My quarterly post...

Oh man...I am so bad at being consistent with my blog. I guess my blog should be more therapeutic and fun than stressful, right? I mean I think about posting new blogs all the time and then get a little disappointed in myself when I don't make the time to do it. I have to stop and think about the reasons I have not posted on my blog lately:

1. My family & friends are so fun to hang out with!!

2. My Etsy store has taken off and it's been such a blessing to be so busy creating for other people!

3. I finally had the chance to decorate my own house for Christmas! Yay!

All good reasons right? So, instead of stressing about not blogging and feeling like a blog failure, I decided to just blog about the reasons I haven't blogged. How repetitive do I sound now? I know, right?

So, here is what we've been up to since my last post in October...our friends & family! They are fun!

Brian took me to LaConnor, Wa for my 3?th birthday. SUCH a cute little town! I could have stayed for a few extra days for sure! I felt like I was a world away from normal life...it was nice for a day...just a day =)

This is the lodge we stayed in. How sweet, right? Great spa, great masseuse! We recommend this joint for sure.

Not the best picture of us, but still love this man regardless ;)

Moving on to the end of October, we come to all the fun festivities of Halloween...please don't judge me for not having a picture of McKenna in her costume! I'm just now realizing I never uploaded them and now I can't find them!!

This was our first field trip with McKenna! It was so much cuteness I couldn't even stand it! We went to Thomlinson's pumpkin farm in Enumclaw.

Why does she look sooo little to me here? Can I just stop time?? Please?

We ran into her sweet little friend Juliana too! Those two could pass as sisters!

Later at on the Heck farm came the creative punkin carving with Boots. The eyeballs for sure a little on the creepy side, but they just made me laugh.

Figures! ;)

Wait...I found one of her in her sweet little Strawberry Shortcake costume!!! TO.DIE.FOR!! I love this face so much!!

Next on the agenda...we co-planned and co-hosted our first annual "Drifthood Pointers" progressive happy hour in our neighborhood! We seriously live in such a cool community!! If you have at least a few neighbors that you love kickin it with I highly recommend starting a progressive happy hour hop...the personalized sweatshirts are a must to be successful!

We took McKenna to her first wedding! Congrats Jon and Jenn Reese!!!

Is this NOT the cutest little cake topper? Love it!

Loved all the Dahlia's, mason jars and of course all of the crafty, paper details! The bride is one of my craftiest friends ever!

Then it hit...

November is when the craziness of the craft shows began for me! It was amazing, but a whirlwind of business, excitement, fun and ramping up inventory between shows while keeping up with the orders I was still receiving through my Etsy store! I feel so blessed, but it was pretty crazy for a few weeks! 5 shows in about 8 weeks...whew...good times!

The first show I was invited to participate in was all because of two sweet gals, Wendy and Angela who found my shop on Etsy! This is the show that started the ball rolling for me and I'm thankful for it!

{Trophy Cupcakes in Wallingford, Seattle}

After that I organized and participated in a couple fund raiser events at Rendezvous Wine and Brew! This was SO awesome for me because this is also where I work a couple nights a week and the people I work with are amazing! Talk about supportive, generous people! I love'em all!!!

Boots and Callie also did the shows with me. It was a blast having them there and to share all that crafty success with them!

{me and my sister, Callie}

Boots and Callie at the Rendezvous event {take 2}

Then I was invited to participate in the Starbucks Corporate holiday bazaar...talk about a whirlwind of a day! So glad Callie was there with me to as well as Maegan and Sharla. I wouldn't have been the same without my fellow crafters! We all did the Rendezvous show the night before the Starbucks show at 9am the next morning in Seattle...crazy? Yes! Fun? Totally!!!

Would I do it again back to back like that? I'll get back to you on that one next year =)

{my booth at the Starbucks event}

A girl has to get pretty creative with a max of 3' of table space to set up on!!

One of the shows I had the honor of participating in was for my very dear friend Sarah's benefit for Child Haven of Auburn! What an amazing fun night!! Sarah organized a group called Hope Helpers which is basically a group of women to share ideas and organize events to give back to our local community. The Child Haven fund raiser was the first of many to come and it was so awesome to see the turn out of so many people in our community to give back! I love it! I can't wait to be part of the next one!

My sweet, beautiful friend Sarah!

Well, that basically takes us through to the first week of December! Those were just a few of the highlights! I think I'm blogging about this to make it real to myself how busy we were looking back. Sometimes we get so busy with life when we finally stop to think about what it is that kept us busy we can't remember the details. I'm hoping that in 2012 I create more memories with my family and friends, blog more, journal more, take more pictures so no matter how bad my memory gets I will always look back and remember how blessed I am to have this busy, crazy {at times} life. I truly am blessed.

Just to warn you, this is part 1 of 2; after all, I only got through the first week of December!!

xo

Shell