“Band” photo.

Another band photo.

My dad came out to eat with us too. Who is John Galt?

James doing something obnoxious.

Jack. He looks bad ass, but really, he’s a big softie. Underneath that scary angel of death t-shirt he’s got a big ol’ squishy heart that’s all puppies and rainbows.

Joe is going to be president one day. I’m totally calling it.

Classic.

Pictures by Steve.

Little G, my next door neighbor sporting the dress I made for her. She falls into the variety of babies I like to call “Cutie Patootie.” In other words, she’s fricken adorable. Anyway, her mama let me snap this picture so I could show off the dress. It’s the Vivienne Toddler Jumper from Burda… You can download it here. The pattern is sized 2T but I made it without including seam allowances because I needed something in more of an 18 month size. It was fairly simple to sew and it’s lined so it’s nice and soft inside. You could easily draft it into a bigger size if you wanted.

I made my mom a bag out of this same fabric. I loved the fabric so much I bought extra and I’m so glad I did cause it was perfect for a little girl dress.

Vintage button embellishments.

I have five brothers. They are all wonderful and surprisingly beautiful, even when they call me names, poke me with things, sing annoying songs in my car and generally harass me the way little brothers seem genetically programmed to do, whether they are 15 or 25. We went to Kuma’s Corner in Chicago on a burger pilgrimage and afterward hung out on top of this parking ramp. I snuck around taking pictures because I’m a big sissy and want to preserve memories and dumb shit like that.

Okay, the curly haired one isn’t my brother but he may as well be, seeing as he basically lives at my parents’ house and also because he gives me as much or more shit than my bio brothers.

Steve took some real pictures with an actual camera so maybe I’ll have those to post sometime soon.

So I went to go pick up my brother Tom from Iowa City where he goes to school. Along for the ride were also my other brother Steve and Tom Fox. Four hours there, four hours back. We crossed the Mississippi and ate at McDonald’s where also, apparently, they hold lesbian wedding ceremonies for mannequins.

Iowa City is weird. I couldn’t get a handle on it. University has been out for a week so it wasn’t even busy but the ground is still covered with beer cans, kids were hanging out in garages blasting bad party music and scantily clad girls were wandering the streets in packs… weird. I felt like I was some alternate universe Chicago.

We got to my brother’s apartment and since Tom was still at work and not able to let us in, Steve broke in to the building using a credit card. We were thwarted by the deadbolt lock on his door however, and later Tom informed us that, obviously, we should have just gone in through the window as he’d thoughtfully left it open for us. His apartment sort of resembled the kind of fort kids build in the woods, only with a really expensive TV and a working oven.

We walked around the University campus which is absolutely beautiful. Tom is a manager at a little cafe downtown and we ducked in for a bit and then continued to walk around… it was a really nice night and it was cool to see where my brothers have been living these past few years.

We loaded up Tom’s stuff pretty quick and headed out… stopped at the World’s Largest Truck Stop for supplies. Soda, snacks, swords. You know, all the necessities.

I don’t remember Iowa being so weird. Apparently it is.

The ride home got pretty interesting as it got really, really late and I got really, really weird as I tried to stay awake. Also, the bridge was out going east so we had to detour which, of course, got us lost. Tom Fox navigated us into a creepy little town where we probably would have died if he hadn’t figured out that the “highway” he had directed us to was actually a cul de sac and we needed to make like a half dozen turns before we’d be back on some sort of actual road that was going somewhere. We made it home in one piece, although it took a lot of annoying singing (including a ten minute death metal rendition of “This is the Song that Doesn’t End”) and an entire bag of Twizzlers. My not oft-seen habit of singing obnoxiously when I am tired or feeling awkward was in full effect.

Steve made a montage video of the trip. I will warn you. There is some smoking and bad singing and calling my little brother Joe and his friends “hippies.” Also, I say a bad word so don’t let your kids watch. It was 3 a.m. Don’t judge me, k thanx.

