Our City: The Botanical Gardens

The botanical gardens is one of our favorite places to visit.

The children's garden is amazing!

 

sewn

I finished sewing the handiest little pincushion. The pattern comes from Anna Maria Horner's Seams to Me book. If you decide to tackle this project make sure you read the corrections for the project on her website.  I had to make some adjustments, meaning I had to exercise the math part of my brain (scary) figuring out circumference and I even used Pi. What's really weird is that I enjoyed it, most likely because there were some really cute results at the end of all that math.  

And another project completed. The only math needed for the sewing machine cover was measuring-easier math and more cute results!  This was a Home Ec. class project. There's my handy little pincushion in the background.  Both of these projects were well worth the effort, the process was just as enjoyable as the finished results.  You can sign up for the Sewing class here.  And find Seams to Me here.

A quick note:  I am an Amazon Associate.  The links to books in my posts will take you to Amazon and where you can purchase them. We receive a small percent for each purchase made from my links and that small percent is a huge help to our family while Jeremy is in school! Thanks for your support!

Just last week we were bundled up (well, I was at least) sharing some chips and salsa on the kitchen floor and this week it felt too hot do anything.   Today,  our a.c. is on, the girls have friends over and all of the ceiling the fans are on high-bliss I tell you.  The rest of our day includes a stop by the organic market around the corner to pick up our CSA share, then dinner and dessert at our friends' house with some date night swap planning on the side. I think tomorrow will include some Texmex and more a.c.  How are you beating the heat?

May Day Baskets

For as long as I can remember I've wanted to make May Day baskets, but I never followed through with it.  This year I decided to make it happen by keeping things simple and starting out small.  The May Day basket tradition is to leave baskets of flowers at your neighbors door.  This year I left a basket of flowers at our door, waiting for each of the girls when they got home from school. I think this got the girls excited about the tradition and next year we can all work together to deliver baskets. 

I found the little pots in the dollar spot at Target, 8 for a dollar, they are small and super cute. I only used two of the pots, leaving six for us to give to our neighbors next year (planning ahead!).   

I didn't have any fresh flowers on hand, so I decided to make a flower garland and tie it up to look like a colorful bouquet of flowers.  The garland was so easy to make, tutorial found here.  The yellow yarn came from Anthropologie at Christmas time.

Next year, we may purchase fresh flowers or make our own again...that all depends on the status of our bank account.   Last year, I had high hopes of delivering Christmas cookies to our neighbors but with Jeremy's finals and traveling, it was hard to make it happen and this Christmas will probably be the same.  A May basket might be a nice alternative for our family.  Plus, making our own flowers would allow me to plan ahead and have things ready to go months ahead of time.  Will someone please hold me accountable to this?  

Happy May!

Two Cans or Not Two Cans

I debated posting about my trashcans, is it really worthy of a blog post?  But, this is just the type of thing I would tell a good friend over the phone if we were chatting house updates. 

Trader Joe's bags were working just fine to collect our recycling, but they kind of made our kitchen/ living room area look messy.  Plus, our trashcan made a Chewbacca type growling noise every time it closed so I was on the look out for a replacement.  I found a great deal on two stainless steal trashcans a few weeks ago and decided to reserve my Trader Joe's bags for protecting our table when things get messy.  And now we have a trash can and a recycle can!  

I was afraid it would be confusing at first and planned on making labels for the kids, but they all quickly caught on to which was which and no labels were needed.  All of our small to mid-sized recyclables go in the can, while big boxes are broken down and wait in our hallway to be taken out (or we empty our recycle can into a box and use it for carrying everything out).  

I love sharing ideas for keeping a house functional and tidy, do you have any tips for functionality and tidiness? 

a little bit of our Easter

     

It was a beautiful weekend.

And the rest of the pictures are on my ipod, which is sitting in a bag of rice, hopefully recovering from it's recent plunge into water...oh my.

A Pretty Table Runner

 

 I am a little bit fascinated with table runners, especially the ones made from antique french grain sacks.   Oh my, they are just so beautiful.  As much as I am fascinated by table runners, I don't have a single one to adorn our dining table. I've been waiting for the right fabric to come along.  On my last thrifting trip I found a pretty vintage curtain panel that was perfect for an Easter table runner.  Then, I found the gorgeous green vintage trim and the springy zigzag ribbon at this local fabric store. 

To make the runner from the square curtain panel. I cut the panel in half, sewed the two short ends together. Then, I hemmed the newly created long edge. Lastly, I sewed the two trims onto each end of the runner, folding the ends of the trims over onto the backside of the fabric for a clean finish.

Quick projects can be so satisfying!

Lincoln and the Art Museum

Today I had this charming companion join me for a visit to the art museum. It was our first time to go with out the rest of our gang. Just the two of us and it was so very sweet.  I could have spent hours there, but Lincoln isn't quite ready for hours of wondering through the museum, so we made it a short visit. He did great and we only made the alarm go off once for stepping over the "do not cross" lines on the floor-overall a success for a two and a half year old!  We focused on the Impressionist wing and the Modern Art floor.

Lincoln's favorite memory from our outing-the construction cranes outside the museum-huge!
My favorite memory from our outing-Lincoln posing like the Titan statue in the entry hall of the museum-adorable I tell you!

Friday

It's almost time to flip to April! This morning, as we were walking out the door for school, Emma and Stella were dreaming up some secret April Fools pranks.  I don't know if they will actually follow through with the plans they were making, but it's fun that they are thinking about it.

