Where To Start?!?

I stayed up WAY too late last night editing pictures from my Canada trip. Like way, waaay too late...as in I'm seriously suffering today. But in my defence, Zach was working a night shift and I had no one there to ask me what the heck I was still doing up and that I should get my butt in bed...don't know how that is in my defence, but I'm going with it, okay?? Good.

I have several hundred pictures to go through and these were the ones that I felt like editing, so here they are! 

This is Clayburn Village, an old historic town in the area I grew up. 

I know what you're thinking, "old historic town in West Coast Canada?!?". Well, it's there, so it must be true. And yes, on the West Coast, 1905 is historic.

This is a SUPER cute tea/old time candy shop that I went to with my sister and her little family. WAY over priced, but so cute it's worth it! It's been around for years and the joke is that no one knows when it's open. Seriously, you'll go there in the middle of the day, on a week day, for coffee and it's closed. There are no hours posted on the door and no dates when it's open. Yet it is super popular and has been in business for something like 25 years. 

I don't get it!

But I do when I go in, SO charming!

All the old fixtures and antiques all over the place, it's so wonderfully cluttered! The owners are English and it has a total feel of an English tea shop.

Look at this amazing cash register! 

And for a candy buff such as myself, this is heaven!

I may have been slightly obnoxious in there with my camera, but I'm so glad I took pictures....minus the fact that I'm having a serious candy craving now...

Back Home....

I'm sitting in my kitchen looking at my home sweet home...literally. I'm looking at a Home Sweet Home sign Amy's daughter made me :)...and I could not agree more. 

I was on the West Coast of Canada visiting family and friends for the last 3 weeks and although it was fun and fabulous, I could not be happier to be home.

I'm a homebody. 

Seriously, I LOVE to be home.

The last week of our trip Aubrey was off, like REALLY off. Just not herself and I know it's because she was so done with falling asleep in a new bed every night, not to mention being drug from house to house to visit every day. 

Don't get me wrong, she LOVED spending time with her 13 cousins....yes you read right, and that is just my side... but after a while, you could just tell she was finished. 

And so was I.

What made this trip the hardest, well leaving the hardest, was I don't know when I'm going back.

I actually don't mind living away from family, I even kind of like it (sorry to the family that is reading). I love my family very much, but after living away from them for the last 6 years, I'm kinda used to it. 

It's kind of nice to be removed from it all and only have the "good times" when you go to visit. Know what I mean? 

In the past we've visited at least once a year, if not more, and that always made it easy to leave because we knew when we'd see them all again. But this time around, we have no clue--and it's a weird feeling.

At least we have fabulous people in our lives (family/friends) who are more than willing to come and visit us and make the effort when we can't! We are so blessed :) 

These pictures are all random views from the town I'm from....and man is it ever gorgeous! Seriously, I annoyed everyone I know with my talk of the mountains and farmland. But come on, look at it! SO beautiful! 

There are way more pictures to come, but I just uploaded them and I have to still edit....a daunting task to say the least.

Forget Packing....

After packing for a cross country move (well, kinda cross country, more like down country....that doesn't sound right....you get what I mean, right? a move down South... I'll stop now) packing for a three week trip seems like nothing, thus the procrastinating :) It's what I do best.

So instead of boring old packing, I've made my nieces cute head bands! I just took plain ribbon and tried to spruce it up, and I'm loving how they turned out! My nieces range in age from 2 to 12 and random ages in between. Ergo the reasoning behind them looking a bit different to try and accommodate their ages.  

This one is for my oldest niece, Taylor. The rosette is detachable and has a pin on the back so she can use it on something else--if she so pleases

Because my measuring was a bit off and this one was slightly bigger than the one in the below picture, it's for the next in age, Jordis

This one's for Jamie, who's four. Not sure if these girls will wear them, hopefully... I did painstakingly make all those pleats.... maybe I could guilt them into wearing them, something to consider.

The not-so-little-anymore Aniya gets this one, most comfortable and shouldn't slip off when she's running around like a maniac ;) 

And because Aubrey has outgrown a lot of her clothes for fall....understandably, she's been wearing her clothes from when she was 18 months. And before you go and think it's because we were too cheap to get her new ones and let her walk around with ankle biters and 3/4 length sleeves(not the cool kind), it was actually because I was a good frugal mom and bought her stuff a bit bigger....and then she decided she was too cool to grow. No joke, she can still wear a pair of 12-18 month jeans...she was blessed with my leg length, poor girl.

