I resolve...

Yes... I know that it's almost the end of February.

However... I still want to talk about my New Year's resolution!

You see, I'm a big BIG resolution kind of a girl. I love them! I can't remember a year that has gone by that I did not make a bunch of really good resolutions and stick to them.

Until now that is... I had some good ones last year. I was going to do my 72 hour kits, food storage, organize every closet in my house, get a filing cabinet and do a full filing system (okay, I got this one done, but that's it)... the list goes on.

Then because of this and this, I pretty much spent the year in bed.

I'm still in bed, who am I kidding! I've been trying to think of something that I could "resolve" to do this year that would be fun, not something that will nag at me to get done all year. Seeing that I will be spending the next few months of my life being and recovering from being a "cancer patient" I wanted to go a little easy on myself.

So here it is... my New Year's Resolution for 2010...

I'm going to buy a new pair of shoes every month.

That's it folks. That's my resolution. I think that it's a great one! Why? Well, I'm the kind of girl who usually owns three pairs of shoes... black sandals, brown sandals, and flip flops. I usually never indulge in something like a cute pair of shoes. I have a hard time buying things for myself and end up feeling like I never put my own wants first, or even second, or even at all. So here's to indulging in myself for a little bit. I'm super excited. I'm already lagging a bit because I didn't buy any for January, but that's okay. These cute black flats are for February. Love them.

Here's to turning a new leaf...

Be good to me 2010, but if your not... at least I'll have cute shoes!

Valentine garland...

A craft perfect for a two year old...

Cut out hearts from four different colors of felt.

Sew them together... the end!

These chubby two year old fingers are always wanting to play with my machine. So I decided to let him help me make this. He loved it! He was so excited to show dad what we made. I think that it's pretty cute too!

For a country girl...

Well, my future daughter in law was born a few weeks ago... Do you want to see how cute she is?

I have already told her parents that she is to be my future daughter in law, but I wont bring it up or talk about it so that our children don't get a complex or anything... we will let their love bloom naturally. But my fingers will be triple crossed for the next 20 years on this one...

She is going to be a country girl. Her dad is a horse breaking, deer hunting, fish catching kind of a guy. Mom is a school teacher who grew up in the country where they still live. So I wanted to make something special for this little country girl...

Cause her head and legs might get cold in the mountains...

Sweet little doe onsie...

Lucky horse shoe with their ranch logo on the side...

Congrats Paul and Michelle! She's beautiful!

The best thing since sliced bread...

I've had a bit of a dilemma for a while... it's my trees. I like to mount them on some nice mat board so that customers don't have to see my crazy sewing lines on the back and for a nice finished look to my product. The problem is that I use double sided tape to mount them on and it makes it pretty permanent.

Trust me... I've tried to get a tree off of the mount and have ruined a few in the process... not fun. The problem is that I know a lot of people aren't done with their families yet... myself included... and they might want to add names or initials to their tree one day.

I finally found my solution...

REMOVABLE double sided tape!!!

I'm so excited! I've tested it out, it's sticky enough to hold the mat board in place but can be easily removed!!! A perfect solution to my problem! Hallelujah!! This will now be an option for tree lovers everywhere...

Also...

I have a massive shop update coming soon! I'm super excited about this as well. Some new trees are almost ready so stay tuned...

Sneak Peek...

Why does my kid have to grow up so fast???

Here is a sneak peek at the new twin size quilt that I'm making for my little guy. I feel in love with this Arcadia fabric by Sanae when I first saw it a year ago. Isn't is gorgeous!!! All the right colors for his room... green, orange, brown, blue. These charm packs have been sitting in my sewing room for a while so I decided to start working on the quilt this week.

I'm doing a stacked coin quilt from this Moda Bake Shop tutorial. The tutorial is for a baby quilt so I had to adjust the measurements for a twin size. I'll let you know what I did when I have the quilt completely done...

Silver tree branch and wood necklace...

When I saw this I honestly could not help myself... I love it!

I can't wait to wear it!

From oh, hello friend. Adorable shop. Wonderful blog...

New knitting projects...

I've got Easter on my mind for some reason...

I know that it's a ways away... but some things take time to get done right?

Like knitting, takes a lot of time (which is why I want to learn how to crochet...) But here are some adorable patterns that might find their way to my needles soon...

How cute is this little vest! I'm in love with it! I think that little man would look adorable in this!

And for my son who is obsessed with elephants...

Seriously! Too cute for words! This would be adorable sitting in a little Easter basket now wouldn't it?

Both projects were found at Never Not Knitting...

Crochet...

My 23 year old brother drew my name for Christmas this year.

I told him that I really really really want to learn how to crochet...

He got me this book... a pack of seven different crochet hooks... and some beautiful green yarn.

He scored... big time! I've got the best brother....

Photo from here...

My bedroom...

... is boring... period! I was going to do a before shot today but my camera wont even turn on... I think that it died. Lucky you!



I have never in the seven years that I've been married tried to decorate my bedroom... okay, that's a small lie. Last year my husband tried to help me decorate our bedroom and pressured me into buying this silver bedspread... which didn't help the problem. Then we painted the wall behind the bed a dark purple that was short lived because it just looked like mud brown... sigh... it's been struggling for a while now but I think that I finally have my ideas in line enough to make something of this room. That's one of my goals for this year is to make this room beautiful!



