Life is Beautiful

Motherhood, Sewing, Family

Daddy daughter ball

~ Etc.

Adi’s preschool hosted Fairies and Fathers, a daddy daughter ball a few months ago(as you will be able to tell my my husband’s molestache).  We bought tickets for Ana too, but she got sick the day before so she wasn’t able to attend.  But we went and snuck around to get some few shots in, after i got some shots of Adi and Jay at home.
Adi was beaming when she got home.  She said they danced, ate yummy food, made princess wands & fairy dust, and got to take home a flying lantern.

Mother’s day celebrations.

~ Etc.

photos of the tiffany’s event c/o tiffany and co.
I was interviewed by Romwe for mother’s day.(the link to the interview is gone now, oops!)
My mom and I attended a mother’s day event at Tiffany and Co. where we got to play “dress-up” for an hour, before the store was open to the public.  I also surprised my mom by telling her she could pick out any jewelry for mother’s day(within a certain budget ;).  It was her very first Tiffany jewelry and it was so fun to see her excitement.
On saturday, I slept in ’till 10 a.m(thank you, Jay!), and we took my parents out for sushi for dinner.
On mother’s day, my girls woke me up with a dozen roses each and said, “You’re the best mommy I’ve never had!”  Uh, thank you….? 🙂
Jay made breakfast and dinner(he was going to make lunch too but I told him we can just eat the leftovers), and we all took a long nap after church.  Then he surprised me with a serger!  Several days before, he told me his co-worker was wondering what kind of a serger I use and he told her he had no idea what that even was so he told her he would ask me.  I told him how I don’t have a serger but how I do want one and that sneaky, sneaky guy, it was all a lie!  He knew about the serger more than I do, after researching and reading all the reviews himself. Thank you hun, I love you!
I’m thankful for my mother for, well, my life, everything else and more, how can you even begin a list?  I know she will do anything for me and I try to repay her everyday by my actions.  I’m thankful for Jay’s mother for raising a son so well, to a man who is intelligent in every aspect of life, kind, and so, so selfless.  I will always love and respect our two incredible mothers.

Hooray, it’s the weekend!

~ Etc.

And happy mother’s day this sunday! I want to especially wish a happy mother’s day to the single mothers or the mothers who are having delays on becoming a mother, whether it’s with hard times conceiving, or wanting to marry/have/adopt a child in the future.  You’re still a mother(aren’t we all mothers in some way? :), and I think you are so strong and amazing!
So happy mother’s day.  Hope you are just as excited about the weekend as my two girls! 😉


Sometimes I get jealous.

~ Etc.

This whole blogging thing is still pretty new to me.  It was two years ago when I started posting my DIY projects and it started to draw in readers other than my friends and family(which is wonderful, and it means so much to me that people are interested in my projects) and while there are many aspects to blogging I love(one being the supportive and kind readers I have like you), there are a few aspects to blogging I don’t like.  One of them is how as my blog started to gain more readers, I started comparing my blog to other blogs out there.  The BIG, FAMOUS blogs at that.

Before, when it was a blog read only by family and friends, my only goal was to keep an online journal of our family to look back on, and to update our friends and family at the same time.  I wasn’t trying to make my blog big or successful.  But now, more goals have been added I’m not going to lie, which is to have it be successful so I can earn a profit from it. It’s not the main reason by any means, but it is a part of it.  I realize that’s the goal of most of the other bloggers out there who are trying to make their blog big, and I bet none of the big, famous blogs will keep blogging if they were told they wouldn’t profit from their blog.  So I go to their blogs to see what it is that made their blog so big, to check out my competition so to speak.  But what I’ve realized is, while I get a little motivated to do better on my blog, I leave their blog feeling mostly jealous and bitter.

This whole jealousy thing is new to me because I’ve always been good at being genuinely happy with the success and happiness of other people.  I know them and care for them so if they’re happy, then I’m happy.  If they succeed, then it’s my success too!  Then enters this blogging world.  And getting into the lives of people I have never met and do not personally know.  Then it’s a little hard for me to be genuinely happy for their success because I’ve never met them in my life and they’re my competition now, so to speak.  So when I read their blogs I’m thinking, “I wish my blog was as cool as her’s!, I wish I had that many followers…, I wish I had that many comments on my blog…, I wish I had that many sponsors…, I wish I was a better photographer, my kids can dress that good if my blog made as much as her blog…”  It motivates me to do better on my blog, but it mostly makes me feel discouraged and crappy.  Like I’m back in high school all over again and it’s like a popularity contest.  Isn’t that what this whole blogging thing is about when it comes down to it?(The blogs that want many readers and have it be successful that is).  Being popular is not important and it’s true that, “your popularity ends on the last day of high school”, but this is not high school, we’re all adults now and we all want to make a living in this economy!  So it’s basically a popularity contest overkill.  While being “popular” is overrated and unimportant, in the blog world, it’s important because it means success.

But I realize that there will always be bigger, better, cooler blogs out there, no matter how “big” my blog gets.  And my blog isn’t that big or all that, so why am I comparing myself to those BIG, FAMOUS blogs in the first place?  I’m just grateful people still read my blog!  So it’s a slow process for me but it’s getting so much better.  And I hope I get over it completely sooner than later.  Focusing on the positives like the success of my blog and the talents I do have helps me feel better too.  That I have to look at the things my blog offers and realize I can’t run a perfect blog, and I can’t offer everything.  No blog is perfect or offers everything.  My blog may not have the best pictures(unless it’s Jessica Peterson taking my DIY pictures ;), but I think I offer some good sewing inspirations.  My blog may not have the most comments, but I no longer care because every blog post I write is from my heart and it makes me appreciate the comments I do get(and gives me a chance to reply to those comments individually and also to visit their blogs to get to know my readers better)!  My house doesn’t look like it came out of a magazine, but it’s still a home, and a very happy home at that!  I may get jealous and bitter at other blogs at times but I’m so blessed to live my life that I absolutely love.  My blog may not project the perfect lives of perfect people, but I’m real and honest.

And that is good enough with me.

Vegas part three.

~ Etc.

The last pictures of our vegas trip!

My favorite part of the trip was when Jay and I got to go on a date.  When we visited vegas before, we usually went to bed by 9 p.m with the kids or just hung out inside our hotel room, so it was good to experience the night life for the first time together.  We walked around the strip and saw the water show at bellagio, rode the n.y n.y rollercoaster, and I gambled for the first time!
The vegas night life is definitely crazy, I’ve never heard the f-word so many times in my life, people were distributing porn on a business card and spreading it all over the floor, and I got a headache after inhaling all the smoke around me but I had a good time since I got to spend time with my husband.  I know it’s silly but every time we’re walking and Jay reaches out for my hand and interlocks his fingers with mine, I get a little giddy and I feel like the happiest girl in the world.