new art, new house

check our the new art for our new home!

for the kitchen:


for the guest room/baby room/elsa and brennan's room


for the dining room:


of course these are from etsy because I am addicted. the top two are from STUIDO MELA and the last is from PERSIMMON & PINK

8 years later

moving back to indy to me is so surreal. I still feel like it isn't going to happen. as though something will fall through BUT it is becoming more real every day. we finished most of the kitchen yesterday


I hate to see it empty and boxes have begun to fill our breakfast room


and I began to reflect on the past 8 years of my life here in florida (in a random order)
~met my husband after living here for 4 months


~was lucky enough to get married at a beautiful, historic resort



~had malignant melanoma in 2003 and BEAT IT!

~gained a sister-in-law


a mother-in-law


and a brother-in-law


and another brother-in-law



~adopted stewart from lab rescue


~adopted sophie from someone at work


~began tiny sprouts on a whim (my first office)


~celebrated bry becoming a partner for outback steakhouse


~celebrated bry NOT being a partner for outback and living again

~met and fell in love with chloe and later said goodbye

~lived on the beach for 6 months


~elsa was born in 2005


~got engaged in key west!!!


~had to say goodbye to caesar.


~attended a good friend's funeral
and spoke about him in front of 200 people.

~attended emma claire's funeral in 2007

~celebrated the birth of brennan in 2007


~bought 3 homes in 5 years:
first (sniff, sniff)


second (only lived there for 6 months)


third (current)


~vacationed in jamaica, mexico, belize, san fransisco, kansas city, miami, bahamas, washington dc, key west


~had lots of visits from brooke


~met 3 great & true friends; heather, jen and kerri

~santos (aka mr. puppy) has been with us through it all


it has been a great 8 years and I can't wait to see what the next 8 bring!

time of my life

this might be one of my favorite songs of all time:
TIME OF MY LIFE by david cook.


it always reminds me of my life and how lucky I am. by lucky I mean living a life where I have my dream job. I work from home, can wake up in the morning and walk my dogs, sip hot tea, pick an orange off the orange tree, take an afternoon nap, stitch baby names with fun thread colors and at the end of the work day wrap it all up in kraft paper.
I love my job!

up to no good

last week we took all of our quilts off the beds and took them to the laundromat. this was our attempt to get a head start on our packing and having clean quilts when we arrived in indy. normally the dogs are allowed to lay on our bed but NOT the guest bed. I bought our guest bed quilt a few months back and have been very disciplined in not having them on it. bry gathered all the quilts and left. I was packaging orders and came in to create some labels and found this:


not one, not two but THREE dogs all gathered together on the guest bed. love those dogs!

i love surprises

I can't believe I forgot to post about my surprise for my husband for christmas. it was my best one yet. and I say that because I CAN NOT KEEP A SECRET. unless you tell me a secret and tell me not to tell anyone, I won't. I still have a secret hidden in me that my best friend, laura edwards, told me in the 5th grade. we aren't even friends anymore. so back to my surprise. we had been wanting to get iphones. really bad. I am not into the always-on-your-phone-everywhere-you-go-person but I heard this phone was sweet. so we looked and looked at them. we decided they were too much to spend right now since we are moving. THEN...my dad called me one day and said, open your christmas gift. so I did! and he had gotten me an iphone! woohoo! I had to keep it a secret from bry because I wanted to get him one. so I did. it was really, really hard. when he was away at work, I would run to my bathroom, unwrap it from the towel it was in and play. it is addicting. and now I am one of those always-on-your-phone-everywhere-you-go-person except in stores, the movies and at restaurants. well, kind of.
christmas morning my husband unwrapped this:


wow, a coat, he was probably thinking. try it on, try it on, I said.


it has lots of nice pockets, I said. then he reached the inside pocket and the smile appeared on his face. he found it!


I had sent him a text that appeared as soon
as he turned on his phone that said:
merry christmas. can you believe I kept this a secret!?

THE table!

I LOVE this table it is made with reclaimed barn boards.


the top is my favorite part


instead of dining room chairs, I want to buy chairs from thrift stores and reupholster them all in vintage fabrics.

is this what our baby would look like?

I visited makemebabies.com tonight. you upload a picture of you and your spouse and it creates a picture of what your baby might look like.


it doesn't even look like a baby! and neither bryan and I are black or have curly hair. I am glad I am not pregnant because this would freak me out!

wouldn't this freak you out?

