Saturday, January 30, 2010

recent Etsy purchases

I've professed my love for Etsy here before, but I'm freshly enamored with it again after my recent purchases. Did you know that there is a huge effort on Etsy to raise money to support Haiti relief projects? The first two items came from shops that are set up just for that purpose.

made by brightsmith, purchased through the HeartsForHaiti shop
brooch and key chain by Nellieandelsie, purchased through the Craft Hope shop


purchased this alphabet print for L's big boy room from Orange Studio

another print from Orange Studio. I think this one will go in baby girl's nursery

looking forward to making a little mini about our home. from elisejoy

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

pet pages

Finished up a couple new scrapbook pages this afternoon. I pulled the photos, journaling and comments straight from this blog post for the Sadie page. Easy-peasy!
Fun to see the new scrapbooking goodies from CHA popping up on the Internet.
Love everything Hambly is putting out.
ALL of the new Cosmo Cricket lines!
The Unwritten line from Reminisce
The Basic Grey Basics. Cool!
American Crafts is always a favorite - new albums and Dear Lizzy line. and new Thickers. duh.
I miss being able to touch and ogle all the new products like I did when I worked at Reminisce. Scrapbookers, any other new favorites?

I also won a blog giveaway at the Making Memories blog yesterday. So exciting, can't wait to get my goodies in the mail!

Saturday, January 23, 2010

the January blahs

Well, the weather hasn't been much to write home about, has it. Between the freezing cold, the snow, wind, ice, fog, and today's misty rain, I feel like we've been cooped up inside for a month! Add to that a nasty stomach bug for Lachlan all last week and I didn't really feel much like blogging.
I must admit that the ice can be very beautiful when you don't have to come in contact with it in your car or on foot!

Lachlan's been keeping himself occupied with lots of fun indoor activities - reading books, playing with playdoh (I made the little things in the picture, but he likes to squish and cut and move the pieces from place to place),
building with blocks, coloring, driving toy cars around, and playing his musical instruments have been his favorite activities lately. Oh, and of course, helping with whatever I'm doing - putting away laundry, vacuuming, cleaning out the dishwasher.
I've been keeping busy crocheting granny squares and today I made a crochet chocolate chip cookie! I also finished making a new Valentine's wreath this week. I will share photos of those projects soon!
In other news, I hit the halfway point in my pregnancy this week! Feeling pretty good right now, other than what feels like a mild cold hanging on. I can feel baby girl move every day at least once, so that is fun and exciting!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Big News!

First of all - the big news - we found out this afternoon that we are having a GIRL! Yay! Wow, we are still kinda in shock, especially Bill! But so excited!

Thought I would share these layouts that I finished today after starting them on Saturday.
Rachel threw Deb an early birthday party on Saturday in the form of a scrapbooking/crafting crop and I got to join in for a few hours. It was fun and relaxing! And I *might* have come home with a few new adorable scrapbook papers.

Ok, off to dream about pink ruffly things and do some Etsy browsing!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

related links

Not long after I posted this afternoon, I came across two links in my Google Reader that are perfect for my last two posts!

First, this DIY book display. Looks like I'll be adding a few Ribba picture ledges to my list for the next IKEA road trip!

And then, another great tutorial for making a drawstring bag. This one is so cute!

Just counting down the hours until our big ultrasound tomorrow afternoon when we will hopefully find out the sex of baby-to-be. Any guesses? Leave them in the comments!

Designing a "big boy" room

Lachlan will be making a move into our current guest room sometime in the next year to make room for baby #2 in the nursery and crib. I'm going back and forth about when to make the transition, since he is doing fine in the crib right now. I don't want to do it right around when the baby arrives in June, so that he doesn't feel like baby "stole" his room. So, I'm thinking about around his 2nd birthday in April, or a couple months after baby arrives (baby will sleep in our room for a couple months, at least). Any advice on that front?

Anyway, I'm still thinking about doing some shopping to outfit his new room. It already has lovely light green walls that will stay. I'm planning on making curtains for the two windows, and putting in a twin bed for him.

Here are some things I'm dreaming about:

These sheets with this comforter. So fun and boyish.

Love this bookcase, too. I definitely want some kind of book storage that displays the front cover of the books. Maybe a DIY project?

A great bench for storing & displaying toys & puzzles

Definitely keeping my eye on Ohdeeoh for inspiration and on Craigslist and local stores for good quality deals.

Sharing bag

My preschoolers are always interested in bringing something special to share from home - especially since all the exciting Christmas gifts appeared at home! I decided to set up a specific sharing day and schedule to keep things more manageable and organized. This weekend I whipped up two drawstring sharing bags to make transportation of the sharing items easier and more "fancy". :) They are so quick to sew (here's a simple tutorial I found if you want to try one). I also made little fabric tags with stamped instructions and sewed those to felt, set a couple eyelets in each, then threaded the ribbon through the tag to keep the tag with the bag.

