{through the rearview} old photos new life

throw back thursday

or

flash back friday.

either way…

either day…

people post older photographs on instagram.

it might be a year, or 10, or 30.

about a month ago, i was cleaning (on thursday, i clean), had to put something away in the attic, and pulled out two photo albums.

one my sister made for me.

the other was one i just put together with photos my mom passed along to me.

the kids loved looking at them.

and, to do anything to procrastinate (did i tell you i am a procrastinator?!), i posted a couple on instagram.

it’s fun.

and, you know what it reminds me of?

that i had an awesome childhood.

that is why i do what i do for my children.

it is fun to have fun.

to go on adventures.

learn something new.

play with friends and family.

i’m going to use these photos, and many more, to write some posts about my childhood.

i think it will be fun.

and, it’s fun to have fun.

home is…being reminded of my childhood.

cock-a-doodle-do at four in the afternoon

Just checkin’ in.

During the winter months I want everything cozy and warm, but it was starting to feel heavy and cluttered.

So, I’ve been rearranging.

Spring cleaning.

Lightening things up a bit.

I’ll share it all with you soon.

For now, a few photos from {m}iphone…

He’s getting used to the empty space in his mouth and alreay has another loose tooth.

She  has such a fun personality. Singing, dressing up, making up stories.

Put this back up on the chalkboard in the family room…it is kind of “dog themed”.

A few of my favorite things found a nice spot in a vintage crate on the wall in our kitchen.

Lorelai is writing her name at school.

A jar full of little people in the playroom.

We have ants. The kids are both mesmerized and terrified by them. They will hold snakes, walk up to big dogs, feed goats, but ants…it might have something to do with the ants that were all over me at the refuge over spring break.

The last of the camellia are blooming and falling to the ground. There’s a big mess to clean up. I wish they lasted longer.

She let me put a braid in her hair. I love it when her hair is out of her face.

It was a nice morning to share my coffee with Odyssey. Then it got windy and rainy. Then sunny. Then rainy. Then sunny, again.

Trader Joe’s had bunches of ten daffodils for $1.29. I bought 5 bunches. They brighten up the craft table.

 

Mail makes me happy. This afternoon we pulled into the garage just as the mail man stopped. I got an unexpected package from an instagram friend. Homemade jam and this beautiful granny square garland. I absolutely LOVE it!

This oldy, but goody dowloaded with my other photos. I decided to share it because everybody else is sharing photos of their newly hatched chicks. I want chickens, but Ryan isn’t so keen on the idea. Maybe next year. For now, I’ll visit other peoples chickens and be happy that our neighbors have a rooster that wakes us up every morning…and all day long.

He’s cock-a-doodle-dooing now…it’s 4pm.

I would like to read up about raising chickens and I know there are a lot of you out there who know about it, so if you have some good recommendations please let me know!

home is…just chicken in on a Wednesday afternoon. {get it?!}

 

{in the shop} on instagram

So, this morning, I posted a bunch of vintage Fisher Price toys on Instagram.

Not on my @homeiswhatyoumakeit profile, but in my instashop @coltoncadence.

This is where I post colton+cadence updates and, this time, posted the items directly for sale in my Instashop!

So, if you are on Instagram, you can claim an item by commenting with your PayPal e-mail!

If you aren’t comfortable with that, you can still visit the colton+cadence on etsy where there are a few vintage Fisher Price items in the vintage playroom section of the shop.

And, use the coupon code “solucky15″ to receive 15% of your purchase until St. Patricks Day!

home is…feeling a bit lucky today.

{collecting} vintage playroom

When I started thrifting less than a year ago I also started some new collections.

My collections are of items that I have always had a fondness of, but never knew how to find them…until I started thrifting.

One of my favorite collections is my vintage fisher price collection.

These toys come from the days of my youth. I am not sure I ever had any of them, nor do I recall playing with any of them (although I am sure I did at some point), but they take me back to when I was a little girl.

I say it is my collection, but it is really for all of us…as are most of my collections.

The toys fill the shelves in the playroom (remember the playroom…something I thought we would never have).

The kids, most days, will pull the vintage fisher price off the toy shelves before they choose any of the newer toys.

For me, I love…

…the simplicity…

…the graphics…

…the bright colors…

…it all just makes me happy!

I imagine that these toys will go into the attic (or my creative cottage) to be stored until my own kids have children of their own.

And, just like my kids do when they visit their grandparents in New York, they will play with the same toys that generations before them have been playing with.

When I come across duplicates of what we already have I put them into colton+cadence or post them for sale on instagram.

If you are interested in starting your own collection you can follow @coltoncadence on instagram or visit the vintage playroom section of colton+cadence on etsy!

home is…collecting something that makes you (and your home) happy.

they should make an app for that

Are you on Instagram?

I’m addicted and have been for almost 1-1/2 years.

You should download the app and follow me (@homeiswhatyoumakeit).

If not, you can still view my instagram photos on my new Instagram web profile!

You can click the link in the sidebar on the right to see any of my new Instagram photos on the good old inter web!

Also, have you heard about the new Afterglow app? It’s also addicting.

Download it.

Did you vote today?

They should make an app for that.

home is…cool apps.

a kitchen full of friends

This morning I hosted our weekly Friday playgroup.

It was our first playgroup since all of our oldest (except for Reece…he starts on Monday) started Kindergarten.

