a birthday party

HELLO......... Sophie's 6th birthday is coming up and she is really excited! She has been talking about it since her last birthday.  At first she wanted a fishing themed party because she loves it when her daddy takes her fishing. She is obsessed.  Unfortunately, all the fish in our lake died this spring with the late freezes, so there has not been one day of fishing this year.  I think she has forgotten about her fishing party.

Now she wants a Barbie party.  Ugh, how many of those have I given my 3 girls?  Too many to count. In my mind I have the talents of Martha Stewart and I can see exactly how my house will be decorated.  This is how I envision my daughters birthday parties.....

                                                                     image from pinterest


All nice  and cute with a table set up and an array of coordinating goodies, snacks, and décor......

                                                                     image from pinterest


With a cake like this all pink and perfect and yummy and of course I whipped it up fresh............

                                                                  image from pinterest

But in reality, when I plan parties, I surf etsy and I find all kinds of cute paper straws, cupcake holders, banners, napkins, place cards, goodie bags, etc.... and I add it all up and then decide to scrap the whole thing because the décor is costing as much as the gifts I have bought for her......and my party looks a bit like this.

Why is my daughter, who is turning 16,  giving me that look?  She has no party décor.  I rarely even have matching candles.  And there is my typical chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. At least it is from scratch with organic ingredients, right?

Oh sweet Portia, with her 4th birthday cake (she is 11 now), at least I tried with the decorating gel (before our healthy eating) and some pink sprinkles.  I even had a '4' candle.  There was no décor.

This was my best attempt yet.  It's terrible, I know.  But at least it was 2 tier and had ballerina decorations on it with some cupcakes and it was on my vintage cake stand, which I stupidly sold at a vintage sale.... This was for Sophie's 2nd birthday.

So I am really in need of some advice and help and actually any and everything you can tell me about having a cute little girls birthday party, without spending a lot of money.

I am going to attempt to make a scrap fabric garland and I do have some red and white paper straws.  But I don't want to throw the typical commercial Barbie party, HOWEVER, I would consider a VINTAGE Barbie party.  We do love vintage Barbie stuff.

So please, please send your advice, links, etsy shops, pinterest ideas, etc....I'd appreciate it so much and so would Sophie!

Green and Spring, cannot wait

I'm having a bit of a hard time looking out my window at the SNOW mixed with rain and the SNOW storms on the way next week.  This is the part of Minnesota I hate and dread, those are strong words, but I have strong feelings.  I need tropical, I need spring, I need green.

This blog post kinda made my morning :)  I love the greens.  It's inspiring. I love the jade dishes....

 You know what else made me smile?  The styling of the new spring Boden catalog.  It is so retro cute!

Here is one of my new Lollitotes.  It is made from vintage Waverly fabric.  I love how retro it is and the colors are so pretty and springy.

What are you most looking forward to planting this spring?  I still have not figured out when I can start planting here in Minnesota, I usually think I can start way to soon, then we get another freeze.  I'm just hoping my clematis vine comes back and grows big and beautiful!

What are the temps where you are?  Still in the 30's here.

I'm back with new idea's and a sale!

I've missed writing.  I feel a bit out of the loop.  I think December through February are my "hiatus from sewing" months :).  I always need that break to gather my thoughts and come up with new idea's.  We usually go on vacation to see my  husbands family during February anyway. 

We arrived home from vacation on Sunday and it was a brutal slap, this cold weather.  This morning it was -4 as I was driving to coffee with my sister.  I was coming from 81 degrees, tropical loveliness.  Oh well.  I saw the cutest tote while on vacation and it's so simple.  I thought why have I not done that?  I'm going to make a line of Lollitotes at an affordable price.  Who doesn't need affordable???

I noticed when I went grocery shopping on Monday, the food prices have taken a serious hike!  I really cannot believe the price jump.  In light of that I am having a sale at my ETSY SHOP use code SALE35 for 35% off.

On Tuesday I turned 41.  Sophie says to me crying... I don't want you to be 41!!!  Well Sophie, I don't really either but what can you do?  However, I am grateful for another year and for my health and my family and what else is there?  Sophie is scared I am going to turn into a grandma.  I dont' know if she thinks I will automatically age 35 years and get short gray hair and be all wrinkly?  But I am trying to assure her that I am not a grandma yet and don't plan on becoming one anytime soon.

My girls love to bring out their alternate personalities... Lauren's other self is called Juanita and Portia is Juanita 2.  Hmmmm I wonder where they get it from?

