christmas 2012

didn't get too many pictures.

here are some highlights. 

baby decorating the tree

traveling to virginia

shrimp + cornbread for dinner in va

dressed up for em's engagement party

take that pinterest. too busy this year. 

christmas eve.

snow in tennessee

river lights in tennessee

shop closed for christmas!

thank you for a great year. 

i'll try to reflect on it soon. 

but for now, just wanted to keep you all up to date. 

holiday orders are done-zo. you can still order, but things will not be shipped until post-christmas. 

jan 5th is the conservative date. 

you can shop locally at some of my favorite spots that carry one delightful:

Virginia

• Virginia Beach// B. Original

• Norfolk// Kitsch 

Massachusetts

• Beverly// plum consignment

• Beverly Farms// babe boutique

• Salem// two girls shop

• Rockport// milk and honey + thistle hill

merry christmas!!

katie

a busy season.

it's christmas + i am wishing it was a slower season for us. a season for advent - looking forward to the birth of Jesus.

but it has been busy busy.

we made an offer on a short sale in october and requested to close at the end of november. i don't know if you know much about short sales, but generally they are long sales - we did not expect to hear anything soon, but low and behold at the end of november we bought a new house!

here's me + mr. j with the keys after a long day at a craft show + it snowed!

it did not need quite as much work as our last house. well, that is a mostly true statement. the townhouse was remodeled in 2004 (originally built in early 1900s), but the former tenants did not clean or keep it up very well, which allowed us to afford the house and fortunately meant somethings were still intact and in good shape - like the heat, ac (which is unusual to have in new england) and new windows. however, the carpets were trashed. trashed. cabinets - nastified, as my friend cindy would say.

so we have been cleaning + then unpacking...

and painting...i went with moonshine by benjamin moore for the main color in the house. i'm into grey these days, no more beige for me. jude has been a trooper. and he's smart as a whip. he picked up the spatula i gave him to play with and started to pretend to paint.

philip making progress on the floors. he is laying unfinished red oak 3 1/4" floors. this is why i am not seeing my husband much these days, but i will be grateful come january.

i'll try to give more of a thorough tour soon!

xo

support sam

use code // sam // to donate 15% at www.onedelightfulbutton.com

i wasn't planning on doing another giving project this holiday, but i love sam and i love her heart and what she is doing in africa and want to help. this is sam's blog where you can read more. sam was a campaigner at princess anne who is so dear to me and after graduating she took a gap year to go to uganda for 6-8months.

she is raising money for this specific project + this is a quote from her blog //

"I feel like the Lord is calling me to raise money for this project to build teachers housing.  The completion of this project would mean that teachers would receive salaries and that poor children would get an education.  The project would cost about $15,000, and to be totally honest, that number scares me.  A verse we all know, Luke 1:37, says, “For nothing is impossible with God.”  He is in control.  He is in control. He is in control.  Right now He is merely using me to be a voice for the voiceless and I know that if He wants this to happen, it will. " (source: sam's blog)

building this building for the teachers would be an awesome legacy to leave in uganda!

We'll run the code for a two weeks! 

katie

fyi...

hope you are enjoying the start to your holiday season! 

big things for our family...we should be closing on a house any day now (had hope it would be today!).

 so more projects and pictures to come, but just shipping date reminders for now.

thank you for supporting my handmade business! 

xo

small biz saturday!

Just wanted to drop in to say thank you for your support and interest in my little business. I feel so lucky to have been doing it for three years now and I love it!

I love my job and that it enables me to be with our sweet and crazy Jude at home. Pretty awesome that you all help make that possible. I'm listening to Christmas music and its making me sentimental...

However, I also wanted to make sure you all knew about our sale until Monday! And please support the lovely local shops we are in. Check our the shop local tab above to see if there is a shop near you!

xo Katie

thanksgiving giveaway!!

to kick off the holiday shopping season, i am doing a little one delightful button giveaway for $35 to my shop.

to enter//

+ like my facebook fan page (and like the post about the giveaway so that i know you are a fan)

extra entries//

+ follow my blog (if you already do you can comment telling me that)

+ follow me on twitter 

winner will be announced sometime on thanksgiving day and stay tuned this week to black friday through cyber monday sales on one delightful button products.

thanks for entering and for choosing to support handmade!

xo
katie

a good day.

what does a good day look like for you?

i think i am having one. we'll see. it is only 10:30am.

listening to this // joanna dahl - my name & its good. and probably good for me not just to be listening to christmas music.

jude slept mostly through the night - only waking at 5:45am - i gave him a bottle in his crib and he went back to sleep. i felt like it might be a good day for me to get up before him. so at 6:15ish i crawled out of bed and turned on the coffee pot and spent some time reading the bible. i always sort of have this in my mind as a goal, but homeboy has still been sleeping so bad it does not feel feasible. our current home is so tiny if i do get up before him, he usually can hear me wake, which defeats the purpose of getting up early.

anyhow...today is worked. then the little sugar bear got up at 7:30ish and we snuggled and had some playtime and some toast and more coffee. actually, coffee with trader joe's sipping chocolate.

this stuff is literally the best. i may have put my name on a waiting list last year when they sold out in virginia beach. i never got a call, but i said i would like 3 boxes. then i got crafty and made some peppermint syrup to go with it by microwaving some sugar water and 1/8 tsp of peppermint extract. yum. take that starbucks!

after breakfast and some playtime, jude and i took a long walk into town. beautiful day. 60s. no fall foliage, but that's okay. now it's naptime and i'm going to get a little biz work done. 

thinking about doing a little giveaway from one delightful button to kick off the holiday shopping season...will keep you all updated, but you must be a blog follower. so if you are click and follow ;)

hope your day is good too. 

