Birthday for the babe.

Our little lady turned one on Friday and we had a few friends and family members over to celebrate. I made taco soup and JD prepared an incredible video montage of her first year that we watched with our guests. Tenley was showered with gifts and love; we are so grateful for all the people around us who love her so dearly!

I sewed her a party dress with some darling red and blue prints. Those ruffles! The Peter Pan collar! A matching bow! I die. I didn't want to deal with a zipper and/or buttons in the back. . . so it was a bit of a tight squeeze over her head. . . but, man, I definitely love me a good handmade outfit :)

Rather than pick a "theme" for the party, I opted for colors. It was easier for me to plan and make decisions that way. 

Keepsakes for baby.

Today is October 12th. The due date of my first baby was October 11th (10-11-12!) of last year. I remember this day a year ago: I was anxious. I was a bit frustrated. I felt HUGE. I was ready, but also grateful to have a few more days to myself. I had no idea what to expect. I was worried I wouldn't know when I was in labor. I had so much on my mind. . . 

It's crazy that my baby girl turns ONE next week. A whole year. As you can imagine, I've been a little nostalgic as her birthday approaches. I love thinking about and remembering our time together so far! It's so important to me to record her life. Of course, I'm a big fan of scrapbooking and journaling, but I like to document her story in other ways too. I thought I'd share three special keepsakes from her first year of life as part of her b-day celebration. 

Baby bows.

I know there are gaggles of online tutorials of how to make bows similar (or nearly identical) to these ones, but I thought I'd share how I make felt baby bows. These are seriously easy peasy, but oh so cute!

More hand towels

Remember last year when I made holiday hand towels? Well, there's a few more up in the shop now. 

Every time I make a batch of hand towels, I think, "I am never doing this again. This is too much work."  But then, before I know it, I've ruffled and sewn and stitched a few and I think, "These are too cute."  And then, I am happy.

Happy knowing I am capable of using my hands. Happy I can express myself creatively. Happy seeing orders being placed. Happy, on occasion, interacting with total strangers. Happy making a little extra money for my crafting budget. Happy thinking of how one of my creations might make somebody else's day.

The whole process is a lot of work, but it sure is happy work. 

Little boy birthday.

When our old neighbor sent us an invite to her son's 2nd birthday party, I knew I wanted to make something special for him. I searched all over the internet for the "perfect" little boy quote, but couldn't find anything I loved. So, I just put together ideas and thoughts I hope my own children will live by someday. "Be grateful. Obey your  parents. Forgive quickly. Laugh a lot. Share with others. Tell the truth. Say your prayers. Speak  kindly. Love the Lord." It turned out really cute and birthday momma loved it. To me, giving  handmade gifts  is one of the life's very greatest pleasures :)

Ps. Don't worry- we also gave this active toddler a big bouncy ball and toy car. I know he doesn't really care about painted canvases!

Pps. If you do care about painted canvases and/or want one for yourself,  I take custom orders.   

We sure do love you and your family, little guy! Happy, happy birthday.

Hand towels.

Excuse my absence from the blog. People are ordering hand towels from The Sunshine Space faster than I can make them! Who knew?! Seriously, running this small business is stressful and I'm overwhelmed. But it's so good for me. It's the first time since I finished school that I actually feel like I'm doing something with my days. Love that feeling!

The Sunshine Space

I've been wanting to do it for months. I've thought and wondered and prayed about it. I've worked and re-worked ideas in my head. I've struggled comparing myself to other people and have let Satan eat me up that way. But I finally did it: I opened an etsy shop!

Head on over to The Sunshine Space and check it out.

It's not quite perfect. These are my humble beginnings. I'm nervous and excited and have tons of work to do to get it where I want it. But I told my girls at work and my mom that I'd have it up by Thanksgiving. . . and I'm not one to break a promise!

EEK. So much to be grateful for!

Orange and black.

Halloween Pinwheels Tutorial

I saw something similar to these when I went to a scrapbooking store a few weeks ago and decided to re-create them at home. Here's how I did it:

• Buy a pack of double-sided scrapbooking paper (I bought a square pack, so I  could just cut once diagonally to get triangles).
• Cut the paper into various size triangles, depending on how big or small you want your pinwheels.
• Glue the corners of your triangles together using hotglue to form a pinwheel (Make sure all of your triangle points are circling in the same direction, or it may look funny).
• To make the edges curl, wrap the paper around a pencil for a few seconds.
• Hot glue buttons on the center of the pinwheel from both sides.
• Use a needle to poke a hole on one of the triangles of the pinwheel.
• String fishing line through the hole and tie a knot.
• Then wrap the other end of the fishing line around a thumbtack and pin to the ceiling at varying heights.

