mid-year resolution

Last year for Christmas my mother-in-law gave me a nice calendar in which she had marked all of the important dates for our family with stickers. I was really grateful because, unfortunately, as many of my friends and family know I am horrible at remembering birthdays. Like how earlier this week I forgot to call my oldest sister. You see. I just don't keep track of the date like I should.

So, I think I should keep up the marked calendar tradition and hang it up where I am certain to see it every day. And I really like this fabric calendar from September House where you can embroider fun little designs around the important dates. Maybe if I sat down and did that the dates would finally stick in my mind!

I am making a mid-year resolution to be better!

(via oh so beautiful paper)

summer is not over yet!

I put the last of the summer items for the year in the shop! I just love this adorable purple bird romper. And, check out the 30% off sale section!

I'm working on making some more fall/winter items now. Since I haven't really been sewing a lot lately I'm looking forward to getting back to the machine!

birthday party!

This past Saturday we celebrated the little miss' first birthday with friends and family! It was wonderful to see so many loved ones - thanks to everyone who came!

I decided to try and use supplies and items I already had to decorate. For the banner I printed out big letters onto scrapbook paper I've had for awhile now. I just cut out the letters and taped the silhouettes to the wall. The font I used was Big Top, unfortunately, it was not the most efficient use of ink. If I were ever to do this again I would search for a font that the letters are outlined. I like the use of negative space.

For the garland I used most of the scrap fabric I had lying around. It was so nice to use it up and I'm really happy with the outcome. I'll probably hang some of it in the nursery now that the party is over.

We had sandwiches and salad (I loved the salad and will give you the recipe soon), and two kinds of cupcakes - vanilla and coconut! The coconut ones were my favorite, if you are a coconut fan you should really try making these.


And, as I hinted at earlier when I showed you the invitations, we got the little miss a kitten! She is so sweet and had the time of her life attacking the garland when we put it up. We named her Petunia and she is a great addition to the family!

fabric find { olive manna }

It's been awhile since a fabric collection has caught my eye, but as soon as I saw olive manna's offerings I was pulled out of my fabric slump! It might have something to do with the popular chevron zig design that so many people (including myself) are drooling over these days - they offer it in a lovely sea foam color, one of my faves. And I can just imagine that cute little reader fabric as a nice comfy bean bag in a book corner for the little miss.

(find via papernstitch)

invites

These are the invites I came up with for the little miss (and there is her name in case you've ever wondered, although I think I've mentioned it before).

I needed slightly odd sized envelopes so I decided to make my own out of double-sided scrapbook paper. This also added some much needed color since the invites printed out in more muted tones than I intended. Why don't printers just print the same color you see on the screen? Then I sealed them by sewing around the edges. This threw many people off as I got texts saying, "How do I open it?" Ha ha...

I drew the kitten behind the one. It was inspired by an old children's book I came across the other day. Can you guess what she will be getting for her birthday?!

little indians

It was so fun to watch the little miss and all her cousins dress up as Indians at our Pow Wow camping trip this past weekend. For husband and I the best part was the little miss forgot we had put her head dress on and wore it for almost an hour before discovering it and taking it off! It was so cute to see her playing and crawling around in the dirt as an Indian princess.

My mother made the vests, aren't they adorable? She used vest patterns she already had and just added fringe and ribbon. There was also a V of fringe on the back.


I was in charge of the head dresses. They were so easy, all you need are colorful feathers, glue, and ribbon or fabric strips. Since my mom had leftover suede fabric and I didn't bring enough ribbon (oops) we used long fabric strips and only glued the ribbon on the front part of the head dress. Just glue the feathers between the fabric and the ribbon. This was an easy craft for all the kids.

My brother was the face painting artist and the kids told him what colors and designs they wanted.


My second oldest sister brought everything to make bows and arrows! This was definitely the craft they were most excited about. The instructions on how to make these are in the Boy Scouts of America handbook, and they work really well!


We also put together leather pouch kits, moccasin kits (found at Roberts) and made rain sticks from paper towel rolls filled with rice, beans, bells, and screws. Whew, I can't believe we got it all done in two days!

And here are all of the little Indians together! The little miss was roused from her nap to get in this picture so we'll just say she has a papoose on!

weekend snapshot

Hope you had a wonderful weekend! We spent time with family, camping, fishing, hiking, and crafting like crazy! All of the grandchildren wanted to do a Pow Wow themed camp trip so my mother and gracious host of the trip went all out - and I mean all out. More pictures to come of all the fun, but for now here is a snapshot of the little miss and her daddy sitting by Silver Lake. It was beautiful.