Thompson Family-Life

color trends in our home

With all of this house-hunting and daydreaming of a new space to decorate, I've been looking around our present home trying to figure out what my identity truly is when it comes to decor. What I really like, right at this moment and what I might change since I'll have the advantage of a clean slate when we move. This little ranch house of our's has lent itself well to a homey feel. Lots of handmade touches, vintage and kitsch. All of which I still love, but I can't help but want to introduce new things into our decor - a new feel.

The houses we've been looking at are of course much larger, with higher ceilings and lots more wall space to work with (not to mention light! Glorious natural light). I can't help but dream of big white walls supporting pops of bright saturated color throughout the decor. I was looking around the house and noticed a trend in colors that I seem to gravitate towards.

The vintage bedspreads, sheets and curtains were all thrifted recently. I love the geometric pattern on the curtains. They're nice and long and will make a nice accent for the new house. I like that the pattern is subtle enough so that they won't be too loud for a room and I love the texture. I'm definitely leaning towards warmer tones for our new home, so I'm happy with the mustard and yellow palette. Who doesn't love yellow? It's so happy!

I love vintage florals and definitely plan on including them, but I'd like to balance them out with the more bold, clean, graphic accents that I love in Scandinavian design - something that I haven't been able to pull off quite so much in our present home (other than my studio!)

I bought the lamp this weekend at an antique mall. It wasn't cheap but it was a great price for such a great find. Really good vintage lamps are hard to come by cheaply, so I'm happy with what I paid. And look at the colors! That same turquoise, tangerine, yellow combo. Even the little Fisher Price bus I thrifted has the same colors.

I'll have more home inspiration I'll be sharing with you this week because I have it on the brain. We look at 6 more houses this week so you know I'll be keeping you posted if anything goes down!

P.S. Be sure to check out some weekend blogging I did (to make up for the crickets chirping last week) here and here.

kentucky derby party inspiration

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We were invited to our very first Kentucky Derby party! I've secretly always loved the idea of the Derby, all of the women wearing their fabulous hats. As soon as I got over my initial excitement of being invited, my joy was soon replaced by "Oh crap. I have to wear a hat!!"

I'm not one of those people that looks good in hats. No matter how hard I try, I just can't pull off hats. I just look silly. And now that I have hardly any hair, if I wear a hat it will cover up the little hair that I have! So I've spent a lot of time over the past couple weeks looking online at hats. And vintage hat inspiration. Here's a sample of what I've faved over on Etsy below. I realized that most of the ones I liked were velvet. There's just nothing like vintage velvet. Yum!

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I thought the idea of wearing a headband type fascinator would work well with my hair since it doesn't cover up a lot. Although some Etsy shops do take returns on vintage, I didn't want to deal with shipping anything back if it didn't work, so I decided to look locally so I could try them on. I found two hats today at an antique mall that were reasonably priced. I couldn't choose which one I liked more, so I got both. I'll have to take pics of my outfit once I get it together. I'll of course have to pair my vintage hat with a vintage dress, so I'm sure the hunt for that will commence soon!

Have you ever been to a Kentucky Derby party? Have you ever been to the real thing? Do tell!

reuse those leftover plastic Easter eggs & an update

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Ok, so you might not have large "L'eggs" eggs, but you definitely have small plastic Easter eggs hanging around the house, right? I know we do. Our boys are still working their way through their candy. I came up with this tutorial last year and thought I'd share it with you again in case you were looking for a creative way to reuse those eggs instead of tossing them (it's a shame that most of these eggs can't be recycled! I always look for that little triangle with a number inside).

These vintage-style Bullet Planters are perfect for your child's dollhouse (or YOUR dollhouse, ahem. That is how I've used mine!) They are easy to make and just super fun.

So, wow! I'm sorry I've been MIA this week. I'd like to just write this week off and start new on Monday, 'kay? It has been one of those weeks. All of us have been sick (minus Campbell, knock on wood) with horrible sinus problems and I think a virus because Ethan and I were having the same non-allergy symptoms like cold-sweats, etc. (fun, I know). Luckily Ethan is between jobs (he starts his new one April 30th) so we could take turns being utterly pathetic and taking naps while the other could watch the boys. This week has been a sinus-induced-foggy-blur.

