Christmas - 2010

Dear, sweet Milo

Uncle Matt!

:o)

Poor kid had some SERIOUS hat hair

Rachel the Nurse!

Siblings :o)

We are all so excited for her!

Mama looooooves Milo...serious face and all

Our present to the little man - I painted it over the course of a few weeks. I chose words that I felt represented both David & Tiffany's ideals. :o)

First Christmas!

I think I got a few tears out of her!

Sunday

Matt and I have had a wonderful Sunday! I feel blessed to be able to enjoy a WHOLE DAY with him. (What a concept, right?) We made a yummy 'over stuffed' omelet this morning (thanks for the recipe, Weight Watchers!), ate breakfast at the table (*gasp*), then started putting up Christmas decorations. Our house is all sorts of cheery now!

Our tree.
We came to the agreement that we're going to purchase a new one for next year. We'll keep this little guy (he's 5 feet tall), but the poor thing looks a tad puny in the dining room. Plus, he's getting VERY full with all the ornaments we (and our families) keep adding to the collection!

Hand carved Nativity - by Matt's late grandpa, Lloyd (yes, we know that little baby Jesus is missing...he's at the babysitters. Because, as my sister in law Tiffany said, Mary needs a break too!)

Doggy & kitty stockingsMy big bear, Brownie. He's such a scrooge!Sugar -- why so sad?Buddy staring intently at MattNoah and Daisy, cuddling cutiesAlong with putting up decorations, I've also been busy adding more necklaces to our shop!

Etsy sharonemilydesigns

Chalk It Up as Experience

Mom and I participated as vendors at an After Thanksgiving Sale yesterday! Let's just say that we're chalking the whole thing up as experience. :o) The 'sale' was NOT heavily advertised, the location was a bit shoddy, and thus the foot traffic was VERY minimal. We had several other vendors comment that it's the worst show they've ever participated in!

BUT...we now have experience.

The customers that did stop by were all so wonderful and gave us great feedback. I really loved being able to interact with them in person (as I stated to a local news channel that stopped by). Face to face transactions are so much more fun!

Another great thing about the sale was how much we learned from seeing the other booths/displays. We took away a lot of ideas about tablecloths/fabric, having varied heights, etc. Everyone was so helpful with their feedback!

Here are a few pictures that I took of our booth:

Foster Update

Our latest foster to be adopted was Molly. She was a sweet little girl who had come from a puppy mill, thus she was a bit timid and not overly affectionate. We showered her with love and attention for a few weeks and finally got a call from the shelter to say that someone was interested in meeting her! Matt took her up on a Monday and the gal fell in love with her right away! She now has a wonderful Forever home. :o)We still have Claire (the gray/white one), who was the mama cat to the kittens that I wrote about back in the spring. She is SUCH a beautiful cat. Claire loves giving attention as much as she adores receiving it! She and Noah (the other one in the window) have become the best of friends.

Lastly, just a snap of me and our girls - Daisy & Sugar. They like to keep me warm!

It's a Good Thing

I keep having to remind myself that it's a GOOD thing (a GREAT thing) to have to 'retire' a pair of pants because they're falling off of me.

It's a good thing.

Except that I really liked that pair...it was my only dark, dressy pair of jeans.

When I told Matt - in a very melancholy tone - that I had to get rid of that pair of pants, he said,

"Then we'll just have to go shopping for new ones!"

To which I replied,

"But I LIKED those jeans!"

To which he calmly added,

"Isn't it a good thing that they don't fit anymore?"

Yes, it really is a good thing.

Sharon and Emily Designs

Etsy sharonemilydesigns

These necklaces are B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L. and even more gorgeous in person.

Christmas is coming...what a better stocking stuffer?

:o)

A Dimming Star

We have been informed that Mr. Tucker is fading quickly tonight. His bright shining star is dimming with every labored breath he takes. What a great life he has lived! From the mischief he got into as a puppy (pulling a roll of toilet paper around the house!) to licking every single inch of someones face, there was never a dull moment in his life (nor ours).

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
For if I pass with morning's light,
They cannot say I didn't fight!

We only wish we were half as strong as you are, Tucker. We love you!

Eco Chique Boutique

Think of us as one of those little, hidden boutiques that you pass by every time you walk down the street and you keep saying to yourself that "I'll have to stop in there one of these days"...

Make today that day!

Stop by Eco Chique Boutique - you won't be sorry.

Etsy ecochiqueboutique

Born This Way

I have accepted the fact that God made me who I am. He created me in my mother's womb with no details left unseen. He breathed life into my lungs, connected the synapses in my brain, and even put a little hair on my head.

I thank Him for giving me this life and this body.

However...

Lately, I cannot say that I have been thanking Him all that much for the generous endowment that He so graciously bestowed upon me. After taking up the Couch to 5k program (I'm on Week 2), I have to admit that I've been having some half hour long quarrels with the Big Man Upstairs for this...gift.

I mean, OUCH. C'mon Lord, give me a little help here!

So maybe it was divine intervention, or maybe it was a little help from Google, but I found The Fiona:

It's recommended for the bustier types, like me, by women who have run into the same issue. I wore it for my run/walk today and it was woooooonderful! In fact, I need to get it out of the wash now and hang it up to dry!

