happy birthday, dad

Today is my dad's big 6-0, and so all my bags are packed and I'm ready to go....
...cuz I'm leavin' on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again...

No, I'll be back Sunday, sillies. I'm off to Minneapolis to celebrate. I just couldn't resist a little John Denver. Because that's how I roll.


Have a great weekend, lovelies!

xoxo

Show and Tell

Visited with a great friend, who always brings great gifts:

(I'd link to you, El, if you had a blog, which you desperately need)

Got the seriagraph I ordered from Sugarloop (love it!):

Finished some projects:

Started some others:


Wore the most uncomortable shoes in the world:

Worked on prizes from the Sweepstakes (and some new logo design):

And now I'm off to the chiropractor.

xoxo

sweepstakes winners

The time has come to announce the winners of the Sweet Jessie Clearinghouse Sweepstakes....


And the Winners are:
(Drumroll. Please)...
applesonastick, suz, claire, jennifer, juliecross, cheshire kat, royal oaker, shanalee, kelly, glittersmama, sarah, and mommyknows.

Yep, you're all winners in my book, and so, too, shall you be in my contest. Thanks for playing along, girls. Please email me with your mailing address! (But give me some extra time because I really didn't know I would do this until, well... I did it).

xoxo

memorial day

xoxo

ps: Here's your last chance to enter the contest - it ends tonight!!

Sweet Jessie Clearinghouse Sweepstakes!

Silly me. Here I've been rambling on and on about myself, and haven't asked a thing about you. And looking at my analytics, it seems like there's a bunch of you out there checking in with me.

Now don't get concerned, I don't know who you are.
I just get number of visits, general location, and a picture like this:

And I just wanted to say hi, and thanks for stopping by! Or should I say Sawatdee or Goddag....
I'd love it if you'd pop in and say hello every now and again; I promise I won't bite!

But it seems like you are shy, so I'm hoping I can bribe you:


Ready, set, go.

better

feeling a little better today.

Had some sushi last night (look how lovely they present it - and that's just take out!):
And some good strong coffee this morning:
(Although I spilled half of it on a pile of clean laundry when I was looking for some shorts for my daughter this morning. UGH!!)
Went to Olivia's school for a volunteer appreciation breakfast:
flew kites with her class:
and played in the school yard:
I can't believe the year is almost over! And my baby boy is going to be in kindergarten next year. Time goes too fast...

Work on the Sweepstakes continues. More tomorrow, I promise.

xoxo

look closer

closer.

I opened up a package of raspberries this morning to find this little guy perched on top of them. Of course we needed to create a habitat for him. He's been a source of endless amusement for the kids today. Haven't named him yet.

Is it weird that I still ate the rest of the raspberries?

I have a yucky sinus infection and feel like crap today, but have big plans in mind for later this week (a sweetjessie sweepstakes, perhaps?), so please check back with me.

xoxo

haiku

Haiku for my Minivan:

You need work
and so they fix you.
FOUR days now.

Thank you. I wrote that myself.

I'm not sure why I had that photo in my computer - I never used it for anything. But it reminds me of happier times, like when I used to drive MY OWN CAR to take the kids to school. God I love my minivan. I can hardly imagine my life without it. It's been at the dealership since Friday, when all I went in for was an oil change. Now I'm getting all sorts of fun stuff, like four new tires! What a fun expense! Here's to hoping it will be ready soon...

xoxo

to market to market...

This has to be a really quick post today because I'm supposed to be cleaning right now. But I just wanted to show you a few of my favorite finds from the Sanwich Antiques Market yesterday:


Okay, now back to the laundry...

xoxo

I stopped in at a church 'garage sale' yesterday and was disappointed to find that it was much smaller than I had hoped it would be. But then I found all of these owl treasures (some fabric, some sort of dish, and a cookie cutter!), and that more than made up for it. Then I went to two more sales and didn't find anything at all. Nothin. Bupkus. But then I went to the Goodwill and found more stuff. Hmmm... and I wonder why I can't find any time to fold the laundry.

