Tuesday Favorites- Nicole Paloma

Currently I work along 30A in Santa Rosa Beach, FL.  This is a vacation spot for a lot of people that I went to college and high school with since it is only a few hours from Mississippi.  I do feel blessed that I am able to live and work in Florida, even more so now that family has moved over here, and that Drew and I are meeting and making more friends in our area :).

I constantly have people come into the shop I work at, Design On the Gulf, and ask where are cute clothing shops, where is a good restaurant, what is there to do besides going to the beach?  30A is nestled along the water and is hidden along 98 (you seriously would not know anything was there unless you decided to turn down 283, 395, or 30A).  It is directly in between Destin and Panama City Beach.  I actually had never heard of it until I started looking for an internship in college.  I ended up landing a job in Rosemary Beach, FL.  I fell in love with this perfect, aesthetically pleasing, urban-beach community.  Being naive I was ready to sign a lease to live in a 400 sq/ft studio apartment until I started looking at the price...  Drew and I ended up in a wonderful community in Freeport that we absolutely love, but that is for another blog. 

One of the greatest things about this area is all of the locally owned small shops, (my dream one day!).  I find that people really do not advertise in the area you find everything by word of mouth.  There is something extremely exciting  about stumbling upon a great boutique, consignment shop, restaurant, you name it.  The folks are extremely nice and I always end up feeling like a found a secret treasure.  This same thing happened yesterday, and instead of keeping it a secret I want to let y'all know where to go when you come into town ;). 

One of my BF's Kati, who just opened a great boutique in Ocean Springs; is a search engine genius.  She always finds the greatest stuff and seriously everyone should follow her on Pinterest.  She has gorgeous taste and seems to know where to go (a great travel buddy).  She came into town yesterday for business and a little shopping.  She really wanted to go to this place to look at clothes in The Shops of Grayton Beach, and am I happy we went.  The name of the shop is Nicole Paloma maybe you have already heard of her and this is old news, but as soon as we walked in the door I was in love.  I wanted one of everything.  One of the greatest things about this little treasure is that Nicole is at the store making the clothes right there.  How amazing is that!?!  Everything is Handmade (not to mention American made) reasonably priced and beautiful.  Since I can't buy one of everything I opted for a beautiful cotton wrap (The Flora).  Check out the picture below.

 

I can honestly say this is one of my favorite pieces of clothing in my closet right now, and I have already gotten so many compliments on it.  A little bird told my that Abode Design in Ocean Springs is going to start carrying her clothes so if some of my old high school friends live in Ocean Springs please follow Abode on FB here, Kati will update you when they come in.  I promise you will not be disappointed.

Tristan and I will definitely be back over there soon; since he loves flirting with the girls in the store.  BTW- Nicole Paloma does make little girls clothes, too. 

They are absolutely adorable! 

I also bought this little taupe mini (found on the sale rack and love it).

I am obsessed with porch swings right now.  You can imagine how excited I was when I went to Nicole's website and this beauty popped up.  The pillows are in the colors I am using on my porch.  More inspiration and motivation coming my way ;).



7 Month's Old!

Tristan turned 7 month's old on February 16th, and guess what!?!  His first bottom tooth came in!  We were all so excited thinking that it would offer him some relief, but instead he is still hurting.  I still haven't actually seen the tooth, because every time he opens his mouth he sticks his tongue out (thanks to Drew). I have felt it and it is a nice, strong, sharp tooth!  Both Drew and I have enormous teeth so Tristan will probably be one of those kids that smiles and all you see is big teeth.  Oh well we all have our awkward moments, but unfortunately for Tristan, Mommy keeps a blog to document all of it.

Another milestone Tristan has accomplished this month is moving to the sitting position all by himself!  He is so proud and gets the biggest grin on his face.  He is also holding himself up on furniture, the pack and play, and his crib.  This will last about 10 minutes before he plops on his butt.  I can not say Tristan is officially crawling yet, but he is somewhat crawling.  He gets on all fours, moves his legs forward, kind of moves his arms forward, and then I think he is going, and we are crawling, until he moves to "downward facing dog position," which leads to face planting on the ground...  He gets from point A to point B, so I am extremely proud of him.

Vocally Tristan is amazing.  That child has some strong lungs.  He squawks, hums, sings, and screams.  He loves it when you copy him which causes him to get louder and louder.  You should see us at the grocery store (I get some crazy looks), but we are just communicating.  He loves his chats with Mommy.  His newest thing is to fake cough.  The first time he did it I wasn't sure if he was really coughing or not.  There is not a term like "God bless you," so I pretended to cough back which lead to him coughing twice and waiting for me to copy him.  When I didn't copy him he looked at me and coughed again.  This turned into a game which he loves and causes him to burst into laughter.