There were only six mommies this morning, but it still felt so nice to have my friends in my house talking, laughing, and supporting (there may have even been a few tears).

There were stories of hectic first mornings, continued struggles after a couple of days, and some super scary bus stories (that make me glad my little ones may not be able to ride a bus until middle school).

In the future, I am sure there will be stories of success, happiness, and new skills learned…but this was the first week.

We’ve had to change our timing to accommodate  new school schedules, and are thinking of adding in a monthly Friday Afternoon Happy Hour so the older kids (and husbands) can join us!

Our playgroup is evolving, as it has ever since we met each other 5 years ago sitting on the floor of a conference room in a building across the street from where all of our babies were born in the summer of 2007.

And, it is as much for us, as mommies, as it is for our kids.

Maybe, even more.

photos from {m}iphone

*photos from {m}iphone were taken using the Instagram app and put together in a collage using Picasa

home is…a kitchen full of friends.

{our home} the un-dining room

If you know me, you know I am always changing our house.

Always have.

Always will.

Mainly rearranging what we already have, because we don’t have the budget for major changes.

Although, the year that Lorelai was born (three years ago) we did make some major furniture purchases and changed out most of the carpet in our house.

Pretty much every room in our house got new furniture that year.

It was cool, but we also knew that the furniture had to last or “evolve” as our family needs changed.

And, for the most part, it has.

You can read my previous posts about some of the original changes we made here, here, and here.

This summer I made some changes to our living-room-turned-playroom-sometimes-guestroom…and the adjoining dining room, which I now refer to as the un-dining room (I think I borrowed that phrase from Megan and her Craft House).

I will do some more posts on the specifics of the changes, but for now here is a preview…

Our living-room-turned-playroom-sometime-guest-room is the first room you see when you enter our house…and it is completely open to and adjoining our dining room.

We do not have a breakfast nook in our kitchen, so we eat most of our meals in our dining room.

It has also been my main workspace and crafting area, so eating there when I was in the middle of some kind of crafting escapade was not always workable.

And, it was frustrating.

So, I moved furniture…and went thrifting.

I wanted a round table for the area…everything in the room was angular and the space needed some curves.

So, I added one.

I also added globes, embroidery hoops with fabric, and some new lighting.

We moved our old farmhouse style table to the area between the playroom and the dining room, which was previously open play space or filled by a train table that we donated to Goodwill. It is now used as a craft table/workspace for me and the kids.

This now leaves our dining room table open for meals…yay!

I will save the story about how the dining room table and chairs came to be for future posts.

{And, I hope to get some better photos with my DSLR…I used my iphone for these and the lighting was not that great…glaring through the windows or too dark.}

Stay tuned…

home is…happy spaces.

fun with a…

{capital F}

That’s what my youngest cousin had to say about our extended family’s trip to northern Idaho together.

I think Reece would agree.

Thanks to my other cousin, Greg, for inviting us all to celebrate with them!

It was definitely “fun with a capital f”!

Still going through the photos…I have them edited down to 989.

Post will be up next week.

Until then, a little FUN from our week back home…

photos from {m}iphone

{definitley}

home is…FUN!

tired…oh, and a giveaway

It’s been a long stretch of traveling for Ryan.

He’s tired.

I’m tired.

This stretch of travel has put him away 11 out of 15 days.

He’ll come home for one day, and then the kids and I leave on a road trip for a family wedding.

Lorelai and Reece are flower girl and ring bearer along with my sisters daughter, Sasha.

My mom is flying out to Portland to help me drive to Northern Idaho.

Ryan is staying in Portland to spend time with some friends who are visiting from the Boise area.

He will meet us in Northern Idaho sometime next week…at least that is the plan.

I’m looking forward to some celebrating, playtime, and fun with my extended family.

And, I’m hoping to come back home re-energized to end the summer…we still have a lot of our summer list left to accomplish!

photos from {m}iphone

and, a giveaway…

Who wants a mason jar pendant light?

I’m giving away the one I made for the tutorial.

To enter answer the following question as a comment below:

What do you do to re-energize?

Deadline is Thursday, August 2nd at 9pm Pacific.

Winner will be announced on Friday, August 3rd!

home is…looking forward to a road trip.

no balloons

For the first time in the five summers of living in this house we did not make it to the Tigard Festival of Balloons.

I love to get up early beginning on Friday morning and walk down to the park to watch the balloons launch.

Unfortunately, it was rainy.

Friday.

Saturday.

And, Sunday.

When my 5:20am alarm went off each morning, I listened for the rain, heard it on the roof, and went back to sleep.

Here are a few photos from years past…

And, you can see my posts from last year here and here.

It all worked out ok as baby girl woke up on Friday morning with a fever, so we spent the day lounging and fighting her fever.

By Saturday she was getting some energy back, so we headed out to goodwill while the boys washed Ben and took Odyssey for a swim.

We found a couple of treasures…

so, I have new projects to work on.

By Sunday afternoon, the sun began to come out…

These horses were out on my drive home from Trader Joe’s.

And, I was able to get out and enjoy my happy place a little bit.

We weren’t able to cross balloon festival off our summer list, but we’ll be working on some other items this week.

Stay tuned for a peek into our home later this week…

Oh, also…

Source: kellehampton.com via stephany @ on Pinterest

Kelle liked my yellow dress!

home is…no hot air, but lots of rain.