emilia's vanity chair.

My daughter wanted a dressing table like mom.  I was lucky enough to find this pictured one for very cheap at a yard sale.  I was then on the hunt for a vanity seat and found this dusty, unloved beauty at a summer estate sale.  I had fabric left over from making over the vanity stool in my dressing room.  My daughter picked out this sweet lavender shade of paint and we made her a coordinating dressing area in her room.  She is getting lots of use out of her new space "like mommy's."

southwest retreat.

 

My daughters and I recently flew from our home and below freezing weather to a week away at my parent's house in Arizona. We did leave their house and enjoy many other things, but I want to highlight the amazing job my parents do with their yard. As my photos illustrate, you can spend all hours of the day in their backyard. We enjoyed garden gazing, sunbathing, pedicures by the pool, using the indoor/outdoor kitchen, eating the fruits of our labor and finally a cozy backyard fire and family game night.  They are so inspiring!

baby hiatus.

For anybody who follows me, you may have noticed a break in action. I have been busy since late October with my third bundle of joy and plan to continue decorating, gardening, cooking, photography updates now. Enjoy these sweet snippets of 

Vivianne Lou.

senior pictures.

    My twin cousins are graduating this Spring.  My aunt asked me if I would take their senior pictures.  I love to fiddle with photography and enjoy using Adobe programs and my Apple computer to do editing.  I have a Nikon Coolpix L810 that I have been experimenting with for about a year. I was excited to take on this task and enjoyed every minute of this learning process.  My aunt and cousins seem happy with the outcome and I thought I would share a few favorites on my blog. Congratulations girls!

    As a side note, it is difficult to mess up two beautiful, cooperative girls and a perfect Michigan Fall backdrop.  Pretty sweet gig ;)

 

 

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.

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.

a home in omaha.

My brother and his wife live in Omaha, Nebraska on an Air Force assignment.  They just moved into base housing and are doing so much with their new place.  I went to visit and wanted to blog about their home's style and what a great job they are doing.  They had only been moved in one week when I arrived and took these snapshots...great work guys!