D E C E M B E R!

Hello, December! 
Not excited or anything!!?!

I've been having toooooooooo many of these! Dare you to try them and only eat ONE!!

A little of this...

And this...

Advent wreath making at church...

Lots of yumminess from our makeshift hot cocoa bar! Extra marshmallows?  Yes, please!

And nothing better than this.  There's something so sweet about watching littles nap!

Happy December!

catching up

I had dinner with my mom two days ago and she said "you haven't posted anything on the blog in a loooong time" and maybe that was just the push I needed to get back to this little space. 

We've been busy doing what families with littles do best...living and shuffling activities and pouring love into those little blessings every chance we get...and yes, crashing every night. It's exhausting y'all but so, so, so, SO worth it!

So here's our last month in random pictures... I can't get enough of these scents. I'm obsessed in the best possible way.

But I haven't hogged them all {the thought did cross my mind}!!! We've been sprinkling a little bit of cheer here and there and everywhere. Starting with our teachers, who we love more than words can say.

Gallery wall in progress! I still need to get a couple of frames for those prints and add one of our family beach pics to the white frame, but it's coming along!

This sweet girl was soooo excited for her debut as Director of the Readers' Theatre that she insisted on wearing something "fancy" that day...she looks so pretty...and so GROWN UP. *tear*

A special after school treat becase a little someone was on PURPLE!!! Purple is super outstanding, exemplary behavior! First thing he said was "that was kind of awkward." hahahaha Followed by "at first I thought it was a mistake but nope, it was me! Mama, did you know that purple is sooooo much harder to get than green???" For this bursting-with-energy little fella this is a BIG accomplishment! We're so proud of you, Hudson! Knew you could do it!!

And that same week he became a member of the .Red Plate Club. for knowing all of the kindergarten sight words. Way to go, Hudson!!

This sweet little pumpkin was so excited to get cast as a Snowflake in The Nutcracker!! Yay, Grace!!! Between the Nutcracker and Grinched rehearsals, regular ballet/tap/jazz and tumbling classes, art lessons, and Hudson's soccer, I feel like a taxi most days!! We couldn't do it without our tribe, that's for sure. Thank you Mimi & Noonie for helping us so much!!

Art Saturdays are EAAAARRRRLY but just seeing how happy she is makes it all worthwhile. Plus I love spending the extra time just the two of us. I love going on "dates" one-on-one with the littles. There's something to be said about having undivided attention.

Her most recent masterpiece... 
{that ice cream looks so good right about now!! I'm in the middle of a 14 day sugar detox - send prayers!}

While she was at her art lesson, I had a quiet {that never happens!} breakfast by myself at Cracker Barrel near where she takes lessons. 1. It was soooo good! 2. It doesn't take very much to bless someone. I love the message my sweet waitress L left on the back of the receipt. It was pouring down raining that morning and yet L had the brightest smile on her face. She sure made me smile and I hope she had a great day too.

Later that day we snuggled up on the couch and I introduced Grace to Annie for the first time!!!! One of my faves and she LOVED it!!! Tomorrow...tomorrow...

Hudson had his very own cheering squad at his most recent game! Mimi + Pop and Aunt Marilyn were coming to watch him but his other two games got rained out - boo! 
{he didn't complain about how LOUD we were - ha! {see here} if you need to know more about that!!}

We had a crazy hail storm one morning on the way to school and I was trapped in the Starbucks drive-thru. Couldn't go anywhere!! It was SO LOUD and all I kept thinking was "my poor car!!" but I did manage to take this one picture which turned out pretty cool - I guess because of how dark it was outside and how close the phone was to the car window. Every one of those balls was hail. CRaZy!!

In the middle of our crazy September-October, I had a chance to meet John Walsh {America's Most Wanted} while raising some serious $$$ for abused children - winning!  He was inspirational - a true hero to missing + exploited children and crime victims everywhere.

I love happy mail and this most recent package did not disappoint...thank you Angel & Amy for sharing your creativity!!  Check out their cute halloween buntings in their re-opened etsy shop!!

This year I've been wanting to spread cheer when least expected.  Enter happy mail.  Everyone loves to get something other than bills, right??  Hopefully it brought an unexpected smile to their day.  That's what it's all about.

Boots! Matching mama + me boots. Doesn't get much better than that! We wore them for some fun Christmas pictures...yep, in October!

Noonie was the emcee for a local multicultural event and we rushed there from art lessons to see her - we missed a lot of the program, but at least we caught the very end and were able to see the exhibits. I love for the littles to learn about other cultures.

Every so often, I catch them doing something nice like this and it makes me think that maybe, just maybe, some of the important things we try so hard to teach them are actually sinking in, because in the day-to-day of raising littles it is so easy to get discouraged!!

So that's a wrap-up on our recent weeks. I love that it's finally starting to feel a little like Fall in the South...

Happy Fall, Y'all!

Spread a little love everywhere you go...you never know when someone might need it the most.

goodbye china, hello fabric love!

I love a pretty place setting like nobody's business, but our rarely used fine china was taking up prime real estate in our dining room-craft room-play room combo space, so it had to go. Love an open floor plan, but sometimes these large, undefined rooms can be a pain to decorate!

Empty and full of possibilities...
{I wasn't feeling the paint on this one so I just went with repurposing for now.}

Goodbye china...Hello fabric cabinet!

Finally a place to store and display my favorite vintage sheets...

And some of my favorite Lulu & Co. party hats...

There's a little friendly lamb pincushion that greets you when you walk by - fun! A fun giveaway I won a couple of months ago from sweet Kerri...thank you!

I stacked some of my favorite prints up high and the colors are so pretty!

A good reminder to use what I have...sew from my stash. But fabric is sooo tempting and hard to resist!!

But it's always little bits and bobs that make me smile when I walk by...

Vintage trim will always have a soft spot in my heart.

Some sweet vintage cards, handmade treasures from friends and embroidery patterns round out the top corner...

So there you have it! A fun little cabinet ready for projects whenever I can sneak in 30 minutes here and there. 

Not fancy, not a room with a door {one can dream!...next house, for sure}, but it makes me happy every time I walk by so that's a win in my book.

Happy crafting, friends!

making do.

This Summer I decided to tackle our {dining room}, to work with what we have, but to make it cleaner, simpler, more functional.

It is still a work in progress, but slowly, s l o w l y, it's taking shape.

Little bits and pieces are beginning to emerge and so far it's lovely. Lovely in a well-loved, new-to-us, makes-me-happy kind of way.

Can't wait to see it all finished, but for now, what I see makes me smile.

What about you? Any fun projects lately??