Thompson Family-Life

It's *One Buck Wednesday!*, a Nursery Tour & a *rad* craigslist find

The Pretty Felt Feathers digital kit is on sale today for ONE DOLLAR!

You can't beat that price. : ) Find it here.

Go here to see some pretty ways you can use these feathers... here's are a few examples:

Also, I posted my most favorite Nursery Tour yet on Ohdeedoh today from Dutch designer Nina Van de Goor. You don't want to miss this one!

Ok, so I have to share this find. Tammy shared this with me on Twitter yesterday, and if I lived in or near Charleston, I would totally buy these. I think they're a stellar price and what look to be in pristine condition (although the colors are a bit day-glo in the photos.. thinking they aren't that bright in person, ha). I showed it to Ethan and he said he would totally let me buy them. WHAT?!? killing me. So, if you live in or near Charleston, go buy these.

making things pretty

When we first bought this house (not long after we were married in 1998) we were so gung-ho on gardening and making our yard look pretty. I mean, that is what first homeowners love, right? The chance to make a home their own. And gardening was at the top of my priority list back then.

But where we live, there's this crazy hard red clay to deal with and then we had all of those horrible hot summers and a really bad drought.. and.. well, we just kind of gave up. We just didn't have that coveted green thumb. And it was a lot of money down the drain. And honestly, we weren't very good about maintaining anything, especially with both of us having full-time jobs. 

Then we had kids.. and you know, it's just hard to find the time.

We did plant some flowers last year in one flower bed in front of the house (that is about all we have time to maintain) and the boys loved helping me out with the prepping and planting. They were so excited to help us out this year.

Buying flowers gets pretty expensive and we are never good at planning ahead to save money with bulbs and seeds. But our little flower bed looks pretty and we actually did think ahead this time and planted some wildflower tubers and seeds. Hopefully we'll see some more prettyness in the summer.

The boys had a ball.. they didn't really "help" so much but gathered earthworms and dirt instead, which was fine with us. That's what boys are supposed to do right? By the end of the morning, we were all FILTHY, but had a pretty flower bed to show for it.

AND...

Guess who moved into a strip mall near us? ... HOME GOODS. I had always heard of people talking about that store and when I saw one open very near to us, I was curious to check it out. While most of it isn't my style, they had some really cute garden stuff. The turtle (that reminded me of this turtle, although obviously not as cute!) and mushroom (with the bird on top) I found at Home Goods today. The vintage dutch girl and boy I blogged about a while back. Some helpful bloggers informed me that they're supposed to be KISSING, so now they are properly placed. ; ) The mushrooms are from Target.

I've also been doing a lot of pressure washing on the house and on the driveway (there's something quite satisfying about cleaning things with a pressure washer!). The house is really shaping up after mooooonths of neglect. It's been so wonderful getting outside so much lately, and I have to admit to a tiny bit of envy of those people that get to work outside all day. Working at a desk is kind of soul sucking.

Hope you all had a lovely Easter! Here's the boys with all of their Easter loot. It tickles me that Cam is wearing his Halloween shirt.. a bit of a holiday identity crisis there ; )

so flippin' awesome

Just saw this in giddygiddy and it indeed made me giddy. :D

Apparently a Windsor Newton (paint supply company) ad from the 60's. So *awesome*.

And by the way, if you've been wanting to try out one of my digital kits but haven't taken the plunge yet, you can enter to win your FAVORITE Kitschy Digitals kit over at Digi Lovely (a blog created by the team at Jessica Sprague). You have until Sunday night to enter.

the dollies & Tybee

For some reason, every time we go to Tybee Island or Savannah, I always end up bringing my dolls. It's like a tradition. I think it's because these places always prove to be such relaxing and laid back vacations, it's easy to just roam around and take my time finding fun photography backdrops. Both of these places are very populated usually, and the week we went was especially busy because it was Spring Break for a lot of folks, so I'm always a tad edgy when I break out my dolls and start photographing in public.

For the most part, I know that I'm going to take photos no matter what, but I do tend to not get eye contact with anyone because it just makes me nervous. (ha) There's something about feeling like someone thinks you're a bit kooky and crazy, even if they're a stranger.. but that is what I tell myself every time: "You'll never see these people again".

For the most part, people really don't care and if they do, it's just a general curiosity, but they're so wrapped up in their vacation, I don't think they really think anything of it.

I have to point out that GORGEOUS set that my dear friend Heather made for me (the platinum blonde is wearing it). She plans on making more clothes for Blythe to sell so I will keep you updated on that if you are a Blythe lover. The patchwork fabric is vintage, something her Mother kept from her childhood. I feel quite honored to have something made with it! Thanks Heather!

My Licca doll is wearing vintage Skipper.

Cooper tagged along with me to take these photos and he's always such a good sport about it. On the long walk back to our spot on the beach, he was thinking up new names for all of my new dolls. He was very into it. The boys are both very sweet about the dolls, as they recognize it's "Mommy's Thing" and that they're special to me. It's seriously sweet. One of Cooper's vocab words this week was "beauty" and the sentence he wrote using the word was "Mommy and her dolls have beauty."

Ha!

That is quite the compliment lumping me in the same category of beauty as Blythe. ; )

Thank-you for all of the kind thoughts for my dog Sherpa in my last post. And for the compliments on the Easter Vignette. Luckily, nothing has gotten smashed yet (Cooper loves throwing random balls around the house) and the tree branch hasn't fallen.

::crosses fingers::

I hope you all have a lovely Easter weekend!

Easter Fireplace Vignette

I really, really enjoy creating these holiday vignettes on the fireplace. Ever since we (finally) painted it white, it's such a lovely backdrop for these. Of course, I always end up waiting til the last minute and then the arrangement stays up until the next holiday. (Case in point: I JUST took down the Valentine's arrangement yesterday.)

But they are fun and I've always loved how Ethan's Mom always decorates her home with her little kitschy chotchkies for every holiday. She did that for Ethan when he was growing up and now the boys seem to love it. Our decorations might lean more to the "things-that-Mommy-loves" category (wink) but I have to imagine they like things being festive. And I hope one day they will look back and appreciate it that we made things festive around here. Cooper in particular always seems to be interested in what vignette I'm going to create as each holiday approaches. He often plays Art Director. : )

These photos aren't the greatest.. this room very seldom gets good light (like the rest of our home) but you get the idea.

Most of the items are vintage from Ebay or Etsy but I have to say my most favorite find was the Bunny blow mold (yes, they are called that) I found at Goodwill for around two dollars. He's especially cute lit up!

You can see past holiday vignettes here, here, here, here and here.

Today has been full of allergist appointments, and adapting to our sweet dog who suddenly went completely blind over the past week. It's been so sad... old age is just sad. She also has arthritus all over her body and a huge tumor on her thyroid. Poor thing has just gone down hill FAST over the past six months or so. But she's hanging in there. Still eating and drinking a lot which is good.

The blindness (which is called SARD and there seems to be no known reason for it happening which is so strange) has been a change we're ALL adapting to. Having to walk her out with a leash to prevent her from falling down steps, etc. She gets so confused and just roots herself in one spot outside because she doesn't know where to go. But the Vet said that they adapt really well to the blindness and as long as we don't move furniture, etc around, they memorize their surroundings. She's still quite clumsy though. Can you imagine going fully blind overnight? It breaks my heart.

For a family full of allergy sufferers, she's really been the ideal dog for us. She doesn't complain or whine. She's independant and not needy. She's just been the best.

Have any of you dealt with SARD with your dog? Would love to hear your experiences.