“Who are the people in your neighborhood. In your neighborhood. In your neighborhood. Who are the people in your neighborhood. It’s the people that you meet, when you’re walking down the street. It’s the people that you meet each day.” For some reason, when I play, yes I play, with Little People I sing this song in my head. Maybe it’s because when I was little and had these very same people, Sesame Street was always on.

Speaking of the street, has anyone noticed PBS’ new programming line-up? Where did Sesame Street go in the morning? It was a staple around here. Now I just have to record it and play it during breakfast. You can’t have cheerios without Sesame Street.

We have quite a few people in our neighborhood as you can see in the basket. All the usual suspects are there. The swing, the mommy, the baby, the highchair, the trike. The firetruck. The race car driver.

I began a process about a year ago of weeding out the new Little People that had made their way into the house. Out with the new, in with the old. Seems to be a theme around here.

I have scoured yard sales, thrift stores and estate sales for the past year. I was able to find an assortment of people and animals, the house, barn and school house (complete with all magnetic letters). All of the pieces that I had as a child but that have disappeared over the years. Every time I find another little bag of people my heart skips a beat. I do a little dance on the inside. Quickly scoop up my find and hold onto it as tightly as I can.

Fortunately, my kiddos treasure these Little People just as much as I do. They are kept in the living room, not stashed in the closet, and played with all of the time. We set up the house. Rearrange the living spaces. Get the kids into the school. Load up the camp van with unlikely suspects and play all day long. Sometimes even, Makena brings her princesses in for a visit and Keegan brings his Star Wars characters. And I… well I just like to decorate the spaces.

It’s a family affair.

My camera has been returned. I am feeling refreshed. And will be leaving to pick up my babes in a few minutes. All of my ‘plans’ went out the window this weekend as we just took time to be. Slowing down, no plans, no expectations. We went as the wind blew us. Something you certainly can’t do with kids.

A highlight of the weekend was spending it with family at my sister’s baby shower. She’s due in September and we can’t wait to welcome the newest baby girl to our family. My sister is not a pink girl, either am I, so I was able to work with blues, greens, reds and yellows putting together gifts for her little bundle of love.

A baby blanket made out of vintage fabric.

My sweetie nephew Phoenix admiring my work. Look at those tats! He’s a rockstar himself!

Everyone on the planet seems to be making these freezer paper stenciled onesies. I’m a little late to the game but here is my interpretation of my sister in a onesie. I vividly recall Miles breaking her heart when she was a little girl telling her that unicorns are not real.

And I also made some burp cloths but the Texas sunlight killed my picture. I do apologize.

I’ve still got to get some things done around here before I head out to pick up my little monkeys. No time for blog reading. Sigh. Email replies. Sigh. I’ll catch up with everyone as soon as I can.

We just got back from a wonderful long weekend in San Antonio and I couldn’t wait to share a little piece of the past with you. As I dug through piles and piles of vintage toys, fabric, and you name it at an estate sale, I felt like I was unearthing the past. Having a nice conversation with Peggy. Learning about who she was. Listening to her stories.

I picked up a box of vintage stationary that I found in one of the piles. When I brought it home and was sorting through her treasures I found love letters from Peggy to her dear Roland. She touched my heart. I have to share an excerpt from her letter to Roland who was away working.

Dearest husband - I need you very much. I just wanted you to know your strength is with us even when you are away - and Carolyn, too, misses you very much. She was crying almost hysterically after her last bath and pleading “Daddy! Daddy!” the entire time. This is the first time she has been sick that she needed someone besides me - so it’s not only mommy but also baby that needs you so very much. So take care of yourself and come home safe to us. We love you!!!

Time goes by so quickly in some ways - it seems only yesterday that we were married - and we’re still the happiest couple in the world, aren’t we? Did you know that after 6 years - I still can hardly believe that you wanted me enough to marry me! I still live in a dream world - because you are so wonderful and smart and happy, I can hardly believe you’d want to marry me. But I’m surely glad that you did!!

A moment in time. Captured in ink. Saved in a little box. Found. Treasured.

I literally hauled out several bags. As much as could fit in my car. Her entire life. At a tag sale. I am honored to be able share Peggy’s life with you. Some of these items might end up in my shop but let me cherish them for a few days first. With my Exposing Myself series I’m not sure what I’ll be able to fit in the house. I will be honest though and tell you that since finding the love letters I might not be able to let things go as easily.

Father’s day didn’t go exactly as planned. It was 100 degrees in the Texas Hill Country so we all decided that it wasn’t ideal to go sit in a lavender field and have a picnic. Texas. It’s hot.

The deer around the lake keep us from having a garden, or any fruit trees for that matter. Maybe next year I can get a six foot fence up to keep the deer out. But for now, we rely on local farmers to provide fresh fruits and veggies.

