Merry Kitschmas - Vintage Holiday Wreaths

Had fun making a few more kitschy Christmas wreaths! I bought the wreath bases from the 99 cent store and then hot glued vintage ornaments onto them.

Craft from the Past. Remember Shrinky Dinks?

Quinn is 10 this year and has a little posse of friends that he wanted to give gifts to this Christmas. He also loves to draw and I wanted to somehow incorporate his craftiness into his gift. I was at the thrift store and came across a new Shrinky Dink kit. Remember those from the 70s?! Quinn has this signature eyeball with bat wings that he drew a year or so ago and I thought it would make a great necklace using the shrinky dinks. So we gave it a go and he loved it so much we've made about 15 of them now. Yesterday he passed them out to his peeps at school and everybody loved them.

Sleighin' the Dragon!

I didn't have time this year to design a Christmas Card so I asked my 10 year old son if he would draw something for me. His only directive was to make sure it had a holiday theme. I am so so excited with what he came up with!! The Santa flying a dragon was entirely his own idea and I think the execution is fabulous as well! When he was done I scanned it into Photoshop - added a night sky and a Merry Christmas and just sent it off the printer. I can't wait to send these in the mail.

Breakfast of Champions. PB+H+DKB

So here's my confession -  I hate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I hated it as a kid and I still think it's super yucky. But I love peanut butter and honey sandwiches! I think a love for honey might just be genetic. My great grandfather - Hessel Tacoma - was a honey bee keeper and when I was a child, for breakfast, my mom would make me toast with our family honey and peanut butter. 

And so I have passed on one of my favorite breakfast foods to Quinn. 

And our secret to THE best PB&H (in our humble opinion) is:

1. Whipped Honey! that's a must - Trader Joes or Fresh and Easy have great whipped honey. It's just smoother, creamier and milder than regular honey.

2. TJs no sugar Peanut Butter. Cuz this kid does not need more sugar.

3. Dave's Killer Bread. It's organic, whole grain and non GMO. Plus it's packed with fiber and protein so they aren't going off to school without that energy they need. They have quite a few great varieties - but Honey Seeded Wheat was Quinn's hands down favorite. 

For more information on Dave's Killer Bread - check out the link below.

www.daveskillerbread.com 

Spooky Decor - Vintage Antique Halloween Home Decorations

Been busy getting my home decorating Etsy store ready for Halloween! Check out some of the spookalicious goodies.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ReVampSarahTacoma

Vamp up your Boudoir! Corset Lampshade

Just a quick project to spice up your bedroom with a little tight lacing.
For this project you will need - lampshade, ribbon, ruler, pencil, metal grommets and a grommet tool.
Using a ruler measure where on the lampshade you want the grommets to be and mark with a pencil. Then using the grommet tool create the holes with the tool/metal grommets. Then all you need to do is lace it up with a ribbon of your choice. Now you have a romantic lampshade perfect for your boudoir.

Antique Doll + Creepy Crawlies = DIY Spooky Halloween Decor

Been concocting some fun Halloween decor items for my Etsy store and house.
A pinch of vintage + a handful of creepy crawlies = a whole lot of spooky fun!

Awhile ago I found this lonely doll head at the thrift store and brought it home for reasons yet to be determined. I have a very hard time passing up vintage dolls to make stuff with. Then a few weeks ago the 99 Cent store rolled out all their awesome Halloween goodies and I found this fun sparkly mini witch hat and a bag of little black mice.

I grabbed a hot glue gun and fixed my little dolly right up. Now's she's perfect to display for Halloween.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ReVampSarahTacoma

Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!

I love Halloween everything...costumes, decorating, trick or treating with the kids! And I've been busy getting both my Esty stores stocked with super fun creative, creepy, crawly items!

Got some pretty cool costume pieces for sale - from princess dresses to vintage candy striper uniforms to marching band hats to 70s disco blazers.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/SweetPickinsShop

Down syndrome awareness - Inclusion for Children with Down syndrome

Gideon started 1st grade a few weeks ago and I recently just finished designing/writing a small book for each of his classmates to teach them a little about Down syndrome and how Gideon is more LIKE them than different. I was getting ready to send them off to school to be distributed by the teacher when I found scores of these brand new bendable mini sock monkeys at the thrift store for only $1.00 each. They are just perfect because they have wire inside them and you can bend them into all these crazy positions - just like my super bendy son!

