Feel the Love

Valentines is that fun little holiday that can sometime sneak up on you if your not paying attention, when it comes to decorating and crafting of course!  It never ever ever sneaks up on Husband's, Boyfriend's or any other significant other,....... right?

I found some fun new blog's and websites with some really cute decorating and gift giving idea's!  Easy stuff for Valentines Day!  This idea is so cute and simple, I can't believe I didn't think of putting these pretty little votive's across my mantle, or a little cluster next to a picture of my sweetie.  This would be a cute little valentine for a friend at work or school!  So easy to make!  This is also a dang cute way to wrap home-made truffles or cake balls for all the sweeties you love.  {I said balls}  That will always remind me of an SNL skit, classic!  Opps, off topic...back to cute things, I know you have scraps of paper laying around, you know, the ones for that photo album that you haven't gotten too!!!  You can make these little darlings!  Cheep, cheep, cheep!

Speaking of LOVE, here are some things I'm Loving lately!

This Tanya Whelan fabric makes my mouth water!  Her Blog is inspiring as well! 

  

This sign of Family Rules is precious.  I would like mine Red, but this Aqua is a fun color too!  

And vintage table cloths!  Pure Joy.  They make me happy.  Someday I will have a fresh, crisp cloth for table each day, taken from the whimsical clothesline that is in my Country Living back yard, washed in my wainscoted laundry room.  Someday! 

And last but not least, I LOVE my babies in my red check chair!!  {More pics of that to come soon}

Check it out!

I found this sweet little blog and first off, let me say that English Women are "funny"!  I mean, they have personality and just are who they are!  LOVE IT!  I want to use words like bugger, and bits and bobs in my everyday vocab, but honestly, I don't think it would sound as cute without the accent.  I also love that anyone I've ever known, who is English, because that's what we are talking about right now, pronounces my name Marissa-er, there is always an er at the end of an sound.  Then you tell them, and they deny it, it's funny!  Needless to say, my recent obsession with Cath Kidston is having me pop over to blogs from just mentioned women, because, well Cath is English!

Happy Loves Rosie is one of these blogs. She has these cute idea's, blogging friends with cute idea's, cute things for sale in her shop AND, cute freebies!  Yes, I did say free!  Free graphics that are just a hoot to add to you posts and blogs, I mean, how cute is this stuff?

So this is a blog worth checking out when your looking for some good blog reading and inspiration!

Any who, it's fun to be inspired.  I'm still bringing the house together.  There are a few pillows on the way, and some other finishing touches that I'd like to make to things, so I'll post some pics soon.  Kids getting sick and such have kept me from being able to take pics that I would even dream of putting on my blog right now, so it will just have to wait.  In the mean time, Missie Loves Happy, so go check it out!

Oh Gosh, She's Four

Becca's Third Birthday

I can remember sitting......  Just sitting and sitting and sitting and waiting.  Four years ago, my life came to a halt for 4 weeks while I waited, at home, not knowing what to do.  I was going to have my first baby.  It was a little girl, that much we knew, I had finished her nursery, washed her cloths, sanitized her bottles, packed her bag, installed her car seat, and I just didn't know what else I needed to do.  I was due January 4th, but she was going to come early!  I just knew it.  I was convinced.

Dancing is her favorite

January 7th came and went and so I waited.  Boy, this wasn't happening like I thought!  I watched the Baby Story, and cried at watching other women give birth for the first time.  I would jump at any little cramp, pain, or weirdness.  This could be the day!

I can hear that giggle.

January 14th came and went, no such luck.  Man, I was DONE WAITING!  So on January 17th I headed back to the doctor.  I was 2 weeks overdue and nothing much had changed.  That was long enough.  I went home that night, stood in the middle of her sweet little room for the last time with her in my tummy.  Tomorrow I was going to the hospital and she was coming home at last!  I had no idea how this was going to change my life, but I knew it would.  The anticipation of having your first baby is something that you can't put into words.

Going to the Rodeo

Four years ago today, my life changed forever!  January 19th, 12:03am, My little girl came into the world, FINALLY!  

We gave her the prettiest name we could, Rebecca Sue.  She is everything that I could have hoped for and more.  She makes me smile everyday.  She is sweet, funny, smart, tender, loving, bossy, emotional, a lot of me, and I get her.  My life is better because of her.  She is a gift that keeps giving.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl

Just Needed a Reason!

