Welcome to my blog! I hope my crafts, recipes, homeschooling, & photography posts will be inspiring & encouraging to you.

I also like to include some family funnies, travels, and memories. Enjoy!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

She's TWO!!!

I can't believe my little sweetie pie turned two this week.
TWO?!

I remember when she was born, and we marvelled at her
sweetness, her tiny-ness, her perfection.
All those things are still true...
but, she's not as tiny anymore.

But she's still as sweet & perfect.

I have been MIA for almost a month!
Mostly, because I've been busy with getting
my new photography biz off the ground. :)

You'll have to go check out my Facebook Fan Page:

There are so many more beautiful photos there.
I hope to add some crafty posts soon of hats & tutus & beanbags
and all the amazing things I've been working on creating.
Fingers crossed on getting back to blogging a little. :)
I've missed my blogging friends!

I am linking my cute little photo above to a new linky list:

Check them out. :) I love photo shares/contests.



Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Valentine's from US!

My kids are too cute!!
I decided to do a mini-session with them
for Valentine's Day.

Sweetness.
Little Miss is just sitting there like she knows she's adored. :)

Don't you just want to give this little guy a huge kiss?! 
Well, I guess that's pretty much what I did with them.
Lots of mommy smooches.
And this little guy- - my sweet little cutie.

This photo so perfectly captures who she is...
spunky, happy, sweet. :)
And lovin' all the girlyness- especially mommy's necklace.

Happy Valentine's Day, y'all!
You can see the rest of the photos from the mini-session on my

Friday, February 11, 2011

TIP: I messed up my ingredients for a recipe...

Now what do I do?

1st- - Freak out! (I would never do that! lol.)

type in the ingredients that I actually put in my bowl...
(I have used this tool when I don't have a lot on hand, too,
and need to find a recipe that I can make with what's on hand.
Or even when I forgot to pick up an ingredient for a recipe
I was attempting to make. See??! We all make mistakes cooking.)

3rd- - Make "Plan B" recipe and accept
all the complimentsthat flow...
and pretend that this was the original gameplan!

Today- - I started to make a coffee cake for breakfast,
and added 2 TBSP. of baking soda... instead of the called for
- - you guessed it- -
baking POWDER!
{Oh how I hate that I seem to mix those 2 up more than I'd like to admit.}

Instead- - I made a whole ton of oatmeal butterscotch/choco chip cookies.
And you know what?!
That just might've been a better.
Because we're going to give a few to each of our friends
we pass a Valentine out to in the next few days. :)


Valentine's Idea- - Brunch party: Entertaining for your own Family!

This is a repost from last year at Valentine's.
Hoping it might be an inspiration for the upcoming holiday.
I had sooo much fun putting on a party for my family,
and I am going to do the same thing again this year.
I'm sure I'll post about it again this year- -
but I needed to get my OWN creative juices flowing. :)
Enjoy!

I put on a ton of get togethers & parties every year.
Mostly because of my hubby's ministry.
But also because we just really enjoy entertaining.

I am constantly putting out the nicest things I have
just for the guests.
(Even if my nicest things I own are from WallyWorld. Ha!)

As I contemplated how I could make Valentine's
"special" for my family this year,
I decided that I would "entertain" for them.

Meaning,
I'd make the table look pretty...

And I'd make a nice brunch...
Even the baby enjoyed her raspberry covered,
heart shaped french toast.
Haha! Meet Chow-Chow & Cheesy- 2 new "dwarfs".
We passed out presents...
and played a game (every party has a good game!)...
They had so much fun!
And waking up to a refrigerator decorated with
sweet sentiment sticky notes in the shape of a heart?
Priceless.
Thanks, honey.
See, Look how sweet. (There were a few that were more
 "spicy", too. lol.)
Now if only I'd gotten a picture of him in his
Cookie Monster T-shirt from the kids.

I'm so glad that I put the effort into
making this Valentine's special for my family.
It was so worth it.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

He wrote "Mommy" and I Melted- - P52 Week 6


Is this not the sweetest thing ever?!

My little guy has been writing like crazy for a while...
constantly.
And usually it's just gibberish.
Occasionally he'll sound out a word, and write it- -
much to my amazement,
since we're not doing an official pre-school this year.

Then the other day, he brought me this paper!
I am totally saving it.
Ahhh, I'm so sentimental,
but it made my heart so happy. :)

This is my entry for MCP Actions Project 52, Week 6- "Words" theme.


Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Crafting: Tutu Dress (Vday)

This was one of my very favorite things I 
sewed for my daughter in 2010...
and with Valentine's Day in only about 2 weeks (eek!),
I thought it would be great to repost it with a picture of 
my sweet pea in the finished product. :)

______________________________________________________

With Valentine's Day in a few days,
I figured I'd better start
cranking out the pics of
the crafts I've been working on
over the last month.

Yesterday, I got some sewing in.
So, I'll start with that.
I wanted to add a tutu
to Aliyah's Valentine's shirt.
So I started with 2+ yds of red tulle,
cut 12 & 14 inches, folded in half,
and pinned together at the fold.
Then, I put my tension to 1, and sewed a basting stitch over the fold,
making sure to not reverse stitch at the beginning or end.
Then, I pulled the string, and gathered the skirt to create the tutu effect.
I knew at this point, it was going to turn out darling!
Then I pinned it, longest side on top, to the shirt.
I started pinning in the middle of the back,
and slightly overlapped the skirt in the back, too.
Then sewed a zizag, regular tension & backstitched,
to attach the tutu to the skirt.

And it turned out like THIS!

My mom created the applique' on her embroidery machine.
So together, we created quite the cute & unique outfit
for our little princess.

I'll add pics of their
this weekend!

Look for it. :)

I have also been working (forever)
on making some placemats
for our Valentine's Brunch
I'm making the family on Saturday.

I think they turned out cute.
I'm thinking with the leftover fabric,
I might make a table runner.
Only, I'm saving that for next year. :)

This was pretty simple.
I just cut out a heart on felt, then on the contrast fabric.

Sewed them together, with standard sewing rules.
Added some ric-rac to trim it.

They turned out pretty cute!

Don't you think?!

Happy Sewing, Friends.


Linking to:







ASPTL


and Linking to:








and Linking to:

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Crafting: Diaper Cake

I headed up hosting a baby shower for a girlfriend last weekend,
and found myself doing a lot of crafts for it.
One of those things was a diaper cake.
I found tutorials online, and lots of pictures of them on Flickr,
but I found it hard to follow the directions, and pieces of info missing,
so I thought I'd make one here on the blog
in case others are having the same problem. :)
Search Flickr for diaper cakes for ideas on filling yours!

 This is the diaper cake I made.


Supplies Needed:
 Newborn/Size 1 diapers; 1 paper towel tube or wrapping paper tube; a piece of cardboard that can be cut into a circle; hot glue gun; large rubber bands (clear are the best); 1 1/2" ribbon; items to fill it.
And here's how to make one:
1. Cut pieces of your cardboard tube at the bottom;
Then cut a circle out of cardboard (or you might use a cake round?);
Then hot glue the tab-style pieces of cardboard tube to the center of the
round piece of cardboard.
2. Now you will roll each diaper up with the outside showing;
It took a few tries for me to figure this step out, 
but you basically use your rubberbands to keep the diapers forming a "cake";
what helped me here was to use a few clear ponytail holders for the 1st few diapers,
then rubberband them together and add to it without the ponytail holders.
Don't make your entire "cake" just yet though! Only a few diapers.
I made too many in the photo below, actually.
What you are wanting to do is form your diaper cake
around the cardboard tube.
3. Take some of your items to "fill" the cake...
(diapers, receiving blankets, onesies, etc...)
and roll them up to be about the size of the diapers & add them in.
Here's what the bottom of the cake looks like after adding what I wanted
to the cake.
 You'll do the same for the 2nd layer & if you want, for the 3rd layer.
 4. After you've made the cake, cut any extra cardboard sticking up at the top.
Then you'll embellish...
Take your 1 1/2" ribbon, measure it round the layer, leaving a little extra-
cut, then hot glue together making sure it's nice & tight around the layer.
For my cake, I wanted to add a bunch of the bows that I make,
so I cut slits into the ribbon, and attached the bows right to the ribbon.
And then I added the Monkey Crochet hat to the top.

I put the cake on a cake stand for a fun display! :)

Here is another diaper cake someone else brought to the shower.

And another cute idea is cupcakes with socks, bibs, etc. rolled up.
Look it up on Flickr, there are some really cute ones on there.
This was the one that the same lady brought to the shower,
and while it's cute & gives you the idea...
You really could do so much more with these!
(i.e. roll up tighter & top, making look like cupcakes; 
display in a cupcake stand, etc...)

I will be adding this to some of my fave linky parties HERE!


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