October | 2011 | The Adventures of the Miraflor Family…and Evy's Tree

Posted on October 27, 2011 by evystree

…So we are exhausted. SO.TIRED. But we have lived this way for months, so this is not a new feeling. ha. Anyway, everything is coming along just fine over here in the new Miraflor home. We are *almost* out of boxes. Almost key word here! We still do not have a kitchen and are living out of my dad’s little office mini fridge. BUT…. Evy’s Tree is pretty much set up and ready to go, which is great as I do need to get back to work ASAP.

Sidenote: if you are an Evy’s Tree customer and waiting for an order, please feel free to contact me {amy@evystree.com} or Jen {jen@evsytree.com} and we will look into it for you. We do have a couple outstanding orders that are slated to go out ASAP. Jen is in Stockton taking care of those, so please contact her if you are waiting. Thanks again for your patience. I promise we are not normally this behind…we are usually very prompt!

Anyway, the day we left Stockton the battery in my camera died and I just have not had a second to get it charged, so I have been using my handy dandy new iphone, which I love, by the way.

I also have gotten hooked up with Instagram, which is pretty fun. Are you on Instragram? I’d love to follow you! Comment with your handle and I”ll look you up….

So my pictures. I’m just going to unload them here. If you follow me on twitter or facebook you have already seen these, so just scroll on through and come back next week. ha.

Our final hours in our beloved Stockton home…..

We have such great friends. Thank you to all these guys for helping us pack up! You are all amazing!

Saying goodbye to the tree that started it all. Evy’s Tree.

Arriving in Santa Rosa and unpacking.

She found her daddy’s favorite hat. She’s a Nor Cal girl!

Our new neighbors. There is a herd of about 20 of them in that field. So pretty!

Evy’s new bed and bedding. It’s from Simply Shabby Chic in Target, by the way. Target and I have a great love affair. ha.

My father in law and Brandon are so awesome. They are putting in hardwood floors for me. Love them.

View from our bedroom window our first morning. And yes, its cold. ha.

Our fireplace. I just plopped all those pictures on there, but I think I’ll keep it like that. It’s kinda funky and cute. Oh, and thank God for that fireplace. Our heater is broken and this is all the heat we have at the moment!

Stopped by my parents and my dad was pulling out his ’32 for a drive. Dusting it off like he always does. So happy to see him do that. Love my dad.

Getting the stock room set up!

Sarah is so awesome. She has been working here with me this week. Getting everything organized and helping me train our new assistant, Breanna, which I’ll introduce you to soon!

Getting carpet in the studio!!

Not finished yet, but its coming along. See my cutting table Brandon made me??? I love him.

Work in progress….

Love my new light fixture. Thanks Lowes!!!

I have a hoodie addiction. Very sad. This is only some of them too. I also gave away a dozen before leaving Stockton.

Well, that’s it. I’ll check in again next week. ha. Big hugs friends. Thanks for all your love and support. Hope you are well!!

xoxo

Posted on October 27, 2011 by evystree

If you follow my family blog, you might have already read this {still considering combing the two, so I don’t have to keep going back and forth like this. ANYWAY….} Wanting to fill all you Evy’s Tree friends up to speed.

Anyway, the day we left Stockton the battery in my camera died and I just have not had a second to get it charged, so I have been using my handy dandy new iphone, which I love, by the way.

I also have gotten hooked up with Instagram, which is pretty fun. Are you on Instragram? I’d love to follow you! Comment with your handle and I”ll look you up….

So my pictures. I’m just going to unload them here. If you follow me on twitter or facebook you have already seen these, so just scroll on through and come back next week. ha.

Our final hours in our beloved Stockton home…..

We have such great friends. Thank you to all these guys for helping us pack up! You are all amazing!

Saying goodbye to the tree that started it all. Evy’s Tree.

Arriving in Santa Rosa and unpacking.

She found her daddy’s favorite hat. She’s a Nor Cal girl!

Our new neighbors. There is a herd of about 20 of them in that field. So pretty!

Evy’s new bed and bedding. It’s from Simply Shabby Chic in Target, by the way. Target and I have a great love affair. ha.

My father in law and Brandon are so awesome. They are putting in hardwood floors for me. Love them.

View from our bedroom window our first morning. And yes, its cold. ha.

Stopped by my parents and my dad was pulling out his ’32 for a drive. Dusting it off like he always does. So happy to see him do that. Love my dad.

Getting the stock room set up!

Sarah is so awesome. She has been working here with me this week. Getting everything organized and helping me train our new assistant, Breanna, which I’ll introduce you to soon!

