Happy Thanksgiving (and a coupon code)

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

This Thursday thru Monday, save 25% at Mila & Belle. And please remember to try to help other small businesses if you can this holiday season :) 

DC, Kansas and an ornament

Last Sunday I had to force myself to take an embroidery break and it was one of the hardest things ever. I was having really bad shoulder pain and it was affecting my whole left arm. I really should take breaks more, but it's just really, really hard... I want to stay home and embroider all day. My sister was sweet though, and dragged took me to a Craft Beer Festival on Saturday. It was lots of fun. I seriously need to get out more.

After some healing, I got a DC onesie (finally!) listed and a Kansas onesie.

Also got one more ornament listed. Unless something comes up and I get crazy ideas to make more, I have one more ornament to finish and list. 

As always, Annabelle was my little helper and we had to take a picture of her Paw Patrol pups. I helped her push the camera button :) 

Now it's time to prepare for Thanksgiving. I'm happy to be home with my parents this year. It's my first Thanksgiving with them in 9 years! Hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving!

Lacey

Keeping Little Ones Busy

How do you keep your little ones busy when you're trying to get work done? I'm always trying to find ways other than TV to keep Annabelle busy. This can be difficult with her because she wants help with everything. She gets frustrated when she can't color in the lines of her coloring book and when she can't draw a picture exactly how she likes it, so she tries to get me to color and draw for her.

I'm keeping a few journals for her to play/color/draw/whatever with and it's working pretty well so far. Sometimes I'll draw a little something for her, like a circle and tell her make a design with it. This seems to work better than just handing her a piece of paper and crayons and telling her to draw something. Annabelle can get overwhelmed with too many choices and is easily overstimulated so I've learned to just keep it simple.

So far we've just used stamps and a couple ink pads, pens, pencils, markers, crayons, stickers, etc and I only give her one type of supply at a time so she's not overwhelmed by too many selections.

Buttons have also been super entertaining. Really any small objects that she can sort through and line up are great for her.  Puzzles are good, but I have to catch her in the right mood or else I'll be stuck putting them together for her. I'm thinking of getting her some of these too. The big mixed-in bucketful and some empty containers for sorting will keep her busy for days, I'm sure! 

How do you keep your little ones entertained? 

Lacey

Ornaments 2.0

I've got more ornaments in the shop! Come check it out!

Bah Humbug

Fa La La La La

Happy Festivus

I love using hoops for ornaments because they can also be hung on the wall if you don't want it on the tree. And I feel the Festivus "ornament" wouldn't be appropriate for a Christmas tree anyway, right?

Happenings

The past two weeks have just somehow been exhausting. Just about everyone has been sick and I had no motivation during that time.

So other than that what have I been up to?

This week I worked on an order that I totally underestimated. Now that's finally done and I'm trying to figure out my plan for the next week.

Mila and I started journals together. I thought it would be a great way to encourage her writing and reading, as well as creativity. So far, we each made a list of 10 things we're thankful for. We also had a Create a Creature day. Mila ended up making lots of creatures!

The Rocket Ship Cat was my favorite. 

This past Tuesday (Veterans Day) my dad (who happens to a Veteran just so you know) took the girls and me into DC for a little walk. Mila asked to bring along the camera. Her pictures:

Actually I might have taken that one. I don't know.

I love the ones Mila took of Annabelle. 

We found some Ginkgo trees on our way back to the car so we (they) had to stop to gather as many leaves as possible as well as some other nature finds.

I guess Annabelle wasn't too happy about Mila's finds. 

Did you have a productive week? Have any great weekend plans?

Getting ready for Christmas

I don't know about you, but I can't believe that Christmas is already less than two months away. Are you ready? I already got a little of my shopping done... very, very little, but it's a start, right? I've learned my lesson that I can't start too early with the girls. Since we've cut back on their gifts to eliminate the unnecessary crap, I try to make it as special for them as possible. And their tastes change so quickly so what they liked a few months ago is totally not the thing now.

Anyway, I decided kind of last minute, that I would be bringing some Christmas ornaments to the shop this year. Last minute because I had not planned at all and now I need to get these knocked out ASAP. So far, this is what I have.

I have a few more to list, so keep an eye on the shop!