boy vs. pancake

Casey made pancakes for the kids on Saturday morning. While we were all distracted, Kelby spied the last one still sitting on the counter. After deliberating over what to do, he found himself something to stand on and dug right in.

I can see these photos on a scrapbook page very soon :) Little stinker.

Speaking of scrapbooking, I made this page for Natalie's book on Friday night at a friend's house. This was right after she was potty-trained (at 3 & 3 months!) and she looks sooooo little to me in these pics!!! I enjoyed her then, but I sure am enjoying her now too, as a big girl :) *sigh*


I had a just a couple of comments on the latte-making, so today I took some pics of the process and will post a little how-to tomorrow! Have a good snow-day, any fellow Coloradans!

like list

I'm back with yet another list of things that are making my happy lately :) Hope you enjoy!

1. My new stove-top espresso maker. I stopped drinking drip coffee and now I only make lattes for myself here at home. I had a cheap aluminum one of these (that I've blogged about before) but I ordered a new stainless steel one and am really enjoying it! (It's this one.) And, since I don't eat refined sugar, I thought I'd share some natural options with you. You can use any combination of the following, along with a packet of Truvia (or other Stevia product): cinnamon, cocoa powder, vanilla extract, peppermint extract, or any other extract you think would taste good for that matter. I like to sprinkle some cinnamon on top too. Mmmm. I could share an entire home-latte-making tutorial here if anyone expresses interest :)

2. This book, Freedom of Simplicity by Richard Foster. I have enjoyed his books before, so I knew I would like this one. Here's a quote:

" Jesus Christ and all the writers of the New Testament call us to break free of mammon lust and live in joyous trust. Their radical criticism of wealth is combined with a spirit of unconditional generosity. They point us toward a way of living in which everything we have we receive as a gift, and everything we have is cared for by God, and everything we have is available to others when it is right and good. This reality frames the heart of Christian simplicity. It is the means of liberation and power to do what is right and to overcome the forces of fear and avarice." (p. 58)

3. Tulle on a Spool. Have you seen this?? I needed a little bit of tulle to make a Groovy Girl tutu and this spool was perfect. It comes with something like 35 yards! and I have great plans for the rest of it already.

...Such as some skirts like these ones, perhaps? (from Old Navy)

4. Magpie Patterns! I stumbled on this site the other day and ordered both a crochet pattern and a Princess and the Pea embroidery pattern. Since they were pdf files, I downloaded them right away and didn't pay shipping, obviously. Great site and awesome that they support artists like that.

5. I'm looking forward to celebrating my boy along with MADE through the month of February. It's only the 2nd and I already want to make everything she's posted so far for Kelby :) Lots of giveaways, tutorial and general boy inspiration. Super fun.

6. Last night's dinner. YUMMMMY! I had some deli pastrami in the freezer, so I pulled it out and started looking for sandwich ideas online. The first one I clicked on was an Emeril recipe (with beer, of course :) and it was REALLY good. I would type it out, but why would I do that when I can just direct you here? Also, after I took the meat out, I spooned some of the marinade into a skillet and sauteed some julienne zucchini slices in it. Again, YUM. Casey loved it all, which means it was a success :)

7. Last, but not least, some new music I've been enjoying:

• Layla (Unplugged) by Eric Clapton (We got Layla's name from this song. Casey used to play and sing it on his guitar and my sister reminded me recently that Layla had never actually heard it!)
  
• Hey, Soul Sister by Train
• I Love by the Avett Brothers
• Turn Back Around by Lucy Schwartz
• Lay 'Em Down by Needtobreathe
• Hymn by Brooke Fraser
• Angel of the Morning by Blackman & the Butterfly
• What I Wouldn't Do by A Fine Frenzy
• Bird of the Summer by A Fine Frenzy
• Everybody by Ingrid Michaelson
• Fireflies by Owl City

There ya go! If you read this far, thanks for sticking with me :) I'm off to eat a leftover pastrami sandwich!

just for fun

Life is carrying on as usual at our house. We had a minor bug last week and since we weren't feeling very well, things were a bit relaxed--in a good way. I forgot to show you these pot holders I made for my friend Becky's birthday. She had seen the ones I posted earlier last month and requested some brown, turquoise and lime green ones. I was happy to oblige :) Pot holders are such great gifts--they are fast and fun and use up scraps. Although, after I made two of these blocks, I was imagining how fabulous an entire quilt of these would be. I mean, come on, she's on a VESPA! ;) Awesome.


I've been plugging away at some Groovy Girl clothes for Natalie for her birthday (pictures to come) but I need to buy some tulle scraps for the tutu so I sort of came to a stand still. SO, I used the time to make this little crochet hook cozy! I checked out Sew Darn Cute from the library, just for this project and I finally got around to it. I love it, it will make crochet even more fun...cause everything's more fun when it's cute, right??


It fold up into a little wallet. This project was fast, it only took about an hour from start to finish. There are some other great projects in the book too, just FIY :)


Yesterday I took this picture of Casey and Natalie. I think it's so sweet. He's really good about letting the kids in on whatever he's doing, even if they waller him. (I don't think that's actually a word, but you know what it means, right?)


Then, since I'm determined to get on the other side of the camera more this year, I asked Casey to grab the camera and get a shot of Kelby's cuddliness :) He's my most affectionate baby by far.


