Random Acts of *Holiday* Kindness Linky Party ~ Week 1

I'm so excited that you're here and ready and hope you'll be linking up for my first EVER linky party! If you don't know what this is all about, or where the idea came from you might want to go read this post.

Tomorrow is my Grandma Gladys' birthday, so we always celebrate with dinner and a dessert with her and my dad, before taking the kids out trick or treating. Thanks to Pinterest, I already knew what dessert I wanted to make... THIS Cinnamon Roll Cake. YUM, right? Who doesn't love cinnamon rolls?? Because I knew I'd already be baking and up to my neck in butter, making 2 cakes made sense...

So, tomorrow the ladies at Cohen's preschool will be getting a yummy Cinnamon Roll cake! We are SO happy & SO lucky to have found such an amazing school for Cohen (thanks again, Meagan) and love the staff. They're such a sweet bunch of ladies and do an amazing job of making Cohen comfortable. (that's not always easy w/him) I'm excited & hope they'll love the cake. My house sure does smell delish! Hope you'll link up below & share with us what Random Act of  *Holiday* Kindness you did or plan to do this week. 

{Don't forget to grab the button when you link up!}

InstaFriday

I have to say that I'm glad that this week is over! The past few weeks were long ones and I was so busy preparing for The Threadery, that everything else in my life was pushed to the back burner. Sadly, even my kids.. in some ways. I mean, I fed & bathed them.. but Halloween prep & decor? Has barely happened. I'm usually on top of things and totally organized. The past few weeks, not so much. That's not something that settles well with me. So, from here on out, it's back to normal. I hope!

Linking up with Jeannett at Life.Rearranged for InstaFriday! 

Hard to imagine that my car was packed to the brim, when ALL of my inventory was in these!

Further proof that the car was packed! Front seat was laying down, covered in pvc. Not to mention that the trunk was FULL if furniture.

My first ever booth at The Threadery! A big thanks to Meagan & Breadwinner for all of the help!

How cute is this booth? It's my sweet friend Jenelle's! She did an amazing job. I was so happy to meet her and get to hang out with her and a bunch of other sweet new friends!

Sweet B in her new Rock-A-Bow. She tells me she's the biggest Rock-A-Bow fan. haha.

Tooth Fairy Pillows for sale, in a real shop! Kind of exciting!

Yesterday was "crazy hair day" at school. To her, THIS was crazy... waves from a bunch of braids.

I thought she looked pretty cute!

Yesterday we FINALLY went out to search for Halloween costumes. Not much luck. Brookelyn was happy with this "Sailor Girl" costume. I was happy with the $14 price tag. (Thanks Target) We have yet to find Cohen a costume though.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

And, don't forget to check out this post about Random Acts of *Holiday* Kindness!

Random Acts of *Holiday* Kindness - Link up!

The other day while reading this post on my sweet friend Aprils blog, Marine Parents. I was inspired by this...

"i also made a big bowl full of candy corn shaped sugar cookies — holy yum!! these are delish & really really simple to make.  i split these up into two groups — one to send with caleb today for the shop & one plastic bag to mail to a friend…. is it you? check your mailboxes in a few days."

Is that not the sweetest thing? Immediately, the wheels in my head began to turn. I want to do something like this, right now and continue it through the holidays. But, I don't just want to send things to friends.. Random acts of kindness always warm my heart and they're really not performed often enough, by any of us. 

So, I'm challenging my readers from now until the end of the year to perform a random act of kindness at LEAST once a week. I'll share some ideas with you below, but if you have more comment and let me know. Every Monday I'll do a linky party and we can share what our RAOK was. My plan is to make good use of my Pinterest boards! I've got so many recipes & crafts, clothes to make, etc on there, that will now get a little attention. I challenge you to think outside of the box, don't just do something for someone you know but maybe for a stranger. If you can, go beyond your typical RAOK (paying for someones coffee in line behind you, etc), instead make a full meal and take it to a family, bake a box of yummy treats & send them across the country, make a few cute Christmas ornaments or a Christmas decoration and surprise someone with it. The ideas are really endless! 

    

    

{everything here is pinned on my pinterest boards & I'll be making each of these and posting about them, with original links}

Be inspired by other bloggers too! I'd love to send some bloggy friends some special random acts love, feel free to email me w/your mailing address and if you're ok with it being passed on to other bloggers, so that they can pass things on to you.. Won't that be fun? We all love getting mail, especially this time of year. 

