Joyful January

Happy New Year Friends!  Wow!  I've realized, the holidays are even crazier when your family is larger!  It feels good to be home and relaxing after all the traveling, and gift making.  Have you made any New Years Resolutions this year?  I felt very influenced by an article by Apartment Therapy called 10 Simple Things to Make You Happier at Home when it came to making my "resolutions".  

One thing that stuck out to me, from the list of things, was "Make your bed".  I know that sounds simple, but for me, it's not.  I rarely make my bed, and when I do, it's usually right before I get into it at night.  I love having a neat bedroom, and having my bed made makes my life feel less cluttered and more clean.  When my bed is made, it makes me want to keep the rest of my room clean.  

Not only is my goal to make my bed everyday, but also to get out of my pajamas.  I started to realize that when I wear my PJs all day, I feel less productive, so I become less productive.  Which floods my mind with negative thinking about myself.  It's crazy how something so small, can make such a difference to me!  So far, it has been going very well!  I hope it's something that will become a habit for me.

Cypress in her Birthday Suit, playing on my made bed. :)

This past month has been a month of gift making for myself and my family.  I finally finished a quilt that I started over a.year.ago.  It is made of scarves that I have collected throughout the years.  Most of them were found at thrift stores or antique stores.  The backing is dark green flannel and I sewed vintage buttons between the scarf squares and in the center of them. It feels really good to have it finished and its so nice and cozy!  

Scarf Quilt!

Close up of the quilt and one of the vintage buttons.

In other news, Cypress is growing up.  She eats a lot to say the least.  And for Cypress, with age comes less breast feeding and more playing and eating solid food.  I am really going to miss it when she stops.  Hannah and I are big advocates of the breast.  We love caring for our babies in such a beautiful, nurturing way!  Hannah has been a huge influence in my bravery to nurse in public, and my breast feeding journey in general.  She is such a strong and amazing mother!  I am so thankful for her and her encouragement, especially during these early stages of motherhood.  

My favorite picture of me and Cypress.  She's taking a break from eating to smile for the camera.

Three Years Old

My sons birthday was at the beginning of December. He turned three years old! time has flown and yet it seems like so long ago that I gave birth to him. I've had a blast watching him develop his own personality. Now I finally get why nearly all mothers say their kids are going to do great things. It's totally true in this case though. ;) This kid is going to do some amazing things! 

Here are a few quick facts about my newly three year olds personality.

He is a neat freak when it comes to his hands and face.
He loves all superheros. Iron Man, Capitan America, Batman, and Thor are his favorites.
Oatmeal with maple syrup is his favorite breakfast food.
Every morning he asks to get dressed and loves picking out his shirt.
He loves to wrestle with his dad and brother.
Orange, Pink, and Blue are his favorite colors.
He crawls into bed with us nearly every night at about four in the morning.
He is a realist, but has just begun to play pretend!
He asks to visit his family everyday.
Yo Gabba Gabba is his favorite TV show. He can't get enough of the dancing and singing!
His favorite song of the year was Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO. His current favorite is Ho Hey by the Lumineers.
He is a rockstar at heart and enjoys rocking out on his guitar.
He loves tattoos and people who have them.
He thinks his little brother is the funniest person alive.

We made some ornaments for the birds! Its was his first time giving a gift he made mostly himself. He loved handing out the little bags to his family.

This is my favorite season of the year. I enjoy my time with family and looking out the window and hoping for snow. With all the festivities it's hard to keep on track with blogging. The celebrations are dying back down now and hopefully we will get into a normal routine for postings again! My family will be going to Florida in about three weeks! Be ready for a photo overload when we get back from that trip. Another day I'll have to show you all my new Skabootn's I got for Christmas this year! So exciting! But since I can't wait here is one of them!

Yeah that's a real seahorse.

Be sure to check out our shop on Etsy. We have a bunch of prices marked down to make way for some inventory revamp. 

Happy New Year!

- Hannah

A New Collection? Oh, yes.

