I've Moved Blogs!!!

Hopefully you can all find me just as easily at http://bloominmama.wordpress.com/ .  I got tired of not being able to log into blogger and having issues with my password and such there.  I decided to move so come on over and read me!

Sewing Circles aren't just for Grandmas

I've been biding my time waiting to write this post mostly because I wanted to let the ladies of my sewing circle see the pics first.  Then I realized after not getting responses from them that my email was too big and they hadn't gotten the pics!  So here we go, I'm just gonna go ahead and share my excitement of the week.  Leah, Shelly and I had our first get-together for sewing and it was a great success!  Leah has agreed to teach us how to sew and show us how to make some things for us and for our girls.  We all packed up our machines and set up at Leah's for our first lesson.  We decided to make twirl skirts for the girls.  I picked out my favorite vintage children's baby blue fabric for this project.  One of the best things about our night is that it was so indicative of where we all are in life now.  Leah and Shelly both had their babies with them and neither of them wanted to really go to sleep so they became a part of our night as well.  Here's a couple pics of us sewing with babies in tow:

Leah sewing with her little girl on her back

Me holding Shelly's little boy while she shows me her beautiful seam

I tell you what, there is nothing like hanging out with two really cute babies all night to make you have baby fever!  We had a great time being silly and making our skirts.  At one point I think we laughed silly for a full 5 minutes while we were playing with our brownies, acting like funny characters, and speaking with fake accents.  It was hilarious and I can't wait for the next time!  

Amidst all this hilarity we actually did finish our skirts.  We stayed up till 1 finishing them and taking pictures of the aftermath.  Here's a few pics: 

The aftermath including my dirty brownie plate

Our beautiful finished skirts

So there you have it folks!  Sewing circles are not just for old ladies anymore... Cool, hip, young mamas are all doing it and having a great time too!  Hopefully we can keep this going and do it at least once a month.  I can't wait for the next time!  

Thrifting Success!

What a fantastic day today was.  Ryder and I had a slow morning at the house and then went this afternoon for lunch with some favorite friends at Lupies followed by some thrifting afterwards at one of my fave thrift stores in town, Value Village.  Lunch was awesome and I got to really catch up with friends that I don't always get to see regularly, but love them just the same.  Everyone seems to have great things going on in their lives and it's always fun to hear about what they are doing and thinking about.  (On a side note, when I was typing that last sentence out I accidentally typed livers in stead of lives at first... ha!)

As soon as I walked into the thrift store, I went straight for the furniture.  Let me tell you folks, there were some great finds.  They had this awesome old school stove range akin to the pink one in the house I use to rent on Randolph Rd (if anyone remembers that) and I had a moment of thinking that I really should bring it home and see if Evan could refurbish it and we could use it as our regular stove.  It was perfect and white and retro and awesome.  As stupid as it sounds, they really don't make things like they used to and stoves like this one were pretty much like tanks.  You can fix them and they will go on forever!  I still may talk to Evan about it haha.

Anyways back to other finds at the thrift store, I found this awesome orange arm chair that is retro and in great shape and even came with a handmade orange tweed pillow.  I looked it over thinking that it would be 30-50 dollars and I would really have to think about it and probably not get it.  Well I finally found the price written on one of the legs: $10.  Yes, that's right, I said $10.  I was sold.  I knew I just had to have her.  Here's a little pic of her:

 After the initial high of a thrifting find I was in full gear ready to search for deals.  I found a great metal cabinet thing with cool metal handles that looked like wings, but it reeked of old cigarette smoke and the doors wouldn't close and Sharan and Toby talked me out of it.  It was also ten dollars, but it actually needed quite a bit of work and I wasn't sure I could get the smoke smell out of it.  Now even more on the hunt for a good find, I turned the corner to look at the rest of the furniture and there it was: the hottest green tweed chair you've ever seen.  Well maybe not, but totally a cute find in great shape and also perfect for my living room.  I had to find the manager to get a price but we agreed on $20 for the pair of chairs.  So here it is, my second find of the day:

I know, I know, I'm probably way more excited about these chairs than anyone else would be, but really, they are perfect for our needs, they were super cheap, they're still in great shape, and they are just my style!  I win again!  

So then I came home, curled up in a blanket in my new orange chair and crocheted while watching Top Gun, which, by the way, is still a great movie.  Evan made fun of me saying that it's only the second of the month and I'm spending all of my money, but really, I think the twenty I spent today well worth it for years to come, not to mention that I've been wanting new furniture for about 5 years now.  Now I just need to find a great used mid century modern couch... anybody have one hiding in their garage or grandmother's house?  ;)  

A Great Week

So again this marks another week of not so many updates, but I've just been busy out places with no time to type at home.  I had a great week working and playing with Ryder at home.  One of our favorite things to do lately has been to sit on the front porch and blow bubbles, play with sidewalk chalk, or watch Ryder ride her tricycle. The past couple of days this is exactly how we have spent most of the day and it's been wonderful.

I posted last all of my recipes and I wanted to revisit the shampoo saga.  Originally I began using the baking soda/ ACV no-poo method which did OK for a week or so, but I began noticing that I was having a really hard time brushing my hair without a lot of breakage (I have super damaged hair from dying it so much).  I then tried a recipe for shampoo using Dr. Bronner's castile soap which I loved, but I think with our hard water and the soap combo was leaving a residue making my hair stick to itself and just overall seem greasy.  I finally broke down and decided that I would have to buy some shampoo and conditioner and just try to wean myself from washing. The funny thing is that after finding out what exactly was in all the shampoos I have been using for years, I couldn't bring myself to buy any of them.  It was crazy how much I have changed in such a short amount of time. I decided to drive all the way to Earthfare (the most overpriced natural foods store ever in my opinion) to see what they had in the way of a safe shampoo.  I found a brand call BWC (beauty without cruelty) with a line of beauty products made from good organic ingredients without any animal cruelty.  I hadn't heard of it before but I liked the ingredients listed and so I decided to give it a try.  Here's a link to the actually shampoo and conditioner I chose: Rosemary mint shampoo.  I used it after getting home and I love it.  Evan agrees that my hair looks sooo much better and it's so light that I haven't had to wash my hair everyday.  I think I'm going to see how long I can go between shampoos so I can eventually quit using shampoo.  I think this will be the best method for me.  I felt kind of like a failure at first, because I didn't want to have to buy shampoo and I didn't want to have to buy anything in a plastic bottle, but I also needed to have my hair look attractive haha!  I think I'm going to have to let it go and figure that it'll at least be better to buy shampoo, but only use it every once in a while to make that one bottle last as long as possible.  Anyways, that's the latest in the shampoo saga!

On a fun note, we had a great day full of friends.  We were supposed to have a skate day today, but because of the rain it became simply a hangout day with homemade burritos.  Toby was in town today and we all played outside with chalk, skateboards (on the driveway), and bubbles.  Ryder had so much fun playing with everybody that she pretty much passed out in her tent watching Rainbow Brite with Chesson.  It was super cute.

We decided to make home made play-do today and it was a huge hit!  Evan said he took some pics so I'll have to post them later (once I find his phone), but everybody got into it and made some fun things.  I think Seth's tongue was my favorite.









So now Evan and I are hanging out on the couch watching Futurama eating a fresh batch of cookies.  It's a great way to end the night.

Oh I almost forgot, here are the pics of Ryder's table and chairs she decorated in the playroom.