Thompson Family-Life

Happy Halloween! & the cutest Mario & Luigi

This little vignette is a work in progress. I thought my fabric pumpkin collection looked cute on my semi-recent vintage desk find. The blonde painting/portrait is something I found this weekend. The orange background looked nice with the pumpkins, so I'm keeping her there for now. She will probably end up in my very girlie studio. The other portrait on the very top shelf is one I found when we traveled to Louisiana recently. She's so pretty!

I want to paint/add patterned wallpaper to the hanging shelf. So that will look very different when I can find some time to do it! I'm planning on covering that door on the right (our coat closet) with a vintage floral bed sheet pattern I thrifted recently.

I added some masks to the new girls from my printable that you can find here. Keeping things Halloweeny Festive for as long as I can! Counting down the hours!

And here are some pics I took of the boys this weekend before they went to a Halloween Party. I think they picked the MOST popular costume for any boy between 4 and 13 years old this year because I saw no less than 4 other Mario's today at their school. : )

I guess it would make more sense if Cooper was Luigi since he's taller. But this is who they picked! Don't mistake their serious poses above for dramatic photography... They were goofing off too much and wouldn't take any good photos for me and this is how they looked after I threatened they wouldn't get to go to the party if they didn't shape up. Ha! (insert Evil-Mom-Laugh here)

Ok, they're happy again, tweaking their moustaches...

They're cute even through they're little rascals! I have one more creative photo idea with them in their costumes that I hope I can pull off before Trick-or-Treating goes down tonight. Here's a post with ghosts of costumes past.

And last, I wanted to show you this AMAZING photo of my friend Heather's daughter, Penelope, wearing Heather's own costume that she wore in the 70's! That her mom handmade! how awesome is that, that her Mom kept it? Look at the fabric!

Are your kiddos (or you!) all set for the big night tonight?

Also, if you missed my post earlier, I'm having a 25% off sale on the remaining items in my Online Yard Sale! click here to get that coupon code!

Have a great night!

Online Yard Sale 25% Off Sale! & some spooky flick inspiration

Thank-you to everyone that purchased something from my Online Yard Sale last week and this weekend! Your orders are going out today! :D

Take another 25% off the remaining items by inputting the coupon code "25yardsale" at checkout! I deleted all of the sold items, so everything that is left is available!

I'll be adding more items this week including vintage women's clothing!

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In other news, HAPPY HALLOWEEN! :D

Ethan and I have been trying to keep the Halloween theme going this week/weekend by watching lots of spooky flicks. Here are some that we've been watching:

 

The Hitchhiker episode of The Twilight Zone. I had never seen this one, but Ethan said it was one of the TZ episodes that really stuck with him as a kid. You just feel unsettled after you watch it. SO GOOD.

"Revenge" from Alfred Hitchcock Presents. I've actually never seen an episode of this show (i know... !!!). This was really good. And I love hearing the opening monologue from Alfred himself. What a cheeky guy.

Bell Book & Candle. We borrowed this from my Mother-in-Law (she has amazing taste in movies!), but failed to watch it in time. So she took it back. To watch for Halloween. Ha! Love it. This movie is so amazing on so many levels. And Kim Novak is exquisite in it. I saw it for the first time last year. 

Dial M for Murder by Hitchcock. I hadn't seen this one yet. So so good. And it was actually my first Grace Kelly movie. Crazyness, I know.

We're continuing our first watch of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series. We are on Season 7! And I have to say, I'm sad that it will be over soon. The above artwork is actually from a comic book that is part of a continuation of the series. I just loved the artwork. We're only a couple episodes into Season 7 so I'm very intrigued about what the heck is going on with Spike. So love Spike. Buffy of course goes well with the Halloween theme.

And we've of course been watching a lot of this, too. : ) Whoa! Last night's episode!

I'm sad that Halloween will be over soon! What spooky movies/shows have you been watching?

*Online Yard Sale live!*

You can find my Online Yard Sale here!

I can only list 25 items at a time at Big Cartel with the plan I've signed up for.. so there's lots and lots more coming. : ) The shop will be open indefinitely, but grab things while you can since everything is more or less priced to sell. I do plan on discounting items frequently because... well I want them gone! ; ) So be sure to check back often over the next few weeks.

*oops! just realized the doll dress in the top left corner is coming in the next round! not available quite yet...*

Note on shipping:

I have the shop set up to not automatically allow for combined shipping discounts, BUT if you buy multiple items, I will certainly try to package them together and if the cost is $3 or more less than what you paid for total shipping, then I will refund you via Paypal.

