Thrifty Finds

While browsing some thrift stores recently, hoping for some great idea to come to me for decorating I found some really cool vintag-ish finds!

All of these items are available in my etsy shop! Sometime in the near future I’ll be working on some items to make and sell there, I just haven’t gotten there yet.

Get Ready.

So I’ve been away for quite a while with the awesome excuse of having a tiny one at home who requires a tremendous amount of attention… as he should. Life has been busy – and a bit lonely at times. I’m left wondering what to do with my time? So instead of wondering I have decided that I should probably get my much loved sewing machine out of its box and get back to what I love to do most… outside of being a new mom. Craft, create.

Only sewing isn’t the only thing I have to focus on. I will be 23 in only a few short weeks, and other than being a wife and mom I don’t have much to be proud of. I still have a very long life to live and lots of time to truly figure out who I am and what I want to be… but now is as good of a time as any to get it started. I have begun weight watchers, along with my wonderful hub – who has decided to lose right along with me.

Cooking. Something else I have to learn to master – or at least improve. I don’t have much of a desire to cook food, food – I get much more of a thrill baking yummy treats and desserts. However, with a diet hovering over me every second of the day desserts aren’t exactly what I need to be focused on. But regardless of that fact, I am still quite obsessed with browsing yummy recipes and watching the food network all hours of the day. HGTV slips in fairly often as well, which leads me to my next goal.

Decorating. Since I’m home and have all this time on my hands I think its about time to start making my home a bit more “homey.” I’ve been flickering it up a LOT. I have so many ideas floating around in my head I don’t even know where to begin, or when to stop and focus on any one thing. So along with being who I already am I have crafter, cook, and designer up my sleeve – non of which I plan to take to, to seriously. But I do plan on having a bunch of fun while trying to figure each of them out.

So I’m getting myself ready for an exciting year – which I’m sure is going to just zoom by. But its already the end of January and I have nothing to show for myself or my time. Its time that I kick it up – about a thousand notches.

Get ready!

Sepia Photography

I love sepia and black and white photography. Most of the pictures I take actually start out in color, but with the help of programs like photoshop and photoscape they transform into amazing pictures. With my new baby at home all I seem to want to do is take his picture. Here are a couple close ups that are simple yet beautiful… in my opinion.

And here are a couple from our Christmas photo shoot.  I know the santa hat is quite a bit big on him but I had to work with what I had on hand. I’m not big on professional photos – so I whipped out the camera and tried to capture the best first Christmas shot I could. I have such a cooperative baby! Haha.

Baby Griffin

My perfect baby boy…8 lbs 2 oz 20 1/4 in long born on Nov 12th, 2009. I’m in love.

Tiny Mister

He’s in there and he still has about a month til he’s ready to come out… so I have about a month more of being miserable! Until then I won’t be blogging much… but please check back after November because I’ll be back and ready to go!

Lovely White Buttons

With the help of some very lovely white buttons I found in my button stash I was able to make some super cute and useful napkin rings!

I had the napkins laying around from the beginning of my pregnancy when I thought there might be a little girl in my belly… with the intention of them being some light weight burp cloths. I have to admit though – they work out much better as napkins… and in my opinon go perfectly with these rings!

I think the buttons seriously make the napkin rings though… seeing how the napkin rings themselves aren’t even close to being a perfect match to one another. They each have a bit different width (which I’m not quite positive on how that happened… since I used the same pattern for each), and the lines are far from straight. I also had to use 2 different styles of buttons – but I think they flow pretty well together!

I’ll post the pattern as soon as I get it uploaded so you can make some your self! They were super easy to do… and I hammered on some snaps to close them – which makes for a really easy (no-sew) way of finishing them up! Enjoy!

A Colorful Array of Thank You’s

I wanted to personally be able to thank everyone for the gifts I receive from my baby showers I have coming up – and I couldn’t think of a more personal way than to make my own thank you notes!

So I whipped out my little letter stamps I had – that I got for only $1.00 at Michaels a while back… and my box of blank notes. I also got an amazing deal on the note cards which were only $10 for a box of 200 notes with envelopes from target… plus they came in several different colors!

I hope everyone enjoys their thank you’s as much as I enjoyed making them! And I hope they all know how grateful I will be for any help I get on the many baby supplies that a new mom needs!

Maraschino Lovin’

I was having some serious cravings for some maraschino cherries this week… so I got some – and ate them! Haha. They were delicious!

Elf Stitchette

I have been blown away by the amazing patterns at Sublime Stiching and I’ve been dying to buy one of the kits!

But before I do that I wanted to try my hand at a pattern I already had to see how easy this whole embroidering thing is. I found this pattern at WeeWonderfuls and have never had a reason to use it until now…for the babies stocking! Of course I haven’t actually finished the stocking yet – but the embroidery for it is all done… so I wanted to go ahead and show it off!

The robot is just to cute… I’m not like some crazy robot fan – but I do think they have a certain something about them that just makes you want to smile. I sure do hope this little blue one makes my tiny one show me his little baby gums… although I don’t know if he’ll really be smiling to much by Christmas – but a Mom can only hope.

and the complete picture – which is a little blurry….

I think that I have a good excuse to buy the Ultimate Kit from Sublime Stitching now… don’t you think?

the MOST awesome

I have just found the MOST awesome thing I have ever found browsing blogs… hands down!

Take a little trip over the blog called Happy Loves Rosie and take a peek! I promise you won’t be disappointed! I am smiling just thinking of it.