As I’ve said before, our kids are totally enthralled with hippies and hobos.
So, as a last hurrah for Spring Break I decided to make them t-shirts with my husband’s new favorite saying.
I think they turned out cute or maybe even cool… and most importantly the kids love them!! Yeah! Mom did something right!!!
!
So, to all the hippies out there, young and old, “Peace, Love and Never Take a Bath”.
It’s all about the kids…. not my usual motto, but… Spring Break is the exception. Day to day life is a lot of melding my life, Hopscotch, Jeff, my friends, my family, poker, estate sales, oh… and the kids! But Spring Break is different - It’s all about the kids!
aren’t they sweet???!
I know, not so much. They’ve reached that stage where there totally into hippies and “hobos” (seriously, I don’t know where the hobo thing came from but they LOVE them). So, our beautiful baby girls have turned into little grunge monsters. Torn jeans with tattered hems and t-shirts with peace signs and tattoo art. Part of me loves it… and part of me chases them around with scissors trimming the bottom of their jeans so they don’t trip and kill themselves!
Anyway, Spring Break saw us loading the car with Jenn and I and the four kids and more tote bags and grocery sacks full of clothes, games, food, books, …. it’s like we’re the Clampets! So, off we go to the condo in Ramona. Winding up Wild Cat Canyon Rd past the casinos singing along to Elvis and Chubby Checkers… trying not to get car sick!
Four fun filled days of swimming, Julian apple pie, air hockey, tennis, movies, no husbands, wine, margaritas, a hail storm, mexican food for lunch (of course), strawberry shortcake, big daddy… The perfect vacation!
Back at home it’s all paydates and fun…. until school starts and peace reigns again!
I admit it… I’m addicted to dishes…
If I had the space (and a different husband!) I’d have 10… 20… maybe even 30 sets of dishes. As it is (with the current husband - whom I affectionately call “the ogre” on estate sale days) I have to keep it to 5 or 6. That means when I find something new I have to do major rearranging and/or sell one of my old sets.
So, when I came across an amazing set of china for only $40 at an estate sale last weekend I just couldn’t resist!
As you can imagine, my husband was “thrilled!”
I like to think it’s little things like this that make him love me even more!
Now you may be wondering “can finding an amazing set of dishes really be enough to make it ‘The Perfect Day’?” For me it can… however, this day we had a few extra minutes to swing by the shoe store (new summer flip flops!) and then the book store (4 new paperback mysteries) and then …. the cherry on top of any day…
yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
It’s that time of the year… Spring has sprung and I swear it must be genetically programmed into me that it’s time to clean and purge and re-organize!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!
The kid’s Spring Break starts tomorrow and I plan to work my way through the house room by room… we’ll see how far I actually get, LOL!
Anyway, I’ve already got a jump start on the cleaning and organizing for Hopscotch and am ready to start purging! We have some great dresses that we’re ready to clear out at a bargain…
… and the “Blue Plate Special” Hopscotch style is born! The first Friday of every month we’ll offer one item as the “Blue Plate Special” for that weekend only! Here’s a sneak preview of our first item that goes on super duper discount sale Friday the 3rd through Sunday the 5th - or until they’re all gone.
So come back first thing every first Friday and check out our latest “Blue Plate Special”!
So who wouldn’t be inspired by this?…
One look at this tablecloth and I knew that I wanted to make this…
and this…
and this…
and this…
and this…
We also revamped the dress that started it all and brought back some favorites:
You all are the first to get a sneak peek at Fall 2009 before it makes its debut at KidShow next week. Michele and I are crazy busy dotting all of our i’s and crossing all of our t’s before we go (I promise that I’ll spare you another peek at my to do list–not only is it tediously long, but it’s also painfully uninteresting!). But when I’m not totally preoccupied with everything we have to do, I keep thinking about how much heading off to trade shows with our new designs is like sending your babies off to their first day of kindergarten–the emotional roller coaster breaks down like this:
So…we’ll be heading out in less than a week armed with a camera, pen and pad of paper so that we can tell you all about it when we get back–keep your fingers crossed and wish us luck!
… we all do it…
“it was on sale… I actually saved $25!”
“I really do need more sandals… summer’s coming!”
“I’ve haven’t bought anything lately.”
“I don’t have a skirt quite this color.”
“I’m sure I’ll go to a ball some day!?!?”
“I’ll save it as a present for Jenn!” (Actually the reverse of this is true of a wonderful hand painted cookie jar on Jenn’s mantle that she bought for me but refuses to give me!)
Run into us at a flea market or estate sale and you’ll find Jenn and I are the queen’s of justifying things. We just can’t resist, can’t help ourselves, can’t walk away without that one perfect, special, unique, one-of-a-kind… bargain!!!
There was a time a few years back when we’d both just moved into bigger houses and could always find space, in fact we actually had space that “needed” to be filled. Sadly that time has past. Now if something comes into the house you can pretty much guarantee something is going to have to go out.
Right stage: Enter Applecrate…. our salvation. Over two years ago Debbie and Judy called us to let us know they were moving their antiques and crafts store into a big old barn and had a ton of extra space. Did we want to rent a booth for our children’s clothing line? Absolutely! For the clothing line, ummm, well, hmmm, I mean you can’t just put a bunch of clothes in the
middle of an antique store can you. People won’t even look at the clothes. Think, think, think. Maybe if we just scattered a few antiques around the clothes wouldn’t look so out of place?! I’m guessing you see where this is going…. Now we “have to” buy cute antiques to keep the booth looking cute. Not only that but we “have to” go estate sale shopping every Friday after we drop the kids off at school. And, since estate sale shopping requires stamina, we “have to” go to our favorite coffee shop, Cosmos, for breakfast before we get started. And, last but not least, all that diggin and hunting and “working” means we “have to” have Mexican food for lunch because….. hmmmm….. because…. oh yeah, because they have margaritas there! LOL! At this point there’s pretty much nothing we can’t justify in the pursuit of the next great find.
