
Gwen making a sand castle. She luckily doesn't get crazy hair like her mom!
I might catch a fish if I wasn't so scared of the waves!
Or maybe, I'll try Boogie boarding, oh wait, that requires water entry also! I'll just drag it in the sand.
He loved the seagulls!
More love for sissy!
All the shells we brought home drying so they can go in a jar in our beach themed bathroom!

Close up look!
This is not beach related,just more wild life from the Smith house. This was in the driveway while I was cleaning the shells, is it a centipede or a millipede? Or some other creepy bug??

We can't wait to go back!!!!!

Leapin' Lizards

2008-05-03T18:07:00.000-07:00

Yet another random post about the wild life in my new hood. I did go to a few yard sales on Fri and will post some photos later this week.
I was minding my own business and vacuuming my kitchen when I almost sucked up this little lizard! Chad wasn't home, so I called Gabby to come get it. We caught the little guy in a Tupperware and Gabby decided to call him Fredward Smith.

Here she is holding Fredward.

Mr. Graham though he was big fun too. He kept touching him while I was shrieking and jumping.

Gabby and her friend Spencer went online to see what lizards eat and caught him some worms. Poor Fredward met his demise when our neighbors dog Kasey came and bit him. Poor Gab was very sad, so they buried him under our mailbox, may he rest in peace:)

Hubby's New Toy

2008-04-30T16:56:00.000-07:00

This may not be that exciting to all of you junkers and crafters out there, but I am posting this for fun! We have over a half acre parcel and most of it is grass. Last week hubby tried to mow it with his electric mower, it took him three hours to mow one tiny section. I'm sure the neighbors who all have riding mowers though"look at that idiot from CA with his silly electric mower." SO we lucked out and one of Chad's coworkers neighbors had a couple year old one for sale. So we now have a riding mower, it still took him a good portion of a day to mow the yard! So here he is....

I am standing in the driveway while taking these photos, so you can see across the street from our house is a pretty forest. We see Cardinals, chipmunks, squirrels, a nest with a mama bird and her babies, so much nature!!

Book Critique

2008-04-29T12:36:00.000-07:00

I know it is Tuesday, but I don't have a good top ten. So we will talk about the books I have read instead. Before we moved I read Shopaholic ties the Knot by Sophie Kinsella. This is the 3rd or 4th in the series, there are two I still have not read. You may find this hard to believe, unless you know him, but Chad has read all of them up to this point as well. Yep, my husband reads CHICK books:) I relate to the character in this book, she is goofy and LOVES to shop. However, this was my least favorite book so far. It was still funny and cute, but they dragged out some stuff way too long. I will rate it and (8).

Next book I read was Queen of Swords by Sara Donati. This was the 4th or 5th of the series. These books are sooooo wonderful, and are best if read in order as there are a lot of characters. This series is historical fiction set in the 1800's in New York, however this one was set in New Orleans. If you love historical fiction and want a really super read, order the first one. It takes her about two years to write each one, so patience is required once you have read them all, but so worth the wait. I have lent them to many friends and family and everyone who has read them LOVES them. This one was equally good, and I will give it a 10.

I also read one of JD Robbs (______ IN DEATH) who is actually Nora Roberts, however this is not her normal style of writing, I have read them in order and there are like 30 of them, so I can't remember the exact title. I have Creation in death to read next. This is a great series, there are a ton of them, they are mysteries. They are set in 2050 and are a little futuristic, which I normally don't like, but it is Incorporated nicely in this series. Overall they get an 8.

I just finished Naughty Neighbor by Janet Evanovich, this is now being read by the Hubby man. This was a super quick, light hearted read, great for a vacation or if you have a weekend to sit and read. It was cute and funny as all her books are, however it was quite predictable. So it gets a 7.

Now that we are all caught up on my book reading, we can move on to other topics in the next few days.

Antique Fairs & Estate Sale,& Auctions OH MY

2008-04-26T18:12:00.000-07:00

Friday was the Liberty, Antique Fair, so Graham and I headed out at 8:30am. As we got close to the Fair, there were multiple Yard Sales and a couple of small fields filled with dealers. Of course we stopped at them, and I got a few things. We finally got to the fair at 10:30ish and we had to park soooo far from the gate. I had to push Graham's strolled up a grassy hill and across the grassy parking lot, I was sweating by the time I got to the gate. The fair was big and there was a ton of great stuff, mostly all high prices though. I did get a few things though, Big surprise!

I got this and I LOVE it, it will be going on the guest room bed. Can't pass up beautiful rosey chenielle.

I got this doll house at one of the sales along the way, it was 2$. I remember reading on a blog that the blog owner used these for something cute. can't remember which blog or what it was used for??? But it is cute, so I may use it in the sewing room.

I got this quilt(which is soaking), at one of the sales along the way and the price was good. Then when I got to the fair, just about every both had quilts. I wanted them all. I really didn't need another quilt, but I can't seem to resist them!

I got these pretty dishes along the way. The cream one on the left was a dollar because it has a lot of crazing. I seem to be drawn to this shape, because I think I have about 5 others like this. The light pink one in the middle is pink milk glass, I paid 13$ for it, but I LOVE LOVE it. The dark pink one on the right was a buck also.

These I got along the way also, they will be good for storage in the sewing room. They were a dollar also and they are a pretty peachy pink.

Yep, another quilt. YIKES
This one was only 5$ because it is very thread bare, but the colors are lovely.

I also got an enamel table along the way, which I will post later after I get it cleaned up. Graham was pretty good, however it was 80 degrees out and I was pushing him over lumpy grassy fields until 2pm. The little stinker stayed awake the WHOLE time:( He finally fell asleep on the way back to the car. SHEESH

Today my neighbor Robin and I went junking. We hit about 5 hideous garage sales and were getting a little discouraged. So we decided to drive about 20 minutes out of town to an estate sale. It was way out in the country, and we got to poke around in the barns. I got the green vintage umbrella, the drying rack and clothes pin holder, the stool, the picture and some other misc things. Then we headed to an auction, it was my first and it was fun! I got the super cute umbrella for 2$, the matching chair for 2$ the white metal rack and a black one(NOT SHOWN) 2$, the clothes pin holder and a couple of tins and an aluminum vtg. ice cube tray for 2$ AND the formica table for 2$. So I have bought THREE tables since I have been here. WHO DOES THIS! Now I need some chairs to go with.
I cant wait to take my chair and umbrella to the beach or a game. SOOO cute, comfy too. Robin and I had a good time, people at the auction were asking me if it was my first auction.:)
BTW- Robin took this pic in my driveway, don't you love my red azaleas!

I got these at the estate sale and they gave them to me for FREE. I happen to LOVE them. I may have to duplicate the fabric one.

Hair And Grahams Room Photos

2008-04-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

If you read yesterdays post regarding my HAIR, you will see from the photo that I am still a brunette! SHEESH!!! It is lighter but still no where near the color I want, I so wish I would have had time to see Margaret before I left CA, she would have been able to get me blond!
Here is Mr Grahams room! Now , you must imagine the walls(tan) and ceiling(sky Blue) painted, and his cute blue light fixture. I still need to re-work his window treatments, just not sure what I am going to do with them. I haven't gotten inspired about it! It is a whole lot bigger than his last room, he runs laps around the rug, it is too funny!
The furniture will stand out so much better against some color!
I also want a printers drawer for the wall next to the window so I can put all of his Daddy's vintage cars in it.

Looking Back

2008-04-23T07:48:00.000-07:00

I decided to look back to my New Years Resolutions to see how I am doing. I feel like I am doing ok, I joined the Y last week and Graham and I went once, I am going to go tomorrow also! Maybe next week I can go twice in one week, sheesh. IF my SON would sleep at night it would make my life so much easier. He actually slept last night so maybe we will get two nights in a row. I have lost 10 lbs since leaving CA, only 10-15 more to go!!! If you look at my list, my ebay store was on there, lets change that to my new web site. Not sure how much longer it will be, but my blog and shop will all be in one place. I am hoping it will be up and going in the next couple of weeks. I have been trying to yell less and it seems to be a little bit better. Blogging at least three times a week, I was doing really good until we moved. Now I need to get my act together and blog BLOG BLOG!

I know you are still waiting on the hair photo and new home photos. It is hard to get a photo of oneself when you are the photographer in the family. I am going to the hair dresser tonight for color correction, when I got it cut they tried to put highlights into it to go back to blond, and I looked GREY! So I went back and she toned it and I am still very much a brunette. So I decided to go to a different more upscale hair salon. The last one was a LOL shampoo and set salon, YIKES! Hopefully tonight I will be blondish and can get hubby to snap a photo.

Now to address the house photos, I may show you Graham's room even though we haven't painted yet. It is at least unpacked and I hung up pictures so it looks cuteish. We still need to paint and switch out the light fixture and I need to make window treatments. We are almost done with the stupid family room, we have been painting this ONE room since we moved in, NO it is not a huge room. It is a decent size, but it was SUPER dark paneling and there is a TON of trim to be painted and 4 doors! SHEESH I am hoping we can finish it this weekend and get started on painting the sewing room. I bought the paint yesterday, it is pretty! We had the ceilings scraped in the downstairs, unfortunately we did not do the upstairs, I really wish my sewing room had no stupid popcorn. If I could convince hubby to scrape it this weekend that would be soooooo cool! Tomorrow may be the day for some photos!

Finally Found a Decent Thrift

2008-04-20T06:24:00.000-07:00

Last week I had been to about four different goodwills and they were mostly new stuff, which was weird to me. So, this week I decided to go out and explore, I started driving and along the road I saw a little Thrift shop. From the outside it did not look very promising, but to my delight it was. I will be going there often!!! WOO HOOO!!!

I am doing my basement in a retro 50's atomic lounge theme. So I wanted a formica table to have down there. I really wanted aqua or pink, but I found this at the thrift for 30$ and figured it will go with the aqua, pink and black theme. No i need to find some chairs!

I got these two adorable hat boxes and the man behind the counter was giving me everything for super cheap even if it was marked higher price! I asked him the best day to come back and he said Monday's as MAMA wasn't there. I will be going there tomorrow!!

I have a vintage quilt problem, I can't seem to resist them. This one is in terrible shape, but I think there is enough good pieces to use for craft projects. I got it at an antique store and I prob will not got to that one very often as his prices on everything were really HIGH. I got the cute wooden child's chair at the salvation army, which was pretty good also. It was 4.99 and I will paint it a cute color and then Graham can sit in it when he gets a little bigger.

I got all these lovely vintage pages, ad's etc at an antique store that I will be visiting often as her prices were almost thrift store prices.

I got this cute hat box at the first thrift store and it had a sticker on it that said not for sale and the man sold it to me for a dollar. I don't think MAMA will be happy once she figures it out!

Yes, I realize this is an ash tray, but it is soooooo pretty and PINK, and the nice man gave it to me for super cheap so I couldn't leave it there! Not sure what I will do with it.

Close up of the quilt!

I got these two items at an antique store in Jamestown and it was mostly OP, but this darling little mirror was only 2$. The other thing is a pin and I am going to use the flowers in some of my jewelry making!

Got this lovely vintage pottery at the super cheap antique store, it was 4$ and it is about 5 inches tall. I can't wait to add it to the collection!

This was also at the super cheap antique shop87

Got these there also, the top piece is a table cloth and the one at bottom right is a short outfit that I got for the cute fabric and the bottom left is two pillow cases.

This gold shelf was from the thrift and it is going to go in my dressing room, I am using gold accents!

These darling aprons were at the salvation army, notice the POLK A DOTS!
We went to a couple of garage sales over the weekend and they were not so good, so I was a wee bit disappointed. However this coming weekend is the Liberty antique fair, so we are going to check it out, hope we find some good stuff!

Weekend Update

2008-04-14T11:31:00.000-07:00

Chad got home Friday after being gone all week, which was such a relief for me! So much work taking care of everything by myself. I got my hair chopped off on Thursday, it is cute and I will post a picture as soon as I get someone to take one of me! Saturday we worked on the house, more unpacking, cleaning and organizing. Chad got the basement all set up so Gabby and her two new friends could hang out down there for their sleepover.

On Sat. I went with one of my neighbors to a furniture market shop where you could only get in if you knew someone or had a badge as a designer or a buyer for a store. It was mostly lamps and art work, which were mostly not my taste, but nice and super cheap all the same. Furniture market is twice a year April and October and people come from all over the world for it. My neighbors friend also borrowed passes so we could go into the actual market and look around. It was so huge and so many FAB things, but most places had a minimum, so I got nothing. However my neighbor Robin who is a designer tells me a lot of the places stick their furniture samples out for sale or donate them to the Habitat for Humanity shop, so I am going to go peek around in High Point to see if there is anything I need. I really need a head board and foot board!!!! That is what I did while Chadarella was at home cleaning away! Sat. evening my neighbor Robin invited us over for cocktails on her porch, so we hung out there with Graham for a while. The nice thing was we could see the girls jumping on the trampoline the whole time!

