new (old) goods and my baby

I got some new vintage goodies that are just pretty to look at. I have some ideas of things to make with these items, but oh to find the time!

And to send us off into the weekend is my sweet baby's face. She really is oh so sweet!!!

Happy weekend! We have some grand plans as my mother-in-law comes in this evening. We will spend tomorrow morning at the L.A. Garden Show and we plan on having a lovely lunch at the beach. I can hardly wait to see the ocean!!! See you on Monday folks...

her four-to booth birthday

After her Auntie Linda's wedding, which had a photo booth for guests to enjoy, True was asking for a photo booth for her birthday. Ben and I were originally going to take her to watch a local musical, but after this request, our minds started spinning. Hm... a photo booth. Believe it or not, Ben even thought about buying one, just thought about it though, after talking to a few experts (and seeing the price), we decided against it. Though if it was photo booth that she wanted, well by golly, it is photo booth that she was gonna get!

The Saturday before her actual birthday was when her photo booth adventure was going to take place. It all started with her card, which was a photo booth strip of Ben and me, and we gave it to her first to start it all off!

Next, we made her close her eyes and took her to our own homemade photo booth to kick off the picture taking frenzy! She was so so excited.

This was us in our homemade photo booth. We hung up fabric to make an enclosed area, used our macbook in front of us to take the pictures, then photoshopped it into strips, and we printed it onto photo paper, cut it out, and voila! Our homemade photo booth pictures, not to bad, eh?

Then we gave her the next surprise, which was a small vintage suitcase full of goodies. She opened each different goody all throughout the day to help aid in the dress up photo bonanza.

First stop: Cue, a Japanese photo booth studio.

It was pretty crazy because the instructions are in Japanese, which I don't understand, and there is so much going on. You have to pick backgrounds, colors, and get to digitally draw on your pictures. It was crazy fun! The girls loved drawing on their pictures. These pictures are also cool because they are stickers!

Next stop: Boomers.

True opened up some more treats from her suitcase: party hats, homemade wool felt beards, and princess dress-up items. Everyone was getting into the dressing up and making silly faces!

Next stop: Scandia.

Here she opened up: clown noses, big glasses, funny eyes glasses, and glasses with a funny nose. Our favorite here was the funny eye glasses because as soon as we put them on, we couldn't see a thing and we were all just laughing and laughing.

Soul was a pretty good sport throughout all of this. She was fed after each picture taking session and didn't mind being in and out of the car seat all day long.

Last stop: Ace Hotel in Palm Springs.

This was were we really wanted to go as we knew they had the vintage photo booth, but the machine was out of order and they were expecting the technician to come fix it that day. So we kept calling and calling to see if it had gotten serviced. As we were leaving Scandia, Ben called one last time to see if if the machine had gotten fixed, and lo and behold the booth technician just got there. Thus, we decided to make the long trek to Palm Springs. Hoping it would be up and running upon our arrival. Thankfully it was and boy was this the dreamiest booth ever! Oh vintage photo booth... we love you so so much!!!

The birthday girl was the happiest camper around and was excited to be going home with a stack of photographs to tape up right next to her bed. She kept EE-ing and AH-ing with excitement the whole ride home!!!

'Twas a lovely four-to booth birthday adventure with our little baby who is now a little girl. I can hardly believe she is 4! She got all she wished for this birthday... a photo booth, camera, and sushi. All simple, but sweet. If you want to see just a smidge bit more pictures of our fun day, check here.

If you ever want to do your own photo booth hunt, we used this site as a guide, but you do have to call to see if the photo booths are active as a lot of them have been shut down. Do you want to rent a photo booth? In California, get it here or for Portland, Seattle, Oahu rentals, go here.

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winner announced and my sister is having a cool giveaway.

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two of her things

Every time we asked her what she wanted for her birthday, her answers never changed. There were three simple things that she continued to request. One of her requests were fulfilled on her birthday adventure on Saturday (will probably share tomorrow), but the last two were done on her actual birthday. The two simple requests were... sushi and a camera.

Thus, on her actual birthday we had just a simple celebration with the foods she loves most, sushi included of course, and a happy little dinner with just the five of us. The birthday princess was absolutely elated and proud to finally have turned four!

I totally wanted a cake that looked like this, but my own version with drippy frosting will have to do. I think the dairy-free butter I used was too watery as the frosting did not want to stay up. I was bit bummed it didn't come out the way I liked, but I guess that means I have to give it another try sometime! Oh well. Any resident bakers have any suggestions?

Also, I made little mini cake stands inspired by Danni's and these. I wanted to have all her goodies prettily displayed.

Happy as a clam, she kept exclaiming, "It's my birthday! I'm four! I'm four!"

Right before the birthday cake, she got her last little wish... her very own digital camera. Then, we were singing happy birthday, she got all little photog on us as was documenting each little thing and moment. It was almost if she was going to be blogging all about it herself! A little blogger in the making? Maybe so.

Her camera is now attached to her hip and me thinks that her birthday was absolutely perfect for her. We didn't have a big party, less stress, and just everything that she wanted. All was perfection! Of course, with that, the grandparents did contest the lack of a party, so I told my mom she could make True a small birthday dinner, so that is what we did on Sunday night. Though, my mom's idea of simple is very different from mine, nonetheless True felt the happy birthday love from her grammie and grumpy. Hopefully tomorrow I will share what her other request was and how that led to her Saturday birthday adventure...

