Proud of her Aunt Dana

I admit it...I have not been very good at keeping Our Maxwell House updated lately. Anyway, here are a few pictures of Adalyn with her Aunt Dana. We are so proud of Dana for graduating from The University of Montana on May 16th! We have more pictures to sort through from the graduation as well as Mother's Day. It is a mistake to take photos using three different cameras and multiple memory cards and store them on a computer downstairs and then access them on our laptops...and combined with time working on PunkieGrace photos. It is a work in progress I guess!

Congratulations Dana!!


Adalyn got all dressed up to celebrate and she really loved Dana's tassel!

A Girl and her Daddy

Here, Daddy, eat this stick!


I'm working on the pictures from Mother's Day and found these cute ones. I am way behind on posting Adalyn's 15-month update so I guess I will wait a few more days for that and post her 16-month update with it! She is saying so many words now...hamburger is my favorite. She has also been saying "honey" except she says it hon-ay, soo cute. She also just started saying "bye, see you later" it is not always real clear but we can definitely tell what she is saying and it has been cracking us up!

Jamey's Birthday.....Part 2

Jamey was lucky enough to enjoy more birthday celebrations including dinner out two nights in a row! Adalyn was happy to eat out too. She eats really well when we go out and loves sitting at a big table with everyone. She likes to make funny faces across the table and try everyone's food :)

We went out with my mom and stepdad on Jamey's actual birthday and then back to their house for presents and ice cream cupcakes, which Adalyn absolutely loved to taste of course! The next day, we went out with my dad and stepmom and enjoyed a nice meal and dessert. Jamey had a great birthday and can't wait to go camping and try out his new stuff, including his new pack tent and sleeping bag from Adalyn ;)

Daddy's balancing act

Helping open gifts

Reading the Just Daddy and Me book together

Sitting with Grandma Jill after getting all of the cat toys out

Yay, cake!


Adalyn thinks she can just walk right down the stairs at my mom's house like we can, so we usually race to catch her so she doesn't fly right off them because she isn't big enough to walk down them yet.... my mom and sister were teaching her to scoot down the stairs one at a time and she was having a blast! I love her faces in these so I had to post them all.



Practicing


We made sure to take pictures of Adalyn together with my mom's dog, Tony. Earlier in the week we had learned he had several tumors that were not removable and we didn't know how much time we would have with him. Adalyn was petting him and gave him a hug and a kiss and we got some cute pictures. Sadly, Tony passed away a week after we took these pictures. We got him as a puppy when I was in high school and he was a cute little rascal since the day we brought him home. He was a Pembroke Welsh Corgi and he always looked like a puppy, even as an adult. Our dog Bailey had so much fun running circles around the house or our backyard with Tony and she will miss seeing her friend when we visit my mom's house.





Tired and resting with her bud Tony


Tony and Bailey playing and making Adalyn laugh last summer (Adalyn 5 months old)

Goodbye, Tony. We will sure miss you and your "smiling" face.

Introducing.....

Well, finally an introduction to the hobby that spurred an idea to start a little business. I have followed blogs for a while, even before I ever started writing this one, and came across different mentions of a site called Etsy. Etsy is a site for buyers and sellers of handmade items as well as supplies and vintage items. Individual sellers can set up a virtual shop where they sell their own goods, market them, and ship them to their customers. I first purchased some hair clips earlier this year from a wonderful seller on Etsy. She was participating in a donation to build a playground in the memory of a sweet baby girl who passed away from neuroblastoma. She was donating all the proceeds from her sales along with many other sellers to help build this playground. I was very happy to support this great cause and to get some darling hair clips for Adalyn.

I started browsing Etsy and learned more about the cute products people sold. I was particularly fond of the adorable accessories for babies and little girls. Then I started finding information on making my own hair clips. It was quite a process to first find local materials, find the best prices and the best methods for making the clips. Then I started looking into making bows, first practicing the folding techniques and then perfecting different styles. Then, I learned how to make a cute tutu and flower clips.....

The idea of setting up my own shop bloomed, and with Jamey's encouragement and support, I started gathering more materials and working on different products. I came up with a name, PunkieGrace, inspired by my sweet little Adalyn. When she was little we would spike her hair up and she acquired the nickname "Punkie" or "Punky." When we were brainstorming names, I kept coming back to names that had some special sort of connection for me. I did my "due diligence" (thanks business classes!) and researched the names to avoid any potential copyright issues and decided PunkieGrace just had to be the perfect fit!

Jamey worked very hard to create a design for my product/business cards and my wonderful website, blog and banner for my Etsy shop. There is a tremendous amount of work and time involved in doing things the professional way and I am very proud of what we came up with. We are hoping to make the PunkieGrace website live very soon....tonight, possibly ;) Currently, all of my products are sold through the PunkieGrace on Etsy shop. To purchase these products, customers pay through PayPal on the Etsy site. Customers can use their PayPal account but don't need an actual PayPal account to purchase items, only a credit card or debit/bank account.

Then, I need to finish my Etsy shop policies and start listing my items for sale. We have taken photos of most of them so far but I need to work on the descriptions. I will keep my PunkieGrace blog updated with new information about coming products, promotions and giveaways. This blog will also be filtered right onto the PunkieGrace website itself.

Thanks for reading about the new endeavor....I would love to hear any comments after the site is up and my products are listed.

Soon, I will get back to Jamey's birthday part 2 and Adalyn's 15-month update, when I have some time to catch my breath :)