I'm starting to realize that my flea-marketing/garage-sailing/antiquing/thrift-shopping has become a bit of an obsession of late. It's more like a part-time job at this point. Except without, you know, the paycheck. So I'm thinking I should start selling some of my finds. I mean, I'm going to keep buying them; It's just that I can't keep keeping all of them. Any suggestions on a format for this venture? It'll give me something to think about this weekend.
I hope your weekend is just swell!

xoxo

good mail

have you seen the new "Katie Jump Rope" line of Fabric From Denyse Schmidt? It was too hard to decide which to order...
so I bought a fat quarter of each and every one of them from Cia's Palette. I just ordered it yesterday, and here it is in my studio this afternoon. That's superfast shipping - "What can brown do for you?" Oh, and the shipping was free!!

Aren't they fanfrickintastic?
(sorry, but we're trying to curb the potty mouth around here. Which is why I say - okay, type - things like "holy moly" and "jeez louise". It's because I'm a lady, not a drunken sailor. I just have to remind myself of that sometimes.)

moving on.

I also received a lovely lovely print from Jen of Swallowfield earlier this week:

I'm loving her collages! It was really hard to choose which print to buy. I think I'll have to have more of them at some point. And, of course, I'll frame this one. I just wanted to show it to you.

xoxo

stuff I made / what I'm making

Working on...
fabric covered push pins::



recycled book journals::
new curtains for the playroom::
(from my favorite vintage sheets)

matchbooks with illustrations from vintage reference books::

That should keep me busy for today. I should have at least some of this in my Etsy shop by this evening.

edit: a few of the pushpin sets were added to my shop at noon CST.

xoxo

on the list

I want some of this wallpaper:

how perfect for my paint-by-number wall? I found it here.

xoxo

all grown up

Jackie gets in the car the other day and says, "Libby's still my girlfriend"
me: what does it mean to have a girlfriend?
Jack: "I will give her a candy and invite her to my reptile birthday party. She's in love with me. And I'm in love with her. I'm in love with her!" (emphasis was his).

oh my.

sweetiepies

Mother's Day just gets better and better every year. This time, my babies each painted a piece of pottery for me (Yay! I finally have my own coffee mug!) and wrote to me. Olivia's class had been working on books for the moms for the past three weeks. It was the sweetest thing ever and something I will treasure always.

It even had a 'meet the author' page:

Jakie's class took a different approach with fill-in-the-blanks. He answered questions like:

my mommy has brown eyes and brown hair.
She is 4 years old.
Her favorite color is orange.
She loves going outdoors. (who is this mommy he's speaking of?)
My mom likes to go get food. (Well, at least he got one right).

I also got some beautiful flowers and an elliptical machine. My husband wants me to make it very clear that the elliptical was not his idea.

Thank you to the best family in the world for a very special Mother's Day!

happy mother's day

I found this card in a box that belonged to my great grandma Hale, sweet Frances. The box contains all of her prized birthday, valentine, and mother's day cards dating back to the 1930's.
I love going through that box.

I hope your day is filled with warm hugs and kisses and hand-made cards that say "I love you". This was my best mother's day yet!

xoxo

ps: a friend just sent me this video - it's awesome! really.

Bits & Pieces

Bits & Pieces Packets now available in my etsy shop!

how about five?

