five fancies on a friday

The name of the game today seems to be bright colors.

Kind of ironic considering my last post was all about the loveliness that is black & white.

While I definitely love b&w, color is where it is at for me.

Lots and LOTS of color!!

Here is a nice combination of b&w with some pops of cheery yellow and cool turquoise.

Of course, the sentiment is totally true as well. ;)

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Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that Easter is just two days away.

I've seen many pictures floating around out there of beautiful Easter eggs,

but this one stood out to me.

The bright colors and gold leaf are just GORGEOUS.

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Um, I need to own this chair.

Like now.

I've been digging the whole hanging chair trend and to see it in a rainbow of colors just ups my longing for one.

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Love, love, LOVE this geometric hanging curtain.

This project is already on my list for my 30th birthday party in October.

Love the shape, the colors, the glitter.

Everything.

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These plates are almost too pretty to eat off of.

Almost.

They would be absolutely awesome as serving platters as well.

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Any big plans for this Easter weekend?

Whatever you do, I hope your weekend is full of food, family and fun!

peace, love, and all things sparkly.

mySTYLE :: black & white

As much of a fan of color as I am,

sometimes I crave the simplicity of black & white.

These two colors never go out of style and are the perfect backdrops for whatever other color combos you are loving at the moment.

I find black & white in bold patterns the most intriguing.

This anchor print would be fabulous hanging in a bathroom or kitchen.

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These mini cups are super adorable and could be displayed, as well as used.

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I love the tree print on this throw pillow.
I've seen it used on a blanket and crib sheets as well.
I need it in my life, somewhere.

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I'm really digging the idea of layered and mismatched throw pillows for both the bed and couch.
This would be perfect with other pillows that have pops of bright color. Perhaps neon?

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There is something so cozy and comforting about a stack of folded quilts.
Love the monochromatic tones here.

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What a cute idea for gift wrapping.
Kraft paper and washi tape.

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Can I have this scarf?
Pretty please?

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I'm normally a big bag type of gal, but I love the look of a foldover clutch for a night out on the town.
This black & white striped one would be great with an array of outfits.

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How fun is this couch?!
One day I will own a piece of patterned furniture.

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Haha! This cheese cutting board is pretty spectacular.
I would totally display it on a kitchen shelf.

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LOVE these Marimekko dishes!
They are just so happy looking, even in black &white.

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Even though I'm pretty partial to punches of color in a kids' space, 
I am still absolutely smitten by this playroom.
Look closely, there's that pine tree pillow again. ;)

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Oh my! These pajamas are so adorable!
I could absolutely see Lawson in these.
He might even get into character with some of his new favorite bear/monster sounds.

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Again, it would be so hard for me to limit adding in color to a room,
but that doesn't mean that these b&w rooms don't catch my eye.

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This kitchen would be absolutely impossible to maintain with kiddos running around,
but I love how clean it looks!

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Audrey and Lawson definitely need this print for their bedroom.
Or maybe we'll just hang it in the living room, ;)

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I am so lusting after an Aztec print cardigan.
I have several different ones pinned on Pinterest.
Too bad the cool weather is quickly leaving Central Texas. 

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What do you think of the black & white trend?

peace, love, and all things sparkly. 

turning a BLAH! day around.

Guys, I've been very BLAH today.

And really it has sucked.

Not my day, but my attitude.

I honestly think that what is affecting my mood is that I just plain don't feel good.

Allergies are kicking my hiney something fierce.

And instead of sucking it up and shrugging it off, I've let myself become agitated and irritated.

Not at anyone or anything in particular, just in general.

So yes, it might already be 2pm, but I'm bound and determined to turn my mood (and in turn, my day) around.

The weather is absolutely beautiful here today.

And spring is definitely coming around, as evidenced by the wildflowers that have started popping up.

So I'm going to get out and enjoy it and my kiddos by taking a long, easygoing walk to pick Audrey up from school.

There is so much to be thankful for and so much to be happy about.

I will not be robbed of that joy.

So allergies, you know where to stick it!

Here's a bit of pretty inspiration if you are finding yourself in the same boat as me. 

