Etsy Love.....3 Squares Shop

3 Squares is THE cutest jewelry shop on Etsy.  The designer makes all of her jewelry and names almost all of them after food!  It's so darling!  Check her out here! Also, here are some of her lovelies!

Angel Food Cake Necklace

Blueberry Cake Earrings

Bagel Bracelet

Cinnamon Streusal Necklace

Pancake Earrings

Calamari Necklace

French Toast Necklace

I love them all.  In fact my mother would love these as well.  I'm off for vacation for a while my loves.  

I hope you'll miss me, because I will miss you!

Random pics for the pre-vacation

My family vacation is coming up and I'm a wreck trying to organize and pack everything.  Being one child out of seven means that there are a ton of people because almost all of my siblings have spouses and children.  Each little family is assigned a meal.  I decided to make shredded BBQ chicken sliders with salad and either french fries or chips. 

Image via laaloosh

As ambitious as I am, I already made the chicken and have it waiting in the freezer.  What I haven't made is a dessert and I discovered a list of things that I'm needing to get other than food.  We are a hiking, rafting, outdoors-ey kind of family and most everything I need has to do with that!  For example:

Little Girl Tennis Shoes

Stride Rite Tennis Shoe via Zappos

Hiking Child Carrier

Kelty backpack via REI

My Traveling Attire

 Images via Forever 21

That's just the basics.  I'm still working on a dessert.  Maybe I'll make kiss cookies! 

 Image and Recipe via Grandma's Desserts Blog

YUM!  But, I really am excited to be with my family.  Regardless of all the stressful details and having a boat-load to do,  

THE FAMILY IS ALL THAT MATTERS!

A family reunion, a visiting mother-in-law, and a teething baby.....

Such is my life.  I'm sorry I've been an unfaithful poster recently.  We had a huge family reunion where I made peanut-butter bars.  So good and oh so fattening.

The frosting was supposed to be a drizzle.  Well, that simply would not do, so I doubled it.  Yep, I did, and it made it all the more better.  The whole wheat recipe looks promising here. Also my mother-in-law is in town from England and takes much of our valuable time.  (Not necessarily a bad thing, just time consuming.)  In addition to her being in town my sister arrived for the reunion and my 11 month old cut five teeth in a week! 

Poor boy had fevers and crying spells daily.  This is me at one of the daily family get-togethers with my husband's fam, trying to calm this feverish boy.  It's hard to please a sick child when you're not even at your own home. Yet, I would be displeasing many if he was used as an excuse. sigh. I'm hoping I'll do better this week in my posting.

Please forgive me and if anybody has better ideas than chewing cold carrots, teething tablets, and orajel for a teething baby, I'm ALL ears!

What you do during a sleepless night.....

I always have a really hard time getting to sleep.  Once I get there, usually I'm okay.  But, many of my nights are spent working, watching the tube, and checking out blogs.  My find of last nights midnight wanderings lead me to this gorgeous Oly Studio Hanna Chair....

and fabrics from Pottery Barn.  I'm loving the yellows...

or the neutrals....

Please tell me you have productive sleepless nights as well!

Stripes!!!

Maybe it's the Fourth being in the near-past or maybe it's the nautical obsession I've undertaken lately, but I'm loving stripes.  I also love when blogs focus on a pattern, color, style, you get the idea, and then have a modge podge of images including that topic.  So here are my two loves for the week: Stripes and a million and a half images of them!

Stripes can either make a room appear larger or smaller.  They can make you look fatter or thinner depending on whether they're horizontal or vertical.  They can add excitement to a room by being a visual interest.  Stripes are awesome, what else can I say?

I have a black and white striped, short-sleeve shirt, with two nautical style buttons on each shoulder.  It's my favorite shirt.

  Do you have anything that you love that is striped?

click on image for source

Miami Heat Is It?

I think they made a huge deal of LaBron James changing teams.  I laughed when Cleveland fans were burning his jersey, like he'd stay there forever!  He even said, "It's not like my family would burn down the Cavalier's building if they got rid of me.  It's business."  I hear you LaBron, I hear you. 

So just a funny note for the weekend, when they were announcing the team my husband yelled, "MIAMI??!!!!" In genuine surprise.  My three year old immediately said, "NO, not your Ami, MY AMI!!!"  Then she got angry at all of our laughter and stomped out of the room.  Kids make so many situations hilarious, don't they?   

Hug your child and enjoy your weekend everyone!

I'm on the fence.....

Parachute pants, Harem pants, loose-fit trousers, whatever you call them, I know they're coming back.  The problem is I'm not sure if I love them or hate them.  Some people look totally stylish, well put together, and actually cool, breezy and comfortable.  But, other people (Sorry Kim K.) look bigger than they really are in their butt and legs from all of that excess fabric.  So....I'm on the fence.

Alice Ritter Spring 2008

Alice + Olivia Fall 2010

Banana Republic

BCBG Max Azria

Elie Tahari

Forever 21

I will say that I like Sienna Miller's but, couldn't say if they'd look great on everyone.  

Je ne sais pas!  

What do you think? YAY or NAY?!

Click on image for source