I'm always sad to take down the Christmas decor.  I live for decorating for Christmas, I mean really live for it!  I start thinking about Christmas in August, seriously, about the time that I know I'm going to be pulling out my gourds and felt leaf garland.  Fall is just a precursor for me.  It's that much closer to gingerbread and holly berries.  So, yes, I'm sad to take it down.   What a girl needs is some inspiration.  I can't just put up the same old thing......boring ......

So this post is dedicated to my inspiration.  She is coming home to me in the form of club chair lovliness.  She has a little ottoman friend and a few crazy throw pillows just to liven up the party.  She is fashioned in only the best Red and White Buffalo Check money can buy!  Okay, it's what the upholsterer had to order from, buffalo check is hard to come by?  Who Knew!  Anyways, she was my christmas/birthday gift, and I can't wait to meet her!  This beautiful chair and I will become fast friends, I just know it!

I started looking for ways to accessorize around her!  What could I do to liven and change things up a bit?  Not to much though, got to keep it real!

That's when I ran across a designer that has caught my eye before.  She is quirky, cottage-y, colorful, whimiscal, fresh, British, and the list goes on.  Cath was just what my little corner of the world needed to pull things together!  These canisters are on the list, along with other fun peices, like this and this and these fabrics.  The trick.....VERY LITTLE YELLOW.  I have to stay away from that color to make my little transformation.  That's hard to do, I have alot of 'stuff' with yellow in it....  Oh, but the end result.....  it will be tremendous, so I'm up for the challenge!  The red, periwinkle, green combo is just sucking me in!  Have I mentioned that Jadite looks adorable with this combo?  Well, it does.

I've been stalking etsy for some little finds.  This adorable carved lettering looks so vintage and diner-y to me, and this refurbished hankie pillow will look splendid on above mentioned new best friend! Oooh, and this little green stool might look cute tucked up next too said best friend!  So Christmas is coming down pretty easy now, all this girl needed was a little kick in the pants to freshen things up!

I'll keep ya posted!  There are a few painting projects in store for this transformation.  Some recalimed, distressed wall art is going from Hunter Green to White, and American Flag is getting a face lift and some kitchen chairs are getting a little TLC with Red and White paint! 

So what's inspiring you right now?  Kinda fun once you get going with it!  Stay tuned.

Let's Wrap This Up!

Despite the craziness of the Holidays, getting sick, going back to work and all the other hoopla, there have been some really great highlights the last two months of 2010!

We took the girls to see Candy Card Lane. They were very overwhelmed at all the lights and Disney Characters, Santa driving his sleigh and the band playing Frosty the Snowman. Lots and lots to look at! We had milk and cookies and walked and walked their little legs off. They slept good that night.

Thanksgiving weekend, Travis, I, Grandma and Popa took the girls to see the Nutcracker Ballet. We dressed up in our prettiest dresses and sat in awe of the whole show. The girls are very taken with going to the Ballet! It is such an amazing time to watch your little girls looking in Awe at something and just taking it all in. It is so very precious.

The first weekend of December my little babies sang in their first concert at school. Every year, Grace Lutheran does a Living Nativity and the Preschool always sings a few songs prior to the show! Becca loved the spotlight. Her teachers told me that she was one of the loudest singers that knew all the words to Jingle Bells and Mary Had A Baby. So there she was, planted right in front of the microphone, singing her little heart out!

Then, on my birthday, Santa himself came to Grandma's house for a surprise visit. Complete with his Jingle Bells, he walked right into the living room with a bag full of goodies. The Looks on their faces were priceless! Santa had a visit with each of them, asking if they'd been good and what they wanted for Christmas. Since they were a little star struck, nothing good was coming to mind so when Santa suggested socks, well hey, that sounded pretty good! (Little did they know that Santa WAS putting socks in their stockings, so when Christmas morning came, with socks in their stockings, they remembered Santa told them he would bring them stockings!) What a guy!

I can't wait for the girls to get older and tell me the what they remember about that night. Jillian had been saying since Thanksgiving that she wanted a Cake from Santa. It was always a slightly different cake each time, Chocolate, Strawberry, Cherry, but Cake nonetheless. So, what do you think Santa had in has little sack of goodies.....A Cake of course! And with that, a new Christmas tradition was born!

I'm ready to get my Christmas down and move head on into the New Year. There's a lot on the Horizon for 2011. Travis is starting school, we want to visit Texas, visit Disneyland for the first time, play with the girls MORE, Stress less, make the girls try a new healthy food 10 times before they say "I don't like that", paint furniture again, walk further, dance more, laugh more and find a way to tell my husband how much I love him in the little ways each day.

Cheers!