Mally's First Haircut

Mally finally had her first haircut a couple of weeks ago.  She did so great, as long as big sis was holding her. Tara gave both girls their first haircuts, we just love her!!!!

and we still have some *fabulous* curls!  YAY!

Christmas Spirit?

I think mine is getting here, especially after a busy weekend of getting the Christmas trees put up.  Still it has been hard to think about Christmas, knowing my little brother will not be here with us this year.  Thank goodness for Skype right?  So this is the what...third year for the Twelve trees.  We made a few changes this year, updated some ornaments etc, but there are still *twelve*. I have also been trying to find time to make my December Journal, umm it is still not finished, I am taking pictures and hopefully the time will be available soon to sit down and get the journal prepared.  I will shut down the shop early this year just so I have time to do things with the girls and family that will be in town this year. 

Creatures are stirring downstairs!

Peace to all!

I guess you noticed...

So I guess you have noticed by now my lack of blogging.?. I honestly do miss sitting down and posting.  My family has been dealing with a lot these last few months high on the list is my brother's deployment.  It is one of the hardest things I have ever gone through.  You see not only is he my little brother, he is my best friend. We have been through so much together, always there for one another no matter what.  I know without a shadow of a doubt God will keep him safe, I just know he will be fine.  All of the waiting for the next phone call or the next email is just torture.  People tell you how hard it is and as much as you try to prepare yourself for it, it still just hits you like a ton of bricks.  Some days are better than others, and I stay strong for my parents and my girls because they need me to be.  So please pray for him and his troop.

I am trying to get past this sort of writers block I have.  So many times I have sat down to post and I just draw a blank.  The ideas that once came to me in the shower (I know...of all places right??) aren't coming as clearly as they used to.  Now, I am pretty busy with my two shops and that is such a blessing.  I promise to do better,  I have jotted down some ideas for the upcoming holidays and perhaps there will be a giveaway too.

Please keep all of our troops in your prayers!
Peace to all!

etsy Treasury! | Handmade in Memphis

Go check it out here! My Spring Anticipation Tags are apart of someones Treasury!  YAY!

Picture Post

New Items in the shop | Handmade in Memphis

Check out the new items in the shop this week:

New Spirit Wear Tees | Monogram Shop in Memphis

Check out the new Tees over at my Monogram Blog.

Monogrammed Pumpkins & Fabric Covered Candy Buckets | Handmade in Memphis

Remember these?:

Well I am taking orders for them through the end of September.  I can handpaint your monogram or spell out *Boo* email me and we can come up with something that fits your taste.

Large Pumpkin - $20.00
Medium Pumpkin $16.00

The pumpkins are foam and will last for years to come.

Fabric Covered Candy Buckets are also available with several new fabrics to choose from:

Large buckets are:
$24.00 without beads
$32.00 with beaded handle

Small buckets:{just the right size for your desk}
$8.00 without beads
$12.00 with beaded handle

New items in the shop this week...

Stay tuned, I have been busy working on new items for the shop as well as some new items for my monogram shop. Place your orders for holiday tees now. :)

4th Grade and Tea Parties

Monday in pictures:

Have I mentioned that my girls ROCK? Love them to pieces.

Here I go again...

Not much time to blog this last week, hubby has been super busy at work, traveling etc. so I have been on mommy duty 24x7. The girls and I are taking a road trip this coming up week. We are sad Daddy can't go with us but we understand. We have more trips planned later in the fall and hopefully he will not be as busy then. So, I am off to finish packing and hope to have lots of photos to share when we return.

One thing I found recently was this site Roadside America. You can map your trip and find various attractions and oddities along the way. Lindsey and I got online this week and mapped a few places to stop. It should be fun.

$100 Gymboree Gift Certificate Giveaway

Up Early again and came across this happy little giveaway. You can enter to win a $ 100 gift certificate to Gymboree at Tales from a Shopaholic Mommy. How cool is that?

A Little Reading

At this very minute this is what is happening at our house:


she has pulled nearly every book off of the bookshelf for her reading pleasure.

