they're rolling in

Finally, our tomatoes are rolling in slowly. There are a ton of them out there growing in the garden and now little by little we are able to enjoy them inside. We have a serious love for tomatoes.

{tomatoes from left to right: paul robeson, momotaro, black cherry, and yellow pears}

I have a feeling there will be a whole lot of tomato posts in the near future. We do have 34 varieties growing after all...

Tomorrow is August 1st and most of the new sponsors are already up and I will have a fun little announcement in the morning. Here's to one month left until babycakies 4 makes an appearance... YAY!!!

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Don't forget to try and win this and this!

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:: sponsor welcome ::

Please welcome Joyess Threads & Designs... a blog and shop in Australia full of pretties everywhere. See these vintage cushions to these doily tags to this simple kitchen remodel (white cabinets... be still my heart!). And really... this doily lantern is really so, so gorgeous! Are you hooked yet?! Well, head over to check out the Joyess blog and shop...

For Cakies readers, there is a $50 gift certificate to the Joyess shop. To win, here are some things you can do:

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

2. Become a follower of Joyess via facebook and tell me so in a separate comment in this post.

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 5 times! Fantastic, right? Even if you are overseas, please feel welcomed to join in on the fun!

Giveaway will end midnight PST on Monday, August 1st. Winner will be announced sometime Tuesday morning. Good luck folks!!!

joyess threads & design blog...

joyess threads & design shop...

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Don't forget the Lola's Girl giveaway going on...

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:: sponsor welcome ::

Welcome Lola's Girl a blogged penned by Jozen, a mama sharing her parenting, fashion, handmade adventures all the way from Vancouver, Canada. In addition, to being a mama, Jozen, is a wedding planner. Sounds kinda dreamy doesn't it? On her blog, I love when she shares of her love for anthropologie (who doesn't love that store?!), special "ME" days, or her little DIY's (must do this soon). Check out her blog and you will be sure to be writing down a couple little ideas to do in your own home...

For Cakies readers, Jozen has put together a little "party in a box". The box includes: polkadot balloons, sprinkles, cupcake liners, cupcake flags, bubbles, paper straws, bunting, and star shaped confetti. Along with that, a copy of Handmade Weddings, which is a good book full of fun party ideas even if you aren't planning a wedding.

To win, here are some things you can do:

1. Leave a comment on this post telling me about a fun party theme.

2. Become a follower of Lola's girl and tell me so in a separate comment in this post.
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 5 times! Fantastic, right? Even if you are overseas, please feel welcomed to join in on the fun!

Giveaway will end midnight PST on Monday, August 1st. Winner will be announced sometime Tuesday morning. Good luck folks!!!

lola's girl blog...

vintage here, vintage there: featuring tea

At the end of the workshop on Saturday, Ben came by with the girls to check things out, meet some readers, and help load up the car. I knew George Key Ranch was a beautiful place to take pictures, so I had clothes laid out for him to dress the girls. The girls came in the right clothes, but he couldn't find the right shoes for True and Soul came with a her hair a little wild, but I think he prefers it that way.

This week's feature includes some special pieces that Rachel and I got to try out from Tea Collection. In addition to our special feature on Tea, we have a special photographer behind the camera as after the workshop, Jen (from I ART U) was kind enough to take pictures of us in our little frocks. Um, Jen, can you take our pictures for VH, VT every week? She's for hire, in case you are wondering...

This is my first time trying out clothes by Tea and I must say I love the quality of the cotton and they aren't just some cheap fabric that will lose color and unravel after the first wash. Actually, I have already washed the clothes and they look just as good as when they arrived. But with pretty things like vintage and clothes from Tea, I don't ever throw them in the dryer, rather I let them air dry.

I have mentioned this before, but True is superly duperly shy. You may not think so based on her pictures in this space, but in real life she is! I think she gets it from me, okay, maybe not, probably Ben. Thus, since it wasn't Ben or me behind the camera she kept hiding. I think it is evident in these pictures.

When picking out clothes for the girls, I get sizes that would work for both Brave and True since they are both so similar now, except what is short on one would be longer on the other. I loved the pieces in Tea cause they are all pretty classic and timeless, which is important when you have three girls because I want to be sure that clothing is timeless enough to keep getting passed down and passed down. Though, the waiting isn't very long in our family since they are all so close in age.

