Greetings my lovely friends! I hope you all are getting a taste of the spring weather were are experiencing here in the south. The past couple of days have been in the low 70’s,sunny and GORGEOUS! All around my yard I can see the tiny azalea buds just barely starting to bloom, and in a weeks time the Cherry Blossom trees will have all opened up and be a sea of pinky white. This past weekend I took advantage of the beautiful weather and decided to pot some flowers to FROOF up the outside of the house. We just put our home on the market, and nothing looks prettier and more inviting than potted flowers. Grant decided he wanted to be my "BIG HELPER", and water the tulips for me.

      

 

Once he decided the water can was too heavy, and his arm grew tired, he eagerly gave the can back to me so I could finish. Meanwhile he went and picked me a flower. Awwwww…….he just melts my heart!

We’ve had some BIG milestones happen in the Hayslip household this week. Number ONE being Miss Vivian taking her FIRST steps!!! YEP! She is walking now. I like to call it the "Frankenstein" walk. hee! hee! 

   

Aren’t her piggy pj’s the cutest!

Classic FRANKENSTEIN WALK! LOL!!!!

Next milestone in our home was Grant’s has joined his FIRST organzied team sport. SOCCER!!!!!! Maybe he’ll grow up to be the next Beckham. Mommy could only wish. (wink! wink!) We are getting ready to go to his FIRST practice. YIPEE!!

Ok, you guys might be growing a wee bit tired by now of seeing pics of my kiddies, but I HAVE to show you this last pic. My son is genuinely a very loving natured child. He’s sensitive, giving, and always wants to show affection. This past Friday his pre-school had a field trip to a local park, and his best friend is Conner. They’ve known each other since they were both 18 months. These little boys are GLUED to the hip. In class they never leave each others side. It truly is the sweetest. Well, I feel soooooooo lucky to have captured these precious pictures of the boys.

      

Oh I just want to scoop them up and smother them both with kisses!

I did some spring cleaning this past weekend especially now that our house is for sale and it needs to look tip top. I found lots and lots of  little dust bunnies hiding everywhere! One place especially is under my magazine holders. This is a true site!!!! Could I squeeze in ONE more magazine??? NO! Time to clean out!!!

Such an embarrassing site!

So of course I start to weed thru the magazines to decide which ones to keep and which ones’ to toss. What should have been a 10 minute project turned into an HOUR long!!! hee! hee! To figure which ones to keep I had to look thru them ALL again to make sure they were "worthy" of the magazine stand. So here I am sitting on my sofa at 5pm when I had a million other things I should be doing like starting the kiddies dinner, and here I am flipping thru pages "oooh’ing and aaah’ing". It’s like looking at BRAND NEW magazines for the first time. How could I part with these? I felt inspired all over again just looking at the yummy fabulous pages. It has inspired me to want to redecorate my whole house all over again. I must now design and create a cottage garden with outdoor living space for entertaining my guest. Instead of buying a 5000sq ft home I would now prefer a cozy 2000 sq ft beach cottage like Miss Chez Fifi . Pages and pages of prettiness was like sensory overload. I was on a magazine high! How do I part with these?

         

My addiction (besides my computer) is magazines. Everytime I step foot in the grocery store, drug store, book store. I bee line it to the publication stands to see whats NEW and is not already on my bedside table. Before blogs and flickr, magazines were one of my true original sources for inspiration. It opens up the world and gives us a sneak peek of peoples  homes, artwork, collections, gardens,etc. There is no way I can part with these magazines. So, I boxed them all up with hopes that one day in my new home and future studio I will have the pefect place to store my original sources of inspiration. 🙂

I must share with you all one of my newest darling easter creations. She is currently available in my Etsy store.

   

Hello Wee One!!!

Miss Heather of Pretty Petals just celebrated her one year anniversary of blogging! CONGRATS!!! I LOVED the fact that she shared some random facts about herself. It truly is a way to let your friends get to know you a little better and to "connect". So, I thought why not do the same.

– I came very close to opening a tea room. Two years before I got pregnant with Grant I desperately wanted to own and operate a tea room here in Macon. I researched and researched and visited several tea rooms in order to learn as much as I could about the business. I even went as far as to look at old historic homes that I could turn into a tea room. I wanted the BIG house with the inviting front porch. We would host bridal showers and childrens tea parties. You could choose from an assortment of hats and gloves to wear while you were dining. Here is a photo of me several years ago taking tea.

Hubby and I having tea (and sour apple martinis) hee! hee! at the Empress hotel in Victoria, Canada.

I was very passionate about opening a tea room. However, after much thought and talking with my husband I knew deep down I wanted to start a family and be able to spend the first years of my childs life as a stay at home Mom. There is no way I can run a tea room and be a hands on Mommy like I had hoped and dreamed for. So this now leads into my next interesting fact about ME.

– I am trained and certified to teach Childrens etiquette. I became certified thru the Protocol School of Washington about 5 1/2 years ago. Im a HUGE advocate of children acting well behaved, polite,courtieous, and learning their manners. I taught at local after school programs, and the children responded so well. The teachers were especially thrilled over the children learning etiquette. Poor Grant and Vivi will probably think I am a wicked witch for correcting them all the time. LOL!!!

– Fear is my worst enemy. It holds me BACK all the time. I’ve had some major choices in my past that I wanted to act on and move forward to pursue, (like a job opportunity in Chicago) but FEAR always got the best of me. Im a creature of habit. I want to be close to my family and friends. Im scared of the "what if’s…" FAILURE. I admire people that can "JUST DO IT and GO FOR IT!" I know you cant succeed without failure, and you have to be able to take that chance and not let fear hold you back. That’s on my "self help" list to work on.

– Way before I started crafting many years ago in my early 20’s I would draw and sketch a little child character that I created by the name of Dottie. She is a little "me". She is a 3rd grader, not the smallest and prettiest of her girlfriends. She’s cute, still has her baby fat, full of life, mischievous, adventurous and SILLY!!! She has her friends, her fluffy kitty named "Killer", and her little pet mouse named "Sweetpea". It was my dream years ago to write a childrens book series on the "Adventurous life of Dottie". I even took a continuing ed class at Emory University on writing Childrens books. All of my family and friends for years encouraged me to pursue it. One of my best friends Sonya made me the Dottie doll AND baseball cap that Im pictured holding and wearing. I have a sketch book FULL of Dottie drawings. Of course I haven’t picked up a pencil in years to draw her, but she still lives inside me everyday and if I can get rid of the FEAR possibly one day I will write a childrens book about Dottie. 🙂         

Ok, Im SURE I’ve lost MANY of my readers by now because of my LONG LONG post. I dont normally ever ever write this much. I usually keep it lighthearted and simple with lots of pretty pictures. Before I end I have one last detail to share with you…..

I use to be a BLONDE!!!! 🙂 This is a bad scanned image, but can you believe it??? YEP! Blonde! I so enjoy being a brunette so much more. I hated keeping up with my roots. ha! ha!

Ok sweet friends! Im wishing you and your families a very BLESSED Easter! 

    

XOXO,