vintage here, vintage there: handmade edition

It's handmade for kids month over at Smile and Wave, so Rachel thought it would be fun to incorporate some handmade into our "vintage here, vintage there" for this week and I happily agreed! I haven't done much clothes making for the girls since having Soul, but I definitely do miss it! I was able to whip up a little something for True and Brave and the feeling of accomplishment after sewing a simple garment was just so satisfying. I may challenge myself to make them something once a week. After all, I have

so much fabric that I really need to work to get rid of it, so I better get sewing.

For True, I made her a simple dress from some vintage bed sheets that I have had forever! It has elastic at the top and waist and straps that tie over the shoulders. It took me no more than 45 minutes to make and is such a great style for Spring and Summer. I have many plans to make more just like this.

Brave was made a cute little skirt that is the easiest peasiest thing to do! I meant to draw directions on how to make it, but I will do that another time. Seriously though, even a beginning sewer could make this with her eyes closed!

To make an otherwise simple skirt a little more pretty, I just hand stitched on a vintage crocheted doily. It added the right amount of pretty!

I know these outfits are a bit more Spring and though it is still freezing in most places, the warmer weather has already started here. As much as I love dressing for the colder weather, I am so ready to wear light floral dresses and sandals. Lately, my mood has been much more 70's, though that typically isn't my era of choice. I am coveting some pretty flares like this or this, but I am getting an itching to attempt to make my own. How hard could it be, right?! Just have to find the right denim first.

We were going to go outside to take some pictures of the girls in their mama-made dress, but the dresses were so light and airy that it seemed more fitting for jumping on the bed. I don't know, that is just the feeling I got, so that is what we did! Or maybe I was too lazy to go outside...

Brave was having the most fun and was the hardest one to tell to settle down (can you tell?), but there is just something about jumping on a bed that is so magical, right? Well, as long as no one bumps their head!

on me: skirt, vintage (my mom's when she was younger). shirt, target. necklace, handmade by me last year.

on True: dress, vintage fabric made by me.

on Brave: shirt, kohls. skirt, made by me.

Little Soulie was napping when all the jumping on the bed was going on, but here she is wearing a little mama made top that was sewn for her even before she was born! Of course, I didn't want to leave my baby out of this post.

on Soul: top, made by mama. leggings, target.

It is so fun having three little girls to sew for and dress up! It is like playing dolls, but they are so big and so much cuter and fun (well, with a bit of disobedience added in for extra measure). I am definitely going to put more clothes sewing time in my schedule, well, if I can find some time in my schedule. It is funny, cause if you don't have kids, you think "Oh wow! She gets to stay home all day and have fun sewing, playing, baking, and blogging. That is so dreamy!" What you don't see is all the diaper changing/potty making, tantrum throwing, time out putting, peacekeeping, housekeeping, mounds of clothes cleaning, dishes washing, constant crumb sweeping, and so on and so on. Despite all that, staying home is a bit dreamy, with all my mommy meltdowns and all!

my fave places to buy new fabric: reprodepot, joann's, sew mama sew, purl soho

pretty vintage fabric on etsy: rusty red, retro floral, retro rose, yellow dream, blooming color, and pretty pink and blue.

Head "over there" and see what Rachel whipped out for the always adorable Ruby! Rachel was also one of Artful Blogging featured bloggers, so you will want to pick up your copy and read all about it! Thank you Rachel for this little handmade challenge, it made me miss sewing clothes for my girls and I definitely see a lot more of it in the near future!

vintage here, vintage there: week one

vintage here, vintage there: week two

vintage here, vintage there: week three, part one

vintage here, vintage there: week three, part two

vintage here, vintage there: week four

vintage here, vintage there: week five

vintage here, vintage there: everyday wear

vintage here, vintage there: outerwear

vintage here, vintage there: texas style

vintage here, vintage there: borrowed

vintage here, vintage there: family outing

vintage here, vintage there: what's in my bag?

alphabet doodles

Kindergarten is coming in September and we are leaning towards the road of homeschooling. With this comes some nervousness and excitement, but I am glad to have a friend who is hooked up with a pretty good charter school system that we might try out too! The girls have never gone to official preschool, but we do preschool activities at home, so I figure that is enough (at least I hope!).

