Thanksgiving at our house!!!

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year! It was so much fun, exhausting, but lots of fun! My parents came out the night before and spent the night and we all cooked together in the morning! I love when everyone is gathered in the kitchen, laughing, and having a good time!
This is my friend Lori and her son Oliver and my sister Janelle. I seriously cant thank them enough for all they do for me at the store, cause they are like candle making machines! I am sooooooo thankful for them! Look at my clown of a husband peeking up behind them!

This is my oldest son Clay holding Oliver. I couldnt resist this picture, look at Olivers eyes! This kid is such a ham!!! Behind them is my dad! He does all of my books for the store! It truly is a family business!

My sister! I love her lots!

My mom and I! She does not like her picture taken, especially since she lost her hair, but I think shes just beautiful, dont you?

This is My youngest son Sawyer and Lori's oldest son Cale. No this is not cake or frosting they are licking out of the pan, its mashed potatoes!!!!! They have been best buds since preschool!
I love Thanksgiving and I cant wait to do it again next year!!!!

Give Thanks

I feel so blessed and have so many things to be thankful for- my mom is cancer free, my boys are healthy, happy and growing, my husband i doing really well at his new job and the shop is better than ever, just to name a few!

I am also very thankful for all of my new blog friends and readers! I had mentioned to my new friend Jeanne that it is really cool how you can make really great friendships even when you havent actually met! I have lots of blogs that I love to read and they are listed at the bottom of my blog under "To be inspired" You should check them out, you never know, you might just form a new friendship! I hope you have a great Thanksgiving and dont forget to "give thanks!"

Girls "weekend" out!!!!!

I am so excited to be going to Des Moines for a weekend with the girls filled with shopping, good food, girl talk and margaritas! These are two of my best friends-Tracy on the left and Lori in the middle. This picture is from last summers weekend get-away! Unfortunatley, I just found out last night that Tracy has to cancel!! I am so bummed but we will have lots more of these in the future! I dont know about you all, but I come home from these outings a better mother and wife! Have a great weekend and I will talk to you next week!

Our home

If you are anything like me, you find inspiration in other peoples homes. I love to get ideas and just see how they do things that might be different from me. So I took a few photos of our home to share with you hoping maybe you can be inspired.... These shelves are in our living room. As I said in an earlier post, I am becoming a fan of black so I have been adding black accents throughout the house.

This is our den. I really like sitting in here because there isnt a t.v. and it can be very quiet! I just purchased the & pillow from the fabulous Teresa Sheeley! She has so many cool things in her shop! Go to www.teresasheeley.etsy.com to check it out!

This is our dining room looking in from the kitchen. It is very open between the two.

This is looking into our living room. As you can see, our rooms are small and cozy. It is a VERY old farmhouse that has been in my husbands family for generations. Six years ago we completely remodeled it. This was not an easy task, as it was down to the studs! Prior to us deciding to take on this big job, it had been sitting empty for many years!

This is another view of our dining room looking from the living room. My husband bought me the pie safe for Christmas one year and I LOVE it! I will have more pictures in another post of my kitchen, bedrooms, etc....

Hope you enjoyed this little tour!

Thanks for an AMAZING open house

We had the most amazing Uptown Girls open house last weekend! Thank you to all who attended! We hope you had fun browsing the goods and hopefully you found just what you were looking for! I love these chocolate molds! We have them in ornaments also and they come in several different styles.

Dont you just love the wine stoppers! They would make such a unique gift with your favorite bottle of wine!

This is our petite boutique. We have tees, necklaces, rings, cuffs, and bags. If you havent yet seen the new necklaces, you need to. They are so beautiful!

These vintage looking white trees with the little bird ornaments have been a best seller so far! The trees come in 3 sizes.

We have new merchandise on its way and we have re-ordered some of the sold out items! So dont forget to check back with us often throughout the season!

Mixed Chicks Leave-in Conditioner

This is a totally random post, but I am so excited that I have to share the news! Ok, where do I start! If you have naturally curly hair, as I do, you will be just as excited as I am. If you dont have curly hair and you know someone who does, pass this info. on to them, they will LOVE you for it.

For YEARS I used ONLY Aveda hair products, specifically, the leave in conditioner Elixir. It was the only thing I could find that would define my curls without making them even curlier. Then last year, to my devastation, they stopped making elixir!!!!! I seriously didnt know what I was going to do. My husband, God bless him bought me six big bottles of it one day and I was sooooooo excited, until recently when I ran out of my last bottle. I frantically began to search the internet for something that would work ,when I came across www.mixedchicks.net and decided to take a chance on it! I ordered myself a bottle and it came this week! You wont believe how AMAZING this leave in conditioner is! It is the BEST hair product I have ever used for curly hair! My husband even said, " This is the best your hair has ever looked!" My curls have never been more defined and touchable! The best part is I dont even have to use gel anymore. Its just this one product, thats all you need!!!

I will suggest however, that before you use this product, that you watch the short video of how to use it. Its not hard at all, just specific on doing and not doing certain things. Tell ALL your curly hair friends! God bless the two amazing women who came up with product! I hope they make it forever!

Uptown Girl Holiday Open House...

I want to remind everyone of our holiday open house coming up November 13-15th. We will be open: Thursday 10-7, Friday 10-5 and extended Saturday hours of 10-5. Remember to bring in you Uptown Girl Bag to receive your free gift! If you dont already have a bag, there are still some available for $5 or if you spend $50 you can receive one free! We hope to see you there!!!

Mercury Glass

Here is a glimpse of some the mercury glass we have. I really like the wine decanter shown here.
This is one of the mercury glass ornaments! I love this tree!

A grouping of mercury glass trees

I think these little tealight holders are my favorite! The jewel on the front looks sooo pretty and when these are light up with a candle, they just sparkle!

My Family

I thought it would be fun to show some pictures of my family. My mom always takes our family picture each year for our Christmas card and these are some of them. She didnt actually take these two, my dad did. As my mom was taking them with her good camera, my dad took these with the digital camera. My boys are Clay (my first born who is 13) and Sawyer (my baby who is 8). They are both in this phase where they want the longer hair. Its naturally curly like mine so It's harder to deal with, but if they like it, I can deal with it. My husbands name is Tork and I love him lots! We will be celebrating our 15th year anniversary next week! I cant even belive its been that long! We are going out to dinner this weekend cause our Holiday open house is on our actual anniversary. I hope we go to the Tuscan Moon! It has amazing food and the best atmosphere! Its our favorite place to go on date night!

Black and White

I am really beginning to love black and white! These pics are one of the many Christmas displays in the store and is probably one of my favorites. I love the simplicity of it. We have these Keep Calm and Carry On pictures in black, red, wedding mint, and aqua!