Oddly busy week

This week has been much busier then I anticipated lots of fun stuff happening with my munchkin. We had our first visit with Easter bunny at the mall on Tuesday and I was really impressed at how well Ella did there was no crying or fusing just the usual happy baby. She was a little curious about what was holding her but once she focused on momma and her baby Einstein octopus she was my happy smiley little girl.

  There's my cutie I just love this photo I can't wait to add it to her scrapbook which is coming along well I am almost caught up and by caught up I mean the first two months plus the before she arrived pages. I only have her Christmas, our new family, thanksgiving, and her firsts layouts to complete. Then its on to her 3, 4 and 5 month layouts, valentines day, Easter, bath time progress, our daily and our weekly routines and the bluebonnets leading to my next topic.

This morning we ventured out to a nice grassy pasture on hwy 96 almost to hwy 146 that was littered with blue bonnets, so we parked the car loaded up the stroller with a basket, blankets, my camera bag, and of course my Ella boo and headed out to the field of blue. I think we were a little late finding this place because a lot of blue bonnets had been trampled or sat on but we still managed to find a well covered locale. I wasn't quite sure how well Ella was going to do since this was her first time doing photos outside but she was a champ like always. No fuss no muss just sat there and played with her dress and looked around. The sun was a bit of a problem since she has her moms sensitive baby blues, there was  lot of squinting and closing her eyes but I came home with some really cute photos. Let me know what you think.

I was so amazed how well she was sitting up she is getting so big.

There's  my sweetie

I just love this expression

She was even happy just laying on a blanket in the grass.

For April my goals for the blog are to start posting some of Ella's scrapbook pages, and start my pinterest challenge. Without further ado here are the pinterest pins I decided on for my first challenge.

The Bapron (bib apron)

Vary this with a onesie and pre- ruffled fabric.

Vary this making it a pillow case ruffle dress.

The idea is to finish one project a week we'll see how that goes, I don't think they'll be too challenging and they're for a baby so it should take to long to sew each one. Looking forward to letting you know my outcomes and having some fun new things for my Ella boo to model. Hope you had an awesome hump day.

Catch up

Today I thought I would play catch up on some of the awesome stuff I made Ella that I was going to post before she arrived but didn't get around to, that's seems to be a common theme lately. I'm looking forward to getting back on a schedule, it helps keep me sane.

Pinafore dresses, jackets and pants

Dr. Seuss certain this was my first project for the nursery.

  Close up - the newborn fly away jacket from
the one yard wonders book. The hooded jacket and
   quick change reversible pants from the New beginnings
 book by Anne Maire Horner.

                                           

I also love the cute dresses, the two tartan dresses are     special because they are the Tartans of my home in Canada.
       The green, yellow, and black is the Cape Breton tartan from the Island I grew up on, and the blue and gold tartan is the province of Nova Scotia tartan. The Dr. Seuss dress matches the nursery theme.  These all came from a pinterest pinafore  pattern slightly altered.

Dr. Seuss Happy Stacker from the new
 beginnings book so much fun to make.

                                        

  Diaper cover, bib, and burp cloth - the burp cloth and bib
  are also from my love pinterest. I will add the pins for these
so you all can have fun making them too.

                          

Above are the pins for the projects if you want to make them too :). All three were quite easy to make, the burp cloths are awesome I've probably made about 30 of them, so if you're looking for a good pattern look no further. I haven't really used the bibs yet, bu I was not a fan of attaching all of the snaps by hand, I would suggest using Velcro unless you love hand sewing. The dress was also great although it doesn't give a size but from wearing it on Ella its about 0-3 month pattern, I think I can still wear it as a cute shirt with some jeans we'll see.

I also made a puff quilt which I love its so soft and cuddly. The pattern is from honey bear lane. 

If you're thinking of making a baby quilt for yourself or as a gift I would recommend this one Ella loves laying on it and it wasn't that hard to make. If you're interested you can find the pattern from this pin. 

The last pinterest project I made was super easy and the result was great. 

Here is the pin 

Here is my result on our cutie pie.

 I have 6 more projects just calling my name these will be the beginning of my monthly pinterest posts. you'll get to see the first two pins next week.  Happy hump day.  

Just another monday

Ella had her 4 month dr. appointment today and she did so well. She weighed 17lbs 1 oz and 25&3/4 in. long which makes her 100% for weight and 85% for height that's our girl. Her head size is 15 &1/2 inches around which still puts her just below average at 45% - not taking after her mommy with that one must be a daddy trait. It's hard to believe that 4 months have already passed since my little munchkin was born.

I thought I would start getting back to the crafty tales with the finished nursery pics.


Mike and I had a great time painting the nursery and we hope Ella enjoys it as much at we do.


