A Basil Appraisal

One of my favorite fresh herbs is basil…I think I’m secretly part Italian somewhere along the line because I looove all types of Italian food. Something Italian is most often on the menu when Hub and I start cooking together…something requiring lots of garlic, tomatoes, cheese, and definitely pasta…and in the summertime, loads of fresh basil.

I don’t always have the best luck when it comes to growing my own basil. Last year was a dud. Most likely due to my lack of watering it. So this summer I made sure to give it the best possible care and the maximum amount of sunlight. Earlier in the summer, at around 2 in the afternoon, I would carry my big pot of basil to the front of the house to soak up the rest of the day’s sunlight. This doubled as my weight-lifting program too. I think basil prefers lots of sunshine and it sure seemed to make a difference this year. That and keeping it watered often, and to be honest, some Miracle Grow every now and then too.
Making fresh pesto from homegrown basil is one of my hallmarks of summer. There are heaps of basil recipes out there and many different twists...like changing the kind of nut used or adding other herbs. But I stick with the basic Basil Pesto recipe from my Cuisinart’s recipe booklet. It calls for:
1 ounce of Parmesan
¼ cup toasted pine nuts or walnuts
1 clove garlic (I usually do 2)
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup packed, fresh basil leaves (washed & dried)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
There are many different things you can do with your homemade pesto. There are obvious things like adding it to your favorite pasta dish (as shown in my very last photo) and not so obvious such as stuffing chicken breasts with pesto and kalamata olives and then baking.
We came up with this very simple, open-faced sandwich recipe for lunch one afternoon and it was so very tasty…

Turkey Pesto Sandwiches on Crusty Bread:
First, slice & toast bread (we recommend ciabatta or a baguette) on a baking sheet on its own for a few minutes at 400 degrees. (This helps to ensure the bread doesn’t get too soggy once its loaded up with the pesto and other ingredients.)
Next, cover each slice of bread with thinly sliced turkey (we love Boar’s Head deli turkey), then spread pesto on top of the turkey, followed by slices of tomatoes. At this point we add a bit of sea salt and a grind of fresh pepper. Top off the sandwich with a few shavings of a good Parmesan cheese (or better yet, some Parmigiano-Reggiano if you have on hand). Pop these goodies back into the oven for about 8-10 minutes, until the toast starts to turn golden brown and the cheese is melted.

Fresh pesto is SO much better than any canned pesto you can buy in the store. And its pretty easy to make too. I wanted to try canning my own a couple summers ago but learned that there is a high risk of botulism when canning pesto (due to the low acid levels of herbs) so its not recommended. According to my Cuisinart booklet, you can freeze pesto but I have yet to try that as it always gets eaten up too quickly.

Tonight we're going to try a new America's Test Kitchen recipe...Manicotti...which calls for fresh basil. Perfect! We have some! Wish us luck! :)

The Fall Collection

The Fall Collection: New LillyBonBon Votives at a store near you...featuring birds and owls (of course) and the latest cuckoo clock designs! Okay, so maybe they are not exactly at a store near you, but they are in ONE very special store that I truly love...Truly.

Sorry. I just simply couldn't resist writing all that jazz above about my "new fall collection." But I really did just drop off some of these new votives above, in addition to my latest line of Sculpture Picks (birds & mushrooms) yesterday at Truly. They had so many fun ideas for how to display my little sculpture picks that I can't wait to see/hear what they finally end up doing with them. Also, they are now having Cupcake Sundays (which is sort of ironic since my sculpture picks can be used as cupcake toppers too!). I'm not entirely sure what this "Cupcake Sunday" entails, but it sounds like fun...so if you are in White Bear Lake on a Sunday...why not stop in and check things out? Or if you're not in White Bear Lake, you can shop online at Truly where they also carry a selection of things from some of their other designers too.

Also yesterday, I had the pleasure of visiting one of my favorite shops, Rose Mille, located in downtown Stillwater. I love love love this stylish store for its combination of new & vintage things...French-inspired...beautiful things...clothing, trinkets, housewares, paper goods, and my favorite: cute crafting goodies...stuffed in old dressers and cabinets full of tiny drawers. It's almost like hunting through your grandma's attic and finding amazing little vintage things for craft projects. Not to mention you'll find THE BEST selection of ribbons & trims. Here are some of my finds from yesterday...

