Saying Goodbye

In Memory of Floyd Donald "PapPap" July23, 1933- June 27th, 2008

Last weekend Marc was working at our house that we are selling when he got a call that his Grandfather (PapPap) had passed away. PapPap had been sick for some time with cancer and he was finally called home to be with our Father on Friday June 27th, 2008. I got the ok from my OBGYN and we drove to West Virginia Monday night. It was late so we stayed at a hotel.
This is Kyle being the ever-helpful boy that he is............

Tuesday morning we headed over to Marc's Dad's house to visit and get ready for the funeral. Beside the front porch his mother-in-law has the most beautiful hydrangea bush so I snapped a bunch of pictures of the blooms...........still kissed with the morning dew................

It was a hard day. For the last few weeks Marc has been trying to get down to see his PapPap but between his responsibilities at work and a major plumbing issue we had to take care of last weekend he never made it down. He never got to say his proper goodbye and he was hurting because of it. The service was beautiful and there was a large number of people in attendance. The sermon was lovely and the music was beautiful. One of Marc's cousins even played the guitar and sang one of PapPap's favorite songs. It was very touching and I don't think there was a dry eye in the room. My Grandmother once told me that it takes a real man to cry in the presence of others and I witnessed the most beautiful display of that on Tuesday. PapPap was a very loved man and I am sure he was smiling down on his wonderful family as he watched them all tell him goodbye.

On the way to the graveside service Bella had fallen asleep. She only slept an hour the entire night before at the hotel so I decided to stay in the van with her. Kyle insisted on going with Marc. This was Kyle's first funeral so we tried as best we could to prepare him beforehand, answer all of his questions and try and make it as pleasant an experience as it could be so that he learns that death is not a scary thing. I think he understood because at the funeral home when we walked up to the casket he said "PapPap is sleeping so he can go be with the angels."

When the graveside service was over Marc and Kyle were walking back to the van and Kyle asked "Daddy.......are you sad that you lost your PapPap?" Marc said "Yeah Buddy I am." And Kyle replied "It's okay Daddy, we'll find him again someday." Marc said he didn't even know how to answer so he just shook his head and told Kyle that would be great.

On the way to the funeral dinner Marc needed some time so he drove me by his old High School and told me all about the school, the teachers and some of his memories there.

On the way to his Grandmother's house for the funeral dinner I watched out the window at the beautiful sky and remarked on how beautiful of a day it was. The sun was bright and warm on your skin.................

The clouds were as white and as fluffy as they could possibly be................

Every where you looked you could see the sun streaming through. It was as if God's grace was shining down upon us, wrapping His love around us and letting us know that PapPap was with Him, he was no longer suffering from earthly pain and that everything was going to be okay.
It was a very peaceful, calming feeling. The feeling you get when you can just close your eyes and feel God's love surround you.

After the funeral dinner we drove to Marc's aunt's house. On the way we saw this house and Marc said "An old farmhouse for Rue! Take a picture!"

Here we played in the yard with all of the kids, talked to and pet the neighbor's horse, and had a nice relaxing visit with the family.

We ate dinner and played some more in the yard. They tried wearing the kids out with relay races involving spoons and eggs, matchbox cars, etc. It was really fun to watch. And afterwards they were exhausted.........

No, Kyle isn't sleeping. In fact he only laid here just long enough for me to grab the camera and snap this shot and he was off and running again.

After a long day we said our sad goodbyes to the family and got in the van to head home. The kids fell asleep before we made it to the end of the road- maybe a quarter of a mile- and slept all the way home. Praise God! We got home after midnight and put the kids right in bed. After that Marc and I talked a little about the day. He really opened up and for that I was grateful. Marc tends to keep his emotions inside because that is the way he was raised. He explained to me how hard it was to say goodbye to his PapPap, for all the normal reasons but also some that I had never given any thought to. He stated that there were four generations and today there is only three. It makes you realize that you are growing up, getting older and life is really moving forward. Life is not full of promises, we have no guarantees of what tomorrow will hold for us. We need to Praise God and be Thankful to be in the here and now. We need to take each day for what it is and make the most of it, but also make the most of ourselves so that we never have to look back in regret.
Goodbye PapPap. We love you and miss you but we'll see (find) you again someday!

