The Simple Things......

Make my family happy. A month ago Chad's old boss and good family friend came to NC for business and took Chad and I out to a really nice dinner. Over dinner we discussed all sorts of things, including missing great wine and REAL sourdough bread. For some reason you can not get good chewy sourdough bread here.

Art, said he would have to send us some sourdough, and true to his word,
this is what arrived today by second day air. Just in time for dinner.

Chad was hovering over me while I was taking pictures so he could slice off the heel and enjoy. The girls were so excited too, they both said "real sourdough bread, yeah!" We enjoyed half of one of the loaves at dinner, I am pretty sure the other one and a half will not make it through the weekend.

This post is making me want to go slice a piece right now, but I will be good since it is 11pm.
Off to bed!

Finished

I finished a couple more blankies for baby girl! I can't seem to stop making them:)

This one is flannel and minky, which will be nice and warm this winter.

I also finished crocheting around the edge of this one. I love the way it looks, so sweet and vintage. I wish they didn't take me so long to make though.

A close up of the edges!
I have also been working on a knitted blanket for baby girl which I will share when I get it done. It may be awhile though, still have more then half to finish!
Off to watch Idol and knit!

Another Sneak Peek

Here is a little peek at what I have been working on in Graham and the baby's room. I still have to do the first part of the saying and baby girls side. I have to be in the mood to do it because I am doing it free hand. I found a font I like online and just looked at it to make the letters.
I am happy with how it is turning out. I picked a font that is more boyish for his side and for her side I am going to do a frilly girlie font.

Eventually you will get to see the whole room:)
Have a great night!

Weekend Accomplishments

I got a bunch of small projects done this weekend.
I finally put the Easter decorations away.
I made some strawberry jam.
We went for a family bike ride, which was tougher than I thought. We live in a hilly neighborhood and on the uphills, my knees kept running into my belly!
We got the rest of our garden planted.
Listed the items from Friday's Estate sale in the Shoppe.

Here is the before picture of my family room curtains. I made them this winter when it got super cold. We had not had anything on the window until then. I made them from a vintage bedspread, for the weight to keep the cold out. They worked good, but I hated the way they looked.

Here is the after. I got these panels at a yard sale last weekend, see this post. They were 50cents each. They were not hemmed, so during the week I washed, ironed and hemmed them. The problem was they also needed another seam along the top so there was a ruffle. I had to rip out one of the seams and redo it because I didn't measure correctly! OOPsie

Before.
I have a bunch of these, I have a aqua on in my guest room, a pink one in my sewing room and a couple others in boxes. I spray painted this one white.

After.

Now hanging in Grahams room, perfect place for his hats. Hopefully he will not break it!

Not huge projects, but they are all done!
I have some other big ones to tackle, we shall see how quickly I get them done:)

Estate Sale Goodies

Graham and I went to an Estate Sale yesterday. I got excited when we pulled up because it was a really old house in the country and I could see good JUNK on the porch.

Some of the goods we got. Love the vintage pillow cases, can't wait to make them into something.

A vintage game and book with cute images.

A close up: vintage doggies for Gabby's collection. They were 35cents for both:)

I love these old pyrex mixing bowls, I have two others, that fit inside both of these. We bake a lot, so these will be put to good use. 4 vintage heat proof plates, think I will keep them for now.
And a cute vintage rolling pin.

This is Grahams treasure. He got it for free for being cute and good while we were there. The sale was inside the house and two older ladies were hosting it and they loved Graham. He was really good, he walked through the house and held my hand nicely. He carried this car around the whole time.

I got this dress for 50cents. Gabby said"uhh.. you are not going to wear that are you?" No, I am using it for the material. She was very relieved!

Close up of the fabric and the vintage button.

Vintage botanical print, there was another one and now I wish I would have got it, because it looks so pretty in my kitchen on the pink walls.

A close up of the vintage rolling pin. This will be going in the shoppe, I have a pink one just like it and we use it all the time. It will be 7$ plus shipping. So if you have to have it drop me an email with your paypal address and I will send you an invoice.

