master bedroom inspiration

Almost time to start on my room...I found these pictures for inspiration. What do you think?






Still undecided on a wall color...

We've been moving all day chicken:

1 pkg chicken breasts, about four or five

1 pkg Good Seasonings italian dressing mix

2 tablespoons butter

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 container whipped cream cheese w/ chives (8 oz)

1/2 c white cooking wine or chicken stock

1 small can mushrooms

Preheat oven to 375. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the package of italian dressing mix, stir to mix with butter. Add chicken breasts, cook until golden. While chicken is cooking, mix the mushroom soup, whipped cream cheese, mushrooms, and white wine in a seperate bowl. You can use a mixer, or just stir it really well until ingredients are combined. Place chicken in a baking dish, I used an 8x8 dish. Pour mushroom mixture over chicken. Bake 30-40 minutes, until done. I made brown rice while the chicken baked, but I think it would be great with egg noodles or no yolk noodles. After a day of moving and organizing, I made this meal for my mom and Austin. There weren't any leftovers, even Brooklyn had seconds! Pair it with a vegetable and your favorite blush/white wine, and enjoy!

My sweet baby Charlie is two months old now. She loves eating, being held while we dance to music, the birdies that twirl around on her swing, and eating....especially eating. In fact, right now she is working on some stinky pants. Soon she will be hungry again. :o) She often falls asleep right after she is done making stinky pants...all that work really wears her out!

I was so surprised the other day to receive a package from one of my best friends from high school. Enclosed were these lovely bibs and burp cloths. They are all embroidered with her name in different fonts, so pretty! Laura was always one of the most thoughtful people. Every act of kindness counts. Her thoughtfulness made me cry. Receiving unexpected letters/cards/gifts in the mail is absolutely one of my favorite things!!!

I have some exciting news to share! I have found an incredible photographer who is going to mentor me!!! I am going to make a trip to L.A. to spend some time with her. I really love her work and I feel like this opportunity is an answer to prayer! She is really a brilliant photographer and there is so much to be learned from her. You can check her out here. She has been so kind and encouraging and I am so thankful to have this chance!

For now, I am trying to get moved in and organized. I have more clothes than any two women should have. Brooklyn has so many toys, many of which she doesn't play with. So at any given time you can find me on my way to goodwill, getting rid of more stuff. Today has been a quiet day of laundry and Gilmore Girls. I am washing all of our bedding in white lilac tide and I am even ironing our sheets. I love Gilmore Girls. I only recently started watching it, but now I think I need the dvds.

So Charlotte's nodding off. She must be done with the making of the stinky pants. You wouldn't believe the stink this girl is capable of...

I'm alive, and moving... (yucky)

My goodness, it has been awhile! I have been moving into our little house, cleaning, arranging, re-arranging, organizing...best of all- shedding "stuff"!!! I have some new finds to share, some pictures from around our cottage, updates on future plans...so check back soon!

Tonight: Off to my bi-weekly poker night!!!! And I'm feeling lucky!!!!

I wish you all well! I can't wait to share more! I am hoping to get some time tomorrow!

(Wow, I'm getting a little generous with the exclamation points! :o)

Meet me here, tomorrow.

dreaming and doing, continued

So I have been keeping this a secret. I haven't shared. I have been afraid to. For some reason I am feeling like taking a risk...

I want to be a photographer.

There, I said it. For starters, its monumental to get me to commit to anything other than my girls. I am indecisive and commitment-phobic. The thought of making a living, or not, based solely on one of my abilities...well that makes me feel vulnerable. And I don't like it. I have had more people tell me that I should pursue photography, and that it is my calling. Whats up with this calling stuff, anyway? If we are going to call it a "calling" then it ought to be telephoned right to us...so we know. So we don't doubt and question and talk ourselves out of moving toward it. I know its sad, but nobody knows what it takes for me to believe that I might be great at something...that I just might have been given a gift.

This is what I dream of:

I dream of taking pictures, beautiful pictures. I dream of calling attention to the details that overwhelm me, that others rarely notice. I dream of relationships with little human beings- watching them grow and change. I don't want to get rich. I want to offer incredible quality for a reasonable amount of money, because I know what it is like to be single, living paycheck to paycheck. I took up the camera because I wanted unique, beautiful pictures of Brooklyn, and I couldn't afford a decent portrait studio or photographer. Fine artwork of the most beautiful parts of ourselves, our lives, shouldn't only be available to those who have hundreds of dollars to spend. My mom paid for newborn pictures of Brooklyn. She paid several hundred dollars. If I didn't have her generosity, I wouldn't have been able to have those pictures. And they are beautiful, but I have a confession: Eight hundred and some dollars later, I looked at those portraits and thought- Should have had her buy me a camera, I could have taken better pictures.
And I want to start a program, in addition to the services I will offer to the general public. I want to start a program for foster kids/local children's home. Oftentimes those kids grow up with hardly any pictures of themselves as children. I want to take their pictures. I want to create unique albums that they can keep forever. I want them to know that it was important to someone that they have their pictures taken.
I don't know what will develop (no pun intended :o) of this dream I have. But it won't change tomorrow. I have chosen it. Or maybe it has chosen me. I am learning. I have even gone so far as to ask others for help (gasp!) and I know that God will orchestrate something. I know I have to get to the right place, before I can offer myself completely to this. The time is not now, but it is soon. Real soon.
In the mean time, I am thankful for this season. A season of rest, of mothering, of long days with just my little girls, of the beginning stages of living a dream.