-Heather

The Sewing Lesson

From a very young age I wanted to "do it all". I could go from girly girl to tomboy in two seconds flat. I would sew and do crafts with my mother, hit yard sales to add to my china and doily collection, spend countless hours with my Grandfather in his garage working on cars and be elbow deep in the latest remodeling project or plumbing repair with my father. I loved it! At the time it was all just fun and games but as I got older I realized just how valuable these lessons were. I had a flooded bathroom in my first home and I was able to diagnose the problem, fix the supply line and clean up the mess. The alternator went out on my car- I replaced it myself. I love to paint and sew and never have to ask for help. Although sometimes I do, but that is more out of laziness than lack of knowledge. I remember my husband joking with me saying that one of the reasons he fell in love with me was because I came with my own set of power tools!!
It was very important when I started having children to teach them as much as I could. I didn't want to stick to the typical gender "standards" as were set in place moons ago. I want to teach my daughter how to use power tools and change her flat tires. I want to teach my son how to cook, do laundry and...............sew. I want my children to grow up very independent and not have to rely on other people more than they need to.
Today Bella was sleeping and I wanted to get my pillows done for the living room- finally. So I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to give Kyle his first sewing lesson. It actually went better than I had expected. Kyle asked a lot of questions and I did my best to answer everything in words he could comprehend. He is fascinated with anything electrical so the sewing machine definitely held his interest! He wanted to know how every button and gear worked.
I sat the sewing machine on the floor so that Kyle could see and reach everything comfortably. Not so comfy for mommy but it worked!

This is Kyle now telling me how the needle works! Apparently he was paying attention!

Uh, yeah................ I think he has the hang of it now!

The finished project! Even though I could have had 20 pillows done in the time it took to make just this one- it was time well spent! The pillow has it's imperfections but to me it is perfect!

I'm not sure who is more proud of this pillow- Kyle or Mommy!

Say "cheese" Bug! Mommy is so proud of her little man!

Well, I am off to do more sewing. Hmmmmm, he is such a great helper maybe I can get him to help me paint the bedroom later...........

~Heather :)

Got The Decoratin' Blues

I am still stuck on how to decorate my bedroom. It's really pathetic and I think I need therapy. Design therapy. Oh, heck. Maybe I would benefit better with "real" therapy. 4th floor- going up! I have a bipolar disorder when it comes to decorating and I am coming to terms with that. One day I want to do my room in blue, the next day I want to do it in red, and tomorrow- I'm sure- I will be back to blue. Maybe I should just decorate my room in the red, white and blue theme I was planning on doing in my son's room! LOL!!! I have a red dream room stuck in my head that I have loved for years but have never had the nerve to do it. That would be a lot of red. Yet, I yearn for the tranquility and peaceful calm I feel when looking through the blue and white rooms online and in magazines. I keep thinking that there has never been a blue room that I have done that I have been happy with. Just today I was looking back through our photos on the computer and came across pictures of our last house. More specifically our last master bedroom. Hmmmm......... there was a blue room I was happy with. Oops! Seems I had forgotten about that one. My bad!
This was the master bedroom in our last house. We were broke and the room was small so I did it on a budget. It was never really "finished" as we moved a couple months after it was done but I always loved the feeling that I felt when I walked into this room. It was a very calming feeling.


Blue walls, white bedding, black and white toile fabrics and silver accent pieces. One of my favorite pieces in the room had to be the chandelier with it's sparkly prisms.

Now we don't have this bedroom furniture anymore- it was way too bulky and formal for my taste. We sold it in order to get the old, antique dressers that we have now. I still have the bedding, I still have the toile, and I still have the chandelier. I also have 2 gallons of blue paint that is just one shade lighter than the blue in these pictures.

My dilemma is.................. #1. Does this room scream cottage? (Picture it with painted white furniture as opposed to the dark wood) #2. I have red in every other room of my house- including the master bathroom- which I just finished. Does a master bathroom have to match or coordinate with the master bedroom????? That has actually been my biggest issue! Crazy? I might be. And I am definitely probably ready to drive Nikki and Rue over the edge with my wishy washy design dilemmas. They have been such a huge help! Now, Kimba would say "Do what YOU want!" Problem is- what if you don't know? OR, what if you want two styles? Maybe I should just have two master bedrooms! That would solve everything! Oh yes I am a genius!! Why didn't I think of this before?!? When I am feeling blue, I could sleep in the blue room. When I am feeling red, I could sleep in the red room! My poor husband would never be able to find me!!