This weekend I plan to finalize everything for Easter. I found some vintage dresses for the girls at a thrift store, and hope they fit.  Next on the list is finding shoes.  Lincoln will be included in the planning too-I'm just not sure what I want him to wear.  

Jeremy and I also have a date night tonight and it's perfect weather for eating outside. Brisket tacos are what I'm craving!  

Hope you have a lovely weekend!

What I Wore: Pencil Skirt

The last time I posed for a picture of me alone was for my wedding portrait eleven years ago!  I decided to venture into posting some of my favorite outfits with you.  I love reading outfit posts and "what's in my bag" posts just as much as home-tour posts, and I love home tour posts a lot! 

 Jeremy kindly took these pictures for me early on a Sunday morning, out on our roof top.  While we were out there, the kids were inside watching us through the windows waving at us and grinning at us with huge smiles on their little faces.  That was all the encouragement I needed and it made me feel like I should do this more often.

Outfit Details: Top/Target, Skirt/Vintage-Goodwill, Tights/Target, Shoes/Old Navy, Necklace/Goodwill, Bracelet/Booth at Festival of the Nations, Ring/Vintage-Inherited

I found the skirt at the same Goodwill where I found my sofa.  There was no tag sewn inside, so I think it may be homemade. It was in excellent condition and fit me a perfectly-no alterations were needed, making me one happy woman.  

 There's a collection of women I look to for inspiration on what to wear or how to mix and match what is already in my wardrobe.  A few of those gals are personal friends of mine and they have blogs!  

Thrift Finds!

Last Thursday, Jeremy told me I could have the whole day to myself! He watched the kids and I got to run around the city. I stopped at few thrift stores and found some treasures. I always look in the children's book section, I'm pretty picky about what books I bring home and have learned my lesson to make sure there are no missing pages.  I learned that lesson the hard way.  Ahem.

I plan on using the floral curtain for a spring project and that pyrex loaf pan had my dreaming of baking a some of my mom's banana bread.  How have we gone this long without owning a copy of Where the Wild Things Are?  Our family loves the classic Winnie the Pooh stories-so much humor for us old folks to enjoy and Lincoln loves the little size of these books.

Our spring break is over and Jeremy's break is just beginning. We never made it to the botanical gardens, but we did end our week off from school with a picnic at Tower Grove Park, complete with friends, fried chicken and coleslaw. I'm wishing there were leftovers for today!

On the first day of Spring

We welcomed in spring with tulips on the table, a new book from one of our favorite seasonal series and an easy craft.

Have you heard of the Brambly Hedge series? They are some of the cutest little books with sweet stories about a community of mice. The illustrations contain all kinds of dreamy domestic details. I've been collecting the books over the past year and hiding them away from the kids, then surprising the kids with one on the first day of each new season.  Today our kids got the last of the books I had hidden away, Spring and we read it in our pj's after breakfast.

I had planned on taking the kids to the Botanical Gardens, but I was feeling under the weather, so I kept that plan to myself and instead gathered some supplies to make a quick springtime craft.  Hopefully we can go the gardens another day this week!

Emma received a flower press for her birthday last year. All of our pressed flowers and clovers came from some flowers the girls collected and pressed last summer.

We stamped the letters, then glued the flowers onto cardstock and after everything dried we sewed the pieces together on the sewing machine.

The kids are right in the middle of spring break this week, Jeremy's is next week.  It's kind of a bummer they don't line up, but we're trying to make the most of it.

And I just wanted to mention that I am part of the Amazon Affiliate program, if you are interested in purchasing the Brambly Hedge books or the stamps we used to make the banner, click on the links in the post. The links will take you to Amazon and where you can purchase them. We receive a small percent for each purchase made from my links and that small percent is a huge help to our family while Jeremy is in school! Thanks for your support!

Lincoln's Second Birthday

Lincoln turned two...last fall.  We invited some of his favorite friends here in St. Louis to celebrate his birthday.  As is evident from the tree outside his window, even on our city street we get to enjoy the seasons!

The girls made shirts for Lincoln to sleep in. We couldn't find any car shaped stamps so we made some out of sponges from Trader Joe's and we picked up some fabric paint from a craft store.  His sister's loved making these shirts for Lincoln, and he absolutely adores the shirts.

We hung pennant banners made from graph paper.  One of our favorite party decor ideas was dreamed up by Jeremy.  He snapped a photo of one of Lincoln's (and Jeremy's) prized matchbox cars, a 1969 Nissan Skyline GT-R (I had to ask Jeremy what it was). Then took it to Kinko's and had it blown up to this large format (for just $4!). We had two, one for the wall and one for the table. 

Sneakin' some snacks!





The Danny Driver book has great illustrations! I picked it up along with a firetruck book in a similar style at a local antique shop.





We gave the kids matchbox cars for party favors.



The party was last fall and not too long after we had moved in, so we had plenty of cardboard boxes laying around. Jeremy made a race track from a box, covered it with duct tape and the kids raced their matchbox cars on it.



We also printed smaller versions of the posters and used it for a coloring activity. Lincoln was the only little boy at his party, the rest were girls and they all love to play with cars, so everyone enjoyed the party.

It was a joy to celebrate this little guy.  We have about 9 months until he turns three and I think I would like to freeze time for a little while, before I know it he will be in preschool and I'll miss spending my days with him.