Farewell, 2013.

It's the last day of 2013! Overall, it was a good year--but I'm ready for 2014. I'm ready for a fresh start, I'm ready for spring (ugh, already...) and yes, I think I'm actually ready to turn 30. In two weeks. Well, as ready as I'll ever be...

Do you have any exciting plans for New Year's Eve? It's kind of weird when holidays fall in the middle of the week. It feels like a regular Tuesday since Chad is at work and Charlotte is hanging out with my mom like her typical Tuesday. But tonight we're having a smorgasbord of goodies for dinner and staying up until midnight to watch the ball drop...which is kind of as exciting as it gets when you have a two year old and opt not to get a sitter :)

I'm excited to see what the new year has in store for us. It's going to be a good one :)

I wish you a very Happy New Year!!

~Stacy

Post Christmas

Well, another Christmas has come and gone. I hope yours was a good one! Ours was, but as always I was ready for all the Christmas stuff to be cleaned up and put away by December 26th. So much work and planning and anticipation goes into the holiday that by the time the day actually gets here I'm usually very ready to move on. I like starting a brand new year with a clean slate and today we've packed up all the Christmas decor and put away until next year.

Charlotte was bombarded with plenty of presents, so the challenge has been to make space in her toy baskets for the new inventory. Her three-months long request for a dollhouse did not go unnoticed, so Santa Claus rewarded her well and she's been glued to it pretty much since Christmas morning :)

I can feel it starting--my disdain for winter and longing for spring. I'm trying to keep it at bay, because the thought of not seeing green grass and decent weather for another four months is almost too much to bear. I need to keep myself busy and distracted. Thankfully I received over fifteen total yards of fabric for Christmas, so finding projects to work on shouldn't be too difficult...

Enjoy this last little bit of your weekend!

~Stacy

Favorite Photos of 2013

I'm a picture hoarder. I back up my photos on a hard drive and I upload them all to Shutterfly, yet I still have a hard time hitting "delete" in iPhoto. I'm getting better, but I have a long way to go. As in, I should probably hit "delete" about 6,500 more times according to iPhoto...

But keeping all of these photos at the ready makes it easy to scroll through them anytime I want and review past weeks, months or even the whole year--which is what I've been doing this week. Over on my crafting blog I did a post dedicated entirely to photos of things I've made this year. For this post, I wanted to share my favorite photos of this past year.

Some of these photos stood out to me from a purely artistic/creative standpoint--they just turned out pretty (in my opinion). Some aren't my best work photographically but stand out because of the memory attached to them. And some have a little of both.

So here they are, in no order whatsoever.

This first photo is one of my favorites ever. I took it a few days after I got my DSLR and it was the first time I'd ever taken a photo off "Auto." I have it framed in our living room, Chad has it framed on his desk...I just love it.

This was taken in Vergennes, VT in September when Chad and I took a short trip there. While the trip itself was not our best (because of the college and the headache that was his thesis proposal, not as a dig to Vermont itself) I did get some good photos. It's kind of hard to take a bad picture in Vermont.

This one was actually taken on my phone one evening at the beach. We rode our bikes up there and had some Mitchell's Ice Cream and just walked around. It was sort of the theme of our whole summer and this photo just makes me feel calm and happy.

This one was taken at the 4th of July carnival that our city puts on every year. It was Charlotte's first time riding any ride and she was so nervous/excited/proud. She talked about this fire truck ride all summer long and will even still pretend to "take tickets, please!" and ride it. This picture always makes me smile--it captures her excitement perfectly :)

Right now this picture makes me wistful for spring! Our pretty snow is melting and has turned into a lovely mix of dirty, gray slush. I took this picture at the peak of springtime when everything was a brilliant green, the leaves weren't quite mature yet, and all the flowers were just about to burst open. It was a picture I'd been waiting to take for almost six months and one I can't wait to take again.

We took a walk on the beach at the end of January when it was completely void of people and totally frozen over. I took a bunch of pictures, some of which were (photographically speaking) better than this one, but this one is my favorite. She just looks like she's on her way to some fantastical arctic journey :)

And in a totally different season, there's this iPhone photo taken in August during early sunset. Pictures like this just never get old to me; I tend to take similar ones over and over again. 

South Haven, MI--this one was taken during our weekend trip there in May. I had never even heard of South Haven until a week before we decided to go, but I'm thankful we found it. We can't wait to go back there this year for a longer stay; it was, for sure, the best vacation of the year.

And this one from South Haven, taken the same day--it's my favorite picture of me and my girl from the year.

I took her for a walk at the park one pretty morning in late april or early May and it was just a really nice day. She wanted to wear my sunglasses so badly and I love that she put them on upside down.

This was another iPhone shot, of the same park I just took pictures of in this snowy post. I'm amazed at how pretty this place is all the time, regardless of season. This picture makes me think of Fern Gully. 

Another beach picture, can't help myself! I just like this one--I don't really have any particular reason!

Another one from our September Vermont trip--this one is from Waterbury, VT. It was just such a nice evening and we had eaten dinner at this delicious pub and decided afterward to walk through town. The streets were lined with really old homes and gas lights and it was so quaint and pretty.

Ahh, fall. This picture seems so long ago but it was only 8 weeks ago...crazy. October is so beautiful.

I took this photo to show off the Little Red Riding Hood costume for my crafting blog, but I ended up loving this one so much. She just looks like Little Red, walking through the woods to Grandma's house :)

These next two are from my recent Chicago trip, so if you're a regular reader you've seen these recently! It was a great trip and these are my two favorite pictures from the 250+ that I took.

Another recent one is this snowy, Christmasy photo at Cahoon Park last weekend. I might have to frame it.

And last, but certainly not least, is this one from September. A sunset at it's absolute best.

Most of you are finishing your last full week of work for the year! Can you believe Christmas is six days away? Have a great weekend!

~Stacy

Year of Handmades

I try to take at least one photo of everything I make. Sometimes these turn into blog posts, sometimes not, but I am always surprised at how many things I make over the course of a year--especially when I feel like it's been such a long time since I've made anything!

I scoured my photo archives and pulled out everything I could find from 2013, so now I present to you the 2013 Year of Handmades:

 This is, without a doubt, a record for me. I'm not sure if I'll break it in 2014, but seeing as my Christmas wish list included about 90% fabric I will sure try :)

Happy Holidays, and thanks for reading!

Same Scene, Different Season

I've noticed that I tend to take photos of the same things throughout the seasons--not for lack of ideas or inspiration, but simply because some things look beautiful and photo-worthy more than once a year. Like this park, for example, which has been a favorite photography spot of mine since we moved to this city.

I was browsing my 2013 photo archives and noticed that some photos I took back in the early summer are almost exact matches to the ones I just took this weekend. That was certainly not planned, but it makes for a fun comparison:

I personally prefer the photos on the left...

~Stacy

While It's Still Pretty

So far it has snowed all day long, starting well before we woke up and lasting until about half an hour ago. It's the pretty kind--fluffy and wet enough that it sticks to everything. Right now, I think it's beautiful. Especially combined with Christmas decorations and lights. Talk to me and three or four weeks and my opinion about the snow will have changed dramatically...

But for now, I couldn't get enough. Today has been a pretty perfect day--Charlotte is spending the day and night at my parents' so we can go out, so the day has been spent watching Christmas Vacation, drinking coffee, eating way too many leftover cookies from last night's cookie swap, and of course, taking pictures. And tonight we get to go downtown for dinner and Christmas light viewing. It's a good day :)

Enjoy your weekend :)

~Stacy