Summer Weekend Fun

Thought I would do a quick post and share some of my weekend fun with you. If you know me it probably has a strong vintage and junk element to it.

First....

My quick flea market garden idea:

Okay, so my dad gave me this old Schwinn bike that used to belong to my great aunt. I'm thinking it's the 70's and it needed a lot of work. So I've been trying to get my hubby to fix it again but it just wasn't happening. I think it needed more work than it was worth. But I still thought it had a cool retro look about it and I wanted to hang on to it. (I know, it's a sickness! :) So I had recently acquired some cool wood crates and as I was sitting out in my yard it hit me that I needed to join the two together! I think it turned out pretty cute and it fits my whole idea of "flea market gardening". I just wired the crate to the front of the bike and went to the nursery and found some shade loving plants that just flowed out of the crate.

Pretty cute huh?

Second.....

I went estate sale shopping with my bestie Cathie and had so much fun as always. We hit a few yard sales and of course I found this......

Now you all may not know my love affair with vintage sofas...let's just say I have a serious problem  and it is really difficult to pass one up. (Yes, yes I have 2 sitting in my garage and a few in the house.) Especially one that looks this good and was a great deal. ($70) I've been looking for a sofa for our great room that was more comfortable than the one we had in there. This fit the bill perfectly. And have I told you how much I love red? I couldn't pass it up. I love those sofas, they have so much character. And wouldn't it look awesome in a family picture?

Third.......


I was able to procure some more vintage games from the flea market this past Saturday. My good friend Bruce gave me a price I couldn't refuse and bestie Cathie just donated the Monopoly to the collection. I love the bright colors and old graphics of these games. They are fun to play too!

 A lot of friends ask me what you can buy at estate sales. This was purchase from not to long ago and my kids have had a lot of fun using it. And it looks much cooler than a brand new one. Again, the RED spoke to me.

Hope your summer has gotten off to a great start! Would love to hear what you are up to and if you have found any awesome vintage finds at sales.

Mother's Day.....and my sweet Grandma

My Grandma and Grandpa with all the Great-Grandaughters wearing all my fun vintage hats.

This past Mother's Day I had the opportunity to host most of my extended family at my home for a Mother's Day BBQ. We are talking 60-70 people. (I actually didn't get a final count.) Now our family is so big that this is not a normal occurrence. Usually each family has their own little celebration, but this was a special year. We wanted to be together as a whole family to celebrate the life of my sweet grandmother. You see my grandma has cancer and we are not sure how much longer she will be with us. She is 86, has lived a wonderful life and is not doing any type of treatment to stop it.

My sweet Grandma and Grandpa.

At first this was so hard for me. I would tell my mom I can't believe she isn't doing anything. My wise mother would tell me at 86 there just are not a lot of great options and it is something we need to accept. I've never really had a relative that close to me die and for some reason I thought my grandma never would. She has always been really healthy, so this has been hard for me to come to terms with. I love her so much, I am the first grandchild and I do feel we share a very special bond because of that.

So this year we decided to get together to celebrate this woman we love so much. It was a time for reunions, (some of my cousins I haven't seen in months) announcements (one cousin is getting married), wonderful conversation, great food and lots of pictures with grandma and grandpa.

I am so grateful that all my sweet cousins and siblings made the effort to be with her that day. (All came except 3 (one is on a mission).  And they came far and wide and even from out of state.

As grandma was leaving I gave her a big hug and she whispered to me she wished this day would never end. I wanted to whisper back to her that I too wish it would never end. That I wish I could always have her around and part of my life, but I know that is not possible.

So I have decided to try and spend more time with her, so that I will always remember her sweetness and goodness and joy she has brought to me in my life. I've been lucky to have her as long as I have.

If your Grandma is still around, give her a big hug.

Grandma and Grandpa with all the Great-Grandsons.

My Random Life

Oh how I wish I had more time to write down the things I want to on this blog. For me this blog is a journal of sorts. It helps me chronicle special events and some cool projects I do once in a while.  So here it is the middle of May and I have yet to do a post. So you are going to have to put up with what I call my "My Random Life" blog entry. Basically I download my i-phone photos and smash them into one entry to play catch up. So here goes:

First up is Fleaology, our first sale of the summer season. It was our biggest yet, with 34 vendors. So much fun and hundreds of happy shoppers. Don't you love our sign? Below is the line waiting to get in.

My friend Lisa and I threw our dear friend Marianne a TWIN's baby shower. It was called the perfect pair. I hosted it at my house and got to use my back deck that I have been working so hard on decorating. It was lovely. Pictures from the shower below.

 

 

Bronwyn with her drama group. They recently performed Throughly Modern Millie. Below she is posing with her friend Winnie who is also in our neighborhood.

Here is Dotter #3 with my sweet niece Ellie. They are the best of friends and Bella always loves it when Ellie visits from Idaho. They were down this weekend for Mother's Day. I hosted 70 people at my house, and I will do a blog post about that.

My dear friend Paula who went to a barn sale with me. Here she is assisting me with all my purchases. It's always good to have friends around!!

This is just a few things that have been going on in my life lately. I also have been auditioning for a show that I am directing this summer, and I start a ballet tonight. There doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day sometimes.....but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have it any other way.

What has kept you busy lately?

P.S. Did I tell you we got rid of T.V.? and I'm pretty sure I'm not even missing it?

