Died...

Wow... so I've sort of let this blog die...

Time for a revival!!!

I feel bad, I have so many great ideas and things that I want to share on here but life has just been too crazy for me lately. I've decided though that I really need an escape from the crazy so I'm going to try harder to keep this blog alive and well... and my creative side.

So stay tuned... if you're still even around! The revival is coming...

Finished mirror...

Ahhh... I've been enjoying my new mirror all week! My hubby did a great job!

We couldn't find any little wooden caps for the "wooden nail" look so we ended up sanding down the edges of a wooden dowel and cutting off the little knobs and gluing them into the holes. That's love people!

Now to figure out how to refinish the fireplace!!! Tile it? Put molding around it? Not sure yet...

Mirror...

Husband is building me a mirror. Here's the story. A few weeks ago we painted our guest bathroom. There was this big ole' mirror on the wall that we took down and we put up a smaller framed mirror in it's place. So then we were left with this huge mirror sitting around for a few days. Husband decided to make me a mirror to go over our fireplace with it.





So we bought a glass cutter (just a little cheap tool that scores the glass so you can break it) and cut down the mirror to the appropriate size and husband built the frame with some wood we bought at Home Depot.





Here was our mirror inspiration from Pottery Barn...

This mirror retails for about $500... ours will be cashing in at around $30!!! That's awesome!

Ours has a thicker frame and is not quiet so rustic. We used new wood instead of refurbished wood but it still has that rustic feel which I love. I'm so excited... the stain is drying on it right now so I'll post up a picture when it's done!!!

I love a handy husband...

Knit Hats...

As life happens sometimes, I've had to change my plans for the next little while. On September 4th I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma and will be starting chemo therapy this week. Chemo every two weeks for the next six months is HUGE change of plans from what I thought I would be doing the next six months of my life...

I will be loosing my hair so I've also had a little change of plans as far as projects go. Long forgotten are the projects that I was planning on doing this fall and instead I've become a knitting bandit!!! I've been knitting like crazy trying to get some hats made to cover my soon to be bald head!! Here are the ones I've finished so far...

This is the first one I did and I sort of did it wrong ;). It's after the Spring Beret by Natalie Larsen that I found on Ravelry. I didn't get the whole "yarn over" stitch so it's not as lacey looking as it's suppose to be, but I think I'll wear it anyway!

Ahhh... this is what the previous hat is suppose to look like! Got it figured out now! Love this hat!

This gray hat I found the pattern for out of the Fall 2009 Vogue Knitting magazine. I really like how this hat turned out but it took FOREVER to make!! Size 3 needles make for a long long time knitting before you finish the project.

I didn't think that I would like this one as much as I do. It's just simple, easy, slouchy! I'm trying to go with the more slouchy look in neutral tones. Nothing that stands out too much. This pattern is called Bad Hair Day, also found on Ravelry.

That's what I have done so far! Still working on more. Sorry for the blurry pictures and crazy life going on in the background!

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!