Oh who really even cares because we all know that tomorrow I will be shifting through my swatch book in search of the perfect red. All I know is that I just want this room done. Yesterday. It is giving me a headache. I never thought I would be one of those people that called HGTV to have a designer make over a room for them but I am coming really close to picking up the phone and making a desperate call. Why is this master bedroom SO hard? Do any of you struggle with one room like this? Or am I just on the loony train by myself headin' for crazy town? Okay, maybe I don't want you to answer that. Just stare at the pretty pictures and ignore the words of the crazy lady. She'll stop eventually! LOL!!!

~Heather :)

I WON!!!!!!!!!!!!

I won the lottery! Okay, I didn't really win the lottery but, to me, it might as well have been the lottery!! Brittany from Adeline's Shabby Cottage gave me the Arte Y Pico award!! I was so excited I was jumping around and doing my happy dance!! What an honor!! This is my first award and I was totally not expecting it at all!
Brittany is such a sweetheart! She has a wonderful blog and if you haven't been there you should get over there as soon as possible! Oh! And while you are there you will have to check out all of the precious things she offers up for Flea Market Fridays!! Brittany- thank you so much! You have no idea how good this makes me feel. You made my week! Probably my month!!




Here are the rules:
1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Each award has to have the name of the author and a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name of and link to the blog that presented her/him with the award.
4. The award winner and one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y Pico" blog so everyone will know the origin of this award.

Now this is the hard part. Choosing the five that inspire me. How can I choose only five? I have met so many wonderful people through blogging and there are so many that inspire me. But I will do my best!

1. Rue from Rue's Peanut Butter & Jelly Life

2. Nikki from The Scarlett Rose Garden

3. Brenda from The Brenda Blog

4. Kimba from A Soft Place To Land

5. Jo from To A Pretty Life

Congratulations Ladies!! And Brittany- Big Hugs!!

-Heather :)

Decorating Inspiration

Today my feet are swollen beyond all recognition. I have never experienced this with the last two pregnancies but this one hasn't exactly been my norm. So I have been given strict orders to keep my feet up. HA! With a two year old and almost 4 year old............ easier said than done. I did pretty well though and after I laid them down for naps I decided to play on my computer. Months ago we were trying to figure out how to decorate the new nursery. I searched the web for hours every night and found nothing that popped out at me. My sister called one night and told me to Google images of nurseries and to look at a specific picture. She had found it!! My husband and I stood there looking at this beautiful room and knew this would serve as our inspiration for the new nursery. It is fun and whimsical but serene and calming all at the same time. I fell in love with every inch of this room.


I especially loved the geese that are hanging above the crib. I went on a mission to find these geese. After looking online for days I came up with nuttin'!! I was so frustrated. So my darling husband- bless his heart- hopped online and within 2 hours had tracked down the designer just from the picture we had. So cool! She is a very talented designer out of Kansas City and even owns her own boutique there. It took a few days to track her down but I finally spoke to her. I found out that this nursery was one she had done years and years ago and that the geese had flown south since then. Translation- no way in a hot zone are we going to be able to get some. Man! So I called my sister and whined and moaned. She took a trip to JoAnns and got fabric and made up a pattern as she went. This is what she came up with..........

Isn't he fabulous!?!?! She is SO handy, my sister! So this one is done and she has 2 or 3 left to do. These will hang above Cali's crib (out of reach of course) and serve as her "mobile". Precious!

She drove up to see us one weekend and we went to JoAnns to pick out all of the fabrics I will need to make the curtains, bedding, chair slipcover, etc. While we were there I feel in love with this cute little guy.................

So he will have to be worked into the room too. We are almost ready to get started on the room and I am very excited. I just hope we get it done in time!!

Now on to my son's room. ARGH! I do not like my son's room. In fact- I despise my son's room. I started off trying to do a transportation theme in there and it didn't work. The car crashed, the plane took a nose dive and that boat sunk. It is a design flop to say the least and honestly- he's not diggin' it either. But I have been waiting- not so patiently- for something to come to me. I want this room to have his personality in it. And my son has a lot of personality- how can you fit that in a gallon of paint?? I want the room to reflect his likes, have him be surrounded by his favorite colors, favorite items etc. I want it to be a place he enjoys being in. And right now he and I would rather be anywhere else it seems!

