I’m Back

October 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I’m so happy to be back here writing in my little space on the web. I’m also happy to say that all is well. I had a fantastic summer with Ross and the kids, and I’m finding it hard to believe it’s fall.

October is going great so far, especially in a creative sense. I’ve completed some pending projects, and I’m making goals to complete a lot more! Probably more than is realistic, but you know how it goes. It feels so good to cross those completed projects off the list.

Since I last posted here I have:

  • Gone to France with my friend from back home for our 6th annual girlfriend summer getaway

  • Spent four glorious weeks alone with ross while the kids were at sleep away camp

  • Picked the kids up at camp and went to Hershey Park. It’s the sweetest place on Earth. I highly recommend this park for any family. It has something for everyone.

  • Survived the first day of school and slowly adjusted to being back in a regular routine.

  • Started making a quilt (my first ever!) for Lauren. I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time. I’m happy I’m finally making it happen!

  • Told five stories with five photos that document our spring break trip to England. I did this via an Ali Edwards workshop available here.

That’s the short version of how I’ve spent the last few months. Time is flying by, and I’m excited to be back here sharing what’s going on in and out of the studio!

 

 

Thanks for installing the Bottom of every post plugin by Corey Salzano. Contact me if you need custom WordPress plugins or website design.

Filed Under: Family

Double Digits!

July 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Look who’s 10! Double Digits! Where’s the time gone?

Adam you have brought so much joy, laughter, and love into our life since the day we finally got to hold you in our arms for the first time.

Here are 10 things I love about you at 10 years old:

1)  I love how passionate you are about sports and NASCAR. I love how much you enjoyed your first experience with flag football. You’re fast, have a great arm for throwing, and an awesome eye for catching.

2) I love your beautiful smile and gorgeous eyes. I love those lashes!

3) I love how persistent you are. Though sometimes it’s frustrating for us, this is a quality that will take you far in life. Never give up and stay persistent.

4) I love how much you love to give me hugs and snuggle. I know this probably won’t last much longer, and I’m loving every bit I can get.

5) I love the way you focus on the things you love and enjoy. You can sit for hours watching a race, building something in the shop with Grandpa, or playing video games.

6) I love that you just finished 3rd grade with all A’s except for one B+. You’re a great student, and I know 4th grade is going to be another great year for you.

7) I love the friendships that you’ve formed over the last year. It makes me so happy to see you doing so well socially. I love that you have friends that FaceTime and want have over to play.

8) I love your sense of humor. There are times when you are on a roll and keep us laughing all day. Other times, you have these great one-liners and just crack me up. I’m so glad I’m documenting this time in your life.

9) I love that you love to help. You’re almost always willing to help do things around the house like changing batteries, help me with the TV remote, answer my computer questions, etc. Your teachers report that you’re a great helper in the classroom, too. You have such a big heart.

10) I love that you are my boy. I’m so lucky to have you in my life. I love you so, so, so much–today, always, and forever.

Happy Birthday buddy!

 

Thanks for installing the Bottom of every post plugin by Corey Salzano. Contact me if you need custom WordPress plugins or website design.

Filed Under: Happy Birthday Tagged With: , , ,

Scenes from Alaska :: Part One

July 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

It’s time to share more of the vacation highlights from our Vancouver and Alaska trip. In case you missed it, I shared some photos from Vancouver here and here.

After a few days in Vancouver we boarded our cruise ship and set sail for Alaska. We had one day at sea to start, then stopped in the ports of Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway. The last two days of the cruise were “scenic cruising” in Glacier Bay and College Fjords. Our cruise ended in Whittier and we took a short bus ride to Anchorage to spend the day before our overnight flight home.

I truly love the landscape of Alaska. It’s so beautiful. It’s not like anywhere else I’ve ever been. Being there early in the summer season, there was still a lot of snow on the mountains. I couldn’t get enough photographs or spend enough time outside admiring the view. I could’ve stayed there much, MUCH longer.

The photographs simply do not capture the true beauty of the scenery. It’s something I wish everyone had the opportunity to see. I did this cruise about six years ago, but I loved experiencing Alaska with my parents, in-laws, Ross and the kids for their first time. It was so satisfying to hear about the fun they were having and how much they appreciated the landscape we were seeing.

