Pure Bliss

Last week I attended Blissdom. I have spent some time processing everything I heard and all that I learned. We attended some really great sessions. The opening keynote was given by Brene Brown, and it was fantastic. She spoke on vulnerability, love, shame and realizing that we are enough. When you have the time, I strongly encourage you to listen to her here.

One of my favrorite talks was given by the folks who run a group of organizations...Love Drop, It Starts With Us and Love Bomb. I was so encouraged by what Nate and Lauren had to say. Please, please check out these organizations. They are changing the world and loving people one small act of kindness at a time. In our busy lives we often wonder what we can do to make a difference, to be a change. These organizations offer simple, practical ways to help others.

The closing keynote was given by Scott Stratten of Unmarketing and he is absolutely hilarious. Seriously, you have to take the time to watch him here. You will not be sorry.
In addition to all the great sessions, I met some REALLY great ladies...

Jess & Ruthanne

Jeannett & BethAnne

April, Melissa, Jess & Ruthanne

Me & April

Lindsey & Mique

Mique passed out these cute earrings. Aren't the cards adorable?! That is one creative lady! While writing this post, my little boy was asking me who all of these ladies were. I told him their names and then he said, "I want to see them". Me too buddy, me too. These are just a few of the many wonderful ladies I met. I had such a great time and met so many sweet, talented ladies!

Today's The Day

Later this afternoon my good friend Melissa and I will be packin' up the car and taking a road trip.

Photo Credit

We are heading up to Nashville for Blissdom. I am a little bit nervous, but mostly excited for this opportunity to meet new people and learn new things...ways to grow my blog, create community and be a better writer (just to name a few).
If you are going to be there, please let me know! I would love to meet you.

Time For Some Order

My plans for this evening were to start working on something for myself. I have been meaning for the longest time to sew a bag just for me. I bought the fabric months ago, and tonight was the night. Until I walked into my pantry / linen closet / laundry room / place where I keep my sewing supplies. It was a mess. Mess isn't even a good enough word. There was a pile of wet towels on the floor from where the three year old dumped nearly the entire tub full of bath water in the floor, Christmas decorations & wrapping paper that still had not been moved to the garage, a bag of clothes my sister left, a bag of stuff my brother left...do I even need to continue? SO, instead of sewing my bag, I decided to organize that space. This is what it looked like halfway through the process...

See, I told you it was a mess. Since we use this room for so many things, I don't have much space for my fabrics and sewing supplies. I decided to clear out a small space on one of the shelves and some of the floor space to use for my things. 

I used this small part of one of the shelves to store some of my fabrics and a few baskets I use for displaying my items when I do craft shows. I have fabric scraps and note cards in the plastic bin. Underneath this shelf I placed a laundry basket that holds interfacing and more fabric. 

In the large plastic bin is more fabric and all of my patterns. The two tiered basket is also used at craft shows, and the other boxes and bags (and a large plastic tote that you can't see because it's underneath all of that) hold zippers and some of my finished products.  

I bought the yellow baskets at the end of fall for just a few dollars each. I loved the color, but wasn't sure what to use them for until now. They are perfect for my spools of thread and samples of yarn and twine. The wooden crate I bought and spray painted. I use it to display my zippered pouches at craft shows. 

I spared you photos of the rest of the room. It's quite boring..towels, sheets, the washer and dryer, food. You're welcome for not subjecting you to that :) This isn't the ideal space for me. I would love to have a whole room all to myself. One that I can actually decorate and display pretty things in, and one day I will. But, for now, this works just fine. 

An Ostrich and an Ice Cream Cone

Last week my mom came over one day and sat with our little one while he napped, and I got to take Jackson out for a few hours, just the two of us. I love getting to spend one on one time with my boys. A few hours where it's just us, where I get to really concentrate on them, listen to them, play with them, love on them.

We started our "date" by meeting Daddy at Chick-fil-a (or as Jackson calls it..."Chick-fil-a house") for lunch.

