Weekending

We had a lovely, full weekend. I started the weekend with a wonderful girls night--great food and sweet company. Saturday morning, we enjoyed our pancakes and coffee a little slower than usual, taking it easy before we hosted a community event for our residents Saturday night and hosted small group at our place on Sunday night. Darth Vader also made several appearances at our place this weekend. 

Shop Talk

Lots of new items coming into the shop this week. I'm working on a new line of birthday products--cards, tags, party decor. I love the layers of textured cardstock and I've got more colors coming :) 

Crafternoon

Yesterday was the best kind of Friday--fun, productive and relaxing. The kidlets and I were out of the house by 9am and made stops at chick fil a, the post office, the park and the grocery store. We came home for lunch, work and some playtime. Since all my orders were caught up on and all my work e mails had been sent, I had a good two hours to myself, including some time to make this easy, summery wreath. My fall wreath has been hanging on my front door since the end of September, so it was time for a change. I stripped the fall fabric off of the wreath and covered it with strips of a vintage sheet. I wasn't sure what else I wanted to add, so I just added a section of green and white yard. It look so happy hanging on my door. I had so many ideas for beautiful, intricate wreaths, but I'm all about easy, finsh-able projects and this one was just perfect. 

Happy Birthday, Grandma! It's a GIRL!

We had a lovely mother's day weekend. We started the weekend early on Friday with breakfast and a doctor's appointment. It was the big day when we were going to find out what we are having! It's a girl!  We spent the rest of the day enjoying the rain and getting ready to head out of town for the weekend. The weekend was full of time with friends and family. My mom's birthday fell on mother's day this year, so our whole family got together for dinner Saturday night, where we surprised them with the baby's gender on mom's birthday cake. It was such a fun night. We ended the already wonderful day with a relaxing date while my brother, sis in law and nieces took the kiddos. 

We are so excited about another girl. Max has been saying all along that he wants another sister and it's been so fun watching Sloane show interest in babies and take care of her baby dolls like a little mama. We're starting to narrow down names, which has been fun and daunting. I'm starting to get a stock of newborn diapers and sweet baby girl clothes. I can't wait to snuggle this sweet girl :) 

17-18 Weeks

This pregnancy has flown by. I'll 18 weeks this upcoming week and I'm finally starting to actually look pregnant and not like I just finished a carb-loaded dinner. I'm starting to feel regular movement and we go next week to find out if we've a boy or girl cooking in there. I've been lucky this time around to not be quite as sick as I was with the other two rascals, just tiiiirrrrred. Trying really hard to enjoy this time as a family of four. Enjoying lots of slow days with Max and Sloane. It blows my mind that Sloane only has a few more months of being our baby. She's growing way too fast--she loves playing with her baby doll and is so intrigued every time she sees a baby.  I can't wait to watch her as a big sister. 

Greatest Achievement

I love lots of pattern and lots of color. Nathan loves neither. And I'm thankful for that. Our home is full of bright color, but he keeps it from looking like crazy people reside here. One thing we do both love is vintage, so there are lots of vintage touches here and there. Another thing we both love is DIY, so lots of our favorite pieces are projects that we've done together (when I say we, I mean Nathan. I basically give him a vague idea of what I want and he does it. He's pretty wonderful). The green cabinet above was purchased at a yardsale for $20 shortly after we got married and painted a lovely green color. It's been a computer desk, a tv cabinet and now it's job is to hide all my etsy supplies. 

We found this large Ethan Allen dining table at a yardsale last fall. It was sturdy and had a lighter wood finish. Plus, the front and back side fold down, so it's great to push up against a wall when we have a large crowd over. We weren't crazy about it as it was, but we knew we could do something pretty wonderful with it. We stuffed it in our tiny jeep and squeezed it into our tiny apartment. My original idea was to paint it a charcoal grey and add large polka dots in a slightly lighter shade of grey (making them super cute, but super subtle). Nathan reminded me that nothing in our home is currently grey, so it would look mismatched (and not in a good way...see what I mean about him keeping things balanced). He started by painting it white and I had the genius idea to add chevron stripes. He actually picked the teal--even though he's not crazy about bright colors, the teal shade goes really well with the other rich colors that are in our home....seriously, the man would make Martha Stewart proud. It took him almost two weeks to meticulously tape off the chevrons. Things were thrown. Foul language was used. But the end result is wonderful and makes me so happy. 

