coming to you LIVE from massachusetts

so we have landed. at least temporarily in new england prior to heading out to saranac, ny for july.

some thoughts on new england thus far as a realitively total noob (is it newb? as in newbie...)

...it is beautiful. at least where we are. hamilton, ma is just totes adorbs. really lovely old homes. we just love old homes. philip and i are just sort of in awe of all the awesome houses here. we thought our 1960's house in virginia was oldish, but we are looking at houses here built in the 1900s. i know there are down sides to a house that old and it is not everyone's cup of tea, but it is ours. at least we think it is. we love hardwood floors...glass door knobs...beautiful trim work. i just hope we can find one like that is in our budget.

...beaches are different, but also beautiful. and have a price tag. not that we really went to the beach all that much in virginia, but it is interesting to have to pay to get on the beach here. here's philip on the beach at sunset last night. feeling like we were channeling the kennedy family.

...so far people do not seem "colder"...i know i may not have a taste for this quite yet, but people still seem to say hello when you pass them on the street, etc.

...massachusetts is a really long word. we are going to be living in either hamilton or wenham most likely. people also call this area the north shore. i just don't like saying massachusetts and would prefer to use any of the other names i mentioned rather than MA. see already tired of typing it.

...they seem a little more eco-friendly than we are in vb. evidence: itsy bitsy trashcans, recycle bins that are picked up weekly vs. every other in vb, and a compost pick-up. 

...jude is being a total angel baby. this is not a MA thought, but really. we are loving being here with him.

lots of traveling and exploring for me and j this week. may be back with more depending on how i choose to spend his naptime.

xo.

may travels...bring june travels.

**sorry i have been mia for a month! we are in the process of moving. i think i may post more on that soon if i have time. below is an update of may. 

jude's been busy. so have we. 

the little man has just taken off in the past few weeks. full fledged crawling. no more army crawl. pulling up to his knees. then pulling up to his feet. then pulling up and doing laps around the perimeter of his crib. 

my travels started in richmond to see one of my very best friends, stacy (pictured on left). i wish i could link to her blog, but despite how witty she is she does not have one. (peer pressure)

then we hit up blacksburg. jude hit up the pool. there we are on the right sitting in the shallow end. going to a pool is not as relaxing as it was in high school. 

then we went on a little vacation with philip's family in marion, virginia. jude and i are pictured on the right in our little log cabinesque room. very fun. it was great to be with family before getting prepared for our big move. on the right are some balloon i hung with fishing wire (thank you pinterest)

thats all for now. seriously. maybe more on the north shore soon. xo.

linking up...

rainy sunday + we are featured!

Hello Rainy Sunday.

I am actually sort of enjoying the rain today despite the fact that we do have a cookout this evening. I am just liking the chance to slow down and just enjoy being inside. I have some crafts I am working on, a wonderful book* to read from the library and hope to drink a hot of tea during Jude's afternoon nap.

Wanted to also share that our little home/blog is featured here on homes.com's blog today. Please check it out.

Hope you are enjoying this rainy day in Virginia.

*I had requested this book months ago at the library and it finally came through and I wasn't sure if I was that interested in it. However, three chapters in, I am really enjoying it. 

friday random ramblings

After I posted yesterday's blog about naptimes. and craziness. and crawlingness. Jude took the most incredible nap. 2 solid hours. I honestly got a little bit bored.

We're in that lovely window of time called naptime again today. We'll see how this goes.

I thought I would just post some random thoughts...

• I'm a gold card member at Starbucks - meaning every 15 drinks - I get a free one of whatever I want. Naturally I am going to go with a venti, the largest size to milk starbucks for all their worth (literally - milk...is that a pun?). Today little J bird and I walked to Starbucks so I could redeem my prize. Let me just tell you, a venti is wayyy too much milk. I normally split it with Philip and it's great, but sadly I didn't even finish it today. 

• Today Jude pooped in the tub. TMI? I was snapping a pic of him on my phone and then when I looked back down out him there was poop every where. Then we had another clean bath. 