Sunday we went to the "SUPER FLEA MARKET" in the Greensboro Coliseum. I dragged the whole FAM there, which was fine because it was LESS than SUPER. We got through it pretty quickly, so I didn't have to kill and kids:) We bought a really great mirror, and two framed pictures and I got two homer laughlin plates that I love. I looked on ebay and I could probably make up a set as I go. Sunday night the crazyness began. I was unpacking pictures so we can decide where to hang things and where we need to purchase things. While I was knee deep in that Chad says"Jennifer, can you come here, I need your help" He was outside! I went outside and he pointed down on the ground by the garage door and said "what is that"? My house is in the woods, we have no street lights and no side walks, so it was a bit dark and hard to see. It was a baby bunny, he moved the trash can and he heard a horrid scream, I think he ran it over because it wasn't moving. So he hollered inside for Gabby to bring me a box and some gloves. While we were waiting for her we noticed this huge owl sitting in our tree waiting to get the poor LITTLE bunny. Gabby came out with the box and gloves and was freaking out that we had to save the bunny from the owl. So, I put the gloves on and scooped up the tiny bunny and he screamed, which scared me half to death. I put him in the box and we took him inside. At this point the girls are like"CAN WE KEEP IT" UHHH NOOOO!! I called animal control and they are not open on Sundays, so I called a 24 hour vet and they said I could bring him there to be checked out and then they would take him to wild life rehab. He looked to me like his back right leg was broken. This was at about 9pm. So I left him there and hope he ends out being ok!

Here are some photos of the little guy, he was no bigger than the palm of my hand.

Polk a Dot Purse

2008-04-09T19:17:00.000-07:00

Here is the previously mentioned cutest purse in the WHOLE world OK maybe just in my house!

Who doesn't have a photo of their kids with spaghetti face??
Swap I received today, So many pretty things!

Tuesday Top Ten

2008-04-08T20:31:00.001-07:00

It is 11:30 at night and I have to be up at 6am to get the kids ready for school, but I was inspired to do a quick top ten. The idea came to me as I was putting my clothes away in my closet, yep you got it I have been here over three weeks and still haven't unpacked my clothing. LOOSER By the way I only put about 1/4 of them away and decided to Blog instead:)

So the theme of this weeks top ten is........ Top 10 things wrong with my wardrobe

1. If it has polka dots all over it I will BUY IT, I have about 7+ black and white polka dot dresses, 3 red and white polka dot tops, 1 pair of black and white polka dot heels, and as of Today the CUTEST red and white polka dot Patten leather clutch, OMG I LOVE LOVE THIS BAG, I will take a photo tomorrow and show you. There are probably other dotty things that I can't remember since I only unpacked a wee little bit.

2. Is it really necessary to purchase a new dress for every wedding, baby shower, bridal shower, bachelorette party, girls night out, date with the hubby, OK you get it. Apparently I need to go to dress aholics anonymous. At least I can wear each one here and no one except hubby will have seen them before. Not that I have any where to wear a dress to. All in good time!

3. Lets talk about Shrug addiction, I have at least 20 shrugs all different colors and fabrics. Do I wear them you ask? YES, I happen to love most all of them, they go great with the above dress collection:)
4. Shoes are another HUGE problem, I had 90 pairs Oh wait, I bought two pairs in the last couple of weeks. I got the cutest red patten leather T strap shoes at good old ross of all places. They are Steve Madden shoes, so they are decent quality too. Patten leather is a sub category of shoes, I have hot pink, 4 pairs of black, 2 pairs or red, white and possibly another that I am forgetting.
5. My style- what style?? I have BOHO skirts, vintage sparkly 50's sweaters, Hollister Tees, baby doll tops, respectable banana republic clothes, & flowy summer dresses. WHO THE HECK am I??????
6. Handbags-yikes I haven't counted these, but I would guess about 50. Which are equally confused as my clothes, I have coach bags, Nice Italian leather bags, vintage fabric bags, PATTEN LEATHER-4 at least, Purse party bags, & vintage evening clutches.

7. Let's talk about Jeans, I have citizens, sevens, miss me, Rock and republic, lots of Lucky's and a few pairs of express and other random ones. Some of the above mentioned are still in the "skinny tote" since having Little G, but I am going to join a gym tomorrow so they should get to come out just in time for nice HOT weather when I no longer care to wear jeans:)

8. One of my other problems is saving things for longer than I should, I follow the if I haven't worn it in 3 years get rid of it, instead of Get rid of it after one year!

9. Jewelry is an issue as well, I only have a few really nice expensive pieces, But I have a BOAT LOAD of all kinds of really great vintage, handmade, fun costume, and rhinestone jewelry. I am good about wearing most of it! Except maybe the 20+ broaches which are sparkly and pretty and I love them.
10. I guess after reading this post and looking at my closet, I know two things: one I am completely skitzo and a wee bit of a hoarder! I hate the hoarder word, but Graham is crying and I can't think of a nicer term

SO COOL

2008-04-05T19:34:00.001-07:00

My parents discovered the coolest thing, and I am sure many of you will have all ready heard of it or are using it, but it is new and neeto to me. It is a really great FREE service called SKYPE. You download the program from their website, then your friend or family member downloads it and you can call each other for free where ever in the US. The BEST part is you can see each other if you have a web cam. My parents and grandparents downloaded it last week and have been bugging me to do it. I finally did because I couldn't take their nagging any more. We all love it, it is great for the kids to be able to see their grandparents and the grandparents to see the kidos! The only problem is every time we chat I look like H E double tooth picks, thank goodness it is just my family. I HOPE some of my friends will hook up to it also!!!

I haven't posted any photos in a while so here are some of the things I have received in the mail in the last few weeks!
I finally got the monkeys from the monkey swap I participated in a month or three ago! TOO CUTE!
I got these lovely fabrics and yummy chocolate eggs for my birthday from a fellow fabric addict in my FAA Swap Group.
I also participated in another birthday swap, and I got these darling vintage magnets!
This was a swap I received for my favorite things, its hard to see in this photo, but there are yummy wine truffles, pretty pink ultra fine glitter, cute cherry note cards and some cute pink girly napkins and the darling handmade cherry apron.
This was from my Friend Lori in Charlotte NC and she was only suppose to send one thing and she spoiled me, darling vintage fabric, super sweet fabric covered thumb tacks and a vintage vase from Japan.
Here are all the things I received from the birthday swap! See the cute handmade cupcake!!!

I am participating in a Paris in the spring time swap at sweet goodness Swaps
and I am so excited about my partner, it is Heidi at Vacuuming in High Heels and Pearls
she and I love so many of the same things, it should be really fun to put it together for her.
Off to Bed!!

Hello

2008-04-04T17:56:00.000-07:00

I know I said I was going to be better about blogging, but it has been a little crazy still. Graham and I started the week with a really bad cold and slept most of the day on Tuesday. Monday was the girls first day of school and they have to be there between 7:25-7:45 which is way earlier then 8:00-8:15. As of Tuesday they started riding the bus because it picks up at the bottom of our driveway, I love this and so do they because it is social! I have also been doing all my bills, taxes and misc. paper work from moving! UGGG not fun. Thursday my neighbor Robin took me to some really great stores, by the way she is an interior decorator so she has lots of connections. We went to four stores and my FAVORITE was this fabric Store/ware house. IT WAS HEAVEN, it is all decorator fabric and some of it is as little as a 1/2 yard and some as much as 20yards, the best part it is all 5$ or less a yard!!!!! This is the stuff you buy at the fabric store on the big rolls that usually costs 14.99$ on up, and it was nice stuff! I bought 15$ worth and am dragging the family there tomorrow. I want to slip cover my couches for the family room, YIKES that is a big job, but a lot cheaper than new furniture! Today Graham and I went thrifting, no great stores though, I will have to keep looking!

DO NOT TRY THIS!!

2008-03-31T10:52:00.000-07:00

First off, look at the March 3rd post I had saved it and finally posted it and I thought it would be at the top, nope, it is in date order! It is a tribute to all my lovely friends and Family in CA!

Now on to the topic at hand: Thursday of last week was free clinic day at the petsmart vet, which meant there were no office visit fees( I saved 125$, Not sure if it was worth it). So the kids, the two dogs and the NEW Kitten COCO all piled in the car to go to the vet. WOW, what a horrific, hideous, horrendous experience, I would not wish it on anyone. I wish I had had my camera to document the experience, because we had to look funny. Picture this..... Me pushing Graham in the stroller while holding Ruby's leash, Gwen caring her new kitten in a PINK cat carrier, Gabby walking CJ on his leash, I'm sure people thought I was CRAZY!!! We get inside and there is one lady and she has her cat in a carrier, all the rooms are full due to the clinic, so we wait about 30 minutes to get into a room. We all SQUISH into this TINY little room, where we wait another 30 minutes for the assistant to come talk to us and get history of the pets etc. The girls are starting to fight and be wiggly, Graham was getting super fussy, Ruby is whining and acting like a freakazoid, CJ as usual is just chillin. The Vet finally came in after we had been there for about and hour and a half and at this point the girls are being total brats to each other, Ruby is still being a freak and Graham has started to throw a tantrum. When this kid starts to scream, it is LOUD, I mean really LOUD, my sister can attest to this since she dealt with him while he was really sick. Meanwhile the vet is giving the dogs their shots and then it is time to examine the kitten just to make sure she is healthy. The Dr, is trying to talk to me over the screaming child and whining dog and all the other craziness. She says, WOW, this kitten is great, she is purring through all of this, and I said, "Apparently she is meant to live in our crazy house." So after and hour and 45min we go out into the lobby to pay and the girl behind the counter can not get the computer to work right and no one has stopped acting crazy~! While we are waiting to pay the other lady came out and says" my poor cat was climbing the walls" and I said" was it because of all the screaming?" She said yes in a not very nice way, clearly she has never tried to take 3 creatures and 3 kids to the VET, maybe she has no kids?? We finally got out of there after 2 HOURS, I called Chad when we got in the car and said "I need a bucket of Margaritas!"

Here is miss Gwen and COCO!

Southern Hospitality

2008-03-21T16:14:00.000-07:00

After we got the new car, the rest of our journey was smooth, thank goodness.
We finally arrived Monday evening, to our great big empty house. We slept on the floor for three nights until our stuff finally arrived! It was so nice to sleep in my own bed again!!!!
Our new neighbors are FABULOUS. In true southern fashion, we have received a welcome basket of goodies, a fruit basket, a plate of cookies and a chicken pie. People here in NC are very friendly, everyone waves hello as you drive through the neighbor hood, weather you know them or not.
Now that we have internet again, I will try to get back to regular posts, I have some great photos of me and all my wonderful friends that I need to post, and as promised some house photos will be coming soon!

TTFN

Greetings From the Never Ending Road Trip

2008-03-15T22:06:00.000-07:00

The movers came on Tuesday and loaded all our stuff into a 53 foot truck, of which our stuff took up 3/4 of. Chad was horrified that we took up that much space:0 We left Shoreline Dr. at 10 to to go pick up our pooches at the groomer and to get the trailer to tow Chad's car. We finally got out of Napa at about 6pm, which was about three hours past when we had hoped to leave. My good friend Tiffanie came and waved bye to us as we left and she made us a travel gift basket, whit letters to each of us, snacks and candy and books for the kids and even treats for the dogs. We have worked our way through most of the basket by now, this was a great gift for anyone traveling by car. On to the photos!

My little Graham packing for the trip!

You have to really look at this one closely to see what my silly Hubby wrote on one of my many boxes he packed. I have NO idea what is actually in this box, should be fun to open!

Here we are in the U-haul parking lot in Napa. First time towing something with my car.

My kidos and pooches in the car ready for the big adventure!

One last photo of the hills on the way out of Napa.
Gabby, Gwen, Ruby and CJ all cozy on the bed!

The first night we made it to Bakersfield CA, which is not one of the best parts of CA! We got up Wed. Am and went to good ol' Denny's for Brunch, then off to Wal-mart we went for some Dog food. What should have been a quick stop turned into a FIVE hour Sit in the lovely wal-mart parking lot. Basically, the kids and I sat in the car while Chad ran in and we decided we needed air, so we ran the AC while the car was off and we killed the battery. We had 4 different people try to jump us, chad bought a portable charger and finally FIVE stupid, Hideous, Horrid hours later Miguele came and jumped us with a professional thingy. 100$ and 15 minutes later our car was running, so off we went at 5:40 once again.

This is poor Graham asleep in his stroller in the Wal-Mart parking lot. We were there so long I felt like we might have to move in to wal-mart. There were 27 Cameras on top of wal-mart, yep, I counted them! Off to Lake Havasu AZ. We made it there for our second night and it is always a trick finding a dog friendly hotel, but we did.

Here we are in front of the Famous London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, this is basically the only fun thing we have done the WHOLE trip.

The fam walking along the trail in Lake Havasu AZ.

We didn't make it very far, my car was overheating on the way to AZ, so chad checked it out before we left thurs. AM and we were our of coolant, so he filled it up and off we went. No good luck for us, it started over heating right away again. So we stopped in kingman AZ at the Lincoln dealership. Here the Fam sits in the dealership waiting to find out what the HECK is wrong with my car. By the way we arrived at the dealership about 1pm ish and we finally left at 8pm. There was a hole in the radiator. While we were waiting for the car to get fixed Gab and I snuck out to look at the cars, and they happend to have a nice Pearly white 05 Navigator, which is 5 years newer than the Green Navigator. Yep, we bought it and I LOVE it!!!! We were at the dealership so long we had to sponge bath the kids in the bathroom before we left to freshen them up, which once again was making me feel a little homeless. Don't forget we have a super wiggly one year old and 2 DOGS! Yikes We ended up staying that night in Flagstaff AZ, we though we might never make it out of the state.

Here we are Fri am in yet another Wal-mart parking lot. That is my pretty new car, Chad thiks we look a little dorky with two white cars, OH WELL! This stop ended up taking 40 minutes because the dogs knocked over the cooler while we were inside and spilled H2O on the floor so we had to soak it all up before we could leave. We ended up driving all the way through New Mexico, Texas and we stopped for the night in some small city just over the border in Oaklahoma. We had planned on staying in Amarillo TX but they were all booked up due to some stupid basketball tournament.

