Happy Birthday

to my Dad! We love you and hope you're having a great day! :)


"Happy Birthday Papa Freddie!" At least I think that is what Adrian is trying to say!

What I did Today

I've been wanting some new clothes for way too long now but since I don't exactly have the money to buy a new wardrobe, I've been slowly redoing the clothes I have. A few are newer, like this shirt. I bought 2 basic crewneck shirts from Kohls a while back with a '10 off $10 or more' coupon. I also bought another $5 shirt so my total was right around $5 for all three! I purposely bought two shirts in the same color with the intention of using one to embellish the other. I finally got around to doing it today. Here's how it turned out:


I didn't copy this from anything but I realize the design is far from original. I really like the ruffly look right now!


I only messed up about 37 times but hey, it's not being judged or anything! ...Right?? Stretch fabrics are definitely harder to work with than regular cotton. I would love to add some shirts to our Etsy shop eventually but I have a lot of practicing to do before I can make something worth buying! With knit fabric anyways.
This was a pretty quick project (even for me!) and I am already itching to make something else!

Weekend Treasures

I wasn't planning on hitting up the garage sales this weekend but then realizing that I do actually want a pack'n'play for camping (next weekend!) I headed out to test my luck. I did not actually come across a pack'n'play but I found a few other things:


I've been going back and forth as to whether or not I want a carpet steamer and finally settled on this one for $8. I figured I can rent one for a few hours at about 3 times that price so I bought it. Plus, it has the attachments so I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be able to use it on our car seats!


A [classic] Halloween costume for my assistant (pictured in first photo). I was thinking about making a costume for him but when I saw this for a buck I decided to chunk that idea. For this year anyways. Someday I'd like to make a Halloween costume but I'll have to start it in January.


It's so hard to pass up books. The baby books were 10 cents, that sure beats the store price! I really enjoyed the Harry Potter books, I'm slowly collecting the series in hardcover. I mean s-l-o-w-l-y. This is the second one I have. I bought one full-price but hopefully I'll be able to find the rest at garage sales.


When I was downstate the other week I was really hoping to find clothes for Adrian. I think one sale had them but nothing that I wanted. Luckily, I'm not desperate right now so it's fine but I did manage to find a few things on Friday. I especially love the cream and brown striped zip-up. I really need to go through his clothes again and see what specific items he needs in what sizes. I know he doesn't have very many blue jeans and sweatshirts (if any at all...) but that's about as knowledgeable as I am about his clothing supply right now. (Not pictured: a baby blue lightweight knit vest. It's still sitting in the dirty clothes pile so I forgot about it!)


Lastly, I found this covered dish for 50 cents. I'm on the look-out for glass and ceramic containers and dishes with lids. I have a glass dish that is close to this size and I have really been wanting another!


It says "Fire-King" on the bottom. This doesn't mean much to me but, it sounds vaguely familiar. Maybe that means something to you?

Not pictured: I also found a [possibly brand-new] wooden baby gate for Jeff's mom and dad's house which has an open stairway to the basement. It's tucked away in the closet until we see them again so I didn't pull it out to photograph but I'm sure you've all seen one of those!

I thought it would be fun to share my finds, it's kind of interesting to know what other people look for! I would say this is going to be a weekly thing--even if I only find one item for a quarter--but given my track record...I'll just take it one day at a time!

Happy SUNday! :)

Let's hit the beach!

I FINALLY listed a bag I made recently (pictured in the "Etsy mini" at right). You would not believe the ideas flying around in my head every day and how inspired I get from the most unexpected places. I'll have to give you a better idea someday. I see things and I'm just itching to create, I mean, literally, I feel as though I can't sit still just thinking about it. And then I step back and take a moment to think. And I realize I have 2 items in our shop. 2 items. That's just bogus. I should be filling the place up! Here's today's excuse for not working: it's supposed to be 90 which means our top floor apartment will be 95. Adrian and I will be hitting the beach. Just as soon as I hang the clean clothes on the line.

Enjoy this hot and sunny day! Garage sale finds coming soon.

ETA: It never did get that hot. I'm not sure what the actual temperature was but when we returned from the beach it was only 78 inside.

Sweet Summertime

We are in the midst of a heat wave right now. I keep asking myself, are we still in the U.P?? It is super humid as well. If you'll notice the background in this picture, it's been hazy for the last few days:


This boy was covered in sand head-to-toe by the time we left the beach!
Adrian and I were downstate for most of last week. A friend of mine was heading down with her baby so she asked if we would come along. I'm sure it made the trip a little easier to have another driver! As I reread what I just wrote I have to chuckle, we ended up taking my car. So I guess we just went down on her suggestion! :) I went garage saling on Thursday with my mom (and Larissa and Jeanie) and then again on Friday with Jeff's mom (and Jenny and Katie). I had decent luck both times, even passed up a few bigger items because I didn't have room to get them back home. Unfortunately, I did not find a single piece of clothing for Adrian. I guess that's okay, I think I'm all set until spring. He still needs winter gear and a few pairs of blue jeans would be nice. There are still plenty of garage sales to be had!


