Inspiration: Home Edition

I'm a filer, I love to look at magazines and rip out the stuff that I like and neatly place the pages in the appropriate binder (home, craft, kid's activity, or recipe). I also place it in a specific tabbed location within said binder but we wont get into my OCD in this post. I also like to surf the Internet and save pictures within those same categories so for all you blog readers out there here is a little home inspiration. I feel bad doing this because I can't give proper credit though--I don't save the blog addresses where these come from. I love this little reading nook...maybe in one of the girls' rooms or the basement? I also will be framing their artwork for around the house too.

If we ever get the furniture piece for the master bathroom I like this idea for one of the shelves.

Cute little vignette for a girl's room.

I can give credit for this one. This is in photographer Tara Whitney's home. I really like the framed photos, the ledges and the glass jars.


I just found this one yesterday, love it. Shadow box frames with items that relate to the pictures: sidewalk chalk with the picture of the kids writing on sidewalk...

I have a thing for birds, and glass jars.


I love the layering of different fabrics/patterns. I'm thinking of Kate's big girl bed.

I would love to turn our mud room closet into this locker bin type thing. I also love all the red accents.

All right that's it for now. Someday soon maybe I'll do Inspriation: Crafty Edition. Hope you enjoyed the sneak peeks of things that may one day be ripping off to put in my own house.

What We're Doing...Today

Today has been great. We started off working in the veggie garden. The girls and I made cute little tags with drawings of each vegetable. Next we did a quick stop at the used clothing store and I found something that has been on the wish list for a long time. I have actually been in a store ready to pay full priced for this (only to find it was out of stock) but today I got a SWEET deal on an upholstered rocker and ottoman (seen here without the cover since it's being washed). Later we made our way to the pool for a quick afternoon in the sun and now were home for naps.

What We're Doing

Saturday morning while I cleaned up breakfast the girls did this. I put paper all over the table and laid out crayons, pencils, stickers and eventually stamps. I don't think Kate is quite ready for stamps.

Yesterday was a great Father's Day, after church and naps we took a family bike ride through a huge park to here. Kendall kept saying, "It's so cool Mom, It's SO cool". She was right, it was cool.

To all you mom's out there I recommend this. I bought it a couple of years ago at Target online. They are carrying a cheaper version in the stores now with matching blankets. The one I ordered seems much sturdier though. We use it for picnics and library trips. I can't take it anywhere without getting a dozen comments on it. I imagine that when we're living in Paris I'll take it to the markets each day too.

Speaking of living in France. I'm really enjoying this blog right now. This family bought a cottage in France and are currently renovating it, it gets me excited about our future there.

Bloggy Conversations

One of the hard things about blogging for me is that it too often feels like a one sided conversation. Doing a blog post is so much easier then sending out individual emails to family members BUT if I were to do emails I would at least get an email in response! Evidently when you go for about a month without a blog post and then randomly put one up like yesterday it creates lots of questions. SO I had lots of fun emails in my inbox this morning when I woke up! Love it!! I'll do a blog post answering all the questions, sort of like Dear Abby but it's really Dear The Paper Chick, ha.

#1 A new mommy that is looking to redefine her style asks where I shop.

Most of my clothes come from just a few stores: JCrew, Gap, Target or if it’s something trendy that I wont wear very long I’ll buy something at Old Navy (their stuff often doesn’t last long). The black and white dress from the party was from Ann Taylor. I find lots of cute stuff at Target, but again it’s generally poorly made. Classic stuff that I know I’ll wear a long time I get at JCrew.

#2 Yes, this is a niece not a sister. But I often will claim all my nieces as my little sisters since it feels that way sometimes and often when I'm talking to my kids about one of my nieces I'll accidentally call them Aunt Alex...

#3 & 4 There are five girls and three boys in my family with 22 years between me and the oldest (Greg). Here you go Paula, a picture of my big bro. I got the best of both worlds; I come from a big family but since I'm so much younger then all of them (I was the only one living at home by the time I was in middle school) I also felt like an only child.