I must admit Kindergarten is not my ideal grade to teach, during my short stint teaching, I taught fourth and that was my dream grade. They, well most of them, came to me already reading, so I am not too familiar with teaching the basics and nitty and gritty of reading. I have been going back and forth with my BFF via email, she has taught kinder, and she has been giving a plethora of tips and direction on things to do (thanks Lin!).

We do a lot of doodling in the house, but now every afternoon we are gonna give it some direction. We will pick a letter and just start doodling things that start with that letter. I am sure this little activity will evolve as we go, but I hope it will keep learning the alphabet and sounds a lot more interesting and fun!

{click on images to enlarge}

We each had our own sketchbooks (I gave her mine since she likes to steal it so often and I got myself a brand new one from my stash), then we just started drawing. Actually, she wanted to draw a bird so we started drawing a tree first. I drew my tree and she would draw her own version. I drew my branches, them she would draw her own, thus I think you get the idea of how this little session went. We started brainstorming things that started with a B and we came up with: bird, branches, butterfly, bear, bow tie, ball, bag, and Brave. After we drew, she wrote all the words on the left as she copied what I wrote on my left. Little kid writing is so cute!

It was really fun for her and kept her engaged, which is a good thing! I think you are going to start hearing more about learning activities for little ones on this blog because we are switching to school mode so very soon!

Linda also suggested Zoo Phonics as a good program to teach reading and Star Fall as a good site to teach kids letters and sound. I remember Star Fall well because I used it in my classroom and I remember lots of good things from it. Anyone have any other sites or programs to recommend and make this task of teaching reading not seem so daunting?

I loved all your recommendations regarding reading chapter books to the girls at this age. I picked Pippi Longstocking to start with because they have seen the movie so they are somewhat familiar with the storyline. I figure they are a bit young to stay engaged the whole time, but hopefully knowing the plot will help them while listening. I think after we are done with Pippi, I may try some of the chapter books that have a different story every chapter and see how that goes! The wonderful thing about reading, is you can experiment with different stories until you find the right one to keep their attention! Thank God for variety, right?

Do share tips and stories of what you do to teach little children to read. I am all ears to learning how to make this task seem not so scary. I am already gonna say, "Thanks!" because I know you all are going to give such good advice!

A new month is around the corner and I already have some new wonderful shops to share about (and some others that will be added real soon)! I am already in love with The Attic People 'cause they have so much vintage goodness going on and look at all their tapestry bags (my idea of bag heaven!). Then you have Adelaide's Homesewn who I already rave about, her blog and shop stylin' is on point! Freshly Picked got some cool kicks for your kids and Ms. Tips is there to serve whatever need you have! Afternoons & Coffee Spoons is another supplier of vintage pretties and need to get your knit on? Check out Perknitious! Seriously friends, I think all those wonderful places on the right are just great! The list goes on and on...

So if you wanna get the word out on your lovely blog, shop, or just your lovely self, please send me an email and I would be glad to send you more info. I am in love with my family, crafting, doodling, old pretties, and basically just being thankful for life. If you love these sorts of things too, well we might just be a good fit! What do you think?

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The winner of the Ms. Tips giveaway is seetheskyline!

Congrats to seetheskyline! Please email me so I can get you in touch with Ms. Tips! Thank you to everyone who entered and promise to have more real good giveaways soon!!! xoxo

pippi longstocking

Nap times for the older girl has dissipated in this house. I must admit I think it is bit more difficult now that I have lost my quiet times (craft/work times). I am left with trying to figure ways to do "quieter" activities during this time when we can just relax a bit and not run a muck about the house playing and making a mess. My solution is to start reading chapter books to True (and Brave if she decides not to nap).

I bought a few Pippi Longstocking books off ebay because my girls have seen the movie and love her, so I figured this would be a fun, free spirited story to start with. I would read, then stop here and there to see if they can do any retelling, they couldn't do too much, but you have to start somewhere right?