Getting carpet in the studio!!

Not finished yet, but its coming along. See my cutting table Brandon made me??? I love him.

Work in progress….

Love my new light fixture. Thanks Lowes!!!

I have a hoodie addiction. Very sad. This is only some of them too. I also gave away a dozen before leaving Stockton.

Well, that’s it. I’ll check in again next week. ha. Big hugs friends. Thanks for all your love and support. Hope you are well!!

xoxo

Posted on October 20, 2011 by evystree

…in our beautiful first home. We have lived here seven years almost to the day. I have never lived in one house that long EVER, besides my family’s vacation home in Lake Tahoe that I considered my home growing up.

Our home in Tahoe, that my dad built with his own two hands. This is a winter picture so you can’t see the beach or water, which was part of the beauty of the house.

I have written a little about my Dad and his “job” {HERE}…in short we moved a lot. The longest we ever spent at a home was 4 years. As a result I really, really, really hate moving. I hate change in particular. It probably is just in my makeup as the rest of the kids don’t really feel that way, but I guess its the homebody in me.

Anyway, this first home of ours will always be so very special to me. I always considered our Tahoe home my “childhood home”. This Stockton home I will consider my “baby home”….a place where two of the beautiful beings became part of my life. I love that.

Thank you Lord for allowing me to spend so many years in a wonderful place. I look forward to new adventures in our new home.

xoxo

P.S. I mentioned in the last post that we might not have a kitchen for a week. It looks like that will stretch to two. ugh. Prayers will be appreciated…camp fire here we come!

Posted on October 18, 2011 by evystree

Today was Jake’s last day in Stockton. He and Brandon left for Santa Rosa tonight; since Jake has school on Tues and Thurs, he will be spending the week with my parents until we arrive on Thursday night with the last Uhaul truck full of our possessions. Since our kitchen is not quite ready, and we have to get the Stockton house ready for our renters to move in on Nov 1, we will be spending the next week with my parents unless we decide to rough it out at the house with no kitchen.

Either way, we most likely won’t unpack for a week at least.

Anyway, tonight was Jake’s last meal in our Stockton home. We had Panda Express and the kids goofed off as usual. Brandon and I kept turning away and wiping tears as this leaving our home has become a bit harder than we expected. We kept whispering to each other with memories, such as, “Remember how Jake learned how to walk right here in the kitchen?” So many happy memories in our beautiful home…we just keep remembering and wiping tears.

Thankfully the kids are a bit clueless and have no idea what’s really going on. They just love to have fun…

Evy and I will be sticking around here in Stockton and finishing up all the packing until Wednesday when Brandon will come home and help us pack the uhaul. Evy has been enjoying her last week with her beloved babysitters. They have had Evy since before she was a year old and she loves Ashley and Alexis so very much. She will miss them!!

And some exciting news….my parents are kind enough to do a little update to our kitchen, which includes countertops. My dad has a lady who installs marble and granite and she gave him a pretty good deal on installation and the material we chose is this simple honed White Carrara Marble. Not fancy or polished, just very old world. Brandon and I drove into the South bay to pick it out. Here’s our slab, however there is a horrible shadow being cast from my figure, so ignore that. Overall its a nice white grayish color. So excited!

So, since I’m feeling a bit down, I spent the evening praying while cleaning the kitchen and reminding God that we are doing this for Him and asking Him to keep his Hand on our lives. Also had a lovely chat with my mom…she listened while I cried. My parents have moved so much that she doesn’t feel the same way about moving as I do, but she quietly reminded me that I am a homebody and so these things will hit me harder. She is so right. She encouraged me to think about our new home and the memories we will make there as well as how at home I will feel there once I get my “life” in place there. That is exciting.

Sadly, I didn’t have much time to get depressed as I turned around saw this:

Right, that’s my laundry that is waiting for me to be done. Ha. So I am enjoying one of my last nights in our Stockton home attacking laundry while watching the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice for about the millionth time. Something about that makes me smile. So I am good. Thank you Jesus for such a great life!

Big hugs friends!

xoxo

Oh PS, my dear friend Joy just informed me that authorities have confirmed a Santa Rosa mosquito was infested with the West Nile Virus and that it wasn’t too late to remain in Stockton. HAHA. That gave me a good laugh. Love you Joy.

