{Happy Easter}...and My Mom's Handiwork

Easter is always a special day in our family since we celebrate not only the love Jesus displayed on the cross for all of humanity, but also His resurrection.

It gives us such a peace in our hearts to know that the One we serve lives in heaven and reigns over the earth!!! And because of this joy, we are able to appreciate all of God's blessings.

One blessing in my life is my sweet mother and her amazing talent for sewing.

This Easter, Amelia and I were dressed with my mother's beautiful handiwork.

_{vintage-inspired black dress made by my mom}

For my birthday this year, all I requested from my mom was a handmade vintage-inspired dress.

I selected the pattern/style and she found the fabric and whipped up this beautiful black frock.

Today, I wore an antiqued gold belt and gold earrings with the black dress, and

I look forward to finding some colorful coordinating vintage belts/accessories to wear with this dress this summer.

Amelia's dress is out of this world gorgeous!

It is made from a beautiful taupe fabric, that my mother had stored away in a stash of fabric, and embellished with a delicate lace around the waist and a large bow on the back. I requested that Amelia's dress also have a bubble skirted hem like her birthday dress last year.
My mom made an extra lace bow for me to put on a headband which helped to complete the outfit.
For the Easter basket, I found a vintage basket for $2.00 and spray painted it ivory and added a dark taupe satin ribbon.

_{candid shot of sheer excitement!}

The day was overcast but absolutely beautiful! At church, we sang the traditional song "Christ Arose!, " ate a delicious lunch, and enjoyed watching all of the kids hunt Easter eggs in a lush green pasture... The Lord is so good.

Joyeuses Pâques!!!

_{images by à la parisienne}

Less Than a Month Away...

Somewhere in the last 340 days my little Amelia has grown up so quickly...

I remember so clearly this time last year...

all of the preparations for her 1st birthday party, and here I am planning her 2nd birthday party, which is less than a month from now.

If any of you know a trick for slowing down time, please share!

This year I seem to be moving at a tortoise's pace with her party planning, but I'm not going to let myself stress over it:)

We had a very Happy Easter and Amelia really enjoyed the Easter egg hunt. Of course, she wanted to open each egg before she continued her race for the next awaiting egg.

I hope you all have a happy week!

Happy Easter~~

Whether your Easter celebration is wrapped up in Ladurée ribbons,

or soft pastel boxes,

or pink wicker baskets,

I hope that you will recognize and remember why Easter such a joyous and special day~

It is the day that we celebrate that Christ arose~the Savior of the world lives and reigns!

Joyeux Pâcques!
Happy Easter!

Joyeuses Pâques

I hope that all of you had a great Easter and a time of spiritual renewal. I took a few pictures of our daughter today in her Easter dress, but she was more interested in crawling around than posing for the camera! We had a great day at church and then we had a short visit with family afterwards. The final picture is of my niece and my daughter playing the piano at my in-law's house. I just love that fuscia dress that my niece wore today- she looks so beautiful in that color!

After all of today's activities and now reflecting on the day I realize that my daughter's first Easter has come and gone. My husband pointed out that she missed her first Easter egg hunt at church because I was too busy socializing with family! It's okay though, I guess. It rained pretty hard last night and I didn't want her crawling around in the mud! But I do wish I had gotten a picture of her surrounded by all of colorful Easter eggs!