on death

my grandpa died 2-1/2 weeks ago. it was the day he came home from the hospital after having a scheduled open heart surgery (10 days before) to fix a fairly serious valve issue. that day my mom had called me to tell me she was out with her parents helping them settle in, that he looked puffy but she said, "I think he's gonna make it."

an hour later she called me to tell me that he'd collapsed and she had to do CPR on him. she didn't know if he was going to make it.


he didn't.


he was so strong and healthy. I mean, granted, he was almost 80, but he was energetic and still jogging and climbing ladders and on counters and gardening and always doing something. it was really sudden. i think that's why it was so hard to swallow.

and i didn't really want to go back home. to face the reality. not because i was particularly close to him but because i hate grief. and suffering. and pain. and death.

this is why i think that death wasn't supposed to be a part of the natural created order. sure, plants die, the ground winters over, and there's the food chain ... but i don't think that God created death. It's absolutely gut-wrenching to think about in any capacity and just seems so wrong. 

so wrong...

when a husband loses his wife.


when a son is killed in action.


when a baby is lost at 13 or 39 weeks gestation.


when a toddler is hit by a drive-by. 

You can't tell me this is "part of God's plan." Because I will never think it is. Because I don't think that life as it is is how He originally planned it. But, because of sin, we're stuck in this mess. And I don't think we're beyond redemption or that it's impossible to experience His goodness in the world, because that's not true either. But I don't think that death/grief/suffering is how he wanted His world to be.


but, we go on with our lives and deal with death in the best ways possible. feel what we need to feel, do what we need to do: cry, grieve, remember.

it was a nice funeral. (as "nice" as any funeral can be.) flowers were expedited from Hawaii as soon as their church found out.  See, G&G were Hawaiians 9 months out of the year, so they dressed him in a Hawaiian shirt and lei, played Hawaiian music at the visitation, and displayed the gorgeous Hawaiian flowers (see above pic).

we got to see the family. an aunt and uncle i haven't seen in 15 years. my brother and sister.

but, really, i would've waited 'til Christmas to see them to avoid a funeral.

alas, it wasn't to be.

so, pray for my mom and her family if you pray and you think of them. and, someday, I believe that redemption will come to the world and all this confusing and heart-wrenching death crap will come to an end.

Maranatha.

my shop

my shop is coming along! it is a lot of work to draft items to post on Etsy. I'm glad I started "early" although I wish I would've started sooner. Taking good photos, finding props, editing details, measuring, etc. takes a long time.

Anyone want to be my assistant? (Unfortunately Ladybug and Jackson aren't much help. So I do most of my work during naptime.)

My shop will feature mostly vintage baby clothing with a smattering of vintage housewares, vintage women's clothing and jewelry and a couple of handmade items.

My goal is to be up and running by the end of October ... my birthday (Nov) by the very latest.

I'll let you know when we're live!! So excited.

Vintage Hawaiian Dress Re-do

I found this dress at the Salvation Army for a couple bucks. It's definitely vintage (thick polyester lovin'!) - and the tag clearly states "Honolulu, Hawaii". It's not exactly Hawaiian in the sense that I think of now, but isn't it a little crazy and really great? And, for the record, quite comfy too.

I decided that the length was a little unflattering, so I altered it above the knee. Unfortunately, even after measuring twice, I still altered it a little too short for my long lady legs. Hopefully a shorter gal will enjoy this from my Etsy shop (opening soon!).

What do you think? Isn't it fun?



(dress look familiar? click HERE to see where I used the rest of this fabric.) 

avocados: messy

pretty sure she needed a bath after eating lunch the other day.

pretty sure I just scrubbed her off with a washcloth. (much to her dismay!)

happy wednesday!!

p.s. it's almost fall! so excited. the weather is finally cooling off here...

a little bathroom facelift: shower curtain

i decided that our bathroom needed a little help. our place is rented, the vent fan doesn't work well which means that the walls are slightly moldy. yuck, right?

well, we aren't going to put a bunch of money into fixing up our rented townhome, but i did decide that the decor needed help. first up, the shower curtain.

shower curtain: before

it was on our wedding registry 3 years ago. my first thought was: get a new one. but i don't have the money, don't need to spend the money and ours works just fine. the grommets are slightly rusty (why do they put metal on shower curtains? especially the liners? please, oh please, explain why.), it needs a good washing and just some pizazz added.

(insert: rosette tutorial.)

YES! Exactly what I needed. *sigh.

 

I had some extra linen that I re-used to make the rosettes. (I love the scrappy look of them. Linen unravels beautifully.) It previously was covering my vanity stool, but linen, because it stretches and wrinkles, is awful to use for upholstering. So I scored a new piece of great fabric for $1 and recovered my stool.

(Note to self: don't use linen for upholstering.)

I cut off those silly grommets and used the holes to mark out the spots to sew button holes.

This was the first time to use my automatic button-holer on my sewing machine and I LOVED it! I wanted to make button holes all day, but I tempered my desire and just made enough to rehang my curtain. It's a little shorter than it was... but...

I sewed on a ruffle to make up for some of the missing length. I love me some ruffles!! :-)
I actually hand-ruffled it and then sewed it on the wrong ways together. I had a ruffle mishap at the beginning that really wasn't working for me, so I went back to this way and it turned out so cute!

Shower curtain: After

(excuse the perspective - our bathroom is so tiny, it's almost impossible to photograph!)

More to come: Bathroom art!

fashion: Alexa Chung

my new fashion muse: Alexa Chung. have you heard of her? 

According to Wikipedia, she's an English tv presenter, model and contributing editor at British Vogue. And she's only 3 weeks older than me. If only my style matched hers ... I think I would be so satisfied with how I looked.

I'm generally not drawn to high fashion as it's not really accessible to the normal person ... me. I like to look, but that's about it. But, her style (at least in the InStyle shoot) is exactly what I love! A little vintage, a little funky, a little classic, a little modern. I can't explain it, but I heart her style! Click the link below to see more.

source

click HERE for more photos.

What do you think? Could I pull it off?

first floor: finally childproofed

hey all! i finally, finally got the first (main) floor of our townhome childproofed. my last and final task after getting a new entertainment center to contain all of its cords was to find a way to contain all of the plastic bags, which had been previously stuck in a gap between the counter and refrigerator. tiny ladies and very tempting plastic bags DON'T MIX.

thus, i looked online and found this tutorial and proceeded to make one during naptime one day last week. here is hers:

and here is mine (made from scraps):

finally, childproofing success (at least until she starts to pull herself up).

rejoice!