Spring is full of Growing

Central Pennsylvania endured a harsh March of late snowfall and frigid temperatures, so we have all been super thankful for the beautiful weather that April has brought! Flowers are blooming, trees are budding, and new life is surrounding me. I LOVE spring! By far my favorite time of year is the freshness and newness that Spring brings.

I have been dreaming of having a huge garden for years, however, our rented apartment (although it is on private property and has a mini-yard/hill included) does not allow us the space to plant much, particularly anything that needs significant sunlight, as our windows all face North, except two Eastern-ers in the living room.  So, this year I am diving into a garden project with my dear friend Christa on her mini-farm.  The most significant portion of my involvement so far has been starting seedlings indoors in one of my windows.  In my limited space, I currently have 12 shallot onion plants, 6 parsley plants, 6 cucumber plants, and 12 sugarsnap pea plants.  The sugarpea plants in particular have sprung up and grown high above my expectations for only three weeks since planting.

At planting:

9 days germination (sprouted):

Today (3 weeks to the day):

 

 

Isn't that AMAZING?!? I love coming home and seeing how many inches they have grown since that morning....it blows my mind every day!

 

 

And something else that is growing, and that is WAAYYYY more exciting is my niece or nephew!

 

 

 

My sister Laura and her husband William are expecting their first on July 6th!! I could not be more excited to be an Aunt!  My sister lives in southern West Virginia, so I don't have the opportunity to enjoy watching her grow from week to week, but they came up for a week long visit over Easter and I got to do a little shoot with them. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I had to hop in one too....

 

I am super excited about all the "growing" that is going on, and can't wait to see the fruits of what God has begun! 







Galas and Glorias

Yesterday, Christopher and I attended the annual Givers Gala, hosted by Primerica Financial Services office in Lancaster. As always, it was a grand night featuring delicious food, great company, silent and live auction fun, and of course, the featured charity, Girls On The Run. I fell in love with the mission of GOTR immediately. Their mission and outreach is fantastic. Hopefully they will extend into the Harrisburg/Mechanicsburg sometimes soon, because it is definitely an organization that I would enjoying being more involved in!! Check out more about them on their website.

 

Although I focused on enjoying our time together instead of photographing the event, we did manage to leave with a half decent picture of us together. :) 

 



 

 

On our way out the door, I noticed this small, white church off to the side of the resort where we had dinner, and decided to snap a few shots.

 

A large nativity scene graced the front lawn, beautifully highlighting the Christmas story in all its Gloria. 

 

The church itself was very picturesque. 

 

 

Then I got carried away with the angles of the steeple....

 

 

Beautiful, isn't it?

 

What a Gloria-ous Gala it was. :)



Frugal Christmas Decorating

The Christmas season 'tis upon us! I LOOOOOOVVEE Christmas time. The merriness, the caroling, the festive decorating, the food, the secret whispers of gift planning and Christmas morning surprises, the giggle and smiles and well wishes. Oh how I adore the JOY of these days.

While I have not, and am not sure that I can, give up on the consumer part of the holiday (who doesn't love shopping the holiday deals?!), I have made it a point to spend some time on DIY decorating and recycling old pieces into new creations. Have a real tree for the first time (as an adult in my own place) and has provided me with a substantial pile of evergreen branches sitting on the side of our garage, which in turn has been a source of creatvity for incorporating evergreen into other decorating.

 

The photo on the left is a door swag, made using a few of the smaller trimmed branches from our tree and incorporating wired bulbs from a centerpiece that I received as a hostess gift last year and  a bow from a previous years' wreath. Cost: $0.  The photo on the right is a similar but more simple swag which I hung above our garage door. Cost: $0. Now that is my kind of decorating cost. ;-) 

 

This is an evergreen bouquet composed of cuttings from my pile of branches, and again I incorporated wired pinecones from an old centerpiece. Cost: $0

 

Lastly, a few springs of evergreen added to a small bouquet of white carnations in a glass vase full of cranberries makes a simple yet stunning centerpiece. Cost: $7.50

 

What are some creative ways that you have decorated this season?

 

 



{Scarf Swap}

Through the busy-ness of photo shoots, work retreats, the Thanksgiving holiday and Christmas shopping I decided to participate in a scarf swap hosted by the lovely Karen Davis! She is an A-MAZING crafter, homemaker, blogger and person. She and I ended up being partners for the swap and she treated me to a PERFECT package of surprises! I LOVE getting mail, even when I am expecting it. The excitement of the mystery within the box....its like Christmas! =)

All the way from South Korea...

