Inspiration, Love, and Beauty

My week was a bit consumed by having a sick 3 year old child. At one point this week, he was at 104.5 degrees. I get so worried when they have such a high fever. I am not complaining. I know having sick children is part of being a mom. More than anything I love being a mom to my boys. However, the worrying about my 3 year old being sick along with my 6 year old son's impatience and restlessness = me feeling ready to pull my hair out! A bright spot during the week was my six year old son's excitement for his Valentine's Day party at school. He had to make a box to hold the Valentine's he will be getting from his classmates. I was surprised and happy the 6 year old was looking forward to getting crafty with me. It is times like this I am extra glad to be a papercrafter/crafty mama. I didn't have to go and purchase supplies for his Valentine's project. In fact, I had so much paper, stickers, felt, paint, ribbon, etc. the 6 year old said (with an overwhelmed glaze in his eyes), "Mama, there are so many choices."
Today started on a much better note. On the way to take 6 year old to school, this morning, I noticed our park down the street was absolutely stunning. The trees had ice on them and the sun was shining through the ice illuminating everything. On any other day, I would keep driving giving only a second over to the thought of the beautiful winter scene. Typically I would not appreciate a moment that had the potential to take my breath away. Today I decided to appreciate the beauty nature had created. I had my IPhone with me, unfortunately not my Canon. My photos are not anything like what I saw. However, it wasn't about the photo. For me, today, it was about taking the time to stop and appreciate the beauty before me. I did. I stopped, took a few deep breaths, and appreciated the beauty right in front of me. I am so glad I did.

Here is some fun Valentine's Day inspiration from my fellow Etsy shop owners:
Legyviels

Just recently I discovered what a difference a good pair of socks makes in my comfort level during the day. I think I would die and go to heaven if I had these socks!

Holidaykitschklatsch

Cute, right!!!!

RhondasTreasures

I adore this necklace. So simple.

PetiteMichelleLouise

The papercrafter in me adores every last item in this shop. My heart goes pitter patter as I peruse this shop.

Scrapbooking, Etsy and things I am looking forward too!

In December I took a class from the amazingly inspirational Donna Downey. While at the class I met Diana who has an amazing Etsy shop called Front and Center. Diana wore one of her convertible headband designs to the Donna Downey class and Donna Downey went crazy for it! I also loved it and as soon as I got home, I ordered two. One of them I gave to my cute niece for Christmas and the other I kept. I get a lot of compliments on it. I really love how versatile it is. Diana is very creative, her blog alone is proof of that!


I am hoping to have a project I made done soon. I am very excited to show it off as I made it from scratch. I am also hoping to post the cute boxes my sons made for Valentine's Day. I had a great time painting them and watching them play with paint.

Memories from Sanibel 2010

This photo is from Mantanza Pass Preserve

Blind Man's Pass Beach on Captiva

*The shells! The best shells in the world!

*Seeing the dolphins feeding. There were so many of them and they got so close to the shore! We even saw one jump and another jumping over the water many times.

*Riding the bikes exploring the island. The photo above is the Sanibel Lighthouse.

*Hiking Bailey Tract and seeing 4 alligators. One was a very close range sighting. So close in fact we were advised to carry the kids! These alligators are not in a zoo, they are in the wild and right on the hiking track! Very exciting!

*TSA interrogating Grandma
*Grandma and Grandpa feeding a wild Egret shrimp from their hands

*The Bubble Room! This was a place that was hard for me to be in. It is ALL vintage stuff. Mostly from the 30's and 40's. All the stuff I treasure hunt for. I wanted to keep it all and take home some of the sticky buns too!

*Sunrise on Sanibel

*BEST MEMORY the boys smiles from being so happy in the sun and sand!

We stayed at a great hotel right on the beach. The day we left they received a notice that they were voted into the top 10 family resorts in the country by TripAdvisor! The SeaSide Inn had a lot of great little bonuses.

www.sanibelcollection.com/seaside_inn/

Each day we had breakfast delivered to our room! The basket was huge. In the basket there was: bagels, orange juice, apples, oranges, Oreos, coffee, creamer, sugar, and cream cheese. They also had bikes that you could borrow for free. Considering renting a bike is around $50 per person, this adds up to quite a savings. They also had free DVDs and free books to take. Just all around a great comfortable place to stay.

Life is GOOD!

