Joy Leanne

Exhausted and only have a second. But wanted to tell you all to check out the Haus of Joy tab up at the top for some fun news. <a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/3970154/?claim=5u8b726pn7m">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a

1) The drama of the past few weeks has not only ceased but look as though it is all resolved. The money is back in our account, the insurance check came int he mail, the new debit cards arrived, and the brick guy is on his way to fix my house as I type. 2) I started working on my office/studio space this week for real. I am so in love and can't wait to finish!! 3) I won a $100.00 Coach gift card from Coach themselves this week. Hoping it shows up in the mail before I head to Gatlinburg Tennessee and the Coach outlet!! 4)Abi has now completed bother her first and second day of school. First day she cried hysterically when I left. Today she threw a fit when I came to pick her up at half day because "She wanted to stay and rest like the other kids." We may be looking into full day. Thought it was a bit sad to see her take this first step, there is a large part of me that can't help feeling that it all felt so RIGHT!  Abi and I are both so very ready for this stage. She i

  I love to give gifts. In fact, gift giving is my most prominent love language. Thankfuly, l I have a husband who is also very generous so he completely understands. However, when you have 19 family members, not to mention various friends, co-workerss, etc.  in your life, the Holidays can get pricey. Not to mention birthdays, graduations, anniversaries, and any and all other circumstance which call for a gift.  We are beyond lucky to have so many people in our life that we love, but it can get pricey. Raising two kids on one touch-and-go, commission-heavy income means there isn’t always a lot of wiggle room in the budget. But we never let that stop us from giving fun, creative gifts when the situation calls for it. In fact, if I believe what I am told by various friends and family, I am pretty good at gift giving (with a few minor exceptions not sure what this means). So as requested by a friend, I am sharing some of my gift giving/buying tips. Giving the perfect gift isn’t about mone

1. It has been quite a week. The insurance adjuster came out. He approved the higher estimate. (YAY) and supposedly a check was mailed out Thursday. Friday we received a called that some one had stolen both our debit card number and pin number. If it's not one thing it's another. 2. I finally realized just how much stress all this has been causing me when I broke down while out with friends. Good news is I have amazing friends who love me and have been walking through this with us with so much grace.   3. The Goose Beary Shop is growing and changing and stretching. As is this Blog. Lots of growing pains as I work through where I want to go and branding myself. So much to think about.   4. I took the last of the wall paper off of the guest room walls and it is all ready for primer and paint. I am so excited we moving forward on this. :)   5. I really haven't been feeling like myself lately. So much stress and so much is going on and changing. I am trying to take time to slow

  For Those of you who didn't know. I am a doll maker. I actually create all kinds of things, but dolls in various shapes and forms are my primary outlet. I sell my dolls at The Goose Beary Shop . After much thought I decided to go ahead and offer my doll patterns here on the blog. I have them for down load over here. I am currently not charging as I would love for my blog to be a place of encouragement and inspiration. However, if you feel so led you can donate by clicking the paypal button over side bar. I hope you all enjoy!! :)  

  I have a horrible habit of wishing my life away. I am not a patients person and I am almost always looking on to the next stage or season. Both figuratively and literally. (The only exception to this was high school ending. I was very much NOT ready to graduate). Maybe it's human nature, maybe it's just certain personalities, but for whatever reason I am constantly looking forward to what's next. Then this summer hit. And while at this moment I am craving fall like crazy, I also am realizing just how quickly summer slipped by. And I'm realizing that from here on out they will only slip by faster. I have known my husband for seven years now. Seven years. Crazy. My oldest starts pre-school next week. When did that happen? I don't want to look back and regret that fact that I did not fully engage in the a given season. Of life or nature. So today when out with friends I skipped over the hot coffee and got a frozen one. I ordered lemon pound cake instead of pumpkin b

1) The past few days have been made up primarily with dealing with the giant hole in our home. Not the most fun thing to deal with. Silver lining we have gotten a lot done around the house.   2) We moved a lot of furniture around which means our basement now looks very different and I have a futon sitting in the middle of my living room. Hopefully this will motivate me to get the study done faster. [caption id="attachment_268" align="alignnone" width="558"] Clicking on image should take you to the source.[/caption] 3) I moved my blog from a google hosted site to my own site. With Jason's help. I am hoping to have this space feel more like "home" soon. 4) I am ready for fall. I'm ready for cooler weather and apples and hot tea. While I know it's a ways off I can feel us moving in that direction. My shop is picking up which is always an indicator of fall coming. I finished my pieces for the October issue of the Clutch already and I am

Or at least the blog is. I have moved over to www.redirecteddreams.com! Hope you join us! :)

Well not really, but the blog did. After much conversation between hubby and I and a massive amounts of email with my brother-in-law (who is an amazing graphics design/web design/go to person) I decided to move from blogger to my own domain name. A rather scary step for me but an exciting one none the less. It still needs a lot of work. (There's where the brother-in-law comes in.) But I am so glad to finally have my own place rather than "renting."