In Ketchikan we took a sea plane for a 30 minute “flight seeing” adventure, then landed on the water at a remote lodge where we stuffed ourselves with all-we-could-eat crabs. The kids loved the sea plane experience!

Here are some photos from our day in Ketchikan:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are so many great photos and it’s so hard to keep it to a minimum here. I’ll narrow the rest down to just one more post–promise.

 

 

Thanks for installing the Bottom of every post plugin by Corey Salzano. Contact me if you need custom WordPress plugins or website design.

Filed Under: Family, My Travels Tagged With: , , , ,

Instagram Love :: Project 40

July 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I’ve had Instagram on my phone for a while now, but I’m just now really getting into it. I love it mostly for the filters (Rise, Sierra, Earlybird, and Nashville are my favorites!) and the vintage looks I can achieve. And it’s super fun to see the photos of the people I’m following. Fun, fun, fun!

 

I’ve been thinking for a while now about documenting my year of being 40 in a special way. I wasn’t really sure how I was going to do that until I saw this post from Elise Blaha. How awesome is this??!! I love, Love, LOVE the book she created! Thanks to you, Elise, for sharing your book. I think it’s the perfect way to document my milestone year. I’m super excited.

This is going to be so cool!

There are only two rules I’m giving myself for this project. 1) This project is about me. I want to photograph the things I’m doing, places I’m going and things that bring a smile to my face. 2) This project is supposed to be fun, not another have-to. Other than that I have no expectations about how this will turn out. I know I don’t want to do a picture a day (I’d never keep up with that!). I don’t even want to have a certain number of pictures at the end of the year. I just want to document my year in Instagrams and see what happens.

I’d love to have you join me on Instagram! You can follow me @jenlevin. And it’s FREE! 

Are you loving Instagram as much as I am? Let me know in the comments. As always, thanks so much for stopping by.

Thanks for installing the Bottom of every post plugin by Corey Salzano. Contact me if you need custom WordPress plugins or website design.

Filed Under: Photography, Projects Tagged With: , ,

Being Home

June 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I’m spending this week after our Vancouver and Alaska vacation here at my parent’s house. My childhood home.

Being home means the kids are playing outside (heat permitting) having the adventures that only kids can with 40 acres to roam.

Being home means being surrounded by the family that I love so, so much but only get to see a couple times each year. It’s hard being the only one that lives so far away.

Being home means having a crazy mixed up schedule…staying up late, MUCH later than usual, and sleeping in WAY  past breakfast.

Being home means my mom is living in the kitchen. No one can cook and bake the way she can! We are so lucky she takes such good care of us.

Being home means lazy, lazy days with not much on the agenda.

Being home means I have time to be online and read magazines, finding all kinds of inspiration for future projects and finishing the ones I’ve started.

Being home means hitting the local scrapbook and quilting stores that are missing from my life in Florida.

Being home means reflecting on just how different my life is now vs. the way I grew up and appreciating my upbringing so, so much.

Being home means no matter how long I’m here, the visit is never long enough. Leaving is always so hard to do.

We’re headed back to Florida on Sunday, then I’m packing up for another trip (details to follow in another post). Have a great weekend!

 

 

Thanks for installing the Bottom of every post plugin by Corey Salzano. Contact me if you need custom WordPress plugins or website design.

Filed Under: Family Tagged With: , ,

Scenes from Vancouver :: Part Two

June 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Day two of our stay in Vancouver was as perfect as it could be. The weather was gorgeous, and Ross planned awesome activities for us. Have I mentioned before how awesome my husband is??

We started off the day at the Capilano Suspension Bridge. I wasn’t crazy about the idea of walking over a moving/swinging bridge hundreds of feet above the rocky earth, but it turned out to be an amazing experience. The trees and the scenery were breathtaking.

 

This sign helped me feel better about going across the bridge:

The remaining part of our day was spent at Grouse Mountain. We took a quick gondola ride to the plateau where there were a lot of activities (like a birds of prey exhibit/show), a restaurant, and SNOW! My Florida children loved seeing snow. It wasn’t their first time, but it’s always a hit. They just couldn’t stay out of it.

Here are the remaining random photos from the day:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you are enjoying your week! As always, thanks so much for stopping by.

Jennifer

 

 

Thanks for installing the Bottom of every post plugin by Corey Salzano. Contact me if you need custom WordPress plugins or website design.

