Today is for you.

Two of my very dearest friends got married this weekend.

I cannot write too much yet, because I will turn into a complete sap.

But from Thursday on, it was one of the best weekends I've ever had.

I have so many wedding posts I will be weaving in with everything else this week.

Hope you have a most beautiful Monday.

xo j

photo compliments of Joy Wedding Photography. Beth and Ryan are brilliant.

Thursdays for Thought.

Happy Thursday Everyone!

Two cups of coffee are keeping me relatively motivated today, so I decided I would give you guys a "real" post.

If you have following the blog awhile you know my past year has been rather well, lets be honest, crazy. I feel I have truly learned what its like to feel like you've lost control of everything you knew and completely surrender to the unknown. It has hit the one year mark and now that I am back at school I notice that with the shift in life leaves me looking back and reflecting.

I have come to realize that in any situation when your norm changes one of two things will probably happen: you will either be super inspired or super depressed.

This is just my own personal evaluation but I find it to be true for countless situations.

I have been way more positive this semester it seemed still VERY motivated but as the weeks go, my sleepyness begins to ware on me, and the projects stack up, the easiest thing for me to possibly do is, complain.

I can find about one million things wrong in a day which leads to about one million complaints.

So how do I counter act this?

Well I was encouraged by a friend and mentor, Lara, earlier this summer to start logging the little gifts I receive in a day. You may think, gifts? There is no way I receive gifts everyday.

But I want to assure you, you are most definitely wrong.

These are not just physical gifts, these are life gifts. Gifts when you see it you feel as though that moment in time happened especially for you.

This is not something that you can sit down and do like homework you have to experience it in order to call it a gift. Keeping an account of your gifts causes you to look at life much differently and in turn will make you more thankful and less likely to

But of course you might notice that I passed over the word "summer". I should have started this long ago, but due to my OCD (and excuse making) I just basically refused to start it without the perfect journal I could solely dedicate to it.

I have been looking everywhere, when it finally hit me.

My dear friend Joy had commissioned Miss Lisa Barker to make a journal for my past birthday. I was so completely in love with it that I haven't been able to use it because whatever I wrote in I wanted to be equally matched in awesomeness.

I figured this project would be the perfect fit.

So here I go, my journey in accounting one thousand gifts.

I plan to share certain ones with you, they will be numbered as they are in my journal.

Here's to life and its beautiful gifts.

xo j

living with littles.

I hope by now you all know I am slightly obsessed with my nanny kids. With this family I have become so much more than Miss Jessica, I have quickly adopted the big sister role. I think it has greatly to do with being in their home everyday, it is so different than seeing them at school. I am immersed in their lives, contributing to things that I do not usually get a say in when I am just teaching them. Things like what they eat, how much sleep they get, what they wear, helping them make good choices about homework, and even going to their sports games.

I definitely see the good bad and ugly, because in the home they are completely themselves, they do not hide behind their "being in public" rules. More prone to mood swings, sibling fights, and talking back for sure, but more than that we get to really experience life together.

Have serious discussions about school bullies, different kids of food, individual differences, and everything under the spectrum of life. I love watching their wheels turn while we talk and see them grasp a greater understanding of the world. It is a beautiful thing to watch.

Since last year Ashton has been very interested on "being green" after his class did a play on saving the planet. We talk about it often, including different things we can do on a regular basis.

So this past week Ash and I slung on our backpacks and rode our bikes to school. His house is only a few miles away from both his school and my school.

We really loved doing it! (yes I do try to be the coolest nanny ever) It worked out perfect because I got out of class just enough before his school day ends for me to bike over and get him. Besides almost the whole ride being uphill the only real thing we would change is carrying our back packs. Mine is SO heavy with my computer and all my books and for a fourth grader his is pretty heavy too.

ps have I ever shown you my car with the bike rack on?

It is pretty much the cutest thing ever. It looks like my baby car thinks he is as tough as the big ones. I love it.

We hope to make this a weekly thing before the snow comes.

Hope you have having a lovely Thursday, more after class.

xo j

inspiration station.

This weekend we went to The Clothesline Festival at the Memorial art gallery.

We met up with Miss Lisa Barker and walked around and looked at a lot of pretty things and saw a lot of wonderful people.

Lisa was recruiting people for Hearts and Crafts and knowing everyone (hehe), and Greg and I just walked around in awe of so many of the vendors.

We eventually got rained on a bit but we did not mind.

Greg and I both were SUPER inspired by everything. We both left with mental to do lists to work on. I love when we are both inspired and motivated at the same time, the encouragement push from one another really helps us reach our goals I think.

I also love that Greg is not even from Rochester but people know him because he made the animals at joe bean *heart flutter*.

Greg has got right to work on many of creative projects, I haven't got much done yet, but I have made LOTS of lists. Some of the things I will be working on you ask?

well I would love to share..

-I really do not want to lose my commitment to the blog while I'm back at school. I have been organizing and planning some new things for the fall so that I can try to stay consistent. I am excited to share many of these newnesses with you.

-I am getting my Etsy back up, actually I should say we are getting OUR Etsy up. This has been my plan for just about the whole year but I continue to let way to many things get in the way. I have been actively working on things for the shop. Lets do it.

-I do not want to just "get rid" of extra materials I have so I am been coming up with lots of ideas to repurpose things for friends.

-trying a new craft. I asked a friend for lessons. I shall update you as this evolves.

-making business cards. the more shows we do, the more people we meet, the more people say "do you have a business card?" or a "site?" I always timidly respond no, I have never been good a self promoting. I need to work on that.

I have a lot more on my list but my eyes are slowly shutting.

I will share more happy things with you tomorrow but for now I must go off to my dream land.

What has been inspiring you lately?

xo j

giveaway winners.

Happy Tuesday!

I'm basically falling asleep while I type to you, but I think you more than deserve to know the winners of my giveaways.

(ps this is my room from here)

And the winners are:

Milestone Giveaway:

Marisa Pirog! you are the winner a new sweetie pie dollie!

Back to School Goodies:

Bethany Wolek! you are the winner of a bunch of goodies to keep you organized!

YAYYYY! please email me your address's so I can put these things in the mail this week!

Also if you are wondering how I pick the winners, I use random.org I put in the number of comments and click, there you have it, a winner:)

I am sorry for my slugish blogging habits this week, on top of school and life, two of my very closest friends are getting married this weekend and I have been helping with the last of the wedding-to-do-list.

These are the table numbers I made over the weekend, I think they came out really nice:)

There has been lots more little bits we have been doing, along with lots of reminiscing, a long with lots of laughter. I am a very excited girl.

I may or may not be literally going to bed at 8.

I promise to post more tomorrow.

xo j