things i want tuesday :: butterfly cuff

how fantastic is this butterfly cuff? i love that it's not all bright and cheery like most butterfly jewelry....which is definitely not my style.

very reasonably priced at tangentine :: $55

june 28, 2010 :: in knots

marzipan monday :: fin+roe letterpress lovelies

with my mom's birthday coming up at the end of this week, i thought i'd take the opportunity to feature some of our great snarky & sassy letterpress birthday cards from fin+roe.



the greatest things about these cards are the unexpected greetings found inside. here are just a few....hopefully one tickles your fancy.

happy birthday :: i'd love to celebrate with you but i'm pretty sure there's an early bird buffet you want to get to.

happy birthday :: on the upside, grey goes with everything.

happy birthday :: in lieu of singing "happy birthday" we opted for a rousing chorus of "the final countdown"

happy, happy, birthday! :: congrats! you're one year closer to yelling at kids to get off your lawn.

birthday wishes :: mine include a pool boy, unlimited funds, and a guest house full of shoes. how about you?

june 25, 2010 :: basking

family friday :: father's day

last weekend we enjoyed a fabulous day for father's day. we enjoyed a great breakfast at one of our favorite places in town. then we headed off to a air and vintage car show. we're not big car people, but i think we all enjoy the planes. here are some photos of our day.



they had a flight for life helicopter that the kids were able to crawl up into and get their photos taken. they, of course, thought it was the coolest thing ever. below are some of my favorite planes and cars from the day.













we also went to visit my parents the day before. the boys were grabbing fistfuls of mulberries from grandpa and papa's mulberry tree. they went back several times for more.



we also enjoyed toy story 3 as a family on father's day afternoon. we all enjoyed it and the boys cannot wait for it to come out on dvd.

june 24, 2010 :: waiting

thrifted :: tea box

i can't believe it's taken me this long to feature one of my favorite thrifted items of this year! i bought this lovely tea box over a month ago!



i am in complete love with the graphics on this box. from the wood grain patterned background to the the vivid colors of the flowers and the graphic moon label on the front....it's all fantastic!



this thrifty find broke the bank at a whopping $40! much, much more than i typically spend on any one item, but i just couldn't resist.



the inside of the box is completely lined in tin. while i loved he graphics on the outside, discovering the tin on the inside is what really put me over the edge.



i have a major obsession with boxes and drawers of any sort, so this definitely found the right home.

how about you? do you have collections? what are the things you can't resist when you come across them?

june 22, 2010 :: soaking up the sun

that's what he said wednesday :: a new pen pal

this week's "that's what he said" is more of a "that's what he's doing." (if you can't live without a "that's what he said wednesday" post, stick with me until the end....i'll add a little something there)

a good paper friend of mine who also has little boys suggested that our oldest boys become pen pals. via our conversations on facebook and e-mail they sure seem like they have a lot in common, so we thought they'd enjoy writing to each other.



the little dude sent out his first letter yesterday. (to protect their identities, parts of the addresses/names have been removed) he sent it off in a big manila envelope full of things that he picked out for his new pal A.



he started off by writing a letter and introducing himself. since he's still so young, i wrote out a majority of the letter for him and just let him add in the major information. he finished it off with a smiley face made from ribbon and yarn. (he currently has a major obsession and you can find smiley faces just about everywhere on his artwork)



then, he picked out some stickers from his collection to send along as well. (unfortunately for little A., they're all halloween stickers.) sorry A.! he also wanted to send A. a paper airplane. i attempted to make one that wasn't up to code, so we had to wait for daddy to get home to make it "better". lastly, he drew a picture of him and A. sitting at tables in their separate homes drawing pictures for each other.

i'm really excited about this and so is the little dude. hopefully this can be the beginning of an ongoing friendship.

--------

and for those of you who are dying for a typical "that's what he said wednesday post", here's a little something i posted on facebook that got a few good laughs:

the other day, the little dude and the baby were eating lunch together. as they were eating i overheard the little dude explaining the life cycle of a grape to the baby. "see, grapes can do two things. they can either turn into grape jelly, or they can turn into raisins."

june 22, 2010 :: delightful dome

things i want tuesday :: simpli jessi dolls

ok, i'm not a doll person. not at all. but as soon as i saw these, they captured my heart. as a mother of boys i especially appreciate the fact that there are boy dolls as well.





seriously, the character in these dolls blows me over. they all seem to have such a personality of their own. i want one of each please!

i found the lot of dolls on trunkt but then followed a link over to her etsy shop where you can snatch one up for yourself.

simpli jessi :: $64

june 21, 2010 :: bountiful

marzipan monday :: mindbloom

today i'm going to introduce you to my new goal tracker. i use teuxdeux a lot, which i love for my workday to-do list, but for my everyday goals, i found mindbloom is really fun. yes, i'll admit, it's a little cheesy, but i find that the accountability is really working for me.



i'll give you a little rundown. basically you start with a little sapling. your goal is to keep your sapling alive and add new leaves to grow your sapling. you do this by completing your goals and adding new goals. if you complete your goals, your leaves turn more and more green. if you fall off your goals, they start to turn orange and brown. it's basically a fun way to keep accountable. i know that if i don't do my goals for the day that my poor little leaves are going to turn brown, and the competitive side of me won't let that happen.

you can see my tree there in the middle of the screen. i have several different branches which equate to different areas of my life such as work, leisure, and family. each little leaf is a goal in that area. so far this simple little program has been good at keeping me accountable.

wanna join me? let me know and i can send you an invite. we can help keep each other accountable through "snail mails" in the program and view each other's trees to see how we're doing. come join me!


(originally introduced to this site by taylor at maryjanes and galoshes)

in other news :: happy father's day :: part II

and a very happy father's day to my own dad, the best 4-wheeler ride-giver on the planet.

in other news :: happy father's day!

happy father's day to the hottest 80's porn star i know!



*photo taken at an "80's prom" themed party we attended back in may.

june 18, 2010 :: hidden beauty

fresh snapped photos :: my very first photo shoot

last night i met one of my good friends, kate, down at the lake for my very first photo shoot. she's having a baby any day now and asked if i would take some pregnancy photos for her. i was so nervous and excited all at once. it's one thing to take photos of my kids....if they don't turn out, i can take more tomorrow. however, when it's a scheduled event like this, if they don't turn out, there's not really a second chance.



this photo was actually a happy accident. it wasn't planned, but when i saw it, i moved quickly to capture it before anyone moved! my friend's hubby was just watching the boys while i took photos of her and they were in the perfect spot to snap in the background. i love how sometimes the things that are the least planned turn out to be my favorites.



we took a few full-family shots as well since everyone was all dressed up and looking nice. kate and i actually met when we were both pregnant with our oldest boys. they were born 6 days apart! her second boy is a little older than my baby, so when we get together it's a house full of rambunctious boys! to top it off, the little one waiting to be born is another boy! (apparently we like sticking with what we know best!)



she also asked for a photo of the two handsome boys together. her oldest is completely opposite of my little dude when it comes to taking photos. we had to pry a smile out of him while my little dude strikes a pose as soon as he sees me with a camera in hand! i like this photo because it looks a little more casual and not so posed.



kate and her hubby karl sharing a sweet moment together in the sand.



another unplanned photo that i like. once again, karl was trying to keep the boys contained while kate and i took individual photos. in my book, there's nothing sweeter than father/child photos.

there are more photos from the shoot on my flickr site. feel free to check them out if you'd like to see more.