Happy Birthday, Ruby!

You're the sweetest.
All of our love and so much more!
xoxo,
Mama, Daddy, and Sebastian

We're Having A Pony Party!

When I was thinking about Ruby's birthday party I remembered the toy horse collection I had as a little girl. It's still coming together but I'm really excited about the little details.

I wanted to make Ruby a birthday cake bib to keep her dress slightly less messy when she realizes how good her cake tastes. I made this from a vintage doily that an online friend recently sent. I used a bib on hand for the pattern and cut out two pieces of drop cloth from an old project for the front and back. I stitched the doily on the front piece and then stitched the front and back together. Then I added vintage lace around the top edge and the bottom edge. A black satin bow finished it off.

My parents and grandparents are coming into town today to help celebrate. We're having a small party tomorrow, a day early, and I plan on taking lots of cute photos!

If you haven't checked out my November sponsors you're missing out! I've got lots of new faces and some fabulous regulars for your browsing pleasure this weekend!

xoxo,
Rachel

We Aren't That Spooky

Our Halloween evening was short and sweet with two little ones that were too tired to rock-n-roll all night and a slightly sick mama that was just fine with turning in early. I spent most of the weekend between fevers and headaches and Brett took care of the kids so I could rest. Halloween afternoon rolled around and I was able to finish Ruby's Little Red Riding Hood cape and decided on my own costume as the wolf dressed as granny. That's when things started to get interesting.

Brett pulled me aside and told me he was an hour into his essay revisions for his online class and it was going to take him much longer than he thought to finish. I knew he was hoping I'd be the one to mention he stay home to work while I took the kids out and that we were both disappointed. I pouted a little but then remembered how much time he'd sacrificed all weekend watching the kids so I could rest, the five loads of laundry, the three loads of dishes, the trips to the grocery store, and taking Sebastian to church by himself that morning. He had taken good care of us so I needed to take care of him. Though, I did pout a little bit longer than I should've.

I got Ruby dressed and left her to scoot around her room while I located her brother who suddenly didn't want to dress up AGAIN and go get MORE CANDY. He wanted to look for transformers online! And play transformers with his friend from across the street! And why couldn't he be BUMBLEBEE for Halloween! Because the fever inhibits my ability to make costumes appear out of thin air, son. Obviously.

We had Brett take photos and video of us in the front yard after I changed my costume from granny the wolf to The Woodsman. It was WAY more comfortable anyway, ya'll. We got packed into the car and I downed a small bag of M&M's while I pouted a little longer that I was hauling two small ones out into the night while wearing a moustache and a fever. (Maybe I should've been the H1N1 virus!)

We then drove to McDonald's ya'll, because in all the costume finishing, plan changing, pouty face frenzy, I had forgotten to feed my son. My son who then uncharacteristically threw his Happy Meal toy at my head while I was driving so I could open it for him. I called his toy stupid as I teared up at the state of our evening and soon we were both crying. Did I mention he missed his two hour nap?

We finally made it to the trunk-or-treat to meet up with our friends and hit up a neighborhood with plenty of candy and not too many kids to wait behind at the door. I got to see my friends' son and daughter experience Halloween for the first time (without missing a beat I might add) and enjoyed the comic relief that all of our kids provided as they raced back from each door to show us their buckets.

Spiderman, declared he was worn out before I did so I took that opportunity to head home, count our candy, and tell Brett what he'd missed. Thankfully he was able to see all the photos before we tried uploading them later that night because most of them managed to get deleted en route. Yes, the perfect ending to the evening. My Instax 210 saved the day, though, so Ruby will someday have proof that her first Halloween actually happened.

At the end of the day I got my costume photo, Sebastian got to see his friends, and Brett finished his paper with about 30 minutes to spare. It could've been worse.

I'd love to hear how your Halloween went! Do share...

xoxo,
Rachel

DIY Acorn Garland on A Beautiful Mess

If you haven't already jumped the shark and started pulling out the Christmas decor, head over to A Beautiful Mess and find out how to make your own wood grain acorn garland to see you through the rest of fall.

Disclaimer: Your company may keep you laughing with inappropriate nut jokes.

xoxo,
Rachel

My Kind of Pumpkin

source

Isn't this graphic pumpkin fantastic? I prefer saving our pumpkins for porch decorations past Halloween and through the rest of November so we haven't carved any yet but I'd be happy to let Sebastian go to town with a sharpie on the one he brought home from the pumpkin patch. The kids in his preschool class got a chance to carve pumpkins and pull out their guts earlier this month. I'm pretty sure the kids who used to hate getting anything messy on his hands thoroughly enjoyed it!

How did you decorate your pumpkin(s)?

xoxo,
Rachel

Thursday's Thrifting Therapy

Ruby and I picked Sebastian up from pre-school on Thursday and had a few hours to ourselves with Brett at work so we headed to Urban Flea Market, previously known as Charley's, to see what kind of headboards they had in stock. Both beds at our house are STILL without headboards because I'm picky when it comes to things that enter my house. Anyway, it was more of an excuse to go in and browse than anything and I'm glad we did!

I picked up this metal Tom Thumb childrens' typewriter to bring the typewriter collection to a total of ten. Now I need to update my kids' tetanis shots! I also found this vintage Bob Dylan album and brought it home to surprise Brett. He needed cheering up.

We woke up Thursday morning to find that his Vespa had been stolen. It was surreal. You may or may not have been here when I surprised him with it for his birthday earlier this year and can imagine how much it meant to him after years of dreaming about owning one.

