Helping Others

"Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others." 1 Timothy 6:18-19

Every year in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, Tucker the Turkey camps out at our church. He collects donations of specific food items which will then be turned into a basket, along with a turkey, to be given to a family who might otherwise not have a Thanksgiving meal.

This season is no different than years past. However, this year we delivered almost double what we normally have given - -and that's bc of the profits from my Etsy shop.

On my shop's header, I made a note that said that a portion of all sales will go to help others in need. So here we are! I was going to wait until Christmas and do some baking for the less fortunate, but knowing that we are a week away from moving (and our new house won't be ready for a month or so), it might be difficult to make that all happen. So, to be safe, we shopped for Thanksgiving baskets.

Thank you, Etsy supporters, for your purchases! Once my Etsy shop is restocked and hopefully having a grand "reopening" I will continue to always give to those in need. It doesn't replace the giving/helping we normally do as a family, but just adds a little bonus in one way or another.

Every year I look forward to shopping for these baskets. Ever since Lolabee was 1 1/2 years old (the age Cal is right now) she's helped me to shop for the food and then deliver it to the carts at church. She's old enough now that she understands what we're doing. It's vital to my role as my kids' mom that they are aware of how blessed our lives really are and how to always look for opportunities to serve. As Cal grows, he'll begin to understand as well. Luckily, we belong to a church family where there are always ways to help others. And, for me, sometimes actually going out and buying things to give helps me to teach my kids better than simply writing a check and dropping it in the mail or offering.

More new projects...

These little scraps hold lots of potential. I've been doing more projects....

A New Project

I have some huge plans underway with this big stack of old records. I love Bing Crosby (that's him on top) and he's going to help me take these dusty, smelly old records and make them into something much cooler. Curious? Let's just say that over the past 2 weeks, I've bought roughly 35 old records. Hahahahaha! I'm so serious.

Crafting

Pieces of a project I'm going to try to complete tonight, now that everyone's in bed.

Vintage Barbies

I recently started thinking up a new project involving vintage Barbie clothes. Then I realized that Lola doesn't have any Barbie dolls. I don't think she's ever even played with them. If she has, it hasn't been under my roof. I was going to hold off introducing them to her bc it was something I just wasn't jazzed about getting into. To me, modern day Barbies are kind of tacky and they have way too many little pieces. I'm also trying to raise my daughter to respect herself enough to dress modestly. It's been a while since I've gone down the Barbie aisle, but I'm doubting much has changed since I was a kid so I'm sure Barbie's still showing off her belly and wearing lots of hot shorts and low-cut tops. I'm old-fashioned. So sue me. Check out 1 Timothy 2:9 and 1 Peter 3:3-4 in your Bible before you get too hard on me. Influences are everywhere and I don't want to put anything in her hands that might encourage her to try want to imitate it.

I digress.

Then, after scouring a couple of antique stores while searching for vintage Barbie clothes for my project, it occurred to me that I should just get out all of my old Barbies. And these aren't just "old" from the '80s, but they were my mom's Barbies from the '60s! I played with these Barbies as a kid and they were old then! That old green suitcase was all I needed to burn a few hours of playtime. In fact, I know I had my own Barbies, but frankly, these are the only ones I really have a memory of. Except for "Peaches N Cream" Barbie. Haha! I thought her puffy dress was awesome.

Nowadays, I especially like that all of these dolls' clothes are handmade and super cute and much more conservative than what I could buy these days. I've been so anti-Barbie since having a daughter, but these I'm totally okay with. Lola's been having a blast with them. I washed all of their clothes and everything is Downey fresh now! It's also my plan to let her play with these for as long as possible not only bc they're cute, but there's so much history in them. I think it's fun to imagine all the adventures these little cuties have been on.

**And on a side note, I was so pumped about vintage clothes I went on eBay and got into a bidding war over a couple of bags of clothes. I couldn't believe anybody else would be as interested as I was. These weren't even Barbie's brand of clothes, they were homemade! Since I'm not real familiar with eBay bidding, I kept texting my brother to get his opinion on what I should do, should I keep bidding? let it go? what if I lose!? what would you do? His response was essentially that he couldn't believe anybody would want old homemade Barbie clothes and, frankly, he's not exactly familiar with what they're selling for these days. LOL I don't know why I thought he could help me.

Below, just to point out a few things I've always loved about these Barbies: Several of them have factory-painted cherry red fingernails! The two girls in the very last pic were always my favorite. I thought the brunette was so pretty (and she has real eyelashes!) and, Midge, has freckles! I always thought that made her more spunky. And, for some reason, my mom chewed on a few of their feet so I don't know what that was about. She doesn't either. LOL There's another brunette that would be cute but someone gave her a bob with some dull scissors, I think. Got her all messed up. (Not me, again.) The crazy platinum blonde girl has a tiara attached to her head and that always bothered me. I'm thinking that me and Lola are going to play Barbie beauty shop soon and try to help some of these girls. I'm thinking of mini headbands....

