A Mermaid Grotto...

Last weekend was the Excelsior Springs Garden tour. My mother in law's home was on the tour and sure did impress! I love all the little details throughout the yard. She definitely has a green thumb. Here is a peek into her Mermaid Grotto:





The tour also wound through her sun room where she houses all her cacti and potted plants in the winter. This is my favorite room in her home.



The first picture is of all the pillows I made!

The deck is also beautiful. It was built around a huge tree and of course is all beached theme with a hot tub!



This is one of our favorite places to hang out at in the summer! The tour was a huge success!




Well these Two Poots are about ready to hit the open road with Mark and Kerry! We are heading to Texas for our family reunion! I can't wait! I will be taking my computer but probably won't post until after the 4th of July when we return home! I hope to have lots of projects completed by the end of this trip! Until then.... adieu!!!
XOXO
Amber

Our Hearts...

are breaking today for the loss of our sweet Betty Jo who was taken from us last night. She was such an amazing cat and had so much life left in her!

Betty Jo we love you so much and will miss you terribly!

We will miss:
*your sweet meows in the morning reminding us to let you out
(please no comments on allowing our cat outside...she was an outdoor cat at heart)
*your adorable little face with your semi crossed eyes
* rubbing your little tummy
*you stealing my yarn balls and hiding them all over the house
*greeting us at our car every day after work

You were the perfect little kitty and you will always have a special place in our hearts.



Our hearts have been so heavy today. I am trying to prepare for our trip as we leave tomorrow. I will be back with another post before we get out on the open road. We are exhausted from last nights events so we are off to bed.
XOXO
Amber

Sugarland and more!

Sorry I have been absent from the blogland this week. Our weekend was so crazy and I still am trying to recoup from it. We are leaving on vacation this Friday, so I am trying to tie up all the loose ends before we leave! So much to do...so little time!!

Last Friday was a girls night out with Sugarland! We started the evening off with some margaritas and some tasty mexican food!!


They sounded amazing live!


Of course a night isn't complete without taking a few silly pictures:



Thanks ladies for a fun night!

Last night my mom and I went to see the musical Little House on the Prairie! I was so stoked to see that it was coming to Kansas City....and even more excited when I found out Melissa Gilbert was playing Ma (Caroline). When I was younger my mom and I had a nightly bedtime ritual. She would read me a chapter(or two if I could talk her into it)ever night. We read the entire series twice and I still have all of them. I think I am going to read them again soon. One of my favorite vacation memories is actually visiting the home of Laura Ingills Wilder! And of course I have seen every episode of the tv show. The musical did not disappoint. We had a great time.





Did anyone else love these books as much as me?

Well we are off to have dinner with our friends Lisa and Larry! We haven't had a home cooked meal all week and I can't wait!! They also have a surprise for us and I can't wait to see what it is. I will be sure to share more from our weekend soon.
Tomorrow is my last day to work before vacation!!! Yes!!
XOXO
Amber

Random Thursday Ramblings...

This week has flown by which is great. I am really enjoying the daily journal prompts. Here are the last three prompts. Prompt 2 asked that we describe our favorite part of our day:

Prompt 3 was writing about someone we love.

I used one of my mom's cards on this page. It is one of my all time favorite paintings of hers.
Today's prompt was to show what our heart looks like:


Last night at craft night my Aunt Paula surprised me with an early anniversary gift. I was so excited when I saw it!!! She drew it up herself and made sure to put all our favorite things in the picture too. Thank you Paula so much. It is already in our entryway. I love you!

Isn't it amazing?
My parents visit my Great Grandma every week and my mom brought home her "Egg journals" from the 70's. She would write down every single person who bought eggs and how much. At the end of each month she would total up all her sales. I love that she still had these, but she doesn't see why we would want to keep them. She is too cute.



We pulled out two radishes from our garden that were ready and couldn't wait to eat them. Wow...they were HOT!!!


More ramblings:
*I finished the pillows for my mother in laws garden tour.
*I really hope that the weather cooperates for the garden tour!
*I am counting down the days to our vacation.
*I watched Dear John tonight even though I have already seen it and am currently reading the book.
*We ate an entire peach cobbler in 3 days!
*I am so thankful for the blogging community and hope to be able to meet some of you this September.
*I am currently obsessed with Brandi Carlile's latest album.
*I can't wait to hang with my girls tomorrow night and see Sugarland!

Tomorrow is Friday!! Yes!! One week until I am officially on VACATION!!!
XOXO
Amber

My Summer Reading List

I hope to get through all of these and then some over the summer. I just finished The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks and cried!! I am not sure I could see the movie after reading it. Has anyone seen it? I was still on a Nicholas Spark kick so I am currently reading Dear John. I always seem to read his books over the summer.

What is on your summer reading list?

This week Janel's 30 Day Journal Challenge started. I found an old moleskin journal and made it pretty:


Yesterday's prompt was to doodle your name and a little about yourself. I was really nervous to start this. I am not known for my drawing skills, but once I got started I couldn't stop. I am addicted.


I can't wait to work on today's prompt. I will try and post all my pages here. Tonight Poot and I are going to make a gluten free beef stir fry and watch these two movies (It might be a late night tonight but I am going to enjoy my down time with Poot):


Of course while I am watching I will be finishing up the garden tour pillows and working on the family reunion afghan. I swear I am almost done with that thing. I just can't seem to stop. I will admit I went and bought another skein to make it just a little bigger.

Happy Tuesday! Hope it has been a good one!
XOXO
Amber

My yarn stash!

A few weeks ago I was tagged by Becky to write my name in yarn. I finally got around to doing that tonight!

Sorry it took me so long Becky!! Today on here adorable blog she posted how she carries her projects. I am a little embarrassed to show you what mine looks like at the moment. I tend to have a lot of projects going at once. Here is how I am carrying around my current yarn projects:



From the top: plastic bag full of crochet string to make earrings(Thank you Kerry!!),The projects I am currently working on in all the "green bags", and my extra stash is stored in my vintage suitcase.

And because I just can never have enough bags or enough projects going...my newest giant granny square afghan:


So what does your yarn stash look like?
XOXO
Amber

Another cute tank for vacation!!

This morning while the rain poured down I worked on pillows for my mother in laws upcoming garden tour and a tank top for me!! I found a tutorial for it here.



I used an Old Navy tank top that I bought last winter on clearance. The fabric I used to embellish it with was a vintage pillowcase I found while out thrifting. I hope to be able to make a couple more tops before we leave in two weeks.
Happy Saturday!
XOXO
Amber

Summer is for concerts!!!

One of my favorite things to in the summer is attend outdoor concerts! Here are a few of the upcoming show that we have tickets to or hope to get tickets to!!

Next Friday will be girls night out with Sugarland!

I would love to get ticketst to see:

**Dear Poot... They will be in Columbia, MO on July 14 and thought you might want to know that. I love you, Little Poot**

Poot actually wants to attend:

Their lineup is great this year: Heart, Emmylou Harris, Ingrid Michealson, Kelly Clarkson, and of course Sarah McLachlan!

In August we will be traveling with my parents to Iowa to see these two talents artists:


David Gray and Ray Lamontagne! I can not wait!!

Are you attending any concerts this summer? Or are there any artists you are dying to see??
I hope everyone has a great weekend. Tonight is old movie night with Poot and my movie pick is:

It has my ultimate dream car in that movie!!

Two Poots would look pretty sweet riding around in this don't you think??
XOXO
Amber