On Saturday, I was able to go out to breakfast with Kayla and Ashley. I was quite delighted that Ashley asked her younger sister Stephanie to come as well. We have never really hung out but she is the sweetest girl and it was so nice to be able to visit with her! Old Navy had their annual flip-flop sale on Saturday as well so I rushed over there before heading to IHOP. They were $1 a pair! I was tempted to stock up for the next few years...and I could have if they actually had my size in the colors I was looking for!
Now we are back home sweating our buns off. I was excited to go grocery shopping today just to enjoy some AC for a couple hours! My poor Adrian is so sweaty all the time, hopefully he'll make it through the summer. Luckily, we live right across the street from an [inland] lake so I'm sure we'll be spending many of our days there! And hopefully these past few days haven't been a preview of what the next 3 months will bring!

(I forgot the camera at home when I went downstate, these pictures are from Monday. It was a high of 89--actually reached 95--so we stayed out of the house as long as we could!)

My Little Resupekka

That's "ragamuffin" for you non-finnish folks.

Here's what we have to contend with now:


That, and the fact that he figured out how to open the drawers in my desk. The desk that resides in his bedroom. The bedroom that he once was able to play in with minimal supervision. Oh man.

9 months

It's hard to believe our little [big] Adrian has been out in the world for as long as he stayed safe and snug in my belly. Each day as I look at him, I see a little boy more than I see a little baby. It's so fun to see him learning and exploring. Oooh, exploring, he's into everything! And he wants to follow me everywhere. I love it!


We have been teaching him a few signs: all done, more, eat, milk, and ni'night. He understands all of them except 'more.' Or, maybe he understands more, I'm not sure, we haven't been using that one for very long. Well, I shouldn't say that, I think he learned 'milk' in two days, for some reason it humors me that he learned that particular sign so quickly. He has signed 'all done' once or twice on his own, it's awesome to see him catch on!
At about 8 months, Adrian learned to pull himself standing, now he's starting to walk along furniture. Today, he actually reached overhead and pulled something off the table; there's not much that he can't get to!


I have tried a few times in the past few days to get a decent picture of him but he's been a little under the weather (I thought we were past that season) and it's supposed to rain tomorrow. Bummer dude.

Happy Mom's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my dear Mom! I love you Mom, thanks for everything you do! I hope you had a great weekend with your mom and sisters! And Happy Mother's day to my 'other Mom!' I hope you have a great day!

April showers bring May...Snowflakes?

I'm not sure who was more excited to look through these clothes, Adrian or me. It seems like every time I start thinking "Adrian has plenty of clothes for now but we don't have anything for the next size up," someone is looking to get rid of baby clothes...in the next size up! This time it was Stacey. I don't know if you read this but, Thank-you Stacey! We really appreciate it! :) I can't imagine buying all of these clothes new! Now, I think I'm set for a few months so I can focus on the bigger sizes at garage sales.

Regarding the previous post: We have since anchored off-shore. I don't feel quite as sea-sick.

Oh, and in case you were interested, it's snowing.

My house is a-sailing

Right into Teal Lake.

And it has been for far too long. Twice, in the past week, a friend of ours has walked right into our shipwreck. To my credit, he was slightly unexpected. (But not unwelcome!) You'd think I would learn and get it straightened up but, today I plan on working on something else. Something with cotton/hemp fabric and a sewing machine.

The thing is, our home isn't usually that messy. I mean, of course, we have the usual toys strewn about from our energetic almost-nine-month-old but that's really unavoidable. We have boxes right now and that makes all the difference. And no, we are not moving anytime soon. We've just been spending all our money! Uh, I'm kidding actually, but we do have boxes. The biggest one is the most exciting one and maybe you think it's funny that it's exciting to me. Our not-so-little "little boy" is too big for his infant car seat, his chubby little feet have been hitting the back of the seat for a while now. I finally picked up a bigger carseat for him and he really seems to like it. When I would buckle him into his smaller car seat, he would struggle with me and try to sit up. Now, with his new seat, he can sit up! No more struggling! Besides that, we didn't carry him around in his car seat very much because he was getting so heavy so this isn't really a big transition in that department. It's nice to have one less (very bulky and very heavy) thing to carry out of the house!

I have found that the less I blog, the harder it is to blog. That's not me giving up, that's me saying, I need to get back to being regularly irregular.

Until then!