Show time. Booth Display. Warm and Fuzzies.

Well that was an unintentional break. Three weeks go fast especially when you are busy perfecting your SMEYESING. Fierce?

No. Seriously.

So I had a show. Mah first big one. and it was fun! and i loved it!and! and! and!

I really enjoyed meeting my customers.  They were really sweet and some made a special trip just to see me. I was beyond flattered.  I worked really hard to create a booth display that screamed lillypie without screaming at my customer. I really enjoyed creating a space and could probably go around setting up booths around town and be perfectly happy skipping and humming along.

I debuted a lot of new pieces at the sale and recieved some wonderful feedback. I really love the combination of heather seafoam and cranberry--and luckily so do my customers. I sold out of 10 designs while there and was doing a happy dance all the way home.  I was beyond nervous for this show. Putting myself and my designs that I think are pretty is one thing on the interwebs.  I'm still hidden. At a show, I'm sitting right there. Vulnerable. GULP.

Thank you to all my friends! I felt so supported and uplifted through your sweet comments and tweets. I'm loving this little handmade community I've stumbled upon. You're all so sweet. I'm smiling from ear to ear on my side of the screen.

Keeping My Promise

In May of 2004, my parents picked up their two college kids after finals and headed for  the Outer Banks. I didn't realize it at the time, perhaps my parents did, but this was our last family vacation as a family unit of mom, dad, laura and john. To me it was a family trip to the beach full of laughs, Uno, hiking, and a looooooooooonng week away from my brand new baby relationship to my future husband. 

After a nightly phone conversation with  my  guy, I hung up feeling refreshed, liked, smitten and  like a big puddle of oooey gooey new love butterfly pudding. I remember feeling the need to be alone, so I walked out to the boardwalk and took stroll on the beach.

All I could think about was Scott. I missed his laugh. I missed his hand holding mine. I missed his smirk. Walking along the beach, alone with my thoughts, and feeling the ocean lap over my feet I realized that I was falling in love. I wanted nothing more than for him to be here with me. I wanted to share all my memories with him.

I walked to the pier and turned back  to meet the rest of my family for dinner. With happy and confident tears streaming down my face  I made a promise. I wanted to bring Scott to the beaches of North Carolina one day. I promised to walk along the shore, hold his hand, and tell him about the moment when I knew that he was the one God had given me.

Seven years later and I'm holding that hand of his. I'm walking slowly and soaking in his laugh, his smirk, and I'm also  gently holding onto the little fingers that belong to  another gift God has blessed me with. This week I'm keeping my promise.

type twoer for sure.

This morning in church i had a light bulb/lightning bolt moment. you know the one? the oooooooooh shooooooooooot moment and it clicks? this one bout knocked me outta the pew. good thing it didn't cause i was wearing a dress that was a tad on the short side. someone in our house doesn't know how to do laundry and likes to shrink things. ::ahem::

our minister said that when people enter a room, there are two types of people. there are the "heeeyyyllooooo I'm here!!" people and there are the "Oh! You're here people". lemme break this down a sec. it took me a while for it to sink in.

type one

the first type of people enter the room and are announcing they have arrived. i'm here and now the party can start type of people. they aren't bad people. it's just how they view a room. think the  snookie, jessica simp., lady gaga type :).

type two

the second type of people enter a room and are all about another person. they are the its-so-glad-to-see-you-people. the ones that enter a room being glad to see someone else.

since lilly-i've definitely been the "AHM! HERE! and so is mah precious baybeeee" person.  mostly because everyone is excited to see her. and selfishly i think "shouldn't they be?" she's a wee one...she demands all attention. but ya know what? if i'm honest with myself and to you, i've always been a type one person. occasionally i'm the type two, but not often. that makes me selfish. and i am. i'm selfish, vain, and a control freak. gulp....please still be my friend?!

my dad--is a type twoer for sure. he always has been. never one to command the attention of a room, but more excited to see someone else's presence. he's always greeted me with a big hug. the kind that make you warm and fuzzy. not the surface two pats on the back kind. the embrace with the extra squeeze that let's you know you're loved. that kind.

my dad is strong.

My dad is  gentle.

My dad is firm, courageous, honorable, and wise.

he's a wonderful father and even better grandfather. right now, lilly loves him for his oh-so-tuggable beard. but i'm sure in the future when she's not so "ahhh! uh beard wif tuggy thangs!!" she'll see him like I see him. a man of God with a type two entrance personality.

love you daddy.

