sweet moments...

another girl that has Daddy wrapped around her finger...





daddy kisses...



5 weeks old...!!!



black and white or color...?

are you ready...

for some football???

I know I'm not. Even so, camp started this week...



Caleb is in the white shirt on the right. It's just day 2 and he already looks worn out! That's Ryan crouched down in the corner, he has somehow become the 1st and 2nd grade coach!

I'm pretty hesitant and uneasy about Caleb playing football because of what happened on this night. But Ryan prayed and has a peace about it and they both really wanted him to play. So I'm trusting and trying to believe it will be okay. This one is hard for me...


On a lighter note, here's a set Tessa modeled for Boutique*Layceeloo before Eden was born...



I love these colors together, chocolate brown, aqau and peach- perfect for fall...



and the apron comes off if you want...



The outfit can be made in any size, find it HERE, but hurry, you only have 5 days!

drumroll please...

picked by the random number generator, the winner of the petite flower necklace is...

Rory, who said "You have outdone yourself on this one, I will have to have it. Funny story....hmm. As I have said already I am expecting my second baby. Last night my 2 year old and I were laying in bed and talking about baby names and I told her several different names and she said them all. Then I said, what's your favorite? She thought for a while and said "CUPCAKES". Obviously she loves cupcakes and completely missed the point of the question, but it was sure funny!"

Email me Rory!

I loved reading about all of your sweet little girls!!!

a pioneer woman...

...sort of.

Our dryer is broken. The brand new one. The front loader. The one we just bought a couple of months ago to make washing clothes easier for me to keep up with.

Yeah, that one.

It stopped working over the weekend.

It's under warranty, but it may be a couple of weeks before they can come fix it. A couple of weeks. *sigh*

So here's my makeshift clothesline...



I'm real excited that our neighbors can peek over and see our undies blowing in the wind.

As I was hanging the clothes up I felt like an old pioneer woman back in the days before electricity.

Except I was in my air conditioned house.

And I was humming along to the radio.

And I was using pretty colored plastic hangers, pretty sure they didn't have those.


Be grateful for your working dryers today. Give it a hug for me. I sure do miss mine...

a necklace for Eden... win one!

Eden will be one month old tomorrow.

Isn't that amazing?

It seems like just yesterday I was longing to hold her for the first time. Now she has outgrown her newborn diapers, she's already wearing 3-6 months clothes and is almost sleeping through the night... she sleeps from around 11 pm -4:30 am, eats, then goes back to sleep until about 9 am- not bad for 1 month :)

So for her one month "birthday" I made her first necklace...


A small sterling silver flower hand stamped, hung on a sterling chain with a single pearl dancing beside it.

The flower charm is slightly domed like a cup...



Win one for your special little girl... just tell sOmEtHiNg FuN about her!
A winner will be chosen at random :)

You can also find them in my shop!

when the boys are gone...

the girls make cookies...



chocolate chip ones, of course...



hot out of the oven and falling apart- perfect...



don't forget the milk...



ahhh, those were good...



let's have more, k?

square names on a chain...

Thanks to everyone that offered to "help" me with the new necklace, I received over 40 emails in just a couple of hours! I honestly hadn't expected that. Jen emailed me almost right away, she was QUICK! I loved her kids' names, so I snagged her :) Thanks Jen!



2 sterling silver square charms that are about 1" across and handstamped with any 2 names or words you would like. The letters are antiqued, then the charms are buffed and shined. Between them hang a small 1/2" sterling circle with a handstamped heart and a single freshwater pearl.

You can find them in my shop here.

help wanted...

I need someone to help me out with a *new* necklace.


Someone who has 2 kids. With cute names preferably :)

Someone who wants a custom necklace at cost (not retail!)

If you're that someone, (or at least interested in the details) please email me: thevintagepearl@gmail.com.

We'll talk :)



***UPDATE***
Thank you for the overwhelming response!!! I grabbed the first ones that emailed that fit what I was needing, thank you ladies! I will definately do this again soon, so even if you didn't get in on this one there will be more chances in the near future :) There are so many cute names to choose from!

Rocks in my Dryer...

is having a Vintage Pearl giveaway!!!


Believe it or not I got to meet Shannon, the creative genius writer of the Rocks in my Dryer blog- if you haven't read her blog you must go check it out! It's become a MUST READ. I had the pleasure of making her a custom piece (this diamond name necklace) for her to wear to BlogHer.

I had read Shannon's blog many times before realizing that our husbands are friends. This is just so typical of my husband- he knows everybody. We can't go through Wal-Mart without stopping several times to talk to people he knows. Even on our honeymoon in Hawaii- Ryan knew the girl at the front desk of our beach side hotel from college! So she upgraded our room for us :) Sometimes his popularity comes in handy ;)

So back to Shannon, she's super nice, and now she's having a giveaway on her blog for your choice of any piece of jewels from my shop! Go check it out here!

twitter-ing...

I couldn't resist.

All of you twitter-ers made it look too fun.

I am now twitter-ing. See look over there on the top right --->

Yeah, right there.

I don't quite understand it totally yet, but I'll catch on quick :)

Who else twitters?

don't we all do this?

you go to the store intending to buy something like this...


and you end up impulse buying this...



