treats for smiles

Family photo shoot time! Hope your weekend is exciting and extra treaty. We're headed to a party and I want a caramel apple bad.

art for the bride and groom

Somehow during the tornado-ness of our travels last week, we made time to sit and chat with my sister and the nice guy who will be her husband in less than 2 weeks. My Charlie will be officiating the ceremony, he's handsome. We wanted to give the little sweethearts one piece of good advice for marriage... o how i wish there were only ONE piece of good advice! So I made some scripture art for them. We love having scripture all around our house because it's a perfect reminder of how to live, incase you start to forget. These particular verses are about love and kindness and gentleness... all good qualities to have if you plan on becoming someone's husband or wife. They're perfect for framing and reading over and over again forever. Hope your Thursday is like a comfy brown hoodie!

vacation recovery

Wonder why I always need to rest for a couple of days after I return from a vacation? Today was very terrific. Toddler Art all morning... the messiest blessing I've ever known. Then lunch with Charlie, then Wednesday dinner with our sweetie pie friends, now making some art just for fun and smiling at the days to come. Here are some pictures from our trip to St. Simon's Island, Georgia. It's a remarkable place.

out of town

Hello there! We are in Georgia this week. Georgia is 12 hours in the car from Baton Rouge... incase you were curious about that. We are visiting family and looking at life here. If we like the way life looks, we could possibly come back to stay someday. I am enjoying the simplicity of this place. It recharges my creativity and provides rest for my restless brain. Hope your weekend is going great! I spent the 12 hour car ride making felt flower hair clippies and working on the cool guy bear for little Dean (sneak peek in the picture above). It relaxes me to sit and stitch things without interruption. What relaxing things are you working on while I'm in Georgia?

val's bridal shower

My sister is getting married. Have I mentioned that? If not, then consider yourself warned. Here's a recap of my life from the time of Friday at lunch until tonight... Pack pretty clothes for sister Val's bridal shower. Buckle Millie G. and baby Stella Belle in the car, turn on the Charlie and Lola movie (thank you, Lord, for the Charlie and Lola movie!), drive 3 hours home. Begin Smith sister's sleepover/movie night.

Make these...

And these...

Drink lots of Dad's good coffee. Go to church. Bridal shower extravaganza begins. Most fantastical food and cakies. Most gorgeous bride to be. Most fun and memories. It was good. Night night!

pumpkins

This is my friend Sara Vail. She is super smart and talented and musical and artsy and cutie pa tootie and fashion conscious and my kids like her very much. I'm very thankful they have a level headed teenager to inspire them. She's the coolest. Sara and her mom took little Dean and Millie G. to the pumpkin patch yesterday for a little fall photo shoot. Here's a peek at her work...

Happy Thursday! Time for tea and something that will make the whole house smell pumpkiny.

it rained yesterday

It rained yesterday. We couldn't go outside. The kids were especially... shall we say... rowdy? I had reached the end of my patience and energy, but NOT my creativity... NEVER my creativity! I shouted above the crowd (that consisted of a four, three and two year old), "Hey! Let's build a tent!" We started by drawing a picture of a great tent. Then we got some scrap wood from the garage and started building. I actually hammered and nailed this thing together. Then we used blankets, table cloths, twinkle lights, party decor, some kind of orange lawn mower string (that I'm sure Charlie will need soon and he won't have because it's holding blankets onto our tent), pillows, and lots of safety pins. When the tent was finished, we spent the rest of the afternoon reading, racing cars, feeding baby dolls and singing songs... all in the tent. It was a life saver. We even managed to convince Charlie to let us keep it up (in our living room) for at least a week. I think it's a great addition to our decor...

We had a few of our favorite people over for dinner and they loved the tent almost as much as the kids! Do something drastic today... for sanity's sake.

ugly ugly ugly

It's called the Ugly Party. It's hilarious. Charlie does this every year in the middle of October for the little sweetie pie teenagers at church. We like them very much. All the kids make themselves hideous and parade around and eat "ugly food" and play "ugly games" then Charlie tells them that he loves them all the time... even when things get a little bit ugly. It's a spectacular reminder of how truly "ugly" we all can be on occasion. Here are a few highlights...

Carrie D.? Yes please!

oh sweet weekends

Charlie took off yesterday afternoon to retreat for the weekend with the teenagers from church. That only means one thing... My mother has to come to town bringing happiness, prizes, unlimited amounts of gum and quarters for more gum (just incase). It was nice having an extra pair of hands and good company. I like my mom. She's fab.

the beginning of october

 Three sparkles that keep me creative...

Have a great Thursday! It's the best day.

mondays

It's becoming our Monday ritual... Drop little Dean off at preschool, breakfast at Starbucks (girls only), try on shoes at the mall, meet Charlie for lunch, play at the park, pick little Dean up from preschool... It is lovely. Mondays are just lovely. Hope yours was a delight.

famous

Yesterday, after a delicious day of selling all my treasures at an enormous garage sale, I went shopping... just for a minute. I needed to buy the girls some brown hairbows for fall... o.k. maybe i didn't NEED to buy the brown bows... but that dang garage sale money was burning a hole in my pocket! Anyway, there's a high-end baby boutique here where I love to buy bows and get inspiration for gorgeous, glamourous kid stuff. So I parked in front of the store and my heart skipped a beat! Why? Because one of the open/closed signs from my etsy shop was hanging in the window!!! I snapped a few pictures. My signature is on the "closed" side which was inside the store... which I did NOT take a picture of because I wanted to keep composure in front of all the rich ladies. I wanted to be like "um, excuse me everyone... i made this sign..." but I figured that nobody in the store really gave a care about the sign as much as me. So I'm sharing the news with you... because you care. Hope you had a fun-filled, action-packed, sun-shiny weekend!

20 questions

Leigh-Ann over at freckled nest posted these 20 questions. Thought it would be a fun beginning to a busy weekend...

Show us the inside of something cute... How about Stella Belle's new shoes for fall?

What's the last homecooking you had?

What do you miss?... sisters

What makes you laugh often?

What's your favorite word?... pizzazz

What are you trying to quit?... applying for survivor. it's really a sickness, people.

What's your favorite commercial right now?... sonic commercials make me laugh every time

Whose style do you dig?... Ellen Page

Link to a great blog you've discovered lately... Belle Maison for some gorgeous decorating inspiration.

What's the last craft you made?... 2 words: toddler. art.

A photo of the last happy mail you got... love getting cheap used books online... love it!!!

What are you looking forward to?

Post a recent snapshot of yourself.

Recent Favorite Movie?... I'm Reed Fish

Something you're working on right now?

If a movie were made about you, who would play you? Sara Vail... she should be in movies and she reminds me of myself as a teenager

What gives you goosebumps? him... forever

Share a new obsession... sewing, de-cluttering, anything that smells like pumpkin pie, bicycling, etc.

What's the meaning of your life?