so cute

I am in love with this dress from Ursula at Modaspia's etsy shop (blog). She "creates clothes for women and children that are pretty and a little whimsical". I am dreaming of owning this lightweight, unique, summery dress...

shop update

I have been busy here working on birth announcements, children's birthday party invitations, and baptism invitations that I will be posting in my Etsy shop starting October 1st. I will update the information for each child, add a picture if that is part of the design, and then e-mail it. The recipient can then bring it to any copy place or send it to Snapfish or kodak.com to have prints made. I also offer custom invitation/announcement design. Later this fall, I will have a line of wedding invitations as well.

Other than that, just trying to keep cool as summer has finally arrived with a bang here in the Northeast!

birthday girl

The birthday girl looked adorable in the Sweet Dress. It was so easy to make. It took about four hours total to make both a 3T and a 3-6 month old dress. My daughter thought it was fantastic that she and her sister were dressed alike. We'll see how long that lasts! Now onto recovering an infant car seat...

don't you just love when fabric comes in the mail?

I was so excited to receive this package of Amy Butler fabric in the mail (yes, I know I'm really into her fabrics lately). I am making matching dresses for my daughters. My oldest will be three tomorrow and I am making the dresses for them to wear at her birthday party on Saturday. I'm using this sweet pattern from Leila and Ben. I will post pics when I am finished.

a beautiful day

I hosted a gathering today at our house and tried out a delicious recipe from Real Simple magazine. Talk about real simple, I made ice cream sandwiches with Italian cookies and strawberry ice cream. They were the perfect finish to a delicious summer meal of tomato, mozzarella and basil sandwiches with pesto on ciabatta bread. Yum. 

After months of work on the house, I was happy to finally have some people see it in the almost finished state. We replaced shingles, painted the house, and added finishing touches like new house numbers and flowers.

new line of baby announcements

Im currently working on a new line of baby announcements. They will be photocards available on Etsy. I hope to have them up by September 1st. Here is a sneak peak.

Speaking of babies, yesterday was extremely hot here in the Northeast and I had one of those days. By mid-afternoon I told my husband that I needed a time-out and went for a five minute walk by myself. I had been trying to get some work done while watching my two girls. My husband had to help a neighbor do work on the outside of our house so I was trying to work and play with the girls at the same time. Needless to say, I definitely didn't have as much patience as normal.

Later in the evening we went out for dinner and an ice cream. A woman at the restaurant stopped dead in her tracks, looked at our 3 year old, and said "Isn't she delicious, she's like a Victorian doll come to life, a living angel." In that instant I felt so awful for being short with my daughter earlier when all she wanted was to play with Mommy. The woman was right, she is delicious, and I don't want to miss a minute with her. Thank you to this kind stranger for reminding me to slow down and really be with my kids.