Hope you all have plans for a fun weekend!

I am having my first ever ‘sleep-over’ with Addie. Complete with movie and ice cream in bed, but only after we paint our nails and have a dance party. This is the life I live for.

Here are some places to go that will make you smile, if you aren’t already happy on this happy friday.

• These images from Rolf Sachs called Alone in a Crowd. It makes me wonder what miniature stories are around if you just look up close.
• June Craft is making me happy (image shown above, from Bloesom Kids)
• This video really taps me back to my 5 year old self. Brilliant.
• Shintzi Katoh has new bags. Drooling.

• This set makes me wan to drop everything and play tea party.
• Great idea to turn the old milk carton into a stylish bird feeder
• Brilliant make-it-yourself merry-go-round book caddy.
• Our boy messenger bag has given us 2 years of fun.
• This cherry blossom craft project.

Enjoy your weekend!

Happy Friday all!

This is my effort to bring back Happy Site Friday. It’s been a while.

My weekend is filled with filling tall trash cans with stuff that I don’t want to move, and cleaning out storage bins in the basement. Oh, and do some laundry…maybe. We are moving in a week!

This is my list of distractions when the boredom is just too much:

* This girl’s room was featured a while back here and I am in love.  Her blog is amazing and check it out here.

* Listening to this song is sunshine to my soul right now: I am transformed to a dancing fool.

* Loving this rocker and wishing it fit in the budget right now

*  This article on getting back to the orderly way with kids. It will happen someday…I just know it.

* This art piece. I had an imaginary friend, did you?

* This print makes me miss living back East. And her art gives me warm happy chills…have you read her books?

* Tell me you aren’t transformed when you see this. I can’t wait for summer.

Happy Friday everyone! My weekend is filled with filling tall trash cans with stuff that I don’t want to move,and cleaning out storage to get ready for the move.

What’s making you smile this weekend?

xo

sarah

My 9 month pregnant brain has needed a whole lot of help lately. I feel like my brain is mush, and I can’t keep it all in order. Well, that is my excuse at least!

LobotoME (Pronounced Lo-Bot-Oh-Me) came into my life a few months ago, and wow. Things have changed. I have tried LOTS of stuff to keep myself and my home in order, but these are my new sanity.

Really.

I lost my LIST ME notepad last week, and I have been a wreck! I use Google Docs and Google Calendar for my business needs, but what about when I am not on the computer, then what?

My favorites are the LIST ME, FEED ME, FIT ME (not now….but I know when this baby comes I will be so excited to use this!) and the Weekly Calendar which magically has a place for all these things in one place. It’s Genius.

It’s a great system….perfect for the mom at home trying to keep it all together. They are so simple, and seem to follow the way my brain works!

LobotoME even has a great blog with tips on staying on top of it all. THANK YOU!!!!

These are the kinds of things that keep my happy during the week. Happy Friday!

You’ve got to be here this weekend if you are a Utah person. This is the best handmade event of the year! I was setting up my own table last night, and wishing I was able to just hang out at everyone else’s. Completely inspiring! Today and Tomorrow. Maybe I’ll see you there!

I discovered Rie Elise Larsen a few weeks ago via Just Beautiful Things. I am in crazy love with her colors and design…and no wonder: she lives in Denmark and it seems like ALL My favorite children’s decor and designers are from Northern Europe. Her work tickles my senses. For more AMAZING photos go, visit here for a while. Happy Friday!

***PS: my internet hasn’t been working most of the week. If you are waiting back to hear from me via EMAIL, I hope to get to you by the weekend! I am not ignoring you!***

I am completely smitten by Taeeun Yoo’s illustrations. Completely inspiring. I could fill an entire blog post with her illustrations and book titles.

Shop here and website here.

Bonne Nouvelle: My cousin just opened a brand new ETSY shop with the goods to equip you with staging the perfect party.

And her shop name?the train stop nearest their flat in Paris. Just darling.

Shop here.

Twig and Thistle has been impressing me with their fantastic DIY designs and stationery. And the packaging is just as cute!

Shop here and AMAZING blog here.

I have had these owls from Fruit Fly on my wish list forever it seems. This owl just makes me happy.

Shop here.

Under the stairs Studio makes adorable paper cards that you can cut out and put together into these amazing carousels and mini theaters. I heart paper creations…and these are amazing!

Shop here.

Vlas Store: I heart this notebook. She has dozens more in her shop with THE greatest designs. Very Shinzi Katoh. Love Love Love.

Shop here.

Happy Friday everyone!

Happy Friday everyone! Today’s inspiration comes from a blog I am sure most of you are familiar with: Soule Mama.

I daily ask myself the question: is it possible to balance gentle, creative family living with my own creative work and still mother my children in a very active way without being distracted by my own personal demands?

I don’t have the answer, and I don’t think there is one. I think the answer can be found in glimpses of our own family living. When we choose to look back, we see where our time is being spent. Amanda Soule blogs about her daily creative living with her 4 children is southern coastal Maine and frankly…inspires me to believe that I can do it too.

