Spring Florals...The 90s called:

Soooo I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry. Duggars... meet french chic. Can this even qualify as chic? Those buttons... and puff sleeves. Please excuse my hair- this is called summer pool hair #dontcare.
My mom and I have been massively purging old things. Toys, clothes, etc. Every time I go over to her house she has another box for me to go through. 

I wish I could say that this was an amazing thrift store find that I paid 25cents for. Nope. This was a dress I actually wore. What's worse? I was able to squeeze into it. Why did I attempt such madness?? Because Josh said he wouldn't snap the picture until I did... and I couldn't stop laughing. Oh and just for the record. My mom has a matching one. #sorryIcouldntletyouoffthehook
I ALWAYS have my eye out for fabric that I can use for applique. Most appliques are done with tiny fabric scraps. So as this was in the toss pile (cause let's be honest... I wanted to spare Goodwill the blindness) I suddenly thought how cute it would be as an appliqued monogram.

I mean spring florals ARE in (although I can't really see myself in them). I'm more of a stripe, neutral, classic navy person. But I can appreciate these and how these ladies rock them:
I had also been crushing on this font that I knew would look perfect with the hideous dress fabric:
A little bit of playing with the font and a couple hundred stitches later... I say it turned out pretty darn cute! Really loving those stripes too! Not bad for turning literal trash into a treasure!

And it's Friday again!

High five!

And my last post was a Friday post! This week went really fast. I actually thought we may be bored this week since school is over, but life always proves to never be boring! And I have tons of blog ideas in the hopper, I just need to sit down long enough to finish! Here is a run down of our week:

1. Emmie had her one year checkup! She is perfectly healthy, and in the 90th% + in all her measurements. We grow them big over here!
2. I mentioned it's summer so I anticipate us spending many days at the pool! Also we went to the GA aquarium this week and I'm such a terrible blogger because I didn't capture one picture with my phone! So this will have to do.:

3. More summer fun! Find really neat apps to let Luke try. He loves building and this mega blocks app showed him how to make a tablet holder and a dinosaur. 

4. I've mentioned on facebook that I've begun sewing burial gowns for angel babies who don't make it home from the hospital out of donated wedding dresses. So many times I forget in the busyness of life with 2 perfectly healthy children that there are people hurting. Bad. In my quest to love other this is how I am choosing to show love. And my first wedding dress arrived this week :) With a beautiful hand written card. What a sacred responsibility to care for and hand stitch these dresses!
5. On the lines of sewing I've really beefed up my inventory at Create Pretty. While I can ALWAYS get shirts to fit the needs of my customers, it's rare that I can find less expensive good quality blanks. Check out Create Pretty on facebook to see what all is going on! There's so really cute things, and everything I listed today is less than $20 (shirt/short sets!).

High Five For Friday!

1. Yesterday was Luke's last day of school preschool (3). I cried. And cried. And when I picked him up I was still crying. Seriously I need to get it together. I really loved his teachers and he grew SO much and learned SO much and really until you are on the other side of the desk you just have no idea how much work teachers put in. I am so thankful for them so the tears were really tears of thanks, and gratefulness. It also doesn't help that we won't be back next year so I savored our last trip to the fish tank.

2. Of course realizing my baby turned ONE didn't help the emotions. I am just SO hung up on the lasts (last bottle of formula, last night time rocking before turning 1). And that's ok. I want to enjoy all those lasts.

3. Yard sale this weekend! My mom's neighborhood is doing a neighborhood wide sale so we're going to try to get rid of some junk. Neither of us have enough stuff for our own sale, so this was perfect. Plus we didn't have to advertise. #winning

4. I am excited about the beach towels and tote bags I added to the shop. They are super cute and will only be there for a limited time! I am really excited about something coming next week geared towards BOYS!! And not just little boys, but bigger boys. I always feel like I'm doing cutesy girl things, so this shows some attention where it's needed in the monogram world!
5.  Meal planning was kicking my butt. I hadn't created a menu in months (I really haven't had one since we've moved) so I finally sat down and made one. I can't believe that one simple act makes me feel so much better! I really thought that being home would force me to be in the kitchen more, but it's made me lazy. I'm happy to have to plan in place, even if it may change.

You are my sunshine...

and you have truly made me happy when skies were gray.

Dear Emberly,
Today you are one. And I'm still trying to wrap me head around that number. I'll never wrap my head around this time warp called childhood. In one sense I want you to grow, and learn, and love. But please know I'll always live with the ache. You will always be my baby regardless of how fast you grow.