• Jude somehow managed to remove the up arrow on my laptop. You'd be surprised how much you use the up arrow. 

• Yesterday I googled diaper coupons because though we do cloth during the day, we use a disposable at night and we were almost out. Hoping to find a good deal on some Luvs, I instead find this blog. I promptly get lost on rabbit trails on how basically most products out there are bad. And the stuff that they may you think is good (like burt's bees or 7th generation) is still often bad. WHHHHHYYYY? Why aren't there more options out there of products that don't mess us up? 

• I ended up buying 7th generation wipes because they got decent reviews and earth's best diapers because they weren't as bad as the mainstream plain ol' diapers. 

• One more venting thought about that. Now sunscreen can cause melanoma because of the way the zinc oxide interacts with the sun. Sometimes I get on these rabbit trails and it drives me bananas. Ultimately I know, I can do the research, try to make informed choices and then have to trust that our days are numbered by the Lord one way or another. I surrender again. 

that's all the ramblings for now. yipee! it's friday!

xo. 

nap times are now sacred.

Oh how I love little Jude! He is so precious and fun and funny and cute. I never imagined the little baby growing inside of me last year would be anything as wonderful as he is. 

With that said, this crawling thing sure is life changing! Gone are the days where he would lay in his baby gym and I would fold laundry, make jewelry, pay bills...

Now nap times have become a sacred time to me. I am savoring it as I type. So when Jude chose to opt out of his 1-2 hour morning nap time on Monday - I was exhausted. Seriously, almost in tears. 

Our normal morning routine follows something like this...

• Nurse him when he wakes
• Change his diaper, outfit
• Feed him solid foods (rice cereal & a veggie)
• Prepare my coffee and breakfast while he sits in his high chair
• Move to the Living room either let him crawl around some and play with toys or play in the exersaucer....You see the exersaucer is wonderful. What did people do before this was invented?

It keeps him happy and entertained and I can actually leave the room briefly without being afraid that he will find something terrible to put in his mouth. Jude will enjoy it anywhere from 10-30 minutes. And yesterday, less than that. 

For the most part, he wants to move. I snapped a few pics. 

Yesterday, was to be a laundry day. My biggest accomplishment besides taking care of Judah was four loads of laundry. Seriously, that is the only other thing I did. It felt kind of defeating. I didn't even get it put away until 10pm last night. 

And alas, we have officially outgrown the bouncer.

I just wanted to check it out the other day and he leaned forward and grabbed the post of the desk, moving the bouncer into official retirement. 

Yes it is okay to just get four loads of laundry done and take care of your precious son. Right? 

I would like to post more on how this has made it challenging to run my button business; we'll see if I can find the time to do that. 

xo. 

merry christmas to me

This was Philip and Judah's Christmas present to me this year. It is the best. So I thought I would share. It's kind of long - almost 15 minutes, but it documents the first few months of Jude's life. Mainly the first few days while at the hospital.

I requested a personal gift for Christmas this past year and this was perfect.
 

i think i solved the mystery!

I have been so frustrated trying to figure out how to get my blog back into the google reader.

Perhaps you have no idea what I am talking about...no biggie. But if you notice the little follower box on the right, if you clicked follow prior to me switching my site to onedelightful.blogspot.com, then I will not show up in your reader. I normally just have my favorite blogs bookmarked marked anyway and go directly to them, but if you like to use your google reader and wish to continue to follow me, here's what to do!

1 - unfollow my blog

2 - refollow my blog

3 - do the happy dance

yay me! I love solving little frustrating mysteries like this.

In other news, I have been doing a lot of fun custom orders this spring. I have done a few bridal party gifts and one for a prom.

sample of a few colors not currently for sale online for bridal + special occasions

If you would like information on a custom order for one delightful button feel free to email me. I have more colors than are listed online and love going to the fabric store (minus all the angry women that work there) to get the perfect fabric for you.

xo. happy tuesday!

p.s. the new google blogger is as annoying as i have heard people say! i had been using the old one and i just had to switch. boo hiss.