This afternoon we stopped in at the Pig Out Palace to use the potty and stretch out legs, so here are the kids with the cute pigs they had out front.

Good night from Little Rock Arkansas!!!

Packing Break

2008-03-05T21:52:00.000-08:00

I am taking a break from packing so I thought I would update my neglected little blog! If you didn't read the last post, we are moving NEXT Tuesday. Obviously we found a house. It is in Jamestown NC. Being the CA girl that I am, I LOVE that this house is brick. For those of you Non Californians who see the brick homes all the time, you have to understand they are very few in CA due to Earth Quakes. This house was built in 1974 the same year as me:) I stole a photo off the real estate listing of the front of the house. The property is over half an acre and a lot of that is grass. Which means Hubby may have to give up the ol' electric lawn mower and trade up for a riding one, or it might take all day just to mow the lawns. We have a lot of work to do on the inside, a lot of painting, and some updating. It will take us awhile to do as the house is 3800 sq feet and all the walls are white. I am really excited to have a bigger kitchen!!! As we complete projects, I will post before and after photos. I am excited about the great potential this home has and can't wait to get my hands on it! Tomorrow is my birthday and my friends Annie, Heidi and Donna are bringing me birthday breakfast and helping me pack, it should be fun and productive!

We have a move date

2008-03-04T21:32:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to let you know we are moving ONE WEEK from TODAY! YIKES. I have so much to blog about but no time, so It may be a bit before I am back with new info! We got a house and I will have some great before and after photos. Back to packing!

Good Friends & Family

2008-03-03T09:32:00.000-08:00

I finally had a few minutes to upload a lot of the photos I took with friends and family before we left CA! I don't have one of my vintage girls because Miss Heidi hasn't emailed it to me yet!
I miss you all and hope you will come visit SOON!

Me and Lori

Me and Meegs

Me, Aunt Lori, Mommy, Sister and Papa

Me and Jenny Karbo, we have been friends since 8th grade!!!

Jenny L and baby Emma, Nancy, Melissa and me at the park in Sonoma CA. We have all been friends since Jr High also.

Henry, Landon and Graham at the park in Sonoma CA.

Uncle Gabe and Gabby!

Wendy and Gabby. I have been friends with Wendy since 7th Grade and she is coming to stay for two weeks in may! YIPPEEEE

My adopted Napa family- Grammy, Karen, Jenny M, and Wendy. We have been friends for the last 7 years.

Jenny and me.

Me and Wendy M.

Karen and Me.

Grammy and me.

Moms from the girls school. Top left Heidi, Me, Sarah, Amy, Jackie and Nancy.

Amy and I.
Heidi and I.
Me and my SIS!
Sarah and I.
Nancy and I.
Jackie and I.
Tiffanie and I.
Me and Molly!
Me and Megan.
Me and Kelly.
Me and Kellie
All my friends from dance class, poor gina got cut off!
Me and Lisa!
Andrea and I!

Thursday Top Ten

2008-02-28T08:59:00.000-08:00

The top ten for this week is a double feature: Top ten things I will miss about CA and Top Ten things I will Like about living in NC.

CA
1. I will miss my family and all of our family gatherings:(
2. I will miss all of my wonderful friends. All my friends from Jr high and high school, all the moms from the girl's school, all the moms from my old play group, Dance friends & my weekly coffee girls.
3. San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge & the Pacific OCEAN. Watching the sun set over the pacific:(
4. Toilet Seat Covers- weird I know, but 99% of all public restrooms here have them. In NC, I only found one bathroom that had them.
5. NO smoking in restaurants and Bars, You don't realize how nice this is until you have to go sit in a non smoking section where you still breathe and smell like smoke!!!!
6. The wonderful dining we have here. I will miss soooo many of them:(
7. The beautiful rolling hills of CA, the beauty of the Napa Valley and the vines. I will miss wine tasting, it is soooo fun
8. Disneyland- I love it, it is a magical place and i have been there at least 15 times in my life. I know we will be close to Disney world, there will not be the memories there!
9. Being within a close proximity to Chad's family.
10. Being a California Girl- This will probably take awhile to go away as I have been one my whole life:)

NC
1. NO TRAFFIC- the highways are laid out so much better there.
2. More Laid Back Life Style- it will be nice to stop and smell the roses for a change.
3. Brick Houses- They are so charming and abundant in NC, Not very many in CA due to earth Quakes.
4.The Atlantic Ocean, I have heard the beaches in NC are great, can't wait!
5. Super Friendly People- The people there are so much more friendly and open.
6. Being on the east coast and close proximity to a lot of history.
7. A less expensive cost of living, that will be nice!
8. Schooling- the school system there is one of the top rated in the country.
9. Hobby Lobby- A craft store we do not have in CA that is supposedly awesome!
10. I am running out of things, because I was only there for a weekend~ Maybe I will think of more later today!

I'm Back

2008-02-27T08:55:00.000-08:00

We got back from NC Monday evening, to sick kids and being sick myself. My poor sister had Graham and he got really really bad! He has never spent the night away from me, matter of fact he's never been away from us for more than a couple of hours! I had to drop him off Thursday night because my flight left at 7 am Friday morning and I was staying the night in San Francisco with my friend Melissa so I didn't have to get up at 4am to get to the airport. Graham was excited to see his cousin and he was fine other than a clear runny nose. He went to daycare with Eli on Friday, so he had a lot of scary things going on. No Dad, No sisters, NO MOMMY, now his auntie leaves him with some lady and a couple other kids. He did fine, however the day care lady did ask if his mom was a "stay at Home mom". What exactly does that mean???? I thought being a stay at home mom is a good thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyhoo, Uncle Gabe picked him up and all the boys went home, and once again he didn't sleep, I think he may have started to cough at the point. To make a long story short, he progressively got worse and my sis calls us at 6am CA time and tells us little G is really really sick and we need to come home. And of course there is the 3 hour time difference and the flights are all ready gone. I told her to take him to the ER, which she did. Poor little dude had a double ear infection, a fever, had to have a cortisone shot, and a breathing treatment because his throat was so swollen from the croup. He finally slept that night after getting some relief. Now my poor sister and Eli and Gabe are all sick:(

NC was good, we found a couple of homes we really like and we are trying to wheel and deal right now. I was bad, I didn't take any photos, we were too busy driving around looking at homes in many different areas. I wanted to do a top ten yesterday based on ten things I will miss about CA and 10 things I like about NC. Maybe it will be Thursday top ten this week. I also finished another book, maybe that will be for Friday!

Book Critique

2008-02-20T20:01:00.000-08:00

I just finished Innocent in Death by JD Robb, which is actually Nora Roberts pen name. This is the 23rd book in the series, I have read all of them so far. There is one more in the series which I am reading now so I can give them back to my friends mom before we move. This series is very different from Nora Roberts normal style of writing. They are set in the future 2050 something like that, and normally I don't like futuristic stuff. This series is well done, and the characters are entertaining and there is a bit of love and romance in each one. This series is a murder mystery type. I enjoyed this book and will rate it a 8. I would recommend reading the whole series so you can become familiar with the characters.

Sorry this post is so short, am trying to get ready for the flight to NC Friday AM. Hope we find a great home!

Tuesday Top Ten + A finished project

2008-02-19T21:44:00.000-08:00

This weeks top ten is......... The blogs I Love to read.
I think blogs are such a great way to connect with people, and keep in touch with people who are far away. I have decided everyone should have one, especially all my friends and family so I can see what you are all up to when I am FAR FAR away.

If you are not on my top ten, it doesn't mean I don't read & love your blog. I chose blogs that I read religiously and that are updated regularly.

1. Vacuuming in high heels & Pearls- Heidi and I have so much in common, she loves thrifting, vintage, crafts and home decor, among other things. Her blog is always fun to read!

2. Monkey Box-Shara also loves the thrill of the hunt for vintage goodies and she always manages to score some really FAB stuff. She too, is a crafter and makes lovely things.

3. Daily Relish- This blog is especially dear to my heart, the author Maile, is one of my friends from High School. Her photography is soooooooooo amazing, and her blog entries are always a joy to read.

4.Bluhm Studios- Heather is a very creative gal, she makes lovely things and Loves vintage also. She is also designing my new blog and web store graphics, so exciting.

5. Landon Sanchez- Another blog that is dear to my heart. This blog is about my friend Melissa's son Landon, he is almost a year and she has lovingly chronicled his first year. We have been friends since JR. High.:)

6.Folded Gingham- I just recently found this blog and I love Tiff's rustic charming decorating. She is also a very craft gal!

7.Sadie Lou Who- Another crafty, vintagey blog. This is also new to my reading list. Her blog is lovely and interesting!

8. Misadventures of Mama and Jack- Sarah is a very craft girl, she is always making something fab. Her stories are entertaining and she has a great sense of style.

9.From My Cherry Heart- Yet another Fab crafter & thrifter. Lovely Blog!

10. North Threads- Yet another wonderful crafty gal, with a cute blog and great sewing skills!

I finally finished this bag I started months ago. I LOVE LOVE LOVE how it turned out, and I sure will look cute walking through the airport with it! Yippeee for me! Notice the polka dot lining, what don't polka dots look good with~

Monday Madness-and 1 Vintage find

2008-02-19T00:34:00.000-08:00

Today was a crazy day, I spent the whole day looking for paperwork for our mortgage broker. The unfortunate part was Chad being the man that he is packed up and buried all my file boxes. I literally spent an hour in the garage moving boxes just so I could get to what I needed. I still didn't find it all, so tomorrow I will have to hunt some more! I being the crazy person I am had three other kids here. I have a problem saying no, I did tell the mom's this is the last week I can watch your kidos, it was hard because I love the kids and the mom's are my good friends. I also spent an hour on the phone with STUPID EMC mortgage fighting with them about our rental property. I have been trying to finish this DARLING bag I am making for my self and I got all the way done except I don't have the right size grommet setter, so off to the fabric store for me tomorrow as if I don't have enough to do. I want to use this cute bag for my carry on for my trip to NC this weekend. The official house hunting weekend.

I did get one exciting piece of news, one of my very dearest friends is expecting a baby. They were trying and told no one, so it was a big surprise, I am sooooo excited for them, but sooooo SAD for me, I will miss the whole thing:(

This weekend was spent working around the house, I did sneak out to a couple of estate sales, mostly they were OP(over Priced), but I did snag these super cute vintage metal chairs. Graham is testing them out. I hope I have a porch or a sun room to put these on:)
I was MIA for the weekend, hopefully I can keep on track until I leave Friday!

Meet Rosey

2008-02-15T22:11:00.000-08:00

Night 4 of Hub being gone was "THE WORST", poor Graham was up all night miserable, he finally slept for a couple of hours around 5am. Needless to say, I am sooooooooooooooo tired and will be going to bed as soon as I am done with this post. I dropped the girls off today and now it is just me and the little man until Sunday, I better get a lot done tomorrow. Tonight I watched a movie and knitted. Tomorrow I will be a packing fool.

Here are a couple photos of my new girl. I decided to name her Rosey as she will be the mascot for Rosey Little Things. She came in her dress, which is pretty cute, however I can't wait to make her some out of vintage fabric. I made her the darling little hat she is wearing, I may carry these in the new store once it is up. This was her first quick photo session, which I did at night so the lighting isn't the best. For those of you who don't know, she is a Blythe Doll.
OFF to Bed!!

Happy Valentines Day

2008-02-14T21:57:00.000-08:00

Not much to post about today. Day 4 of hubby being gone, no major disasters, not much to post about. Oooh wait, I got a Blythe Doll, and she came today. I can't wait to make her some cute clothes and take some photos. You probably think I am crazy, but they are all the rage right now and I think they are adorable.

My girls wrote me really sweet Valentine notes telling me they are my Valentines since Daddy is gone. They were sweet. Tomorrow I am taking the girls to my friend Meegan's house, she lives about an hour away. We are meeting in the middle for a Last lunch and then she is taking the girls with her until Sunday. Her girls are the same age as mine and they have been friends since Gwen was 8 Months old. So I get a break, Yikes I might actually have to get to work and accomplish something. The house is going to seem even more quiet and lonely.

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day, and maybe I will have something of interest to talk about tomorrow!
XOXO Jen

Good Mail

2008-02-13T22:58:00.000-08:00

Today was a better day... Graham's fever broke, both girls went to school, and no escaping dogs. I did have to deal with two more moving estimators, each one takes about an hour, seesh, I am done with that now. Tonight was Bunco, my last Bunco, I even won $45.00 Yippeeee! It was good to say goodbye to the girls, we have been playing together for the last 5 years.

On to the good mail as I am tired.

Swap received for the just for you Fat Quarter Swap. Such a lovely package!

Isn't this cute!

This little heart came in the swap package below , I love it!

Look at all the fun goodies!

Heart for crafting swap received, so fun!

The Valentine recepticals we made the other night.

Swaps and Stuff

2008-02-12T20:32:00.000-08:00

Day two of hubby being gone has been about what you could expect, it actually started at 2am with Graham's fever spiking to 102.9. And the fun begins. As all you parents out there know, when your 13 month old gets a high fever in the middle of the night, you get no sleep. I woke the girls up at the usual 6:30am. A few minutes later Gwen comes into my room crying that her tummy hurts. This tummy ache has been off and on for about for about the lat two weeks without any other symptoms. I called the Dr. last week and she and I seemed to agree, that she is probably just nervous about the move?! So she stayed home today!
Then a moving company showed up to give us our second of three estimates for Chad's company. Each estimate takes about an hour, so while I am walking this man through the house with a sick baby on my hip, he decides to poop. So I had to excuse myself and run upstairs to change little dudes diaper.
Oh wait I forgot that the dogs are sneaky little buggers and like to find ways into the neighbors yard, and right through their doggy door and into their house. It is sort of the what the neighbors get, we replaced the other fence and asked if they wanted to replace the fence on their side and we would split the cost. Nope they say, lets wait until it really needs it, and they are rolling in it, sheesh maybe that is why they are rolling in it. My dogs are 40ish lbs dogs, they are a sheltie and a border collie, could you imagine two medium dirty dogs that don't belong to you just popping into your house, it is sort of a funny thought. Ok, to make a long story short, the neighbor came over yesterday and said they were in her yard, and she fixed the fence, so I went over and got them. This am they were MIA so I called them and they finally came from the neighbors yard, so I had to find something to block the fence (that she had supposedly fixed), I found a board and hope it will last for awhile.

