Brooke's Baby Shower {Blog Swap}

Hey y'all!

I'm Jamie 
and I blog over at Life as a Pepin!

I am so sorry for being a slacker, but I'm at my in-laws out in the boonies with splotchy internet service.....I apologize for not having this as promised for Saturday! But- I can't tell ya how happy I am to be here!! I hope you love reading this blog as much as I do!! Considering that Haley is my best friend, I  love reading about what quirky things life holds for her while living on the other side of the world! I enjoy the pictures she posts, the adorable crafts she makes, and her fun personality that shines thru when writing.  

So why am I here? Well........

Haley and I decided to have a little blog swap while we were putting together 

a gift for our sweet friend Brooke a few weekends ago for her upcoming baby shower that unfortunately Haley couldn't attend.  

We had a lot of fun together making it personal in our own way... 

...and now I am so excited to share highlights from the sweet shower for momma & baby Finn!

We had a fabulous luncheon & tea at the

Greentree Tearoom which was

given by these fun ladies

Her grandmother, Brooke, and her mom 

They had a lovely room set up for the shower with cute little boy clothes hanging from a clothesline at the front along with a diaper cake and framed invitation for the shower.

 

We were able to talk and catch up with our friends 

before we began our lunch

We had a 5 course meal consisting of:
Gazpacho Soup, a Coconut Biscuit, Salmon Salad,
mini Finger Sandwiches, and different types of Desserts

  

Hooray!! Time to open gifts!!! 

Our dear friend Bethany (holding her son Jonah), 

made some cute burp cloths & a nursing cover

She received several great gifts! Including a very sweet blanket :)

Another friend of ours, Lesli (holding baby Charlotte),

put together a basket full of necessary baby items

A car seat!

Starting to open the gift from Haley and I

 

Expressing her excitement over the fact that 

we drew inspiration from her Pinterest board :)

The embroidery hoop art I made

  

Showing everyone that she wasn't lying over what Haley 

wrote on the envelope (to read without everyone staring at her)

The sweet frame that Haley made

The little onesies: baby Finn's name, a sailboat, and a photography assistant

 A Snugglebug I made after my visit with Haley since I 

had the supplies and a sewing machine at home :)

(Fun fact: a Snugglebug is a Fitz favorite: a family of 3 boys 

that Brooke, Haley, and I all babysat for in college and each had in our weddings)

A sweet photo clutch was given to Brooke's mom 

to keep pictures of her precious grandchildren

Group picture (minus Doherty)

After the shower was over, we had some 

time to catch up with our friends!!

Ryan (holding Greer), Lesli (holding Charlotte), Brooke, 

Bethany (holding Jonah), and I

What a precious face!

Greer and Jonah

Saying goodbye to everyone

 Love you Brookie!!!!

Hope you enjoyed our blog swap!!!
Please head on over to Life as a Pepin (my blog) 

to read Haley's post about the fun handmade gifts
and leave some love letting us know that you came over :)

A Little Bloggy Swap

So I'm going out on a little trendy blog-world limb here and doin a little blog swap with my bestest over at Life As A Pepin tomorrow, so come share some love. 

 We are celebrating our sweet friend Brooke and the upcoming arrival of her little bundle of joy. 

Me, Jamie, & Brooke at Jamie's wedding last year

So go check it out.... and become a follower too!

Joyfully Swappin,

Ooooo An Award!

So sweet Rachel over at Pleased as Punch gave me this award the other day....

....and I have to say, I am flattered! 

I thought, "Who me!?" 

But I'll take it! I do like the thought of being "Versatile."

So since this is the first time I've won such an award, I'm just gonna follow her lead and do what she did. 

So first I will tell you 7 {not sure why 7} maybe not so random things about myself.....

 1. Right now I am slightly obsessed with brown and grey nail polish and any and every hue in between.

2. I really love TV. I mean reeeaaallllyyyy love it. I am so unbelievably thankful for the invention of the Sling Box and TV shows on DVD as they have made it easy peasy to watch all the TV I want while living overseas. My FAVES- Modern Family, Friends and So You Think You Can Dance. Followed closely by like 20 others. 

3. I dream VIVIDLY every. single. night. I could recount thousands of dreams I've had. 

 4. I could get a massage every day of my life and be happy. Seriously. 

5. I told my husband last night {while dancing in my living room belting out Glee's version of "Like a Prayer"... perhaps to his annoyance} that I was made for musicals {even though I've never actually been in one}. I told him that I can't help it that singing and dancing were MADE to come out of me. It just happens. 

6. I have been on 64 flights in the last 14 months. By July 1st it will be 69. And yet the only ones I don't hate are the 14 hour ones all the way around the world.

7. I went skydiving with some amazing friends at the end of my sophomore year of college and it was awesome. Everyone should do it. Even if you're afraid of heights. You're so high up, that your brain doesn't really register it. It's kind of like, "Oh look at that pretty picture of the earth in front of me." Just do it. 

And now I will pass this fantastic award onto others. 

