Acorns For Sale…

Yes, acorns. Like the ones you find littering the ground under any good oak tree this time of year.

Addie was fascinated with them while we were in North Carolina because the ones she found had “little tops!” on them – the acorns we have here do not have caps on them. So she started collecting pocketfuls of them at the vineyard during rehearsal for the wedding.

And the next morning she did what any enterprising, young entrepreneur would do. She sold them for 10 cents each.

Acorns for Sale

It was very cute and I laughed as she asked everyone that came into the room if they’d like to buy some acorns. That is until I saw what she cleared…she made $5.05!

Selling acorns.

You might be wondering how she got 5 cents when the acorns were 10 cents each. No, she does not have her Mama’s poor math skills, she cut Leah a deal and sold her a tiny acorn (with no top!) for only a nickel.

I’m thinking we need to take her to our next boutique and she can sell dresses and aprons for us. I also think she might be a marketing genius.

Crafty Tuesday

Oh…hey. Looky here. It is Tuesday all sneaking up again.

I’ve got nothing yet again.

I’m a single mom this week (Oh, hey! And next week too!) and had big plans for Crafting yesterday – for I have a leaning stack of fabric mocking me from my sewing room right now. Seriously. It is a huge stack and very close to toppling over and I would go take a photo of it for proof, but….I’m lazy. (And…theeeere it is.)

I’m going to drop the girls at school. Finish the #%*@ PTA newsletter once and for all. Go for a run. Find and buy J. a tie for his next trip…which he leaves for exactly 12 hours after he gets home from this one, and did I mention is then gone next week, too? Not that we are counting the days until he is home for awhile, or anything. (12 days.) Make two phone calls I’ve been putting off for weeks. And then…THEN I am going to sew.

Inspiration for me today?

Finding the good.

Last week was a very long week. I didn’t really realize how close to the breaking point I was until I snapped for the third (maybe fourth) time at Emma afterschool on Friday. Yeah, I was pretty crabby and should probably put out a public apology to my lil’ family.

And then I was going through photos of the weekend and found a whole bunch of good things that were smushed in between all of my crabbiness. Yet another reason to take lots of photos – to remind me of all the reasons I am pretty lucky.

I love that I get to help this great bunch of girls learn soccer…

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I love watching Em trying so hard to push out of her comfort zone…

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And even after a disappointing loss, (not that we are keeping score, right?) I love that she is developing an…appreciation…for the game. (Or at least she likes hanging with her friends and the great snack bags after the game.)

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I love that on Saturday my sweet husband could sense my frustration and then he took over dealing with girlies. Just hearing him say, “No, if you need something you just ask Daddy for the rest of the day,” put a smile on my face.

And then, I got to hang out with my peeps for a blowout birthday celebration for two of our friends.  Even if it made for a very tough soccer game for me on Sunday, (and we bowed out way before the party broke up at nearly dawn!) it was so great to have an adult night out. I think we did fairly well on not talking about our kids, or work, or anything school-ish related. And what do you know? We are incredibly bright and funny women when we do not have to keep one eye on a child. (Who is inevitably going to fall off of that brick wall they are climbing on.)

These ladies are all so great and fun. They make me laugh and I just feel so very blessed that I have all of them in my life…

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And finally, I love that we have beautiful endings to our days (or week) like this…

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Full of promise for a good week to come.

Dipy Week #36 ~ Autumn

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Cool, fall-like temperatures? Well, today was the coolest it has been all week, and I think it was a balmy 92 degrees. Crisp, red and orange-hued leaves? Um…nope, we don’t have any of those here yet either.

But it sure does feel like autumn around here. The kids are back to school, it is football season, and all things pumpkin are back in the stores and coffee shops. (Mmmm…why do you mock me pumpkin scones?) Autumn is by far my favorite season. And around here it also means that avocados, lemons and even persimmons are almost ready for picking.

Plus, we won’t have to do any raking of lovely leaves like Kimberly’s for at least a few more months around here. It is a win-win for everyone.

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Flower Girls Extraordinare

We have the best girls. Ever.

