I’ve been looking for a pair of vintage bell bottom overalls for awhile now. I was so tempted to get a pair from Madewell when they came out with some (actually, I think I did buy them, but returned them), but I really do have a love for vintage and second hand, so I was holding out for the real deal. This pair that I scooped up at the Golden Years Market from Fairseason is definitely the real deal.
I don’t mind the farmer/kid vibes when wearing overalls. I’m a fan. I still have the pair I wore back in the 90s (see here, I even wore them in one of my senior portraits) and still wear them now. Sometimes, it pays to hold onto things. I’m short, and technically, the wide leg silhouette is something I should stay away from. Frankly though, I don’t care. I don’t pay much attention to those rules. Of course, it’s great to dress for your body type, but I don’t let my short stature stop me. I much prefer wide leg to skinny jeans any way. I gave skinny jeans a shot for about a year or so (see here), but they didn’t feel like me, and so I gave all those away. I’m more a dress than pants girls, so when I wore skinnies, they felt like they were suffocating my legs. No bueno.
Pick up the Feb/March issue of Family Fun Magazine and you can see the wooly pajaki chandelier I created. There also instruction included if you want to make your own! I haven’t updated my portfolio, but you can see some of my other craft stylings here.
I’ve been looking for a good natural deodorant for kids, anyone have any good recommendations?
Slowly, I’ve been transitioning to only using make-up/body products that are natural and paraben-free (and only with ingredients I can pronounce products), so I just ordered this natural blush. I hope this works out!
This week I did okay with my bad habit cutting. The bad habit I wanted to cut out is to not turn to my phone (instagram and email) first thing in the morning and to read my Bible (on my phone) instead. I did well on the the days we didn’t work out, but when we did, not so much. We work out first thing in the morning, and once we’re done, it’s time to go and get the day started with the girls. I didn’t get to read my Bible first thing on those days. I think this means I need to go back to my 5 am wake up time, so I can read before we workout. It’s been so cold and makes it a little difficult to wake up early, but I need to suck it up and get back to it.
Last week, the girls worked hard to double up on school, so that they could take the day off on Valentine’s Day. They didn’t understand why they didn’t get the day off normally because Valentine’s is a holiday (to them). I tried to explain what kind of holiday it actually is, but I don’t think they quite understood. It was a lot of… “But mommy, it’s a holiday! We have to celebrate!”
Our love day morning started with Ben and me giving them the heart surprise balls. They had a blast unraveling it to discover their little treats and trinkets. Their favorite treat was the self-inflatable balloon. It was a lot of fun to watch inflate and we all anxiously waited for the loud “POP!” it would make.
After the girls finished unraveling their balls, Ben had me sit on the bed and handed me this little booklet. It was a quirky story of all the things we do together and then it ended with him giving me these quirky shoes I had been eyeing from Rachel Comey a couple seasons ago. He managed to find them when they went on super sale from Shop Bird.
Ben went off to work and the girls spent all morning working on Valentine presents. I had to limit each person to making only one thing per person, otherwise, they would make 10 things for each person. Handmade gifts can get out of hand pretty quickly with my little ones.
After lunch, the girls and I headed out to Ben’s work to deliver some valentines we made for him. I created these honey bear jar cards for each girl to fill out their name, and we cut out paper hearts and stuck them on a stick so they were kind of like heart balloons on a stick. On each heart, each girl wrote one reason why they love Ben BEARY much. He was definitely surprised by our presence and presents! The girls loved being able to visit him at work.
When Ben came home, we all cuddled together and watched Cutthroat Kitchen with some homemade ice cream. Once the kids went to bed, we parked ourselves on our bedroom floor, with my take away sushi and his bowl of canned beans and rice, and we had ourselves a simple, but romantic evening together while watching 24 Legacy.
While he spoiled me with a creative story and shoes, my gift for him wasn’t quite that fancy. The paper heart balloon I gave him read, “I love you BEARY much because are you irresistibly smooth and XXTRA hot!” Inside the box, there was a package of Lindt chocolates, their motto is that their chocolates are “irresistibly smooth,” and the “XXTRA hot” pointed to his other gift, which was a bag of XXTRA hot Cheetos. Ben is definitely irresistibly smooth and xxtra hot, but most importantly, he leads and teaches me to savor Jesus more. He is my valentine 365 days a year, well, minus a few days here and there where we might be fighting. Once we kiss and make up though, he’s back to being my valentine.
Clearly, we had a very full day of celebrating love for our children and each other. Hope your love day was spent celebrating love with family, friends, or just treating yourself to an extra piece of chocolate (or some shoes)!
This is another dress to jumpsuit outfit (see my denim one here). I thrifted this linen dress and cut up the legs (then sewed them together), added a key hole back opening (so I could get it on and off), and I have myself a simple jumpsuit. The dress had side slits at the bottom, so the jumpsuit shows a little ankle when I walk.
Every time I go the the thrift shop, I always keep an eye out for large oversized linen/denim dresses that I can turn it into a jumpsuit, or use the fabric for the girls. Also, I scored this vintage, cocoon, denim dress (and did a happy dance when I found it), but I wear it here as a light jacket.
on me: jumpsuit, thrifted and altered (vintage here, new there). denim, vintage (vintage here, new there). bologna clogs (I chose a nude top and black base), c/o maguba. crescent basket, vintage from ms. tips (similar here). earrings, vintage (so similar to these ACB ones)
I have a large growing pile of fabric scraps. I refuse to throw them away because I am sure they can be used for something. I have been seeing different types of interesting necklaces made of buttons, beads, and fabric. Then, I figured why not make one out of my scraps...
I think it made my white shirt a little less boring. This was so quick and easy to make.
How to make a recycled scraps necklace (which is very similar to the straps on my braided tablecloth bag):
1. Take your scrap fabric, I cut a .5''-1'' snip and tear the rest of the fabric down for a nice frayed edge. Used 3 different fabrics for each strand.
2. Take 3 of the torn pieces and tie the ends together with a rubber band.
3. Braid the 3 pieces together and tie ends together with rubber band when done.
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 for more strands. Remember you can make the strands any length you want, if run out of fabric, just weave more into the braid.
5. Once all the strands you want are braided, gather one end of each strand together and straight stitch together with sewing machine. Repeat for the other ends of the strands. Snip off any excess.
6. Gather ends of the necklace and sew together (snip excess) or a ribbon can be sewn at the ends to be able to tie the necklace closed, but I just sewed both ends together.
7. Voila! A nice way to make use of all your lovely scraps.
Sorry if the directions get you a little lost, but it really is easy. I promise. Maybe I should put some in the shop. Please share any other good ideas you may have of things that can be made with scraps. I would love to hear (read) them!
I’ve been looking for a pair of vintage bell bottom overalls for awhile now. I was so tempted to get a pair from Madewell when they came out with some (actually, I think I did buy them, but returned them), but I really do have a love for vintage and second hand, so I was holding out for the real deal. This pair that I scooped up at the Golden Years Market from Fairseason is definitely the real deal.
