I Love my Garage Sale Watch

I got the Thursday garage sale watch sized on Friday...

Watch: $5
Resizing: $10



It was so worth it. Isn't it pretty!

Make Yourself an Easy, Yummy, Healthy Treat

Blueberry Smoothie

1 cup plain soymilk
1 cup frozen blueberries

Blend.

Pour into your glass.

Enjoy.

Yum!

Went back to the garage sale that I mentioned yesterday this morning. The Tiffany necklace was still there. I bought it for $5! I actually wore it today, but might try to sell it on Ebay? We'll see.

Took the kids in for portraits at Pennys. They turned out real cute but we were there about 3 hours. The woman helping us choose photos and check out was training a new employ and it took 3 times as long as normal to get to us. The kids had a heyday as I promised them a cookie if they did well at their photo shoot. Good thing we left the together shots till the end. Because they weren't very good to each other then. Overall they were real good. They got to eat chicken mcnuggets, a rare occurance, both each got 2 cookies and Ella got a Hello Kitty crystal necklace and a sequin strawberry hairclip (50% off, yeah!) The sales were big time crazy. I got a really nice frame for $8, an indoor/outdoor thermometer complete with atomic clock for $10 (our current one got stuck in celcius and we can't change to farenheit, even when we flip the switch in the back to go to F, a table top clock for the guest room for half off and 2 pairs of shoes for me for $14, one pair being Keds! Good thing I didn't deliberately look for anything because I'm sure I'd find a ton more deals.

Jason put the tent up in the back yard tonight. He and Miles are sleeping out there. Ella was going to too. Until we found the holes she poked into the screen on her windows. Her punishment was that she was not allowed to sleep in the tent.

We have a pretty packed weekend ahead. So I'm sure there will be a lot to report back next week. And I still have photos in the camera to share from this week. Until then...

When It Pays to Know Designers...

...is when you go to a garage sale advertised as having upscale women's clothing and accesories. I'm not much of a designer person. I know some names, but not many.

What I bought at aforementioned garage sale...

• A very pretty watch with sparklies and a blue face for $7 (sorry no pics, I'm not at home and didn't bring my camera to my parents' house).
• A pretty pink patterned umbrella probably from a perfume giveaway promotion for $5.
• A cute pink handbag with no name, probably from another type of promotion.

(Obviously this woman worked in a department store or Ulta or something by all the brand new freebie type things she had).

What I passed up for $10...

Tiffany's 1837 Triple bar pendant, $350 new




What I passed up for $5...

Tiffany Bar drop earrings: $300 new

A Ladies Movado watch for $5 (I liked the sparkly one I got better).

When I found out about the worth of the Tiffany jewelry, I nearly had a heart attack. I'm going back to that garage sale tomorrow. Maybe they won't remember me. But I don't think that jewelry is my style. It would make a nice gift though, eh?

I feel a little better when I looked up my watch, an Alfred Sung (never heard of it), and found out it probably has Swarovski crystals, its blue face is probably a quality material and not plastic and is probably worth over $100. The main thing is that I think it is pretty. I just need to bring it to a jeweler or watch repair shop to get it shortened a bit.

I passed up quite a few cute sundresses and pretty tank tops too. Doh.

Goodies Galore

Yesterday at the last minute I decided to treat myself to a trip to a little craft store up north in Antioch, IL. It is a bit of a haul, so I don't go there that often, but they have much better stuff than Joann or Michael's in the paper department. I supposed someone needs to SMACK me! I got more double-sided heavy cardstock to make more booklets. Meanwhile, they haven't been selling lately and I still have more I've already made that I need to list in my store. I found some really cute ribbons and embellishments too. I will have fun putting it all together...

I also bought some nice trendy fat quarters to make a few wristlets which I plan to put in the store. I just want to do something to make them more unique than just one type of fabric on the outside and another as the lining. So I still need to work on that design.

After my trip there I had to go to Joann on my way home to get essentials that the craft store doesn't carry, like zippers, D-rings, clasps and fusible fleece. I got the kids each a little craft they were begging for. That $2 was well worth it as it gave me a little peace and quiet for a decent chunk of time as they worked on them and I cut and folded paper for my new booklets.

I was thinking of a new idea for bags. I have a few of those recyclable shopping/grocery bags so as not to use up plastic bags. But they often come apart at the seams and I have to sew them back up. Would you buy and use a sturdier canvas bag with no lining but pretty fabric for the straps to make you remember to get them out of the car before going into the store because you can't help but want to show off your pretty bags??