Up Early

OK... so I am up early doing a little surfing and I come across La Plates. *OHMYGOODNESS* are these cute or what? They have a blog too. How do you choose? The plates are all so adorable.

(photo from laplates.com)

Life is pretty darn good!

I have been thinking a lot about the events of the last couple of years recently: deciding to have a second child, quiting my job of 14 years, working on my monogramming/paper biz full time, moving Lindsey to a new school... just to name a few of the more public things. I am so thankful for everything I have experienced during this time, you really find out a lot about yourself and those around you. Who you can count on and who you can't. I am in a really great place right now, it hasn't really been a hard road to get here just a road untraveled. Lots of new things to experience. I have lost some friendships in the process of all this, but have gained so many more, ones that I think are much better for me as a person. I am looking forward to *year two* of being home. I think the first year not working and being home full time was a learning year and *yes* I learned a lot. I often wonder how I did all this and work outside the home too, but you just do it, like so many great women do everyday. The bottom line is I will do anything for my wonderful little family. They are what make me strong and the person I am.

Lindsey's Closet & The Hip Hostess

Lindsey's Closet, my monogramming biz is sponsoring a giveaway over at my fellow *Crafty Mama* friend's blog The Hip Hostess. Become a follower of the Lindsey's Closet blog, grab our button and theirs and put on your blog for more chances to win. Visit their blog for more details.

Up For a Challenge?

A *sketchy challenge* that is. Half Full Martini is featured today on the blog, Design by Diana. Go visit her cute and creative blog for more details about her scrapping sketchy challenge. (there are giveaways involved from HFM)

It's Flippin' Hot

The little temperature widget on my desktop says it is 99 degrees outside, just checked and the heat index is 108 degrees. There is also an *Excessive Heat Warning* in effect. Well no kidding. We went to the pool yesterday afternoon and my bath water was cooler than the pool water, seriously. We stayed in today and did some crafting and then I worked for a few hours. I swear our a/c has not turned off all day, I am not looking forward to the utility bill this month.

Cooling off:

New items in the shop this week...

Finally! I am adding some new items to the shop this week. Lots of cool new paper goodies for your scrap/crafting projects. Here are today's listings:

Stay tuned for more...

D12

D12 is hubby's nickname, much like J12 became mine after we were married. Yes, it sounds very James Bondish I know. Anyway, when the girls and I were at the Zoo Monday I just so happened to pull into the *D* parking lot, all spaces are labeled so you can remember where you park I guess. (the older I get the more this will come in handy) so when I was driving along I spotted, you guessed it the *D12* parking space. Yay is was empty, so we whipped in there I pulled out my camera and tada...a cool framed photo for David for Father's Day.

Now, the next time we are there we will search for J12, L12 and M12. I see a nice and funky photo grouping in our future.

Office Space

OK, so I am sick of the hotness already and we are not even into Summer officially. Our poor second A/C unit for the upstairs can't seem to keep up. My studio and the girls playroom are upstairs and it has been really hot up there. I don't know if the previous owners of our house thought enough to put in the proper size a/c unit to cool the space or not. So after the a/c ran non-stop yesterday while I was trying to work and me just freaking out the whole time worrying about the utility bill, I decided to move my computer and a few things downstairs in a spare bedroom for the Summer. My embroidery machine is way to big to move by myself, (not to mention the spiral staircase I would have to bring it down, again what were they thinking when they put that in? I see a real staircase in my future... just not sure when) so for now I will monogram in the early morning hours and at night. I like the setup down here so far. Right off of the kitchen, close to the girls etc. We will see how it all works out.

Happy Birthday Mallory!

My *little cupcake* is two today!

We have celebrated all weekend with family and today we continued the celebrating.

First stop *Gibson's Donuts* yummo!

Second stop: *the ZOO*:

It was flippin hot, but the girls didn't seem to mind too much. Mally walked nearly the whole time and fell asleep before I could even get out of the parking lot.

She is still napping as I type this, otherwise I probably wouldn't be typing this :)

Happy Birthday Sweet Baby Girl!!!!

Mallory 2 weeks old (photo by Marci Lambert)