Holy Moly! These Bits & Pieces Packets are extremely time consuming. It's taken me three days to put together five packets. I think it would be easier if I had less stuff to go through, but I haven't even made a dent in my piles yet. Did I really say I would 'start' with 20 Packets? How about five? Five's a good number, right?
I've actually assembled more like 13 packets, but they're really hard to photograph. See? Here's an out-take from my very fancy and technically sophisticated photo shoot:

Each of these babies is chock full of good stuff. And they should be in my Etsy shop by tomorrow morning (with the rest coming soon).


xoxo

oh, and before I forget

I got the new Brocade Home catalog last week. I ordered a couple of chairs from them a couple of months ago, and I love them. Thumbs up to Brocade Home, but I don't think I really need anything else from their shop right now. However, you simply must check this out:

Yeah yeah yeah the furniture is fine, but the PINK BBQ is where it's really at. I love it. And if I hadn't made my husband drive around in a cloud car for two years (more on that later if I ever find a photo), then I'd be the first to hop on the pink grill bandwagon. But one, I can't find it anywhere (believe me, I tried); and two, we already have two grills.


oh well.

xoxo

riding in the car with my camera

Driving around today...
taking pictures of trees
... and crazy houses...

...and of myself...


and I promise I'm almost finished with some Bits & Pieces Packets. If I just wasn't so busy driving around taking pictures of myself...

xoxo

weekend loot

It's not that I forgot to post the pictures of the weekend's loot. It's just that I ran out of time. And then I found this blog, and the gal bought one of the very same items I looked at at Kane County this weekend (If you go look, it's the 'pin money' bank). It's a small world, after all.


I actually only found the little ironing board and the bird picture at Kane County. I found the rest of my loot at an estate sale on Friday morning.

My mom was in town and went to the estate sale with me and Gabrielle (*pop quiz: who is Gabrielle and what is her relation to me?). She wondered why anyone would want to buy old child-sized plastic-ware. I wanted it! I need these items just in case, you know, I ever open up my quaint little vintage children's/book store.

But, off we must go to important business: the bits and pieces packages. I'm working on them! It's quite a production, though. And they're turning more into not so much just ephemera, but illustration/reference pages/decorative paper packages with some ephemera thrown in. Are you still interested? I think I'll make 20 or so and see how it goes.

Maybe I'll have a couple finished to show you tomorrow. I can work on them while I watch Boston Legal tonight. Denny Crane....

xoxo

*answer: my sister-in-law, silly.

ridiculousness

I had a very brilliant plan at 6:30 this morning that involved unearthing stashes of ephemera from all of my (as my friend Elorie puts it) 'hidey holes'. My drawers were full; my cabinets were full; the bins in my basement were full. And yet I still did not fully comprehend the scope- the breadth- of the mission. In all fairness, I was not caffeinated enough to make such a momentous decision for myself at 6:30 in the morning.

holy shit. I have way too much stuff. There's vintage maps and wrapping paper and stamps and flashcards and office supplies and sheet music and stickers and contact paper and postcards and valentines and oh my god the reference books!!! I have so much stuff that even I don't know how much I have. I need to get rid of some of it. I'm thinking of making some mixed paper and ephemera packs (ala One Good Bumblebee) to sell on my long-lost-Etsy-shop, but I could use a little help. Should I make the packages totally random, or sort my stuff by category? Like, have, say... a 'birds' package or 'home ec' package or whatever... I think these would be fun for collage, decoupage, and many other artsy endeavors. just not mine. Please help!! I need my kitchen island back!



xoxo

Orgamonica Party Tunes!

I had a lot of thrifty adventures this weekend, and I'm going to share all of my goodies with you tomorrow. But for today, I present you with this little treasure:

I found this on my way home from the flea market today. At American Science and Surplus. You can see why an Orgamonica music book would fit right in there amid the racks of test tubes and chemiluminiscence kits (???). It was seriously the strangest store I've ever been in. But I had to have this book. Have you ever heard of a Silvertone Organomica? Well, apparently, it's an "exciting, easy to play wind instrument. It has a piano-like keyboard with two full octaves in chromatic sequence, which permits the playing of musical compositions in any key."