Make Someone's Dream a Reality

Here's your chance to do something wonderful to help a great gal out with her life love and passion. Layla hasn't been blogging for long, but I have started following her and love her style. She and her husband just bought a fixer upper and are fixing it up, bit by bit. She quit her day job to pursue her passion. She is so brave, so true to herself by doing this.

Well what can you do to help her out? She has sent in an audition video to be on Design Star on HGTV. You can go there, check it out and give her some stars if you feel she is as wonderful as I think she is. I'd also suggest checking out her blog. Her photos are wonderful and her video footage is so cute and fun.

So please go and vote for her! Go rate her video. While you're there you can check out the other entries too.

You can sew a Fabric Basket

Last week I found a tutorial at the PinkPenguin for a cute fabric basket and make one of my own. I think I'll use it for a little waste basket for fabric scraps when I'm cutting out pieces for projects.

I gave the other project I made to my mom. It was a wristlet, but I forgot to take a pic, so you don't get to see it. Sorry. I did cut out fabric to make another one, so maybe you'll see a similar one sometime down the road.

We had a very interesting Sunday. I had discovered the musical artist Bushwalla (Billy Galewood) through looking through some of Jason Mraz YouTube videos and such. We are big Jason Mraz fans. Anyway, Bushwalla has co-written some of Jason's songs, namely Curbside Prophet and they are good friends. I liked Billy's music and looking around further on his website found out he was doing a show (party) in Chicago THIS SUNDAY. I also noticed that he seems to prefer to do small shows, what he calls living rooms shows. This really attracted me because I prefer much smaller venues when going to hear a musician. I contacted the party organizer and we made it out to the venue (a forest preserve) to go see him. It was so fun as we met a lot of wonderful and welcoming people who were all Bushwalla and Mraz fans. Also, at such a small setting (there were only about 20 people there), we had "front row" seats and got to talk to Billy quite a bit. He was very gracious and friendly and just a really funny guy. He is a self proclaimed acoustic rhymer and has a other talents such as juggling, magic etc... So anyway, on with the pics...

Yes, this was our view of his show.

Having fun and goofing around. Two audience members helped fill in with the music.

He sang for quite a while as he balanced the tripod on his chin.

More than happy to pose for pics.

It was a great time and a fun adventure! I hope we get to see him again. I really hope we get to see the other great people we met again.

Framed Print

Sorry this photo is blurry, it is night and the art is in the basement. Here is the framed piece I talked about yesterday. The art is a print by Jennifer Judd-McGee and can be found at her Swallowfield Etsy shop.

I had a sweet day overall with the kids today. They have been so affectionate with me. Even when I came to pick them up from childcare after working out at the Y, they both screamed "MOMMY!" in glee and ran to me at full speed with arms outstretched. Miles, in particular is getting SO much more communicative and imaginative. He has his cute little mannerisms and ways of saying things and is doing a lot more play cooking and building with blocks. I think he may also be ready for some simple workbooks. We had our moments today and I do find it hurtful when either of them blatantly disobeys me. Nevertheless I can't help but forgive quickly after a stern scolding and love the heck out of them.

And I FINALLY got my dance music done, copied and and order of songs sheet printed up. Plus a second batch for a new teacher. I just couldn't do it during the day. Listening to Al Gilbert's voice on all the exercises and the same piano tunes was driving me crazy. So thanks to Jason for giving time to do it all tonight sans kids.

I also did a small bit of sewing today, but it is a surprise for someone special, so you can't see it yet!

Books, Book and New Dress for Ella

Today we met Jason at the Chicago Botanic Garden for lunch, so enjoy a couple of flower photos I took....

For some reason, I'm having trouble putting together a synopsis of our vacation. I think it is because reviewing it will make it more real that it is over! I've really had a hard time coming back to everyday normal life. So for now I will just say we had an excellent excellent vacation. As I said to Jason, it seemed like real summer. Northern Michigan is a beautiful, wonderful place to visit in the summer. If you are interested in looking at lots of pics go here or for the best of go here.

Recently I've finished 3 books.

*The Posionwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver was good but hard to enjoy. It was written through the voices of 5 people, a woman and her 4 daughters. Personally, I have trouble keeping track of who's who, but that's just me. After many chapters I finally caught on. Also the book goes at different paces. At first it seems slow and a bit uneventful, then it gets quicker and very event filled, finally it skips ahead in time very quickly not once, but many times. I stilled learned quite a bit from it, so I would say it was worth reading.