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J. and I could not have asked for better behavior from the girls this past weekend. They look like they had total diva attitude here, but seriously they were on their very best behavior.

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I kept waiting for the other (little kid-sized 11) shoe to drop while we carted them all over the North Carolina countryside, messed up their sleeping and eating schedules, and forced their little nimble fingers to put together wedding favors for hours. Even the ER visit and night of sickness did not deter them…they held the course. I could not have been more proud of them.

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Em was so excited to have curls like Addie for the entire day. She didn’t even make a peep while the hairstylist was putting her hair up and she had to sit still for nearly an hour.

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They totally rocked the flower girl thing.

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Including throwing in some good luck kisses to Uncle Jeff at the end of the aisle. (Yes, my heart did melt into a big puddle.)

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Out of petals, guess we’ll just stand here and look pretty until we’re told what’s next.

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Or maybe we’ll just hang out on this swing.

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Or con Daddy into picking me up for a little rest.

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Still waiting. But Emmy is being a great big sister and helping Addie cope.

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And finally they were rewarded with the promised Justin Beiber, and a dance with Daddy. (My favorite photo of the night.)

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And Mommy was rewarded, too. I can’t even count how many people commented on how well-behaved the girls were. It seems all the nagging and constant pounding of good behavior into them has finally paid off. It really was a little bit of validation that we are on the right track. Not perfect by any means, but we are getting somewhere.

It was icing on the cake (mmm….cake…yes, the cake was amazing too!) to a perfect evening. I had so much fun celebrating the new Mr. and Mrs. V. with all of our friends and family.

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(Wait until you see the photobooth pics of the girls – they spent a good half-hour trying on all of the props and getting their pics taken. It was awesome!)

Congrats again, Jeff & JB. We love you and hope you are having a great honeymoon. Thanks for the fun party!

Cheers To Our Most Favorite Newlyweds

Just checkin’ in for a few minutes down here in North Carolina, y’all.

It has been a bit of a whirlwind week but I think we are all ready to get this show on the road tomorrow, despite a few little speedbumps. The first being a trip to the ER for Em yesterday afternoon. Hey, it isn’t a good vacation if someone doesn’t end up at the ER, right? She was having some girl issues and they put her on an antibiotic, which in turn made her feel pretty rotten tonight, I think.

We went to rehearsal, all was good. Came back to get prettied up, took our medicine, all was good. Got to rehearsal dinner, Mama was all psyched up to do her little toast for Uncle Jeff, all was good. Emmy ate, and suddenly all was not good. So we had to cut our party time a little short and headed back for some rest.

While we were sitting on the bed together, all fresh from her bath and looking a little less pale, Em looked up at me with her serious, sweet little face and said, “I’m sorry we had to come home Mama and you didn’t get to tell Uncle Jeff how much you wanted him to get married.”

I told her it was fine, and Uncle Jeff already knew and JB knows how happy I am for them. And then she said, “why don’t you just do the speech for me, Mama?” So I did, and when I finished she clasped her hands together and said, “Oh, I’m glad you at least got one person to hear your wish! But it was kinda long.” (Nice. Even the 7-year old is a critic.)

And then she suggested that maybe I just write it in a card for them. “Or I got an idea, Mama. You can write it in your blog and then they can see it whenever they want.”

And that I thought was a very good idea from my smart little girl.

So here is my “cheers” to Jeff and JB….

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Carrie, Jeff’s sister-in-law, married to the guy over there who looks vaguely like Jeff. I met Jeff (& Jamie) many years ago when my family moved to Leslie in the middle of my freshman year. It was my very first day of school, in the new town, I didn’t know anyone and I met a girl who invited me to sit at the “cool kids” table for lunch. I was sitting across the table from Jeff and Jamie and I only remember three things from that day. I can’t tell you what we talked about but I just remember I laughed at the two of them the entire lunch hour. I remember laughing so hard at one point that I spit chocolate milk out of my nose. And then I remember being so incredibly horrified that I would never, ever get asked to sit with the “cool kids” again.