I also have a special place in my heart for Rose Mille because it was the very first store where I launched my very first LillyBonBon artwork. The owner, Michelle, really bolstered my confidence by her desire to see my things and her excitement to sell them in her lovely store. I remember it feeling so surreal at the time that this store that I had always absolutely loved and adored wanted to sell my things in it! Taking a little walk down memory lane, here are some old pics (from 2005) of my first beginnings there...

In addition to Truly, this is another store you must put on your list to visit if you are in the area. So beautiful! The owner also mentioned to me that she'll soon be adding online shopping to the Rose Mille website. I'm not sure exactly what kind of select goodies will be available online, but I know I'll be looking forward to this feature!

~Au revoir for now!

Remembering a Special Day

On the heels of a very bad weekend, comes a new day…a day to celebrate. It is amazing how one, seemingly small incident can cast such a pall over an entire weekend. I’m glad it’s a new week. A fresh start. I would like to say Happy Anniversary to my hubby today. Six happy, joyful years. There is nothing more satisfying than marrying your best friend. Our wedding day went by in such a blur. I wanted to grab the hands of the clock and slow the day down. So I could fully and thoroughly enjoy every little detail of the day. Every guest who attended. My handsome husband in his sleek tux. His guitar solo serenade. My beautiful bridesmaids. My sweet flower princess gently scattering rose petals. The funny stories told and the songs sung. The delicious food. The lovely cake. The laughter. The hugs & kisses. But it was the fastest day of my life. Yet it was the event that took place that was most important. And on this day I remember that it was this event, our marriage, that truly counts. Not all the other little details that took hours upon hours of planning and preparation.

Our wedding colors were a pale spring green and lavender, which I tried to render in my little PhotoShop frame color scheme. This photo was taken by a wedding guest at the reception on one of those formerly popular little Polaroid instant cameras (they had some catchy name which I can’t recall right now). Even though this photo is tiny and grainy and only about an inch tall, I’ve always liked it. Better than the professional photographer’s photo of our first kiss.

Happy Anniversary, my dear hub!

~xoxo~

For Hub...

Happy Birthday, my dear!

What an elaborately decorated cake!

It looks like you were enjoying it.

I found this cute photo of you on your 1st birthday.

Hope you don't mind...diapers and all! :)

~xoxo

Berry-Picking, Jam-Making

As summer seems to be zipping along at a very steady pace, I’m starting to catch subtle hints of autumn here & there…in the increased frequency of the hummingbirds at our feeder, in the slight change in daylight, in the chillier evenings, even something in the air at particular moments (although hard to define), and in my internal clock I suppose that makes me want to slow down a bit and pick up some unfinished knitting project from last winter (for some reason I can only knit when its cold out)…yet I’m still trying to cram in as much summer as I can and doing my best to complete some of my favorite summer traditions.

Unfortunately I missed the boat on my “strawberry picking/freezer jam making” ritual that I have engaged in over the past 2 summers, so I was happy that I was able to get in a little raspberry picking on the nearby creekside trails a week or so ago. From these raspberries, I decided I’d try making raspberry freezer jam to help replenish my dwindling stock of strawberry freezer jam.

In addition to freezer jam being scrumptious spread across toast, I also like to drizzle it upon vanilla ice cream, and a new favorite…to add a spoonful of sweetness to my fruit/yogurt smoothies in place of honey. After I made my first batch of strawberry freezer jam two summers ago (one of my new “acts of domesticity” after leaving my “corporate job”) and tasted how good homemade jam is (not to mention how really very simple it is to make freezer jam)…well, it’s become almost a necessity. There’s also something so rewarding and satisfying about picking your own berries and turning them into something that can fill up the fridge or have on hand to wrap up in fabric & ribbons for a sweet little hostess gift.

So…although I like the taste of strawberries slightly better than raspberries, and you need to use more sugar for raspberry jam, and you really should strain about half of the seeds (a somewhat tedious task), and it seems you need to pick lots more raspberries to get a batch of jam versus larger, plump strawberries, not to mention the tiny bugs that like to hang out inside the berry cavity so I had to go through them more carefully, requiring longer prep time than strawberries…it truly was just as rewarding and satisfying, perhaps even more so due to all the extra work!

Cabin-tiquing...