We're meeting with our claims adjuster next week to talk about details and are trying not to get too discouraged about it. We've been keeping an eye on craigslist, shared it with local Vespa dealers, as well as the online Vespa community that Brett keeps up with just in case anyone happens upon it or news of someone looking for a part or something. I'm not getting my hopes up that the police will find it but there's always that chance. It's the only one like it in town and possibly the state as they no longer make this model.

Anyway, we're keeping ourselves distracted with some fall-ish activities this weekend. I am dying to try out this pumpkin-filled cupcake recipe and Brett has promised us a trip to Anton's Coffee in the morning. That list isn't going to last long! What are your weekend plans?

xoxo,
Rachel

For That Age Old Conundrum

I was driving down Glenstone the other day and passed Anton's Coffee, a perfectly charming coffee shop/diner from long ago, and wondered why I'd never aimed our car in their perfectly charming direction. I was thinking this whilst coming back from a trip to FM Store, a surprisingly large interior with bolts upon bolts of upholstery and designer fabric, gorgeous trims, and quilt backing in all kinds of colors. (I didn't even know that you could get quilt backing in pretty colors unless you used a bed sheet!) I had always thought it was one of those stores with stock from the 80's that they'll never get rid of but keep plugging along because it's what they've always done, and thus had never been in there before! Well, they have some perfectly fantastic Amy Butler fabric for about $4/yd and the place was crawling with interior designers and their clients. Shame on me.

Feeling inspired to try a few more new things in this perfectly charming little city, I decided to make a list of some doorways we've never haunted because as soon as anyone asks 'What should we do?' our imaginations shut down and we only remember places we've already been. All of the above places (minus Thai Peppers but it's been about a year) are places we shall try out before the end of the year or as long as we're feeling adventurous. And then we'll brainstorm a few more.

This to-do list is just a piece of smooth, pre-cut lumber from Lowe's that I sanded down and coated with primer and three coats of chalkboard paint. I was planning on anchoring it to the wall in the kids' room but I like it more as a traveling piece. A large tablet. A throwback to caveman days if you will. It's currently propped up in a safe place so it won't land on anyone's head and the list may or may not be transferred to something if we choose to use our 'tablet' for an art project instead. I like making up my own rules.

What are some places you've always wanted to go that you always forget are there?

xoxo,
Rachel

p.s. My old Halloween yarn wreath has finally made it's debut, as well as some white pumpkins and a few wooden acorns from Hobby Lobby. I've added the fawn and birds for a woodsy feel and have some garland ideas that I'll be sharing elsewhere later this month. Have you decorated for Halloween or Autumn in general?

Birthdays Are His New Favorite

Sebastian's fourth birthday party was a great success thanks to everyone who shared it with us through their presence or their gifts and phone calls. It was quite a lot more work to pull it off than I had imagined it would be but all the more rewarding to see how excited he was when he showed up (after spending the previous night with my parents at their hotel) and saw the walkway lined with orange cones, his bedroom full of balloons, and trucks! On the cake! He kept saying, "Come check out this, Mama!"

I was hoping against a character themed party this year so when Sebastian suggested a Mighty Machines party, I headed in the direction of dump trucks in a color palette I could live with. I used a few ideas from this fantastic truck party such as the orange cones, the sand box on the porch, and the marshmallow building activity from this post on OhDeedoh. Some ideas were obvious for a truck themed party such as hard hats (scored at a thrift store!), mud themed desserts, a dirt pile cake, and a dump truck centerpiece to play with later.

We had gluten free cupcakes and healthy snacks to help off set the sugar high from the cake, soda, and mud pies. For those I made chocolate jello, added crumbled No-Pudge brownies, and topped them with gummy worms. Easy and kid friendly.

We can reuse the truck decorations and Sebastian will have fun playing in the storage container turned sand box all summer, or until he's managed to dump all of the sand through the porch rails.

Thanks to the summer toy section in Target, Sebastian's friends got to take home little sand buckets filled with bubbles and tiny markers, as well as a truck set that they played with at the party.

I was originally going to make a 'Happy Birthday, Sebastian' banner from grocery bags and duct tape and hang it over my clipboards but while I was taking my summer inspiration photos down I realized I had one of Sebastian in black and white. I spent the next hour and a half browsing through our Flickr sets and printing off photos of S after editing them to be black and white.

The garlands were easy. I was lying in bed late one night brainstorming about party decorations when I thought of using yellow duct tape I had on hand to make bunting. It felt 'construction-ish' and wasn't going to cost me anything so I made it the next afternoon while the kids napped. Yesterday, I came across Diane's fabulous Fourth of July garland on Apartment Therapy! I'm rarely surprised anymore when I see the same idea posted on another blog around the same time. There's some sort of science to it, I'm sure, and I love Diane's red, white, and blue combo!

The other garland is just tissue paper cut into tall rectangles that I folded over twine. I can't tell you how many times I had to pick the same two or three off the floor and rehang them whenever someone tall walked past one particularly low spot.

Here's a photo of Sebastian's first birthday party that we had at my parent's house. He was a mostly bald little thing just like Ruby is and I was.

And here's a photo that my grandmother took of Sebastian opening his backhoe. He's sitting almost the same way so it's fun to see how much longer those arms and legs are and how different he looks with dark hair. Or any hair! We're off to St. Louis to spend some time at the zoo and Science Center and wherever else our little adventure takes us. Thanks to all my online friends/readers that are representing the East side and sending recommendations for pit stops. I appreciate it!

I hope your Fourth of July celebrations end with your eyebrows intact.
xoxo,
Rachel