I miss this...

So much has happened since my last post. It's funny looking back and reading old posts of mine. I started blogging a little over 7 years ago - WHAT?! Crazy. Of course, there have been gaps between posts - some quite long - but it's pretty neat to think I've had this little space of mine for that long. Instagram kind of took over as a mini blog of sorts, but I would love to get back on this space officially. I miss writing...I miss writing more than what I do on IG. I don't even know if anyone still reads this. People do read blogs still, right? Well, I'm just going to start writing and we'll see how it goes...

The biggest thing that has happened since my absence is we have a brand new addition to our family. After so many years of waiting, hoping, and praying we finally are a family of FOUR and we are beyond happy about it. It's everything we dreamed it would be and MORE!

Our sweet Flora joined us this last December - a day before her sister's birthday. I will have to share more of her birth story soon...She is such a joy and we are all madly in love with her.

Well now, I'm feeling sort of proud of myself for getting this post on here. Short and sweet - I think it's a good start.

Fall Antique Weekend 2012

Wow, this week flew....but, our trip was wonderful! It was such a good time of antiquing, family fun, and fellowship with some of our extended family. The first day antiquing was a bit warm, but then our second day was cloudy and rainy, which is always kind of fun I think. Rain boots are a must for Antique Weekend in both spring and fall because it can get pretty muddy if it rains! We didn't have any luck finding the one big thing we were looking for (a dresser) but lots of cool little stuff.

We found some neat things for Boo including this little turquoise cowgirl outfit, an adorable Mary Poppins book, and a beautifully colored South Dakota pennant. She loves learning about U.S. presidents, but especially Lincoln and Washington, so this was a fun find!

Boo and I dug through lots of containers to find all these adorable accents for her vintage dollhouse. Such cuteness! I especially love the rug and wooden stool in the back.

We got this set of Chinese lanterns from a lady whose booth we always love. The colors are so bright and lovely, and I'm always looking for fun random party decor to add to my collection!

These little maps are from a 1955 German newspaper and are uber COOL. We bought 2 of our favorite cities we've visited - Paris and London - and then our favorite country - Italy. The illustrations are just adorable and we're going to frame them for Boo's room.

These pieces are all from Guatemala - cute little bags, a basket, and a table runner...I so love prints and colors like these. We also bought a larger version of the cool basket in the back.

Boo also picked out this pretty Frida Kahlo frame (she recently studied her in one of her art classes), a little doll for her shadowbox, metal plates/bowls for outside play, and a little Guatemalan purse. She loves antiquing and searching to find cool stuff, just like her mama! So cute.

This was another cool fabric piece from Guatemala, along with some adorably decorated bottle brush trees. Loved the colors and they're always so expensive online, so I was super excited about these.

Other finds include a gorgeous colorful kimono, some school stuff, and an original polly pocket little house and people (the teeny tiny ones that actually fit in your pocket, which my sisters and I had when we were little)! Anyway, that's it...fun stuff though!

We stayed with some family and got to visit others, and we so loved spending time with all of them. Family is just the best! One of our trip days we took Boo around our alma mater's campus (Texas A&M)...she's been there before but it's been awhile and didn't remember. It was fun showing her mom's favorite studying (nap) spot, dad's old studio, our favorite places to eat, and just special little places around campus/town. BCS has grown and changed quite a bit, but Aggies are still some of friendliest people you could ever meet! It was cool to see all the new modern buildings on campus along with some good green initiatives - like the neat water bottle fillers on top of the water fountains (have you seen those?), solar composters, recycling everywhere, and so forth.

It was such a great trip but I was so happy to walk into our nest and "be home". I so love my home and filling it was things we love (like the above) and making it a special place for my family. I truly am a blessed gal. Have a great weekend!

Away we go!

We are off on an adventure to here, one of our favorite places - it's a magical land called "Antique Weekend" with acres and acres of beautiful antiques and amazing vintage finds! It's awesome. Seriously. And we love it. And I can't wait to be there. We also get to go here, another fave of ours, and see some of our favorite people. It's going to be all kinds of wonderful! We have a short list of things to look for antiquing but we always find random cool things along the way - wish us luck! I will probably IG some neat things we find too if you want to follow.

Be back soon to show you what we found...Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

"Welcome fall" party!

Saturday was the first day of fall...didn't feel like it here in our part of Texas however. There was recently a bit of fall-ish weather and it was perfectly delightful. Loved it. I am a summer girl at heart (love the heat!) but I do so love the changing of the seasons and it was enjoyable for sure. But alas, it's gone! Twas only a tease of what is yet to come...soon hopefully.

Regardless, we decided to "welcome fall" on Friday with our natural parenting playgroup with a little party at the park. Everyone brought their own picnic lunch and we brought the sweets and the decor (of course). I mean, what's a party without those, right? As is usual in the fall around our nest, we recently bought some little pumpkins and gourds so we brought those, along with burlap runners I quickly cut from a roll I have lying around. The leaves, acorns, and pinecones we gathered on a walk the day before. So really incredibly simple, but it added a nice special something to the party.

