Embrace the Camera!

In August, Mr. H started classes again.  I'm not gonna lie- the school year can be rough for us. After getting out of the Marine Corps five years ago, he decided to use his GI Bill and go to college, which has been one of the best decisions he ever made.  However, it can make family time pretty hard when he goes straight from a full work day to night classes four days a week.  He should be graduating this May, and we will be celebrating his major accomplishment because it is a lot harder to get a degree when you work full time and have a wife and baby at home.

That being said, Del and I have a LOT of free time together.  We've always had the days, but now we have the evenings to to hang out just the two of us.  We're pretty much best buds and are settling into our routine, which often involves laying on the ground and taking pictures of ourselves being silly.

 I love, love, love this little girl, especially the fact that she thinks licking is how you kiss someone because our lab mix gives her more "kisses" than she would ever want.

My Mommy Group

So I will completely admit that before I became a mom, I gladly would have given parenting advice to anyone who asked or maybe even those who didn't. 

I worked in a daycare and had a degree in childhood education, so I was pretty sure I had it completely figured out.

However, the night I brought home Del from the hospital, my poor mom got a 3 am phone call which sounded something like,

 "Mom...no, don't panic.  We're all okay"

{anytime you call your mama at 3 am you have to say that first or she assumes the worst}

"But, we're SO TIRED and SHE WON'T STOP CRYING!  I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!!!"

And so began my journey into becoming a new mom.

I am so grateful for my "moms" group.
I have a great group of friends/mommies of younger kiddos, who meet together weekly to share about our week and the highs and lows of being a mama.

 Sometimes we meet a park, sometimes we meet at someone's house and eat dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets, sometimes an indoor playground, and often times Chick-fil-A (because it is awesome and I will get in a fight with you if you don't agree).

 A lot of us go to church together too and it has just been so great to get to know each other and get to know each other's kids. I feel like Delaney already has friends her age and she just turned one.

 I enjoy learning and getting some advice from other moms, although I've accepted the fact that a fifteen minute conversation might be completely about the color of poop.

And, of course, the best part is that I get to relax a bit and talk to actual adults, rather than talking back to Elmo and Dora on the tv screen, which has happened on more than one occasion.

winner winner chicken dinner...

via

First of all, the winner of the fine silver wax seal necklace is....

 prov3130grl 

Congratulations!!  Email us at tagyoureitjewelry@live.com and we'll work out the details!

This weekend we had one of our first shows of the fall and had a great time.  Here are some pictures of the event, taken by ShutterGirls photography.

Keeping it pretty simple today after a long weekend.  
A 3-day show can wear a girl out!  
Hope you had a great weekend!  

  

Embrace the Camera Thursday!

via

For my brother's wedding, I had my hair "done" by my cousin, who is a stylist.  She "waved" my hair with a waver before pulling it into a cute side updo. 

Um...I didn't know "wavers" still existed.  I had one (I think I called it a crimper in junior high and high school), but they have become so much better since then and I have been wanting one ever since.  So... after Delaney and I took a trip to Target yesterday, I came home with a "large barrell waver". 

The box told me I would have "beach hair" after using it, although my beach hair involves a dirty slicked back ponytail with sunscreen and sand stuck in my bangs. 

I gave it a try as soon as I got home and was happy with the results.  It seriously took about 3 minutes.  I have a jewelry show tomorrow and I didn't want to burn my hair off, so I set it on low.  Maybe with a hotter setting it would be even "wavy-er." 

So, I'm embracing the camera with my new beach hair.   

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NECKLACE GIVEAWAY!

We have been so busy around here getting ready for fall, jewelry shows, and the upcoming holiday season (I know it's only September, but we try to plan ahead)! 

I'm so excited to announce that we are now selling fine silver hand stamped necklaces in our ETSY SHOP.  These necklaces are .999% silver and much thicker than our sterling silver discs.  Each pendant is hand formed, stamped, fired, oxidized, and polished to give it a unique vintage look.

To celebrate our new necklaces, we are giving away a fine silver initial wax seal necklace with pearl.

($42.50 value)

Here are the rules:

Mandatory Entry- be a follower of the blog and let me know with a comment:)

Extra Entries

-become a facebook follower (one extra entry)

-become a twitter follower of @tagyoureitshop (one extra entry)

-blog about the giveaway with a link (two extra entries)

-tweet about the giveaway with a link (one extra entry)

-share about the giveaway on facebook (one extra entry)

Please leave a separate comment for each entry.  Giveaway will end on Sunday, Sept. 25th at midnight (EST).

Thanks!

apple picking...

I've lived in Indiana all my life, yet I've never gone apple picking.  So when some friends from church offered up an invitation, we decided we had to go.  I have decided that it will become an every year tradition for the fall, along with the pumpkin patch that I look forward to all year.

The high was supposed to be 68 degrees, so we all showed up in long sleeves, jeans, socks, and boots.  I guess in my mind, 68 degrees was more like 50 degrees.  However, the sun was BEATING down, so we were all wiping the sweat out of our face and rolling up our sleeves while picking the apples.

Mr. H is back in school, so he goes from his full time job to school until 9 pm Monday through Thursday, so we're already counting down until the end of the semester.  I know it's hard for him to come home every night to his baby who is already asleep, so I was glad they were able to spend some quality time together at the orchard.

Oh, and I was hoping to get a family picture of the 3 of us at the orchard.  I tried on about 10 outfits, picturing in my head a gorgeous vintage looking photo of apples in the background while Mr. H and I look dashing in our fall wardrobe with our adorable baby smiling for the camera.  However, this is what we ended up with:

No, the apple wasn't washed yet. 

And she only has 2 teeth on bottom, so I'm not sure what she was planning.

We had a great time at the orchard and ended up with some great apple treats, including an apple slushie and apple suckers.  I had planned on blogging my recipe for my apple crisp, but then I screwed up the recipe and forgot to take pictures along the way.  Whoops.  It ended up tasting delicious anyway.

Embrace the Camera Thursday

Alright, this is another "I have a giant head" picture, which I'm learning to embrace, since I'm pretty sure it's the head and not the photograph. 

BUT, I like this picture 'cause it was such a fun afternoon.  I needed to go to a tool store (for jewelry of course) and figured it would be a boring trip.  But Mr. H decided that we should make a few pit stops on the way home, including Potbelly's sandwich shop, which we have been wanting to visit since they opened. 

 We enjoyed some hot subs and then walked around Monument Circle in Indianapolis where "Lady Liberty" was hanging out waiting to be put back on top of a monument.  Anyway, this is me and Lady Liberty hanging out, when I thought I was just going to a tool store.

Um, please embrace the camera today. 

You may have thousands of pictures of your kids, but do they have pictures of you?

P.S. When I hit 100 blog followers, I will be doing a GIVEAWAY for a brand new necklace that is debuting next week!!  Will you help me reach my goal? :)