I'm thankful for you.

I'm thankful for those baby grunts and snorts as you drink your bottles.

I'm thankful to have rocked you this year. Although you aren't really a rocker baby, I still love how your hand always finds mine as you search for your paci. That old saying that "babies don't keep" is true. The nights I treasure most are the ones when you melt into my arms.

I love the way you say "hut" when you answer me or want to get my attention. Or when you click your tongue to make the sounds that I'm making. Or when your brother purposely breathes in and makes a funny sound and you imitate him perfectly.

I'm thankful for gummy smiles. And the way your eyes light up. Oh your eyes! That's the one thing people compliment you the most (and your bows of course). And your chunky thighs.


I never want to forget the way you click your pacis in your mouth and how you kick and buck your legs when your not in the mood for a diaper change.

I'm thankful for those sleepless nights. They seem so distant now, but I loved the chance to see you just one more time each night. You had a look in the middle of the night that you don't have any other time. A happy, content, relaxed look. And as much as I don't miss those nights, I really do.

I'm thankful for your appetite. How you drop everything your doing when I shake a bottle. And how you gobble carrots down with both hands. You are pretty serious when it comes to food.

I'm thankful for these days. These precious days that I am able to spend with you. The daily routine never gets old because I'm just grateful for this time. Time I will never get back, time that no amount of money will ever buy. I didn't get that the first time around and I appreciated it even more because of that.


I am thankful to have seen that first smile, and roll-over, tooth and fever. For being able to hear those words "mama"and see you be completely content at times and totally frustrated at other times. You have such a strong personality. I can't wait to see how that develops.

I'm thankful that you entered our lives at the exact moment you did. It was difficult to navigate those first few months with such uncertainty, but again you (and your brother) were the reason we kept going.

On your first birthday I want you to know how much we love you. We can't wait to see what a beautiful little girl you become. Keep that personality and your love of life!


Savannah, GA

I realized as I was taking pictures off my camera that I haven't posted about our getaway trip to Savannah! Oh my how these days and weeks are flying!!

Josh had training in Brunswick, GA which is just an hour from Savannah. He had the weekends off, so we set up a weekend for me to go see him without kids. It was such a nice break from the hustle of life- and I came back to 3 weeks of terrible baby sleep between teething and allergies. So the weekend was much needed (even more than I thought).

I had been to Jekyll Island, Tybee Island, and St. Simons Island before, but I somehow managed to never make it to Savannah. This was the perfect chance to check it out.

We went budget friendly and stayed off River Street. Since we didn't really have a feel of the town we didn't want to drop big bucks without checking it out first. We don't typically spend $400-$500 a night at a hotel except maybe on our Honeymoon. So we stayed about 3 miles away in a Marriott. It fit our budget and was very comfortable, but we definitely agree that it would be nice to not have to drive/find/pay for a parking spot everyday.

When we arrived we noticed that replicas of Christopher Columbus' ships were in the Savannah River. We didn't tour them, but they were pretty awesome.
Dinner the first night was at River House Seafood.
Overall, we weren't blown away. The portions were pretty small and the service was FAST which is typically nice, but we had all the time in the world and felt a little rushed. But the food was GOOD. We are huge seafood lovers.

We took everyone's advice and went to River Street Sweets and we weren't disappointed! By the way, if you ever travel, ALWAYS ask for recommendations from your friends. I was blown away by how much information people had to share! I planned our whole trip from just my Facebook wall.
We watched him roll out the taffy...

And put it on the machine that wraps it into individual wrappers. 
And of course they shared with their lovely "onlookers" or tourists as Josh would say. Nothing like warm tutti fruity salt water taffy! 
I was fascinated by the history. I thought that it would be mostly Civil War history but I was surprised that it was more about settling Georgia/Savannah and the Revolutionary War that made this area famous. And cotton of course. 
Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin is in our family tree. My great-grandmother on my dad's side was a Whitney and they've traced the genealogy back to Eli. I always wondered how he made it to the south since all our family is from the north. And this plaque answered my question (he was from Massachusetts and was asked to come south to create the cotton gin). Fascinating!
It was also interesting to study the architecture. I mean the engineering behind this city is phenomenal. 
For dinner Saturday night we had reservations at the Shrimp Factory. We had a huge lunch (a little late) so I wasn't starving. I wish I had been hungrier because the food was delicious. And there's a big haunted story behind the history of the Shrimp Factory. Glad I didn't know about it until AFTER I went to the bathroom by myself. 
Sunday we woke up and went on the River Cruise. It was really good and told more of the history of Savannah and the Savannah River. I was amazed at how active a port it really is. 