We made a gallon of apple cider that morning...yes, a gallon. We are still drinking it! Although it was warm out, the warm-ish cider still was nice. The kiddos thought it was funny to be drinking a warm drink on a warm day though. The compostable cups and plates we had lying around from a past outdoor party...both are from here I do believe.

The treats were vegan gluten-free pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and raw apple cinnamon cookies (recipes here and here)...both of which were delicious if I do say so myself. I recommend both of the recipes and the only thing I did differently was add dark chocolate chunks to the pumpkin cookie one.

A friend brought delicious fresh figs to share with everyone - YUM! We all played, chatted, and had a jolly time. Despite the non-fall weather it really was the perfect welcome to fall!

P.S.
Here is my little sweet/silly assistant that helped put it all together!

The rest of our weekend was wonderful too...it included a movie date with my bestie who was in town from Cali, a homecoming football game, gardening, home projects, family leisure time, and soccer, soccer, and more soccer (we all play). It was awesome but I'm ready for the week...bring it on Monday! Have a blessed one.

Hello.

Hello there. It's been a long long while, huh? Almost 2 years...wow, hard to believe! Time has flown. I've been wanting to get back on here for awhile now, but it just hasn't happened. This time I'm going to do my best to keep this ole blog going...give it my best shot at least! I truly miss writing, sharing, and interacting with you all.

But, where to start, where to start? So much to say really, but I'm going to keep this first post back uber simple and say that we are all doing wonderfully (Jonathan (pka my Love), Boo (pka Lovebug), and I (Jillian)). Our life is full and oh so very fun. We are incredibly blessed and are still living the vegan, green, holistic lifestyle and are always learning/growing and just loving it! I have considered completely scrapping this blog and starting over with Typepad or another but I've been impressed with what Blogger has done since being away. I also considered deleting all the old content but I think I've decided to leave that as well...for now at least. I have cleaned things up though and made it all more visually reflective of the current, yet always evolving, me/us. ☺ Things will be different this time around though me thinks...I am excited! Hopefully some of my old readers are still following me, I can't wait to catch back up with you all!

Alrighty, I'd love to know who's reading and see what everyone is up to! I'll be back soon.

♥
Jillian

Weather & Watermelon

Well hello. So this is what Lovebug and I have been eating lately around our nest...yummy watermelon from our garden! I know, it's strange eating watermelon in November, especially with days like today. We woke up to dark and cloudy, then it was sunny, then rainy, then back to sunny, then cool, then cold! It was a weird weird day and a ton of leaves fell today which always mesmerizes me. Earlier, Lovebug and I were sitting down watching the rain and eating watermelon when I looked up and it was like all of a sudden I could really see a difference in the leaves. The colors are finally changing and it's such a beautiful thing. But yeah, watermelon in November feels very weird. :)

We're gearing up for a busy weekend of parties, get togethers, and my soccer team's final game of the season where we play for 1st place - I'm pumped! Have a good one.

Fall-ifying

We've been doing lots of fall-ifying around our nest lately with fun seasonal decor and treats!

First up were some delicious soaked pumpkin pancakes! I was so excited when a store near us started to carry organic pumpkins so I could make homemade puree - so easy! I used this recipe but soaked the flour and water overnight with a bit more ACV than called for, and used coconut milk instead of soy. They were really good and cooked better than any other pancakes I've ever done. I topped mine off with some raw coconut butter, banana, and a bit of drizzled raw coconut nectar. YUM!


This beautiful leaf branch Lovebug and I took from a friend's backyard was our first piece of nature to bring in for the season and it inspired much of our fall decor. I love the heart shape and pretty brown color of the leaves.


Next up with our homemade pumpkin puree we made soaked pumpkin cupcakes for a family get together, which we topped with a delicious cashew and hazelnut frosting.


Inspired by the above leaf branch I made some leaves out of brown packaging paper I had saved and hung them on thread. Lovebug loved doing this alongside me and made some darling little leaves herself:). I really enjoy lighting candles this time of year and have lots of soy ones leftover from my sister's wedding everywhere along with some pillar ones I recently made.


I think pinecones are so unique and beautiful. These ones we collected during a recent family photo shoot and the large acorns were given to me by a dear friend.


I adore soups, especially this time of the year. There is nothing better than warm soup on a cool day! This sweet potato, squash, and apple soup which my Love adapted a bit by adding carrot too was delicious and such a lovely fall color.


This is sitting in our dining room and is just a little vignette of dead branches from our backyard, a few leaves, and pinecones. Simple. I like it.


I really love our fall decor this year! It very much looks like fall around our parts as we don't see a ton of reds, oranges, and your typical "fall colors" but I still appreciate the colors we do see :). I think it's beautiful.

Have you been fall-ifying too?