Katelyn & Leena visit Violet Bella - Part I

Im back!

For the past week my friend Katelyn and her little girl Leena stayed with us at our house. I have been good friends with Katelyn for the past year online, and this was our first in person meet! We were both very excited and a bit nervous I think :) They got in super late the night before this. We helped unpack the car and then sat around chatting for a bit before we all went to bed.

The next morning I got to show Leena Violet dog pen, the garden and such. Pretty much first thing in the morning Leena asks for some kind of fruit, it is so cute. She had a peach this morning. This was on our way out to the post office.

Ha ha, she was making a funny face, but still so cute with her peach and her purse.
Katelyn and Leena both helped watert the garden.
I love Katelyn's hair red, it fits her so well. She wore her PPP dress :)
Leena became fascinated with the dirt and rocks, and I showed her what ant lions are, they had no idea about them! Leena destroyed an entire colony of them in a matter of seconds! And they all had rebuilt their tunnels by morning!
Leena's red boots. This girl wears these everywhere and with everything, so cute!
I picked my first green beans!
Leena learned how to open and close Violet's gate, which she loved doing pretty much the whole trip.
She also discoverd Violet's bed and decided to make it her own!!! We went to Goodwill earlier that day and Katelyn got her that little granny square quilt!
That night we went to the Wine and Cheese bar and Leena decided to really warm up to me, it was precious. There was noone else in the place, so we actually got to sit inside b/c there wasnt a bunch of ciggarette smoke or loud people, it was very nice. Our friend Alyssa hung out with us and Katelyn got to meet Jonny and my dad! A nice little visit.
Katelyn brought us some homeade blueberry syrup that she made and OMG it was to die for! She made it from berries she had hand picked. James and I both LOVED it!
She showed me how to make her oatmeal pancakes which were equally good and topped it off with ripe peaches, oh gosh, I wish I had more now!
Leena played outside for a bit while James mowed the yard.
She undressed this babydoll of mine everyday, it was so funny. She has a thing with being naked. There was one moment she tried taking my shirt off!
I am just in love with her little face, voice, personality, the way she talks, etc. In love.
That night we made veggie sushi rolls.

They turned out so yummy we made them again the next day.

Many many many more photos to come, so be prepared for this weeks blogging to be all about Katelyn and Leena.

Katelyn is an awesome photographer, go check out her work here and here.

PEACE,
Laura

Texas meets Louisiana

So very excited, this beautiful girl below is on her way right now, driving from Louisiana to Texas to come meet me and stay with us for a week! Her and her little one Leena. After becoming very very good friends online for a year now, we finally get to meet in person! I think we are both nervous and excited as heck!

We plan on hooping, making hoops, bbqing, chilling, garage saleing , goodwilling (yes, that is a word in my vocabulary), healthy food making, playing with leena, and generally just hanging out and talking. So you prob wont see much of me on here for the next week! Maybe though :)

We will take tons of pics and video I am sure of it! We have a few photo shoots planned anyway.

She is one of my number supporters of Violet Bella, here are just 3 shots of so many that I have of her in my clothes!!!

Her pillow case top...
Her fun cartoon top...
and her patchwork top, just a few of many! I love this photo of her and her daughter, so beautiful.
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Last week I was asked by a friend and fellow photographer, Laura Evans to do a guest post on "inspiration" on her blog while she is away in France...

you can read what I have to say about the subject here.
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Last sunday I had my good friend Jen come over and give me a hand with some things with my business. Not only was it majorly productive and helpful for me, it was fun and delightful just to have her around. I adore this girl so much, she is like none other. She is an amazing baker, who bakes everything in an easy bake oven! She usually can only bake 6 cookies at a time, yes, I said 6!!! So I let her use my oven while she was here and she busted out the most amazing batch of oatmeal cookies while she was here! Which has inspired me, I just made a batch of my own from scratch, and only hopeful they will turn out half as good as hers...
Then I showed her how to make homeade pizza dough. When Jonny got off work, he came over and shared it with us, along with some awesome Red Stripe. Then some guitar jamming commenced and some amazing conversations.

And this crazy rainbow has seriously been showing up on my ceiling a few times! This is not a figment of your imagination, it was really there!!!
I wore my PPP dress the other day and snapped a few pics for Shauna. I love the way it looks with the peacock feather headband I got from a friend.

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And here are a few new goodies still in the shop. A new teddy bear shirt, I had missed these!
A new floral jumper
A new tshirt slip dress
And here is one of the most beautiful girls Ive ever laid eyes on wearing Violet Bella. I think this tshirt mini dress was simply made for her. It looks so amazing on her! And she says she loves it! Makes my heart so happy!!!
Time for the next batch of cookies, and some serious resting for a bit before company gets here!

PEACE,
Laura

Fourth of July weekend

Gosh, this is a late post, but I accidentally deleted all of these photos from my card, and with a little help from a friend, I was able to recover them! Most of them anyways...

I lost the ones from my actual 4th of July, but we went back out to our friend's house the next day to finish our celebration, b/c the night of we had to leave early b/c James worked the next morning. So glad we did, we had a fabulous time just chilling with the family.

James found a beebee gun and was just happy as a clam with it. They shot up some cans, boys... I actually used to love shooting a beebee gun with my grandpa forever ago.

The guys hung on the porch and talked music forever
Mr. Yeti Man! My favorite kitty out there at the moment, he is so adorable and lovable.
And this beautiful little kitty was one that was born away from the house and has not become tame yet, we found him hanging out in the recycling pile, so cute.
beautiful Rose, this girl is amazing, i love her mind.
Carin and Rose scouting around
They taught their dog Pachuca to ride in their jeep with them, apparently they have been trying this for a while, and were just exstatic that it finally happened! It was so funny.
Carin in her cons. She told me they were her favorites and that she has worn nothing else since she got them.
Carin, being silly with her sister, and she loves to hula hoop!
Rose reading her twilight book, she is in love with this right now
Jen Jen! I am so in love with her bright red dreads.
And she picks up my hula hoop everytime we hang out, i love it! I am so excited she wants to learn to!



More adorable kitties, these are the newest little batch

All of the photos below are ones that Jen captured. I love the way she takes pics, like I have mentioned before. And I never get pics of me just hanging out b/c Im always behind the camera, so that is always cool.

I LOVE this shot of james and the gun!!!

he is just so adorable, i must say so myself :)

This little cicada had just come out of his shell when we got there, and he just became my buddy, he crawled all over me. I loved him! I lost all of my pics of him which I was sad about b/c they were so cute, but I am so happy Jen got some of us together...

just hanging out together...

I released him onto this plant, and hoped he found a new path in life.

me and Carin hanging out

taking pics :)

my yummy orange beer

and of course, fireworks!!!

check out more awesome photos on Jen's livejournal, you will not be disappointed.

PEACE,
Laura