paper fun

i was inspired by heather today to scrap a bit...only got three layouts done, but still. one at a time.

here's the cutest one....i am a big fan of patterned paper on white cardstock. i rarely deviate from that. hmm...maybe i should work on that.

i made this calendar for sadie a few nights ago. her first year calendar is obviously over...but i still want to keep track of things she does, so this seemed like a great way to do that. plus, it was free to make with stuff i had on hand!


i printed off a years calendar (6x9inches), cut them to size, and sewed them onto a folded piece of cardstock, which i decorated..easy peasy! i think i'll add a picture of her to the inside, but i haven't printed off pictures in awhile. another thing for my to-do list. that dang thing keeps getting longer and longer.

tonight we're going to my parents house for swei jows in honor of sadie's birthday. they are a lance tradition, and delicious to boot. it's her first time having them. are you totally wondering what swei jows are now?

muwahaha.

first steps

so, exciting day yesterday. joanna and i went thrifting and i found a lot of great stuff, a few pairs of jeans, some skirts, a dress, a dollhouse for $15 (more on that later)....oh, and sadie took her first steps....

no biggie.





woo-hoo! we are so excited! now we will be chasing her and wrangling her away from stuff even more!

just kidding. it really is exciting, and she loves it! we'll see how long it takes til she's running everywhere.

agh.

cute dishtowels! why thank you.

here's an easy and quick project! it took me literally 15 minutes, including taking the pictures. they are cute dishtowels to wipe your hands on, and an awesome way to keep them put.

keep reading for more on that...first off, you ll need:

 

Click below for more details!



dishtowels
1 strip per towel of fabric. mine were 16 inches wide, so i cut my strips 17 inches by 4 inches.

whoa. that's the whole list. see? easy.


lay fabric down wrong side up, and with your iron, press the edges in about 1/2 inch. like so.

flip over, center, wiggle if you messed up or went crooked a little..(i always do), pin, and...

sew! the obligatory sewing shot.

and that's it! they'd make great hostess gifts, or part of a present, you know, with some other kitcheny thingybobs. they'd be super cute with some patchwork strips...i'll have to try that next time.

now for the awesome trick. have a little one who likes to pull towels off the towel bar? or an un-trained hubby, for that matter?

add some snaps to your towel, and you'll be in business. they won't budge.

just make sure to hang your towel on the bar, and mark with a dissapearing marker where to put the snaps.

don't just eyeball it and almost mess up your new towels (not like i would know anything about that)


oh, and welcome to all the new readers! i am just so excited to have you!


***If you have used any of my tutorials, I'd love if you'd add a quick pic to my flicker group! Thanks!***

star wars finger puppets

so, i know josh is turning 10...but he goes crazy for ANYTHING star wars related, and these were calling out to me to be made. do you know what i mean? anyways...i used this blog's idea for darth vader, r2d2, yoda, and leia...and then i did the storm trooper and han solo on my own. (i always had a crush on han, that rascal)

my family are BIG star wars fans. we used to have movie marathons on saturdays, spread out blankets all over the floor and pop a zillion things of popcorn and watch 'em all. the originals of course. my brother had about 2,000 star wars action figures, and josh used to watch the movies all day. every. day. until my mom limited that. i think all of us have been a star wars character for halloween at some point. anyways, just wanted to establish that we are, in fact, geeks. got that? k.

here's some more proof that i am a geek. i posed yoda and vader fighting. with their awesome lightsabers.

here's han trying to put the moves on leia.

smooch! hmmm, han, a little too much too soon?

yeah, leia took care of him, no worries.

here are the baddies. darth looks a little surprised for some reason.

r2d2...he was simple and easy!

of course, i had to make a bag to stash them in, with a label in star wars font. otherwise, how would he know what's inside?

his card, course it had to match!

i hope josh likes them, and i hope you enjoyed me acting like a geek.

piggy tails

guess who got her first pigtails today? this girl!

um. i think i love them. she's pulled them out about 6 times already, but oh well. it's worth it.

also...happy birthday to josh (my brother), susan (rory's sister), and cassy! (best friend) it's the perfect storm, i call it. (all of their birthday's are today.)

stay tuned later today for some boy crafting i did for my brother's birthday gift!

excitement

uh, can i just say i can't wait for my camera to come?! OK..

ICANTWAITFORMYCAMERATOCOME.

let me take you for a walk down memory lane.....in my high school years and for a few years after, i took every photography class i could...and rolls and rolls of film. (pre-digital, heh heh) i remember spending hours in the darkroom at school, watching the images appear on the paper. those chemicals were stink-y! winding film in the dark, wasting precious photo paper on a bad print....ahh. so fun. my uncle is an awesome photographer, so i'd pick his brain often, and had lessons on composition, photoshop, etc from him. i can't wait to start chatting again about photography with him, and my dad too. :)

my graduation present from my family was a digital SLR camera, i don't remember the brand, but oh baby i was excited. i've always loved the composition aspect of photography...i'm not so much with the f-stops and apertures. lol. anyways, here are some pictures from a trip to the carmel mission way back when that i found the other day. i can't wait to get my camera and start shooting some pictures! (i'm sure mostly of sadie) haha.