Luckily for me they overlooked my nerdiness (and drinking problem) and kept me around for all these years. I feel like we have kind of grown up together and I don’t even see Jeff as a brother-in-law. He is just my brother. A fantastic brother. He is also a great uncle and an amazing friend. My only wish has ever been for him to find someone who would make him truly happy. And so it makes me insanely happy to see him with Jessica because I can see that she does just that.

So to JB, I’d just like to say – “Welcome to the cool kids table, baby.” And I wish you both a lifetime filled with nothing but happiness and much, much laughter.

Love you two!

Hey…and Happy Wedding Day (I just looked at the clock!) – today is it!

Random Crafty Tuesday

So we have a little hodge podge of craftiness this week. And we are on our way to North Carolina for the wedding of the decade…so there will probably not be a CT next week at all, I’m thinking.

First up, we have a princess fort for Addie’s birthday. She has this amazing cavern of a closet and told me she wanted a little fort for it. So I re-purposed a canopy and some old sheets to make this for her closet. The photo leaves a lot to be desired and I need to add some ribbons for holding open the doors, but it has already been broken in and happily used.

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And I made some (am in the process of making) some new pillows for our living room. We inherited some great red chairs awhile ago and I finally got some new drapes (that need alterations still otherwise I’d show those, too) so we needed some new pillows to match. It is amazing the difference just some new accessories will make.

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And finally…I’ve been trying to learn how to make these glass tile pendants. I got the idea to make one for JB with her and Jeff’s little logo (the j-heart-j) that we came up with. And then I started making initials and owls, too! And some sweet ones for some sweet girls. The “A” was supposed to be for my niece Alexis but I got home and found a wee little fingerprint in the back…so that one is going to have to be a magnet, I think.

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Any new projects on your plate?

A Tale of Two Kitties

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…

Ah, okay…that is as far as I’m going to take this. It sounded much funnier in my head while I was writing it on my run this morning. Plus, I only remember the first line of that book anyhow. (Sorry, Mr. Ball.) And we haven’t actually made it to the “best of times” around here. Yet.

The new kitty +  old kitty has led to a bit of interesting drama in the house around here the past few weeks. Even though our dear old Tiger was once the “new kitten on the block” and she endured much hazing from our then queen-of-the-house, Smokey, she has clearly forgotten how that feels. For Tiger is now the Queen (yes, with a capital Q, please!) and she has made every attempt at being most un-welcoming and un-hospitable for our new kitty.

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New kitty does have a name, by the way. Since she was Addie’s birthday gift and thought to be around one year old. Addie declared that she and kitty would share a birthday and she wanted to name her Tigerlily. I gently suggested since we already had a Tiger, she should name the new kitty just Lily. And then when we call the kitties we would have a Tiger…Lily.

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So Lily it is. Although she doesn’t smell anything like a flower. The exact opposite, in fact. She stinks. I mean reeks! She is a very quiet and good kitty, so the only way I know she is in the room is if I take a whiff. And if she is somewhere (even on the other side of our very large living room) in the room, you’ll know. She is trying to climb on my keyboard right now and get some love and I have found it nearly impossible to sew with her in the room. She likes to sit on my desk and *help* the fabric along. It is a real treat, but she is very sweet.

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And as for Tiger, she has made herself scarce except for the piles of kitty puke that she has been leaving for me. And the hissing and growling has subsided for the most part, although she will still get in a parting shot as the kitties walk past each other in the hall. But I think she has finally resigned that Lily is here to stay.

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Dipy Week #34 ~ Small

Dipy Week #34 ~ Small

We are going small this week. I have been staring at Kimberly’s (on top) for an hour now. I’m just not sure how she did it or what it is…but it is brilliant. Hop over to see what it is over at her place.

I’ve also been staring at these small little toys all over our house lately. They are called Squinkies and the girls are obsessed with them. At first I was not a fan…but they are very small, and don’t take up hardly any space. And so far they have been keeping pretty good control of them, so I haven’t had to throw any away. (Oh, yes I am that mom. If they don’t get picked up, no telling where they will end up.)

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