I am excited to be reading this book with them and it is already conjuring some activities that we can do based on the book. Pippi is such a great character, how can you not have fun reading about a girl like that?!!

Do any of you have any experience reading chapter books to pre-school age children? Is it too early? Do you have any fun reading tips? Please share as I would love to learn what you do!

still working through the mess

Messes really are never ending here and the mess stress continues, but I have to just get through a few projects this week before I can start some deep cleaning. Thus, I am still working even through this mess of a craft room!

Out of the mess, came Brave's own quirky doll. The only problem is that I can't find my embroidery needle on my messy desk, so her doll has to go without a face for now.

My Brave still loves her so that is all that matters! But I must find the needle soon... oh wish me luck! I don't even know where to start!

Based on your comments on their messy room, I know I am not the only one knee deep in stress mess, so thanks for making me feel normal! I promise there are a few rooms in the house that are clean, really!

polaroid tuesday: week four

Love the old timey look and feel, but mostly I love my girls!

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last day for ms. tips giveaway!

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vintage here, vintage there: what's in my vintage bag?

I am in love with carpet/tapestry bags and I have quite the growing collection (maybe I am trying to channel my inner Mary Poppins)! It actually all started with this bag, which I loved, but couldn't afford, so I searched and searched for another and finally got one that I could afford. Though since then, I have been gifted with various vintage carpet bags and I must admit that I really love them all! So, that bag that I loved but couldn't afford, finally came my way through my parents who decided to gift it to me for Christmas! I was overjoyed when I pulled it out of the gift bag!

My dad said, "Your mom gets her nice fancy purses, and you say vintage is your definition of nice and fancy, so now you got your own!"

Thanks pops, this pretty bag is nice and fancy indeed!

Remember, I am a mom with three kids, so this is only one of the two bags I carry. The other is a diaper bag filled with even more junk! But in my bag, I always have a sketch book (from black apple) to do some doodling and idea writing, a camera of sorts, either a polaroid camera, fuji, in this case it was my Zumi. Inside is my liberty of london wallet from target, which goes everywhere my bag goes, as well as my little make-up bag.

I love having a little sketch book with me at all times, though sometimes it does get hijacked by one of my daughters and their sketches end up all over my sketches!

My make-up bag is from aim's shoppe and contain all my necessary things that I hate to leave home without. The most important one is vaseline, which is my lip balm. I have super, super sensitive skin and the only thing that doesn't give me a rash is vaseline, so I love this stuff a whole lot! I usually try to have lotion of sorts as I have the dryest and roughest hands around, and my mac lip glasses are the only things that can put color on my lips and not give me a rash.

Since having bangs, I carry a little comb to comb them straight when they get all wild, and whoever is with me always laughs when I whip out that little comb. I do admit I do look kinda funny when combing my bangs! The little blue circular thing is my measuring tape that comes in handy when I am in search for some vintage for Ben. It has helped me bring a couple good fitting shirts to him!

Those are the happy little things that I trek with me wherever I go. Must never leave home without them in my pretty vintage bag! Obviously, it isn't quite Mary Poppins-esque as my bag can only hold so much (there are no tricks coming out of this one), but I love my vintage bag oh so much!!! I will have to show you the rest of my carpet bag collection soon...

Other pretty vintage tapestry/carpet bags: needlepoint purse, black handled, 1960's jana, orange tapestry, needlepoint jana, turkish kilim, and velvet burgeon.

And if any of you ever see one like this, please let me know 'cause I am so, so in love with this one too! I would gladly make a dollhouse pillow for one just like that!

Head "over there" and see Rachel's adorably cute vintage travel bag! She has got all kinds of crafty goodness inside hers! I need to set myself up one of those for our road trips. Rachel always has some sort of inspiring idea going on! Thank you Rachel for always inspiring!!!

So tell me what kind of vintage bag are you currently coveting? Do you wanna channel your inner Mary Poppins too?

vintage here, vintage there: week one

vintage here, vintage there: week two

vintage here, vintage there: week three, part one

vintage here, vintage there: week three, part two

vintage here, vintage there: week four

vintage here, vintage there: week five

vintage here, vintage there: everyday wear

vintage here, vintage there: outerwear

vintage here, vintage there: texas style

vintage here, vintage there: borrowed

vintage here, vintage there: family outing

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ms. tips giveaway!