Ya, I am going to leave that picture small :)  But I love that I have a ton of goofy pictures with my girls, we have so much fun together!

 

 

Next up is spring!  I'm so excited!!

Facebook

Well I guess blogger is having upload photos issues.  So I cannot  post what I wanted to today.    Can't wait to show you my vintage airline luggage rack and vintage orange chairs I found!

Head over to my facebook page and please like it!  I post special coupon for my etsy shop there!

Have a great day!

Happy New Year!

Another year gone.  There are things to remember, things I'd like to forget, things I am happy I did.  I do not like new years resolutions, but rather,  *decisions*.    In 2013 I've decided to be adventurous.  Being adventurous started for me back in 2006, (or maybe 2002 when we moved to Oregon)......  One day I decided I should take my kids (4 of them at the time) on a road trip.  We lived in Oregon and I wanted to drive to San Fransisco. Just me and the kids.

Hubby didn't like the idea but I was set.  We did.  We just took off one day and drove to California!  The kids were 15, 12, 10 and 4.  We listened to 80's hair bands all the way down.  We stopped at roadside wonders, ice cream shops..... the kids still remember the science museum in San Fran... I didn't have a digital camera back then or I'd show you my pictures.  It was a blast and I was hooked.


When Lauren was 12, her and I took a mom/daughter trip to Idaho. The next summer Lauren and I drove to Idaho again to sell Lollibags at a barn show. We got chocolate shakes at every meal.

This is the morning we left for our first Idaho adventure.

 

I promised Portia we would go on our own adventure this summer as soon as school is out.  I have a state in mind......  I am very excited!  I love adventures, our greatest adventure was moving to Oregon.  It was a blast, something I'll never, ever regret.

 

So here's to the New Year!  2013~The year of Adventure!

 

 

 

Would love some sunshine

In the middle of winter when it is so cold and summer seems so far away, I like to look at my days gone by sunny photo's.

 

 I love the ocean.  I LOVE THE OCEAN.  It is a mysterious thing to me, created by an awesome God!

If I could live by the ocean I would, it is a dream of mine...maybe someday.

 

My little surfer girl hamming it up.  It must be my husbands Hawaiian culture bred into them, they are drawn to the beach and get so dark so  quickly and their hair turns sun bleached blonde.

                                  What do you dream of during the long, cold winter?

Happy New Year!

I love this question.

The first time I heard it was a few years ago.  And for me it always comes back to creating and selling.  Putting myself out there even if nothing comes of it.

I have been pleasantly surprised.  While raging success is not at my doorstep, I know that women like Lollibag's and that feels great!

I don't know how it got to be 2012 but it is.  There are some things I feel I will never accomplish, like loving my husband the way the Bible says to.  As in I Corinthians 13.  But the good news there is, God is quick to forgive me and help me start new every day, even every hour.  Maybe more like every minute.

I want to hear from all of you the answer to that question.  No matter how crazy it sounds...What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?

Home!

I am home and so glad to be.  I feel very blessed that I was able to take this girls trip to Hawaii, but you know how it is, you end up missing the kids.  I'm not sure why that happens, you go about crazy needing a break from them but the minute you get one, you start to miss them so much you want to get back to them, and then the second you get home they start fighting and you then remember why you wanted to leave in the first place!!

It was very cloudy there, but that's ok, we had plenty to do.  I was just thrilled not to have to cook for a week.  The second we stepped off the plane you could smell the flower's and the ocean air.

We went to see my brother-in-law and father-in-law, then stopped at Kailua Beach, hit the store for some water and snacks for the week and hopped in bed at 7:00pm!  Jet lag....

All the stores and shopping centers had their Christmas Decor out.  I kept forgetting it was Christmas down there since the weather was so warm!

Of course my favorite store was Kate Spade.  It was two stories and these lights were over the stairway.  It was beautiful!

Here is the Kate Spade scarf I want.  I took a couple more photo's inside the store and then I got a scolding from an employee.  I'm not sure what the reasoning is for no photo's in the store, but my Kate Spade loyalty waned a bit after that,  I mean you guys know I'm a huge fan and there is not a store by me.  I guess the scolding could have come in a nicer, friendlier way.

I love the PINK Royal Hawaiian Hotel.  We did not stay there but would love to someday.  It is so vintage....



It is so manicured and beautiful!  They had pink Christmas trees up everywhere!  All the staff are in pink uniforms. I adore it!

In this area there were huge lounge sofa's.  This was the view from them.  We sat here for quite a while just looking at that view!  That was my favorite part of the whole trip.  I know it sounds crazy but look at it!  And the weather was perfect, the sound of the ocean, the breeze, the music, it was so relaxing.

