Friday Freebie: Christmas Elf Calendar

Our Christmas Elf, Christopher Pop-in-Kins, will be returning soon. Dylan is already excited. Last year was our first year so it was a new experience all around. One thing I didn't like - a bit of evening stress when trying to determine where our Elf might be the next morning and/or what he would be doing. This year with experience under my belt and a few new ideas added to my board at Pinterest, I sat down to create a calendar with a daily plan....

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5 Things I'm Thankful For

Leading into the Thanksgiving holiday, I thought I would share 5 things I am thankful for right now... Our warm, cozy home (especially during last night's cold rain!). My anything but boring job that gets me out of the office and into interesting places. Weekly lunch dates with Trent. Dylan's prayers at dinner and bedtime. I tay da Lord to soul my keep. Thank for food. Amen. The same each time and so amazingly sweet. Quality time with...

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Alice, Narnia and Harry Potter

Part of the fun in Oxford earlier this month was learning a bit of literary history. Several famous authors and their stories have a tie to this beautiful city and the University. On St Aldate's St is a shop with a red door - Alice's Shop. It's where the real Alice, inspiration for Alice in Wonderland, actually shopped and the shop itself was the inspiration for the Sheep Shop in Through the Looking Glass. I did step inside briefly to look around...

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Disney Trip Envelope 2013

I originally created the Disney Trip Envelope in fall 2007 and updated it a year later. Since then, it has sat amongst our trip albums and other memories waiting for a future use. The future finally arrived last spring as we took Dylan to Walt Disney World for the first time. Here's a look at the changes I made for our latest trip ... Park Hours I kept this one essentially the same. Updated the dates and park hours for each (hint: find park hours...

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Give Something Personal This Holiday Season

If you have a digital camera-whether it's your smart phone or your DSLR-chances are you have a lot of wonderful photos of the people you love. And there's a pretty big chance that if you do, those photos haven't seen the light of day since you first took them, posted them to Facebook, or picked that new wallpaper for your smart phone or computer. Now, imagine those photos in a book, given as a gift. Wouldn't you look like the best most thoughtful...

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Last Week

Trent & I spent the past week in England splitting our time between Oxford and London. Although we returned on Friday afternoon, I'm still absorbing everything we did and saw in that time. Our first visit ever so we packed it full. Here's a small glimpse ... The Headington Shark Chapel ceiling at Queens College Angel carving in the chapel at Christ Church Horse Guards, London House of Parliament, London More to come...

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Pink & Peach Shower

Our playgroup is growing by one more little girl and, naturally, we had a nice moms afternoon out for tea. Our theme this time took a little creative thinking … pink for a girl, peach for Georgia peaches (a tribute to her name, Savannah), and lollipops in honor of her older sister's nickname for her "Lolly." Knowing that tea service fills the table, we kept our decorations to a minimum - pretty peach roses added to the existing floral arrangement,...

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Wordless Wednesday: Downtown Durham

Linking up to Wordless Wednes...

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DIY Numbered Burlap Basket

While redecorating our laundry room, I was searching for new baskets/bins to tidy up the look on the open shelf. To give the room a more peaceful, completed feel. I managed to re-use two fabric bins from our old house and quickly found a nice handled basket at HomeGoods to store all our Swiffer products (yes, we have a lot of those!). But I couldn't find another like it. I wanted either a match or something that would coordinate nicely with what...

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10 Years

Somedays it feels like I blinked and we went from this ... to this ... Photo credit: Nila Garriga Photography 10 years. 3,650 days. 2 houses. 2 cats. 1 amazing son. Love, laughter, tears and hugs.  Millions of memories big and small. Together. Happy tenth anniversary, love. Here's to the start of our next decade together and a million more memorie...

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Gift Idea: Personalized Photo Books

When looking for a meaningful gift, a photo book is always a hit especially when it's made by you. If you don't consider yourself crafty, no worries - with Blurb, you don't need to be. Blurb's website and free tools make it easy.  Struggling to decide what type of book to make? Take a look at the Blurb Gift Center for lots of ideas … perhaps a Family History Book for the family member that loves researching the family...

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Laundry Room Reveal

One of the first rooms we started redoing in the foreclosure house was the laundry room. Yes, the laundry room. I know, it seems odd but when you figure how much time you spend in there plus it's a relatively small room (thus "easy" project to tackle), it made sense. We actually started in February and while I've shared glimpses on Instagram, I'm just now sharing the full photos here. All because I was trying to make it a tad prettier before...

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Owl Baby Blanket

Over the weekend, we celebrated the upcoming arrival of our newest playgroup member and third little girl. Naturally, I wanted to make her a handmade gift. This sweet owl print flannel caught my eye when I was buying tulle for my Halloween costume and I bought a yard on the spot. A closer look at the fabrics: I made the blanket similar to how I made Dylan's Cars blanket almost 3 years ago. It still gets a lot of love and hopefully this one...

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