Last week, I had a Birthday!  With our family, it has become more like Birthmonth.  We like to drag it on for as on as we can to reap all the benefits that Birthdays have to offer.  :)

Starting in mid October, my husband found this lovely postcard of a darling woman from the 1950's in her sunhat and bathing suit, holding a bouquet of wheat.  He framed it in a vintage frame, found at a thrift store, added a white background, then added photo corners, making it neat and professional.  He couldn't wait till my Birthday to give it to me, so after he finished it, he immediately wanted me to open the gift.  I love it!

I have always liked postcards.  I even enjoy making them myself.  (You can find one of my favorites here).  I already had a dozen or so that we found throughout the house, and Dylan came up with the idea of finding more vintage frames to display 1950's style postcards in.  We want to cover a whole wall with them.  We like the look of old photos that are painted over.    

Here is a stack of frames we found for other postcards.

Postcard we have accumulated throughout the years.  They are mostly of places we have lived, or visited.

Since he only spent a few dollars on the first gift of the framed "Florida Harvest", he wanted to get me another present to open on my actual birthday. 
The following are the other gifts.

I received this Postcard Book to hold other future
postcards that are added to the collection.  

Another Postcard from Dylan for my Bday.  I love this one!

This awesome Art Deco frame is from my in-laws!  I saw it when I was at an antique store with them a couple weekends ago, and was drooling over it.  They ended going back to the same store and getting it for me!  I'm in love with it.  I want to put a black and white photo of Cypress on one side, and maybe one of our family in the other side.

-Rachel

Some New Additions to the Shop!

It's only Monday and so far we have already had a busy week! There is so much thats gonna go on this week and we are getting pumped to send out some Christmas cheer to our customers! We've got some great deals planned from this week to NewYears and some of the exclusive to our Facebook and Blog followers. Here are some newcomers to the shop. So make sure to stop in and get some handmade gifts for your loved ones!

First, there are two lovely fox drawings in colored pencil by Rachel placed in vintage circular frames. The frames have charming hints of metallic gold on them. Second, we have my first snowman paper bead ornament! This was my first attempt and it went great! The beads are made from recycled sheet music and are strung on very vibrant red wire.

I love how most of Rachel's items are in sets. She has a great way with telling a cute little story in her illustrations whether they are goofy or love stories I adore them all. Turtle love is colored pencil in a vintage frame. The bear on a unicycle is ink and watercolor. I love how chubby the bear is and his little hat!

My son got to be a model for five minutes today sporting Rachel's colorful cowl. He loves getting dressed and trying new clothes so this was right up his alley. This cowl is perfect for keeping out the cold for both kids and adults. Rachel is also taking custom orders for cowls in most any color combination requested so be sure to request one on our shop home page if you are interested!
Another adorable fox illustration is up too! The frame was carefully hand painted and shows hints of pink. Perfect for a wedding or anniversary gift!

Lastly, we have a couple sets of crocheted snowflakes. I LOVE SNOWFLAKES! I enjoy making these so much I make them all year round. I have a basic pattern I use as the root for all my patterns but I make them up randomly as I get further along the snowflake to make them all just slightly different from on another. Stiffening them also adds to their little differences too. These sets are just the colors of the threads used. Coming later this week are more of my hand dipped snowflakes. I dip them in bright colored paints for an almost tie-dyed look.

More crochet and paper bead items will be up within the next couple days. I'll also be working on a ton more paper bows for the shop and for our Holiday Bazaar coming up at Wawasee Middle School. Be sure to check in for an exclusive deal for this busy holiday weekend!

- Hannah

A Few Things That Make Me Smile

My son's first self portrait.

Just thought I would share a couple things from this past week. A little parenting, thrifting, and some things that make me smile.

This week has gone by pretty quickly for me. I'm pretty sure I've spent the entire time trying to clean my house. And I mean trying. I still haven't remotely caught up with it. I saw a status this earlier this week on facebook that said "Cleaning your house with a toddler is like brushing you teeth with an Oreo". This is especially true since most of the time my son is trying to help. While I think it's great my son wants to constantly move around and DO something, my house is really paying the price. If it's not him pulling out new activities, it's me getting out projects and not finishing them and then along comes the 10 month old who lets you know just how sloppy you are when you find the most random items hanging from his mouth. 

