Our newest additions!

I have been on a peg people frenzy lately and thought I would share one of my newest Pinned and Crafted success stories. If you are wanting to join in on the fun I will be doing a four part tutorial for the different characters with pictures and your very own downloadable pdf template free from my hand to yours. But please, if you want to use this on your blog or elsewhere, give the author of the chicken scratches credit. <smile>

Stay tuned!
This year I am hosting a small brunch after church on Sunday and thought I would share my low-cost idea.

The menu
Turkey Sausages with Apples sliced diagonally
Turkey Bacon, Spinach and Fontina Frittata (adapted from that recipe)
Fruit Juice Bar

For the Table Settings I am painting some lovely little eggs I
found on-line and put everyone's initials on the egg. (see photo below)
Then using paper shreds (you can do this yourself if you have a shredder, which we don't. And I found them at the dollar store, so it was a win there.) I am making little nests like my sweet and amazing friend Jessica did last year as seen here.
 The table is going to be done all in white with white ceramic birds and other items down the center.
The feel is relaxed garden and I think it will be great! 

With everything I looked around my house and gathered items I already had together. The same approach was used for the recipes. I went to my pantry and freezer, made a list of what I had to work with then scoured pinterest and cooking light for recipes that required the least amount of purchases. 

We will be sure to post pictures but wanted to give you some ideas in case you were in a pinch with figuring something out for Sunday!
How are you celebrating Easter? We would love to hear!

Delight fills his eyes as he hears the word
"Sweet Treat"
Together we measure the ingredients and mix the batter.
The egg is added, the caution given.
"Not now my son, this isn't fit to eat."
Poured into the pan with anticipation building and the questions begin.
"How much longer?"
We talk of a journey taken long ago, from the cradle to the tomb.
His eyes brim with questions, these words don't hold meaning for him like they do for me.
Whispers of a son's longing to return home, a celebration awaiting him that is unlike any other.
His heart opens at the thought of coming home to his father after being away.
And still we wait.
And watch.
Speaking of friends dear to this son who also waited anxiously.
Of the concept of miracle, something that wasn't but now is.
A batter unfit to eat, but not for much longer.
Slowly the wheels turn.
This flour, sugar and spice now changed and transformed.
The buzzer rings as his little face glows.
Soon this miracle can be enjoyed by us all.
Basking in the wonder and amazement of this season our hearts united in anticipation.
For this year we celebrate, celebrate, celebrate the return of a Son to his Father.

I LOVE free printables and found some super cute Easter ones made for the website:


A great website I recently found via their Facebook page.

Without further ado here are the two (of many options) that I love for Easter.



Click on the links above the pictures to get your own set of amazing, and
 FREE Easter printables from each design set. 

Which one do you think I should use this year? 
We got a Kindle for Christmas and have been exploring this new-to-us world. Recently we discovered that you can check out books for your Kindle from the local library! How awesome is that? This might be old news to you, but just in case you are like us and new to this type of stuff we thought we would pass it on!

To see if your library offers this option we recommend typing in your county + the word library + books for Kindle into google.

Example: Thurston County Library Books for Kindle

 That was the fastest way to get the check-out page. Once there search for your desired book and place a hold or check it out! Our library sent us an email that then walked us through the steps to placing it on our device. 

Our first check out?
Half The Sky
Reviewed here. Happy Reading!
...try to make these trends work for me and my wardrobe!

Every season (well most seasons) I try to pick a few fun trends that require little to no shopping on my end. Then I make a list of a few items that can be multi-tasked to the fullest for this season and into the next. It is one of my little tricks to feeling fabulous and on trend while staying in my budget. So without further ado here is my list...

Mixing Textures



(&Tangerine, possibly together...)



City Cowgirl And Big Scarves



Striped and Casual

And....Big Hair!



Soft, romantic, layered, textures galore and attention to detail. 
So we will see how I do and maybe I will post some pictures of my own attempts at being 
"on trend". 
What are you embracing for Spring?

May God give you...
For every storm, a rainbow,
For every tear, a smile,
For every care, a promise,
And a blessing in each trial.
For every problem life sends,
A faithful friend to share,
For every sigh, a sweet song,
And an answer for each prayer. 

I had this in our home for a long time and just love the acknowledgement of the trials of life,
 but the hope for peace on the other side of the mountain. Happy St. Patricks Day to you all!
At a Seussical Halloween Celebration. Both of our costumes were homemade by yours truly.

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, 
nothing is going to get better. It's not."
-- The Lorax

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!




