Christmas Here We Come!

I have this tradition with my best friend. Every year for more than ten years I have always called her (this year I texted, hello 21st century) and tell her I have seen my first Christmas commercial. I hadn't even been thinking to watch for it yet when BOOM, I saw the first Christmas commercial of the year! It was subtle, not a blatant Christmas commercial but it was there! Christmas tree and all! That was around Oct 5th! Craziness! At least there was not any Christmas music involved in that commercial! That might have put me over the edge. So, does the fact that people are starting to show Christmas commercials and shop for it mean that I can start saying "Happy Holidays" to everyone I see???

I worked on a project this month. It is a project using a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I really liked making it and want to make some more. I think it is such a good way to use those bits and pieces of fabric, trims, and vintage stuff I find. I like the fact that each one is totally different than any other one and no one will ever be created exactly like the other. I am working on getting the courage to list some of my handmade goods on Etsy.

Mornings with my son

I am a stay at home mom, something I count as one of the many blessings in my life. Since the end of August, my older son has been going to kindergarten allowing me to spend mornings with just my younger son. He and I have never had time together to do only things he wants to do. One of the favorite things on his things to do list is go to the farmer's market in our town. There are so many things about the farmer's market he loves but his favorite is pulling the wagon around and talking to people. He can only pull the wagon for a little while but it is still one of the little things he looks forward to doing on farmer's market day. He also loves to see the animals the local shelter brings. I have not told him yet that those animals are there because they hope someone will want to take them home. He would want all of them.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the pictures from our trip to the farmer's market last week. It was wonderful weather and the crops are becoming more abundant each week. This week I plan on picking up some apples to make a fresh apple pie for Sunday dinner.

This week marks the week that we get full swing into our school year schedule. We start piano, kindermusik, art class, and Sunday school. It will be my first year trying to keep track of everything so wish me luck! BTW, I just want to mention how thankful I am to have finally found a place of faith to take my family. We are so glad to have found a place that fits our family and our spiritual beliefs. I have been attending this church for over a year now and this year we are hoping to become members. Thank you Northshore Unitarian Church for being the place we can call our home of faith. It has been the most warm and welcoming church I have been to and I am happy and proud to become a part of it.

Tomorrow I think the little one and I will do some painting. He will jump for joy when he hears that. Painting is another of his favorite things to do. I will try to post some of his "art".

Thanks for reading!

Adios Summer, I'll miss you......

So, it is Labor Day weekend and the last hooray before summer starts to offically come to an end. It's been a cool summer and I've been loving it. The last time I remember it being this cool was in 2004. That summer was very memorable for me since it was the first summer I had with my new baby. That baby is now in kindergarten but we had a very active summer that year. We walked every single day. He is still an active kid and I have always felt it was because of how much time we spent outside in those first few months of his life.

I am back to scrapbooking and back with that is the obsession with pattern paper. I've been to the scrapbooking store and spent some $$$ on new paper. What is it about paper? I can't have enough. One of the things I have noticed lately is my lack of paper that is appropriate for boys. I am so obsessed with floral patterns. What the heck am I gonna do with loads and loads of flower paper when I have boys!

Well summer, good-bye, I will try not to cry. Now I will look forward to all the things along the way during our journey back to summertime. One of the big ones is our trip to Sanibel Island this winter. It is one of my favorite places ever.

Here are a few pictures from this weekend.

Scrapbook Design and YOU!

I am a certified Scrapbook Design and YOU instructor! I am so excited about this. I have been wanting to teach my passion for years and finally the opportunity has come up. Scrapbook Design and You is a program developed through EK Success. It is a very new program and I am lucky enough to be getting in on the ground floor. I actually had to train to become certified and I can sincerely say that I am very impressed with what EK Success has put together. The class book alone is filled with amazing amounts of information!

Here is the website for more information:

http://www.scrapbookdesignandyou.com/

If you live in the Chicago area, I'd love to have you in my class!

What else have I been up too? Well, my son turned three years old so we had a great cowboy party. The kids had a blast. I set up tee pees in the backyard and the kids drew pictures on the canvas part of it. We also had a pinata, and no one got hurt!

I have also been out to see my grandparents. I am so very fortunate to have both sets of grandparents still here on earth. Each of them is so special to me. I have not known life without having all my grandparents to call and talk to. This is one of the many great blessings in my life!

My store! I have really been working on my store and I have been loving it. I get so excited when I find great vintage items. Lately I have started purchasing vintage clothes for my store. I have been adding a lot of vintage to my own closet as well. My primary focus right now is plus size vintage. I am really happily surprised that I have been able to find a bit of it!

It's Monday, and I know it will be a great week! I hope yours is fantastic!

Adventures on a Summer Night........

