Happy 3rd Birthday to my Freedom!

My son turns 3 years old today!

This boy brings my world joy!

 Thank you son for giving me the best past three years of my life.
Love, Mommy

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

I did an Eric Carle's 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' theme for my son's playdate birthday party. This is the caterpillar cake & cupcakes I made. :)
The cake is just a store bought white cake mix, super simple, and I used a tub of regular store bought frosting and just added drops of red food coloring until it was the color I liked.  I did the eyes, nose & cupcake green frosting the same way and added green M&M's for some texture.  Our market has a cupcake bakery area & the lady baker gave me a small cup full of just green M&M's that she had in  their supply of treat toppings.  So, I didn't have to pick green M's out of a package.  Lucky me!
I colored those small wooden craft spoons purple for the antennas, and gently inserted them a couple inches into the cake.  The candy surrounding the cake is an assortment of M&M's and Skittles.

"The next day was Sunday again. The caterpillar ate through one nice green leaf, and after that he felt much better." -VHC

  :: These are the little egg carton caterpillar crafts each party goer created to take home!  I just saved up cartons for awhile before the party, had them pre-painted (a project my son & I did together), and then brought the embellishments for the kids to use to make their own unique caterpillar (snake, dragon, centipede, worm).

 Caterpillar balloon surprise!
I used small pieces of masking tape to hold the balloon caterpillar together & to hang it to the wall.  The face is just card stock I colored with markers & cut out into face pieces and taped on.

 "On Saturday he ate through one piece of chocolate cake, one ice-cream cone, one pickle, one slice of Swiss cheese, one slice of salami, one lollipop, one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake, and one slice of watermelon.
That night he had a stomachache!" -VHC

 :: Little caterpillar decor I setup for my boy's party.  Party favors included a large rainbow swirl lollipop & stickers and of course they each took home the eco-friendly caterpillar craft they made!

Happy 3rd Birthday to my Little Caterpillar!

I made him this special felt birthday crown too!

Forty Toes: Forty Toes Photography LOVES it's fans GIVEAWAY

Image Source

One of my favorites, the FABULOUS Forty Toes Photography owner, creative photographer, designer, mom of four, is so over the moon about her 3,000 plus fans on her Facebook business page, that she is hosting the most AWESOME Giveaway as a way to say thank you to all her supporters!  Go check out the incredible prizes of handmade delights from a variety of vendors & designers waiting to be WON.  Just head over to her blog to see the details about how to enter, or if for nothing else, go "like" her on Facebook & swoon over the exceptional photos she takes, of her gorgeous daughter modeling the work & creations of numerous other designers!  It really is too stunningly much art, color, design & creativity for the eye to see!  You could WIN or, like me, you might just fall head over heels in ♥! 
Forty Toes: Forty Toes Photography LOVES it's fans GIVEAWAY

Estate Sales :: Tis' the Season

A .50 cent Vintage Cherry Red Handolier & $1 Green Cheese Grater by Tupperware.

I LOVE ALL THINGS VINTAGE & antique & retro & full of history from another era.  Second, only to my son, is my passion for thrift store finds, garage sale deals, antique store treats and estate sale treasures!  There is just something so beautiful about the way "old stuff" preserves history and tells a story.  The colors, the style, the texture, the smell of so many vintage things, make my heart sing!  I love to do a little (okay a lot) of online window shopping, just staring at all the unique finds that exist on etsy.com, or ebay.com, or Craigslist.  Some of the things I adore are way out of my price range (more than $10), so they exist only as a museum item, curated by me, in my own favorites list, to reference and savor and spill over on another day. 

I went to my first estate sale of the spring season yesterday & it was a goodie, but I felt so weird poking around this late old lady's precious things, with her children & grandchildren sitting there helping.  I've thought about this in previous years, how it feels so strange to go through boxes of someone's stuff that obviously has history & a story and was beloved, not to mention these people (the family of the deceased) are probably grieving, all while they watch you buy their mom's dishes for .25 cents. Sigh.  Hopefully all the people digging through the estate finds will cherish or appreciate the things they buy, as much as I do/will/would.  I'm on a neverending mission, hunt, adventure for mid-century decor, vintage tupperware, vintage pyrex, dishware, Black Americana memorbilia collectibles, children's toys & books, retro Fisher Price items, pots & pans, cool frames and currently, stuff to help me recreate a shabby chic inspired vintage look, in my own suburban totally un-chic modern home bathroom.  To be continued.  I have a vision. 

