Farewell, 2012

2012 was a year filled with new adventures and closing chapters.  We said goodbye to loved ones, hello to our new home, and spent a lot of time focusing on the important things: each other.  I hope that 2013 brings more joy, growth, and love to my friends and family.  I'll be back soon to talk about NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS!  Until then, Happy New Year!

Music Monday: St. Vincent

St. Vincent

It finally REALLY snowed here!  Happy Monday!

The Quiet

I have the week off from ABM.  I'm not blogging on the regular.  I have no orders to fill.  I'm shirking all email responsibilities.  I'm ignoring the "I need to be taking care of this, this, and this" feeling.  I am pouring time into my house, reading magazines, and enjoying the quiet.  Sometimes you just have to stop and take a breath.  It is good.

It Was A Very Merry Christmas

Christmas this year was nothing short of perfect.  We always tend to go a little bit overboard with gifts and big surprises for each other.  Those gifts and surprises are definitely fun, but more than that, it's just nice to know someone put all that time and effort in just to make you feel special.  On the flip side of that, it's nice to spoil the people you love and express through gift-giving how special they are to you.

Notable highlights:

Poesy was the most fun ever this year.  She really got into it!

Hope got a Swiss Army Knife and could not be more excited.  She will be under strict supervision when using it, but I'm happy we finally got her one (she's been wanting one for quite a while).

Johnny and Hope tracked down the "Little Red Riding Hood" lenticular I've been eyeing.  My collection is growing!  (I'll share more of it soon!)

Johnny and I had a very 90s gift exchange full of sentimental music from our dating years and the perfume I wore when I was a teenager.  

I know this is a lot of photos, but if you'd like to see even more you can find them on my Flickr page.

My "hello" sweatshirt is from Hello Merch!

I hope all that celebrated Christmas had a day full of love and family... and maybe a fun present or two.  ;)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, friends.  I hope your celebrations are filled with family and love.

Snapshots

We open presents the morning of Christmas Eve.  There are so many Christmas celebrations with family, this is the morning we steal away to have our own special family time.  Johnny and I have spent all night getting things put together and wrapped.  The girls found it almost impossible to get to sleep tonight-- to the point of sleepy (sobbing) tears.  Everyone's tucked in bed now and Mom and Dad finally get to enjoy some shut-eye.  When we wake up it will be our Christmas morning. (!!!)

Weekly Wears: Joyful Season

Dress: c/o Emerging Thoughts;  Sweater: Free People;  Tights: Target;  Shoes: c/o Lotta From Stockholm;  Glasses: c/o BonLook

I'm currently listening to Christmas music only, baking cookies like crazy (and pie for a party tomorrow night), and getting all-around frantic with excitement.  Plus, Rachel and family come into town tomorrow and I feel like I'm going to burst whenever I think about seeing them.  This weekend into next week is going to be good, good, good. 

First Snow Day

We had our first light dusting of snow this morning.  We baked homemade biscuits for a little bit warm comfort food and built a fire in the fireplace.  I could live in this day forever.

Guest Post: Hope's First Competition

Hi, guys!  This is Hope!  I recently had my first gymnastics competition.  I have been training for months and looking forward to my first meet!

When I got there, I was very nervous before they called my name.  Of course, my first event was balance beam.  My legs were all shaky!  I ended up falling off twice.  

My next event was floor and I did much better.  My legs stopped shaking and I felt a lot better.  My floor routine was pretty good and I got to do vault next.  I love floor AND vault!  I took 1^st place in my age division on vault!  I was SO EXCITED!!!

The last event was bars.  I got really nervous again because I hurt myself a little while back on the bars.  I told my teacher I didn’t need her to spot me and I went for it.  I got 2^nd place in my age division on bars!  I even got my stride circle without any help!  My family was all there to watch me and cheer for me.

When they were announcing names for the trophies I had no idea I had done so well.  Here are all my events:

Vault: 1^st place 

Bars: 2^nd place

Floor: 3^rd place

Beam: 6^th place

All-Around: 3^rd place

When my next meet gets here I feel like I can do even better.  Hopefully my legs won’t be so shaky!  MAYBE I will even win another trophy.  Fingers crossed!  Thanks for reading!  xoxo Hope

Currently

Looking forward to Christmas.  Duh, right?  I'm starting to get that random jump-out-of-your-pants excitement.  It's getting so close!

Peppermint bark.  Hmmm... would it be peppermint barking?  It doesn't matter.  I'm eating all of it.

Cramming in as much quality time as possible.  December is a weird month for my family.  Even though I'm home for a great deal of it, I'm locked away in my studio sewing until all of the orders are finished.  Now that the holiday rush is over, I'm extra-appreciative of these crazy kids.  I'm just soaking up all of the special moments I can.

Planning out some New Year's resolutions.  Yep, it's that time again.  I know some people really don't care for resolutions, but I think it's a good opportunity to set some goals I may otherwise ignore.  (Working off the peppermint bark may be on this list.)  ;)

Enjoying a little stretch of Internet.  Our Internet has basically not worked since we moved to this house in September.  It makes blogging interesting and keeping up with emails, well, extremely difficult.  We've had over 20 technicians out here to "fix" the problem, and it still hardly works.  Anytime I get a chance to blog in bed (LIKE RIGHT NOW!) I feel spoiled rotten.

Planning a trip.  The best vacations are the ones where you get away AND get to see friends you are desperately missing, don't you think?  I'm ready for it!

You can see my other "Currently" posts here.

(Like I always mention, this post was originally inspired by Dani Hampton.)

Snapshots

Baking Christmas cookies and sharing with neighbors; devoting some much-needed time to unpacking and organizing Hope's room (after photos to come); gymnastics warm-up jacket (OMG stands for Ozark Mountain Gymnastics); Sticky Grams on Poe's fridge; pizza party (mason jar tumbler from here).

Happy Monday!