the flea

Last Saturday was Jamie's debut at the Brooklyn Flea Market with his Instrumental Lighting business. We were so excited to go see what people would think of all his musical instrument lamps! Jamie had been working for two weeks to build up his inventory. He took over the guest room for his work shop...

 

He made about 40 lamps and ten lamp shades to take!

The catch was getting all the lamps and booth gear TO the flea market in Brooklyn. Keep in mind that we have no vehicle! Jamie got a couple huge totes and  two carts that we loaded up.

Jamie's gear was massively heavy.

While my little cart was pretty light.

Our plan was to take the subway on the hour trek to the flea market, but we were only going to use subways that have elevators (not every subway station has elevators). We looked pretty ridiculous hauling all this gear onto the trains. But the great thing about NYC is that you can be totally strange and no really cares, because every where you go... there are weird people here! So we were 'those' people that day.

So the 'plan' didn't really work out, because a few of the stations had out-of-order elevators or the map was wrong and there was no elevator where we thought there was. So we had to haul the ton of gear up several flights of stairs. I'll just say it wasn't the happiest point in our marriage.

But we did make it there! Just in time to get the booth all set up.

The lamps looked so great on display. I didn't really get a great pic of Jamie's booth all finished, but I'll snap one again sometime.

His official logo...

It was so fun to watch everyone's reaction to the lamps. The loved them! I was so proud of Jamie.

He sold 5 lamps that day and the other vendors all told us that August is a slow month for the flea market so I'm excited to see how the next couple of months pick up as it gets closer to Christmas.

Since Jamie was making money... I did my part to help him spend it. I'm good like that! The flea has amazing food vendors, so we started the day with big cups of local coffee and these amazingly huge yummy donuts that you had to hold with two hands to eat!

Then I pretty much snacked all day long. I had a tasty home-made soda that was lime and mint. I was addicted! So good.

Since we were sitting in the booth all day, it was fun to people watch. We made up stories about people that walked by. This guy definitely owned a goat and played the ukelele.

When I got bored I would venture out and see all the other booths. Some really cool random stuff!

Of course I wanted to buy all the vintage dresses and shoes!

 We did reward ourselves at the end of the day by each purchasing one thing. Jamie got this really nifty plant that grows in a brick.

 And I got a turquoise picture frame. It's hard to tell in this photo but it's a really thick heavy frame and I love it!

Anyways, it was a super fun day at the flea market. A huge thanks to Donna who was in town and kept the girls all day. It was a long day, but so worth it. Jamie is going back again this weekend. Now that he has done it once he has new ideas for his booth and set up, etc. It's so fun to watch him work on all this! It's the perfect mixture of creative art and financial business... just like Jamie. :)

lil trouble maker

 Annie is changing every day. Love her to pieces! She is so much fun (aka- empty the bathroom trash can all over the floor and then bat her sweet eyes at you.)

(Photo credit- Donna)

 It's such a blast to see her personality coming out so much. She is a sneaky instigator though! She has figured out how to ambush Audrie, pull her hair, and then run off giggling.

(photo credit- Donna)

Annie eats hotdogs like nothing I've ever seen. I told her she was never going to have a boyfriend if she keeps it up. Scarfing down three hotdogs in one sitting is not pretty.

Here is a wacky picture of me and Annie (on a weird bug-eyed setting on my camera computer)...

Although we spend most of our time chasing Annie out of trouble, we can't help but smile while we run after her cuz she's just so stinkin' cute.

(Photo credit- Donna)

Jamie caught a video of her the other night goofing off...

Oh Annie. We didn't think we could handle any more "life in our party", but you sure bring the fun to our family!

a few thoughts and stolen photos

 

Just a quick update on this roller coaster of a life we are living. (PS- I wish I could claim that I took any of these photos in this post, but sadly I stole them from google. But they are pretty, right?)

 

The good times are still rolling here as we get out and explore the city. Jamie's mom was here for a week (Thank you, Donna!!) so we were able to do more since we had her help. We spent all day Saturday at the Brooklyn Flea Market (more on that soon) and had a blast! Last night Jamie and I went out with Jason and Sam and had a 'best-night-ever' just eating, laughing, and pretending we didn't have a care in the world. It was so nice.

 

 We have had some sad moments where we miss our family and friends in Arkansas. It's crazy to live in a city with 8 million people and still feel alone.

We are not in denial about how challenging this chapter of our life is. But we are still having more good times than sad. No regrets. Yet. The future is still wide open and that's exciting and scary. We are taking it one day at a time and loving the adventure.

I saw Michael Jackson walking down the sidewalk today. For real. A dude that was dressed and styled to look completely identical to the "Thriller" days of Michael Jackson. I was impressed.

Never a dull moment here.

"Trust in the Lord and do good; so you will live in the land, and enjoy security. Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him." Psalm 37:3-7

fun outings

 Earlier this week we took the girls to meet Lady Liberty.

 We had been talking about it with Audrie and reading books about the Statue of Liberty to her, so she was pumped when she finally saw it!

 Annie thought it was pretty cool, too. :) We just did the Staten Island Ferry since it sails right past the statue and we didn't have the energy to take the girls up into the monument. Plus, the girls thought the most fun part was riding on the big boat!

 Jamie's mom, Donna, is up visiting us and we are so excited to have her here! (So are the girls!)

 We have missed her so much.

 Yesterday we took the whole clan down to Central Park to do a few fun things there. We saw some amazing scenery when we first walked in!

It was just screaming for a family photo shoot. :)

 But we were headed to the Central Park Zoo and we made it just in time to catch a sea lion show that was starting. (Audrie's pigtails...)

 And her goofy grin saying "cheese"!

 I didn't take many photos at the zoo, but it was the perfect size for our girls. Not a huge zoo, but just enough animals to make it interesting and not too exhausting. Although I honestly got attacked by a bird in the tropical bird sanctuary. I kid you not. It dive bombed me and I squealed in terror! The horrid bird pecked at my arm as I ran away. WHY ME?? (Oh and Jamie laughed at me instead of coming to my rescue.)

 But everything was better when we got to the Central Park Carousel. Yay! I love carousels and Audrie shares that joy, too. She was so excited to ride it!

 Annie was not. (It was too close to lunch/naptime for her to even pretend to like anything at that point.) But I loved it! The music on the carousel was awesome. They kept playing random songs that cracked me up (Wings of a Snow White Dove, Just the Two of Us, Walk the Line, I Fall to Pieces, Macarena, etc... the randomness of the music-box style songs made me laugh!)

 It was a beautiful carousel and so much history! (It was built in 1871 and has been through four renovations.) They said it's a "NYC kid's rite of passage". We were glad to take part in this experience. And Audrie waved at all her 'fans' as we rode by!

We've had a fun couple days getting the girls out in the city this week!

holy avocado!

Oh my goodness, y'all! I made these the other night and they are truly amazing. Deep fried slices of avocados!! Check out the recipe here.

marriage of arts

So you know Jamie opened an Etsy shop a couple of months to start selling his nifty instrument lamps... well the other day he had this great idea to let me spray paint a few of them. Yeehaw!! Don't have to ask me twice to spray paint something. I was on it! So much fun. And then I ran around town taking photos of the fun lamps. Check 'em out...

(then it was raining so I took some photos in our living room...)

Jamie (and Jason) have been making lamp shades out of old sheet music, too. He's still working on that product idea, but I really love the ones they have made so far.

This Saturday is Jamie's debut at the Brooklyn Flea Market! He will have a booth set up of 35 instrument lamps and shades. (If you're in the neighborhood... stop by!)