Favorite New Shop Items :-)

In the last two weeks I've had some luck thrifting. After I wrote that things had been flying off the shelves, inevitably, they stopped flying. :-) But, it's okay, the slower pace just kicked me into gear in beefing up the baby sections of my shop.

I will finish out my first year (October 2012) with the miscellaneous vintage things I have and after evaluating what has sold the best, I'll probably try to pare down to the main sellers. This, of course, has been baby clothing so far. I have the best luck finding it, buying it and selling it of all the other things in the shop. Random other things have sold, but these babies have been the pick. We'll see how the rest of the year turns out and go from there.

So, I've found the Salvation Army is my best place to find vintage. Some thrift stores you could look all day and not find a piece or two. Others (the S.A.!), if you're lucky, are vintage heaven. Where are your favorite places to thrift?

Two Salvation Army stores and around 15-20 pieces later, here's my favs of the bunch. Even little baby boy stuff is showing up! Check everything out at the shop, click here.

baby bowties

Yellow Easter dress, anyone?

teeny, tiny little blouse

awesome retro smock top

elephant short overalls

cowboy button-up.

Mmm! Love love love thrifting and finding sweet little things!! Looking forward to garage sale season coming up soon! :-)

Her Plant

We received this plant when our girl was born ... 15 months later, it's totally outgrown its home. Not to mention, there are 6 different varieties in this one pot!

It's time to replant. I scored these spring pots for $5 each (sale) at Hobby Lobby and I love them! They have a drainage hole in the bottom and are painted in such fun glossy colors.

Unfortunately, it's difficult to shop for potting soil in February despite the fact that the weather has been nice.

Once we have the soil, we'll be good to go! I'll update you on the plants once potting soil is found.

:-) So excited!

Sesame Street love

Aw yay! My little Sesame Street baby boy jumper was featured on this blog! Their Sesame Street post was so cute! Go check it out ... my fav was the fuzzy Grover puzzle.

:-)

Such fun.

Shop Update! A few more little cute things

Wow! Things have been "flying off the shelves" so-to-speak from my etsy shop. And I'm definitely not complaining about that - it's a great problem to have! Love it.

Although it does create the need to fill the shop back up, so we went thrifting the other day and found a few things. I need to go again, but it does take some better planning. (She fell asleep in the car and had wet through her pants - so obviously we need to 1. go in the afternoon and 2. take the diaper bag. Yeah, this mama needs to be more prepared.)

Anyway, here are a few things I've recently added to the shop!

Head on over to see the rest!

Sometimes...

It's hard for me to live in a place where neighbors sound more like roommates on any given day. (Oh, how I'd love my own house. Dreaming of that day...)

I'm reminded of how much I love my little girl when she breaks out her wide cheesy smiles or looks at me with those big innocent eyes (even after spilling the dog's water three times).

I feel self-conscious when I remember that my pants don't fit and I still need to gain a good 15 lbs.

I am mildly dishonest when I pretend to my favorite hairdresser in Ohio that I'm actually not from somewhere 12 hours away. 

I can't imagine a world without bedtime. 

I'm surprised that I still love to put my hair in pink foam rollers and see the curls after a few hours.

I get a little too easily wrapped up in DIY blogs and projects. 

I indulge in guilty pleasures like fruit snacks, dark chocolate, and salt and vinegar chips.

I wish all things in life were as wonderful as snuggling with my loves on a lazy morning.

Furniture fixings.

Record player update: remember this baby I picked up last summer? It's currently in Ohio getting some or all of its water-damaged 1946 innards fixed. It also still looks like this on the outside, but I've decided on yellow and plan to paint and distress when she finds her way home.

Just last week, I found another chair! A lady was having a quick garage sale (yes, in February - the weather was too nice to resist!) and I scored it for $15. I should've offered lower, but I figured that it was a good deal anyway.

Annie Sloan chalk paint in Old White here you come! Just after I figure out how to remove all of the upholstery ... those staples are a beast!! I plan to paint and repair the frame and then try my hand at reupholstery. A little more of a project that just a chair seat, but I'm ready for a challenge! Now the 60 degree weather just needs to come back.

After day 1, I'd removed all the piping and took off the back. The fabric is HIDEOUS orange velour from the 70s but the foam is in really good shape. I'm hoping to re-use it.

Any upholstery tips or suggestions? I'm thinking of using more inexpensive grain sacks as fabric. Love!!

Shop: Good news and bad

The good news: I sold the 70s strawberry jumpsuit!

