Mother & Child: a self-portrait

I have very few good pictures of Wynn and I together.  I am sure that all the mamas reading this can relate.  I have LOTS of great pictures of Wynn with his daddy.  I have lots of great pictures of Wynn on his own. {I am the one after all who invested lots of time in learning to shoot my dslr camera and I am the one who takes the camera along on walks around the neighborhood and day trips and vacations.}  My husband doesn't know how to use the camera, except to shoot in auto (blah), and if you look back over the pictures we have from the past year, you would hardly know that I was there-hilarious considering that Wynn is never more than 2 feet from my side!

Months ago I read this idea on Pinterest about using a tripod to take self-portraits with your children.  Yesterday I finally pulled out my camera and tripod and captured the picture above.  I am hooked!  I shot the picture on manual, using a 50mm lens, adjusting for exposure before setting the camera timer.  The light must have shifted some in the 10 seconds between setting the timer and the shutter clicking because the straight out of the camera shot was pretty underexposed.  I was able to correct for exposure using curves in Photoshop. 

If you are a mommy in a similar position, I strongly recommend a tripod and the timer function on your camera!  Tripods can be picked up relatively inexpensively.  It is worth the effort to be able to look back and see that, yes, you were there.

And life was beautiful.

"I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full."  John 10:10

My Current State of Affairs

current guilty pleasure: sleeping in until 9 on Saturday mornings while Wynn enjoys time with Daddy, cheerios and Charley Brown on dvd.
 
current nail color:  natural
 
current playlist:  I love to cook and dance with my boys to this playlist by (former) blogger Pretties and Posies- http://www.playlist.com/playlist/19267119883
 
current read: Lynn Austin's Gods and Kings


current drink: tons of water for dry wintery skin
 
current food: smoothies-great way to get all kinds of fruit and wheat germ down my 1 year old. Our current favorite is pineapple, banana, frozen blueberries and a splash of milk.
 
current favorite show: Curious George (gives me time to sew)
 
current wish list: a dishwasher for the beach cottage {or a maid!}
 
current needs: grace. buckets and buckets of grace every day.

 
current triumphs: working on memorizing the book of 1 Peter.  
 
current bane of my existence: life without a dishwasher and garbage disposal
 
current indulgence: my husband

current blessing: I have been teaching sunday school to high school students since September, it is both a challenge and a blessing.
 
current excitement: beach cottage renovation coming together, slowly, piece by piece.

 
current mood: hopeful

 {image via Resolved2Worship}

 
current link:  Blue Letter Bible! 

Wynnbaby Custom Nursery Design

{Click to Enlarge}

A week ago, I sold a Wynnbaby crib bumper to a customer who then asked me for help finding a rug to coordinate in her nursery.   I told her that I would love to help her find a rug and that I would also make a design board for her to inspire any other nursery elements she may have left to find.

This is a photo of the Wynnaby Delphine Crib Bumper that inspired this nursery design:

The chandelier I included on the design board is a French antique that I have been eying at Dreamy White's online shop for months.  

I know it is expensive, but if nothing else it serves as a great inspiration piece. You can look for chandeliers at your local antique shop, flea market or even home improvement store-Lowes has a really good lighting selection, particularly their new Allen+Roth line. 

The mobile pictured on the design board is the Wynnbaby Pretty in Peonies mobile, now available.

The paint colors on the design board are Restoration Hardware's Silver Sage:

 Benjamin Moore's Raspberry Blush:

Benjamin Moore's Vanilla Ice Cream:

I love the idea of adding gold accents to compliment the colors in the crib bumper so I suggested this mirror by Ballard Designs:

. . . and this gold scalloped bunting by Etsy seller StephlovesBen :

As an accessory to sit on top a dresser or armoire, I included these precious shoes by Joyfolie.

And finally, the one thing that my customer actually asked for :) :  a rug!  This one is by Dash and Albert, a company I love.  I have several of their rugs and they are fantastic-the fact that they are cotton makes them affordable and you cannot beat the style and color selections!

