What a legend and role model - Shirley Temple Black.

My daughter (some say a doppelganger for Shirley) in a photo shoot image below.

Valentine's Day Preparation

Pottery Barn Kids offered a card set with a robot, little girl, little boy astronaut and poodle that I picked up during the post-holiday sale last year.  I loved the vintage look and the clearance price and she loved the sweet images!  Though they have a new set this year that they offer with a similar feel, they no longer offer the set we picked up.

Since the preschool doesn't encourage food treats along with cards passed out, we opted for some fun rainbow and ball (basketball, soccer ball, football, etc.) erasers instead.  The erasers were on the end caps at Target, but I am not sure if they're still in stock.  To tie it together, I used my novice design skills and wording inspiration from posts across Pinterest to create a sandwich bag sized folding label.

  They look pretty cute all assembled and coordinate well with the cards.

We also picked up some adorable foam crafts (Owl and "Monster") for the Valentine's Day party from Oriental Trading.  They have fun putting their own creations together and no doubt there will be some hybrid Owl-Monsters.  I can't wait... ;)

And they called it, Puppy Love

I am a huge doodle fan.  In the spirit of loving my own Maggie Doodle (aka Margaret, Mags, Magnadoodle...), I have two favorite blogs featuring these adorable pups.  Super lovable - no??  She hugs too.

One is no longer updated, but remains a classic.

http://ayearwithfinley.blogspot.com/

The other is going strong with not one, but two doodles featured.

http://theinspiredroom.net/inspired-dog/

I am not ashamed.

Fairy First Birthday

With a ton of inspiration from the Hostess with the Mostess, I threw my youngest a fairy themed first birthday party.  In reality, I am turning back in time (about 3 years) to produce a "throwback" post for this party.  I will do my absolute best to give credit where credit is due.  I ask for forgiveness ahead of time where my memory or trail of digital history falls short.

It all began with a magical fairy photo shoot.  I had several ideas and connected with a very talented and patient photographer in my area to bring them to life.  The photographer was kind enough to humor me.  She had plenty of her own creative ideas to offer up as well and they turned out beautifully!

Fairy inspired:

Vintage inspired:

From there, some Etsy research led me to this invitation.  I plugged in the stunning photos (after agonizing indecisiveness over the lovely options).  Apologies for my edits - I have to keep in mind a bit of privacy.

More to follow as some of the party photos performed a disappearing act.

In the blog world, the changes to the methods used to keep up with your favorite blogs have been ch-ch-changin'.  A popular choice now seems to be Bloglovin.  So, I added this little low profile and unkept blog there too.  As always, the intent is to get with the program and add some consistent flow of posts...we'll see. :)

The good news is, following this blog won't overtake your feed.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Summer Reading Challenge

I believe that reading to your children is a gift and such a pleasure.  Toddlers, in particular, love story time.  We have collected many books over the years between three children.  It is my goal to get through as many of them with her as possible and document them for her to look back on and perhaps showcase her list to her class at the close of summer for Show and Tell.  She even has a Kindle reader that can serve as another way to achieve reading success this summer.

Take on the reading challenge.  Whether it's one book per day, number of minutes of reading time, or another goal, turn off the television and read.  I have challenged my other family members to get in on the plan and read with her as well.  Soon enough, she'll be reading to us!  Here are just a few of her favorites.

As always, credit goes to the authors, illustrators, publishers, etc.

This evening, we read:
Aurora and the Helpful Dragon

My "just turned four" year old discussed the characters, problem, solution, etc. with me.  She even gave me this sweet recap: "He breathes fire and hides under Aurora's dress because the king and queen didn't like dragons.  But then they told them that Crackle is nice.  He showed he was brave and helpful.  Then, he showed his tail to them."

Not only does my littlest love for people to read to her, but she is mastering storyline memorization as well as illustration and work recognition.  This is her at age three reading a favorite from Dr. Suess, "Green Eggs and Ham" with a lot of gusto I might add...

Paint Me Enamored

I innocently clicked on a Pinterest post on a board dedicated to art work for a friend's young daughter's room. In my head "Ooooh I'd like that! How do I purchase one?" It looked quite beautiful and if it was for a toddler's room, it must have been fairly attainable right? Isn't everything in the world of Pinterest something easily translated into real life?

Enter the world of Laurence Amélie. This extraordinarily gifted painter's work instantly became my obsession. Small problem - it's highly popular and, while completely priced appropriately for fine one-of-a-kind art, a bit out of my price range for my own toddler's room.

Surely I can find a safe home for a painting like this (as shown in the gallery section of her site)...

I am not a student of art, so don't know the adequate terms and points of assessment when reacting to art. But, I can appreciate artistic talent. The dancing tutus invoke a feeling that Earth's elements helped to inspire the painter to create free-flowing movement on canvas. The colors are so soothing and delicate, but moody at the same time. Simply breathtaking.

It seems that Rachel Ashwell of Shabby Chic has partnered with this painter to offer Amélie's work in her stores and online as well. The florals are equally as stunning as the tutus. I can see why the Shabby Chic style is a perfect pairing with this art.

So, while I admire the above work that does not belong to me from afar, I would like to call attention to its beauty. Fooled again Pinterest, fooled again. Ah, but what a wonderful splurge it would be.