How cute is this little vintage purse. It is Navy and White with navy leather handles. It was made in Hong Kong. It will be going into the shoppe also. 7$ plus shipping.

Pretty pink vintage milk glass candy dish. I have one just like it all ready, so this one is going in the shoppe. 9$ plus shipping. email me if you have to have it before it goes in the shoppe.

I think this vintage dress is super cute, however I will not be wearing it because it is made for someone who is not quite as tall as me:) It needs a soak then I will be putting it in the shoppe.

There are soooo many yard sales this weekend, however I am going to skip them and get some things done around the house. It is a filthy disaster!
Have a great day!

Fort Fun

Over spring break the girls made a fort in the basement. I knew they were doing it and I knew they took some sheets and blankies down there. Wow was I surprised to find this......

It is a crazy big fort, and actually kind of cool. I am glad they had fun, now it is time to clean up since Gabby is wanting to have 10 girls sleep over for her bday in a few weeks. Obviously I have not been in the basement for a week or more. My basement is the funkiest 70's basement, actually very UGLY, so I spend very little time down there. Drop ceiling harvest gold linoleum, dark wood paneling(Bleck). I may be sleeping down there for the next few months (until baby arrives)since it is so much cooler and I get hot so easily.

Off to bed!

Online Quilt Festival

I decided to join an online quilt festival, it is just for fun and to see all the inspiring quilts out there. There are a few days left to join, so pop over to Park City Girl's blog. I know I have all ready shown this quilt, but it is a favorite of the moment.

I made it from vintage sheets and it was my first time with free motion quilting. I can't wait to see baby girl laying on it!

Have a great day!

Ev

Yard Sale Finds

Saturday Graham and I had some errands to run so we decided to stop at a yard sale since it had been FOREVER since we had been to one:) We got there at towards the end of the sale, so I am sure we missed some good stuff. I did get a couple of things though!

One vintage curtain tie back. Not sure what I am going to do with it but it is so pretty and only 50cents I couldn't pass it up.

A vintage curtain panel. I don't plan on using it on a window, but I love the fabric. Who knows what I will use it for.

This pretty piece of fabric is HUGE, it is probably a queen size piece of fabric. It is very heavy, so I am thinking I will use it for the back of a picnic quilt I have been wanting to make. I have been saving everyones worn out jeans for the last few years to make a quilt with. So worth it for 1$.

I am sure no one is in a Christmas mood, but these are tiny vintage Santa mugs so I had to grab them. I have two all ready so I will be adding these to the shoppe. If you have to have them let me know!

I also got some light weight curtain panels for my family room, they are in the wash/Iron stage so I will show a pic when I get them up.

Off to make dinner.

Gabby

My big girl has been bugging me for months about starting a blog. So I finally decided it would be ok. we set it up a few nights ago, it took awhile to find just the right background.
Her blog site is called California Girl Livin in the South

She has only posted twice, but is thinking about ideas for things to post about. Other than the picture of Oliver on her first post, she will be using all of her own photographs. Last summer she took some really great flower and butterfly photos, she may post them, we shall see.

She also wants to facebook, but not sure when is the right age for that?
My parents didn't have to worry about any of this stuff when we were kids. The big decisions were when to get our ears pierced, start shaving our legs, start wearing makeup and when we got to start dating. Now we have to make all of those decisions PLUS: when do they get a cell phone, when to let them start myspace or facebook, when can they start a blog and have email. Which all seem like no big deal, however there are BAD people out there that prey on cute innocent children.

Better get back to the mountain of laundry:(

Happy Mail

Last week I had a full mailbox. I received the fabric for the baby's bedding, and the lovely items below.

I participate in a quarterly fat quarter swap, the theme this time was spring. My partner knows I love roses. I love everything.

I also received this just in time for Easter. I won it in a giveaway. The funny thing is it was on the blog of one of my friends from Napa. Lisa makes amazing scrapbooks check her blog out here.

Time for knitting and relaxing.
Have a good evening.