The walls are sage green but with awful lighting they always look gray. Gloomy.
We bought him a traffic light at an antique store and it is one of our favorite pieces in his room. He loves his "hider bed" (bunk bed) but I would love to separate them into two beds if he will let me!!! He loves his star quilts. Probably his favorite thing in the room. His favorite shape is the star............

And we have little vintage looking planes hanging from the ceiling.

The other night I was looking back through my posts from my family visit this weekend and I got hung up on the picture of Kyle holding the flag. I love that picture. I was telling my husband "Isn't it cute the fascination he has with the flag?" Every where we go he is either finding a flag to carry, to buy, or pointing them out to us. He loves the American flag. Although I am not exactly sure why- other than part of it may be that red and blue are his favorite colors- I think it is just the cutest thing.
As I was thinking about his love for flags and stars I had a revelation. Oh My Goodness! I could decorate his room in a red white and blue theme, and still incorporate his vintage travel stuff in with it! Oh my how fun would that be! So I started sketching and writing down ideas. I can not wait to do this for him. I think he is really going to love it!!! A special room for a very special little boy.

Then we still have the master.......................... still undone.......................still blah and boring............ still making me itch when I go in there. Ugh. I bought that bedding from Target and ended up taking it back. When it arrived it didn't look like it did in the picture online......... and it was pretty hyper. Yeah, hyper. BIG BOLD flowers just screaming at ya! Now I don't know about you but when I go to lay down at night to sleep I don't want big bold flowers screaming at me.

I want my bedroom to be calm and soothing. I keep thinking I should do red because that is my color, right? But I keep going back to blue!

Here are some inspiration rooms I like.....................

These first two pictures are from the Ralph Lauren website.

These next rooms are all from Cottage Living website. Love that site!!
Here is a very french looking room. Elegant, understated, beautiful.

This is a cute but romantic cottage style room. There is something very cozy about this room.

I love the yellow and blue toile in this room............

This room has probably got to me my favorite though................

I love the simple beauty of it.

Now the problem with all of this blue is that I still have the red bug in the back of my head. I know how I would ideally love to do my room but I have these beautiful antique dressers and I can not bring myself to paint them. If I could I would paint them white and all would be well and progressing in decorator land. But I just can't do it! So, I have to find a way to incorporate them into my design and achieve the look I want just as they are. Until then I guess my bedroom is just going to continue to make me itch.

I will focus on the nursery and Kyle's rooms for now. Both rooms shouldn't take me more than a week to do though once I get them started. Maybe I will find something in the meantime for my room and if not.............well it is just going to have to wait some more.

Have a great evening everybody!

-Heather :)

Dinner Anyone??

Today I thought I would share a recipe with you that I made for dinner last night. I am always finding recipes and trying them and then I play and tweak until I think it is better. he he he This used to drive my husband crazy- but lucky for me he eats everything I put in front of him and rarely complains!! When we first started dating and I played around with recipes or created my own I would have some that turned out okay when others were so awful we would end up calling for take out. Over the years I have learned a lot, now know what spices pair well with others, how to prepare things and therefore lately have a much higher success rate!!

Okay, here are the ingredients you will need...........


EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) Seasoned bread crumbs, spinach, smoked Gouda cheese, gala apples, ground nutmeg, lemon juice, Dijon Mustard and skinless, boneless chicken breast.
Now I rarely measure anything- I just throw stuff in. I will try and be as exact as possible!

I use 3 skinless boneless chicken breasts (because that is how much feeds my family) so if you need to prepare more, then just adjust the recipe accordingly.

3 Skinless, boneless chicken breasts, trimmed of all fat
4 ounces of smoked Gouda cheese- grated
3 handfuls of spinach- finely chopped (I usually use fresh but only could find the bagged last time)
1 Gala apple- peeled and finely chopped
1 teaspoon of Dijon Mustard
1 Tablespoon of Lemon Juice
1/4 teaspoon of ground Nutmeg

Prepare all ingredients. Be sure and grate the outside of the cheese too for the best smoked flavor!!

