Penelope is going to grow up to be an amazing thrift shopper. I just know it! Back in April (Penelope's birthday, in fact) we were running some errands when I randomly decided to pop into D.I. to look for some sweet deals. I passed by the kid's shoe section & Penelope picked snagged a pair of rain boots that I (surprisingly) didn't notice. She promptly kicked off her shoes & threw the boots on. At first I wasn't too thrilled about these mysterious rain boots, but Penelope wasn't going to take them off, so I bought them. I'd much rather spend $1 on a pair of boots than deal with a screaming 2 year old. Just trying to keep the peace. As my sister pointed out to us after a night of babysitting, Penelope's favorite cartoon character, Kipper, sports the same green rain boots in a rainy day episode. Aw! How sweet. Penelope & Kipper are all matchy-matchy! Penelope would wear her boots everyday if I let her and she gets compliments on her sweet boots everywhere we go. I love that she's gotten so much use out of a measly little dollar.

It's my dad's birthday today! Happy birthday, DAD!! For Father's Day I made him a black bicycle hat. I have a few childhood memories seeing my dad wear hats like that, so I thought he might like one. It was a complete shot in the dark. You've got to understand that my dad is impossible to buy/make gifts for. He only ever says he wants happy children. Of course he means it, but we're a pretty happy bunch so it doesn't seem like we're giving him much of anything. Personally, I think he doesn't believe we'd ever pool our money/assets together to buy him what he really wants: a 40 acre ranch in Kolob canyon. He's right. We'd never do that. As luck would have it, my dad was very excited to receive the black hat for Father's day & it fit him perfectly. He asked me if I could a decal on there. Of course! With my Silhouette, I'm unstoppable! He gave the hat back & requested that I put a decal of a cyclist & "Ride like the wind, Tonto!" wrapping around the side. It's taken me nearly 2 1/2 months to get around to doing it! The cyclist took some effort & patience to apply, but the quote was impossible. Maybe I should've taken apart the hat to apply the decal. Round shapes are not fun to iron. Admittedly, I was more than bummed to see that it wasn't going to work out. Blerg. On the positive side, the hat looks pretty rad with just the biker on it. Hope my dad likes it!

Since I made the last stuffed creature, I've been meaning to make one similar & let Penelope keep it. I've made quite a few of these little monsters, but I've given them as gifts every time. They make for great gifts for boys or girls, by the way. This one was a tad tricky because I made super long stuffed arms on this creature. Pinning took a good 20 minutes. Overall this thing was about 40 minutes in the making. I love the fabric on this little guy. Part of it's solid, part of it's striped. I wish I had more than a couple of scrap pieces of this fabric. I'd love to make Penelope some overalls out of this stuff. Penelope is starting to catch on to the word "present". I got a package in the mail yesterday (Miracle Jeans = awesome) & Penelope got so excited to see what it was, she was jumping up & down yelling, "Ped'nt! Ped'nt!" It's cute how she mispronounces the word. When I told her I had a present for her this morning, she was very excited. Unfortunately, her excitement for the new toy wore off around picture 4. She did pick it up a couple of times after that, but I'm not so sure she's all too thrilled about her new ugly doll. Only time will tell.

While blog surfing the other night I came across Domestic Nest's post about handmade leather mousepads. I totally agree with her post, they're the perfect man-gift for that person-who-has-everything, aka DAD. You know what my dad wants for every birthday & Christmas? Happy children. Regardless of birthdays, Chris & I have desperately needed to replace our sad mousepad. We bought a round mousepad from Ikea years ago for $1. It has served us well, but it's in a sad & sorry state now. As soon as I saw Summer's post I snagged the nearest scrap of leather, traced the shape of our old mousepad on the back & cut it out. BOOM. Motoring around our 24" of screen is so much better now! The leather isn't nearly as thick & juicy as the one available on Summer's etsy shop (which is a cool etsy shop, btw), but it does the trick. Love it. P.S. No pics of it on our desk because our desk is in a dark & scary dungeon.

I've been looking for blue shoes for a while now. I've got quite a few clothes in my closet that I feel would be better served if paired with a pair of blue shoes rather than black or brown. However, while searching for the perfect shoes, all thrift shoes I'd come across would either be matronly or plastic & gross. Last week my patience paid off & I scored a fabulous pair of blue suede shoes for $4. Upon arriving home, I logged on to the computer & googled the mysterious "DV" label. It's DV for Dolce Vita. This brand retails for about $80-120. Score. These shoes are comfortable, show just the right amount of toe cleavage & match practically everything I own! So happy to have found these babies. Above is how I wore them to church on Sunday. Here's the breakdown of my outfit:

• cardigan - DownEast Basics $15 (50% off with employee discount)
• top - thrifted & refashioned $4
• belt - vintage from my grandma
• skirt - thrifted $2
• shoes - thrifted $4

Have you found any good deals lately? Please share links in the comments! Also have you discovered the glories of Groupon? Chris & I have & now he's going to take me out to a nice steak dinner. Mmm!