I know this post is getting long, sorry :) but I want to share this pic of my friend Kellye and I. We met while living in Georgia, just before our husbands were deployed to Iraq. She was in Colorado for the weekend and we were able to spend a day together for the first time in more than five years! It was so much fun, we did some reminiscing and I've been thinking a lot about our Georgia days. Isn't it funny how you can think you want life to change so badly, but when it does, you immediately miss the way things were?? That's the way it was for me when we left there. I missed it almost immediately, in so many ways. All this to say, reflecting on that has convicted me to try and truly live where I'm at and embrace my situation, whatever it may be (which, when I'm honest with myself, has always been pretty good.) Thanks for the awesome Saturday, Kellye, I hope it happens again sometime :)

family drawing

On Tuesday night, we had our first family drawing time! I first read this idea in Soule Mama's book, The Creative Family and the girls have been wanting to draw with Daddy for awhile. We all enjoyed it so much that we did it again the next night...and I think Casey wants to do it again tonight!




This is Natalie's rendition of her, Layla and Kelby. Cute :)


And here's my version of our family. I'm no good at scale, that's why I revert to cartoons, where the heads can be way bigger than the bodies and nobody cares :) Natalie tried to finish my picture for me, as you can see on part of Layla's neck and shoulder. If only she'd used the other side of the marker! Oh, well, I'll smile now whenever I look at it :)


And, my husband!!!! Look how talented he is! I knew he used to like to draw, but seriously? I didn't know he could do this. He said he didn't know either :) Casey's into this drawing thing. Tonight he's going to try Layla. I'm going to have so much awesome artwork for our house! :)


I guess he comes by it honestly though, because his Dad was an amazing artist. He drew this little guy in 1974. We have several other of his drawings. I'll try to share more next time I post about our drawing time.

In the meantime, you should try it, it's SUPER fun for everyone. Except the baby, since he was supposed to be sleeping, but protested by getting his PJ's and diaper off without unzipping them! Ninja.

quick fix for tired elastic

We recently bought Kelby some pants at a thrift store, but I later realized that the elastic on this pair was shot and there was no way they'd stay up. Soooo, after some thinking about it, I came up with a simple fix. Here's a tutorial of sorts...


Measure the actual size of the waistband and cut a strip of fabric that length by the width of the waistband plus one inch. I cut mine 2" wide. Also, measure your kiddo's waist, or if they are napping like mine was :) measure the waistband of a pair of pants that fits well. Cut your 1" wide elastic this length. Press the short ends of your fabric under a quarter inch, then press the long sides in slightly less than half an inch, so it looks like this...


Next, turn your pants inside out and sew your fabric strip onto the inside of the waistband, staying close the the pressed edges, like so...
(The pressed-under short ends should almost meet.)


Thread your elastic through the new casing with a large safety pin. Overlap the ends of the elastic and stitch them together. No need to stitch the casing ends together, since you turned the raw edges under.


Turn the pants right side out and there ya go! Done and done.


Lastly, put the pants on your little one and take a picture of the cute toosh :)


Thanks, Mom. But this won't stop me from taking all these clothes off like a ninja at nap time and peeing all over my bed....again.

girls night :)

Yep, Archivers again :) I got three pages done, but next time I'm aiming for four, that would be a record-breaker for me :)



After I finish the younger two kids' first year albums, I'm going to start combining all the pages into one big album, since many of the pictures are of all the kids together anyway. I'm getting closer to getting caught up, yay!

While we were there, there was an announcement made that you can donate supplies and paper that you no longer want or need during the month of January and it will all be given to Judi's House, a charity that helps kids get through tragic circumstances (death of a parent, etc...) SO, I'm excited to go through my stuff and give some away. If you're a Denver-area scrapbooker, you should too ;)

my new cynthia rowley dress ;)

It's Sew & Tell Friday again and I have a great new dress to show for it this week :)

This is a Simplicity pattern designed by Cynthia Rowley and I am so excited that it turned out so well! It's a knit dress, which makes some of us nervous, but I have a few knit-tips to share if you're interested.

1. Use a stretch (AKA ball point) needle!!!! I can't stress this enough, sewing on knits can be sooo frustrating without the right needle.
   
2. Use a stretch stitch on your machine. Mine looks kinda like a lightening bolt, but a really narrow zig-zag would work fine. This stitch may take longer, but it will give the seams some "give" so you won't be popping seams when putting it on.
   
3. Take your time and if you have to use the seam ripper do so very carefully.
   
4. Buy GOOD knits. This fabric (60" wide) was only $3.50 a yard at JoAnn plus I had a 1/2 off coupon so good knits aren't expensive. Don't buy knits at Wal-Mart, in other words :) If all it does is roll up wherever you cut it, it's not going to work very well.
   

There ya go, for what it's worth!

P.S. I know the pic is fuzzy. I had to take it myself because Casey is out of town and so it focused on the hat behind me :) whoops.

Craft Hope for Haiti

I am thrilled to be writing this post! I know most crafty bloggers probably already know about Craft Hope for Haiti, but I want to encourage your involvement even more! Craft Hope has opened up an Etsy shop for crafters who want to give to the relief efforts in Haiti. I read on another blog this morning that since it opened (just before the weekend, I believe) it has already raised over $7000, all of which is goes directly to Doctors without Borders. I just donated these two baby blankets and if YOU would like to donate an item, here is all the information you need. If you cannot donate, visit the Craft Hope for Haiti Etsy store and go shopping!!!! :) Tragedies like this may seem too big for us at times, but this is a way we can feasibly help, so thanks to everyone working hard at Craft Hope. It's a hage undertaking, but we are thrilled to have a way to contribute.