Mix cheese, spinach, apple, lemon juice, Dijon and nutmeg together in a bowl -by hand.

Next, using a sharp knife, cut a "pocket" into the chicken breast from front to back side to side as big as you can without slicing through the outside edges. I am sure there has to be a fancy culinary term for this but "pocket" works for me!!

Now take your mixture and stuff each breast as full as you can. Coat each breast with the EVOO on all sides and then coat with the seasoned bread crumbs. Coat the bottom of the baking dish with a combination of water and EVOO just until the bottom is coated- not too much- don't wanna drown your bird!! Place chicken in the baking dish and then sprinkle the top of each breast lightly with more ground nutmeg.

Bake- uncovered- at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to one hour. I bake them for one hour and get perfect results but every oven varies so use your own judgement.

And Voila!! A delicious stuffed chicken! This meal has been one I have made for family dinners and when we have entertained and it gets rave reviews every time! It is so good!! It has somewhat of a rich flavor to it with the Gouda but the spinach and apple helps balance it nicely.

I really need to learn how to take better pictures of food! Trust me- it is much prettier in person!

I haven't named the recipe so I guess we will just call it Heather's Stuffed Chicken. LOL!!!

Enjoy!!

~Heather :)

My Family Visit- Part Two

As I had mentioned in the last post, my family came up to visit us for the weekend. Day one was a lot of fun and we wanted to make day two memorable for them as well. Since they all stayed in a nearby hotel Saturday evening we met them for breakfast to fuel up for our day! After we were all stuffed beyond the ability to walk we headed to our next destination. My favorite town ever! This is the quintessential, all-American little historic town filled with century old homes, quaint little shops and boutiques and a beautiful park and waterfalls. If I could pick anywhere to live- this would be it. It just has an almost storybook quality to it. We spent most of our day right here, all of us going camera happy and snapping a gazillion pictures.............. but seriously with a view like this, how could we not??


It is just remarkable. The beauty, the calming sound and the breeze and mist that comes off of the falls is incredible and relaxing.

The ivy covered hill is so pretty and green!

You can see the boardwalk and the many, many stairs you have to walk to get down to the level where people are standing. Then, if you want to get clear down to where we ended up you have to take a stairway that is made out of mud and moss covered rocks- and no handrail baby!

Little shops and restaurants back up to the edge and overlook this gorgeous site! One of my favorite dinners ever was in a restaurant overlooking the falls. I don't think I even ate much- I just stared out the window. It is gorgeous during the day but even more so at night.

Here is Daddy and Kyle exploring............... actually Kyle was exploring a little too far from our comfort level and Daddy "rescued" him!

You would think that Daddy's arms would get really tired after awhile!

See all of the cute little ducks? They are so precious! Talk about getting tired! They keep swimming right up to the falls! I got worn out just watching them. LOL!!

After awhile they took a break to rest and relax in the sun.

I could have stayed here all day long.

Bella loved it too. She found a rock just her size and enjoyed sitting here and watching the ducks and the waterfall!!

Kyle.............. he finds a flag to buy every where we go. Literally- everywhere. He loves the flag! And he loves to explore. Today was an "adventure" right up his alley! This picture just melts my heart.

Me and My Baby. Not a great picture of me........... I was hot and exhausted and all of my make-up had worn off by this point!!! But I rarely get pictures taken with Marc so I was happy no matter what.

Here is some of the town and on the left here is a very famous little shop- known for it's popcorn and ice cream. Mostly the ice cream!!

There are flowers every where! In beds in the sidewalks, in planters, hanging off of railings and lamp posts. They are beautiful!

My favorite boutique! Full of eye candy........... so many ideas, so many thingies, so little money and time..............

Isn't this bench adorable?

I just love the displays in this shop...............

After a long morning it is time to head back to the car..................

And say goodbye to my wonderful brother and his beautiful wife, my fabulous cousin and my sweetheart of a best friend....................... I did OK with all of the hugs and kisses until I got to my brother. For some reason I just have a very hard time saying goodbye to him. I started crying and walked away and got in my van. I didn't want them to see me cry, although I am sure they knew.

It was an amazing weekend but it went by way too quickly. I loved having them all here with us and I miss them terribly already.

But I am thankful for the time I did have with them and praise God for blessing me with such wonderful family.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

~Heather :)