Posted on October 17, 2011 by evystree

I had the pleasure of seeing Rachel Ashwell in person this past Thursday night. This is the not the first time I have seen her speak, but it was the first time without kids, which was so wonderful {you can read my Rachel Ashwell + kids story HERE}. Lucky for me, she was speaking at a furniture store in Santa Rosa the same day I was going to be there picking up Jake from my parent’s, so I talked my nieces into watching the kids and my mom and I ran downtown for a couple hours to hear her.

This was a much different atmosphere than the last time. It was held inside the furniture store and hors d’oeuvres were set up in various places around the store on showroom dinning room tables. It was very well done and relaxing. Then we all sat down on chairs and listening while Rachel discussed her inspirations and how she develops ideas and concepts for her stores and books as her new book is entitled “Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic Inspirations and Beautiful Places“.

As I was sitting there listening, I began to think about my inspirations. After all, I’m not much different than Rachel was when she first started her business over 20 years ago. At the time, she explained, she was a young mother with two young babies {her youngest was 6 weeks} and she came up with an idea to sell slipcovers….and the rest was history, we all know her story. And here I am, a mother to two young babies who somehow found myself selling embellished hoodies. So how is my story going to end?

Rachel talked a lot about visual things things that she sees and loves and then it inspires her to create something in particular. I realized as she talked, that is exactly what I do… certain things I see inspire me to create. My end result might not look exactly like what inspired me, but that’s not really the point is it? The point is inspiration pushing you to creating SOMETHING. That’s the idea behind inspiration.

In the beginning of Rachel’s talk, she mentioned that she simply wanted to create a house that looked lovely but that could withstand her young children and their “sticky fingers”. So she created this white slipcovered sofa, which was her first sofa design, and sold it. This is also the same sofa I have and LOVE…

You can read a very interesting write up about Rachel HERE, which is also where I snagged this picture from.

Anyway, as I sat there listening, I thought about my own business. My hoodie, specifically the Brilla, which is one of the very first hoodies that I made, and how it came about it. Why did I even bother to embellish a hoodie anyway? I mean, seriously, what was I thinking? But I know what I was thinking. I had a 6 month old baby. I was still breastfeeding. I was a stay at home mom with no money. I never wore anything but sweats unless I went out and even then my outfits were iffy. I was looking for style AND comfort. I wanted to be able to pull on my fave hoodie and it still be cute. That is why I embellished my first hoodie. That was my inspiration.

As I listened to Rachel I felt God nudge me a little…a reminder of who I am, and with His help, what I’ve done and what I could become. I can’t really sit down and point out exactly why I was inspired to create what I do, I can only give you general ideas. But I CAN tell you this- my little try at embellishing hoodies was God ordained. I never dreamed when I was sewing up those first ones that I would sewing up almost 2,000 hoodies two years later. This was definitely in God’s plan for me and I am glad I walked down that road and listened to the inspirations that He laid on my heart.

I don’t know where Evy’s Tree will end up someday. But I am so thankful that I went and listened to Rachel talk. Somehow God used it as a little spy glass for me. A suggestion of what could be if I just follow Him as He guides me to build this company. And those days that I feel that my hoodies are so done and over copied…I will remember that God’s hand in on this and He will give me the direction to turn, whatever that direction may be.

Such an amazing feeling.

So thank you to Rachel for sharing your heart in a little furniture store in Santa Rosa, California. You inspired a young business woman such as myself to keep dreaming, keep creating and to keep following the inspirations that pop up in every day life. And to of course have faith. To always have faith. Thanks Rachel.

Oh can I just say that I LOVE how Rachel always has a pair of jeans on, a nice top, her hair the same and boots of some kind. It makes me feel sooo good that another creative person has a “uniform”. Mine will be the hair pulled back, jean skirt, leggings, flats and comfortable top uniform. Ha.

Do you have any inspirations? I’d love to hear them!

xoxo

Posted on October 13, 2011 by evystree

We began boxing our house up yesterday. Thanks to some very good friends {Brian and Sarah, Kristen and Lisa and my Sis in law Brittony} we managed to pack up about 3/4 of the house and fit it in a 17′ uhaul truck. There’s not much left sitting around here, just our main couch, beds, clothes and some kitchen items.

Our guest room acted as a staging room, where we dumped all our packed items for the boys to pick up.

Brittony works at Starbucks and kept us well stocked with boxes. We still need some big ones though, if you are handing out donations.

Brittony and Sarah’s arm. I promised her I wouldn’t show her face as she had been working since 9 AM and we quit at close to 9 PM. Seriously, Sarah you are amazing!!! She packed up my entire kitchen!!! Love her!

Items waiting to enter truck….

Brian and Brandon having a blast moving furniture. I think they laughed too much during this whole thing!