Why are owls so darn trendy right now? Although they are downright cute with their big eyes and plump bodies, I don’t totally understand the complete obsession with them that I’m seeing everywhere right now. Usually I have no clue if I’m ahead of a trend, in sync with a trend, or totally grabbing onto the coat tails of a trend…and this typically occurs unconsciously…because you can’t help but be inspired by the things you see to some degree…the things that appeal to you. I’m not claiming to have been ahead of the gigantic owl trend of the moment, but all I know for certain is that last fall I began making votives featuring my little owl cut-outs and they all were quickly snatched up. And since that time, this whole "owl phenomenon" doesn't appear to have lost any speed.

Birds in general seem to be a classic design element…although right now they seem to be spread across everything too, perhaps more than ever? So I wonder how long this owl obsession will persist? Will they fade into the background as they did in the 70s (I think...I’m too young to know the exact era?), or will they stick around as a classic design subject, such as the ordinary little songbird has? I know that I certainly am smitten with them right now and growing more so by the minute. I’m dearly in love with this little blue guy (below) that I found last weekend at a favorite antique store near the cabin…it’s the kind of antique store that doesn’t have too much junk, not overwhelming, and displays things nicely, which makes it much more fun to browse.
I also happened to find this little stump & deer planter. What made it all the more interesting was how this deer is the exact style and shape of a deer I found at an antique store near home. (Remember it in this photo?) That’s what I love about antiquing…finding the hidden treasures (which to each person are different) and sometimes finding nothing at all, but still enjoying the hunt.
Speaking of hunting, or fishing rather, while at the cabin we spent countless hours (as usual) out fishing. There happened to be this paddle-boating couple who appeared to have found mine & hub’s secret fishing spot…where you can almost always catch some good pan fish. It became clear to us that they had found it when we saw them day and evening going back & forth over our secret spot. How annoying of them! That’s our spot, we thought! But darn it all if they weren’t also the friendliest couple we met and one night on the lake, just after the sun was quickly slipping below the horizon, they offered and most insisted on taking a photo of us. They paddle-boated their way on over to get our camera and paddle-boated their way back to get us in the distance and by the time the photo was snapped, it was getting pretty dark. They took about 5 photos of us which resulted in every single photo blurred and rather crooked. But oh well, they were nice and they tried! (The moral of the story is that paddle-boating and picture-taking don't mix well.) So here it is in all its paddle-boating glory:
One more note from the cabin-front…I discovered these peculiar flowers, mostly all white, poking their way up from underneath fallen leaves. I’d never seen anything like it before. It was so odd in that it looked like a flower but it had no color on it. It seemed almost mushroom-like to me for some reason, perhaps because of its lack of green. We looked it up in our flower book and learned that it is called “Indian Pipe”. According to the book, it gets its nourishment from decayed organic material through a fungal relationship associated with the roots. Much like a mushroom I guess.

Getting back to owls…here’s my latest little sculpture pick…I think he’s a snow owl with the prettiest blue eyes.

So what’s next on the trend-horizon for our feathered friends? Maybe the hummingbird with its oh so long beak and slim body? I think the silhouette of it with its wings outstretched and long skinny beak pointed upward would make for an interesting contrast. What’s your prediction?

Early Bird

Yesterday was my early, early morning class. I say “early” twice I suppose because it really is quite early…for me at least. I’m not a morning person at all. But it does feel good to get going early and after a very energetic workout, I always think I can conquer the world. And these “early morning” days usually do turn out to be my most productive days. So I’ll acknowledge that maybe it’s a good thing to be a morning person. But most days I’m not so much.

So while driving into downtown, before the sun had even peeked over the horizon, I heard mention on the radio something about our local farmer’s market and I recalled that it is on Wednesdays too (not just Saturdays)…which yesterday just so happened to be. Since I was already out & about, I decided to head over to the Farmer’s Market after my class ended, where I figured I would be quite the “early bird” and get the best pick of the produce.

I hadn’t been there in a while because the last time I went I was a bit disappointed at the lack of produce…jams, syrup, bars of soap, sure…but no produce. Why in the world I thought there would be all this fabulous fresh produce in late June (especially in this northern region of the world) is beyond me…but perhaps it was my anxiousness for long-awaited hot summer days and the season to cook up something special with some very fresh ingredients. I’m so tired of buying produce at the grocery store only to bring it home and find out how yucky it is (for a variety of reasons).