I hope you'll join me in paying it forward this holiday season! Be ready on Monday with your first post about  what you're going to do or what you already did. Pictures will only make it better. There are 9 Mondays left until the end of the year, but that doesn't mean you have to limit yourself to only doing 9 RAOK. 

Our Families Halloween Past

I can't believe it's already time for Halloween, again! We are so behind this year.. as in, my kids don't even have costumes yet! Bad, right? Nothing like last minute shopping. This year Matt & I are going to a Halloween party for the first time ever, which of course means that we have to dress up. Neither of us has dressed up in YEARS! 

I dug around in Shutterfly and found some pics from Halloweens past. Since I knew I'd be linking up with my friend Meagan, I'm here today sharing them with you! Hope you & yours have a Happy Halloween and enjoy our pictures!

2010 Mario & Princess Peach

2009 Dorothy & the Cowardly Lion

2008 Fairy Princess & A Pea in a Pod

2007 Little Black Cat

2006 JoJo the Clown

2006 Kangaroo

Hard to believe my kids (especially Brookelyn!) were so little, not so long ago! The previous 2 years Brookelyn was an elephant and a lady bug. Sadly, I have no digital pictures of those Halloweens. 

What are your kids being for Halloween this year?


Linking up with Meagan over at Fairly Fabulous for her Halloween Linky Party!

Sweet Sponsors: Goodnight Moon

In the past few months, I've been lucky enough to meet some amazing ladies through blogging and twitter. Amber is so sweet, extremely creative and adorable too! She also happens to be one of my awesome sponsors. So, today she's sharing a little bit about herself with all of us! Show her some love and go visit her blog & shop as well.

1. Tell us a little about yourself!

I am a Marine wife and SAHM of 4 kids that keep me feeling more like a taxi cab driver these days. I bascially play single parent the majority of the year, due to my husband being a Marine. I love sewing, crafting and photography. I absolutely love where I am at in my life right now.

 

2. What are 3 things you can NOT live without? (Not people)

My sewing machine, iPhone and pizza.

3. What inspires you to create?

I love being able to look at things that I want, and think...."I could make that". 

4. Tell us about your Etsy shop!

To tell you the truth, my etsy shop is kind've lame right now,...okay, it's really lame right now. I haven't been focusing on it that much because I've been sewing up a storm trying to prepare for 3 upcoming markets, all within about 3wks of each other. So please excuse the lack of products that are listed. I have many many many other things that I've created, that I haven't shared in my shop yet. The products that I create are all things that I whole heartedly love myself. I think it is so rewarding to purchase fabric, invision something and then create it.

 

5. The holidays are coming. What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?

For our family, the most imporant thing for us is to be together. There are so many days/weeks/months during the year that my husband is gone {due to the Marine Corps}, so when he is home for the holidays, we sing and dance all over the living room! We enjoy all things simple in our family. 

6. What are some of your favorite blogs?

I love so many blogs for so many different reasons. I love Riding the Roller Coaster, Tatortots and Jello, The House of Smiths,  Miss Mustard Seed, and Tip Junkie.

 

  

7. Where all can we find you?

I would love it if you stalked me!

 

I blog at Goodnight Moon.

My etsy shop is Goodnightmoontheshop.etsy.com

I have a facebook fanpage {here}

My twitter handle is @Goodnightmoon6

and I am also a contributor writer for Homefront United Network

Thanks Amber!! Now, go check out her awesome blog & shop!

InstaFriday: busiest.week.ever!

It's Friday! That means I'm linking up with Jeannett at Life.Rearranged for InstaFriday. Link up!

Crazy, busy week preparing for The Threadery this weekend! Tooth Fairy pillows in the making...

Cohen & I went to my Grandma's house to get some old coke crates. He took some time to stop and play us some music. Love watching my kids play on this piano. I remember playing it when I was a little girl.

Lovely fall colors, ready to be sewn. With a pop of vintage fabric.

My silly boy. Refuses to go to bed without his hooded towel superhero cape on. This night, we found he'd turned over but the hood hadn't. Soo funny. Love that kid.

A little peak at my gorgeous new market sign. #eekloveit

So excited for Saturday. A little nervous, but that's normal for my first time right? Right? #justsayyesplease

If you're in the Southern California area, come see me this weekend at The Threadery!!