We also visited the local shops. There were some really unique places- some that stand out were a natural bee store and they let you taste/eat a honeycomb. Also the Goodwill (always gotta check them out) had hardwood floors. Fun!

And Savannah isn't short on photo spots. I just kept snapping because one sight was just as gorgeous as the next!



Overall we LOVED our trip. It was a nice break from the kids, and Josh was in the middle of his job training so I hadn't seen him in 2 weeks. 

I would say by far our favorite part of the trip was just relaxing. Not having a real agenda and just going with the flow. We were blessed by a beautiful (and chilly) weekend, and the rain held off. We can't wait to go back! Josh wants to do the haunted ghost tours. I think I'll pass.

High Five for Friday!

I didn't post last week because I was busy running around getting things together for Emberly's party. But lots of things have happened. Not even sure I can remember them all!

1. Josh bought a car! The Jeep's been his for a year ever since I started driving the van. We decided we'd rather have a small car payment with a car that gets amazing gas mileage and is reliable then pay out in the jeep's gas tank and run the risk of having to fix it. The jeep was 10 years old and only had 86,000 miles on it and it served us well. But you never know. The a/c was unreliable, 3 window motors had been replaced, and the tail lights had never been right after my accident. He bought a 2013 Dodge Dart. It gets 34-35mpg (compared to 17 in the jeep) and has all the bells and whistles he wanted (back up camera, navigation, etc.). They were really trying to push them since they have the 2014 and almost 2015s out on the showroom floor which means we got a great deal on a new car.
Goodbye Jeep... I may have had a tear or two in my eye...

2. I got a new embroidery machine! I was in the middle of an order and it totally died. I actually had the feeling that it has been going for a while (I already researched what I wanted to upgrade to) and after it broke 4 needles and I did everything I knew to do I gave up. Since it's a sewing/embroidery combo (my old one) the sewing part actually was still working. So I am keeping it to use as a sewing machine while I do embroidery on the new one. I didn't want to sink $100 to fix it, when I could put that $100 toward a new one, ya know? Well the new one purrrrs like a kitten. It is amazing how the technology has changed in just a few years!


3. Luke is almost done with school and I am totally not okay with that. We have LOVED his teachers this year and he has just blossomed at his school. I HATE that we are having to switch preschools AGAIN next year, but the 45 minute drive in the morning is killing us. I figure he'll just be really great at making new friends right? We have also decided on a preschool for next year (much closer to home), so we are so glad to have that decision out of the way and to have his spot secured. And we even got a supply list. Do you know how happy this teacher heart is to get a supply list?!

4. Emberly is growing. And she is in to EVERYTHING. The second I clean something up, she tears it up. It's unreal. And she is becoming herself very quickly. When you tell her "no" she cries this pitiful terrible {fake} cry. She's a drama queen. We've said that since day 1 when she would scream when we drove over speed bumps. But I sure do love that drama queen!! Funny story- Luke and I went to meet the teachers and administrator at his new school and she asked what his sisters name was. He said "Well, her name is Emberly, but sometimes we call her the drama queen." I thought they were going to hit the floor they were laughing so hard. :)

5. And speaking of my new machine I LOVE it. I have been pumping out orders and doing things for the kids that I've been itching to do... like monogram their beach towels!
Not looking forward to this rainy weekend. And I've already been puked on today. Nothing like the fragrance of puke to motivate me to take a shower!

You are my sunshine: Guess who's ONE!

We celebrated sweet girl's birthday this past weekend! We've about half a month early, but with Mother's Day and graduations, we wanted to be sure that people's calendars were free. I have sung "You Are My Sunshine" to both kids to calm them down in the middle of the night, and it just seemed fitting for a first year party theme. 









Many of our friends came LONG distances to celebrate! Since we don't have much family local we are so thankful for friends!!


Dr. Scott is telling the guys to call him maybe. 

And they are discussing the world's problems. #yesmykidisgangster

At first princess wasn't too sure of the cupcake. 
But then she got the hang of it. 
We got to facetime with far away family so they could be a part too. Over all it was a GREAT day! Thank you to EVERYONE who helped us celebrate. You mean the world to us!