Amanda is also a wonderful writer and photographer and has written a book that I keep on hand during the day when I need inspiration: The Creative Family. She has just written another book that will soon be out on the shelves: The Handmade Home. I can’t wait to get my hands on that one.

Inspiration is vital for me: as an artist I am constantly gleaning fresh inspiration to make my home, my business and my life a more beautiful place…which is why I love the blog world: a place where we can inspire each other to live our best lives. I love Amanda’s blog because she gives honest glimpses and writes about REAL life: like this post and this post.

Her photos inspire me:

Real life spaces.

Real beauty found in the details.

Real life with children.

Real life at home.

Real color.

Seeing children for what they see.

Cozy living spaces.

Real work.

Life with children is hard work. Life with children and with my own work is even more challenging. But I firmly believe that the two can be welded together: a lifestyle I am constantly striving to combine. And Soule Mama’s blog has become a friend to me, encouraging me a long the way. We all need support!

I leave you today with a place I hope you find inspiring: A place where I remember that children are children; the world is a place to see, touch and experience; and that pursuing our personal craft is possible while striving for creative living. Thanks, Mama.

Good old fashioned listening!

One of my favorite Date night activities with my husband is listening to old radio shows from the 40′s online at Radio Lovers. We’ll get out the popcorn and the tea, snuggle on the couch and listen to Abbot and Castello, Bob Hope and the Benny Goodman show.

I can remember the “old record days” just barely. My mom would put on a record, and we would follow a long in our books, turning out pages to the chimes. I can still here it. We’d dance along to the music…static sounds and all.

And just when I was getting all nostalgic, my husband led me to this site! Kiddie Records Weekly. Oh this is a treasure! With all the visual media out there for kids to choose from, there is very little listening going on. My kids LOVE listening to books on tape…and now…all the old classics from the 40′s and 50′s are available for free download! All you need to do is download it to itunes, stick these on your ipod and you have amazing car time with your kids! Or even better, snuggle on the couch with popcorn and blankets. Even better if you have the book to go with it…which maybe you do.

However you choose, enjoy! Good old fashioned family listening time is great for the soul. I highly recommend it! Happy weekend!

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I don’t have a lot of pictures of flowers on my blog. I am realizing the lack of spring colors right now, and frankly, I am needing some spring color, so indulge me here. Spring flowers. Spring air. Spring greens. Oh…Spring…come quickly! In the mean time, Amy Butler is my fix right now. I am aching to bring freshness and color into my home right now…so enjoy the eye candy…and maybe, just maybe, Spring will come quicker than we think!

xoxo

Happy Friday Everyone!

Happy Site Friday is a state of mind today. A place I need to go in my heart and my head to get over a really hard week! I LOVE this quote, and I was reminded of it from my friend’s blog here. She is a mother of 6 (including triplets) and a graphic designer. Just what I needed for a pick me up this morning!

THANK YOU ALL for your sweet well wishes on the pregnancy! I wish I had the time to email you all back individually and thank you! It is so exciting to be creating a new child inside me…more than a miracle!

But in case you EVER get the sense that motherhood is all bliss and no tears in our household, please think again. Sometimes I think because blogging is JUST A FRACTION of real life, we forget that life with children is NOT picture perfect moments. Cakies started a “messy monday” post, and I am seriously wanting to start one too. Gotta get my courage a bit hight though:) Life can be quite chaotic.

This is all from yesterday:

Ian screaming so loud in the car I can’t get through to GOOG-411 on my cell to get a phone number. The automatic operator kept thinking I was trying to get the number for “AHHHHHHHH!” instead of my daughter’s pre-school.

Ian finding the Costco size package of toilet paper and unraveling it in my shower.

Addie and Ian fighting!

Addie forgoing a much needed nap so she could dump out all the toys while I was napping.

People coming over to visit and being too embarrassed to invite them in yesterday!

More Fighting!

Ian finding the dental floss and unstringing THE ENTIRE 75 YARDS all over the living room and tangling it all around himself and the furniture.

Children who think 2 am is a good time to eat breakfast and do a puzzle in the play room.

The red stains from Baby Motrin all over my bedding from a midnight dose to a screaming three year old who hates medicine and is very good at spitting it out at record lengths.

BUT then I melt from the sweet:

Addie has stopped calling me “Sarah” and now calls me “Mudder”

Ian, because he can’t say his “S’s” very well, says “I love you too much” instead of “I love you SO much”

Addie exclaims at least once a day “Mudder, you are the most wonderful Mudder in the whole world!”

Ian needing at least 4 sets of kisses and hugs at bedtime.

Addie telling me out of the blue at lunch time: “Mudder, don’t worry. I will still be your daughter when I grow up.”

Ian running around the house naked for 10 minutes shouting “Horray!” after going potty for the first time.

And so much more…

So, to any of you who need a little “pick me up” this morning, print off this quote and know you are doing the best work ever! There are so many payoff’s when you start looking! It’s really a masterpiece…motherhood is the best work of art I have attemped yet. But masterpeices take time and masterpeices can be messy in the middle. Trick is to see the creative process as beautiful!

Happy Friday!

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