Saying goodbye to summer

I've been in denial. It can't really be the end of summer, can it? It seems like it just started. I only went to 43 garage sales. I only went swimming 3 times (!!!). I only took the kids to one amusement park. Only went mini golfing twice. It can't possibly be over. Oh, but it is. Luckily, I do love fall, cuz here it comes.

The icy water of Lake Michigan

 

Flip flop tan

Digging it

Looking for shells

Our "fort"

Happy end of summer everyone!

Collecting from the natural world

In case it isn't readily apparent, I'm a near-hoarder. A collector. One foot in the "that's neat" world and one foot in the "she might have a borderline illness" world. No disrespect to those who actually suffer from this affliction -- I think I'm safely within my boundaries as I can still shower, find clean clothes to wear, and I know where both children and dogs are at most times.

However, I do pick things up. On the side of the road (awesome kid's play kitchen), out of a ditch (toy plane), out of someone's dumpster (okay, that was my husband and that was good stuff he found), and out in nature.

Kids love to collect stuff. I got each of my kids a flat, plastic bait box from Cabella's with the little compartments. We pick up shells, acorns, feathers, pretty much whatever neat little doo-dads we find. I also ran across this image from the Australian website HomeLife.com and loved the idea of collecting pictures or creating a scrapbook with drawings and pictures of nature.


Photo from HomeLife

Do you and your kids collect anything? Have you done any fun "nature projects" with the wee ones?

Look What I Made: Breakfast Shirts

I made my kids shirts celebrating their favorite breakfast foods. This is shirt #2 for my older kiddo. The first one got smeared full of "boy dirt" (food, mud, pla-doh, etc.) and too small. The first one didn't have a donut. That was his special request. We've already gotten a couple of requests for more of these shirts for our friends...now just to find a few more spare minutes of "mommy sewing time."

Happy birthday to our little (big) boy!

Happy birthday, little man! We all love you so much!!

Raising Thrifty Kids

Yeah, I'm thrifty. I sometimes consider reusing things like zippie bags, and stuff. I'll admit it. I keep way too much stuff and I really, really have come to dislike having to spend money on stuff I can find used. It's kind of like a sickness. But a sickness I'm not really interested in curing. It's like mommy's little quirk that everyone has to live with.

Not only that, but I'm constantly thrifting, too. And as a mother of two, my kids are inevitably dragged along to a LOT of estate sales, thrift stores, and all that. In fact, as a two-year-old, my son would sit on the little car at our local McDonald's and say "Hey, mama, I'm going to the thrift store!" Slightly embarrasing? Nah!

Here are my tips on raising a family that values thrift and also loves to thrift!

My son's latest estate sale "find" -- a glittery nutcracker. Hmm...

Raising Thrifty Kids Top 10 List:

1. Be a good example by not wasting stuff and not being a shopaholic.
2. Let them pick stuff out sometimes (you buy, or better yet, have them use their allowance).
3. Set the rules; my kids know that they may not find anything at every thrift store we go to.
4. Figure out fun ways to repurpose the stuff you find into cool kid projects -- how about a robot out of old metalware from the kitchen aisle?
5. Know when to take their cues and change gears, because kids can only take so much "don't touch that."
6. Set limits and budgets for things, like "Hey, you can pick out XYZ for your birthday party, but it has to be under $15" or whatever.
7. Set up an allowance system. We give our older kiddo $2 (he's almost 5). He can spend half and he has to save the other half.
8. Make them learn to pay for their stuff themselves; this is just a good practice for being polite, dealing with strangers, and learning how to count out proper change.
9. Show them that you can often find the same stuff in a thrift store/garage sale/whatever that you can find in a regular store, but for much less.
10. Let them make mistakes. They will make dumb choices with their money and buy poor-quality plastic junk. BUT, that in itself is a lesson. When you make them use their own money, maybe they'll feel a little of the hurt and make a better decision next time.

What are your tips for raising thrifty kids who like to thrift?

Needing to find a little joy

Oh, man. What awful news. Sometimes the news is just crushing. I almost just have to turn it off completely, because it starts to become hard to focus on other things. But you know what? Despite the sad news, the sickening, the purely unimaginable pain and heartache, there is good in this world. Happiness, love, joy and silliness.

Here's what brought me joy and happiness and love today. I hope your day was filled with a little joy, too.

Vintage embroidery

A few weeks ago I scored a few really old (40s?) embroidery patterns and this week I gave one a test drive. Spoiler alert: if you are a friend of mine expecting a baby soon, avert your eyes! If you aren't familiar with embroidery, you usually transfer the pattern onto fabric with an iron. The design transfers onto the fabric so you can stitch over it, but also washes off afterwards so what you have left is your finished product, not the lines.
Here's the result (close eyes preggo friend):

The photo doesn't totally do it justice. It turned out cute, thankfully, because I haven't done any embroidery for years. There are zillions of resources out there, but I bookmarked the Home Sewing Projects site because it gave me a good refresher on the basic stitches. For this project, I mostly used the outline stitch.

If you haven't ever done embroidery before, I highly recommend it. I was even teaching my 4-year-old and he really enjoyed putting the needle in and seeing the colored thread start to form pictures. It's great for kids to learn small motor skills and they get a kick out of seeing what they can make.