Tumblrs Worth Stumbling Upon...

I LOVE Stumbling upon a good tumblr. The thing about tumblr is that there are plenty of them that are full of page after page of fantastic, outrageous photographs and quotes without a lot of the jibber jabber that other blogs (like mine) contain. Here are a few of my favs:

A Well Traveled Woman

French Knot

Oh, Pioneer!

Rachel Swan Design

Scroll away. Be  Inspired.

Lovely Living

I'm constantly searching for images that inspire my space. I'm dreaming of creating a perfect, peaceful, playful home to dwell in with my husband and littles. Some of my best finds this week

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Yay!

I Can't Believe I haven't already mentioned how excited I was to recieve a few of the coveted Penguin Hardcover Classics Illustrated by Coralee Bickford-Smith for Christmas!!!!

They do look so pretty on my bookshelf. Oh, and they're fun to read too!

Happenings....

Leave it to me to do some really fun projects, and completely neglect to photograph them. Here is what I have been up to. My mom spied this beauty while I was scrolling through my Pinterest board for projects to do that I could pretend were completely original ideas of mine. I'm pretty sure had she not seen it it would have been one of the many projects that sat undone. Thankfully she jumped right in, found some old canvas we had lying around, and gathered the supplies and now Hazel has her very own swing hanging in our entry, and it even has springs that can be attached to make it a jumpy swing. She loves it.

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 A friend of mine and I have a craft night every Thursday, except it never actually happens on Thursday. plans have changed all three times and we have ended up doing it on a Friday the first week, not at all the second week, and Saturday the third week. Oh well, at least we are doing it. Today we created this lovely little knitting needle case. Tutorial via Design Sponge. I changed it up a little with olive green bias tape for the trim, and I used a decorative stitch for the edges instead of a straight stitch, just for fun. I gifted it to my Mom who has turned into a professional knitter practically overnight.

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Gathering supplies to build this fun little playscape for some kids I know. It costs hardly anything, and it was fun to gather the supplies today. I literally walked down my driveway, and pointed out an aspen that mike could cut down, and gathered the rest of the wood from the woodpile. Easy Peasy.

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$h*t No One Says

RIGHT?

Oh Dear

My closet needs a serious makeover
If I dressed really bad, I mean REALLY, ridiculously bad, could someone please get it on video and send it into TLC's What Not To Wear, so I can have $5,000.00 to buy rad clothes, and Stacey and Clinton to tell me what to wear?
Thanks

But really. Have you ever sat in front of your FULL closet of clothes and said out loud in a really, rather whiny voice, "I have NOTHING to wear. NOTHING looks good on me."? I may have had a minor breakdown last week which began with that, was followed by throwing of clothing an hangers into a junk pile of clothes I will never wear again, and must be removed from my house, and ended in me finally putting together an ensemble, and apologizing to mike for the scene I made. Needless to say, I am frustrated with my total lack of fashion sense.
Help!

cool kid

Right?

Home Improvement

Mike put so much of his heart and soul into this little cabin that we live in, but it seems like the list of projects is never ending. I decided that there were some things that my mom and I could try to work on while she is staying here. She has a lot of expertise in home improvement, and is really creative.

There have been a few changes made to the layout of our house, and with the addition of stairs up to our deck this summer came a new entryway to our house. Now this little nook is our entryway, and it has been sitting unfinished. I finally came up with a plan, and began gathering materials months ago, but the project quickly fell by the wayside when the holidays arrived. Last week though, my mom had a few days off and asked me what I wanted to do, and I said I wanted to complete the floor. If it had been up to me to gather the rest of the materials and prepare to do the project, it wouldn't have gotten finished, but my mom is a machine. In one (exhausting) day we poured and pieced the floor together. Joel showed up about halfway through, and I'm glad he did because We would have been working well into the night if he hadn't been there to help.

 

(Before, just the plywood sub floor)

 (Supplies gathered)

 (I still have some scrubbing to do. Can you read that? It says Everett!)

