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happy birthday to me!

to celebrate, i have a little present for YOU!

leave me a comment with your favorite pouch and you will be entered to win a zippered pouch of your choice! but wait, there's more! not only will the winner receive a beautiful, fully lined zippered pouch, but it will be filled with lots of little goodies - maybe a coordinating tissue case, some posies, covered button hair clips, maybe? we'll have to see!

and if you want extra entries, tell me in SEPARATE comments that you either (1) blogged about this giveaway, (2) tweeted about it, or (3) are a new follower.

**COMMENTS CLOSED - PICKING A WINNER SOON!**

-lindsey

happy birthday nicole!

happy birthday, my sweet friend!
thank you for being my partner in craft
my listening ear
my sounding board
my advice giver
my chatterbox (aka champer)
my creative inspiration
my best friend

i love you and i hope you have a wonderful day with your fam!

-linds

i've been busy...

... filling up the shop with lots of yummy goodies!

tea towels

zippered pouches

super hero capes

don't worry - i'm definitely relaxing on my little vacation, but i've got all these fun new products that i wanted to get to you as soon as possible. keep checking back because i still have a lot more to add! oh, and sunday i'll have a little surprise - it's my birthday!

-lindsey

my view

not a bad place to relax and catch up on a bit of work.

nope, not bad at all.

-lindsey

hostess aprons

my new hostess aprons have just been added to the shop! they'd make a great gift (maybe with a tea towel?) or fun to keep for yourself!

**EDIT** ONLY 2 LEFT!

-lindsey

patriotic posies

just added to the shop - get 'em quick!

-lindsey

future pillows

the above pic is of a pile of fabric i've saved over the last few months in hopes of doing something with them for my home. i really miss doing things for myself, but i just don't usually have the time to do it anymore. yes, the combination is pretty random, but something about the colors all together makes me really happy! i'm definitely aiming for funky, and i think with this combo, i am in the right direction. i'm hoping to get to making some pillows for my couch over my little vacation.

yes! i'm officially on vacation! i snuck away with the kids to head up to my parents' lake house yesterday after school. i had hoped for the 3 littles to be 3 little nappers, but not so much. when one fell asleep, the other had to go potty ("i'm dwipping a little mommy!"), and so on. i'm not above threatening that we wouldn't make it to the lake until they fell asleep. because i did.

but we're here now and i get to be with lots of family: my sister-in-law, denise, (and my brother) and their family, and my very distant cousin, kristen (my father-in-law's cousin's daughter-in-law), and her kiddos. i'm sure we'll be spending lots of time down on the beach, retrieving silas from the water, relaxing, updating my shop, filling a couple custom orders (a pillow tutorial is coming!), and hopefully making myself some pillows.

off to make breakfast! (only on vacation would i be excited to make breakfast)

-lindsey

guest blogger nicole: "oh boy"

so, 4th baby means 4th baby room to decorate. unfortunately, i am all tapped out of boy ideas from big brothers drew and hawken. but when all else fails, i start with a color scheme that sounds fun. this time around i decided on different shades of green and a punch of turquoise. and actually a bit of yellow made it's way into the room... you'll see.

so, it began with this while i was visting linds.

here is the finished blanket.

i put black and white seersucker on the back

i recovered a bumper to match (p.s. bad photo...the crib is not pink)

the blanket is now covering my ottoman...which needed to be covered anyway AND i had the turquoise pillow from tyler's first big girl bedding

i had the old license plates...

the crib...passed down to us from our 13 year old cousin. it is hardly used as my kids spend most of their early life in my bed. black curtains from target. a clock from big brother's first room. the wall color - restoration hardware's silver sage (same as lindsey's great room).

i love the train table here. the colors look great. rick (my hubby) and i glued most of the track together so we pull it out and send thomas for a ride and push it back when we are done. they never seemed to use the train table when it was out before. plus...no crib skirt to make now. :)

a little green chair we had in the basement..with a bear i made for baby drew and my old vans tennis shoes. aren't they classic? my brother and i both wore them as kids.

the closet...ready to go...way too early but it feels good to see it full of baby stuff.

see the door on the bottom left corner?

that is the secret door that connects the baby's room to his big brothers' room.

a little side table found by a friend. it was already the perfect color...crazy! those are drew and hawk's fave trucks... they generously donated them with the agreement that they could still play with them when they wanted to.

a little wagon that we were given years ago...it ties the yellow in from the license plates.



a simple room... hardly baby but definitely boy.