*Next I read The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. This one I loved so much I don't want to give it away for someone to read, which is what I often like to do with books I've finished. It is set at the time of the Civil Rights Movement and is about a girl who runs away from an abusive father (actually more so to help a friend in trouble) and who had a mother who died when she was very young. Throughout, she struggles with whether her mother loved her and even if her father loves her. She finds a new family in an unusual but warm group of women/sisters and learns to mother herself.

*Finally I read The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. Um, I couldn't put it down, and I'm a little embarrassed, it was a complete train wreck, kind of like a soap opera. What I liked about it the most was that it made me appreciate that we are not in a very high social class and what often comes with being in that class as far as priorities (which I believe are all out of whack). Apparently it was made into a movie and I didn't even know. Jason tells me he heard the movie was bad.

The second Book in the title refers to Facebook. I joined after Jason had been on for a while and was connecting with lots of old friends. I haven't kept in touch with a ton of old friends but through Facebook I have reconnected with some. Most recently, kind of by fluke, I found my college roomate. She has a new last name and I could barely see the tiny avatar type picture by her name: Katy "Different Last Name than her Maiden Name". I found her in a search of the college class I graduated from. So I sent her a message asking if her maiden name was that of my roomate's. Amazingly it was her! So I heard back from her this morning and she seemed happy to have connected. We were roomates for FOUR years, so we had some rough patches at times and senior year was probably the hardest. But we had a lot of good times in there too. And I've been looking for her off and on through the years.

Are you on Facebook? Have you met any long lost friends?

I made a VERY simple dress for Ella out of some fabric I LOVE. I wanted it to be straight and simple but when it was done I was a little worried it looked kinda Mu mu-ish. Jason tended to agree. BUT then when I was at the local Farmer's Market today with the kids a woman asked me if it was a particular designer (Zutano) and I was just beaming as I told her that I made it myself and she said it was beautiful. Well it was probably because of the fabric, but still. Maybe the style isn't too bad. She's just a little girl!

Love her cute catalog model poses!

One other thing... I have always wanted to plan a baby shower. I have cut ideas out of magazines, really cute ideas. I almost had the chance once, but then didn't. So now my mom is going to throw a shower for the kids of one of her friends down the street. She has asked for my help and I hope that I can be involved in some of the ideas. I just saw an idea for homemade invitations on a blog today and sent the URL to her to see what she thinks. I love them because they involve fabric, buttons and sewing on paper and the mother of the expectant couple is a seamstress. For a peak, go here and here. I may be sharing more of the ideas with you on the blog over time.

Oh and another thing. I picked up some artwork I had framed today and LOVE the outcome. I have had the most luck taking my art to JoAnn Superstore to get framed. Not so much at Michaels. I've also learned to think about what I'm looking for before I taking the art into the framing department. So yeah, I'll post a pic later.

progress so far

music is all on computer and put into appropriate folders

now needs to be weeded through and put in the right order

had to stop as the kids were beating each other up

An update on the whole filling in for the dance director... her health is worse than what was first thought. I am worried. She had a death in her family this weekend of a close family member. She wants nothing more than to be out and about and teaching dance. I feel so much for this woman.

I will be teaching 2 classes in the am on Mondays, 2 in the pm. 1 on Wednesdays, 1 on Fridays and a baton class on Saturdays. That is the plan so far. Baton won't start up until October and not unless there are at least 4 signed up. So far there are 3. We will also teach a swing class sometime in the fall as well.

I am now exhausted from the kids and just want to do one of those things I'd rather be doing.

Oh, and I can't believe the pool doesn't open until 4 pm all this week. Please at least let me pretend we have 2 more weeks left of summer before preschool and park district/YMCA classes start!

Back from Vaca

What I'd like to be doing now...

1. continuing vacation Up North
2. sewing Ella's new dress
3. putting together a decent post about vacation complete with pics
4. reading the book I started

What I am doing because I am being responsible and know this will take a lot of time...

copying music to be used in the dance classes I will be teaching in 2 weeks, picking out the songs/exercises I want to use/putting them in the right order (3 times as I will be teaching 3 different levels)/copying songs onto discs

Though I can post this because I am copying music into iTunes now and that takes a while. So now that I'm finished with this exciting post, I'm going to read while the songs are uploading.

