mystic

back to New England, 

This is where we stayed. 

It was called the Whaler's Inn. 

It was one of the most lovely places i have ever stayed. 

Our room was the 3rd floor corner room on the right.

It had a beautiful 4 poster bed, a fireplace and it was so quiet. 

It was amazing. 

We happened to be right on the Mystic River. 

What a view. 

On the other side of the river... (still Mystic was the charming town) 

We walked over  a Drawbridge to get there. 

Anyone who knows me knows I have a 

deathly fear of bridges. So this was a big deal for me to walk over ....

(dom was bouncing the entire way to shake the bridge..0

YUP, that's my man. 

We happened to go into an army / navy store.... 

If I was  15 years younger I may have bought these... 

I thought they were hysterical. 

here is the famous Mystic pizza. 

Which we did not go to but heard it was very good...

The entire place was filled with charming little stores. 

We did go into a few antique stores but only  one stole my heart. 

It was called 

MINE. 

(Jen, you would have died and gone to heaven with me) 

It was vintagy goodness at its best. 

Eclectic and wonderful!

I could have spent hours in there.... 

Cool ironing board. 

fabulous marbles

a lovely vintage globe that my sweet husband bought for me....

(he thinks I am so weird that this is what I picked out)

The colors are amazing in this globe! 

loved these.. wish i had bought them

I think this was 4 bucks.. why didn't I get that too??

I was trying to convince Dom that I needed that globe to add to my existing globe so that

I could start a collection of vintage globes...

He had these hanging up catching the light.

So pretty. 

What a fun trip we had

to be continued.... 

worlds away

I got to work and watch an incredible artist on Tuesday. 

I feel blessed that God has given me a view into other worlds. 

far far away from my own. 

I was definitely in  a different culture then I had ever experienced. 

His medium is spray paint. Concrete Walls are his canvas.

I have never watched Carm paint before. 

but to put it simply it was like watching a ballet. 

His hands were fluid. like the can was an extension of his arm. 

He was so effortless about it. 

It was incredibly beautiful experience. 

I was taken to the cans... 

some had a rusty goodness about them that I adore. 

I am thankful. 

I am going to work on being more thankful for the things God is allowing me to do in my life. 

new england

This was the view from our window.

 I wish you could have heard the

 amazing church bells 

 from this old church,

playing old hymns. 

It was simply breathtaking. 

ps... I am in LOVE with my wide angle lens.... spectacular! 

lovely afternoon tea

Is there anything more lovely

then your big sister getting dressed up in 3 tutu's

setting out the good china and silver

and having afternoon tea with you? 

If  you are 4, this is probably one of the most lovely and wonderful things in your world. 

it makes my heart sing. 

linking up with 

thoughts...

I don't know what it is about the new year... 

but I have been cleaning and purging and trying...

to cut back. 

I have yet to tackle the living room closet... 

That is just overwhelming to me.... 

I wouldn't say I am messy. 

What I mean by that is my house looks tidy 

just do not open the closets. 

I have spent the entire week tackling a different room. 

I need to do this more often. 

probably about once a month.. 

but twice a year is pretty good too. 

I am enjoying my household duties. 

Keeping a tidy home for my husband and kids, 

cooking a nice hot meal to fill their bellies, 

stoking the fire to keep our home warm.

Speaking of husbands... 

 My husband and I are in need of some alone time. 

so I booked a little getaway for next week. 

Thursday till Saturday. 

At first I felt awful and guilty for leaving my kids...

But then Jen reminded me that 

we need to make time with our husbands. 

We need to. 

So we are. 

he doesn't even know where we are headed...

(kinda fun...) 

We have NEVER done this before. 

I am actually getting excited about it. 

So here is to keeping a home for your family

Here is to just how hard us Mom's work in our homes. 

and will you please forgive my lack of blogging. 

xoxo Amy

love

I was sitting looking through my pictures from the last year... 

I forgot about these. We were at some museum. 

last April. 

I can't even remember where... 

anyway, these made me laugh. 

I love this man.. 

He makes me smile.

and he gives really good bear hugs! 

This verse kept coming into my thoughts while I was 

looking at these pictures. 

I want to love like it tells us too in these verses. 

I need to work on this... 

a lot...

just keepin' it real here people. 

1 Corinthians 13 

The Excellence of Love       1If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.      4Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.       8Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

christmas past

So being I haven't blogged (or uploaded my camera in a week)

Here are shots from Christmas...

By the way, 

does anyone else feel like they

rushed and rushed like a crazy person to try and get ready

for all the festivities... and now sadly its over? 

goes to quickly. Next year I want to be done with everything in November...

so that I can enjoy all of December.  

(one can dream)

Christmas morning. 

I made Maddie the Rollie Pollie Chair... 

the pattern is from MADE

I had been looking at it for a while 

the Friday before Christmas.. (yup 2 days before) 

I decided that Maddie needed to have that as a part of her Christmas.

I ran out and purchased everything on sale...

and it came together in a few hours. 

It was a HUGE hit in our house... 

everyone loves it. 

I made the Large and would like to make another. 

I used Amy Butler's Love in the Dec weight.

I will post on that more another day.... 

Emily may very well kill me for posting this picture but I don't care... 

see how happy even 18 year old daughters can be on

Christmas morning.... 

brings a bit of a tear to my eye... that I have a feeling their won't be to 

many more Christmas's like this... as kids get older... ya know...

Can't think about that... 

and Santa was very good to me. Even though I am pretty sure I didn't not deserve this little box. 

My Santa is so so good to me. 

He brought me the lens that I have been drooling over for months... maybe even a year...

11-18 mm Zoom Super Wide Angle. 

Ahhhhh. 

thank you Santa. 

and here is a shot with my new baby... and Sara shooting me back with her

little Sony Video Camera. Dom catching a nap and Maddie playing with her new 

tracks for Thomas... She LOVES Thomas the train. 

I gave my neices and nephews Monsters... 

they all LOVED them. 

In fact, they may have been their very favorite gifts of all...

(kidding)

This is a shot of the tree (and Sara) one week later.

Happy New Years Eve...

We were waiting for my sister and her family to arrive for a night of gaming. 

I took the waiting as a chance to get some shots of my ornaments. 

My Grandmother handmade these for me the very first year 

Dom and I were married.

almost 20 years old...

They are some of my favorites. 

She was amazing. 

(thought of her a lot this Christmas) 

These are some vintage glass balls that belonged to 

my father in law. 

They are so lovely and wonderful. 

Emily has claimed them as her own...

so one day they will leave our tree and 

go to hers. 

I love this shot.. may be my favorite from the past week. 

and every year I give the girls an ornament. 

This year they were all handmade. 

By a dear friend. They are all vintage bulbs. 

so beautiful! 

I have to tell you one last thing. 

I did purchase a gift and put it under the tree for myself. 

it was a pink cuckoo clock.

I thought this was quite humorous...

my husband did not see the 

humor in it... 

oh well... 

Hope everyone enjoyed the Christmas week. 

Today we are playing hooky and going on a family day trip.

I am excited to relax and spend time with my

family. 

I love them. 

Each and everyone. 

thoughts...

I was sitting here thinking of all the things that I should be doing..

ie: Laundry, 

    Cleaning, 

      Child Rearing.... 

    Cooking,  

and all the things I am sitting here doing instead...

ie: Pinterest,

   Blog stalking...

When a  thought hit me... 

And then another  thought came upon me...

 why not be creative and turn it into a lovely picture. 

(very artistic of me don't you think?) 

and thus I 

CREATED. 

it's oh so very Ben Franklin of me ....

(don't you think??) 

Have a Happy Day!