It is the most wonderful...

I wish you a Merry Christmas! There are some things I do to try and slow things down and take it all in this time of year. I look forward to those moments when I get to sit down and wrap gifts. This year I went back to my childhood and cut out lots of little snowflakes for our gifts whilst creating a large mess around me. Here are some of my favorites this year.


I love this time of year and am so blessed to get to spend Christmas in the Colorful Colorado Mountains!! We look forward to this week all year long... and once it finally gets here we try with all our might to slow time down, but it always goes by all too quickly. This is my favorite way to start my morning up here.

Finally posting our Halloween costumes. Big Jelly Belly bags! I chose this year and Brady gets to choose our costumes next year... we will see what that brings.... STAY TUNED!!

Owning Up

It is about time I owned up to another love I have... W-H-A-L-E-S. It has been this way since I was just a little girl. It has been this way since the 4th grade. I have been collecting both realistic and abstract whale replicas since I was just a little girl. I just can't seem to get rid of them. What magnificent creatures they are!! I dream of going whale watching one day... my favorite whale is the Humpback whale because they are the sweetest.... Anyway, look at this beautiful woodcut print I just have to buy. Isn't it wonderful? Thank you Tugboat Press.

This One Is For You, Sister

To my dear sister, Calee. I am posting these beauties just for you, my favorite BRIDE-TO-BE. Breathtaking calligraphy by Betsey Dunlap.

Isn't It Lovely!

We did not register for any china when we got married, but I am think it would be fun to start collecting a set now! I am still trying to decide what pattern I would like to collect, but these might just be it!! I love the birds so very much!

Mi Familia

Every so often I enjoy opening up the drawer to the secretary at my parents house and looking through old family photos. I especially like to look at photographs of my grandparents when they were young. I find myself imagining and romanticizing of what it might have been like to live back then.
Looking at photos of them when they were around my age always feels mysterious. It is baffling to me that they were once my age and probably had similar hopes and fears for the future, but now all but one of them has gone to be with the Lord. Time goes by so fast, and before I know it one day (Lord willing) I too will be old with grandchildren who look at old photos of Brady and I wondering about these same things.

Little Things

You may be wondering what is so special about these saucers, tea cups, teapots and so on... well I will tell you. They are ever so tiny. I love little things because they are always so cute. Cute is really all they are... truly, they are not useful unless you live in a doll house. But if we are honest how many things in our lives do we like just because of the way they look? I like little things for purely superficial reasons.

I grew up collecting these little tea sets. I probably had around 25 or 30. I realize this is not a competitive number as far as collections go, but never the less a collection I proudly displayed around my room until my teenage years. At age fifteen they were taken off the shelves and put into boxes...they obviously just didn't go with my "Romeo and Juliet" Leonardo DiCaprio poster.

In recent months I have been trying to find my little tea set collection in my parents house...no luck so far, but as soon as I find them you will have the pleasure of looking at pics of my very own miniature tea sets. I know most of you (all 3 of you) are on the edge of your seat now. I appreciate that.

I know I am married...

I am happily married, and yet I still love looking at Martha's Wedding magazine. She is good. Or should I say she has some good people working for her? Her ideas are thoughtful and wonderfully different. Eye candy you might say. Any old table has a flower centerpiece, but hers have a twist.


P. S. If I ever have you over for donuts and milk this is how I am going to serve them to you.

BEAUTIFUL!

I just found this illustrator and I wish I could do what she does. I think I need to learn to screen print. I've heard it isn't too difficult, and I want to do it. Anyways her name is Karen Klassen. She is a freelance illustrator in Canada. Check out the prints below.

Thank you Communication Arts for sharing her with me, very inspiring. Visit her website, karenklassen.com to see more of her wonderful work.

Meet Margot

Meet Margot. Margot is our Goofy Newfy. She one year old and weighs 110lbs. It has not been easy raising GIANT puppy but she sure does make us laugh. We got her when she was 8 weeks old and she already weighed 20lbs. YIKES! She is a big girl.

If you are wondering how to pronounce, Margot, the "t" is silent. I don't mean to assume you wouldn't be able to figure that out... but we have had a high number of people pronounce her name "Mar-gawt" or "Mar-goat." I don't usually correct them, I just giggle to myself. And for those that care to know, her middle name is Rita.

L-A-M-P-S

I love lamps. I love them. I can't own enough of them. My poor, sweet husband will vouch for that. Lucky for him money is tight right now, otherwise I would have come home with another lovely one today.
I am not sure why I have an obsession with lamps, but I do. Perhaps it is the aesthetic quality of a well designed lamp and its shade paired with its functional quality. Whatever the cause... I have posted one I have been eying for a while.

New B00K!!

Here is one of my beautiful new books! I love this book and the work in it! The books in here are made in to gorgeous works of art. So inspiring. I would love to create something like this someday!

Today has been 6 months since my sweet brother went to be with Jesus. I miss him.

I most want to share with you is how Ben lived his life. He lived in humility and with great love. He experienced life with a humility that most of us can’t and won’t ever comprehend. Ben was made to be completely dependant on others for his survival and yet he lived his life with amazing grace. He was truly beautiful. And in his humility he loved me and many others with the purest love I believe I have ever and will ever experience on this earth. Benny loved people in the same way Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians,

I feel incredibly graced by the Lord that I got to grow up with Benny and understand, experience, and know such love from a young age. Ben’s life has always drawn me to praise the Lord because I see God’s beauty, majesty, and mystery all wrapped up into who Benny was. And now in hind sight I can see how the Lord has been preparing me for this moment my entire life. God gave me the grace at a young age to not only receive and be conscious of Benny’s love for me, but also the Lord allowed me to love him back with the purest love I believe I have ever given. I can remember those afternoons as a little girl, cleaning my room, alone with Benny, the music playing and him chewing on something off the floor…and sometimes in those moments we spent together I would become overwhelmed by the love I had for Benny… and I would sit on the floor next to him, pull him into my lap, so that we were face to face with his legs wrapped around me. I would sit there and hold him close and then rock back and forth quietly telling him how much I loved him. Now as I look back on those times… I realize that it was God’s enabling grace since I was just a kid. Because of those kinds of moments with Benny I have no regrets. I know Ben knew how much I loved him…and I always knew how much he loved me. Benny was a picture of love to me. So today as we honor Benny’s life, as his big sister, the one thing I hope and want you all to remember about my brother is his love.