Speaking of laughter, Tristan gets the uncontrollable giggles.  It is hilarious.  Last night, for instance, Drew and I made up a funny dance that we were doing to entertain him (these dances will never be performed for anyone but Tristan's viewing pleasure) and he was laughing so hard which caused me to laugh to tears.  I love nights with my family like that :).

Moving on to February updates our friend Kati came into town last weekend, and took some family pictures for us.  Check out some of my favorites below.

 

Our friends Mindi and Joey took baby Everett to have an MRI done on his birth mark and they were given wonderful news that he was 100% healthy, what a wonderful answer to prayers!  God is so good. 

This month Drew and I also had a patio built in our backyard!  We absolutely love it and have had some new friends over to enjoy it with us :).  I am currently working on turning our screen-porch into my "Florida Dream Haven" so I will not post pics until I am done, but take a peek at my inspiration board.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Tina V

6 Month Check up!

Oh my goodness!  I can not believe it has been over three months since I last posted!  I have been extremely busy between, being a mom, wife, and working!  I am so thankful for the help I have and have had from my Mom, and Marcia my mother-in-law.  I really would be struggling without y'all!

Since my last blog a lot has happened!  Tristan our sweet mister was Baptized November 11, 2012.  My Nana and Papap were in town for the Baptism.  I loved that they were able to come visit us, see Tristan, and meet our zoo!  We had a very full house of animals, because Sadie and Davie (my mom's dog and cat) were staying with us as well.  Lauren, Rin, and Jeremiah came down from Atlanta, and Tara and Kati came over from Mississippi.  It was such a blessing to have our close friends and family in town for such a special occasion!

One of my favorite pictures from Tristan's Baptism!  I love my family :).

The Holiday's were a blast and went way to fast, but I am ready for warmer weather and longer days!  January went quickly between being busy busy at work and trying to plan and prepare for some upcoming trips!  Drew, Tristan and I went to Jackson, Mississippi to visit with our good friends Mindi, Joey and their baby Everett.  Everett is 4 months old and absolutely adorable, check out his story here.  Stephanie, Michael, and their 10 month old, Madison, drove over from Philadelphia.  Madison is the same size as Tristan and is 4 months older (I have a big baby)!  Tara and Craig came up from Daphne, Alabama; it was so much fun getting together.  We had a great weekend just hanging out and playing with the little ones.  I kept on thinking how our get-togethers have changed.  A few years ago we would probably be getting ready to go out for a night on the town, but we were all perfectly content staying in and playing with the babies.

Everett and Tristan seeing each other for the first time!

 Tristan and Madison!  I think Tristan was starting to get tired by this point.

 Baby Boy trying to crawl!  Thank you Tara for the great photo's!



Currently Tristan will be 7 months on February 16, but we just had our 6 month check up yesterday.  Here is the low down on Baby T.

Weight: 21lb 10.7oz

 We are in the 90th% big growing boy with chunky baby legs. 

Height: 26in

Only the 25%. He may end up being short like Mommy and Daddy.

Head Circumference: 17 3/4in

He has a perfectly round Charlie Brown head.  I absolutely love it!

Milestones:  We are rolling back and forth.

Sitting up by ourselves for almost 5mins.

Holding our own bottle and pulling it in and out of our mouth.

Reaching for anything and everything to put in our mouth.

Almost Crawling (We get so frustrated because we haven't quite figured it out.)

We love the sounds that come out of our mouth and sometimes shriek just to hear our own voice.

Yummy in my Tummy: We have 2-3 8 ounce bottles a day.

We love fruit and oatmeal.  We tolerate vegetables, although green beans are good.

New Milestones Doctor approved:  We were told yesterday that Tristan can move to having meat, and get this...  Also eat regular people food!  Tristan can also start using a Sippy cup.  My baby boy is becoming a big boy!

At the beach at 6 months old!

Loving Life!

We finished up our Doctor's appointment with his 6-month shots.  I tell you those shots do not get any easier.  My mother-in-law came with me this time; so I was trying to be strong, but it is still heart wrenching to hear your baby cry like that.

I am going to try to be a good blogger and go back to blogging at least twice a month; it has been far too long!  Have a great day!

Tina V