I love this dress. It’s a vintage Guatamelan dress from Erin’s instagram shop (she’s always stocking it with pretty things), and it’s an outfit I just want to wear it everyday. I think all the pieces you have should be things you want to wear everyday because otherwise, it probably is a waste of money. It’s interesting to see how everyone’s style evolves; I think the silhouette I wear has changed a lot. I used to really like the ‘50s cut, but I think my body changed after having Glow, that I prefer shift and looser styles.

One thing that has remained the same is that I much prefer to purchase vintage or thrift my clothes. I definitely do love stores like Anthropologie, Everlane, Madewell, Zara, and Gap (Ben and I met there so it’s kind of a special place to us). I just don’t like that a lot of clothes are all polyestery, and kind of pricey for what it is. I have a hard time paying $80 for a polyester dress or top. That’s just me though. I did recently get a cotton shirt from the Gap and some pants from Zara (when it finally went on sale); pants and t-shirts are things I don’t sew, so I will purchase them.

There are also plenty of indie designers I will occasionally splurge on, like Rachel Comey (she’s my ultimate fave!), or cool shops like Need Supply and Frances May. I love internet window shopping at all those places, but I make a mental note of things I like from them, then try to find it at the thrift store or from vintage sellers. I’ll also stalk things I like at regular price, and patiently wait for them to go on sale. With that method, sometimes I end up not wanting them anymore when they do go on sale, but there is one dress from Zara that I really wish I did scoop up when it went on sale. Oh well. To prevent an unnecessary amount of things in my closet, when I bring something in, I move something out.

on me: dress, shop calivintage (vintage here, new there). shoes, vintage way long ago (vintage here, new there). bag, a market in singapore.

We came into a dilemma over the weekend, we wanted to see if we could move the piano into a new area, so that we could get an 8 foot long dining table. We are always having friends over for meals, and the kids sit at one table, the adults at another, so it would be great if we could all sit together. Plus, we’ve been keeping our eye out for a really long farm table for awhile now, and those are hard to come by, but I think we have found one that might work.

For larger dinners, we usually bring the breakfast table over into the dining room to create a really long table, but then when people are passing by between the table and the piano, their booty ends up making music. There just isn’t space when people are sitting down, so we knew the piano would need to moved to make it a more comfortable dining area. We tried the piano in the hammock room, and the calming vibe of the hammock was clashing with the piano, so then we moved it to the back wall of the dining room. It looks okay, but the chandelier is not centered over the table anymore. I received a lot of good suggestions on Instagram the other day, so we do have a couple solutions now. The light is centered on our ceiling to floor windows, and I don’t really want to move it to be over the center, so one option is to look for another vintage chandelier to match to balance it out.

I started looking at my Pinterest “decorate” board for ideas (of course!) and saw many off-centered chandeliers, so maybe off-centered will work with our space. Then, I saw this BluDot image and now we’re thinking if we put a really large piece of art on the right side of the wall, that might provide the balance we need for the chandelier. So now, I’m kind of liking the off-centered look of it all. Plus, I used to always want to put some tall branches in a vase centered on our dining table, but the branches would hit the light. With this new set up, I can put some taller arrangements on the table and it will fit perfectly. All of the above images also reinforces that lights don’t always need to be centered over the dining table, so we will see if we can pull this off.

Would you do an off-centered chandelier or would that drive you nuts?

image 1 by las cositas de beach & eau (not sure if this is the right source, but if anyone knows the original, do share). image 2 by bludot catalog, image 3 from better homes & gardens, image 4 by brittany ambridge for domino.

Pipe Cleaner Pumpkins

Supplies:
Chenille pipe cleaners, various colors (we made our pumpkins in pink, yellow, and orange!)
Scissors
Pencil
String, optional

Directions:
Use about 6 pipe cleaners (or as many pipe cleaners as you’d like!) for the pumpkin body, twist the ends together to form a circle. Cut a green pipe cleaner in half, gather the orange circles together, and attach together with the green piper cleaner (the leaves) and twist the green stem in place. Use a pencil to make the pumpkin curls with the green pipe cleaners. Cut out a 5″ brown piece for the stem of the pumpkin, twist that onto the top, and curve the top of the stem like a hook. We made it like a hook so we could hang all our pumpkins on string to make a garland. Lastly, bring some of the circles through the other hoops, and spread them out to create the shape of a pumpkin. Once you have the circles spread out just the way you like, flatten it a bit to give it that squatty pumpkin look.