-nicole

people watching

joy and i had so much fun this weekend, especially when we were slow. the people that came out of the woodwork were, um, interesting to say the least. i snapped as many pictures as i could without being noticed. unfortunately, i didn't get a single pic of the dog in a sling or the 2, yes 2 dogs in front carriers (like bjorns), or any of the dogs in strollers (too many to count). my, how these people love their dogs! i just don't get it. anyway, on to the pics i did get:

spidey forgot to take off one little piece of his superhero disguise. i guess that's what happens when you're torn between saving the town and going to the famous strawberry festival - sometimes you can't get it all done.


oh, there's so much to say here, but i think the picture says enough. yeah, i shouldn't even start.

and a celebrity sighting - ballooney the clown. a clown never looked so scary to me.

beyond selling my products and chatting with lots of friends (blog friends and real life ones), joy and i dove head in to the wonder that is street food. our 2 day menu consisted of: 2 funnel cakes (one covered on strawberries and cream), 2 corn dogs, 2 plates of fried rice/chow mein/eggroll/meat on a stick, 1 dozen fresh fried mini donuts, a chocolate eclair filled with strawberries and custard, and nachos with chicken and a yummy strawberry/jalepeno sauce. when in rome...

thank you to all the friends that stopped by to visit, and thank you to my new blog friends for introducing yourselves to me! i had a great weekend and hope to do it again next year, despite the utter nuttiness that built up to it.

and the shop is now reopened, and i will slowly be adding tons of new products to it, so keep checking back! thanks so much for your support!

-linds

pictures are all you get

i'm exhausted, going to bed. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

-linds

all packed up and ready to go

i have a big show this weekend that i've been prepping for for over a month (can i say "for for"?). if you're in the area, or want to take a little road trip (or a big one) come visit me at the strawberry festival in arroyo grande, ca. its a huge crazy yummy weekend filled with craft vendors, strawberry everything to eat, carnival rides, silly contests (strawberry blonde's for example), and dancing pigs! good times to be had for sure. joy will be my booth buddy, and i can't wait!

i have to set up and take down my booth twice since my booth is set on a main highway that has to be open over night. so keeping that in mind when planning my displays, i thought packing everything in vintage luggage would work great for easy transport and also perfect for display. everything feel like its coming together. all my must-do's are done, yet i have this nagging urge to try out a new product.... hmmm.... we'll see.

i feel like a huge part of my life has been dedicated to building my inventory for this (about 475 items!!!), so come monday i hope to be one relaxed mama. i may even sneak away with my kids to the lake for a few days. so all this to say, the shop will be closed temporarily over the long weekend so i can catch my breath and restock my online inventory.

enjoy your memorial day weekend, and i'll be back to join you with some fun new products!

-lindsey

6 years

early in the morning 6 years ago today, i watched the sun rise as i held a brand new baby girl in my arms. the fact that it was our 3rd anniversary totally escaped our minds! our world was completely shaken as we learned to love someone in a way we've never loved before. thank you gracie, for making me a mommy! i love you more than you'll ever know, more than i could ever tell you! happy birthday, baby girl!

-lindsey

9 years

"the very first moment i beheld him,
my heart was irrevocably gone."
- jane austen

9 years ago this day, i married the man i knew i would marry within months of meeting him. i remember so clearly walking down the aisle on the arm of my dad, looking into this handsome face that was so confident in his choosing of me! i look back at our years of dating and think how we were just kids (18 and 21). we have grown up together in so many ways. i sit at the dinner table now and look into 3 little faces and am still in shock that they are ours, that we are here in life. i so often think that we're still in the young love stage, but when i see them, reality sets in. we're far from there and in such a better place. we're home. we are where we are meant to be. we have become a family. thank you babe, for your commitment to me, to your kids, to us. your daily sacrifices do not go unnoticed. i love you now more than ever. to the moon and back!

-linds

bing bing

silas calls bouncing "bing bing".

he and henry are binging together - so fun!

henry's pooped.

oh, that rest did him good! now he's back to binging and... henry! are you hitting on lily?! i see that look in your eyes!

and this is why silas' mattress is now all the way to the floor inside his crib. climbing out became too easy, thus too dangerous.

on a different note, please pray for little henry. he's having surgery on his heart early tomorrow morning. its not too serious, just trying to open a valve a bit more, but still scary nonetheless. also, pray for his mommy jeannett, who is 31 weeks prego with twins. pray that the stress of this doesn't send her to early delivery. pray that the doctors are wise and that henry's medications have no ill effects, that he wakes up with little or no pain. thanks!

-lindsey

bruiser

silas had a run in with a hula hoop yesterday.

the hula hoop won.

-lindsey

guest blogger nicole: "i did it!"

hello!

yes, i promised a tour of the boys' bathroom next but i had to interrupt the house tour to show what i accomplished. remember my washed and ready stack of fabric... just waiting for my sweet little future kindergartner... taunting - dare i say mocking me - every time i walked into my basement... remember? of course you do. well, i bucked up and powered out a skirt and dress and let me tell you - I AM HOOKED! it was so much fun... so gratifying... and so worth the effort. needless to say, i have been patting myself on the back. without further adieu, here is my cutie pie (with bed head hair) wearing her "made with love" creations.

the tank top:

the dress:

try this pattern ladies... easy and fun!

we have hung these out of tyler's reach (per her request) so she won't be tempted to wear them until school starts. drew wants me to make him a dress too and hawken wants to try these on. i guess i need to search for a fun boy pattern. for now, capes will have to do.

up next... a skirt in a funky combo!

see ya!

nicole