happy thanksgiving

Listening to my new favorite holiday cd...

She and Him

while this is simmering on the stove...

The Scent of Christmas

and drinking hot cider while baking all of my Thanksgiving goodies!

trick or treat

Sorry if it seems like I've been living under a rock lately.  I really have to work on being dedicated to blogging, but in the last two weeks between Gidget's 2nd birthday and halloween and all of my little diy's it has been very busy around Casa de Lucas.

I have done a ton of diy's, some have been a disaster and some have turned out pretty good.  I'll be sharing the good ones ASAP.  Two weeks ago was Gidget's 2nd birthday and I had a ton of ideas, way more than I had time to accomplish, as usual.  We had a vintage circus theme.  I saw a circus invite that I loved awhile back and our theme was born.  Of course, our invite wasn't beautifully letterpressed but I still loved them and they were so fun and easy to make.

Made a birthday balloon wreath...I'm sure it will be getting lots of love over the next few years.

The favor boxes seemed to go over well, they were paper popcorn boxes (from Hobby Lobby) filled with animal crackers and little fish soaps. For the soap there were two tutorials that I read before making them and then I just kind of went for it.  They didn't turn out as lovely as the tutorials, probably because I didn't use the rubbing alcohol step but Gidget still loves using her soap every day hoping to get through to that goldfish soon. Tutorial No. 1; Tutorial No. 2

 

By the way, it was kind of cute when one or two of the fish settled belly up in the soap!

I also made Gidget's outfit.  She was a little ringmaster but I can't seem to locate a picture of her with her hat on!  I'm going to miss the days when the girls don't let me play dress up with them anymore!

Pictures of the day:

This Elmo laughs and rolls around on the floor.  Gidget is terrified of him when he's in action and will scream and smack him in the forehead until he falls over.  I need to get it on videotape, it's so cute!

...........

Halloween was celebrated at our church family fall festival and at the grandparents.  I made both of the girls costumes.  Birdie was a little indian and Gidget was going to be Snow White until the day before and we made the decision to throw it out and start all over.  Which means I spent the day before Halloween making her a little senorita/flamenco dancer costume.  She seemed to love twirling in it and now no one can say we're not multi-cultural.

This cracks me up.  If she sees something she wants she goes for it!

(Sorry Senor Lucas is never in any pictures, he absolutely loathes them and will do whatever it takes to NOT be in a picture). 

In unrelated news, if you haven't seen this movie and don't mind a documentary I highly recommend it.  Bill Cunningham is such a kind, endearing, authentic man.  I found it to be very inspirational.  Mr. Cunningham has a new fan, I think he's just the cutest!

  
That's all folks!

what we've been up to

Last weekend my hubby and I went to my 10 year high school reunion.  This officially made me feel like a grown up. 

It wasn't as bad as I expected, not that I know what I really expected.  It was great to spend time with my lovely friend Catherine back from California.  She's amazing and these days I try to live vicariously through her.  I miss her so much!  The red lipstick was fun, but I probably wouldn't do it again.  I'm not known for wearing very much makeup and I felt a little like I was on drill team.  It kind of ages me (not something you want to happen for your reunion), and seems to smear really easily.  I'm sure there are ways to avoid this but as I said, I'm no pro.  I was kind of going for a modern take on the 1940's, the era that I'm so sad I don't live in, that and the 1960's.  The shirt was my own design.  It has a few flaws but as long as I don't look to close I'm pretty proud of it.

      
I made these cake batter truffles...

recipe here

They were soo good!  Found (of course) via Pinterest.  The bottom of the bowl looked pretty in the sink after I was done so I just had to sneak in a picture.

Made new drawer pulls for Gidget's armoire...

Her armoire was a neighborhood find.  Someone put it in their driveway with a sign that said $50.  So, needless to say, we brought it home.  In true form, I've changed everything about it, and am still not done but am pretty happy with it so far.  The pulls have definately been a challenge.  The original ones were not screwed in.  I don't even know how to describe it, I've never seen anything like it, they were attached with wire and braided into the wood on the inside.  I cut them off (not an easy task) only to realize they were also made in a size that does not come standard.  I spent about two weeks searching every earthly place trying to find something that would work.  Finally I remembered I had bookmarked this tutorial awhile back and it worked perfect.  In the end I'm happy nothing else worked because I love these agate pulls.  I ordered the bases the same place that she did in the tutorial and ordered the agate off of eBay.  It was so cheap to do and it looks pretty high end.  (My husband rolls his eyes when I tell him this, but I love him for it).

I have been trying to get Gidget to color since the day she was born and this week she finally is interested, and in full force.  This makes me so excited!  And so proud! 

I don't know about you, but I think she is quite the artiste. 

In honor of her newfound love I made her this...

