Long Weekending

We had a wonderful long weekend. We started out Friday night by heading downtown to riverfront park. There are little paths that wind beside the river and huge playgrounds. We walked and played and then headed home. 

Nathan's parents arrived around 1am with our five year old niece, so Max woke up to a big surprise Saturday morning.  We spent Saturday at the pool--Nathan and I hosted a pool party for our neighbors while nana and popi hung out with our kiddos. Max is pretty excited to be reunited with the pool. After church on Sunday, we headed over for another full day at the pool.

Nathan's parents left late Sunday afternoon, but we still had more glorious long weekend to enjoy. Nathan was up super early Monday morning to head to a park to ride his bike on some of the mountain bike trails and we decided to go with him. We made a starbucks stop and I sipped starbucks while Max played on the playground while we waited for daddy. The morning air and sunlight mixed with an americano was the perfect way to start our day. We are thinking about making this early morning coffee drinking/park playing/mountain biking a regular Saturday thing--it was just that good. 

We got back home around 9:30, fed the kiddos and got ready for another lazy day at the pool. We thought it was going to be rough taking Sloaney and Max without the help of the grandparents, but it wasn't at all. Max is doing so well in the water and Sloane loves being in the water, so it was no big deal at all. Sloane stayed in the water for about an hour and then we girls got out and lounged in the shade while the fellas played. This week has been a busy four day week, but today is Friday, which means another weekend is upon us. This is the first weekend in over a month that we are in town and don't have work plans or family up visiting. I'm looking forward to lots of coffee drinking, pool lounging and nothing doing :)

shop talk

. I've been thinking alot about branding lately and the look I want to have for my shop, but I haven't been able to settle on a logo or color scheme. I love bright colors, but want to keep it clean. I finally decided to go with a classic font with graded colors. I've also decided to only use solid textured paper in my shop--no more working with patterned papers for items in the shop to keep things bright but clean-looking and cohesive. This is so hard for me because I have such a hard time focusing to create a cohesive look--this isn't just for my shop, I also have this problem with my wardrobe and how I decorate my home. 

I also figured out new packaging. I am selling at a great local shop here in Louisville and wanted pretty packaging, so I settled on this--these are 5x7 single cards, but I'm doing the same for card packs as well. I love the bright colors, but I think the solid textured paper keeps everything looking cohesive without using the same colors. 

I'm also working on a party decor category for the shop. Last night, I made some fun rainbow paper garlands for a custom order, but I'm definitely adding these to the shop. 

I'm so thankful for this outlet--it gives me the opportunity to stay at home with the babes, but still provide a little extra income for my family. It's nice to be able to use money that I've made from etsy to buy fun extras or go out to dinner without taking away from our regular budget. Plus, it's keeps me sane and is a nice break from my tiny loves. I really want to use this outlet to not only bless my little family, but others as well. I'm still figuring that part out :)

Quinoa Black Bean Nachos

We had a seriously good dinner tonight--quinoa black bean nachos. I'm always looking for ways to make our family favorites healthier and meat free. Sometimes, it's a miss, but tonight it was a big hit. I soaked/cooked dry black beans yesterday to use for dinner last night, but it ended up being a much needed 'night out' for dinner, so I threw them in the fridge to use tonight. I was just going to make vegetarian nachos with black beans, shredded cheese and homemade pico de gallo, but I had peppers and onions that I needed to use and a jar of quinoa in the cupboard, so I decided to cook up some quinoa, then sauté it with cooked down green peppers and onions and half a packet of taco seasoning (the other half of the packet went on the black beans) and 1/4 cup of water. It had a great consistency that was similar to ground beef and I put it on the tortilla chips while it was still hot, so it melted the shredded cheese, which made it even better. I layered tortilla chips, quinoa/green peppers & onions, shredded mexican blend cheese, taco seasoned black beans and homemade pico de gallo (two roma tomatoes, half an onion, one jalepeno, juice from one lime and TONS of cilantro). It was seriously good. Nathan layered the quinoa/black beans/pico in a tortilla and made a vegan burrito. Even Max enjoyed it. 

We've been eating dinner outside almost every night, which made it taste even better :)

Weekending

We had a wonderful weekend. Friday night, Nathan and I dropped the kids off at church for childcare and had a great date. Our church offered free childcare for date night to parents who participated in baby dedication a few weeks ago, so we enjoyed a great dinner and wonderful conversation while sweet volunteers loved on our kiddos. 

