Traditions

Another busy summer has come, and is nearly gone, and because I've been a little behind on the ol' blog, I wanted to get a post up here before another month has gone by. {Leslie- This one's for you...}

Years ago I saw the idea in Creating Keepsakes Magazine to have a "Back to School Fashion Show". So every year, for the past seven years, we've kept the tradition alive at our house. I'm pretty sure the girls have grown several inches since school got out in June, which meant all new clothes for those longer legs and arms. I guess the who part of the gig I'm having a bit of trouble with is just the fact that this is year seven... which means I have a Middle Schooler this year. You try your best to savor every moment along the way, however it still seems like the whole of life slips by entirely too fast. So here's to another year of savoring life's little moments before they're gone.

{Emma's favorite outfit}

Another mile-marker this year hit when the girls grew out of Gymboree {sigh} and into the beginnings of the junior's section. It's a bigger transition for me I think, and definitely a little tougher to find cute yet modest clothes for girls. Any store or brand recommendations for modest junior/big kid clothes would definitely be welcome! I think we did pretty well just picking through the selection at a variety of stores. Ahhh, the new and exciting adventures that come with each new age bracket!

{Torrey's favorite outfit}

I watched the fog roll into the valley this morning carrying it's reminder that the end of summer is nigh. The last few days of season to soak up the sun and relax with a good book and a cool drink will be exchanged for cozy sweaters and reading by the fire. But life is full of drawing the line between things, seasons and stages and eras... and I'll leave with a quote by Chesterton:

“Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.” 

-G. K. Chesterton

duck, duck, duck... giveaway!

we went to my niece's 10th birthday party today... and much to her (and my sister's) surprise, one of the kids brought her a baby duck as a present! i'm not sure if she gets to keep it, or if it's going to live at her friend's house as a foster-duck. either way all of the girls had a great time snuggling up to the new baby duck.

and yesterday, emma and i wore ourselves out (hardly!) checking out a town-wide sidewalk sales in our town. a bunch of the little shops in town had great sales going. the owner of character traits even generously donated some items for warm beach camp's women's retreat. i also picked up a couple of scarf headbands, a purse, and some oilcloth type wallet things by tinymeat that i'm planning on making into some purse mini albums. i even picked up an extra one for my friends here on my blog!

this cute little vintage shoe card holder could be yours... check out the bottom of the post for more details! :)

i found these tea towels at another shop just down the street called bungalow bay. i loved them all, but only got the blue crown one. i'm sure i'll be back to add to my collection!

then we headed down to poppyseeds, one of my regular vintage shop stops. i picked up a milkglass plate, a hat and some funky frames for torrey's bedroom.

and of course, no stanwood area shop hop is complete without a stop at the spare room vintage flea market. we ended up with a little pink bowl and a mercury glass bird for my kitchen... and a very fun day out with my baby girl.

so now for the tinymeat cardholder giveaway... give me a sec, i'm trying to think of something fun... wow, stan and i are sitting here trying to think of something creative, but we're both coming up with pretty dumb stuff. lol. ok, really, here's what we came up with... answer either one of the following to be entered:

stan's idea: if you were to write a book about yourself what would the title be?
noel's idea: 5 adjectives that best describe you

ps i totally think mine is easier, although stan's is a cooler question.


stan's answer: the exhaustive concordance of happy little accidents
noel's answer: short, loud, sarcastic, smiley, shutterbug