Doll-E-Bed by Amsco

Why are vintage doll items so cute? This precious little metal bed was a gift from my mother to my girls. I had it tucked away because it seemed just a little to important for a my little girls play. I also must admit I am absolutely struck giddy by it's vintage blue enamel paint, whimsical label and little rubber casters. So maybe I was just saving it for my own personal pleasure.
How come children's things can not be made this stink'n cute today!!! The blue of this paint picks up a blue in the girls new vintage style bedding so well, that I finally took it out of the cupboard and put it together. Now, I am trying to decide what kind of bedding I should make for it.
It still has it's blow up mattress intact. The mattress was inside two pillowcases. The first is a white flour sack type material and the second is white linen with cotton lace. The linen one is damaged beyond my repair abilities and appears to have been cut down from an adult pillowcase. It is lovely and I love it all the more because it isn't perfect. I have an old chenille bedspread which I picked up at a garage sale over the summer. It is damaged so I thought I might cut it up and use it for the doll bed.

On a totally separate note. How fantastic are these tags. Vintage playing card recycled into garage sale price tags. I love this idea because what do you do with a deck of cards that is missing one or two out of the deck? Actually, there were tons of good ideas at this garage sale. The couple who's sale it was spends all year collecting stuff and then has one amazing sale in the summer. When ever I drive past their house I have an urge to stop by and invite myself in for coffee. I am looking forward to their next sale so I can hopefully get to know them better in a more socially appropriate manner!

Back to the bed! I was hoping to find a vintage ad that depicted the bedding that might have gone on this little bed. But alas it must have sold without any or with bedding sold separately. The ad does say that the Doll-E-Bed was only $2.99. Amazing. So if you have any thoughts or historical info about bedding for my bed please pass it on to me. The girls are utterly smitten with this little piece of history. And are taking great joy in using it for their dollies just the way it is. They seem to understand that it's old and needs to be used gently. Which makes me think that giving children the opportunity to have fine things teaches them how to appreciate and care for them maybe sooner than they would learn it otherwise.

What do you do?

Someone asked me last night what we do at the lake in the winter. That's a good question. Going to the lake in the winter is probably my favorite part of winter in Minnesota. There are not that many people around. The lake is silently frozen. The air crisp. And frankly, we don't do anything significant. We hang out as a family, eat, snuggle in front of the fire, read, take walks and naps. The lake in the winter is a wonderful escape from our very busy lives precisely because there isn't much to do or much that needs to be done. I am not doing laundry, something for the kids school or grocery shopping. The long list of what I am not doing is exactly what makes these weekend trips so utterly important for our family. We are just being together....that's it. My favorite thing to do at the lake more than any other thing is to go for a walk down the long woodsy road that surrounds our precious lake. It is my favorite thing to do in the summer too but for different reasons.

Our winter walks seem to bring us together in a way that few other things do. Maybe it's because I love to walk in the woods. It speaks to something ancient in my soul. And I love to see my children experience the simple joys in life. These moments are moments that we just talk about stuff without the distractions of life. Sometimes we are quietly side by side. Sometimes we are causing a playful ruckus that probably startles almost any living thing around us. On this walk my 5 year old daughter was taking most of the photos. It was so much fun to load these on the computer last night to see what she had captured. I have to say, I am having a little bit of parental pride as I think she captured it perfectly.

There comes a time in every boys life

So this came in the mail today.
Murray McMurray chicken catalog is to my boy what the Sears Christmas Catalog was to me as a child. The kind of thing you leaf through over and over until pages start falling out of it. Dunn wants a chicken. And when he gets home from his friends house, this catalog will not leave his little hands for a week....maybe more. He will take it to bed with him at night and bring in back down stairs in the morning. It will have breakfast with him and sit next to the bath tub when he takes his evening bath. He will want it read to him before bed each night and at intervals through out the day. It will go on many an errand with us until one fateful day it will be so grubby and unreadable it must be recycled. He will be sad but hopeful that a new one will come in the mail soon.
What started all of this you may be asking? I will tell you so that you might spare your child this love affair. It's not so much of a what, but a where. Dodge Nature Center Preschool. His classroom pet last summer was Lulu a little bantam hen. Dunn fell for this chicken hard. He spent the entire summer with her tucked under one arm and a shovel clenched in his other little hand. He worked hard digging up worms and finding other yummy things for her to eat. While older sister came home with lavish depictions of each days events, Dunn came home with tales of Lulu. Only Lulu and the occasional feather tucked in his pocket.
The crazy thing is that my sons love for this hen was so palpable that I actually felt he must have one. His teachers wore his heart ache on their faces on the last day of camp. Big brown eyes staring at the tips of his crocs as I lead him out of the classroom assuring him in soft tones that Lulu would be there next summer.
We live in the city.....we have a very big dog that would like nothing more than to eat anything non-human in our back yard....what would the neighbors think?.....So many reasons not to do it.
But one very good reason to......


Now what kind should we get?

Super Bowl Sunday with kids

A darn near perfect day yesterday! Gorgeous weather, sunny and calm. A morning spent ice skating. And all three of the kids were actually happy to be on the ice. All Dunn wants to do is play hockey, have his own stick and be with the big boys. However, he is not particularly interested in all that comes between now and then. Namely the actually learning to skate part. We talked with other parents yesterday who assured us that one winter it just hits. They get how to do it and they don't want to stop. We are hopeful......

The little one is the one who enjoys it the most. She hums soft tunes to herself the entire time she is out there. When she gets tired she lays in the snow happily looking up at the sky. She is the first one to get her skates on and doesn't really want to take them off. Maybe there is something to be said for starting them early. Or maybe it's just a third born thing.

The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning and cooking for our Super Bowl get together. We invited two families over who both have three children each. That is a lot of kids! I didn't get any pictures of the adults enjoying the game.

But I did get this picture with some of the children sitting in our bed watching Peter Pan. The rest were too little and one was too big. I can't ever imagine a day when my three little people will be too big for this! I want them to stay little forever. It's a slippery slope this growing up business. I tried to pick Soren up today and struggled to do it. Just about broke my heart in two. I had to sit on the couch and hold her tight so she couldn't grow anymore....at least for a minute. When I told her I didn't want her to get big she looked up at me with a twinkle in her eye and said " Mom, I am going to be you when I'm big". Then she scooted off my lap and skipped off to continue her growing up work and left me grinning like a crazy. A darn near perfect day!