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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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.