Oh joy!

We have been away for the holidays in our beloved Maine and it was just wonderful on all accounts. The snow decided to wait and come the day after we left which was not very nice but oh well. J's family took the time off and so everyone was home and our days consisted of coffee, fires, good food, good conversation, relaxing, and visiting our favorite people and places. It was my favorite to have J all day and sleep in every morning together, something that doesn't happen very often (our bedroom also overlooked the river and sunrise which was lovely).

While in Maine, J's mom and sister threw me the sweetest baby shower and it was just perfect. It was intimate, casual, with good food and sparkles. It was a book shower...which there is little I love as much as children's books. I am not one for games, activities or any attention on myself for that matter so they had onesies and wooden blocks for people to paint if they wanted which was so sweet. People also filled out these sweetest cards guessing the babies name, weight and so on but also writing down their intended role in our child's life which was incredible to hear and I will share another time! It was very joyful and here are some of the treasures of the evening! 

The classics. The original illustrated version of the Velveteen Rabbit, a Peter rabbit to start my collection of Beatrix Potter books, and a treasure Winnie the Poo book. A Child's Garden of Verses is I think my favorite of all time and this is the Tasha Tudor illustrated version. My grandmother gave me another copy where old children's book illustrations accompany his poems, which I have always treasured! 

My twelve Maine Christmas Days was illustrated by one of the art teachers from my high school. Where The Wild Things Are was given by a dear family friend of the Cavanaghs and is one of their old children's books and it is worn and has obviously been well loved. 

Dahlov Ipcar is just the best and I am so excited with this collection already!

One of the Cavanagh's friends gave us this book and painted this beautiful little stool to go with it! I die! This picture does not do this treasure any justice. The sweetest.

My favorite articles of clothing! My friend knit me that sweetest hat and mittens.

My aunt and cousins also hosted the sweetest very intimate gathering and dinner for me and J and I received these treasures.

My grandmother gave me this absolute beautiful set of stacking blocks, too beautiful to play with obviously because i don't ever remember seeing them in our childhood.

My cousin and aunt gave me this treasure. She said it has been in her shopping cart since the beginning of time, just waiting for the perfect reason to buy it...I am very honored to be that reason! I can't wait to see this hanging above our little cutie filling his imagination with wonder and adventure.

These itty bitty socks came with my ship and then J got me a matching pair for Christmas and I just can't handle it.

The above only barely scratches the surface of what I received. I was very well showered the entire vacation. My cup (and book shelf) runneth over! 

A gift for me!

Merry Christmas to me! J made me this gorgeous coffee table and its just so pretty. 

It is made of steel and wood painted the absolute brightest white J could find, and large enough to house my gorgeous wooden bowl my parents gave me for Christmas last year, which has been sadly sitting in a box with no place to rest until now! (It is still too big for the top but until I have a gigantic coffee table or dining table this will have to do). 

Since we moved down to here, we have just made so many talented, crafty, creative friends. It has been so fun being a part of this creative bundle and taking full advantage of their skills for our own enjoyment. One of our friends is a welder who makes the most gorgeous furniture and he has sweetly taken the time to teach J to weld me a fire pit and now this coffee table. It is such a fun, wonderful, impressive craft to know and I am very excited for J learning and falling in love with his new skills. Thank you sweet friends and thank you J for knowing me and creating this pretty thing!

Our baby...

We are so excited to share that we are having a little boy! And I am already in love with his sweetest little face.

A year...

October 4, 2014:

J proposes on one of the most beautiful fall days down on the shores of Winnegance Bay in Maine. 

December 28, 2014:

J and I get married on a beautiful winter morning on our favorite Florida beach. 

January 3, 2015:

J and I move into our first apartment in Bath, ME with water views and walking distance to everything. 

May 30, 2015:

J graduates from RPI and gets to come home full time! 

June 28, 2015:

We move out of our little town apartment and head to Columbia, SC for J's new job. 

July 4, 2015:

We move into our first house together and J's boss invites us to his fourth of July party where we meet all of our new favorite people who we don't understand how we ever got along in life without them. 

July 27, 2015:

I find out I am pregnant! 

September 19, 2015:

J and I join my parents for a weekend trip in the mountains and rent out our own little cottage and have a romantic first vacation together! This week I also decide to start up my own business and gain a wonderful investor to get me started. 

October 23, 2015

We get our first set of laying hens and they are so fun! 

November 26, 2015:

J and I celebrate our first Thanksgiving together as a married couple and for the first time he gets to meet my dads side of the family and all of our cousins. 

December 1, 2015:

I get to decorate our first home for Christmas and put a pom pom garland on our deer hear (which I have been dying to do). 

December 4, 2015:

J and I cut down and decorate our first Christmas tree together! 