::something to ponder--can you guess what father's day presents, lilly, yellow paint, and poison control all have in common?::

You were my strength when I was weeeeak.

Thank You

{ blogging note: to get the FULL effect please begin humming your favorite celine ballad, mine is "Because You Loved Me", but I won't judge.choose your own...}


for pushing a melon through an orange.


for thinking I was beautiful with my cone head and tang-esque skin color.


for not giving up and placing me in a moses basket when I cried because I was hungry. Cried because I was tired. Cried because I was wet. Cried because I pooped my panties. And Cried for NO apparent reason at all.


for adoring every smile.


for singing me to sleep.


for loving me and believing everything I did was the CAAAUUUTEST!

for the love you showed me by meeting my needs, by giving me a brother, by giving me boundaries, and by giving me great life experiences.





for the card you put on my bed when a high school boyfriend !!!who was my soul mate!! dumped me letting me know that it was okay to be sad. {celine fist pump}


for taking a beach vacation when you probably wanted to go to the mountains.


for not getting call waiting because we all know that I would have NEVER gotten off the danged phone.

for singing Disney in the car.

for worrying and caring about what kind of friends I had.

for taking me to church.

for putting up with my shenanigans and going all the way to TEXAS for a competition when we all knew I did it for the boys. :)


for loving me when I hurt you. {celine fist pump}

for not following up on the "I brought you in, I can take you out".


for listening to me even though you can't understand me when I talk and cry at the same time.

for enjoying my drawn out dramatic stories and thinking I'm funny when I tell them.

for praying for me. {celine style-touches her heart and closes her eyes and does the oooohohoooo's}

for going to my tennis matches even though I didn't count toward the team total because I was not very skilled.

for Gloria Estefan and Whitney Houston.


for the love, tears, hugs, disagreements, frustrations, and advice.


I love you, Happy Mother's Day!!

{I'm everything I ammmamamammmmm, because yooooooooooooouuuuu lovvveed me oohoohoooooooooooooo}

{end song}

Top Two Tuesday- i love my life edition

Top Two Tuesday! Two things you can't live without

I'm gonna go all sentimental gushy mushy on this one. The two things I can't possibly live without in pictures....

I love these two. I can't live without these two. They make me crazy. They make me laugh. They make me cry. They make my world.

A dose of I love Jesus.

Dedicate. verb To devote wholly and earnestly as to some person or purpose.

We had Lilly's baby dedication last Sunday. It was something I had been looking forward to since she was born. Becoming a parent has brought new pressures. New questions. New joys. New celebrations. Sometimes I look at her and think "How on Earth is she mine?" The Lord has given us an awesome gift and with this gift comes an awesome responsibility. One that weighs HEAVY on my heart and spirit. Unfortunately, in my profession I see first hand the results of parents who do not take this responsibility seriously. I see children who grow up abused, neglected, and whose lives are void of unconditional love and boundaries. Seeing this--scares me. I'm sure they didn't set out in the first few days and weeks with their little ones and think "Well, I'm gonna just screw this one up...." They most likely had the same weight on their shoulders like I do. It just happens. Life gets in the way of your good intentions if you let it. It's impossible to do things perfect and on your own. The world around us can drag you down at an alarming pace.

God is needed. He's in full control ( now matter how hard I try to pull it away from him!). Knowing what peace and guidance comes from the Lord made the decision to raise Lilly in the church and in a Godly house easy. I've tried living on my own terms and without Him. I made a true mess of things...and hurt a lot of people. Including myself.

So Sunday, after stressing out for waaaaaayyyy too long about what to wear, we stood at the front of the church and made a promise. A promise to God, Lilly, our family, and our congregation to raise Lilly with a firm foundation in the Truth we believe. To be held accountable by our family and friends should we ever stray.

It was a celebration to dedicate her life and ours as a family to a life modeled after Him. Hopefully, many years down the road Lilly will one day make the decision to follow Christ on her own. She'll learn the things that Scott and I know and believe it for herself. We'll be able to welcome her with open arms and know that her decision did not come by chance. We'd made a promise waaaaay back in 2010 that we were going to pray for this day for the many years to come.

Lilly is a LOVED child.

Woah, long one.

Annnnnnnnnnnnd if you're wondering.....because I always do. No, she didn't scream or throw a fit. I threatened to make her eat that yucky cereal the rest of her life. She knew better and didn't make a peep. :)