Before We Go

Haven't felt much like posting or commenting the last couple of days. My sweet friend's mom passed away yesterday morning and I have been very sad and concerned for my friend. But we have a very busy day tomorrow and then we are off on a 6 hour drive to vacation in Traverse City, Michigan. So I thought I'd better make at least one more post before we leave.

Wednesday of this week I actually got Miles' hair cut.

Jason bought a new lens for the camera and took some pics at the Botanic Garden. I love this one.

Have a good week everyone! I will miss all of your blogs.

And for a Wedding Shower or Wedding Gift

Again, click on photo to get to shop to buy!

Another Booklet, Great for a Shower or Baby Gift

In the store now, click on the photo!

More Work Compliments of...

Miles...

He pulled down at least half of my clothes off their hangers.

Cute...

I have a lot of cleaning and organizing and preparing for vacation to do. Then I've got Miles making more work for me and Ella alone while Miles is at camp who I want to play with. I should be happy to have (some of) these problems!

Something for Me

I wrote out the following post yesterday so it would be ready to go today. But now I feel so selfish. I just got an email from a friend who was out of state with her family for most of the summer to spend time with her parents. See her mom is dying from cancer. It has been a very bumpy ride but I will spare you the details. My friend and her family just got home from their long car ride back and are turning around to fly back to her parents' home. Her mom took a very bad turn for the worse and doesn't have much time left. I know her mom is anxious to go Home. But I know this will be hard on her family. On my friend. I cried this morning after reading her email. I don't know what to do. But I want to do something. For now, on with my frivolous post below.

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I have really loved working with a particular fabric combination in a special order for a friend and a diaper bag for a cousin. So I decided to make a purse for myself. I am so happy with how it turned out. This was made using the Diana Handbag pattern by iSew.

And here is a great photo of Ella taken by Jason using the morning light.

Almost Forgot

This cute little pitcher and cup play set. I bought it at a garage sale for Ella to play with. It has to be an antique. Isn't it sweet?

Feeling Yucky

I have had such a constant headache all day today so far. Is it the weather? My poor diet this weekend? Or perhaps it is that Miles was crying in the wee hours of the morning because his MyMy (teddy bear) was nowhere to be found. And I mean NOWHERE. I spent quite a bit of time looking under the bed, behind the bed, beside the bed, in the bathroom, even a quick glance around downstairs... Not fun. And I didn't find him. Luckily he was able to go back to bed without it for the time being after he calmed down.

Which brings me to the next slightly disturbing finding... After taking Miles to day camp I came home and started looking again for MyMy. Just for kicks I decided to look under Ella's bed. Um, there he was. I asked Ella about it and finally she said she took it from him while he was sleeping and hid it. Why does she have to have a mean streak with him?

Don't let that sweet smile deceive you!!

This weekend Jason's brother Scott visited and we all had a great time. We took him to one of our favorite restaurants which overlooks Deep Lake (we ate on the terrace) and specializes in Polish food which is close to the food of their Czech heritage which they love. Jason and Scott also joined the kids the next morning on the slip and slide.


Saturday evening we went over to our friends to see them and another friend who was in town from Austin. These guys and gal all knew each other since high school. It is good to see the guys talking and laughing.

Jason, Clint and Dan. Or as Miles says: Daddy, Click and Hay. Jen, Dan's wife,was putting Madeline to bed. Miles took way to much of a liking to that pink play purse...

Another highlight of the evening was this little cutie Madeline. She is very photogenic.

Jason is away for a few days for work so I'm holding down the fort alone. I'm getting more quality time with Paris who has started sitting still on my lap, chest or next to me for more than 2 minutes. I also broke my vow and made a bag (sewed). I'll take and post a pic for another day. I am also excited to be getting ready to sew a new jumper for Ella. Just need to wait for fabric in the mail. Got the pattern today. Speaking of mail, I got two good packages Friday. One was the rest of the fabric for my purse and the other a giveaway I won from my friend Crystal. Thanks Crystal!w Yippee, more projects to sew! I will have to visit the Fabric Shoppe again soon! :-)

New Booklets

I recently saw some beautiful Amy Butler paper and just had to have it to make some more Booklets. This time I am adding little embellishments and different colored ribbon to tie them together. Each is truly unique and special. I am calling them "Glamerous Little Booklets." Here are a couple of examples. I have more done and will list them throughout the next week. For now, click on the pics to see them in the shop.

I know I still have many Booklets in my shop that haven't sold yet, so it is a risk to make more, but I think these new ones are even more special. I just love them and love decorating them each a little differently however I am inspired at the time. I just need to work on photographing them better!