But honestly, Brian, thank you, thank you!! We love you!!

It feels good. REALLY good.

Brandon drove the truck to Santa Rosa today and some great young people from The Promise Center helped him unload the truck. We are almost there. Hopefully the kitchen will be done in the next week and a half and we can move over the last portion of furniture.

Oh…Jake was in SR with my mom as he has school, but my little Evy….oh boy….

These are a bit blurry as I couldn’t get her to stop moving long enough to take the picture, but she came running into the kitchen at some point looking like this. We couldn’t figure out what it was until we found a PAID stamp floating around the house. She had even stamped her head and hair. So fun! ha.

In closing, thank you all for the kind words regarding my last post. I am feeling much better now that things are rolling. I see the light at the end of the tunnel!! Yay!

Oh…if you are on our Christmas card list, I hope to send out our change of address card next week, along with an invite for you to visit our new home for an open house in December, so stay tuned!!

xoxo

Posted on October 13, 2011 by evystree

Hello all! This is going to be a quick one, but I had to show these to you!! You need to thank Sarah for this one…this is a good friend of hers, Anna, and her pregnancy pictures. She is wearing The Diana Wrap in Charcoal Grey, which we only have three left of.

I have to say, this picture is SO DARLING! Anna, you are a gorgeous pregnant woman!

Happy Wednesday all!! xoxo

Posted on October 12, 2011 by evystree

It’s been so hard to blog these last couple weeks, as being a Debbie Downer is SO EASY right now. The fact is, I feel like I am in limbo. Majorly. I know we are moving, but since our new house has taken over 3 weeks to be painted {pictures coming}, we have not been able to do any sort of moving at all. We have packed up as much stuff as we can fit in our guest room, but once that was done, all we could do was wait to start moving things over.

This weekend we spent in Santa Rosa. Brandon’s dad came as well and helped tear up the flooring to start laying the hardwood floors. Wow, that was a job!! I kept busy by cleaning all the windows that were not be affected by the floor tear out and cleaning all the blinds to be put back into the window sills. {side note: I learned a great way to clean blinds, I hope to post about it this week.

}

Anyway, back to the limbo. So I’m not really sure where I belong…you know? I know I”m leaving Stockton, but I don’t quite live in Santa Rosa yet. Our lives have always revolved around our church community, but the last couple weeks, we have been working so hard on the house on Saturday and Sundays {the only days Brandon’s dad has off to help us} that we haven’t been able to go to church much. It’s almost like I have no idea where I belong. CLC will always be our home church, but it’s almost like I emotionally have tried to move on and switch my little family to our new church, but when I attend our new church, I don’t really feel 100% at home there either. Ugh. See I told you, limbo.

Side note: Jake even asked me last week, “Mom, do we even go to church anymore?” ha. Let me clarify, we have probably only missed a couple services over the last month or so, but going from being at every service no matter what to missing some…well you can imagine how confused Jake is. He was in church on Sunday and a happy camper! ha.

I know it will all take a lot of time and patience. I have to remember to not listen to my emotions or my expectations. I am trying my best to not stress out if the new house isn’t perfect, if all the things that need to be done don’t get done immediately, if my house isn’t a “home” right away. I am trying my best focus on the needs of my family and not my silly wants and desires that just generate more work for all us. Basically, I am zeroing in on essentials right now.

Furthermore, I am trying to remember that I can’t juggle everything that I would like to….some of the balls that might need to be tossed up will eventually drop… and watching them fall to the ground without running to pick them back up again is one of the hardest things I have done the last couple weeks {here is where I insert how awesome Jen and Sarah have been!!}. A good business woman would scramble to catch each and every ball. A good mom would leave them on the floor.

I want to be a better mom than business woman. So they stay on the floor.

So here is my state of being at the moment. I guess this would be my state of the union address. Ha. Prayers would be appreciated. I know this will all be over soon and we will return to our regular programing…which I’m not so sure is better than this!! HA!

Oh pictures…. Please remember we are no where NEAR being close to done. We still have to lay the hardwood floors in the kitchen and living room and the new countertops. But here are a few pictures right after the paint was done, and even these are not great as it was pouring down rain outside. Oh how I love white! ha. The color on the walls is Simply White and the trim Cotton Balls, both by Benjamin Moore.

Dining Room before….

Family Room before….

Kitchen before….

Brandon and his dad tearing up the tile flooring. They worked so hard, I am so thankful for these two.

