8 years together!

july 28th, 2010

8 years, 8…my favorite number!

here’s a look at what ryan got me…I LOVE IT!!!!

i love these birds from artist and husband wife team jim and tori mullen. each one they create is totally unique, and has the most amazing detail and character. i have to really fall in love with each individually before i can buy it. this one really jumped out at me, i feel like it totally represents our new baby paisley. yes…i have not seen her, but i already know her. we were in the downtown gallery a few weeks ago, where i have seen plenty of this team’s work, but i just could not stop gazing at this particular piece, it spoke to me! ryan was so sweet to remember and get it for me.

ryan bought me this one a few years ago…

i feel like this somehow represents a future me, the women that i strive to be, and that even in ten years or 30 years, i will be striving to be. it seems like a sage version of myself, something i am not, but am constantly working towards.

today i was also thinking about another artist i love, and i piece i bought that totally explains how i feel about ryan.

brian andreas with the story people.

totally amazing!!! i love his work. his writing seems to perfectly organize what is in the part of my mind that i typically keep tucked away from the rest of t he world, and his art style is simply phenomenal! it really speaks to me!

we took ryan a special dinner to the station tonight, and hung out with him from a bit, and i showed him his present…take a look at what i did for him…

here.

this was actually hard to do because i had to go and search through old photos, re-shoot them , and color correct them (that is the reason why so many of them are really fuzzy and old school looking.) our girls will be like, cool vintage photos mom! fact: we did not go digital as soon as we should have, but we are all up to speed now.

my favorite spots along the way…

travel (london, ireland, south africa, british virgin islands and the coast)

when he came home from iraq and caught a commercial flight to meet me for just a couple days before he had to report in again.

when he became a firefighter

and of course, nothing beats having our babies!!!

and for you ryan…i can not believe it has been 8 years together! i really do love you babe! wow, it is quite amazing to think of everything we have been through together, the business, your deployment, job changes, travel, kids, life…victories, and plenty of defeats…

with our share of laughter, sweet moments, full hearts, the unthinkable, tears, some suffering, and let’s not forget late nights…talking, fighting, loving, and being…you wanting to sleep, and me just getting started.

you are the best for me!

what sticks out the most…? that’s easy, the sheer amount of faith you have in me and my vision(or grand scheme if you will)…i mean seriously, you really don’t just tolerate my daily drive and passion, you embrace it and encourage it! you trust what you don’t even know. i love you for that!

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i was going through photos last night…

july 23rd, 2010

i was going through photos last night. i was looking over the births of our two girls. i guess i am subconsciously gearing up for paisley to come in just three weeks…i can not believe(and i know, i know everyone always says it) how fast they grow.

after reagan was born i was obsessed (ok…and still kinda am) with a fear of forgetting treasured and everyday moments. i was talking to a dear friend stacy, and she gave me s0me simple but reassuring advice. she told me as long as i am a parent who is aware that you don’t want to forget, then i will pay attention to those moments, and will take the time to enjoy and remember them. for the most part i have been able to do just that, but three…THREE…and so close in age. i am so nervous i am going to miss something. well, i just talked to that stacy yesterday, her youngest son, just graduated from high school…and again, she gave me some simple, and reassuring advice…you can’t be perfect at remembering the details every moment, but just do it as often as you can.

so how on earth do they go from this…

to this…

and really…how is possible that as they grow, your love for them becomes so great. just when you think, “i could not love them any more, i mean certainly i have felt the most true unconditional love i can feel…i mean really, my heart can not be any more full of love for them?”

…but then it happens, they do something cute, funny, painful, shocking, irritating, outrageous, or…extraordinary. WAM…your heart grows a size or two, and instantly fills with more love for them.

and so i must say, i couldn’t be more blessed, excited or ready to bring another one into our family and into my heart!!!

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colorbok sun catchers project.

july 22nd, 2010

look a the entire post here at the colorbok blog

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let’s make lemonade

july 19th, 2010

i have been having lots of different cravings with this pregnancy…

…peanut butter, ice cream, egg sandwiches, cinnamon and apples, maple syrup, maple bars, maple butter, cheese burgers from blazin’ onion, protein shakes, chips, fruit snacks, taco time, truffle tremor cheese, and lime and lemonade…

not so bad…when i was pregnant with ireland and reagan i was all about hot stuff, citrus and milk, i would go to costco get an entire case of jalapenos, a bag of oranges, and lots of milk. i would take it home and seriously go through them all like they were a bag of chips or something. this pregnancy i can’t handle anything spicy, it is so weird, but i love tart things…

so for lemonade…i am liking it super tart, so i had to come up with my own recipe because as good as simply is i needed it more potent. so if you try this recipe beware!

here is what you need:

and here’s how to do it:

and if you want to make it cute you can download this cute little lemon paper straw topper…LEMONS TEMPLATE…enjoy!

