What I Wasn't Meant For

My husband started a new job a few weeks ago. He traveled some with his old job, and it seems like he will be traveling even more with this new one. In the three weeks that he's been there, he's already had to travel two of them. Something these travels have taught me...I was not meant to be a single parent. I admire all you single Moms (and Dads), and military spouses. I honestly don't know how you do it. Maybe God knew I would make a horrible military wife and steered me away from those fellows. Who knows.
Last week was especially hard. The boys are old enough to know that Daddy isn't home, and I can tell it throws them off too. The week seemed to consist of fighting little boys, lots of tears (from all three of us), late bedtimes and way too many take out meals. I'm just gonna be really honest with you, I got a big fat "F" as a Mom last week. I raised my voice too many times, got slack with the potty training, turned the TV on way too much, and gave in when I shouldn't have.
After an especially rough day, I pulled Jackson up on my lap before bedtime and told him I was sorry it had been a bad day. He told me he was sorry too. I told him that tomorrow was a new day, and "let's make it a better one, okay". His response, "When the sun comes up it will be a better day".
That is absolutely right. When the sun comes up, it will be a better day. I learn so many wonderful things through my children, and all the mistakes I make with them. What a wonderful little reminder he gave me, that even though it had been an awful day, and even though I had done everything wrong (or so it felt), tomorrow was a new day. A new chance. A new opportunity. An opportunity to do things right. To turn the TV off & play with my boys, to practice patience & understanding instead of getting angry, to stop what I was in the middle of when they said "Mommy, come see!" instead of saying...in a minute.
The next day wasn't perfect, not by any means. But it was a better day. It was definitely a better day. And thankfully, tomorrow, the sun will come up again and I will get yet another chance to make it a better day.

Linking up with Karen for "Lessons Learned"

What I Love Wed. (Feathers)

I love this trend of feathers. I'm not quite bold enough to wear feathers in my hair (although I think it's beautiful if done tastefully), but I do love all of the jewelry, clothing & other pretty things that I'm seeing with feathers on them. Here are a few of my favorites.

Hairpiece, Bouquet, Print, Hoop Art , Ring, Tattoo

I'm linking up with...

Long Distance No More (for a few days, at least)

A few months ago, Lindsay (of Paint Me A Picture) and I began a long distance friendship. I don't even remember exactly how it started, but somehow we started e-mailing each other on a regular basis, and became fast friends. Two weekends ago, our families went on vacation together. Yep, that's right. We went on vacation with a family that we had never met before. Lindsay & I had texted every day for months, and had talked on the phone a few times, but I was still just a little bit nervous about meeting in person. I have to say though, it was just like we had known each other forever. We had a wonderful weekend full of talking, laughing, eating, drinking lots of coffee, exploring Blue Ridge, GA and wrangling wild little boys. Now, we just need to figure out a way to live closer to each other.

Lindsay & her sweet, sweet family. 

Charlie & Grayson (Gray looks like he's gonna slug Charlie if he so much as thinks about touching his toy. I really do have sweet kids. I promise.)

My family :) 

Scott & Charlie hanging out on the train

(My) Jack. Lindsay has a Jack too, and my Jack was certain that they would look alike since they share a name. Kids are too cute. 

Me & Lindsay

Nantahala River

New Direction, Different Path

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I have been giving a lot of thought to what direction I would like to take my shop in. My friend Julie & I did a craft show a couple of weeks ago, and on the way home I shared with her how I tire easily of making the same things over and over and over. I want my brand to be consistent, and to flow well, but I don't want to get stuck in a rut of making the same old product, different fabric. She is a much more experienced blogger & shop owner than I am, and she had some great advice that got my wheels spinning even more. SO, all that to say that I have been working on some new products and new ideas. I'm headed down a different path, if you will. At this point, I honestly have no idea what will make the cut. I don't plan to eliminate all of my current products, but I'm also not sure which ones I will keep. I'm sort of just trying to figure it all out. Can you tell? :)

In the meantime, I have listed all of the items I had left over from the craft show. I had some diaper/wipes cases in great new fabrics, along with a couple of new zippered pouches and wristlet clutches. I hope you'll head over to the shop and take a look around!

If you have any (kind) advice that you would like to share, I'd love to hear it! Is there a product that you would like to see me add to the shop? Please share your ideas with me! I love to hear from all of you.

Sweet (or rather, HOT) Summertime

It has been HOT around here lately. I'm not a fan of the heat, but my boys don't seem to mind it. In fact, we were playing outside one day a few weeks ago when it was about 6,432 degrees out and Jackson asked for a hoodie because he was "chilly". Seriously, kiddo? Seriously? He also told me we needed to go live someplace where it's warmer. It's plenty warm enough for me.

They wouldn't get in their little pool, but they did fill up the cooler & take turns "swimming" in it. 

Cooling each other off with the hose

My little cutie

Taking a break. 

As much as I love watching my little ones play in the water hose, I have to say I am looking forward to cooler weather. Which should be here soonish, right? Right?

On Feeling Inadequate

We all experience it. That feeling that you aren't good enough. That you don't measure up. That your work isn't as well liked as someone else's. That you aren't as good a mom, friend, wife, daughter, blogger, shop owner....person. I know we all feel that, because we are all human, and because I have seen several other bloggers talk about it lately. It's easy to feel inadequate when you read a really well written blog post, or see someone's amazing photos, or the craft tutorial to end all craft tutorials. It's easy to feel inadequate when you see other shop owners getting lots of praise (not to mention lots of sales). It's easy to wonder what you're doing wrong, or what you could be doing differently. 

I don't think that self evaluation is wrong, or that we shouldn't strive to do better, to be better. But, I think we need to remember that our worth doesn't lie in how many sales we get, or how many page views our blog has, or how many people follow us on Twitter. I am SO much more than those things. In fact, when I read back over that sentence it seems so silly that we even let those things have such an affect on us. Yet, we do.  

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I'm not pretending to have the answers to all this. It's just something that's been on my heart & mind for a while now, so I just thought I would put it out there. I would love to hear your thoughts on all this. How do you keep things in perspective? What do you find is essential to keeping you grounded?

Adventure, Anyone?

Scott & I used to go hiking & camping a lot before we had kids. The boys are just getting to the age where we feel like we can take them on short hikes, and we are going to take them camping soon for the first time on some land that my in-laws own. Because they have been too small to go, we haven't done a lot of hiking in the past few years. Max & Lauren have been staying with us, and we wanted to take them on a little hiking adventure. So, we got a sitter and headed to Stone Mountain (NC). Oh my heaven's, am I ever out of shape. But, we had a great time (other than the fact that Max's iPhone went sliding down a 200 ft. waterfall). The weather was perfect and the views were amazing.

Do you see the sign? Do you see where they are? Yeah. 

For some really amazing photos of this trip (unlike the crappy phone pics that I took), check out Lauren's blog & my husband's blog.

Lauren & Max sell their prints here. They do amazing work. Please go show them some love & support.

Sale, Sale, Sale!

In preparation of adding some new products & introducing some new fabrics to the shop, I have put a few items on sale. All items are ready to ship. Head on over to the shop and take a look, and spread the word to all your friends! 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday weekend. 

photo source