Some of My Favorite Blogs Pt. 1

This last week I FINALLY signed up for a Pinterest account! I am controlling myself so I don't get addicted! I have found many things that are really cool and I would love to try to make. So we will see how that goes! I also started P90x! I think I am going to die! I started it with my husband and now I have decided that I need something more geared for women so I ordered The PINK Method! I will keep you up to date as I go!

                     Anyways why I am really here is because, as I spend sometime looking at friends and other bloggers shops I have totally fallen in love with a few to say the least. Here are some of my favorite items from my favorite shops. . . yes I do own most of the stuff in these pictures but some are still on my wish list! Here we go!

Here is ONE of my MANY favorites of Heather's Just.Lovely.Things

 Now I failed to mention I own at least 20 different beautiful ruffled flower headbands and clips!! I absolutely love them!!!

A friend of mine Alex, over at Alexandra Rose made my boys some super cute matching blankets, and I have a really adorable clutch! 

 BTW I am sponsoring over on her adorable blog! On her blog you will find everything from totally awesome tutorials, to totally adorable pictures of her cute little family, to shop updates! If you haven't checked out her blog you really should!

Now isn't this the cutest little clutch ever!

Check out her store here!

I am also sponsoring over at Sew Chatty   Elizabeth, has an adorable little family and adorable shop! 

Here are some of my favorite things!

Now I love Fallon's blog over at Silly Beautiful Life! She has an adorable shop also. These are my favorite earrings! I also had the pleasure of sharing a booth with her at a little Indies Crafters Market, and I am going to say it. . . she needs to get on it and post more stuff from the market! lol The stuff was so cute!!! Everything from beaded headbands, to anklets, to earrings to necklaces! 

This next shop is one I totally stumbled upon while looking for a make-up bag. Well I found one and it is the prettiest print! LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!! Check out these and more over at Sew There's an Idea

I fell in love with these!  Be sure to check out her Etsy store and Facebook! Tell her I sent you!!!



These are a few of the MANY things I am in love with! Be sure to follow my blog and check back next week, when I talk about some of the most inspirational blogs!

2 weeks into the New Year!!

So here I sit, being totally busy and overwhelmed wondering what I want to accomplish this year. What are my goals for life, my blog, my business, my family? What projects to I want to accomplish? Last year we completed most of our goals for the year, so hopefully this year we will too. However I do have a pretty tall order!  So here is my list  for this year *disclaimer here.(I add tons of stuff to my list as the year goes, I have a never ending list. lol)

My #1 personal goal it to be more organized! yikes!!!

Let's start with my family and homestead goals and projects. I already spend almost every waking moment well and sleeping moment taking care and tending to my family. I wouldn't change it for the world.  So this year my goals for my family are a little different.

• Plan the most awesome birthday parties for my soon to be 4 year old and my soon to be 2 year old. ( If you were following my blog last year then you got the see the awesome birthdays I put together last year. Reed had a Toy Story Birthday and Ryder had a Monsters Inc.)
• Do an awesome family vacation!
• Build the boys a totally awesome 2 story tree house!
• More date nights for the hubby and I
• Building my compost bins
• Raised beds and cute picket fence around them.
• FINALLY after a year of living here I am going to landscape! 
• Clear a couple more acres.(we have 7 and have cleared 2 so far)
• Build and fence an area for a horse, so this time next year I can get my very own horse! 
• Build a root cellar 
• Have my food storage complete
• So the list will go on and on, so we will leave room to fill in some more as the year goes on!
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Goals for my Blog 

• Blog more often, once every couple weeks isn't enough. :) With all the projects I listed above, I should have tons to blog about!
• Feature my favorite blogs and shops! 
• Beef up my recipe section (I am so bad about taking pictures while I am cooking)
• Keep everyone up to date as we slowly turn self sustainable. Building our compost bins, raised garden bed, food storage, root cellar, ect. 
• Hopefully by the end of the year my blog will be 100x better and I will be a better blogger!