* * * * * * * *

I am excited to announce that I am now offering custom nursery design via my Wynnbaby shop on Etsy.  

I am happy to customize a design board just for you, according to your individual budget and needs. Design boards will include suggestions for at least 3 paint colors, furniture, lighting, rugs, and accessories like artwork, mirrors, and a mobile.

True to Wynnbaby's passion, design boards will include handmade, vintage and upcycled items whenever possible. Like Wynnbaby crib sets, each nursery design is one-of-a-kind!  Beautifully packaged gift certificates are available for a one-of-a-kind shower gift!

 Please click here for more details or email me at wynnbaby@gmail.com.  

I am offering a Wynnbaby giveaway on Project Nursery this Friday, so be sure to stop back by for details! 

Happy Monday, friends!

{Erin}

Beach Cottage Renovations {January 2012}

Our beach cottage renovation is back in full swing. The Holidays are behind us and we are snuggled into slow and snowy January days.  I love it.  Warm cups of coffee, days spent with my sweet Wynn and a husband who works from home.  This is the good life and I am blessed to live it, even if only for today.  I never know when the next trial is going to come our way, but I pray everyday thanking God for all He has given me and I beg Him in his mercy to continue to bless our family.  I don't take any of these peace filled days for granted.

I have gone through several gallons of white paint this week alone, some if it on our staircase and the rest on  our kitchen cabinets.  The kitchen is going to be a work in progress for several months to come but here are pictures of spaces that are serving as my inspiration:

{red lantern, copper hardware}

 {white, white, more white, stripes and scallops}

 {open shelving}

{Industrial accents}

Here is the stair runner we are installing on our now white-washed staircase.  It was on clearance at Garnet Hill after New Years and I could see our future children sitting on this rug on our staircase with beach buckets and sandy toes and suntans.  Now that is good marketing!  I would link to the rug but it is apparently sold out now.  I may or may not have had something to do with that. 

Isn't it amazing how white paint breathes new life into the old and dingy?  I saw evidence of a living Christ in the white paint I brushed on our staircase this week.  Did you know that you can be given a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ? {1 Peter 1} I am doing a bible study on 1 Peter that is life-changing and inspiring.  I have been meditating on the words of 1 Peter while painting and decorating and watching the snow fall outside my window.

Looking for inspiring neutral colors to breathe new life into your home?  I love these colors hand selected by renowned decorator Thom Filicia.

here, via Apartment Therapy

Looking for a white wash for your soul?  Do you want new life and a living hope?  Cry out to Jesus.  Open your bible and ask Him to show himself to you.  Ask Him to show you the blessed life!!!  I know you have to step out of your comfort zone, but it is SO worth it!!

* * *

New renovation pictures soon, I promise.  Until then, grace and peace be yours in abundance!

New Year, New Mercies and Fresh Snow

Yesterday a new year dawned with a fresh blanket of white snow.  God's mercies, like January, are brand new and yesterday grace fell like snow on this beach cottage of ours.

I put decorations back in their boxes and set a dry and fading tree by the street and prayed "yes, this is January and all things are new."

I want to make this year matter.  I want to continue to find the {better!} life that God would have my family live and to love in the way that only He can do through us.  Don't we all want those things?  To live a better life?  To be used and to matter?  Isn't that the focus, once the confetti clears and we are left with our resolutions? Our desire for something better this time around?  But how do we get to the place of holy mattering?


Yesterday I looked out my window at the new snow falling on our old Christmas tree and I thought back two thousand years.  I thought back to a man in Rome, putting ink to parchment in candlelight.  Listen, this New Year, and hear how God is the author of renewal and mercy and new beginnings.   Listen how two thousand years ago, this man named Paul, wrote in the darkness this which today we can resolve in the light:

via

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer yourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Romans 12:1 

My translation:  Take your eyes off yourself and just follow the Shepherd!  Forget about your wants and focus on what your children and your husband want.  Forget about your needs and focus on the needs of others.  When you serve anyone else, you serve Jesus himself.  Do this and you will be blessed. 