I really am enjoying this time in my life though. They say these days when you children are young go fast. So I'm soaking it up. I'll take my most of the time semi clean house and enjoy these moments.

I found these three tea cups and saucers at the thrift stores the other day. They say Deruta Italy on the bottoms of them with some other symbols. From what I've researched they are for real, but in the meantime I find them beautiful and will enjoy them no matter where they are from. My husband wants to open up a Etsy account with me to sell some vintage items e've collected. Maybe these will go up on the site when it opens. We came up with a pretty great name that's fun and personal too! That'll be a whole other blog post though. 

I've been in the Christmas spirit these days. Well, I kind of am all the time, but much more so lately while making items for our Mumre shop. I love getting to use these papers while wrapping orders. I mainly use either brown packaging paper or this lovely embossed creme wallpaper. They are so elegant and simple. 

A pointillism snowflake doodle in my sketch book. 

Someone's gotta eat it.

Along with a bunch of other items we have new items in our shop, I listed this particular tree.
These are so fun for me to make and for some reason every time I see this particular one I smile and feel so much joy.
Perhaps it's because it reminds me of a child's drawing of a Christmas tree with all the zigzags, simple shapes and doodle look to the whole thing, but I'll take the joy, soak it up and use it to make more. Gotta spread the good feeling! Take a look on Etsy for this one and more like it.

Keep a look out for our up coming exclusive sales for our blog readers and facebook followers!

- Hannah

Housewarming Wall Warmth

A set of three to liven up a lucky wall.  They can be hung with three in a row, or I like it with the painting of the house above and center with the two foxes beneath, facing each other.  

Watercolor, over pencil drawing, on canvas.

These little creations were a gift for my friend Laura, a lovely bride to be, for her soon to be new home. The canvases are pretty tiny, measuring 3x3 inches. I really enjoy making these little guys. They are so fun and just make me smile. 

 -Rachel

New Skabootn's

Since my last post about Skabootn's my collection has nearly doubled in size! It is almost like I'm on a constant scavenger hunt. Everywhere I go I'm looking around to see how many mini items I can find. My husband and I love to walk around antique stores and the hunt to add onto my collection makes us pause a little more in each booth and we end up noticing so many more unique items on display. This miniature lighter was found by my sister on the way out of the antique shop. We nearly missed it hidden in the corner of a glass display case. I'd never seen a lighter so small I had to make it part of my collection. I love that it's a functional Skabootn's!

A gift from Rachel and Dylan for my birthday. The little details like the net are awesome!

I inherited some vintage dice and Dylan noticed that one is made of bone.  I only noticed the off center dots but knowing it's made of bone makes it so much more interesting.

I have only seen this white dog once before, but I'm not sure what it is from. Monopoly piece maybe? 

The purple dragon was a suprise! I found in sitting in my collection while I was adding new items. I later found out it was from my mother. Purple dragons remind me of stories my husband used to make up while we were dating. He used to always create the most random characters and a lot of times they were colorful dragons. It's goofy and it makes me smile. Thanks Mom!

Mini whistles. I've seen them around, but I'm not sure if they were sold separately or with something originally. Anyone know?

A fun vintage metal pocket game.

My five cent nativity I found at a thrift store. 

This isn't really part of my collection but I wanted to show it off anyway. I've been asking for one for  a while. My husband finally hand picked a cameo for me for my birthday. The color is great. I'll probably interchange it as a necklace and a pin.

My Skabootn' car collection. Once it gets larger I'll probably move it to the small display I painted when I first started this collection.

And of course, the new display. This was my mother's birthday gift to me this year! I've been eyeballing one of these for a long time now. The small compartments are the perfect size for organizing and displaying my collection! I had it up on my wall within five minutes of me receiving it! I'm not positive what this drawer is from, but we are under the impression it's from some sort of print block storage. Wherever it's from I'm glad it has a new life in our home. As I said before, THANKS MOM! Now to fill in those empty spaces.

- Hannah