The rest of the afternoon was smooth. This evening the girls and I packed four boxes out of their rooms which was great, then it was time to read, bathe and then watch Idol. So I come down stairs to work on laundry and dishes so I can relax and watch Idol with them, and they decide to try to kill each other for about 30 minutes straight. It finally ended with me YELLING and both girls crying and no idol until tomorrow for them!

The girls have been in bed for about an hour and Gabby just came down and said her throat is killing her, UGGGG. Some Tylenol Cold in her and off she goes.
Can someone please tell me why all hell breaks loose when Hubby leaves?

Now on to the Swaps...

This was what I received for the handmade for you swap. I love the vintage pillow cases! Gabby stole the handmade bag, she loves it!

I sent this for the Colorific Swap for Blissful mama. Hope she likes it!

I sent this for the Heart for crafting swap, I also decorated the top. It was a fun swap to put together.

The photo doesn't do these justice, I made these for the 5 Things color combo swap. They are pink and red broaches.

I made this for the CDV valentine themed swap, not sure where the photos are for the rest of the stuff I sent??
I have one more swap that I am trying to get out in the next week, it is not due until March 5th-the day before my B-DAY, But I am almost done with it and need to get it off my to-do list.

Tuesday Top Ten + Moving Update

2008-02-11T13:30:00.001-08:00

Top ten for this week is...... My Favorite Beauty Products
They are so worth the cost!
Most of these can be found on Sephora.com
10. Jaqua Lotions and bath products in the Butter cream scent, you smell good enough to eat!
9. Body glitter by Urban Decay- in cocoa flavor, not only do you sparkle, but you taste and smell yummy
8. Go smile-Teeth whitening system, it works really well and doesn't make your teeth sensitive, I do like crest white strips for a less expensive alternative.
7.Aquage hair spray aerosol, it smells nice and has good hold but doesn't make your hair stiff.
6. Bare Esscentuals-Bare minerals foundation, covers well and makes your skin glow. My other fav of theirs is their glimmer eye shadows. The one I use every day is Queen phyllis, it is a great highlighter.
5. Eyeliner-Lava Gloss by Too Faced. I have brown and black, it glides on sooo easily and comes with a great sharpener.
4. Foundation Brush- by Paula Dorf. Can't live without it.
3.Este Lauder Matt Toner- It controls oil so well. Which is a huge prob for me STILL.
2. Unite hair care products- Boing- it is meant for curly hair but helps for a fab blow out, I love the orange conditioner, and the purple shampoo for blondes is great too. I also Love Icon the cure leave in conditioner and their replenishing cream.
1. Hot Rollers- Need I say more. Ok I will, you can put them in quickly and do your makeup while they cool down, pull them out and Lovely hair for you.
I am always looking for a great new product, so if you have tried a good one let me know!

On to the fun Moving updates.

Chad had his first day of work today, he said everyone came and welcomed him, very nice and friendly. Day one of two weeks alone with the children went well, wish me luck for the rest of the time. We got four whole boxes packed, yikes, I need to step it up a notch. I closed my eBay store, everything is getting packed, I can't worry about having to ship things out to buyers, plus my new site is being created, can't wait to get settled and get to the new site!!

These first two photos are of everything we have packed so far, we did get the garage packed and quite a bit from inside. The crazy part is there is still so much left to pack, as you will see from the rest of the photos. Wish me luck! Graham was asleep when I took these, so there are none of his room.

Gabby's Room

Our Room

Downstairs Bath

Girl's Bathroom.

Our closet-Chad packed most of his stuff all ready!

Under the Stair Closet- This is where the four boxes came from.

Family Room

Dinning Room

Living Room- I have to get the Ladder out to get that stuff down-UGG
Gwen's Room
Kitchen-World's Smallest!

Family Room

Estate Sale Finds

2008-02-10T13:17:00.000-08:00

I know I am crazy and should not be out there looking for stuff, when I have a house full of STUFF left to pack. I just can't help myself. I mostly didn't leave the house all week, Chad and I were frantically packing, cleaning and getting the house ready. We had potential buyers walking through yesterday, so we really had to spruce it up. Chad left today for NC for two weeks.:( Which leaves me with 3 kids and 2 dog to take care of, yikes, I will be insane by the end of the two weeks. Today I went to a couple of estate sales too.
The first one Gwen Graham and I went to this am, was in a not so great area, so I didn't have high hopes. We got a few things.

I got these knitting books for a dollar each, which is a great deal, because most hard back books like these are at least 10$. The best part is they are new and current books. I looked through them when I got home and they have some fun things I want to make.

I also got this white vase, not sure if I am keeping it or if I will sell it, I am going to make that decision once we get to NC. I guess that means I will wash it and pack it up.

I also got this yarn for a dollar, it is really nice thick bulky yarn, I got it for the girls. They have discovered if they use the size 35 needles, they can knit up a scarf in a few hours. They both started scarfs tonight, I will have to take a photo when they are done:)

A side note: I am so happy, I taught Gabby's whole 5th grade class to knit pot holders for Christmas presents for their parents. IT was a nightmare trying to teach 35 kids to knit. The happy part is after many weeks of working with the kids, a good portion of the class is now knitting during their free time in class. It was worth the headache.

Yesterday the buyers were set to arrive at my house at 12:30. I had to take the girls to baton lessons at 11:30, so I left at 11:20 to take them, dropped them of and snuck quickly to two Sales. Today I went back to one of the sales and this is what I got.

Vintage Christmas Tree Topper.

Vintage dress, $1.50, I got it because it was cheap and the fabric is nice. I thought I can make something cute(A BAG) out of this. I tried it on and I may just have to wear it. The girls though it was cute!!

There was a whole box of vintage patterns, I picked through them and this is what I got. Some are marked with the date and most seem to be from the late 50's and 60's. I have not checked to see if all the pieces are there, but I may just have to make myself a cute dress.

I spied this yesterday and didn't grab it because I was in such a hurry. It is a vintage wool blanket, I love it! Anyone know how to care for this type of blanket??

This is a darling pillow cover, not sure if I will keep or sell it either, I really love it, so we'll see. Who knows what the new house will need!

I couldn't pass up this cute rose plate for 10cents.

This one wasn't 10 cents, but I love the colors and there are no chips. Not sure of it's fate either, for now it gets packed.

This is the begining of yesterdays finds from the same sale.

I LOVEEEEE these vintage paper napkins, have no idea what I will do with them, maybe frame one? I could never use them.

More vintage paper napkins, they are pretty too, but not nearly as FAB.

Two enamale ware pans, will be selling these. I love red, but doesn't go in my kitchen, unless I change my colors, which I have been thinking about.

Two darling PINK plastic containers, love the rose on the dark pink one. I am sooo keeping these!

Another cute pattern.

I love these vintage towels, I have a bunch and they are the best and cute too!

This was my big score of the day, it is in perfect shape and it is PINK, it was marked $1.50. I thought for sure they would tell me it was mis marked when I checked out, because the take says long-something, not chenielle bed spread. The checkout lady was so frantic she only charged me $1.50, YIPPEEEEE. I LOVE it sooooo much!

Another milk glass vase.

The top of the dark pink container, it has a rose on it!!

I have not seen one of these before,I have a few pieces of this pyrex, may have to keep it.

Like I really needed more shiny brites, these are for sure being sold later this year. The boxes are in excellent condition. Too cute.

The first sale I went to yesterday only really had ugly furniture, but I did find this fun math book. It is a golden book. It has cute graphics. Gwen snatched it right up, she loves Math, crazy kid.

Stay tuned for the next post, I must show you my garage full of packed boxes and my house still full of stuff.

Book Critique

2008-02-08T23:29:00.000-08:00

This weeks book is not a book I am reading right now, but a favorite book from the past. I am in the middle of a book and will review it once I have finished it.
The book is.... Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry.
This is one of my all time favorite books, it is one that will make you laugh out loud and maybe shed a tear or two. It is a great historical Fiction set in the wild west, it's about a bunch of older cowboys living out their days and a few adventures.

I watched the movie long ago, it was good too, not as good as the book though. They never are!
I will have to rate this a 10, might even have to re read it.

Thrifty Finds and Some Handmade Things

2008-02-06T20:03:00.001-08:00

Packing is going pretty well, we have packed up the whole garage which was a huge undertaking. Today I started on my sewing studio., I packed about 4 boxes, now there are only 50 gazillion more to pack. The girls are helping with the packing, they are trying to pack three boxes a day, so far they are doing well. We are running out of boxes, so we will have to go buy some:(

These two pictures are of things I have made for some swaps.
This one was for the 5 things Sock Monkey swap, I sewed Sock Monkey fabric to the bottom of sac flour towels, they are the best most absorbent towels.

I made these stitch markers for a swap called the knitters treasure swap. They are all vintage beads from broken necklaces, I love how they turned out and need to make some more.

I love this tray, it is really big. I got it from the sale I talked about in the last post. So pretty, too bad I have to pack it up:(

I also got all these vintage aprons, the two aqua ones are going to be made into something else as they have some damage. The pale pink and hot pink ones are sooo cute.

From the same sale I got these frames, the pictures are nothing great, but I will use the frames for something in the new house!!

Here is a snap shot of some of the other stuff I got. I love the lady figurine, she is pale green and pink. Hubby doesn't really like figurines, so I have to tuck them in here and there. The little Santas are made in Japan, one even has blue rhinestone eyes, too cute.

Here is another shot of the goods, I love the green hanky holder, cute triangle shape. There was so much more may show them later!

Busy Weekend.

2008-02-04T23:26:00.000-08:00

I thought about blogging all weekend, however there was never time. The kidos had a three day weekend, there was some teacher holiday on Friday. So we spent-Actually Chad- a lot of time running the girls to and from play dates and sleep overs, starting Thursday night. Being that we are moving we are pretty much letting them spend as much time as possible with their friends. I think it was Friday night Gabby had two friends stay over, they did makeovers and were playing LIGHT AS A FEATHER which brings back memories.

I started doing laundry on Friday and have not stopped, yikes and I STILL have more to do. How is this possible you ask? Well, it has something to do with me being a sporattic Laundress, the kids go through a few outfits a day depending on their moods and where they are of too, and little dude is just plain MESSY. It didn't help that literally every towel we own was also dirty. Maybe tomorrow I will get the rest done and then I plan to keep up on it until we MOVE.

Saturday morning I got up at 5AM, I know it is hard to believe, because I love my sleep. When there is a vacation, Flea Market, Yard Sale or other fun girls trip involved, I can pretty much be up and ready in a flash. The reason I got up at 5am you ask?? My friend Tiffanie's family was having a huge garage sale of all Grandma's stuff, and they listed in the paper starting at 6am. So I had to hurry up and get over there for my preview. It was freezing and dark when I got there, they had it lit from the garage, so it was hard to see the stuff in the driveway, I am sure I missed something good! I started making piles, which then turned to boxes, I ended up with 2 medium boxes of stuff, 2 hat boxes full of stuff and one metal plant stand thingy. So, I asked Tiffanie's sis Stacie how much do I owe you?? And she said " JUST TAKE IT" Yikes, I couldn't believe my ears, so I said "NO, NO let me give you some money" I had so much stuff I really felt like I should pay something, she said no again so I said "Are you sure?" Yep, just take it she said. I wasn't going to argue with her, I threw it all in the car and drove off in glee!!

When I got home, it was back to laundry and Chad and I started working on the garage, YIKES! We were in there for hours- no wait all day plus most of the day today. I went through some KEEPSAKE boxes I had and being a little bit of a pack rat, I had stuff from High School, I had all my Job's Daughters carrying pieces, I had ALL the response cards from our wedding- which was in 1996, I even had a couple of things from 6th Grade. I tossed most of it. We figured that we had moved a lot of the stuff NINE times. Before we started moving stuff from the house, we figured we have around 50 totes of just garage stuff, to my deffense, a lot of it is Christmas, Easter, Halloween, a few are Baby Clothes from the girls and a few from Graham. I am looking for a home for our Disco Ball, any takers??

Sunday, AKA STUPID BOWL as my sis and I like to call it( no offense to all you football fans, I am not into it), the girls were both with their friends, Chad went to Santa Rosa to watch it with his friends and say BYE BYE! So this left me and the little dude. My sister and my cute nephew(ELI) came over around 3p, I called her on her way and said let's go take photos of the boys in the mustard flowers. This is something a lot of locals do, we try to do it each year, and this being our last in the Lovely Napa Valley, I thought we should get the boys out there while we had the chance. I will take my kids again in the very near future so I can get some of the three of them. It was nice and sunny out, but very chilly, and a little muddy out in the fields. The boys LOVED IT.