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vintage here, vintage there: vintage mama beth

This week's vintage lovin' mama is owner of the wonderful shop Salvage Life. Her booming shop has really taken off since one of her finds was worn by Taylor Swift. Ain't that an honor? So please say hello to Beth and learn about her love for vintage...

Hi, I’m Beth Giles and I scour the land of Southern California for the best vintage that is relevant to modern trends. My daughter Ruby, is my little assistant, she carries my purse, “oooh's” and “ahh’s” at dresses and keeps me company on the road. When we find pretty things, we put them in our online shop, Salvage Life. You can read more about Salvage Life and our adventures on our blog. Thank you for having us, we are so happy to share about what we do.

Q: When did you start wearing vintage and why?

A: I think the first piece of vintage I wore was a flannel from my grandpa in junior high. That’s pretty funny considering the feminine style I’m into now. In high school, 70’s style came into fashion and while everyone was buying new bellbottoms, I found used ones at a vintage store along with a polyester shirt that had butterflies on it; it was my favorite shirt that year. I had always loved thrifting with my mom, but that’s when I started realizing that I could wear vintage that was relevant to the trends.

Q: What do you look for in a piece when you're shopping?

A: First off, quality construction is a must, the item needs to be able to last another 50 years in case I decide it’s my favorite and wear it every day! Secondly, it has to be in line with what people are wearing, but different enough. I never want to look like I am wearing a costume. My lastest vintage obsessions are full-skirted dresses, worn leather bags and capes.

Q: Favorite vintage find to date?

A: A watch inherited from my great grandmother, I wear it on a necklace almost every day! It inspired the watch necklaces I sell in my shop.

Q: What is the one piece that got away or may have broken the bank?

A:

Oh, so many! When you shop vintage for a living, you have to let a lot of things go because the price or size isn’t right. Luckily, nothing particular comes to mind, so I guess I made the right choices.

Q: How do you style your daughter(s)?

A: Well, the days of picking out her outfits are coming to an end as her preferences increase. I try to give her appropriate choices though, so she feels like she made the decision, but doesn’t end up wearing jeans to a wedding. I like when she wears vintage dresses with mary janes and I love that she likes hats, lately she’s been wanting to wear one every time she leaves the house. She looks so cute when she layers random things too, people always comment on how “I” dress her, it’s hard not to take credit.

on Beth: 40's dress, rob's vintique. tights: free people. 40's shoes, elsewhere vintage. necklace, salvage life.

on Ruby: 40's silk dress, american vintage. tights, Beth's when she was little. patent mary janes: gap via ebay. barrette, vintage via ebay.

Thank you so much Beth! I am in love with your whole ensemble (can I borrow your shoes?) and your little Ruby's (love the name!) ensemble too! If you still haven't checked out the Salvage Life shop (and blog), you definitely should! This lovely gal is here in southern California, so it gives me hope that one day I will find goodies just like her! Though, if those pretty goodies fit me, I may have a hard time putting it up in my shop!!!

***** vintage mama features *****

vintage here, vintage there: vintage mama heather

vintage here, vintage there: vintage mama karen

vintage here, vintage there: vintage mama james

vintage here, vintage there: vintage mama alix

Stay tuned because tonight because Rachel and I will be sharing our own "vintage here, vintage there" featuring "what's in our (vintage) bag" and next week we will be sharing another vintage lovin' mama! If there is another vintage wearin' and lovin' mama you know of and would like to see featured, leave us a link to the lovely lady and we will see is she would like to strut her stuff for all of you!

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ms. tips giveaway!

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love them!

I love my little babes! The big, middle, and littlest baby can drive me a bit insane (that's normal, right?), but they all really are the bees knees!

This weekend was just great! No cleaning was done, Ben and I just got into a couple of tiffs (one cause we were late to a Saturday appointment and another cause we were running late to church), but there was just a whole lot of fun! Too much fun that those things must be shared another time! Hope your weekend was just as fantastic!!! Now, I am off to bed to recuperate from all the excitement. Do you need weekend recuperating too?

p.s. Rachel, thank you for True's vintage outfit! We love it!!!

