Thompson Family-Life

Online Yard Sale is open & a coupon code!

See everything here!

Use the coupon code "10yardsale" for 10% off!

my heart catches

There's so much I could say... about this shoot.. about the sillyness.

What I bribed them with so that they'd take some pictures for me (Dunkin' Donuts)...

I don't want to weigh these down with mindless words.

Selfishly, I just want to revel in the adoration I have for these boys.

And how my heart catches in my throat when I see how they look at me through my lens.

And how I can see my reflection in their eyes.

And how they interact, how they hold each other's hands, a hand on a shoulder, another around a waste.

They kiss and hug each other every day in between the bickers and fights.

I can say for a fact there is no lack of affection in our home.

Or lack of "i love you's" - every. single. day.

And all at once I realize just how blessed I am, how blessed they are to be so loved.

How blessed they are to have each other - brothers.

How grateful I am.

They are totally and completely my heart.

Online Yard Sale Peek

Online Yard Sale sneak peek. Check back later this week. : )

Pretty Chair Makeover

This chair was a serendipitous find on Craigslist. Serendipitous because I don't stalk Craigslist that often (definitely not as much as I used to). Also lucky because it was one of those random word searches. One of those last-ditch-effort kind of word searches that you know won't bring up anything fabulous, but you just have to try. You know, because it's rare you find what you want at the price you want when you search "Mid-Century Vintage Chair". The second you put "Mid-Century" in that search, you know it's going to be $$$. So you have to hope that someone will list something that doesn't really know what they're selling. 

I know you know what I mean. ; )

And not that this is some kind of awesome, Mid-Century find that's worth tons of money. It looks like it might have been an outdoor chair? I'm not sure. I think she did put "vintage" in her listing title. Even when they put "vintage", people want to jack up the price.

But it was 10 bucks!

And let's talk about THAT SHAPE. Swoon!

I had to have it. I saw the potential in what it could be because let's face it, that black was ewww. I pulled off the black vinyl on the cushions to reveal the original peach vinyl. Of course, peach. As awesome as vintage peach is, I had something else I wanted to cover it with.

I bought this vintage vinyl tablecloth a while back wanting to use it for something else that fell through, and I knew it was perfect for this chair. I haven't done much reupholstering but this was a super easy project. I went to the art supply store Binders (which is INCREDIBLE - I'm contacting them to hopefully photograph the store soon) to buy spray paint (a brand that my friend Katherine Instagrammed a week or so ago, the color choices are A-MA-ZING)... They literally have a full wall filled with a rainbow of colors. It was dreamland. I was a good girl and only bought what I needed. I have some other home decor projects up my sleeve. I used up all of my peach color for the chair.

I applied a coat of clear matte spray for durability. I originally wanted to keep this chair outside, but it's just too pretty. I'm going to use it in our blue formal living room, that will be white in a week or so. I'm loving this green/peach combo and that's the palette I'm going with for that room. No more blues. 

I'm in the process of pretty-fying our front porch. We for the most part neglect the outside of our home. Hot-lanta summers and wicked mosquitoes keep us inside most of the time (which is really sad). Our home is completely surrounded by huge, old pine trees, and just about every other tree that ever existed. Atlanta is a very GREEN city. It's beautiful, but with it brings tons of bugs and mostquitos. :*( 

That said, with Fall around the corner, I'm hoping to get outside more (when those pesky skeeters die) and enjoy our front porch, and that means making it pretty. 

After some hard thinking, we're putting off new-home-buying for another year or two (a bit longer than what we originally decided) and with that, I told Ethan that I really wanted to make this home something I love in the remaining time that we're here (we will pretty much be forced to move in that time frame because we aren't happy with Cooper's option for Middle School).

I had kind of given up on our home since I thought we'd be moving. The house started to feel like a large storage unit - just a place holder. 

I'm really excited about the changes we're going to make while we're here. Changes that will benefit us when it's time to put it on the market. We found someone that will be painting our "formal" living room, the boys' room and our hallway white. We need all the brightness we can get since our home is dark in general, so the white will be welcomed.

They are also going to be painting our kitchen cabinets white and I can't even begin to express how excited I am about that. OVER THE MOON. Wanna know why I don't ever show photos our kitchen?

Because it's hideous. Courtesy of me. Can you say royal blue cabinets with crackle paint treatment and stenciled Spanish style motifs on the doors? 

Oh yeah, a big thank-you to the '90's for that. :P I just loooved those faux finishes.

Yuck.

They are going to paint our cabinets and kitchen (EVERYTHING white) for such a great deal it's kind of amazing. They were referred to use by a friend so, crossing fingers they come through.

We also have a Mexican tile backsplash (we were very into the Spanish/Mexican look back then because of our travels) behind the stove that Ethan installed many, many years ago that we're going to paint over. We didn't want the mess (and cost) of smashing out the tile and replacing it and it's such a small area, we did some online research on painting it. It will either be painted white, or a pale minty blue. I'm going to design some vinyl decal motifs that we'll apply to some of the tiles, a cute retro pattern. I'm really excited about the possibilities. And the great thing about that is we can pull them off when it's time to sell the house.

This is all going down the first couple weeks of September. As you know, with contractors, you just never know how it's going to go. So, hopefully it won't take too long to complete. I can't wait.

Making the porch pretty is also part of embracing where we are NOW. I have some macrame hanging planters I've been hoarding and we're going to try to not kill any plants this time.

Any recommendations for good porch plants that like shade and don't require a lot of upkeep? We're a family of black (death) thumbs over here.

If you want to follow along as we make all of these changes and for some in-progress photos of projects I'm working on, you can follow me on Instragram @KitschyDigitals.

And speaking of Kitschy Digitals! I'm slowly but surely adding my own products (as well as new ones coming soon!) to our site. You can see those here. I will be uploading a lot more over the next week or two.

Ribbon artwork in first image from this freebie kit by Moorea Seal.

P.S. The boys and I did an art project this weekend that was super fun. Will share soon. Here's a little peek of Campbell's creation.

Amstel Bikeride & visit to Ouderkerk aan de Amstel - Netherlands

After our bike ride to the Miffy shop, we walked a few shops down and got some food at a little Italian deli to take with us on our ride along Amstel River. While we were at a brew pub a day or two earlier, we ended up chatting with an American couple living in Amsterdam, and they recommend we ride our bikes along the Amstel. So we did! It was a beautiful ride. It was lovely to get out of the city and see all of the country homes and experience a slower pace. It is absolutely *gorgeous* in the country and we were truly impressed with the beautiful homes along the river. So dreamy.

We heard there were a few windmills along the ride, and you can't visit the Netherlands and not see a windmill! We parked our bikes in front of the first one and had a little picnic. The food was amazing. I took the opportunity to take a couple dolly pics. The area was so idyllic - straight out of a storybook!

We ended up in Ouderkerk ann de Amstel, such a sweet little town. It was in the middle of the day and we saw the kids let out of school and ride their bikes (of course) home. It's hard not to imagine raising your kids in such a beautiful place. We walked around, found a geocache, got a cup of coffee and rode our bikes home. It was such a memorable day. Even that time I wiped out on a gravel road. Yeh, that was awesome. (Did I mention there was a tour bus sitting right where it happened? Yeh, that.)

See more posts about our trip to the Netherlands and Belgium here.