Beginnings of a Scrappy Smock and an Award!

Great ad, huh? I got the "old" part down but they forgot to add and for the very, very novice! I'm afraid I haven't sewn enough to jump into this project but I am going to think positive and say it's just basic stuff! Tonight I pulled all my scraps out to start the Farm Chicks smock! I'm excited and scared at the same time. I am making the first one for me and the second for my good friend, Tami and that's ONLY if mine turns out decent. LOL

Actually that bow is kinda cute. I should just attach it and call it good!

Emma wanted to help. She chose this piece of fabric as her favorite.

More scraps...

And more scraps...

And more scraps....

And more and more! I actually bought these squares on eBay quite awhile back for the quilt I was going to make. I still will....one day. ;)

This is what my kitchen table looked like. So Tami, if you're reading this and I know you are, let me know what pieces you're interested in for the smock that I'm attempting to make you.

Award Alert!!! I'm so excited! The two sweetest gals that I know called The Funky Junk Sisters have awarded me the Kreative Blog award. Thank you so much you funky gals!! I am going to meet them in June when Tami, Michelle and I go to Puyallup , Washington for the day to their flea market! I love meeting blog friends and these two gals are so fun and creative. I love their website and I'm so glad I discovered it. Swing on over and checkout their adorable blog!

The rules for the award as as follows...

The Rules:

1. List 7 things that you love.

2. Link to the person who has tagged you

3. Choose 7 more bloggers to give the Kreativ Blogger Award to.

4. Comment on those 7 blogs to let the recipients know you chose them.

Okay, here are my seven things that I love!

1. My family first and foremost. Without them I wouldn't be who I am today, especially mom!

2. My fur babies because they are there for me everyday.

3. My Starbucks because they are there for me everyday too. Lol!

4. All of my blogging friends!

5. Baking

6. All of my friends who bring me joy everyday that I talk to them.

7. Anything vintage!

So I am going to make the rules a little different. Anyone who has me on their blogroll, come and get this award!! You deserve it. :)

I will probably start the smock tomorrow. I'll be having tea with Tami Saturday so I HAVE to have hers done by then. Wish me luck!

A Gift from Mom and My New Apron!

I came home today and found this humongous box at my front door! I was racking my brain trying to figure out if I had ordered something this big and had totally forgotten about it because, believe me, I have done that several times. It's always exciting when you forget you ordered something, isn't it? Sure enough, this surprise was something I had totally forgotten about. Mom was packing up this box when I was down in California (yea I know it wasn't too long ago but my memory only goes back about 5 minutes). Inside were these beautiful dishes she wanted to give me. I'm sure you've all seen this design before. It's very popular and yet very classic! The tea house I'm a regular at uses these dishes as well. THANK YOU MOM!!! I love you! I love you and I love these dishes!!

And here is the little pretty I got at this shop....

See, this is all Bryan's fault for bringing me to this adorable store. I told him I wasn't going to buy anything and I was going to be good but I think I was too vocal in the store with the ooohing and ahhhing. A few minutes later the sales lady came up to me and said "Here, I thought you would like this." and it was a $5.00 off coupon for anything in their store! Dang! At this point I felt as though I had to buy something. *sigh*. So I bought one of their cheaper items and this apron was perfect! I know, I know, I said I wasn't going to start collecting aprons. I did see something that was for $2.50 but I didn't think it would be cool of me to ask for $2.50 back for using the coupon.

I'm happy. :) Now that I have these aprons I need to stir up something in the kitchen! I'm having a little birthday get together at my place for my dear friend Alice and a few of our friends on Saturday, so I have to begin figuring out my menu!

It was another hot day here in Oregon. It was 84 degrees, I believe. Tomorrow another lovely day and then by the weekend back to 60. :( Oh well, I am thankful we had this beautiful weather while it lasted!

A Perfect Sunday and an Award!

The cherry blossoms are blooming!

Today was just beautiful! I don't know how else to describe the weather we had today. Everyone was out and about enjoying the sun and warm weather. Today my friend Bryan and I did some walking around downtown to see a few things. First off, I'm a little upset because I lost a couple of pictures I took of a store he took me to (because he knew I would love it) called Not Too Shabby in Washington. Ohmigosh, I walked in and I was in shabby chic Heaven! I did buy something but a little something but I will show you in my post tomorrow. I want to take a picture of it while the sun is out and it got a little late (because I had taken a long nap from today's exercise). Lol!