It amazes me how much life changes when you get a child in school. Even if school is just kindergarten, it seems to rocket your life into a whole new craziness! Long gone are the days of us choosing what to do each day. Now we are on a schedule created by a whole bunch of people, none of which live in this household. Even though life is crazy, it is still really good. I could not ask for anymore than I have (perhaps a little more time in a day). I am truly a blessed person and am thankful for all I have.

I recently had my one hundredth sale at my Etsy store! How exciting! I am really enjoying having my store and enjoying all the people I meet through Etsy. On Dec 5th my globe (which has since sold) was on a blog called "The Someday Blog" http://thesomedayblog.com/ it is a beautiful blog full of wonderful images and ideas. I am loving the shoes she has on the blog today!

I am also proud to have an item in this super sweet person's charity auction, Becca Sutton, http://randomthoughtsbybecca.blogspot.com/ going on over on Ebay. Here is the link to all the auction items including my hand stitched "Love" collage. Go bid!!
http://shop.ebay.com/scrappingbecca/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686

Tomorrow I just might have pictures of the album I created at Donna Downey's class this weekend. I took it at Windy City Scrapbooking and I would definitely take a Donna Downey class again!

Christmas Here We Come!

I have this tradition with my best friend. Every year for more than ten years I have always called her (this year I texted, hello 21st century) and tell her I have seen my first Christmas commercial. I hadn't even been thinking to watch for it yet when BOOM, I saw the first Christmas commercial of the year! It was subtle, not a blatant Christmas commercial but it was there! Christmas tree and all! That was around Oct 5th! Craziness! At least there was not any Christmas music involved in that commercial! That might have put me over the edge. So, does the fact that people are starting to show Christmas commercials and shop for it mean that I can start saying "Happy Holidays" to everyone I see???

I worked on a project this month. It is a project using a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I really liked making it and want to make some more. I think it is such a good way to use those bits and pieces of fabric, trims, and vintage stuff I find. I like the fact that each one is totally different than any other one and no one will ever be created exactly like the other. I am working on getting the courage to list some of my handmade goods on Etsy.

Mornings with my son

I am a stay at home mom, something I count as one of the many blessings in my life. Since the end of August, my older son has been going to kindergarten allowing me to spend mornings with just my younger son. He and I have never had time together to do only things he wants to do. One of the favorite things on his things to do list is go to the farmer's market in our town. There are so many things about the farmer's market he loves but his favorite is pulling the wagon around and talking to people. He can only pull the wagon for a little while but it is still one of the little things he looks forward to doing on farmer's market day. He also loves to see the animals the local shelter brings. I have not told him yet that those animals are there because they hope someone will want to take them home. He would want all of them.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the pictures from our trip to the farmer's market last week. It was wonderful weather and the crops are becoming more abundant each week. This week I plan on picking up some apples to make a fresh apple pie for Sunday dinner.

This week marks the week that we get full swing into our school year schedule. We start piano, kindermusik, art class, and Sunday school. It will be my first year trying to keep track of everything so wish me luck! BTW, I just want to mention how thankful I am to have finally found a place of faith to take my family. We are so glad to have found a place that fits our family and our spiritual beliefs. I have been attending this church for over a year now and this year we are hoping to become members. Thank you Northshore Unitarian Church for being the place we can call our home of faith. It has been the most warm and welcoming church I have been to and I am happy and proud to become a part of it.

Tomorrow I think the little one and I will do some painting. He will jump for joy when he hears that. Painting is another of his favorite things to do. I will try to post some of his "art".

Thanks for reading!

Adios Summer, I'll miss you......

So, it is Labor Day weekend and the last hooray before summer starts to offically come to an end. It's been a cool summer and I've been loving it. The last time I remember it being this cool was in 2004. That summer was very memorable for me since it was the first summer I had with my new baby. That baby is now in kindergarten but we had a very active summer that year. We walked every single day. He is still an active kid and I have always felt it was because of how much time we spent outside in those first few months of his life.

I am back to scrapbooking and back with that is the obsession with pattern paper. I've been to the scrapbooking store and spent some $$$ on new paper. What is it about paper? I can't have enough. One of the things I have noticed lately is my lack of paper that is appropriate for boys. I am so obsessed with floral patterns. What the heck am I gonna do with loads and loads of flower paper when I have boys!

Well summer, good-bye, I will try not to cry. Now I will look forward to all the things along the way during our journey back to summertime. One of the big ones is our trip to Sanibel Island this winter. It is one of my favorite places ever.

Here are a few pictures from this weekend.