slip and slide into summer

seattle square

Last week I received an invitation to check out the Seattle Square Launch through this very blog right here. Since this was the first invite of it's kind, I had to check it all out. How could I not?? What it is, is a new outdoor market in Pioneer Square of Seattle Washington. The Seattle Square began July 17 and will run every Saturday throughout the summer from 11am to 5pm. Along with local designed apparel, vintage and craft goods, the market features local restaurants and mobile food vendors.

I love, love, love craft fairs and farmers markets, so I was excited to venture out to this entirely new outdoor market. And, I wasn't disappointed. Lots of cool and fresh vendors, yummy treats, and being Seattle, a great place to people watch. The girls and I enjoyed cupcake goodness from Cupcake Luv and the most delish organic ice cream from Parfait. M'm M'm, good! My favorite vendor was Drunken Sailor Vintage Curiosities. And, the girls enjoyed the sidewalk chalk in front of the Ricicli which has the most adorable children's fashions.

Fancy a game of chess? This over sized board had many captivated.

It was pirate week and the Seattle Square was having a facebook contest. Crossing my fingers we win!

A view of the market. Many fun vendors.

A few pieces from my favorite booth.

Sidewalk chalk. What fun!

Cupcake goodness!

Loved all these vintage finds.

This display of photos is so creative!

This country and western doggie, named Horse, was downright adorable.

We loved the organic ice cream.

This little superhero was ...

...being chased by a disco dancing plant. Mr. Hawthorne thought it was a "green" car.

We give the Seattle Square outdoor market two thumbs up and can't wait to visit again.

somepuppies turning one

Happy first Birthday to Mavis and Franklin. It's certainly been an adventure.

four hours later

From the moment we moved into this house with our two and half month old puppies, the light colored Berber carpet in the family room has been a sore spot. Most of the first level of our home is wood floors with the exception of the sunken living room with it's wall to wall carpet and the family room which this carpet square. For the life of me, I can't really figure out why they actually put the carpet square in. Why not just make it all wood floor? But I think this was the thing to do in 1979. To make it look like there is a rug in the middle of the room without having to deal with a rug.

I wasn't the only one mystified by the carpet square. The puppies did not fancy Berber carpet at all. They would tug at one little loop and the pull out a long string of carpet. It would happen in a blink of an eye. Not to mention two and half month old puppies are not very reliable about their potty needs and this very light colored carpet took a beating. No matter what I did, I couldn't get it clean. And after the millionth time of trying to shampoo the heck out of it, I had it.

I complained to Mr. Hawthorne and he, being the handy husband he is, fixed my dilemma. He came home after work with a fancy new pad and new carpet. And, not only did he bring me home an answer to my problem, he also installed my new carpet. Just like that. Four hours later, my family room was sparkly and smelling so much better.

Old, light colored, stained, stinky Berber carpet. Yuck!

Good bye smelly pad.

Mr. Hawthorne cleaning up.

New fancy pad.

El Fuego helping daddy.

New carpet! Yay!

misson ninth birthday

El Fuego aka Agent 009 sent out this top secret birthday mission invitations last week. He is very excited. The kids have been running around like spies and pretending to solve mysteries for at least a month. This morning I found El Fuego dressed and peering around hallways like this.

Psst: if you received your Intel, make sure to RSVP with the spymaster soon.

recycle your clothes

I'm sort of obsessed with recylcing clothes lately. After fixing up Miss Divine's pants the other day, I've been on a kick to find more stuff I can make newer, better, cuter. Just yesterday Petite Artiste pulled out a dress that had a little rip in the neck line. It's a perfectly adorable dress in every other way. I took an old t-shirt of mine and cut a strip off the bottom hem and fashioned a flower. Then I stitched the t-shirt flower onto the dress where the rip was. Yay! In my hunt for more reclycing goodness I came upon domestic ease....and this lovely post.

to market, to market

For today's adventure, we visited a local farmer's market. What is special about this market is that is located by the lake. It was a nice day to be outside and near the water. We soaked up the smells and sights. Enjoyed shaved ice (that quickly melted). Chatted with friends. And, received balloons from a very tall man. All in all, a great day!

zoo time

The kids and I met up with friends this morning and had ourselves a very zoo time!

its what's inside that counts

I can't begin to tell you how much I love, love, love etsy. My newest fave is Reap What I sew and her adorable its what's inside that counts print.

repurpose

I came across one little minute's Project Repurpose via DesignMom a while back and I was instantly smitten by the idea of taking clothes that are out of date or ill-fitting and making them fabulous.

My very own Divine Miss O has been growing like a weed. So fast, in fact, it's proved difficult to keep her in a pair of pants that fit. And, if they do fit her long enough around the waist, she ends up wearing the knees right out of them. With summer time upon us and being as frugal as I can, I decided I would try to repurpose some of her holy-knee jeans into shorts, or maybe if I'm feeling really lucky, a skirt or two. But I don't want to jump ahead of myself. I am not a sewer. I sort of pretend I am with my second hand sewing machine, hoping for at the very least a straight line. Here's my first attempt:

Holy worn out knees.

I simply just cut the legs off.

Then I sewed some ribbon along the bottom. Up close it's not pretty. But it should last her through the summer.

I found the flower ribbon tutorial at Maize in Montana. Very simple and cute!