zoo trips & other issues

in early october, the weather here was beautiful when it wasn't raining (i know i keep mentioning that) so we went to the zoo a couple of times.

here is the token picture of spencer in her stroller because it is where she resides in all these escapades. we do let her out sometimes, but then that usually means the person holding the camera is now holding a baby. an adorably sweet baby.
doesn't she look so sweet? i almost hate to mention it because it looks like we may be on the upward swing out of the ugly girl 4 year old phase. if you don't know what that is, then you must be blessed with only boys. it is the i know more than you, you are wrong and no i am not 13 yet phase where you get ugly faces and disobedience and you keep thinking isn't this supposed to come later phase. apparently, it rears its ugly head in the preschool years first and then lies dormant waiting to attack later in the tweens. i am not a fan.

but, this kid, oh this kid. he makes me laugh. out. loud.

when josh and i found out we were expecting our first baby, we joked about how their name would sound with all their speech issues. why, you ask? well, because most of both sides of our family has had speech therapy to learn simple sounds like s and r. so, we expected this to be an issue. if you asked me currently, i would jump on my soapbox about developmentally appropriate and how there is an age at which these things need to be corrected but not until the developmentally appropriate time. just so you know. i am not inept, just sensitive to my children being placed on everyone else's time table. (stepping off box now.)

so, before we left for the zoo, i was feeding spencer and miller sat down on the couch and the following conversation ensued:

miller: mommy, say snee-

me: snee

miller: now say duhs

me: doors (thinking i was interpreting correctly)

miller: snee-

me: snee

miller: duhs

me: doors

miller: snee-

me: snee

miller: duhs

me: doors

miller, throwing he shoes in the floor: sneeduhs!!

me: oh, sneakers!

my little flamingo

and, another miller story. after returning from the zoo, my mom was helping miller in the bathroom. she happened to refer to his underwear as briefs. he proceeded to correct her and said, "they are not briefs, meme. they are underpants."

my mom: well, next time i will try to remember they are underpants.

miller: if you don't, then that is okay, meme. then, you can call them that.

my mom: no, miller, i will keep trying.

miller: okay, meme, that is what i do when i say something wrong, too.

ha! what a mess! it appears that someone has been working with him somewhere. just not here.

in case you are curious, the preschool does a screening for these issues in the 3s and 4s. he was just screened on friday so i should know soon what the speech therapist thinks his current issues are. these are just some funny stories that have evolved from such.

a vintage halloween

i absolutely love to decorate for holidays. if it were up to me, there would always be a holiday approaching just so i can decorate. this year, i seem to prefer a more simple black and white color palette. i have streamlined most of my decorations this year to reflect this change. i bought several of these foam gourds and pumpkins last year at hobby lobby for 90% off (that's $.19 to $.39 each). this year i spray painted them all black or antique white.

once i saw this idea on flickr, i was on the look out for the perfect book.

i just happened upon a taller old book with the top of the pages inked black at an estate sale a few weeks ago for $.50. i love it!

my boo girl!

she makes my heart so happy it is almost silly! i have wanted to create something like this for a while, so when i saw this kit here, i had to have it!! it is amazing the detail that went into creating mixed media piece. so many of these pieces use creepy looking photos, but boo girl is too cute. i love how she fits into my theme. do you think it is too much if i leave her up year round?? maybe they will have a christmas kit. i hope so.

here is another picture that includes the pumpkins and gourds. after i painted them black or white, i striped or dotted them and white washed them and put them in a glass jar.

of course, i have more, but it is not finished and might not be. we will see. our weekend is full of festivals and the like. happy halloween!

(fyi: all photos were taken with film by my incredibly generous husband, who only gets slightly annoyed when i ask him to photograph such things ;)

a day at the garden

you know what makes me sad? when people don't update their blog regularly. oh, you too. good to know.

my excuse: we've been busy. and we were sick. and, honestly, we took an embarrassingly small number of pictures in september and everyone knows that a post without a picture might as well not been posted.

so, the first two weeks of october, the weather here was a.mazing. well, it might have only been mediocre, but when the ark finally docks in your backyard after more than 40 days of constant rainfall, then you feel like taking advantage of it. we had yet to go to the new children's area of our local garden, so we packed up a picnic (went through mcdonald's drive though) and headed for an afternoon exploring.