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overnight to the ocean

july 17th, 2010

my mom came over today, she reminded me i still had not posted the pictures of our overnight adventure to the ocean a few weeks ago. (i was like, way to go mom being all tech savvy and checking my blog…)

anyway, i did totally forget to post about it, and it was a super fun trip. seriously nothing…NOTHING beats being at he ocean for me. it is my most favorite place. the weather was gloomy (my absolute favorite…for real!) and the coast was spectacular! it was a very short trip, but very well worth it!

here are some highlights…

at the beach with the family…

playing in the sand…

the beach rental…

night life…

the girls…

mom an dad…

our family…

our day trip to haystack rock…

the pistol and the wrecking ball…

lunch on our way home…

the car ride home…

you’d think that our reagan would be tired after such an adventure…but oh no, as soon as we pulled into the driveway, she was awake…and ready for more!

check out the video montage i did for my parents here.

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floating clouds-how to

july 6th, 2010

ireland’s clouds…

i made these cute hanging clouds for irelands room. she has vaulted ceilings, and i wanted her room to look like it was outside looking into a house. i hung a banner, i am looking for a kite to hang from the ceiling, and have a picture of a hot air balloon on her dresser…cute. then i hung an old window on the wall as if it were looking in. i still have a bit more i want to do so it’s not all finished, but i want to be sure i don’t buy anything unless it’s perfect for the look.(just gutted the closets, garage, and play area…no more purchases unless they are must haves!!!…and yes that comment was to reinforce myself!)

ireland loves to be outside, especially swinging, so i am trying to make it feel like her room is nestled right outside playing under the sky. she loves her clouds! last night she told me her room was missing a sun…so looks like i will be adding on soon.

it is really simple to do if you are interested, here’s how…

pick out some calico prints of your choice…(or use scraps from the stash that has gathered over the years.)

note: do not pre-wash!!!!

layer your fabrics so they are 6-8 selections stacked. free hand sketch some basic clouds on the top with a light lead colored pencil.

cute them out.

note: do not pin them together, you want them to be slightly off cut from one another to look kinda raggy.

sew them together

note: do not pin, it looks cute to have them slightly off kilter.

leave a little unsewn area to stuff later.

wash, dry, iron…

stuff them to your desired fill.

stitch up the holes on machine, then trim off any extra strings from the clouds.

thread the tops with fishing line and hang them at various lengths from the ceiling with tacs.

so cute!

Posted in home, inspiration, kids, sewing | 3 Comments »

a little catch up post…

june 30th, 2010

only 6 weeks till launch! having lots of braxton hicks…

we are just about there…it became pretty real the other day as we got all the necessities ready. it is funny that word necessities…with our first that meant something so different than now. back then…i mean if it had anything to do with baby we bought it. this time around i feel like a seasoned veteran…necessities: car seat. of course we have other things ready, but honestly we are just so much more relaxed going into this one. i am VERY ready for her to come, sweet baby paisley!!! i have totally scrubbed every inch of the house, so it is super clean and i am feeling…READY!

need to catch up on some things…

ryan built the girls a playground set…they LOVE it!

after three years of thinking it through i finished reagan’s painting.

check out the back seat of the family truckster…three seats all squished in there…I LOVE IT!

we conquered cleaning out the garage…(as well as the, literally, 16 page list of to-do’s that has been building for the last 8 months…i would say i am pretty well done nesting.)

this year we have been growing a garden, this afternoon for lunch i ate some sugar snap peas from it and they were awesome! the girls have had a lot of fun with it.

i went and got the girls and easel, they love to do art, and they see me painting on mine and decided that they needed one. priceless! little mini me’s.

big news…i have completely switched to apple (well almost…i still use my pc for some stuff, long story, but i just can’t part with my favorite archaic program corel draw for vector work.) my iphone and laptop…seriously, I LOVE THEM! if you know me well you know how weird those words must sound coming out of my mouth. i mean we are talking about me the girl who hasn’t used her cell phone in like 7…um… years. i know right, have i been living under a rock? really, i am still so old school and do most everything tangible , you know good old pen and paper…hence about 9 million inspiration scribbles, notes and sketchbooks. which is fun, but really hard to organize, so i am in the process of trying to go digital…not an easy transition for me, but much needed. i am thinking of some sort of hybrid format.

so with my new found technology (that the rest of the creative world has been using forever) i am very motivated, i have been playing with photo altering, and even made ryan a movie montage for fathers day…check it out here.

