Tracy's Good Crap

I promised to show the things I "bought" from my sister at our garage sale. I wish I would have taken pictures before the sale because you really can't imagine how much good stuff we had!

This is the whole pile.

I took these two wall pockets, but she had 3 or 4 more of them.

These are embroidered silk curtains. There are 4 panels and my mom made them for Tracy so it's only right that I keep them in the family. They are hanging in my dining room now.

I love the shape of this lamp. I waited and waited and no one bought it so I finally claimed it. I'm kicking myself for not claiming one of the other ones. The baseball throw is for all those cold, cold games we sit at.

In the package are 2 vinyl tableclothes and the rolled up things are table runners from Pottery Barn. Tracy used them for Ryan's fiesta themed 30th birthday party.

I already nabbed her 2 black wall ledge shelf things for Parker's room and these will be going in Jack's room.

Jack also claimed the bulletin board/organizer and I took 3 large picture frames. They have a little beaded detail that I love. The picture of Stella is awfully cute too. Tracy had TONS of large picture frames. The first couple who came to the sale bought almost all of them. Probably because I think they were $1 each!

I took this mirror, but I'm still undecided. If I keep it, I will paint the pine black. Any opinions? It can go back on our next sale if it isn't a keeper.

I also took some grapevine balls and some odds and ends. Tracy took our Power Wheels Jeep and, well, I'm not sure if I talked her into anything else. It is tons of fun to shop her stuff and I can't wait to see what she brings for our next sale! Thanks Trace!

We went to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz

My friend Michelle hosted a Wizard of Oz party for her daughter, Lindsay, today. She thinks of every conceivable detail and makes it special. Check out her blog because you've got to see this to believe it. You will want her planning your next party! That is Miss Lindsay up above dancing on the yellow brick road. Handmade chocolates below and a bowl full of green punch is all that's left of the Wicked Witch!

P.S. You can just barely see them peeking out from under the bowl, but Michelle painted her countertops too with much success. She blogged about it in detail so look around over there to see hers!

The Adventures of Tom and Huck

Meet my own little Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. (We are reading Tom Sawyer right now so I can take the boys to Hannibal this fall--love that place!) We went to a park/nature preserve area very near our house today with the intention of hiking, but when we saw the water, we changed the plan to just playing in the creek. This is actually a very low bridge that almost always has water flowing over it. (You drive right through the water.)
I was thrilled to introduce my boys to the joys of catching minnows! Luckily we had some cups in the car which make very good minnow catchers. Like most fishing, the key is patience so I'm the one who actually did the catching. The water was COLD because it's been pretty cool the past few days. I was worried sick that they would slip and fall, but they were cautious enough to be safe but still had fun.

My cousin, John, and I used to spend all day down at the creek by my grandma's house. We caught minnows in bread sacks and brought them home and put them in grandma's fish tank. We brought a few home two--named Tut and Policeman--so we'll see how long they last!

I love, LOVE, these spur-of-the-moment activities. It's what summer is all about!

Slippy, Slidey St. Louis

The boys and I went to St. Louis to visit my sister, Tracy, for a few days. We had big plans to go to the Butterfly House and one of the city waterparks, but that didn't happen. Luckily, Uncle Ryan had bought a Slip-n-Slide and they had plenty of fun with that. Stella would take a few steps and slip, then get up and take a few more and slip, and so on. She thought it was fun, though. The bugs just eat up her chubby little legs so I made her go in which was not at all fun for anyone.

We also went to Tracy's country club for a day of swimming. It is just so nice there. The best part for me is that a huge portion of the pool is 3 feet high which means that the kids have a lot of room to play without me worrying about them drowning. Not that I really worry about that, but it's just more fun for them to move around.

Right before we came home, I threw out my back. UGH...I hate that! It's more of a huge kink in my lower back that spasms for a day or two. Needless to say, the 3 hour drive home wasn't very pleasant for me. Well, it wasn't all bad because I stopped and got a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts to offset my pain. Mmmmmmm........

Zippity Zoo

A few weeks ago we went to our local little zoo. It wasn't planned but we were driving by and I thought, why not? Our timing was perfect because it had just opened for the day and there was hardly anyone there.

This is an example of the kind of wild animals on display.