I decided to do a bit of laundry tonight even though I didn't want to go out in the wind and chilly weather. I am trying to prepare myself for the actual cold weather in indy. sophie and stewart ran out of the house and within seconds of entering the laundry room I heard sophie frantically barking. and she wouldn't quit. I always get scared to go out because I am afraid of what I might find. AND we do not have outdoor lights so it is walking in the dark with only the glow of light from the laundry room window. this is what I found:


hanging on for his dear life at the top of our fence. before we adopted stewart they told us that he can jump 8 feet fences. when I saw him AND sophie jumping to almost the top of the fence, I knew this might end up being very nasty. luckily I was able to sway stewart in but sophie, on the other hand, was very hard. I ran stewart in and ran back outside hoping the possum would not fall because I knew sophie would try to eat it or the possum might attack her. I chased her inside and locked the door. forget laundry!

so beautiful

my dream house I want to buy one day is finished on the outside.
BEFORE:




AFTER:




isn't it BEAUTIFUL?!

good deal of the day, part II

I asked for a robe for christmas or my birthday from pottery barn. they were so soft, available in great colors and they were not made in china. I received a card (late) from my husband and inside was a picture of the robe. so today we drove to pottery barn (it is about 30 minutes from our house) and I picked up my robe.


except it was on sale. instead of being $79, it was $18.96. I was thrilled. and the picture above shows a super cute peg rack to hang it on. I have that too. and I didn't pay $89 as in the catalog but instead $19.99 with free shipping. I love the great deals pottery barn has to offer at times.

a bit nervous

bry had mentioned a while back that when we move that we should no longer have the dogs sleep with us. all 3 of our dogs sleep with us now. I do love it but I hate the dog hair and that we can never have our bedding exposed. we always have to cover the quilt with another blanket so the quilt doesn't get ruined from all the dog hair. I still go back and forth with the idea of them not being with us. they would be staying on the main floor of our new house. it may be silly but I worry about them being lonely or cold or uncomfortable. they are my babies. I thought if we got them some new blankets or dog beds I would feel better. then tonight I was looking online at bedding (one of my favorite things) and saw this and thought how nice it would be to actually be able to have something of the sort.


and this underneath the quilt

I will miss

my favorite furniture store. our entire house is filled with their furniture. I loved going in on the weekends, they'd have a radio quietly playing and upon entering a small bell on the door would jingle. yesterday I went down and found this awesome vanity.


last time elsa and I went to pottery barn kids she found something similar and played for a long time and restyled her hair. this table is so much cuter and more original than pottery barn. I love the rounded back. I found a mirror and chair too.


I love that place!

ireland

I want to go. really bad.







I know we are about to make a huge move but I really want to go to ireland for my 5th anniversary. I would say my 4th but that is in about 3 months and I know it is not possible. I would like to stay in a bed and breakfast for a week, walk places, have fun drinks and see ireland.

shredded?

GOOD LORD!


I knew I was out of shape. I had NO IDEA I was this out of shape. I completed level one on this video and I felt like I was going to pass out. I felt nauseous. I am completely out of shape. the other problem with doing this for 30 days straight is that I can't move today. I am SERIOUS! I have a hard time walking because my legs hurt SO bad. to get to the laundry room, I have to go down 3 steps and I have to hold on to the side of the house to help myself down. I was going to attempt day 2 but I could not even do a single jumping jack. oh, and I didn't even use real weights, I used soup cans! hopefully tomorrow will be better.

sewn paper creations

TDF is all I have to say




made by moonmum

decorating, decorating

one of the reasons I love moving is to be able to decorate a new space. I am so excited about our guest room! I think our most frequent guest will be a little girl named elsa. I want to make her room really special. I remember when I used to visit my aunt "aud" and it was always so special and homey. she used to tuck us into bed and sit and talk for hours. really. these pieces will make her room really special:
love this pillow handmade by manic muffin


LOVE nettie pete quilts



I really wanted a kitchen for elsa to play with but I don't want to buy something plastic and most wood ones I've found are made in china. I thought a great alternative would be a playhouse from miss pretty pretty. then when she is not using it, I can put it away. I also love that this is a handmade.


when we moved to our house we found an old wood bed in the attic. I will be repainting it and distressing it. I am also really excited to have all of our vintage books that we have found over the last few years. 35 days!!!

happy new year!

happy new year! my wishes for the new year:
~safe and easy move & transition to indianapolis in 36 days
~expand tiny sprouts a bit more this year by offering items from talented etsy artists
~add a little one to our family, be it adoption or birth
~take two road trips this year
~have lots of sleepovers with my niece and nephew
(my calendar already has a day booked)
~meet heidi from mangoink.com
~spend more time with my family
~volunteer more


love these wooden apples by abonneygirl

SURPRISE!

I turned 30 on the 29th. I was so excited about turning 30. I wasn't sure how we were going to spend my big day but I wanted it to be really memorable. my husband told me to get in the car and to not ask questions. we went to the mall and before walking in a restaurant my sister jumped out and surprised me. she flew from indiana to florida, took a cab from the airport to the mall just to surprise me.



it was the BEST! she was here monday-thursday and we were able to sit and chat together, shop together and just be together. thanks, sis wis, for the best birthday EVER!

deal of the day

check out my find for $21.96 at pottery barn.


love good deals from there!