sweet girl

why is it that carter asks to have her picture taken and then refuses to look at the camera??

meme helps miller hang the laundry

exploring each nook and cranny

and, finally, after hours of play, we strolled out to the car and headed to sonic for happy hour drinks.

here's to hoping i get more pictures of fall fun and crafty projects posted for you soon! at least now you remember what miller looks like when he is not passed out with the sickies.

thrifty thursday

after 36 hours in sickieville, i was ready to bust out and hit some estate sales with my mom. there were over ten sales this past weekend, so we chose the ones that interested us most in the same area of town. we had some luck and i found some cute things.

my finds

at the second sale, i found this little manger with mary, joseph and jesus. it looks hand made to me. i love the nativity, as do my kids, so i had to take it home, and it was only $.50.
i know i am working backwards, but at the first sale, i had the most luck. i found these abc flash cards for $1. i love the graphics!
i also found these vintage christmas seals. i love, love, love them. i can't wait to use them on tags or a new banner.
isn't this book precious?? and, yes, the graphics are very rich (even with my iphone picture). i paid $3. i thought it was worth it because it was in excellent condition, was one i hadn't ever seen and was one i would use as a book to read to my kids.
oh, how i had to buy this book. just look at it!! i love the print on the cover. and, apparently i needed it. just look at what i found inside . . .

i still don't think you will find me using a pattern, but if anyone could change my mind, it would be betty and judy on the cover there.

i bought a few other school primers for $.50 0r $1.

then, my find for the day:

it is a betsy mccall fashion designer light table! it is in excellent condition (even the light bulb worked, but we replaced it anyway.) it has almost 20 pages of traceables like you see on the table above and the portfolio to hold everything. i knew immediately this would be loved by my own little fashion designer, so i asked how much they wanted and he said $3! it is already receiving lots of love and attention at my house.

(and because i was curious, i googled betsy and found out she was released in 1961 and according to kovels was worth $45 in 1999.)

what we did on our fall break . . .

this is what i have been up to:

his began in the wee hours on sunday and has hopefully let itself out the door.

spencer's began wednesday night, but it is hard to take pictures with your iphone while holding a feverish, needy baby that occasionally vomits on you with no warning.

but, miller, he was different. he would let out a yell to signify it was about to begin, kinda like a battle cry. then, he would turn his head and move around to ensure that nothing went untouched. why can boys not throw up in a bowl??

then, until the next battle cry, he begged for food and drink. begged. for milk, cheese, hot dogs, mcdonald's, anything and everything that should not sound good.

by day 2, he was starving, but so lethargic. he slept most of the day. my mom brought by reinforcements (crackers, sprite and soup for miller and sonic diet coke for me). she brought miller some tater tots. actually, she brought him an extra large tater tot. he woke up and started shoving them into his mouth. about four or five in and he let out the battle cry. as soon as he was finished, he continued eating even as i tried to reason with him on why it wasn't a good idea. he ate the entire box and part of a mozzarella stick he ravaged from carter before falling back asleep. he woke up and told josh he wanted chicken nuggets, french fries and ranch from mcdonald's. what sickie wants, sickie gets. and, he kept it all down. thank goodness! i don't think my couch could take much more.

plus, being covered in puke and poop when it has been days since you had a shower is not fun.

thrifty thursday

oh, how the last few days have not gone as planned. first, we have been without internet access since monday night. it has returned a couple of times for a very short amount of time, but always in the morning when all i had enough time to do was check my email. then, the sickness began. at this point, both of my girls are pit.i.ful. so, so pitiful. i am so over the sickies and fall just began-ugh!

so, before anything else can stop me, i am going to post pictures of the last two weekends of thrifting. two weeks ago, there was really nothing that looked very good starting on saturday, but there was one that started on friday. after dropping the older two off at school, i headed over to pick up my mom and then we headed to a very not-so-favorite part of town. i am sure many would not have even gone, but location rarely deters my mom and i.

