At the last minute, Hallie and I had to head out on a road trip to Vancouver to visit my mom. I call in ‘Raincouver’, as many do, because we have only seen a monsoon of rain since we got here. I certainly do not miss the weather here. We came back into town to help my mom out with preparing for the open house and hopefully sale of her home. She has lived in her home for five years yet in such a small amount of time, it can be very easy to accumulate ‘stuff’. We are all guilty of it. I felt terribly guilty leaving her to do it all alone so it just made sense to pack up the wee one and head on down here. It has been a productive week as well. The place looks great and there is an open house this Sunday. With any luck and the current state of the market, there may even be a bidding war. In much more exciting news I also managed to squeeze in a fair bit of shopping! Holiday season and Christmas seems to be in full force already! I had promised myself not to go crazy but it seems to be a slippery slope into a winter wonderland of Christmas decor. I picked up a huge variety of galvanized tree ornaments from Michaels, like this one here. They are fifty percent off right now too so it will cost next to nothing to completely update the look of your tree. I am in a very rustic frame of mind with my aesthetics at home these days so this suited perfectly. On to other things that hang… West Elm has brought back their Felted Garlands! I adore these and almost consider them to be year round decor. I picked up two of the white ones, though am regretting not getting any red. Just cute to boot! Next on my shopping adventure was Anthropologie. I LOVE their holiday decor that they bring in each year. It is so whimsical and nostalgic. They had an assortment of trees which were absolutely darling and I picked up a little silver one to match my table vignette at home. I also picked up the Aurora Copper String Lights (I used these at my wedding) and can’t wait to have little fairy lights dancing off my mantle. Tis the season right!? Now I just need to get home and continue on with Winter decorating, as we slowly creep into splashes of holly red here and there, paving the way for December!

On a much, MUCH sadder note, my poor sweet little girl took quite the tumble last night. She was rushing around with her wobbly walk, in her socks, and slipped on the hardwood floor. She smacked her face right on the ground and chipped a huge chunk off of her front tooth! My heart broke for her as she wailed, and I joined in with tears of my own. Utterly useless mother here in a traumatic situation. I have had a number of people, including the dentist, tell me not to worry, it’s a baby tooth that will fall out, and just to keep an eye on it in case of infection. None of that reassurance makes me feel better though! I keep blaming myself for not being there. Hubby says that is crazy and she certainly can’t live in a bubble. These bumps and bruises are going to happen no matter what. But that is a friggin huge bump if you ask me! So for her first real injury, I am an utter mess. The endless joys of motherhood. I would shatter my own tooth in a second if I could give hers back. For now I guess we will need to teach her this song.

Hope you are all having a wonderful night and staying dry!