Designing, Crying and a little change

August 28, 2014August 28, 2014 | mollyeleen

Utter Chaos. We are living in utter chaos. Not only is Kiddo starting kindergarten today and Hubby started back to school two days ago but we are moving in 10 days! TEN.

In true me fashion, I am procrastinating. Procrastinating packing. I just spent days and days and days helping my mom pack and now we have to pack… procrastination is calling my name! How do you ask? Well,

I’m blogging today
I am designing my mom’s new kitchen in her new home (more in a bit)
My partner in “crime” Magazine Mom and I are working on a new business (more to come in the future but let’s just say is extraordinary!)
I am studying to be a girl scout leader (who new right) and
I have decided to rename my blog and my little business (WHAT!?- yes. more in a bit plus a bit)

Shall we review- number one. Well this is obvious. I am typing away in the middle of cardboard, tape, plastic wrap and boxes. (“Ignore it all Molly”)

Number two- Redesigning my mom’s new kitchen. As you recall, my mom just moved up to our area. The house is great, the kitchen not so much. Not my mom. Not designed well. Not anything to be kept. So I am helping her redesign it. It feels good to get my designer hat back for a moment. Use my designer brain, it’s been rusty for awhile. To use the computer for drawing and not pinning or checking status, etc. happy day!

Reality check. It’s really hard to work while the girls are up. We spent a few hours yesterday at mom’s house. The girls where “locked” in the den. Okay to clarify, I put a baby gate across the doorway so that Sneaky B would not go up the stairs. Kiddo was “babysitting” while I worked and I would sneak a peak every now and then. It was working great until the crying, screaming and tears started. Kiddo says nothing happened- I believe her, she was crying and screaming too. We have so much change right now, I sometimes wish I could just sit in a room and scream and cry.

Number three- It’s extraordinary- moving on

Number four- Girl Scouts- Daisy’s to be exact. A few months ago it was “decided” that I should be a girl scout leader with all the girls from pre-school and other kindergartners and first graders. I thought, no problem. That would be fun. Wow- I had no idea what it takes to be a leader! It’s going to be fun and I am excited but it’s a lot to learn. I am up for that challenge!

Number Five- Renaming the blog! This one I have been thinking about for a long time. Why Vintage Princess by ME? That’s the name of my little clothing business. Why did I name my blog that? NO idea. A few months ago I thought I was going to name the blog Pumpkin & Pearl… did you notice this:

Yeah- not quite right. I think it’s cute, but no… So now Vintage Princess by ME is:

Why? Well simply because that’s who I am. I am Molly B (it’s what my grandmother used to call me) and I like to create and share my journey. It simply covers everything. I will be updating the blog look soon- let’s hope it’s not during another procrastinating session- unless it’s procrastinating from UN-packing. I am changing the little business name too, again, let’s wait to we move. I can no longer ignore all the boxes…

Sprinklings- 31 days completed!

October 31, 2013October 31, 2013 | mollyeleen

I’m freaking exhausted. Oh wait, where are my manners- happy Halloween!
Is it just me? Halloween is exhausting. Maybe it was just this year, maybe it’s because it was the first one with two children, or maybe because we packed a lot into one afternoon. Lets not say its because I’m getting old- k.

Have I ever mentioned that I love our town. There are many reasons why, like today when almost all of the businesses downtown open there doors for trick-or-treaters. It’s a great way to get out in the afternoon to trick-or-treat, see many many people that you know, let the kids get a sugar high and then total melt down all in two and half hours. Way too much candy of course, but the awesomeness two coupons for free ice creams and we won Kiddo free Karate classes (yes!). Then we carved our pumpkins (remind me that we should do this earlier next year) and then went out trick-or-treating, again, in our neighborhood with friends. A lot of fun in one afternoon, probably a bit too much, but hey everyone is asleep but me and it’s only 830 🙂

Like today, the 31 day challenge – “sprinklings of my reality,” I chatted about a lot different topics or events. From creating costumes, to lentils and even pee & poop, truly it is my reality and I hope you enjoyed it and much as I do.

Stick around though, just because this challenge is over, i will still be here blogging away, not everyday! but I will have more to share.

Sprinklings of my reality is a 31 days of October challenge…read them all here.

She’s here!

August 25, 2013August 25, 2013 | mollyeleen

Sneaky B has arrived! She arrived on her due date August 11 at 2:37 in the morning. She is perfect in every way and we are over the moon to have her in our lives. Ahh….

