Etsy Love

Any one who knows me, knows this one simple truth: I am a complete geek. And in case you hadn't realized that yet, here are a few things that have caught my eye on Etsy lately.

1. Trekkie Bro Power by theGorgonist
2. GRR ARGH aluminum pendant necklace by BrightCircle
3. Boba Fett riding a Unicorn by linedraw
4. Star Trek Travel Poster: "Vulcan" by balancedpersonality
5. Rebel Alliance Hat by mynameisie
6. The Original Portal earrings by VJewellery

Goodwill Clearance Center

A lot of people ask me about my favorite place to shop: the Goodwill Clearance Center. I seriously love that place! And with the $1 a pound price tag, you really can't go wrong! I've found some great fabric in there. (Since most of my sewing projects are upcycled from old clothes!) And if you go in the summer, they usually have a great selection of winter clothes! A cute sweatshirt for less than a buck? Heck yeah!

I love going in the middle of the day, preferably without the kiddos. Its a bit crowded in there, so not very stroller friendly. Its basically a giant room full of bins and bins. There's absolutely no organization to it, but that's part of the fun. You never know what you'll find! Also, there tends to be a lot of crazy people in there. I love watching the drama when they pull out a new bin. HI-larious.

I of course HAD to make the trip with my favorite thrifting buddy, my Aunt Cindy! I'm hoping to squeeze in one more thrift shopping trip while she's in town. *wink* So what did we get? Let's see...

Three knit tops, one dress shirt, a 3T winter coat, a SWEET plaid suit jacket (love it!!) and two pairs of pants. (I forgot about the black pair when I took the picture.) All this for $6.32. Yup! Less than seven dollars! And I've got quite a few cute projects planned for this pile that I will be sharing as soon as I can find the time to work on them!

I sure do love me some Goodwill Clearance Center ♥

Three Months Old

My little man is growing up so fast, but he's still my sweet little baby. He just seems so tiny to me, I guess because Juniper is so much bigger (and crazier) than him. But he really is getting quite big. I absolutely love when he giggles, which he's been doing more and more lately. He loves getting kisses on the cheek, and he's starting to grab at things that he wants to play with. He can't even sit up yet, and he's already trying to stand! Please slow down Time, I want to keep my baby a baby.

Juniper simply adores her baby brother. And lately she has been ALL about jumping into photos! I'm so glad she seems to be coming out of her "I hate cameras!" phase. I've gotten lots of cute pictures of the two of them together recently. LOVE those kids.

$2 Dress Restyle

I bought this dress in the clearance section at Ross for $2. How could I pass THAT deal up? It was a bit too small for me, but I just knew it would make an adorable new dress for Juniper. I shortened the skirt about 4 inches, and scaled the top down using one of her t-shirts. I love how it turned out. 

When I told her I wanted to take pictures, she ran out on the porch, sat on the chair and smiled real big for the camera (a rare event indeed!) Then she stood up and struck a few poses for me. She even turned around so I could get a cute photo of the back! Man she is such a ham sometimes. We had quite a bit of fun taking photos on the porch. I love when she actually wants me to take her picture ♥

I have definitely been getting my creative mojo back lately, and it feels great. I think I'll take a break from clothes for a little while and sew some cute stuffed animals next! I also have a stack of pillow cases on my art room floor that need to be finished up. And who knows, maybe I'll get daring and actually sew something for ME.

This Week I...

So I've decided to bring back my Weekly Review feature, only I'm going to do things a little differently this time. Instead of taking one photo each day and making a cute collage, I'm just going to do a weekly wrap up post of the things I've done that particular week. Because let's face it, when you're taking care of small kids, taking pictures isn't always on your to-do list. So here I go.

This week I:

• Got in a fight with my closet and won! (I'll be sharing more of this miracle story soon!)

• Learned how to knit! Thanks to this pretty lady.

• Made a tiny bunting for our dining area. It makes me smile. Who knew cutting tiny triangles from cute paper could be so therapeutic?

• Spent lots of time staring at this:

• Had maybe a little too much fun window shopping...

Most of my time this week was spent cleaning. I am ALMOST done with the entire house, and this will be the first time since before I was pregnant that cleaning doesn't mean "Put it in a box in the closet". There are only a few small piles left to organize, and one HUGE pile that needs to be donated. I also managed to squeeze in a couple of creative projects that I haven't had a chance to photograph yet, so I'll share those soon.

I'm hoping this coming week will be just as productive, but with a tad more fun thrown in there. It IS summer after all!!

Two Little Dresses +

Here is a project I've been wanting to share for quite a while, but I had to wait until the package was delivered so as not to ruin the surprise! I wanted to make matching dresses for our cousin Lindsay's two little girls. So I headed to the Goodwill Clearance Center and picked up this XL flannel shirt.

I was able to make the two dresses, a hair bow for mom and a tie for dad! Since the Goodwill Clearance Center is priced $1 a pound, I think I can safely say I spent less then a dollar on these outfits. (The black fabric was something I already had in my stash.) The tie didn't turn out super great because the flannel was so soft and hard to work with. Oh well, it's still cute. I mean.. manly. And cunning. A man walks down the street in that tie, people know he's not afraid of anything.

Luckily our two kids are about the same age, so I tried them on and made sure they were a little big. Audrey is 9ish months older than Juniper, and Emma is only a few months older than Flynn. I am a mean mommy, I took about a million pictures of Flynn in that dress! Even in a dress, isn't just the handsomest little guy?

Ok,back into something a little more manly. Give us a big tough guy look. Good job little man. ♥♥♥

I'm linking this post up to the Sunday Scoop Link Party over on I ♥ Naptime.

