Alphabet magnets...

I needed some more kitchen magnets. I'm not a fan of collecting all of the local pizza parlors and Realtors magnets that are easy to come by. I thought it would be cute to make some alphabet ones... mainly for a fun, clean look.

I did the ole' clear stone magnet trick. Simple enough. I used the font another typewriter and cut out circles around all the letters. Glued them on, glued the stone on top... voila!!!

You can use them to spell out words....

or not!

Very fun, easy to do project!

Supplies...

- You can get all of the supplies from Michael's craft store. The little bag of rocks has more rocks then you could possibly ever need (you can get these at Walmart too).

- This glue is the best for this project because it can glue glass and is totally clear. It's called Quick Grip.

- I printed the letters onto card stock because if you use regular paper then the glue will show through and make the paper look too thin.

B&B Carnival...

Our good friend Brook got married over the weekend. She had a fun carnival wedding which turned out really cute so I wanted to show it here.

Cute sign welcoming you to the carnival...

Buckets full of ice and drinks as the center pieces...

Fun wedding cake made by my talented sister in law Arianne...

The yummiest carmel apples that I've ever had in my life!!! My favorite was the Cinnamon sugar ones... oh so yummy!!!

Here is the beautiful bride!!! Congratulations Brook!!! We love you!

Strange??? Perhaps...

This might seem like a strange post... but I was asked a question recently that made me feel like I should write about this. Someone mentioned to me that it's a little strange that I am making things for babies in the wake of losing my baby? Some of you might have thought that same thought, but not wanted to ask. So I'm going to answer it...

I make things for babies because I love making things for babies. What is cuter than a little baby hat, or booties, or little onsie? Not much really! Yes, I am in the wake of losing my baby, but there are lots of people in my life that I love so much who are being blessed with babies, and I want to be a part of that. It may seem strange but it's been very therapeutic for me, so that is why I do it.

You know, I went through this period of time when I really wanted to have a baby and could not for the life of me get pregnant. That was a really hard time. I was pretty envious of people who were having babies and I felt bad that I felt that way. Then one day I had a realization.... there were lots of babies and kids in my life that I could love. I have the most adorable nieces and nephews, my friends have cute kids. These are all kids that are a part of my life and you know, an "aunt" can give love to a kid in a way that no one else can (come on, we all know it's true). I decided then that I would quit wasting my time and energy being mad that I didn't have kids yet and start loving the kids that were in my life. I'm so glad that I had that realization. And as fate would have it, shortly after that I found out I was pregnant with my son Tru. Funny how things happen that way right?

I may not have a little newborn, but I have a baby who is becoming more and more boy and less baby each day. I make things for him too. I generally don't care what people think about me, but I wanted to say something about this. It may seem strange, but I love making things and sharing my talents with others, baby item or not.

I also want to thank those of you who still let me share in your lives, your happiness, your family and your babies!!! You'll get cute things out of it.... promise!

Baby leg warmers in the shop...

I just added a handful of baby leg warmers to the shop. I think these will only fit babies up to 12 months, so if you are interested in some larger ones for toddlers let me know!

(and no... I won't be making any adult pairs.... EVER.... so don't even ask ;)).

Thread box...

I've been wanting a thread box to organize my thread... but I wanted one I could hang on the wall to keep little hands off of it.

So what once started as a wooden wine box from Costco (meaning, it was free...) and some wooden skewers...

...is now a thread box!

I love it! Nice and simple. I thought about painting some type of pattern on the back, but I couldn't make up my mind as to what I wanted. Plus, I'm haven't totally decided how to decorate my sewing room yet so I left it white.

Plus I think that the colorful thread makes it's own pretty decoration.

- I had my hubby saw off the top half of the box so that it wasn't as deep.

- Then I stained the outside of the box with a dark mahogany stain.

- We measured out where we wanted the pegs and hubby again drilled all of the holes.

- I measured and cut all of the little sticks (this was the biggest pain of all).

- Paint the inside of the box white, insert sticks, paint them white and there you have it!

More cupcakes...

I did a little custom order for my friend. I sewed the cupcakes onto textured card stock and printed out the information underneath. I think they turned out really cute! She's going to frame them in some shadow boxes... too cute!