My little brother makes things that make me happy.

All five of my brothers are really talented, actually (and my little sister too, for that matter. I mean, I can only wish I could dance like she does.) but unfortunately only Steve has websites to which I can point you to whilst digitally yelling, “HEY GO LOOK AT MY LITTLE BROTHER BECAUSE HE IS AWESOME.”

This is my favorite photo of late:

I love that he is visually capturing so many things that I would never be able to.

And I love watching all of my annoying little brothers emerging into artists and makers and doers and thinkers and all the rest of it.

These were just some of the finds. I mean, this doesn’t even include the two awesome shirts and black 60′s style jacket I got at Goodwill. All told, I spent $34 including Taco Bell for lunch.

These were a dollar. They are handmade cookie stamps, made in the Scandinavian tradition. Someone was making these, sewing little bags for them, including a handmade recipe booklet and selling them. Somehow, they ended up at Carousel Consignments and now they are mine.

Pretty almond shortbread cookies!

This made me so excited I almost jumped for joy at Goodwill. It is a genuine 1970′s style flower loom. It was still in the package, with all of its parts AND THE DIRECTIONS. I went crazy.

I have wanted an old school label maker for some time. This one came complete with tape for $0.50. The vintage playing cards were a quarter for each pack. They are going to be made into tiny notebooks.

These are actually Stephanie’s find. Vintage official girl scout stationary. Unbeliavable. She shared with me and that is how I know our friendship is real. Ha.

And of course, awesome vintage notions to keep me stocked and inspired to sew. Only 10% of the notions I buy are new. The rest are all procured from thrift stores. It’s so much cheaper and I love the weird colors I can find.

Almost forgot! VINTAGE STAMPS THAT ARE UNUSED!

These are just some of them. There was an entire BOX of stamps and they were three sheets for a dollar. Twelve sheets of vintage postage: four dollars. Not feeling at all stupid asking Stephanie, “Hey, do you want to go through this entire box of stamps!?”: priceless.

Alright. My husband got our local liquor store to find me an entire case of my new favorite beer:

AND it’s Fringe/30 Rock/Community night. Huzzah. I am going to park myself in bed with a beer and that is that.

Thrift Store Saturday was a total success. Stephanie and I managed to hit five out of our six thrift store destinations, plus one book store, plus Starbucks, we managed to stay within our budgets AND we made out like bandits, in my humble opinion. These were not, by the way, little thrift stores either. These were big, sprawling, two-story, multiple room thrift stores. I think we spent, on average, an hour at each place.

I’m thinking I need to make this a regular thing.

I’ll do a post next on what treasures I collected. I wish this writing desk above was one of those treasures but alas, at $750, it is not currently in my budget. It’s gorgeous though, isn’t it?

These are the best postcards I’ve gotten from postcrossing thus far:

Awesome, right?

Stephanie is coming on Saturday and we are going to tear up the stateline area hitting all of my thrift stores. The map is made, the day is planned… it will be epic. A whole day just for hanging out and treasure hunting. Seriously, I can not wait. I need a day off like you would not believe.

I haven’t disappeared, I’ve just been having a rough go of it recently, so I feel quiet. I’m tired. I’ll figure it out soon.

My babies.

Wow, where did this week go?

Daddy and Jeremiah helped take photos of all the stuff I’ve been making for the etsy shop.

These little pins aren’t up there yet, but they will be very, very soon.

Mr. Bunny continues to woo us with his cuteness (and occasionally poop the couch.)

Sleeping in the van after a long day.

Jeremiah continues to find new and interesting ways to make my heart explode from cuteness. He watched Night at the Museum a few nights ago and so this was him going as “Fee-a-door Rose-belt.”

Ah yes. Culpa left a dirty thirty in the back of the van which I am not ashamed to say, I pillaged for myself. PBR is always best when it’s free.

I’m heading into Chicago tomorrow bright and early to hang with some very loverly ladies, so I’m off to bed! Happy Saturday!