Even  the umbrella's were pink and white!!!

This is the lounging sofa.  It was so comfy.

The pink Royal Hawaiian Christmas tree.

We had great food, the Luau salad at Cheesecake Factory is the best.  So is the chocolate cake!

We drove to the North Shore and stopped at Waimea Bay.  The waves were beautiful.  They just finished a surfing contest, we missed it!

December 7th, marked the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.  We were so blessed to see men from the Survivor's of Pearl Harbor Association, at our hotel.  They were in their 90's.  I thanked them for serving our country.  It was amazing to think they lived then and are here now and they survived that terrible event.

                           Here is one of the sweet men we met.... a Pearl Harbor Survivor!

There was also a church service on the beach Sunday morning.  A flag was flying and they sang patriotic songs and Our God is an Awesome God!  I loved it!

Can you see the flag and all the people gathered?

I do not like birds.  Can you tell?  I was dying to get that thing off me, BUT I have a best friend who happens to love birds, wouldn't you know it!

I love, love Shave Ice.  It is so yummy, I always get Pina Colada.

It was such a great time, so relaxing.  I gotta tell you, we did have a few bumps though.  On the flight out of Chicago to Honolulu, we were stuck on the tarmac for 2 hours fixing something, then the 9 hour flight, then the movie sound didn't work, so no movies.

We finally made it but, the next day I had a huge infection on my toes, I knew I should not have gotten that cheap pedicure before we left!!  I had to go to a hotel Dr. (cha~ching, can't wait to see the bill)..... and wait in the waiting room almost an hour with sick people (germs!)  and get antibiotics, strong ones.  The sun wasn't out alot and it did rain a bit everyday, but you know what, we had so much fun and that outweighed everything else.  I'll let you know how much that Dr. bill is when it comes in......

It is good to be home.  I did miss my whiny kids and my sweet husband.  He kept the whole house running.  Thanks sweetie!!

Girls trip

                               What could be better than being at the beach in your flip flops?

It's.... being at the beach with your best friend!!

My best friend and I are turning 40 and we decided to take a week long girls trip.  I'm so excited!

Will post some pic's when I return.

Aloha!

Remembering

Today is such a sad day.  I did not lose a loved one in the 9-11 terrorist attacks, but still my heart aches for everyone lost.  I remember the day exactly.  I was 6 months pregnant with Portia, my 4th child.  I had gotten my older children off to school and was sitting on my bed, I turned on the Today show to see the Twin Towers, one with smoke billowing out of it and the other a plane just flying into it.  I was so shocked.  I wondered if I should really be bringing a child into this evil world.  It was surreal.

I still think of it and think, did that really happen?  Do you think like that?  Do you ever have a moment where you look at what your doing and think, wow how did I arrive at this place in life?  What moments brought me here?

Do you remember what you were doing when you heard about the attacks?

Praying for the families who lost loved ones.

DIY...am I getting crafty??

I suppose I am a bit crafty, but not like your average crafty blogger.  I have always wanted shopping bags for when I sell Lollibag's at shows.  But I've checked online and they are expensive and you end up ordering thousands if you want to get the best price.

I have a thing for paper shopping bags.  As a matter of fact I save all shopping bags and collect vintage paper products.  I used to have a huge stack of shopping bags, but sometimes I look at the pile and think....Prudy! What ARE you doing?  So currently I only have a few shopping bags, but don't worry, I plan on shopping in the near future.

Back to the subject at hand.  I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars for shopping bag's for show's....  So I decided to take my shopping bags.................

And my vintage newspapers, a glue stick and a marker, and make new label's for my old bags.

It was actually fun.  I didn't like cutting up the vintage newspaper, but I figured it was just sitting in a bin in my closet, so I might as well use it!

I can tell you exactly what I bought that was in these bags.  Is that bad?  This is the most darling bag from a store in Hawaii called Cinnamon Girl.  Summer shirt.

This bag was from Janie and Jack.  When I was pregnant with Sophie I bought her a really yummy pink knit sweater.  On the clearance rack of course.



Guess where that bag is from......

That was my retail therapy from Bare Escentuals.  Blush and eye shadow.

White House Black Market.  Really cute sandals with a bow across the front and wedge heels.

Nordstrom's.  After going to IKEA with my sister we stopped to look at Clinique stuff and I walked out with this bag.


So you may not need shopping bags for customers, but  you could do this for birthday's or Christmas too!  Write whatever you like on the new label.

Come back and tell me what you make!