This sweet life ~

Lately I've been having days that seem to slip away from me...

do you have those?

You look up at the time and can't believe how fast it's flown by

and I didn't accomplish near what I had in mind.

But it seems that at this time of my life I finally realize,

that it's OK to have days like that.

I'm just thankful to have the day, period.

Our lives can get so wrapped up in trying to get so many things done,

that we simply forget to enjoy the fact

that we have the gift of another day...

A day to enjoy our blessings,

love our family

and simply to be thankful.

A few repeat image gifts for you my sweet, sweet friends:

The best part of this past weekend?

Loving on our grandbabies and being with our precious family!!

Wishing you a beautiful week dear friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn

A little inspiration and catching up ~

I found this wonderful photo that I posted a couple of years ago

from our guest room...

just a few treasures that make me smile ~

You KNOW these sweet birds make me smile! Be sure to click the image to make it larger
and save it to your own computer to use in your artwork....

I love the face of this precious baby from my fairy in a jar tutorial...

no matter how many times I see her, she makes me smile!

And isn't this heavenly?

Twine that I purchased at an estate sale years ago,

I still have them and love their simply beauty.

I was searching around on the Belle Notte Linens website and found a few

beautiful things that make me swoon ~

So in my last post I shared that we were working on about 800 toy soaps.
They are all almost finished and since my dear hubs is working six days a week
I've done them all myself! It's OK, I'm just so thankful for the order.

And to top it all off, we been blessed with orders from our General Store Soap Etsy
for about 600 egg soaps too!!!!
Each one has to be cleaned and finished before they are bagged up for shipping.
My thumbs feel like they may just fall off but I'm about half way finished.
Again, more blessings to help my family ~
I'm just sorry I've not been here but you know how it is...I know you do.

Our sweet daughter-in-law Emily had jury duty the first of this past week and

I went Tuesday to watch our grandbabies Clara and Murray.

We had a great day together and they were such angels!

Murray fell asleep while I was holding him and Clara was sitting next to me.

I just had to take a few photos of these angels ~ sorry, they are just phone pics

but are still so precious!!!

Thank you always, always for visiting me here ~

Wishing you a beautiful weekend dear friends!

hugs and love,

Dawn

A day in the life ~

I'd like to think of myself as an artist.

I've even called myself that...even a few magazines have too ;)

But sometimes...

I'm simply a mama, a mimi, a house cleaner, seamstress,

cook, laundry maid and even a soap maker.

Seems as of late I've had to concentrate on soap making

as we received a HUGE order and have been working

furiously to get it completed and to the customer.

I had to post to share just so you know I've not forgotten about you!

These sweet little tubs of soap and animals will each be bagged

in a clear cellophane bag and cinched up with pretty ribbons.

If you'd like to take a peek at our soap Etsy store click here!

Wishing  you a beautiful weekend precious friends!!!

hugs and love,

Dawn

Breaking the seal ~

That's truly what I feel like I did...FINALLY.

Broke the seal of creativity.

When you get out of the habit of making things it

can seem daunting to even get back in there

and get started on something new!

I roll things around in my mind and finally I told myself,

you are going to make something!!!

Yes, it's another lavender sachet but I'm really working on

being a little more loose in my composition and since I have

about three big ol' bags of lavender,

a sachet was the perfect project.

I've saved so, so many snippets of lace, fabric that I've printed images on

and of course you know about my button hoard...

ANYWAY, I just had to share my bit of creativity!

Since my little pretty sachet has roses featured on the front,

I thought I would look through my computer and share

a few roses images. Most I've put up here before but

sometimes people miss them! So save them and use them

on handmade note cards or even in your artwork.

Please forgive my absence lately....

I think I've been pretending

I'm on vacation!!!

The lavender sachet has been added to my Etsy store!

Happy Tuesday dear friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn

Snippets of Inspiration ~

I've been trying to straighten up my studio a little bit

and ran across this wonderful article that I saved

many, many years ago.

I have notebooks FILLED with magazine clippings that I loved

just so I could finally toss the actual magazine....I would place the pages

in those glossy page protectors and when I needed a little inspiration,

they never failed to!

Now with Pinterest and so many other beautiful things on the internet,

it seems crazy to even do this anymore but to actually remove a magazine

from my possession, I still HAVE to clip out anything that is inspiring.

This is one of my very favorite articles and I scanned in EACH page

so you could enlarge it and read it.

I even took the liberty of color correcting

it just a smidge as the images were originally very yellow in the magazine.

I think this was from an old Victoria Magazine issue ~ just by looking at the fonts.

I wish I could remember the year...can you believe how

Carol Bolton's style has influenced all that we love

EVEN now in 2014???

(Be sure to click each photo to enlarge to read)

Right now, I've been going through my fabric stash...

sorting and grouping so it will be easier to find what I need when I need it.

And I'm not talking about what's already on the shelves...

this is fabric that's been piled in laundry baskets!!!

I think that's one of the biggest problems with my studio right now,

finding exactly what I need WHEN I need it!!!

If you saw this room right now you would just laugh your head off!

But I AM trying...so that counts, right??

Wishing you a beautiful Monday dear friends!

hugs and love,

Dawn

The beginnings of summer ~

Even though it's not officially summertime around here

we sure do act like it!!!

Noah's out of school and enjoying being with his friends from

his youth group most of the time. Do you remember being 16 years old?

I felt the same way. Always wanting to stay busy!

He only has his learners license (thank goodness) for now

and is enjoying hanging out and swimming with his buddies and brothers.

I'm feeling so much better and have been busy, just not with creating much new.
But I guess making soap should count, right??

I did watch these two sweeties this week!!!

Our precious grandbabies Clara and Murray.

Their mama, Emily, had a doctors appointment and we got to spend

a couple of hours together on their turf.

It's so easy to watch them at their home as they have all their toys

and things right there.

Plus Murray has the perfect and safe "baby jail" to play in!

I snapped a few photos of them to share with you ~

Yes, Clara has her very own tablet....thanks to her Uncle Chase!

She is so great at operating this thing it amazes me!!

After playing and watching a Winnie the Pooh movie, Murray decided to catch a few zzzz's.

Look how grown up this five year old child looks!!!

Oh my goodness little Clara ~

Since we opened our General Store Soap Etsy store back up we've been very busy!!!

Here's an order we've been working on for the last few days ready to ship out ~

Thank you so very much for your sweet comments on my mammogram results.

You all truly are such blessings ~

Wishing you a wonderful weekend,

hugs and love,

Dawn