I had a wonderful time yesterday morning, being out amongst all the other “early birds” (who, it seemed, were all toting their earth-friendly canvas bags...while I felt just a bit out of place with my powder blue gym bag slung over my shoulder) and picking out the best of the best produce from our local farmers. I wondered what delicious meals those around me were dreaming up to use their newly purchased produce in. And I bemoaned my own blueberry-growing problems with a berry farmer who kindly commiserated with me. We talked about the destructiveness of voles and other critters, but agreed on the sheer delight that comes when growing things does go well. I picked up some green beans, tomatoes, and blueberries (from the kind “berry farmer” man). But I think I’ll come back next week for more. The lettuce looked so good and green (imagine that…not brown and soggy). The potatoes were a vibrant red. And the bright orange carrots with their stringy green caps still intact were appealing too. I don’t know why I held back so much. But I guess I have an excuse to go again next week. Until my own tomatoes start to turn red. Why aren’t they red yet? I’m anxious and impatient so maybe next week I’ll talk to a “tomato farmer” about this.

A Mid-Summer's Lunch

On a recent hot & steamy afternoon, I was at my sweet friend’s home for a delightful lunch. I found myself surrounded by colors as cool & calming as the Sanibel seashore on a hazy morning when the sun is just starting to rise and everything looks painted in strokes of watercolor pastels.
She has impeccable taste and style when it comes to decorating and entertaining, as well as the innate ability to make most anything she touches more beautiful. She is drawn to colors such as robin’s egg blue, seashell pink, seafoam green, and fresh white. And although this is just her (& her husband’s) “temporary” home right now, she has transformed it into a lovely, tranquil, and cozy little “nest”. Wouldn’t you agree?

Odds & Ends...

From the weekend…in pictures…less words. One thing I’m trying to work on is using fewer words. Saying things more succinctly. I’m a very wordy, descriptive sort of person who really likes to get my thoughts across and doesn’t hold much back…so this is my challenge (for today!). Here goes…

{Berry Picking}

{Fuzzy Antlers}

{Morning Coffee}

{Flower Bed (literally…as seen on bike ride) }

{Large Agate (as found on bike ride) }

{Unexpected Package*}

*thanks again, mum…so sweet of you!

Etsy Front Page!

This afternoon I discovered that one of my items (my cuckoo clock votive) was on the Front Page of Etsy...in what is called a "treasury". Treasuries are groupings of artwork put together by other Etsy users and Etsy admin. I'm a little uncertain as to how the specific treasuries are then chosen to be on the homepage of Etsy, but I believe Admin does the selection of which treasuries will make it to the front page. I was SO excited to see this today as it was my very first "treasury" experience ever! And to make it to the front page too! Wowee!

I didn't get to actually SEE it on the front page (shoot!) as I believe it occurred sometime this morning...probably as we were rushing to church, no doubt. Although this particular treasury is no longer on the front page, it is still "active" in Etsy's treasury link until sometime tomorrow. Here's a link to the treasury...if you want to see it before it expires! :)

Relative-ly Speaking...

I was delighted last night to find that 2 inspiring people (who I’m so proud to be related to) have recently opened up “shop” on Etsy. They are both extremely talented artists and I just had to share their new shops with you here...

~Sparkflight : Features wonderful wire sculptures…I’ve seen them up close, in person and they truly are awe-inspiring, amazing works of art. This sculpture here is a favorite of mine. I'm amazed at how lifelike it looks...and I love it's bushy tail too! And this one here makes me smile because of the subject matter, but the form is fun to look at too.

~Trev27 : Features prints of his pen and ink drawings…the details in his work are astounding and the fresh perspective he brings to common things like this one here is really fascinating.

Hope you enjoy looking at their work as much as I do!

Anthro Finds & Zumbro Eats

1 part Anthro & 1 part Zumbro…a recipe for a lovely afternoon!

{The Details...}

Last week while down in the Cities, Mum and I took a jaunt across town to visit a favorite spot, Anthropologie. I still had a gift card from my birthday (thank you Mother-in-Law!) just waiting patiently to be used. But since I live so far from one now, it is a little harder to get there. I could shop online…but perusing the store in person is so much more pleasurable.

We had such a fun time there together…spending a good couple of hours looking, touching, smelling, trying on... I really made it worth my while too and picked up some fun things for myself and some gifts for others. Its really hard for me to have restraint in this store, so I guess it’s a good thing I don’t get here often! (And all this just on the heels of my recent posts about getting rid of things and having less stuff! Oh this place makes it hard!)

