Pumpkins. Meeting Sadie & Letting your light SHINE. 

After Several weeks of calling pumpkin patches and all the regular pumpkin places, we finally found someone that had some! Whew! We jumped on it as quick as we could too. One of our friends on facebook told us we could come to his hardware store and get some. He had literally just got a shipment in from one of the local farmers. We were super excited and rolled up in there on a mission. They took us to a back room and then out to their extra store. This is straight VIP pumpkin status y’all! hahaha! I would of taken the entire box if I could. The green and white ones were my favorite. 

We got a ton of pumpkins and had the best time just being with each other! It doesn’t take much for us to have a good time. This sweet thing batted her eyes at the hardware employees and next thing you know they were giving her all kinds of tootsie rolls and then popcorn. She has this talent. She will find food no matter where it is! Another crazy thing is… we will be at a random store or restaurant and people come up and say here, you are a cutie! Have a dollar! I wish people would walk up to me and hand me money! hahah! No joke! She has probably made $30 just in being cute! She has got it made and doesn’t even know it! I am thankful that even though she is  a straight up diva, she is still very thankful and appreciative. She gives her dollars away to random people too. She pays it forward and it’s super sweet. 

Okay, back to pumpkins! haha! We were really happy with our pumpkin haul and can’t wait to get more. I stuffed them in our newly painted fireplace and mixed them with our “new” vintage books we got at our favorite antique store down the street. That store is our favorite but dang, we have to almost wear a mask in there because they stain a lot of their furniture and it stinks to high heaven. I kinda feel like I burn all my nose hairs when I leave so I don’t take Harper often! We run in and out! She gets shipments in from London so we can usually find some pretty neat stuff. If you follow our insta stories you know all the crazy stuff we came across too! Hello creepy clown doll. 

For everyone asking, these signs are really awesome and no, I am not just saying that. I am only going to share with you things I love and these are definitely amazing! I collaborated with Laney at @pine.and.birch and they are exclusively at @paintedfoxhome. You can find them in our home line here. They are on sale right now too. 

The day we met Sadie Mae.

I have been on a puppy hunt for several months now. Harper wanted a puppy or a baby sister for her birthday, so puppy it is! No joke! She has been begging for a sister like crazy too. It would definitely be divine intervention right now and there is no way she gets a baby for her bday! We went to shelters and searched online. Harper finally picked out a few types of dogs she liked. It was a lab, a golden retriever, a minature dog or labradoodle. I searched high and low. One of our sweet friends found a picture of Sadie and it said looking for a loving home! I was like OH MY GOSH! Harper will freak out. She just had the sweetest eyes. I thought about it for a while and finally messaged them and we loaded up the car, with no leash at all mind you and were hoping to fall in love with our new addition. There was a lot of crazy exciting emotions and singing going on in that car! We made it and Sadie was much bigger than the picture we saw. I said, “wow, I didn’t know she was 9 months!” They told me she was 9 weeks! That’s right, yall! Our little Sadie, is gonna be a giant Sadie! We fell in love with her and had to take her home that night. I had no idea what i was doing. Literally, rushed to the pet store nearby and handed them my card. She set us up with food, crate and toys! We raced back home and I carried in the heaviest crate by myself. It took over an hour to get that dang thing to pop open. It was a wild night but we were so happy to have Sadie with us. We wanted a loving family dog and also a guard dog. It gets scary out here sometimes and I think she will be all that and more. 

NOW, that being said, this has been one of the happiest times of mine and Harper’s lives but also a hard time as well. 

I have had some really bad comments sent to me, one of which pretty much bashed me for anything and everything I was doing wrong, including judging my faith, life as a single mom and puppy decisions. I will not make much light of the horrible things they said or the few other awful messages because that will just shed more light on their hate. It really shook me to my core. Normally, I do not let things bother me like that but you guys, it was bad. It really bothered me. Those words made me question my life. It is hard y’all. 

I try to be open and honest with you all as much as possible. I shouldn’t have to validate myself here but I am a single mother. I wake up in the morning just like anyone else and pray and hope for the best. It is a struggle sometimes. There is a lot of work involved, working two jobs and also being a mama. I am doing the best I can just like anyone else. We are all struggling and trying to do the best for our family and ourselves. I would never want any of you to think I live this fake bright and shiny life all the time. I choose to be positive and change my perspective daily. Making people happy and inspiring others is everything to me. Sharing things that are beautiful makes my heart happy. I want you guys to embrace the beautiful parts of life and try your hardest to stay positive through the hard times.

Sometimes in life we run into adversity. It may come from events or other people, nevertheless we have to strive to be the best person we can be. We NEVER blow someone else’s candle out to make our selves shine brighter. We don’t point out (our perception) flaws of other people because to someone else that might be the most beautiful thing about them. I have struggled over the past few days with the way some of my followers have voiced their dislike and disapproval of me and my choices. I have contemplated over that for a few days now. It has been really hard. I have decided that I AM PROUD of what I have done from every mistake to every failure because i have the ability to humble myself in learning from them. I have also seen the look in my daughters eyes and witnessed her kindness toward others and decided that I will not allow bitterness in myself to tarnish that in her. So please be kind to one another. Tell someone they look beautiful today. Ask someone a random question that you know they know the answer, to lift them up because we are only able to control our actions and reactions. I will not let someone judge me and tear me apart. I have worked too hard to let someone try to take it away just because they don’t like my choices. Let your light shine! Be the light. People will try to tear you down but push through anyways. People will try to be mean but be nice anyways. People will try to use you but love them anyways. 

If you can take anything away from this post, please take this:

You are beautiful. You are brave and smart. It doesn’t matter what people say about me because I love myself and I am going to continue to let my light shine. 

NO bully or anyone for that matter can stand in your way. You are meant to be something amazing. Let that fire in you continue to burn. Be creative. Think outside the box. Do the impossible but don’t ever let someone tear you down. You may get sad, cry. You may fall down. Pick yourself back up and continue to follow your dreams. In the face of adversity, continue to shine. 

Sending you all our love! Thank you everyone that watched our ig stories and sent an outpouring of messages. They were beautiful and I cried my eyes out reading them. The good outweighs the bad. I am thankful for my faith. I am thankful for you all.

BIG HUGS!

Love, 

Sarah, Harper & Sadie