baby gavin

Whether it is your prayers, your positive energy, or your loving thoughts, please send them to this family today. I can only imagine the sadness that they are experiencing.

xx

mot francais du jour

Aujourd'hui (today) for much of our country, not to mention much of the south of England, so I hear, this word seems appropriate~

la neige - snow

neiger - to snow

xx

mot francais du jour

This past Christmas my incredibly sweet husband found something that he knew I would LOVE - and surprised me, which isn't easy to do. I was so excited when I saw these books, as even though they are simple, and meant for children, they also have some incredibly useful words and phrases.

For those of you who don't know, I will be heading to France in April - something I am incredibly excited about. (actually, it hasn't really hit me yet but as we have entered the new year, it is beginning to seem possible) I will be traveling for bits and parts with some fabulous friends, namely miss divinely sassy, miss classically stylish, and miss fabulously inspiring. Thus, these next three months I will be really focusing on my French lessons. I will be attending my regular weekly class, but I also hope to do some private lessons with my French teacher. I really want to be able to have conversations while I am there - I want to be able to order in restaurants comfortably, I want to be able to ask questions, I want to feel confident in speaking while I am there.

Thus, I thought that I would post un mot francais du jour to help me, and to share with you some words from my french children's books~

Aujourd'hui, le mot est:

la pluie ~ rain

pleuvoir ~ to rain (the verb)

Appropriate with the weather we have been enjoying and will be for the next few months...

bisous mes amies

Etsy Shop Update

Now that the holidays are over, I have restocked le shop with a few new treats.

One of the items on my new years wish list is to do more with my shop - try new things, play with more fabrics and metals, and keep it fresh.

I am excited about these spoons, as I want to do a number of them for garden markers this summer for my own garden! They can be customized to what ever you might need.

I am also doing a lot of little hair clips as I have been using them for the past few months so much and really love them!

The book marks came about as I never have a proper one - most often it is a scrap of paper that keeps my place. As "prettying things up" is on my list of new years aspirations, pretty book marks are a must!

I hope you will visit le shop and take a peek at some of the new items. I really have had so much fun creating over the holidays!

xx

vintage treasures

I was shooting my new items for my Etsy shop this afternoon and decided to shoot a few things around our home that I have collected over the years.

I love vintage anything, and silver is no exception.

I am blessed with some really fabulous friends who know me so well. Yesterday a sweet parcel arrived in the mail. When I saw the return address I was instantly excited as Simone is one of my dearest friends and whatever she had sent was surely to be marvelous. Would you believe that she sent me these three treasures?!?

I found this bag while on a girls day in southern Washington and Oregon about a month ago. As I was with a girlfriend, it seemed serendipitous!

And of course, with the addition of miss mabel to our family, anything in the vintage camping family is welcome to join us!

What are your favorite vintage pieces in your home?

xx

my list of aspirations

~found

At the beginning of each year, I spend time thinking of the things I would like accomplish in the coming year. I think of things that inspire me, things that bring me joy, things that fill my soul. Some things are about me - things to do with beauty, or health, or learning. Some things are about my family. Some things are about the world around me.

2010 follows a year of great learning about myself. I gained so much clarity in 2009 with regards to the direction I would like my life to go in as I approach my 40s. It was an incredible year and I feel so blessed to have traveled through it - even in the difficult times. I experienced more growth than I have in any of my previous years~

In 2010, I want to continue to explore different paths that life offers, and to focus on things that I feel will bring me even more growth as well as begin to build the legacy that I want to leave one day~

My 2010 Aspirations

~ I aspire to enjoy my feminine side more - wear more pink, more ruffles, surround myself with sparkles.

~I aspire to continue running, extending my endurance, and feeling good about doing it.

~I aspire to really grasp the French language - I hope to study a little something every. single. day. (more on that soon!)

~ I aspire to take my photography further - shoot more often, play with textures and treatments, expand my list of regular subjects.

~I aspire to feed my family as seasonally and locally as possible. I want to create well-rounded meals, explore my fabulous cook book collection, plan meals ahead of time, and shop at my favorite spots to make it more enjoyable. I want to find more local sources for produce, especially in the "off" season.

~ I aspire to change the life of women that I don't know. I know that I have the opportunity to do that every single day, and I am going to welcome those opportunities and do what I can with the blessed life that I have been given.

~ I am going to find more ways to inspire with this blog. I want to post beauty, and frivolity, but I also want to inspire women to find their own beauty, their own voice, their own path. I truly believe we all have something to offer this world, and there is such adventure in finding out what that is!

~courtesy UNICEF

I also have an extended *wish list* - I want to travel more, enjoy more date nights with my husband, spend more one on one time with each of my boys, spend more time on my etsy shop, extend our gardens, finish painting the house, take more cooking classes, be more frivolous, spend more time "doing lunch" with my girlfriends, add goats to the farm, and the list goes on and on... However, my list of aspirations is something that is with me throughout the year, keeping me focused on who I want to be at the end of 2010.

I wish you much laughter, prosperity, and inspiration~

xx