Fun in Front of a Wall!

This week, I had two helpers for our "Little Vintage Style" photos.  I bribed them into doing this on our way to the park to play!  We stopped at the grocery store by our house, and drove around back to find a good backdrop.  The guys taking care of the lawn gave us some strange looks, but the kids thought it was fun!

 "Okay, everyone smile!"

 "Now do something silly!"  Notice how Avery is trying to mimic big brothers' arms!

"Now everyone jump!"  I actually was able to catch one photo where all of their feet were off the ground all at once!

 

 Those are everyone's best jumping shots!

Avery was wearing a sweet vintage sailboat top that I found thrifting last week.  As you can tell, it will probably only be worn once, since it's pretty small for her, but it was too sweet to pass up!

She simply loves doing anything with her big brothers!

Catch the other cute kiddos here and here this week!

New Wall Arrangement

I've been working a bit on our great room lately.  It's a difficult room because of the layout, and I've never really been pleased with our furniture arrangement, etc.  This wall here is the easy wall- the rest of the room is the difficult part.  It's still in process (for example, the white table will be painted soon), but yesterday, I decided to do a rearrangement of the wall over our sofa. 

You can see the way it used to look in this post here. I didn't dislike the old arrangement, but I was just ready for a change. I don't have much of my own artwork hanging in the house, and these pieces were just stacked in a pile in my studio.  You may recognize the pieces from the "Get Your Paint On" class I took, or from my blog header!

On the opposite wall is our fireplace, which has this piece of artwork over it.  So I wanted some art that would work well with that piece from across the room.

 

So far, I'm pleased with the way it's all coming together, but as I said, it's still in process.  Maybe I'll do a reveal here once I'm all done.  It will probably depend on whether I like the end result or not!

Tomorrow I've got another cute "Little Vintage Style" post coming!

Guest Posting...

Noah is quite often my little helper when I do photoshoots with Avery.  He's great at getting her to laugh, and she loves to mimic his poses.  He was especially happy to help with these photos, since she's wearing her Noah's Ark dress!

I'm guest-posting over at Hart & Sew today.  Hop on over to see more of this photoshoot, as well as all the other cuties in their vintage clothes!

The Two-Headed Baby...

That title caught your attention, didn't it?   Well, it's actually just the beginning of my next project- a topsy-turvy doll from a vintage pattern that I'm attempting for Avery's second birthday.  If you'll remember, I made a doll for her first birthday last year, and that was a real labor of love!  Vintage patterns just are not that easy to follow, I'm finding.  But, this one seems to be going well so far, so I'm crossing my fingers it will be snag-free!  The hair scares me though, and this baby's got two heads of it!!  Maybe I'll cheat and put a bonnet on one of them... 

Anyway, I'll show you the results here when I'm done!

 I also wanted to show a few more goodies I found while visiting my parents, as well as show how I'm displaying the things I already showed.  Above is a squeaky rubber puppy I found.  He's rather large (maybe 9" tall), and his eyes open and close.  So cute!

At the same shop, I also found the vintage doll dry sink (above) and matching dresser (below).  Score!  Of all my collections, I think I love doll dressers the most! 

Yes, those are all my Ginny dolls from when I was young! 

For now, I took out the second floor of the dollhouse, and put these dollies inside.  I sort of love the mismatched scale of the "huge" dolls in the house!


 Check out that portrait over the fireplace!

To fit my "new" stove and fridge, I had to do some rearranging in one of my bookcases.  Whereas I used to have two drawer units holding little embellishments, I consolodated them into one, making room for my vintage kitchen.  I rather like the cramped look of it all!

Hope you're all enduring the heat these days!  Thank goodness for air conditioning!!!

Props, Pigtails, and Pics

I didn't have a lot of time to do a long photoshoot with Miss Avery today, so I just grabbed a couple props that I hoped would hold her interest for a few minutes, and drug it all out into the backyard.

The props did the trick for a few minutes, and then she got distracted and headed back inside...