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ms. tips giveaway!
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:: sponsor welcome ::

Say hello to... Ms. Tips.

I love this vintage shop! I have gotten a number of pieces from here and have loved every single one. Tammy the curator of all these lovely things is even more sweet than all the sweet items she stocks. Her vintage prices are quite affordable and she has a nice stock of vintage kid items too (love this, this, and this)! It has been pretty warm of late and as much as I love the winter, since it doesn't last very long here, I am ready to put on some spring clothes. This dress is perfect for a picnic at the park, this one is for a trip to the grocers, and this for frolicking about at home, and the pretty cardigan at hand when it still gets a bit chilly. Take a glance at the pretty things in the shop and tell me what your favorite item is!

And if you are ready to do some shopping, you can win a $50 gift certificate to shop at Ms. Tips! There a few ways to enter and get yourself more chances to win this lovely giveaway.

Here are some things you can do:

1. Leave a comment on this post telling me about your favorite item in her shop.

2. Blog, tweet, or facebook about this giveaway and leave each 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 4 times! Fantastic, right? Even if you are overseas, please feel welcomed to join in on the fun!

The giveaway will end at 8am PST on Wednesday, January 26th and don't forget to come back Thursday to this post as this is where the winner will be announced. Good luck! Thank you so much Ms. Tips!!!

ms. tips shop...

giveaway winners

Sorry. So bad at announcing winners, but here they are as chosen by the random robot.

Winner of the $25 gift certificate to Simple Thrift is Erin!

Winner of the $50 gift certificate to Kakalina Rose Vintage is Sandy a la Mode!

Ladies, congratulations and send me an email so I can get you in touch with my sponsor! Everyone else, thank you for entering and there will be many more in the future and you will get plenty of chances to win!

pancakes for breakfast

Every morning we all eat pretty much the same thing. The kids get O's and soy milk, Ben eats oatmeal loaded with fruit, and me, oatmeal with chocolate milk. We stick to some basic and simple things, and try to stay away from sugary cereals for healthy reasons and cost (those sugary cereals, though yummy are expensive). Though on days when I want to break from the monotony, I keep a box of Trader Joe's buttermilk pancakes mix accessible and ready. It is the best cause it is delicious, easy, and lacks hydrogenated oils compared to other buttermilk ready mixes. The girls get especially excited when they see me whip it out, thus today was the day to do just that!

Don't let the gloomy faces above fool you. They really were excited, but maybe they were just busy devouring their pancakes! I devoured in a couple myself!

Today, no cleaning was done, so my house doesn't look any better, but I did get out and have lunch with some girlfriends. That was the first time we all got out of our pj's since Tuesday! We have been enjoying being lazy all week long!

Here's to hoping I have a more productive weekend!

p.s. today is hugging day!

this is life!

We are a normal and very messy family! Piles and piles of clean and dirty laundry await me, my bathrooms haven't been cleaned in a month, my vacuum's broke so there are a lot of little O's strewn across the floor (in every bedroom), my daughters make a mess and don't like to clean up, the mail is stacked all over the dining table, and don't even let me get started on my craft room, but I think True and Brave's room may be the worst of all (well, tied with my craft room). The mess is really maddening!

True's room has changed a bit from when I first did a room tour a couple years ago! They have accumulated more toys (though I get rid of things often), blankets, books, and she gained a roommate, little Brave! Though Soulie's room has never been changed since it was Brave's, but I got some ideas to make a wee bit brand new!

I have never done a room tour since adding a second teeny vintage bed in, but I guess you can see that I must do a little cleaning up before that happens! I try to tackle a little by little, but once something is cleaned up, another mess starts somewhere else. It is a never ending cycle!

Messes really stress me out, I try to not let them get to me, but they do! And then when it comes to cleaning up, I don't even know where to start! I think a new goal will be to go thoroughly through a room a month and purge! I love to purge, it just feels so good!

Do you get mess stress too?

p.s. they sleep in this mess! we just push everything off the bed.