A Magical Garden

Hi friends! How’s life? I hope all is well. We are preparing for our trip to Disneyland to celebrate Grace’s 8th Birthday! She is beyond excited! Claire on the other hand, has decided that sleep is rather over rated and has nightly parties in her crib – laughing, talking and calling out to me. I’m exhausted, to say the least! I’ll be glad when this little night owl phase passes.

Anyway…A couple of weeks back we visited a magical place right here in Lake Oswego – The Elk Rock Gardens. It was a gorgeous Spring morning, so Grace and I headed over there to stroll the many paths that crisscross this enchanting place. I, of course, took a plethora of pictures, so I thought I would finally share them with you…

What an amazing morning we had exploring this wonderful place! As Spring comes into full bloom, I encourage you to check out local gardens in your area! It’s so easy to forget about these precious places and just get caught up in our day to day tasks. So much inspiration can be found in nature!

Have a beautiful rest of the week!

xo,

Ivy

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Pumpkin Patch Visit

Hi there my friends! How are you? I hope you are enjoying Fall. We have had a glorious, sun filled October, so of course, a visit to the local Pumpkin Patch was in order! I captured some shots of Claire among the piles of pumpkins. The autumn light has been so very pretty! Grace, thankfully, jumped into the last one too! (She was very busy visiting with all the animals on location so it was hard to pull her away!)

“I want this one!”

After a little hunting, we found four lovely pumpkins. One for each of us. Of course, we also managed to go home with fudge, fresh pumpkin donuts and homemade berry jam. Yum! I didn’t grow up going to a Pumpkin patch for Halloween but I’m happy this has become a sweet tradition for our family.

What traditions do you have in your family for this time of year?

Enjoy the rest of the week.

xo,

Ivy

P.S. I am still working on my Brené Brown homework. I will be sharing it with you soon, I promise. By the way, her book = TOTALLY life-changing!

Birthday Girl

Hello there.

Hope your weekend has been lovely so far. I was going to wait till Monday to share these but I found myself with some quiet time and thought I better take advantage of it!

Claire’s b’day was such a wonderful day. We had family in from out of town and many friends and neighbors came to celebrate our little girl. We couldn’t have asked for a better day. The sun was shining after days of rain, not a cloud in the sky and everyone was more than willing to sit outside and enjoy some food, drinks and of course, sweet Claire. Grace was incredibly excited for her sister and was helpful and supportive. She even made a “sign in” poster that she made all the guests sign as they came in. So cute!

My mother-in-law made some beautiful decorations for the house and I borrowed these great cupcake stands from a neighbor (thanks Christine!) to complete the butterfly and rose dessert table.

I got these precious paper butterflies from this Etsy shop. You can eat them too!

It took Claire a minute to figure out what to do with her cupcake…but it wasn’t long before she was stuffing her face.

She was beaming from ear to ear with all the love and cuddles she got.

So grateful for the special time I got with my family and friends…especially my Aunt Iris and Grandmother who traveled all the way from the east coast to meet Claire.

Much love to you all.

xo,

Ivy

Claire Bear is turning 1!

Hi my lovely readers! Hope your week is going well so far. Today, I come to you with some shots of Claire that I took a couple of days ago. I can’t believe that on the 19th she will be one years old! It seems like she just arrived!

I loved using this vintage yo-yo quilt as my backdrop! It’s like a field of multi-colored flowers. :)

I shot these upstairs in the hallway where we have a skylight directly overhead. It gave me great even, natural light.

 

She is actually wearing her sisters tank top…so she is swimming in it but I love the lace edges and it happened to be within reach so I figured, what the heck?

This one is a bit blurry so forgive me but I had to include it because…well…that grin is just too cute!

I will be sure to capture more photos at her birthday party!

Much love to you all!

xo,

Ivy

Weekend away: Oregon wine country

Hi there! How’s it going? Okay, so I promised I would be back with some pics from our little weekend getaway. I have to admit that my big camera was left in the hotel room because I am so addicted to Instagram. It was fun to capture the moments in a spontaneous (and easy) way with my phone!

We stayed in the historic town of McMinnville at the 3rd Street Flats. They are beautifully decorated, European style flats full of gorgeous decor, charm and local art. The complimentary bottle of wine and chocolates didn’t hurt either. Love this place and would stay again! We could walk to all the restaurants, bars, cafes, tasting rooms and shops!

That first night we ate at the beautiful and romantic La Rambla! Spanish Tapas and fancy cocktails. Yes, please.

Now don’t laugh but the whole point of this trip was, yes, to be romantic and go wine tasting but it was to also work on the re-design of my blog. I rarely ever get Chris’ undivided attention (and talent) so I took advantage of the situation and we parked at the Cornerstone cafe to geek out together and actually get some things accomplished! Grace & Ivy will be new and improved very soon! ;)

After a little hard work, we had to go play and taste some wine so we packed up our laptops, hopped in the car and ended up in the tiny town of Carlton.

We stopped into two places we had never tried before. Absolutely loved the French style Burgundy wines at Scott Paul!

And a ten sample (yes ten!) wine flight with chocolates was a delight at Seven of Hearts!

That night we got all dolled up and dined at Thistle. I LOVED this place. Intimate, delicious, charming with a totally vintage vibe. I was right at home.

What a wonderful treat to get away with Chris! It felt amazing to recharge, re-connect and get inspired.  Thank you to my fabulous brother and his beautiful fiancée for taking our kids for the entire weekend!

If you haven’t gotten away with your partner lately…try and plan something. It is so worth it!

xo,

Ivy

Eight Months Old

Hello! How is your week going? My online class is going well and I’m very inspired to continue improving my blog. The family is well, healthy and happy. Life is good…but I gotta say…I’m not sure if it’s all the rain or what but this week has been hard for me. Major doses of self doubt, feelings of apathy and guilt. A desire to be left alone. Super duper irritability – so sorry my sweet family. I’m not sure what’s up with me. Often when we shift we go through an uncomfortable passage, a place of resistance…maybe that’s where I am at. You see, I have lots of new plans. A multitude of ideas and projects that I want to begin. Goals I want to accomplish. Yet all of a sudden I feel heavy and unsure. Last week, I was full of inspiration and energy. What gives? I guess it’s just a funk. Anyhow…enough grumbling. I try to limit that on my blog but for some reason I just needed to share that with you. I have no right to be sad, no reason to be down…but yet I am…and there you have it.

Okay…blah.

How about some cute baby pictures? They always make me smile. I captured these the other day. Little Miss is eight months old now and is turning into quite the character.

Bubbly, loud and rather demanding. Claire is turning out to be very different to my quiet and shy little Grace.

She seems to love the camera and lights up when I take her picture. What a ham…

But soon she was over it. She pulled off the headband and laid back on the pillow as if to say, “I’m spent!”

Have a wonderful rest of the week!

xo,