So, that's my Barbie post. It's been so fun to see these guys after about 20+ years. I NEVER imagined that someday I'd have a little girl to play with them too. I'm sure Gramby (my mom) never thought that either or else maybe she wouldn't have chopped off that one's hair and chewed up some of their feet. :) (I kid, I kid, Mom!) So, I think I've discovered a new hobby/craft to look into: homemade Barbie clothes with a modern, conservative twist. Hmmm...

Home Ec

I'm taking Home Ec again after about 15 years! This time I really want to learn how to sew. I'm doing it online through some very creative bloggers. I can't wait to learn more!!!

Book slings

I'd seen these book slings on a bunch of blogs last year and thought they were so cute. They looked pretty simple to make, so I thought I'd give it a shot for Lola's books. (I really thought they'd hold all of them, but it turns out I need about 2 or 3 more. Oh well.) Once again, I enlisted KJ's grandma to help me and we got it done. It turns out it was a really simple project :)

Goodies

On my way home (aka my parents' house out in the boonies) I stopped at an antique store and found all these goodies. I've been wanting some blue Mason jars but they are a little pricey and I found these for $2! The kids' books were 50 cents each and in PERFECT condition. They look like the kind of books we had in Sunday School when I was a little kid. The old cookbooks are for some projects I have in mind. But if those projects don't pan out, I'd like to do this.

The quilt top is going to be a quilt that I am going to finish for Lola's bed when she moves out of her toddler bed. It was only $15 and it's either a full or queen size. Since all of the fabrics are vintagey, I want to get some really pretty modern fabric -- maybe Heather Bailey or Amy Butler -- to do on the backside; create a huge contrast. This, however, is all dependent on if I can get KJ's grandma to help me out :) She's the world's best quilter and has made all the kids, grandkids, and now great-grandkids their own quilts. She's gonna think I'm crazy showing up with this old topper!

The old Christmas ornaments are just bc I love vintage Christmas decor! They're tiny, but will be so cute sitting out with my wannabe collection. I also bought a wooden pop bottle crate but I forgot to put it in the picture. I had so much fun browsing at that store. I want to go back next time without my sidekick Lolabee. She made me a nervous wreck with so many antiques and glassware around. She was an angel, but I just had butterflies the whole time! Next time, I'm on a mission to find vintage Barbie clothes for a project that's brewing in my head....

My "New" Dishmat

I don't really know the point in having a dishwasher. I have one and use it MAYBE once a week. All it ever washes is silverware and our dinner plates. Everything else, like my pots and pans, bakeware, wooden utencils, can't go in the dishwasher. I follow the manufacturer's suggestions on those things bc I use them so much, I want them to last.

Anyhow, I saw several cute tutorials on making your own dishmat out of an old towel. They were super cute and I since I'm always looking for a cute, functional project, I gave it a shot. I didn't follow any of the tutorials, though. Too technical! I totally made up my own as I went along so a real seamstress would probably croak if she saw my handiwork. I just pieced together a bunch of fabric pieces and sewed them on the old towel, flipped it inside out, and it was done!

I usually just throw out a regular dishtowel, but I have to use two at a time to hold all the stuff I wash. Since I got those pretty aqua towels, it gave me an excuse to cut one of the old bath towels down to just the right size. I think it's cute in a rather boring kitchen. :)

I love fabric. Those red polka dots just keeps giving and giving. I used it on Christmas presents, shower curtain, and now this!

Girly baby gift

There's a baby boom going on in my community group from church! Out of eight couples, all of us have had a baby in the past year and several are having their second and third babies this summer! We've been getting together for lots of diapers-and-wipes parties, but I couldn't help but throw in a little onesie. Gifting gives me an excuse to craft! My "baby" has sadly outgrown onesies so these are little fun treats for me. This one I dyed a soft mint and added yoyo flowers and a little green leaf. So easy! I could go nuts making those yoyos. All of Lola's clothes are going to end up with these things on them if I'm not careful :

All because of the towels

Back in the wintertime, I was at Target and came across the most beautiful, soft, and BLEACH-FRIENDLY aqua-colored towels. I always thought about those towels. Then, they went on a heckuva sale in the spring, so I bought some, along with a matching bathmat, with plans of saving them for our "new" house when the time came. Well, here we are about 4 months since buying them, and I decided I wasn't waiting anymore. Out they came. I washed them and they are AWESOME. So, so soft. I love that I can add bleach to them too and really get them germless.

I am obsessed with that pretty aqua color so I made a shower curtain to complement the towels. In my dream world, the walls would be painted a very soft creamy vanilla color; in reality, I have to deal with the khaki. I'm pretty pleased with how the shower curtain turned out. I got it at Kohls on sale, and then added the scrap pieces at the bottom. It's just a mishmash of old Amy Butler, cheapy polka dots, Alexander Henry, and some other stuff that I don't even know the origins of. The next time I make ruffles on something (like later today) I'll know to use almost double the amount that I really think I need. These ruffles were supposed to be more pleated but I ran out of fabric! I was inspired by Gussy's ruffles. She's one of my favorite bloggers :)




