may your days be merry and bright

May you have a sweet door waiting for you to open this Christmas and warm arms inside wanting to give you a hug.  Merry Christmas.

make him fall in love butter cookies

I came across this recipe years ago and can truly say that if you are smitten with a special someone and would like him to be just as smitten with you, bring your cutie a batch of these and they will make him melt like butter.  They are easy as pie to make. 

All you need is butter,

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eggs,

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sugar and flour,

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and pure vanilla extract.

 

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Combine all of these and you have the beginning of a masterpiece.

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The end result, a little flaky cookie that tastes like heaven!

Butter Cookie Dough

4 sticks of butter, softened

1 1/3 cups sugar

3/4 teaspoons salt

3 egg yolks

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

4 2/3 cups flour

Beat butter in a mixer on medium speed.  Add sugar and salt.  Then add egg yolks one at a time, followed by the vanilla.  When well combined add flour slowly until just combined.  Form into discs, wrap and put in the refrigerator until firm.  Roll dough on floured surface and shape cookies with cute cookie cutters.  Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes until a little golden.  Remove, cool and get ready to be adored by those you share with.

brand new shoes

At this busy time of year,  it's hard to take time for one's self but it's important that you do.  You need time to revive and refresh your spirit so you can give your best self back to those you love.  Buy yourself those heels that make you feel ladylike, paint your toenails a brilliant red, wear your favorite perfume everyday, not just for special occasions

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wear something ultra feminine and soft

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eat your favorite treat in the bathtub

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but most of all...

because you are!

Christmastime is here

Oh how cozy I find the holiday season to be!  Warm fires, good smells and twinkling lights around every corner.  I just adore it.  May you are yours have a very Merry Christmas this year!

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Emma's first year to talk to Santa Claus without being terrified.

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Emma was just a wee bit excited about picking out our Christmas tree.

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There were just too many to choose from.

"Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child at Christmastime."

-Laura Ingalls Wilder

just a thought

"This I learned from the shadow of a tree

That to and fro did sway upon a wall:

Our shadow selves, our influences, may fall

Where we can never be."

-Anna E. Hamilton

twinkletoes

Twinkletoes

When the sun

Shines through the leaves of the apple-tree,

When the sun

Makes shadows of the leaves of the apple-tree,

Then I pass

On the grass

From one leaf to another,

From one leaf to its brother,

Tip-toe, tip-toe!

Here I go!

-From When We Were Very Young

By A. A. Milne

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true feelings

Tell those you care about just how much you love them so.

i'll take a slice

Emma decided she wanted to be a piece of pizza for Halloween this year.  At first it started out as plain pepperoni and then it became supreme when Emma saw all the colorful felt down the craft aisle.  My father and I finished the costume a few hours before trick-or-treating time.  To our surprise she wore it the entire time we were out and about.  Hope everyone else had a Halloween as delicious as ours!

the beauty of simplicity

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It is a beautious gift to keep things simplistic and pure, uncluttered by detail upon detail.  There's a peace within these unadorned things.  And when you surround yourself with only the simple things you truly need, you'll find that you yourself become uncluttered as well.

"To touch the cup with eager lips and taste, not drain it;

To woo and tempt and court a bliss-and not attain it;

To fondle and caress a joy, yet hold it lightly,

Lest it become necessity and cling too tightly;

To watch the sun set in the west without regretting;

To hail its advent in the east-the night forgetting;

To smother care in happiness and grief in laughter;

To hold the present close-not questioning hereafter;

To have enough to share-to know the joy of giving;

To thrill with all the sweets of life-is living."

-Anonymous

is there ever enough time?

Is there ever enough time to snuggle for as long as you'd truly like to?

...to share what you know with your children?

...to walk down a road feeling proud of who you are and what you might one day become?

...to show your loved ones how much you care about them?

My mother-in-law is about to lose her long battle with cancer and it's strange to picture a world without her.  She has raised a beautiful family and I'm grateful for her devotion to them.

If there were enough time, I'd thank her for raising a son who loves and respects his wife.  Who is a truly devoted man to his family.

I'd thank her for accepting me from the start and for sharing her family stories with me.

I'd thank her for spoiling our daughter rotten just like a grandmother should.  And tell her how happy I am she had the opportunity to get to know her.

I would thank her for being so strong for so long.

But most of all, I'd thank her for just being Lynne.

autumn comes a knockin

I have the sudden urge to make pumpkin spice bread & cranberry tea.  We have a fat warm pumpkin sitting on our front steps keeping a charming mum company.  Yes, this is my favorite time of year.  The end and beginning of something all wrapped up in one...

Took my little one out the other day when getting the shutter-bug fever and got a few decent shots despite her not wanting her picture taken.

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"Summer's loss seems little, dear, on days like these."

-Ernest Dowson

huntsville wedding photography- love's true bliss

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"The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions- the little, soon-forgotten charities of a kiss, a smile, a kind look, a heartfelt compliment in the disguise of a playful raillery, and the countless other infinitesimals of pleasant thought and feeling."

-Samuel Taylor Coleridge

These two lovely people share the great bond of love between them.  They literally could not stop smiling on their wedding day!  Precious people, precious moments.  It was a joy to be a part of it all.