Link Love

so, i totally feel like a biter right now. i've seen alot of blogs doing this link love thing and i'm totally joining in. i guess i just feel like it would be a great way for you to see what i love to look at and also the things that keep me awake during naptime because i can't stop thinking about how much i want to make them myself.

so here it goes:

this print makes me want to abandon the whole car theme track i'm on in my son's room and make it a space theme. (see above)

going to be using this as a resource when i start my garden for canning all my fruit and veggies. (*crossing my fingers that i don't kill everything!*)

REALLY want to munch on this today.

if i could plan my wedding all over again it would look like this. i love all the natural colors.

too bad i don't live in SanFran or i could be THISCLOSE to fulfilling one of my Thirty Before Thirty with this.

i guess i'll make my own CAKESTAND!

i'll be printing these so my son will think i'm the best mom in the world when he gets up from rest time.

this book is infuriating, heart-breaking, and gut wrenching. i am on my knees for these kids and their cities. Lord, come quickly.

can i please be bold enough to do this to a wall in my house? and does it come in removable, cause we are renters?

thank you, Melissa, for being honest about your post baby belly. my second baby is 2 1/2 and i'm still struggling. p.s. you look good.

ok, that was fun. hope you like all the things i like.

GIVEAWAY: love banner

ok people. i need your help. i'm thinking about either opening up an ETSY store or trying to sell some premade banners locally. what i need from you is if there is still a market for these (do you want one?) and if i were to make a custom one for you what would you want it to say? 

in exchange for said help i will give you this. made in mind for a baby girl's room, but you could really put it anywhere you'd like. 

GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED. all you have to do is become a follower of my blog and leave a comment on this post with your answer and i will randomly pick a winner by monday, february 28th, 2011 at 2:00pm. make sure to leave your email address or someway i can contact you if you end up winning. good luck!

if you want to see some other ones i've made in the past you can click here, here, here, and here. 

thanks friends, i REALLY appreciate your help!

and the winner is: LEAH OHLSON!!! congratulations!! please email me your home address so i can mail it out to you.

thirty before thirty

or 20. depends on if you're a glass half empty/full kind of person. i'm choosing to see it full at the moment because i can't think of anything else to add to the list am such an optimist. 

i recently turned 29 in november and there is a strange pressure building up. it could be the other blogs that i've seen with cool countdowns and i feel the pressure to be cool OR the fact that i have 56878356878 things i'd like to change slash do and doing it before 30 seems like a good goal. whatevs.

so here it is:

• get out of financial debt. living debt free so we can go on a sweet vacation be better stewards of our money and give more is our numero uno goal this year.
• make a habit out of reading the bible, daily.
• print and frame 4 years worth of family photos.
• find a good school for big A. this needs to happen in two months. eek.
• loose my pooch & love handles. shut up.
• make good Pho from scratch.
• train for and run a 1/2 marathon.
• get my business license. 
• get one more tattoo.
• have a date night with my mr. at least twice a month.
• plant a garden.
• start saving for a real vacation. because joining my mr.'s band when they play at camps with our kids is NOT a vacation. 
• make love to my husband everyday for 30 days.
• be more consistent about being mentored by my mentor. 
• become a mentor. 
• make affirming my mr. a natural habit.
• give my kids more of my presence, daily.
• monthly grocery shopping.
• learn calligraphy.
• make good tamales from scratch.

finish ongoing projects: (this is where the extra 10 come in)

• felt aquarium shower curtain for kids bathroom.
• spray paint school chairs for big A's room.
• create more "art" for the house
• big A's granny square blanket. because what boy doesn't want a granny square blanket at any given point in their lives? 
• little a's bubble crochet blanket. 
• little a's dresser.
• big a's dresser. 
• pillows for living room.
• little a's name story
• curtains for the living room.

not in that order. except #1. i'll make sure to update on my progress on each of these items. this is good accountability.

calligraphy photo found here.

Tea for Three

my mr. is the director of worship at the well community church. once in a while he has to do what they call the "iron man", which is all 4 services + the midweek service on wednesday nights. on days like this my kids are in rare form; throwing crazy fits, fighting with each other, down right disobeying me... most of it has to do with the fact that we start the day out rushing out the door to church and i'm a drill sergeant because there is no room for dilly-dallying. but i also know they love their daddy and have a hard time understanding why he has to work some nights. 

tonight was one of those nights. so to make this night a little more fun i decided to do a tea party for the three of us. i broke out the mini dishes we got from IKEA that i won't let them use because i'm afraid they will break them. so really, its like our fine china. i made chicken salad finger sandwiches, soup, and served tea and strawberry scones for dessert. the kids loved it. 

 sorry about the terrible quality of the pictures. it was dark out and my lighting was bad. as much as i love photography, it is just not my thing. 

 cutest mini cream and sugar set on earth.

 like my glass domes? i'm totally in love with them. i found 3 (!) of them at Goodwill for $3 each. score.

 and those beautiful vintage footed rosette crystal plates were a gift from my amazing stepmom. she is always finding cute stuff at antique stores for me! 

 the domes are a perfect fit! i would also love to get some tree trunk slices to use as "everyday" bases and make them into terrariums filled with felt mushrooms. another project to add to the list? YES! the crystal will just be for special occasions. like our tea parties.

 cheers!

 um, this is just amazing.

superman (who is really spiderman, who is really peter parker), mommy, and the princess/ballerina. duh.

 you know you wanna come over and have tea with us. we would love it. any reason to break out the IKEA china. 

Jesse & Holly: MARRIED!

