Ho ho ho...

 Watching for Santa...

This just might be one of my favorite moments captured.

My heart melts a bit each time I gaze at this photo.  We were on our way home from an annual family Christmas Eve celebration last year, and my little guy was watching, so intently, out the car window for Santa.  Such magic, such innocence is childhood- such a blessing it is to witness.

This layout was created with some of my most favorite holiday products this season.  I can't stop reaching for American Crafts' Kringle and Co. collection, as well as Handmade Holiday from Simple Stories.  The little stars were stamped with a tiny star from a Lawn Fawn set and dressed up for the occasion with some crystal Stickles and a Jenni Bowlin rhinestone star.

Hoping your holiday season is off to a beautiful start!

xoxo,

Grateful

 Well hello.  Happy November.  It's been a while again.

Time just seems to get away sometimes.  Even though I haven't been too busy online, I've certainly been busy in the scrap room!  I spent the past week and a half completely reorganizing and rearranging my scrap room and boy do I love the results!

I've been creating away since then.  The new design of my craft space is functioning so nicely.  I feel like everything I need is at my finger tips and ready to go.  It's so much easier to create this way and allows me to feel so inspired.

This layout was created with the November Little Red Scrapbook kit.  Let me tell you how much I love these kits!  They do such a great job of selecting the perfect products that work together so nicely.  Lots of Basic Grey Lucille in this kit and it's gorgeous.  There are so many great embellishments to work with as well.

This layout of me and my sweet hubby was inspired by this Thursday sketch over at October Afternoon.

Time to start getting prepped for Thanksgiving.  I think I'll do some major cleaning, meal planning, and grocery shopping this weekend since we are hosting for our 8th year :)  Hoping you're enjoying your November days.

Greetings

Well, hello there!  It's been a long while since I've posted.  Just a busy, busy summer is all.  I'm happy to have September here and seem to be getting into the groove with the new routine of school and all of the activities that are picking back up again.  I'm even finding some time to myself to create a bit.

I love to pull out Crafty Secrets images when it comes time to creating for Halloween.  They're so adorable, so vintage, and so much fun to use!  I dressed this one up a bit with some Melissa Frances glass glitter around the edges and added a little web to the top corner from PTI's Been Boo'd set.

 
This little guy was die cut using the PTI Spooky Treats die collection and glittered before being adhered because, well, I can handle a spider if it's pretty and glittery!

Here's to a fun-filled fall weekend.  Enjoy!

A Full Heart

 
My heart is feeling quite full of appreciation and blessings these days.

So thankful to be mindful of everything around me right now.  My children are at such wonderful stages, aren't they all wonderful though?  While that may be true, I'm guilty of not always being present to enjoy all of the little everyday things that make each stage of life wonderful, and when I'm living life in that way, it seems to slip by so quickly.

It's scary.

We can miss moments that are gone forever in just the blink of an eye.  My heart is so full of gratitude for having realized this and for my husband and his endless support.  I'm thankful each and every day for the changes we've made to our life to be able to leave my very full time job and stay home with my children.  This time is so precious.  They are so precious.

My heart is so full of adoration and respect for my mother, as she is on my mind and in my heart quite often.  She teaches me in her own subtle ways and leads by example.  She truly does her best to enjoy life to the fullest in such beautiful ways.  People can sense this about her spirit within minutes of being around her.  This has been the most trying year to date for our family, after the loss of my father, and the way she is carrying herself through this pain and loss renders me speechless.  She's simply amazing to me and my heart is so full of gratitude and love for her.

A new type of joy, derived from time spent in my kitchen to nourish family and friends, has also found it's way into my heart.  Bumping this task up on the priority list for all the right reasons has turned the chore of cooking, baking, and even clean up, into time that I find simply delightful and peaceful.

Hoping you're enjoying spring and reflecting on what is filling your heart these days.

Making the Beds

With some sunny weather finally upon us, we were able to get to work constructing the garden beds today.

We had such a great location for our garden last year, but were in need of a much sunnier spot this year as some of our beautiful trees at the back of our property are growing too tall to allow the sun to bathe the garden as much as it requires.

So Kevin, along with some little helpers...

who come along with their own tools by the way, set to work to create several new garden beds to become home to our 2012 seedlings.

A great day, complete with lots of tools, sawdust, dirt, delicious food, and even a few minor boo-boo's, was had by all.

Looking forward to filling these over the next few weeks!  Hoping your weekend was wonderful.

CSA Season is Here!

 
CSA season is here, yippee!  Couldn't be more happy about it either!  All those fresh greens and veggies then fruit later in the summer.  We pick up our first weekly share this coming week.

I whipped up this bag to hold my reusable produce bags.  The reusable produce bags are great for a variety of things, not just produce.  They're great for holding grains and things that you buy in bulk and will come in handy in selecting produce each week at the farm.

If you're not familiar with the concept, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and takes shape in different ways.  In some communities, neighbors get together and all take part in all aspects of a local garden and each have a share of the harvest.  The CSA that we belong to is actually part of a local farm.  Here, families pay a sum up front for their share of the produce and are able to simply pick it up at the farm each week.  All are great ways to buy local, sustainable food and I encourage you to give it a try in your own community.

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

Pocket Full of Sunshine

 Poppin' in to share a quick card today, using the new Back Pocket Basics set and dies from PTI... to cute!

Also used here, all from my stash, Sassafrass paper, SU ribbon, PTI kraft cardstock, and some brads and crystal Stickles to dress up that pocket.

Created this special for my own mama to send her a little sunshine :)  Hope your day is sunny too!

Sharing

Good Morning and happy spring!  It feels more like summer here in the northeast right now and what a nice treat it is!

I'm consolidating a little bit here.  Due to my love of several different interests, I've had a few different blog concepts going and, quite frankly, was feeling spread out all over the place.  It was becoming difficult to keep up with.  


I've decided to blend them all together here at Birch Street Beat where you'll find a mix of this and that relating to crafting, parenting, and our journey to live a simpler, greener life.  There's a lot to share about life here on Birch Street and the blog serves as a nice journal of sorts for personal purposes, but I also feel as though I have plenty to share with others.  My hope is that you'll find information here that is of use to you in the future, maybe some inspiration, and if nothing else, possibly a laugh from time to time.


Happy Spring!