Grandma & Me: Winter Whites

I'm so thrilled to bring you a new "Grandma & Me" post, because looking back on these pictures makes me smile and remember the wonderful moments I shared with my beautiful granddaughter.

Alethea and I are sharing our winter white knits this month.  Winter white is perfect for the icy cold snowy days we have in Wisconsin and Illinois during the month of January.



I am wearing a new "Cozy Popcorn Yarn Cardigan"  from CJBanks that I got for Christmas.  I love this cardigan so much I bought it in white and blush.  I can't even begin to tell you how soft this yarn is!  It's all sold out on line in the white and pink colors, but the mint color is still available.  You could also check your local stores and see if they have more colors.

Alethea is wearing a white  plush hoodie vest with animal ears.  I've noticed how much cute little animal ears on top of hoods is really trending in children's clothing.

Alethea also has sparkly gold leggings on with a white long sleeve top with metallic gold hearts.



I didn't have any sparkly gold leggings or white tops with gold hearts on them, to match Alethea (geez, I wonder why? 😀) so I wore my brown skinny jeans and a white top (both old).

Alethea is 17 months old now and has become even more of a delight to hang out with.  I had the pleasure of having her over for Christmas for a full week.  She was so fun to have around for Christmas.  She loves Christmas!  We let her play "Santa" and deliver all the presents to the proper recipients.  She did such a good job!

She is starting to love me "almost" as much as I love her.  She pointed to me and said "Mamy" for the first time!  Oh, my heart just melted!  What music to one's ear to have your first grandchild call you by name.

She's at the age when you can really start playing with her.  We played with all the new toys she got for Christmas.  We built towers with blocks, talked on the play "telephone", and ran around the house with her corn popper:  her favorite Christmas toy!

She is a bundle of energy!  It's harder than ever to take photos with her, but somehow we managed to get a lot of beautiful photographs to be treasured forever.

Alethea is saying so many different words now.  She also "talks" to you, like she is having a conversation, but of course I can't understand a word she says.  I can't wait till she is putting full sentences together.  I can only imagine the hilarious things that will come out of her mouth!

She is always fascinated with my jewelry; she will closely examining any necklace or bracelet I'm wearing.  She quickly figured out on her own how my bracelet opened and closed.  She is so smart!

Oh, what a little pumpkin she is!  Such a vivacious personality she has.  She makes me smile and laugh so much! I am truly blessed.

Finally, for those less interested in the ravings of a proud grandma and more interested in what I'm wearing, here are some detail shots of my outfit.  I wanted to show the back of this cardigan so you can see it how long it is.  It will be nice to wear with leggings as it covers the back side!

For shoes I wore my brown suede booties (old).  I tend to wear these booties more than any other pair in my closet.  They are just so comfy and go with almost everything.

For jewelry, I chose gold pieces to match Alethea's gold pants and gold hearts.  The necklace is from a fall Stitch Fix box.  The bracelet has a tortoise shell top.

I am so looking forward to seeing this precious bundle again!  In February, I will go and spend a week at her home in Illinois.  Hopefully she'll think it's really cool that grandma is at her house for an extended period of time.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

"I Get My Style From Glamma!"

Shopping for little girls is so much fun!  I think I enjoy shopping for clothes for my granddaughter more than myself.  There are so many cute things out there for little children it's hard to resist.  I have the feeling Alethea will be the best dressed baby everywhere she goes because I have no willpower when it comes to this little one!

I spotted this graphic bodysuit while shopping for Christmas presents for Alethea and I knew it just had to go into my cart!  I wasn't sure Ashley or Jason would appreciate it, but I thought it was so perfect; and if they didn't like it, I would at least get a cute photo shoot out of it, and I DID!

Is she just the cutest thing or what?  Just look at those BEAUTIFUL big blue eyes!  She's a doll to photograph too!  She's always so expressive and gives us just gorgeous, big smiles!

As always, we coordinated our outfits.  Alethea is wearing her Stylish Glamma Collectible Bodysuit from Carters with a bright pink tutu, and a grey knit headband (Macy's).    I am wearing a black peplum top with black dress pants (both from JCP and old) and black suede wedges (Famous Footwear, old).  I added a pink pearl necklace and a pink stone bracelet to coordinate with all the pink in Alethea's outfit.