FINALLY, some paper. 

i have the privilege of knowing some awesome people. in that lump of awesome people are holly and jesse. i knew holly first, we met 5 years ago when she started singing for my mr.'s band. she has managed to make both of my kids, at separate times and for totally different reasons, fall in love with her. and me, and countless other people. then came Jesse. and he snatched her up! separately these two are some extraordinary people. but together, now that is something special. i can't wait to see what this couple brings to those who love them. 

so, i love them. and they love each other. and that love was made forever through some pretty awesome covenant vows that my mr. and i had the privilege of witnessing on saturday. it was a beautiful wedding. and i got to be a part of it in a small way. this is how.

holly and jesse really wanted something vintage and travel related. so i recreated an old telegram for their invitation card.

she didn't really give me much more input other than those two objectives and the wedding details, so i kind of just went for it. i loved the map i made for heather & aaron's wedding so much that i made a similar one for holly. something about vibrant colors on brown paper bag make me swoon.

since they created a wedding website for people to RSVP i whipped up about 10 of these little postcards for the few people she didn't think would have access to internet. i printed them from home, so the quality is not as nice as everything else i outsourced, but i love the design.

ah, the wrap around label. i push for these with almost every client because they are SO. MUCH. FUN. thankfully they went for it and i added some old school air mail stripes and a little dingbat to give them a vintage touch. 

 i love this wedding invitation suite and i hope you do to!

Refashioned Boy's Pants

i am so excited about these pants. i feel like such a rockstar. i MADE PANTS. ok, sort of. in a round-about way. i chopped up men's pants and shrunk them down into a size 4 boy's pants. 

double rainbows. 

i love the internet. it is chalked full of useful tutorials. like this one. and the even greater thing is that if there is a sewing technique i haven't heard of or know how to do, like blind stitching, you can just look up a sweet video on You Tube and learn how to do it. right then and there. lickity split. johnny on the spot. 

 i must say, these pants were pretty easy to make. the longest part was deconstructing the pants. the tutorial suggests choosing pants that look pretty easy to take apart, but true to i-like-to-make-everything-harder-"because-i-work-better-in-stressful-situations" form, i chose pants according to the color with LOTS of pleats and crazy seams to deconstruct.

 after hours of seam ripping i was able to get down to business.

 (this is his "serious model" face)

 i was right on track and had it all under control, when right at the end as i'm reattaching the waist line (the thickest part of the sewing) my needle breaks, shoots me in the neck, and my sewing machine got all cranky and made a bad sounding noise that i was sure could never be fixed. F. so i panicked, almost cried, then almost shouted some real profanity, then i called my dad. and he walked me through fixing it with his mad sewing machine repair skills. love you dad. big hug. little kiss. (Xo)

the amazing part was that after i finished all the final touches and tried them on my son, with one eye open, THEY FIT! perfectly.

i can't wait to post pictures of him looking so cute, walking down the isle at Holly & Jesse's wedding (which i also made the invitations for and will be post pictures of NEXT WEEK! i love them and i think you will too.) yay.

for now, i am done sewing. i am officially retiring from my sewing career. but like every true rockstar i will probably come out of retirement when i feel like it.

Refashioned Boy's Vest

dudes.

last week i took my sewing skills from beginner to intermediate. all thanks to my late grandma and the internet.

it all started with our sweet friend, Holly-licious, and her upcoming nuptials. we've known Holly Lolly for-ev-er. she sings in my Mr.'s band, 330 Plan, and is all around awesome and talented. she recently asked if our son Big A would be able to be the ring bearer in her wedding and we were all super thrilled at the thought. thus began the search for a stylish little man vest and slacks for the wedding. off i went to every place on the face of the earth that sold children's clothing and found the perfect outfit the first time was out of luck. (seems they only carry fancy clothes during the holidays.) so i searched the internet and stumbled upon this sweet blog and the tutorial for refashioning men's pants into a boy's vest.

here is attempt #1:

read: this is not my son. in fact, it is my 2 YEAR OLD daughter, little a. i apparently did not measure anything correctly and instead of having a free vest (i used an old work skirt and some shorts that i decided didn't fit my husband right for this vest.) i had to go buy something to cut up since my Mr. didn't want me digging through his old perfectly good clothes.

attempt #2: off to the nearest thrift store for some pants on the cheap. $3 each. nice.

now that i'm such an experienced seamstress, i got it right. here is the only picture of my son i could get with him not being silly.

and here is his true personality. i love it!

i am truly grateful for my Grandma Shirley, who taught me how to sew when i was younger. she took the time and had patience. she showed me how to thread the bobbin, thread the sewing machine, and everything else. i never really used that skill very much, but am glad we had that time together. i can't wait to conquer my OCD with some basic sewing skills for my kids as soon as i'm they're ready. and yes, i will be teaching my son how to sew. whenever i'm in a bind and can't figure something out on my sewing machine, i call my dad. his first job was a sewing machine repair man when he was a teenager and i don't know what i would do without him.

but for reals, how do you mommy bloggers get such cute shots of your kids? i had to bribe him to model for me. i told him it was practice for the wedding and Hols wanted to see him in it before the wedding.

i'm pretty happy with the outcome. (picture me brushing something off my shoulder, with a proud look on my face.) (sidenote: why do we brush stuff off our shoulders when we're proud?? doesn't brushing stuff off our shoulders mean we have dandruff? i don't know about you but i would NOT be proudly brushing dandruff off my shoulders. sorry, back to the point...) i still need to finish the buttons but it fits him nicely and he looks so dapper. thank you endless resource for sewing tips, the internet.

next up: SLIM SLACKS, repurposed from men's pants.