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Showing posts with label Vintage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vintage. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Vintage chart = cool art

My mother-in-law brought this little basket of vintage cook books over to our house last week. She found them at Matt's grandma's house and knew we'd be interested in looking through them. 

The colors that were used to print these old books were so cool! 
I love the reds and greens and yellows. The fonts. The simple-ness of it all. 


And oh my goodness -- who knew there was an entire cookbook devoted to Jell-O!?


 And an entire cookbook devoted to recipes with honey :)


I pulled this gem out of the bunch and just KNEW that it had to find a home in our kitchen...


...it's an old-school Ball Ready Reference Chart and I just love how it looks.


I will never have an excuse for not knowing how many pounds of squash it takes to make 16-20 quarts of canned squash (40 pounds of squash, in case you care to know).


 I picked up a white frame at Target (during my weekly diaper run with the kids) for $2.99.


 Obviously there are no pre-made 6 3/4 inch x 9 1/4 inch frames out there, so I bought an 8x10 and attached the chart to a piece of green card stock I had laying around. 


I tested the final piece out in a few places in our kitchen...
On an open shelf by my mixing bowls... (those are Matt's dilly beans on the right side!)


On a window ledge, appropriately near some antique Ball canning jars...


And on another open shelf in our kitchen, near the cookbooks and vintage scale.


Knowing me, I'll probably move it around a couple dozen times before I decide where I like it.


Please leave a comment below and let me know which spot you like best (if you care)!

Saturday, May 31, 2014

This week

Almost a year and a half ago I decided to post a list of what I called "Daily Smiles" each week on my blog. I would jot something down each day that made me smile, whether it be Liam telling me that he loved me or seeing a bunny in our backyard. Forcing myself (willingly) to write something down each day made me stop and reflect on the simple, beautiful things that happen each day. 

Well...for Christmas this year my sister-in-law gave me a perpetual calendar where I write down a special tidbit or event from each day. It has become too time consuming for me to write a tidbit down in my perpetual calendar plus write it in my blog each day, so I've stopped adding Daily Smiles to this blog.

I thought of a more fun way to share the things that make me smile each week here on my blog - I'm going to start my Weekly Smiles. At the end of the week I will post some of my favorite moments via photographs. I take so many photos each week, on my Nikon, my iPhone and the iPad. So I figured, why not just download some photos and share them. It's fun for me and more visually stimulating for you.

And I'm changing it to weekly smiles instead of "daily" because, honestly, some days we don't even leave the house or the play/toy corner! I definitely smile at Liam and Chloe in the toy corner many times a day, but do you really want to see photos of Liam playing with Matchbox cars every day? And Chloe drooling on her play mat? And then there are some days when we actually get out and walk to the park or pick veggies from the garden and those days warrant more photos :) 


Finding time to blog has become a bit hard for me (toddler + newborn = not a ton of personal time). But blogging keeps me somewhat sane and I love doing it, so I'm going to try really hard to keep up with this.

So here it goes...my first Weekly Smiles...complete with photos and blurbs:


'Up north' at our cabin this past weekend my niece and nephew showed Liam how to fish...

Liam played nicely (most of the time) with his cousins...

Here are my niece and nephew splashing around in the lake. The water was about 40 degrees, but they didn't care at all! These are some true Wisconsin kids.

My niece turned 14!! How did that happen? I feel so freaking old. We celebrated 
with her at the cabin. Happy birthday, sweet Caroline :)

Matt and Liam sharing a moment. Makes my heart flutter.

I am obsessed with Chloe's little feet! I can't get enough of these cute toes. 
I already have a vast collection of Chloe Feet Photos :)

Our neighbor left a bottle of this by our back door this week. Who knew there
was a bottle of wine named after our kid!

I actually baked something. I found time! They are not from scratch (what. ever.) but they
were still yummy (yes, they're gone already).

Our perennials are finally blooming in our yard...

It was warm enough outside for Liam to play in his sandbox...

Chloe enjoyed the warm weather too. Although I'm a pretty paranoid mom
when it comes to keeping her warm, so she was still bundled up in a blanket.

We took a family trip to a local garden center (Caan Floral and Greenhouses) and bought some more perennials to add to the gardens in our front yard...

And I scored THESE at a rummage sale yesterday!! Liam, Chloe and I were out for a 
walk and came across some rummage sales in an alley nearby. And I found these
bad boys!! Can you tell I am excited? They are perfect for our kitchen and just the
right size for a small cup of coffee in the morning. And guess how much I scored them for?
$2 for the entire set!! And they're vintage Fire King

Lastly...we're chicken-sitting for our next-door neighbor this weekend. 
Look at what Matt found in their coop today? Fresh eggs...yeehaw!

And here's Matt putting them in their coop for the night. 
Note how Liam is intently watching his dad :)



Happy weekend to you all...

