The Simple Life

Vintage Halloween Wreath...

it's true. i made this at the last minute. like i was hanging it up, as our first trick or treaters were showing up!

between orders and soccer and our st george trip, i didn't even decorate!! so i quickly made the polka dot bow, i had the burlap ribbon in my stash for a few years, just waiting for me to make it. made a junque bow for jack the skeleton, and taped one of my halloween banner's to our front door! i pinned the chalkboard halloween printable (designed by rhonna farrer)to the bow with a clothespin. it makes the wreath! i will remember to hang it up next year, EARLY, and get the full thirty one days out of it ♥  

digital frame is from rhonna's app! available here in the app store ;)

boutique prep+ set up...

pricing and inventory is not my favorite thing to do! i also ran out of labels on my price gun. but when set up is done, the final product is worth it all! 

these two are pretty good helpers. after i took a photo of both of them, isabella says "ok now just a picture of me!" 

another show down. now i can just focus on online sales and the holiday season, thanksgiving is coming up!

easter junque banner...

my latest junque banner...in my etsy shop! 

thepolkadotbarn.etsy.com

on my desk...

working on lots of custom orders! can't wait to finish wrapping these last few up, so that i can get my room back to order, and then i can start on easter banners. never ending i tell you ;)

valentine garland LOVE...

i love pink and red! just finished taking photos of these yesterday. i made the small trek in the mud and deer poop to the old cabin in our backyard, we have no snow! all these lovely valentine garlands and banners are available in my etsy shop. thepolkadotbarn.etsy.com

halloween decor...

i'm expecting preschool trick or treaters any minute...AND my house is clean, so i took some photos of my halloween decor...same as every year, but i sure love it!

polka dots and pyrex ♥

my halloween tree, that gets redecorated 50 times a day!

 

heritage day...

we met in the morning for food prep. our youth is in charge of the lunch at the park for heritage day every year. we added sandwiches to go, to the usual sanpete bbq turkey. people would freak out if we didn't continue the tradition! i helped with sandwiches and wrapping. i love assembly lines and packaging. must be the repetition and bulk quantity, so fun!

 

balloons, because every day is a party!

 

he just loves this truck.

 

 

 

 

and the lunch fundraiser was a success! 

 

 

super excited to go home and finally play with the balloons! and i envision a new polka dot seat cover on this old truck. i don't think levi would go for it. but can't you see it?! 

and just after this...chaos started. fighting over the white balloon? geez. made some muffins. i think i need to be endorsed by lehi roller mills!

 

finally got to sit down for a minute. tried to take a picture with jeremy and he turned around and punched me in the face! one of these days i'm going to have a broken nose. it was funny that i got a picture of the action...

 

happy home. 

 

 

freshly picked birthday giveaway: winners announced

thank you all for entering my birthday giveaway! and a big thanks to Freshly Picked and Amanda Fair Designs for sponsoring!! winners are posted below, and i will contact you by email!

freshly picked moccs review + giveaway

are these not the cutest pair of moccasins ever??!

they are from the one and only susan peterson of freshly picked! i've followed susan from the beginning...and just love her story which is similar to mine. you have to start somewhere, "do what you can, with what you have, where you are."

i love these little moccasins, i wish i had them for all my kids from the beginning. my kids aren't one to wear shoes, they take after me. even though i love tiny little shoes, i never really bought them when they were babies and through the toddler stage. mainly because shoes never stayed on their feet, and they either fell off or pulled them off. and we would always lose a shoe. so i wasn't about to waste money on shoes that would get lost! now these moccasins are awesome! not only are they easy to slip on, but they actually stay on. jeremy tried to pull them off and he couldn't do it! the moccasins are true to size, and they fit is wide little feet. (she has a printable shoe size chart that you can print off at home and match your little ones foot.) the leather is super soft, and they come in a lot of tempting colors! and i LOVE color! especially the "aruba" pair and have you seen the neon pink??! each pair of freshly picked moccasins comes in this cute linen bag, i honestly don't know if i was more excited for the bag or the moccs! i just love branding and packaging.

jeremy is wearing the prince george moccasins in royal blue. LOVE the blue! we went hiking up the canyon last week in pretty rugged terrain, and he was happy as can be in his little moccs! he gets excited and says "shoes!" and "mocc!" 

 

one of you lovelies will win a pair of freshly picked moccasins, and because it's my birthday today i'm also giving away a vintage birthday chipboard banner and 10 mini banners from my shop the polka dot barn, as well as a super cute zipper pouch bag from amanda fair designs! that's 13 winners and one of them could be YOU!

 

since typepad has been down all day, i've extended the giveaway til tomorrow night, so there is still time to enter!

please enter below using the rafflecopter entry form below. giveaway will close may 20, 2014 at 11:59pm. ***if you have previously won a pair of freshly picked moccs from another giveaway within the last 60 days, you won't be eligible to win but you are still able to enter for the other prizes.

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

keeping up...

feeling very blessed...

and a bit tired. i'm always working, but i choose too! i set a goal to sell lots so that we can make a trip to disneyland next month, and i did...can't wait! thanks to all my friends and customers that support my small business.

