Crafts and Finds

We are quite a craft-friendly house. That's no surprise considering my old job. I have a ton of craft supplies from that. So we try to be pretty artsy around here. Of course, there's only so much a 1- and 3-year-old can do, and I don't like creating specific "things." I usually just let them play around with supplies.

Right now Mayanna loves playdough (and not just eating it, though she does that too), painting, and crayons. She'll actually sit and color for a while. And though I wasn't sure for a long time, I think now she might be right handed. She's really started to favor it lately, though she used to switch back and forth all the time.

Mirabelle has been very into beads lately. I have a couple of big bins, and she threads them on pipe cleaners, sorts them by color and shape in muffin tins, and pours them around from container to container. Man, think how many developmental skills I'm working on with that one craft supply! Very often, a lot of them end up on the floor, but she's remarkably good at going on a "bead hunt" with me to pick them all up. She's a bead-o-holic. Here she is making bead soup:



I also thought I'd share my awesome thrift finds from the last month or two. I've had lots of good deals, but this is a selection of big toys I've bought.


Mini Trampoline - $9 at Salvation Army
It was in new condition, and it has elastic bands instead of springs. I was going to buy Mirabelle a trampoline for her birthday, but the place I ordered if from didn't get it in time, so I gave up on it. But this was a steal!
Foam T-Ball Set - $5 at Goodwill
This was new-in-box! We've had a bunch of fun with this.
Kettler Tricycle - $10 at garage sale
We have another one in opposite colors, so now we have one for each kid! Mayanna's getting close to pedaling. Kinda.
The Learning Tower - $30 at Goodwill
This may be our best find. I hemmed and hawed for a while before giving in. I'm so glad I did! It's meant to be a big, safe stool for the kitchen. Before, the girls always wanted to come up to see when I was cooking, but they would knock each other off the little stool and it was so unsafe. But now they totally fit and it's awesome. And they just love to play in it too. It's big, so it wouldn't fit in a lot of kitchens, but it slides under our island perfectly.

I calculate I would have paid at least $325 if I had paid retail for everything. Instead, only $54. Awesome!

$10 well spent

While I have your ear, I'll gush about my great garage sale find from last week. Actually, I could go off on a lot of garage sale/thrift finds, but that's another post.

I had wanted to get another storage cabinet for the kitchen while we are waiting to buy our real cabinetry. I wasn't able to fit all our stuff into the storage pieces I had rounded up to form our temporary kitchen, and left everything that didn't fit in a big pile in the corner. Unattractive, yes, but I had no choice. This is the best before photo I have, and you can only just see the pile of boxes on the right behind the desk. Just know there were about nine piled there with stuff on top of that.



So I had been looking at Craig's list, consignment centers, thrift stores, etc. to find something that wasn't too expensive. After all, this was only a temporary storage solution. And just last week, I spotted a little cabinet at a garage sale. I didn't look closely at first, because it seemed like an overpriced garage sale, so I didn't think it would be worth it.



So when I finally went to check it out, and saw the $10(!!!) price tag, I immediately said I would take it. Then I looked it over a bit and saw it could break down to fit in the station wagon, and it was sturdy enough to work. The helpful garage sale dudes loaded it up and I was on my merry way! $10 is a fine price for a temporary piece of furniture.

The nice thing is that it's mid-century, which is what I was looking for anyway, has sliding doors, which I love, and a nice glass display. The height ended up being perfect for storing stuff on top too. It's just a veneer, but it's not super cheesy. I think I saw some real wood in the back. And the wheels are a nice touch. So all in all, a good buy.

And the storage transformation is spectactular!



Here's a better view:


I know, it's not as nice as real cabinetry, but it's so nice compared to a pile of boxes in the corner.

May Roundup

Sorry it's been a while. I'm actually ready to switch our blog over to it's new format, but I have to figure out how to set it up, and that's my stumbling block right now. I'm going to get it set up soon. Promise. So here's what you've been missing while I've been working on other things.

May was a great month. We started with a lot of dancing.

The girls like dancing, but of course dancing skirts and dancing ribbons are required.

Of course, we enjoyed Mother's Day with a picnic.

Followed by a visit to the insect fair! It was really fun and we got to see a lot of cool insects.

Mirabelle went grapefruit picking with her friend Chloe who was visiting from San Diego.

They did eat a grapefruit, but needed a lot of sugar to make it edible.

The three of us also took the train up to Maker Faire in San Mateo.

Although it was somewhat overwhelming since there was so much to see, we managed to focus on a few good things like the Exploratorium exhibits, a marble run, giant light bright and cupcake cars, so the girls had fun.

Mirabelle and Mayanna also spent a lot of May looking at bugs.

