Where to start?

We have been so busy the last couple of weeks. Good busy, but still! I have been crafting and cleaning, getting ready for a 4 week Home Prayer Fellowship - every Wednesday night for the month of July we will have about 20 people in our home. I am so excited, but MAN does my house need cleaned! Good motivation, I guess.

I baked a Dorie Greenspan Devil's Food White Out cake on Friday for a dinner party we went to. I didn't really like it - nothing personal, I just don't like chocolate cake or marshmallow/meringue, but it seemed to go over well and was a blast to make. I've never made an frosting like that before and it was great - like magic! Took me over 2 hours, though.

Oh, and there's my new print from Mt.JoySchool - I love, love, love it! The colors are gorgeous and the print is just perfect - every detail is there and it almost looks like the original!

And our new front door sign thingy from ScribbleIt on Etsy - my mom and mother-in-law both love it and just might get one soon! It's honestly one of my favorite things I've bought lately and was such a bargain!

Last but certainly not least, I have discovered a new blog! Let me tell you, Kathleen makes some of the most gorgeous clothes I have EVER seen. And she's doing a giveaway! If I don't win this gorgeous dress you'd better believe I'll be making an "inspired by" version! ;) Click on over to check out her site:
Roosters-N-Rickrack Pinafore GIVEAWAY!!!!

Have a good Monday.

Jackpot!

So we finally had some successful yard sale-ing this past Saturday. There was a craft and quilt sale advertised so I wanted to have a look. It was a few older ladies selling crafts and smaller quilts, but they were also selling things that they couldn't use, like trims and buttons. My eyes just about popped out of my head when I saw the basketfuls of zippers, trims, buttons, and laces. And guess how much they were charging?! 5 or 10 CENTS!! I felt so guilty, almost like I was stealing. That obviously didn't keep me from buying tons, though!

Almost every single package of trim was still sealed, and I also got 10 zippers. What a score! It just made my day. I also found some awesome vintage chenille in red and green - I can't wait to use it for Christmas decorating.

We also stopped by a rummage sale at the big Catholic church downtown. I picked up a vintage chenille bedspread ($3!) and an old apron/smock thing (25 cents!).

Look at this trim card - I love the font! And the name....how cool is that? I'm pretty sure that I've used up all my yard sale luck for the summer. I would really love to find some old quilts though. Fingers crossed!

New: Vegetables & Shoes

We planted quite a few veggies this weekend. Tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, hot banana peppers, finger eggplants, & squash. Pretty ambitious for our first vegetable garden, huh? We've grown tomatoes in pots before so I'm fairly confident about them but the eggplants are already looking a little sad. And something (deer? chipmunk?) has eaten a squash. Hrm.



Something I'm very confident about, however, are my new pink Birkenstocks. I loooove me some birks. I have the traditional leather ones that are about 10 years old - at least - and some baby blue ones that are about 5 or 6 years old. They hold up so well. That's how I justified these. Well, that and the fact that they were about 60% off at Sierra Trading Post. That place is dangerous. (And I'm wearing my Nick & Nora flamingo cropped pj pants in the pic - LOVE THEM!!)



I had to get these for Dawson - his little pigs are too cute in them. Must get picture of him wearing them. And I don't feel guilty at all - I got them on Ebay and he is SUCH a shoe fanatic! It's hilarious - he'll take shoes over toys any day. That's my boy.

Tis the season...

for babies? It seems like there's a bumper crop of babies this spring. My sweet friend Angie asked me to make this to give as a gift. I've started making my Patchwork Initial tees with larget letters and I like it so much better. I can't wait for her to see it!

Another friend has me making two more shirts with matching quilts. I forgot to buy the quilt backing yesterday so I'm using some Kona Cotton that was supposed to be used for another project. I'll have to go back to Joann's later this week. So sad. I just hate looking at fabric. ;)

I've been freshening up my living and dining rooms with some new accessories and pictures. I need to replace my winter throw blankets with some lighter-weight throws and we'll be all spring-ified.

I found these awesome mossy rocks at TJ Maxx - I had been looking for some forever and was so psyched to finally find some!

Who would've thought

that a vintage sheet makes such a great skirt?

Lisa over at Polka Dot Creations organized this awesome Summer Skirt Sheet Swap. I had the perfect sheet so I cut it into three pieces and mailed it to her. I received three different pieces in return and made a cute little skirt out of one last weekend. I literally hemmed the bottom, stuck some elastic on the top and sewed on some ric rac. It took me about 20 minutes. Stuck a cute little brown tank on with it and wore it to a Memorial Day cookout! I felt like I was in my pj's all day.

Thanks so much for all your hard work, Lisa - it was SO well-organized and I could tell she put a lot of hard work into the swap. I think I'm going to make pj shorts out of one of the other sheets. I have about a million projects on my mind right now. I had better go write that one down before I forget.

Wonderful Wednesday

Sister was up throughout the night last night. We finally brought her into bed with us and for some reason she thought it would be a good idea to stuff her feet into my pj bottoms. Not comfortable. Back to her bed she went.


The littlest on also joined us in bed this morning (early!) and man, I’m tired. Why don’t mamas get a morning nap?

I think we’re going to make muffins for our morning snack and I’m going to guzzle more coffee. We’re visiting the pediatrician later this afternoon. And it’s raining. Woo hoo.


On a more positive note, I was juried and accepted into the WV Pumpkin Festival. I’m pretty darn excited and a little nervous too. It’s a four-day festival with 45,000 visitors. Holy moly. What have I gotten myself into?!

Adjusting

We're adjusting to being a family of 5. It really hasn't been too difficult - quite a bit messier and exponentially louder, but really not bad at all! D & D have figured out that they can wreak havoc while I'm nursing Finn so I have learned to keep the broom & dustpan handy.

I appliqued this shirt for Finn and amazingly it fits already - it's a 6-12 month! At his 5-week well visit this morning he weighed 12 lbs. 4 ounces. He totally has a Buddha belly - see for yourself.