Nap time

My kids have pretty much given up naps :-(
But today for some reason both have decided it was a napping time of day.
I think they know they need all if their energy to hang with Grandmom tonight!!
This is how I found the girl...tucked in and all snug in her tent ...

Thanksgiving

Tonight I am taking a quick breather to blog! Yes...I said this is my break! Ha! We have had a busy few weeks since Thanksgiving but I thought I would back track before moving on and share a little of our holiday.
Thanksgiving is spent at my grandparents house...it is a tradition that we have held for almost 20 years now.
It's a crazy time...but it's time to be with family!
And we had a absolutely beautiful day!

 how many GREAT-grandmothers do you know that get down on the ground for a tickle session??

 Piper out running everyone!

 It takes a lot of out takes to get us all looking at the camera! This isn't even half of them! :-)

Notice my 6 foot 6 inch grandfather in the last one!

 

 

 

I get a chance to spend sometime with my brothers, neice and nephews, uncles and aunt, parents and grandparents. That doesn't happen often.

We always take lots of pictures.

Mostly I love that I am giving my kids the chance to know something that my brothers and I did as kids. Playing football, sitting at the kids table, sharing dessert.

Now on to Christmas :-)

Plans

I know I have been MIA from the blogging world {facebook and instagram haven't suffered though}
I have been sewing, shopping, and cooking my heart out...welcome Thanksgiving and the Christmas season! Hope you had plenty of turkey and family time!
But for the next few weeks I will be planning out my little girl's 4th birthday party! My hope is that it will be a small lovely time with my little girl's sweet little friends.
So I am looking forward to lots of crafting, lots of pink, and lots of love!!!
In the mean time I will be popping back in every  once in a while...but mum is the word on this for now!

100

This is my 100th post...and I thought I would have some amazing post with lots of things I have learned through doing this. But I don't...
I am working on getting ready for the Holiday Vender's show tomorrow. I am cutting fabric, sewing fabric and cleaning it all up...my work area is our dining room table! Not very convenient but it a nice open working space.
I am trying to keep the house managed...which is always a struggle for me on a regular day. I have been finding little nuggets of time when I can get the dishes done, put some laundry in the washer, and clean whatever needs to be cleaned at the moment. But now it is off to sewing for the next few hours...I will be in my happy place!
I am thankful for what my first 100 posts have been...for the awesome projects I have been able to share. And especially for being able to share a slice of my life with you.
I look forward to 100 more!

This Is My Hometown...

I've said it before and I'll say it again, One of the greatest things about being from New Jersey is that I grew up less than an hour from the Shore. I have a deep deep love for the Jersey shore. It is where I spent many hours with my family. Even when we didn't have much we would jump in the car with a cooler filled, our buckets and shovels, boogie boards and surf boards and head down the Expressway. My great-grand mother lived right on Rt. 9 between Stone Harbor and Avalon when I was young so we spent many summers enjoying "living" withing 5 minutes of the beach. I got engaged on the 13th street beach in Ocean City, right next to the fishing pier!

The Jersey Shore holds a very special spot in my heart....

So when I saw the devastation that occurred during Sandy, my heart slowly broke. Yes many of these are resort towns and some of the destruction was to vacation homes. But there was so much that was destroyed that were some peoples only homes. Especially as you move north up the coast line and into New York. My heart broke for each and every one of these families!

The one song that runs as they show the devastation is Jersey native, Bruce Springsteen's "My hometown". Technically I am not from a shore town, but you almost get that local feel from spending summer after summer there. And I think anyone from NJ or NY will agree...my heart breaks from  my hometown!

The one thing that makes me smile is thinking about the summers we spend there now...and yes we will be there next summer. Supporting, rebuilding, and loving my shore hometown.

But now I look back on the wonderful last trip we had...my parents get a house for a few weeks at the end of the summer each year since I was in college. My brothers and their kids come down and we get some good time running and playing on the beach.

 

Sewing Capes!

I was asked to be apart of a holiday open house. I love making homemade gifts, if you haven't noticed, so I was totally excited!!!
One of my favorite projects over the last few years were the capes I made for Jake's 5th birthday. They were just too expensive to buy for all of his friends so I took on the task of making all of them myself...and I adored how they turned out.

I tried my hand at getting a bunch of littles to do a photo shoot...some loved it, some didn't. I wasn't surprised by how my kids transformed into mini super heroes as soon as they put on their capes! You can check out all the pictures here.
So when I was asked to be apart of the Holiday Open house I thought these would be perfect. I already have a number of pre-orders...I am giddy with excitement!!! I will also be selling homemade hooded towels and burp clothes.
By the way, all the vendors are donating 10% of all our sales to the Daisy Eye Cancer Fund!! This makes me even more excited about getting these projects underway!