The Surprise!

Yesterday morning I was wiping down the dining room table when I happened to look out our large front window. I saw three mini vans pull into the driveway at the exact same time. Three mini vans with three dear friends inside.

When they walked through the carport and into the sliding glass door, I knew something was up. Their grins gave them away. As soon as they were in the living room they handed me a large apple basket. Inside was the newest issue of Martha, a pretty mug with hot chocolate and marshmallows, the Passionista's JANUARY mix (jealous?), a knit cowl, a blueberry scone from Starbucks (my favorite) and a card. I was instructed to read the card out loud and when I did, I could hardly believe the words coming out of my mouth.

Three of my favorite friends and I will be leaving on a jet plane tomorrow headed for Salt Lake. A long girls weekend.

Added bonus: they planned our girls only trip to perfectly line up with the Beehive Bazaar.

I love surprises. And birthdays. And really amazing friends + husbands.

I am counting down the seconds.

[source]

[source]

I'm in a bit of a haze, dears. This weekend was pure bliss. I took a nap every day. Watched movies, ate pie, relaxed with the people I love most + pondered how very blessed I am. It was heaven.

This little 30 Days of Kindness idea is already 1/3 of the way over. Are you playing along? I have done every activity so far and have felt my spirit soar a bit these past 12 days. It's amazing how a little simple service can feed our souls. If you're participating along with me, I'd love if you would continue to share your experiences/ideas in the comments section. There are some days still left open and I would love to include your favorite simple acts of kindness in the series.

In other news, Ryan announced this will be an exciting week. I'm not sure what that means, exactly. He said something about a surprise and then refused to give me any details. I'm on pins and needles.

I'll keep you posted...

[source]

[source]

[source]

Happy Thanksgiving, dear friends. 

There is much to be grateful for. Beauty is all around. 

I feel so loved and I hope you do too, because you are.

Kisses,
Dandee

[source]

Family Pictures 2010.

I mentioned last week that we had the opportunity to work with Ryan from You Look Nice Today Photography again for our family portraits. It was a great experience. Ryan is so friendly and easy to work with. My children felt comfortable, which I think is a sign of a really great photographer.

The day of our session was the same day I threw Lindsay's shower. It was a little chaotic leading up the our appointment (Ryan literally stepped out of the shower when Ryan and Tiff from YLNTP knocked on our door) but the second we got to our location everyone was calm. And we were excited! Our session was scheduled 2 hours before the baby shower so we knew we didn't want to travel very far. Lucky for us, there is a very special grape patch just up the road from the cozy brick house. The grapes were fully ripened and smelled delicious. The vineyard is special to our family because Ryan's grandparents used to manage the patch for our church and Ryan has many memories from his childhood there.

Here are a few of my favorites from the shoot. You can view more pictures on the You Look Nice Today Photography blog.

[source]

Thanksgiving Place Cards.

I can hardly believe Thursday is Thanksgiving. It feels like I just changed my desktop calendar to November, but here we are just a few days away. Have you started thinking table decor yet? If not, I may just have the thing for you. We're scheduled to eat dinner with my in-laws this year and I made up these place cards as an experiment. They turned out so well, Abby and I have decided to make them for everyone at our Thanksgiving table. That's 27 place cards. We better get busy!

I created a template to share with all of you so you could join in the fun too. The template includes a pattern for one large boat and two smaller boats but you can print off as many as you need. You can download it here.

To create your own place cards you will need a few basic supplies.

Supplies:
paper mayflower place card template
bamboo skewers
scissors
glue gun
river rocks (I purchased polished rocks from the floral department at Wal-Mart for $4.99)
card stock
hole punch
pretty masking tape (optional)
modeling clay

Step 1: Cut out the three boats then following the dashed lines, cut slits to the fold line. Repeat on both ends of each boat.

Step 2: Fold the paper on the fold line.

Step 3: Using hot glue, secure the ends of the boat closed.

Step 4: Add pretty Japanese masking tape for a touch of color. Or not. It's up to you.

I cut the sails out of white card stock and punched holes in the top and bottom. Trim your skewers to the height you like and then stick your skewers through the punched holes.

To keep the skewers standing tall, I placed a bit of modeling clay in the bottom of the boat and stuck the skewer in the center. Adding the polished rocks also helped keep them upright.

A few other ideas: You could fill your boats with trail mix or almonds. Or how about filling the large boat up with popcorn like this turkey? That might be fun! Whatever you decide to do I'm sure it will turn out just right and your family will feel special and loved.

[source]

[source]

[source]

p.s. If you're interested, I added a little "Thirty Days of Kindness" button to my sidebar. Thanks to the lovely ladies at The Blog Guidebook I followed this simple tutorial and voilá, a button!
And some code to copy + paste. Fancy, right?

[source]

[source]

Thirty Days.

There are a mere 30 days until my 30th birthday. Instead of writing up a bucket list of things I want to do or making a list of gifts I'd like to receive, I'm planning something different. I am going to do 1 act of kindness every day leading up to December 18th. It sounds simple. And it is, really. But some days as I lay my head down I often think of the promptings I've let slip away. The smile I should have shared. The phone call I should have made. 30 nice things add up. They multiply.

Would you care to join me? I would love it if you did. For the next thirty days I will be posting a little daily act of kindness. It will be simple, nothing grandiose. If you want to use my act of kindness idea as inspiration, do it. If you have your own idea, share it in the comments section. And make sure to let me know if you're participating so I can follow your journey.

30 days. 30 acts of kindness. 30 opportunities to make a difference.

Elisa Shere Jewelry.

My favorite necklace in the whole wide world was made by Elisa Shere. It's simple and feminine and goes with everything. I basically wear it every single day. When planning PROJECT: craft I knew I wanted to share Elisa's work with our attendees. One lucky lady left that fun night with a tiny gold disc necklace of her very own.

Elisa was on maternity leave when I originally posted about all of the fabulous PROJECT: craft giveaway contributors, but guess what? Her shop has re-opened and is plum full of pretty things. Maybe you need a tiny gold disc necklace too.

Post Edit: Friends, if you live in my neck of the woods, Elisa will be selling her pretty jewelry at the Urban Craft Uprising in Seattle! She will be in booth #8 Saturday 12/4 and Sunday 12/5 from 11am-5pm at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall. I hear this event is an amazing show for indie artists and I'm tempted to travel to Seattle to peek at all the goodness myself. Who wants to join me?

Christmas Thoughts.

[source]

Friends, are you allowing yourselves to think Christmas thoughts? I am. In fact, if you were to knock on our door Sunday evening you may have heard Christmas tunes streaming through the cozy brick house. I just couldn't help myself. I wrote out my big list Friday night after the children were tucked into their beds and spent much of Saturday sitting in front of the computer searching and shopping. We are continuing our Want, Need, Wear, Read tradition which forces me to think very intentionally about the gifts we give.

Oliver's treats have all been purchased and are on their way.  I can hardly wait to wrap them up! Two of my favorite blogs, Seesaw + My Happy Little Life both recently posted about this pretty wrapping DIY from another favorite blog, Style Me Pretty. My packages won't look exactly like these beauties, but the images have given me tons of inspiration.

I think a trip to the thrift store in search of an old ivory sweater is in order.

p.s A sweet anonymous commenter asked about the possibility of Want, Need, Wear, Read tags making an appearance in the shop. No worries, they are on their way.