I am living. Indeed I am.

Thanks Nita, for putting things in perspective.

Thanks Mom and Dad, for giving me a place for the dreams to flourish.

More Goodies!

new goodies!

This picture doesn't do this dress justice! It is a deep rust red color, a tea length, and made of silk. You can barely see it, but the neckline is beautiful! My dad and step-mom are getting married in June and they are using the family tartan, (Scottish, and very red) so I might wear this dress. Its so flowy and feels good against my skin, the kinda dress that makes you feel a little more like a lady :o) But the best part about this dress is...regular price $189.oo, and I bought it for $33!!!

Then I found this necklace:

I love the "knot on purpose" and the pretty muted gold tone of the metal...and the sparklie. The rose is about the size of like a fifty cent piece. More and more I am being drawn to chunkier jewelry. This is a kenneth cole reaction necklace, normally $38.00 and I bought it for $9!

Here are my favorite recent finds:

I think the little pitcher and bowl might be McCoy, but I am not sure...I am going to have to do some investigating. It has the slightest periwinkle hue, just needs some flowers! My most favorite find is the little vintage baby lamb! Look at her lovely little bow! I am going to find her a home in the girls' room...high on a shelf! I loved the wide blush colored ribbon, I will find some creative way to use it. And finally, this throw is the perfect light blush color. It is very soft, and rather large for a throw. I am thinking this would be pretty on the foot of my bed, or maybe draped on my new rocker glider. I love when you find an item as useful as it is pretty and for a great price!

I keep trying to get some pictures of Charlotte, but every time I get those little smiles and go to grab the camera, I wind up with shots like these:

She doesn't really like the camera...

Today we are off to sign Brooklyn up for T-ball! She is very excited. I am excited too. More updates on our cottage soon!!!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

dreaming and doing

"First, think. Second, believe. Third, dream. And finally, dare."

- Walt Disney

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am a dreamer. For people like me, the possibilities are endless. Along with my dreamer spirit, I have two other important qualities. I am smart. My dad says its a good thing being smart, people need smart people. The other, more important quality- I love people. I have a heart for people. Not necessarily any particular group...just everyone. I spend a lot of time sitting around and dreaming up ways that I could serve people. The purpose of this post is not to toot my own horn, so to speak...quite the opposite, actually. I am sick and tired of dreaming. I am sick and tired of sitting around and imagining. I am sick and tired of the "one days" and "some days"- they are exhausting me. I am sick and tired of living but not living. Cutting coupons and thumbing through potterybarn kids was not how I dreamt of spending my days.
When I was in high school I dreamt of moving to some big city, any big city, anywhere but Kansas. I would follow in the footsteps of my Mother, conquering the business world and collecting six figures. It wasn't a matter of getting in to college, it was more a matter of picking which college I wanted to attend. I wanted to see and do and meet all kinds of people. I wanted to push myself, and believed that I could do anything I wanted to. And I could have.
When I got pregnant, I dropped out of high school to support myself. It was always understood, that if I made that grown up choice, I was going to live like a grown up. Having already lived on my own since I was 16, it wasn't a drastic change. But I quit. I quit school with a 3.8 gpa and excellent ACT scores and I only needed a semester of government to graduate. I lived in some crappy little apartment and went to work everyday. I was only half there, never really living up to my potential. Brooklyn's dad stayed at his college because it was so important that he finish the semester- I think the only class he passed was a lifting class. I had no friends in Wichita. My mom lived an hour away, and our relationship was strained. I have never felt more alone in all my life. There were nights I would sleep with my Bible because I was so scared. And as my belly grew out, my dreamer spirit faded. Life was more about surviving day to day. I still have dreams about walking and receiving my diploma with the rest of my class. I wish I could say I worked hard for my gpa and my ACT scores. I didn't. I wish I could explain my own self destruction, which still haunts me from time to time. I don't know why, when I was so close to finishing with flying colors, I made decisions I knew would compromise everything. I honestly don't know why. Worst of all, I don't know why I let circumstance crush my spirit- the loving, happy, dreamer spirit. Seeing Brooklyn for the first time, was the first moment I felt like I was getting myself back. I went through a series of painful "events" that left me feeling worthless. He cheated on me, and I had to feel the pain? What sense did that make? After many "last chances" I began the mourning process. Let me be specific: I began to mourn the loss of a life I so badly wanted to provide for Brooklyn. It was a life I never had, that I always promised myself I would provide for my children. I struggled with the decision for a long time, but making the choice to have self -respect saved my life.
I am so glad that my life didn't work out the way I dreamt it would in high school. Now, I can even say I am glad that I went through that lonely period. I am thankful that I experienced betrayal in its most ugly form because I was forced to find my true worth from the One who created me, rather in the weak love of a boy I shared a daughter with.
I think maybe my point is this: Dreaming is incredibly important. But its the "doing" that really matters. And sometimes failed dreams are huge blessings, leading you on to even bigger and better dreams. So I think I am going to start to have more of a "doing" spirit. I have no idea who really reads my posts, other than my mom. But for anyone who has found themselves in an especially lonely, unfulfilled, scary, or even sad place in their lives- know that my prayers are with you. And it is my intention to stop dreaming, and start doing something to help. Its just a matter of figuring out what that means exactly...

TO BE CONTINUED...