December 11, 2015:

I successfully make my first item for my new business that will be starting up shortly and I am just so excited! Today J also started working one day a week at a local farm where he is actively trying to educate himself for our own farming dream! He also brought home lots of fresh eggs!

December 14, 2015:

We get to find out the sex of our baby! 

December 25, 2015:

J and I will be in Maine celebrating our first Christmas together with his family and a fireplace and lots of snow hopefully! 

December 28, 2015:

One year married to my favorite man and hopefully spent together in Charleston. 

If this is how joy-filled our first year of marriage is then goodness I can't wait to be married to you forever. 

Somethings in the works!

I have finally been blessed with a chance to start up my own little business. It is a long time dream and passion of mine but has always remained a hobby and a really fun way to give gifts. Things are still in the works, I have only just recently finished receiving my equipment and supplies. I am in the experimental and educational phase right now and it is all very new to me. 

Clementine's will be a shop of pretty things for your children, your nest and just for you. Here are some past examples that may be similar to the things you'll find at Clementine's. 

linens 

pillows 

little clothes of all sorts (swaddle blankets)

and other pretty things like this!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is just a couple days away and J and I head out to visit the family in Florida before sunrise tomorrow! Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday for so many reasons other than our excellent meal. My family does thanksgiving really really well. I am not just being biased. They used to host the most extravagant Thanksgiving dinners at the Inn and invited what seemed to be hundreds of people when I was little....probably on average 40-50 plus the 100 children. I guess these years of so many food contributions and experiments evolved into the most perfect assembly of sides and turkey for our annual feast. Another reason our Thanksgivings were just so wonderful is because we love Jesus and we are so incredibly thankful for His gift, provision, and love and this spirit shines through us all during this time...or maybe it's the constant flow of mimosas...either way! 

So aside from our wonderful feast and family, these are some of the reasons Thanksgiving is just my absolute favorite! 

One: After 10 1/5 months of anticipation, Thanksgiving morning, the oh so longed for moment...my dad turns on our beloved Handle's Messiah. When I think about Christmas, I think about the messiah. Those familiar 7-10 notes that open the Sinfonia give me chills down my spine. Saving the messiah for Thanksgiving morning and through Christmas preserves how beautiful it is. It is never overplayed and the meaning is that much more prominent. It is my favorite holiday tradition. 

Two: Baking. One things that my parents did so well was invite their children to join in the excitement and responsibility of preparing for Thanksgiving dinner. Since we were little, we have all partaken and contributed to our dinners. There in nothing more exciting for a child than the praise you receive from your well done contribution. Thanksgiving morning is just a sweet time of coffee, messiah, and baking with my mom and sisters before my dad takes over the kitchen domain. In addition to this baking...after Thanksgiving we get to make Christmas cookies and the same wonderful mornings with my mom, sisters and christmas music (usually by this time we have expanded past just the messiah) carry on. 

Three: Decorating. We have always done nature inspired table decorations. We used to scavenge for berries, leaves, pine cones, and whatever else we could find to decorate alongside of candles and beautiful place settings. This was always so fun and an adventure. One time, on Thanksgiving morning in Rome, GA, my sister and I go to take some berries from the landscaping of a local shopping mall. Feeling like we were committing some awful crime we were trying to be discrete and we actually got pulled over on the way home because a couple cops saw us suspiciously sneaking around in the bushes. I don't think there was ever anything more awkward and embarrassing than trying to convince that cop that we were just getting table decorations for dinner...at least we had the berries to prove it. So decorating has always been very fun. But in addition to table decorations, my parents save all Christmas decorating until after Thanksgiving. It gets harder and harder to wait the older I get because the "holiday" season in society begins November 1st it seems and it is just a tease. But it is just so exciting to come home from Thanksgiving and break out the Christmas gear, hang the wreaths, set up the tree and pull out the most precious little handmade nativity. Our house has never been very over the top with the decorations. A lot of wonderful smelling balsam fir wreaths and maybe a garland on the mantel, a simple charlie brown tree decorated so beautifully, poinsettias and the few favorite treasures. I like it this way. 

From here on we start to get into the Christmas traditions and I will save that for another post. I am really excited this year because it is Js and my very first Thanksgiving and Christmas as a married couple and I am so excited to see our own traditions form. I am slowly bringing J around to the excitement of the holidays. His grinch heart is growing...jk he has never been a grinch, just never cared that much about the holiday festivities since I have known him. That is all changing.

Middle verse of O Holy Night.

Everyone knows the first verse...but see how sweet the second verse is! 

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,

With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand. 

O'er the world a star is sweetly gleaming, 

Now come the wisemen from out of the Orient land. 

The King of kings lay thus lowly manger; 

In all our trials born to be our friends. 

He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger, 

Behold your King! Before him lowly bend! 

Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!