My Business

•  I want to expand my business to include my other kitchen accessories, like my hot pads, trivets and full aprons. 
• My Mini CSA farm.   Last year I grew vegetables for my friend Alex over at Alexandra Rose. Well it was the first garden at my new house and it wasn't all the great. I did get Alex her veggies every couple of weeks but it was not what I was used to! This year I am going to be putting in raised beds and planting a ton of vegetables, as I am going to be starting my own organic food storage. I will grow veggies for a couple friends this year, and I am super excited to see how huge the difference is.
• Also last year I designed a few gardens for friends and family and this year I will be doing the same. More info on that later!

SO be sure to keep checking back to see what this year has in store for me and my family!!!

Afraid to Live Life. . . . .

I am not one to wear my heart on my sleeve but sometimes thoughts just need to be shared. Sorry if this is hard to understand, when emotions are crazy, my thoughts are hard to get into words.      

   This morning as I was driving into town to see my brother before he goes back to South Carolina (2863 miles away) to continue his basic training, I had a ton of emotions overtake me. I was driving thinking how thankful I am to have my brother and sister there when I need the, and how thankful I am to have two beautiful children and a man who stands by my side.
            On my way into town I passed the local fire station and saw the flag flying at half staff, and I just broke out in tears. Last week a local man, who I went to high school with, who was also a firefighter and a paramedic passed away in a tragic car accident, leaving behind family and friends. Earlier that same night an elderly woman who I have know my whole 24 years of life passed away in another traffic accident, leaving behind children, a husband and many friends. The man I went to high school with I didn't know him that well, we were only acquaintances, but that didn't seem to matter, it broke my heart. I cried and cried, not only because he passed away and I felt bad for all those who were close to him, but also because reality really set it and I realized that it could be anybody. I know when something like this happens, everyone says "treat people like it is the last time you will see them, you never know." well really you don't ever know.  I never really thought about death before I had children, now I am terrified of it. And not because I am worried about where I will go. But I am terrified, my boys will not remember me, or Ian wont know how to take care of them like I do, or what if they don't know how to cope. . . and the thoughts go on and on. Or god forbid something happen to one of them, I would be beside myself.  I know I shouldn't live like that but I can't help it. The day after both these people passed away, Ian went to the grocery store and was gone longer then I thought he should be, I called him and called him frantic, afraid that something had happened, I don't like to leave my house out of fear that something might happen. Crazy right. I don't know how to get over this or deal with this fear. Hopefully in time thing will be semi normal again for me. I know things will never be the same for the families and friends of Tyler and Maria.

I pray for comfort and peace for everyone who is suffering through all this and hope that some light can be seen. I pray that I stop living in fear and accept that there is a master plan that no one knows.

RIP Tyler and Maria

I have been enjoying my family this holiday season. So this picture OVERLOAD is making up for the last month! 

These last few weeks have been a ton of fun! Getting ready for Christmas, baking, crafting, seeing my little brother (who joined the national guard.) Christmas morning was a blast! My boys loved it.
Anyways here is a little picture recap of what we have been up to!

 

Our pot belly piglet Penny and her best friend Bun Bun

Christmas Morning!

Christmas Tree Cinnamon Rolls!!

Ryder loved his Inch worm!

Reed got a fish tank from his grandma and papa!

Holiday Bazaars and Shop Update!

 A Very Interesting Weekend!!!

              This weekend was my First Holiday Bazaar, and well lets say I am chalking it up as a lesson learned. I am not giving up on Holiday bazaars but I am going to be more selective in the bazaars I choose. Lets start at the beginning, so first  when I called the man "in charge" he was very hard to get a hold of and terrible at returning phone calls. (yes I know RED flag). When we finally got in touch he really grilled me and asked a ton of questions about what I was making. I thought okay he really wants to be selective as to who is at the bazaar. He also told me that he asks what each vendor makes so there are not any duplicates. After the long phone call I thought well I have nothing to loose I will set up shop. I was excited, nervous, anxious. I didn't know how much stuff to make, or how I was going to set up my booth display. So Saturday morning came and I went to the bazaar an hour before it started and set up and got all giddy and was ready to greet customers. Slowly other vendors trickled in and were setting up there booths and as I looked around I realized. . . . . wait this is not what I had expected.  There were  4 purse ladies(you know the one who buy knockoffs and then sell them), 2 Mary Kay reps, a lady selling tons of sheets. Now don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with selling that kind of stuff I just kinda, sorta expected it to be more handmade crafts, since it was called the Holiday CRAFT Bazaar. After seeing that I really kinda thought, man this guy fooled me.  SO with all that negative I decided well I need to make this positive.  I took notes on how I would display things better.