They are both fearless when it comes to picking up bugs. They will grab anything and run to show me. We caught a lot in our little bug box, and Mirabelle loved the caterpillars and roly-polys the best.

Finally, I got another bike seat for the back of my bike and now I have a bicycle built for three! So we have been on a lot of bike rides these last few weeks.

As long as it's flat, I'm happy.

Okay, I'm back in the swing of things, and new website coming soon!

Chair Redo

Here's a crafting/thrifting combo I think turned out quite nice. Found this really good-looking chair at Goodwill last month. I needed a chair for the upstairs desk, and this one was quite comfortable, though the fabric wasn't that great. But it was 50% off, so I couldn't pass up that deal. About thirty 8mm staples later, it was done.



I looked through my fabric stash, played around with a bunch of different looks, and finally decided on this orange and green flowery thing.



I've always wanted to re-upholster something! Good thing this one was super easy.

(On a side note, the same Goodwill had about 75 pairs of slightly-used ballet toe shoes for sale. I so wished I needed some, I could have gotten a deal! I'm wondering how they got there and if they were ever sold. Hmmm... the things you find at Goodwill.)

Hawaii = woot! (+ updates all around)

Sorry no posts lately, we took a spontaneous trip to Hawaii!



Yes, Mark and Mayanna went too:



Just didn't have a super picture of the four of us that shouted "Hawaii!" So two separate shots will have to do.

We were on the big island, which was fun. We had great weather, even on the Hilo side where it didn't rain at all. Did some swimming, snorkeling, kayaking, hiking, eating, drinking, fishing and all that good stuff. Mark wants to move there now.

I've still been into garage sale-ing, this weekend I scored a nice Kettler tricycle for $10! That was Friday, at an early drive-by garage sale. And then even though it was the Sunnyvale city-wide garage sale Saturday, I hardly found anything. Maybe I spent $3. It was lame. Sunnyvale disappointed me. But I did get to visit four friends while in the neighborhood, so that made up for it.

Mirabelle had her 3-year check up and she passed with flying colors. She is a clever little nugget. Loves to play with her sister (but likes a little alone time too) and to help me with everything. Is absolutely in the "why" phase and asks it endlessly. She has stopped napping, which makes bedtime so much easier. I thought I'd be more sad when she gave up her nap, but I don't mind a bit since she's fun to hang out with. She's been reading for a few months now, which has been a neat process. And she still totally enjoys preschool and swimming.

Mayanna is a typical 16(17?)-month old. She knows what she wants and is mad when she doesn't get it. (Why can't I have that knife?!?!?!? WHAAAA!!!) She's an amazing tantrum thrower. I'm so good at ignoring her cries. It's funny because she can say a ton of words, but her pronunciation is not so hot. She tries to talk in sentences, and they sound like: "Puh-bee puh-bee puh-bee puh-bee jooce blease." (That means can I have some juice please.) Or she just tacks please onto anything. But talks (babbles) A TON. And tries to sing. That's cute. Today she made it climbing up our green rocket slide by herself! The girls had fun doing that, then sliding down, for quite a while.

Mark is still working, though not as crazy as before. Ultimate has started, but not hard-core yet. And he climbed Mauna Kea while we were in Hawaii. Did you know that's the world's tallest mountain? I think if you want more of an update, you'll have to ask him.

The house is continually progressing. We finished all the upstairs trim around the doors and windows, including baseboards, and it looks swell. Also we have a big new retaining wall/storage area underneath the front deck, which will really come in handy. We can't wait to fill it up with stuff!

I've been thinking about moving the blog and gallery to another site, so I may post infrequently in the next month or two while I work on that. I'll try to put little updates here and there, but this post was to give you a good update while I'm somewhat silent.

Of course, you can always email me if you get desperate for information. I'm usually good for a quick note.

Three Has Arrived

Yes, just a couple of weeks ago, we celebrated Mirabelle's third birthday. It was a fun affair.

We started the weekend off with a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium! That was a gift from Aunt Lindsey and Uncle Travis for Mirabelle's second birthday. Ahem. Well, you can see we made it just under the deadline! And it was a fun trip that she probably enjoyed even more since she was 11+ months older.


The next day we had a birthday brunch for all the family we could find. The winners were my cousins Adam and Tara (plus kids) and Jessica who came all the way from Sacramento! And I hear some of them came via San Francisco. That's tricky, eh? We ended up having two cakes! So she had lots of candles to blow out.


She chose one of the cakes when we visited the bakery earlier in the week because it had carrots on it. Why? "I'm a little bunny!" It's a game we often play. It involves bunny hats and a lot of hopping.


As you can see, she was quite happy with her birthday gift-o-rama. Here she is applying a red bandaid from her new doctor's kit to her new green pony, Rody, wearing her new bathing suit and new flip flops. What a day!


