Oceanic Pen Pals

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I love the idea of pen pals. 

In fact, when I was pretty young about 11 or 12, I met a boy over the internet and we exchanged addresses!!!! I KNOW!!!!!!! SO not ok these days! My Dad was ahead of the times with online games for kids (not many of my friends were on the computer all that much) and I came across one with a chat room! We stayed friends for a couple of years writing (pen and paper) about where we lived and what we were up to.

Perhaps this is why I enjoy blogging so much. 

It's a friendship/acquaintance with people from all over the world who you wouldn't normally come across.

Not only do you get to chat back and forth with them through comments, but

we share pictures, styles, clothing, and lifestyles with each other. 

It's kind of like modern pen pals.

I read this incredibly sweet story this morning and realized that the news,

though generally a downer, can be uplifting and lighthearted too, at times!

"In this Friday, March 11, 2011 photo Daniil Korotkikh shows a letter he found in a bottle on a beach at the village of Morskoye on the Curonian Spit..."

Here's to hoping that you find something fantastic, exceptional, and unexpected this week!!! 

xoxo,

Nicky

Something in the Air

The sun is lighting our evening skies much later than even a couple of weeks ago.

The kids on our street have all started playing in their front yards and scooters, bikes, and toddling toddlers fill the sidewalks with wonder and laughter! 

It seems as though this happened over night! 

My girls and I have begun riding bikes quite a bit more...

like this trip to the post office (and many like it)

We brought Banana along for this ride. She keeps up pretty well with the bike

(the bike that belonged to my hubby's little Jr. High self. Still works like a charm)

Whenever I ride to the post office I end up singing, "Ricki, don't loose that number....

...send it off in a letter toooooo yourrrrrself" hahah

My little one and I rode bikes to pick up my older daughter today.

We got there early and watched busy bees laboring over flower after flower.

We spoke of honey making, green spiky balls that turn to puncture vine,

how to whistle with a piece of grass...

and did I mention the weather was far more than ideal today?

Perfect for planting our salsa garden and some other goodies we like to eat/cook with.

Piano lessons for them, and guitar for me! It was a fantastic day indeed!

Happy Tuesday!!!

xo,

Nicky

Stuck in my head

I've had this song stuuuuuuck in my head and have played it over and over. 

(there's no you tube version of it so click on the album "SWEET SOMEWHERE BOUND"

and click on the 8th song down, "Miss Madeline (3 ways to love her)"

Depressing, dark, and fantastic...though I picture myself as a sunny being, 

I'm always drawn toward sad songs!

It's littered with A minors (my favorite guitar chord), D minors and E's! 

These are naturally the chords I fiddle with when I first pick up my guitar.

I've been listening to Jackie Greene at home and Leonard Cohen in my truck. 

Can't get away from that album either. My favorite of his songs is "who by fire"

followed by "So Long Marianne"

Oh yeah... this songs covered with A minors too. I think I'm seeing a trend.

Whenever songs like these get stuck in my head I start playing them A LOT on guitar!

What music is stuck in your head right now? 

I'd LOVE to know!!!

Etsy Update!!! Come take a peek!
Stripey Neckerchief

Persian Plum 1970's Flowered Short Sleeve Button Up

Child's Strawberry Red Swing Me Sweater, Boy or Girl

An Apple A Day, Handmade Girls 70's Prairie Skirt

Happy Sunday :D

California Cotton Fields

While getting ready for my guitar class the other day, I decided to throw this on.

You can't tell from the picture very well, but the collar is huge on this vintage button down shirt 

and the pockets are long rectangles, sewn on the outside! Gathered sleeves at the

shoulders and wrists! It's quite different.. 

and its purple! (I don't wear a whole lot of that color...but I was feeling it that night)

shirt, belt and boots = estate sale finds

jeans = forever 21

For some reason, I was feeling a bit like Emmy Lou Harris wearing this outfit :D 

Maybe just wishful thinking ;)

This video doesn't show it but she is one fearless tambourine shaker, not to mention the

complete radness of her and Gram voicing up together! 

Guitar class is going ok... guess it's all just memorization, learning those notes/strings! 

I need my brain and fingers to become closer pals!!! 

Happy Thursday, the weekend is so close I can smell it :D 

Paul the Octopus

The March stitch along over at Feeling Stitchy is this lil' guy!

