German Glass glitter eggs

Using this:

I made these eggs with German Glass Glitter:

I am all about Spring. And Easter { + Easter candy}. I have 2 more colors to do for the eggs. I bought the German Glass Glitter on etsy. I heart etsy.

Valentine's Day 2010

{Template compliments of Willett Designs}

Here is the sneak preview of Avery's valentines gift. Avery loves cookies; she even knows to watch them bake with the oven light on. Since we've been home alot due to weather and colds we've seen more than our share of cookies lately. I decided to buy her some felt food cookies for her kitchen instead. I came across this set on etsy from Posie and Me. It's so stinkin cute in real life! I know she is going to love to roll out these fun cookies!

On a funny note, The Lettered Cottage, a house blog I follow just had a tutorial on creating a dining room table vintage style. She even created "worm holes" in her table top. She could have saved herself some time and borrowed Avery for a meal or two. We have several "holes" in our table top from her fork. Here is the post (and it is a beautiful table).

http://www.theletteredcottage.net/2010/02/my-table-transformation-part-one.html

Glitter Glitter everywhere!

Here's what Avery and I did {made valentines for her classmates}. . .

While this was going on {nor'easter}:

A few small bling for upcoming Valentine's Day:


Hope you are enjoying being "snowed" in!

You’re off to Great Places in 2010

Rebekah, as the main author of the family blog, has been asking me when I might actually decide to post something. I’ve got a high standard to try to achieve, since she does such a great job with the blog.

I was originally thinking that writing something about how last year was a turbulent year for many people would be appropriate, and also how 2010 will be better. Then, incidentally, my daughter went over to the book bin under my nightstand this morning and reshuffled a dozen books all over the floor.

That’s not uncommon – probably a lack of supervision on my part – however I noticed that among the strategically-strewn pile was a hardcover copy of Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

We often hear the Dr. Seuss story quoted with friends and family, particularly around graduation times, since it was written as a graduation speech.

I plucked the book from the carpet, put the paper jacket back on, and then read it from cover-to-cover three times. I hadn’t touched it since…my last graduation.

If you haven’t read it in awhile (text is here) it might be worth five minutes of your time. Among a world that’s “always-on” and information-driven around-the-clock, I found it to be surprisingly simple, once again. Such a quick-read somehow captured the essence of life’s “Great Balancing Act,” while keeping the big picture of the entire journey in perspective.

One of my favorite pages was the last page. Here it is:

So…
Be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
Or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shea,
You’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!

No matter what 2010 brings you – and hopefully all good things, naturally – best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year! You’re off to great places and to accomplish great things.

-Scott

10 in 2010

Greetings from 2010! Did I mention that I love new year's resolutions? I love starting tabula rasa! I am going to challenge myself to do 10 in 2010. It might be a lofty goal. But not all my resolutions are that hard! If you are feeling inspired in the blogland please link me to your post of 10 in 2010!

10 in 2010

1. Streamline my work during work hours so I have more time to spend w/ Avery & Scott!
2. Sewing classes at Spool. Alicia and I are already signed up for the February market bag class. So excited! Ps It’s downtown on a Sat afternoon, perhaps we have no plans to go home right away?
3. Expand my photography using {AV} & manual settings; textures and black & white post processing.
4. Simplify life . . . always a work in progress.
5. Save for new home in . . . 2011-2012! I am actually attaching pictures of houses to my credit card so I am reminded each time I have to have that new pair of boots to replace the several I already have.
6. Recite the Serenity Prayer until it makes sense: God grant me the serentity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.
7. Paper crafts to a few new items.
8. Expand my cooking repertoire to include roasts & dutch ovens.
9. Tackle baking a layer cake {I usually do cupcakes}.
10. Did I mention increase my savings?? {that needed to be said twice}

**The photo was done in AV w/ my 85mm 1.8 lens. The yummy waffles were made by my husband on his new wafflemaker! Avery & I love waffles!

A look at my fabulous decade in pictures:

This post is dedicated to a year end reflection (or decade end in this case). Tomorrow we can talk about our continuing good fortune, resolutions etc. I adore New Year's. Personal goals, a fresh start . . . it's all good! Now without further adieu . . .

The night I met my husband. Yes, someone had a camera!

The day we got married!

Our honeymoon in Kauai!

Our beautiful daughter when she was born!

Our lovely daughter one year later. She melts my heart every day!

