A Few Pictures of Lola Wren and a Winner

I wrote my last post in such a hurry that I feel like I forgot to write half of what I planned to say and unfortunately I am writing this one in a rush as well.  I wanted to make sure to thank you for all of your incredibly sweet comments and for all of your prayers as we welcomed little Lorelei Wren into the world! They meant so much to us! I also wanted to thank you all for your continued patience if you are waiting for an e-mail response. I pretty much have avoided the computer the past several weeks and am further behind than ever! I can't even remember the last time I visited any of my favorite blogs. I am hoping to get in a routine here soon. Eventually I will get caught up but for now I am just enjoying adjusting to life with two little munchkins. My mom and sister, Jamie, left yesterday to head back to New Hampshire. We were so incredibly sad to see them go. Lillie stood at the door and cried after they left. It was so sad to watch. 

I feel like I have so many things I want to write and post about but until I figure out how to better manage my time my posts will probably be extremely short like this one. I do have a few guest posts scheduled, some more giveaways, a tutorial I need to wrap up and a few other things but for today I just have time to announce the winner of the Industrial Cottage Giveaway and post a few pictures of Lola Wren.

Here is Miss Lorelei at 5 days old:

And now for the winner of the Industrial Cottage Giveaway:

Congratulations to Natalie! Please contact Molly at mollytilman@gmail.com and let her know which sling you would like! I used mine both today and yesterday and have to say I LOVE it! It works beautifully and is so comfortable. Lola falls right asleep in it so I am guessing she loves it too!

Also, as soon as I have some time I will figure out the winner(s) of the baby guessing contest. I know there was at least one person who guessed the date AND weight exactly! 

Have a beautiful weekend!

She's Here!!!

We had quite the Easter weekend!

On Good Friday, April 22nd at 8:02 PM 

our new little girl arrived!

She weighed in at 7 pounds 6 ounces and is 20 inches long so she even though the doctors had been telling me for weeks that she was going to be quite small she actually turned out to be bigger than Lillie! Her nickname is "Lola Wren."

 

Lillie has been such a great big sister and so helpful! One of my favorite moments so far was when Lola Wren was crying and Lillie held her hand and kept telling her, "It's going to be okay. I promise." It was so sweet. She's been getting over-protective when other people hold "her baby."

Industrial Cottage Giveaway

Hello everyone! I hope you all have had a wonderful week. We are still waiting on Baby Holmes to make her appearance - arghh! Maybe this weekend - just in time for Easter! As I mentioned in my last post I have not spent any time on my computer this past week and am still behind on all of my e-mails, convos and blog reading but I just wanted to pop in real quickly to share a giveaway with you all.

I have been torn for a while now about whether or not we would start hosting giveaways for other shops. We have been contacted about it quite a bit lately and I kept going back and forth in my mind on whether or not it was a good idea. Well, I decided to go ahead and go for it!

For the first 18 months of Lille's life I used a Baby Bjorn and literally wore it EVERYWHERE. I plan on using it again with our new little one but thought it would be nice to have a sling as well this time. I had been searching for several months for the "perfect" one with no luck when Molly of The Industrial Cottage  contacted us. After viewing her site I fell in love with the Charcoal Gray sling. Actually, I fell in love with a few of the designs but ended up deciding on the Charcoal Gray one. Molly sent me one and I was so impressed with it. It is beautiful and extremely well made and Molly was an absolute pleasure to work with.  I absolutely cannot wait to use it!

And guess what?

She is offering one to one of our readers as well!

The winner can choose whatever sling and size they would like! Even if you don't have a baby it would make for a great gift to give someone who does have one or who is expecting one.

Here are just a few of the slings you can choose from:

 

 

 

  Aren't they adorable? (And so are the little models too!) She has quite a few other color options for you to pick from too so be sure to head on over to her shop and check them out! She also sells beautiful pillows, as well. 

So, how can you win one of these beautiful baby slings?

There are several ways to enter.

1) Visit Molly's shop and come back here leaving a comment on your favorite item.

2) Become a follower of Molly's blog and make sure to leave a comment here stating that.

3) Follow our Dear Lillie blog and leave a comment stating you are a follower.

This giveaway is open until next Thursday, April 28th 

and we will announce the winner on Friday, the 29th.

Be sure to check out Molly's blog as she is a very talented seamstress. I want this sofa!

