Add 'Cobbler' To My Resume

Grandma purchased some happy pink dress-up shoes for our girl. Problem was, when C tried to put them on, her foot wouldn't fit under the strap. She has the sweetest, pudgy feet. But, oh, how she wanted to wear those shoes!

Out came the scissors, 3/4 inch elastic, superglue and a needle and thread. Snip snip, glue glue...
Now we have a girl who is clip-clopping her way around the house.

As moms, we have many titles: Giver of Hugs and Kisses, Local Emergency Nurse, Composer of Non-Rhyming Jingles, On-Demand Narration Story Teller, Amnesiac, Senior Creative Food Consultant, Food Cajoler, Vicious Nightmare Repeller, Shepherdess, Tired Little People Carrier, Lost and Found Monitor, Amateur Ultimate Fighting Referee, Insect Elimination Technician, Last Minute Costume Designer, Laundry Stain Removal Specialist... and now, I may add Plastic Shoe Cobbler to my list.

Vintage Thingies Thursday: Bavarian Playhouse

This playhouse probably just barely qualifies for VTT. It's from 1983. (I know, that doesn't seem vintage, does it?) As a child, my husband lived in Germany for a few years. Just returning to the states, his parents bought this german toy playhouse. It remained in mint condition, in an unopened box, until about 2 months ago. My IL's had forgotten they still had it and brought the playhouse, er, bavarian pub, out of storage for their granddaughter. The pub has a lower level and an upper hall complete with mugs, dishware and a dog. Let's not forget the prince (with removable crown and shoes,) the cleaning woman and the feather-capped fiddler.

The charm of the building and the folksy figures tempts me to play again. I can hear the polka music now... it sounds like they're about to do the chicken dance.

Special thanks to my FIL for taking these pix the night before leaving for vacation.

For more Vintage Thingies, be sure to visit The Apron Queen.

I've Been Tagged...

by Vintage Mommy. She has a great list, btw. My job: post 7 random or weird facts about myself. Your job: Read, but don't be frightened.

1. In 6th grade, I paper cut my right eye. (I know, Ew!) One week later -the day I got my patch off- I paper cut my left eye while showing someone how I did it the first time. (Double Ew.)

2. As a child, I was determined that my family should win Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes. We did. 4th place. They sent me a black "Star of India" semi-precious stone as our prize. My parents had it set in a ring for me. (An unfortunate notable difference between 1st and 4th place.)

3. I collect postcards. Your vacation or mine, doesn't matter.

4. Many people have asked me if I'm from Minnesota because of my "accent" (don't have one, California born and raised.) Yet when I travel, I've been mistaken as french (I'm not) due to my russian-spy looking passport and driver's license photo. (Sample conversation: Do you like croissants? Yeah, you BETcha! Been to the Eiffel Tower? Niet.)

5. To further confuse my international-ness, I recently realized that when I talk to myself, I have a british accent. (Still not british and I've never been to the U.K.)

6. Leaf blowers drive me crazy. Just. Don't. Like. Them.

7. (Dieters please skip this one, it will just make you angry.) Food has very little impact on me (unless it's ice cream) and I frequently forget to eat. It just feels like a chore!

I must now tag others. They are: Miranda, Mary, Katie, Patty, Ma, Danielle and Jamie.

I Can Draw Stick People

Heeeeere's Little Birdie! Well, the new logo anyway. I'm just loving everything about it. Ana de Roux from etsy put this together. She's an amazing graphic designer. I emailed her some ideas with a few different pictures of trees and birds that I liked, then she gave me some samples. She let me tweak her ideas until I was happy. Ana had an extremely quick response time and was a delight to work with. Her prices are UNbeatable.

It was necessary for me to enlist her help. I can not draw. Well, maybe stick people. Actually, I can crank out a stick family that is stick-ier that you've ever seen. And their stick dog. But that's it.

Vintage Thingies Thursday: Shake It

We recently inherited these little germans. Cute as a button at 2.5 inches in height, they give us salt and pepper. The pair belonged to my husband's great aunt. She was an avid collector of s+p shakers with over 500 sets! The date is sketchy, but Hansel and Gretel (as I have named them) are believed to be from the 1950's. They're made by Groebel, W Germany. (There's a history of Germany's division here.) Since H and I have an affinity for german things, we took them on.

Since childhood, Husband and I have taken a keen interest in languages. H lived in Germany for 4 years as a youngster and one set of my grandparents spoke German. So, as a gift to H, I signed us up for a 6 week German course that begins tonight. Happy Birthday H!

Thanks to the Apron Queen for hosting Vintage Thingies Thursday each week. Be sure to check our her blog for more VTT.