What do you do when this is how you feel?
 You turn to a resourceful friend who can direct you to links like 

 to help prevent this.... 

from happening again. 
Happy Humpday!
Easter, Easter, Easter. I love the idea of making our own Easter Baskets and after the success of last year I have already begun to gather for this year. Not only was this super cost effective last year, but having control over each and every item given to our sweet child set our minds at ease. 

This year I was struggling with the candy overload that always comes with holidays and came up with the idea of putting cars in the eggs instead of candy. So I went onto ebay, my own personal vortex, and found a lot of cars. Perfect! If you haven't ever bought things in "lots" you really ought to give it a try. True, you might end up with more than you need (ahem, 150 ties later...) but this can be solved two ways. One, you go in one it with someone else. Two, you save the excess for one of the other holidays needing items such as these (birthday, stocking stuffer, Happy Spring Day, etc...)

So at this point these lovely items will grace our sons Easter Baskets:

Cars!!! We will split the "lot" with a good friend.

Vintage Books

Mini Containers of Playdoh, we will split this set up as well.
Have you started thinking about Easter? Follow along as we share more ideas, tips and tricks!

We made our Thank You cards for Christmas this year and loved how they turned out. Using some gold and silver cards that were heavily discounted right after the holidays we decided to adorn them with a banner theme.


Using cardstock we cut out little banner shapes.

Then stamped them with the word Thankful.

While these dried we cut pieces of Jute and glued them along the top of the card. 


We thought the Jute made them less holiday and more shabby-chic.

After the ink had dried we glue the little banner pieces right under the Jute line. Voila!

These were inspired by the ever so lovely crafts found here
on our Pinterest board.
Happy Crafting!

A woman I deeply admire has an amazing set of systems and collections. Among them she has collected enough dishes to feed an army in style. When asked about her approach to collecting so many and keeping a cohesive look she said that when she was in high school her mother told her to pick a color for her dishes,
any color,
 and simply stick with it.
Her color is blue. And she has stacks and stacks of beautiful mismatched dishes in all shades of blue. 
Inspired I came home, took stock of what I loved and decided to pick a color:
 Green.
So hopefully someday someone will admire my collection and ask the same question. It is all about steering our passions into productivity isn't it? Do you have a color for your dishes? Happy Saturday!
That is what Baby Love Hollars when he wants to watch this and do the dance (well, our version of the dance). There is something so wonderful about sharing the classics with my kiddos. I am so grateful that my parents exposed me to some of these gems!


Come on, Do the Tapioca with us!

Anyone have those moments? We do all the time. Start telling a cute kiddo happening and poof! It is gone as quickly as it came. Unfortunately so much is happening right now that tracking it all is very difficult. Baby Love is so amusing and we don't want to forget an antic or episode. Which is why we are in love with these following items and look forward to seeing how they help us document our very documented little proteges.

LOVE this idea! One simple line, that is all it takes.

Simple, easy to use, colorful and all in one place. Can't wait to show this to our grandkids someday.

So messy, but oh so fun and outside of my normal Type A picks.

Purchased this for Kevin for Father's day and can't wait to have the adorable pages filled.

And TONS of these!

We have stacks of these all over our house and whenever a memory comes to mind or is created, we run to scribble the date and details in short hand (heaven help the translator).  These will be pasted all over that lovely journal that was purchased awhile back and has only a handful of complete entries.

How do you document your little ones precious moments?

The winter really wears on the creative soul in the Pacific Northwest. So I thought I would share with you in pictures what I am loving right now. What is LIFTING my soul during these grey days!

1.A thoughtful gift from some sweet friends to make our popcorn nights even sweeter. 
2. A hardworking man taking a moment to enjoy the pleasures of a piece of fiction (via our new kindle)
 3 & 4. Lovely glass pieces for my collection from an incredibly thoughtful Aunt who knows my love of all things tiny, glass and entertaining centered pieces.
We love eating as a family, especially now that Kevin is home more and able to participate. One little conundrum I kept running into however was the fact that Baby Love was still managing to get some food on the tablecloth. And with laundry being in the basement and my FAVORITE thing in the world to do <sarcasm> this made me a little more than annoyed to have to keep switching out the tablecloths.

So....I came up with this solution of using a napkin as his place-mat and letting it hang over the side like so:

Pretty brilliant if I do say so myself! And effective too boot. Hurray for easy fixes!
Look what I found at Goodwill yesterday! It can be a chair

or a rocker.

And the handles make it super sturdy for a little one to pull up on.

All it needs is a little paint and it will be good to go!

A sweet treat made even sweeter by seeing some old friends (read haven't seen them since the year we got married, which was a long time ago) at the same Goodwill. An excellent Monday if I say so myself!

Hope your week is off to a great start!
Look who's in the water!


 PS
A few more pictures :)