A New Dress for Juniper

The other day I was having one of those non-stop-crazy mama days. You know the type. So when I finally got both kids to fall asleep around 9:00, I decided I needed to ignore the messy house and take some time to sew a little something. I decided to *GASP* follow a pattern! Now, I'm not really a pattern-following type of person, but I managed to pull it off this time around without much drama. I used my Simplicity 3511 pattern, which was nice and easy to follow.

Juniper loves her new dress. As soon as I put it on her she started twirling around on the bed. I love it when she likes the things I make for her ♥

Froggy Siblings

I made these little frogs for a couple of sweet kids as Christmas presents this year. Of course, I didn't actually send them until this past week... I hope they love them though! I only snapped a couple of pictures while we were packing them up. Juniper was sad to see them go.

I'm linking this post to some fun blog parties: I ♥ Naptime, Under the Table and Dreaming, and Tatertots and Jello. I love linky parties.

Redesign

I'm the type of person who can't have things the same way for too long. If we haven't moved for a while I get this nervous itch and start rearranging furniture. (It drives my husband just a little crazy.) That said, I've started playing around with a little bloggy redesign. You can expect quite a bit of tweaking over the next few days as I try to get it just so.

For now I will leave you with a little something that makes me laugh. If only it weren't so true!

Source: Ryan Selvy via Pinterest

Package Hoarder

I am a package hoarder. Some of these I've been meaning to send out since Christmas. But they're finally gone. A little something is heading to New Jersey, Kansas, Missouri (x2), Michigan, and Connecticut. I got a lot of sympathetic looks today trying to balance all of these packages while pushing my double stroller through the line at the post office. Luckily both kids were super well-behaved so I didn't get any of *those* looks. (All you mamas know what look I'm talking about.)

Now in a couple of days when certain people get certain packages I can finally share some of the fun things I've  made! One project in particular I'm quite fond of. I hope they love it!

Craft Hope Project 12 - Bracelets

I posted earlier about the current Craft Hope projects going on. I've got the blankets and bracelets all packed up and ready to mail. Now all I have to do is head to the post office and mail them. Which, apparently, is a lot harder than it sounds. I have a small pile of packages I've been hoarding since forever. Looks like a couple of people will be getting their Christmas presents a smidge late.

The bracelets were a fun, easy project. When Mom and Shannon were in town visiting, we had a little Craft Night and made bracelets with the cute plastic beads Shannon brought along and Ashley taught me how to make friendship bracelets. I've been making bracelets all week.

Juniper even got in on the fun! She made some plastic bracelets with her new beads. I love that she's starting to be more interested in creative activities. She likes to sit on my lap while I sew, and she's gone through  a whole 'paint with water' book. Hopefully as she gets older I can help her develop a passion for service and she can learn to use her talents for great things.

There are 25 bracelets in the package so far, but I KNOW there are a bunch more hiding around my house.  I will probably find them all as soon as I get home from the post office... That's how it works, right? I guess if I do find more, I can always send another package to Craft Hope. They are collecting bracelets until June 15th.

Birthday List Revisted

I happen to really like my refrigerator. It's like a big magnetic scrap book. I like it so much that I just decided to randomly take photos of it at 1:00 in the morning. Is that weird? Maybe. But it's late and I'm putting off going to bed because I know the second I fall asleep it'll be time to wake up again.

On my birthday I made this list of 26 things to do before I turn 27. I stuck it right on the front of my refrigerator so I wouldn't just forget about it. So what have I done so far? Well, let's see... I've:

1) Had a baby
2) Invited friends over each month
4) Designed and sewn a hat
7) ATTEMPTED to restyle some cute maternity clothes...
12) Decorated a mini cake each month
18) We tried to ride in the dinosaur boats but they weren't there anymore *super sad*
23) Used my Craft Hope book
25) Sewn a quilt
26) Taken some cute photos with the hubs ♥

Not too bad.

Craft Hope Project 13 - Quilts

Craft Hope is probably my favorite thing. It's so nice to be able to do something meaningful with my creative talents. Right now they have two projects going on. They are collecting bracelets for orphans in Russia and blankets for tornado survivors. We have been having a little too much fun around here making bracelets of all sorts to send along. (I'll share photos before we mail them.) And since making a quilt was on my Birthday List, I figured this was the perfect time to go for it!

The first one I made I think I got a little overzealous... I did a zigzag pattern with some fat quarter fabric I've had in my stash for ages. It took me forever to figure out the pattern and get it all sewn together. But it's my first quilt ever! I was so excited as it came together. You can't tell in the photos, but I used colorful thread for the quilting so it gave it some color on the back.

The second quilt went WAY faster. Probably because I kept it extremely simple. I found the robot fabric in the remnants bin at Walmart. I LOVE this quilt. It has so many mistakes in it... but I think some little boy somewhere is really going to like it.

Thanks honey for helping me take photos! I've learned that blankets are HARD to photograph!

Juniper really liked the blankets. I guess next I'll have to make some for her and Flynn!

5 Things

1. I have recently become quite obsessed with Pinterest. Holy creative inspiration, Batman! I've found so many great recipes and tutorials and home decorating ideas. I love it. (image source)

2. Someday, when we finally plant that money tree in the back yard, I WILL OWN these old school Ninja Turtle cereal bowls. They'll have a special spot on my book shelf, because yes, I am that much of a dork. (image source)

3. We might be going to Disney's Star Wars Weekend this Saturday!! I am so excited! (Again with the complete dorkness) I need to make some cute outfits for the kids. (image source)

4. I finished up several creative projects this week!! I will be sharing them all very soon.

5. I'm absolutely in love with this banner. I need to make one for our home. (image source)