Octopus holding two needles and has apparently stitched his name and appliqued a couple

of footballs/soccer balls! One talented fella, that Paul!!!

The stitch along is still in full swing... feel free to jump right in!

So, why the footballs (soccer balls- for us Americanas)??? And who is Paul???

Glad you asked!

When looking up information on octopi, 

I found out about a tentacled mollusk prophet named Paul. 

"Paul the Octopus (reportedly hatched January 2008; died 26 October 2010) was a common octopus from Weymouth, England. Paul lived in a tank at a commercial attraction, the Sea Life Centre in Oberhausen, Germany and became internationally famous after his feeding behaviour was used to correctly predict the winner of each of the Germany national football team's seven matches in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, as well as the outcome of the final.

The prediction process was designed so that Paul was presented with two boxes containing food in the form of a mussel, each box marked on the outside with the flag of a national football team in an upcoming match. His choice of which mussel to eat first was interpreted as indicating his prediction of a win for the country whose flag was on that box. Selections by the octopus were correct in four of Germany's six Euro 2008 matches, and were correct in all seven of their matches in the 2010 World Cup. The octopus also correctly selected a win for Spain against the Netherlands in the World Cup Final on 11 July by eating the mussel in the box with theSpanish flag on it. These predictions were 100% (8/8) correct for the World Cup and 86% (12/14) correct overall."

info from Wiki

The tea towel by Aunt Martha's (bought at JoAnn's craft store)

and the transfer pencils below are also Aunt Martha's

(one of my first Etsy purchases along with a skirt I talked about on my last post)

And here, I give applique my first try! The pink stitch on the soccer ball is to hold it in place

I used the back stitch for the outlining of Paul's name

and the split stitch for Paul

I assumed that you should snip the edges (like you do when sewing??!!)

It seemed to work :)

Applique soccer ball

(and note the pink around Paul's name... that's from the transfer pencil. I read that it will wash off...

we shall see! Fingers crossed!)

So this one was fun, but a bit "off" for me since I'm not really into octopi (though the pattern is adorable) and not really into football/soccer! And the colors are all boy-ish- hahaha

But, ya know??? It was fun anyhow :D

You been gettin' crafty lately? I'd love to hear about it!

Happy Saturday :D

Foto Friday

Wanted to share a few shots that bring bliss! 

Breakfast of Champions:

"avacado toast" with lawry's season salt, coffee and water

vintage juice glasses

Saving old but fantastic items from estate sales (this is before I scrubbed it)

Vintage gingham dresses that were going to be for sale

in my Etsy shop... but are now going to be Easter dresses :D

This cute lil' face!!!

And this cute lil' face too :D

My first Etsy purchase :D A CUTE green skirt (more pics later)

Celebrating Ola's birthday with wine cheese and some of my favorite people!!!!

Fencing with Ola's decorative sticks. She was teaching Rose and I... her

dad was an Olympic fencing trainer!!!

New garage sale skirt- feels like summer :D

 Fish tacos with the most amazing "rub" recipe!!!!

Cinderella, playing music in the morning :D

This little critter who has found her way out and over the fence more than a 

billion times. Elsa made this sign on the 4th day Molly was missing... before we could scan a picture of her, we got the infamous phone call from a 12 year old girl who said, "um, we have your dog..."

When hubby went to pick up Molly he asked, "So did you get tired of her?" She said, "She cried all night!!!" HAHAHHAHHA even if we wanted to give Molly away, we couldn't. She's such a challenging pet!!!! But we kinda love her anyway!

Happy Friday!!!!

Have a wonderful weekend :D

Be Still My Heart...

So good.

I heard that first song at my friends house the other night and my attention

was immediately turned to "who IS this??!!!" 

Man, I love their sound and instruments... something about a banjo that makes 

my heart smile :D Along with fantastic harmonizing voices. Good. Good!

Had to share... :D

ah ha... and one day later I find out they are the "irish sounding band" that I really
dig on our local radio station KROQ (but never knew who they were).
 Furthermore... I looked em up on KROQ and entered 
a contest to go and see 'em, cause they're playing with
 Old Crow Medicine Show during their
railroad tour- DUuude... sign me up! London? Yes, please!
Think my new job will cut me some insta-vacation time? Probably not! HA
Loving the new job by the way. Operating Room is Glorious!
Hasta~

Happy Customers Make My World Go 'Round!!!