Like making my display easy to navigate with prices marked

Making a place for me to stand behind my table so I am easy to approach and talk to.

Engaging with people as they walk by and bringing them to my table.

I also took note of  what questions I would ask when looking into a bazaar.

Do they advertised? 

What other kind of booths would be there? Handmade or not?

Asking there return rate (how many booths come back each year?) 

There is much more but that will come in another post.

      The good news is I did break even. So it didn't cost me anything but my time to be there, I even made enough to pay for the items I purchased for my display.  That was awesome.  I also met this totally awesome lady named Brooke she is the face behind SharpCouture. Her stuff is AMAZING! She also has a Facebook page. She sells totally awesome burlesque costumes and masks, totally adorable sock banks, feather earrings (she even dyes the feathers herself). EVERYTHING IS AMAZING!  Be sure to check it out and tell her I sent you!!!!

        Well with lessons learned, breaking even and meeting new people in the handmade world, it wasn't to bad of a weekend!  If you have a good or bad experience that you think the rest of us can learn from! Link up to my blog!!!
     
           Next weekend I will be at the Indie Crafters Market at Gates Home Furnishing in Grants Pass. Be sure to check it out!!



 Oh almost forgot there will be a huge shop update this evening and tomorrow!!!! So excited!!!!

I was featured on Heart Handmade!!! Exciting!!!

For any new shop/blogger being featured anywhere is exciting! This week I was featured at Heart Handmade. I am super excited!!!  Be sure to check it out.

On another note, this week has been so busy!!! I have been sewing and crafting away getting ready for a Holiday Bazaar! It has been Crazy!!!!! The shop is getting low, my patience is running thin and my head is pounding! I knew I should have started this project way sooner then last week! lol

Well I am off to finish crafting! Be sure to check back for photos of my booth at the bazaar and an updated shop!!!

Thanksgiving and Black Friday!! Link up!

First Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! This is my favorite holiday, no gifts, no craziness, just family and friends spending time together and be thankful for the blessed year. Oh yeah and the AMAZING food!!!
On another note, as I was watching to news, I saw something that was kind of sad, people missing out on valuable family time to save a buck. Now I am all for shopping and saving money, but really camping out a week ahead of time to get the best deals. Kinda Crazy!!! I rather have a nice dinner with my family and friends and then hit the shopping!! lol

 What are your family traditions? 

Do shop on Black Friday?

Everyone know I have two sons and 3 year old and a 1 1/2 year old. Well this will be the first year that I will not be taking them Black Friday shopping with me! I know crazy I took them the last two years! Now usually my little brother (who is 18) is my Black Friday shopping partner, however this year he is at Basic Training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. He shipped out November 7, 2011 (my 23rd birthday). So this year I am going to be doing my Black Friday shopping with his girlfriend and her family! I am looking forward to it! We have a few stops we are going to be making.

What stops will you be making? 

What stores have the best deals where you are?

I would love to hear about what everyone does to get ready for Thanksgiving and Black Friday!

I sat down with Ian and Reed last night, Reed made his list for Santa and so did Ian! lol I decided on what stores I needed to go to first and what time to leave. Nothing on Black Friday goes as planned, so that is my plan. lol

Be sure to check back tomorrow probably evening (after my nap) for a look at our Thanksgiving feast. We are doing something totally different they the usual Thanksgiving dinner. Also check back to see the awesome Black Friday deals that I got! 

I would love it have you link up & share your plans for Thanksgiving and Black Friday, 

by placing this link at the bottom of your post!

Modern MayeFlower