{Life Made Lovely}

I spend most of my days at home...homeschooling, homemaking, because I tend to be a bit of a home body.  I love my life, I love that my husband's hard work and God's blessing allows me to work in the home.

But...ya'll i can get a tad stir crazy.  As such, I may or may not stalk my mailbox until the mailmen delivers.  Our mailman must be on vacation because all last week homeboy dropped the mail off around dinner time and we usually get it at lunch.  Normally {yeah right} I wouldn't mind, but I was expecting some goodies instead of the boring bill and junk promo promising me a million smackers in exchange for buying Cat magazines. {I kid, I kid. Cats are cool.  For you.}

When my pal, Jess raved about Mat Kearney and getting to meet him {yo!} I started listening to his music and homeboy is kinda amazing!  I however, rarely buy a CD, so when One2One Network offered his CD, Young Love to review I was all over that like white on rice {be jealous of my wittiness}!

I love his rustic, soulful voice paired with catchy melodies. One of my favorite things about this album is he leaves you wanting more, you can't help but love every song because it is lyrically and musically married perfectly.  I pretty much keep it my purse to transfer in and out of the car so the hubs doesn't take off with it to work.  Sad, but seriously that good. Here's my favorite track:

One of the things I love about blogging is the community to support handmade business'.  I love finding a new treasure I've been searching for or a shop I have never heard of.  Both are true of Life At The Table.  Kris Hansen has a really adorable blog where she shares her heart and life.  She is truly talented and has some amazing pieces {and prices} in her shop.  I was so excited to stumble across her shop because I have been pinning away trying to find a quality reusable set of sandwich bags in cute fabrics.  Life At The Table, definitely fit the bill.  I was SO happy when her handmade happiness made it's way to Texas by way of Oregon!  I can't recommend her enough...and her reusable lunch totes and bags are ADORABLE!

Along with that fun mail, came some other fun!

Awesome straws and packaging from Urban Scarlet.

Lots of twine goodness from Pick Your Plum.

All of my new marketing materials printed up from Vistaprint with my AWESOME new logo created by the lovely Heather of Life Made Lovely Designs.  She is a rockstar!

Pretty, pretty lace from Cottage Green...can't wait to get crafting with it!

I also participated in the Handmade Gift Exchange with Craftaholic's Anonymous...oh a few months ago.  Just now getting the photos uploaded to share.

This is what I sent to my partner, Emily.  Mostly goodies from my shop and some earrings I made especially for her.

And she made me the most perfect pillow!  I love it!

I really encourage you to participate in Linda's exchange...it's always a ton of fun!

Linking Up with:

life made lovely {mail}

I {heart} mail.  I love letters, cards, goodies, packages...good 'ole fashion UPS goodness. I typically receive something fun everyday.  Well, at least fun to me.  A freebie, a coupon, an ETSY loveliness either I've purchased or won, a card of love from a friend or family member, and the occasional bill and waste of paper political ad. (side note...raise your hand if you are OVER all these political ads. A to the MEN)

Back to your regular scheduled program.

Course, I would have to blog regularly enough for anything to be regular around here.

***crickets***

Anywho, I also love, love, love craft swaps on blogs.  You never know who you will get paired with and what you will get...it's a lot of fun to give and receive.  I participated in a swap at Amanda's blog Every Crafty Endeavor for a Fall swap.  I {heart} Fall and loved the idea of sharing some of my Fall faves!  I got paired with Ami at Ali Lily.  First of all her little one is adorable!  And she made me the most adorable Fall wreath.  I'm really, really, really loving rosettes right now so it was PERFECT.  She even included a bracelet for me and everyone in our family...how sweet is that!  Check out her blog at the link I provided to get a better shot of the adorableness that this wreath is!

So what did I send her?  Well, take a look...

 

* I love candy corn.  I know I'm kinda alone on that one, but paired with salty peanuts it is one tasty treat!  

* Bath and Body Works goodies...who doesn't love a bubble bath in the Fall. 

* Candles. I love baked good scents for Fall, my fav is Pumpkin Spice!

* Starbucks Gift Card!  I can drink hot coffee year round and LOVE the Pumpkin variations that Starbucks releases exclusively in the Fall!

* And a jersey knit scarf.  I actually made this one.  I love scarves and would be trendy and wear them all year long, but I can't do a scarf in the Texas heat...just can't do it.  It turned out pretty cute, so I hope Ami loves it!

I'm linking up to Heather's post:

and also to Kyla's:

So how about you...do you like mail?  What is your favorite mail day?  And what lovelies do you love for the Fall? 

I'm trying my best to get back into the swing of blogging, bare with me as I get the blogs I write in my mind everyday posted.