Let me tell you, “fast” pregnancy- means fast deliver, at least once you get into active labor, for me. We, Hubby and I, spent 39 hours waiting for the inducing medications to get me into labor…after the 36th hour had past with barely a contraction, I was mentally over it. Done. Let’s go home.

We decided to wait and see what happened over night, so one more dose at 10:30pm of the medication they were giving me to induce labor (not Pitocin! happy day!). Before this final dose we were able to go outside and walk around a bit in the birthing garden. Hubby and I saw a shooting star, and I knew right then and there this was going to work, Sneaky baby will be coming tonight. And Happy day i was right!

I finally started having contractions and by 2am I was in full labor, 2:10 my water broke, 2:20 I was at 6cm and asking for an epidural (didn’t think I would ever ask for one, I hate the thought of needles in spines) there was no time for that anyway, 2:30 I was at 10cm and ready. Sneaky B was born 7 minutes later. Beautiful!

I remember saying to Hubby, my mid-wife and the nursers five minutes afterwards “Oh my god do I feel better now” and then looking at Hubby and our little Sneaky B “I am NEVER doing that again”

It’s been two weeks now, we can’t imagine life without our little Sneaky B. Kiddo is a fantastic big sister, of course she has her moments, but she is awesome. It’s been a crazy “short” pregnancy and we would not change a thing, we are thrilled to be a family of four.

We are getting so zzzzzzzzzzz

July 21, 2013 | mollyeleen

Alright, here we go, take 20 I think, in attempting to blog. Let me tell you, it’s not that I don’t have a ton to share. Here’s how it goes: Kiddo goes to bed, “dinner” dishes (my poor June Clever self has almost left the building… dinner as of late has been sad…but no one is starving) are done, pull out the laptop, get relatively comfy on the sofa, log in to wordpress, then I’m woken up by Hubby walking in the front door, home from school already… how on earth can it be 945 at night, I didn’t type one word. I keep falling asleep! It’s so annoying but I have to accept it I guess, I am just to busy for my own good. Freelance projects (yay!), summertime fun with Kiddo, normal household chores (most of them), getting ready for Sneaky Baby and being 9+months preggers, it makes sense to be passing out tired around 730. Oye! It’s still annoying, but I guess it’s my world as of now

Okay to the fun stuff! We are basically ready for Sneaky baby to arrive! Her nursery is almost done, just need to hang 3 pictures and put the sheets on the crib. Our room got a little make over too, there is nothing like new bedding I tell you! The office/dining room just needs one shelf hung, although I really really want new dining chairs now (future project- YES!) and Kiddo’s room has been completed for a few weeks now. Drum roll please…Kiddo’s room: (you can see the before here)

Not a lot of change, but dark pink (the only color in the world) and not so “flowery”

Gosh she has way to much stuff! And we donated bags of toys too… note to self Kiddo doesn’t need anything else. The princess silhouettes we made a few weeks ago turned out pretty cute I think.

While we have been cleaning out our little home, I do find it crazy annoying for my nesting self, yet funny at how unbelievably messy cleaning out can be. Case in point…

Not to mention, the stacks and stacks of crap we had hidden in closets. Really, this beautiful pile was over two feet high

And of course, one of the best yet, “O” magazine about de-cluttering pulled out from under the bed. Although cleaning out is exhausting, truly it feels like we are moving, it is so nice to know that there isn’t one thing in this little home that we don’t need. Plus the amount of donations we have made is amazing…car loads (at least 5) off to our local SPCA. Good for the heart I tell ya.

Stay tuned… I will be sharing the other spaces, if I can keep my eyes open, maybe even tomorrow 😉

Feeling the love!

June 16, 2013 | mollyeleen

Yesterday was Family baby shower day! My Aunt Anita and my Mom gave me a wonderful shower, the only thing that would have made it better is if Hubby didn’t have to work. Since you are on this roller coaster ride with me, I thought I would share all the “Martha” goodness with you, pictures speak more than words, so here we go!

First off, let me say how cute everything was. Martha eat your heart out! Speaking of eating, the food was delicious!

Fresh fruit in ice cream cones (how stinkin’ cute is that?), Veggies with dip and of course a cocktail umbrella (since there are no cocktails for me), Cucumber & Egg Salad sandwiches, Cheese & Crackers, and pink lemon aid with raspberries…yummy! Plus a celebration is not complete without a Princess Torte! Holly Happy Baby Bump- seeing this cake makes me so happy, and for those who don’t know, I do not have a sweet tooth, unless there is a Princess Torte around.