And so I commit Paul's words to heart. I resolve in this new year to live my life,as never before, as a living sacrifice.

I RESOLVE TO BE HIS LIVING LOVE.

For every glance I take of myself, may I take ten of Jesus. 

And when I fail everyday, as I surely will, I resolve to get back up again and keep following my shepherd, offering myself as a living sacrifice.


For only in laying down our life will we find the one that is truly worth living. 

This is what matters.  This is the worship that is the meaning of life.

Join me in anticipating a truly beautiful, light-filled 2012 . . .

The Christmas Baby

If you look at a pregnancy test long enough, turn it toward the light and squint your eyes, you can almost see that second pink line . . . even if it isn't there.

I am convinced there are two types of women in this world: (1) those who are nodding their heads in complete agreement, and (2) everyone else.

I asked God for a baby for Christmas. A baby the size of a grain of sand was my wish.  But the test was definitive.  I turned it toward the light.  I squinted.  I could almost see it . . . but almost wasn't enough.  In the place of a second pink line there was a space of white emptiness.  Do you know that space?

I spent advent weeks considering that vast whiteness;  reconsidering it's emptiness. God whispered truth to my heart:  I asked God for a baby for Christmas and the test said no, but God said yes.

Two years ago, he said yes.  And everyday since, I have felt his will in my little one's grasp: "yes, beloved, yes."  Oh how I longed for my baby Wynn.  How I long for him still. An hour apart is too long.  And tonight I rock my toddler boy beside the Christmas tree.  I drink in the smell of his still-baby skin.  I nuzzle his sweet neck.  And like the creak of the rocker on old wood floor, the benediction I hear again is  "yes . . . " (rock). . . yes . . ."(rock) . . . yes."

I look up to twinkling lights of a cottage Christmas tree, to the place where a westward--leading star belongs.  I rock and snuggle him.  My heart in worship  "yes . . ."(rock) . . . " yes . . . ." (rock) . . . yes. . . "

Two thousand years ago, so very long before I prayed for a Christmas baby, the Lord answered my prayer.  So great is He.  So faithful.  He knew that I would need a baby.

And so He came himself.

I asked God for a baby for Christmas.  Listen and hear how great our God is.  If you are a captive, run to Him and be set free. Whatever you are waiting for, it has already come in Christ Jesus.

"Are you there, my Lord?"  I breathe into my toddler boy's neck.  And I rock . . . "Oh come, oh come, Emmanuel . . . "

"Yes . . ." (rock) . . ."yes. . ." (rock) . . . "yes . . . "

Introducing Wynnbaby.com!

This is what a dream come true looks like:

Some two years ago, pregnant and nesting, 

wishing and dreaming, 

I envisioned a line of baby linens and nursery lovelies that would be:

100% handmade

upcycled from vintage materials

high-style married with childhood whimsy

I envisioned breatheable bumpers that were truly beautiful (not plastic mesh) . . .

vintage sheets in forgotten colors . . . .

I envisioned vintage fabrics quilted together into heirlooms

Crib sets that would be one-of-a-kind and not a duplicate of a friend or neighbor's or from a page in a catalog . . . 

I envisioned handmade and made at home . . . not mass-produced overseas.

. . . I saw great style for little boys {and their style-loving mamas!}

I dreamed of mobiles made from vintage quilt stars, dancing in the sun

and hand-embroidery

and sophisticated fabrics with whimsical pom pom accents

. 

. . . vintage quilts upcycled into the sweetest baby bumpers

 

I envisioned all of these things.  I dreamed of sweet dreams for my tiny dreamer

Today we are celebrating, my Wynnbaby and I.  Because after days of dreaming that became weeks of planning and weeks of planning that became months and then years of hard work, my dream has come true.  

You can now shop my 100% handmade, vintage-inspired baby linens and other fine nursery lovelies at  

www.wynnbaby.com 

Would you become a friend of Wynnbaby on Facebook?
I am proud to call you friend, dear reader.

Today is a day of celebration and I thank you for sharing this joy with me.

{Special thanks to Amanda Reynolds Photography for helping this dream come true}