done, done, done and almost done

I made my very first dress for Lauren and it looks so cute on her!  We had her 18 month pictures taken by Alison Eden on Monday and she wore the dress.  I can't wait to see how they turn out!

I posted this polka dot strawberry purse in my Etsy shop.  Any little girl is sure to love it! 

Ethan starts kindergarten in one week!  At the kinder orientation last week, they informed us that the kids will have rest time during the day and will need a beach towel to lay on.  When Ethan and I headed to the store to pick one out, at first we got a thin Toy Story 3 beach towel.  The thought of my baby boy laying on the hard floor on a cheap beach towel did not give me the warm fuzzies.  On our way to check out, we walked past some throw blankets and I got the idea to "make" my own beach towel out of the super comfy throw.  I folded it in half and sewed it up around the edges.  Now my sweetie has a thick, soft blanket to lay on that is the right size and will fit in his locker.  It may be pretty obvious on the first day that Ethan is my first baby going off to kindergarten! 

 

After 2 years in the making, Lauren's full size quilt is almost done!  Last weekend I pieced together the backing and all I'm missing is one thing...

An embroidered note from me.   I have a vision of a hand embroidered note on my special notebook paper fabric on every quilt I make for the kids.  Problem is, I can't embroider.  So now I'm off to learn quickly, so I can ship it off to be quilted!

pics from our week

Austin found a tiny frog and named him Hopper.  He's been really good at finding critters lately.

Eric took this picture of Lauren watching TV all nice and comfy while I was out shopping. 

Ethan fell asleep with his cowboy vest on the other night.  I just had to take a picture of our little buckaroo.

so big!

It's obvious that Lauren is our third kid since she is licking a lollipop and munching on kettle corn at the young age of 17 months. I can guarantee you that Ethan never had "big kid" treats at that age. Lauren wants everything her big brothers have including juice boxes, popsicles and candy.  Our baby girl isn't going to stay little for long trying to be as big as her brothers!

you put what? where?

Today Ethan had an impromptu trip to the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor.  Apparently the best place to store an awesome green ball you find on the ground, is in your ear.  Ethan neglected to tell us about it, so we didn't find it until two weeks later when Eric just happened to see it last night.  The doctor visit was quick and painless. It might have been a little too enjoyable since he left with a prize from the office treasure box and a lollipop.  Hopefully he still learned his lesson even though he had fun at the doctor!

Crazy kid! 

my assistant

Since my assistant is very demanding of my attention and sewing notions are not very kid friendly, not much sewing is going on during the day around here.

This little stinker is quite the handful, but so very sweet!

craft hope homies

A couple weeks ago, Erica hosted another Craft Hope girls' night to work on their latest craft project.  Our goal was to make hand towels and washcloths that would be used to clean turtles that were effected by the oil spill.  We all brought old towels and t-shirts and cut them to the necessary sizes.  We filled a huge tub with towels and Dawn dish soap.  The creator of Craft Hope lives here in Austin and personally delivered our towels to the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies.  It was so exciting to see pictures of our towels making a difference!  The thought that some cute little turtle will be cleaned with my old Gristmill t-shirt makes me smile.

You can read about the other projects we've done here and here.

I'm very excited about Craft Hope's latest project!  They will be working with ConKerr Cancer to provide pillowcases for terminally ill children in hopes to put smiles on their faces while in the hospital.  The deadline is September 15th and I can't wait to get started on my pillowcases.  Craft Hope has free patterns on their websites for anyone who would like to participate.  Happy sewing!

introducing...

I did it!  I opened an Etsy store!  For those of you who don't know, Etsy is a website that sells handmade, vintage and craft supplies.  I now have my own little online shop filled with  fabrics and my handmade goodies.

My shop currently has a quilt, crinkle blankies, fabrics and flower headbands for sale, but I will have pacifier clips, strawberry purses and another quilt soon.  I have ideas for other products that I can't wait to get started on too!

