Thrift Store Scores

My husband says I'm addicted I'm pretty sure I'm not!  So I've been avoiding the thrift store, trying to save a little you know. But I do have a hard time saying no at the thrift store ;)  But, I have to say these are basically my two scores: a cake stand with that gorgeous scalloped edge ($3) and a square yellow pyrex bowl ($2). Now I need to bake a cake!

Parties & Quilts

The little sweetie had a very sweet birthday this last week. I've been a bit busy getting things ready and holding a teething sweetie too. But it turned out to be a lot of fun. Here's a little peek:

I used Dana of Made's shirt dress tutorial as a template for this little birthday dress, but used a pillow case instead of a shirt, and then embroidered the word "one" on the front, and colored it in with colored pencils to make it "pop" a little better.

A butter cream cake with fondant roses . . .

cupcakes with some fun toppers. . .

I cut a little frame out of wrapping paper to make pictures in her high chair a little bit more fun. . .

And I finally finished that quilt that I started before she was born! I'm so excited I actually got it done! Wahoo!  I switched out the backing from the yellow and orange to a pink rose vintage sheet. And then quilted roses in all the white squares. We hadn't picked a name yet when I was working on the top, but I thought the pink roses were more appropriate after naming her :) Anyway, a fun first birthday gift for me, maybe not so much for her ;) The stroller from Grandpa and Grandma was her favorite (and the buddies too:)

Did I use enough emoticons?

Freebie Friday: Enjoy a Poster!

Do you need a little reminder to stop and smell the roses? I do! I'm finally coming back with a freebie that is really for me: a reminder to enjoy today and stop worrying so much about getting things done. There will always be things to do, but their won't always be two sweet kids who think I'm the best. Some day they will grow up and realize I'm crazy. Gotta enjoy it now!

Get the poster in RED, YELLOW, OR BLUE (ish green).





enjoy!!

yellow bunting

This is mostly for my mother. I told her I had finally done this and she wanted to see. . . I've been wanting to make this ever since Candace of Sparkle Power listed some yellow scalloped bunting in her shop. I LOVED it, but I knew I could make my own with the large stash of yellow material I had on hand. It just took forever to get to it. I think the scallops are too long though-every time I look at it they look more like fat toes than scallops. bugging . . . but I sure love the fabric! moral of story-think about buying the perfect yellow scalloped bunting before it is sold :)

Freebie Friday: Page Planner

I used to make lists, lists, and more lists. I still do, but not as many. All those lists started weighing me down and I started to feel like I was suffocating under them. So I stopped. But then I was forgetting things, and not being as productive, and kind of floating around lost. I didn't want to go back to the lists and endless lists though. Seriously. What to do.  I needed something to give me a week "planner" at a time, but with my specific needs. I didn't want a real planner-too bulky yet not organized enough. I tried a 3 ring binder-yet again too bulky. Small notebooks? Not organized enough-too many pages to go through-where did I write that down? The things is I needed something portable-to take with me on the go-but also fast-my phone takes too much time (although if I weren't so visual it might be a good option). I also needed something with everything for at least a week on it. All the plans so I don't have random scraps of paper all over with blog posts lists and new recipe ideas. This was my solution: A one page weekly planner that I can fold up for on the go, but cram everything into and have an overview of the week plus my menu, shopping list, goals, and time with the buddy all lumped together. Kind of still lists, but not as hodge podged, and I don't write down "should do" things only "going to do" things.

click on picture for larger image.

Two caviats to this though-I'm very visual and I'm kind of a fly by the seat of my pants sort of girl, so this is trying to give me a little order-most of you are probably way ahead of me on this one. The other is I like to write small-as in 1/8 inch small. So this works for me. I've made it into a two page format for those of you who don't like using a magnifying glass to decipher your "not" lists.

Click here for the ONE page planner (my printer has a no-print margin on the bottom hence the run off on the right--still works for my needs though).

Click here for the TWO page planner

Freebie Friday: Gold Coins

The little buddy loves this pirate book we got from the library. The line that is used over and over and over is "where there's a gold I be goin'." But alas, when we play pirates we were fresh out of gold. When I was at Joann's this week I saw those plastic gold coins and almost picked some up. But, then I figured I could make some for free, and since I'm trying to cut out all those cheap little things that we end up throwing away eventually I figured that this was the way to go.

Get the gold "coins" here. (I made six by gluing them back to back and then laminated them).