A couple of my finds…

{The “Dollhouse Coverlet Hoodie.” Oh so soft and cozy!}

{Sweet plates I fell in love with…the “Aurora Dessert Plates”…featuring 3 bluebirds, butterflies, & daisy chains. I love the shape of these plates as well as the bright, cheery colors. I think they’ll look sweet underneath my yellow teacups & saucers that I got from here awhile ago. I can't wait to have a proper tea party with these!}

After our Anthropologie shopping spree, we headed over to the nearby Linden Hills area…a sweet little community with, I think, a bit of a Parisian-like feel to it…full of cute gift stores, flower shops, a bakery, and a great little spot we found to revive ourselves with lunch…the Zumbro Café.

Mum had a "Bacon & Havarti Frittata" while I had a "Roasted Tomato/Caramelized Onion/Basil Pesto Sandwich" on grilled ciabatta. If I were going to make my ideal sandwich, this would be it precisely!

Our only regret…not having enough time to peruse all that is Linden Hills. Next time! There’s always next time, we say!

Yard Sale Recap

There’s a certain kind of clarity that comes when you are preparing for a big move. A clarity regarding all of the things, knick-knacks, and other stuff you’ve obtained, hoarded, and held onto for various sentimental or silly reasons. When we were getting ready for our major move last summer, we had less time to be emotional and sentimental about things. So under pressure and time constraints, we were more realistic about things...wondering why we would waste time packing, moving, and unpacking some things that we never use or need? Because of this focus, bags upon bags of our “stuff” were given away before the big move.

However, upon moving into our new home, an even finer sort of clarity came to me. As I was unpacking boxes, deciding what things would go where, there was even more “stuff” that I realized I really didn't need or want anymore…like the ten million picture frames I have that I can only have so many out at a time and there’s even less that I really like. So after moving into our home, those things that I unpacked and knew I didn’t want to take up precious space or even be relegated to a dark closet corner to be quickly forgotten about again were put into an enormous storage container down in the utility room.

When we first moved here last summer, our neighbor had a garage sale and I was stunned at the amount of people showing up. I discovered that people around here really like their garage sales! So I decided then that I would have one too. My first ever little Yard Sale-ing venture of sorts. I don’t typically like garage/yard/rummage sales and digging through other people’s stuff. I figure my chances of finding anything I’d want are pretty slim so why bother. Plus I’m a bit of a germ-freak and they just always appear so dirty and disorganized.

So to counter my stereotypes of yard sales, I wanted to make mine the opposite of every mish-mash, dirty junk sale I’d ever stopped at (or been dragged along to with my Mum as a little girl). I decided that I would try to have everything be nice & cleaned up, with fun little tags describing some of the things (not everything…I’m not that crazy!). But for instance, on the tag of some very old wooden beads that are a Christmas Tree garland decoration I wrote: “Nifty Vintage Christmas Garland ~ 4 strands”. (I recently came to realize this trick of describing things on the tag at one of my favorite little antique shops I discovered when we moved up here. The owner puts a little description on the tags and possibly an idea for how to use it and suddenly a “Sugar Bowl” became far more desirable when the tag said “Sweet Ironstone Sugar Bowl ~ perfect for a pretty bar of soap.” Now I realize that this entirely takes much more time that just slapping a little sticker on something and writing 25 cents (and believe me, I did do this for many, many things too)…but doesn’t it make shopping/yard sale-ing a little more enjoyable? Many of our “customers” seemed to think so and we often heard, “Wow, what an organized yard sale!”
We had a very steady stream of people all day on Friday. But Saturday, surprisingly, was a little bit slower. I realized Hubby was just humoring me (very sweetly though) all along with all this Yard Sale stuff…he even took the day off on Friday to help…when he said to me after our busy, successful day on Friday “Well, you did it! I didn’t think it would go so well and it went WAY better than I thought!” (I think he’s really just happy that we sold our BIG, boxy flat-screen TV that weighed at least a ton, which means we can maybe get a skinny flat-screen TV sometime in the near future with our yard sale profits perhaps.)

But I think Hub was also kind of enjoying it too…talking it up with all the "customers." At one point, as I was heading into the house, I overheard a conversation Hub was having with a new “customer”…a cute, little old farmer-like man, who walked up our driveway all alone. He asked Hub what size the clothing was. And Hub (I think perhaps reverting back to his days working at Dayton’s in Mens Wear) said, “Well, what size are ya looking for?” When I came back out of the house I saw this old man who lives nearby walking back down the driveway carrying a shirt that Hub helped him find. I smile when I think of this cute old country man wearing a very preppy, button-up Gap shirt of Hub’s.