1. Jamie at Life as a Pepin

Okay so yes she is my best friend, BUT even if she was a total stranger I'd still give it to her. She's super versatile. She's crafty and UBER creative {I long for the days in college when we'd stay up til the wee hours of the morning making fun things together}, she goes fun places, she has a wonderful husband who she cooks awesome things with, and did I mention she is currently the foster mother to my beloved Lucy? She's the best. 

2. Kristin at Kristin with an I

Another friend, and so awesome. She works for the same min. org. that I do {but in the states} and she is a do-it all kind of a woman. Girl gets stuff done. And she's a woman after my heart in like 742 ways.... especially when it comes to organization and boots. 

3. Lu at Just Lu

She is definitely a do-it all lady. She's really creative, has lots of great tips, and I LOVE this "Housewife MacGyver" series that she's been doing. It is awesome and super helpful in like every practical area of life imaginable. 

4. Anna at Your Little Birdy

This is one of the first blogs of someone I didn't know that I started following when I started branching out in the blog world. The header of her blog says, "for chickadees who cook, clean, organize, shop and decorate" and she definitely doesn't disappoint! She also has super cute desktop calendars that she makes every month.... and a super, super cute little girl!   

5. Becca at The Jordan Jive

I pretend we are friends in real life. I found something adorable she posted on a link party months ago and we've been friends ever since. She is a hoot. 

And there you have it. Thanks for the award Rachel. And thanks for the inspiration 5 versatile recipients. I hope it makes your day. 

Joyfully Awarded,

The Joys of Life with Lucy

I am obsessed with blogs.

My friend Julianna introduced me to "google reader" after she left to go live in Central Asia last year and I started following her blog. (If you don't use google reader, you must. It's fantastic.) She created a monster. I LOVE logging in a seeing all of the pictures and stories of the lives of everyone from people whom I love dearly to people I've never met before, but aspire to be as creative as they are like this creative lady. I love seeing pictures of my friend's growing children like cute Grady Warren or their growing baby bumps as they await the arrival of little ones like my beautiful friend Bethany; of their creativity in sewing, scrapbooking, crafting and decorating like my friend Brooke. I love reading about the funny things that their children say or their humorous, satirical perspectives on life like my hysterical cousin Lori. Sometime I even go searching on facebook for people who have links to their blogs on their profiles. I can't get enough.

I haven't started a blog myself because I didn't think my life was interesting enough to follow. It's kindof like my recent discovery of Twitter. I vowed for the longest time that I wasn't going to "Tweet". Then I discovered that I could follow the lives of my beloved dancers from "So You Think You Can Dance" and my heroes from "The Biggest Loser" after the shows were over, and that too opened up a can of worms. I have still vowed that I'm not going to follow anyone or anything that would be considered "celebrity drama" and that I wasn't going to tweet myself. Again, who wants to know what I'm doing every 30 minutes throughout the day? I have to say that celebrities feel a whole lot more "normal" when you follow them on Twitter, and I have done a pretty good job of avoiding anything "celebrity gossip" wise. So I have no regrets thus far from "tweeting". Enough about Twitter; you get the picture: my life = not interesting enough for people to "follow" whether on Twitter or a blog. I have said that I'll start blogging when I have kids or when we move to the other side of the world someday.

That all changed this morning, as I was looking at my friend Holly's blog (she is quite the decorator and crafter). Enter into my thought process- I thought to myself, "I would love to put pictures of the scrapbook pages I make on a blog," but then decided that blogging about my scrapbooking would leave posts few and far between. Then I thought, "I don't have to just blog about one thing.... and maybe my life isn't interesting enough by itself to blog about, but I have a lot of friends whose lives are and who are really creative..... and there are other things in my life that might be interesting to follow.... like different projects I take on, or fun things from fun places that I get to go, or books, music, and podcasts that I've found that I really like..... I'm going to start a blog!"

So why "The Joys of Life with Lucy" you ask? If you know me well at all, you know that I am madly in love with a brownish, orangish four legged, "I look like I have the potential to be a vicious attack dog, but instead I'm scared of everything and have the temperament of a sedated cat" mutt named Lucy. I never though a dog could bring as much joy to my life as she does. She has the funniest personality of any animal I've ever met, and anyone who spends any time at our house with her leaves loving her too. So maybe "The Joys of Life with Lucy" describes my life well. Don't worry.... this isn't a blog about my dog. She is just my inspiration :)

Here she is.....

I'm not one of those people who dresses their dog up, but Lucy loves squirrels so much that I couldn't resist buying this costume at Target this past Halloween. Every time someone came over, I made sure she modeled it for them. Adam hated it :)

She was awake... with her squirrel on her face.... and stayed that way for at least an hour....

Here she is sitting on my friend Emma.... like it's no big deal...

So there's Lucy. If you haven't met her yet, you should.

I look forward to letting you into the joys in my life.... whether that be something crafty I've created, something fun about a friend, something interesting I've come across, or something from a fun place I've been. You never know - I might just blog about you and your interesting life, so keep following!

Have a joy-filled day!

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