Thanks to Susan I'm seeing stripes everywhere. I saw this little yellow & white striped shirt at the thrift store the other day & couldn't pass it up. It's so cute & in awesome condition for being somewhere around 15-20 years old (based on the tags). My neighbor's son just had his first birthday so I wanted to do something thoughtful & possibly handmade. There's something so foreign to me about making gifts for boys, maybe it's because I have a girl & I am a girl. Maybe. I had a bunch of black heat transfer material that I got with my Silhouette, so when I saw this shirt in the thrift store I knew exactly what I needed to do. I wasn't sure if I was going to do a robot or rocket ship, but when I started thinking about the stripes on the shirt I knew it had to be nautical. It took me less than 5 minutes to cut out the design and iron it on! I love how slick this is! I think I need to get more colors of this heat transfer stuff. It's rad. It almost looks & feels like dried silkscreen paint. I'm a huge fan.

Goodness gracious! Thanks everyone for all of the well wishes! We are just thrilled to be adding to the family! Penelope (although she might not know it yet) will be a great helper when the precious bebezinho arrives. After I made my pregnant apron I had to make a matching apron for Penelope for a few reasons:

• she's a messy girl & needs something to protect her cute clothes – I'm also getting tired of doing so much laundry
• she's getting interested in helping me around the kitchen, better make her job as sous-chef official with a matching apron
• I have something like 8 yards of that awesome striped fabric left after completing my apron
• It's been a while since I've made something matchy-matchy for her

I didn't make pleats for her apron or really do anything special at all. It's just a rectangle with the top two corners corners cut off. I did get slightly tricky (or lazy –however you want to look at it) and used elastic for the neck piece. I couldn't find any velcro or buttons I liked in my stash of notions, so elastic seemed like the best option. It's great because I don't have to worry about tying anything; I just effortlessly slip the apron over her gigantic head.

Every time I hit up the thrift store now, I make sure to check for milk glass. I love it, it's so beautiful, simple & I am head over heels over the patterns found on milk glass vases. I haven't always been a hoarder of milk glass. In fact, I'm not sure I had ever heard of milk glass until the lovely Kami Bigler told me about it. You should see her milk glass collection. It's beautiful & real. I'm pretty sure all except for the far right vase are fake. Meh. Whatever. They're pretty anyway.

Collection (from left to right): $1.50, $1, $2, $1, $1.50 Grand total: $7

I hope to boost my milk glass collection & one day have an entirely white room where I showcase my milk glass. Can you just imagine??! White painted wood floors, white trim, charcoal walls for contrast, white furniture & white milk glass adorning every empty space. YUM. A girl can fantasize.

Do you collect anything fun? What is it?

I'm pregnant!! WOO HOO! I've wanted to share this news with the whole world for some time, but I didn't feel like it was official until I heard the heart beat. Penelope & I listened to the heartbeat at the doc's office on Tuesday, and all is going well! We are just thrilled. The crazy part is that I'm nearly 14 weeks along! I didn't think I was that far along at all. Surprise!! My belly is starting to grow now & I feel like I need to make the necessary arrangements for my upcoming giant belly. I've needed a full-sized apron for ages, but now that I'll have a huge belly just asking for stains & spills; I finally made one. I made sure my apron was high-waisted & pleated to add room for my growing body. We'll see how well it fits when I'm 9 months & bursting at the seams. It didn't take me much time at all to make it, so I made a matching apron for Penelope, too. I'll post pics of her soon. Here's the breakdown of my pregnancy so far:

• Morning sickness isn't nearly as bad this time around as it was with Penelope.
• I'm craving spaghetti, top ramen, pizza & a special brand of English muffins.
• I've gained about 10 lbs so far.
• I swear I'm having a boy, and we will be finding out in about 4-5 weeks.
• I'm totally exhausted all the time.
• I can't eat sweets; the smell of marshmallows & Nutella makes me want to vomit.
• Everything smells like mildew.
• I'm due sometime in February, no exact due date yet.

So there you have it, the cat's out of the bag!! Hope you have a good weekend! My weekend plans include taking a million naps & desperately try to catch up on all the sleep I lost in New York.

BlogHer was a whirlwind of a trip. I've realized I'm not as young as I used to be; parties, prepping for parties, fab suites & the bustling of the big apple just WORE.ME.OUT. If you're not familiar with BlogHer, it's a crazy pants blogging conference. I just bought the expo hall & parties pass, so I didn't attend any sessions. I didn't even have time for sessions, it was SO crazy busy.