So many of my family and friends where there to help celebrate Sneaky B, I was seriously feeling the love!

Saturday afternoon was a lovely day. I was feeling the love of you all. There are not enough words to say thank you to those of you who made it and of course a major thank you to my Aunt Anita & My Mom for all that you have done! You are both amazing and I love you both!

The massive, overwhelming to do

June 5, 2013 | mollyeleen

We have been so busy, it’s exhausting! As in I have been reading a book now for two months and I am only on page 50, I just pass out by the time I climb into bed, arrange the crazy amount of pillows around by huge belly, grab my book and zzzzzzz— out cold. With the end of the school year craziness (even for a pre-schooler), a few free-lance design projects in the works, planning for Sneaky baby and being 30 weeks pregnant, it all makes me tired.

And today I’m overwhelmed. Totally and completely. It’s the first day in weeks kiddo and I just stayed home. Being home all day made me realize how much needs to be done before August. I spent most of the morning wandering around our small home, just wandering. Looking at furniture, walls, paintings, the dirty carpet, the dining chairs I can’t stand anymore, the kiddos room, the coo-coo clock still in the box, the mirrors I want to hang, the massive pile of laundry (didn’t I just do the laundry?)…just wandering around thinking “I need to get busy, but where to start?”

By the time Kiddo was ready for lunch, I decided to stop wandering around and just make “THE” to do list. “That’s what needs to happen, write it all down, make a plan, that will be the best thing to do.” Five pages later, it’s all on paper, or it’s at least started. And seeing the list doesn’t make me crazy, it’s almost calming, almost being the key word, it’s still overwhelming – very, but I know what needs to happen.

Among the list are things I will be sharing, like how we are going to change our office closets (which was at one point was our master closets) into Sneaky baby’s nursery. A tutorial or two will be coming too. Many things to sew and create are on my list for the nursery.

How the dining room is going to transform into an office & dining room.

Kiddo’s room will be transformed too. Since she is the big sister, her room will be first, she already picked out the fabric. We have a few projects planned too, thanks to Pinterest and the fact that I have gotten Kiddo addicted to looking at my boards for “something creative to do,” secretly I am very proud of this.

There are many steps to getting ready but it all starts Friday, when my mama is coming up to help me start packing a few things up for storage and Saturday when Hubby will be moving furniture around…

Any-who, I hope you will be along for this 8 week ride into transforming our little 1000 square foot home to welcome Sneaky baby in mid-August. I am sure there will be great successes, quite a few laughs and probably a few tears- albeit hormones or otherwise.

5 years

February 13, 2013February 13, 2013 | mollyeleen

How can it be 5 years? Somedays it seems like yesterday, other days is seems like years, that my dad lost his battle with cancer (Multiple Myeloma to be exact). As one of the last things he said “Cancers a bitch” and it’s true. Those of us who have lost loved ones knows what I am talking about. It sucks to watch someone you love fight. It makes me mad somedays, it makes me sad more often. I miss him daily.

Today, 5 years later, I thought I should focus on the good, which was pretty much all my life, minus the last year with my dad here. My parents had a wonderful loving relationship and I feel honored to have been raised in this environment. We, my brother and I, were spoiled in a sense, by experiencing their relationship as their kids.

My dad was the one who always, I mean always, had at least one joke to tell, usually one that offended at least one class of people. I can still hear his laugh, the kind of delayed laugh, ha ha…..ha ha….ha

He was one who treated friends like family. “The first time you are at my home, you are a guest, after that you are family.” But if you crossed him or his family, forget it- your out.

Now that I have a kiddo, I remember many childhood moments, watching the Muppet show, playing soccer, camping, working on the house. You name we did it. When the movie “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” came out, we watched it together. One day, we were driving somewhere and at a stop sign he jumped out of the car and did the “excellent” guitar movement from the movie. My brother and I almost died of embarrassment. Today I think about that and giggle…waiting for the moment when I can embarrass our kiddo.

It’s odd writing this, it’s hard. What to share, what I can write about without crying to much. It’s taken me a few days to get this far, there is so much I want to share and so much I want to just keep in my heart and mind. Oh I know….

