holiday cards from MINTED

It seems it was fate that minted.com contacted me to do a review of their new holiday cards collection. They must have known that I was thinking about holiday cards... and how I'm a procrastinator and likely wouldn't get them out on time... and how I'm sick of Costco's options.

I remember hearing of Minted somewhere in the blogosphere and once I checked out their website I was happy to find that their selection of cards are fresh and unique and created by independent designers. Minted.com holds design challenges where any designers/illustrators can submit their cards and then the Minted community chooses the best ones. The card selection ranges from their Christmas cards to baby announcements, wedding invitations and more. I even discovered that my sister-in-law's wedding invitations were from Minted and that my other sister-in-law's dream invitations are from Minted! So when you head on over there, check out cards for all of your upcoming occasions. I know I've been checking out the baby announcements.

As for the holiday cards, there are styles for every taste, but here are some of my personal favorites.

That last one just may be my pick for our holiday cards. I love the square photo shape and the design almost reminds me of a polaroid. Gotta get the mister's stamp of approval first though.

Go ahead and check Minted out to find your own holiday cards. To get 15% off your holiday purchase before 11/28/11 use the code READERS18!

a BOY?!

I am coming out of preggo hibernation to say hi and share our baby news. We are having a boy! What?! What do I do with a boy?? I don't have any brothers or close guy cousins so boy things are a foreign concept to my family, but I'm really excited none-the-less. I'm excited to see hubby with a son. He's already the sweetest dad ever with the little gal. I can't even imagine a mini him running around. Craziness. In less than 2 weeks I'll be in my 3rd trimester and that just sounds insane! February is right around the corner! The little man is kicking like a kook right now. I think that's him saying hi to you all.

The little man's first vintage outfit, from his Auntie Brigitte.

Little man clothes! Ah! And yay for 40% off GAP clearance sales!

Things consuming my brain right now are turning the guest room/office into a joint nursery for the kiddos, turning the gal's teeny room into an office/craft room, and Christmas shopping and crafting! Are you feeling the pressure yet? We're almost halfway done with shopping but I decided I'm going to craft a fair amount of presents this year so that's what my December will look like. How is Christmas prep going for you? Any handmade gifts in the works?

Well I just wanted to share our news. I have a few more posts in my brain that will hopefully make it onto the blog, but with this stunted piece of preggo brain, I make no promises. ;)

here we go AGAIN

Well friends, you may be thinking I have been abducted or that I have some bizarre form of amnesia where I forget I have a blog every once and a while. But no- I know my blog life is just sitting here untouched. It's just that.... I am pregnant! Again! I feel like I juuuuust did this. But this time I'm doing it with a crazy 15-month old running around taunting me. Okay- she's not taunting me, but some days she might as well be. So in my blog absence I have been resting, eating, being overly emotional and resting some more.

The lovely and funny Ashley over at The Domestic Wannabe invited me to do a Day In the Life post so if you're curious what a 1st trimester day with a toddler looks like, head on over! And if you're a mama, check out the rest of Ashley's blog too. Her little gal is adorable, her house is fabulous, and there's all sorts of mommy advice to read.

Here's to surviving life until this baby appears in February.... And to getting some pills to correct my blog amnesia! Cheers!

NIFTY THRIFTY: lake county edition

This last weekend our little family headed to Clear Lake with my parents and my sister's family. I will have photos and stories at some point, but for now, I am here to share my Lake County loot. On Saturday the men folk went fishing and us women folk took the opportunity to visit some yard sales. We followed every yard sale sign we could find and ended up at some interesting little sales. The $7 8 Fire King cups and saucers and $1 loaf pan came from the first sale that was the most normal of the bunch. Next we hit up a tiny neighborhood church's rummage sale where I picked up the vintage Pyrex pitcher for 50 cents. Then we followed 6 signs to a little, but very well publicized yard sale where I found the 4 trays for $3. On our way there we found a huge gorgeous, abandoned white hotel smack in the middle of the shady neighborhood. When we got to the sale, my sister asked the hotel's history and we were told it was once a hotel, then a Christian camp, then- said in hushed tones- a whore house where they brought whores in from San Francisco, and now they are fixing it up to be a culinary school. Ha! Quite the history for one beautiful building. The next sale we went to took us to the lower income side of the low income neighborhood we were already shopping in. A quiet older man with long fingernails watched as we picked through his things. It was there that I found the milk glass ash trays/candy bowls and a vintage Fisher Price chime ball, not pictured, for $5. The last sale we hit up appeared to be an eviction sale. Everything was hurriedly being thrown out of the house and the sale was manned by 3 girls under the age of 7 or 8. There were piles of things scattered everywhere and it was not intended to be the least bit organized. Their pit bull visited my mom while she was holding my little babe and it was some time after that that we decided to leave. I left empty-handed. All in all, I was happy with all of my Lake County treasures and very entertained by the whole experience. Lake County, you never disappoint.