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Big boy bedroom

I thought I'd share a few quick photos of Liam's "big boy bedroom" as we call it. He absolutely loves his new room and his twin bed. He's been in this new room for almost a month now and hasn't even looked back at his old room! It really surprised us that he would adjust so well (I hope I'm not jinxing it by saying this). Soon his old room will be filled with a crying, cooing, burping baby. I wonder if he'll get jealous when the "newbie" is in his old room? I guess we'll find out shortly...

Anyways...here are a few photos of his travel/map/world themed room. There are a few things I want to get done in here yet (hang a clock, hang some canvass art, organize the closet better, etc). And I didn't have the energy to set up the room to look all spectacular for the photos. So I'm only posting the ones that I thought looked fairly cute :) 

Here's a little banner I made out of old maps and ribbon...

It took me forever to find this duvet cover online. It was sold out from Pottery Barn Kids, but I found it for half the price and brand new on EBay :) 

This little red airplane pillow was my "inspiration piece" for his bedroom...

Matt and I are a bit obsessed with VW's so we thought we'd share our love with Liam...

Liam got this cool canvass from some friends for his birthday. And the old little yellow VW -- that was mine and my brothers' from when we were little :)

A couple of shelves above his bed...


Night stand and lamp are a must...

You can never have too many books...

Trucks and globes and dinosaur banks...

One half of the room...

Little man hat...

 Liam's friends...

A touch of vintage...

Trying to be organized...

Marking on the map where he's all been...

I asked Liam to smile for the camera in his big boy room and this is what I got...a shy little boy! What a little stinker!


Source list:
Cars and trucks duvet cover - Pottery Barn Kids
Oak bed - free hand me down (it was my cousin's bed)
Red airplane pillow - Hobby Lobby
Two white floating shelves - Threshold for Target
Orange ombre curtains - Target online
Orange nightstand - Target online
Blue stick lamp - Target online (clearance)
Two white book shelves - IKEA
White cube shelf - IKEA
Red metal baskets - Hobby Lobby
Green vintage chair - found it on the side of the road for free!
Grey shag rug - Garden Ridge
Green plastic tubs - Dollar Tree
Wall map - map from Office Depot, frame made by Matt
Dresser - Overstock.com

Friday, October 25, 2013

80s flashback

This past weekend Liam and I took a little road trip to my mom's house.

Matt was out of town for the weekend. He had a work event in Florida (lucky duck). So I thought it'd be nice for Liam and I to "get away" as well. Although Liam and I did not escape to palm trees and warm weather and sunshine, it was still nice to see my mom and family.

Both of my brothers and their families were there as well. So Liam basically ran around with his cousins the entire time (which is awesome because it gives me a bit of a break)!

On Saturday night my sister-in-law, my nieces and I took a trip to Hobby Lobby (it's kind of becoming a tradition, since my SIL and I are both craft nuts), had a mom-made meal and watched the Badgers game on TV. On Sunday we bundled up the kids and ran around in my mom's yard, picked apples from my mom's apple tree, visited my grandma (who lives next door to my mom), watched the Packers game and enjoyed my mom's famous chicken noodle soup.

      
             
                                                                         
         

The highlight of my weekend was digging through my mom's basement and finding a ton of mine and my brothers' old childhood toys. I went into the basement to get my old Barbie dolls for my 5-year old niece to play with and I came across a goldmine of memories!!

I found my brothers' old Matchbox cars collection, a box of their Transformers and GI Joe guys and a box of Constructs. I found two bins full of Barbie dolls and endless accessories, a box of Trolls and a bunch of stuffed animals (my Cabbage Patch doll, my Minnie Mouse from when we went to Disneyland, etc.). I found myself immersed in a pile of childhood memories. And a cloud of childhood laughs. Oh my sweet, sweet childhood....

And the best part is -- my nieces and nephews and Liam LOVED playing with all of these ancient (ha ha) toys! It was like a little Jason and Nathan and Erin sitting on the family room floor playing all over again...

Of course I HAD to take some photographs of some of my favorites! They're not the best quality (I snapped them quickly on my iPhone) but you'll get the point. I wonder if any of you had these exact same toys??


The game of Perfection.
I'm not sure why they called it Perfection...has anyone in history ever conquered this game before BAMMM!!! the dang base pops up and flings your pieces everywhere?

The kids enjoyed it. And Nici.

Holy trolls! I can't believe my mom saved my trolls.

Okay...so who else had the exact same Barbie storage case? Or Barbie refrigerator?

Books  never get old. I swear I remember reading each and every one of these books as a child.


A cluster of my bros' dolls. I mean "super hero men." Heaven forbid if we called them dolls.

Matt had the exact same Matchbox case as my brothers. And his mom still has his too!

I used to play with these all of the time too. My favorite was the yellow Volkswagen Beetle.

Liam and Rylan picking out their favorites.

I played with this thing ALL of the time....

....and it came with this camper, which was even cooler than the truck.

Who else had this barn? When you open the left barn door it "moos."

My first camera.

I could have taken photos of more things, but I don't want to bore you too much :)

Did this bring back any childhood memories for you?

Thank you, mom and dad, for keeping so many of our toys!