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embrace the camera {taking it easy days}

March 1, 2011

It’s all about capturing those precious, not so perfect moments with your kiddo’s.

Here is tiny a glimpse of what our “taking it easy” days have looked like. Here we were the other day dining off leftovers, cold and straight from the Tupperware containers. We ate our cold sweet potato fries, chicken fingers and baby carrots all huddled together sharing dips while sitting on stools. I was feeling like a bad momma for not warming up their meals and for the lack of plates until my little guy said these four little words that just melted my heart…”mommy you’re the best!” He went on to tell me how fun it was to sit and eat lunch like this. “Can we do this everyday?” And there it was again, my little ones showing me what is most important in life. It’s those, not so perfect, unexpected moments of just being together that matter the most.

Maybe? I will see you all tomorrow for fat quarter friday…not a tutorial, but something a little different. I guess “taking it easy” is harder for me then I thought. My body might be able to rest but this creative mind of mine just won’t stop. I guess you could consider me a “craftaholic too!”

thanks {friends}

March 1, 2011

First of all, thank you for all of your emails. It is truly amazing how many wonderful friends I have out there. We may have never met in person, but I cherish all of you and our bloggy friendships. Yes, I am still here, just not feeling well. Apparently, this momma cannot live on little to no sleep for more than a year. So per doctors orders, I am “taking it easy.” So that little tutorial that was planned for last friday is going to have to wait. I was hoping to have it ready for this friday, but in all honesty, it probably wont happen. It is going to be a few more days till this momma is back on her sewing feet again.

fat quarter friday {still in the works}

February 25, 2011

So I’m running a bit behind this week on posting a tutorial for fat quarter friday. I would like to say my little fat quarter friday creation is finished, but it is not. It’s almost finished…but almost doesn’t count, right? Let’s just say I have had a hard time sewing this week. Trust me, I’m chomping at the bit to get this one finished, I just need a little more time. I know you all understand. And I’m pretty sure, that no one is waiting by their computer dying to see what I will be posting today. But just in case there is that one person out there ( I love you by the way) here is a little peek at what I am still working on. Hopefully it will be finished today and posted, but I’m not going to fret about it, because this blog has always been fun and enjoyable for me and I want to keep it that way.

Oh and have you read this? I think everyone with a blog, etsy store and is trying to do it all needs to read it. I got it in my inbox this morning and felt much better about my not-yet-finished tutorial. Let’s just say #1, #6 and #9 have struck a lot this week. And thank-you-very-much for #10…I’m so going to buy this bag!!

See ya in a bit!

embrace the camera {reminiscing}

February 24, 2011

This week I’m totally reminiscing of our days before baby #3, although she is with us, just in this momma’s bump. Our little guy was 2 1/2 and our little missy girl was almost 1. We were on vacation and hiked one of our favorite mountains. Our pre-marriage and pre-baby days were filled hiking these mountains on a nightly basis. Looking at these pictures bring back such wonderful memories from the past.

Isn’t it fun reminiscing? My-O-my, how those little kiddo’s have grown!

pom pom caterpillars

February 22, 2011

In a few weeks our littlest girl will be turning ONE. I still cannot believe she has been in our lives for a whole year. Sometimes it feels like she has been here forever while other times it seems like she was just born. Birthdays are hard for me, as I always want to throw a party for my kids with all of our friends and family. But our 1/2-a-house just doesn’t allow it. And let’s face it, it is just too expensive to throw a party somewhere else. So we decided to throw a party anyways…just the 5 of us. So for the past few days we have been in party planning mode. Nothing too fancy, just a bunch of homemade decorations, cake, goodie bags and some games for the kiddo’s!

I decided to make a bunch of pom poms and use those as part of the decorations. They are cute, cheap and fun to make. While making some the other day, these little cute caterpillars were thought up.

As you can tell, they are not hard to make. All you need is some pom poms, a few wooden skewers and lots of hot glue.

I made each one a little different for each kid.

