Vintage Yellow House--Etsy shop update

I got an exciting email last week...

I sold my first item in my Etsy shop!   Back in July I finally opened up an Etsy shop and while I had intentions of listing several vintage goodies I have to sale, I ended up only getting one item listed.  With the little effort I put in, I was super excited to see that I actually sold my one item, this kitschy plaid thermos this last week!

 

With my one sale under my belt, I am geared up and more excited to finally get more items up for sale and enjoy being part of the Etsy marketplace. 

Here's a peak at what I have up for sale right now. 

 

 

I hope to get more items up soon, so check back for more goodies!  Crossing my fingers for more great emails that let me know that someone snatched up these items!

 

Northern Adventures

It's been almost two weeks since we've been back from our trip to Seattle, Alaska and Victoria, Canada.  We were on a wonderfully scenic Alaskan cruise!  The trip was beautiful in every town we went to and we got so many great photos to capture the trip.  My parents also went on the cruise which worked out great for making sure we nailed all of the photo opportunities!

 

We flew up to Seattle and stayed with Clint's uncle and aunt who were great hosts and showed us around some great Seattle sights.  I especially loved Pike's Market where we got to see the "fish throwing" action and snagged gorgeous bouquets of flowers for only $5!  We lucked out too since it was a spectacular sunny day in Seattle!

 

 

 

We also went to magnificent Snoqualmie Falls. 

 

 

Later that night we ventured back out to go the Space Needle. 

 

The view from the top was amazing all lit up at night.

 

 

After a wonderful day in Seattle it was time the next morning to head to our ship to cruise off to Alaska!

The cruise ship was amazing with plenty of activities to do, food to eat, and a relaxing room with a beautiful balcony view when we wanted to kick back. 

During the week we made four stops.  Our first stop was in Ketchikan, Alaska where we adventuring karting!  It was a gorgeous sunny day which was perfect for our karting tour. 

 

 

Our next stop was Juneau, Alaska where it was much cooler and rainy, but we still managed to see much of the town along with the Mendenhall Glacier and an ocean side Catholic shrine.

Our final stop in Alaska was Skagway.  We took a train ride through the mountains with picturesque views from every angle!  It was a beautiful tour! 

 

 

Our last stop on the cruise was in Victoria, Canada.  This was one of our favorite stops!  We got to take a little "bike taxi" and see so much of the town, including the Empress hotel, the Parliament buildings, China town, adorable historic houses, beautiful architecture  and more!  In the little time we had in Victoria we saw so much, but it definitely left us wanting more!

 

 

 

 

It was a once in a lifetime trip up North seeing Seattle, Alaska and Victoria, Canada!  

Thrifty wardrobe

Pretty soon here I'm going on vacation (yeah, long over due!) and probably like many of you I decided I wanted needed some new clothes to bring on my trip.  After all the our trip will include cooler weather and I want to have fun dressing up too!  So, I have been trading in my normal home décor hunting at thrift stores lately for fall wardrobe hunting.  Here are some of the finds I picked up and will be taking on our trip (with some other staples already in my closet).

 

Three great pairs of jeans as well a pair of purple pants that are different than my normal attire, but were too fun to pass up

 

I found a cozy sweater, a casual gray striped shirt and two light weight jackets that will be great for layering

 

 

A simple gray dress and a little bit more fancy turquoise dress for our evening adventures on our trip

 

And of course wardrobe shopping wouldn't be complete without shoes!  I found these deep purple heals and these super cute nautical inspired flats that I think will go great with a couple of outfits

 

So, the most exciting part about all these fun fall clothes I found is the price...$70 for all of this!!  Seriously, way better than going to the mall!  Mixed in with some things I already have, these "new" pieces are an inexpensive solution to my fall and vacation wardrobe needs! 

 

Come visit me again soon on here...I'm sure I'll post about our vacation! 

Make it over: old record storage to craft cabinet

More than a year ago I snagged this old cabinet at a yard sale that was originally for record storage.  While the piece had good bones, it definitely needed work to be usable and presentable.  For only $5 I decided to take it home with me and make it over.  So...more than a year later I finally got to it! 

