oh! heeey!

can we take a second and talk about how super, super, super behind i am on this gosh darn blog? obviously it's true. crickets can be heard for miles, tumbleweeds are blowing by and dust is accumulating on this little web space of mine. (and also around my house but we won't get into that.) there's nothing that states, "i'm crazy busy!" better than a blog that hasn't been updated in over a month.

instead of a million different posts all nicely organized by event- with coordinating pictures of course- here's just a teeny, tiny peek at our life as of late. and by late i mean from june-ish until now. yikes.

row 1: family date night / selling mama-made ring slings / a back-roads walk / birdie's room decor- all mama made.

row 2: pink, sparkly toes / post-bath kissies / packers #1 cheerleader / birthday celebration at a baseball game

row 3: grammy visited / mama made mock up of birdie's flower girl attire / it's still hot in 'bama but it's fall in our house / this guy is getting older and handsomer (new word)

row 4: lots of storms but no hurricanes yet / pre-bedtime story time / visit from auntie / sleep issues finally under control

not pictured: countless mosquito bites, prep for our trip to hawaii (!), countless projects that have been started but not finished, d brewing his own kombucha, keeping up with my young women girls, doing cross fit work outs, watching lots and lots of football with friends, cleaning up after a curious, mobile baby, my new part-time job, playgroups, mila is cruising and finally lovin' table foods, fighting bugs, new tires (!) and all the other day to day stuff that requires attention or randomly pops up. whew.

We Kept Busy

before d left we had the opportunity to help a friend in need. her family had purchased a house in northern alabama and found themselves pressed for options when their current house sold faster than expected. she and her daughter needed a place to stay to finish out the school year and the dance lessons they had invested in. when we moved to mobile we were given so much help by a family from our church. we decided to pay it forward by hosting our friend and her daughter. it just happened that the time they would need a place would coincide perfectly with d being away. it was wonderful to not be totally alone everyday. birdie had an older playmate and i had a friend to keep me company. we already miss them.

"i don't know how you do it," is the response i get a lot when people ask how i've been doing these last 7 weeks without d. "we keep busy!" is always my overly enthusiastic response. for those who have experienced a separation from their spouse, while still maintaining family life and raising a little one, it just plain sucks most of the time. there are good days. days where the time passes all too quickly and you're laying in bed- exhausted- thinking about all of the things you'll catch up on tomorrow because you had too much fun that day. there are also bad days. days spent in pajamas with a fussy baby on your hip while you yell for the umpteenth time at your dogs for chewing up a cheap little toy. those are the days that seem to drag on. nevertheless, it was still helpful to have a couple extra hands around to bounce a baby while mama was out in the field dragging dogs back in the house, eating nightly meals with people other than a baby, and having company during reallyreallyreallyreally scary storms.

we kept busy, basically, because we didn't have any other choice.

i crafted... a LOT...

i painted our table and chairs. i absolutely love how they turned out- a seafoam green and coral.  

an old picture frame + scrapbook paper= a dry erase board for our kitchen

i jumped on the bandwagon and made a "southern" wreath for our front door.  

our couch got a little more cheery with four newly recovered pillows 

i tried to keep our garden alive... (and succeeded!) 

 marigolds that we grew from seeds 

 yellow squash

my beautiful hibiscus makes me excited for hawaii later this year.  

cherry tomatoes and a pepper- a very small portion of our harvest  

our porch peach tree 

i discovered wild blackberries behind our backyard

we played...

mama read countless books over and over to our little budding bookworm.  

birdie spent lots of time outside in her birthday suit. things are a little more fun when you're in the nude.  

water play with friends. 

won't keep a sun hat on but she'll wear a chef's hat for over an hour.  

her new pretend kitchen 

we napped (mama, too!) a lot.

we spent our evenings on the porch enjoying the weather.  

we laid low for a couple of days while we nursed our furry brother back to health after he suffered a snake bite. (normal paw on left, very swollen paw on right.)  

birdie sat patiently on my lap while mama got a haircut. (love that my new hairdresser was so accommodating to us!)  

birdie turned into a tummy sleeper.  

now that we're at the end of our family separation it seems as if the time has flown by. i'm extremely happy that this is our last separation for a looooong time. 

Number 1-11

It's quiet on my blog. I can almost hear crickets. 


Our days and weeks are very repetitive. Rather than post the same thing over and over- new car, walks, nice weather, Harry Potter marathon, dogs, recipes, etc- I've just left things quiet. 


Despite the repetitiveness- we have been weirdly busy... because there's always something. Honestly- I'm tired of the something. 

Anyways. 


Most of my days have been spent in a corner. This one, to be exact: 

(Oh... you noticed the classy paint job? It greatly saddens me. I. hate. white. walls.) 

Let me take a moment to break this picture down for you.  

 #1: Two JoAnn's bags filled with new supplies, although some purchased items were not entirely necessary.  There are two more bags tucked away in that blue tote peeking out the side of the couch.

#2: Tee- shirts that are soon to be made into reuseable bags. 

#3: My "inspiration" journal. It's packed full of crafting ideas and snippets of pictures/ quotes/ etc. that inspire. (Maybe a little too well?) The papers under it are new projects that need to be added to the book. 

#4: Trash/ scrap pile

#5: Edge of my leather ottoman that contains one half-finished crocheted blanket, and a crocheted scarf that I've seem to abandon. For now. Or at least the past 7? 8? months. 

#6: One finished project from #2... but the test dummy. It may or may not be filled will more crafting supplies... that I may or may not have purchased today. 

#7: Two onesies- that are almost done- sitting on top one of many bins containing material. 

#8: Remote that controls Netflix that I'm constantly losing in the mix of this mess. 

#9: The c-l-a-s-s-y white wall that needs a second coat. 

#10: My notes of where I left off on different projects. Or notes of what I might want to do next. This is separate from #3. Also- 2 of 4 pairs of scissors that are floating around in that corner. 

#11: And a Roo-roo butt. You know... for good measure. 

Not pictured: the five mounds of laundry that are split between two rooms, the clean dishes that need to be put away/ the dirty ones that need to be loaded, a car that needs to be washed, a dining room table that needs to shed a few piles of papers, aaaaand packing that needs to commence. 

Nights Are Going to Be Lonely

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This past Saturday I co-hosted a baby shower for a neighbor of mine. She's expecting a girl in about 4 weeks. Besides the shower, these five hand-made onesies were my gift to her. (Which is why I couldn't post these sooner.) All pictures are not of the final product because I was in a time crunch to finish them. The last onesie has a back to it- two smaller flowers on the butt. In the future (way in the future) I'm thinking of starting an Etsy store and this would be one of the items that I would sell*. Having two nieces automatically makes it easy to come up with girly designs but I hope to branch out to boys as well. 

My other big project for the baby shower was this bad boy: 

I'm actually really sad that both projects are done because they were so much fun to work on! I'd love to sell the flower tree on Etsy, too, but it probably wouldn't ship well since the flowers are somewhat fragile.

Sooo... what to do with all this free time? 

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*If you are interested in purchasing one let me know and we can work something out.