When my brother and I were older (probably 13 & 10-ish??) my mom said she was done cooking dinner every night (I totally get this now!) and so it was dad’s turn on weekends. At first we wouldn’t eat until midnight, he making one thing at a time, not a multi-tasker at all. Slowly dinner got earlier and earlier, we celebrated when we ate at 9pm! There was one green bean and cayenne pepper incident. I have know since them that cayenne pepper doesn’t smell, so that means not to add extra because it might be old… holly cow those green beans burned! Really really burned.

As I got older, hanging became even more fun. Hubby and I would drop by on a Saturday evening, have a few cocktails with my parents, make dinner and just chill. Good times.

All this being said, I, we my family and everyone my dad befriended, are the lucky ones. We had “big Murph” in our lives. It was too short, but we are lucky to have had him for the time we did.

b5e32f2618a505e2e9b8d74e24bc2043 — My favorite, an Eskimo Proverb… (unsure who designed this image, if you know please let me know so I can give credit)

day 30: improve gratitude

January 30, 2013 | mollyeleen

Growing up, my daddy’s best friends was Sherman. John Sherman to be proper, but we knew him as Sherman. He was an awesome man and I can’t watch the 49ers play without thinking of him. In fact he and my daddy used to get each other the “tackest 49ers supplies” they could find for Christmas. I am remembering 49ers toilet paper at this moment.

Anyway, Sherman used to say “Have an attitude for gratitude.” Not sure if the saying comes from someone else, maybe it’s “famous,” to me it’s Sherman. And I think it speaks volumes. On this journey of improving our little world, I think it is important to have an attitude for gratitude.

I am very grateful for all we have. All the people in our lives. But how often do we show and talk about how grateful we are for the people around us. I know I don’t, other than my family. But there are so many people we interact with daily, weekly that really should know that we are grateful for what they bring to our lives. Case in point for today, teachers.

Kiddo goes to a fantastic pre-school and her teachers are awesome. They are the most caring, loving, playful women I think I know, at least in this town. Kiddo adores them both. Why haven’t we, or I, told them we are grateful for there presence in kiddos life? Well, today that changed.

We made these super cute button flower bouquets for them both. My mom, of course, is the one who came up with this super cute idea (in my world). They are so cute and different. Super easy to make too. Vintage buttons and S or P shakers, and some wire is all you need. Kiddo helped pick out the buttons, being very specific about what colors were right for each teacher. She even helped thread the buttons, it was a fun project to do together.

Both teachers were very surprised and happy with our little gift. That made kiddo and me very happy. “Attitude for gratitude” is what it’s all about and truly it’s the little things that count. So who’s next?

day 18: emotions and pumpkins

October 18, 2012 | mollyeleen

Anxious- full of metal distress or uneasiness because of fear of danger or misfortune; greatly worried

No that’s not quite right…

Stress- mental, psychical or emotional strain or tension

Worry- to torment one self with or suffer from disturbing thoughts

Apprehension- anticipation of adversity or misfortune; suspicion or fear of future trouble or evil

Maybe it’s a bit of all of these I am feeling today. Why are there days of “I can so totally do this!” and then days of “why the hell am I doing this?” Today is the later.

My inventory is still very minimal and I only have 5 weeks and 5 days until the show. Sewing is beginning to be a source of stress. I don’t like that. There was a study done and cited in The Journal of the American Medical Association, that found that women who sew experience a significant drop in heart rate and blood pressure, perhaps because such creative pursuits allow the body to rest from the pressures of everyday life.

I do see how that can be true, but not today. Today was busy, but fun, but not productive. We went to the pumpkin patch and a friend’s house. I love these days, but then start feeling guilty that I haven’t made anything for “the” show. But then days that I spend all day sewing and Kennedy watches way too much tv, I feel guilty because I wasn’t a “good” mom. Oye, the emotional crap is so annoying! I am sure (at least I hope) that everyone feels this way at some point in time. There is a balance, I have found it, it’s just lost today. This isn’t my “normal” and I do NOT like it. But I do like pumpkins…

100_2027 — who knew there are so many kinds of pumpkins

What does all this babble, whining and pumpkins have to do preparing for a craft show? Everything! Why? Because there will be days when it feels like you will never get everything done, when you are a horrible parent, and why the hell are you doing this to yourself, but then there are days when you make eight jackets in five hours, you have been accepted to be in a show and you are just crazy enough to believe you can do it. It’s all about emotional balance. When you are on the negative, just have fun because tomorrow will be a productive day. Pumpkins, well they are just fun.

to read all 31 days to preparing for your first craft show, click here

molly b

creating, stitching, designing, thrifting

emotions