Happy Father's Day!

I'm so looking forward to a special day with my two sweet loves! Out to brunch, a day by the sea and some yummy homemade treats.

Happy Father's Day to my husband, the best daddy in the world to our little girl.

The Butterfly Place

Nora and I visited our first butterfly garden yesterday. The Butterfly Place. I've been wanting to visit this near-by sanctuary for years. The local Mom's group I'm a member of, organized a meet-up here, so it was the perfect excuse to finally go. Of course, it was an awesome opportunity to photograph all the gorgeous butterflies for some creative inspiration! (And get some new pics of my Nora girl, too!) Here's our day at the Butterfly Place in pictures:

 Nora checking out the butterfly identification card: "Hmmm, now let's see here..."

Julia butterfly (Dryas iulia)

Small Postman butterfly (Heliconius erato)

Rice Paper butterfly (Idea leuconoe)

Cairns Birdwing butterfly (Ornithoptera priamus)

My Nora girl dressed like a colorful butterfly holding her Grammy's butterfly cane!

Happy 2nd Birthday!

 My Nora girl turns 2 years old! I planned an Ocean-themed kids birthday party for her this year. Fish, sea stars and penguins are some of her favorite things. We held the party at the New England Aquarium in Boston. I think I had just as much fun as the kids. After all, I did get to make cutesy, sea-life-themed cupcakes for all our guests! Here's a few pics from our day at the aquarium.

 Happy 2nd Birthday, Sweetie!

Nora at the Pumpkin Patch

Not a ton of jewelry being made around here lately. I've been concentrating more on Nora and finding fun things for her to do. She's fully mobile, super spunky and active. She's a little ball of energy that runs around here and I have to find more ways of keeping her busy and stimulated.  Since we're still fairly new in town (we moved in last year), I'm still getting acquainted with the area and what there is to do around here for a baby and also I don't know a lot of folks here either, let alone other moms with kids around Nora's age to play with. So, I recently joined a local moms group I found on meetup.com. So glad I did that! We've been to play dates around town, kids activities at the library and last week we went to a local farm to enjoy all that the Autumn season has to offer. We both had so much fun! Here are a few pics of Nora picking out her pumpkin in the pumpkin patch...

Father's Day

Every time I hear someone say, "She's Daddy's Girl." It makes me smile and beam with pride. He's the best father a little girl could have and I'm proud to call him my husband.

Happy Father's Day!

She's 18 Months

My Nora girl is 18 months old. Oh, how the time has gone so fast. 1 and a half years...really? How did that happen? She's getting so big, I can't even carry her around for any length of time. She's a talker, not a walker. Oh, how she can chatter up a storm! And she sings and dances, too! She loves her big stuffed bear, kitty, bunny and a monkey named Ta, ALL her books and her Daddy, too.

 Here's some recent pictures of my little cutie pie with her daddy. She's the spitting image of him. When I look in her eyes, I see him looking back at me! It's pretty amazing. The sweater Nora is wearing was hand-knit by her Grammy Siegel. It's got cupcake buttons!

Nora Story-time!

I haven't shared much of my daughter, Nora here on the blog lately. Here's a video we took of her just today! She's nearly 14 months old now. Please enjoy Owl Babies story-time with Nora Siegel.

Nora

Just wanted to share some cute pictures we took of Nora today. We often find her in her crib like this in the morning for the past few weeks. She's getting good at rolling over from her back to her belly now and holding her upper body up. She didn't used to like being on her stomach at all, but now she seems to enjoy it. Oh, she's also sitting up on her own, too! It's exciting watching her develop...

Mother's Day and Baby Babbles

On Sunday, I had my first OFFICIAL Mother's Day! Yay! (Last year I was pregnant) Here's me and my 6 month old daughter, Nora.

I had a wonderful mother's day. We had a delicious brunch at this restaurant, Finz in Salem, MA. Yum!

Here we are again. Nora's in her pretty pink dress from earlier in the day. She looked so sweet! Through spit-ups and diaper changes this outfit didn't last long, though. lol! Welcome to motherhood, Erin.

I'll leave you with this cute video of Nora talking in her baby babbles(and other funny things she does.) Enjoy! :)

A Visit with the Grandparents

 We had a visit with Nora's Grandparents a few weeks ago. Nora is 5 months in these pictures. She's almost 6 months, now. The time as flown by so quickly. Here is our day...in pictures!

Sitting on Mommy's lap...

Grandma, Nora and a Daffodil...

Reading a story with Grandpa...

Playing on the floor with Daddy...

Bead Studio-WIP

The bead studio is coming along! I have a few more things up in my room. 

I got this great pegboard installed! This is so functional! I love having everything out where I can see it all and just quickly grab any tool or supply I need. The pegboard comes as a kit with different kinds of hooks, attachments and accessories, like these clear bins and the cups. I found these pegboards on Amazon.com.  

Here's the link to the one I bought. The price on Amazon was a little cheaper than on the manufacturer's website. The pegboards are made by this company called Azar Displays. They make all kinds of pegboards and displays for retail stores. They have a variety of different accessories that can be used with the plain pegboards. Definitely check out this company!

I put these painted wooden drawers behind my laptop. They hide all the wires in the corner from my electronic devices. Plus, I can store a few things in the drawers. They also hold a few jewelry displays on top, which I hope to fill with newly made creations soon!

Here's my wall art for the room! Well, it's not really finished yet. lol. It will be a cherry blossom branch once I put the flowers up! But even just the branches are pretty! Can't wait to see it finished, it's going to be sooo pretty! It's a vinyl wall decal I ordered from The Kinky Wall Studio on Etsy. It is really the perfect solution for the slanted in walls in this room!

Here is more pegboards on the opposite wall. I started to put a few things up. These are most of my cords and ribbons. A great way to store and display these materials, don't you think? I just love this! Everything is well organized and each material has a place to live! I love it when things have homes.  As you can see, I'm a big fan of having everything stored out in the open. I find it much easier to design jewelry that way. If I don't see it I forget I have it. I can't take full advantage of the beads and supplies I have if I don't know I have it or I can't find it in boxes full of random things. Am I the only one with this problem? I think not.

 Well, gotta get back to this cutie right here.

I'll show more later! Thanks for stopping by! Let me know what you think of my space so far and the pegboards and wall decal!