for the love of pyrex.

I have been collecting vintage Pyrex for a few years now.  I have accumulated about 100 pieces and my family has contributed in helping me find pieces to expand my collection.  My kids and husband enjoy "the hunt" for them at antique stores, estate sales and thrift shops.  Parents and grandparents pitch in and many occasions for me involve gifts of the Pyrex genre.  I fell in love with these beauties because I quickly found that each person selling one had a story about how many meals they had prepared in these dishes and how many decades ago they were a wedding gift to them.  They remind me of a "suzy homemaker" lifestyle of decades ago that I enjoy keeping alive in my home.  These are the perfect dishes to prepare family recipes in and bring to meals with family and friends.  I mix and match pieces to decorate for birthdays, holidays and meals at home.  They are perfect for a fancy Thanksgiving dinner and a Monday morning cereal bowl.  I hope my children continue to help me collect these dishes over the years, attribute memories of mom's cooking to each one, disperse between their families, and cook for their children in.  I am sure I have over-thought each piece of Pyrex I have in my cupboard, but to me they symbolize so much about my goals as a wife, mother and homemaker.  

canning season 2012.

Canning season has come to a close in the Fulton household as the weather changes and a new babies' arrival is near.  The whole family and great grandma pitched in this year.  The results include 58 quarts of carrots, 80 quarts of tomatoes/goulash, 10 quarts of pickled cauliflower, 12 pints of pickled spicy peppers and about 24 pints of salsa.  My husband is in the thick of hunting season now and between his meat and all the canning we can be proud of all the homemade goodness we can share with our family this winter.  Thanks to all of our extended family who has shared and carried on all these recipes and traditions that we can now teach and share with our children. 

vivianne's homemade quilt.

I make my children, nieces and nephews (pics to come) a quilt with their name on it (see previous entry links to view: Alivia's quilt   Emilia's quilt   Jackson's Quilt)  As many of you know our family is expecting another baby girl this October and I have finished Vivianne's quilt this past week. Above are the photos of the finished quilt and I am feeling very anxious to snuggle this new bundle of love soon.

girl's room furniture makeover.

Before: 

Emilia and Daddy starting this redo project on Vivianne's dresser

 After: 

the girl's night stand looks so much sweeter in mint and the original hardware worked with the new color

After: Emilia Jane's Dresser 

After: Vivianne's dresser/changing table and new homemade mobile

The girl's room is transforming into a nice space for two sweethearts and the furniture makeover was a vital part of this transformation.  I am happy with the result of the mint furniture.  Now the fun part of organizing all of their clothes and closet can begin.  An added perk to the whole project is the leftover mint paint will cover up the paneling in mommy's dressing room!                                         

a few of my beautiful hollyhocks.

I have a small collection of HollyHocks started this year.  I love these traditional farm flowers and hope they really take off at my home. 

entryway curtains.

We have all neutral, high quality curtains on traverse rods in our downstairs (came that way upon purchasing the home).  I do not mind the look of them at all and they are a better quality than I could afford, but our entryway curtains are kind of by themselves and worked especially hard so when I fell in love with these beauties at Goodwill, I didn't hesitate.  They look light and beautiful by our front door.  I love sliding them open and looking into my flower garden each morning. They also dress up my primitive chair and brighten the whole area. 

vanity seat and classic dressing table.

I am currently redesigning my dressing room-such a treat.  I am lucky enough to have this beautiful space to display my love of fashion and feel like a lady.  My husband rescued this gorgeous antique vanity and we cleaned it up.  I love it "as is" and have only added new knobs, accessories and a new vanity seat to this rescued beauty.  I bought this old brass chair at a garage sale for $5.  My husband painted it mint for me and made a base for the new upholstered seat.  I bought this beautiful chevron fabric and we remade the seat exactly as I wanted for under $10.  I cannot wait to finish this room's makeover and upload pictures :)

a smokin' deal on quilting wheels leads to a day of crafting.

 I scored this basket full of quilting wheels at an antique store for $2.50-the remaining supplies needed to make the projects below were found in my home. 

 I made this mobile, for our daughter Vivianne, from an embroidery hoop, leftover sheer fabric from our wedding and many many quilting wheels.  I think it will make our newest addition smile and coo.

 I recently found this child's apron at an estate sale for $2 and was able to personalize it for my girls by adding a few quilting wheels. 

 All of these plain headbands were leftover from my daughter, Emilia's "baby" headband collection and I was able to make them sweeter for both her and her baby sister by adding a few quilting wheels for personality.

She was more than happy to model for mom.

jackson james turns 5...farm style.

My son loved tractors from the time he could first express a preference in toys! One of my son's favorite places to hang is my grandparent's hobby farm just a few miles from our home.  For his fifth birthday we combined those two things with a few great friends and family, snacks, bandanas, crawdads, rainboots, a hay ride, smores by the campfire and old fashion cane pole fishin' to throw one heck of a bash to celebrate our little boy.  He had a blast!  Happy Birthday, BooBoo.

vivianne is sharing a room with her sister.

I am currently 6 months pregnant with my 3rd child, a baby girl who we will name Vivianne Lou.  She will be sharing a room with her sister and we are beginning to make additions and changes to the room to accommodate two beautiful girls.  A great friend of mine, Sarah, made "Emilia" in  the same type of letters as shown above and of course Vivianne needed a set to match.  I would like to share the pictures of how "Vivianne" turned out and of course I will post pictures of their room and the furniture makeovers that are currently taking place later.

arizona, nebraska, tennessee, south carolina family visit.

My mom and grandma

My brother (visiting from NE) and son

My sister-in-law, brother (NE), cousin and her boyfriend (TN)

Some of the most important women in my life after I had the chance to host my sister-in-law and brother's baby shower at my home 

(LtoR: my daughter, my mom, my little sister, myself, my cousin, my sister-in-law and my grandma). 

My dad and my kids

My beautiful parents and I (visiting from AZ)

My mom and dad (sunny AZ)

Uncle Scott and Aunt Robin (SC)

Jackson and Matthew (cousin from TN)

My husband and brother

I believe everyone who was visiting is pictured above (we also had the chance to see family we do not often see at my sister-in-law's baby shower).  Summers are a special time for my family and especially my kids because much of my immediate family lives out of state.  All of my husband's family and a large majority of my extended family live right close to us at home in Michigan and we are blessed to see them often.  During the summer we enjoy the large chunk of time we get with "mom's family".  This summer was no exception and we fit in so many delightful memories.  We were able to visit lots of family together, go shopping, ski, be on Lake Huron from multiple, loveable Michigan towns, work together on grandma and grandpa's farm, have a family reunion, have a baby shower, enjoy being together in my home, do sewing and craft projects, go antique-ing, garage sale-ing and estate sale shopping, find out the sex of both mine and my sister-in-law babies and celebrate one another.  It was exceptional! It is also why my blog has been sparse and I will be playing catch up for a few weeks.  I have a long list of blog topics and photos to share.  Thank you to my few, loyal followers who enjoy my updates.  As I have said before, something inside me has always made me a documenter of life's moments and this is one more outlet I get to enjoy.