The first two days were spent being crazy, crazy; prepping for the SocialLuxe party. We all worked so hard to get everything perfect for the big event. Can you believe these swag bags?! They were completely stuffed with the most amazing things. Chris was pretty happy to find out that I was coming home with another pair of skull candy headphones.

{Survival kit photos courtesy of She Posts}

The Avery survival kits were a big hit at the party. I had the privilege to work with Avery & design the labels for the kit. I can't tell you how handy these kits were & how wonderful Avery is. The bandaids, hand sanitizer & Starbucks gift card definitely saved me! Friday I spent half the day touring private designer showrooms with 31 other bloggers with Shop At Home. Thanks to them, I went home with some fabulous shoes & a yummy scarf that's getting me all excited for fall(I'll share pics later). After my little shopping spree I got pampered yet again at the Getting Gorgeous party & met up with some really fantastic bloggers & sweet brands. Friday evening I helped out with the Kirtsy Gala by painting inspiring words on people. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of what I did. If anyone has any, would you send them my way? Pretty Please? I'd like that. In addition to the body art, I participated in the art gala by donating a piece to the show. I've been dying to share it with you & now that the party is over, I can! I was assigned to read & create something in reaction to this epic post. You better believe I was sobbing after reading it. I wasn't quite sure how I could do any justice to this post. It was a pretty tough assignment. I finally took inspiration from an ad on the sidebar & made a little piece about that. I'm not sure I've done any justice to the author or her story, but it was an honor to work on this project & so great to have an excuse to break out my watercolors. This trip was exhausting, but absolutely worth it. I'm not sure I would've been able to survive the big apple without my friends & family looking out for me!! My mother-in-law drove 11 hours up to SLC to spend time with Penelope & Chris. My mom met me in New York & helped me survive by making sure I had enough food!! Moms are the best. Did you go to BlogHer? I'm not sure where to find all the BlogHer recap posts, so if you've written one, please include the link in the comments! I'd love to read all about your experience.

This post is brought to you by Thanksgiving Point. Last month I was invited to Thanksgiving Point to take a cooking class entirely devoted to cupcakes. I wasn't sure if I wanted to attend as my sweet tooth has completely disappeared, but I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to a) get out of the house, b) socialize without Penelope and c) learn how to make something pretty. I'm so glad I went. We learned how to make some delicious cupcakes and learned a few essential cooking tips along the way. Just look at how gorgeous these cupcakes are!! Um, my birthday is coming up, does anyone want to buy me a bunch of these cupcake stands? I love these little guys! Gosh, I think I'd eat breakfast, lunch & dinner off them. They're so adorable. I think these oreo cupcakes were Chris's favorite, but my favorite was the coconut cupcake with marshmallow frosting (not pictured - maybe I lied about my sweet tooth?). That one was delicious. This quote definitely sums up my feelings towards everything sweet, particularly cupcakes.

I got home from my whirlwind NYC trip late last night. Getting off the plane & stepping into the SLC airport was like taking my first real breath in 4 days. It was quiet, calm, open and didn't smell like urine or garbage. AND. The air was dry. AHHH. Cool, dry, Salt Lake air! Oh goodness. I missed it. While I was gone, my cousin's wife, Christa - interior designer extroardinaire - FINALLY posted pictures of her home on her interior design blog. Christa & Josh invited us over to their home a couple of months ago & I was just floored at how gorgeous, simple & classy their home was. Not that it was a surprise; they're very classy folks with great taste, I just never thought people actually lived in homes that look like they came from a magazine. I don't normally write posts like this, but I really want to share with you details from their gorgeous, real-life space. Christa brought new life to this couch by using such a gorgeous, bold & graphic textile. I love how it modernizes such an antique! I love the juxtaposition of the über modern plexi-glass coffee table & the antique wingback. The upholstery is awesome, no? Christa had an old (GIANT) chair upholstered in white to sit at the head of the table (so genius) and found someone to hand make her table. Again, she mixes antique with modern & I love it. To read more about her living space & what it looked like before, head over to Christa Pirl, the blog. All photos in this post are courtesy of Michael Tallman. Now I'm going to take a nap. I need to catch up on my sleep.

I made the epically long trek from Salt Lake City to New York Wednesday. All went really well: I got randomly chosen to be pat-searched just minutes before my plane departed and I got terribly ill on the plane and upon getting out of the cab. A brave little topiary outside of the Hilton entrance fell victim to my illness. Sorry little guy! I couldn't be happier to be visiting this fabulous city! I've never been here before! I've been looking forward to passing out my business cards at BlogHer for a while now. Now that I have everything all in one place, I'm so excited to share with you what I'm handing out to the fabulous folks I meet here! Mrs. Fields generously provided me with 11 dozen logo cookies (they're as delicious as they are adorable). Uprinting provided me with business cards (still love them!). I made & cut vinyl "i still love you" stickers with my silhouette SD and stuffed them & my business cards in the envelopes I ordered through the fabulous Action Envelope. To polish the whole presentation off, I hand-calligraphed "<3 Melissa" on the front of each envelope. Call me crazy pants. If you find yourself in New York/BlogHer, come find me! I have some goodies to give you!! Well, this is my peace out until Monday when I hope to have my act together enough to share more NYC/BlogHer details. Hope you have a great weekend!!

