#BlogLuv Valentine Exchange

I was so happy to participate in a Valentine Exchange this year!  Anything that gives me an opportunity to stalk, I mean to find out more about a friend is fun!  My amiga Ruby and I arranged the swap - her daughter pulled names and I got the very lovely Ezzy!  Talk about inspiring and beautiful - the first thing I noticed about Ezzy is her love for literature.  I used to get lost in books when I was a teenager.  I would buy or borrow 8 books at a time.  My ritual was to lock myself in my room for the weekend, lay in my closet and get lost for a few hours at a time.  I feasted on marathon reading.  Called a nerd by family and friends, I didn't care.  I buy books when I'm out thrifting, I am growing a cute little collection but reading them is another thing.  It is almost impossible but I still believe in print.

I received the cutest package from Ezzy - This Breakfast at Tiffany's box was full of things I love.  Chocolates, Lush, lip gloss, nail polish and the best postcard!  Talk about making a girl feel special for Valentine's but even better is the new friendship we're starting.  I can honestly say that I enjoy reading her blog!  Thank you Ezzy!!!


[ This #linkup is only for members of #BlogLuv that participated in the Valentine Exchange - if you add your link, I will kindly delete it ]

#talesfromthethrift What I Didn't Buy

My husband's work schedule has been crazy lately and he's back in school for Spring semester so we haven't been thrifting as much as I'd like.  He had the day off and we decided to take a peek.  These are all the things I didn't buy but caught my attention!

Yes that is a bottle of Dep hair gel from the 90s.  The gel turned brown and was quite disgusting if you ask me.  It was packaged with body pouf and some other bathroom products.  Ew. Do you remember cassette tapes?  I loved 'em --- waiting for hours for a radio station to play a song you wanted to record, those were the days!  Another treasure from the 90s!  

A really good Gucci knock-off.  It was $7.  Had it been $3, it might have come home with me.

These looked like paintings to me but my Fine Arts major husband (totally sassing him there) Chris says they are prints.  I love everything about them except the price.  $7 each is out of my price range.

These Bandai Gundam figures were assembled but the boxes were in great condition with instructions and all parts intact.  Was a steal for $3 and I've been getting so much inquiries about 'em.

I love books!  Call me an advocate for print!  I really wanted these but wayyy out of my thrift shopping budget.  I am tempted to go back and get them though.  Dying to smell and flip through the pages!


What are some things you have passed on at the thrift shop and later regretted?  C'mon share your story! Have you posted about thrifting, antiquing or shopping at the flea market in the past week?  Link up with #talesfromthethrift and share your finds!  Share the love with this button!  

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'Tis The Season To Gift Exchange Part II

You know that saying, "the right place at the right time" - thats how I kinda felt that this gift exchange happened.  I was checking out my Instagram when I saw bellandpistol arranging a book & ornament swap for something like 20 followers.  I added my email and made the cut!  Korey (bellandpistol) emailed us asking for the little one's name, address, age and titles of 3 books on their wish list.    The limit for the whole gift exchange was $20 minimum, $25 max!  Done deal!  I emailed our info with these titles:   Dragons Love Tacos, My Abuelita and Hello, Rock

And we had to include info on our kid, sweet!  The cool thing is that the little we were sending to wouldn't be the one we would be receiving from.  I totally forgot to take a picture of what we gave before I wrapped!  I impressed myself with that ribbon cause I suck at creativity!  Looks great on Pinterest but not when I try haha

We received from ohdearmama and it is such a lovely, lovely package!  Duke loved everything about it!

He really adores these drawings with information on all the kids!  They are so cute too!  We learned a lot about their family!

And this book is funny!  I read it to him and Omieoso and they loved it!


Thank you ohdearmama family XOXO

'Tis The Season To Gift Exchange Part I

We participated in TWO very fun gift exchanges this year!!!  I really love doing this with the kids, it teaches them about giving.  You want well-rounded kids, show them the many, many ways they can give.

Tee and I decided on a book, ornament and drawing exchange for Teagan & Duke.  We met up one Sunday afternoon at Hollywood Farmers Market and hung out for a couple hours.  The kids hung out with a goat, had a jam session mini concert, we ate coconut cake from the Thai vendor, sampled fresh squeezed orange juice, apples, grapes, oh my!  It was fun!  We're very blessed to know The B family!

Here's what Duke gave!

They were so excited for gifts!

Here's what Teagan gave Duke!

This drawing from Teagan is so adorable!  I love the curls in our hair and my eyelashes are fantastic!  Duke taped it to his toy shelf!

They make such good friends!  It was precious watching their little souls take in the music, help arrange the instruments and offer up their chairs to kids that were smaller than them.