Sunday, February 28, 2010

One Last Valentine Post

I know you were just dying to know what happened to all the left over hearts I cut out for our Valentine Day cards...


Well if you must know, we hung some up and the rest we cooked!

I love finding handmade ways to entertain a toddler. It warms my heart so much more to see her play with paper hearts than anything you could ever buy in a toy store.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Possibilities

What oh what should I do with this?





I usually don't have a problem with cutting into a piece of fabric, but once in awhile I come across something I just can't cut yet. I guess it's because I don't know what it wants to be yet.


Have you ever had that problem?

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Flowers in progress

Just a couple snapshots at how the flower clips for the Seamingly Sarah shop come to life. Since I work during the day each one takes time, but I know each night as I settle down in to a comfortable chair that they are there, waiting to be loved into the final product they will become. Each one birthed to be completely or slightly different than the last.




Monday, February 22, 2010

Lovely Bits of Inspiration

These are the things I have placed throughout my house so that I can look at them on a daily basis and be reminded of the beauty that is around me. The beauty that is within me when I take the time to create.



A Home of Handmade Love

I have fallen in love with filling my home with handmade things. What started out as trying to learn to sew and grown into a wonderful craving to surround myself and my loved ones with things I have made. As corny as it sounds, I truly do believe I made these things with love in my mind, my heart and my fingers. Love was put into each stitch, late night and mistake. And I love it all. Whether it is a blanket for my daughter's crib, a throw for the recliner or a blanket to snuggle under with my husband...I love each and every one!

Before you start thinking I knit, I do not. This lovely handmade creation was given to us by my mother. She wanted to use up all her leftover yarn and made us this blanket one Christmas. To her it was an aside present, to me it was the greatest gift I have ever received.

Birthday Bash!

Well I rested up just in time for my daughter's 2nd birthday! I can't believe my baby is two. I can't believe I've had the privilege of loving her for two whole years. Time flies here on earth and deep in my heart. Here are a few snapshots from the festivities!

Convincing the Grandparents that less is more...

A banner I made her for her first birthday. It hangs in her bedroom when it's not party time.

She is in love with rainbows so I created a few drawings for her during naptime last week. It's amazingly fun to paint with finger paint and brushes!

And of course we had cupcakes to celebrate. A cake mix with lime juice (yummy and festive) with some homemade whipped cream. It was my first time making whipped cream and it came out quite well. I was so afraid I'd whip it into butter. This shot is of my daughter's cupcake after she manhandled the whipped cream on top. She never did eat the whole thing!
I hope you and yours had an enjoyable weekend as well!

Friday, February 19, 2010

Quilted Color Baby Book III

It's done!





That said, I really wish I had followed the directions on Homegrown Happy more closely. I ended up just glancing at the photos, then went sewing machine crazy and didn't think about how to finish it. Hopefully my hand stitching stays in place for years to come.








Thursday, February 18, 2010

Rest

It's a fact of life that after everyone else in the family is better, it's Mommy's turn to be sick. I'll be resting under my favorite blanket today.



Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Thankful for my Husband

I spent some time going around our house and taking pictures of things I love, things I am grateful for, things that say something about me and my family. With the romantic reminder of Valentine's Day I feel inspired to show you a few of the things that captured my eye because of my husband. He takes care of us. He is a man of faith, love and life. I truly believe he was made for me and I for him. I thank God everyday that we found each other.

These book shelves were bureau drawers that my husband salvaged from my parent's basement. He lugged, painted and drilled them while I was away one weekend. Everytime I walk in the house I see them and think of him.



He's also handy with smaller items. He bought this xylophone for our daughter this past Christmas. It was and is her favorite toy. The look of joy on her face while she bangs away at it is beautiful. After just a few weeks of her hard practice she has managed to break off several keys. Thanks to my husband's ingenuity she can still enjoy this wonderful present.



Oh, and that table the xylophone is on...he made that too.


I love him.