So come check out all of our totally “justifiable” estate sale purchases along with some great “Hopscotch Designs” and other wonderful finds at The Applecrate Country Store - 13277 Highway 8 Business
El Cajon, CA 92021. (M-F 10am-6pm, Sat. 10am-5pm)
a little peek at Fall 2009
Here’s a peek at those chenille scrap bags I promised–I’m still spring cleaning, even though I have WAY too many other things to do! Here are pics of a few of the fabrics…
Each bag is a treasure trove of 1+ pounds of large 10.5″ square, very useable, very gorgeous fabric scraps from vintage cutter chenilles in a variety of colors and patterns. They are perfect for quilting, applique or any other scrappy projects in the works or scrappy plans waiting in the wings–put on your crafty thinking cap and have some fun!
On a side note, I have to tell you, these scrap bags are so ADDICTIVE! I love making them–I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to take something we can’t use and send them off to someone who can. It’s the thrill of purging without filling a trash can–it makes me soooo happy, and I hope the end result makes you all awfully happy too!
Happy New Year, everyone!!
We hope that 2008 ended on a high note for you all…with that in mind for ourselves, Michele and I decided to wrap up 2008 by combining a business trip with a minivacation for us and the kids. Replenishing our supply of vintage linens for the website and vintage pillowcases for our Megan dresses (watch for them coming soon to the website, so stay tuned…) meant we were headed for our favorite vintage linen supplier’s garage in Santa Barbara. We headed out Monday morning with 4 kids, 4 tons of luggage, 4 pounds of snickerdoodles and with a 4 hour drive ahead of us. I’m happy to report that the trip was deemed a success on all fronts–for the kids that meant:
For us that meant:
We also managed to fit in Hopscotch’s christmas party at Palazzio in downtown Santa Barbara with all of our “corporate officers” (we gave them all titles, but now I can’t remember them…but I’m pretty sure that “president of polka dot fabrics” was one of them). One of the best finds and the biggest surprise on the trip happened on our way home–we hit horrible traffic on late Tuesday afternoon and early evening heading into LA (3 right lanes closed should say it all), so we decided to jump off of the freeway at Santa Monica Blvd. and kill time by grabbing dinner. We happened upon Cafe 50’s–an amazing fifties style diner that ended up being one of the highlights of the trip. I was so smitten that I took a few pics with my cel phone (not great pictures, but you’ll get the idea)…
Really good food, great atmosphere, super yummy milkshakes…it had me humming the hokey pokey on my way out! It was a happy accident that we found it and I look forward to going back next time we head up that way…
Well, it looks like it’s time for me to wrap this up, and I wanted to do that with a wish that 2009 is chock full of happy accidents and good health for all of you and all of us–Happy 2009 and I hope to chat with you often in the new year!
lists, lists, lists… we’ve all got ‘em!
Some, like Jenn’s, include showering, eating, reading, sleeping…. she loves to be able to check things off. Who doesn’t? Haven’t we all done something, say…. gone to the grocery store, come home, unpacked the car, put everything away and then gone straight to our calendar and written down “groceries” and immediately crossed it off. Oh the satisfaction of the cross-off or check mark or whatever your system is. Right now my list is all about three things: Christmas, redecorating after our half-done remodel, and Fall 2009. Fall 2009! Ack! That’s the one that freaks me out so much that I just push it to the bottom of the list and hope that this time like everytime Jenn and I will pull it out…. we do love to procrastinate! So that leaves Christmas and redecorating - two of my favorite things! (Disneyland is the third… oh and my family… blah, blah, blah)
Today was the first day I really got to Christmas shop. It was pouring rain, the sales were great and we had a yummy lunch with mojitos. I find that much of my Christmas shopping these days happens at estate sales and flea markets throughout the year but my husband doesn’t appreciate ‘used’ gifts and ‘dead people’s stuff’ so it’s off to the mall for some last minute consumerism. What does one buy their hubby? Sweaters? Tools? Books? It’s all so boring. Boys!!!
Last thing on my list, the re-arrange/re-decorate. I love to move and I love to switch things up - make the living room the bedroom and back again. So, right now it’s moving both girls into their own rooms, moving my office/sewing room into a new room, and moving the guest room into my old office. The girls rooms were relatively painless and a lot of fun. Found a great horse lamp and horseshoe mirror at an antique shop for my young equestrian and some vintage puppy planters and figurines for her big sister. The guest room barely got a bed in it and my cousin is in town so that’s on hold until she’s gone and I can find the time. Ahhhhh, the sewing room. The best room in the house!? Well, not so much now. Suffice it to say you can look forward to a lot more scrap bags in our fabric section. I have high hopes though and will post some pix when and if it’s ever done.
…. back to work.
So, I’m having one of those days…usually when I say that, it’s not a good thing, but today I’m tickled pink to report that it’s actually the opposite.
Here’s my to do list to prove it:
Yep, I’m thrilled to announce that the first of the Fall 09 fabric contenders have arrived and here’s a little sneak peek:
Now the colors are a bit off (my camera and I don’t always get along…sad, but true), but you get the basic gist…they are so very pretty and I so very love them!! I hope you all like them too…more is on its way and then it will be time to sew, sew, sew. I can’t wait to turn those new, beautiful bolts of fabric into the coats, dresses and skirts that I see so clearly in my head–my fellow fabricaholics may agree that the most wonderful thing about an untouched bolt of fabric is the promise of what’s to come. Oh, happiness is…!