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Our happiness is in our own control.
It's high time people realize it and stop making excuses, myself included.
And that last picture, it's totally directed at myself.
I'm an idiot for ruining half of my day. ;)

peace, love, and all things sparkly.

  

these kids of mine! :: lawson

I really don't think that this kid needs an introduction.

He is crazy and happy and lights up the room with his dimply grin.

Right now the biggest thing going on with Mister Lawson James is his ever expanding vocabulary.

It really seems like he is learning new words daily.

And I (not so) secretly love the fact that he still uses a lot of proto-words that only I can understand.

Of course, being that he is rounding the corner towards turning two, his favorite word seems to be NO. Often followed by or done simultaneously with a head shake.

He knows a bunch of different parts of the body, including where his doo-das (dimples for those not hip to the Lawson lingo) are.

He often sits in my lap and points out the different parts of my face, and without fail, every time he gets to my hair he makes me bend my head down so that he can kiss the top of my head.

 Lawson has never been too big on baby sign language.

In fact, the only one he's ever used on a regular basis is the sign for "more".

He actually uses this one quite often.

Then, all of the sudden, a couple of days ago he has started throwing the sign for "please" into the mix.

Of course, he actually uses his signs in conjunction with actually saying the words,

but I still think it's pretty cool.

This kid also has his bedtime routine down pat.

A couple of months ago I decided to gender neutralize his and Audrey's room a bit, so I hung some cutouts of Dr. Seuss characters on the wall.

Randomly one night he wanted to kiss the Cat in the Hat before bed, and then the next day he wanted to do the same before nap, and so on and so forth.

For awhile now his routine is (after dressing for bed) kiss Audrey, kiss Daddy, kiss the cutout of the Cat in the Hat, kiss the cutout of the Lorax, kiss the cutout of Yertle the Turtle, blow a kiss to the cutout of Fox in Socks (it's too high up to reach), kiss Mommy, sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Lullaby and finally be put into bed to fall asleep.

We do all of this, in this order, before both naptime and bedtime, without fail.

Another thing that I've noticed him doing lately, both at home and when he's at work with me, is lining up toy cars and push toys all in a row like a train.

He is also a whiz when it comes to technology.

Baby can play on an iPad and open any phone with the best of them.

I'm thinking the time to start potty training is fast approaching, as he tells me when he has gone number two 99% of the time.

Also, he is becoming more and more interested in the bathroom, commenting "Potty!" whenever people go in, and if you ask him what you do in the potty he'll answer, "pee peeeeee!".

Lawson is a very finicky eater, loving something one day and hating it the next, but I suppose most toddlers are this way.

His current favorites are :: arroz con pollo  or cerdo (rice and chicken or pork), fruit and yogurt smoothies, yogurt, string cheese, clementines, apples, macaroni & cheese and goldfish (among others).

The way he tells you that he is hungry is to say, "Ahmama". 

It's a very distinctive "phrase" and is widely used in our house.

He also LOVES his big sister.

And he LOVES to torment her.

Poor Audrey has been the target of many a hair pullings and bites and scratches.

For the record, he doesn't do this type of stuff with other kids, just his Audrey.

But as much as he does to irritate her, he also loves to love her and play with her.

They often dance together and whenever she's gone to school, he asks about her a minimum of five times.

I know that I'm leaving out a lot of his crazy antics right now, but I'm hoping that these little updates will become a regular feature around these parts.

peace, love, and all things sparkly.

these kids of mine! :: audrey

I've been thinking that a little update on my kiddos is past due.

And honestly, I might start gearing more of my posts toward a familial theme.

The moments of my kids' lives are beyond precious and I don't want there memory to fad into oblivion.

So I will be adding more updates on things happening with them (or us as a family), as a diary of sorts.

Audrey.

My little Sweet Pea.

This girl is going to be celebrating her 7th birthday next month and I'm baffled as to where the time went.

It's true when you hear that once you have kids, time flies.

Audrey LOVES to sing and dance.

She will often ask you to stop what you're doing and watch her perform.

One of the things that she's picked up lately is dancing along to the demo songs on our keyboard.

There is this one song in particular that has a sort of eighties feel to it and, without fail, on the song's closing note she does this one handed punch in the air, over her head while throwing her head back move. It might be hard to envision based on my description, but trust me when I say it is both awesome and hilarious.

