Planning a children’s party on a budget.

Hosting a party is expensive right? Wrong! At least it shouldn’t be unless you are planning on going all out for it and for what reason so you can say “Hey look at my Pinterest worthy party?”

Last year we had a Valentines Tea Party for my daughter and a bunch of her little friends and cousins. It was so much fun and simple.  I made each invitation on PicMonkey as well as made Facebook Event, I used card stock for the invitations and passed most of them out and only mailed a small handful of them.

We did a few crafts, ate a light lunch and the children played, I had my backdrop out with a cute bunting hanging over it and I took pictures of the girls and their Moms.

The most expensive thing we had were these gold lace crowns, made of cotton lace and spray painted Gold. You can find how to make your own crowns at this link 

Our lunch was simple faire of chicken salad sandwiches, fruit salad and pretzels along with some pink punch.

Our crafts were simple, I had everything already on hand. All I had to do was the prep work. I found our craft ideas on Pinterest as well as the crown idea.

The Folded Heat Mouse was a big hit with the kids, the moms well they thought it looked more like a rat. To make your own Folded Heat Mouse follow this link.

Heart Wreath was also fun, I had the wreath and the hearts all cut out. The kids only had to glue them in place. To make your own heart wreath follow this link.

Even the valentines we gave each girl was made by my daughter, we choose to do the Lovely Lady-bugs. These are easy and simple craft that even I the most un-crafty person in the world could do. To make your own Lovely Lady-Bugs check out this link

This year we are doing several different kinds of craft, like necklace making and decorating salt dough magnets as dealing with amount of glue from last year wasn’t fun and a little messy.

I let you know how to goes in a few weeks.

Until next time,

~Kristen

Valentines Day Gift Guide

Valentines Day is just around the corner and if you and your significant other are the gift giving type of couple, have I found some great vintage pieces for you to check out. I will not that some of these can be used a decorations as well.

Are you planning on “Popping” the question this Valentines day? If so what isn’t there to love to present the ring than in this Vintage Gerold Porzellan Trinket Box by Gypsum Moon Vintage, Not only will it be a gorgeous presentation but a memorable keepsake.

Does your lover have a passion for baking or collects beautiful pottery pieces? Honestly I love this bowl that I may tell my husband to get it for me. Bread Bowl Blue Spongewear Wheel Thrown Pottery Bowl with Heart design by Nyssa Ink

A lovely tin box, I do love a pretty tin box. Vintage English Heart Bouquet Tin Box by the English Shop

Most women love to receive jewelry on any occasion, myself included. This Vintage Red and Gold Jewelry Box is just the ticket from Grandma’s Vintage Bling shop.

Is your lover an art collector? Then perhaps this lovely photograph called I Dream of a Holiday by Angsana Seeds Photography will be a perfect addition to your collection.

Until next time,

~Kristen

Fun in the Snow

Yesterday it started snowing and it has continued to snow throughout today. Is there an end in sight? I don’t know nor do I care. I am of the persuasion that if it is going to be cold out I want snow on the ground to make everything pretty.

Today the kids and I ventured out in the snow to take a walk, not the easiest of tasks with a 3 and 2 year old and almost 20 weeks pregnant. We had planned on walking on the path through the woods but the boys decided just a trip around the yard and play for a little bit was good enough for them before we came back in the house for hot chocolate.

  My 3 year old insisted that he needed to wear his sisters scarf to keep his neck warm.

 I’ll even throw in a snowy selfie.

Until next time,

~Kristen

Spring Cleaning Part 1

Today I am attempting to battle that even mounding pile of stuff called the toy box. I usually go through the toy box twice a year to purge and get rid of broken toys and things that they have outgrown this happens in June and December before Christmas. However my kids have been playing with the same 4 types of toys since Christmas leaving the mounding pile of other toys alone, so I decided that less really is more and I leaving those 4 types of toys out while I put the rest away in storage for now.

“But Mom how can you do such a thing to these poor kids?” Easy to many toys or things can be over stimulating and cause some children anxiety. I am choosing to keep toys that spark creativity and imagination play rather than stimulating play, I already ask family and friends not to give toys that make noise or it stays at their house. So that is one less thing I have to worry about, not to mention the fact that kind of noise makes my head hurt just thinking about it.

So what am I keeping? Wooden blocks, Lego Dulplos, Wooden train set, a few puzzles, and the retro Fisher Price Toys. Of course books are always readily available to my children as is their play kitchen which resides in my daughters bedroom.

I actually took a few before and after shots, I should have gotten a good floor picture on the one side of the room because that floor was littered with books that didn’t have room on my bookcases. I need more bookcases that is for certain but until then I packed 3 boxes of books away in our attic.

 As you can see I didn’t get a floor shot in front of this bookcase.

Oh the toys, so many friggin toys that do not get played with and I’m constantly having the kids pick up them up and put out of the way.

 This is actually fairly clean as I had picked up all the kids books and put them away on Thursday. It is the mounding pile of toys and stuff that I am totally over.

As you can see I cleaned up and straightened the shelves, I put books away and I moved a small filing container on top of the small safe that are my husbands important paperwork. We are always on the lookout for a antique filing cabinet to use as our filing cabinet instead on mounds of paper work laying around in piles and creating unorganized chaos.

                 

The kids and I are happy with the results of cleaning out the toy box and putting them away in the attic until they are ready to trade them out some time down the road. EDIT: It has been 4 days since I purges the toys and my children are happier with the results still, I have yet to be asked for a toy that has been put away.