So we moved the festivities indoors, grilled bratwurst on the deck, drank German beer, made homemade sangria and my Mema’s peach cobbler. I had the recipe to the cobbler in my recipe drawer and had never made it. I love it because it is written in her handwriting. Something that I treasure. Last week, amidst the organization whirlwind, I organized my recipes. In my next post I’ll show you how they all found a new home and became organized.

Mema’s Peach Cobbler

• Melt one stick of butter in a large oblong dish.
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 1 1/2 T baking powder
• 3/4 c milk
• Stir altogether and pour over butter.
• Top with 2 cans of sliced peaches, or fresh peaches if you have them.
• Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.

I even had time to update my Etsy shop with some of my vintage finds. Check it out.

Garage sale season is upon us! Every Saturday morning I wake up before anyone in the house, sneak my way downstairs, grab a cup of coffee and head out the door. I am ready for the world.

I spend the morning sorting through other people’s trash and treasures. The early bird gets the worm, you have to be there around 7 to get the good stuff. Oh, and what good stuff it is.

This weekend, my loot included a vintage Samsonite train case. Not the usual hard case variety, but the older versions with the stitching around the edges. Six years of Martha Stewart Living Magazines. A couple of vintage straw Acapulco bags, which will be added to the shop this week.

This dresser, which is oh so cute and has a new home in my entry way. Should I paint it? And what type of knobs should I put on it?

And this chair, which I painted red. He’s the ‘merchandising’ part of my shop. He’ll hold all of the dresses and such.

A few weeks ago, my friend Ruth tagged me for a four things meme. Here goes…

4 Movies

• Amelie- I heart French films and Audrey Tautou is one of my favorite actresses.
• Chocolat- Two words, Johnny Depp. Oh how I dream of moving to Europe and opening my own little shop.
• Under the Tuscan Sun- Can you tell I love to travel? There are so many villas all over Tuscany, abandoned. The thoughts of what it would be like to move there and just live. Beautiful.
• A Good Year- Europe. A house. Amazing.
• Xanadu- I know this is 5, but come on. It’s Xanadu!!!

4 Places I Have Lived

• Key West, Florida- Parents moved there when I was a baby. Loads of baby pics on the beach. I’m a beach baby.
• San Antonio, Texas- Where we got married and lived right out of college.
• Arlington, Texas- Where I grew up.
• Stephenville, Texas- Dairy capital of the world. HUGE Rodeo town. Where I went to college and played basketball.

4 TV Shows I Watch

• So You Think You Can Dance- Guilty pleasure.
• The Amazing Race- A race around the world. Sounds like my kind of race.
• Grey’s Anatomy- The characters, the plot, the humor, the timing. It’s all too good.
• Project Runway- It amazes me how they create such fabulous clothes.

4 Places I Have Been

• Australia- Went once with my dad. He sells opals and we went to Sydney and the Outback on a buying trip and to stay with his friends. Got to raise kangaroos while I was there. Went a second time with high school students. I was a leader for a student travel program and we spent three weeks in Australia, traveling up the coast from Sydney to Cairns. Amazing.
• Europe- There are just too many amazing places to leave one out so here’s my list. Most of these places I visited as a travel leader. I did spend some time in Italy with Miles before we had Makena. England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy. I can not wait for the kids to be old enough to travel and we can all go! A few of my favorite places: Salzburg, Austria - Cinque Terre, Italy - Paris, France.
• Vancouver/Whistler, B.C., Canada- Our number one favorite place to ski. We like to fly into Vancouver, spend a couple of days then head up to the mountains in Whistler to ski. There is so much snow there it will blow your mind.
• Belize- We went with my dad on a diving trip to the islands in Belize. It’s so pure and natural. My dad says that is the way Cozumel was thirty years ago.

4 Things to Eat

• Chocolate
• Fish Tacos
• My family’s recipe for spaghetti and eggplant parmesan.
• Sushi

4 Things to Look Forward To

• Disney World- We leave on Saturday for a week at Disney World!!! The kids are going to go crazy. Ah, who am I kidding… we are going to go crazy! I promise to come back with lots of cheesy ear pictures of the four of us.
• Summer days spent at the lake.
• Oliver being house trained.
• Getting ALL of the laundry done.

4 Favorite Places

• Home
• The lake- floating on a raft.
• Granville Island Public Market (Vancouver, B.C.)- A mind blowing market place. I usually stand there with my jaw dropped to the ground, overwhelmed with the choices.
• Savannah, Georgia- We went in the fall for our ten year anniversary. The quaint little shops, coffee shops, parks… it’s all too much!

Okay friends, it’s your turn: Chris, Ellie, Sarah, Misty.

