Inspiration: Life through my child's eyes

“Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” -A.A. Milne

Now that I have a child of my own, I’ve had the chance to revisit many of my favorite childhood books in anticipation of sharing them with Tuck one day soon. At his current age, he’s more interested in throwing books and laughing about it, putting them in his mouth, or crawling right over them to get to the next best place. But I eagerly await the day when we can read a bedtime story together, enjoying our favorite characters and sharing a good laugh during the funny parts. In revisiting some of my favorite stories, I realized how the simple, yet meaningful words that were written for a child’s ear are just the words that we, as adults, NEED to hear. Let’s be real, life as an adult can be complicated – it’s hard, unfair, stressful and cumbersome at times. Sometimes I think we’re guilty of making our lives more complicated than they really need to be, but sometimes things really are that difficult, with circumstances beyond your control.  It’s during those times that I find so much solace in Tuck – in seeing the world through his 9 month old eyes, where happiness lurks at every corner and life’s simplicity radiates in his smile. Lately, I’ve needed that reminder. I’ve needed to hear the words that I’m going to read to him again and again in his life: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.

image by E.H. Shephard via here

One year, fifty three days and (I'm guessing) a few hours...

...that's how long it's been since I last posted here. Whoa, that's a long time! And sometimes it feels like a long time, but other times it feels like it's gone by in the blink of an eye. A lot has happened in the one year, fifty three days since I last shared my thoughts with you. Change has been ever present and constant and I've learned to make friends with him, even if it hasn't always been easy.

Our little guy came into the world last June, bringing with him a renewed breath of life to both N and me. Life, it seems, got that much sweeter and our hearts so full of love, we thought they just might burst. Almost 9 months later, I still find it unfathomable how my heart can continue to grow and make even more room for the love I have for this little boy. He's amazing and he's challenged me in ways I never thought possible. And if you don't believe me, you should see my instagram feed - it's documentation of how proud I am to be Tucker's mother!

As all mothers know, caring for a child is hard work - it's the hardest work I've ever known. I love every minute of it, but I've also found myself needing an outlet. BT (before Tucker), making jewelry was my outlet, photography was my outlet, this little blog was my outlet. AT (after Tucker), a lot of those things were shoved aside and now that I'm almost a year into motherhood, working mom motherhood, I've found myself needing this little space more and more. To release, to share, to cheer on...whatever it may be, I need a little corner of the world that's all mine.

The Sound of Silence

So things have obviously been extremely quiet over here and if you hadn't noticed, the shop has been "On Vacation" for some time now. I promise I haven't wanted to neglect this blog or my shop after putting in so much hard work last year to get them up and running, but sometimes life sideswipes you with other things. Happy things, like starting a family! We used this picture on our holiday cards this year to share the news with friends and family -the new addition will be here in June! And challenging things, like fracturing my hand in a car accident. With only one working hand, I wasn't able to keep up with the shop, let alone make anything new for it. Oh yeah, and typing, that's a miserable thing to do with only one hand, among many other things. And it's proving to be a bit of a long road to recovery - I'm still working on recovering some muscle memory loss in a few of my fingers and getting my joints to bend and work as they are meant to. I hope to open the shop up in the near future, but I'm hesitant to say when with so much change on the horizon. And I have the best intentions to start sharing things on the blog again - maybe even pick up my camera and start taking some pictures. I've missed that tremendously! So here's to a new start in 2013!

NEW in SHOP!

Yay! I finally have some new items up in the shop! Here's a little preview but be sure to go check 'em out!

Inspiration: Expectations

“I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.”
- Bruce Lee

I've been thinking quite a bit about expectations recently, both those we place on ourselves and those that others place on us. In my mind, expectation often seems to correlate to disappointment - life throws you for a loop and something didn't turn out the way you thought it would or the way someone else wanted it to turn out for you. Sometimes the right choice is taking the unconventional route, doing something instead of waiting for something, moving forward (even if it's in a completely unexpected direction) instead of standing still.  And when others tell you you're crazy, that you're taking a step in the wrong direction, you tell them you don't give a damn what they think because in the end, it's your life to live. Opportunity often presents itself in ways you least expect it. Trust your gut and believe in yourself - if you do, you won't be left wondering how you let those expectations become a missed opportunity.

image via here