Calorie Free Candy Corn

It's that time of year. Yes, the time where we start eating too much candy. Then this turns into eating too much November turkey, which then turns into what I call, the "December Snowball Eating Effect." (No one thinks I mean actually eating snowballs, right?) After thoroughly enjoying our holiday meals, we are then prompted to promise to diet and exercise in January.

Well, I ask you, do these candy corn reeeally look that harmful? Could they possibly cause all that trouble? Not these little guys. I've come up with the perfect, although somewhat less tasty, solution to enjoying candy corn this time of year. Clippies.

They're now available in my shop. They're the follow up to my "turkey dinner clippies" which didn't work out so well ;)

Vintage Thingies Thursday: Clip It!

Thank you to The Apron Queen for continuing Vintage Thingies Thursday. There are many other great blogs to check out by visiting her site.


My vintage thingy is from my mother. It's a sweater clip from her high school days. Recently, I purchased a sweater with no closure. A flash memory of this sweater clip popped into my head and so I called my mum. She still had it and of course, I could borrow it. Before the conversation was complete, she had given it to me. Thanks, Ma.It's probably from the mid to late 1950's. The clasps are covered in tiny little pearls. I love wearing it and would love to see more of them around today.

When I get the phone call from Charlotte, her grandmother's sweater clip will be passed on to her as well.

Just Another Day At The Office

(Photo courtesy of forbes.com)

When I was a little girl, I wasn't much about dolls. My friends would buy me Barbies for my birthday, but they never felt fresh air on their plastic little faces. I wanted to play "office". (There was no Michael or Dwight as I ran a one-woman office.) My happiest times were spent with outdated calendars brought home by my parents at the year's end, 3 ring notebooks, pens of all sorts and paper, paper, paper. (Maybe it was the beginning of Dunder Mifflin!) In fact, the play kitchen that my parents bought for me was used to store my office supplies. The orange refrigerator was my library and the olive green oven held miscellaneous files.

Why would I want to pretend to cook fake food and feed a bean bag baby? There was a broken blue phone with push buttons waiting to answered with "Landers Insurance Company". Yes, I was CEO of my own car insurance company. Landers was my 'business' name. I can still remember insuring my imaginary client on his 1979 brown Celica (see pic above).

I've worked in several offices since I was four years old. Several real ones. And I've met Michael (he was my boss) and of course, a Dwight. Even though I never made it into the glamorous insurance world carrying a briefcase secured with a 3 digit rolling combination lock, I'm happy. Maybe because now I play with dolls. In my office, er, kitchen. I make them using my broken blue phone, uh, sewing machine. It took me growing up to find out that dolls can be a lot of fun. Even more fun than a '79 Celica.

A special thank you to Thrift Candy for being my first esty customer. Missa is an excellent bargain hunter and has more style in her pinkie finger than I have in my whole body. I hope that Missa's daughter enjoys her new doll.

Mystery Revealed: Etsy Shop Open

Paviella is one of my latest creations for the unveiling of my new etsy shop! It's taken much more time than I anticipated to get everything into place, but it's up and running. I welcome your critiques of my shop and items for sale. Please stop by and take a peek ;)

Sing It: Vintage Thingies Thursday

Back again for another Vintage Thingies Thursday, sponsored by The Apron Queen. I recently picked up this little gem. It's the Everybody Sing Songbook: For the Home School and Community. The copyright date is 1930. I don't own a piano. And I definitely can't sing. But it still called to me. The book is chock full of classics. The first series of songs are all about America. I was sold.

I've never heard of "When The Bees Are In The Hive" but I think I'd like to sing it... ok, in the shower, but still.
There are also hymns and spirituals...

Then there's this priceless tune about an ailment.Guess they were running out of things to sing about. Or their joints just really hurt. When mine hurt, I'm usually not singing. Does complaining = singing somewhere?

And I brought it all home for 39 cents!

Do It Yourself Tracing Table

(Please forgive my absense, I've been working on something b-i-g. Details soon.)

Using my monogram book, I picked out this pretty letter for my daughter. It was actually a capital "E" that I changed to a "C". This little monogrammed shirt was started at the beginning of summer. Half way done, I put it down and failed to resume. Now, the shirt is too small for my daughter. Booooo. (They really do grow too fast!)

But, a nifty tip will come forth from this unfinished business of mine. If you're looking for a tracing table on the cheap, look no further. There are some great tracing tools out there, but why not save yourself $50? Personally, I don't have room to keep buying gizmos. Plus, I'm into the simple, easy and already-have-something-that-will-do. There's always the tracing paper taped to the window method. But, my tracing skills diminish as the blood drains from my arms.

Rummaging through my kitchen, I found these: a square pyrex dish and a click light. Put them together and voila! Dirt cheap tracing table. Perfect for embroidery, crafting, kids art, etc.

And who isn't looking for more ways to use pyrex?