I made 7 or 8 of these out of Christmas fabric over winter break to use as reusable gift bags every year. I stole the idea from my mom, who made some years ago for our family. They are quick and easy for wrapping, especially strangely-shaped items. I just wrap the item in a piece or two of tissue paper, stick it in the bag, cinch up the ties and add a gift tag. Done! A good easy sewing project, very "green", and you can get super-cheap Christmas fabric now for next year!

Friday, January 08, 2010

Snow, snow, snow

We've got plenty of the white stuff here! And the frigid temps! At least someone in our family is enjoying it. :)

Just popping in to say hi and share a link to the Wildflowers Photography blog with more photos of our family. Have a great weekend!

Monday, January 04, 2010

more Scrapbooking!

I've really been a scrapbooking machine over the last week. It was nice to have some time to work on it after Christmas while I still had some extra vacation time. Deb and Rachel came over to craft (they knitted while I scrapped) on Saturday so I spent a few hours working on these layouts and finished them up yesterday. Notice Cleo was helping me photograph them today. :)
I like the simplicity of this layout, but I think it needs a little something. I was thinking of repeatedly stamping the word "pumpkin" vertically up the two orange strips. Any ideas?





I also finally put my 12x12 and 8 1/2x11 layouts from the past couple years into albums. I decided to go with Stacy Julian's method and organize my layouts in category albums instead of chronological. My 4 albums are "Celebrations","Everyday Life","Christmas", and "Places We Go". Celebrations has birthdays, weddings, Halloween, parties, etc. in it. I decided to make one just for Christmas because I tend to make lots of Christmas layouts and I think it will be fun to look at them all together through the years. The light blue album is Lachlan's, with layouts specifically about him from when I got pregnant - current. They have windows on the covers for the titles, but I'm working on an idea to make labels for the spines. Also ordered a new album for baby-to-be so I can start filling that one!

Sunday, January 03, 2010

photos!

We were so fortunate to have a photo shoot with my friend Wendy's sister-in-law while they were visiting from California this week. Her name is Joy and her business is Wildflowers Photography. What an amazing photographer! Here are just a few of the photos from the day. I would say they are a few of the favorites, but right now every single photo on the cd is my favorite! I'm sure you will see more soon. :)





a few links

Here's a great post from The Mom Creative blog about Project 365. She has lots of plans for keeping herself organized and motivated to complete it this year and I will be trying many of the same things.

Another daily 2010 project that is going to be inspiring to follow this year: A Collection A Day

Also, check out this great birthday banner that was inspired by the tutorial I posted earlier this year. I love how she made it double-sided! Crafts reDesigned

Still trying to take it easy this weekend while my hand heals up. We also did a photo shoot this morning with Wendy's sister-in-law who is visiting from California for a few days. Can't wait to share the photos with you, I know they'll be amazing! She's so creative and talented!

Saturday, January 02, 2010

Diving in again...


Say "cheese"!
Originally uploaded by Kirsten W

After completing a Project365 photo-a-day project in 2008 and losing steam with another in mid-2009, I wasn't planning on trying a 365 project this year. But, I have been inspired by a few friends who are trying it this year (Rachel & Deb) and I'm motivated to document another year that promises lots of new beginnings for our family!

I am going to set a goal to upload the photos to my Flickr account and the 366-1 group at least weekly, and make prints monthly to put in an album. I think It will be more motivating to see a physical album fill with prints.

Good luck to everyone who is trying something similar!

Friday, January 01, 2010

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone! I'm so excited about 2010. I think it is going to be a great year. Of course, I am most looking forward to our little family of 3 becoming a family of 4 this year.

My resolutions are pretty much the same as they have been in the past few years. Read more, cook more (try to learn to cook without a book), eat healthier, keep up with my yoga and exercise routine, and be the best mom and wife I can be.
As far as crafty goals for the new year, here are a few projects I have in mind:
* finish the granny square blanket I started in my class at Home Ec.
* make a quilt for baby #2.
* take more photos, especially of family and friends
* crochet some play food for L from this book
* crochet at least one piece of clothing for baby #2 from this book
* make curtains for the basement aka the new guest room
* make curtains for the guest room aka L's new big boy room
* make a Christmas stocking for the new little one

I hope you all had a great New Year's Eve and are taking today to relax and celebrate. I'm certainly taking it easy today after a trip to the emergency room last night. I put Lachlan in his high chair for dinner and took a trash bag out to the garage. I had forgotten that there was a broken mixing bowl in the bag and when I pulled the sides up I caught my left hand on a chunk of glass. I knew it was a pretty bad cut, so I held paper towels on it and laid on the couch while Bill rushed home from work. Luckily, Deb was able to drop everything and come over to take care of Lachlan. Then Bill drove us to the ER and we waited patiently for them to x-ray my hand to check for broken glass and then stitch me up. A couple hours later, it was back home with 5 stitches and a New Year's Eve memory I'll never forget.