This Thursday my husband, the boys and I all decided to go for a bike ride and pick some wild blackberries. We had such a great time and quite an adventure. The boys kept their eyes out for wild berries while we rode through the bike paths in our local forest preserve. We had a good amount of berries and then my five year old spilt part of a basket of them. He was pretty sad, but we convinced him a whole bunch of animals would be very happy when they found that special treat. By the time we were done picking all the berries we found, we had enough berries for a few desserts and that didn't include the spilt ones!
While we were riding along a women was on the road with her hazard lights on. She she started yelling down something to us. My husband ran up there to find out what was wrong. There was a turtle on the road that she was afraid was going to get run over. My husband saved the day and took the turtle back to it's watery home. I actually learned a few things about turtles.
1. The "fact" that they are slow, is actually a myth.
2. Their necks are grossly long and they give a whole new meaning to "oh snap!"
3. UGLY! U.G.L.Y. See picture below.

This is my husband carrying the turtle. He was acting all nonchalant about the whole thing. Then he gets (I have just decided the turtle needs a name, let's call him Mertle) Dear Hubs gets Mertle to the grass and sets him down. Problem is the grass is pretty close to where Mertle almost had a run in with afternoon rush hour. I say, "Uh, honey, why did you set it down there?" He says, are you ready for this, "The turtle saw the grass and got really excited so I thought I would put it here." Let me translate that for you. "This thing is freaking ugly and I wanna get as far away from it as possible but I need to look manly so I will come up with any excuse to put it down." The best part, he adds, "Didn't you see it's arms flapping, that means it was happy to see the grass." Uh sure honey!

Since I am telling you the stupid thing my Dear Husband says. I better tell you what I said too. My husband and the screaming to save the turtle lady are having a conversation way up on the bridge. I can only make out part of the conversation. From where I am I hear, "Look it has a leash on it." HUH? Ok, perhaps someone's pet turtle made a run for it while out on a walk. Possible? Sure. Crazier things have happened. What she actually said, "Look it has a leech on it."




See, I wasn't kidding. UGLY. And to add to the ug-factor That neck comes out about four inches. Ewww...................

We also had a tag-a-long bike riding guest. During one of our berry picking stops, my two year old says in a happy voice, "Daddy, you have a spider on you. It's big." Sure enough, my husband had made a friend of the eight legged variety while leaning into a berry bush. It was climbing up his head till he started dancing around and flicked it off (really my husband is not a wimp, he has jumped out of planes and everything). Here is a picture of his new arachnid friend, but it appears much smaller than it was in real life.

After quite a few mosquito bites, a basket full of berries, saving a life and making a new friend, we went home and had our berries with some whipped cream. It was a great night! The kind of night I plan to have more of.

Memories from growing up in the 70's & Thanks Bobbins and Bombshells!!!

These rings take me back to when I was a little girl. They are from the 70's. I adore the peace sign ring. Do you remember those little ones with the little gems in them? They came in packs with a bunch of them or in the bubble gum machines! I loved them! I always wanted to get them from the machine! It was so hard to choose between the gum and the rings!

This morning when I checked my email I got a message from Karen over at http://bobbinsandbombshells.blogspot.com/ .

She featured one of the vintage aprons I have listed on Etsy, on her blog. Her blog is the "bomb" too! I love the Etsy community. Everyone is so supportive of each other.

Thanks so much Karen!!!

Today I listed a few more things in my store. I have a lot more to list. I am soon going to start listing some fabrics and trims. Oh, and this weekend I found the most adorable owl pillow ever. Here are a few of the items I will be listing soon. I love the hippy headband! Now that is truly vintage!

More accesories from the 70's. I can totally picture the people at Woodstock wearing these!

Can you believe I found the ring with the original little book! I couldn't! It still works too!

Junk in the Trunk!!! Sewing for Peace!!

It was a junkin' day today. I got up early (not usual for me) and went out on my own, meaning no children. It was peaceful and full of a lot of Kid Rock music turned up high on the stereo.

I found this little rug. I think I am going to put it in my son's room when we get around to doing it over again. I am really excited because I keep picking up little things for it here and there. I know when it comes time to actually re-do his room he is gonna want Spiderman or something like that!

The lady that had this rug says that she remembers the woman who handmade this rug. She said it was a very long time ago. I could not believe how it was in such great condition! I am thinking if I took that much time to make something, I don't think I would let anyone walk on it either!!

More finds from today:

See the bookends? The ducks. I was going to order them this week from an online source. I didn't do it for some odd reason. Today at a sale, I spotted them out of the corner of my eye. I thought there was no way that I could possibly have found the exact same ones. Sure enough! Now my mom has her bookends! I also got a huge vintage chalkboard. I have been looking for a good size one for a while now. This thing has to be 3 feet x four feet! I love how used it looks.

One of my favorite finds today:

I love them. They are perfect too! It is probably hard to tell in the picture but they are smaller than the normal ornaments. These are probably only a few inches big.

Sewing for Peace!

The other day on Etsy I came across a woman who was selling handmade flag banners for free! I ordered one right away but I was very touched by the reason she was doing this. She decided to hold a "sew-in" as a protest against nuclear weapons and to plea for peace. She is very concerned about the North Korea situation, especially since she lives in Hawaii. Here is her Etsy store, if you get a chance, give her a visit!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6604480

Here is the beautiful banner she made. It is proudly hanging on my front door in honor of our country: