I’ve scored 2 pairs of USA made Levi’s 501s recently at the thrift store in my size (I did a little happy jig each time), but not my length. It would probably be unlikely that I would come across something in my length since I’m so short. I hem my vintage flares and bell bottoms, but it doesn’t look as good when you hem Levi’s, so I just cut them.

I feel like with a lot of the the new styles that are found at a big box store, you can thrift something similar. Then with a little sewing know-how you can alter it to just the way you want. Or you can support indie shops who already do the hunting for you and offer great vintage pieces. The plus with vintage items is that you can usually sell them to buy-sell-trade shops, so they don’t end up just going to the dump, and someone gets an opportunity to love your once loved items.

on me: everything was thrifted from top to bottom! shirt, vintage men’s shirt and altered to fit me (vintage here, new there). levi’s jeans (vintage here, new there). shoes (vintage here, new there).

This week’s learned, links, and thankfulness…

If you like crafting, but don’t like gathering supplies, I like how MakersKit makes it really for you to work on DIYs.

How fun is this cotton candy cake!

Thinking about this vintage crop green jacket.

I have to make some Halloween costumes this week. Two of the girls want to be Star Wars characters, and I considered just buying them on amazon, but the sewer in me just couldn’t do it. Aye!

I’m so happy The Walking Dead is back. Daryl can’t ever die or we will all riot. #word

I want some vintage bellbottom overalls, but it’s so hard to find a good one in my size. I’m patient though, so I’m sure I will come across the perfect one one day. I think this denim jumpsuit is pretty groovy, but it’s just a tiny bit too small for me. If you’re extra petite, I would check it out.

I’m thankful for breathers. I had a rough day this week with the girls and I just went outside to sit on our driveway. My neighbor came out and asked if I was okay. I said, “It’s just one of those days with the kids.” She said, “I know. I do the same things sometimes.”

I’m currently reading through Romans and I’m so thankful that the law has been fulfilled for me in the person of Jesus Christ. He is my righteousness and there will never ever be anything I can do to earn righteousness. It’s such a good and wonderful gift.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend friends!

This week has zipped by as we have been balancing helping my mom (praise the Lord she’s feeling better by the day!), homeschooling, extra curricular activities, sharing life with church family, and having people over for dinner. Once Friday comes, we are exhausted, and Saturdays are typically our rest day. It is tiring being so busy, but a blessing that our days are full of learning how to love and serve our family and others better.

Enjoy your weekend friends! I hope you get lots of rest in preparation for a new week.

Summer was so busy (in a good way), that I’m just now getting around to sharing Brave’s 8th birthday celebrations. We were going on mini vacations about every two weeks, so somehow this celebration got lost in the bazillions of pictures taken. She wanted a Nancy Drew birthday at a hotel, so we went to Palm Springs and stayed at The Westin. We were looking for a kid friendly hotel with big slides, and the Westin came up in our search. Since it was summer, prices were really good, so that’s where we decided to go. It ended up being a great choice because although it was so hot, we were in the pool the whole time, or laying out in the shade after being in the pool, so the heat was no big deal.

No matter where we are for someone’s birthday, we still try to do our birthday breakfast in bed tradition, so sometimes when we are at a hotel, breakfast in bed ends up being  O’s on a plate. Nevertheless, the celebrant still feels special as we serenade with a couple renditions of “Happy Birthday.” Brave loves all things detective and is reading through the Nancy Drew series, so her presents had to do with those things. We planned to send her on a detective hunt, so she gave her all things a detective would need to solve a case.

Here’s our Brave all detective-d out; Ben even made her a cool detective badge. The denim dress is from the Gap (similar here), felt hat from Old Navy, bag from Zara (my parents got it for her in the spring time). In her bag, she put all the detective things she got for her birthday … a little flashlight, magnifying glass, binoculars, handcuffs, bobby pins (apparently, detectives must always carry those), field notebook, and pen. With her detective outfit on and armed with her detective kit, we sent her off to solve a case.

True and I set all the clues up and scattered them throughout the hotel. After, we went back to the room and gave Brave the first note. Actually, we nonchalantly dropped an envelope at her feet and said, “Brave what’s that?” And she picked it up and read it, thus started the detective hunt …

The detective hunt was based off of the The Mystery of the Tolling Bell. We took lines from the book, used those as clues, and then at the end, she found the tolling bell hanging from a palm tree. Along with the bell, she found the treasure attached to it. Of course, nearby we had a little birthday set up for her. It was so hot that the icing on the cake started to melt off rather quickly. Nevertheless, based on the smiles on all their faces and how quickly they devoured the cake, that didn’t bother them one bit.

Her last present was a DVD set of the 1930’s Nancy Drew movies, so of course we spent the rest of her birthday watching Nancy unfold more mysteries. I think this celebration was just what our little detective was looking for. She loved solving her first case and is ready to solve many more.

If you want to see the clues we used for the detective hunt, you can download it here. We worked our way from the first clue to the last one which was hidden in the bell. Each clue was a hint to where the next clue was hidden. For example, one mentioned “between rocks,” so the next clue was hidden between rocks. Another was “And she did wear her black hair pulled back, and have a mole on her left cheek.” This was an exact line from the book, and True really has a mole on her left cheek, so we put her hair in a pony tail, thus she was the one who held that next clue. Brave had to really use some of her detective skills to figure out some of the clues.

A couple months ago, I filmed a couple food segments with FM in the AM and wonderful host Susie Meister. They segments are live now, so you can learn how to make paper plate cake plates, or watch me conquer a “DIY with 5 Supplies” challenge and come up with a “Chocolate Fix in 46.”

Boy was I a ball of nerves, but the whole crew made me feel so comfortable. The girls love watching the videos because to them I was on a “Cutthroat Kitchen” type of show since I was given a food challenge. Ben laughs during the “DIY with 5 Supplies” segment because I’m totally not using the knife safely. I was so nervous, and it was a knife I wasn’t used to using that my chopping skills there are terrible, so don’t chop like I do in that video. And as you can see in the photos above, I’m such a shorty that I had to stand on an apple box. Now, I know how Tom Cruise feels like. HA! I hope you enjoy watching the segments (it’s always interesting to hear what a blogger actually sounds like) and I encourage you to try out the recipes and projects … they are really simple and delicious!

Misha Lulu, one of my favorite children designers, has recently released a special costume collaboration with Land of Nod, and I love every single one! With Halloween coming up, these would be absolutely perfect (and of course to use in the dress up box afterwards). Two of my girls are planning to be detectives, and I would love to order that detective costume, but they’ve already picked out what they plan to wear from things in their closet (we will see if I can get one of them to change their mind). The strong man one might be my fave (that tattoo undershirt!), but how cute is that plaid hat with the bandit, and I love the details on the band jacket. Which one is your favorite from the collection?