now the day is over

dear diary,

A couple Thursday thoughts here.

Why does poor Asher have more fevers than anyone I've ever met. Fevers and other yucky stuff since Saturday night. That's right, even on his first birthday. Tragic. We have a urine test being processed right now and hope they can figure it out so we don't have to go back in for the blood one.

Don't get me wrong, I love the extra cuddles this misfortune affords me, but all the day-long lethargy, tears, and all-nighters of keeping nervous, sleepy vigil over my feverish boy are starting to take a toll on the family. And I just want my feisty, happy boy back!

Get better little one.

Ambrose is going stir-crazy too. But! We are going to Disneyland this summer and so I've been piling on the Disney movies via Netflix. How is he supposed to know just how magical Disneyland is if he doesn't know all the characters??? I'm just trying to get my money's worth here.

Have you watched Lady and the Tramp in a while?

Aside from the Siamese cat part making me feel embarrassed for Disney and like apologizing to Asians everywhere, the stylings of the house are AMAZING! I want all the large graphic "arts and crafts movement" (thank you Mel P) wallpaper, tile, and rugs rugs galore. I am well aware that it's just animation. But wow.

I feel the same way about Snow White though. That whole Eastern European vintage cottage in the woods look makes my heart sing. I think I got this from my mom.

I can't really find a good picture example, but you know what I mean right? Quilts, and carved wooden beds, and lots of forest creatures roaming around... and like, this kind of ribbon everywhere:

Anyway, this morning was Bambi and boy is that movie precious. I want the whole soundtrack. Nothing cuter than seeing Asher boy perk up for a few minutes and dance with a silly grin on his face to "drip drip drop little April showers..."

Oh! And society soul mates! Have you started your apron yet? I've gotten as far as realizing that I want to attempt my first made-up-by-myself pattern and improve an existing apron that I have. I love this one:

for it's almost full-body coverage, but want to improve upon it by making sure I can tie it at the waist like I have in the picture AND go to above my chest. When it's tied up now the apron strings go up much higher than my waist, which was cute when I was pregnant, but makes me look awkwardly pregnant now. Not so cute.

So, I searched through my scraps and came up with this:

An old curtain from Ambrose's room in the old house, a tiny scrap of some Japanese fabric I have saved every last shred of that may be just BARELY big enough for the torso part of the apron, some pinstripe denim that I cut out for a baby bag that never was for the waist band, and some olive solid scraps from a backpack I made for the straps around the neck. Oh, and some hippo IKEA fabric scraps from Ambrose's party favors when he turned two for a pocket.

All cut out.

Waiting for me to get the guts to execute my made-up pattern.

I really don't want to mess up so I am just letting them sit there.

Maybe until the night before we all get together at the end of the month.

But hopefully before.

Welp, I think this concludes this long diary post. I don't want to waste all of Asher's nap, but it sure feels good to dwell on something silly for a couple of minutes. I'm gonna go watch those gosh-awful Siamese cats with Ambrose and maybe even eat some more bread from our brand new bread maker!

Shout out to Thomas Robertson for doing some research and buying an affordable, yet awesome one. Did you know this thing can make bread (duh), all kinds of dough, including pasta dough, and jam! Let's hope I don't gain 100lbs. exploring all the options, but I'm excited to get all homemade up in here.

Aloha!

i want to start a sewing society

why does the long thread always have to be so great and do stuff like this to me???

what a list. i'm still working on the 50 summer crafts for kids with amby and it's not even summer anymore.

as if my side bar wasn't already full of too much awesomeness that i could never possibly get to in this lifetime.

i'll just leave this link here and return to it when i get a minute. ha!

this has been the greatest year in many ways- but a big part of why (aside from the birth of asher of course. of course!) is due to the best christmas ever last december when thomas gave me betty jeanne the sewing machine.

now i'm addicted and thankfully i don't see myself recovering any time soon.

oh and we have been sewing and crafting like crazy around here! thomas too. he's a craft-man. craftsmen? hot.

i'll get some pictures of the many projects and show you soon!

and finally, while we are on the subject, can i get a "woot woot!" for lizzie heiselt who read this post and lives in brooklyn and went for me and then sent me these:
look at all that burda style goodness! if you sew, this is making your heart beat a little faster isn't it! :) come over and we'll ohh and ahhh over it together.

and the icing on the already awesome cake? she entered my name in a drawing (yes, she is really that kind) and now this little beauty is on her way to hawaii:
to make the season even more bright. (i love you lizzie!)

so much fun!

wanna be in my sewing society? :)

a quilting bee

just my mother-in-law and me......

don't look ashley jones! that blue one may or may not be for your soon-to-be baby boy! :)

thrifting karma

we went thrifting/photographing/playing yesterday and i had my eye out for three things: vintage pyrex (duh), china that fit our style/stage of life, and vintage sheets to use for sewing household things for the new apartment.

