Happy 2nd Birthday, little blog!

Sweet Punk Noters -

The blog is back!  Thank you for all who previously followed and thank you to our new followers.  I'm hoping this will become an outlet for me to post new designs and ideas more regularly!

Notes for today, Houstonites:



From left to right -

1. Two Punks herringbone pattern - fresh take on the chevron craze.

2. J.Crew is open in Highland Village! This is huge for some of us who would rather not brave the Galleria. Pic from the window of the store in Palm Springs. Love the multi-colored herringbone pattern.

3. Speaking of Palm Springs, a Trina Turk store coming to Houston in 2014 is the word on the street.  Looks like they want to do Galleria, but I tried to push HV for the same reason mention above!  Pic from Palm Springs Trina Turk when we were there last month.

4. Love this Trina maxi dress I tried on while we were there.  Hoping I get a good enough excuse to buy it soon.

5. Here are a few patterns we did for a Palm Springs inspired invitation!

Decided it was time for a little Palm Springs post after all the coachella pics and people jetting off to the dessert lately!

Follow Two Punks on instagram (our latest addiction!) and on FB.

tea for two

Deal of the weekend!!!  OK, so we like us some tea.  It was our casual staple last fall/winter...and actually anytime of year.  It's great mix and match and it is very well made, holds up well, and gets softer and softer with each wash.  Plus it's different.  It's not smocking (though we love that).  And it's a little funky.  And here is the deal of the weekend.   They are having 15% off when you buy 3 or more items.  Not a deal on it's own, but a steal when you combine it with their referral program.  So if you click on this link and sign up, you get $25 off your purchase of $50.  I referred my mom and it worked.  And AB got a cute new outfit for fall and all year long.  The tea stuff is great for layering and good for many climates because you can wear it alone, or throw a cute long sleeve tee underneath for more warmth.  So without further adieu, here's some cute tea.

and for the boyeeees

I couldn't resist this cute shirt for AB

And this little dress and leggings

A few cute things that I found on haute look through this weekend, too. It's one of those deal sites.  Ironically, I bought AB a lot of tea on there last summer.  Brand is Maggie and Mimi.  Pretty cute for fall.

da baybay's room

Every morning when AB gets up and sees BBB for the first time in the morning, still to this day, she says "it's a bay-bay!" Emphasis on the twang in the bay-bay.  I thought I'd do a little Inspiration to Reality post about the nursery.  Here is the original inspiration below.

And here is the finished product.

So that is the changing table - or oversized dresser.  We got it at an auction before AB was born.  Can you spot the missing hardware?  The hardware is circa early 1800's made in England and apparently extremely rare - according to Settler's Hardware.  Hence the missing piece.  Haven't found anything to replace it and not quite ready to get rid of the rare 1800's hardware.  Any suggestions on what to do?  I've given up!  I got the mirror at Nadeau in the Village.  The lamps are from Hobby Lobby.

The bedding I made with my trusty little Singer.  The chevron fabric is premier prints from fabric.com.  They are on sale through the weekend - great prices!!  I'll show you some of my faves below.  The other fabrics on his bedding are from HouseFabrics.com.  The crib sheet is Serena and Lily. The book rack is Pottery Barn Kids, though I don't think they are available anymore.  I painted the doggie over the crib with my mad Art major skills from SMU.  Don't think I've done a canvas painting in quite awhile until this one.  It was fun!   The duck prints are by an artist in Iowa - gave them to the hubby years ago and found them in a closet.  The cheap but not chic mobile is Tiny Love from BRU.  I guess some necessities aren't pretty!

So the crib is Jenny Lind style and borrowed.  The rug is a flokati sheep skin thing.  The chair is custom from AB styled after a Serena and Lily one.  The pillow I made to match the bedding.  The side table is a little secret from Wisteria.  The lamp is Target circa 2009.  More prints on the left of the window are from Round Top and antiquing.  The pics on the right are of hubby and I as babies.  the silk drapery is Pottery Barn Teen and the sheers are Pottery Barn Kids.  I wish I would have photographed the room before all the "real" baby stuff got in there, i.e. The Swing, etc.

I still have this pine cone hill fabric left over.  What should I make with it?  I have a few yards.  Did not end up using it on the bedding.

Here is a close up of the other crib bedding fabric.

And here are some of the Premier Prints cuties from Fabric.com that are on major sale right now.  I need to create another project pronto!

Different strokes for different baby folks

So I already posted my list of baby things we couldn't live without when AB was a little-kin.  Now that we have a new man in our life, our list has changed a bit!  Every baby is different!  We've got a hot little nugget on our hands these days and the ballgame has changed!  And you just never know what is going to work.

First off, since the heat as been record setting and in the 100's ever since BBB arrived, we have kept him in a simple onesie.  No cute footed pjs for big boy.  He's too hot.  So we are hoping the weather cools off a bit to get him in some of those things soon!  But for now the staples are these Gap Favorites.  They are super duper soft and super duper stretchy to go over the newborn noggin.  Love.  Have one in every color.  My mom likes the blues - says they bring out his peepers.

And oldie, but a neccesity is next.  The FP lamb swing.  He'd rather be there than anywhere else.  Even in his mama's hot arms.  Sort of breaks your heart when he smiles when you put him in the swing even though he's been fussy in your arms for an hour.  But no complaints, if he can love that swing, well we can love it just as much.  And under $100 now here.

One baby's trash is another baby's treasure. Figuratively. Not literally.  His sister didn't take a liking to these little buddies.  But little man is obsessed.  So I went out and made sure I had a houseful.  Extras for AB to play with, extras in case he spits them out on the floor, just extras.  No need to keep washing the same one over and over again - the theme with baby number two is "make it easy on mama" and by easy I mean buy extra. 