oh...and i'm getting the canon rebel xsi

harvest time

we went up to rory's parents for dinner tonight...always a treat. nora is an awesome cook. we had some delicious soup and "fancy" grilled cheese sandwiches. we headed out to their fantastic garden after dinner to pick some raspberries. nothing better than fresh raspberries!

except fresh peaches maybe....maybe. sadie had a great time tottering around holding onto dad's hands, of course. i hope someday i can have a garden as bountiful as theirs. hah. hah. we'll see. in the meantime, i'll just have to enjoy the bags of fresh produce they send home with us.

it's hard, but someone's gotta do it.

shop til you drop

so, last night at 10:30 i got an idea. (as all good ideas start out...late at night when i should be thinking about bed)

an idea for a cute shopping bag to put sadie's felt/fabric/wooden food in. for when she needs to go "shopping". of course.

so, here's what came of that idea! i used my own tote bag tutorial, only made it much smaller.

added some tiny letters with head n bond...


and of course i made it reversible! with my (one and only) pretty vintage sheet. lovely!

oh, i got the wooden fruit at target...regularly $9.99, but the packaging was damaged, so the cashier gave it to me for 99 cents. no joke! sadie loves pulling it apart. (it velcros together)

not too shabby for a quick project. (well, the letters were not so quick. those suckers were tiny!)

scrub a dub washcloth and bias tape tutorial

so this is like two tutorials in one. wowzas! the first part is the bias tape, and then comes the washcloth. fun stuff. here we go!



Click below for more!

scrub a dub

sadie was due for some new washcloths. her tiny newborn ones were just not cutting it anymore. (well, i have a few larger ones, but only a few) luckily...i had some terry cloth that i had gotten at joann's in the remnant bin for like $1.00 or something. woohoo!

so i made some bias tape and cut out some squares and whala! new washcloths for pennies! a great sunday morning nap activity, and useful to boot. gotta love that.


i used up some scrap material too, so bonus! i think i will make some more soon. they're soo easy.

first trip to the beach

well, sadie's first trip to the beach was interesting, to say the least. we did have a good time...when we were sitting on the blanket or she was in someone's arms. you'll see what i mean later.

it was overcast, but pretty warm...it burned off after awhile and was pretty gorgeous! we enjoyed sitting on the blanket for awhile, and tried out sand for the first time with sadie. (crying.) steph and i people watched. then we made our way down to the water. (cue the funeral march, or darth vader's march, or the "something bad is going to happen" music)

the dip.

the screaming. oh, the screaming. obviously she loved it. hah. she liked hanging out in daddy's arms, but not in the water. it WAS about 13 degrees F, so you can't blame her too much.

here's the proof that i was there today. janae wanted to take a picture of us by what she wrote but we didn't really know how to pose. i think she hearts us. aww

this was as close to smiling as sadie got today. she liked the seaweed. odd girl.

aww jarom and steph. we had a blast with them today. we sure will miss them when they move to utah. (DON'T DO IT WE BEG YOU)

what? no i didn't say anything. must be the wind.

new

a new look for sadie's wall (used to look like this)

a new look FROM sadie. if looks could kill...or maim...

a new stage in life. no, she's not walking by herself. yet...she insisted on walking out to the car tonight instead of being carried. i just hope she knows that ain't gonna fly when mommy has bags of stuff in her arms.

new pillow for her neck. from this tutorial. she's soo sleepy, from us dragging her to the store to look at cameras. and from waking up early from both her naps.

oh, and a soon-to-be new camera! i'm ordering it tomorrow. soooooo excited! thanks rory!

i love swapping

i did a swap on etsy recently, with a new bloggy friend, kristen. she makes THE cutest hair clips. (i mean it) she has two little girls, so i made them some ruffle shirts, and she made sadie some clips...i love them. my fav is the grey ruffly one. swoon.

sadie loves them too, i'm pretty sure she knows exactly what they're for. (to make her irresistibly kissable and huggable to mommy) she spent 10 minutes pulling them off their cards and then crawling around the playroom with them clutched in her little chubby hands. aw. so check out her etsy shop, she just added a bunch of new clips!

p.s. do you ever feel like you have SO MUCH to blog about, and not enough time? that's how i feel right now. i have some recipes chomping at the bit...maybe i will get them posted tomorrow. they're yummy....

play oven mitts

so, i thought i was quite brilliant thinking of this.

i have bursts of brilliancy sometimes, you see.

i've had these dollar store oven mitts that my mom got me for awhile. i loove the fabric. very retro!

i figured i could use them in sadie's play kitchen (you know, whenever we get one), and she would just look cute with these huge oven mitts on her hands.

and then i thought, woman! you have a sewing machine!

make them smaller. duh.

so here goes!

first turn your mitt inside out.

trace your mitt shape...make sure there's enough room in the thumb. my second one was a tad narrow because i didn't.

sew slowly over your mark.

trim around your new seam and clip rounded edges so it will turn easier.

turn right side out and admire how cute they are!

pose them with your silly felt pie.

then, let your child play with them, or pick them up and toss it behind her, as sadie did.

so simple, huh?

featured on craft gossip,

dollar store crafts,

and craftzine!

***If you have used any of my tutorials, I'd love if you'd add a quick pic to my flicker group! Thanks!***