So I grabbed enough for his class and made little tags that read:

Monkey See

Monkey Do

You're Like Me

and I'm Like You!

I packaged both the book and the monkey together in a little gift bag and am bringing them to school tomorrow. The teacher is going to read the book to his class and then pass out the gift bags.

You can view the book online as a flipbook http://online.flipbuilder.com/erci/xwrf/

Juice! It's good for ya

I got the opportunity to try a new brand of juice for the kids this summer. And at first based on JUST the packaging I was skeptical. I'm not a huge fan of commercializing food with television/movie characters, because typically that product isn't healthy/has too much sugar/additives etc. However I was in for a big treat - not only does Good 2 Grow juice NOT have extra sugar or artificial colors, preservatives or flavors - it's also NON-GMO!! So once it passed the mommy test of being healthy - I gave it to the kids - and they both love it. Gideon - if I would let him - would drink 10 of these a day.... In fact he's figured out where I've shelved them and tries to sneak 'em.

Now as the mom of a special needs child - I have a few other considerations when giving Gideon a beverage - #1 being that he's not picky about where he puts his cup - even if it's partially full. So I have to always check to make sure I don't have a spill to clean up. The beauty of Good 2 Grow bottles are that not only are they BPA free and reusable - but they are spill proof too! Gotta love that with a messy kid.

I think I've found a new favorite for their lunch boxes!

If you would like more information on Good 2 Grow Juice and where you can purchase it (I got ours at Ralphs), please visit:
http://good2grow.com/

Keep it cool

Every once in awhile I visit Craigslist and check out the "free stuff" listings. Things goes so fast in Los Angeles - it's usually almost impossible to get any of the quality items. But recently I got lucky! Somebody was advertising a vintage refrigerator door - which seems useless, but I had a plan and the perfect place for it. After I got it home I cleaned it up and enlisted my husband to help figure out how to hang it onto the wall in our kitchen. It matches perfectly in my already retro 50s kitchen and is the perfect place to store a few pantry items.

Dapper Dan

Found a huge bag of over 100 vintage ivory bow ties for 5 bucks at the thrift store the other day. I'm going to sew them onto onesies / shirts etc and sell them on Etsy. Thinking I might try and dye a few too....
Quinn was my first guinea pig. Found the blue shirt at a garage sale for 99 cents and all I had to do was tack the bow tie on with a few stitches. Took less than 5 minutes. How dapper does he look!?

Spring Fling - Assemblage Art Doll

Finished another assemblage doll! Some of the items I used were a colorful metal top, metal butterfly wings, vintage Christmas light bulbs, a plastic spine from a toy kit and a vintage Bradley doll head.

Gifts Galore

I've been working on my Etsy store - revampsarahtacoma - trying to organize all my stuff and get it listed. I can't resist buying vintage children's toys/books and came up with the idea to organize them by theme and then sell them as gift sets. It's been really fun seeing what themes I can come with using the merchandise I already had.

Here's a few sets I came up with:

You can see more at:
www.etsy.com/shop/ReVampSarahTacoma

Happy Valentine's Day!

I asked Quinn if he wanted to draw his own Valentine cards this year. He was excited about it and came up with this awesome Heart Dragon!

DIY shelf Display with vintage trinkets

So I am pretty excited today! I just bought a fantastic antique couch at the thrift store (and because I'm chatty all the time with the people that work there - she knocked off $50 for me). The upholstery is just amazing - but unfortunately doesn't match our color scheme so I am headed downtown to the fabric district next week to pick out something darker, moodier and in the "bordeaux red" family. But in anticipation for our new living room centerpiece -  I've been playing around with some of the other decorative display items in the room.

This 40s beauty has a few nicks - but I loved her anyway  -- so I took her home, added a fun little silver pom pom sparkler into the vase part and encased her in a glass dome.

I love deer. It's a recurring theme in my art and home decor so I was thrilled when I found this vintage red flocked deer at Goodwill. But alas her tail was broken off - so I replaced it with a gold ostrich feather plume.

Couch make-over photos coming soon!

Oh Deer

Quick collage I made for a friend's bday present. I took a vintage tinted landscape print and added a victorian deer  -  with anatomical heart in the shape of a Valentine heart.