 

 

 

I wanted to make the cabinet clean and functional, so I knocked out the pieces of wood inside the cabinet so I could utilize the space more.  I then painted the whole cabinet a clean white and added new nickel hardware.  For the inside shelves I put down cute chevron contact paper.

 

 

 

 

The cabinet now is a perfect space for all my stacks of craft paper and other creating supplies.  I love this addition to our office right next to my craft desk!  I have to admit, after I finished the cabinet and put it in the office I got a little giddy about having a clean inspiring space to work in!   

Craft night for the girls

I get the joy of working with the Beehives (12-13 year old girls) in our ward (church congregation) which includes not only teaching them on Sundays, but it also means I get to do fun activities with them during the week.  For our activity last night I decided we were due for a craft night.  (Yeah!)  There are so many cute crafts out there especially with Pinterest that it was almost hard to figure out what to do in only the allotted time for our activity nights as well as being very easy to teach and learn. With the thought of making something simple that the girls could wear, I found the awesome jersey knit bracelet idea!  Instead of giving you the whole run down of how to make it, I will point you to the source where I followed the how-to of jersey knit bracelet creating.   She also has a YouTube video in case you're like me and want to see exactly how to make it. 

Here's how the bracelets we made turned out. 

 

 

 

I think the girls had fun having a craft night, I know I did!

Day trip to Napa Valley

Last Saturday we woke up early took a road trip to Napa Valley!   You may remember that last year we did an amazing weekend trip there and couldn't stop thinking about it pretty much all year long, so we knew we needed to at least do a day trip this year. 

Our first stop, Bouchon Bakery.  This place is my absolute favorite in all of Napa Valley.  Their selection of breads, pastries, cookies and goodies they make are incredible and beautiful to look at; but most importantly they taste absolutely delicious!  We got our fair share of goodies to have for breakfast, lunch and to enjoy later at home.  Thankfully Bouchon isn't any closer to our house or we'd be in big trouble!

 

 

 

Our next notable stop was at the Bale Grist Mill.  This was a fun historic stop that featured a fully working water and grain mill!  It was a fun tour to learn about the mill's history and see a whole other side of the Napa Valley. 

 

 

The mill park was also a great place to have a picnic lunch with sandwiches made out of bread we bought at Bouchon that morning.

 

As ventured more through the valley, after the mill tour, I decided that we needed to get Clint a cannoli since he wanted to try one.  So we embarked upon a cannoli search!  We finally were able to get one at Tra Vigne in St Helena where I was dubbed the "cannoli girl" by the host that took my order for simply "one cannoli to go"!    It was worth the adventure to find the yummy Italian dessert. 

 

After our day of adventures, we had our last stop at a Michelin star restaurant, Terra, for our anniversary dinner.   The restaurant was intimate and the service was stellar.  The quality of the food was superb, but we had to admit afterwards that the dinner wasn't exactly what we expected and we probably would make Terra just a one time dining experience.  It was a fun experience though and the fusion that the Japanese born and classically French trained chef brought to the multiple-course style menu was exciting.  

 

 

 

At the end of our fun foodie day in the Napa Valley we were tired, but once again determined that the trip was so worth it and we just might have to do it again next year! 

 

PS--if you're following me on Instagram you probably already y saw some of these pics.  If you're not following me on Instagram and want to see more pictures of my adventures find me under NostalgicYellow. 

Patriotic goodies and Vintage Yellow House on Etsy!

Hello all!  I hope you had a great 4th of July with lots of BBQing and summer-style festivities.  I decided I need to make patriotic treats for the occasion.  Fresh blueberries and strawberries were the perfect toppers for my "American flag" fruit pizzas (sugar cookies with cream cheese frosting).  They were almost too cute to eat, but of course we couldn't resist for too long! 

 

Something I think of being very American is owning your own business, which is what I finally took the plunge on.  I opened my Etsy shop!  As a nod to this blog, I name it Vintage Yellow House!  I plan on adding more vintage goodies to the shop that I hope you will enjoy and might even find that you can't live without ;)  I don't know how well it will do, but it's fun to start something that I've thought about doing for a long time and decided to just jump into. 

 

 

Check out the shop!  VintageYellowHouse