First Mother's Day

The days are getting away from me lately. On Wednesday I went online to order both our moms flowers, and when I saw the shipping charge (express rates to be there by Sunday), I realized how behind I was in doing anything for Mother's Day for them. I haven't even sent cards yet! Our moms really won't mind, though, and we'll see them next week anyway. I was also planning on doing some fun Mother's Day blog posts with gift ideas, but it just hasn't happened. I know what I'd like for my first Mother's day, even if I'll be a little late getting it. I saw these adorable silhouette necklaces from Lucky Me Beads before I was pregnant and knew I'd want one one day if we ended up with a little bundle. It took a while to get a good picture of Lois' profile, but we finally got one that I think will work. I love silhouettes. My grandma has a gold charm bracelet with each charm being one of her 4 kid's silhouettes with their names engraved on the backsides. It's so cute and such a nice way to capture the memory of your little bundle's chubby face. Here are a few more silhouette ideas from etsy sellers that I have my eye on. I actually bought a set of the cowboy cards for my nephew, Cash, for his birthday. So cute.

Couples above from Blue Clara.

Custom family silhouette pillow from Le Papier Studio.

One of the most interesting silhouette ideas I've seen--a custom leaf silhouette from Jenny Lee Fowler.

Cute custom cards for the little ones from By Cheryl Images.

The Best Book for Little Ones!

We're in Atlanta now for the holidays and had our Christmas today with Andrew's mom at her house (we go to my mom's next week). Andrew's mom gave Lois the coolest book I could imagine for kids--a personalized My Very Own Name book! It tells the story of Lois' name by spelling her name using animals who tell a little rhyme with each letter until her full name is spelled out. It even has a printed dedication on the cover page. I love this book! I can't wait to order a few as gifts for other little ones. Check out a sample book on their web site. They also have a few other fun personalized books like My Very Own Fairy Tale book and probably my favorite, a custom art book using your kid's artwork. What kid wouldn't want one of these fun books?

"L" is for Lois!

This week I had tea with my friend Alex who gave Lois the cutest present . . . this framed piece of vintage fabric that she framed herself. I love it! "L" is for lion and for Lois! It will be perfect with all the other colors and vintage things in her room

Alex also wrapped it in the cutest red and aqua floral paper, which reminded me a little of one of my favorite fabrics. Thanks, Alex!

Easy Thank Yous

Lois will need to send Santa a thank you note in a few weeks so I personalized some stationery for her. I just bought some cute note packs and printed her name on them. I especially like the eyelet set. I got them at Michael's. They're part of the Martha Stewart line. The others I got at the Paper Source for free last time I was there. (They were giving away stationery packs with every purchase in the store a few weeks ago.) I like to make these for gifts sometimes too. It's really easy. I just use Word to print the text. It just takes a few tries to make sure the text will line up right where you want it on the card. Voila! You have an inexpensive, personalized gift! I also love Le Pen colored pens and usually choose an ink color that matches a pen I already have. They are thin felt tip pens that come in a range of colors. I chose lighter colored inks for both of these, so click on the pictures if you want to see them larger.

Meet Sue Anne

Yesterday Lauren and Derek gave me an Ann Wood handmade bird! It was a very generous and thoughtful gift for helping them out a few extra days at their shoppe and for taking care of their kitties. I love Ann Wood's birds and have peeked at her site now and then for about two years, longing one day to have one of her adorable birds myself. Lauren and Derek had no idea that I love her birds, so they were really excited that I was so happy to receive it, or I should say to receive her--each bird has a name and mine is Sue Anne. She's from the "picnic friends" series. I love her. She's going to live in the baby room on the little one's dresser.