An Advent of Books: Update

Hi friends!

Tomorrow marks the halfway point in our little man’s sweet Advent of Books from our friends, which we talked about HERE. Since we’re already at the halfway mark, we wanted to touch base and update you with a few photos if you’ve missed our daily posts. (Full disclosure: some of our posts are better than others. You know, the days when we don’t open the gift until we’re all together but by that time it’s dark. Or one of us is gone so trying to be in the moment with babe while also taking photos is a tricky dance.)

But you’ll get the idea: we’ve received some beautiful books that he already loves! We just didn’t want anyone to think less photos = less love. Less photos = too much going on over here.

Let’s just get to the photos so you can catch up on what lovely books we’ve been delving into this week over here.

It’s been humbling and amazing to see the gathering of people who made this possible and we’ve loved seeing which books each person has gifted! Once upon a time I was “up” on children’s books, but we’ve been gifted some beautiful books I’d never heard of before! That’s an extra cherry on top of this entire experience for me.

And we’re only halfway there! We’ve been doing daily posts on Instagram in our main feed or the stories: @jonolaynie or @blakeandbeckner

Hope you’re all enjoying life as we march through the holidays!

xo.

House our Beloved

WE'RE MOVING.

What?! We thought we wouldn't leave this blissful blip of the universe for a long time yet, but there were bigger plans afoot.

Recap: We moved into our house two years ago this month and it has been SUCH a sweet season. We love the location - we can walk to work, the post office, and the grocery store. We can easily bike over to the rail trail and have spent hours perfecting our back yard.

And it's SUPER CUTE.

In short, WE LOVE IT. This home has been such a beautiful place for us to work, rest, and grow.

We've celebrated birthdays here, hosted heart friends and family. (After living in a one-bedroom apartment for 5 years, it has been so nice to have spare bedrooms to share. Aunts, uncles, sister, mom and dad have all come and stay with us in this dear place.)

And then, rather unexpectedly, we came across our dream house, situated rather nicely outside of Brantford. (We are always trying to slow down our lives and hone simplicity and have dreamed of living in the country for ages.) It is gorgeous, has office and studio space, and (best of all?) has a GIANT yard where we will spend hours and hours gardening and relaxing, having bonfires and grilling out. (Our current backyard is one of the highlights of our current space.)

We are praying our current home goes to people who love it as much as us and who will enjoy the fruits of our garden. (Literally - we've been obsessively watching things bloom but doubt we'll get to eat most of it.)

Life is full of the unexpected and sometimes it's worth taking a risk and doing something that feels terrifying because it also feels right. We'll keep you posted on how it goes. Tag - it's your turn to do something scary.

xo.