I also thought they could be really cute as a cupcake topper with a chocolate cupcake made into a "pot" with the little gold coin sticking up. Kinda fun. Anyway, enjoy!

thrift store rules

So I have loved thrift store shopping since before it was cool. I remember in the fourth grade excitedly telling a friend that I had gotten something from the thrift store (I don't remember what now) and she turned her nose up as fourth graders do and told me she had been there once, and got a booger on her finger! She thought they were gross, I though they were heaven. Still do. You can ask my husband :)

This was my Saturday score: well, some of it. I also got an awesome collection of yellow and blue hardback Nancy Drew novels, some clothes for the kids (among which an awesome vintage dress-which I packed away in the 2T box before I took pictures, alas), and a 1963 Atlas book (same one my parents have-awesome)! I am loving that yellow gingham and navy stripe together. Too bad the yellow is a fuzzy backed plastic tablecloth. I might have to go buy some yellow gingham.I'm also excited about the lamp. I've been wanting a lamp for awhile, but never found anything that I "loved." I love this one, except the brown part. I will spray paint it yellow or white, obviously, do other colors of spray paint exist? Oh, and those boots have never been worn, and for $6 how could I say no? My size? My favorite color? It's like they left them there just for me!OOOOOOoooo I love the thrift store!


Anyway, so I thought I'd share some of my tips on thrift store shopping while I was at it.
1. I always go with some things in mind that I'm looking for: of course cool vintage stuff, but also clothes or shoes or a shelf for that space that needs organizing or whatever. These are what I'm dreaming of finding at a thrift store:

okay, so this one isn't "vintage" it's from anthropologie, but I'm just not willing to spend $200 on a phone . . .

2. I always swing past the sheets/and pillowcases and see what they have there. I use this guide by Candace of Sparkle Power. (She was the one that taught me a love for vintage sheets in real life :).

3. I check the dishes/ kitchen ware for anything yellow or made out of milk glass. One day I will have a beautiful hutch or cabinet to display it in. Someday. But that's just me.

4. **This one I think is especially important.**  Unless you want a hodge podge of vintage-which in and of itself can be cool-try to stick with a theme for your vintage-ness. Of course my theme is yellow. But it could be deers, or flowers, or lace, or of course a color. But it helps tie it all together and make all these found objects more co-hesive. Plus, it will keep you from buying a boat load. I find things all the time that I think are cool, like pyrex, casserole dishes with flowers on the side, but 9 times out of 10 they aren't yellow so I pass them up.

5. Ask yourself several times and in different ways. "Will I really use this?" or even more helpful to me, "Will I think about this for a month and kick myself for not buying it if I pass it up?" That's usually the clincher for me. If I can't stop thinking about it and love it immediately I usually buy it. If I like it, think it might be useful, want to love it, know someone else who will love it, but don't love it, I don't buy it. Usually. Like the bright yellow 60s drop waist pleated skirt dress I found. It was bright, I almost passed it up. But it was yellow. . . and I love pleats. But it was so bright. I went back and forth. Finally I said to myself "will I dare wear this anywhere?" the answer was probably not. So I left it there.

6. Be picky about quality. After I've decided I'm going to purchase something I try and find all the reasons why I shouldn't, is there anything wrong with this?  As in the case of the bright yellow dress (even though it was only five bucks)  the material  had all these little fuzzy pills in the rayon fabric. It bugged me. Alas. So it made me feel better about leaving it be.

7. If at all possible don't bring your kids. Usually I do, usually I don't spend as much time as I'd like either. It's too hard to make decisions.

8. Be prepared to walk out if they don't have anything you want. Don't feel like you have to buy something just because you went in. This is especially true if you go often-which if you really have a "list" of things you are looking for might be a good idea.

Really, just go with a plan, an idea of what you want. they can be overwhelming and they can be time consuming, and they can be a little bit scary dirty but rest assured I've never gotten a booger on my finger.

yellow makes me happy

 

Cabin fever is definitely setting in. We are finally on the tail end of two weeks of sickness at our house. But this is making me happy. Yellow makes me happy. I tease my husband that I married him simply because his last name was Lemon :) Anyway, other things that are making me happy? The little buddy can't say his "L's" so he says a "Y" or "W" sound instead. My favorite is "yiddle" for "little." But he's not yiddle anymore. He reminds me daily that he's a big boy now.

Freebie Friday . . . Lace Up Boy

Yep, I finally finished making these.  While I was cutting them out today the buddy sat by me and played with them. He kept talking about the boy in his "skins." I admit I haven't taught him the word "naked" so he uses "skins" and I love it. I'll be sad when he learns the real word. But, I think they are a success since the little buddy LOVES them.

So here is the Spring Lace Up Boy. . . . and if you are too busy to print and cut and laminate and punch yourself . . . you can get the finished deal in my etsy shop.. . .{ in a few days. . . . the little sweetie came down with croup today and listing those things fell to the bottom of my list. sorry. They will be there soon. I'll let you know!}

 The Spring Lace Up Boy comes with four sets of clothes . . . and a knight costume . . .
 

Also in the shop {in a few days}? Some more sweet dress up clothes as a Printable (for you to print) and Made  (by me, and laminated and punched . . . ready to go) versions! I think the cowboy is my favorite.

And if it doesn't get better than that . . . I'm also featuring customizable dolls in my shop. Hence, if you don't want a scrawny white boy  . . . you can pick any color of skin, hair and eyes in either a Printable or Made set. . . .