I think it's best to hang them in a place where you'll be able to enjoy them from both sides. Because I took the door off the frame between my craft corner and the kitchen (it took up too much space!), I figured this was the perfect area to hang mine.

I think these are so fun and they'd be really easy to recreate for any holiday.

Happy crafting!

Where I Make Things.

After I decided to make this little nook into a crafting space, I realized I had very little room for storage. I decided to utilize my resources by not letting the wall go to waste. I picked up the pegboard and hooks at Home Depot for just under 12 bucks. The variety pack of hooks I bought came with wall spacers and the whole thing was up in a matter of minutes. I love it because it will be really easy to adapt as my needs change and I can put the things I use most out in the open so I can grab and go as I craft. This little space of mine still needs improvements (like a cuter chair and better lighting, for starters), but I love it anyway.

Of course I do. . . it's where I make things :)

Pillow for Seester.

My little sister is in the process of re-doing her room. I wanted to make her something "cutesy" (that's her new favorite word). I attempted a rose pillow. I thought it would be pretty simple, but it turned out to be a huge, crying ordeal for me. Next time, I think I'll use a zipper to close off the back because it's so hard to try and sew up the back with all those petals in the way!

Step 1: Cut out two circles from felt (about the size you want the pillow to be). Cut about a two inch strip the same length as the circumfrence of the circle. Set one circle aside.

Step 2:  Cut as many semi-circles as you'd like. The more you cut, the fuller your rose will be.

Step 3: Arrange semi-circles on outer edge of the big circle you cut out in the beginning.

Step 4: Sew in a circular pattern, securing the petals to the felt circle.

Step 5: Repeat steps 3 & 4 as you work your way to the middle.

Step 6: Once you get to the middle, attempt hand-sewing a cluster for the center petals. Cheat by using hot-glue because you get so frustrated.

Step 7: Sew the long strip to the petal circle and then to the back circle leaving a good 5-8 inches to turn the pillow right-side out.

Step 8: Fill the pillow with stuffing.

Step 9: Use whatever method you can to close off the pillow.

I have to admit. . . during the process of making this pillow, I felt like a huge crafting failure because nothing seemed to be going right. However, Lindsey sure loves it with her new bedding. And the look on her face when she saw it pretty much makes up for all the heartache and frustration. :)

Love you, seester.

Thoughtful husband.

I've been wanting a globe for our home for a long time. Someday, I want to have lots of different globes all together in a pretty little collection. For months, everytime I've seen a globe in the store, I've talked myself out of buying it. I just can't justify $40.00 (or more!) for a decoration in our budget right now.

I loved the colors and style of this one at Urban Outfitters a few weeks ago.

JD surprised me by buying this one at DI (for $3.00) and spray painting the stand. It's on top of our china cabinet in the kitchen now and I love. love. love. it.

So I don't have the budget to buy fancy, pretty globes.

Or to travel the world, as I dream of doing one day.

But. . . I do have one heck of a thoughtful husband who makes my day nearly every day by the little things he does to make me smile.

Craft space upgrade!

Remember the space I was using in our old apartment for crafting and creating? Well, I definitely got an upgrade when we moved! When we first visited our little basement, the previous owners took us on a brief tour. There was a landing area between the office and the apartment that was basically dead space before. They mentioned something about how "we could maybe fit a desk in here and create an office space or something." In my head, I was thinking, "THIS HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL!" Fast forward a few weeks: I painted the space a ridiculously happy yellow, pulled in a few pieces of furniture, organized my craft stash, and created a totally useable and friendly workplace. It's so great.

I pulled some of the orange accents from our old living room to use as storage in my new workplace. I also painted the frames I covered in fabric a few months ago. There was too much black going on.

One of my favorite parts of the new space is the desk. When my mom was here, we used frog painting tape for the ceilings and trim in the living room and were impressed by the flawless straight lines. My mom suggested painting stripes in one of the rooms, but JD thought that idea was a little too crazy for right now. I decided to use the tape on a project he wouldn't care so much about. . . Hello new pretty striped desk! You make me giddy. 

If you are wondering about where I sit when I'm in here, the answer is: on a kitchen chair I pull in from the adjacent room. Things aren't exactly perfect yet, but I could still sit in this little corner of the apartment for hours and be happy. Where's the happy place in your home?

Baby girl onesies.

This week, I've been working on some baby girl onesies for Kylie's first daughter. Kylie was one of my closest friends growing up and it still seems so unreal to me she'll have a little baby this summer. The baby's name is going to be Evalyn (Daniel's dad, Evan + Kylie's dad, Lynn= Evalyn). So sweet. For Evalyn's gift, I picked out some plain white onesies at the store and fancied them up a bit.