Sneak Peek

Here is a sneak peek of what baby girls bedding is being made with. I ordered the fabric from a super sweet lady who has a beautiful shop and an ebay store. Click photos to enlarge.


I LOVE the fabric, it is super soft cotton.
Yes, I am using all of it for her bedding:)

The lady knew I was making crib bedding and she sent me this darling bib.

Another peek.... her crib set up in the freshly painted room.
Sorry for the bad lighting..... I took it at 8pm tonight!
I actually put the crib together on Easter evening. I didn't want to ask Chad because he painted the room earlier in the day. He asked me" Do we really need the crib in the room NOW?"
"Yes" I said.
He says" Can we not put it in there in July?"
"NO, I need to do it now." He thinks I am crazy!
You would think he would understand nesting by now, plus I still have the energy.

Flash picture: so you can see the lovely bed skirt I made. It would have been really fast to make if I had followed the pattern. But I decided to make the skirt longer and add a ruffle to the bottom, so it took me twice as long as it should have. I am still thinking about adding another layer, we shall see.

Off to bed!

Easter Fun

WARNING: there are a ton of pictures.
Here is what we have been up to the last two days.

Yesterday we went to a park near our house for an Easter Egg hunt. This park has a merry go round and a train ride which were all free yesterday. Needless to say it was a MAD House. We managed to have a fun time anyway.

First we did the 1-3year old egg hunt, which was really just a candy free for all. Which would have been fine if parents were not so GREEDY and RUDE. The rules were: Kids must be 1-3years old and one adult could accompany them. There were more rule breakers than not, which is sad considering it is for toddlers and do they really need the candy that bad?? There were parents that allowed their older children to help and these family's were scooping up buckets of candy. I let Graham get his own candy, isn't that the whole POINT?? I did push some closer to him because the GREEDY lady next to us was about to take candy for my baby. I was not about to get on my hands and knees and elbow babies out of the way for some candy. He was super happy with his choco as he calls it. When I got back to where the girls were waiting, Gabby asked- where is all his candy. I explained to her what was going on and she was sooo MAD, she couldn't believe how rude people are either. Sad when a 11year old understands better than a lot of adults.

Here he is so sweetly getting candy:)
You can see adult hands and knees behind him... Stupid LADY!

Here he is with his easter basket. He was still scanning the ground for more:)
Yes, that is his actual basket and I amazingly didn't have a smaller one to take with me. I think I got rid of them before we moved.

Next we rode the Merry Go Round.
My hair looks crazy from the wind, OH WELL!

Could he be any cuter?
The whole time we were on the Merry Go Round- he said ...
YEEEE HAW!

Gweny Gwen Gwen!

Gabby and her friend Emily.

We brought a picnic lunch with us.

Cheeseball

Last evening we colored eggs, Graham LOVED it.
I hard boiled 44 eggs and he ended up dyeing 19 of them.
Gabby was super sweet and let him dye a bunch of hers because he was
having so much fun. He actually re-dyed all 19 of them more then once!

Serious concentration.

Gwen hard at work!

Gabby making her Adam Lambert egg.
So funny.

That table cloth is one of the cheepo vinyl ones from Walmart that we use to dye eggs and carve pumpkins.

His cheeks got pinker and pinker as he was working. I really need to make him a cute smock, this one is handy but not the prettiest!

As usual Gabby managed to keep her hands clean and Gwen's were covered in dye.

After the easter bunny came:)

The girls looking through their baskets.
The basket on the far left is a toy basket that I wish was not in the picture.

Eating a poppy as he calls them in his new spidey shirt. I fear he will not ever want to take it off. Spidey is his favorite. Not sure how it happened. I am not big on super hero clothing, but this one has a vintage look, so it is ok.

The girls took 48 plastic eggs that I had in a tote and hid them in the yard for Graham to find. He loved it, even though they were empty.

Hurry!
He looks so big in this one!

Look mom!

Well, I better sign off. We are going to go for a walk and then on to dinner!
Hope everyone had a happy Easter!