these were my finds: an adorable vintage smock in the cutest blue bunny fabric (it may have to be a pattern for future smocks), glass baby bottles, a short glass jar, a "golden rule"r, and a box of vintage cards and report cards i found in the bottom of a box.
oh, how i love these report cards. one is from the 1923-24 school year and includes subjects like hygiene. i sat and read every single one, imagining the life of little nancy and carl. one of the things i find so fascinating in thrifting is how much times have changed. it is so interesting to see all the little bits and pieces people kept. i found the following tucked inside all the congratulatory cards.
i would totally do cloth diapers if someone brought them to my door and cleaned all the ones we used for $7.60/ week. i think i see why tiny tots went out of business! and, a nursing bra for $2.50. if you have ever purchased a nursing bra, you know how ridiculously expensive they are. the directions for using the nursing bra are included inside the pamphlet and i would like to say that i have nursed three children for more that 36 months of my life and i had trouble understanding how it worked.

it wasn't an amazing sale, but i definitely found a few things.

then, last week, we were having a street wide yard sale (because in old homes we don't have garages or carports, typically) and i wasn't planning on going. my mom was actually working the sale since josh had a wedding, we had a birthday party, and my older 2 kiddies would bring in more junk than we were trying to sell. but, there was this one sale that i really wanted to go to. i finally made it at 2 o'clock. the guy doing the sale is notorious for cutting deals from the beginning so i really wanted to go on saturday. when i walked in, he said all the hardback books were $.50. okay.
the top two were for a little halloween project i will post soon. there were tons of old school primers (love, love, love) so i picked up a couple. then, some reader digest condensed books with pretty covers, old children's magazines, a mccalls needlecraft book and a tom wolfe book for josh.

then, i headed to the carport. oh, i was so sad i had not made it there earlier. i found this crazy thing.

my kids love it. it is one of those wobbly things that you push in the bottom with your thumb-does that make sense?? then i saw it-a huge box of vintage tinsel. my mouth dropped open. it was various colors and types of garland when i noticed this woman with a huge smile standing behind it. it was hers. i almost cried. not just because it was hers, but because i could tell that her excitement was not for the vintage tinsel, but just the tinsel, lights and tree she had just scored. she didn't care that it was vintage at all. i wanted to offer her more than she paid, or take her to target and buy her some new and trade. but, instead, i just grabbed a tub and started digging. and digging. and digging. and found all this . . .

for $3. what you see: 3 boxes vintage silver tinsel, 2 boxes vintage green tinsel, vintage gold tinsel, lots of vintage wrapping paper, vintage glass garland, vintage plastic garland, vintage crepe paper in green and red, vintage angel ornaments, vintage red deer gift toppers, unopened bag of vintage plastic holly, a knee hugger that plugs into a strand of lights!, a couple of vintage plastic pink ornaments, a tiny santa, a plastic star, another gift topper and some garland that is flat and pops up (in the upper left corner). i was very excited for what i did get. it was a really great sale! oh, well, i made some money to spend next time, right?

pitiful

that is what this is.

i have not blogged in over a week. and, it is not because i have nothing to blog. it is because i have way, way too many things on my to do list, way too many things to sew (miller's wardrobe, for one), way too many new tv shows on my dvr, and yada yada yada.

i have finished cleaning out the closets and the attic of junk we do not use. i still need to pack up three sets of spring clothes, sort fall clothes into the appropriate closets, decorate for halloween (ah, the holiday seasons have begun!) and sew, sew, sew!

i feel so guilty that i am behind on blogging family pictures, tutorials, thrifty thursdays, etc. that i am planning to blog every day to catch up! so, stayed tuned and let me know what your favorite posts to read are. i am always wondering if i should stick to family & picture type stuff, or more tutorials, or my thriftiness (it is picking up, it was not pretty out there for a while) or whatever. so, you tell me.

and, because i have nothing else to do, i will be getting this fixed tomorrow.

this is also pitiful. carter has been growing it out from the cute bob she no longer wants. my mom and i had been trimming the weird little pieces that came out every now and then, but she really needed a "trim to just even it out around the bottom". those are the words i told josh to use and the words he spoke to the woman (because she is obviously not a stylist) at supercuts yesterday. i know, i shouldn't have let him take her to supercuts, but, in my defense, we were having a street wide yard sale, attending a birthday party (the cutest) at 11 and josh had a wedding at 3. but, why is it, that they always say "okay" to my very specific instruction and then take creative liberties. hello??

here are some other supercuts hairtastrophies from the past.

i'm sorry, did i say bangs?? because i don't remember saying bangs.
um, were you trying to make him look like jim carey from dumb & dumber?

ugh, you would think i would learn.