ladies and gentlemen! i have an ANNOUNCEMENT

no i'm not pregnant, sheesh, quit asking! jk
but really, people keep asking when we are gonna have another kid. and i'm all like "um, can't you see i ALREADY have my hands full" plus where would be put another kid? our house is full up!


but now to my announcement, my real announcement (other than that rabbit trail).

my esty shop is OPEN!

[insert a double round of applause (one round for each child i have)]

you may have seen some of my bunting in previous posts and my bunting diy, way way back when. but now you can purchase it from me.

oh, and notebooks too.

here's the best part about my shop: everything is made from vintage materials. this is my passion, finding new and interesting ways to use vintage stuff that would normally get thrown out. so go check it out, take a look around, buy out the whole shop, we both know you want to.

what we've been up to

instagram pics are the best. are you on there? you should join the other millions (literally) of people on there.

buying chicks

hanging out together

 repotting plants

date weekend

taking baths, in our swimsuits, of course

puppy time

having treats

saturday morning

trending

recently, a reader asked me how i know what to buy when i am thrifting (thank you for your feedback, Theresa). i have a yakima thrifting guide in the works (and by that i mean, in my head), but i think the first step to know what to buy is knowing what's in. so i made two pinterest "then and now" boards to share with you.

board #1

board #2


ok. did you look at those? you should, cuz they kinda took alot of time :)

also i found this that i thought was pretty and relevant.

you have to work a little harder to remain on trend in a small city. when i lived on capitol hill i would see trends on the street and think "oh man that's so cute" i'd wear it and not even realize that everyone was doing the same thing. i was accidentally trendy, "accendy" or "trendentally." (ha!) i personally think that it's important to stay true to yourself and not be swayed by trends. most trends, though, are just recycled ideas from past generations, (as you can see on my boards). i don't usually buy something trendy unless it is trendy and vintage. that way i know when it isn't trendy i will still love it because it is vintage.

how do i know what is trending?  i read alot of blogs. and by alot i mean, like a million. actually it takes up too much of my time, i should probably cut back.

vintage diy

ever since christmas my poor shelves in the dining room have been empty. we had company over last saturday and what is better motivation to get your house together than guests? nothing. its a priority for me to have pictures in my house, so.... that's what i put there. unfortunately i didnt have any more frames or time to go get some. so i made something instead. i'm always the most creative out of necessity.

all you need is a piece of wood that will sit on its own (we have lots of stuff like this lying around), washi tape, and pictures (mine are from prinstagram). this is easy enough. i spaced my pictures evenly and hung them with washi tape. i thought it was feeling a little too rustic so later i added some gold leafing. which i love.

supplies

vintage beauties

i've been trying to challenge myself in photography. i found some of this black paper (that i'm gonna make notebooks out of) and it inspired me. i am really liking how these turned out. i also used the "pretend" macro setting on my camera, which i had never used before.

also, i use this string for everything: bunting, wrapping, tassel-making. if you ever run across vintage thread/string grab it! it always comes in handy and then you can say "i wrapped everything with vintage stuff" this makes me really happy. i love reusing things that would ordinarily get thrown out.

also, i recently went to a church estate sale that had piles and piles of sheet music and old sunday school books. i wanted to take them all home with me. and do what with them? just look at them i suppose. obviously i didnt buy all of it but am sad to think that most of it will probably be thrown out. i did buy some old attendance forms that i cut up and will soon be notebooks that i'm really excited about. i will do a post about them when they are finished. the will be in my new etsy shop this spring! don't know what etsy is? you have to check it out

also, just kidding, that's all i got.

re-diy

here's a little re-diy idea for you. are you like me? not much time on your hands? itching to be creative? noisy kids sucking up all your time? well you are in luck this diy is so easy you can do it while your kids are running around (like i did).
the kiddos really, really wanted to help me with this one, but i said, "get out of town! paint pens are NOT for kids."

we've been using this vintage laundry basket in our room, i love it. as you can see, it has a cool little diamond pattern on it. and i thought "wouldn't it be cool if you could see that better" so i put a bird on it got myself a paint pen ($4!!) and colored it. suPER easy and suPER fun. i used a paint pen so that when i get tired of it i can spray paint over it easily. i picked gold because, well duh its beautiful. also this diy totally turns my cool hamper into an on trend masterpiece (metallics + geometric shapes = on trend)

before:

after:

this got me thinking. what else could i "on-trend" with a paint pen? you got any ideas?

vintage diy

i have been in a craft-funk. i'm itching to make but can't think of anything. i want to take pictures.... but of what? my kids? again? (jk)

also it's hard to get anything done (let alone be sane), when they dont take a nap.

so this project, from design sponge, was perfect. i actually had almost everything on hand. i was thinking i would have to go buy cedar shavings and then ashley english mentioned in her post that she raises chickens and so always has cedar on hand. oh yeah, i almost forgot, we have chickens (palm to forehead). zula and effi were very helpful at pulling the pine needles off the branches (effi was so into this), dumping everything on the floor (um... also effi), and almost cutting everyone's fingers off (that would be zula).


here they are, the little cuties.

Dining Room update

i took these pictures FOREVER ago and totally forgot about them! this is how our new dining room is set up currently, though it usually has toys and food on the floor :)

my neighbor totally gave me the old ironing board! i'm very excited about it. i have a friend who used hers as a sofa table, super fun.

did you spot the truck?

kitchen tour

oh yes finally! as promised! a full kitchen tour:)
this kitchen is wonderful. thanks to jeremy and aleina hanson who remodeled it for the previous dwellers/current owners. it is beautiful, has a great color palette and is spacious. we didn't do anything to it when we moved in. just unpacked all our stuff and said "we could fit 5 people in here!"
we were definitely outgrowing our other space. there were days when i was baking, zula was playing in a cupboard, libby was chatting and effi was in her highchair and i almost lost it but then kicked everyone out. in this kitchen we are not all elbow to elbow with one another. AND the countertops! they are made from old doors, jeremy really is genius.

here is our kitchen:

weekending fun

on friday my bestie came to visit from seattle. we had a super fun girls day thrifting and estate sale-ing. it was also nice to have a break from the littles. i love them dearly, but sometimes..... well i'm sure you know how it is.

we hit two sales and then did the usual thrifting round, goodwill and lighthouse. i always do well at the olde lighthouse shop. it's one of those great stores full to brim with good vintage stuff for cheap! the bestie got tons of stuff for farm chicks and some stuff for herself :) i got a big yellow pyrex bowl to finish the set i've been working on! and it was 7 dollars! say what??
we also stopped by an antique shop that i've never been to before; ripley's on yakima ave. everything was in great shape and he had really good prices. i took some pictures to show you! this shop is an undiscovered gem.

that little puppy is a lamp! oh i wanted to get it for zula! i'm still kinda thinking about going back to get it.
he had a good selection of kids stuff, which is sometimes hard to find here.

ps where do you like to thrift?