chikaustin -

"Hope is the thing with feathers. That perches in the soul, And sings the tune--without the words, And never stops at all."

- Emily Dickinson

Recent Posts

May28th

5 Comments

an oasis in the hill country

Posted in: out and about

Happy Friday friends! Memorial Day weekend is just hours away which for us means a weekend spent at home. Hours logged with a cold beverage or two on the back deck. And spending afternoons floating in the lake. I hope you are able to find your happy place this weekend. Spend time doing what matters to you most.

A couple weeks back Makena and I went to Krause Springs, in the heart of Spicewood, Texas. An oasis in the Hill Country. We played in the flower garden chasing butterflies, explored the pools of water, and were able to just be.

Have a beautiful weekend friends! As Ferris Bueller put it best “Life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it. “
May26th

11 Comments

love

Posted in: babes in toyland

These days there are very few things that I enjoy watching more than the relationship forming between my two girls. It is that look in Chloe’s eyes when she sees Makena fluttering through the room. The love that comes so strongly from Makena “I wanna hold her mama. Can I carry her mama? Can she come play in my room with me mama? Mama she crawled! Mama she pulled herself up!” These are the sounds that resound through the house from a big sister that is oh so proud.

My girls share a bedroom now and watching their relationship grow is one of the best gifts I’ve been given. Chloe laying in her crib at night, watching Makena read books by her night light. Not once making a peep, just watching. During the day, listening to their chatter and thinking about how it will change as they grow.

Yet holding on to these moments for today and hoping to never forget them.
May17th

12 Comments

renegade craft fair :: austin

Posted in: out and about

Happy Monday friends! Today I’m finding myself stuck on the computer while piles of dirty laundry are beginning to overtake my house. Chloe is a rock star napper these days, as long as she doesn’t get her chubby thighs stuck between the crib slats while rolling around putting herself to sleep. The kids have been have putting together mini fabric buntings Etsy handed out at the Renegade Craft Fair this past weekend. And I’m here trying to get everything organized in my head of what all I need to do today. Might as well blog while I’m stalling.

We had a blast at Renegade on Saturday. Can’t you tell Chloe is excited? So equipped with my Hotslings, that my good friend Kristen de Rocha created, we were ladies about town. I called up my sisters to see if they wanted to join us, knowing they are two girls who certainly know how to have a good time and make me laugh. We cruised the aisles, overwhelmed with all of the beautiful handmade goodness.

These beautiful dresses are made by Debra. You can find her here!

Squirrel!

So many beautifully handmade items. It really was overwhelming. I took home this poster in yellow, couldn’t resist.

Of course there was live music, this is Austin.

We were casually, trying to look super cool because everyone at Renegade looks super cool, browsing the booths when our eyes landed upon the photo booth. We all looked at one another and skedaddled into the line. A photo booth with mustache props is exactly what we love! Genius Renegade, great idea.

Ah Renegade Craft Fair, thank you for visiting our city we hope you return!
May14th

6 Comments

the little garden that could

Posted in: out back

For the first time in my life I started a little garden. It’s a tiny garden that is loved by little hands. And sung to by little voices at night under the stars. The kids helped to pick out all of the plants… tomatoes, jalapenos, mint, eggplant, and basil. All things we use around here on a regular basis and can survive this Texas sunshine and heat in the summertime. We want to do a big garden with a fence to keep the deer out and raised beds but decided to see if we could make this work first.

And what do my kids learn by helping with the garden? That if you love something and take care of it, it will grow into something beautiful. Even if your hands get messy in the process.

This weekend is the Renegade Craft Fair in Austin and I cannot wait. Any of my Austin crafty peeps going to be there???
May11th

5 Comments

like i need another globe

Posted in: thrift and vintage

I need another vintage globe like I need a hole in my head, but when it’s sitting on the shelf for $5 I just can’t pass it up. Today was a very good day for thrifting. The bebe and I headed into town after dropping the kids off at preschool to hit up my favorite thrift store in South Austin. I was forfeiting a very good morning nap for Chloe in order to head into town and hoped it’d be worth our while. You just never know. Here is our loot that we scored for incredibly low prices. Definitely worth the drive into town. I’d been looking for these vintage linens for quite some time and came home with four pillowcases. I also scored eight doilies, the globe, milk glass vases, and a Pyrex mixing bowl set. I even found a brand new pair of Keds for little Miss Chloe when she starts walking.