Yes, I have hobbies, friends, a career, personal interests, and wonderful travel experiences but the best way to characterize my decade is the creation of my family. Here's hoping to an equally prosperous, fun-filled, always changing, and eventful next decade! xoxo

Kitchen Makeover!

Not mine, Avery's! This is the pie cupboard my poppop made for my mom. It's on it's 3rd generation and it needed some TLC after being rescued from our {my sisters and I} playroom.

Before:

Before:

Before {Jen's John Hancock}:

After:

After:

Avery LOVES her kitchen stuff. Plus all the neat stuff she got for Xmas. We just set it up and brought her into the room Christmas Morning. She went straight for the silver pots. Come on over to our house, Avery's cooking!

Makeover Process: wash, sand, kilz, 2 coats of tiffany blue, 1 coat of shiny sealant. New knobs.

Baby feet

I love little baby feet!

Jennifer & Lyla: First Christmas

Post Christmas Post

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! We did and it was super busy. I did not take a lot of photos. I er, we, were chasing Avery for most of the time so no one had time to grab the camera. I was able to get a few shots xmas eve; no she didn't want to sit or stay still for that matter. The saving grace was the new tripod I got. She seemed fascinated by the beeping light on the timer for morning photoshoot. The last photo is post processed with my new florabella vintage actions. I am still playing around with them! Avery is spending lots of time in her new kitchen! I will get around to getting pics of that soon! Also stay tuned for some fabulous pics of my brand new, adorable niece, Lyla Elizabeth. And then stick around for a year end recap and some thoughts for the new year!

Happy Holidays!

The official Avery media card is hosted on facebook. I could not get it downloaded on blogger or onto a cd for that matter; the HD file was just too big! Last weekend while hibernating from the 15 in of snow, I was able to snap this picture of Avery in a vintage santa sack I found at Vintage Home in Paoli. Um, she really didn't want to get in the sack so we bribed her with cookies. She still wasn't incredibly happy. The christmas paper I got from Rita at coffeeteaphotography (see link on sidebar). And yes, Avery's hair is in pigtails. It was really cute. Except I just got her hair trimmed and I am not happy how the bangs turned out. But really it's hair - it will grow back.

On a personal note, thanks friends for a wonderful year of blogging. Hope everyone has a blessed holiday season spent with the ones they love! xoxo

Greetings from Longwood Gardens circa last week!! We had the pleasure of going this year with Scott's parents! And the sights were just wonderful. Sadly it was so cold outside that all my "rushed" outside snapshots were really blurred. We were going to go back this weekend but alas we are at 8 in and counting at 3:30pm! Life is winding down for the year and I am so thankful since these last two weeks have been really busy! PS This year we decided against sending out xmas cards! We couldn't get Avery to sit still on the 3 occasions we tried and we just ran out of time as well. But, expect a special media Christmas surprise in the next few days!!

It's nice to have someone else snap your photo!

Music room inside the conservatory:

Music room wreath:

Inside picture of the Christmas Tree. Longwood just does a fabulous job every year!

Forgive me . . .

Forgive me Marc Weissbluth of Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child, for I will sin this month of December in that Avery will probably not nap or sleep well these upcoming holiday weekends. I'm going to need to recite the Serenity Prayer each night for my own sanity {thanks Alicia for doing this with me}.

Pic: Holiday Cookies Take 1.

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!

She came, she saw, she got the loot! Above all, she enjoyed going in people's homes. Not everyone invited us in so Avery tried to slide past them anyway. Her favorite by far was Max & Sarah's where she got to play w/ Chessa. She scored big with a large shaker box of rasinettes at Dru & Betty's. By the end of the evening she had figured out to go double fisted really fast.

Happy Pumpkining!!!

Favorite part of the trip: moving pumpkins from point A to point B.

And rearranging the gourds.

Mug shots!

Here I am in my red, white and blue!

I am trying something new. In lieu of a watermark on my pictures, which was becoming a tad cumbersome w/ all the little free time I have; I've instead added a copyright clause with a direct link to email me for permission to use any of my photos. Thank you!!!

4th of July posted on the 15th of July

Finally getting around to posting the 4th of July pics . . . sorry!!!! Our day was fantastic! Beautiful weather and Avery enjoyed herself beyond belief! Loved the parade, loved the picnic, loved hanging out w/ family & friends . . . there was lots of young kiddos there this year and she was taking everything in!!