megan walton, we walked into your very favorite wahiawa salvation army and has it ever let us down? no it has not. first thing i saw was a set of four of these:




dinner plates, salad plates, saucers, one tea cup (which will be decoration or for my morning herbal tea) and a sugar bowl. ahhhhh! i love the colors. i hope you can see their loveliness with my sophisticated photobooth images! :) and how much did i get the whole set for- $20 total. i think that's less than one plate of china at a department store and i am equally pleased.... maybe more pleased because it was such a find! good thing there are four people in our family... if we feel crazy and add to that number
i could always go here if i felt like i just had to have more (kids)- haha!

oh, and no vintage pyrex was to be found- but that's the joy of thrifting... maybe next time. i saw some contenders, but it's bad thrifting karma to take something you dont love when someone else might love it more.

and we did find a cool vintage sheet:
which i will be THOROUGHLY washing before i make anything with it... and it is HUGE so expect to see many things come from this little beauty.

so fun.

and now ambrose is saying, "MORE PICTURES!! lots and snots of PITCHERS!!!!!!" so here ya go:

everyday vintage part two

remember when i was like, "blah, blah, blah my mother-in-law has a lot of cool vintage stuff in her house that i get to use"? it was a while ago. i know. anyway, i never delivered on my promise to showcase more of her treasures. is it really mine to share? well, no. but it's just so dang cool! i cant count the number of times i have heard people talk about the charm of vintage pyrex. some people have searching out every piece they can find at rummage sales and thrift stores as a life-long ambition. i'm kinda exaggerating, but kinda not. people are pretty gaga over this stuff and she has a bunch. today i was starting dinner and i was like, "thomas, i LOVE your mom's vintage pyrex!!!! i just love love using it!!!" and he was like, "cool."

men dont really get it. but can i get an "amen!" from the ladies??

and then there's this little treasure that ambrose and so many of his friends have enjoyed jamming and that me and my mother-in-law have enjoyed unjamming. we have noticed though that it is near impossible to permanently jam and therefore is a quality-stand-the-test-of-time toy. obviously, since thomas and his siblings played with this and now ambrose gets to as well and it works just as well as it did back then.

and our last lane through vintage country takes us to the bookcase in my in-laws room that we sleep in- here's a sampling of one choice shelf:

ahhhhh! how cool is that?? this is like my favorite thing ever. i brought my sister ashley in here when she was visitng since she is a book nerd too and we just freaked out over all the cool classics. all from either when linda was young or from her fathers collection. i mean come on:


they just dont make 'em like they used to. although they do try. maybe our kids kids will be drooling over first editions of harry potter from our bookshelves, but i just doubt it for some reason. prove me wrong kids.

and sorry for the grainy, blurry images. poor lighting + iPhone camera = you pretending these images are vintage.... and then they are cool. :)

in over my head

as we start to see plans for the major renovations to the apartment upstairs we are having fun thinking of ways to make the new space our own. i woke up one saturday morning to thomas painting a dresser for the boys room. he just felt like it (i like thomas for many reasons and this is one of them).

i have been thinking about the boys room too.

so much so that i have gone and bought some fabric:






and all the other things you need to quilt (boy did that fabricmart lady work me. she knew she was working with a novice!) in an attempt to make the boy's bedspreads.

WHY????????

now that i have spent all this money i feel like it HAS to be GOOD! haha oh well.

i have basic designs to go off of and have looked at a few tutorials that have been extremely helpful:

this is probably one of the best from my happy little life (thanks ash!) it's on the right column- a couple of items down.

i really liked this rotary cutter tutorial from purl bee (thanks meg!)

and

a quilt is nice has given me some great tips and ideas too.

sooooo, i hope that they turn out.

i am just starting on ambrose's this weeekend and then if that goes well and i end up not only finishing it but liking it too then the other baby gets one as well.

isnt that always the way with the poor second child? so, here goes nothin.

everyday vintage

ok, one of the coolest things about living in my in-laws house right now has got to be all the amazing vintage stuff that i get to use. my mother-in-law has a wide range of books, kid toys, appliances, and just general day-to-day items that she has kept in good condition and still uses. this means i get to use them too! melissa p.- you would die. you would LOVE it! i think fondly of you each time i find something new.

people go on hunts for some of the things she has. a cursory browse of ebay or even amazon will get you many of these items and sometimes for reasonable prices, but it is so fun to use the original thing. no one owned it before- it's just hers.
take for instance, the betty crocker cookbook. most of us who were married within the last decade were given this version (or something that looks like it) as a wedding present (maybe even were given it a couple of times):

here's the 1961 version that linda has:
i made the fluffy white cupcakes in there and some homemade frosting last night and they were tasty!
it was fun. i dont know why it's more fun to me to make recipes when the pages look like this: it just is. :)
anyway, i'll post some more cool finds later for melissa and any other vintage enthusiasts. i'm pretty sure my mother-in-law linda reads my blog so i just want her to rest assured that i wont be putting up anything personal or embarrassing- just books and things. it is just too cool! :)