It’s the first of September and we are ready to bring in some fall vibes, even though it’s scorching hot outside. Thus, these colorful pumpkins were just the thing to kick off the autumn projects. I taught True how to make one pumpkin, and she took off from there, then she taught the rest of her sisters. After they made all the pumpkins, they continued making flowers and fruits with the pipe cleaners. I was pretty amazed at all the things they were making! They should probably do their own tutorial for the piper cleaner flowers and fruit!

If you have some chenille stems lying around, this project is perfect to do with the kids. They will have fun celebrating the coming season with this simple project!

Supplies for this project were provided as part Michaels Makers Series. Make your own type of craft pumpkin with Michaels and let your imagination run wild with all the different types of ways to make a pumpkin and celebrate fall!

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Here’s my entire classroom of kids for the year. Our school is pretty blessed to have small class sizes; it’s a 1 to 4 ratio. Not bad, right?! Of course, it is also a combo class. There is a preschooler, kindergartener, and my third and fourth graders, so I do have my work cut out for me.

Last week, we eased back into homeschooling and it went splendidly (so far). We covered most of the subjects, but this week, all the extra curricular activities start back up, along with a full day at the learning center for the older 3. On those days, it will just be Glow and me at home; that one to one ratio will definitely be strange. There’s lots of excitement about the new year, and we picked up an art easel on Friday, so they are excited to use that for projects. Actually though, True and Brave love it too and they spent all day Saturday playing “homeschooling” as they taught Soul and Glow.

I’m thankful for this season of life and that I am able to teach my children at home. There are no doubt (many) hard days, but there is so much grace that comes out of it. Besides all the head learning that goes on in our classroom, there’s lots of life lessons learned too, for kids and mom.

At this stage, my fourth grader wants to be an artist when she grows up. Brave, my third grader, wants to be a dancer. Soul, the kinder kid, is determined to be a singer (she belts it out in the car). The baby, my preschooler, says she wants to be a zookeeper. My job (and desire) is to adequately prepare them with the necessary skills, so that they will be well equipped to pursue whatever their dreams may be later.

on true: top and skirt, c/o schoola. shoes, c/o livie and luca. on brave: top, vintage. pants, c/o schoola. shoes, zara. on soul: skirt and shirt, c/o schoola. shoes, c/o livie and luca. on glow: top, misha lulu. overalls, vintage. shoes, c/o livie and luca.

Schoola sells second-hand children and women clothing and fundraises for schools. Forty percent of each purchase goes towards helping out a school. Sign up here and get $15 off your first order. You can also request your own bag to send some of your clothes in. It’s a really simple process… fill the bag, write the name of your school, and ship it off (it’s already paid for). Once the items you have donated sells, 40% of the proceeds goes towards the school of your choice. My kids are homeschooled, but the learning center they attend is part of the charter school system, so I put that school down and some of the proceeds from the items we donated goes towards there. It’s great because I love purging and I get to help my community!

This post is sponsored by Schoola.  Thank you for how you support this space and the brands I partner with!

Spaghetti and Herb Stuffed Meatballs. You can’t go wrong with this meal! Here’s the recipe for the meatballs.

Week of 8/31 – 9/4
Monday: Homemade pizza
Tuesday: Leftovers
Wednesday: Bean Soup
Thursday: Turkey Tacos
Friday: Tilapia Ceviche

This week I tried out a new pizza inspired by the one I tried in Phoenix. It was a rosemary, red onion, and pistachio pizza; I thought it came out delicious and this will be added to my go-to pizza recipes!

This week’s learned, links, and thankfulness…

I’m thankful for conquering some new challenges!

I’ve got a preschooler, kindergartner, third and fourth grader now. We all survived the first week of school… whew!

I recently got this shirt from the Gap and I’ve worn it about 3 times this week. It’s a comfy tee!

We thought we almost settled on a bed frame, but we didn’t like it from person (it was from Restoration Hardware), and we aren’t wild about the West Elm ones anymore (afraid it’ll look too bulky in a king), so we are stuck and the search continues. We love this one, but not sure if that’s where we want to put all our pennies. I think this one will do, but Ben doesn’t like the legs. If anyone has any suggestions of where to find a simple modern bed frame, please do share.

These size 7 vintage sandals from Ms. Tips are so cute!

All the kids extra curricular activities start this week, so things are going to get extra busy around here.

This past month, I’ve watched Storm Surfers, DamNation, Tracks, and Antartica: A Year on Ice on Netflix and they were all so fascinating. It just pointed me back to the glorious God who created all of these things for our enjoyment. The earth is such a beautiful place!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend friends!