This happens to all of us every year. We open our eyes one morning and ask ourselves, "Why the heck is it so dark out?" Then we climb out of our warm bed into the cold house and realize that autumn has arrived. There's such a small window of time where the sun rise happens right about the same time you wake up and that small window was 2 weeks ago for me. Jamie has been travelling a lot lately so I've been walking Khuno and although mornings just destroy me, it felt so amazing to be out in the crisp air with the sunrise and my gorgeous pup. Now it's just plain dark and I'm reminded of how miserable it's going to be when not only is it going to be dark, but it'll be flippin' cold and snowy. We did manage to get out this past weekend to snap some fall family photos. Here's a little updated family photo and for not planning our outfits, we coordinated pretty well. And for not taking very many photos, +Van Tran did a pretty darn good job snapping our family pic. None of us could beat lil Annalise's cuteness though. She's giggling and smiling now which just melts everyone's heart. I <3 U little peanut!
Remember way back last spring when I was so excited to announce that I was taking on a little business adventure with a local store? I just thought it was time for an update on how things are going with that venture. The store is called Apple Box Boutique and it's located in the heart of Highlands. Leanne is the wonderful owner of this unique store and she has been so supportive of local artisans that the store is loaded with products from my greeting cards, small local company bath and body products, locally painted artwork to hand-sewn quilts. The focus of her store is the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and you can see the paint in action with all the painted furniture in the store. Sales have been slow since the cards were all kept in a little box on a counter, but after some discussion we decided to have a display shelf to draw more customers to the product. How amazing is Leanne for allowing me to have the space that she has? Jamie impressed me when he built this card rack and after some sanding and Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, there it sits in all its glory. Smack dab in the middle of the store, directly across from the checkout counter. I'm not expecting to sell hundreds of cards but just seeing them all displayed out like that sure makes a gal feel good.
This past weekend Jinnee and I stopped by the Creative Stitches & Crafting Show held at Millennium Place in Sherwood Park. There wasn't a lot that we purchased since neither of us prepared by having projects in mind. The old me would've bought charm packs and jelly rolls like they were free but the new me resisted and only walked away with some washi tape, one sheet of letter stickers and a kit to make this little ribbon tag square. I have loads of ribbon and flannel at home but I didn't have that nice soft chenille at home so I splurged on this cute kit. It's from Earthy Goods Quilting and put me out only $8.95! It only took just under 2 hours with numerous breaks so this would make a great gift for someone! Hopefully Annalise will like it! Enjoy the last few hours of the weekend!
Can't believe that my sweet lil niece, Annalise, is already 2 months old! +Cynthia Chau wanted to capture monthly photos of the lil peanut so we snapped some shots before we left for vacation. She might look like she's all calm and sweet here, but don't let those sweet cheeks fool you! She was crying and fussing throughout the whole thing. This was a mere couple minutes of calm, cool and collected right after she was finished being fed (which had to be done a few times throughout the photo op!). I still can't believe how big her eyes are and her lashes are getting so long. She's more alert now and following objects around with her eyes. As you can tell from the picture, she's got some pretty sick deltoids developing. And can one deny that she's got the Tran family nose? Yah... didn't think so. Poor thing.
+Cynthia Chau & +Van Tran welcomed baby Annalise into the world on June 27th, which makes Jamie and I officially Auntie and Uncle! As bias as all aunties are, I must say that she is just the cutest little, wide-eyed, wrinkly forehead, Blue Steal lip poser that I have ever seen. This is little Annalise at 10 days old. The lil monkey peed through the blanket, a soaker pad and the pillow case, right onto her parents' pillow. I love her more already.
I'm going to be an aunt any day now. And I'm not talking about the Asian aunt, where everyone and anyone is called "auntie". My brother +Van Tran and sister-in-law +Cynthia Chau are expecting their first baby girl and we are all so excited. They already picked out the name, but they've been very tight-lipped about it. All we know are the total number of syllables! But we'll all find out soon enough! I was adamant that we capture some photos of this cute baby belly before baby Tran decides to make her appearance so here's one of pictures I snagged earlier this week.
I found a recipe for homemade eczema cream on Pinterest a while back and decided to give it a go since I have miserable eczema on both my shins. I read a lot of the comments and was skeptical about the ground up oats in the recipe, but there were enough positive comments that I went with it anyways. I'm never one to follow instructions exactly so I ended up using:
- organic coconut oil (4-5 large tablespoon scoops)
- olive oil (a quick swig in the pan)
- shea butter (a tablespoon?)
- ground oats (1/4 cup unground)
I melted everything down in pan and poured the mixture into various jars I had laying around. As others had mentioned, the oats all settled to the bottom so I gave the containers a good shake every so often as it was setting. This worked like a charm to keep the oats suspended in the mixture. Unfortunately as I was using this mixture, I soon discovered that I absolutely hated the ground bits of oat. It felt like I had sand all over and since I used it right before bed, I constantly had to de-sand myself before climbing in. After a few days, I gave up and put the jars over my heating vents and the oats all settled to the bottom as the mixtures melted. I have since used up everything I made and I made a second batch. This time I altered it a bit just to see what else would work well with my skin.
- 4 parts coconut oil
- 1 part petroleum jelly
- 1 part shea butter
- a swig or two of olive oil
The petroleum jelly gave the mixture a very soft clear consistency, almost like a very warm jelly. What's been amazing about it so far is that once you apply it, the greasiness literally disappears! It's fascinating! Even Jamie commented that it wasn't oily feeling like the first batch. I gave some of this new mixture to my brother and dad, both who have eczema on their shins (inherited much eh?). My eczema has been improving but is nowhere close to being cleared. If something miraculously clears up my legs, I'm patenting it!
This happens to all of us every year. We open our eyes one morning and ask ourselves, "Why the heck is it so dark out?" Then we climb out of our warm bed into the cold house and realize that autumn has arrived. There's such a small window of time where the sun rise happens right about the same time you wake up and that small window was 2 weeks ago for me. Jamie has been travelling a lot lately so I've been walking Khuno and although mornings just destroy me, it felt so amazing to be out in the crisp air with the sunrise and my gorgeous pup. Now it's just plain dark and I'm reminded of how miserable it's going to be when not only is it going to be dark, but it'll be flippin' cold and snowy. We did manage to get out this past weekend to snap some fall family photos. Here's a little updated family photo and for not planning our outfits, we coordinated pretty well. And for not taking very many photos, +Van Tran did a pretty darn good job snapping our family pic. None of us could beat lil Annalise's cuteness though. She's giggling and smiling now which just melts everyone's heart. I <3 U little peanut! 