Much love friends! xoxo

Posted on October 7, 2011 by evystree

Hello all! I hope you are well! I have been so absent lately…so frustrating as I love my little blog. I’m going to attempt to do a post later today highlighting my stressful life currently {I know, I know, you all want to read THAT don’t you?!?! ha}….

Anyway, Food Friday. So I missed last week {even though I had one, we’ll use that next week} but I tried something last night that I wanted to share. Remember my chicken soup recipe {HERE}?

BIG SIDE NOTE HERE>>>> I just read through the recipe again and noticed I put CUMIN as the spice?!?! Seriously, I have no brain. It’s not CUMIN, its THYME. Sheesh. Please don’t use cumin, your soup won’t taste good. ha.

So you might remember in the chicken soup recipe that I said it creeped me out to cook the raw chicken in the broth with the rest of the veggies. I know its crazy, as its just chicken with chicken broth, but something about a slimy peace of chicken floating with my veggies stresses me out. Call me OCD if you will. ANWAY, I decided to try something new last night:

Basically, after I sauteed my onions, garlic, THYME {hehe}, salt, pepper and celery in a good portion of olive oil, I rubbed the chickens down with salt and pepper and then sauteed them in the pot with the rest of the yummy stuff. I just did about 3 or 4 mins on each side. After that I added my broth and veggies and finished cooking the chicken with the veggies and noodles.

IT.WAS.AMAZING. Seriously. The chicken had such a good flavor. It was so good that Jake at TWO giant bowls and my husband did the same. So there’s your little tip for the day. ha.

Oh and I saw this today on twitter {HERE} …I am really thinking I need to try this and do a Food Friday write up on it!

xoxo

Posted on October 7, 2011 by evystree

Happy Friday everyone!! I hope you all had a wonderful week! I am over here still *trying* to move. We can’t really do much but put things in boxes as the house painting took almost 3 weeks, this weekend we need to fix the floors, then next the kitchen countertops… and THEN we can move. It’s all a bit mind frazzling and stressful going between here and there. I am so looking forward to the day when this is all over and we are back to some normal way of life.

Anyway, in the meantime, I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I called on some friends to help me with DIYF. I promise, I will have TONS of DIYF’s coming up in the next couple months as Brandon and I fix up our new home. But until then I KNOW you will LOVE all my friends as I have to admit they are WAYYY more crafty than me!

Meet Mique {pronounced Mickey}. She is AMAZING! I first met her at The Queen Bee Market that her and her sister Jess run. They are the sweetest people, so kind and loving and were so hospitable to me when I came down last Spring. {BTW, I will be there at the November market…come see me!!} Mique blogs over at 30 Handmade Days and has quite a following, so it is SUCH an honor to have her here! Make sure to leave a thank you comment for Mique today and hop on over to her blog and check out her other crafts! Thanks Mique, you’re the best!! xoxo

Lately I’ve had a fun time with a few home decor projects. Today’s personalized world map was easy to make and I love how it turned out.
I found my inspiration over the weekend at Paper Source- a cute little card with some embroidery thread attached. Lindsey showed me the specialty world map paper that they had and my wheels started turning. This big world map was born.

Specialty paper at Paper Source= $3.99
The frame was a find at Target on clearance, 18×24= $4.26
Other supplies, had on hand.
So for $8.25 I have a new favorite piece of art to hang.
This is how you can make your own personalized world map:

Using a pen, mark spots on world map that you’ve visited.
Then with the embroidery thread and needle make an x for each spot.

I used a few colors. One represented places we’d been as a couple, another for places we’ve been as a family, and others for places we’ve been separately. You could just use one color if you want. I think it’s kind of fun to break it up a bit.
Some places that I’ve been: Costa Rica, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Paris
Places we’ve been together: Tahiti, Brazil, Kauai, the Caribbean

Because I have a Silhouette, it was really easy to make this cute little saying and adhere it to the personalized world map. I created the file in the Silhouette program, weeded it and adhered it.
If you don’t have a Silhouette, you could use stickers found at a craft store. Or you could print something on your computer and glue it down as well.

This is what it looked like after adhering the vinyl.

My frame was originally boring old brown. I wanted to make it pop a bit. I first tried to paint it but that didn’t go over well. So I used some aqua spray paint and love the end result. Note- using spray paint in windy conditions is not the smartest idea.

It was really hard to take a picture that showed off how fun this turned out.

I love that we have a map that we can look back on and add to as we explore the world more.

What is your favorite place in the world?

The Adventures of the Miraflor Family…and Evy's Tree

What's happening in the World of the Miraflors and Evy's Tree

Monthly Archives: October 2011