Major props to the Moving Comfort brand. It was finally nice to find something that WORKED!

The 60 Pound Gorilla

So there's this Gorilla in the corner of the room. She's quite small, actually, for her species. She's actually shrunken some, since the last time I looked over at her. Her name is 'Weight' and she is mine. I own her. In fact, I brought her into this world! Cute as she may be, I'm looking to get rid of her.

You see, I am apparently a very neglectful owner. In the beginning, I fed her all kinds of things! You name it, she ate it. But, now that I've been feeding her less AND making her workout, poor girl has lost almost 60lbs and only has 60 more left to give!

So if someone would be so kind as to just go ahead and take my 60lb primate, it would make it much easier on me...she gets to be a little too burdensome when I'm running.

I can just leave the back door open sometime...if she 'happens' to get out, I can't say that I'll miss her! :o)

I can do it!

Today, I wore this shirt on my run/walk.It is 88 degrees and my face is still bright red, BUT there was a high anvil cloud from a storm out west covering only my route.

God does wonderful things. :o)

5 Years

Five years ago, Matt and I met in person for the first time. We had been talking on the phone, for a month or so, before September 10th, 2005.

He showed up on a beautiful, sunny afternoon at my parents house. Mom and dad had just returned from a garage sale, so he was greeted by the whole family! :o)

We've had ups and downs, bumps and bruises, a wedding and a few surgeries...

but I wouldn't change a thing, even if I could.

I love you, babe.

Let's Get Physical

I decided to try a Couch to 5k podcast from iTunes yesterday. The point is to start out slow - walk 5 min, run 90 sec, walk 2 min, etc. Obviously, if you are not a runner, you should know that you can't start out in a sprint right away. Nor should you (or could you!) attempt to run a marathon. So this podcast appeared to be the perfect fit for me!

I made the mistake of taking Buddy with me. After almost pulling me into oncoming traffic, stopping to pee at EVERY telephone pole/fire hydrant, and not to mention going #2 IN THE STREET...he won't be going with me again. I love him to pieces, but it was really hard to get any kind of rhythm going!

The running part of the routine wasn't too difficult. At one point, I did feel like I was almost dragging my feet and my lungs started to burn, but I just kept going.

My upcoming goal is to do a 5k coming up in November. I can't tell you yet if I'm going to walk it, run it, or both - but the point is that I'm doing it!

~Emily

Our Trip to Colorado!

I uploaded pictures from our trip to Colorado to Facebook and am providing the link here below for you to view them:

Pictures

It's a bit easier to provide the link instead of uploading them all again. :o)

We made a special trip to Colorado to visit David, Tiffany, and their new baby boy (our first nephew) Milo. It was so nice to get away for awhile! THANK YOU to my parents for house & dog-sitting for us while we were gone. I don't think our pups or kitties missed us one bit thanks to Grandma & Grandpa!

Our garden

Matt and I started our first garden this year. Some things took, some didn't. We have a row of strawberries (from my parents), blackberries & raspberries (from Matt's parents), rhubarb, Roma & 'regular' tomatoes, green bell peppers, yellow squash, zucchini, okra, potatoes, one very weak gourd vine, and a surprise corn stalk! We will be *very* lucky if we get one good vegetable/fruit from each plant, but we can't say we didn't try! :o)

Some variety of squash/zucchini growing from the compost pile!

The corn stalk -- ALSO growing from the compost pile!

Our big yellow squash plant!

Zucchini

One half our garden - growing on the wire in the back are the blackberries

Eco Chique Boutique - GRAND OPENING!

Our shop is now officially open! New items will be added on a regular basis, so please check back often.

Etsy Buy Handmade ecochiqueboutique

Storms, Sugar, and Hinge & Screw Stew

My parents had a garage sale this past weekend, which Matt and I contributed a few things to. None of us fared too well on the selling side of things, but we did get to spend a fabulously stormy day together!

The storm rolled in...

Meanwhile, Sugar kept us company!

After the clouds rolled away, Sugar took interest in a tiny pear...

Mom and I found this little guy wandering around outside of the garage. He was tiny!

Matt and I did a little work in our hallway earlier this evening. We took the doors off of the linen closet and also removed the door that goes upstairs. All of this was to prepare for Patty's trip over tomorrow to help Matt paint the trim & doors. They were going to work on our dresser, but it is so hot and humid in the garage that it would take forever to dry! Not to mention the awful working conditions. :o(

We counted about 3 layers of paint under the hinge...

Door to upstairs

As for our Hinge & Screw Stew, we'll be serving it at the next family BBQ. :o) Matt found an awesome, eco-friendly idea online for removing paint off of metal surfaces (ie. hinges, screws, & door knobs). Place everything into an old crockpot, add liquid laundry detergent (just a bit of it), and set it on low/medium overnight. I don't really trust our old pot, so I had it on for a few hours tonight and Matt will turn it on again in the morning. However, when I took this picture, I was able to easily peel away some of the paint with an old butter knife. It revealed the beautiful brass underneath!