This has been all over Pinterest for a very long time and I finally decided to make my own.  It wasn't as easy as I had expected.  It took a lot longer that I thought it would and my hands are a little beat up from the process but I like it.  Mine has quite a few flaws but I think this is supposed to have a lot of imperfections.  That's what I love about dripping wax.  So, between that and my love for all things Rainbow Brite/Lisa Frank lately, this works perfect.  There are several ways on Pinterest that this is being done, I used the hot glue gun version.  Personally I didn't want the crayon wrappers on mine and a glue gun is only $2 so you're not heartbroken when you destroy it.  If you're hands are as shaky as mine are be prepared for random splatters, i.e. the bottom of the canvas and all over my kitchen.

I drink this all year round but this just tastes like fall to me and makes me happy...

Love it!

I just found this and can't understand why they have it priced so high.  After all, I don't think you will love it as much as I do if it doesn't have your last name on it...

via eBay

I think it would look perfect in my home, don't you?

I think this has been my longest post ever.  I have a lot more coming but I will save that for later.


PS if anyone knows of someone who would like to model vintage clothes for free let me know, please!!!  It would be pretty fun if you like to play dress up and I may be able to actually pay someone for it at a later date but my little business is just getting started so that, as well as a professional photographer, will just have to wait.  We did a "shoot" with several items for the store yesterday and I'm just not cutting it as a model.  Being borderline albino just doesn't make for great pictures.  I'll let you know when I get all of my new items listed in the store.  I love them all so much I am going to have a hard time parting with them. 

Until then,

 

barn light electric giveaway

Barn Light Electric is having a giveaway!  They are giving away TWO separate gift certificates!  One is for $1,000.00 and another is for $500.00.  Here is what I would buy if I won the giveaway:

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1.      Look around Barn Light Electric and pick lights you’d love to own.

2.      Feature your lighting picks on your personal blog, and link to the lights if you can!

3.      Copy/Paste these rules at the bottom of your blog article.

4.      Once your personal article is up, you must email your blog link to:contest@barnlightelectric.com to be qualified to win. The contest ends October 12^th, 2011.

5.      Don’t have a blog? Find out how you can enter by visiting their website.

 

someday i'll own a bird

I would love to own one of these beautiful stuffed birds some day...

Via

Via

 

 

 

 

Via

inside the mind of a two year old...

I have been telling myself over the last few days that I am going to quit posting about my babies so much, so just like that diet, I'll start that tomorrow.  I just thought this was just too cute not to share.  And just knowing it exists makes me feel better, apparently my almost-2-year-old is not the only one that acts this way.

via Pinterest

I love this picture.  It describes Gidget's personality to a "T."  And this week she is in full force. Even though she drives me crazy sometimes I love my baby.  I do admire the fact that she's independent and knows what she wants (even if it does change every 3 seconds).  P.S. Did I tell you my poor three month old baby Birdie is teething?  And on top of all of this I decided that life isn't crazy enough.  So I started putting together my own vintage clothing company this week.  But I'm so excited!  I've always wanted to work in fashion, anything involving clothes or interior design makes me so happy.  And I've just decided there's no better day than today so I'm going for it. 

call me betty crocker

It's no secret I spend a lot of time on Pinterest.  And for the first time in my life almost all of the recipes I have tried that I've spotted on Pinterest have been really good.  Today I made these Shirley Temple cupcakes for my former co-workers just because I love them and miss them so much!  I thought they were good and I got a few good comments about them so I wanted to share the recipe. 

Shirley Temple Cupcakes

Mine were not gluten free because I didn't have any gluten free flour but if you need to make something gluten free these would be great to try.

A few other great Pinterest recipes I've made recently:

Salmon with Sriracha Sauce

This was sooo good.  My husband had seemed disappointed when I told him we were having salmon for dinner but loved it and has been asking for it ever since.  I served mine with rice and it reminded me of a Philadelphia sushi roll.  So good!  I added sesame oil to mine just because I love sesame oil.  I think it always completes any Asian recipe.

Sesame Noodles

These were really good as well and so easy.  I added chicken to mine.  It should be pretty cheap to make if you figure out the cost per serving.  Gidget loved it!

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

I can't lie.  I drink chocolate milk like a 5 year old.  And it was even worse when I was pregnant.  With both of my pregnancies my husband was always asking how I could eat every meal with a glass of chocolate milk.  What can I say, I love it.  Between that and apple juice (I told you I have the appetite of a 5 year old) I have set both of my girls up to be juice and chocolate milk addicts for life after both of my pregnancies.  So, thanks to me Gidget has lately become obsessed with chocolate milk.  About a week ago we ran out of chocolate syrup which has become an emergency in our house if Gidget doesn't have constant access to chocolate milk.  (For you concerned readers, don't worry I barely put any syrup in her cup).  I thought about running to the store to get more but it had also been bothering me that I didn't know exactly what was in the chocolate syrup I was giving her.  So I found this recipe.  It's so good, it tastes just like anything you would buy in the store.  It is good for two months, which is enough time in our house to go through a bottle before it goes bad.  And, when I compared the ingredients of this recipe with Nestle's recipe its the same except they have a few added chemicals at the end.  Needless to say, I don't think we will be buying chocolate syrup from the store anymore.  This recipe is so easy to make too.  Now I just need to find a cute bottle to store it in.  

Let me know of any great recipes that I need to try!