Now that little miss Ella is starting to sleep on a more regular schedule I am going to start working on some long over due projects - mainly for her, but some for me. As I finish them I will be sure to keep the blog updated. My other plan for the blog is to accomplish one pinterest pin a month either a baking/cooking, card idea, scrapbook page, or sewing craft. This way I can start actually working on making some of my pins instead of just looking at them online and imaging making them. I'm going to post the original pin, my outcome, and if it was easy or hard and if it's something I would do/make again. This should start in April- I'm still thinking of a fun name for it that will come later.

I am also going to start posting Ella's scrapbook which is coming along nicely so everyone gets to share in the memory keeping fun.

Hope you're enjoying your Monday.

Our new addition to the family

Well it has been a very long time since my last post and so much has happened since then, we have a new addition to our family miss Ella Sophie who will be 4 months old on Sunday, 3/18. She was born on Friday, 11/18/11 at 8:41pm weighing 8lbs 2.2 oz, and now at 4 months she is a whopping 16lbs 8.8 oz and we love every ounce of her.


Ella @ 1 week Ella @ 4 mos.

I thought it was only fair to provide a side by side comparison for everyone to enjoy. I'm truely amazed at how fast time is passing I really can't believe that tiny baby I brought home from the hospital only 2 days old in November is going to turn 4 months old in 2 days. She has change so much over the past 4 months and I feel so blessed to be able to spend every day with her watching her change and grow, miss Ella is the best gift we ever received.

I'm sure you've noticed that I've not been keeping up with my crafty posts which brings me to my next topic, keeping the blog up to date. I've decided this is going to be my crafty, family, cooking, baking, anything goes blog that way I don't feel limited to just posting projects and will hopefully be able to make one or two posts a week. I have some ideas up my sleeve to make it interesting and fun. Happy Friday everyone.

Still here

So my blogs posting is not going exactly as I planned, although I have been sewing up a storm. I just haven't stopped to document my creations yet. Ella's nursery is painted and I love it, just a few more things to get and it will be ready for her when she arrives in 7 weeks. I can't believe how fast the time has flown by. Hopefully I will get the rest of my to do list finished in the next month and then start posting regularly, well that's the at least the goal. I thought I should pop on and at least let you know that at some point soon I will be blogging again but for now I need to finish my to do list before Ella gets here. Hope you are all doing well and I can't wait to share everything with you.

Nursery phase one

Today I started painting the Dr. Seuss mural in the nursery and I have to say I was a little scared at first that it wouldn't come out the way I envisioned it. I am pleasantly surprised thus far, I have Horton traced and painted gray and thing 1 and thing 2 traced and painted. Here is how it looks so far hope you all like it as much as I do.


That is the end result after my hard day of work. Here are some photos of how it all started this morning.
The top photo is the outline of thing 1 and thing 2 and the bottom is Horton not quit all the way painted.

Thing 1 and thing 2 with just their awesome blue hair painted. Finally getting somewhere.

Horton all painted gray, yippie. Now he just needs facial features and and outline, that will come later.
Thing 1 and Thing 2 with the rest of their bodies painted in. I will added their faces and lettering on their stomach next. Can't wait to see the finished product. I still need to draw the lorax trees and the balloon from oh the places you'll go and paint those. Lots of work to be done but progress if being made. I will keep you all posted on the progress. I leave you with one more photo of the progress thus far.

Oh yeah and I still need to paint the rest of the grass on the bottom of the wall but that's easy work :). The other 3 walls of the nursery are going to be light and darker green stripes. Hope you have a great Wednesday and I will be sure to post phase two when it's complete.

I'm back

We'll it has really been too long since I've made a post, but what can I say I've been a busy lady. Lots of things have happened in the past few months, I have no projects to share on this post but, soon there will be lots of fun posts for you to enjoy and maybe even a few tutorials. So here is a few of the things that have been occupying my time recently.

1. I'm pregnant, whoop!! It's a girl, she is due Dec. 5th I can't wait to meet her.
2. Getting the nursery ready, we decided to go with a Dr. Seuss theme tomorrow I'm going to start painting the mural. I'm excited and a little nervous I really hope it turns out like I picture it.
3. Making diaper bags, blankets, toys, and clothes for my little girl.
4. Deciding on a name for her, I think we finally decided on Ella Sophie we are still trying out but so far its the winner.
5. Researching baby items, who knew there was so much stuff you could get for such a small person. I had no idea.

Here is our little bundle of joy for your viewing pleasure, be careful not to look to long she is super cute.

This is Ella's side profile at 19 weeks. She is so cute I can't wait to get to hold her. Oh and before I forgot one more update as of last Friday I am officially a stay at home mom to be, it's going to be an exciting new world for me and I can't wait. I hope everyone is having a great week and hopefully I will have some crafty updates soon.

It's been a while...