So in addition to selling “stuff”, we had a fun time chatting with neighbors and meeting new ones. We even had one neighbor kindly offer us a couple of his tables to use for our sale the night before when we were setting up. So indeed, a Yard Sale is a lot of work, but it seems to encourage neighborly affection in addition to earning a few extra bucks and getting rid of things we no longer need. The rest of the things that didn't sell are now boxed up and ready to be taken to the Goodwill!

P.S. We even had this little “visitor” come to check out our sale. The weasel didn’t find anything he liked though.

Old Ships & New Technology

"Lens Error, Restart Camera"...

Oh yes…This was the message beeping at me on my little silver camera’s screen. I brought it with last night when Hub and I went down to look at the “Tall Ships” among all the millions of tourists…or rather, to go to the “Maritime Festival” to see 3 replicas of vintage Great Lakes shipping schooners. We had finally picked up from our Yard Sale and we were ready to get out a bit and walk by the lake. While we were driving down there I turned on my camera, which has been like my right arm since we bought it last November. (We have a much bigger camera that takes really good close-ups, but this camera is great because of how tiny it is and it takes pretty good pics too.) So I was quite disappointed and no amount of turning it on and off made it tell me anything different. Since I was unable to take any pics of the ships, here are some from the local newspaper. According to them, this event may be Duluth’s largest-ever tourist draw, ahead of even Grandma’s Marathon, in recent history.

When we got home last night, Hub did some googling to find many others online who had received this same error message. It sounded like sending it back for repairs was deemed worthless and expensive, and the common resounding message across the board was to give the camera a good smack on its bottom. Seriously. So, I was a little hesitant about this, but as we kept reading all over the place online that giving the camera a good swift hit was really the only hope of getting it to function again, I started gently tapping the bottom and continued to do it a little more forcefully until I realized that indeed it was working. In my excitement, and Hub’s too, I then dropped the camera on the floor, but it was still working!!!

Up until this very night, I have taken such great care of this camera...never hitting it, never dropping it. I even knit it the softest little cabled pouch (below) with velvety lining to rest in. But now it has been hit and dropped and works again. Go figure.

This morning, Hub turned on the little flat-screen TV in our bedroom armoire to see the weather, except it wouldn’t turn on. So what did he do? He gave the power box a good swift smack and that got it working.

I can’t see this being good for these technological items in the long run, all this hitting and smacking, but in the short run, it is getting things going again. Strange, huh?


(photos courtesy of DuluthNewsTribune.com)

Friday to Friday

From last Friday (packing & leaving for the Cabin) to this Friday (the start of our Yard Sale, it has been one week of frenzied fun & craziness all smushed in between. I have so much to share, both in pictures & words...and am very excited about my upcoming posts...but until I get a chance to breathe after our Yard Sale ends tomorrow and I catch up on the basics of life (laundry, eating, sleeping)...I just wanted to share one neat thing that has happened in the midst of all this wonderfulness called "life"...

I got my very first Etsy order today (yay!) which I discovered just after closing down our very successful, busy first day of the Yard Sale. I rushed around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to figure out what I was doing, rushing to the Post Office to get there before they closed, but first rushing into Target to get packaging tape...and then finally entering in to the craziness that is Cub on a late Friday afternoon because our fridge is almost emptied of all the basics and we were so hungry for dinner...and all this after going on very little sleep lately, too...sleeping 3 out of the past 7 nights in different beds in 2 different places...driving roughly 540 miles in the past 7 days...first heading West then East, the next time heading South then back North to home...so needless to say life has been a bit nuts lately...but in a very good sort of nutty way...and I said to Hub tonight as we were finally preparing dinner, "I wonder if this is how life always feels for people that have children?"...and he said "I was wondering the exact same thing today"...we both feel worn out...like we've been running in different directions...and we're ready for life to slow down a bit now, back to the pace we are used to. We don't like to live crazy busy hurried lives. And for some reason I just found it odd how we both had the same thought that maybe this is how it always feels for people with kids and that you just maybe get used to the pace? Or maybe we're totally off base here. Either way, we're ready for a break! More soon! ~xo

P.S. Here's a little peak at my "very first Etsy package"...getting it ready to be sent out to its recipient. So, so fun!!! :)
P.P.S...Here's the craziest-looking caterpillar I've ever seen. Hub discovered it crawling along a box at our Yard Sale. Have you ever seen anything like this???