IT IS FINISHED!! I'm finally done decorating Penelope's room. Well, done until we move (likely soon). I'm very excited to share these photos with you! While I felt like I splurged a lot on Penelope's room, I did manage to score some great deals along the way. Here's the breakdown. If you don't see it listed here, I had it on-hand already.

• rug - Urban Outfitters - $45
• table - DI - $2
• chairs - Ikea - $30
• yellow box - DI - $1
• yellow basket - DI - $1
• paper for garlands - Robert's - $2
• paint for nightstand, desk & crib - WalMart - $25
• lampshade - Target - $17
• lamp - WalMart - $12
• yellow frame - DI - $1
• watering can - DI - $1
• white wooden shelf - $3
• fabric for chevron pillow - DI - $2
• frame for LOVE poster - Ikea - $22
• trash bins for toys - Ikea - $50
• faux Eames rocker - Caitlyn Creer - $90
• TOTAL - $304

If I could have had my own way with this space, Penelope would have white walls, teal scalloped border with teal ceiling & white hardwood floors. Lemme just daydream about this for a minute. SIGH. I actually hate this disgusting tan wall color. Any house that I actually own will never, ever have tan/taupe/beige walls. Ever. Besides that, I really love Penelope's room. It's fun & bright. The white furniture definitely opens up the small 8'x10' space. Let's talk details. Penelope has never had her own room before, she's only ever had a closet. Not much to decorate there. When we moved to our little house, we were given a few pieces of furniture from family members to help us get started. My mom gave us her desk & nightstand from her childhood. I've always loved these pieces & was incredibly, incredibly excited to use them for Penelope's room. They have such fabulous feminine details! The two pieces were slightly mis-matched, so I painted the wood white & fixtures yellow to modernize the furniture a bit more. I think they turned out gorgeous!! Chris's parents kindly handed down their crib. THE crib that they used on all six of the Esplin kidlets. THE CRIB. Can I tell you how utterly sweet it is to be able to use such beautiful, sentimental furniture?!? I love it. The crib was in need of a little facelift; I thought so at least. Chris was very resistant. I had built up this image in my head of a freshly painted white crib with matching white furniture, so it was very difficult for me to let that go. Just before I did, Chris kindly relented on the condition that I did all the painting. I'm really happy with the end result (see first pic)! The Eames rocker was a great deal. Caitlin Creer, interior designer + blogger, hooked me up with the rocker and came over to my house to help me rearrange the furniture in the room. So awesome. The furniture configuration is a lot more open, thanks to her! Sometimes it's so necessary to have a second opinion on stuff like this. The toy bins were also the brain child of Caitlin. I was thinking of making some sort of toybox using her old crib, but that would've required a lot of time and mind-grapes on my part. At Caitlin's suggestion, I headed over to ikea & coughed up $50 for the cans. I seriously don't spend that kind of money on containers. Perhaps if I had been diligent enough with my thrifting, I could've found something similar for $4-15, but I was impatient & my aunt had given me a giftcard to use on something as frivolous as trash bins. The artwork & dress above the trash bins were also hand-me-downs from my mom. My sisters & I wore that dress & Penelope wore it too. The artwork is a cross-stitch of a bunch of teddybears in tutus. AW. My mom made that back when we were little. Between my sentiments & Penelope's love for dance, I thought I could find the perfect place in Penelope's room to hang it. The chairs were also another Ikea splurge, but they're so darn cute I couldn't pass them up! Isn't Penelope so sweet playing lunch with her baby? Also, I didn't mention it before. . . I love the rug I found for Penelope's room. Well, I didn't find it. Deb over at Fresh Nest did. I emailed her asking where I could find an inexpensive, bright, non-cheesy rug for Penelope's room and she responded with a great article on resources for awesome kid's rugs. So, there you have it. I did Penelope's room in just over $300. Not the best deal ever, but not bad. Right?

• UPDATE •

Here are a few links to see the 8 month journey of Penelope's room & more info on the details I didn't mention above:

• Penelope's Scalloped Border
• Penelope's Pom Pom Mobile (that got ruined by the awful maintenance guy)
• Penelope's Chevron Pillow
• I used my loopy-loo garland tutorial for the window garlands
• I used Jordan's velum mobile tutorial for the mobile above Penelope's bed