Well thus far my new year, new me goals have not been doing well for my blog. The good news is I have lots to post about for the next month. I still have Christmas gifts to post about, teaching my mom to sew a bungalow bag, my first craft fair (well actually a flea market) but, well get to that one later this month, and I will also be opening up an Etsy store this month called sewn shenanigans. Hopefully I can get back into action with my sewing and scrapbook projects and start keeping my posts up to date. So for today's post I am going to finish up the Christmas gifts since it is April and all. So first up is a tie that I made for my husband Mike,


Surprisingly it was not as hard to make as I thought, it was a little bit harder to deal with silk vs. cotton but, all in all I think my first tie turned out okay. The important thing is that Mike seems to like it, since he wore it to work I'm not sure if that's because he felt obligated or because he actually like it but, I am counting it as a victory.

I am missing photos of the weekend travel bag that I made for my mother and grandmother for Christmas. It is an Amy Butler pattern, I made one for myself about a year ago

The fabric I used for my bag is also by Amy Butler it is part of her Nigella line. The fabrics I used for moms back was also by Amy Butler and is part of her August Fields line,


For my grandmothers was by Joel Dewberry Ginseng collection,

Both turned out beautifully and I debated keeping them for myself :), but I didn't.

The final Christmas gift I want to share are the place mats, napkins, and table runner that I made for my parents, well mainly my mother since I don't think my dad is really into table decor but, lets not get caught up in the tiny details.




They pattern for the place mats and napkins are from Amy Butler's In Stitches book, and the pattern for the table runner is by Anna Banana. The fabric is from the Moda fabric Fandango line. I'm not sure how well you can see this is the photos but everything is reversible including the runner which is not pictured, the back of the runner is the green fabric on the front side of the place mats. I hope you enjoyed seeing the rest of the Christmas gifts, finally and as always if you have any questions feel free to ask.

new year, new me

This year I started my own version of Cathy Zielske's tales from the scale or move more, eat less as she now calls it. Thus far I think it is going pretty well, I have started regularly attending the spinning, dance jam, and yoga classes at the gilruth which is the gym that is on site at JSC. I have also tried to run once a week so my workout schedule is Monday - Dance Jam (hip hop, jazz, fun cardio class), Tuesday Spinning (cardio hell), Wednesday - Yoga JAM (which is yoga for young people, or not your mama's yoga), Thursday - there is a spinning class but I haven't built up the butt and inner thigh muscle strength to attend two classes a week yet. After my first two classes I thought I was never going to be able to walk right again, but it is gradually getting easier, I said easier don't mistake that for easy. Thursday is currently one of my off/rest days until I build up more butt strength, Friday -Sunday I run one day and try to do Jillian Micheal's 30 day shred one day.

All in all it makes for a busy workout week, but after doing it for over a month I find myself looking forward to my workouts, who would have thought definitely not this gal. Thought I would share the torture, oh wait the fun I have been having this past month and maybe inspire so of you all to make it your year to get fit too.

And now for the creative part of today's post I am going back to Christmas and going to share my first dress with you all. While it is not perfect I think for my first dress its not too bad at all. I used the Eclair pattern - from Colette patterns you can check out the link to see their dress, this is the dress that I wore for Christmas eve mass, I love the color combo.


I also made the cute flower that is on my cardiagan, I made one for myself, my mom and my grandma all to wear to mass on Christmas eve and here we are all looking wonderful


The fabric I used for the dress was a pink,red and black silk and the sash is a dark gray rough silk/stain fabric. The flowers are as spin off of the flowers mom and I made at spark in Janet Hopkins class. The main flower is from house of three Parisian anthology line and then I sprayed it with several layers of dark red, pink, and purple glimmer mist to get the desired color.

I have also decided to try and attempt to make one crafty sewing project every two weeks, and one card or scrapbook project a week starting in march so we'll how that goes, if it works out you can look forward to plenty more blog posts I'm sure you are all busting at the seems with excitement. Have a great rest of the weekend and I hope you are inspired to complete the goals you set for yourself this year.

Papertry Ink color challenge

Thinking of you


I chose the ripe avocado, ocean tide, vintage cream, dark chocolate color combo which is my favorite. Hope everyone is having a great Wednesday, if you would like to participate in the color challenge at PTI check here for the info http://nicholeheady.typepad.com/capture_the_moment/papertrey-color-challenge.html

Card time

I stopped doing my regular stampin up card class every month a while back, and it has finally happened.. my card stash is dwindling. So I finally busted out all of those stamp sets I've been hoarding, you know what I'm talking about all the stuff you buy each month to meet the $25 minimum that sits in a room somewhere collecting dust. Because since you makes cards once a month what is the point of breaking out your own stash and doing them. Well I have finally broke down and made some cards for my mother in law Pattie who is currently living in Nigeria, and I am also going to start making some for myself as soon as I get my purse finished.

These photos are of the cards that I made for Pattie,

Birthday cards

Fun cards

It's kind of hard to tell in the photo but that is a cute little bra stamp, it says thanks for all your support.

How cute is that little beetle, love it.

Thinking of you card, Mile's favorite


If you are like me and have a stash of stamps or craft supplies sitting around collecting dust, bust them out and use them. You never know they may just inspire you.