This is just some free decor. That blue glass thing was something my mom had. I think it came off of old electric poles or something? The tall glass bottle is being saved until I can do this to it. It was really a used-up bottle of Giada de Laurentis' salad dressing! I have a plan for it, but just haven't got to it yet. The small glass vase/cup was something I picked up a few years ago and had sitting in my closet. I filled it with sand from our recent trip to Mexico, along with the shells we brought home to Lola. The fish is a project Lola made at Bass Pro at Easter. I figured it fit the scheme.
This last pic is a gaudy gold frame that I had in my closet as well. I sprayed it red and added some "art." That's really a t-shirt from my honeymoon in Santa Barbara, CA. Kendall and I fell in love with their food. All of the little surfer diners were so good bc they served like homecooking, but with lots of fresh fruit and stuff. YUM! It's the only thing I really have from the honeymoon so I couldn't bear to throw it away. (It doesn't fit anymore. Can't imagine why.) I just folded up the sleeves and pinned them so they stayed flat, then framed the whole thing. FREE!!! Someday I might make it into a cute dress for Lola, but until then, I needed something on that wall to go with my "new" bathroom.

That's How I Roll

Every weekend, I make out the upcoming week's menu. I love, love, love cooking and baking so planning this way makes it easy to always try out new recipes. It also saves our family SO MUCH money bc we can eat at home all week for about $65 each week. About $25 of that weekly budget goes to fresh fruit and vegetables. When the time comes and we have a house that allows for us to garden, we hope to grow a lot of stuff and live off of its bounty. Until then, I shop mostly at SuperTarget. They always have a good produce area and lots of great sales. I like Walmart too, but I'm usually disappointed in their produce selection. I'm just a big fan of Target.

I make out the menu, fill out my Grocery Store spreadsheet that I made which matches my menu (nerd alert!), and we're all set for the week! We eat supper at 6:00 everyday. My goal is to always have that happen. Extracurricular activities are not going to be a priority in this house. Family meals will be.

As you can see, though, there are times that I grab lunch out somewhere. This week we went to Sonic on our way home from grocery shopping. I make one dessert each week and rarely ever buy snacks. We were in Kansas City over the weekend, so it sort of threw off our usual routine of Monday morning grocery shopping.

And, since I love to craft, I made a little clipboard that holds the menus. I just Mod Podged some cute paper to a little clipboard after I scalloped the edges, and then Gorilla glued some magnets on the back. Easy! And, that's just how I roll...

Cal's Room

Around the time that Cal was born, Kendall and I were already discussing selling our house. Because of that, it made it hard to want to invest much money into really decorating anything. However, we felt that Cal needed to have his own little space for the time being so we opted to paint the walls dark chocolate. I knew I wanted chocolate syrup brown, not brownie mix brown or anything with much red...or gray...just chocolate syrup. We found it! And, that's about the extent of Cal's nursery! My mom bought him some sheets and a mini comforter on clearance at Target. And that's all the room had in terms of decorating until two months ago. I was sick and tired of walking into an empty room, so I decided that I was going to break out some of the stuff I had been saving for Cal's new bedroom. It wasn't a lot, but just some stuff I'd been saving up. It was fun to put them to use to add some "boyness" to his room without caring what future buyers would think. I had been leaving the walls bare bc I didn't want to make nail holes bc we were told by the stager that came over that buyers like getting the feel that it's a brand new house. Well, that was okay for the first part of the year, but at this rate, I'm still the one having to live here and I want a few things on the wall.

These are posters that I had my mom get back home in Hominy. They plaster these posters all over town bc the Pawnee Bill Wild West Show is just a few towns over. Last year's posters looked like vintage prints, so as soon as I saw them I knew I needed them. She hit up several businesses around town to see if they'd let her have them when they got ready to take them down -- and they were kind enough to give them to her! Until I can decide what to do for them, they're just hanging on twine with clothespins from his ceiling.



This is a copy of Kendall's Ferdinand book from when he was a kid. His mom gave us a bunch of his old books a couple years ago and I knew they'd be perfect in a little boy's room -- if we ever had a son. So, now they make their home on Cal's shelf. We read them; it's not just for looks. I thought it was funny that Ferdinand made an appearance on The Blindside.


Just some cowboy pop that I spotted while grocery shopping one day. And a deer antler that Kendall found one afternoon while exploring at my parents' house back home.

Kendall's little wooden toy from when he was a kid. Cal's newborn moccasins. I'm a quarter Osage so my kids have their native cards as well. Cal got his Osage name on his first birthday: Hom-Mah-Saun. It means "sentry elk," meaning he's "outside of the herd, a guard, looks out." Granted, the deer antler above isn't an elk antler, but it's kinda close enough...

We made these shelves after a quick trip to Lowes. Once again, inexpensive was the key. I think they're kind of industrial :) We made the exact same shelves five years ago in our apartment. The framed picture on the top shelf was given to us before a garage sale a few years ago from Kendall's grandma. It's a little funny bc she thought I'd like it since I was Indian. It's really old and dusty. Just another thing I kept in case I ever had a son.

The rest of the stuff is just a little stereo that I use to play classical music during Cal's naptime. Little Golden Books. Piggy bank. I Heart Tulsa postcard. All in all, this stuff was basically free!