PLEASE excuse my spelling errors, blogger is not letting me fix them for some reason. UGG

This is a photo of most of the stuff I got Sat. am, see the white plant stand, hopefully I will have a sun room or cute porch to put it on. I doubt I will put plants in it, maybe use it for some other purpose. I use to have plants when I wasn't so busy, maybe I will when we get to NC since I will not have any friends!!! The next couple photo show some of the great stuff I got!
Love this Vintage? pottery vase, it has no mark on the bottom, it is so cute for Valentines day.
The milk glass dish on the left is the new one to my collection.

Here are a few of the mustard photos to see the rest click HERE.

Me and Little Dude in the mustard flowers:)

Could they be any cuter???
Graham decided to sample the soil while he was sitting down. Yummy!
The background in this one is sooo beautiful, I will miss these lovely hills:(

So it is really happening...

2008-02-01T19:53:00.000-08:00

I think we have narrowed down the cities we want to check out when we are in NC in a few weeks. We have found a few cool NEW houses. I would REALLLLLY like a vintage home, but there are not a lot in the school districts we want the kids in. The advantages to the newer home is they are BIG, which is nice for all my STUFF. At the moment we really like Kernersville, NC it seems like a cute small town just outside of the big city.

Not that I have been in denial about moving, but the sign in the yard makes it official. Carl (my DAD) came over on Sat. and put the sign in the ground and listed the house on MLS. Here is a pic of the sign. Gabby, Karli(Gab's friend), Gwen and Little Dude.
I am also posting some photos of the inside of the house, I will add more in a later post. As far as the progress on my Tuesday Top Ten, - I have done about half of my laundry, have 2 of the five swaps almost done, I got a few errands done, and yes, I did wash the hair. No packing yet, yikes! Chad is getting boxes tomorrow, and then the packing will begin!

Here are some photos of the inside of my house:(
My freshly painted striped family room.

More family room and kitchen nook.

From the kitchen into the Fam room.
If you know someone who wants a cute house in Napa, tell them to check us out at www.2438shoreline.com

Tuesday Top Ten

2008-01-29T21:43:00.000-08:00

Top Ten things I need to do:

Finish last five swaps. I have five more swaps I signed up for and have to finish. Then swaps will have to wait until we get settled in NC.
Pack up Sewing studio. Chad got me some totes to use, so I need to get to it, so prospective buyers can walk through the room:)
PACK PACK PACK! Which will (maybe) cause me to rid my house of some STUFF.
TAXES:( Yucky.... I have to get all the stuff together for our rental properties and personal stuff. I want to take care of this before we move.
Back Gab's quilt and Sew Grahams together. I would like to get this done before we go. I'm sure I will need to make one for Gwen also. You know if I pack them as they are, it could be awhile before I dig them out and finish them.
Get the kids School,medical, dental, & Ortho records. I figure this will make my life easier if I have them when we go.
See all my friends and have the kids see their friends before we leave.
LAUNDRY- Yikes, my pile is extra grande. About 10 loads. EEEK
Run errands- Target to return a couple of things and get dish washer soap and V-day gifts for the kids.
Wash my hair-yep it is a task I do not enjoy. I hate blow drying it, it takes FOREVER, this is why I wash it every two days.

Catching Up

2008-01-28T23:15:00.000-08:00

If I don't blog daily, I get behind, so today I am catching up for the lack of posts over the weekend. PLUS a book review!

The book I just finished, is called Legacy of Silence by Belva Plain. I think this book was from a garage sale, not sure, due to the length each book spends sitting in the pile before it gets read.
This book was really interesting, it started in 1938 in Germany right before world war two and runs through the lives of three generations of women. I would highly recommend this book if you enjoy historical fiction, I would rate this one an 8.

Late last week the newest Romantic Homes Magazine arrived! I love this magazine, they feature beautiful homes and wonderful decorating ideas. I LOVE LOVE the colors on this months cover, to die for. Peoneys are my favorite flower look they look so pretty against the robins egg blue walls, inspiration for the new home:)

I ordered this book on ebay not too long ago and I am so into these beautiful colors. I want to make so many things in this book. Too bad I have to wait until we get settled in NC. I will have a lot of time since I will have none of my wonderful friends to have coffee or lunch with. :(

I Love the way these little owl's turned out, I may just have to make some more. They were for a swap I participated in called 5 things owls. So you send out five, and get five different ones back. I got the pattern for this from: mytreeoflifegrowsyarn. I lost her link when I switched my layout.

This is a swap I sent for FAA Birthday. FAA stands for Fabric Addicts Anonymous.

Here it is all wrapped up in more fabric.

I sent this for the tote bag with goodies swap. She likes hello kitty and cute stuff. I appliqued the tea pots on the tea towel.

I sent this out for the CDV swap- Red, Aqua and Pink. That is such a fun color combo, it is actually the new plan for my kitchen.

Here it is all tied up with a scarf and a vintage dish towel. Well, it is one minute before it is officially Tuesday, and I have to come up with a TOP TEN. YIKES. That will have to wait until later in the day when I am not so tired.

BIG NEWS FOR THE SMITH FAMILY*

2008-01-25T16:38:00.001-08:00

Chad received a job offer this week and we have accepted it. YIPPEE The only down side is we will be re-locating to North Carolina, Greensboro area to be exact. YEP, we will no longer be Californians-which I have been my entire life. We will be moving in about 4-6 weeks. Which means I need to start the dreaded job of packing right away. As I have said before, my house is super full of STUFF. The good thing is it will force me to get rid of stuff, and I get to decorate a new house. I am all ready planning my new color theme for the kitchen:)

This is going to be a big adventure for my little family, which I am looking forward to. I will be crazy busy trying to get ready to go, so I'm sure my blog will get neglected, just when I got on a good roll with blog posts. I will try to post as often as possible and keep you all up to date on our move. North Carolina here we come!

Thrifty Thursday

2008-01-24T19:56:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend and yesterday I had the chance to go to some thrift stores. I hadn’t been in a long while and I hit the jack pot. There were no estate sales. I did go to one yard sale that was terrible and one that was way overpriced.

This first item is a sweet vintage pair of baby booties made in Japan.
I love these and plan to take them to the antique booth or maybe ebay.
How cute would these be in a nursery holding baby items.

I am keeping this next item, because I have always wanted one.
It was a whole dollar. I love the color!

I got this vintage jelly jar at the salvation army. I haven't seen one like this before. I would like to keep it, but my house over flowith. I can see pretty spring flowers in it.

These three were also from the Salvation Army. The divided dish is Franciscan, I like this pattern and considered keeping it. Instead it will join the other goodies for sale. I also thought about keeping this pretty green plate. I thought this vintage floral fabric was great to use for my reusable shopping bags and the bonus is it was made into a duvet cover, so two sheets for the price of one!

Still from the Salvation Army. Usually I don't find much there, must have been there on the right day! I love this green rose bowl, not sure what I am doing with it? To keep or to sell?? HMMM..

I got these pretty doilies at the yard sale I went to.

So apparently jewelry boxes are a new collection for me. I may sell this one, because I have two and each of the girls have one.

This was my one of my favorite finds of the weekend. It was made in Japan and the color goes so perfectly in my living room. Plus the shape is so cute!

I got these at the Church Mouse thrift shop and I plan to make them into pin cushions.

Not sure what I am doing with these, they were 25cents and super cute.

This is my FAV find of the weekend, I got it at a consignment store, it is so pretty. Obviously I am keeping it! :)

Lovely hot pad!

I was driving and saw a sign for a yard sale so I stopped. This couple was selling family belongings, they had the Cutest pair of ceramic pink poodle lamps. Gabby would have LOVED them, they wanted 40$ for them. Sheesh its a yard sale for heavens sake. They also had some neeto vintage tapestry purses that they wanted $40-50 a piece. As I was leaving I saw this cute glass and I asked the man instead of the lady and he said a buck. The funny part is, as I was walking away the wife was getting mad and saying these things are antiques what were you thinking. Obviously she was attached to the stuff and needs to sell them some where other than at a garage sale.

Got these at a thrift store in Aqua Caliente, they are at my booth.

This cute mug is at the booth too.

Cute little custard dish went to the booth too. See I am not keeping everything:)

I did keep this because I have a collection of glass jars on my window ledge in the front yard.

This was from the consignment shop also and I am going to be a good girl and sell it. I do love the vintage chenille.

In the near future I am going to be changing my blog to two separate blogs. One for family, book reviews and other miscellaneous stuff and the other one will be for my projects and vintage finds. I want to be able to sell my designs and my vintage finds right from my blog. So in the mean time, if you see something you have to have, email me.

Vintage -Reusable Shopping-Market Bag -Now Appearing on Ebay

2008-01-23T23:39:00.000-08:00

Yep, I made it and now it is listed on Ebay. I am so excited about the way it turned out, I'm having a hard time not keeping it:) I am especially excited about this bag because it is "Green" for more than one reason. First it is made from vintage sheets, which were not part of a set anymore so they probably would have ended up as rags. Second it is reusable so we are helping the environment by not using a million plastic bags. There are a lot of people selling them on etsy and ebay, however they are all made out of canvas or other new materials, and not nearly as cute or vintagy(No Offense).

Be the first on your block to get this super stylish one of a kind shopping bag. It is perfect for a day of shopping at the mall, going to the grocery store or even a trip to the flea market or thrift stores. I have been taking my reusable bag to the mall, and the clerks look at you a little weird when you say "just stick it in this bag", but they comply.
I have this one listed on ebay(click on the word ebay) and I can make two more like this one, however each pocket will be slightly different so that they are really one of a kind. I will also be making some in other colors and out of vintage table cloths, stay tuned. (I will take orders!) It is a nice large size. I designed it based on a bag I have that is the perfect size. My papa Jim will be so proud of this new item as he thinks the environment is very important. As do I. However I do drive a Large SUV, I know its the worst, but it is so handy with my three kids and the two to three others I have with me. When I get a new car in the nearish future, I would love to buy a Hybrid. Hopefully by then they will have a full size SUV in a Hybrid.

Pocket on front for keys or coupons etc.

Inside fully lined with pretty large floral, the bag could also be made with this on the outside.

The best part about it: You fold the handles down then fold in one side then the other, roll it up and tie it with the ties. It will fit in your purse or car for easy access.

Tuesday TOP Ten

2008-01-22T15:16:00.000-08:00

My TOP TEN for today is………………

Projects I most want to finish or start.

1. 1. Back the doggie quilt I started before Christmas and finish the cowboy one I just cut out. If you read my original post about this quilt, I was making it for Graham, however Gabby HAD to have it so I picked up some adorable vintage inspired cowboy fabric and cut it out last night. Now I need to get one going for Gwen.

2. 2. Adorable reusable shopping bags. I have a ton of vintage linens and many of them have stains I can not get out. So I want to turn them into shopping bags, because I know it is so much better for the environment.

3. 3. I started this super cute weekender bag a while ago and I really want to finish it. It is pretty brown fabric with a vintage looking rose pattern, it looks like bark cloth. Not that I am going anywhere, but you never know:)

4. 4. I have a bag full of half knitted items that I was so excited about and got distracted and started something else. Two baby blankets, two purses, a couple of scarves, a sock monkey for Gwen, fabric Rag rug and a few more. Maybe I will work on the rag rug when the weather gets nicer as the fabrics are all springy and floral.

5. 5. Graham’s first year scrap book. Which I have not even started , but have the album and all the stuff to fill it with. Scrapbooking has been low on my list of crafting choices.

6. Vintage pin cushions. I have a vintage quilt that is in such bad shape it has to be cut up, I made a pillow out of it and have started cutting out pin cushions. I am thinking about selling these.

7. 7. List on ebay or maybe etsy the stack of things I have ready to sell. I have a couple of totes full of stuff I need to photograph and list.

8. 8. Bunting-I love how Graham’s turned out. I want to make some for different holidays and possibly make some to sell.

9. 9. Mini collages- made from some great vintage images. I have some 2X2 glass and some microscope slides to put them between.

10. 10. Pillows- I have been wanting to make some different pillows out of vintage linens. I even have a bunch of pillow forms awaiting adornment.

This was harder than I thought. I could come up a bunch more items I want to start or need to finish. I have a hard time sticking to one craft at a time. Off to glitter some crepe paper for some valentine projects I am working on. I need to figure out how to get ahead of the holidays, any suggestions???

Monday Madness

2008-01-21T20:20:00.000-08:00

Monday madness pretty much sums up the contents of this post. My crazy son and my felting disaster.

SO, Mr. Graham is a dare devil at the age of one. He climbs on anything he can find, he’ll even push a fire truck next to a chair so he can then climb on it. The other day he decided to jump out of his high chair! I of course was not here, Chad was on duty at the time and turned his back and out he went. TODAY was the topper, Graham was napping, I was in the bathroom with the water running for a bath and Chad was down stairs. I turned off the water and I heard Graham talking, so I went to check on him and he met me at the door, I said “how did you get out of your bed”, Chad came running up the stairs. He heard a thud and thought it was me stomping around, NOPE, Graham climbed out of his crib. Thank God there is a gate on his door other wise he could have fallen down the stairs. I was apparently over due on taking his bumper out. Sheesh, boys are crazy!!!!!!!!!!! Here he is climbing on the dishwasher, one of his favorite activities.

Last night I decided to felt a purse I knitted months ago and haven’t used, click here to see it before. I spent about $40 on the yarn for this project and many hours knitting it and it turned out great. However, it was so floppy it either needed to be lined or felted. Being a wee bit lazy and thinking trying to felt something would be fun, I stuck it in the washer and began the felting process, the black handle and black sections felted great. The rest…………….YIKES!!!!!!!!! I am so devastated about it I could cry! I will try felting again. Next time I will make sure all the yarn is feltable. HARD LESSON LEARNED:(

Book Critique

2008-01-21T00:12:00.000-08:00

I Know I just posted a book review on Wed., BUT…. I finished Plum Lucky yesterday.