12 Years

Today my sweet dotter is turning 12. Now some of you might not think this is a significant birthday but for me it has brought on time for reflection. 12 is a really important age in our lives. She will now leave elementary school and move onto junior high this year. She will start attending our church youth group (which is a huge part of our lives) because you can do that at 12.  While she was close to becoming a teenager, she is now teetering on the edge with all that comes with that......attitude, angst, heartbreak and the good things.....responsibility, joy and curiosity.

I've been thinking about how hard it was to have her, literally (I was in labor for 52 hours, no epidural at the end,) and how hard it is to be a good parent.

I think about that a lot, being a good parent. I constantly worry about the time I spend with them (or really lack of) how I handle situations, how to make them know they are smart, pretty, funny (all the things that are important to them right now.).......Will they be well adjusted adults.....keeping their grades up.......the list goes on.

I just worry.....but today I'm not. I'm just going to have a fun day with my beautiful 12 year old dotter and be grateful for the time I've had with her so far......and the many years ahead I will have with her.

I look at her and I think it all turned out O.K. and it will be O.K.

Happy Birthday my sweet BRONWYN. I love you more than you will ever know.

I made this board for her, and it was waiting in the kitchen. I'm having friends and family post little notes to her throughout the weekend. I put little quotes and doo-dads that represented her.

Notes on the board.

Good advice to live by. One of my favorite pictures of the dotters.

I always try to get her a sock monkey to add to her collection. Thanks to my dear friend Paula I was able to procure this one at the last minute. (She has about 20 vintage sock monkeys.)

Oh the things you can do........

I have an awesome and capable husband, like I'm sure many of you have. Since he is a designer and technical director he is also extremely handy. Things that would take me hours to do he can do in mere minutes like working with tools or building something. He is also the cleanest painter you will ever meet. (I mean he doesn't even need to put a drop cloth down!) Now I think of myself as pretty handy too. When we first met I was working in props and set dressing. That takes skill too! (and use of power tools.) But we have been together for a long time and over the years I have let him do a lot of things for me, because he is faster and it's just easier for him to do it. I'm sure some of you might be in the same boat.

Okay so why am I telling you all this...you wonder? I recently had a moment of great satisfaction that I want to share. So at some point in our marriage, he decided he was a better packer than me, especially when it came to packing a car. I think early on I might have defended myself but over the years I just conceded and let him do it. The dotter's and myself would bring all our stuff to the driveway so Dad could load it in the van in a orderly manner. I can't really remember the last time I packed our van for a trip.

So a few weeks back, my sweet friends and Fleaology partners made the trek to CA to go to a big Flea Market there and to just have some fun in sunny So Cal. We spent all day at the flea market and between the three of us had a hefty haul. (Come to FLEAOLOGY May 5 to see some of the goodies we picked up.) Now my dear friend Paula drove her 12 passenger van with the seats out, so we had some good space.

Once we gathered all of our stuff together and looked at the van space, I had a moment of inspiration! I can do this! I can pack all this "stuff" into this van. It was like the old ME stepped forward, not the complacent ME or the "honey you can do it" ME. (And the honey wasn't there anyway.) It was fun and challenging and took about 45 minutes to pack but I DID IT!

It's funny how little experiences can help us remember who we are and what we can do!

Now I'm not saying I'm going to start doing all those things that take me an hour and him 5 minutes, but next time the van needs to be packed for a family road trip, I'll show him who has mad packing skills too!

I did get proof......see the pictures below. 

HAVE A GREAT DAY AND COME TO FLEAOLOGY IF YOU CAN!

A picture of the stuff, ready to be packed into the van.

 

Paula and Cathie trying to get pictures of all the stuff! I thought this was so funny, so I snapped a quick pic.

See how excited they were to know that we didn't need to leave anything behind?

Some of the awesome things we picked up. Some you will see at Fleaology!

A Place for Contagious Creativity

Have you ever walked into a place and felt so inspired, delighted, happy and....at home? This happened to me recently during my trip to CA. I was showing my Fleaology partners some of my old stomping grounds from when I lived in LA and I took them to South Pasadena which has a charming little downtown area. We were looking for a place to eat and found this sandwich shop and as we were coming out this window display caught my eye. I just had to go in and see what the store was about.

I imagine I must have felt what Charlie did on his entrance to Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory. My eyes popped out as I took in the eye candy and whimsy of this delightful store. Basically it is a store for artists and crafters, especially those who love vintage and mixed media design. In the center is a awesome smorgasboard of items you can buy to create one of kind mixed media masterpieces. A lot of the items were vintage and really reasonably priced.

The store owner was really charming and we had a chance to talk with her a bit. She has artists teaching classes there every week and as I looked at some of the projects, I was wishing we could stay and sign up for a few. If you don't have time to take a class she has some great artwork for sale that you can just purchase. I loved looking at all the creations for sale.

Everywhere you turned there was a bit of inspiration in this store, especially this gorgeous hanging lampshade. I loved it. She told me it was continually a work in progress. I'm thinking about how I can start my own....

I truly loved everything about this store, the displays, the goods, the wonderful and kind staff and the creativity around every corner.

I loved the tag line of the store.....a place for contagious creativity....and while I haven't found a store like this around me, I hope all of you can find that space in your life. Where is your place for contagious creativity?

 

 

Make sure if you ever in the LA area, you stop at ZINNAS in South Pasadena, it will make your HEART sing!