NIFTY THRIFTY: money falling from the skies

On Friday the babe and I set out with my 37 weeks pregnant sister-in-law to hit up some thrift stores in her city. Okay, money wasn't really falling from the sky, but remember last week when I talked about my bag of change coming thrifting with me? Well, first I did rely on my bag of change. I bought a tiny oval frame and this milk glass Pyrex veggie dish.

But then I spotted a vintage crib. It was labeled "doll bed", but I thought it looked pretty big for it to have been originally intended for that purpose. Either way, I was cringing because I knew I didn't have money for it. I left the store reminding myself that sometimes I'll find treasures that I simply can't afford at that time. My sister-in-law wanted to go in a consignment shop all of us sisters-in-law consign at to check for some shoes she wanted. I decided to check my balance even though I went in recently and didn't have anything at that time. I was happy to learn that they owed me the small fortune of $26. I collected and we visited a couple more stores before I realized I could now afford the crib! See? Money falling from the skies! Luckily the crib was still there when I got back and I was so happy that I gushed my story to the elderly woman cashiering. So that is the glorious story of last week's thrifting. The babe's nursery is teeny tiny right now so the crib won't fit in there to hold her stuffed animals and such, but when we add a second babe to the mix someday, they will share our bigger now guest room and the crib will fit in there just perfectly. So all that to say- yay!

The other yay moment is that I was telling my sister-in-law about how I was wanting a dress form and she said she would be selling one at her garage sale the next day! She told me all I needed to know about it and later sent me some photos and I bought it from her, fulfilling all my vintage dress form desires. How serendipitous! Hubby is a bit spooked out by a body on a stick, but I promise not to make it jump out at you or hide it in our bed. :)

I forgot to mention this vintage tin recipe box last week. It was with my $4 finds and I love it. I need to start writing my favorite recipes down now that I have a pretty place to put them--- besides the internet.

And I have to show you that I found a perfect place for one of last week's embroidery finds. It was the only completely empty wall in my kitchen and nothing seemed to fit there quite right- until now. I love when things fall into place like that.

I'm linking up to Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday and can't wait to see what the rest of you found!

a SLURPEE-LESS weekend: highs and lows

Our scary shed.

My amazing man made tempura!

Spotted on the way out of the park. Awesome.

A peek at today's activity. She loved it.

I hope you had a wonderful almost summer weekend. Praise the Lord, it was actually sunny. Hubby and I brutally went through all of our shedly possessions and made a mountain of things to sell at a garage sale or give away. It is so freeing to give up things that I "might use some day"--- my excuse for keeping things years beyond I need to. The shed was full of those sorts of things. But now it is organized and almost every box has been gone through and purged. The climax of the shed organizing was finding a rodent nest full of half eaten walnuts. I freaked out and texted hubby. Fast forward 15 minutes later. I went to pull a bag off of a shelf and noticed a huge hairy thing dragging behind it! AH! I danced around a bit, flinging my arms around as I screamed. Ugh. It still gives me the heebie jeebie's to think about it. Hubby eventually came home and cleaned up for me. We decided the deceased animal was a baby possum. Awww, sad. And ICK.

The downside to the weekend besides the dead mega-rodent? Blue Valentine. That movie was super hyped and I knew it was about a breakup but wow. There were not enough happy parts to make up for all the sadness. When it ended hubby and I were down in the dumps. I am not a fan of bummer movies.

The upside to the weekend besides our happy shed was that on Sunday we had our first family outing to the park. The babe loved it. She climbed some play structure steps, slid down the slide with our help, played with bark and said "hi" to dogs. That's pretty much the greatest day ever for an almost 14 month old. And maybe for me too- if you throw in a slurpee- which I didn't get. Next time, hubby. Next time.

So please, tell me, when was the last time you had a slurpee? Because we all the know that's what you are thinking about right now.

a tiny WEEKEND TO DO LIST

My to do list for this weekend is as follows:

1.) Finish cleaning out and organizing the shed!

2.) Convince hubby to prep one of our many pieces of furniture that need to be painted.

...aaaaand that is all. I can think of a million other things I'd like to accomplish, but realistically, I can probably only finish one thing besides keeping the little one happy and occupied.

What are your plans for this weekend?

P.S. I dream of having tiny his and hers sheds like Artemis and Nao. How inspiring.