Ashley and Jason ended up thinking the bodysuit was pretty cute.  She actually gets a lot of use out of it because it has long sleeves and it works as a nice underlay for some of her other outfits.

The baby tutu is from Amazon.

I love this photo because the way she opened up her arms and swung her legs she looks like a ballerina dancing in mid air!  What a perfect shot!

The pearl necklace I picked up on our vacation to Myrtle Beach.  It is a very long strand and can be worn multiple ways;  tied in a knot, hung in a single loop, or wrapped twice around my neck and knotted like I'm wearing.

I really love this old peplum top because it gives me the illusion of a waist line.  I've gotten so much use out of it I went out and bought another one in white too!  (check out these posts HERE and HERE).

I'm very grateful we have a nice, new DSLR to take pictures of our beautiful granddaughter.  Children are more relaxed and act more natural for the camera if they are in familiar surroundings with people they know behind the lens rather than taking them to a studio and having a stranger take their picture.  We never would have gotten these cute photos in a studio!

We can also take our time with the photo shoot and allow Alethea to relax and just be herself capturing priceless photographic moments like this one.

Oh, I look at these photos and I can't wait to hold her again.  Ashley posted a video of Alethea doing the "worm crawl" on Facebook the other day and I re posted it.  I couldn't believe how much she changed in just a month!  Her hair is fuller, curlier, and it looks like she might be a red head!  My close friend described her hair color as "honey";  I thought that was a beautiful description!

I will be leaving for Chicago at the end of February to spend a week with this precious little one and my other three "kids".  I can hardly wait!

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Grandma and Me New Year's Outfits

 Happy New Year everyone!  I am back from a two week holiday break, and I am so glad I took two weeks off instead of just one, because I got so sick the day after New Years that I needed another week to recover.  All my goals of writing next weeks blog posts went down the drain because the only thing I could do was lay on the couch, binge watch Netflix, and cough up a lung or two.  But the plus side is, I caught up on a lot of t.v. shows I've been wanting to see!

I am thankful at least that the illness waited until after the holidays were over to arrive.  We did have a wonderful ten or more days with family and friends.  Our house was filled with love and laughter and I am so grateful to God for giving me such a wonderful nuclear family and close, lifelong friends.

I know I normally do my "Grandma and Me" fashion posts the first Monday of every month, but because of the holiday break, I'm breaking my own schedule.  I wanted to show you Alethea's and my New Year's outfits.  Alethea wore her darling outfit on New Years Day for our annual New Years Day party, and I wore my outfit to church on New Year's Eve day.

I have to first explain why my cat Jackson is in the photos.  We had always planned on doing the photo shoot in my bedroom because of the colors and the natural light.  When we walked into the room we saw Jackson on the bed and thought "Oh, he'll wake up and leave on his own because he is afraid of Alethea".  Well, Jackson must have been terribly tired, because he stayed through the entire photo shoot!  We thought it was just awesome, because his grey coloring matched everything and we do consider him part of the family, so why not be in the pictures?  And the "Love" pillow being in the background was just the icing on the cake.  So no, Jackson wasn't planned.  It was just a wonderful coincidence that he was in the right place at the right time.

At one point Jackson did wake up from his nap a bit and Alethea and him just stared at each other.  This was actually the first visit where Alethea recognized Jackson as something other than a stuffed animal.  Just look at the expression on Alethea's face!  She doesn't know quite what to make of this furry creature.

 For our New Year's Day Outfits Alethea and I both dressed in black and gold.  I wore an old metallic gold sweater from JCPenny (last shown HERE and HERE) with black pants and black wedges.  Alethea wore a coordinating tunic and leggings outfit with a metallic geo-print border from Macy's.  To accessorize, she added a pretty off-white and gold metallic headband, also from Macy's.

Because my metallic gold sweater is already an attention grabber with the shimmer and pretty neckline, I only accessorized with a simple gold and black bracelet and my usual rings.

I just love these baby headbands, they add so much to an outfit.  And I am so grateful that Alethea leaves them on all day and doesn't try to take them off like a lot of babies do.  Isn't this just the cutest picture? I just love her smile!  She is such a smiley, good-natured baby now.  She smiles at everyone.

