House skirt...

It's so pickn' hot out here!!! I'm a jeans kinda girl but it is just too hot to wear jeans right now. So I decided to make a few skirts. I used Simplicity pattern #7229 and I am so in love with this skirt!

I bought some green light weight cotton knit a while ago from the dollar table at Walmart that I've just had sitting around and that's what I used and it's perfect. Super light, long enough that I can do anything I want in this skirt and it doesn't reveal anything and I don't feel like I have to "be careful" if you know what I mean. I'm not sure why I started calling it my house skirt, probably because I feel like super mom in this. I've suddenly reverted back to 1954 and it feels good to make dinner, bath the boy, sweep the floors all while wearing a skirt.

I also made one in brown ;). I highly recommend it! It was a very easy pattern with just a few seams, drawstring waist and two button holes. Sorry for the crummy picture. We have such bad lighting over here!

Log draft buster...

I finally finished the log draft buster that I talked about doing here. It's not as detailed and ornate as the original... but I love it! It does it's job and is a lot cuter to look at then a rolled up towel. Made from brown chords purchased from Salvation Army and stuffed with lots and lots of plastic grocery sacks!

Wild flowers...

We went on a drive a few weeks ago while we were camping. We found ourselves driving through a field of wild flowers. It was so beautiful! I don't like picking wild flowers because then they die and they just don't look as pretty dead as they do alive mixed in with all the other flowers and greenery. So I took a few pictures instead. I am by no means a photographer or even close, but I thought these turned out pretty well...

Father's Day book...

I know... I know... Father's Day was a while ago, but I wanted to post about this super cute book that I made for my husband for Father's Day.

I made this book a while ago, back when Oprah was doing her free book from Shutterfly promotion. So I only had to pay for the shipping. I made a book about my little boy and his dad to give for Father's Day...

I love it, my husband loves it too! It's mainly just about the cute things that they do together. Pictures of things they have done and cute moments between them. And what kid doesn't like to be the star of their own book? I love that they can read this together, good father son bonding time...

Mother's necklace...

I've been pretty absent from this craft blog for the last little while. Those of you who read my family blog already know my news, but those of you who don't I thought I would leave a little note here...

On May 15th I became a mother of two. I now have a 20 month old adorable toddler and a little baby who is in heaven...

I ordered this mother's necklace from JJewelry on Etsy. I wanted to wear something that reminds me of my two sons. On the front it has their initials, and on the back their birth dates.

We named our little boy Clayton and he was 1 lb and 11 inches long, born at 21 weeks.

Sleep peacefully little baby...

Tree mural...

I've been working hard the past little while on finishing up my sons room. The last little (kinda big) part I have to do is this tree mural on the wall. Good thing my friend Mindy is a muralist (is that a word?) She came over to help me draw the tree on the wall so that I could start painting. She did a great job, and she didn't even get mad at me when I told her after she drew out the tree that I wanted to move it over six inches... thanks Mind!

Here are a few things that I learned about murals...

- When you draw out the picture don't use a pencil. That's what I was planning on using but the pencil markings will show through the paint. Instead use a paint pen. You can get those at any craft store. Then you just paint over it! Don't worry if you draw where you don't want the picture, you can just paint over that with the regular wall paint.

- Also, hardware stores can sell you a little "sample" of paint that is just a few dollars. That way you don't have to buy a whole pint and have a lot left over.

Hopefully I can get this room put together soon and then I'll post up some pictures.

New Vase...

It was a great Mother's Day for me this year. Second year being able to celebrate such a great thing, being a mom. I hope that all of you other mother's out there had a great day as well!




My little guy gave me this pretty little vase (it's suppose to be a pitcher, but I'm going to use it as a vase.) I can't wait to fill it with some Billy Buttons when they come into season...

Woodland draft buster...

I love this Woodland Draft Buster that I saw over at Purl Bee. We have wood floors in our hallway and it makes for easily heard footsteps and creaking when trying to sneak past a certain toddlers bedroom. I've been putting a towel down in front of his door to try to muffle the sound but that's not very nice to look at everyday. This would be much cuter.