I’ve running into a block, a writers block that is. As I’m typing this, between each sentence a few moments pass by. You see, I’m having a blogging dilemma. So much of what I share is so very personal. My thoughts, my hopes, my dreams are put out there in the public sphere. To be judged. To be evaluated. To be read. My kids are out there. In this public space.

Does anyone else feel this way and have this dilemma?

I have this quilt that I picked up at a garage sale that I’ve been carrying around with me throughout the house. I think about this quilt and the time spent on it. I hold it up really, really close and look at each stitch. The fabric selected and the color combinations used. It’s beautiful.

I wonder how old it is. Who made it? Who was it made for? And how on earth did this beautiful piece of work end up at a garage sale just tossed aside?

I think this a blog is a lot like a quilt. My blog is something that I’ve nurtured, taken care of and looked after for about a year now. Piece by piece, it has been assembled to represent our lives. I look back on posts and see my kids, my life. The rosemary scent of Makena when she plays outside. Keegan and his happy go lucky attitude. I wonder now, as the kids are getting older, if this is the space for sharing their lives.

This quilt of mine, that I’ve hand stitched might need a new outlet. You see, friends, I’m perplexed. Do I toss it aside to the vaults, to one day be unearthed by someone searching on Google for vintage life preservers, or do I continue on, changing the focus of my blog?

I’m just not sure if my time is well spent documenting the kids lives. While I feel like sometimes I am missing it because I’m too busy trying to capture it. Does that make any sense? Probably not. You see, it’s an internal tug of war. Give up the blog and find new outlets. Continue to blog and change the focus. I don’t know.

I would love some guidance here friends. Your comments always mean so much.

Do the laundry. Do the dishes. Spring clean anything else. I don’t wanna sweep, mop or dust. Anything.

I want to go to the fabric store and get more patchwork fabric.

I want to go thrifting.

I want to find my blasted keys!!!

Pfew. Twenty minutes later. Found them.

Look what I found, look what I found! A 1940’s ABC book for the kids.

A cute green pressed glass bowl. Now… where should it go?

And a vintage cake tin.

To match these that my mom got me for my birthday last year.

Oh, and I almost forgot this beauty!  A Texas belt buckle.  Oh ya baby!

Glad I found my keys!

We’ve got a new addition to our household. I’ve been anxious to tell you about it but wanted to wait for the right time.

We adopted him from my grandfather’s house. He’s right around 100 years old and had been a gift for my mother when she was a child in the 1960’s. Now that we have children, my Papa wanted it to go to a good home. Right now the kids are playing Chopsticks, or rather haphazardly tapping on the keys.

I just adore my Mema’s milk glass collection and my Papa graciously passed on a few pieces to me as well.

So what do you think? I think he definitely needs some new fabric to replace his vinyl seat. I’m going to have a contest to recover the piano bench seat. I’ve got a few things in mind but would love some suggestions. Here’s the rules: In the comments section, leave a comment with the link to your choice of fabric. Hey, you need a good excuse to shop for fabric right?!?  Just don’t forget to come back!  You have until Sunday night to leave a comment. If I happen to select your fabric, the winner will get a surprise from Austin!

There is something about repurposing vintage items.  The whole idea of taking something that is old and making it new again really appeals to me.  I have to admit that I have become a fabric snob.  The feeling of soft linens, that have been washed more times than I can imagine.  That have spent time basking in the sun on a clothesline to dry.  Carefully pressed, then ready to use.  How many countless nights these pillowcases caught the dreams of young and old alike.  That tooth anxiously awaiting arrival of the tooth fairy.  That road trip that wasn’t the same without that pillow from home.  Pillows thrown on the floor for a sleepover with friends.  Pillow fights.

Finding a pillowcase at a thrift store and turning it into a beautiful spring dress for my babe really gives me a sense of accomplishment.  Of course, she doesn’t have the same imagery running through her head that I do.  But, she is creating her own memories in these sweet little dresses.  Running and playing in the yard.  Catching the scent of a rosemary bush as it trails behind her on summer star filled nights.  These are the memories of her youth.  And this is the dress that will hold them.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my stash of vintage linens. I was inspired by your suggestions and have begun to pull them off of the shelves and put them to use. Spring has been making an appearance lately and with the change of seasons comes a change of attire.

I was able to find inspiration here and here. I used a vintage pillowcase that I picked up while thrifting last summer. I made this dress for the kids cousin Camden for her third birthday.

Since the sewing machine was out, why stop with just one dress. It was such a simple and quick project, might as well make a shirt to wear to the birthday party. For this shirt, I used a vintage embroidered pillowcase. The goat seems to like it.

And another goat picture for grins and giggles. We ran across the goats on the way home from the party. There is a local farm that I’ve been meaning to tell you about. We stop there every time we come home from San Antonio for fresh herbs, veggies and some goat action. This time they had free flowers for the kids!