Beautiful

Have a great weekend!

My Babies

My babies are getting bigger and are starting to love one another. Jake watches Elise as she runs around the house and Elise, although she sometimes tries to poke his eyes out, likes to show Jake what she is doing. We have gotten used to "Hi Baby Jacob, Hi". It is so adorable! I am so excited to see how they continue to grow and become friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Colors and Textures

 

I have been working on some new pieces slowly but surely. Here are a couple of my favorites:

 

 

A new purple...

Loving these vintage chevrons...

 

This one has a bit of a gold tinge in it. 

 

I just love looking at these close up! You can find all of these and more in my shop.

Wordless Wednesday

Zoi Shop

Since we were expecting a Sophie and we were blessed with Jacob, he needs a room redecoration. I have been eying these prints as a possible contender. They are so beautiful and calming. Perfect for a nursery. I just had to share them with you!

The jellyfish wouldn't quite work, but I just love it so!

For more beautiful photography, check out Zoi Shop. You won't be disappointed.

Trapped

I was walking through my yard the other day, and came across this guy stuck behind the wire mesh of my chicken coop. I have no clue how he could have gotten stuck back there and I wish I had seen him earlier, as he had long since passed away. Poor guy.

 

Hatching Ideas

New ideas are starting to swirl in my brain and I am waiting on some new supplies to experiment with. I'm the type that when I have a creative thought I have to jump on it and work on it until I determine whether it will work or not. I don't like to wait because it will be all I can think about. While I watch the mailbox, here is a hint.

 

Wordless Wednesday

Butterfly Garden

The story of our butterfly garden:

 

When my husband and I lived in Jacksonville, I worked at a zoo and botanical garden. It was the most inspiring place I have ever worked and sometimes I miss it very much. Working at a zoo and garden I learned and experienced many new things but one of my favorite was how to create a butterfly garden. We had this amazing garden tended by volunteers in front of our Education Building and it was always bustling with activity. Regular visitors were butterflies (of course), birds, rabbits, hummingbirds, bees and snakes. The bright colors were dazzling and uplifting.

I learned that a successful butterfly garden must have a couple things- first it must have a variety of brightly colored flowers. Different species of butterfly are drawn to different colors and shapes of flowers. The other thing a garden must have is a host plant for the larva (caterpillars) to eat. So the way it works is the bright flowers lure in the butterflies and then when they see the host plant they lay their eggs on the underside of the leaves of the host. Popular hosts in Florida include parsley, dill, milkweed, and citrus. Each butterfly prefers a different host and usually they strip that plant of all its leaves.

When we moved to our house, we wanted to create a butterfly garden of our own. We live on an acre of land, so it was just a matter of finding the right spot. We found a sunny location and started planting. Some plants made it and others didn't and each year since we have had to replace some of the things that didn't survive- due to either the winter or our hot summers. Sadly, most of my host plants bit the dust (or were eaten to death) and because I was so pregnant this summer, we didn't plant any new ones. That will be on the agenda for the next spring/summer.

We have some beautiful plants and a ton of daily visitors. I snapped these pictures a couple of days ago, and since then, we have had a new friend move in. Much to our surprise, a gopher tortoise has decided to call our garden his own. I am delighted, although he has dug two pretty large holes (I guess he didn't like the first). Luckily he has not unearthed any plants.

Love Bug and Perfect

I have been able to create a couple new pages lately. Slowly I feel I am getting some sense of my creativity back. Much faster than with our little Elise. I think it helps to have little projects like this to do that don't take a ton of time or energy. These clear my mind and are not too stressful.

 

 

I look a little goofy in this one, but it is so hard to catch Elise with this face that I just had to use it!

 

A little vellum envelope hides some journaling.

 

I love Jacob's perfect little ears. Well, really I love everything about him!

 

I love those little wood stars.

 

Thanks for humoring me!

 

Easy

I have been thinking about this sentiment lately. As I work on my business, creating new products, juggling a new baby and a toddler, coming up with new ideas, expanding my creativity, and making time for my husband, I feel a little overwhelmed sometimes. I just keep repeating this in my head. If things were too easy we wouldn't appreciate them.

Do you have something you are working on in your life that is giving you difficulty? What do you do to make it through?

Wordless Wednesday

Jacob Turns 1 Month

Mister Mouse is now one month old. In some ways time has flown and in others it has dragged by. Particularly at 3am when I have woken up for the third time since 9pm. We have realized that the little mouse has two dimples and is much fairer skinned than his sister. He is growing like a weed (10lbs 8oz at two weeks old) and is now in three month clothes. We are still pretty much waking up every 2 to 3 hours at night to our dismay. He has also started making little chirping and cooing noises that we love. Elise loves him, even though sometimes she tries to poke his eyes, and she is always asking where Baby Jacob is. She likes to say "Baby Jacob cries" to which I say "We all cry sometimes".

Thats where this family of four is at the end of the first month.

 

  

Rain

Tell The Wolves I'm Home

Oh goodness, I just read a beautiful book called Tell The Wolves I'm Home, and I am begging you to go out and pick it up. You know when you laugh and cry at the same time? Well this did it for me. The main chraracter June is such a special human I can hardly stand it.

 

I'll make it easy for you: here it is. Seriously, you won't regret it. Oh, and I learned about it on this blog.

Lovely

Wordless Wednesday

Labor Day

 

Labor Day marks the end of summer for most. In Florida, we still have a long time before cool weather starts, but already I can see the days are getting shorter. Summer makes me think of lots of things, but I particularly love our basil plant. It survived last year due to our warm winter and although we do little to nothing to keep it alive, it has thrived. All I do is pinch the blooms when I see them  and it has turned into a huge bush. We never even took it from it's peat pot and planted it. We just let it grow into a larger pot. Funny how sometimes the things you pay the least attention to thrive the most.

 

 

Our Labor Day was pretty mellow. Our little mouse is now 4 weeks old and we couldn't be happier. We went back to 3 hours of sleep at night which was a bummer, but Brad and I just keep telling ourselves each day he gets a little older and we are closer to ending our sleepless nights. It is hard to do much when he eats every 2 hours, so we went to Grandma and Grandpa's and went swimming. Well, Elise swam and we all laughed at her antics. That little girl is amazing, I can't wait to see who Jacob becomes.

 

 

How was your day? Did you do anything to mark the end of your summer?