There are also snakes, 2 cheetahs, a zebra, some camels, assorted monkeys and birds.....I think that pretty much covers it. It's nothing spectacular but fine for the size of community we live in and I would be sad if it closed.

The highlight of their day was seeing a baby goat that was about 2 hours old. They were the first visitors to see it. Of course, you can't go to a petting zoo without being mauled by a goat.

The highlight of my day was when Jack fell into the zebra pen. One minute he was sitting on the wooden railing posing for a picture and the next minute he was hanging on for dear life dangling into the pen. I dropped my camera and pulled him up. Thank goodness he managed to catch himself because there was a pretty big drop-off AND thank goodness it was the zebra and not the cheetahs! Luckily no one saw our little incident!

Garage Sale Part Two

Whoohoo! The garage sale is over! Altogether, we made about $1000. That includes the profits for the boys, my parents and my neighbors. My portion was about $425 which will be used for something really fun......new garage door openers! Isn't that awful!? Ours are original to our 1975 house and both are broken beyond repair. I will be so happy to have working ones when it's 10 degrees or pouring down rain and I don't have to get out of my van to open or close the doors.
Usually when you have a garage sale, you come away with some good stories about your customers. Some people try to bargain you so much that it is insulting. We really didn't have any of that--probably because our prices were dirt cheap to begin with. I'm pretty sure we sold a whole lot of stuff that will show up on ebay or another garage sale, but that's o.k. Our goal was to clear stuff out. I admit to having major tinges of sadness when all the Little People toys sold. I loved those--probably more than the boys did. I felt like I was getting rid of every vestige of their early childhood. I suppose it's inevitable. Probably the best story is that on Friday, Parker, Jack and my dad set up a lemonade/cookie stand in the front yard. A family came along with a little girl about Parker's age and she was gorgeous. I mean really, really beautiful. She had olive skin and long black wavy hair. She was kind of making eyes at Parker and he took advantage and sold her some lemonade. On Saturday, the family came back. She was looking around for Parker but he was still asleep. We told Parker that she had come back and was looking for him and he blushed three shades of pink. He is wondering if maybe she will go to his school......hmmm.......at least he has good taste.
I'm going to take some pictures of all the things I "bought" from my own garage sale so you can see the "good crap" my sister has. (All weekend, the boys kept saying, "Aunt Tracy has really good crap.")

Our Own Little Pujols

Parker has been playing in the end of season Pinto baseball tournament. They won their first game and played today to get into the championship game. They were playing an undeafeated team that beat them by about 15 runs the first time they met. They played their little hearts out and ended up losing 19-18. It was such an awesome game! I haven't been this excited about a sporting event since I was in college. Parker made a few good defensive plays and hit a homerun! (An infield error induced homerun, but a homerun nonetheless!) You might notice the big red stain on his pants. He slid into home and tore off a scab. He was tough though, just got a bandaid and went back out. We are so, so proud of this team. It's so great that they learned at this age that winning truly isn't everything--that sometimes just playing your very, very best is even better than a W!

Garage Sale

My sister and I are having a garage sale today and tomorrow. We feel like we are practically giving things away. I keep picturing my stuff showing up on Rhoda's Thrifty Treasures party! I keep telling myself that I must purge my stuff that I've had for years and years so that I can bring new thrifty treasures in. I had fun buying a lot of my sister's stuff. A lot of other people did too because she made about $400 today--and that is with just home decor stuff. No big ticket items. I sold my crib, my bed and some big Little Tikes stuff and I'm at just over $300. We are both pleased but we still have a lot more to get rid of! If you are in MTZ, come on over to Fawn Ct. and check it out!

An Ode to Scratchy Taggie

This is "Scratchy Taggie" also known as "Scratchy". It is Jack's best friend. When he was born, a friend gave us a real Taggie with Jack's name embroidered on it. He started using it when he was about 4 months old and he loved it. Unfortunately, it got lost somewhere in St. Louis. (I just know that Taggie is sitting in some lost and found box somewhere.) For a while my mom and I were going to make our own taggy blankets and sell them at craft fairs. However, the Taggie people planned for that and have some pretty strict patent laws on their side. So we ended up with a lot of Taggies. For some reason, this particular one is Jack's favorite. There are other clones of this one, but Scratchy is the best. It is named scratchy because fleece gets pretty rough after 1000 washes.