I finished up another project for the porch this afternoon that I hope to have the tutorial for ready soon and am hoping to finish up the rest of the porch this weekend. We also have a few more giveaways planned so be sure to check back, although I am praying my next post will be announcing the arrival of our little girl!

An Easter/Spring Wreath and He Has Risen Download

 I hope you all are having a wonderful week. Sorry- I have literally spent all of ten minutes on my computer these past few days so I still haven't finished catching up on e-mails and am way behind on blog reading but I just wanted to do a quick post with the last of my Easter projects this year. I made this wreath using two different tutorials from Jones Design Company.  You can find the first tutorial if you click here and the second one of you click here. I used a cotton fabric instead of burlap because I didn't have enough burlap left from my last project and didn't feel like heading out to get more. I already had all of the supplies except for the wreath form so I was able to do this whole wreath for just $3.50! I really like how it looks in real life, but it was hard to photograph for some reason.  (For a tutorial on the moss letters click here).

 

 And here is the "He Is Risen" print. I had hoped to play around with it some more because it is a little more modern/graphic looking than I normally like it has been a bit hectic here the last few days so I am just going to go ahead and put it up like this. I still haven't been able to figure out how to upload PDF files so these are just really large JPG's and hopefully will print out okay, although they may be a little blurry - sorry! Once I figure out how to do PDF's I will start uploading prints that way.

 

Now I am going to try to get my porch finished before the baby arrives! I hope you all have a fabulous week! I also wanted to wish my parents a very happy 30th anniversary today! I love you!!!!!

Playing With Color On The Porch

It is so nice having the back porch cleaned up! We have eaten dinner out there every night this week. The weather has been beautiful and it is so peaceful eating out there. The only problem is keeping Lillie in her seat. Every time any animal or bird makes an appearance she wants to go play with it! When we first moved here two and a half years ago I had so much fun decorating the porch. That first year I decorated it year round but these past two years I have pretty much completely ignored it from November through April and by the time I go out there in April it has needed a MAJOR cleaning. The last two springs I was able to get away with just washing all of the bedding and pillows and and sweeping and stuff. This year, though, most of the pillows were starting to get really really grungy looking! I ended up recovering the two large chairs over by the armoire (which aren't shown in this post but I will show you once I finish that side of the porch) and a bunch of the pillows on the daybed. I also removed the little skirts on the chairs at the table as the fabric on them was starting to look quite dull and faded. As usual, I didn't want to spend much money so I tried to use things I already had. I had a couple yards left of the blue toile fabric that I had used in our last house and decided it would be nice to add a pop of color out there and it would be a great starting off point!

 I still have to finish the other half of the porch, 

but for now here is the half that has the table and daybed:

 I actually HATE the teal plates but I went all over Williamsburg looking for a pale water blue set or a patterned black and white set but had NO luck so just got these four in a pack from Target for $9.99 hoping they would be okay. When I got them home I decided they were WAY too bright for me (which I already knew) but I can't find the receipt anywhere so I guess I am stuck with them. As soon as I can find something more muted, though, they will definitely be replaced.

 

Pretty much everything else I already had except for the lacy white dessert plates. 

 

I couldn't find any extra napkin rings so I just tied an ivory ribbon around the napkins and then glued an egg onto the top of the ribbon. 

 

 

Underneath the napkins are these fun little plates:

I got these little white plates at Pier 1 and LOVE them! I put a little vinyl silhouette of Jane Austen in the center of each one to add a little interest. I had planned on putting a silhouette of a bird on them but have been in such a Jane Austen mood lately decided to go with her silhouette for now. I will probably switch her out for a bird silhouette later this summer, though. 

When I made the silhouette pillows last week the ink looked WAY more muted in the bottle. Once they were printed and dried though they looked sooooo bright. I tried to make myself like them and left them out for a week but in then end I think they are just a little too much for me.

Today I switched them out for black silhouette pillows and like them so much better! 

 (Now I just need to find something to replace those teal plates),

I can't wait for my little munchkin to hurry up and get here! As long as she doesn't arrive this weekend I plan on finishing up the other side of the porch and will show you those pictures and I also have an Easter wreath I want to make and if I get to that will post it along with some downloadable Easter printouts like the "He has risen" one that was in our Easter decorating post. Of course, I would much prefer she does decide to arrive this weekend =), but with my luck I am sure she is going to make me wait as long as possible!

I hope you all have a fabulous Friday!