We've also been deep in the house-hunt. We looked at 6 houses yesterday and will be looking at more on Monday. Again, it's great that Ethan has this time off so we can look together. The fact that he got this other job is a big reason we're moving (we want to be closer to his new job) and we just need more space desperately. 

It's been 14 years since we bought this house (our first and only!) so things have changed quite a lot. I have to admit it's super-exciting, the idea of having a new space. Now we just need to survive this whole house-looking-buying process. It can be grueling and hopefully there won't be any heartsickness if we lose out on something we love (you home-owners know what I mean.)

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Ethan's new job is really exciting and could open up some other opportunities for us in the future, in the next few years. There's a lot of overseas work to be done, and it's always been on our wish list to live in Europe one day (for a few years at least) and this job could open some doors. Needless to say, we're focused on the here and now, but the idea that this opportunity could possibly be made a reality one day is an incredibly exciting one.

The group that Ethan is working with is based out of Vancouver so he will be traveling there a lot. Our hope is to possibly spend 4-6 consecutive weeks up there (all 4 of us) during the Summers, so that is super exciting as well! I've heard nothing but amazing things about Vancouver so I'm beyond thrilled to get to spend some time up there. (we won't make it up there this Summer since we're planning on moving!)

I'm also working very hard on a big project behind the scenes that I hope will go live, end of May sometime. It's a lot of work but very exciting as well. I hope to give you guys some sneak peeks in May sometime and get the buzz going. ; )

This year is already proving to be a year full of changes. Good changes. We're following through with a lot of things that have sat on the "to-do shelf" for a long time. 2011 was a year of - not much in regards to accomplishing goals. It was kind of a dissapointing year, honestly, so it's nice to feel like we're making a lot of really good, healthy changes for our family. When you've been in the same space for 14 years (that is a long time!), it's just time for a change of scenery, physically and emotionally.

So that's an update on the homefront. If you read through it, I appreciate it and you are to be commended. ; )

Are you doing any house-hunting of your own?

Have a lovely weekend!

geocaching on the coast

I know I've mentioned geocaching several times here over the past month or two. If you'd like to learn more about it you should check out this website dedicated to it. I'd heard about it randomly in the past year or so and at some point Ethan started researching it and got completely hooked. It has become his main hobby! Which is nice because it's a very inexpensive hobby (we always seem to choose the most expensive hobbies... beer brewing anyone? doll collecting? photography? remote control cars? can you guess which ones are mine? ; )

The exciting part about geocaching is that it's truly an activity that every single person in our family LOVES. That is rare my friends. Especially me being the Mama surrounded by boys. And it's something you can literally do anywhere! There's probably a geocache right around the corner from you. We knew we wanted to find some on our trip to St. George so we hopped on our bikes, road around the island and went treasure hunting! It feels like this great adventure. : )

(now you know where Campbell gets his ear-holding-habit. I caught Ethan in the act above.)

So, here's my very first geocache! It turns out that I have quite the eye for finding them! Ethan was totally impressed. I think it's because of all the practice I've had from shopping at thrift stores and junk shops - I'm able to spot gems instantly (I know you treasure hunters know "the eye"). This one was super small, inside a film cannister tucked inside the bark of a palm tree.

Each geocache always has a log where you sign in. So cute. This is what geek dreams are made of. This little one was rolled up inside the cannister.

There are usually little treasures left behind inside for the kiddos (and for the big kiddos). The rule is that if you take something, you have to leave something! So we have a little stash of fun things we keep on us when we're geocaching. There are always things for girls and boys which reassures me that girls like to do it, too!

The log books are the most fun to look through. Some go back many years! Some people have stickers they use as their "sign in" or even stamps like the one below. Ethan started telling me about all of these cool customized things that serious geochachers have made to leave behind and I'm totally geeked out to make some that represent our family! We have an anniversary coming up and I told Ethan I'm theming out his gifts all about geocache. I'm totally doing a custom stamp.

And some have custom business cards. Love it.