How cute are these packages?!?!?!? LOVE her style.

Sweet Karen sent not one, but TWO beautiful pieces of "neck candy"!!!

 

 

 

 I LOVE them both!

 

AND.......

 

 

My FAVORITE hot drink in an ADORABLE mug!!! =)

 

All my goodies...

 

I think that I had to have had the BEST scarf swap partner!! Feeling so blessed. Thanks Karen!

 

Want to see Karen's scarf swap "neck candy" and goodies? Visit her scarf swap blog post!

 

Soooo glad I decided to join in on the scarf swap fun!!

 

 

Family Photo Shoot {Jason&Christa&Branden&Ava}

Today was my first PAID photo session! My subjects? My friend Christa and her beautiful family. What a fun shoot! Little Miss Ava has quite a rambunctious personality, and it shows in every picture.  Big personalities are even more fun when you add the terrible twos! :)

Meet Ava.

 

 

And Ava's big brother, Branden.

 

Christa and I talked about different poses and shots that she wanted for several weeks...I think we ended up with some great ones! :) 

Here is Christa with her man, Jason.

 

 

 

 

This next one was one of my favorite from the shoot...such a great illustration of the way the two year old has everyone else in the house wrap around her finger!

 

 

What a beautiful family!! I had such a great time shooting these!

 

Wanna see the rest of the shoot?  Visit my facebook page here. Thank you Christa and Jason for allowing me to do these family photos for you! 

Do you live in the Mechanicsburg, PA area? Interested in having photos done? Contact me at purposefullifephotography@gmail.com. 

Blessings,
Lacey

 

"Sandy" and Cranberry Relish

The infamous Hurricane Sandy passed through our grand state of Pennsylvania yesterday, leaving 400+ closed bridges and roads, 1.3 million residents without electricity, and a plethora of fallen trees, limbs, and leaves in her wake. The hubs and I are fortunate enough to have very little aftermath to deal with. A small but steady leak in the roof has caused some ceiling tile issues in our upstairs bathroom, but no much more. We did, however, both happen to have off work yesterday and today, which was a pleasant surprise!

Our free time included sleeping in (which I for one NEVER do) and spending some rare quality time together, as well as catching up housework, playing music (or, if you are my husband, playing PlayStation), sewing, rearranging my living room, and of course COOKING. 

I LOVE to cook, especially when I have endless amounts of time to do so! Waffles, fresh bread, stew, and apple crisp were a few highlights of the past two days (all made from scratch of course). I also made one of my all-time favorite dishes...something that can only be made in certain seasons because the main ingredient is only available for part of the year...my grandmother's Cranberry Relish! A delicious and very healthy dish, Cranberry Relish is simple, yet unique, with a nice mix of sweet and tart flavors. 

To make it you will need a food grinder.  My parents use an old meat grinder that they attach to their counter and grind by hand.  I prefer my kitchen aid attachment food grinder. =)

Cranberry Relish
6 whole apples (red delicious work well)
2 whole oranges
1 can pineapple slices
1 bag fresh cranberries

Wash all of the fresh fruit, then slice the apples and oranges.  Drain the juice from the can of pineapple slices. 

 

 





Set up your grinder and turn it on. Begin to feed the fruit through the grinder, rotating among the different fruits for a nice mix of flavors. 

 

When you have ground all of the fruit, mix the relish to ensure an even flavor. *Optional: If you find this mixture to be too tart for your palate, add 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar, to taste.* 

 

 

Refrigerate before serving and to store.  This will stay good in your refrigerator for at least 3-4 days.  I often eat a batch over the course of a work week. 

 

ENJOY! :)

 

 

Lacey



Beautiful Custom Greeting Cards, and much more!

I just just ordered a set of BEAUTIFUL thank you cards from Shutterfly!  I used photos from our recent honeymoon in Mexico.  See??!?!??!?

3x5 Folded Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Go to www.shutterfly.com to create your customized cards!  They have great templates for every occasion, which you can personalize with your own photos and messages.  Cards are not even close to the limit of what you can create on their website.  And they always have great sales and offers, so make your way over there and create an account!  Trust me, you will be glad you did. :-)

Enjoy!

<3 Lacey

**Disclaimer: Shutterfly has not contracted me to market or advertise for them.  The opinions in this post are the authors personal opinions, and have not been solicited by any outside party**