If you are not familiar with the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, you better get with the program. The first book in the series is called “One for the Money.” There are thirteen of the number books and three “between the number” books, she also has written a few other books which are cute too. My whole family and all of my friends that read on a regular basis, have read these books. This includes my hubby, my friend Heidi’s hubby and oldest son, even my grandma. They are a super easy, fun read.

The main character is Stephanie Plum and she is a 30 something bounty hunter in New Jersey, she gets into a lot of trouble. These books will have you laughing out loud and you’ll be sad when they are over. I read Plum Lucky in 3 days. I am rating it an 8, it was funny and super quick to read, it wasn’t my favorite though. If you are one of the few who haven’t read this series go buy One for the Money, you will not be sorry, plus you will have 15 more to look forward to. Come back and let me know what you think!

Swappin Saturday

2008-01-19T20:32:00.000-08:00

You can probably tell I have been in a theme mood lately. So todays post is dedicated to swaps. Swapping has been a fun experience so far, I have gotten some great things and some less than desirable things. I am trying to be more selective about the swaps I choose to participate in. I am involved in a few private swap groups with members that are great swappers. Today I received my very favorite swap so far. It was a vintage swap and my partner spoiled me with stuff I LOVE!

This is all the great Vintage stuff I received from Moriah.

This is a close up of the DARLING purse she sent. Can't wait to use it!!! The one next to it is darling vintage post cards from 1910 and they have darling dogs on them.

This darling angle will be soooo cute next Christmas. This next one is the inside of the cute vintage cook book designed to please you kidos. I can't wait to look through it and see what fun ideas there are.

THIS IS SO GREAT it is going to look FAB with my other vintage pottery. LOVE IT!

Here are some swaps I have sent recently: First one I forgot to take photos of what is on the inside, OOPS. They are for one of the private swap groups I am in called five things. We are actually doing a birthday swap so these were for the months of Jan., Feb., and April-why no march you ask? Because I am the March baby so I will get 11 gifts WOO HOO!
Can you guess the theme of the next one?? Yep, hearts. The next one is skull love.

The one below was one I received from FAA Lucky Parcel group for Christmas. This was another fave, I love all the goodies.

Blog Woes

2008-01-18T20:33:00.000-08:00

As you can see I changed my blog layout, and no it is not very fabulous. I tried for three hours to figure out how to change the stupid background on my page to something pretty, I even tried to change the HTML, which I know next to nothing about. My eyes were falling out of my head by the time I was done. I think some of the other blog sites must be more easily changed or people know how to do HTML?

I really want a pretty vintage floral in the background and some pretty font. UGGG If anyone knows anyway to change these things in blogger let me know. The basic font options are BORING! There has to be a way to do it without spending 95$ to have someone do it for me.

Enough complaining!

Things to look forward to: Tuesdays posts will include a TOP TEN- each week it will be a different theme. I will also be adding the new items I list on my eBay sight in a post next week. I'm sure there will also be some Estate/Yard Sale items to list as well. There will also be another book review, which was not as popular as my Estate Sale finds. However, I love to read and hope someone tries one of the books I review and enjoys it!

There should also be good news on Chad's job front next week, we are waiting for a formal offer to arrive next week!!!

Book Critique Each Week

2008-01-15T16:12:00.000-08:00

Here is a fun new weekly topic for all you book lovers out there. I am an avid reader and decided to chat about the books I have read recently and maybe even some favorites from the past. I read fiction, I especially love historical fiction. I read a wide range of authors from Janet Evanovich to Nelson Demille. Reading is for enjoyment so I tend not to choose books that require to much deep thinking. I will also review some craft books I have purchased lately.

This week I am going to talk about two different books that I just finished reading. The first is called- At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks and the second is a garage sale find-Amethyst Dreams-by Phyllis A. Whitney. I have read a few of Nicholas Sparks books but have never read anything by Phyllis A. Whitney.

I will rate each book on a scale from 1-10, one being: I read the whole book but it was torture and ten being: I LOVED it and you HAVE to read it right away and I was sad the book was over!!! five being- It was a quick easy read. If you have read any of the books I am critiquing, please leave a comment with your rating of the book. It's fun to see what other people think:)

At First Sight was a sequel to True Believer which I read a year or so ago. I bought First Sight not realizing it was the sequel, silly me. Even though it is a sequel, you can read this book without having read the first one. This book is set in a small small town in North Carolina called Boone Creek, not sure if this town actually exists. It was about a guy from New York who moved to this small town to be with a woman he fell in love with only six short weeks ago, who he got pregnant. He struggles to fit in and they go through the normal getting use to being a couple struggles, they get married and eventually the baby is born. I enjoy Nicholas Sparks writing style, he keeps your attention and doesn't go on and on with one description after another about the beauty of a tree or a flower or the sunset. Now don't get me wrong, I like descriptive writing, but when the description takes up paragraphs or pages, I tend to loose interest. However most of his books end happy there always seems to be a really sad part, yep this one has a sad part too. The book was an enjoyable enough read, however I will have to rate it a 6.

Let's talk about Amethyst Dreams, I have never read a book by Phyllis A. Whitney much less heard of this author. This book was copy write 1998 so not sure if she is still writing? She has written a lot of books and I would read her books again. Even though this book was written in 98, it was not dated, which was nice. Looking at the cover-I know I know don't judge a book by it's cover- you would think this was a silly romance novel. Much to my surprise it was a mystery set also in North Carolina on Top Sail Island which actually exists. A 30ish year old woman goes missing from her family home where she lives with her grandpa, so the grandpa flys in her best friend from college who lives in CA. The best friend is having marital problems and uses the trip to regroup and help solve the mystery. This was a quick read which I will rate a 7.

I just bought Plum Lucky, it came out on Tuesday, it is a Janet Evanovich between the numbers book. Can't wait to start it tonight.

Check back for next weeks book review. Maybe it will be about Plum Lucky!

Estate Sale -A -Thon

2008-01-14T20:33:00.001-08:00

Friday night I set my alarm for 7:30am as there were SIX estate sales in the paper and the first one opened at 8:00am. Saturday was sunny and crisp and I jumped in the car and hurried to the first sale. I apparently was not the only person in Napa who was having estate sale withdrawls, there were mobs of people at each sale I went to and I kept seeing the same people over and over again. The first sale was great, I spent a whole $6.75 and got a ton of great stuff. The second and fourth sales were terrible and got nothing. The third was good and i spent $7.50. The fifth I spent 50cents and the sixth I spent another 6$.

The first two photos were from the one sale I went to during the later part of December. I got these darling little spring hats for a quarter, can't wait to decorate with them for Easter. I also got some vintage ornaments for a dollar. The second photo is of the vintage games I got, they were a quarter a piece, they are all from the 40's and 50's.

The photos from here down are from my Saturday trip.
These vintage dish towels were a quarter a piece!

These aprons were a quarter a piece also. This one is going to be laundered and go to my booth.

As yu can see these five green glasses were $1.50, I have washed these and they are now in my cupboard.

These vintage necklaces were a quarter a piece.

These seven glasses were $1.50 for the set and are now in my booth.

This one was a quarter and also went to the antique booth.

This was a quarter also, may have to keep it .

This was a dollar, not sure if it works, if it doesn't I will use it in jewelry making.

This was a freebie.

This may be my favorite find, it was $2.00, it needs a good cleaning, but I LOVE the pink velvet and there is a ton of compartments for the piles of jewelry on my vanity.

Vintage tupperware butter dish, yep this one is staying with me!!!

This vase thingy was a dollar and is now at my booth!

These little cuties were hard not to keep, they were 50 cents and are also at my booth.

This cute vintage pin was 25 cents and for the moment I am keeping it.

This darling vintage Fenton rose vase was a dollar also hard not to keep, however it had to go to the booth, a person can only have so much stuff in their house:)

Box of thread and misc sewing stuff $2.00. Obviously keeping this. Yes, those are my fat toes in the photo.

Cute tiny vintage ornaments 25cents, seemed to be the magic price for the day:)

Huge bucket of vintage ornaments and other small assorted Christmas stuff, $2.00. I didnt really want the bucket, but it came with the ornaments!

Neeto vintage Santa light bulb, part of the $2.00 deal!

Cute paper santa decoration, also part of the $2.00 deal!

This was a dollar and the lady who was running the estate sale said it is a vintage glove box, seems weird to me? If anyone knows it's true original purpose let me know. I am going to store sewing stuff in it.

This cute vintage milk glass candy dish was 50cents, not sure what I am going to do with it, I have a ton of candy dishes. we'll see..

This was my other favorite find, I think it may have been a hand towel holder, but not sure. I came up with a different use for it and I love it. It was $2.00.

Wait, these are a favorite too, may hang them in Gwen's room, they were a dollar each.

I got this item some time ago and just thought I would share how I use it. I bought the metal holder at an antique store I think. It had no glasses with it, so I went to the salvation army and bought six-25cent mis matched glasses and put them in it. Some where along the line I threw some votives in them and now I change the color to match the holiday. Red for V-day. It looks really pretty at night and seems pretty safe, however it is kind of a pain to get the candles out when they get low.

Hope you enjoyed my fab finds, it was great to be on the hunt again and my booth needed some new stuff!

My Funny Kidos

2008-01-11T16:06:00.000-08:00

Ok, Ok, I know I said I would post every other day, however life gets in the way sometimes! Plus, I have to come up with something interesting to write which is not always an easy task.
So, today I decided to share some funny photos of my "G" kids.
The other night I went to check on Gwen before going to bed and this is what I found. She may be a little like her mom, as she is a Pisces too. Once we decide to do something we do it whole heartedly and sometimes a little overboard.
She couldn't just read one book, she had to read them all.
I get it, I have about 25 different knitting projects going right now, 10 sewing projects in various stages of completion, and at one point I had about 20 tubes of lip stick/gloss in my purse.
I hope she continues to enjoy reading and keeps it up throughout her life.

This photo was taken on New Years Eve, Gabby's friend Hailey took it. Gabby is at the age where she thinks she is too cool as you can see from the funny pose. Yep that is me in the back ground, I have no clue what I was talking about. At least you can see my cute red dress.

As we were getting ready for the party Gabby asked me why I was dressing up and I told her, I enjoy dressing up and I wanted to look pretty for Daddy,( since all he had seen me in lately was grungy sweats, no makeup and all my hair slicked back in a pony tail). She hung out with me while I got ready and said"it is fun to be a girl"!!

Last but not least little G! He had his one year Dr. visit the other day. As you can see it was a rainy day and he got to wear his cute fire man rain coat. Yep, I made the hat and as soon as he gets in the car he ripes it off. Ok, back on track.... there is a slide in the waiting room of the Dr.'s office, and he thought it was big fun to try to climb UP the slide.
The big Ol' boy weighed in at 25lbs 10.5ozs and is 32.75 inches tall, he was in the 90th % for weight and the 110th% for height. Poor baby had to get three shots:(

Happy weekend everyone!!!!

My Little Man is ONE Today :(

2008-01-06T19:37:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it has been a year all ready! My little man is officially one! As those of you who have kidos know, one minute they are a brand new baby and in what seems like an instant, they have grown up. It is so bittersweet because you enjoy them growing and learning and becoming a little person but they are no longer a baby:(

Yesterday 1-5-08 we had his first Birthday celebration, it was a lot of fun. My in laws and Chad's Grandma El arrived from Oregon on Fri. night, they traveled through rain, snow and flooding to get here to celebrate with us. We had around 28 adults and around 16 kids ranging from 6months to 10years. Chad was less than thrilled with the amount of people I invited, and I took about 30 more people off the list. I know it sounds crazy for the first bday, but it was a celebration that I wanted to share with all our wonderful friends and family. Sorry if you are reading this and you weren't invited, it doesn't mean I don't love you, but my house was bursting at the seams.

My sisters co-worked asked what type of theme I was doing, and I pondered it for a moment.... Little Boy with a Vintage Twist is how I answered. I do love a theme, however nothing was really floating my boat. So I looked around my very full (of stuff) house and here is what I came up with.

In my vintage printers box I used some letters that my friend Heidi and I got at a garage sale a few years back, some vintage cars and blocks. This is his very own special cake, I have made one for each of the kids for their first birthdays.

Graham's vintage blocks came in handy for spelling out "happy birthday Graham". The two cake stands are holding the party favors.

On the mirror in the dining room I hung vintage first birthday cards and a darling black and white photo of my little dude on a blue chenille ribbon and attached the cards with clothes pins.

On top of this shelf is another vintage birthday card and another darling black and white photo of Graham and two more vintage blocks. One block has a G on it and the other has a number one on it.

One of the only things I bought was this vintage train that is a candle holder. I got it on ebay and it looks super cute on the cake. I tinted the frosting with red special frosting tint and it still came out not quite red, we are not mentioning the P_ _ _ _ color. I tried to make everything as boyish and lacking in that P color as possible since my poor son lives in a pink house with a bunch of girly girls.

I'm sure my sis will love this photo since she is not paying attention, but I really wasn't taking it of her, I was photographing the pennant or bunting garland I made. I love the way it turned out and so does Graham. From the moment I hung it up and every time he walks under it, he looks up at it and says "OOOOOOh" and gets a huge grin on his face. So when I take it down tomorrow I am going to hang it up in his room so he can enjoy it all the time. It was super fun and easy to make, I can't wait to make another one for the next holiday or party! Especially the 4th of July!