 (Hazel's little footprint, and a 2011 penny next to it)

 

I really love how it turned out. I get so bored with cookie cutter houses, and I really enjoy it when I see something unique like this in someones home. I am also happy that I am able to add some of my own touches to our home that mike has done such a great job of putting together. There is still a bit of work to be done. Plans for a bench, some cubbies up high, some hooks, and possible a mirror are in the works. Can't wait to walk in my house, sit down on a bench to take my shoes off, and hang up my coat right here!

Eight

Eight months ago
I was not quite a mother.

When looking through photos of this day, this one grabbed me. Not sure why. When compared with the hundreds of similar ones, there isn't anything of noticeable significance, but all the same it caught my eye. It took me back.
 

So tiny. So dreamy and sleepy and new.


And now. So big. So aware, and strong and demanding. So stubborn. So beautiful and chubby and giggly and toothy. My Dear Hazel. She still sleeps with me every night. I curl my body around her, and she fits right where she always has, and I know that she will not always fit there, sleep there.
Now I wonder every day whether what I am doing for her is the right thing. I think and think, and rethink.
And now I treasure my moments with her........and I treasure my moments alone, few and far between.
And I wonder every day about her hair, what color it will be and when will I be able to braid it, will she even let me?
And her face, what will it look like? And every day it changes but it's still just the same.
And the firsts are coming and going. In fact just now, as I was writing, she turned over in her sleep for the very first time from her back to her belly. We've raced past the first smile, the first giggle, the first time she sat up, her first foods, her first tooth, her first big fall, the first time she really reached for me, and even the first time she pulled herself up to stand.  I'm not sure how we got to this place, already past half way to a year.
The last eight months have certainly not been the easiest of my life. I have had to admit a lot of things about myself that I didn't want to. I have had to work on my patience and understanding a great deal. I have had to make hard choices. I have had to make big changes. Despite all of those hard things though, these last eight months have certainly been the most perfect, the most fulfilling, and the most rewarding of my life.

On being photogenic....

can't I get ONE photo where we both look good? ONE?

Better Late then Never

Finally getting around to posting a few photos from Christmas time. There were some family festivities, which I don't have pictures of, but I do have some pictures from the month, and our quiet little Christmas morning. 

H at 8 months:
         Favorite food: Hazel hasn't taken a particular liking to any certain food, although if you hand her a pickle it will keep her occupied for a while, and if you try to take it away you WILL hear about it. Her very favorite thing to eat isn't food at all. It is any sort of paper she can get a hold of, whether it's a receipt from the store, a tag hanging from a new stuffed animal, a piece of cardboard, or a magazine.

        Favorite toy: I would have to say her green "squishy fish". A bath toy that she LOVES to chew on. It must feel really good on all the many teeth that have appeared in the last few weeks. She is also pretty fond of her felt food that her grandpa mike got her for Christmas, and wooden spoons.

         Milestones: She is so close to crawling, but still just not quite there. I think in the next few weeks though, I'll be chasing her around the house. That is exciting, and terrifying at the same time. Like I said, she has been getting so many teeth. She has four, going on eight! Every time I look in that mouth there is a new little white tooth popping through. She probably wakes up once or twice a night, but falls right back to sleep, and she takes about three naps a day.

         Very Favorite thing: Being outside. She loves it outside, and doesn't mind the cold at all. If she is even a little fussy all I have to do is take her outside and she will chill right out.

          Least favorite thing: Undoubtedly the car. She HATES the car, and the car seat with all of her might. It takes everything I have sometimes to get where we are going. I have to leave early, just in case I have to stop and comfort her because she is screaming and crying so hard. It gets pretty overwhelming at times, and has probably been the hardest thing for me since becoming a mom. Hazel is spoiled and most of the time I don't let her cry for too long, so listening to her incessant screaming in the backseat of the car breaks my heart, and has pretty nearly brought on anxiety attacks. When I do stop, and pull her out she is all sweaty from crying so hard, and sometimes shaking. Have I mentioned how much i hate this? If I time things just right, she will be either tired enough to fall asleep, or in a good enough mood to play back there, but generally after five o'clock, I know I'm screwed. I am crossing my fingers that this behavior will change soon.