Now I don't remember if I posted my diaper bag from AB, but I've found a new love for it again.  It's the perfect diaper bag.  Spots for everything, very roomy, and keeps your organized.  LOVE.  or I die in the words of RZ.   It's the Kate bag by MZ Wallace.  They have them at Nest and Cot in H-town or your can order from their website here.  And it's not a baby bag brand, so really I think it could be used beyond "diaper bag" days.

And we haven't hit this stage yet, but these are a coming neccesity.  Mullins Square used to make them, but they have stopped.  Infantissima is now making them and they are elusive.  They have them at Texas Women's in the professional building in the little store on the botton floor called the Stork Club.  Get one while you can.  They keep ALL the food off your baby when you start solids.  Not just the food that hits the front of the shirt.   You know what I mean.  Sorry for the lack of links.  Can't find the pup on the web.  Comes in a lot of patterns.  See their wholesale site here.

And another newbie to my list that we have yet to try, but can't wait to use in the near future is this little guy...it's a support for the high chair, excersaucer, park swing.  It's for when your baby isn't quite ready for that stuff, but sort of is.  That in between time.  When they like the entertainment of the excersaucer, but can't hold themselves up for that long.  Like about 4-5 months range. 

and this is how you use it:

And I regret to inform you that we did NOT find a really cool new monitor that scans between rooms, has a huge clear lcd screen, talk to talk features, temperature monitoring, lullabies and all sorts of other cool stuff.  The big wigs at the baby video monitor companies and the big wigs at the telephone/cable/internet companies have not gotten together to work out why they are putting these digital items on the same frequency.  Translation - the new cool digital monitors all interfere majorly with our wi-fi.  So we can't get any work done, or blogging done, while the babes sleep.  MAJOR FAIL, people.  We tried this guy.  AND the extra camera from yet another website.  FAIL!

And then this one.  Which is really hard to find in stock, but does all the cool stuff listed above.  So excited for it to arrive.  And then FAIL again.

So now we are back to square 1.   And settled on 2 Summer Infant replicas of our original that is officially dead.  So hence the purchase of these 2, which sort of interfere with eachother now.  We are LOSE LOSE here people.  Send suggestions my way, pronto.  I NEED to see my babies at night while they sleep!  Just kidding.  But it's just so choice to be able to turn to my bedside table, take a peek and then go back to sleep knowing they were just making some noise and are indeed back to sleep.

Who would have thought one of our biggest challenges with this baby would be finding a monitor that was legit???

And this little bath ditty.  So nice, so helpful.  Like that extra set of hands you need.  I set it next to me on the counter, lay the towel on it and put him there before and after the bath.  Voila!

So that's the short list for now!   Fill me in on more cool things that are musts for you and your brood...

Oh the times they are a changin'

So in my last post I briefly touched on how life on the internet and my shopping habits have vastly changed in the past year.  Yes, I buy clothes on Facebook.  If you would have asked me if that was a possibility 2 years ago, I probably would have said no way.  It just seems like such a wierd way to shop.  And if you asked me if I would make food from a photography (though it's much much more) site like Pinterest, I would have said that the Food Network is good enough for me.  Not anymore.

If you aren't on FB - now is as good enough time as any to join if not for anything else but shopping - but you can stick around for the stalking, too.  But let's "face" it (I'm just full of puns lately - beth, you would be proud) - if you are reading this post, most likely you are on the FB.  I do Smocked Auctions.  I buy smocked things like a crazy woman on online auctions, thats me.   I did design the logo for their clothing line, Classic Whimsy...so maybe I'm a bit biased.

And the quality of Classic Whimsy from Smocked Auctions is good because I know that it is made by the same people who make some of my favorite smocked stuff, Vive la Fete.  So this blog post is dedicated to smocking.  And though we wear a lot of other things than smocked stuff, I do love it. 

Not to plug the line I rep, Ragsland, but these are some of the nicest/most traditional Christmas smocking items I've seen this season. (By Vive la Fete).  Their FB page posts sales and stuff with things that are not at the trunk shows.  Also - coupons!  Sweet!

And for the baby bros:

And here are a few Anavini ones for sale on the Ragsland site, too.

and the coordinating brother outfit:

I  stick by "Give me Anavini (or Vive la Fete/Claire and Charlie/etc.) or give me death" though.  I'm pretty picky when it comes to smocking.  And let's face it, some of the stuff on FB is sub par.  Since I have learned the craft of smocking myself, I'm allowed to be picky.  Insert stuck up nose here!  ha!!  Here are some of my fave Anavini and Claire and Charlie items of the season.  I usually pre-book a few through Sweet Caroline Boutique on FB.   She also does some cute inexpensive tees here.

Got to have something with fall leaves: 

And the owls are so cute, got this in a bishop:

And this little pants and frogs number:

(which we plan to make use of the pants with other cute tops like this):

And who could pass this up with the cute ladybugs:

We are big fans of zoo animals around here:

And for more FB finds.  This one really isn't a FB find.  I've been buying their stuff new through ebay for awhile now.  It's called This and That for Kids.   And here is their website, though she does auction type sales on FB more frequently.  The line she carries, Be Mine, is beautiful, priced beautiful, and Annabelle has been wearing it since fall of '09.  heavy stuff.  just kidding.  Got this cute christmas dress for fun, festive holiday parties.

And this princess number is pretty cute, too:

And let's not forget the little men in our life:

AND the best thing about their boys shortalls and longalls...they come with shirts!!!!  Not to dog other sites, but this is a nice feature.

And I'm not saying that ALL my smocking shopping is done through FB, but a fair amount is.  I have issues, I admit that much!  What are your favorite FB smocking sites?