I'll let you know when they are in my etsy shop {in a few days}

headbands & clips

This last week I and a friend made a bunch of headbands-well, most of them are clips that can clip onto a headband. I was inspired by these headbands on Homemade by Jill. I learned two things-they are very addicting to make-even now I have more ideas of things I want to try. And two, they take more time than I think they are going to-pretty much like every craft I think I can whip up in a few minutes, eh? Anyway, they were fun, and now the little sweetie is more identifiable as a girl even with her little fuzzy duckling hair :)

Freebie Friday-Fall Leaf Cutouts

First, a little reminder that today is the last day to enter my first ever giveaway. Tomorrow I will announce the winner!

Okay, so I needed some new bunting. This is what I settled on, I liked it enough I thought you might too. I will warn you it's a little bit of a DIY. It may take an hour or two to cut them out if you do a lot. It's worth it! oh, I've also seriously considered sewing a dark brown ribbon along the backs of all of them instead of using clothes pins to hang. Maybe I still will.

You could do lots of other things with these too: They could work as cards, artwork in a frame, or I suppose even for just coloring. I used plain colored card stock, but child's art work would be an awesome background! Or patterned paper. I would just recommend you use highly contrasting papers for the front and back.

okay a couple notes on the pdf (usually these things aren't issues-and I'm sure most of you don't need all the nitty gitty details of how to do it):

The out line- I don't like how a little bit of it may show up in your cut out if your not really careful. I solved that by laying a brown piece of paper (the one I planned to use) under my white "template." I still tried to cut on the outside of the line in case I end up using the template for something else. But, I realize that is more work. If you don't want to use a template, by all means, it's not necessary.

my printer, and most likely yours too will have a little margin around the edge it won't print on. Cut all the way to the edge anyway!

If you don't cut them in fourth first, DON'T connect the two open ends of the leaf. Just start where the line starts and follow it around. to the other end. When you cut them in fourths (with a ruler or paper cutter) It will automatically cut the rest of the leaf out.

Okay, this was my biggest problem: in illustrator (the program I designed them in) the are each 4.25 x 5.5 inches exactly. But for some reason when I print them out, they don't line up right. the maple leaf and two leaves don't go quite to the center, and the oak goes a little over. I haven't resolved it entirely. But I did fix the oak leaf so it doesn't go over. So don't follow the pattern here! Just cut the 11 inch side to 5.5 and the 8.5 inch side to 4.25. ignore the outlines on this one!

I cut a plain piece of white to go behind these. You could glue them, or not. I didn't. I liked the shadow it created. Using 3D squares between the 2 layers would do this nicely. If you're doing a card, you may want to cut them down a half inch on two of the sides to create a little border before gluing it to your card. . .

The one on the left is my template. The one on the right bottom is the only one I used. I will, of course keep the others for future uses though. . .  The actual leaves might be fun as place cards for Thanksgiving. We'll see.

Then I decided I kind of liked it in my living room . . . sorry about the terrible lighting. It doesn't ever get good lighting here. Alas.

And last but not least . . . the printable itself:

YellowMums_Fall Leaf Cut Outs

FF- Candy Corn Halloween Invite

Whats better than candy corn at Halloween? A candy corn themed party! (with a little chocolate thrown in of course:) Use this candy corn themed invite to get the party started!

Invitations are printable on a letter size sheet (I'd recommend cardstock). Invitations measure 5x7 with 2 per page. Enjoy!

FF- Candy Corn Cupcake Toppers

And the Halloween Candy Corn Cupcake Toppers have arrived. Not planning on making cupcakes for Halloween? That's okay. There are so many fun things to do with them! Here are a few ideas:

tags
stickers
scrapbooking or card embellishments
mini garland
turn them into a matching or go-fish game
buttons as seen on Whatever Dee Dee Wants.

As always they print on a letter size sheet. Three designs, twelve cupcake toppers on a page each approximately 2 inches across. Get your free Halloween Candy Corn Cupcake Toppers here.

If you have any other great ideas for using your cupcake toppers please share!

*If you're looking for more fun Halloween Cupcake Toppers, check out my shop. Mention candy corn in the notes to seller box and get a 20% discount through the end of October.

enjoy!

FF-scalloped recipe cards

September makes me think of cooking for some reason. Harvest time I guess. I love the beginnings of fall once school starts with that little bit of crispness in the air. When I was growing up we'd always come home to bread baking, or some fall canning waiting for us. So, I feel like some fun scalloped recipe cards. They are printable on letter sized sheet (I'd recommend card stock). Two 4x6 cards on the page. Use the gray crop marks as guides for cutting them out!

FF-Striped Birthday Cupcake Toppers

Last in our series of birthday printables is my favorite, birthday cupcake toppers!

Three different designs, twelve on the page, all 2 inches. Of course printable on a letter size paper. They'd also be great as stickers printed on adhesive paper. Punch out with a 2 inch hole punch, tape them to lollipop sticks, or toothpicks to use as cupcake toppers.

You can now find these toppers as part of the Primary Colors Birthday Package available in my etsy shop by clicking here.

Enjoy!