spread the word

take the time to watch this video and spread the word, its more important than surfing facebook for 30 minutes :)


KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

tee pee time

Lately I have been obsessed with the idea of making ellie a tee pee for when shes a little bit older. Having your own space for you and your friends when youre little is so much fun! I remember creating forts in the woods with my sister and having a playhouse in our back yard that we loved decorating with my cousins. I love all my fun memories from when I was little, I love creating memories and making keep sakes for ellie. Being a mom is so much fun :)

Heres a link to one that's easy to DIY - it's more of a tent like style

http://mycakies.blogspot.com/2011/05/diy-frame-tent.html

breathing in love

Every night at 11:30 pm I wake up Ellie to feed her for the last time before we all go to bed for the night. It's usually one of the most special times I have with her in the day. She's so peaceful, trusting, quiet, cuddly, and pretty much perfect. Often times during this time with her I get so overwhelmed with love for her that it brings me to tears. It wasn't until this experience of being a mother that I feel like I have the smallest glimpse of the Lords love for me, for us. It just rushes over me so strong I can't even describe it. As cheesy as it sounds, it literally feels like a wave crashing over me, a rush through my whole body, like someone just came up to me and hugged me so hard tears pour out of my eyes. I just sit on the bed and hold her, soak her in. I feel like while I am doing this the Lord is holding me, soaking me in while I just rest in his presence and love my daughter. I feel like its just the 3 of us, soaking, resting, loving, being. It's almost like a healing thing. If I love Ellie this much, and it changes me THIS MUCH, how would I be if I truly understood the Lords love for me? How would we all be if we TRULY understood and walked in the love the Lord has for us? I don't know. I am still learning to be with Him and feel His love for me. I am still choosing to let down my walls and let myself breathe in unending love. Some of you may have already had this revelation whether you are parents or not, but let me tell you, this revelation is a choice for me every day, and almost every night when I hold Ellie at 11:30 pm I am reminded of it.

snow baby

getting ready for snow!

 I am so excited about taking ellie to PA for thanksgiving! Taking my daughter to my home town makes going home to see family even more exciting! She has not met any of her niece and nephews on my side of the family and I cannot wait for them to meet her!!! She also hasn't met her uncle wes, josh or vish, her aunt laura, or her great grand parents. Not to mention any other relative of mine, except for her great aunt! Needless to say, going home has never felt like more of a big deal than it does this time :) I'm not looking forward to the car ride though....

55 days of motherhood

Ellie will be 8 weeks on monday, I have been a mom for 55 days. 55
days of change. 55 days of the greatest joys and challenges I have ever known. 55 days that have already changed my heart in more ways than I could have ever imagined. 55 days that are only the beginning to the rest of my new life. For this I am grateful. For her I am grateful.
She changes so much every single week. If I don't pay attention I could miss the little things, like the first time she spotted her hands, the day she discovered her tongue and has been drooling more ever since, they day she looked me in the eyes and smiled, the first time she cooed, the list could go on and it will. For this I am also grateful.
I am reading a book called 1000 gifts. I think everyone should read it. I want to be thankful for what I have. I want my life to be changed by thanksgiving. November is a great month to start.


Here are some captured moments of the greatest gift I have ever received, my daughter, Elloise.

She's here! (5 weeks ago)

Elloise Marie Baldwin was born on September 12th 2011 at 5:34 pm


She was 7lbs 5oz and 20 inches long with a head full of hair

her first photo by daddy :)

2 days old

first time in her nursery

she LOVES her daddy

me and my baby girl, 1 day old

Ellies 5 week post coming soon! Maybe I'll even tell her birth story :)

nesting

 Most of the 2nd half of my pregnancy has involved me "nesting." Elloise's  nursery has been so much fun to do but for the longest time I had nothing else to do with it and I kind of hit a rut so the rest of the house reaped the benefits of me wanting to "nest." I love projects, I love decorating, and I love doing it with things I have made myself or found at antique stores.

For some reason our room has been the last place to get decorated, I guess its because company doesn't go in there so all the "good ideas" I have wouldn't be seen :) haha. Decorating is way more fun when it creates a pretty atmosphere for you AND others to enjoy. I saw this idea on pinterest, it can be done with fabric and is most commonly used in a nursery, but when I saw it with lace in a foyer I fell in love! I LOVE lace more than anything and I knew it would be the perfect thing to go in our bedroom. I got the embroidery hoops from Michaels all for under $2 each, and the lace from Hancock fabrics. Most of it was scraps that I had from previous sewing projects.

I may eventually add more or rearrange them. I'm not sure. These were really tricky to hang and place.

Here is my mirror wall, I got the idea from anthropologie's website awhile back. I did this in the beginning of my pregnancy. My friend Mary Ellen helped me find mirrors and her husband helped us put it up on the wall! All the mirrors came from 3 different antique stores. It's so hard to find these guys affordable, so often they are way over priced! Needless to say, it was a tough search.

My most recent project has been my favorite :) I have been wanting to do a plate wall for about a year now and I just never really got around to it. I started collecting a few assorted plates but a few months after I had them and looked at them I didn't like them anymore. This last month has felt like a lot of waiting and I needed another way to "nest" because the nursery was done, so thankfully I got motivated to do my plate wall! I have the perfect place for it and I LOVE it. My friend Alysa Volk (who should have a blog) helped me put it up. It was so precise I would have gone insane trying to do it by myself! I got the plates from sleepy poet for $2 each, steal of a deal!