Tessa got her first bike, helmut and knee pads. how could I resist? look how excited she is (and color coordinated- she even put on her Dora shoes to match it all!) Plus it's great excercise...



she hopped on it in the toy section and then rode it around the entire store next to Eden's stroller. she has come a long way since this day...



she wants to "go for a ride" all the time... do you like the color...



or black and white...?



Caleb went with us this time... (Jonah stayed home with Ryan and Eden, he is SUCH a Daddy's boy!)



I love this kid... he and I are butting heads a bit these days :( It will pass, I know, but it has been challenging and frustrating. I think it's part of having a kid that's growing older... and he's only 7!!!

Eden is 3 weeks old today!



I took her to the doc for a weight check- she has gained almost 2 pounds in 3 weeks! She now weighs a bit over 10 lbs. :) Time to start sleeping through the night, right???


Oh yeah, and I totally forgot to buy the trash bags :P



P.S. My photobucket account has reached it's limit for the month (I didn't even know that was possible), so some of my pics are gone until the 22nd. I've opened a new account, to use from now on, so please bear with me and the ugly photobucket upgrade pics, my normal pics should be back in a few days! I refuse to pay them money :P

the baby announcement...

I searched all over Etsy for a baby announcement design and fell in love with a shop called lillebarn. Sonya, the owner, is so sweet and super fast. In one night she came up with the perfect baby announcement for Eden...



We love it Sonya, thank you for working with me!

What's funny is that when I went to pick up the pictures (I ordered them in store online) the clerk asked me who took the picture.

I said "Me."

She said that it looks professional and that I needed to fill out and sign a copyright release!

I told her I was flattered, that someday I hope to be a photographer, and happily filled it out, though I'm not sure she totally bought my story!!! She looked a bit skeptical and not buying the "I took it on the living room floor" story I had to offer her, though it's the truth :)

Oh well, she totally made my day!

a relaxing morning...

Thanks to Aunt Jen, who picked up the boys and Tessa this morning for a few hours, Eden and I were able to have a quiet morning together.

So we took some pics...



Eden cooed at me a bit...



gave herself bunny ears, which totally made me smile...



she wiggled her toes alot...



and then she fell asleep...

so special...

I loved reading all of the comments for the necklace giveaway about the special women in your lives, thank you all for sharing. It was too hard to pick just one, I wish I could give everyone a necklace! But unfortunately I couldn't pick one winner (it was just too hard) so I resorted to the random number generator which picked Melissa, who said...

"I would give this to my daughters....I never had a sister, only brothers, and I LONGED to have a sister. Everyone that I know who has sisters talks about the special bond that sisters have. I am soooo excited that my girls will get that. I want them to embrace that specialness and to know how lucky they are to have each other."

I'm excited that she's receiving it as I can totally relate- I grew up with 3 brothers and always wished for a sister. I'm extremely happy for my girls getting to grow up as sisters together :)

Congrats Melissa, and thanks to everyone that commented :)

sunday snippets...

Tessa dressed up as a princess to go to her cousin's birthday party... isn't she a pretty princess? She had to wear her boots, of course...!



My brother and his kids came up to visit Eden and wear my boys out...



Eden being cuddled (as usual)...



Hopr you all had a fun sunday :)

for a new bride...

We went to a wedding last night, one of Ryan's good friends from high school got married. (Of course we took Eden, proud Daddy wanted to show her off!)

At Ryan's request I made something for the bride...



It has their wedding date on the sterling heart with a pearl, and their initials on each side, hung on a stelring chain. I hope she likes it :)

This can be customized, and would also work well for a mom of twins! You can find them in my shop!

I can't believe...

... that in the past 24 hours, my oldest son Caleb, who is 7, went from this...



to this...



BOTH of his top front teeth have finally fallen out! And they fell out within a day of each other...



I'm excited for him (he's one of the last from his class to lose any teeth because he doesn't have permanent bottom middle teeth, thanks to his dad's genes, so they won't fall out and those usually go first!)

BUT I'm also kind of sad- he looks so much older and teeth falling out just makes him so much more grown up :( He has passed another one of life's stages.

Somedays I wish they would stay small--- I keep telling them to quit growing but they just won't listen to me...

sisters, mothers, friends...

The inspiration behind making this necklace came while watching my daughters- Tessa was holding and talking to Eden while Eden just looked up at her intently, like she was really listening to every word Tessa said. Tessa was tellling her about shopping, getting hair cuts and finger nails polished, and how the three of us will be best friends forever...



Made with a large sterling silver disc about 1 1/2 inches across that is hand stamped "are for sharing laughter and wiping tears". A sterling heart dangles on top that is stamped "sisters" but could also be stamped "mothers", "friends", "cousins", etc. A freshwater pearl dances with the heart charm, hung on a sterling chain. You can find them in my shop.


Let's give one away!!! Just tell me about a special woman in your life you would give this to, I will pick a winner in a few days :) Please be sure and leave an email addy so I can contact the winner!


TGIF- I am TIRED, newborn sleep has caught up with me! Ryan is home tomorrow and I plan on getting some zzzzzzzz's!!!

eden's motto...

and snuggling with daddy, don't you love how babies sleep sometimes?

a cool mom picks feature...

Head on over to Cool Mom Picks today, they were so sweet and featured a necklace of mine, gave a review and is offering a giveaway!!!

To win all you have to do is answer a question that ALL of my blog friends should know! You will be entered to win the "I love you to the Moon and Back" necklace, but the deadline is TONIGHT!

So hurry over here and let me know if you win!!!