Her actual birthday started with crying, as Mirabelle said she didn't want to be three. She wanted to stay two. She got over it when I mentioned the presents. And Mickey Mouse pancakes!


After the regularly-scheduled swim lesson, we went in search of a McDonalds playground. Dude, it was her birthday. And she wanted to go to this one we always drive by after swim class. But it was closed for unknown reasons. We were foiled by a garbage can in front of the door. So, on with the search, and we ended up and one of those pizza/playground/arcade places.


There were hardly any people there, which was super, and this one had a lot of windows, which I felt was unusual. There was a lot of climbing, playing in balls, sliding, pizza, and then arcade games! Mirabelle's favorite was catching "popcorn" (ping-pong balls) in a bucket. It didn't have a very good token to ticket ratio, but she seemed to enjoy it despite her lack of skill. Tickets were exchanged for cheap-o prizes, then home again!


Wait, haven't I seen this picture before? Yes, you have! Just a reminder that she's three. Posing with her birthday cookies. With pig sprinkles.

Happy Birthday, Mirabelle!

Thrift-o-rama

I have been so into garage sale-ing and thrift stores lately! I started going to thrift stores looking for name-brand kids' clothes to re-sell in second-hand shops (it's complicated, I know) and then I went to a few garage sales, and now I'm hooked all over again.

Way back in college a group of us used to buy things from garage sales and then sell them on ebay for a profit. We made enough to all take a fun trip to Vegas together, so it was worth the early mornings. But now it's fun just shopping for fun things for myself and the kids.

Mirabelle likes it too because there's often toys to play with, and Mayanna sometimes ends up sleeping in the car, which is fine because she can just sit there while I'm right outside at the sale. And Mark can sleep in at home. So everyone has fun.

Here's my haul from today, a good one!


From leftish to rightish:
1. One of those cool teaching clocks you remember from Kindergarten!
2. Books: Tales told in Holland (vintage), Chickens Aren't the Only Ones, The Circus Baby, Betty Crocker's Boys and Girls Cookbook (vintage), and Three Roald Dahl's
3. Just a pretty drawing of a ballerina. Bought on a whim.
4. Two darling wooden puzzles from maybe the 40s or 50s.
5. Tickle Bee magnet game
6. A toy stethoscope
7. Some kids' clothes

I also got a couple new scrapbooks for cheap, but didn't take a photo. And I almost bought a plug-in cooler ($15!) and a camping table ($5!!) but I resisted. Barely.

It was a good day. Can't wait for next Saturday! I hear spring is the best time for garage sales.

Not-too-girly room

So I finally (mostly) finished decorating and setting up the girls' room. Whew. But it was loads of fun, and I didn't mind a bit. Since they have to share a room, it's nice that the room is so big. Makes it easy to divide it up into a sleep/read space and a place space. Okay, on to the photos:


Here's the sleeping side, with the beds end-to-end. I tried just about every arrangement imaginable for those beds, and this was the best I came up with. It works, and later, when the kids get bunk beds (Yay!), they can go right along the same wall. I'll move the quilts around then. Those, by the way, were made by my old co-workers and my aunt, and they are cute. Mayanna pulls hers off the wall if she's in bed awake too long.


Here's the tree! I knew I wanted to paint a tree on the wall, but not too complicated of one. I saw this one in the window of the Gap last summer. I snapped a picture, bought the paint, and there you go. It turned out well, though this perspective is funny. I added the pink flowers, if you can see them. There's a bird mobile hanging from the ceiling.


Here's the play side of the room. Table and chairs in the bay window, bins of toys, play kitchen, map on the wall, cute hanging light, etc.


Finally, we have the clothing wall. Just a IKEA dresser/changing table and a stack of drawers I got from Katie (thanks!). The closet is full of clothes and more toy bins. We don't have closet doors right now. I want to get louvered bi-fold ones like in our bedroom closet, but it's not a necessity, so no big rush. The shelves are for the art and nick-knacks. I need one more shelf in between the two on the right, but have to pick up one more bracket.

One thing I'm really proud of is all the awesome original art I have up on the walls. Some of it was made for me by talented friends, others I bought from the artist or got for free from work. But there's a good story behind all of it, so that makes me happy. Maybe I'll do a post later showing all the different art.

There's your tour!

Hopefully not the last...

One inch of rain over the weekend. That's 19.5 inches.

Cheep x 4

Mark picked up the replacement chick last week. Here she is, little chickie #4!



She's fitting in quite nicely, as you can see. They all snuggle together to sleep. I also found out the breeds. From left to right we have a Rhode Island Red, a Barred Rock, California White, and a Silver Laced Wyandotte. I think they all lay brown eggs. It's a fun mix. I guess Mark picked out one of each breed they had available at the feed store. It will be interesting to see the flock as they grow up.