 But I did get enough shots to show off her cute vintage ensemble.  The dress is one from a thrift shop, and I added the colorful leggings so that the pale yellow wasn't quite so baby-ish.  After all, she's almost two now!

Dress: vintage    Leggings: Circo from Target (thrifted)     Shoes: Angel brand (from Ebay)

See the other cute kids here and here!

And on a different note, here's a little artwork.   I haven't had much time to be creative lately, but here's a spread from Avery's journal.  I just love her little pigtails, and doing a silhouette of them was the perfect way to showcase them!!

And, finally, just for fun, here are a couple of "Then & Now" photos. Last July, I took the first photo of the kids at my mother's house. So this year, I made a point to take a similar shot. If I can remember, I'll try to take the same shot every time we visit (usually once a year). It will be fun to see how they change!

Little Sailor Girl

 We took a little trip to a "Bog Garden" this week, and it was really gorgeous!  Lots of pathways to run on for the kids, and run they did!  It was difficult getting any shots of Avery, since all I could see was her back most of the trip!

 She's wearing a little vintage sailor dress I found thrifting.  It was a little too short for just bloomers, so I paired it with some lavender shorts and her navy sandals (which seem to go with everything!).

  The boys had a fun time, too, and obliged me with one smiling photo.  These days, I can usually only get away with one "Okay, smile!" photo from my oldest, so I'll take what I can get!

Be sure to check out the other stylish kids here and here this week!

North Carolina Loot

Well, I've exhausted most of the antique shops near my parents' house, and here's what I've got to show for it!  Lots of great stuff that I'll have to find room for back at my house!!

I'm most excited about this dollhouse.  Whereas my other recent dollhouse purchase was for the front of the house, this one is for the inside of the house.  I'm not too crazy about the red brick exterior, but oh, those colors on the inside!!!

Swoon!  Such gorgeous colors!  This is actually a pressed board house vs. a tin one, so as you can see, the second floor's a little warped.  But I'm actually considering taking out the dividers altogether, and just hanging it as a large shelf.  We'll see..

And here is my other pile of treasures. A couple more dolly beds, a couple more dollies, a tin refrigerator, a pink stroller, and a few more miscellaneous goodies.

Funny enough, the stroller is the exact same style as this one I already have, but in pink, and missing the canopy.  However, I prefer the pink to the red!

Everything I purchased was really inexpensive, too!  I think the most I spent was $19 on the dollhouse, so I'm excited about that as well!

I'm here for a few more days (poor hubby is working this whole time...), and I may try to squeeze in a few more shopping trips if I can.  I'll let you know if I find anything good!

P.S.  Several of you have asked recently how I edit my photos.  It's really simple.  I use Picnik.com, and under "Create", I apply the "Cross Process" effect at around 50%.  Sometimes I mess with the brightness or contrast or other things, but the "Cross Process" is what gives that nice aged look!

Little Vintage Style

The kids and I are in North Carolina visiting my parents while my husband's back at home this week.  It means lots of fun for the kids with Grandma and Grandpa, and lots of new thrifting and antiquing opportunities for me! 

This top is one I found while we were here, and it's adorable!

I paired it with little denim bloomers, as well as her navy sandals and navy bow.

We also paired it with tons of North Carolina mosquito bites!  Poor thing is really bit up!!

Oh, I hope those curls stay around as she gets older, but I fear they may just be baby curls...

I'll be back at some point to show you some of my finds while I've been up here- I got some fun things at an antique mall, and I've still got more shopping to do before I leave!

Be sure to check out the other well-dressed cuties here and here!

Little Vintage Style

I love this little dress I found.  It's just the sweetest, most feminine little thing with the smocking and ruffled collar!  The brand is Rosey Kids.  We paired it with aqua flowered shoes (don't know the brand) and a little aqua hairclip and bracelet.  She looked sweet as can be all day long!

Go visit Hart & Sew and Mama Loves Papa for more pics of little ones in their cute clothes!