My GREEN Inspiration.

hi friends. 

today i'm linking up as a part of Gussy Sews Inspiration Workshop!

today's theme is GREEN and here are some images that inspire me (and hopefully you!) with today's theme:

 part of our garden we planted this spring. 

 flowers from my birthday last fall

the countryside in England. lovely, i miss you. 

happy monday.

happy monday friends. 

  

a couple lovely photos to start your week right. 

my beautiful friend erica took the above photos of lon's. 

on another note: if you have little kids and are looking for fun toy/gift ideas, check out my friend elizabeth's shop

she has started this effort to support their upcoming adoption. 

enjoy!

DIY: Make Your Own Coconut Frappuccino.

hi friends. 

my lovely friend katy is guest posting today. 

and it's going to be delicious.

katy and i met through the blogging world a few months back and i love her and her sweet little family. we sometimesbjoke about being friends in "real life" someday. 

joking aside, i do hope i can meet katy in person sometime. and i hope she has a coconut frappuccino in hand ;)

if you're new to my blog, welcome, i'd love for you to become a follower (left hand side bar) 

and i'd love to offer you a special discount code to my etsy shop. enter code "loveship" at checkout to receive free shipping on any item, this week only!

without further adieu her is katy...

hey guys! i'm katy from scottyboy and katygirl. rachel asked me to do a little DIY and so i thought long and hard about what i should do. then i posted on my blog last week about how much i'm in love with Starbucks' new mocha coconut frappuccino. someone left a comment with a link to a recipe and i thought i would give it a whirl. since the recipe is for your basic frappy frap, i put my own twist on things and i think it turned out quite excellent if i do say so myself.

ingredients:
(in no particular order)

1. chocolate syrup

2. 1/2 extremely strong coffee

3. 1/2 packet of chocolate pudding

4. toasted coconut

5. whipped cream

6. coconut syrup

7. 1/2 (ish) of milk

now a few things to note on the ingredients:

1. these are not in order

2. i thought i made my coffee strong but it could have been a LOT stronger. so take a chance, people.

3. coconut syrup can be found in most grocery stores.

4. to make toasted coconut, i just put a layer on a cookie sheet and baked it for 10 minutes at 325 degrees.

directions:

1. fill a cup with ice. add pudding packet into cup.

(the recipe calls for one cupful of ice but i made mine with 2 and loved the consistency)

2. add the 1/2 cup of coffee and 1/2 cup of milk.

you can add more milk if you want it easy on the coffee flavor.

add 1 TBSP of coconut flavor and a pinch or two of toasted coconut.

3. blend all of your ingredients together.

pour into stolen starbucks cup.

add your desired amount of whipped cream, chocolate sauce, and toasted coconut.

and you've got yourself a DIY frappy frap.

doesn't it look like you bought it?

some things i learned through this process:

1. blenders scare babies and make them cry.

2. no matter what your friends/family/conscience tell you, this recipe is 100% lo-cal.

(if i did it again, i would make it with sugar free pudding, non-fat milk, and ditch the whip/chocolate sauce.)

3. i really, really, really like toasted coconut.

thanks for playing along with me, friends! if you get a chance to try this yourself, let me know!

adoption update video!!!! woo hoo.

this post has been a long time comin' ;) 

and i'm so excited to share the news!!

we are officially moving forward with adoption 

IN A BIG WAY.

after a ton of deliberation, and research, we have chosen a new agency.   

the other agency we were with isn't a bad agency, but this one is 

SUCH A BETTER FIT. 

without going into ALL the details, it just fits our family and our timeline better. 

the finances are spread out into 3 parts vs. all at once

the agency and birth mom will be from Arkansas vs. a birth mom anywhere in the US 

(Arkansas is close to us)  

and several other smaller factors that led us to this decision. 

thanks for all the prayers and thoughts as we made this transition the past couple months. 

so, 

where do we stand now? 

take a look...

Landon & Rachel's Adoption Update from reclaim|creative (Jeff Short) on Vimeo.

thanks to our brilliant friend jeff short for making this video!

and a couple other amazing things happened this week. 

1. we reached our t-shirt pre-sale goal. yippee! 

yes, you can still order shirts here through the end of summer, but we needed the initial pre-sale to order in bulk

2. friday morning we received news that our family is getting an adoption grant! 

thanks for watching friends. 
 
we will keep you updated as we move forward in this exciting process.

When Mama's Away . . .

[Guest post by Rachey's husband, Landon]

Rachel recently roadtripped it to Chicago with one of her best friends. So it was me and little babes (Lands and Londs) just chillin' from Friday to Monday night. Oh, what fun we had! I am no photojournalist, but here are a few pics from our adventures together.


Fun at the park . . .

 
Fun brushing our teeth . . .

 Fun at the farmers' market (who's that creepy guy behind us?) . . .

  
Fun playing on rocks . . .

 
Fun working on her pose for senior pictures in 17 years (this looks a lot like my senior picture, apart from the pink, floral shirt that is . .  wait, actually I might have had something similar) . . .

 
Fun eating (throwing) dinner on the porch . . .

 
Fun playing in the garden (taken through a hole in a broccoli leaf) . . .

Fun trying to convince me that dirt is good to eat . . .

Fun playing hide and seek. . .

 
And fun sticking out our tongues . . .

While it sure was fun to have a three-day daddy-daughter date, it was great to welcome Rachey home.

p.s. (this is rachel talking now)...in other news I only have 10 more tee's to sell to reach our goal by Friday!!!!

this is amazing. thanks SO MUCH for the support friends. :)