Vacation Highlight

While we were at the beach last week, we visited Fort Pickens, which was listed in the top 10 things to do in the Pensacola area (we actually stayed in Alabama, but drove over to Pensacola Beach one day) by Trip Advisor. I'm sort of a history nerd and enjoy things like this, and my husband enjoys looking at really anything that is a man made structure.


I'm a big believer of Trip Advisor's ratings because I've had several good experiences from trying things I've found on there. We took a quick vacation to Denver about about 6 weeks before Levi was born, and we visited Mt. Evans, which is rated the #2 thing to do in the Denver area. It is probably one of our most favorite memories/experiences and I recommend it to everyone I know who visits the area. Here are two pictures from the mountain:

These were taken with my old digital camera that I've had since early high school, which I believe was 2 mega pixels. If the views are this good through that camera, you can just imagine how amazing it was :)

Back to Fort Pickens - most all of the structures were built in the 1820s, so it was really neat to see and walk through. Here are some snapshots from there:

{I'm wondering now why we didn't grab the stroller out of the car...sorry Tyler}

{Looking at a big boat}

Later that evening, we met my family for dinner. They were staying in Destin, FL and drove over to Pensacola Beach to meet us for dinner. 

{Our dads are here too, they coincidentally (OR WAS IT?!) are hiding behind people for the picture}

{Updates}

I've had several family members and friends ask me how they could be notified when a new post is published on Embellishments, without having to go to the website and check it every day or two for updates. There are several ways:

1. You can follow with your Google, Yahoo, or Twitter account over on the right hand side of the page (click the "Join this site" button). If you don't have a Blogger dashboard (Google) page or Google Reader this doesn't really benefit you or give you updates, it really just shows your support as a follower of the blog, and I thank you.
2. You can sign up for e-mail updates. I put this on here because I had a couple of people ask me if it was possible to be e-mailed about blog posts. Yep - it is. This is actually how my husband reads posts. On the right side of the page there is a black box that says "GET UPDATES VIA EMAIL" and you just enter your e-mail address into the box and hit submit. This will email you every post that I publish. You can also unsubscribe at any time by clicking the "unsubscribe" button in any of the blog emails. Also, there is no way for me to know who does or does not get e-mail updates - subscriptions are completely anonymous.
3. The third way to get updates is to "Like" Embellishments on Facebook. I created a page just for this reason - people asking how they could get updates if they didn't have any of those Google pages. Every time I publish anything on Embellishments, I post it to Facebook. So anyone who "likes" the Facebook page, will see those posts in their news feed. You can find the Embellishments Facebook page HERE.

It really blows my mind that anyone has asked these questions because I cannot imagine anyone other than family and close friends being interested in this little site, but I do appreciate it! It has been really fun meeting new friends via this vast online world. :)

Heirloom Memory Quilt

{scraps before they became precious heirlooms}

I shared with you back in January that I had pillows made for several of my family members (you can read about that here) for Christmas presents. Anna, who owns the shop For the Love of Joy, made the pillows using fabric scraps that my great grandma had cut out years ago (out of her old clothes and linens) for a quilt that she never made. Well, Anna contacted me after she made the pillows to let me know that she still had lots of the scraps left over and wanted to know if I wanted her to ship them back or if I wanted her to make a small quilt out of them, and of course, I wanted the quilt :)

She put a lot of hard work into the little quilt - my great grandma had hand-stitched all the pieces and Anna hand-stitched a lot of it so it would match, which I know takes a lot of time and effort - and this past weekend it was waiting on my doorstep for me when we got back from our vacation. I couldn't be more pleased - it is such a beautiful little quilt and such a special heirloom! A couple of family members made sweet baby quilts for Levi when he was born, but those are his, so this is really my first family quilt to have in my home.

A big thanks goes to Anna for working so hard to make it so special and a big thanks goes to my Anna (what I call my grandma) for giving me the scraps which became these beautiful heirlooms to be treasured from now on!

{to give you an idea of the size}



{the back}

This Week

If the Shoe Fits... {Guest Post}

Happy Monday! We are currently vacationing at the beach right now .Today you get a special treat - my cousin Chelsea is guest posting for me (she also did once before, here)...about shoes! You can read more from Chelsea here and here. Thanks Chels!

Well, hello again! So nice to be back, I figured I'd do something a little different this time so bare with me.


When Les asked me to do another post I was honored, and panicked. Why? For one, I titled this post "Toilet Talk" with every intention of doing a "Project Post" about my recent bathroom remodel, but then decided it wasn't fun or thrilling and I wanted to be asked back again thus the forth coming random post you are about to embark on....Ready? Let's go!

So here are a few reasons why I could never be a blogger:


1. I lack the ability to start and finish something. No, wait, I take that back. I can start and finish something it just may not happen for awhile. Blogging....it's all about keeping the reader's attention and giving them a reason to come back. Which requires posting regularly--as opposed to once every 8 months.  {See below}

2. For this blog alone I started 5 different posts and couldn't finish a one of them without totally losing my OWN attention.


3. Oh, I also have a mild form of ADD {which, let's face it, who doesn't have some form of it}. Like between writing #2 and #3 reasons I was pinning new style options for summer color combos, looking through Facebook to see how many new fans the shop {oh, the shop? read here for more info} acquired since posting a contest, and paying for my internet bill so I could at least finish this post for my cousin.


Oh, sorry, didn't mean to leave you again...ok, where was I? Oh yeah...


4. Ok, here's something I could totally blog about and start and finish all in the same sitting, here goes nothing!


Shoes.


Let's face it, girls {sometimes guys...yeah, I'm talking about all your tennis shoes, dude!}, we likey the shoes and we likey the variety. I won't even go there {you know, how many shoes you have}, let's just keep that little fact to ourselves. Regardless, we love them! So in honor of women and our love for shoes, I'm going to share with you a little shoe secret.

My favorite shoe line as of late? Lindsay Phillips! The girl is genius! This all started as a High School project now turned mega successful business that women of all ages and styles LOVE to wear! The concept behind these shoes is that you take one pair of shoes and interchange what they call "snaps" on the shoe to create a whole new look and shoe!

Here are some of my favorite combos:

 

I cannot describe to you how fabulous this shoe line is! If you are looking for a Spring/Summer shoe to be your "go-to" shoe that can virtually go with anything, look this line up and thank me later.

Thanks for reading!

Chelsea

Project Post 22: Drip Pan Magnet Board

I saw this post on this blog, which led me to this pin:

The author in the blog post made her drip pan a chalkboard, but since we already have a large chalkboard (here), and the driveway is Levi's chalkboard, I decided just to leave it alone and let it be a magnet board (much less work).
The drip pan is from Wal-mart (automotive department) and is less than $10. There are a lot of things you could do with this! I love it - and so far Levi does too.

I made those "play" letters out of just wooden letters and scrapbook paper (both from Hobby Lobby). Don't look close because they bubbled up a bit from the glue/mod podge. I was going to make "learn" but decided "play" was one less letter - thus easier :)

Levi had fun with the magnet board. I kept hearing "this is fuuun," but unfortunately it wasn't my 16-month-old making complete sentences; it was my husband...as he was doing this:

And this is how we feel about that:



Recent Snapshots {March}

{On days we play REALLY hard, sometimes it's hard to stay awake through dinner}

{Slide}

{Slide}

{Swinging}

{Waking up Dad with a breakfast party on his birthday}

{Happy Birthday Dad!}

{Happy Birthday!}

{Dinner out & a trip to the park to celebrate more daylight after daylight savings}

{yay!}