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last day

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polaroid tuesday: week sixteen

This was taken on True's birthday adventure on Saturday.

She had a very good birthday and her little sister had a very good un-birthday! We can't wait to share it!!!

p.s. Don't forget the giveaway and to read the mummysam blog.

four

Today our baby turns four. Ben, Brave, and I (Soul was still sleeping) walked into her room singing "Happy Birthday" and carrying her tray for her breakfast in bed. Birthday beakfast in bed is a family tradition as are the Papi cut-out food animals that always accompanies the food. This year's animals are four little caterpillars made from serrano peppers. The birthday girl was a bit sleepy as she did have a weekend full of celebrating, but she was ready and alert to indulge in her yummy breakfast.

True happily kicked off her official birthday with a big, happy bite! There is some simple celebrating going on today, though we did take her on birthday adventure all day on Saturday that I will share about later this week. It was just what she asked for! Can anyone guess what that may be?

Happy birthday dear True! We love you and pray that God will start preparing the soil of your heart to understand the truth of the gospel and your need for Jesus!

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i love mummysam.

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:: sponsor welcome ::

Please welcome my newest sponsor... mummysam.

{from the mummysam shop}

{new book due out in October}

Mummysam is the creative outlet of Samantha Cotterill. A painter in her pre-kid days, she is finally able to dive back into her love for art now that her boys a bit bigger, and I am so glad she did! The etsy and creative world is better because of it! Mummysam's work has been featured in a solo exhibition for Renegade and not only that, she has a new book due out this October and a fabric line with Robert Kaufman coming out this Summer. It seems Mummysam is surely going to take over the craft world. Heck, you can even get Mummysam shoes! You must see her mixed media wall art, embroidered wall hangings, fiber dolls, especially her houses (check out her sold items and you will be amazed). If you read her blog and visit her shop, you will sure to fall in love with all things Mummysam!

And oh happy day as Mummysam is offering one lucky Cakies reader a chance to win a roll of her tape and her portraits print! Once again, you can get a few more chances at winning this lovely prize, so here are some things you can do:

1. Leave a comment telling me your favorite item from Mummysam.

2. Leave a comment telling me your favorite post on the Mummysam blog.

3. Become a follower of Mummysam's blog and tell me with another comment in this post.

4. Blog, tweet, or facebook about this giveaway and leave separate links here.

Now, if you do all of the things mentioned above, you might even be able to up your chances by getting your name in 6 times! Fantastic, right? Those overseas are also welcome to join!

The giveaway will end at 8am PST on Thursday, April 29th and don't forget to come back that morning to this post as this is where the winner will be announced. Good luck! Thank you so much to Mummysam!!

mummysam website...

mummysam shop...

mummysam blog...

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Random robot chose... Misha Lulu!

Congrats! Misha Lulu please email me to claim your prize. Everyone else, thank you so much and make sure to add mummysam to your blog list!!!

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from my diana mini

This here is just a few favorites from my first roll ever using my Diana mini. I got a lot of ones that were not too great, but the good ones I got, I love. When I showed Brave her picture she said, "Mommy, there's two Braveys!"

Weekend is here, alas! We have some grand plans since it is True's birthday on Monday, but it will be celebrated all weekend. I am hoping to make a trip to the doctor today to figure out this stomach, so I will not be in pain during the weekend. True is pretty excited about her birthday too! My baby is turning 4!!! That is such a big sounding number. No more hint of baby in my little girl. Time flies... times flies. Wow.

Have a grand weekend and be back tomorrow as I introduce another fun sponsor!

happy me and happy earth

Oh Ben is too sweet. I have had the worst stomach ache for three days straight and it keeps me from doing things, though there is much to be done, and I just stay in bed. To help "ease" my pain, Ben was secretly calling around to find me this shoe. Unfortunately, they are sold out everywhere and I was smiling when he told me of his efforts. He even called the manufacturer! That is good enough for me. I seriously love my husband. Something else I love, though not as much as Ben, are polaroids from our garden. It just makes me extremely giddy.

{a little patch of lavender}

{cabbage}

{orange cauliflower}

Happy Earth Day!

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check giveaway posts for winners.

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neat and tidy

The work table is clean again. The messes are cleared off and I am ready to get crackin' at making another mess (shop update coming soon). My shelves are a bit tidy too. Though, my studio is far from clean. It is organized chaos as everything is put away, but not organized. So it is kinda clean, but not really. I really want to get more shelves up to help me, but I need to find some shelves to put up first. Oh boy! I am always a work in progress, but life is like that don't you think?

I will be sure to get some work time in this afternoon, but right now, I just want to cuddle with my girls all day long. It is gloomy outside and drizzling, staying in bed and being under the covers is just so inviting. Good thing, I have a list of to-dos today to keep me focused. Do you make a list of daily to-dos? If so, what is on your list today?

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see giveaways

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spring dreaming

What do I do while I am laying down feeding Soul? I do some online window shopping. Safe, but fun.

{clockwise: beda dress, high seas dress, two-wheeler shirtdress, tonal gingham dress}

{rhona skirt, pulsations skirt}

{avery cut out platform, seychelles sandal, tangled treasures sandal, golden koi sandal}

Online shopping is fun, isn't it?!! What are you spring dreaming about?