(Image: junkaholique)

NIFTY THRIFTY: wolfgang wrinkled my blanket edition

While my sister was here a couple weeks ago, we hit up a couple of thrift stores and I came away with all of these treasures. Hubby sarcastically calls them treasures because sometimes they aren't things that he cares for at all, but sometimes they really are treasures to me. :) I was particularly excited about these finds. The orange vintage sheet set, plaid boy overalls, and orange butterfly mug are for my vintage etsy shop that is in the works- I hope to have it up and running next month. Everything else is for my own enjoyment. I scored the 3 vintage stitched pieces of art, the vintage embroidery transfer pattern, the 1974 nautical calendar hanging, the wooden whale pencil holder, and a variety of other things including quite a few wooden toys for $4. Yeah. That was pretty darn exciting. The vintage heels need to be taken to a cobbler--- are they called that anymore? it sounds so "day of yore"--- but I love them. They're leather with wooden heels and I never find fun vintage shoes in my size (9.5 pre-baby... 10 post-baby). I'm trying to spice up my wardrobe by wearing more heels so these are a perfect addition. The blanket is probably my favorite find from the bunch. It's wool and quite huge and I just love the stripes. I'm a sucker for interesting blankets, especially big 'ol warm ones. Don't mind the wrinkles. As the story goes, I had the blanket hanging to dry at my parents' house and my dad got up to get ready for work at 3am and ran into the drying rack and proceeded to knock it over and break it, so my blanket finished drying on the ground. Classic Wolfgang. Oh, that's my dad's name. Awesome, I know.

My sister-in-law and I are going thrifting tomorrow, but I am lacking money right now so hopefully I can find something fun with my bag of change. You think I'm kidding--- I'm not. Luckily thrift shopping is the perfect thing to do with a bag of change.

If you want to check out other bloggers' thrifted treasures, check out Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Mondays and if you have treasures to share, link up on her posts. I love seeing what other people score!

how to make the most HIDEOUS BANANA BITES ever.

1.) Spend all of your free time on Pinterest.

2.) Spy a photo of delectable chocolate covered banana bites. Repin it.

3.) Decide that you don't need to actually go to the tutorial because you've got brains that you think can figure out how to make your own beautiful banana bites.

4.) Take 2 bananas and cut them into 1" slices.

5.) Take your enormous Trader Joe's dark chocolate bar and break it into pieces in a bowl, then microwave until melted.

6.) Try to figure out what the best way to dip bananas into melted chocolate is... spoon? knife? lollipop stick? chopstick? fingers? fork? Fork it is.

7.) Stab a banana slice with the fork and drown it in the melted chocolate until it is completely covered.

8.) Drop the gooey mess onto a cookie sheet or plate lined with parchment paper.

9.) Swirl some chocolate over the fork piercings left in your banana bite.

10.) Repeat steps 4 through 9 until you are out of bananas.

11.) Realize that you have a ton of chocolate left and start carelessly globbing it onto the already chocolate-covered banana bites.

13.) Realize that the bites are as chocolately as possible but you still have a bit of chocolate left and decide you are a confectionary wizard and can surely make a peanut butter cup with no instructions. Proceed to put a glob of chocolate on the parchment paper, slap a spoonful of peanut butter on top of it, and cover it with chocolate. Then notice that the peanut butter is melting and throw more chocolate on until you realize it is hopeless.

14.) Clean the bowl with your finger and lick the remaining chocolate off.

15.) Stick your hideous treats in the freezer until the chocolate is solid and devour them yourself because they are too ugly to share with anyone else.

And that is how I spent my Tuesday night. See what happens when you go to bed early, husband?

hair today, GONE TODAY

Today my hair went from this:



To this:



Ah! Welcome back, pixie. My head is officially ready for summer.

audrey tautou's HAIR

Happy Monday! I hope you had a glorious June weekend. I am excited about this week because I am getting my hair chopped back into a pixie cut tomorrow. (It has grown out past my shoulders and I can't help it, I hate long hair on me!) I've been looking for hair inspiration and think Audrey's hair is low-maintenance perfection. She is just lovely, isn't she?

WEEKEND CRAFTING... or not

scalloped shorts!

lace cut-offs!

It's Friday! What are your plans for this weekend? Some of the kids hubby and I worked with in jr. high graduated from high school this week (ah! we are old!) and are having grad parties this weekend. Then we have a birthday party for my brother-in-law on Sunday. It's one of those weekends that I desperately wanted to be totally free so I could craft and organize, but every free hour filled up in the blink of an eye. I am hoping we can fanangle some time out of one the days to rest a bit. Here are two of the craft projects I was dreaming of accomplishing this weekend. You know, for the nonexistent warm weather.

I hope your weekend is warm and that your hours are free!

MAIL CALL: living in ANTHROPOLOGIE

I am in loooove with Anthropologie's most recent catalogue. The outfits are to die for. These are my three favorites. How amazing is that ombre maxi skirt? And I am tempted to save my pennies to buy the last outfit, but chances are that by the time my pennies are saved, that outfit won't be in style. We'll be wearing silver space suits by then. But if anyone can make silver space suits look hot and chic, Anthropologie can, right?