Filed Under: Family, My Travels Tagged With: , , , , ,

Wordless Wednesday

June 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Thanks for installing the Bottom of every post plugin by Corey Salzano. Contact me if you need custom WordPress plugins or website design.

Filed Under: Wordless Wednesday Tagged With: ,

Scenes From Vancouver :: Part One

June 26, 2012 By 1 Comment

After a couple of weeks of traveling and being disconnected, I’m back! Today I’m at my parent’s home in Missouri.

We returned from our trip on Sunday morning, and I’m excited to share some photos. I was planning to post photos of our trip as it was happening, but internet service was not great and nearly non-existent once we were in Alaska.

Visiting Vancouver and Alaska was amazing, and I loved having my parents and Ross’s mom and step-dad with us. It made for a really special family vacation. Our days were full of activity, time spent outside, laughing, eating, some arguing between the kids, and enjoying spending time together.

There was a lot of picture taking going on. In fact, I’m a little overwhelmed as I try to decide which ones to share–there are so many. Be forewarned! This post is full of pictures!! Most of the photos here were taken with my DSLR camera, but a few are from my iPhone.

I’m so glad we decided to fly into Vancouver a few days before our cruise began. It’s such a beautiful city–very clean and friendly. We had two full days to explore, and luckily, beautiful weather to boot. Our first full day was mostly spent in Stanley Park.

I  love that our kids enjoy being outside. I love that they appreciate the trees and the scenery that’s so different from our hometown.

 

 

Here’s a look at the rest of our first day:

Have you had any summer adventures? I’d love to hear about it!

Thanks for stopping by.

Jennifer

 

Thanks for installing the Bottom of every post plugin by Corey Salzano. Contact me if you need custom WordPress plugins or website design.

Filed Under: Family, My Travels Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Thoughts About Turning 40

June 11, 2012 By 5 Comments

Line in the sand

Photo from Flickr via Flashpacking Life

It’s coming. It is no longer “out there.” 40 is only SIX days away! I’m normally not a birthday person. I don’t like to draw attention to my day. And often times I’m a little bit sad and reflective the week of my birthday.

This year is different though.

This year I’m excited for my birthday. I feel like I’m about to cross an imaginary line in the sand to something better. I feel like my whole life so far I’ve been trying, working as hard as I can, beating myself up, wanting to be good enough, striving to reach higher, and accomplishing the next big thing. I’ve always been reaching for something…to graduate high school, then college, then to get a job, then to get married, then to have children.

Happily, I’ve done all that. My 30′s are mostly a blur. I was shoulder deep in having babies, nursing, changing diapers, and learning to be a mom. There’s still plenty I’m trying to figure out. I’m still making stuff up as I go, hoping I’m doing it right. But I feel like I’ve finally reached a place where I can take a big deep breath and relax a little. I feel like I’ve worked really hard to get here, but now that I’m here it’s time to enjoy the ride.

I know myself better now than ever before. I’m striving for new things, still reaching higher, and going outside of my comfort zone. But the one thing that’s changed is knowing that I don’t have to be perfect and that doing the best I can is good enough. We’re almost always our own worst critic. That has definitely been true for me. But now I’m so ready to move beyond that.

So that’s it. I’m feeling pretty darn good about this birthday, and I’ve got a lot of ideas of things I’d like to accomplish in this milestone year (that’s another post).

How do you feel about birthdays? Do you love to quietly celebrate or let everyone know it’s your special day? I’d love to hear from you!

 

 

Thanks for installing the Bottom of every post plugin by Corey Salzano. Contact me if you need custom WordPress plugins or website design.

Filed Under: Happy Birthday Tagged With: , ,

A New Look

June 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Hey there! Happy Sunday!

I’m super excited to share the new look of my blog!

Jessica Stansberry of Southtown Creative did all the work to create a logo and blog design for me. It turned out even better than I could’ve imagined. It’s been a pleasure working with Jessica during the process. The experience was painless, at least for me. (Poor Jessica had to endure all my questions!)

I hope you love the new look as much as I do. I’m looking forward growing the community here, making new friends, and keeping in touch with those of you who are regular readers. Life is pretty wonderful and I want to share my adventure with you!

 

 

 

Thanks for installing the Bottom of every post plugin by Corey Salzano. Contact me if you need custom WordPress plugins or website design.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,
«Older Posts