First, we had lunch at a place called Old Town Pizza. Supposedly it's haunted. The building is very old. Built in the 1880's it was originally a Merchant Hotel that two lumbar barons built catering to Portland's finest patrons. Underneath the restaurant are the Shanghai Tunnels where they used to nab unsuspecting sailors and transport them to ships docked on the river. The ghost that haunts this restaurant is named Nina.

"As legend goes, one of the young “working women” was Nina, sold into this life by a thriving white slavery market. In an effort to clean up the neighborhood, traveling missionaries convinced Nina to share information in exchange for freeing her from a fate she did not choose. Nina cooperated but soon afterward was found dead in the hotel, now Old Town Pizza. Thrown down the elevator shaft, Nina is reported to have never left the building. Could it be Nina who carved her name in the brick of the old elevator shaft, now the backdrop of a cozy booth in the rear of the restaurant?" The cozy booth is where Bryan and I had lunch. :)

Here are a few pictures of the inside of the restaurant.

The back of the menu describes the history and the hauntings.

Can you imagine how old these bricks are?

The pizza we ordered was called The Dragonlady. It was a vegetarian pizza and it was fabulous! The crust was my favorite part. It was very buttery. I love that!

After lunch we walked over to Saturday Market. It was busy! I got the kids a little something here. You'll see them at the bottom of this post and I'm sure you will know what I got them. Lol!

Although this wasn't in our plan, we walked over to the Chinese Gardens and decided to check it out! These gardens are smack dab in the middle of downtown Portland but when you enter, it's as though you've entered another world. A very zen-like world. This is a mix of pictures Bryan and I both took. :)

This is a little tea house inside the gardens where you can have a nice light meal.

The flowers that were in bloom inside the gardens were incredible!

They had a thing going on today about making Chinese kites. I tried my hand at it. :)

Inside one of the exhibits. Isn't this Chinese lantern cool?

Can you guess what I got these guys?

Oh yes! Oh yes!

Must....have....some....

Quincy was just beside himself.

Oh yea!

Yummmm.....this stuff smells great! I feel euphoric, no high, no euphoric!

More! More! I can't get enough! I'm in love!

And because I am such a good mom to get these guys their high Anya over at Kareltje en Ikke! has graciously passed out this award to all the cat mommy's out there. You know I'm a good cat mommy if I get my cats high! Thank you, Anya!!!

Hope you all had a great weekend. I know I did!

Getting Back to My Roots?

So I'm not really sure what's happening to me lately but I've started riding horses again, my passion to acquire an old turn of the century farmhouse has been on the forefront of my mind, I love everything about vintage "farm", I've been dreaming lately about having my own farm (where no animals are killed, mind you). What's happening!?? Maybe I'm getting back to my roots. Lol! My brother has been doing our family lineage on Ancestry.com this past weekend and traced my grandmother's and grandfather's roots (on my father's side) back to Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, Kentucky and I'm sure more southern states that I don't know of. I think....I think...I...I...think....I've GONE COUNTRY! :) Okay, maybe not totally country but farm-ish? Vintage farm-ish? Lol! That sounds more like it. :)

Yesterday's horse ride was challenging but still fun! Arie was in rare form yesterday and just wanted to get up and go and either canter or take off on a run. I had to really hold him back most of the time. Debbie's horse, Magic bucked on her a couple of times and one of those times freaked Arie out and Arie jumped and bucked a bit so I had to calm him down. Still, I felt very much in control and very calm. It's really important for your horse to know that you're not nervous or else look out! LOL. We met Debbie's friend Diana there and we had a very nice ride. I even got a bit of a tan!

This is Thor, Diana's dog that went along with us. He would sit right at my feet everytime we stopped. What a sweetie!

Arie finally on a break to eat thinking this might calm him down a bit. I know food consumption calms me down! LOL

Okay, off to Saturday market to enjoy the sun!

Good Morning!

I'm off to the right start with my favorite cup of coffee! I also discovered a new cream. Mmmmm. :)

Someone had a problem waking up this morning. :)

It must be Spring because the robins have laid their eggs here!

And I have added another project to my agenda this weekend. I am going to try to make one of these adorable smocks that the Farm Chicks made!

Make it a great day everyone! See ya soon!