That is his favorite ribbon on Scratchy. It's silk so it's much softer than the grosgrain ribbons on it. Some of the silk ribbons that were on it have been chewed or just plain worn off.

I just wanted to capture those sweet little hands on his sweet little blanket. I often wonder how much longer Scratchy will be held in such high regard. I hope it's a long, long time.

We banished the blues!

Last month I blogged about PARKER'S BLUE ROOM . It had been driving me crazy for a long, long time. I FINALLY finished it up today. Parker and I had some heated debate about what color the room should be. He wanted red but I'm thinking that in a boy's bedroom it might lead to some kind of crazy color-induced behavior. When he drinks red Kool-Aid he acts like he's hopped up on crack! Don't studies show that red promotes passion? Not necessary for an almost 8 year old! Then he wanted camouflage. He really meant that the walls should be painted camo. Ummm.....no. So we agreed on a shade of tannish green. Except that when I went to get the paint (good old Walmart Colorplace, in case you wondered) I decided to go a shade lighter than what we agreed. I came home and put some up on the wall and Parker flipped. He said it was too yellow. I didn't even tell him that it wasn't what he picked. He knew. He's no fool. So we went back to Walmart and I begged the paint guy to do whatever he had to to make that paint darker and greener. It took some finagling, but he did it. Happy Parker. Relieved Mom. And you know what, the little rat was right. It did look better. On our way out of Walmart that night, we found these camo comforter/shams for $30 per set so we went ahead and purchased them. Wouldn't have been my choice, but I'm trying to let those kind of details go so that I can convince him to do other things. Like the license plates! I've had the plates for at least 5 years and have been dying to use them. (There's a story to how I got them but I'll save that for tomorrow.) He finally agreed that it would be cool after seeing it on the 0h-so-awful Drake and Josh. Haven't seen it? Lucky, lucky you!

Anyway, welcome to Parker's new and improved room. This is the view from the door. I know the plates look dirty, but I promise they are clean--just beat up. I tacked them up with upholstrey tacks.
I don't know about the red sheets because I think it looks a little Christmasy, but they are staying for now. Also, the license plates aren't as shiny as they appear to be--they are just picking up the reflection.

Hey Tracy, do you recognize these shelves. I got them from her garage sale pile that is sitting in my garage.

Parker didn't want to part with the paper dolls that I made him, so I just painted the frame.

Look Trace, there's another of your cast offs! This thingy is taking the place of a nightstand.

The plaid, metal breadbox on the bookcase holds all of my precious mementos of Parker's life--like cards, baby shoes, etc.

Here's a close up of the thingy. Thanks Tracy!

And I think this is my most favorite thing of all. The window mistreatment! (Thank you, thank you, thank you Nester because without your edict to go forth and "mistreat" I would not have had the inspiration or guts to go ahead and try this.) I'm sure I'm not the first person to do this but I personally haven't seen it done. It came to me when I was trying to think of something cool for the window and I was THRILLED when I counted and saw that I had enough plates to do it. Parker loves it and so do I. Amazingly, it isn't nearly as heavy as it looks. Old license plates are much, much thinner than new ones.

I just wired them together through their conveniently place holes and then taped the back for added support. The blue tape is the first time I did it, but when I hung it, they were a little wonky, so I went back and taped every seam. I hung them from the curtain rod with 2 inch binder rings.

So, there it is. I'm happy and more importantly, Parker is happy!

I thought I would go ahead and add the story of how I came to have all these plates. My parents enjoy going antiquing and going to auctions so I put them on the hunt for old license plates. They would find one here or there, but they were usually a few bucks each which would end up being pricey for how many I wanted. My mom mentioned my quest to my aunt who just happened to know that one of my cousins had a box of old license plates sitting around. It was in a whole box of junk that she bought at an auction. So.......she gave them to me. They were exactly what I wanted--old, colorful and a little beat up--and best of all, they are all from Illinois. I also used some newer ones that have special meaning--like the first plates I had on my car and my dad's Veteran plates. We went to an antique mall last week and I saw several boxes of plates but they were pretty pricey. ***Edited for a great idea. Parker just came up with a fabulous idea for another use for license plates. A headboard! You could just tack them right onto the wall behind the bed and have yourself a very cool and unique headboard. I'm mildy concerned about his interest in home decorating but totally amped about his good idea! Now Jack is working on ideas for his room.....hmmm.....this should be interesting.