A huge welcome to all of you who have arrived here from Ohdeedoh. I’m so flattered that they featured me in their Big Blog Family Series. I love their site so much and am completely honored to be included once again. They have previously profiled Makena’s room and Chloe’s nursery, which is such a compliment. Thank you Ohdeedoh!!
May10th

4 Comments

this is what i do

Posted in: babes in toyland, celebrations

This Mother’s Day I had three times the love. Three times the hugs. Three times the smothering. We got up early to go watch Makena sing in the church choir program. We’d been down this road one time before last fall. There was a Christmas program and Makena was front and center of about twenty kids. You never know what you are going to get when you put your child up in front of an audience. You send them along and hope for the best. Hoping that your kid is not THAT kid.

So right before Christmas was the Christmas program. The music started. All of the kids started singing, except for Makena. Oh no, was the first thought that went through my head. She had been given a charm bracelet and necklace for her birthday and she began play with the charm on her bracelet. For about five songs. Then the girl next to her is wearing Christmas light earrings that dangled just enough to get Makena’s attention. Mind you, she’s on the front row singing in front of the entire church congregation. Makena turns to the girl next to her and spends the next three songs swatting at the girls earrings. At this point, I just closed my eyes and put my head down. I could hear my mother-in-law to my left. “Jade… go get her. Jade… go get her.” I just closed my eyes, sat there and giggled.

Then on the final song, Makena turns to the girl with the earrings, lifts up her shirt and pokes her in the belly in front of God and everyone. I just sat there and smiled. That’s MY girl and I love her. She makes me laugh, she wants to entertain, she’s full of life and loves so hard.

This Mother’s Day, five months later, she stood up in front of the church. Sang her songs without batting an eye. Finally spotted me in the crowd about three songs in, raised her hands high in the sky and waved to me. That’s MY girl.

I love watching them grow up. I never want to miss a minute. I treasure those moments and will carry them with me forever in my heart. And promise to retell these stories when she’s grown and needs a bit of humbling and payback. It’s my job, it’s what I do.
May7th

8 Comments

it’s practical. really it is.

Posted in: crafting, home sweet home

I still make things from time to time. Really I do. I still pick up beautiful vintage fabric if it spots my eye when I’m thrifting. Bring it home, set it someplace I hope to not forget it, and wait for inspiration to appear.

A couple of weeks ago inspiration appeared right on my screen on Candace’s blog in the form of a sewing machine cover. A practical, looks easy enough project is exactly what I had in mind. My sewing machine is pretty dusty these days. She certainly doesn’t get the attention she deserves or that I told her she’d get when I justified the purchase back last summer. I don’t have a fancy machine, I wouldn’t know how to figure out how to use a fancy machine. This is the one I have and it does everything a mama like me needs it to do. Basically sew in a straight line and not jam at every opportunity. I really don’t ask for much. I’m still working on the straight line part.

Candace has a great tutorial for making this nifty cover. I had a nap time to make it in so as soon as I laid Chloe down I went to work cutting and measuring. I used all vintage sheets to make the cover and had it done in about an hour. Well two if you count a three year old and five year olds distractions along the way. No wonder I can’t sew in a straight line. I guess I could stay up late to work on these things, but late night is when I work on Craft Hope. There really aren’t enough hours in the day.

Here’s a new shot of the Craft Hope World Headquarters, tucked nicely into the corner of my living room so I can oversee operations of all of the tiny people in my house.

I hope you all have a beautiful Mother’s Day. If I haven’t told you lately, you all inspire me daily.
April22nd

10 Comments

i’ve got the whole world

Posted in: home sweet home, in my kitchen, thrift and vintage

I can tell you that we don’t take holidays lightly around here. Earth Day is no exception. So here I am, going about the normal morning time routine. Wake up, sometimes shower, smile at the baby, get the kids up, breakfast, make lunches, shuffle the baby, get the kids dressed, feed the baby, coo at the baby, grab our backpacks and out the door. It’s a hurry, we’re balancing precariously on the line of being late type of morning. Preschool is three minutes away, it’s 8:57 am. Go!

Put the baby in the car, open the hatchback on the car so Makena can climb in only to be greeted by a huge TARANTULA. I kid you not. Sitting on Chloe’s shopping cart cover thingy. I believe he had the same ‘oh my God’ expression and scream but we just couldn’t hear it. So this is what goes down when there is a TARANTULA in your car. Lots of screaming, running in circles, ‘get something, no not that, grab a stick, something bigger, will it bite me, I don’t know, don’t touch it, no Keegan a baseball glove will not work, more screaming, get a picture, quick, more screaming. Escort the tarantula across the street, pray he won’t return and didn’t bring any buddies to the Earth Day celebration in the swagger wagon.