#5 We were celebrating my sister Nancy's 50th birthday. We surprised her with the sisters & Greg on Friday night (because it was really hard for all of us to stay in hiding) and the big party with everyone was on Sunday night. Nancy is probably the most generous person I know and like the other sisters she is amazingly creative; however, she also got this crazy business sense along with that and is combining the two traits into a fabulous catering business and shop (to go along with their other two restaurants).

#6 My dad is not shown because he died when I was in middle school. However, if you want to know exactly what he looked like see the above picture of Greg. I will henceforth be calling Greg "Lil Irvin". Actually, I was so very blessed, not only did I have three big brothers to worry about me I also had big brothers-in-law that were amazing male figures in my life. Seriously, two own their own businesses and the other two were Naval Academy grads and pilots. John was available to question and intimidate boys that would come pick me up for dates and then he walked me down the aisle on my wedding day. My girls think of him and Lorie as grandparents.

#7 Two of my brothers were not able to make it to the party, we missed you Bruce and Joe!

#8 I LOVE coming from a big family, it's probably the greatest gift my parents could have given me (since I was the last one I'm especially grateful for all those kids). I however could not do it so no I will not be having a family like that. I do not know how my mom did it, it is a question that often goes through my mind several times a day...usually around dramatic bedtime routines and anytime the girls fight over something.

#9 & #10 Yes, I am originally a Florida girl where I could wear skirts and sandals year round. I took a semester off in college and was living with my sister Lorie (and John and their family) where I met and eventually married Brian. After we were married he was accepted to a business school in Boston and so I finished college up there.

I think that covers them all. This was fun, please send all your relationship questions, fashion dilemmas and decorating dilemmas to Ask The Paper Chick.

Surprise Again!

Nancy's family had a great party for her with lots of friends and family on Sunday night. It was fantastic!

Mom, and the sisters.

A cute niece.
A cute niece.

A cute niece.
These two I couldn't keep off the dance floor. I really don't know where they got it.

Wait, maybe I do know. The next few could potentially be embarrassing. But I don't care, I love to dance and evidently I love to wave my arms around a lot and sing along too.

It must run in the family, Dani is getting into it too!

Sing it sistas

Really, we're all kind of shy, can't you tell?
And cameras really intimidate us.

There are no words...

...to describe how awesome this trip was.
My heart is full with good memories.
My stomach is twisted thinking of being apart from all that goodness that is my family.
My body and soul is so incredibly thrilled to be back in my own home with my sweet sweet hubby.
While words are few the pictures are many. I'll start off with just a few from the Friday night surprise and some cousin time (the kids) leading up to it.
This is with Memaw in a restaurant in Amish country.

This is my nephew Paul we have great memories growing up together (he is only four years younger then me), we liked to sing the Davy Crockett song together, play school and most frequently we could be found playing 'poor people'...oh yes we did. Here I was sitting on his lap and it made Kendall very uncomfortable, the whole time she was saying, "No Mommy, No"

This is my 'big' sister Kristy. I like this picture because it looks like I'm about to spontaneously combust or something. We have great memories of growing up too, mostly fighting over clothes. Other good memories too like when she talked me into sitting on the handlebar of her bike and then proceeded to ride at full speed and slam on the brakes. And then there was that time we play 'Dirty Dancing' and she promised me that she could to the lift. That was the first time I ever had the breath knocked out of me.

SURPRISE. Oh yeah, we got her good. And then, two nights later, we got her good again...more pictures later.

Despite the look on my face I was having fun. I must have been contemplating my second margarita at this point.

This one did not have a margarita. She did have some extreme reactions to those crazy bugs down there and she even fell out of the bed one night.

This one, I love this one. She birthed me...after birthing seven before me. Yes, she's hero material.

Playing shots.

Me:"Who stinks?"

Kate: "ME!"

He is ALL BOY, he looks boy, he walks boy, he acts boy, I love 'em.