--> link is on the sidebar to the polka dot barn.

this is what we did all last week! and it really is my favorite part...kitting all the soLUCKY junque banners. this was the very last batch of banners.

 

a tiny portion of what we made.

needed a photo in my green vintage suitcase!

i spent sunday cleaning up a bit. and restocking my mailers. ya you wouldn't be able to tell that i cleaned anything up, but i did! mostly trash. now i really need to hire a clean up crew ;)

for the love...

another round of valentine's this year!

what the february!

gulianna was excited to go thru all her valentine's. she weeded out all the sugar crap and just kept the chocolate. levi got home this evening from his trip.

 

 

 

 

 

these girls love to pick up jeremy like this into some cheerleader pose, it's so funny!

 

later we made oatmeal cookie bars for our family and a few neighbors. the girls came with me and brenda to go visiting teaching. well actually we secretly dropped off a plate her awesome sugar cookies. the second house was isabella's turn to ring the doorbell. but then she pouted and started crying because she wanted to say hi! we quickly tried to shut her up, so they wouldn't know we were hiding!

then after we went again to do the same thing but with our little family. when we went to jeremy's house, isa was laughing so hard when we were running back to the durango and then i realized it was because her boot was stuck somewhere in the mud! so i had to go back and look for it.

this was at rebecca's house. we left her a dictionary garland too. she wasn't home, and then i remembered that there was a valentine's dance as we passed the church. oops! 

 they had fun! we had planned to do it as a family, but anthony fell asleep waiting for me to go visiting teaching. and levi was tired. so it was just us girls. gulianna said "let's do this for every holiday!" so we just might.

veryMERRY chipboard banner

hello friends! just listed my veryMERRY chipboard banner in my etsy shop and i used heidi swapp's darling christmas paper from her believe collection! 

st patricks day banners...

just posted a couple of these darling banners up in my shop!

i took these photos on my headboard...now i have the banner up on my shelf in the living room!

matching...

i tend to "screen capture" my blog when the top photo matches my banner! like yesterday...

here's a couple more i had saved...

it's hard for me to have a general blog look...i love to change it up every month or so!

surprise...

anthony woke up and crawled straight to the kitchen...he remembered about his balloons!

his cheesy grin! always so happy!

i love these colors together! banner printables from house of 3.

birthday presents, one in the tissue paper is from grandma and grandpa.

all ready...

it's late, i am done cleaning the house, and i have everything ready for anthony's 1st birthday tomorrow! we are having it at the park close by right after church. i wanted to have it in the backyard, but with all these mosquitos here we would get eaten alive! poor anthony already has! if the girls leave the front door open he sneaks outside and plays in the flower pots and they attack him!

Gulianna's 4th birthday...

 All year long Gulianna's been saying that she wants to have "an aqua birthday party." At first she wanted a princess party, or a Tangled party, but then she kept insisting on an aqua birthday party. That is her favorite color!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

She was sad because one of the balloons got loose and flew away!

She's also been waiting to open her presents...last month we were at the mall at stopped in at the Disney store {like last year!} and I saw that they had towels and swimsuit coverups on clearance again. She's already outgrown her one from last year, so I had Levi sneak and buy her one, she was already looking at them, I showed her the tinkerbell one, it was purple just like the one that she got last year, but a different style, and she immediately turned to the aqua one, and it had Ariel on it! She said "oh I wish I could get this aqua one!" So I took her to Tai Pan and looked around, while Levi bought her the Ariel swim towel and the cover up. I told him to hide it, but as soon as he came in looking for me, she spotted the bag. Then she got all excited, and I told her it was something else..."no dad bought me the aqua swim thing for my birthday! he did!" "No he didn't!" ahhh! so much for a surprise! 
 
She was excited for her candles and her birthday cake, but she got shy when we sang happy birthday to her!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
"ahhhh! baby wipes for my birthday!"

 
 
"the Ariel towel!"

 
Isa tried to take away her second present, she thought it was for her...

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Colton and Claudia stopped by later, with a present from Grandma Cherrie. Gulianna got a cute little purse with some money in it from Grandma Cherrie, and a heart necklace that she likes to wear every day.

Somewhere in between playing around...Isa ended up in her swim suit, too funny!

 

 
Claudia got her some cute hello kitty pajamas and a little hello kitty back pack!

 
 
 
We had a good day with Gulianna, we were happy that Levi came home for her birthday! I can't believe that she is four now. She's always been very smart, very aware of everything. She's a good helper to me, she watches out for Isa and Anthony. She always says her prayers and reminds us to read our scriptures. She looks forward to going to her class on Sunday every week! She loves to dance and can't wait to go to school. She's been that way since she was tiny! As soon as we move, we will fit her in to a preschool and find a dance class for her...she asks me every day!

Mother's Day banner...

We got to my parent's house late last night right before midnight...only Anthony and RJ were still awake, playing PS3 of course. Actually my dad was awake too, working in the shop as always. I started making this banner {thanks Rhonna!}so that it was hanging up for my mom when she woke up in the morning!

 

 

 

 

Fourth Decorations...

My decorations for this year! I made a fourth of july banner with the kit from House of 3.

 
All finished and hanging up...