Maddie's Nest

Last week Maddie invited me and Em over for a girls day. She made us an amazing brunch. That's puff pastry, topped with bacon and a cheddar/gruyere/creme fraiche sauce, topped with eggs and chives. Amazing. My girl can cook. And set a lovely table. Then we played a game and watched The Help and ate Minnie's Chocolate Pie that I brought for dessert. Those of you who have seen The Help will remember the significance of Minnie's pie.

It was a perfect day. I love spending time with my girls. I am so grateful for them and for my relationship with them as well as their relationship with each other.

Within minutes of walking in the door, Emma was asking Maddie if she could come stay for a day or two. Eight years apart but always the best of friends and I know that will just continue to grow for them. I'm so envious of their sisterhood.

Maddie's apartment is unlike any college girl's apartment I've ever seen. I immediately feel at home there. That might be a combination of the fact that so many things in her apartment used to live in my house, plus the fact that we love the same things. It's so great. Except when it's not, like when we are antiquing together. She is still bragging about the blue mirror in her bedroom that she snatched right out from under my nose and the chenille throw on her bed that she bought before I could. It's okay though. I just remind her about my vintage quilts and it shuts her right up! ;)

Emma made herself right at home. Who could blame her?

I love the colorful details everywhere. I love that I see influences of home everywhere I turn. I love that I see projects she has done in my studio. I love that I see cards I have made her over the years and that she surrounds herself with reminders of home.

Because what could be more important than family and home? I think those are two lessons we have instilled in her that have absolutely stuck.

Here's her Wakie Uppie Pillow I made her and underneath is a tablecloth that she patched with some of the cutest embroidery and fabric.

I feel unreasonably proud when I see things like this.

She has turned out to be an amazing young woman. All those lessons that we thought were going in one ear and out the other, stuck! I want to give you Mommas, that might be struggling with a hard parenting phase, hope. There was a particular point in her teenage years when I wasn't sure what was going to become of our girl. Those days were stressful and filled with worry and heartache.

But now here we are and I couldn't be more proud. She is thoughtful, respectful, grounded and beautiful inside and out. She still occasionally has to learn a lesson the hard way but God knows she got that trait honestly.

People tell us all the time how alike we are and I think that is one of the greatest compliments I could receive. Fortunately she thinks so too. I think the comparison secretly makes her happy.

Maddie works really hard. She goes to school full time and is finishing up her psychology degree, works two jobs, has a boyfriend of almost 5 years and always makes time for her family.

This girl did not take to independence as naturally as others. We had to push her out of the nest and there were people who weren't shy about voicing their opinions on that subject. We live in a time of helicopter parenting but that has never been our style. We don't believe in doing for our girls what they can do for themselves. I always say that I am raising adults not children. I don't want my children living at home and unable to fend for themselves well into their 20's. Or 30's. Ahem. So we gave her a deadline and it was a bumpy adjustment but she has been gone for 2 1/2 years now and has come into her own. She knows that no matter what happens in her life, she can take care of herself. She gained the confidence she needed. I think that is particularly important for girls. She also knows without any doubt that she always has a home to come back to in an emergency.

Plus she gets to live her days in the cutest apartment in the world with the weirdest, most intense, unpredictable, neurotic cat I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.