Since miscarrying our baby back in February a friend has had a still born baby, another friend miscarried and a former member of our Sunday school class miscarried.  The other day the friend who miscarried was asking me if it got any easier. With out thinking I wrote a her a reply that I hoped would help. It wasn't until later that I realized I was writing exactly what I wish some one had said to me 6 months ago. What I still wish more people would come out and say. And so, as hard as it is I am putting this out there, for those of you who may be wondering "Does it get better." It does get a bit easier. But not as soon as every one else thinks it has and not as soon as you wish it would. There are still moments when it's hard for me. Have grace with yourself. It's ok to be sad. You lost a child. Maybe not one you have held, but one you loved none the less. It's ok to say no to things. It's ok to excuse yourself from situations. I've ducked out of

Since miscarrying our baby back in February a friend has had a still born baby, another friend miscarried and a former member of our Sunday school class miscarried.  The other day the friend who miscarried was asking me if it got any easier. With out thinking I wrote a her a reply that I hoped would help. It wasn't until later that I realized I was writing exactly what I wish some one had said to me 6 months ago. What I still wish more people would come out and say. And so, as hard as it is I am putting this out there, for those of you who may be wondering "Does it get better." It does get a bit easier. But not as soon as every one else thinks it has and not as soon as you wish it would. There are still moments when it's hard for me. Have grace with yourself. It's ok to be sad. You lost a child. Maybe not one you have held, but one you loved none the less. It's ok to say no to things. It's ok to excuse yourself from situations. I've ducked out of

 It had been years since I had been to a Mary Kay party so when my mother-in-law called and asked if I wanted to come over for Mary Kay make overs I jumped at the chance. In fact I had SO much fun that I ended up booking a party of my own! The nice thing about Mary Kay is that it's nice and low key. I sent out some text messages and got a few replies. All in all it was me, three friends, and a friend's daughter whom she brought to help her learn early the importance of taking care of your skin. I love entertaining so even though I had just gotten back from our anniversary trip I had to do a couple special things. First thing I did was make short bread cookies.  I love these simple cookies. We make them quite a bit in our house since they only take three ingreedients for the cookies. So simple in fact I thought I would share the recipe. Favorite Shortbread: 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 3 tablespoons sugar  1/2 cup butter     Make sure butter is room temp and combine butter suga

It had been years since I had been to a Mary Kay party so when my mother-in-law called and asked if I wanted to come over for Mary Kay make overs I jumped at the chance. In fact I had SO much fun that I ended up booking a party of my own! The nice thing about Mary Kay is that it's nice and low key. I sent out some text messages and got a few replies. All in all it was me, three friends, and a friend's daughter whom she brought to help her learn early the importance of taking care of your skin. I love entertaining so even though I had just gotten back from our anniversary trip I had to do a couple special things. First thing I did was make short bread cookies.  I love these simple cookies. We make them quite a bit in our house since they only take three ingreedients for the cookies. So simple in fact I thought I would share the recipe. Favorite Shortbread: 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 3 tablespoons sugar  1/2 cup butter     Make sure butter is room temp and combine butter sugar

1) I shared last week that Josh needed 2.5 cars by Tuesday evening to meet his second bump, and that we needed to hit that to make next month work and pay down some debt. It's a very long story, but at God has provided for us in such a huge way. He is good and His mercies renew each morning.  2) We took the wallpaper down in the guest room and are on our way to making it an office space. I'm so excited. 3) Business is picking up quite a bit for my shop and I am starting to think if I do things right and pick the Scentsy we may be able to put off me going back to work a bit longer, and still afford health insurance. I have a show every month from now till October so I'm hoping that will help as well.   4) I'm already Christmas shopping. Is that crazy? Probably have at least 5 people done with.     5) Saturday I had the day off thanks to my in laws. I spend the morning working on some dollies and sewing for myself. I made a coffee cozy just for me! I spent the a

1) I shared last week that Josh needed 2.5 cars by Tuesday evening to meet his second bump, and that we needed to hit that to make next month work and pay down some debt. It's a very long story, but at God has provided for us in such a huge way. He is good and His mercies renew each morning.  2) We took the wallpaper down in the guest room and are on our way to making it an office space. I'm so excited. 3) Business is picking up quite a bit for my shop and I am starting to think if I do things right and pick the Scentsy we may be able to put off me going back to work a bit longer, and still afford health insurance. I have a show every month from now till October so I'm hoping that will help as well.   4) I'm already Christmas shopping. Is that crazy? Probably have at least 5 people done with.     5) Saturday I had the day off thanks to my in laws. I spend the morning working on some dollies and sewing for myself. I made a coffee cozy just for me! I spent the a