New flooring

Jaedin's Room

We had lived in our starter home for 6 years now and our carpet took a beating. Raising 3 toddlers, it was no surprise that there would be some accidents. There always are. There have been food, paint and potty accidents that I was less than thrilled about. I have always felt bad about it though. I'm not incredibly strict about keeping things spotless. I know moms who are neat freaks and it just doesn't suit me well but it bother's my husband quite a bit to see a stain that has been not cleaned up. So after 6 years we were in desperate need of replacing our flooring. We were unsure if we would though because of our plans to move at the beginning of 2010.
Girls Room

That still hasn't worked out for us yet and so I thought sure it's going to cost a good chunk of money but we are going to feel so much better to look into our house and take some pride in ownership because of how nice it looks. I took the plunge and ordered new carpet and vinyl for the bathrooms and I couldn't be more pleased. It feels so fresh and new in here. I even did a huge change with the furniture, taking out many large pieces that were of the shabby chic nature because my tastes are changing a bit to a darker feel. I will be repainting early next year and the whole replacement of the carpet gave me the motivation to condence my craft room so that I would be able to give my son his own room. of course he has to share his room with my sewing machine table but still I'm glad he has a place to get away from mom and his sisters if he needs some time.
Hall way

It's going to take a while to save up for all of the necessary items to get the house to where I'd like it. I have a full page wish list of things I'd like for our home eventually. But we're a young family. We'll get there. For now, I find it extremely helpful to write down a list of things I'm grateful for each day. It's a gratitude journal with the date at the top of the page and a list of blessings I found in my day. I will be making a series of these for my Etsy shop and I'll get into more detail on them then :)

Master Bath
Living Room



All of the furniture moved outside on the porch

August Etsy Additions

For the month of August I've added some soft petaled flowers, new inspiring word tags and a variety of new muslin tags.
These special roses are called Sola Flowers, Sola shell flowers are carved to look like they are made with shell. They are beautiful handmade flowers that are made from tapioca wood peel. It is a soft wood so you can easily string them together with a needle to make natural garlands for decoration.




Inspirational words stamped onto handmade coffee dyed tags.


The beautiful delicate pink coffee filter roses started out life as plain white coffee filters. they've been dyes pink with a special color mixture of dyes. then baked in the oven and finally cut and spun into roses. These are beautiful additions to Guest book tables, Wedding cake platforms or can be made into long strands of garlands by attaching them to ribbon.

A classy Thank you tag for weddings and special events was made with coffee colored paper, a custom message and a beautiful bird in a branch stamp image. Finished off with seam binding ribbon ties.
Muslin tags stamped with light pink damask hearts make for the perfect base for place cards tied around the stem of a wine glass or around napkins. They can even be customized with names and date, or a thank you message.

Please come and see my Guest Curatorship this week on Crescendoh!

Valencia's 5th Birthday Party

This year my Sweet little Valencia turned 5. She requested a Snow White Birthday Party.
This must have been the 3rd of 4th Princess Themed Birthday party we've had :) I assume it will be this way until they're 8 or so. To stay on budget we borrowed a cousin's Snow white dress and the new snow white heels were a gift she got right away when she got to her party so she could wear them. We always have the kids Birthday parties at Grandma and Papa's house because that is their favorite place to be. They have a Wii, 2 floors of toys, a trampoline, a puppy, a sandbox a swing and most importantly Grandma and Papa.
We placed a pile of her gifts wrapped in princess paper on the table which was enough decoration for her liking.

She requested some princesses on her cake with orange frosting which is her favorite color.
The girls are so naturally dramatic that when they saw what was inside each gift they took turns placing their hands up to their cheeks and oohed and awwed with excitement.

Instead of buying new toys in their pretty packaging I scoured the thrift and consignment stores for collections of things. I found a wonderful collection of small houses. A ballet studio, a pet store, some houses and little people to go throughout the town.
I'm so proud of my sweet little princess...
Here are some of my favorite things about Valencia this year...

* She's perfectly happy playing by herself but is still outgoing around her friends.

* I call her my Snuggle bunny because she'd rather be snuggling with me on the couch than playing in her room with her sister and brother.

*She loves food! and this year has really sprouted. Sometimes when she awakes in the morning I can't believe how big she is.

* Her best friend is her Grandma Tina. so almost every morning during breakfast she asks if it's the day that we get to go to Grandma's house.

*She is the funniest of the bunch. She says the funniest things in the most lively ways. I think she was maybe meant to be an actress.