I decided to buy a piece of fabric and hem it into a table cloth, because I couldn't find one that I liked color or pattern wise. I got a great deal on the fabric, it was 40% off, however I was having a real hard time not getting a flowery blue and green table cloth. As you can see I went with stripes, which looked cute. However there that green and brown floral is still calling my name. Being that I have been sewing since I was 13, you would think hemming four sides of a piece if fabric would be a quick project. Alas, it was not, my sewing machine decide to do something crazy and it took Chad and I an hour to fix. The problem is, I have had this machine for a couple of years and it is a computerized touch screen machine and I have never had a problem with it. With old fashioned machines it is pretty easy to turn a nob and fix them, not the case with this bugger, we eventually got it and 15 minutes later I had finished the table cloth. My in laws brought us some of Chad's old (Vintage he he) stuff, the match box cars down the center of the table were his when he was little. He was like a little kid when he saw the, he pointed out his favorite one and the one that went the fastest and the one that Snoopy's head got broken out of and on and on. It was cute. They also brought us his old tricycle and his old Tonka fire truck I Love them and know Graham will enjoy them too.

And here are a few of the 50 million cake eating photos, he put on a good show for his admiring fans.

This photo is from today his actual birthday, I know it is the back of him, but I had to take a photo of the back of this cute outfit his auntie Keely got him and one of his many new trucks.

This year with my little man has been great, it has been so fun to realize the difference between raising a son vs daughters.

On his 11 month bday he decide to walk, he weighs about 25lbs and is approx. 32" tall, he will literally eat any thing I give him(pesto, curried chicken, broccoli) and wants to eat when he sees other people eating, he says Hi, OOOOH, DA Da , Ma MA, Sissy, Num Nums-Most favorite word, ni ni, dogie, up... he waves bye bye, gives hi fives, claps and likes to body slam his dad. I am looking forward to the next year full of trucks and balls and dirt and snuggles.

A Few Things I Have Made Lately

2008-01-04T10:24:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to show a few things I have made. Actually, I made this cute slipper when I was 8 or 9, it was the first thing my Great Grandma taught me to make. I never did make a second one! What the heck do you do with one slipper? Being that I am super sentimental, I of course have to save it forever.

I made these cute onesies for the craft fair I did a while ago and I plan to list them on eBay, because I made a ton of them with different cute vintage images. Not the best photos, I took them at night in my not well lit living room, will have to take new ones for eBay.

I have had this vintage quilt cut up and ready to make pillows for about a year and I finally made one for the craft fair. This will also be debuting on eBay soon!

These are from Christmas, these are my favorite cookies, they are pink Meringues. Not only are they yummy but they are so pretty too.

I knitted this for my Graham, I was going to make a bunch of them for party favors for his party tomorrow. However it took way longer than I expected so I gave up that idea. Chad actually inspired me to make this. When he was little his grandma had made some of these and he and his cousin Ryan use to sit at the top and bottom of their stairs and play all sorts of games with them.

Another not to exciting post, maybe the next one will be super Fab! It is going to flood, so maybe I will have some great photos of the Napa River.

Happy New Year....

2008-01-01T16:41:00.000-08:00

Last night was really fun, we went over to my friend Jenny's House (center with wine glass). It was a nice casual event with 17+ kids running around and so much yummy food!! We had to take a photo because we have all been friends since our older kids were 3 and the little ones babies, we had a play group for about five of the last seven years. Most of us play Bunco together once a month. I was feeling a little sappy because our big kids are 10 almost 11 and they all get along so well. I drank 3 of Steve's Killer Margaritas and I am a light weight and did not feel good today, still don't feel great and it is almost 5pm.

Gabby Emily & Hailey celebrate the new year, goof balls:) Wish I had a digital pic of them when they were three, they were sooo cute!

I think I will add some resolutions:

1-Blog at least three times a week

2-Join a gym(Once Hubby has a job)

3-Loose the 20-25lbs of baby weight-he is a year for goodness sake!
4-Work more consistently on my ebay store
5-Yell less!!!
6-Finish the 20 sewing projects I have sitting in a pile

Hmm, I guess that is all I can think of right now with my brain not quite functioning properly. I'm looking forward to 2008, this last year was a tough year, not that I would change it because it has also been a fun year. Graham being added to our family and all the joys he brings us was the best part of last year. 2008 is going to be filled with all sorts of new adventures, which I will fill you in on the 8th or 9th, yep I'm keeping a seceret!!!!

Today's Theme is......

2007-12-31T10:59:00.000-08:00

.....Swaps and mail I have received over the past few weeks!
I know I have been a blog slacker, not from lack of desire to blog, but from lack of time. The holidays have been super busy and now I am gearing up for Graham's First birthday party on the 5th. I almost have all my Christmas decorations down, what a chore that is, and I didn't even put up my many Dept. 56 villages. I have decided I will choose a theme each day and post about that so my posts aren't so long and on a much more regular basis.

This is the second swap I have received from LoriB. We love a lot of the same things so she spoiled me both times. I can't wait to have her as a swap partner. Her birthday is in March also , such a good creative month!!!

I participated in the stuffie swap and received this darling dog made out of vintage feed sac. It quickly took up residence in Gab's room with her other vintage dogs!

This Photo is of a swap I sent for the Red and Aqua swap . Hope my Partner likes it.The next two photos are of necklaces I received from Kristen at Mood Swing Studios.
All the images she uses are from vintage story books, I LOVE THEM. She also sent me a super cute dog one for Gabby, she loves it. Kristen is a very generous person, she made an error with my order and ended up refunding my $$ and sending me the necklaces, which was so sweet and unexpected. I have worn them both a lot all ready and Gab has worn hers too, I have gotten a ton of compliments. So pop on over and get a super cute necklace.

Another swap I sent for FAA Lucky Parcels, the theme was senders choice, so I chose Polka dots!

This one is for the Blue and White themed swap, just mailing now!

Here is a cute Lucky Parcel I received from Jek, this was for senders choice and she chose cherries, which I LOVE.

Well, this post wasn't the most exciting, but there will be more to come tomorrow, may be later in the day due to drinking tonight! Happy New Year's Eve

Some of my Holiday Decorations

2007-12-16T21:15:00.000-08:00

This post is especially for my swap bot pals . I am involved in a swap , where you swap photos of your holiday decor. So here we go. I all ready posted this pic, but it is a part of my decorations. I made it last week and I love it.Next we have my collection of Santas, they are mostly all vintage. At the bottom of the hutch are photos of all the members of my family with Santa, i even have a black and white of my mom with Santa and my step dad with Santa when they were little, too cute. Some day I want to get fancier frames, maybe even vintage:) Bottom left is a darling tree my grandma made me.

Here is the tree in my living room, it looks really pretty with my pink curtains. I usually put it in a different spot, but I love it here because you can see it really well from the outside. I usually get the tree flocked pink, however STEVE at STEEVE'S trees would NOT :( do it this year, I was very sad. I have nothing on top yet, not sure what is going up there, maybe something VINTAGE:) and there is no tree skirt yet.

Next two photos are of the tree in my family room, yep I do two trees. I use to put the red one in the living room and the pink one in the family room. But we redid the rooms and switched the color themes so I switched the trees too. Normally I do a large tree, BUT we decided for the sake of all my vintage ornaments we would get a little tree and put it on a table so MR. Graham couldn't reach it. The first photo is without a flash and the second is with the flash.

This is a pic of my FAB vintage Jewelry tree, and my vintage ceramic trees. They all light up which you can't tell from my photos.

This next pic is of my silver tinsel tree, the tree itself is not vintage, however all the ornaments are:) It looks super cute in the corner of my dining room.

This is also in my dining room, and I change out what resides in here depending ont he season. It is a challenge to find small enough items.

I LOVE this vintage tinsel tree, it is sooo cute.

So Many Things to Post.... So Little Time

2007-12-03T12:30:00.001-08:00

It has been a busy week, I finally have time to sit and post some photos. This first pic is of a dish cloth I knitted and an ornament I made out of a vintage cookie cutter. These items were for a handmade swap. Hope she likes them.I finished this garland last night, yes it is pink, but I added the pink vintage ornaments to make it a little more Christmasy. The Pic is not that great.

I made this cute little kitty a few nights ago for a swap, I love her and hope my swap partner does too.

I am doing a craft fair next weekend at my sisters work in Sebastopol, should be fun. I have been making some fun Jewelry. This pic is of some of the cute pendants I have made. Two of them are vintage scrabble tiles and the others are vintage keys with vintage type writer keys attached to them. I made myself one and get compliments everytime I wear it.
I took a quilting class on Wed. it was an all day class, which was great because I never get that much time to sew with out interruptions unless I sew at midnight. It was me and three grandmas they were all really nice, however I did have to help two of them with their machines. I didn't really learn anything new, but I had fun. The first photo is a close up of part of my quilt top and the second is the whole top, it is not finished. I still have to add the eyes to all the dogs and applique around each dog, then it will be time to put it together, I am going to back it with a white vintage chenille quilt, and tie it with black yarn. It is called a Kwillow, so it has a pillow shape on the back and the whole thing folds up into the pillow. I am making this for Graham, but Miss Gabby wants it really bad. So, I either give her this one and not have it go with her room at all, or I have to make the whole thing again in girly colors. Basically I am going to have to make three, because once I make one for Gabby, Gwen will want one too.

Last weekend I hit the jackpot at an Estate Sale, I spent $20 and got a TON of great stuff. This wall pocket is vintage pottery and is so cute, I had to take it down so I could hang Christmas decorations up. I think it was $2.00.

These pics are out of order, this is a swap I sent out for Colorific Swap, the them was pink, red and white. I embellished the towel.

The quilt in this photo was on the wall at the quilt shop and I bought the pattern because I love it, now I am on the hunt for the great fabrics used to make it. I cant wait to make it!!!!

Swap received for the black and white swap. I Love the vintage buttons and hankie. The earrings are super cute too.

Yesterday I didn't feel like going out in the am so I sent my cute hubby out. Yep, he is great and he went and he found some great deals. I know I am lucky, because most husbands would not even go much less know what to buy. He did a FAB job. He got this awesome green Vintage Chenille Comforter, it is in pristine shape, no holes, stains, no missing chenille or fringe, but the best part is he only spent 1$ on it. YIPPEEEEEEE If I was to buy this on eBay, at and antique store or at a flea market it would have cost me 40-50$.Yes, I am keeping it, it is too great to sell. He also got all the vintage ornaments you see for 1$ and the necklaces on the little thing for 1$, which I will use in my jewelry making.

Back to last weekends finds, this darling girl figurine(on top) was 1$, she is so pretty. I snatched her up and stuck her in my pile, thinking she might cost 5$. So I was very excited to pay $1.00.

I got these vintage coloring books for $1.00 each, not sure what I am doing with them?

This hat box was $1.00 also, and it is currently at my booth holding blocks, however it is not for sale as I LOVE IT. It is paten leather and in excellent shape, which you can not tell from the photo because it was not cleaned yet.

Every Christmas the girls perform with their dance studio at the retirement homes, my cute little Gwen was doing her Pink Panther Baton routine last weekend.

I also got the tall urn in the back for $1.00 it has a small chip but once again it can face the back.

This is the scarf I made for myself and I LOVE it, I might change out the button with a sparkly vintage one. I took this photo with the one arm technique.

Swap I sent for the Holiday Helper Swap on Domestic Bliss.

Swap sent for Lucky Parcels Stripes swap, stripes was a hard one for me!

This was my FAVORITE find last weekend, I have always wanted one of these, and it is AQUA. IT WAS $2.00. They sell for $30.00+ 0n eBay. It was missing 2 screws and my handy dandy Hubby fixed it right up and now it resides in my dining room close to the kitchen, wish it could go in the kitchen, but to my dismay I have to worlds smallest kitchen.:(

This whole box of vintage Christmas stuff was 5$, some of it I kept and some of it is going to my booth.

Good mail

2007-11-28T09:18:00.000-08:00

I have been involved in a lot of swaps lately, the first photos is of a dove ornament I received for the little bird ornament swap. The photo is not the best, I was in a hurry.All this great Vintage Christmas stuff was from Cindy in OR. aka(scrappetta). This was for the Vintage Christmas Swap, and she threw in a lot of fun extras.

Here is the scarf I received in the scarf swap, I love it. If you check out my last post I am wearing it in one of the photos.

My partner for the I see red swap spoiled me, I LOVE everything, cant wait to use all the fun paper. My partner was Lori B. aka Igobylorib.

This was from my other partner for the vintage Christmas swap. Once again bad photography. I LOVE everything, thanks Cindy aka coffelatte.

This package was for the FAA lucky parcel Stripe swap, this is from Ida aka JVCScoutmom.

Life as a Brunette

2007-11-26T17:27:00.000-08:00

OK, after many years as a blond I had my hairdresser make me a brunette, which is actually closer to my natural color! This is not the best picture as my hubby is not a very patient photographer. Everyone has really liked the change, Carl(DAD) and Gabe(Brother in law) are the only two who have said they like me better as a blond. I thought baby Graham and my nephew Eli might be freaked out, but they didn't even notice. Me and my vintage loving girls out for dinner for Heidi's B-day. Donna, Annie, Heidi and the new MOI. We had such a great time, drank a bit too much great wine and Champagne. Annie got her Vintage necklace at one of the sales we went to a few weekends ago. Once again, I can't seem to get rid of the blue underlining.

Life at the Smith's

2007-11-25T20:16:00.000-08:00

I have been bad about blogging the last week or so, I have some great photos to add, maybe tomorrow when the kids go back to school.

