in the queue: valentine's day ♥

happy monday!

this week i'm working on a few valentine's day projects and i'll be sharing them throughout. i am about 75% done with my cards that i'm sending out to a few friends + family members. i have to redo one of the designs because it was pretty much a fail from the start. i have some diy decorations to share and i'm working on the perfect pattern for a dress/jumper for abby. it's going to be a great week!

love.

4 simple goals: q1

it's time to share my simple goals for the first quarter of the year. i'm going pretty easy on this first one since i was a little ambitious for the holiday season and totally failed on getting everything done. ha.

1. learn a new knitting stitch. there is a cowl that i'd really love to try out here that requires a herringbone stitch. it's a gorgeous project that i think would be great in my etsy shop so i need to learn it super quick!

2. start abby's 1st year scrapbook. i know. bad mommy. she's almost 8 months and i haven't done a thing. ugh.

3. plan abby's 1st birthday party. i'm 99.99% sure i have the date so now i need to get out those invites out!

4. schedule some me time. i have done absolutely no pampering for myself since before abby arrived. i need my hair colored desperately and trimmed up so i can continue growing it out. i would LOVE a spa day (hint hint if a certain someone is reading this...) or even just an afternoon to take a class at purl soho.

we are all still suffering from colds here in the taylor house so a lot that needed to get done today didn't (i.e. a trip to the laundromat). i do think we are getting better, it's just been super rough getting abby to stay asleep for any real amount of time. how do you explain to a 7 month old that a. if she blows out instead of sucking in when i'm trying to clear her nose she'll feel better and b. that if she sleeps it off, she'll feel better. it breaks my heart.

oh well... hopefully we get a little peace tonight for me to get a few stitches in.

love.

putting the pieces back together.

they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions... and well, i had the best of intentions for this blog in december and january. the reality of our situation the past few months however has been pure mayhem. not bad, scary, or unhappy mayhem... but mayhem just the same.

after the holiday traveling settled we completely threw our little 16a home into disarray once again. with abby working very hard to become a more mobile baby i desperately needed room in our living area that we just did not have. i also needed to finally have some workspace that i could actually work in... instead of a jumbled mess of random storage and a dining room table that was almost always covered with piles of whatever.

then just to top it off my computer decided to break down on me. which is why this post will not include the before photos that i want to share of my space... joe tells me that all is not lost but i'm still quite nervous that i may have lost the first 6 months of the little one's life. i'm trying not to think about it.

so the good news... it's done. well my space is. the little middle room that was first a bedroom, then a dumping ground is now this...


i have the expedit mega shelves that i've been dreaming of for so long. for those ikea lovers like me i'll explain... it's the expedit 4x4 bookcase with desk and then we added the smaller 2x4 on top with flat brackets. then just for now and because i had room (and always need more room) i added my craft cubes on top. i could sit and look at my shelves all day... they make me so happy.


and all of that storage space means that i don't have a single thing cluttering my desktop. there is nothing like pure empty workspace. ahhh....

oh, and did you see the room for the vinyl. bliss.

the living room isn't quite done but the space that we have in there now is amazing. we have a little nook for our dining room table where we can actually eat as a family, an amazing concept (oh and it's also clear for the first time in 3 years!!) and i am pleased to say that abby has a big open space to roll around (and maybe figure out the crawling thing).

so i'm back in business. now i just need to salvage my computer's memory and finish setting up joe's computer to be compatible to my ocd organizational standards... i can't even explain the mess his filing system on this thing is in.

and did i mention all of this we keep getting...


well... that's all the update for now. the whole family now has colds so it's time to get back to my sniffly little cuddle bug who currently wants to help with this post. i don't usually like to post photos out here in the wide open web but i can't resist just one...


she loves her puppy (but it will need to major sterilization after this bout of nasal drip).

this weekend:
stitching valentines
more paint swatches
a quick knit for abby

love.