when life makes you amazed

today has been one of those most wonderful days where every single thing ended up lovely and the world just seems like a magical place in which i am beyond lucky to exist. my sister likes to tell the story of a little girl who once said to her, "do you know what these markers do? .... they make you amazed!" besides being completely adorable, that's how this day made me feel.

right at this moment, the girlies are watching lawrence welk and K is pulling her pants up like steve urkel. she seems to have recovered nicely from her earlier dancing accident (while watching a woman dressed like big bird and spinning around the living room, she crashed into the coffee table). and now B is dancing with bunny while a man in a lime green shirt and very fat tie croons. B is wearing an orange and black striped halloween shirt paired with multi-colored striped leggings and hello kitty socks. the phrase "calm down" has been issued countless times by nick, who is enjoying a nice glass of wine at the kitchen table. me? well, i'm randomly narrating our household current events. then i'll probably have to take a break to read bedtime stories, and by the time i actually post this, it will have been hours since any of these events took place.

for about ten minutes prior to writing this, i was trying to find a picture online of the MOST awesome sweater i got for my birthday from Loft (thanks to the 'rents). until, that is, nick pointed out that i am wearing said sweater and offered to take some pics. which might be hysterical. or i might have had enough wine until after kiddo bedtime. either way.....

see? awesome sweater. i actually wore it to bed last night. can you be in love with a sweater? i'm here to tell you, yes :)

aaaahhh, the girlies are in bed. the last drops of my birthday bottle of wine (thanks to my lovely friend, Mary) have been poured, and it's time to finish this up so i can fight the dogs for a spot on the couch.

this morning, we all trekked to the Y for B's gymnastics class and i (yes, me!) jogged a mile around the indoor track while K alternated between sprinting and holding our sweatshirts. after we got home, i read the first two chapters of the book i've been looking at for months and finally purchased this week, Little Bee, and then took a little nap. ok, maybe a medium-sized nap. no one really knows how long i was out.

after i woke up, we had lunch and i was off to Sewn Studio to spend my birthday gift certificate (woot!) courtesy of the lovely Nick (kudos to Jessica of a little gray for keeping the secret). on the way, i finally listened to my podcast of TAL's "when patents attack". long ago recommended by my lovely cuz (of materials & method, you should check it out), it was every bit as frightening and fascinating as one would expect. anyway, i spent quite a bit of time there, just breathing in the creative air, touching fabrics, and chatting with Julie about teaching children to sew, what scissors we prefer, and all kinds of other fabulous sewing-ey things. and finally i actually bought some super awesome stuff!

oliver + s family reunion dress pattern, in two sizes. i can't wait to whip some of these up for the girlies!

super cute "p.s. i love you" labels and a(nother) yard of AMH little folks voile. i maintain that her voile has the nicest hand out there and she has quickly become my favorite fabric designer over the last few months. i think i'm going to need to get my hands on some loulouthi flannel pretty soon.

a fat quarter pack of the entire little apples collection (by aneela hoey). i'm not even sure why, but as soon as i saw this collection, i just knew i had to have it. i will certainly stare at it for months before i decide how to use it, but i will enjoy every moment of my staring :) and of course, i picked up the new special edition of stitch (and, yes, i really should just subscribe).

after that, even a routine trip to the grocery ended with a lovely moment. (i know, right? it was totally my day.) the cashier i've chatted with dozens of times noticed my purse (pic below), and even called over another cashier to show it to her. it was one of those nice, "hey, people like things i make" moments. and you can really never have enough of those, right?

when i got home, the girlies were both napping (although K swears she didn't fall asleep). later we had a lovely dinner, opened a bottle of wine (not to worry, we didn't share with the kiddos), and then... well, we're back to where this post started.

and now i'm off to enjoy the rest of my night and weekend. be amazed, my friends... life is good.