Monday, February 15, 2010

New Items in the Shop

While I entertained a sick toddler last week I was able to take some photos of the new and existing items in the Etsy Shop. I finally got around to posting them up in the shop today. Take a look and enjoy!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Untangling

I have spent the past couple weeks unraveling, untangling and organizing an armful of embroidery floss. My mother blessed me with a bag full of embroidery floss that she wasn't going to use. I have slowly been adding this medium to some of my sewing projects, so I was ever so grateful. The only problem was the gnarled ball that it all came in! But have no fear! I conquered it little by little in the evenings while our daughter slept and my husband and I watched tv. It felt so good to get them all laid out. Now I have more than I can imagine using, but I'm sure time and creativity will take care of that!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

How to Entertain a Toddler

Blow up valentine balloons


Watch her eyes grow to the size of saucers each time the balloon expands


Count all ten balloons over and over again


Kick them around the kitchen while laughing and screaming


Move them into the living room, one by one, while instructing Mommy to kick them


Kick them across the living room over and over again


Make teddy bear throw the balloons


Run from room to room pretending you don't know where the baloons are


Scream when you find them piled up in the bathroom


Collapse on the floor while she continues to play with them for another 15 minutes



Thanks for the balloons Great-Greats!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

I love you

My daughter and I were lying in the "big bed" (mommy and daddy's bed) before getting ready to go to sleep for the night. She rolled over to face me and completely-unprompted-repeatedly said I love you, I love you, I love you... right to me in her little toddler voice. I pray I never forget this moment.



In honor of all that I love, I thought I'd tell you what I'm loving right now...



1. When my husband goes out for the night so I can sew without feeling guilty that he can't hear the television.

2. When the moon rises so late in the evening that moon beams are still streaming into my house when I wake up at 6 AM.

3. Feeling grateful for all that I have.

4. Knitted socks from my mother.

5. Taking risks, even tiny ones.

6. Learning to love the process of creating, not always the outcome.

7. Realizing what needs to change in my life in order to have a happier and more complete life.

8. Gold Bond hand lotion - winter and hand washing don't do my skin any favors!

9. The color pink.

10. Rocking with my daughter before we put her to bed.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

It's for the birds!

Valentine's day is around the corner and that means I get to pull out my paper and glue and get crafting! I love that there is such a warm and "hearty" event in the middle of winter to give me an excuse to craft and decorate! Now if I could just incorporate my two year old and crafting. Well, I kind of did this past weekend, but I did a lot of the "heavy lifting" (or prep work) during her nap.

All of my paper crafting supplies reside in a plastic bin in the basement. It cries out to me each time I pass it with a load of laundry, but this weekend we were reunited. I've been coveting my daughter's finger paintings and decided to use them for a Valentine Day craft.

I cut a heart from cardstock and traced it on to the back of the finger painting, then I cut, cut and cut some more.

I took some more cardstock and cut out some basic cards and then I glued, glued and glued some more. The Joy of Cooking was used to press the cards while the glue dried. Good old Joy of Cooking! I promise I use it for cooking too.


Once the cards were set I had some left over hearts and a toddler awake from her nap. I glanced at some pipe cleaners I had laying around and the birds at the bird feeder and just came up with these little diddies. I think they're cute and I promise they're not as Alfred Hitchcock scary as they look in the photo. My daughter spent the rest of the afternoon making her bird to "eat" the paper scraps I had lying around. It was a cute, fun, creative and love filled day!

Quilted Color Baby Book.

The January thaw did a number on the snow up here in Northern New York. Then some cold winds blew all that rain into ice. So this past weekend, the last weekend of January was spent indoors, instead of our family's typical outdoor skiing adventures. I have to admit, I enjoyed it! I spent a couple nights in front of the sewing machine and finally started a project that has long been living in my head and begging to get out. A quilted color baby book. I first saw it on the James Family Blog and she had used a tutorial from Homegrown Happy and Stitch/Craft. I hope I back linked enough! As I finish it up I'll let you know how the actual binding and putting the pages together goes.

I hope my daughter enjoys it, when I actually finish it that is. In the mean time it lifts such a burden off of me just to get it started. It fills me with hope to see a new project laying around the house. Soon enough that hope will change to frustration as I continue to step around it and clean around it until I finally finish it and pack up the scraps. Until then I will enjoy the freshness of the hope while it's still here.