So I guess my little girl’s first birthday is going to be filled with caterpillars and pom poms.

fat quarter friday {fabric scrapbook tutorial}

February 18, 2011

This week for fat quarter friday I wanted to share with you a little fabric scrapbook that we just put together for Grammy for Valentine’s Day. I love this little book and it was so fun to put together with the kiddo’s. I wanted to make the book extra special for Grammy so I had my little guy draw some hearts, x’s and o’s and write Grammy’s name. Then I traced his little letters and objects onto some minky fabric and sewed them into the fabric. I also had the kiddo’s do a little finger painting and added each of their hand prints to the book. These little books will make great gifts and you can customize them any way you want and for whoever you want. Get creative with them and embellish away!

Fabric Scrapbook Tutorial

(allow at least 2 hours for total project)

Materials Needed:

*Fabric fat quarter or fabric scraps

*plastic (I recycle mine from those bags sheet sets and curtains come in. But you can also buy plastic at JoAnn’s)

*embellishments (buttons, ric rac, ribbon, fabric scraps)

*photo’s

*iron-on stabilizer or flannel

Cut the following:

four pieces of fabric 8 1/2″ x 6 1/2″

two pieces of fabric 18″ x 7 1/2″

Cut one piece of stabilizer or batting 18″ x 7 1/2″

Of course you can make these books any size you want. Just make sure you make the larger pieces ( the jacket of the book) 1/2″ bigger then the (pages) on all sides.

Cut the pieces of plastic about 1/2″ larger then the photo on all sides. You want to allow enough room around the photo’s to sew onto the fabric without sewing through the photo’s.

Place your photo’s where you want them to be on the fabric. Now take a piece of plastic and lay it on top of the photo’s.

*If you have a teflon foot for your machine you may want to switch to it. It will make sewing over the plastic easier.*

Sew around the plastic.

Repeat for the remaining pages. Add as many photo’s as you want. And place them where you want. Get creative with it! There is no right or wrong here.

Grab your embellishments and embellish the pages. Since I was making the book for Grammy, I had my little guy draw some hearts and write Grammy. Then I traced his letters onto scraps of minky fabric and sewed his letters in. I also had the kiddo’s do their hand prints and cut those out and placed them underneath some plastic instead of just using photo’s.

Once all of your pages are embellished, it time to assemble the book. Line up the pages exactly how you want them to be in your scrapbook.

Take two of the pages and sew them wrong sides together. I sewed mine together using a simple zig-zag stitch. Serge them if you have a serger or you can just leave them as raw edges too. Remeber, no right or wrong way here. Repeat for the other pages.

Gather the two larger pieces of fabric (book jacket) and iron the stabilizer onto one on the pieces of fabric.

Now place the two pieces of fabric together with wrong sides facing. Stitch around the sides again.

Now you have the jacket of the book. Fold it in half, and iron the folded edge to crease it.

Take your pages and line them up in the middle where you made the crease.

Fold book closed and sew folded edge. I would sew in about 3/4.”

And that’s it!

Easy, and so adorable! I love the frayed and zig-zagged edges. It’s one of those perfectly imperfect gifts.

I love seeing his letters sewn in fabric.

And his little hearts.

Since this was a gift for Valentines Day for Grammy I added a little printed card from here in with their hand prints. And the little printed tags on the outside of the book that we also used at Valentine’s Day came from here.

Happy Valentine’s Day Grammy!

This was such a fun and easy gift to make. I’m sure anyone would love to receive on of these. The kiddo’s are already begging for one of their own.

**Please feel free to use this tutorial for your personal sewing projects. You may link this to your blog and use any photo’s. Please be kind and give credit where credit is due.**

Any questions or comments please do not hesitate to contact me. If you make one using this tutorial, please add it to my flickr group. I would love to see it and you just might see it featured on my blog one day!

embrace the camera {Valentine’s Day 2011}

February 15, 2011

Valentine’s Day morning started early with two little girls sharing a cupcake on the kitchen floor. This momma was a bit mad, but look at how happy this little munchkin was to get her first tastes of a chocolate cupcake.

I quickly decided to get those cupcakes frosted and out of the reach of little hands. So while my little guy and I decorated our cupcakes and put them into canning jars, this little girl spent her time sneaking another cupcake and eating all the leftover sprinkles.