Anyways, this just in--clothes are expensive! 

So me being the crafty person I am (riiiight) bought some plain cheap/on clearance shirts from Target and Walmart and decided to do a little applique on them.

And they turned out so cute! ...if I do say so myself *insert pat on own back*

I mean, look at all that shabby goodness! 

So that was how I spent yesterday...I'm pretty sure I should get some packing or cleaning done today, buuuut I think I'll sew again. There's always tomorrow night to pack (that would be the Kliewer way....).

Make Up Brush Roll...

Zach and I travel.... a LOT! Well, we've slowed down since moving to Georgia (hard to travel when you work all. the. time.), but in the past? A lot. 

Be it an over night trip for an interview (again, happened before he got his residency position) or flying back to Canada to see family....or England to see family...yeah, there was a lot of traveling (from the sounds of it, you'd think we were loaded...we are most definitely NOT).

ANYWAY, the reason I began that ridiculously long rant was to say that I've been wanting something for my make up brushes for quite some time. They always get tossed into my toiletries bag and get smushed... not good because they're good brushes... MAC brushes... that my loving husband bought for me when I was going through my my-skin-is-awful-since-I-gave-birth-and-I-don't-want-to-leave-the-house phase after having Aubrey. He was like, we're going to MAC and you are buying all the make up you need to make yourself feel better! And then I married him all over again :) The End. 

Kidding. 

So I finally took the time to make this yesterday and I'm in love!

The fabric alone is fabulous, but it just turned out so cute!

I used to tutorial from Little Big Girl Studio, and just made it work for my brushes/eyelash curler/mascara/etc . 

Here's the tutorial, you're welcome.

Ain't she purdy?!

Nothing like an early morning photo shoot in some Georgian pine straw to bring out the beauty in something.

I'm linking this sucker up here....

I woke up yesterday morning and uttered words that I will regret, AM regretting, for a long long time...."hey Zach, let's go for a run." 

Yup, stupid.

We weren't planning on going to our new wonderful church, not because we are uncool heathens, but because Aubrey was up most of the night before coughing and snotting up a storm. We were not about to be those parents whole let their coughing, snotty child infect everyone else's kid in Sunday School. Annnd because she was up all night, I was up all night....and no sleep does not agree with this preggo gal.

Anyway, I get up, say the dreaded words to Zach and he's beyond excited to go and bounds out of bed. 

We started out ok, but about 2 minutes in I announce that this was, indeed, NOT a good idea (the words I used did not sound as nice) . 

Cue side cramp and wheezing of breath.

Let's just say we didn't go very far and I was in rough shape after. 

I'm not out of shape per say, I spend my share of time on our elliptical thing-a-ma-jigger, but running...on the road....is a whole other ball game. 

I can confirm that my body is in severe pain and my quads are so sore, I'm hobbling like a 90 year old man. My hip is officially making a weird popping noise and my lower back feels like it is constantly being hit with a bat. 

Today, my friends, has been a rough day for me.

Back to the elliptical tomorrow...assuming that my quads can handle it.....  

Went a Little Crazy...

It's bound to happen when your daughter's going to be a flower girl and you go into Jo-Ann's to find some materials to make her a hair accessory. 

Seriously, I'm in love with the kit I bought. 

It was $9.99, and includes all this....

Before I found this, I had a pretty button in my hand...which cost $5 on it's own, highway robbery. After buying the alligator clips and proper fabric to make the rosettes I had in mind, I would have been WAY over $10. The kit has the color fabric I wanted (and pre-cut!) and all the fixin's to make it! Win Win! 

Plus I can make a bunch more rosette clip/pins with fabulous buttons, which is a complete bonus. Maybe I'll make myself a little somethin' somethin'....

Speaking of buttons....

 I couldn't help myself! These were on sale, soooo in the cart they went. I'm thinking of using the middle one for Aubrey's flower girl hair clip thingy...we'll see. 

Bought some tulle too, going to add this to the hair clip. 

I better watch it, or she's going look like one of the two crazy sister's from William and Kate's wedding....

A Gift From a Friend....

Look what super amazing Amy over at The Little Beansprout  (who also happens to be my good friend!!) taught herself to do....

Seriously?? How do you even begin to figure that out for yourself?!? I'm pretty sure I'm going to con her into doing my whole blog.... now to come up with a plan.....