After lunch we headed to the mall. Jack loves to ride on the carousel, so I let him take two rides. He put a lot of thought into which animal to choose, and finally settled on the ostrich. He has been asking recently what everyone or everythings name is. So, we had to name each carousel animal within his view, starting with the ostrich, although I can't remember for the life of me what we named him. 

Our last stop was for an ice cream cone. A pretty good ending to a great day together. 

It's In The Bag

Today I'm joining Ashley, from A Hasty Life (and over 100 other bloggers) for the It's In The Bag Blog Crawl. We are each to post a photo of our purse and its contents. I had a really hard time choosing which bag to post photos of for this post. I have a small purse obsession, and I change them out quite frequently. I decided to go with this one, because I use it the most.

This bag was a birthday gift last year from my husband, and it came from Gap. I love it because it's roomy and has large side pockets, which is great for a mom with two little ones. I can throw all of my stuff, plus all of theirs in it. The flower pin was made by me.


The contents of my bag:

The large zippered pouch with my name on it was a birthday gift from my good friend Melissa. She got it from an Etsy shop, although I can not remember which one. All of the stuff you see laying around gets thrown into that large pouch, and then into my purse. Next is my Gussy pouch, which I love, and use as my wallet. Remaing items: two notebooks (both from Target), C.O. Bigelow lip gloss, Burt's Bees pomegranate lip balm, hand sanitizer, the beloved iPhone 4, my favorite pair of fingerless gloves from This Cosy Life, my Pentax point & shoot camera (because our "good" camera is just too big to carry around), and a cute little coin purse (made by me). 

So there you have it! 

Please visit Tara's blog here to see her post from yesterday, and on Monday Jilly Loves will be posting her bag. You can visit the blogs of each participant here. There are some great ladies participating, so go show them some love!

Change is Good

Did you notice that my blog looks just a tiny bit different? I contacted my friend Dana, of Designs by Dana , and asked if she could help me make a few small changes to my blog. She is great to work with! If you ever need a blog design or re-do, she's your gal. She changed up my sidebars a little, and added pages for me. You should definitely go up there to the top of the page and check them out. Also...she created a blog button for me. See it, over there on the right? Cute, huh? Feel free to grab it if you'd like!

AND, don't forget to use the code update20 to get 20% off your order in my shop. I have extended this offer until Sunday night.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

My youngest (in the frog "hat") and my nephew (Zachary), playing around and being silly. Today is Zachary's 4th birthday. Happy Birthday Zachey. We love you so much!

aPearantly Sew Shop Update

 

New items have just been added to my shop. 

Head on over and take a look at the cuteness going on over there. And how about a discount code? Sound good? Of course it does! Use the code update20 to receive 20% off your order (good through Friday). 

Making Memories

Every now and then, Jackson (my 3 year old) will ask if we can have hot chocolate. I usually say yes because I love hot chocolate. And I love Jackson. And it's important to me to make good memories with my children. It has become a special thing for us to do together. He helps me by stirring, and when it's ready, we sit down together at the table and enjoy our cup of hot chocolate.

We always make it "homemade", and I recently found the best recipe for Hot Chocolate on Melissa Brotherton's blog. This rivals my own recipe. In fact, it's so yummy, that it will be replacing my recipe. You really should give it a try (and yes, that does say chili powder). 

Homemade Hot Chocolate

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate morsels (or the equivalent in whatever chocolate you have on hand)
• 3 cups milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder

Combine the heavy cream and chocolate in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk together until chocolate is melted and cream is heated, but not boiling. Add milk, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and chili powder. Whisk, while heating over medium heat, until hot, but not boiling. Top with fresh whipped cream.

*Note: The only chocolate I had was Hershey's kisses, so I used those. 14 of them, in fact. I also did not have any nutmeg on hand, and I only used 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon. It still turned out delicious.