January Dining Room

Well, I'm cutting it pretty close putting January in the title. Even though February is just a few hours away I thought I'd show you what our dining room has looked like these past couple of weeks. Like most people, I always struggle a bit after Christmas trying to still make things looks cozy and not too bare once all of the greenery comes down. Obviously it's a bit too early for anything that has a spring-like feel to it so I generally keep things pretty simple. Although I do put all of my Christmas greenery away I generally use paperwhites for at least another month or so.  (We have just a few of our Ruffled Table Runners left in stock!)

You can see in the first two photos I had some cute little frames above the wingback chair that were a Christmas gift from my sister-in-law. I really wanted to use them in the living room but they were just too small so I ended up swapping them out with this painting we got several years ago and I think I have a good spot for the frames upstairs!

I have to admit I miss having the chairs on either side of the buffet. I moved them into the living room when I changed things around. I am keeping my eyes out for the perfect chairs for the living room, though, and when I do I will move those two back here.

Although we got rid of the Christmas greenery, we keep the hot cocoa station up for most of the winter. (You can see it decorated for Christmas here).

You can see photos of the living room side in yesterday's post.

Last year we got a bunch of e-mails requesting that this year we offer the Valentine's silhouette in a boy option to go with the girl. We just got them finished up and are listing them in our shop right now.

Have a wonderful evening!

Est. 2013

Just wanted to pop in this morning with our newest pillow cover. We thought these would make great wedding gifts. I'll be back tonight with the some photos of our dining room.

Have a blessed Thursday!

Updated Living Room

In the middle of December (I think it was December 15th) I took all of our Christmas decorations down seeing how I knew that when we returned from NH it would be mid January it would be the last thing in the world I would want to do. Plus all of our fresh greenery would have been completely dry and probably have made a huge mess. Lillie was a bit confused why were packing it all away when there was still ten more days until Christmas (and I am sure our neighbors were too, since I had put our tree up in early November - haha, I think they must all think we are crazy) but I was so glad we did it because it certainly was nice to walk through the door after a fourteen hour trip to a clean, blank canvas. Once everything was down, everything looked so bare and I decided I was getting kind of bored with the layout as it was and that it might be fun to play around with it a bit. After trying a few different things I ended up with this. Although I have to say I liked the other way a bit better, it is nice to switch it up every once in a while and this way really makes the space feel more open and larger.

 

Our "Love is..." pillow cover sets are available in our shop.

 You can see how we made our tufted ottoman here and the painted lampshade here.

 I was excited to add our 2012 Family Albums! I wrote a post on our 2011 here and will do another one soon on this year's books!

This was the layout we had before:

So it's still pretty similar. I tried putting the couch opposite the mantel but it was just a hair to close to the door which was disappointing because I liked the look of that best.

 We also are offering this year our Je T'aime pillow covers in the 12 by 20 size in white ink!

 

And we have just restocked our Valentine's Silhouette pillow covers and they are on sale! 

And here's my little photo bomber. She was dancing around while I took these photos and I had to try to not get a flash of purple in just about every shot! =)

I hope you all have a beautiful rest of the week!

I Love You All The Way To God And Back...

"I love you all the way to God and back..." 

- Blake Brower Hubbard

Violette Field Threads and Bartimaeus Project

We've been quite busy these past few days! I finally finished up several different projects I've been working on but the biggest one was part one of building Lola a little toddler bed. She loves it. It's so cute seeing how excited she is about it but a little sad too. =(  I took some photos of it in her room yesterday and also took photos as I was building it so I will have a tutorial for it at some point once I get the photos onto my computer and edited. 

Anyway, I wanted to pop in this weekend to let you know about a couple of things. First, I wanted to introduce our newest sponsor, Violette Field Threads. They make patterns and tutorials for the most darling children's clothing and accessories. Violette Field Threads is the creation of two best friends, Ericka and Jessica, who have a passion for design and sewing. They orginally each created their own boutique clothing line and the demand quickly outgrew what they could supply on our own. Because their real passion was in the design and creative side of their work, they joined forces and Violette Field Threads PDF Patterns and Tutorials was born. Their patterns are thoughtfully written down to smallest detail. This allows for even beginning sewers to create designer looks. Here are a few of my favorite patterns from their website:

The Emmaline Dress Pattern:

The Josephine Blouse and Dress Pattern:

They also have accessory patterns like this Felicity Flower Pattern:

Be sure to visit their shop, blog and facebook page!

And second, we wanted to share with you what we are choosing for our January Donation. A portion of each sale during the month of January will go to the Bartimaeus Project.

"The Bartimaeus Project is a collaborative effort between doctors, host parents, field missionaries in The Philippines, donors and our board of directors. The project seeks to glorify God by serving visually impaired orphans.  We are not an adoption agency but we work in close connection with an agency accredited to place Filipino children into permanent homes. We provide opportunities for visually impaired orphans to receive sight-restoring surgery in the United States and to be hosted by families who feel drawn toward adoption. We also provide hands-on therapy to children in orphanage care at no cost to the orphanage."

You can read more about the Bartimaeus Project by clicking here.

I hope you all have a blessed weekend!

Robert and Maggie

 

I had the privilege a couple of weeks ago to take engagement photos for my cousin, Robert, and his fiancé, Maggie. They are such a gorgeous couple which sure does make taking photos easy. They were up visiting in New Hampshire during the same time we were so it made it perfect for a wintery themed shoot, although it sure was COLD! =) Because Lola is not feeling well and on my lap while I am trying to write this I am going to give up trying to type anything more and just share with you some of the photos:

Congratulations, Robert and Maggie. We love you so much!