Two Fridays ago basketball season started once again. Basketball has been a huge part of my life since I was just a few days old. I attended my first game when I was a week old (Lillie beat me though, she attended her first game when she was just five days old). My parents both played and my dad was a basketball coach. My siblings and I all played year round growing up - regular winter teams, plus AAU and summer leagues. When I headed off to college, although I knew I would miss it terribly, I thought my basketball days were coming to an end. Little did I know what I had ahead of me...haha! After transferring my sophomore year to UNC-Chapel Hill from an art school in Manhattan I ended up meeting Jon who was on the team there. We started dating a couple of years later while he was playing professionally over in Europe and then he started coaching and we got engaged and then married and now my life is back to revolving around basketball again! Any of you who followed my blog last winter when I first started blogging know that from November through March some of my posts will somewhat revolve around William and Mary basketball. Last year was a particularly exciting year as it was basically the best one in school history (we upset both Wake Forest and Maryland at their arenas and made it to the Championship Game of the CAA and then got invited to the NIT which was only the second time in school history that we had played in the post season. At one point in the middle of the year we were even ranked in the top 25 in one of the polls!) Now I am not sure if this year will be quite as exciting, but I am sure every now and again some basketball news will slip into my posts. So, for any of you that are not into sports or basketball I do apologize, but it is basically what we live and breathe around here so it is hard for it not to come up every once in a while. Don't worry though, most of my posts will still be about Dear Lillie, decorating or other more "girly" things.
Anyway, here are a few photos I got off of the
Tribe Athletics site from Midnight Madness because I was lazy and didn't take any that night. All of the photos are from a really great sports photographer here in Williamsburg named
Jim Agnew. As you can see Lillie seemed to think she was a part of the festivities! She had a blast but I don't think it was probably smart on our part to have let her because I am afraid now she is most definitely NOT going to appreciate that she has to sit in her seat during the games and can't be involved in all of the excitement.
Jon and Lillie wearing Quinn's cowboy hat
I love this picture!
Thanks to Lillie's excitement I got to sit in my seat for about 5 minutes and then got stuck standing the whole rest of time.
JohnMark gave Lillie a rose during his introduction. She already had a crush on him (he's the one who saved her from the snake a month or so ago) but now she is in love and says "JohnMark" about ten times a day and then giggles. All photos by Jim Agnew
Okay, back to some Dear Lillie stuff. Here are three new designs on I am working on. The first one I definitely want to use but am torn on which text to use and which color way, although I do know I plan on printing it on the same gray thermal we use for our
thermal vintage crown shirts.
For this first one I used a paragraph from Little Women:
"My child, the troubles and temptations of your life are beginning, and may be many; but you can overcome and outlive them all if you learn to feel the strength and tenderness of your Heavenly Father as you do that of your earthly one. The more you love and trust Him, the nearer you will feel to Him, and the less you will depend on human power and wisdom. His love and care never tire or change, can never be taken from you, but may become the source of lifelong peace, happiness, and strength. Believe this heartily, and go to God with all your little cares, and hopes, and sins, and sorrows, as freely and confidingly as you come to your mother." — Louisa May Alcott (Little Women) 
And for the second text option I used another Louisa May Alcott quote:
"For love is a flower that grows in any soil, works its sweet miracles undaunted by autumn frost or winter snow, blooming fair and fragrant all the year, and blessing those who give and those who receive." 
To say I LOVED Anne of Green Gables growing up would be an understatement! Here is a quote I have always found amusing from it:
"Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive -- it's such an interesting world. It wouldn't be half so interesting if we know all about everything, would it? There'd be no scope for imagination then, would there? But am I talking too much? People are always telling me I do. Would you rather I didn't talk? If you say so I'll stop. I can stop when I make up my mind to it, although it's difficult." — L.M. Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables) I am torn on whether Anne should be sitting on the trunks or standing. And I think I will be printing these on possibly a thermal and then definitely the same olive green tunics that we used for our
vintage crown tunics although I am torn on whether I am going to print these now or wait until spring.
This quote was actually submitted by one of our blog readers named Felicia when we held our first ever contest back in June so if we use it you will get two free shirts, Felicia! I haven't really had time to play around with this one too much yet, though and am not really happy with it as is.
Let me know what you think about which text to use for the first shirt and whether you like Anne alone or with her trunks better. I hope you all have a most lovely week!