So, as much as the estate sales can truly be bittersweet, I will continue my journey, respecting the previous owners of the stuff I bring home to live with me.
It does make you realize though, how having too much stuff is so not worth it, so much in the end, it ends up in strangers hands, it's just stuff.  I love trinkets & vintage & antique & history and I cherish the idea that each thing was potentially valued and loved by someone, but I still want to minimize my "stuff o' crap", before I'm ashes to ashes & dust to dust. :)
That being said, I picked up some great tupperware, a package of fun lil vintage napkins & a retro handmade felt birdie ornament at the sale. LOL!

I ♥ Estate Sales & Vintage Tupperware!

FREE to be you & me

I have some amazingly conscientious, compassionate, creative, crafty friends in my world.  They make & do wonderfully artistic and cool things.  They share ideas & inspire me.  They model for me, in my attempts at improving my photography.  They let me do play dates and be a guest in their homes, a lot, because my home is tragically guest unfriendly.  They make me happy & make my son & I feel loved.  One of my mommy friends handmade this cute personalized felt pillow for me.  She is doing fabulous things with her hands and I feel lucky to have something she created, of my very own, in the flesh, to have and to hold forever.  A place to rest your head, your mind, to unwind. 

Comfy handcrafted pillow by MamaZshanna.

She also gifted me one of her exquisite print drawings.  I luuuvvvrrree it & everything she does.  This woman is one talented mutha!  You can see more of her creations if you stop by her http://www.mamazshanna.etsy.com/ shop.

How To Be Alone

Blessed Be Alone....
I love this precious video. It's such a delightful, creative capture of how beautiful and simple and non-frightening being by ourselves, with ourselves, and having solitude can be. Finding comfort in aloneness, this is a state of being that I personally cherish very much. Being happy by yourself, with yourself, creating your own happiness, what a gift to give & receive for yourself. Just wanted to share this & wish peace for you too, in your solo movie date, dinner having, wine toasting, bubble bath having moments of aloneness.
Namaste.

Recycled Chunky Crayons Valentines

  My son & I recycled crayon pieces & melted them in a mini heart cupcake pan to create Valentine's cards for his lil sweetheart munchkin friends.

Interested in creating some of your own crayon Valentine's? 

They are super simple, homegrown, heartfelt & make wonderfully unique non-edible treat cards for your tots' friends.

I followed the basic instructions in this tutorial over at  

Make and Takes to make ours.

I found the silicone heart shaped mini-cupcake pan at Michael's in their clearance Valentine's stuff for just a couple bucks, but you can use whatever mini-cupcake pan you find.

• Parents cut old crayons with knife up into smaller pieces, or have your kids help you by breaking them up.
• Arrange your pieces into the pan.  We found that a good mix of light and dark crayon pieces made for lovely heart chunks.
• Cook the crayons in the oven at 275 degrees for approx. 10 mins, or until they look melted.  Keep a watch on them.
• Remove the pan gently and try to keep it still so the colors don't completely melt into each other, they will blend nicely on their own while you let the pan cool.  We stuck ours in the fridge to cool a bit faster.
• Make your cute cards with a Valentine's saying or whatever your heart delights.

I taped the crayon heart to the card.

Have a Colorful Valentine's Day!

Our finished homemade colorful Valentine's chunky crayons.

{ Handmade Lollipop Photo Card Valentines ♥ }

Need a last minute super duper cute handcrafty 'Simple Photo Valentine Treat'?

Check out this craftabulous lil photo card idea that we made for Lil Teeter Totter Tot's friends. Perfect for your child's preschool classmate valentines!
Thanks to our crafty mama friend Felicia over at 3 Little Birds Stitch Co for the cute idea!

To make your own-

:: Snap a photo of your darling tot with arm & fist outstretched. Photoshop (I used Picnik editing tools) a lil Valentine's greeting onto the photo. Make some copies (I printed them on the self-help machine at Walmart). Purchase a bag o' lollipops.

:: Snip or exacto knife two tiny 'x' slits, one at top of fist, one at bottom, to slide your Valentine tootsie roll pop lollis into. Finally, hand out your crafty cards to the sweeties in your world & give em' a smooch while you're at it!

W O R D L E S S W e d n e s d a y

W O R D L E S S W e d n e s d a y