Christmas Times- Part 2

Back in Cali, I finally found the right dress for Carys to go with her red shoes. She's so fabulous! We celebrated Christmas Eve at our church and then at Sylvia's house. Then Christmas Day at my mom's house and then my dad's. It was a busy-busy 2 days but I am grateful to be blessed with so much love and family to see, presents to open, and of course, our tummies full. More importantly, our hearts are full, and we have Jesus to thank for that!


playing the piano with Sydney


she is starting to stop and let me take her picture, this is one of her poses


our family celebrating Christmas Eve at Calvary Chapel Tustin

O Christmas Tree!

Christmas Times - Part 1

We got to have two Christmases this year, one in Idaho and one here in Cali. We got snow the first day in Idaho, then rain the rest of the time, until the last day it snowed again. It was a good time hanging out with the family, and eating lots of yummy food!

Here is Carys keeping watch over the mules

My funny brother-in-law Matt got me in the gift exchange. Can you guess what I got? Can you? You'll never guess....


Grandpa!

Mason gets ready to shoot his eye out

Carys guarding all of her presents


walkin' in a winter wonderland...

Boot Tray

I am digging this idea, even though I pretty much never have icy, wet boots. Plus my kid would try to eat the rocks. But still, I think it would look cool just as a regular place to put my shoes right?

DIY from Martha Stweart, click here.

Home sweet home

So I have been "home" now for a week. I'm so grateful that the Lord has given us this opportunity! I am starting to learn a lot about how this works. Like that I can pick up after Carys all day and its still not that clean around here! Or that if I'm going to get any grocery shopping done, I absolutely NEED the cart with the little car attached to the front (best invention ever!).
I dusted off the old stroller and we've been going on walks. Today we went to the Spectrum and I saw some of my old work peeps. I miss them! It still feels like I'm on vacation and will be going back. Weird. We also went on the carousel, although she was too scared to sit on any horse by herself, and the smug carousel worker guy with the cool sunglasses would not let her sit on my lap. Boo! I mean, isn't it safer for me to sit with her, then to stand next to her? I'm just sayin... I almost asked for my 2 dollars back. She still had fun though of course. Here's a pic of us on there, I took with my phone. Aww, look how big she's getting! She is 18 months old today...little rascal...

Dillinger Fabrics

Oh I am excited about this and I don't even know how to sew. I found this store on Ebay called Dillinger Fabrics, that has some great prints at good prices. They've got Amy Butler (who i've heard of) and Michael Miller (who i haven't), but i love them both.
I got some of this print for Carys' room, I would love to make some Roman shades out of them.

I also got some of this geometric print that has no home yet, maybe somewhere in the kitchen?

Here are a couple others I liked, but couldn't afford to buy the whole store. The blue and black is by Miller, and the orange buds are Amy Butler.



There is a lot more, if you're into fabrics you should check it out!

Getting there...

Last week I put in my 2-week notice at work, and that made my transition to stay-at-home mom-hood real. Today they sent out the notice to hire my replacement, now it really seems real! My last day at Element is next Tuesday, I will have been here almost 4 years. When I started here I wasn't even engaged yet, wow.
They have treated me well, but I am so excited for this next stage of my life, getting to be there full-time for my husband and daughter. As happy as I am to be moving on, there is still a part of me that is quite sad to be leaving. People at work become like family, people you are stuck with but grow to love (well, most of them...ha!)

Solid Gold

I absolutely love this ring from Shop Bop...

Dress Up Time

I think everyone knows how much I love to dress up on Halloween. I am still chasing that elusive costume in which Nathan will have to wear spandex. Some day...
The last couple years Carys has been cranky, so I haven't gotten the best pictures. I plan to keep dressing the whole family up as long as they will let me! This year we went as Pilgrims and a turkey. I bought the Pilgrim costumes, but I made the turkey costume, too bad I couldn't get her to wear anything on her head. Maybe next year!

Here she is with the other animals.


Ye Olde Family picture...see what I mean about cranky?


Goodnight!

Threadless-ness

My friend Anita forwarded this site Threadless to me and it has been concluded that it is quite possible to go broke here.
Cool kids only of course!


hehehe


Anything glorifying the cookie/milk relationship is good

The Drummer

Eclipse!

Urbanism

Urban Outfitters online suprisingly has some awesome stuff! I don't know if I'm just late to the party, or if this is a new thing, but I like it, a lot.

I think I should get this chair as an ode to my Grandma Clark, who loved blue. Plus it's a fabulous chair anyway.


Like orange sherbert...mmmmm


What's cooler than a portrait of a cheetah in a suit? A portrait of a cheetah in a suit with an eye patch.

Pumpkin!

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Originally uploaded by kwunischelove

Oh Deer

Yes! I need to find a place for this from Anthropologie.