If I had time, I would make a big yellow emerson-made like flower and pin it on Brave's dress. I must add that to my to-do list, which is growing but hardly getting done. The night before the workshop, I was ransacking my closet looking for something to wear. I think every thing looks funny on me and nothing feels right. I made such a huge mess in my closet! Finally, I settled on this cheery, vintage, yellow dress that still remained a decent length despite going over my big bump. I kept complaining to Ben that I have nothing to wear, but isn't that every girls' complaint all of the time?! *wink*

And aren't Brave's vintage litte oxfords adorable?! I am so glad I came across those. Obviously, we don't always wear vintage from head to toe, but we do try infuse our love for old things and recycling old things as often as we can!

on me: dress, vintage via ms. tips. shoes, vintage. bracelets, vintage.

on true: dress, c/o tea. shoes, vintage. flower in hair, picked by true.

on brave: flamenco dot pocket dress, c/o tea. shoes, vintage.

on soul: skinny french terry cargo, c/o tea. tank, american apparel (with buttons added by me). moccasins, freshly picked.

Tea for us grown ups: nouveau viollet tunic, abstract artista scarf, nova mar bella scarf, and linea skinny pant.

Pretties from Tea for the little ones (even boys): hacienda stripe dress, playa playdress, plumas scalloped dress, sailor stripe tank top, and chambray cargo shorts.

We have a couple other pretties we got from Tea, but those will follow in another post. Rachel and her little ones went casual in their Tea goodies as they played a game of croquet! Even Sebastian got his own set of goods to strut! The Denbow clan is always lookin' good, so don't forget to go "over there" (sometime later today now) and check them out.

*All photos taken by Jennifer Young.

huzzah, friday!

I think my Soulie really makes this picture. She is a heart melter. There is more where this came from, but you will have to come back later to see the rest of the pictures for this week's "Vintage Here, Vintage There" featuring some special pretties from Tea.

Friday... yippee! This week was kind of a lazy one. Lazy weeks are good, but sometimes bad, especially when I didn't get much further down my to-do list.

Learned and links...

- Thanks to the workshop, I am once again in love with my 50mm prime lens.

- I spend way too much time loving the things of this world. Finding your joy in material goods is so fleeting.

- My children really thrive on routine. Last week they were really off due to VBS and this week they were shipped back into shape.

- This post written by my BFF is so honest and hard, but full of God's grace.

I have my part of the love story written, but it is taking Ben forever and a day to get his part down, so if you are waiting, I promise it is coming. It's Ben's fault, but good thing he's hot cause I can't stay too mad at him.

See you later today for "VH, VT"...

* photo courtesy of Jennifer Young.

snap it pretty :: a photography workshop

Danni and I started planning this workshop in February and had a location picked out in March, but then life happened and we didn't have it until July! Thankfully, we had 15 wonderful ladies be brave enough to test out our first workshop ever and we think it went pretty well. We are so thankful for their emails and evaluations and now know what we did well and what to do better for next time. We are so excited to have another soon!

Our featured photographer who was sharing the know-how part of the workshop was Jennifer Young from I ART U. It is great to have someone who knows her camera, has great pictures, but is also very familiar with the blogging world. She was the perfect fit for Danni and me!

I think Danni and I were a ball of nerves, but super excited and couldn't wait to get the show on the road. We had one heavy crafting day and about 300 emails going back and forth between the two of us. It was pretty crazy for a couple of weeks; plus throw in my rascally 3 girls and her insane craft shows, and you just have two crazy ladies running around with our heads cut off. Our husbands are patient men (Thanks Ben and Nick!).

The workshop was held at the beautiful George Key Ranch and ran from mid-morning to mid-afternoon. Danni and I love making things looks pretty, hence our email welikeitpretty(at)gmail(dot)com, so we wanted everything to be absolutely perfect for all our guests! I hope they enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed planning and making everything perfect for them.

At the welcome table, we had handmade crepe paper flower pins for name tags, moleskine notebooks with a cute little camera stamp, pens, and a little program for the day.