Even better, It can be played anywhere! And, it's.....(and here I quote):

• Perfect for parties and gatherings
• Blends beautifully with other instruments
• Play it out-door, at home, in school
• Have your friends try to play-along with you
• ideal for adult recreational programs

Don't you wish you had one?

xoxo

Stuff I need

I need this:and this:
(both from here)

xoxo

fit for a queen

Oh Look! My kids made crowns!
I'm pretty sure Jack's says his name (backwards):

And Olivia's:

It says, "I love pizza and you bow down to me I am the queen"
umm...not sure how I can top that. Hope you're having a great weekend!

xoxo

a granola update...in case you needed to know

It was not pretty today. I'm having to come to terms with the fact that I'm a granola addict.
And I also have to confess that I reverted to my own recipe - not because anything was wrong with the other one, but because, well - I didn't have the recipe in front of me and I was too lazy to look for it. And I didn't feel like measuring anything, either. But here's what I added, in various and uncertain quantities:
first, I heated up maybe a quarter cup of vegetable oil with about (???) a half cup of honey and added in some vanilla. I let this melt on really low heat. It's not much liquid, but it coats the oats just enough to add some flavor (this will be loose granola, not the kind you'd break apart). And then I toasted some coconut (like one third of a bag) at 350 for 7 minutes or so. (Actually, first I tried to broil the coconut. But I burned it. Do not try it that way).
Then I mixed up a bunch of oats with two big pinches of brown sugar, threw in some wheat germ (a cup maybe?), and I would've added flax seed, but I'm out. Then I added some dried cranberries, mixed raisins, and dried apricots (cut into little tiny pieces), and mixed the whole shebang together. Then the problems began:
I ate some raw. I ate some more raw.
I put it in the oven.
I took a picture of me putting it in the oven.
I waited for it to come out of the oven.
It came out and tasted like warm oatmeal cookies.
I ate some more.
And I probably have coconut flakes on the front of my shirt and look like a big piggy right now, but that was some damn good granola.

i heart trail mix

This is a really yummy mix from Archer Farms (Target's very own brand). It's chock full o' golden raisins, dark raisins, pepitas (what?), cranberries, almonds, cashews, filberts (I just like saying that), and pistachios. Yum.
But I also love granola. Today, I will be trying a new recipe for homemade granola, compliments of the May/June issue of Blueprint. Play along, if you'd like:

Serving: Makes 8 cups

• Vegetable cooking spray
• 4 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped almonds
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped dried cherries
• 1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly coat a rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray. In a large bowl, stir together oats, almonds, pecans, cherries ( I will substitute other dried fruits for the cherries), coconut, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a small saucepan, combine oil, honey, and sugar. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. Drizzle syrup over oat mixture; toss with a wooden spoon. Pour granola onto sheet pan and spread evenly. Bake, stirring occasionally, until golden (about 25 minutes). Let granola cool completely on a wire rack. Break it into chunks and store in an airtight container.

I hope your Tuesday is just swell!

make play drink. in that order.

I can probably count on both hands how many movies I've seen this year. I mean, really seen. With popcorn and something chocolatey. We don't even rent movies anymore because we get too tired to watch them by the time the kids are in bed. But now we have ON DEMAND (it's Comcastic!) and can rent movies whenever we'd like.
So last week when I had like seventeen loads of laundry to fold, I sequestered myself in the playroom and ordered 'Running with Scissors' to occupy me as I folded away. And it was so funny! I read the book a couple of years ago, but didn't remember how funny it had been. Did you read it? Augusten Burroughs reminds be so much of David Sedaris.
If you have seen/read it, then you'll chuckle to yourself when I say the "masturbatorium" scene ranks among my favorites. If you haven't seen it, what kind of pervert do you think I am right now?

But that's not the point of this post.

I was looking through some of my flashcards this afternoon, and thought of how similar the act of choosing random cards out of the pile was to the "bible dipping" in Scissors. Flip through the stack: make. Flip through the stack again: play.

What are these cards telling me? Should I be consulting them more often in my daily life? Have I found my vintage paper ephemera magic 8 ball?




It would seem so.