This one behind the sign was pretty cool. They had decorated the plastic container with shells. Um, cute.

This one was a special geocache because it had a "travel bug" inside...

It's a little plastic whale toy with the travel bug attached to it. If you take it, you're supposed to take it to another geocache location, so we brought it to Atlanta! I'm really excited to do one of these when we go to the Netherlands and Belgium this summer. I'd love to take one over there. You enter the code in so that the person that put it out into the world can see where it is! You can set a goal for your travel bug by stating where you want it to end up.. how great is that? We want to create a travel bug and see if it can make it across the world.

This one was under a boardwalk.

Check out this guitar pick with a geocaching logo on it that we found inside.

One can always use a Lord of the Rings bookmark.

Another one under a boardwalk.

  Here's the little gadget we use to find them. It was a little steep on price, but that is the most expensive item we've bought for this. You technically don't even need one, you can use google maps, etc. But it definitely makes it easier! I love this girl's business card tagline.

I saved the best for last, this one was amazing! Cooper and I drove over to Apalachicola by ourselves so we had a Mommy-Son adventure, just the two of us. Ethan was totally jealous because he stayed back at the house with cranky-pants Campbell and missed out on the best geocache of our entire trip.

 

Cooper and I must have walked a few miles to find this one. We walked and walked and walked! It would've been a better idea to drive at some point, but we were both determined to find it. That really is the funnest part of the whole thing, the hunt! We first stumbled onto this...

It was a replica of a Vietnam memorial that is in D.C. Cooper actually recognized it from the trip he took with Ethan last year. It was really amazing. The cool thing about lots of geocaches is that they often have a history lesson to go along with them, or something new to learn.

We thought it must be hidden near the memorial, but the GPS took us over to the historical home right beside it.

This one had a dollar bill inside. Which was pretty dang cool in the eyes of an 8 yr. old. : ) I feel like I'm already storing away all of these great memories that I'm creating with my boys. If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it for a great quality family experience.

I'll be posting again about a little survival-geocaching-kit we're putting together and I'll keep you posted on those customized items I'm going to design. We're trying to think of a family "symbol" we can use. Ethan visited an Army surplus store today and came home with some ammo boxes that we're going to turn into our own geocaches to put out there. To say we're excited is an understatement.

Do you geocache? With your family or alone maybe? Tell me about your experiences! Any tips?

nautical

While away last week, we drove to Apalachicola every day from St. George Island because it was only a 15-20 minute drive and it's just the most charming little town right on the bay. The shops are an eclectic mix, the seafood is fantastic, the historic buildings are beautiful and the view of the bay is so pretty with all of the weathered fishing boats all lined up. You definitely feel the maritime history as you walk through the town. It's astounding to me that we've never visited this treasure of a find only about a 6.5 hour drive from us! Better late than never though, right?

While walking around the city with Cooper (on our geocaching adventures) we checked out this shop called The Tin Shed. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but it's quite impressive on the inside! I thought it was a junk shop, but soon found out that it was an extravagantly themed nautical shop. I've never really been into nautical themes in decor, because they are usually executed in such an over-the-top sort of way, but I have to admit, there were some really cool treasures in this shop!

The best part is when you walk outside into their courtyard, it's something immediately reminiscent of The Goonies. And as a child of the 80's and a girl that grew up on this movie, I was so giddy with excitement! And WISHING that Ethan could be there to enjoy it with me because I knew he'd understand my Goonie-freakout.

The pirate and skeleton statues were admittedly a bit cheesy (something you'd find greeting you at a seafood restaurant) but they totally made you feel like you were walking right onto a pirate ship. They were surrounded by all of these authentic maritime treasures such as old nautical flags and banners, a gigantic wall covered in pastel colored buoys, tons of beautiful (and huge!) glass ball floats in netting. It was really all something to take in.

The wall of styro buoys was my favorite. It was amazing! The colors really did it for me, all chalk-like and crackled in pastels.

I think the addition of some of these buoys in a boys' room would be so great. I'm not sure they were for sale (trust me, I looked for prices!) but honestly, I'd hate to break up that fabulous wall.

Who knew someone could fall in love with a wall of buoys? : )