The bad news: I sold the strawberry jumpsuit. *sigh. But, if I didn't want it to go, I shouldn't have listed it until after Ladybug wore it!!! Oh well.

************

January was an awesome month on Etsy.com. They made a huge deal about the holidays (the month of December) and I didn't sell a single thing. Then, right after Christmas my stuff started flying off the shelves! Well, figuratively anyway.

It's so much fun.

...Doing taxes on the money I earned, well, not so much fun. But who's thinking about that!?

:-)

Because I know so many people who have money for this...

really? who would purchase something like this?

source

*************
in other news, we're sick with the nastiest stomach flu in a century, I think. i thought it might be food poisoning because it came on so fast and hit so hard on Thursday but Jeremy came home from class sick last night.

Boo on the flu.

Longing for Haiti...

... just a few days ago my mom and I were talking about their upcoming trip to Haiti and everything in me just wants to pick up and go with them.


The 2 year anniversary of remembering the earthquake was only 10 days ago - Jan 12. (Read about our experience here, here, here and here.)

source

I'm making a book of important people for our girl and was using my best contacts to find and include a this picture of Elyse in it, but hadn't been able to access that picture. Then, I got it last week!

photo credit: M. Jensen

Then I read this post. And my heart is heavy for Haiti.


God, what can I do?

epic sewing fail.

i usually like to celebrate my successes, but I'm sorry, this was an epic sewing fail (which had the potential to be. SO. cute!)

Here was my up-cycle materials:

Click here for my inspiration. So cute right?

And the epic fail.

 (see the "bump"? horrible)

(bump from the front and bow sewn crooked.)

(the inside was too big for the outside = what a mess!)

(and i need a re-course in sewing zippers - yikes!!)

You'd have to see it in person to get the full effect, but it was an epic fail. One carefully thought through, wonderfully envisioned epic sewing fail.

Here's to not being too discouraged and trying again on something else! :-)

because our dog is weird.

...and cracks us up.

ha!

a baby gift

For my best friend's little girl, who we just (very excitedly) met, I wanted to make something special.

I found the idea here and she found it on Pinterest. (Side note: I'm totally on pinterest and still don't really know my way around ... isn't that sad or what?)

Anyway, I loved it and it worked perfectly with a four letter name like Ella and I started with the above color of embroidery thread. However, about halfway through I realized that there was not going to be enough ... and quickly changed to an ombre type look. I actually really love it!

I finished up with a pretty yellow dandelion and re-stretched it across the hoop. It wasn't quite as straight as I'd hers - my stitches must've been different tensions and the fabric different - but I still think it turned out SO cute.

The back, however, is a different story.

So I used a piece of knit (that won't fray) to cover the back... and used another uncovered ring. (The yarn covered one was cute but made it difficult to get everything together without breaking.)

then trimmed the whole thing up! Pretty sweet, huh?

experimenting with light

one of my (unspoken) goals for the year is to be a little bit more risky and experiment with my photography. if it doesn't work, it's okay. if it turns out amazing, great!

here, I experimented with lighting. the sun was shining in my bedroom windows late in the day as we were playing upstairs. Here's what we got.

Nothing amazing, but maybe someday it will be. My favorite is the last one. :-)

the purse hanger - finally hung

Remember my purse hanger?

Three months later, it's finally up. (*smiles) Yeah, it takes me awhile to do things around here, but after the busyness of Christmas, I feel more motivated ... like things aren't weighing so heavy, things don't HAVE to be done, therefore, it's much more fun to actually get them done! Ha. I'm weird, I know. Just go with it. 

{And, just for the record, the ENTIRE three months she has been driving me crazy pulling things out of the diaper bag and my purse. That little girl can pull apart or get into just about anything these days!}

So over Christmas, I broke out my amazing and infamous can of (expensive!) Annie Sloan Chalk Paint called "Old White" and painted (and distressed) the backboard we needed to use. Since it would be holding weight we wanted it to be screwed into the wall studs. Unfortunately, I'd already made the hanger before we decided this. It was too small to do reach both studs, so I just extended it with a larger piece of walnut. 

My dad taught me how to countersink the screws so it would be flat against the wall and we glued and screwed the boards together (from the back).

Then I broke out the trusty power tool (a.k.a. drill) and after measuring twice, I drilled the holes into the studs and countersunk the 2-1/2" wood screws. Yes, I did!

A big thank you to my dad for helping with this project and my husband for the use of his power tools and for marking the studs for me. 

Love that they are off the floor and out of reach! For now at least... 

:-)