I love my iPOD

My iPOD spends most of its time on my little player in my kitchen--the messiest room in our house :) They don't make cases that can stay on while the iPOD is on the dock and mine was getting things like little fingerprints and flour all over it all the time so I designed this little slip cover. It's shorter so it can stay on all the time. I'm mighty proud. Stay tuned for some of these coming soon to my Etsy shop, which, I know, I know, desperately needs an update!

Birthday Girl

My baby girl turned one yesterday!! We had a BIG day, a great party, some great presents and tasty cake. My butterfly cake turned out a little over-decorated, but still cute, I must say. Layla couldn't finish her piece, she eventually sat back and stuck her thumb in her mouth. The first picture here is of Layla looking at her scrapbook. She turns the pages and everything, she loves it. The last is a picture of the paint can my Aunt Teddi decorated for Layla's time capsule. We're still collecting items, but so far we have a pair of her shoes, a list of what things cost this year, a list of what's in style (written by the three teenage girls at the party, of course), some pictures, a post card from my parents from Singapore. Casey's going to write a prediction of what Layla will be like when she's 18 and I'm going to write a letter too. Anyone have any other ideas??

Happy New Year!!!!!

As promised, here is a picture of the scrapbook page I made last night. Yes, there's only one. sigh. But, there was fondue to be had and gals to chat with and birth stories to exchange. What would a girls' get-together be without birth stories??? Anyway, we had fun, but I regretted the late night this morning, since my kids woke up early like normal and my coffee pot stopped working on Sunday (can't have that, I exchanged it for a new one today.) Thankfully, New Years Eve only comes around once a year. Here are some pics of my sweet Layla girl too. Her New Years resolution is to grow some hair :) Natalie's is to learn to use the potty, hehehe. MY resolution this year is to keep in better touch with my out-of-state family members--sending pictures, cards and letters more often than I have in the past. My resolution last year was to cook dinner more and I kept my resolution for the first time in my life and now, miraculously, I really enjoy cooking and think I'm pretty good at it! What are your resolutions?? Pleeeease leave me a comment, I would love to know!

For my MIL

I made this journal cover for my lovely mother-in-law for Christmas. I used pre-quilted fabric and made my own bias binding. I had some instructions from a quilt magazine I had bought a few months ago. I think it's pretty great and she really liked it. Well, I think that wraps up my Christmas sewing, but I have some current projects in the works that I'll share soon.

Tonight I'm going to a girls' scrapbooking party at a friend's house while our hubbies are here at our house (with the sleeping babies) playing X-Box, so tomorrow I should have some great layouts to share. I'm not known for getting more than a few pages done over several hours, but I've fallen a little bit behind with the girls' books, so maybe I need to learn to speed it up a little! Anyway, around 11 pm, we're coming back here so we can watch the ball drop together and kiss our men at midnight. Hehehe.

More happy news, my Mom's in Spokane at my sister's house! Yay! (I've mentioned before, my parents live in Mongolia.) She'll be here with us in a couple of weeks, but for now, it's nice to chat with her every day while she's at Jana's.

Happy New Year's Eve everyone!!!!

For Jenn

Here is what I made Jenn for Christmas. I used this quilted fabric wallet tutorial and it came together so cool. I was only a tiny bit tempted to keep it for myself, hehehe ;) All these fabrics are from Heather Bailey, my favorite fabrics EVER.

On another subject, I've been reading the best book by Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness and it is really changing my life, so if anyone needs a good book recommendation, there ya go!

AND, there is a pretty funny Politically Correct Christmas greeting here. Happy Saturday everyone!

Finally...

...I can start posting the pics of the rest of the things I made for Christmas gifts! Yay! I'm starting with this puppet theater I made for my sister's kiddos. It hangs in a doorway by a tension rod and goes all the way to the floor (please overlook the bathroom scene in the background.) I got the instructions from Bend the Rules Sewing, by Amy Karol, one of my favorite sewing books ever. The puppets were a regular pattern made out of fleece scraps that I had on hand. It was not hard to make, I loooove how it turned out and they love it too. More to come tomorrow!

White Christmas!

Here are some pics of our Christmas morning! The first is of Christmas Eve, I guess. And the last is a video of Natalie making a snow angel. I don't know why it looks like a blank screen and I'm not enough of a techy to figure it out and fix it, but if you just push play, it really will be there :) Enjoy!

Merry Christmas, audio/visual style

Yay! Our first attempt at videos with our camera and it seems to have worked! The first is a pretty hilarious Christmas greeting from the girls, the second is of Layla walking. Merry Christmas to everyone, especially to Granny and Papa, who are in Mongolia this Christmas. We love you and miss you! Can't wait to see you soon.