I did yo-yo flowers, a pretty tree, and the Great State. It was such a fun excuse to use my machine.

(I was working on the tree onesie in the storage office earlier this week and a customer came in to sign up for a unit. She asked me if I had an etsy shop (!!) and I told her I didn't. Then, she asked me if I at least sold at craft fairs (!!) and I told her I didn't. Then she scolded me and told me I shouldn't be hiding my talents and I should start sharing what I can do with others. Dear lady, do you know how much your sweet comments meant to me? She gave me such a confidence boost about pursuing this little butterfly dream in the back of my mind of making things and selling them. I was so flattered by her I was literally turning rosy in the cheeks. New favorite customer!)

Kylie was cute as could be at her baby shower this morning- just as darling as she was on the Ellen Show (!!) She got tons of precious baby girl clothes and other sweet gifts. Her sister-in-laws put together lots of pretty decorations and yummy food. It was a lovely morning :)

Love you, Kylie.

Just practicing.

I took a sweater out of my drawer to wear and realized it was missing a button and was really rather fuzzy and not very cute. My first thought was to set it aside to donate. Then, I got bored one night this week when JD was at work and decided to make something out of it. I bought this book a few weeks ago to get ideas of things to make out of fabric scraps I already have and it has tons of cute ideas.

Before:After:

A cute little owl friend! I don't have kids yet, but I sure do enjoy making children's playtoys and listening to the Children's Folk Songs radio station on Pandora. I'm just practicing to be a mom, I guess.

What do you do?

What do you do when you live in a one-bedroom apartment and have very little space. . . but you really like to craft?

Oh, just convert your closet into your studio, of course.

This is what happened two weekends ago when I was left home alone for a long weekend without a car.

Is it really the weekend before finals?

Because I'm sure not acting like it.

I woke up on Friday morning feeling like death. I went to work bright and early at 5:45 and worked til 2:30. I was supposed to study while I was there, but I felt so poorly that I had to use all my energy just to stand up. By the time I got off, I was so exhausted all I wanted to do was sleep. And that's exactly what I did... until 7 pm when my husband decided he should probably wake me. Then he took me out to get soup at Zupa's. Sleep and soup must be a real remedy because I felt loads better. Brad & Abby game over for game night and I didn't study one lick.

On Saturday morning, I got up early to work on my research and study a bit. I went to a review at 11 & then came home to cram with JD. We did a little laundry on the side.

Later in the evening, we stopped by at Cory & Jenessa's Christmas party. They did such a great job hosting and Cory's apartment was so bright & cheery. Love that holiday spirit!

(Note: I made that lime green button down in sewing. Whoo hoo!)

Today after church, I had a few meetings, but I spent the rest of the day doing holiday crafts. I didn't even nap! Haha, JD was a little overwhelmed with all the commotion of fabric, felt, toole, buttons, beads, glue, and [fire!] happening at the kitchen table. He made a make-shift table for us to eat dinner on.

Most of the stuff I was working on today was for other people (cough, little sisters), but here's a little project I did for us. I've been wanting to do it forever and finally found some fabric I love when I went shopping on Saturday.

Before: After:

Oh man, gotta love that pop of color! They don't look perfect because I wasn't really sure how to do them... but they sure do make my heart smile.

I don't know if it's the fact that these are my last finals ever, or if it's because I feel like I know most of the material, or if I'm just lazy, but I really haven't been studying this weekend as much as I normally do this time of year. Eeks!

What I do at Work.

Receive shipments of inventory. Perform technician audits. Perform office audits. Organize inventory room. Re-arrange boxes. Vacuum. Tidy up the office. Receive calls from sales reps. Schedule technicians for jobs. but mostly... 

daydream, read, browse, and doodle.

(Things that remind me of Lindsey).

Grateful.

Today was a wonderful day. I am feeling incredibly grateful for a lot of things in my life. Namely:

....an adorable wedding shower put on by my lovely friends ...people who are really crafty and cutesy ...pink and yellow
...gorgeous bridesmaids :)

... and time just being with my girlfriends.

I'm grateful for Camp K and the incredible opportunity I've had to spend my summer there, for the joy I find in the work I'm doing, for the satisfaction in knowing I'm making a difference to someone somewhere, for being nicknamed "my friend" by this little angel.

I'm also thankful for:

...such fun friends

...nights spent on a blanket beneath the sky

...laughter and memories and red, white & blue!

...silliness

...sunshine

(the literal and figurative kind)

both of which seem to be crowding my life as of late...

and i love it

...the U.S.A.

and my dang cute fiance.

There is just so stinkin' much to be grateful for!