So here are the rough plans...





1- I've always wanted to make an upholstered headboard... and I keep going between a dark brown or a white one... but I think that brown is going to win out.

2- I love white bedding. I'm nervous about this one because I have a wild and sticky fingered little two year old... but there is always bleach right? This is one from West Elm that is just beautiful.

3- We need a new quilt for under the duvet as well.... and I really love this pattern called Stacking the Odds from Denyse Schmidt.

4- I love these knit throw pillows from West Elm. However, I think that I'm going to knit my own for our bed (besides, I saved this picture a million years ago and I don't think that they carry them anymore anyway...)

5- We had some amazing family pictures taken in September and I love them. Just the colors that I want to put in the room too... aqua, white, touches of yellow. And look at my little man... what a doll he is! I can't wait to put this one up on the wall!

6- We really need some more clothing storage in our room. I saw this Ikea Hack that Little Green Notebook blogged about. So nicely done! I think those would look great as night stands in our room.

7- Just tying in more of the pretty colors from the Hope Valley fabric line from Denyse Schmidt. More blues, aqua and yellow please!

8- Also some pretty artwork from Urban Design would look great on the walls...



So there are the plans... I can't wait for it to all come together!

Fabric Matching Game...

Finally, my sis opened her present from Christmas!!! Here is a fun matching game that I made for her family...

I was going to print off the pictures and modge podge them onto wooden tiles... but then I saw this fabric matching game over on No Big Dill (instructions are on her blog) and knew that I would have more fun with this. I'm more of a sewing girl than a modge podge girl after all...

I wasn't a huge fan of the iron on transfer paper that I used. Other than that I love the way that it turned out!

This is a baseball loving family so I used Alexander Henry's baseball fabric. A smaller print might have been better (or is it just me that would want to cheat and memorize the patterns on the back...)

Chairs...

Twas two nights before Christmas and we were completely done Christmas shopping!!! So we decided to have a little fun... eat some pizza and egg nog (because we're healthy like that)... and recover our dinning room chairs!

Before...

We bought our dinning room set a year and a half ago on Craigslist and the chair seats were white. We knew that they didn't have a chance of staying white in our house, and I've been meaning to recover them ever since... but I just kept putting it off.

So we went and got some pretty green/brown/cream/gray fabric to go on top. And I have to say, this $12 staple gun from Home Depot may be the best $12 I've ever spent on anything...

We just cut out the fabric, pulled it tight, I made husband fold under the raw edges because I wanted it to look nice (even though nobody will ever see the bottom of the chair...) and stapled away!

After...

We even went the extra mile and covered them in vinyl too... just so that we wont have to do it again anytime soon! I love them! They look so much better! Now to finish the rest of the room to match the chairs...

My favorite pasta...

This is too good not to share...

I have a favorite pasta dish... it's so easy it's pretty much a no brainer! It only needs four main ingredients and they are things that I usually have around all the time. Husband thinks that it's pretty good too!

Here's how it's made...

Boil up some pasta noodles, any kind will do. Drain the water and then add:

olive oil

lemon juice

a little garlic salt

Parmesan cheese

That's it! No measurements, just add it in and taste, see what flavors you want a little more of. Sometimes I like it more lemon-y, sometimes a little more garlic-y. It always tastes light and fresh which I love!

I threw in some grilled chicken and asparagus last night and called it a complete meal. Yum!

Christmas revealed...

I made some of the gifts that I gave out this year... so here are a few now that they've been opened.

My sister and brother in law are big BYU fans.... I mean big! So I knit their family of five hats in the BYU colors. I think that they turned out pretty cute.

I found this great purse pattern over at Made by Rae. So I made these two purses for my two younger sisters and then filled them up will all kinds of goodies that they would like (guitar picks, earrings, Burt's Bees....)

Both sisters are so different, it was fun to make a purse that would fit their personalities.

I have one more present that I made but it hasn't been opened yet... so I'll share that one later!

Thinking about...

I wish there was more time in December to work on holiday crafting.... but there never is! Maybe in July... is that what Christmas in July is all about? Work on the crafts you want for Christmas but wont have time to make once the fall comes around? Like this cute little deer (sorry, I have no clue where I got this picture from... anyone know?) I would love to make some cute little deer for part of our Christmas...

I made this Guiltless Alfredo Sauce the other day... Oh my... it was really really good! Really easy too! Anything that uses real garlic is good in my book though. Never again will I use pre-canned Alfredo sauce...

I'm starting to get a real shoe fetish... a little late in life?... maybe I don't want to turn 30 and not have bought any real cute shoes in my lifetime ;) (I've got a little ways to 30 though... so there is still time). I'm planning on finding some of these under the tree... why little man... you shouldn't have!

I also have a thing for yellow these days. Maybe it's the gloominess of winter... I keep finding myself drawn to yellow. Like these flowers, and this fabric, (down at the bottom) and maybe even something like this skirt...

Reindeer...

Reindeer... aren't they beautiful!

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