 We got a new DSLR for Christmas, but with all the activity of the holidays and my illness, I have yet to figure out how to use it.  However, we were very impressed with these photos just shooting in the Automatic or Portrait mode, indoors, with no special lighting.

My dress pants are also old, they are by Worthington.  I'm not a fan of buying new clothes just for the holidays.  I have four holiday sweaters and I wear them every single year.  I just try to vary how I style them so I change it up a little.  

I just love how Alethea's beautiful big blue eyes pop in every picture.  Such a cutie!

I'm still so sick as I write this.  It's been hard not to get depressed about it.  I had so many goals of writing blog posts in advance, taking down the Christmas decorations, and perhaps starting the process of re-decorating my daughter's old room or planning our spring vacation.  Instead, I could barely manage to sit up.  I hate it when the spirit is willing but the body is weak.  I want to keep rolling like the Energizer Bunny, but I can't.  But, I can feel myself slowly gettin better and hopefully next week I can at least muster up the energy to take the Christmas decorations down.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, and you are feeling well and staying warm in these frigid temperatures!

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

My Favorite Home, Hobby, and Crafting Projects of 2017

This is the time of the year when Blog Land slows down because everyone is off enjoying the holidays and people are not in front of their devices.  Can I get an "Amen" ?!  I do plan on closing my blog down for two weeks starting this Saturday, December 23rd, but before I do that I wanted to spend the next few days doing some reflective end-of-the-year posts.   Today I will share my Favorite Home, Hobby, and Crafting Projects of the year, picking one favorite craft or hobby for each month.  On Wednesday I will give a summary of our 2017 Travel Adventures, and on Friday I will wrap up the year with my favorite Fashion Posts.

Lets begin!

January

Pregnancy Announcement Photography

Even though I knew about my daughter's pregnancy from almost the moment she was conceived, it wasn't until three months later in January that we let the rest of the world know;  and I was honored to take their pregnancy announcement photos.  


February
Valentine Cards

February brought Valentine's Day and I made these cute and pretty Valentine Cards for my children.

March

How To Make a Succulent Planter

Succulents have been all the rage in interior design the past few years, so I decided to try making my own succulent planter.

April

Master Bedroom Big Reveal

April was an exciting month because we had been redecorating our master bedroom for months and it was finally done!

May

A Pinwheel Baby Quilt

In May I completed a baby pinwheel quilt that was started by my husband's paternal grandmother 20+ years earlier.  It was so special to present a quilt to my daughter that both her mother and grandmother worked on.

June

A Velveteen Rabbit Baby Shower

The month of June brought my daughter's baby shower.  It was thrown by a friend of hers, but I was asked to decorate for it.  

July

My Mid-July Garden

In the summer I don't have any time to spend in the house doing crafts or redecorating.  Those projects are saved for the winter months.  Once the weather warms, I'm outside working in the garden.  This summer, I spent most of the season re-doing this large shade garden.  

August

One-Month Old Baby Photo Shoot

August brought another photography shoot, but this time it was of my new grand baby!  Looking at these photos, I can't believe how much she has changed already.  She doesn't even look like the same baby!

September

Back In The Kitchen Again

In the fall, once the majority of the garden work was done, I was able to get back in the kitchen again and try some new recipes.  I found this Cheesy Gnocchi and Sausage Skillet recipe that my husband loved so much because it tasted "Just like pizza!"

October

From One Bag To Another

My dearest, oldest friend's birthday is in October, and I made this card for her.  I just love that it's a humorous yet sweet card.

November

Paper Turkeys For Your Thanksgiving Table

In November I had fun making turkeys out of paper for my Thanksgiving table!

December

During the month of December I made a last minute decision to send out Christmas Cards.  I was going to skip it, but changed my mind because it's tradition and it is something I enjoy doing.  So I quickly printed a photo card, wrote a brief Christmas letter, and made 40 cards.  All the card stock designs are different, but the "Joy" design is the same on all the cards.  Below is only one example.  I haven't had time to even do a post on these cards yet.  Not sure I even will as once Christmas is over, no one will be interested.  

I hope you've enjoyed my Home, Hobby and Crafting Projects Year in Review.  Come back on Wednesday to see where we've been traveling this past year!

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!