Happy Earth Day, yeah right! I did my part by not killing him. How do you kill a tarantula anyway? I’m not stepping on it, he’d probably bite me. Run him over with your car? I always see them walking across the street when I’m driving, maybe that will work. Who knows. And yes, I am still freaked out.

Scorpions, tarantulas, and cougars oh my!

Seeing as it is Earth Day I thought you might like to see where the globes I bought in Round Top ended up. This is not my idea, I’d seen it on this blog (I think, can anyone tell me for sure?). I love globes, as you can tell and the entire time I was snatching them up I was singing ‘I’ve got the whole world in my hands.’ Yes, I know those are not the right lyrics but they made me laugh. And you have to laugh at yourself when you and your friends are walking around Round Top carrying seven globes. I ended up getting each globe for about $10 each. Not bad, not bad at all. I love me some Round Top.

And here is another shot for you. I also scored the huge number 5 at Round Top, since our family is now a party of five. I’m working on filling up the entire garage door with the kids art. I thought about turning it into a chalkboard, but don’t really want chalk all over the house. And I figure, they are only little for such a short time. Before I know it there won’t be kids art hanging, but schedules for events to shuffle them to.

Happy Earth Day y’all! I hope the earth minds its own business today and doesn’t greet you with a big hairy spider.
April17th

6 Comments

mad hatters

Posted in: out and about

As a family we really look forward to our Saturdays. They either consist of a very planned out day or nothing at all. We either go 100 mph or we sit on the porch. We had heard that the Luckenbach Hat Festival was coming up and knew this Saturday was going to be one of those days. Wake up early, eat breakfast out, and play turn up the radio really loud to drown out Makena’s incessant talking all the way to Luckenbach. I’m only half-kidding.

This is a very picture heavy post. I don’t think my words can do Luckenbach, Texas justice. Especially when there is live music, motorcycles, and old timers involved. The forecast was for rain, but that made the thoughts of dancing in the rain even more appealing.

Breakfast. Check. Hats. Check.

Happy baby. Check. So we hit the road.

First stop in Luckenbach, gratuitous longhorn photo. Because we are all cowboys in Texas.

Pretty soon after we got there we found a place in the honky tonk to sit and watch the music. The music started, the rain began to pour, and the dancing started. Makena even got in on the action by twirling around. We spent the day wandering around, looking at all of the characters, and watching the kids play games. There were maybe three other families who had kids, so we had the clown and her cowboy partner to ourselves pretty much. There were coloring contests, hat contests, hat toss, pin the feather on the cowboy hat, balloon animals, magic shows, and more.

We walked around and looked at the variety of cowboy hats available. Each one of us window shopping for the perfect cowboy hat, since we are working cowboys and need such a hat. None of us came home with a new hat needless to say. We like our simple, broken down hats very much.

At the end of the day I was smothered in baby kisses. Wet, sloppy, drool filled (oh did I tell you she got a toof) baby kisses. The kind only a mama can love.

Luckenbach, Texas… I love you.
April16th

14 Comments

round top, texas

Posted in: out and about, thrift and vintage

It’s really that time of year where not much is getting made around the house. Just a whole lotta livin’. Springtime in Texas is my absolute favorite time to hit the road and explore the hill country. There are so many places to go and the weather is just perfect. Plus, just like the rest of the country, the landscape is covered with wildflowers.

A couple of weeks ago my girlfriends and I descended upon Round Top for a two day adventure. Twice a year Round Top plays host to one of the largest antique fairs in the nation. And since it’s only a little over an hour from Austin, we hit the road. We did learn a lesson last time and rented a house so we could spread it out a little bit. So with the wind at our back, Robert Earl Keen on the radio, and our eyes set on the prize we took off.

You really never know what you are going to find in Round Top. You can go with the most well thought out planned list and come home with not a thing that was on it. You never know what the dealers will have, or what might catch your eye.

Some shots of Round Top…

And this is what my car looked like when we left. Yes the globes are mine and not a one of them was on my list. I came home with SEVEN. I also came home with a huge number 5 from the side of a building. A peace sign made out of an old ceiling tile. An old wooden door certainly covered with lead paint. A ‘porch party here’ sign. And a few other odds and ends. And yes, my girls helped me carry all of the globes around Round Top. We do know how to have a good time.

Until next year!