I have two of these bright, girly crinkle blankets.

It's going to be really hard to part with this sweet owl quilt!  It's so cheery and fun!

 

 To visit my shop, just click on the link below.  Happy shopping!

The Patchwork Lollipop

back to the farm for our flock

 Yesterday went to the Taylor farm to drop off the five birds we hatched.  The boys were a little sad, but they knew it was best for chicks and keats to live at the farm and not in our pantry.

Ethan absolutely loves the farm and wants to be have his own farm when he grows up.  If you ask him about it, he will tell you ALL about his plans!

The kids always love visiting the farm and seeing all the animals.  They each picked out an egg for Erica to hatch in her incubator.  

So long Mr. Pigeon, MP2, Sunny, Petri and Little Foot!  We will never forget you!

Yogi Bear Lonestar 2010

Last Thursday we loaded up the camper and headed to Yogi Bear Park in Waller.  Last time we went to Jellystone Park at Canyon Lake, so we were excited to try this campground out.  We met Eric's parents there that afternoon and they had Emmy, Abby and Jake with them for the weekend.  The kids always have so much fun together and we are so glad we got to spend time with them!  Our friends the Millers, Longs and Simmons joined us Friday afternoon for a grand total of 9 adults and 12 kids.

Happy cousins ready for fun!

Lauren loved pulling Abby around by her bathing suit strings.

The water playground was amazing!  It had four slides and the giant picnic basket on the top dumped out water when it filled up.  The kids LOVED the slides and so did we!

The kids loved the curly tube slide too.

Can you believe Ethan and Austin went on this slide?  They went down it at least 20 times.  It was so much fun!

 

We ended up renting a limo golf cart to cruise around in all weekend.  The kids had a blast playing in it when we weren't using it and loved taking night time adventure rides through the forest with Eric and Rhys.

 

 

 

At night we ate yummy food, celebrated Matt's 5th birthday and roasted marshmallows.  Good times!

 

We loved the campground and are already planning next year's trip back!

chicks and guineas!

We have had lots of fun with our little chickens.  The kids love holding them and hearing Lauren say "chick-en" is just too cute!  Mr. Pigeon, MP2 and Sunny are now visiting another family while we are busy with our guinea hatching. 

When I went to bed Monday night, the first egg had a big crack.  I set my alarm for every two to three hours since I knew the hatch would happen soon.  When I woke up at 5am, this is what I found...

The little guinea chick was hatched and snuggling next to the unhatched egg.  It was so cute! 

The next night, our last egg hatched.  We now have two wild guinea keets named Petri and Little Foot.

While they are really cute right now with their stripes and huge orange feet, they will grow up to look like this...

Yikes!

 

Erica's once jammed packed incubator now sits empty.  We started with 13 eggs and 5 of them hatched.  It was a lot of fun and I'm so thankful Erica let us have this experience!

painting with a twist

Last night Erica, Mindy, Ellen and I went to Painting with a Twist for the time.  It is such a fun place!  They provided the canvas, paint and brushes and a local artist guided us through painting our one of a kind creation.  Our tribal elder Erica insisted we paint a very special painting together from one of her favorite movies, Breakfast at Tiffany's.

The artist did a great job of guiding us through each step.  The perfectionist in me was a little stressed out, but I still loved every minute of it. 

 

My finished masterpiece

 

It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to go back and paint again!

a crazy week

This week I took care of Taylor and Rylynn.  The kids had a great time playing together. I pulled out every momma tool I could think of to keep the kids happy and busy!



They had a great time playing dress up.

The kids were complaining that it was too hot outside, so I blew up the bounce house in our living room.  Desperate times call for desperate measures.

We also put up the waterslide so the kids could actually be outside without melting.

Popscicles are always a hit too!  I survived a week full of swim lessons and taking care of five children and four baby chicks.   It was a busy, crazy week!

Doesn't everyone have baby chickens in their pantry?