Saturday, Nathan's parents came up to visit. We went to Henry's Ark to see the animals and then meandered around downtown and visitied the Louisville Slugger Museum (there is a 120 ft. baseball bat out front and Max was unreasonably terrified of it. He kept screaming 'I don't want that big bat to fall over!!'. Sadly, he gets unreasonable fears of bizarre things from me...). We also drove across the river and visited a state park that overlooks the river. We met an old man that makes arrowheads down by the river and Max had a blast digging in the sand and collecting rocks and sticks. 

We went back home for our first official 'summer' dinner--grilled chicken, grilled corn and mac and cheese. A long day meant early bedtimes for the kiddos and a movie and ice cream for the big people. We were all knocked out by ten :)

Wild and crazy weekends

It's been a seriously good, full weekend. We had a house full of kiddos on Friday night, hosted a pancake breakfast for our neighbors Saturday morning, picked up my mom Saturday afternoon, went out with our favorite friends who were up visiting on Saturday night and celebrated Mother's Day on Sunday. We've seen lots of family and friends over the weekend and my mom has been up staying with us since Saturday. We've been playing at the park, shopping at the mall and baking the kitchen. Whew. 

Card table makeover

I should title this post 'Reason 10900 why I love my crafty bearded husband'. I ran to Target last night and came home to find him on our patio working on a card table makeover. He took our old, basic folding card table, unscrewed the table top, and stretched a vinyl table cloth over, stapled it down underneath and trimmed the edges. How great does it look?! I wish I had photographed the process, but it was so easy. It literally took him all of 20 minutes from start to finish. I bought the table cloth for $4 at TJ Maxx a couple of weeks ago, but it was for an oblong table, so I was going to just throw it out, but he turned it into this. 

I'm loving how our little outdoor space is turning out :) 

Wine Crate Garden

I've been wanting to set up a little garden on our patio for a while and finally got started on it today. We have zero sun on our little patio, so I went with different kinds of lettuce and some herbs for the patio and a box of tomatoes and basil to put in a box under our front window where there is great afternoon sun. I'm hoping to figure out a way to put handles on it so it can be easily transported around to the back patio on days the complex is being mowed. Here is the blog where I originally found the idea to use wine crates. Make sure you drill holes in the bottom of the boxes for drainage. 

I got the crates at the wine shop in whole foods. I just went in and asked for wooden wine crates and they gave me some. I'm on the list to get more when they get another shipment in--there could be so many great uses for these awesome wooden wine boxes. 

Eggplant Parm Burgers

 Last night, I made eggplant parm 'burgers' with grilled corn on the cob. 

Slice up an eggplant into 3/4 in. 'patties'. I seasoned with salt, pepper and a little garlic powder. Grill over medium heat for about 3 minutes on each side.  Top with a slice of mozzarella chess, marinara (or pesto), lettuce and tomato. I served mine on a whole wheat sesame seed bun, but it would also be good on some type of italian bread. It was super good and even passed the three year old approval test with flying colors :) 

Weekending

We had a great weekend. It started early with Nathan getting off early on Friday. We had a great dinner (bacon wrapped burgers, corn on the cob and mac & cheese). After dinner, we met some friends at an art museum by U of L for Friday Friday for free admission into the kids art exhibit. We followed this fun with donuts. 

Saturday morning, Nathan and Max got up super early and Sloaney and I slept until 9:30--it was wonderful. We got ready and headed to the farmers market, where we picked up strawberries, flower and had lunch. 

It was a great, restful weekend. I got caught up on orders, we got a few projects done around the house and did alot of nothing. 

Happy Monday!

Shop Talk

The shop has kept me super busy over the past month and alot of it has been orders for weddings.

A couple of weeks ago, I did these custom wedding favor tags in fuchsia and dark purple with lace trim.  

I've also been working with some new wedding stamps in white ink for favor tags and thank you cards. I'm hoping to get a little ahead on orders this week so I can work on some new items. 

These thank you cards went out earlier this week--50 were grey and 50 were coral. I love this color combo and can't wait to add some of this color combo to some items for the shop. 

A sweet customer sent me this photo. It's some ivory tags with names/wedding date/table numbers. She hung them up with mini clothes pins and used them as escort cards. How cute do they look in the frame with the lace!