My little guy took his time placing all of the hearts on his cupcake. He is so unlike his sister and even decided to save his cupcake for later.

And it wouldn’t be a holiday if we didn’t make some type of cupcake in a canning jar.

We made Daddy his favorite treat, raspberry squares.

In the afternoon, once all our baking and decorating was done we gathered all our handmade goodies and delivered them to special friends and family.

Then we came home and just hung out impatiently waiting for daddy to come home from work and see his baked goodies.

At least I got some good snuggles in while waiting!

Once Daddy got home Momma made a scrumptious dinner of Giovonni Shrimp. It was scrumptious but far from being romantic. The baby was either crying or being held for the whole meal. And of course, there was the infamous 1/2-a-glass of milk spilled all over the floor. Oh well, but we sure did enjoy our cupcakes and chocolate covered strawberries. The baby got her first tastes of a chocolate covered strawberry too, thanks to her big sister. I think her sister is quickly becoming her bff.

So how was your Valentine’s Day?

Grammy’s cute little note card organizer

February 15, 2011

My mother in law went to a bag party a few months ago and kept telling me about this cute little note card organizer that she saw there. She kept saying how she wished she had bought it to show me the design of it. So going by her explanation and the design of my own sewing bag, her little note card organizer was born. I have to say I love the way it turned out and of course now my little creative mind has come up with even more baskets for storing all of our goodies!

One side of the basket has slots for storing pencils, pens or markers.

While two sides of the organizer have pockets for storing note cards, envelopes or note pads.

Inside of the basket stores more note cards, plus I filled it with tape, white-out, scissors and other little goodies that she may use.

The organizer was pretty quick and easy to make. In case you are wondering, I will be sharing a tutorial for this cute little organizer for one of my upcoming fat quarter fridays. The basket is actually small enough to use up a few of our fat quarters. Just one more reason to love this little organizer. Of course the size of the basket can be adapted for storing larger items as well. I used terry cloth as my stabilizer. I was hoping to try a thin foam instead, but I didn’t get to the fabric store in time. I like the way the terry cloth gave the basket its shape and it is even firm enough to stand on its own. I think it worked great as a stabilizer but it was a little hard to work with at times because of its thickness in some spots. So I guess you could say I have a few kinks to works out still.

Just think of all the different baskets that can be made! I have already tweaked my design a bit, and have come up with a few other baskets that can be made for storing all our crafting goodies. Stay tuned!

Finding love in unexpected places.

February 14, 2011

The funny thing about love is that it shows up in unexpected places. And it totally makes us realize that we love our chickens. Thanks girls for this little heart you made for me, on the coldest day of the winter.

You may have only given me one egg that day, but this little heart made up for it.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

May you find love in unexpected places too.

m&m’s

February 13, 2011

Today I started the day off in a pretty bad funk. You know one of those “woe is me” days. I was tired of being home alone with the kiddo’s. I was just plain ole lonely and wanted to be living in one of my “pre-momma days.” I wanted to have my day pack and snowshoes strapped on and out hiking a mountain… with just me. I wanted no responsibilities, no nursing sessions to base my life around. I wanted my freedom. You know those moments when ya just don’t want to be a momma and you want to be YOU? Well, that was my day until we started putting our Valentine’s Day goodie bags together.

I’m not sure if it was the handfuls of these that I consumed or,

or the insane cuteness of these little candies,

but one thing was for sure, I was beginning to feel better.

And it wasn’t until I started watching this little missy girl of mine, that I realized that I no longer wanted to be alone… I wanted to be right here with them. I wanted to watch them consume waaay too many treats and hoard them away in there “secret” bags. I wanted to be at my little baby’s beckoning call for milk. I wanted to be…me and a momma! It’s a struggle sometimes finding me in all the mix, but I know I’m there. Some days are harder than others, but thanks to my kiddo’s and these cute little m&m‘s I was able to find…mommy&me. Sometimes it is the little things that make us realize who we really are. And someday I will have my day pack and snowshoes strapped on again. And hopefully I will have 3 little ones right behind me.

So how do you keep from loosing “me” in all the mix? Are you there in the mix or does motherhood change who you are?