I also like her idea of stuffing it with plastic grocery bags...

Dry spell...

Thank you for all of the closet suggestions. I've decided for now to not paint the closets. Mainly because my list of stuff I want to do is ever growing and I'm getting worried about getting it all done. So the closets will stay the way that they are for now.

Also, I realize that this blog has been lacking. I've been a little uninspired lately, so I'm going to try harder to get the creative juices flowing again...

Closet question...

I want your opinion on something...

If you are re-painting a room do you re-paint the closet? I have a few rooms I'm going to paint and the new color is very different than the color it is now. Should I take the time to paint the closet or do I just leave it?

Photo from the Container Store

Stripes...

I'm pretty much in love with these little green and taupe stripped leg warmers I just finished. I can't wait to pull them up over some chubby baby legs...

Sproost...

My friend Ashley told me about this great Interior Design website called Sproost that has a test you can take to determine your own personal design style. I took this test a few months back and it said that I was 33% contemporary, 33% modern elegance, and 34% cottage chic. I was a little surprised by the results... because I like modern and contemporary but I do think that I'm a little more cottage chic.

I went back today and re-took the quiz. I was very serious this time, looked at the pictures and gave my true honest answer. This time it said that I was...

100% Rustic Revival

Amen... just look at this picture. I do love the mix of modern and country. I like solid clean colors. I like to throw in plants and prints here and there but this room feels like home to me. This is more of what I would like to achieve someday in my home. I would love to get a cow print rug (sorry animal lovers...) and put a set of antlers on the wall... as long as it was modern and classy and not cabin fever.

Go take the quiz! I think I'm going to have to re-take it again in a little while just to double check... it's fun!

Coconut Macaroons...

Oh man, these are the best cookies ever. If you like coconut that is. We are coconut fans over here and we can not get enough of these cookies. I was looking for a good macaroon recipe around Christmas time and found this one over at all recipes. I picked this one because it said that it had won many first place ribbons at the state fair... ya sounds like a good one to me! Also, I like to cook, but I have a hard time with recipes that have a million different ingredients in them. I like to keep things simple and this is a very simple recipe.

Coconut Macaroons

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
5 1/2 cups flaked coconut
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, coconut and salt. Stir in the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla using your hands until well blended. Use an ice cream scoop (or you know, a spoon) to drop dough onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about golf ball size.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until coconut is toasted.

*** I like to insert my own little goodness in here. I think that most things taste better dipped in chocolate (at least when it comes to cookies) so I like to melt some semi-sweet chocolate chips and dip the cookies in that. Then I put them in the fridge for the chocolate to harden. At Christmas we also dipped the chocolate part into little crushed up candy canes. Very sweet and good!

Baby leg warmers...

I finished my first set of baby leg warmers this weekend. The only problem was that I had to find a baby to try them on!!! I don't know of any newborns around here... so I had to wait till we saw Trent's sister to try them on her baby.
I think that they turned out pretty cute! I'm going to make little Amelia some that are a bit more girly.

Fancy Jean Quilt...

Holy cow... I have the most amazing sister in law. My SIL Nicole has more talent in her little finger than I will ever have in my whole body!!! Too bad she's too busy sewing up cool stuff to keep a blog huh (that and take care of her 3 1/2 kids...) She whipped up this amazing jean quilt for my other SIL's wedding shower that was on Saturday. By whipped up I mean she started this on Wednesday and had the whole thing done and ready to go Saturday morning. Unreal!

She used these adorable 1940's prints for all the squares. By the time I got my camera out they had already rolled most of the quilt so I didn't get a picture of the whole thing. But I was so impressed. She also brought a bowl of spring colored taffy to munch on while we tied... because all the colors were springy. She put my jean quilt to shame... However, this is not a competition! I love that I can get good ideas from her and she is constantly teaching me new things about quilting.