I am so pleased to share this photo with you!!! 

Rocio purchased this dress from my Etsy shop and gave it a little love. 

There were a couple of small holes on the front (note the cute heart patches she sewed on) 

and the sleeves were coming unhemmed. It sold for a fantastic price, and I'm very excited it found a new home with such a lovely lady!!! :D Thanks Rocio!!!

I will be starting a little Etsy appreciation page on my blog for happy customers :D

Stay tuned!!!

Happy Monday!!!

During the chilly weather...

Here are a couple of staying warm outfits from the cool weather we've been having we were having. It was 85 degrees today!!!!!! Yikes!

anthro dress and scarf

vintage boots

sweater?

thrifted dress from old navy

coat kenneth cole

tights ?

shoes old navy

And due to a request from my little one

 who stayed home sick the other day, 

I made homemade chicken noodle soup (cause what sounds better when you feel sick?) 

We were running low on noodles so I decided to give matzo balls a whirl. 

They turned out fantastic!!! 

I saw this box in the grocery store the other day and began daydreaming about Jerry's Famous Deli,

a place we used to stop by when I was little (for a bowl of Matzo ball soup with a dill pickle spear and toasted bagel chip) before a game of bowling. The bowling alley is attached to Jerry's.

So much goodness all in one place! 

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Just mix in eggs, oil, and the matzo mix. Stir it up and refrigerate for 15 minutes. 

In the meantime... chop and cook onions, garlic, carrots, and celery (plus spices).

Boiled matzo balls- look how they've grown!!!

Add em to the soup (for a bit to soak up the flavor) and WA LA!!!

I just did a post over on the Vintage Fashion Team about more retro hair... check it out if you so like :D

I was also interviewed for our team blog. Just some extra reading material to suck up more of you precious computer time- hehe. Stinkin' computers! Gotta love em though!

Happy Wednesday... the weekend is comin' soon!!!

xx,

Nicky

Mr. Turtle, How Do You Do?

We celebrated Baby Rex's 1st Birthday last weekend. Naturally I thought I'd make a craft for a present! I love receiving homemade gifts- they seem so personal! :D I pulled out an old embroidery patter that had a turtle on it! Now if you've read along with me, you'll know that I keep on trying persistently to sew- and can manage. I always say I don't like it... but I keep doing it- so either I subconsciously love to sew or enjoy torturing myself? Which one???

Here's the sweet birthday boy at his carnival birthday party. Check out his crafty Mama, Jessica's blog for more at House of Habit :D

 At this point I'm pretty much desperate for a transfer pencil but don't have one (just ordered one from Etsy- my FIRST purchase!!!! And chased it immediately with a skirt that is SO cute... hope they're coming today in the mail.

If you don't have a transfer pencil (to iron the pattern onto your fabric) you could just stitch over the tracing paper onto your fabric.

 Then you'll want to very carefully peel it away from your stitches. Use tweezers for the fine little pieces that are stuck.

So this should be simple, no? Just sew the appendiges, turn right side out, stuff and pin.

Wait... the legs go which direction? The right side?? but folded in? How does the top cloth fit? Where do I put the legs so when I flip it right side out they'll be facing out???

In kicks brain-hurt! 

which results in hair pulling!

 Picking a green velvety fabric was a fabulous idea... until you want to sew on it because it has a freakin' mind of it's own. It literally "runs" away from the sewing machine! Oops.

Flipped the little guy right side out and his little leggies were sadly dangling and there wasn't any way to patch him up that my brain wanted to deal with, so I made another one and did a zig zag stitch around his shell. Not how I wanted it, but I imagine for a one year old boy, with two other brother's, that he'll be used as a bean bag or something to that nature- lovingly so, of course.... so here is Mr. Turtle and his friend that needs a trip to the ER- STAT :D

Sun bathing :D

Here's my friend Jessica, the talented and creative party creator... and here we are in her carny photo booth- fully equipped with moustaches, hats, crowns, popcorn boxes and bow ties! All the necessities! 

Here's my little Carny Family :D

Hope you're having a good weekend! I went estate saling yesterday and tried to promise myself and make my mom promise to not ask me to go to one next weekend. I'm floating in vintage clothing- it's bulging out the closets and windows. Need to get it in my shop and sold to fellow vintage clothing lovers!!! 

xo,

Nicky