5 more days...

5 more days to order a tree at the discounted rate of $12!!!

Just a little reminder for you tree lovers out there...

White dish towels...

I recently took Stephmodo's advice and threw out all of my old, stained, mismatched, did I mention OLD dish towels and bought all new white ones. I can't even believe the difference! Seriously!!! I almost didn't do it because technically the old ones weren't unusable... but they didn't make the kitchen look sharp, that's for sure. I'm loving it, I actually want to dry the dishes now. It really does brighten up the kitchen.

Just a heads up I found the best variety and cheapest options at Walmart. Don't even try Target! Not worth the search!

Now for those old potholders...

Finished tree mural...

Ahhh... it's finally done. I tried to pick a tree that was pretty basic and didn't have too much detail... but it still took forever! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. There were a few times that I was tempted to just forget about it and paint over the whole thing... I'm happy with how it turned out!


Here is where I got the inspiration for the tree...

Cutest model ever...

I can't even tell you how happy seeing this picture made me today. Isn't this the cutest little guy ever! I didn't ruin the surprise apparently, this baby can use some baby leg warmers up where he lives... at least in a few months! You make cute kids Christina!

Little tree forest...

Well, I made some more... I love these cute little onsies! Here is a little forest of green ones. I'm still trying to figure out the best kind of stabilizer to put on the back... so if any of you have any suggestions let me know! These trees have already been adopted... so I hope that everyone who got one doesn't see it here first!

Husband is out and has my camera.... so that's a little sad. I hope that he is taking good care of it. I finally finished the tree in my little boy's room today so pictures of that to come!

Nature Jewelry...

I'm not a big jewelry wearer but I've been eyeing some amazing pieces that I found on Etsy... all nature related... oh they are so pretty...

This bird nest necklace from E. Ria Designs is lovely...

Then there is this antler necklace from Kiska Style... I'm loving this one too.

I've had my eye on this leaf ring from Silver Garden forever....

The shop is opened...

Well, the shop is now open again! I'm going to offer my little trees for $5 off the original price from now until August 31. So if you want one now is the time to order!

I have a few new things that I'm working on to go into the shop. Come September they should be ready to go!

naturallymeg.etsy.com

Little girl onsies...

I have a friend who is having a little girl soon so I made these onsies for her. This is my second time sewing on onsies and it shows ;)... but I think they turned out pretty cute...

This one is my favorite... a sweet little tree.

I got the idea for this one from Scraps and Whatnot... I had to try out this tulle cupcake. How cute! However... the cupcake is crooked... but I'm not going to fix it... better luck next time cupcake!

Sewing is my garden...

When I started up this "crafting" blog I had so many great ideas and intentions. I could not have picked more horrible timing... that's for sure. The same time I opened up my little shop and started blogging on here I found out I was pregnant, had a horrible pregnancy filled with complications, and experienced the end result of losing my little boy at 21 weeks. The past few months since his birth and death have been very hard, confusing, sad, depressing, and heart wrenching for me.

I am feeling a little bruised at this point... but full of a lot of hope.

My mother in law lost a little baby when she was six months old to SIDS. A few weeks ago one of my sister in laws told me that the only way that their mom found to deal with her grief was to garden. She loved to work in the garden. The long peaceful hours in the sun spent digging with her hands in the dirt, creating something beautiful and wholesome. I've been thinking about that a lot lately... what is my garden? What can I dig my hands into to help me work through this grieving process? I can't actually "garden" in this little condo that we live in... but I can sew.

I love sewing. I love how it feels to hear the hum of the machine going... to feel the fabric slip through your fingers. To create something beautiful from nothing... I don't sew as much as I would like to. The times where I have sat down to sew I feel something stir inside of me that I've been ignoring and suppressing since I've become a mom... me.

So I've decided that sewing will be my garden. I have so many projects that I want to make and create and work on that I haven't been able to do this year because of everything that has happened. I'm ready to dust off my machine and get to work.

I'm going to be opening my Etsy shop back up in a few days and I'm really excited about that. I'm ready to get to work and start creating again... and that feels really good.