I have mostly everything set up to be shipped USPS Priority Mail since I'm printing shipping labels from home (I have so many packages to mail that I couldn't take them all to the Post Office). But the pricing on these items is bargain pricing, so you save that way!

Sorry, no International shipping at this time.

Hope you find something that you fancy!

gettin' festive & some vintage Halloween inspiration

(Is it just me, or does that bottom little pumpkin look like he's shedding a tear?)

We're a bit late in the game around here, but we finally hit a pumpkin patch for the boys to pick out their pumpkins and Ethan picked up this little crew of small pumpkins and gords from the Farmers Market. The introduction of orange around the house immediately makes it feel fallish. It's nice. I'm even blending in with the fall hues lately...

(My favorite vintage blouse. I want to ask my Mother-in-Law to deconstruct it and make a pattern from it, I love the shape so much! And um, roots much? I haven't died my hair in probably 4 months. Yikes!)

I've been trying my hand at crocheting a spider web. It dawned on me the other day how perfect crochet would be for making a big spider web, and after looking on Ravelry, my hunch was right! I found this pattern and started and finished one in a night. I still need to hang it. It was fun to make!

Every year we decorate the front porch with some cheesy Halloween decorations. I mean, really, those are mandatory, am I right? Especially with a house full of boys. As much as I love creating fun vignettes for the holidays, I always keep myself in check and remind myself that even though my kids probably appreciate my love of vintage kitsch and aesthetically pleasing displays (ahem), they really want to see the cool stuff, like skulls, and big plastic spiders, and fake spider webs and gauzey ghosts.

This weekend I took them to Michaels and let them pick out any silly, tacky Halloween decoration they wanted. Cooper went with the skull & ghost, Campbell went with the purple cat and glitter skeleton.

We had some lights, a giant spider web and a Happy Halloween banner left over from previous years. The boys love it. Cooper gets very into the placement of things and will even do the step-back-really-far-with-one-eye-closed-thing to make sure everything looks just right. I don't know who he gets that from.

And speaking of vintage halloween and kitsch, here's a little round-up I put together to get you in the spirit.. 

Sources: (starting in the middle and then from the top left, around clockwise)

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

And check out this amaaaazing die cut set. Wow!

And this cute little crew all ready for trick-or-treating...

Have you decorated for Halloween? I want to see! Link me up in the comments!

bedspread progress, online yard sale & bicycle love

I was feeling very good about my progress on this project until I saw there were only six and a half octagons in this photo. : ) BUT to my credit, they are BIG. Like 12 inches or so big? Maybe bigger? Anyhoo, I'm working my little fingers away when I can find the free time, so I'm happy with that. I heart these colors.

I F-I-N-A-L-L-Y got my bootie in gear with my Online Yard Sale! Something I've been wanting to do for soooo long. (sigh) I went back and forth on whether to do this or not. I've donated my fair share these past few months, but some things I just have a hard time taking to my local consignment store or charity store. Because I know folks like you might be interested in THESE things! (I mean, I can't imagine the average-Joe is going to get much excitement out of a Shinzi Katoh Bento Box.) ; )

These online sales are a lot of work, but they're also a lot of fun! I'm enjoying curating a shop full of odds and ends that I've collected over the years, but I just don't have use for any longer (or I didn't use them in the first place! Many items are brand new.) Just pretend that you're driving around on a Saturday afternoon hitting up all of the Yard Sales you see - but this time you don't have to set foot in your car.

Just wake up, keep your jammies on and shop.

With the holidays coming up, these are a great way to save some money, and get a head-start on your shopping.

Here's a sneak peek:

I hope to have my first "round" of items up for sale by the end of this week. There's a lot to list so I'm going to do it in 2 or 3 parts.

Lastly, I got a new bike this weekend! This is something I've wanted to invest in for a couple years now. The boys have bikes, but I didn't. I'm looking forward to getting off my lazy butt and excercise a little. And also those bike rides at the beach every summer.

We bought this one at our local bike shop and it's technically a men's bike. But the style is sort of in between a boy and girl style (from what the sales person said). I liked it more than the other retro style Schwinn's for women. It felt a bit more substantial I guess? And I love the color - it's a pretty caramel color, a color I can live with for a long time. I already started browsing the interwebs for crochet patterns for my wheels and my seat. I hope to add some color that way! There are so many fabulous accessories now for women and their bikes, I can't wait to start adding to my wish list.

I love this crochet wheel cover pattern so much! It's in Dutch though. :*( I would pay or trade with anyone that could translate this for me! I know the terminology can be tricky when translating. Anyone??

Here are some patterns from Ravelry (with English version!):

And some cute bike seat covers:

heart pattern

stripey pattern

Do you have any fun bike accessory links? Please share!