For the "talk" of the day, the ladies sat on vintage folding chairs and we hung up a little backdrop on the trees.

After the "talking" portion, everyone had an opportunity to practice what they learned. There were various lighting conditions with the bright sun and shading for the trees that you definitely got to practice adjusting for the varying brightness.

We had a pretty table set up with all the lunch goodies. The sandwiches were from Rialto Cafe, cake pops from local baker Pop Culture Desserts, and macarons flown in from Salt City Patisserie, baked chips and drinks. We made fabric wraps to wrap the sandwiches and chips together; it was color coordinated depending on the type of sandwich they ordered. I must say, I loved both the cake pops and the macarons so much! But I am a dessert girl, so it ain't hard to please me in that area. We laid picnic blankets out for everyone to sit and everyone was chatting up a storm and usually it involved blogging. What more do you expect?!

After lunch, we had two stations set up with boxes full of props. We separated everyone into a Nikon or Canon group and they went at it styling their little table. Both groups did great and were so natural at it that I want them to come over and decorate my house now! After they styled their areas, everyone practice snapping away at those and just continued with the area surrounding them.

Danni and I could have not done this day without these two ladies... RJ and Linda. They are simply the best in letting us boss them around and doing everything with such a cheerful heart! We love you guys!!!

The workshop ended with some questions and Danni and me sharing our tips for taking good pictures. We don't claim to be pros, but we just shared the little things we do know and use for our own pictures.

Of course, we couldn't end the day without without raffling off some pretty cool camera goods. We had 4 big raffles: This Lisa Leonard necklace, a polaroid camera, a Ketti Handbags camera bag, and this bag from JoTotes. Seriously, such good prizes. If that ain't enough, anyone who didn't win a "big" raffle prize went home with an iMo camera strap. On top of that, we had a goody box for every single person to take home. There was so much goodness in those boxes that those boxes (and the raffle goods) will get its own post, just so we can outline each little goody. Seriously.

The best part of the day was getting to spend time with all of the lovely ladies. Making new friends is always a good thing. Everyone was so kind and sweet and it was seeing their excitement that makes us want to do this all over again!

Bloggers in attendance were: Cinthya from Lo Fidelity Love, Tiffany from See the Skyline, Katie from A Day with Kate, Kira from Her New Leaf, Bri from Hello I am Bri, Becky from Little Wickies, and Vivien from The Eclectic Life. If you check out these blogs you will also see their views and thoughts of the workshop. Sorry if I missed anyone, but just leave me the link in the comments and I will correct it.

And if the picture overload wasn't enough, well, here is a little video of our day (if you read in google reader, the video won't come up)...

Above photos courtesy of Jen and Danni. And a huge thank you to Salt City Patisserie & Pop Culture Desserts for sharing with us their delicious sweets!

Danni and I are definitely planning more workshops soon, so if you are interested be ready...

new (old) pretties

Last week I had a free morning without the girls, so my friends and I went out hitting some local thrifts. I think we all came away with a little something and I was totally jazzed about all my finds. I found a cool globe (my collection has grown to 18!), some vintage shoes, little metal frames, child wading boots, and a few other goodies. My favorites were the vintage child oxfords, which are so darn adorable, and the flower crocheted afghan, which I have been coveting since Rachel found one awhile back. I seriously felt like I hit the jackpot that day, probably kinda how Rachel and Heather feel every time they go thrifting, cause seriously, those ladies have such good luck!

I totally love good hunting days! Now I am itching to go the flea market, especially since a vendor has something that I am waiting to pick up, but I have to be patient as I have a few more weeks until that comes around.

I have noticed I am not really in nesting mode. I was frantically cleaning my house a few months ago and feeling the pressure to get everything ready, but not so much these days. Maybe it is cause my focus these days is at least to keep my head above water. Maybe nesting will hit me again soon because I really want to get motivated to clean my house. We have got a baby to prepare for!

papi and soulie date

While I was occupied getting ready for the wedding and Ben was done with his drop off duties for the event, he took little Soulie on a date (the big girls were with their grandparents). They headed off to the flea market and visited a community garden together. It was a hot, hot day, but these pictures tell me they had a very good time.

I just a few short weeks our baby Soul will no longer seem like such a baby. It will be so strange!