Stephanie Howell

It has been so dreary and rainy this past week.
Totally fit the mood I was in.
But today, praise the Lord, there is sunshine!
It’s 8:30 in the morning and harper is playing outside…she couldn’t wait.
The neat thing about my scrap room is that it’s half scrap room, half play room.
And it has french doors that open up on the back yard.
So Harper is in and out and I’m right here..it’s fantastic.

Don’t you just love my big old desk?
It was left here by the previous owner…
She also had a garage sale right before she moved and allowed me to purchase a few things:

What can I say? The lady had good taste (well, excluding the wallpaper and the fact that EVERYTHING is painted country blue).

A few more things around the house that make me happy…
The scallop motif (in the kitchen, breakfast nook, and bathroom)

I can’t wait to arrange the built in shelves in the breakfast nook.
I’m always collecting plates and linens to add.
Here is a plate I found yesterday at Marshalls:

I swear that this month’s Romantic Homes Magazine was written just for me.
It’s all about cottage style and I dog-eared so many pages!
this is how I would like to arrange the built in shelves:

Also, how cute is our little arbor in the back yard? There were some horridly ragged cushions on this little swing, so I trashed them and added some shabby chic linens.
My mom hung some mason jars from wire and we put tea lights in them….I will do a bunch more, I’m collecting jars.

That’s about it as far as house updates go.
I’m happy here…I love it!

One last thing…here are a few layouts I’ve done.
The first uses the new Making Memories Noteworthy Line and Amy Butler diecuts.
The second was made using the Studio Calico May kit.

Hope you all have a beautiful day!
xo

The surgery was successful last night.
They are releasing my dad sometime today.
My mother says he looks more like himself since they wired his jaw shut…
turns out it was actually broken in 4, not 3, places..and splintered quite a bit.
But it’s okay.
He is okay.
And grumpy (which if you know my dad…that’s not out of the usual!!)
So I take that as a good sign.

Thanks so much for your prayers and love.
Each and every one of you have been such a comfort to me.

xo

That my daddy is okay:

Last night, when he was driving back from a funeral in Houston,
my dad hit a horse on the highway going full speed.
His jaw is broken in three places,
and his hands are messed up.
He also broke a shoulder blade.

But he is alive.
And if you saw the pictures of his car, you wouldn’t think it was possible.
God is good and I believe that it is through the grace of God
that he is here today.

He is a good, strong man. A rock.
And to see him lying in a hospital bed was almost more than I could bear.
But he is alive.

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers…
he will go into surgery in the next day or so.

Love you all.
xo

I don’t even remember what life was like before her.
She’s taught me to laugh more, and that sometimes it’s best to just sit down and play…or color…or jump.
She has made me happier and yet more frustrated than I ever thought possible.
She has made me a mother.
And I love her so much it hurts my heart.
Happy 2nd Birthday, Miss Harper.

Hope you are all having a wonderful NSD.

2 Peas chose me as one of the users that they profiled for NSD…they asked me to make a layout w/ Maya road Chipboard houses…here is what I did with them.

In other news…
Don’t you just love my banner?
The sweet and ridiculously talented Tammy Kay
made it for me as a surprise.
I love her so!

xoxo
s

You would have walked in to find me bawling while jimmy bandaged a finger
that I had mutilated with our Wusthof Chef’s knife,
Sadie screaming,
and Harper standing in a dirty diaper that she had taken off.

And yet here I am,
and somehow I’m not (completely) insane.

We’ve got wood paneling to paint
and wallpaper to get rid of,
but things are moving along.
pretty much everything is unpacked,
it’s just in random clusters around the house.

I met a new friend today, Diane Reeves.
She is the CUTEST thing ever, and she has 2 little girls, too.
Don’t you just love making new friends? Especially creative ones??
She is precious.

That’s about all I’ve got, but I do want to share a Prima layout and also the cutest Sadie picture ever!
I can’t believe that on Friday she will be 3 months old,
and that on Saturday Harper will be two.
Where does the time go?

xoxo