Caspedia Mania

I have seen these flowers a lot on various blogs and I just love them. For some reason they have been really hard for me to find. I found them on this one wholesale site, but they were like $400 for a big bunch of them. Ummm no. I just think they would be perfect in a white vase on my mantel. Maybe one day I will try to grow them myself. They are also called Billy Buttons. Oh you elusive Caspedia!!

All you need is Love

Video - wedding
Originally uploaded by kwunischelove

My friend Michelle was married last weekend at her parent's house, and it was such a lovely and personal wedding. I loved it. Michelle looked absolutely gorgeous. Too bad Nathan was out of town but I took Carys as my date.
Here is video of the groom's dad playing during the ceremony. Sorry the quality isn't great, I was sitting in the back. But it was just the sweetest thing!

I promise this was water. I discovered she can drink much better out of a champagne flute than a regular glass!

Lonny Mag - First Issue

It was sad a few months ago when Domino magazine faded away into the night, but there is now something to replace it! This is an online magazine, which I've never seen before. I wish I had something to cut pictures out of, but hey its better than nothing and still so much fun to look at. Check it out at http://lonnymag.com/
I couldn't quite figure out how to post images directly from it yet, the technology is a little over my head...here is the direct link to one of the pages I liked.
Lonny Issue 1
My favorite thing I saw was this antler chandelier, its only $6000. Sheeesh! I do love it though.

Its Official....I have a toddler

Adventures at Fatburger

Fatburger Rules. And now my baby loves it too. She hasn't been eating much lately, I think as a result of her cough she's been fighting. But Friday night we went to Downtown Brea and this baby Fatburger may have snapped her out of it. Yes! I think FB is the best burger out there. I love In N Out also, but FB is still on top. Johnny Rockets is great too, but they are inconsistent. On a good day, they can definitely challenge Fatburger. I often think of doing a full on bracketed OC burger competition, but who has the time....maybe someday.

This is...

I wanted to share a couple sites that entertain me...very different subject matter, but both awesome in their own ways.

ThisIsNotIkea
The name says it all, this site has tons of cool vintage pieces. The only thing is you have to go down to the store in LA to actually buy the items. The site has everything broken down by style, or color, or type.
I have yet to make my way up there yet, but its definitely on my (long) to-do list.

This hexagon mirror is 80 bucks.

I like this cork lamp also, its 90 bucks.



This Is Why You're Fat
I came across this site one day while researching the Taco Nachos at Jack-in-the-Box. (quite tasty by the way).
Next time you feel like cheating on your diet, check this place out. You will feel like you pigged out on some serious grub. It will either satisfy your craving by just looking, or send you over the edge and into a pig-out frenzy, looking to deep fry everything in sight. This is at your own risk.

The Fat Elvis - Deep fried pb&j and banana sandwich sprinkled with powdered sugar


The Double Bypass Burger - 5 slices of bacon, 4 slices of cheese, 2 Fried Eggs, mayo, lettuce, tomato and onion between 2 grilled cheese sandwiches. Need I say more.

Crazy Beautiful

As I see Carys' personality unfolding, it is just the most exciting thing ever. She's starting to say words like 'kee-kee' for the cat, 'be-lee' for balloons, and of course Mommy! She likes to try on shoes, hers or mine. The other day at the Gap she grabbed a pink tutu and walked all around the store with it, so I'm thinking she will love to shop (who doesn't though, right?). I've been reading her goodnight stories for a while but now I can tell that she actually likes it. She kind of falls down a lot but she hardly every cries, tough girl! And she loves to dance. I just love my girly tough girl.

Blog love

Going out of town for a week, I didn't see any of my favorite blogs for a while. Which was completely OK, since it was fun to come home to lots of stuff to check out. Here are some of my favorites from what I missed.
(I'm still trying to find out how to post an actual link under a photo so you can link right to it. I don't know why I can't figure this out since it seems like such a basic concept!) Update: just kidding, i figured it out!


From the Crew, via www.anh-minh.com


Sweet girly corner via www.houseandhome.com

Now this is a peaceful tub, via www.anh-minh.com


Love the door, love the chair, would like to live here, via www.desiretoinspire.net

Idaho Summer

DSC02126
Originally uploaded by kwunischelove

More to come from our trip to Idaho. This is on Lake Couer d'alene.

The Piper

I was just checking out Piperlime.com which is this awesome shoe site, with free shipping and free returns. I got my Melie Bianco bag on there for under $100 and someone asked me once if it was a Marc Jacobs bag. Nice! They do have a lot of stuff I cannot afford, like these...

I LOVE this Chie Mahara green suede - can be yours for $350...

Here is an MB bag similar to mine, for $105, but looks designer to me, and its well made too...

Lets just say its not all cute, how about this open toed gladiator boot by Blowfish? So wrong on many levels...

I'll leave you with these Sam Edelman sandals, because they are orange, and they are flats, and that's mostly how I roll..