Christmas is coming.

Doesn't it feel like Christmas almost here once we get Halloween behind us? Starbucks has there red cups already and is advertising my favorite drink that I order year round - the peppermint mocha. Target is starting to decorate. I am listening to Christmas music. A lot of the she&him album and some Neighborly Christmas.

And poor thanksgiving is like, remember me?

No, thanksgiving, apparently not. I expected to be busy this holiday season with one delightful button orders and have enjoyed packaging up some early holiday orders. Still in the midst of getting a few more orders ready, but wanted to take a second to post.

enjoy your election night!

katie

simple living diy's

i feel perpetually busy. do you? some times i think it is a choice on my part more than anything else. i like feeling busy and important. i am working on changing that. i'm trying not to clutter my day with unnecessary things, but i also like the idea of living less expensively (except for my weekly starbucks trips...that is a very necessary treat).

in light of this, thought i'd share a few of my pins on pinterest (links to my page) that have actually improved my life instead of making me feel bad about pinning things that i never actually do. one thing i am trying to do in actually check the link on what i pin...will i ever actually make this? if so then, i will pin it. besides a lot of stuff on there is spam now, fyi.

here's my list lately...

++ easy peasy shower cleaner - use a dishwashing wand while in the shower to clean - mix up this recipe

++ breakfast cookies - i made these first, but am hoping to try something a little crunchier with peanut butter soon

++ shredded chicken. frozen. best idea. i think i pinned this thought, but i just prepared a bunch of chicken and then shredded it and can take a bag out whenever i need it for a recipe.

++ homemade toothpaste and deodorant 

++ homemade laundry detergent

happy weekend...here's to a less stressful, less cluttered weekend...
katie

some new things in store

My crazy little brain is always having hair-brain ideas. Can't help it. Sometimes I have reel myself back in. In prep for the holiday season and the joy of stocking stuffers and gifts, I am introducing a few new items.  

You have seen our wristlet keychains. More to keychains to come in the next few weeks. 

Now we have these sweet stretchy headbands. They are made with a soft stretch ribbon and can be layered or worn individually. 

They function as a normal hair tie, headband, and when not in use look cute on your wrist. 

yay for the coming holiday season. not that i am not presently loving fall. but yay. 

happy friday y'all

first birthday

one of the things that i was most sad about when considering moving to massachusetts last year was that we would have no one to celebrate jude's birthday with. i am so grateful that that was not true and we celebrated jude's first birthday with a group of family and new friends and even some old friends.

the decor was pretty simple. i like pinterest and i all, but i wasn't going to go nuts. plus we are on a tight budget.

i printed the invites on cardstock on our own printer. and used fun dowloaded fonts and washi tape to decorate them.

banner i purchased for a craft show.

lots of pictures everywhere

made the garland following this same idea // washi taped pictures on the picture frames

homemade smash cake // idea credit // washi tape flags

homemade pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting with washi flags

got in his stride...

 opening gifts.


bebe + pops!

happy birthday little j // love you so

can't seem to blog lately.

hello friends + strangers.

blogging has been on my mind some lately, but i just can't seem to crank one out. too much going on. good things. tiring things.

just when i think i have got the sleep thing down with j, he wakes up at 1:30, 5, and then 6 for the day. we've had lots of visitors. and i still haven't taken all the birthday decorations down. he is still liking the balloons...so why not?

shipped lots and lots of packages in the last week to support the sibigas, exciting.

also fun is the fact that my yellow hunter boots are already making these rainy, cool fall days a little better. along with the fact that i can walk to the post office from our house and there is never a line (virginia beach....worst...post offices....ever...). however, i do think they are a little sick of me bringing 20+ packages in. i may start printing labels from home again, but i am not sure which is more cost efficient and i like the walk. 

a few more keychains online. if your college or desired color combo is not listed, email me at onedelightfulbutton {at} gmail.com

uva // vcu // vt // jmu

i will post j's birthday celebration one of these days. 

happy monday 

one. year.

i know my basic grammar. 

one. year. 

i added the . for emphasis because i cannot believe it. 

i can't remember what the weather was like the day jude was born last year. this year it was gross and rainy. i couldn't even get a picture to document the day like i had hoped. and it stayed like that for a week. 

saturday, though, we celebrated and it was a gorgeous new england fall day. growing up in blacksburg, virginia, we had pretty fall days. virginia beach, not so much. i love you virginia beach, but your leaves always left me disappointed. new england knows how to do fall. we are soaking it up. and it's a great time of year for a birthday. 

i made home boy's little shirt spontaneously. i just cut out the letters "o, n, e" and stitched them down. as far as long term, i don't think it will hold up. i have been washing it and air drying it, but it was good for the occasion. 

so little boy, what are you like at one year old? 

