Friday, April 26, 2013

The one where we visited illinois


   

A few weeks ago we traveled to illinois to visit our families. The flooding river pushed us onto roads that we  hadn't traveled before and we found ourselves in a a small town called Plymouth, which just happened to have the most delightful antique store.

Illinois pastures make me peaceful in a way that some people become calm when staring at the ocean, or standing beneath redwoods, or gazing at mountains. I love all those places too, but they do not conjure a feeling of "home."

Asher nearly got swallowed up whole in all the love from his grandparents, and aunts and uncles and cousins. He reveled in having people cheer for him as he learned to walk. He got to feed a cow, and pet a goat and hold a tiny frog by a pond.










and also...this happened :) 

thanks for reading,
m

Monday, April 15, 2013

Shop Additions















These items are new in the shop the last couple weeks. and it is up to 150 items for the first time in....oh, maybe a year? yay! i feel like its a good mix of decades and price points, and seasons, too! 

i would also like to commend the new dress form for doing such a beautiful job! what should her name be? rosamond? 

have fun shopping :) 

m

Monday, April 8, 2013

the big 2 9 .

My 29th birthday was on the 5th. Steve took the whole afternoon off and gave me the gift of alone time. He took care of asher told me to go do whatever i wanted all by myself...and it was lovely.
I went to an antique market, a secondhand clothing store, a coffee shop, and a flower shop where i bought myself some lovely flowers.

that evening was a bit unorthodox. While we had a fancy dinner planned, the more i thought about it, i realized that what i really wanted was help cleaning our room. i am VERY domestically challenged and i just work better with a friend. so we grabbed a quick dinner and then steve rolled up his sleeves and dug into the pile of clothes that is our bedroom floor. He cheerfully helped me hang my vintage dresses, match socks, put away laundry, take moldy forgotten coffees to the kitchen...etc, etc. It was really fun actually.



aren't those buttons lovely?



on sunday i took a long bath, painted my toenails and put on this wonderful dress from Wildfell Hall for church. This dress was my birthday treat from myself. i fall for a lace print, every. time.

a few things i learned this year:

-"its better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all" -Tennyson.
i lost emerson, but i'm so glad that i loved him with all my might while i had him. i want to keep an open heart and not have a hardened one.

- i learned how to make really good french bread. ok, maybe i only did it once, but it was wonderful and hopefully not a fluke.

-- "when parents let their ambitions, housework, or hobbies become a higher priority than parenting, and they begin to view their children as annoying interruptions. This attitude guarantees failure, frustration, and anger. only by reordering priorities and recongizing that parenting is a highly demanding job will there be any hope for decent results and the absence of frustration." --raising Godly tomatoes. .....Asher is not an annoyance...He is a little life, a little person who needs molding and shaping. and i only get one chance with him. loving him and spending time with him (where i am really present) is more important than a perfect home, or a great vintage shop.

--being an introvert mom can be really scary. I tried to do life all by myself for the first 6 months of asher's life. then my face hit concrete. turns out we can't do life alone. i need friends, i need other moms, i need help. i learned (and am still learning) to reach out. and to tell people my struggles.

--i don't want to care what people think, or be a people pleaser anymore. its dumb. i want to please God.

--i can basically do everything one handed. with a little boy on one hip.

--i really really like my job.

--Brussels sprouts can taste like candy.

thanks for reading, seriously.

m