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priorities.

june 13th, 2010

i am sitting here able to get a blog posted on a crumb filled counter top??? just curious…at what point does going to bed with the messy counter tops, dishes in the sink, fingerprints on the walls, unwashed paint brushes, and toys scattered around the house change from a total feeling of guilt and disappointment to a rewarding day…?

seriously, i feel like it has been the best week…worked hard, played hard, spent tons of time with the kids, but accomplished so much for work creatively…got tons of stuff checked off my to-do list (which by the way has grown to 6 pages…gulp!) yet…every night i can think of the week, we went to bed with a dirty, very lived in kitchen…well whole house for that matter. this is something that not too long a go would have driven me to a near meltdown…or at least a huge fight with my cute ryan, in which i would find some way to rationalize how this was his fault the house looked this way…so i would not feel so guilty about letting my own unrealistic expectations of good house keeping be the true problem. (he already knows i do this, so it’s not like some great mystery i need to keep from him.)

wow…maybe this is what it feels like to have my head where it needs to be…you know with the things that are really important instead of all the compulsive things that help me to think i am in control…

you better enjoy it while it lasts…(that means you ryan!)

so…priorities….should be pretty easy when i see of these two gems!

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reagan’s big day!

june 7th, 2010

my girls…growing up so…SO fast!!! reagan’s first ever little graduation. this was a crazy day, things like this somehow never go quite as you imagine them. we were really sad that we did not get better photos, but we will definitely remember this day! the girls were wild, ireland was obsessed with reagan’s graduation crown…it was so crowded i was like a crazed pregnant woman trying to protect our seats, i could not really hear, so i almost missed sending reagan down for her class’s line up, then… after almost the entire program was over i realized my camera was on manual, which did not really matter because as soon as reagan got her certificate she was out of there, everyone started to melt down, and to top it all off we were all starving…things were total chaos…so we ended up just leaving. but, regardless of all of that, we love everything about our wild family and we are so proud of our energetic reagan!

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the sweetest little gems ever!!!!

may 18th, 2010

a couple of months ago my two darlings started a “dance” class, called music and movement….they were so excited about it! the very first day was fun, and the girls loved dancing and moving to the music…but the cutest part of the entire experience was getting them ready! they were so excited about their new dance class and of course…what they should wear to dance class. my girls love to dress up, and really love to jam out to music here at home…i had bought them each a set of appropriate dance outfits, and was hoping thy would think they were cool, but instead, they insisted on wearing the dress up leotard i had bought for goofing off in. (which may i also tell you were way to small for them…)

after making a commitment long ago to always let them express themselves(which sometimes back fires on us, although no matter what they wear out, they still look so darn cute!))…with one exceptions of course, that they have to be fully clothed when we have visitors in the house.

so i made this little mini album (which i still need to do the journaling in) and just love it! it is of our first day getting ready to go to dance class. i used all the sweet whimsy stuff that is available at joanns fabric right now.

i guest blogged about it over at colorbok, but did not want to bore those readers with all the details, so if you want a quick review check it out there.

these is my favorite pages…i loved stitching in the little circles…i think it look so cute but totally modern!

can you believe what a cute man he is!!! he is such a great dad, he jumps right in there with the things that might normally be “girl stuff” and i love him for it. of course he puts his daddy spin on it, and it is so cute! also, he is such a huge help in getting them ready/taking care of them…but does it in such a fun way for them!!! i love you babe!

i had to add boa…it was just so fitting!

our sweet ireland…

our spunky reagan….

they really do take care of each other…

reagan is really in to helping me with my “work”, so this we her contribution…so cute!

like i said, i still need to do all the journaling, but just wanted to share! the girls love looking at the little mini book i make for them, and gosh…they will be doing them before i know it…

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