I am so excited, I bought some vintage baby blocks at a Estate sale for 3$ and I sold them all for $95.00. OMG!!!!!! There were no good estate sales this weekend, hope there will be some good ones this weekend. I sold these in my new booth space;)

I went out shopping Fri am with my friend Sara, we got to the mall a little before 10am and it was crazy, I was ready to turn around and go home. But, being the shopaholic I am, I powered through. I got some great deals on clothes for the girls for Christmas. I have done all most all the rest on ebay, so much less crowded:)

We made our first Turkey day dinner EVER. We have been together 14 years and never had to cook Thanksgiving dinner, we are always with our family's. This year we decided to stay home and cook, it was fun and we made SUPER yummy food, and now we are ready to host the Fam next year:)

Tomorrow I am going to craft while the girls are at school, I have projects back on my dinning room table and want to get them done. I want to make a bunch of stuff and have an open house, we'll see!

**My new Venture* and life in general

2007-11-13T18:28:00.000-08:00

Ok, before I dive in to my many adventures, could someone please tell me what DH stands for? Is is Damn Husband, Darling Husband, Dumb Husband, Dorky Husband, Dear Husband, Delicious Husband, Delightful Husband, Ok enough all ready. Also, later in this post you will see the dreaded underlining, How on God's Green Earth do I get rid of it, PLEASE Let me know, it is making me CRAZY!!!!!!!!!

Last week I was in one of our few antique shops,(Antiques on Second) and was talking to one of the dealers, and she was saying how great and inexpensive it is to have a booth in this shop. So I talked to the owner on Monday. She didn't have an available booth, but she did have space for this truly ugly shelf which she is renting to me. This is the before pic.

Here is the after photo, yep I had all that stuff in my house and there is more to come! I think I disguised the shelve pretty well!

Thank you all for the kind words about my grandma, it means a lot:) I still haven't found the diamond earring, not that I have tried real hard, because my room is still a complete disaster, uggg. No job for Chad still, YIKES starting to panic, Christmas is only 4o something days away and my girls have all ready started their lists! I have been busy crafting, here are a few items I have made..... UPDATE, it is about two hours later and.... Chad just handed me my diamond earring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

This Scarf is for a swap on swap bot, however there will be more to come, I all ready started one for me. My sister requested one also.Here is the cute little Elephant I made for a baby shower gift for my friend Tiffanie.This is a bad photo of the cute Taggie blankie I made for the above mentioned shower. I need to make Graham one because he loves strings and ribbons and yarn and my HAIR, oh and the dogs hair.(Gross)Do you notice a theme to this gift? These burp cloths came out quite cute as well.
Last weekend I didn't have any luck in the Estate Sale area, however the weekend before I got quite a lot. I got these two Santa's at the Christmas sale at one of our thrift stores. Three of my girlfriends and I stood in line for 30 minutes then we had to fight the hideous crowds to look through the stuff, I will NEVER again go to that particular sale, it was claustrophobic!!! I kept one Santa and the other is in my antique booth.I got all this jewelry at a sale the day before at the Presbyterian ladies sale, I paid 9$ for all. The gold necklace is 94inches long and has lovely crystals here and there.Also, at the first sale I got this darling vintage cross stitch for little Graham's room, the saying is soo cute and the bird and fish have sparkly eyes. It was 5$.I have been looking at these on EBAY and they have been selling anywhere from 20-40$. I got this one for 3$, Yippeee for me. The music doesn't work, but I don't care! Hubby is going to try to fix it as we speak. Keep your fingers crossed. See end of post to know what happens.These lovelies I got at an Estate Sale on the way to help set up for the baby shower, they were 2$ for all. I took a couple to my booth, the rest will go on my pink tree since they go with the theme.I got this super sweet Angel she is pink and hangs on the wall, I CAN'T wait to hang her in my kitchen this Christmas. She was from the Hideous sale on and she was 15$ Yikes, but I love her.Yep, more vintage ornaments, there are some pretty great ones here, I got these at the Hideous sale. 8$ for all.This is why I love Estate and Garage Sales, these would have been a buck.This is a swap I received yesterday, I love the crochet dish cloth and all the other fun stuff!Second phots is the swap I sent out for Jar of Whimsy. First Photo is the swap I received. It was for the Jar of Whimsy swap. She was such a great partner, she made sure to put in all kinds of lovely vintage stuff, I LOVE IT ALL!Update, 20 minutes have gone by and Hubby is still working on the music part of the jewelry box and now saying curse words. HMMM this is yet another bad photo of a swap I sent out, it was for the brown and pink swap, my partner loved it! The scarf is a twirly scarf that when you are done, you have 1000 stitches on you needles.....10 more minutes and he has fixed the music box, not sure what the song is, but he is about as proud of himself as a peacock. I'm pretty Happy too:)

~In loving Memory~

2007-11-08T20:25:00.001-08:00

Today my Great Grandma Mary passed away:( She just celebrated her 100th birthday this summer. The photo below is from her100th birthday party. It is so hard to believe she is gone, I have been lucky enough to have a GREAT Grandma my whole life. She wasn't in pain and she went peacefully which is such a blessing. I visited her in the hospital on Tuesday, she patted my cheek and patted Graham's cheek and I held her hand. The woman I am today has so much to do with her. She instilled the importance of being a close family, she taught me to knit when I was a child and now I am a knitting fool, my first experience on a sewing machine was with her, she wore her high heels, makeup and jewelry to the end. When she was 12 her mom died and she had to step in and take care of her brothers and sisters, that is amazing to me. We have had five generations for the last 10years, which is amazing, most people I know don't even have a grandparent alive much less a great grandma. She was a loving wonderful woman, and our family gatherings will not be the same without her.

ONE DOLLAR!!!!!!!

2007-11-07T20:44:00.000-08:00

These are my finds from last Friday. I paid a whole dollar for all of it. The exciting part is.... the darling vintage pink mixer actually works! I have allways wanted one of the poodle toilet paper covers. I jumped up and down when I found it. The girls bathroom is pink aqua, black, and vintage poodles, so you know where she went:) The note pad holder is really glittery and cute, you cant tell from the photo.

FAB Finds

2007-11-07T10:54:00.000-08:00

Two weekends ago I went to a great Estate Sale and much to my husbands dimay, I came home with a ton of stuff! I love this tole container it was 1$ and the melmac bowls were 1$. This item was one of the most expensive it was 7.50.
I got a TON of vintage jewelry for about 30$.

The books were a dollar each, I love this one because it is called how to be sweet and charming. I must read it!
These sewing machine drawers were 1$ each, not sure what I am going to do with them? I all ready have one on the back of my potty holding extra hand towels!
Plate 50cents.
All three for 3$. I may keep one?? Not sure, need to get on the ebay thing!

The vintage silver bag was 1$ and the cute coine purse 25cents. This dog was 3$, I had nbo idea what it was, but when they told me I had to have it! It is a appetizer holder. I need to have a party so I can use it, SOOOO CUTE!
These were the bag of sheets I got for 2$, the toaster cover is cute and headed for ebay!
These dish cloths were 2$.
This adorable dog picture was FREE, it is headed for Gabby's room to go with the vintage dog theme.

This quilt was 2$!!! I love it!!!!!!! I have always wanted a rag rug, this one was 1$, I about peed my pants when she said how about a buck!!!
This one was 1$ also, it is going to be a gift for my friend Heidi's bday next week, it is her colors. She'll love it!
These were in a bag of sheets for 2$.
These scarfs were 4$, a little pricy, but super cute. I will probably list them on EBAY.

This quilt was 2$!

These two trays were 1$ each.

This step stool was 3$, I plan to recover it. It may be awhile!

This Afgan was 1$

Halloween

2007-11-07T10:10:00.000-08:00

Gwen and Reese on Halloween! Gabby in her last elementary school Halloween Parade:(
Graham finally fell asleep at the end of Trick or Treating! Cute Skunk!
My Kidos and my nephew Eli getting ready for the parade downtown!

After the Parade we had to go to walmart, we thought the boys were cute in the cart!
Gwen at school with her friends on Halloween, wasn't she a cute Minnie mouse. Nice that this dance costume still fit after two years!

My little Gabby looks so old:( She was a darling butterfly. Her and Maddie were going to a Rainbow Girls Halloween Dance.

Escape from the Mental Hospital??

2007-11-07T10:01:00.000-08:00

The girls had a physical a week or so ago and they got these cute little kid gowns to put on and they were sitting on the table waiting for the DR. So I decided they were adorable and needed to take their pic, however they were horrified, so this is what I got. It is kind of funny:)

Friday's with Graham

2007-11-07T09:58:00.000-08:00

Every Friday I have Tap and Ballet class and Mr. G goes with me. Tap is first and he sits in his stroller for 45 min while we dance. He sits and watches and enjoys the loud tapping sounds. One of my class mates, Judy has a new puppy that she brings with, she is sooooo cute. Her name is Rosy and as you can see, she and Graham were hanging out a few weeks ago. Could they be any cuter??? We do 45 min. of Ballet after tap and last week Mr. G was not happy during Ballet, so I let him crawl around, it was quite interesting trying to dance with him crawling through my legs! No pictures of that unfortunately:)

Helping Mommy

2007-11-07T09:47:00.000-08:00

Gwen was helping me with the hideous task of sorting socks and Mr. Graham decided he wanted to help to. As you can see he decided to sort the socks by throwing them around the family room. He thought it was big fun!

Poor me

2007-10-30T00:55:00.000-07:00

I am feeling sorry for myself, so I am going to be a big ole complainer. My hubby is currently unemployed, he was in the mortgage industry and he got laid off Sept 5th. This is the longest he has gone without a job during our 14 years together. While he is searching for gainful employment, he is working with a friend painting. So all last week and this week, he is down in union city painting, he is staying down there because it is about an hour and a half away with out traffic and with traffic who knows. Which leaves me to deal with the three little monsters and I have to take out the trash and remember to pull it to the curb, ugggg.

Last night as I was yelling at Gwen for something or other, I yanked my cami over my head in a ferocious manner and my three quarter caret diamond earring came out and flew somewhere in my room. I hardly ever take these earrings off, I even sleep in them and now one is lost in my stupid bedroom!!! I am hoping as I tidy up my room I will find it, otherwise I will have to claim it on my insurance, which will make the premium go up UGGGGG.

Our insurance is ending on Nov. 5ht, and they always offer you cobra, well, for my fam of 5 it is $1000.00 a month. How does this make any sense? You have no job and they want you to pay $1000.00 a month insurance. CRAZY!

This is a valid thing to be sad about, my great Grandma who is 100 is in the hospital, she had a minor stroke, not sure what is going to happen. Also found out today that my friends husband, who is in his 30's just had a testicle removed due to cancer. My sister and I are wondering what the third thing is going to be!!!!!!!!

To top it off I have fruit flies in my house. I keep killing them and they keep multiplying, come to think of it, I think they are A-sexual, and don't need a mate to reproduce. Lovely!

One more complaint, I hate trying to loose weight, I still have 25lbs to go to be pre-pregnancy. I want to fit in my old clothes!!!!!!!!!!

I have a lot to be thankful for, I have 3 beautiful children, we are all healthy(for the moment), I have a lot of wonderful friends, I have a home, I went to two great estate sales over the weekend(Photos to come), and a husband who loves me even though I am a messy girl and he is a neat freak.

Off to bed!

Pumpkin Patch

2007-10-23T20:35:00.000-07:00

One day a week or so ago I took the kidos to the pumpkin patch after school, it was a beautiful day. We took some photos, the kids had a snack and we took home a few little pumpkins.

Graham is so cute sitting on this alligator, he thought it was big fun!

Fingerless glove

2007-10-17T01:30:00.000-07:00

I finished one and the other is half done, I think it turned out pretty cute. My hand looks old an wrinkly YIKES!!! Gabby all ready tried to steal them from me. Guess I might have to make her a pair too. I can't seem to figure out how to get rid of the underlining???

rosey little things

Go To the New Blog

Say Good bye!!

Catching Up

Back From The Beach

Leapin' Lizards

Hubby's New Toy

Book Critique

Antique Fairs & Estate Sale,& Auctions OH MY

Hair And Grahams Room Photos

Looking Back

Finally Found a Decent Thrift

Weekend Update

Polk a Dot Purse

Tuesday Top Ten

SO COOL

Hello

DO NOT TRY THIS!!

Southern Hospitality

Greetings From the Never Ending Road Trip

Packing Break

We have a move date

Good Friends & Family

Thursday Top Ten

I'm Back

Book Critique

Tuesday Top Ten + A finished project

Monday Madness-and 1 Vintage find

Meet Rosey

Happy Valentines Day

Good Mail

Swaps and Stuff

Tuesday Top Ten + Moving Update

Estate Sale Finds

Book Critique

Thrifty Finds and Some Handmade Things

Busy Weekend.

So it is really happening...

Tuesday Top Ten

Catching Up

****BIG NEWS FOR THE SMITH FAMILY*****

Thrifty Thursday

Vintage -Reusable Shopping-Market Bag -Now Appearing on Ebay

Tuesday TOP Ten

Monday Madness

Book Critique

Swappin Saturday

Blog Woes

Book Critique Each Week

Estate Sale -A -Thon

My Funny Kidos

My Little Man is ONE Today :(

A Few Things I Have Made Lately

Happy New Year....

Today's Theme is......

Some of my Holiday Decorations

So Many Things to Post.... So Little Time

Good mail

Life as a Brunette

Life at the Smith's

****My new Venture*** and life in general

~In loving Memory~

ONE DOLLAR!!!!!!!

FAB Finds

Halloween

Escape from the Mental Hospital??

Friday's with Graham

Helping Mommy

Poor me

Pumpkin Patch

Fingerless glove

BIG NEWS FOR THE SMITH FAMILY*

**My new Venture* and life in general