++  getting much faster at walking. it's hard to believe you have just been doing it for a few weeks

++ a much pickier eater than you were even a month ago. right now you love bread, macaroni and cheese, and fruit. you'll sort through a plate of food and drop the things you don't want on the floor. 

++  starting to gain more control of your voice, but no definite words. 

++ everything is a game. and a cell phone. you love to play. and you pick up most things that look like an electronic and put it to your ear. 

++ you love bath time. 

++ you are super social. you love being in the nursery with other babies and you light up when you see other kids. 

we think you are the best, jude. you may never read this blog. but we love you. we are so glad God gave you to us.

random ramblings.

just a few thoughts...

baby boy is one...

i have no good pictures so far. i planned on his first birthday dressing him up in his shirt that i made for him and taking some cute pics. well the weather did not cooperate and has continued to be a nasty, cool, rainy week. literally. tomorrow is our first day of sunshine. hallelujah! hopefully we will grabs some pictures and we will celebrate for reals on saturday. with friends. we will be missing our old friends in virginia, but we are grateful that we have a few friends to celebrate with here. 

and there will be a birthday posts. and a party post. we are going relatively simply, brunch. excited. 

right now, i am enjoying mumford and son's babel album. it is good. surprisingly good. 

philip's home so g2g. 

back soon. 

another delightful bride

one of my sister's sweet friends, alex, got married a few weeks ago in richmond, va. for her part of her bridesmaids gifts she gave one delightful button earrings and i had to share one of beautiful pictures.

photography by: rebekah hoyt 

caroline, my sister is on the farthest right : )

congrats, alex! you looked beautiful.

+ a note to brides, contact me via email [ onedelightfulbutton AT gmail.com ] if you are interested in having one delightful button earrings for your bridal party. we love custom orders, like we did for alex and offer discounts to brides.

sleep deprivation and what not.

let's just say i am tired.

wow.

j-money is giving me a run for my money these days.

i said in this post that he started sleeping through the night again. well we took a few steps back again. the last two nights i think he woke up at 3am cried for a half hour, 4: 45am and then finally up for the day around 6:45am. this is particularly difficult because philip has been out almost every night this week and we usually end up talking about our days for a little bit. i know this last bit is a little foolish, but when you have not seen your husband all day sometimes that's what you choose to do.

i'm guessing it's the move. why is my angel baby who is generally very happy during the day suddenly waking up three times at night angrily? the latest advice we have gotten is to let him cry. that if you don't, they will learn to cry until you get them. that i am training him at night. the problem is, he isn't getting it. or it's taking awhile.

also, sidebar, dr. sears, i do not like you. i happen to pick up a book by dr. sears on sleeping and after reading a few pages, i need to get rid of it as soon as possible. if it weren't a library book, i would throw it away. co-sleeping...attachment...guilt for letting your child cry...i am going to leave it at that.

jude and i are really enjoying one another during the day. that's the upside. and i am also really enjoying coffee. thank you, God, for coffee. and for this sweet boy too. i sure do love him and sure do wish he would sleep.

any other moms out there with any tricks or tips...i welcome them...

happy friday, ya'll...here's hoping for a little bit of rest...

tommy, ellie + tucker

i wanted to take some time to share with you all about some sweet friends (and fellow young life staff) in virginia. 

this is tommy, ellie and their sweet baby, tucker. tucker was born at almost 26 weeks. 

you can follow along with his story here on their blog: http://tommyandellie.com/index.php/tucker/updates/

tucker is a little trooper. i am not going to attempt to explain some of the medical issues, but tommy and ellie explain a lot of that on their blog and give you ways you can support them by praying.

i also wanted to support them by giving. tucker is still in the NICU and will most likely be until he reaches full-term. as you can imagine, the medical bills are starting to come in.

so for the next month, 10% of one delightful button sales will go toward the Sibiga family. because we wanted to go beyond just that 10%, if you enter the code, TUCKER, at check-out, we will donate an extra 10%. shop here.

please pray for tucker. pray that the Lord would protect him and help his little body to be able to breathe well on his own. please pray for tommy and ellie and that the Lord would be their strength.

if you would like to give to them directly, you can do that here.

i am that desperate.

alright peoples.

this is a desperate plea. i am almost sure it is hopeless, but i am still going for it.

i entered jude in this sort of ridiculous contest. that would be nice to win. $10,000 toward college.

so might as well try, right?

look at this little face with this half bald head.

i have to admit i did not choose the best photo of him, but i was too lazy to upload a new one. but if you are so inclined. vote here.