Audrey is also starting to pick up on her daddy's snark.

Joke telling has never been her forte, but she's starting to get down the dry humor responses that her daddy (and sometimes mommy) doles out.

Needless to say, it's becoming lots of fun to hear what she comes up with.

Last month she took a test to somewhat gauge her reading level.

My little bookworm is reading at a 5th grade level with 120 words read per minute!

A few weeks back Audrey got her FIRST HAIRCUT EVER!

She's had about one teeny tiny trim a year since she was 3, but this was the first time any real amount of length came off.

Before the big snip.

Post haircut.

At first we were both super nervous (hello, heart palpitations!).

But as this is somethings she'd been wanting to do for awhile, I knew it was time to take the plunge.

 And let me tell you, the shorter hair looks SO FREAKING CUTE on her!!

She was so pleased with it and ran around the house for the rest of the afternoon yelling about how much she LOVED it!

To be quite honest, it really isn't "short" in the traditional sense, her hair still falls below shoulder level, but it is a vast difference from what she previously had.

We are also full swing into losing baby teeth.

The last tooth that she lost gave her a gap three teeth wide across the top.

Her two middle teeth have finally started growing in after being MIA for a few months.

And loose tooth number 8 will be making its way into the tooth fairy's pouch before long.

This mama is just glad that the pulling of the teeth (once they are SUPER loose) has unofficially been deemed daddy's job!

A few months ago Audrey decided that she doesn't like chocolate (GASP!).

She's okay with chocolate ice cream or chocolate frosting (and chocolate milk or cereal), but anything with chocolate chips in it? 

No way, Jose!

She also does not like chocolate candy.

Outside of that she is my meat and dairy girl.

She loves steak, hamburger patties, chicken, pork, you name it.

And she is beyond okay with the fact that she is eating animals.

As a matter of fact, one day she came home from school and was telling me about her lunch (she gets the school lunch tray).

I guess she asked for a foil pouch that she thought contained a stuffed spud, but when she opened it she found that it was a burger. 

After taking two bites of it, she realized that it was a VEGETARIAN BURGER!

At least that was how she exclaimed it to me.

When I asked if she finished it she said, "NO! MOM, IT WAS A VEGETARIAN BURGER!!", like she just couldn't believe the injustice of it all.

Daddy is proud! ;)

I have just realized that this is already turning into a SUPER long post, so I will stop here and bring you some Lawson tidbits tomorrow.

Hopefully this finds you having a superb Wednesday!

peace, love, and all things sparkly.

it's beginning to feel a lot like springtime!

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We still have a few more weeks until it's "officially" spring, but I feel it in the air already.

Here in central Texas, the weather can be fickle.

Summer is almost always the same, dry and HOT.

But the rest of the year, it's anyone's guess as to how the weather will be on a day to day basis.

That being said, during the fall and spring seasons we have some awesomely beautiful days.

Sunny, not too cool, not too hot, breezy, the whole nine yards.

And those days are becoming more and more frequent.

Honestly, I really just want to bottle up the beauty of those days, because all too soon, it will be summer again, and it will be BLAZING once more.

Even though fall is my favorite season, spring definitely holds its own.

There are so many things to love about the springtime.

It feels like a fresh start, and I get the urge to jump into full on spring cleaning mode.

All of the wildflowers in Texas are AMAZING!

Thank you Lady Bird!

There is also a natural "slowing down" of sorts that happens in the spring.

The holidays are done and over, outside activities are far more enjoyable, and the lazy days of summer are right around the corner.

It's a perfect time to stop and smell the roses, if you will.

In the last month I've picked up the new habit of going for morning runs (with some walking thrown in ;) and lately there's been a nice crispness in the air, one that hangs on the balance of winter and spring.

The mountain laurels have been blooming and considering people plant them here in massive quantities, I've been enjoying their scent as I pound my feet on the pavement.

Also, the weather has been perfect for opening the patio door in the afternoon.

Sunshine and lovely breezes just feel so inviting inside a home.

I'm definitely soaking that in as much as possible, because in a few months it will be way too hot to indulge in that.

What do you love about spring?

peace, love, and all things sparkly.