Spring cleaning project #1 complete.

On the upside of this project, I actually had to clean the stairs to our attic up as well and since that is another Spring Cleaning project I can say I have 2 of them completed in just a few short hours.

Until next time.

~Kristen

Coming Soon to a Book Store Near You

Yesterday was a big day in my journey as an author, I was offered a contract for more books from my publisher.

While going through several different stories I have finished trying to decide which manuscript to send first, it is very hard to decide as I love each one and story they tell about Gracie and Honey. Thankfully I don’t have to choose as the director of book acquisitions told me today that I can send in as many as I want at a time, so I probably will send in two for now and two more in a few months.

Now to write my synopsis for each book before sending them down to the production department.

Until next time,

~Kristen

Vintage Kids

I adore coming across vintage pieces for children, usually at flea markets and occasionally at a yard sale. Finding pieces for my kids to wear doesn’t happen very often as my 9 year old is taller than most girls her age and my boys are well boys in every sense of the word. Rough, tumble play in the dirt boys so finding something that isn’t delicate is hard. However I came across these children’s coats a while back and I just finished cleaning them before listing in the shop. I may keep the bigger coat for one of the boys to wear.

Now the blue coat has flower buttons on it so I believe it is for a little girl, however my 3 year old was gracious enough to try it on for me. (please don’t mind the crazy hair and clothes he wouldn’t let me change him before taking his picture)

The other yellow coat was to small for him to even attempt to put it on.

I also love infant clothing, sometimes a pregnancy center I donate to gives them to me because they can’t give them away to their clients and nor do their clients want such things. So we trade, I give them a box a diapers and they give me a small bag or box of vintage clothing, that is my kind of barter system. Here are a few pieces I’ve found in those bags or boxes.

The peach cardigan actually has a pair of booties with it and the blue outfit has a matching hat as well.

I can’t wait for this next baby to be born so I can dress him or her up in pretty vintage pieces.

Until next time,

Kristen

Yellow

I have decided that this year in my shop and Facebook page I am going to focus on a different color each month.

For the month of January it will be the color Yellow. Why yellow? For me I find January to be a very dreary month and I need something to bright it up for me so why not one of the most cheerful colors for that month?

(Image courtesy of Pinterest)

Juggling the Job and Home

There are days where I struggle a lot, especially right now when all I want to do is just lay around and happily get fat. Hey I’m allowed I am growing another human being. However having 3 other children 1 of which I homeschool on top of running my Etsy shop and a home, some times there is just not enough hours in the day. It doesn’t help either that I gave up my only source of caffeine 4 1/2 months ago before I ever became pregnant, so when 3 o’clock rolls around my head starts bobbing.

So how does one do it all?

Easy I don’t, there are days when my shop is ignored and there are days the house is ignored. I try to balance work and home and think I have finally figured out what works for me. I try to spend only an hour a day on my shop on my computer, not that doesn’t sound like a lot that doesn’t count in the hours of time I spend measuring and handwriting my listings, repairing if needed and if  I can do it, steaming, photographing, editing photographs, researching etc. Many times I’ll measure and write my listing out while I am sitting with my daughter while she does her school work, while she is doing work that needed minimal amount of help from me. This isn’t a perfect system and there are times it doesn’t get done but I do the best I can.

I have also decided after Thursday that I am taking a much needed month off from working in my studio, the heat doesn’t work real well upstairs yet and the fact I just need a break. I feel like I am running all over the place and not getting a darn thing done isn’t helpful to my family or I. Hopefully after a much needed break I can more forward and get my studio done in a timely manner since all I have to finish is priming and painting and I can move my stock up there.

I am planning on turning the smallest bedroom of the apartment into a playroom for my kids, so I can take them with me to work and they have their own space to do so. I will have to paint that room as well but that will be fairly simple as it is small room and should only take two days to prime and paint it. I am going to ask my daughter to pick out the color for that room as it is right now it is a pistachio green.

This isn’t the greatest picture of what will be a playroom as my racks take up a large portion of the room as do the photography lights that belong to the business below.

So one day before spring my studio will be finished and I will enjoy having a couple of rooms back in my house.

Until next time,

Kristen

The Never Ending Battle of Germs

Every year we are told how it is the worse year for some kind of ailment.

While I agree some years are worse than others, this year so far takes the cake. Several nasty flu strains and colds are floating around. Yet I see and hear people hacking and coughing in to their hands while we are out and about with obvious symptoms of cold and touching everything. WHY? Why must you do this? Cough into your arm or elbow people, that way you aren’t spreading your germs all over the place by touching things. Yuck!

So how does one battle such nasty germs? Well we start by washing our hands a lot as in all the time, I even use the Wet Ones antibacterial wipes when water and soap isn’t available. I have also been putting On Guard essential oils on us when we go out and defuse in the house. I make a spray of Tea Tree Oil and Lemon essential oil to spray around the house to, both of those are natural anti bacteria oils and are great for many things. But even those sometimes don’t kill everything like conjunctivitis aka pink eye, some how my youngest son and I have it and let me tell you it isn’t very fun. Even as I write my eyes itch like crazy and I look like I’ve been on a 3 day bender because they are so red and bloodshot.

On the upside I have put myself on a quarantine for the next few days and refuse to go anywhere including church, I refuse to spread this to anyone else and want it to end here it isn’t fair to other parents for my kid to spread this nastiness when I can just as easily stay home and get over it with the help of some medicine.