Poolside

I've FINALLY started working on a new summer line of products for the shop. Lots of bright blue, lime and yellow coming in the next few days. Cards, sets, party supplies and more! One of my goals this year is to get a little better at the business and planning side of my etsy shop. The last few months, I've been so busy fulfilling orders/vomiting/chasing children that I haven't really had a chance to put much more thought into it. I'm loving these green and blues! I made some new color options of favorite designs and added some fresh designs to the shop. The choose joy sunshine card is definitely my favorite :) 

Spring Break Getaway

Two weeks ago, we went on a little getaway for Max's spring break. We headed to the Smoky Mountains for three days and then made a stop in Nashville for two days to visit the grandparents. It was such a wonderful, relaxing trip with my favorites. We spent alot of quality time together in the smokies visiting the aquarium, hiking to a beautiful waterfall and eating (and eating and eating and eating). We got in two glorious dates in Nashville while the grandparents watched the rascals. Our dinner date was the first real, relaxing date we'd been on in almost six months.  Every few months or so, i get antsy to just get away--even if it's just a short trip to visit the grandparents. Even with two LOUD children in the back seat, I think the ride to wherever we are going is relaxing. 

 

Weekending at the Zoo

We had a great weekend! It started on Friday night when we met my brother, sis in law and nieces for dinner. They were in town for an academic competition, so we got to spend some time with them last week. Max thoroughly enjoyed swimming at their hotel pool. Nathan's parents arrived around midnight and Max woke up bright and early Saturday morning and gave them a very loud, very excited wake up call. We grabbed breakfast and then headed to the zoo. The weather was perfect. We saw lots of animals and Sloane called every animal we saw 'duck!'. We ended up getting a zoo pass, so I hope the weather warms back up so we can enjoy it. 

Nathan's parents headed home after dinner Saturday night and the rest of the weekend was spent just hanging out and relaxing. This week, we've dealt with cold weather, daddy getting his wisdom teeth removed, and more sickness on top of our daily to do's. This last month, almost every week has been broken up with family visiting, trips out of town, Nathan having unexpected days off--we haven't had a 'regular' week in probably two months. And I'm so thankful. This pregnancy/cold weather has been kicking this mama's butt, so it's really grace that we've had all these interruptions and distractions in our daily routine. I've been looking forward to the upcoming weekend all week :)

Snuggle Time

These past two months have been snuggle mania around these parts. Pregnancy, sickness and gloomy weather have all contributed to lots of time spent on the couch, tucked under quilts with my favorites. I'm entering my 11th week of this pregnancy and the weather is finally starting to warm up. I bought two bundles of daffodils at trader joe's today--my favorite first sign of spring! Nothing makes me happier than seeing a vase full of those yellow pretties on every surface of our home. Thankfully, we've had a constant flow of family and friends up visiting over the last month, which has been a lifesaver for this mama. Tonight, we had a lovely dinner with visiting family tonight and a frozen yogurt date. We came home, tucked the kids into bed and gave the house a good cleaning. Now, I'm enjoying seeing flowers in vases, candles burning and a stack of packaged orders ready to go. I'm also enjoying listening to the sweet sound of the dishwasher and dryer going--is there a better noise to fall asleep to? I don't think so. We are waiting for Nathan's parents to arrive for a little visit this weekend. Max was so excited that he's going to wake up to Nana and Poppy in the morning. Here's to a fun, relaxing weekend. If I make through the weekend without puking, we'll call it a successful weekend :)