Sleeping Peacefully

Sleeping Peacefully layout
Originally uploaded by Kirsten W

A super simple layout, but these are a couple photos I didn't want to get lost in the shuffle. Photos were taken with Hipstamatic on my iPhone, papers and stickers are from Studio Calico.

Iowa State Fair 2011

This year we had to fit all of our fair fun and fair eating into one day. We made it just in time for the last day of the fair. Lachlan had a few things he was looking forward to - mini-donuts & milk, cotton candy, and a ride on the "hang glider" with mom and dad. We pretty much let him eat whatever he wanted all day (since that's what Bill and I love to do at the fair every year) so by the end of the day it had been quite a sugar fest. We all came home with full tummies and tired feet and Lachlan and Kenley got fair t-shirts for souvenirs. If you'd like to see the rest of the photos, the whole set is on Flickr.

Spraypaint Love

Before

During

After

I've gone through 12 cans of spray paint in August. Working on giving a few old things new life and finishing some DIY projects that have been hanging around for awhile. I love the (relatively) instant gratification and new life a couple coats of paint can provide.

photos via my iPhone Hipstamatic app

Kenley at 14 months

Favorite food: Black beans

Favorite books: The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear & Hand Hand Fingers Thumb

Favorite word: "uh oh"


Favorite activity: playing with the vintage Fisher Price people

Favorite toy: Lachlan's baby doll (he got it for his 2nd birthday, but I'd say K has adopted it now)

Favorite way to travel: modified army crawl

Untitled a video by Kirsten W on Flickr.

Quilt Inspiration

I've been wanting to post about an inspiring experience I had a couple weekends ago. I took a class at Home Ec Workshop with Erik Wolfmeyer. (Make sure and check out his amazing quilt photo gallery).



Erik asked each student to bring a piece of inspiration as a jumping off point for the quilt project we would be working on over the course of two afternoons. I chose a photo that I had saved on Pinterest. I love it because it is is traditional and modern, graphic and soft, all at the same time. I also love the color combination. I thought all these things would translate into an interesting quilt project.


Erik was a great teacher because he took the time to get to know each student and help us talk through and develop our ideas. He told us about his process for bringing a quilt from inspiration to completion and showed us one of his gorgeous finished quilts (this one). He gave us several useful and practical quilting tips - including a technique for finishing binding that I can't wait to try. He also recommended a quilting "bible" which is now at the top of my craft book wish list.



I started my quilt blocks, inspired by my photo and Denyse Schmidt's quilting style. Erik encouraged me to incorporate the X motif from my inspiration piece and I also decided to stick to a similar color scheme. I'm planning to make this quilt a wall hanging. I also designed it to loosely imitate the floral idea.


Now that the class is over, I am in the process of making a few blocks here and there when I have time. Hoping that I will be able to piece the blocks together into a quilt top in the next month or so. I'm so thankful for Erik's time and that I was able to spend a weekend working on a project just for me.

6 years of blogging!

I just randomly wondered exactly how long I have been blogging, so I checked my blog archives and my first post was August 5, 2005. That's right, exactly 6 years! So today is my blogiversary! Crazy!

Back then I was posting about wedding planning and mail art, fun stuff. Here's a snapshot of what it looked like in 2006. 2008 was my most prolific year, no surprise as it was the year I had my first baby. It was, and still is, a visual journal/diary that I keep primarily for me. I love being able to look back at what I was making and doing over the past 6 years. It is also fun to be able to keep in touch with family and friends who follow my blog.

So, those of you who have been following Kirsten's Creations for either a short or long time - thanks for reading!

Kenley's baby book

Today we got a box in the mail that I've been looking forward to for a long time - Kenley's baby book! I decided before Kenley was born that in lieu of a traditional baby book, I would be making a digital scrapbook to record her milestones and changes over the year.


I already had my eye on a set of digital templates by Nisa Fiin, specifically designed for making a baby album. I decided to make a monthly blog post featuring my memories from the month and the monthly photo of Kenley.


Then I made an album for each month of her life in my iPhoto and started sorting through the (many) photos to put some favorites together. I started putting together the digital pages when she was about 10 months old. I've been working on it on and off for the last few months. It did take many hours to put together, mostly because I'm still learning about digital scrapbooking and how to make everything work in Photoshop Elements. I think this was actually a great project to start with, because the framework was set up by Nisa, and I just had to customize the pages the way I wanted.

I set myself a deadline to be finished with the album by August. The main reason was that I had purchased a Groupon for Blurb that was about to expire, and I wanted to use that credit for this book. After designing the pages using the templates in PSE, I saved them as JPEGs, then uploaded them as a full page photo in the Blurb book-making software (does that make sense?). I am thrilled with the quality of the book. The photo covers are so pretty and the colors and text throughout the book are consistent and clear. The binding also seems very sturdy. Definitely recommend Blurb.


The content covers photos and stories from my pregnancy, the birth story, newborn days, then a 2 page spread for each month, a few spreads about her birthday party, and a 2 page spread for both her newborn photo shoot and 1 year photo shoot with Shelley Haganman. While it doesn't have that "fill-in-the-blank" feel of a traditional baby book, it does contain so many stories of little moments and milestones that I never would have remembered otherwise. I'm sooo glad that I stuck with the monthly blog posts and followed through with making this book!


I also have an 8 1/2" x 11" scrapbook album that I add individual pages to as I complete them. As you can see, I have many pages to go before it is as full as Lachlan's baby scrapbook (birth-age 2).

All this week I've been working on my digital pages for the Week in the Life album and also putting together 2.5 x 3.5" pictures and memorabilia to put in the divided page protectors. Planning to finish the 8 1/2" x 11" digital pages this weekend and send them off to be printed on Monday.

Then I just need to make the July pages for my Hipstamatic album and update my summer mini-book with the highlights from July. Obsessed with memory-keeping much?

Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend!

Supply list for Kenley's book:
Splendid Fiins Life In a Nutshell 8 1/2" x 11" templates
digital papers from Jen Allyson's free kit

barrettes from aunt bethany

I've been meaning to share these adorable barrettes that my sister Bethany made for Kenley.
K is pretty funny about barrettes right now. As soon as I put one in her hair, she takes it out, looks at it, and then tries to put it back on her hair by herself.
Her bangs are getting down by her eyes (even more now, since these pics were taken a couple weeks ago) so it is nice to be able to sweep them to the side with a barrette. Sometimes if I distract her right after I put one in her hair, then she'll forget about it and keep it in a long time. These are lightweight so they work well for everyday wear. Thanks, Aunt Bethany!