A finished project and a little fabric cleaning tip~

I just wanted to share another pillow from my earlier teaser. Here is my bee pillow! I added some black and white ticking to the back of this one and I just love the way it turned out. (And for those who have been asking, the bee and the crown are both my drawings - I just scanned them into the computer, and used photo transfer paper to transfer them to the fabric.)

Coming soon to an Etsy store near you!

And now for life with a toddler. The other day I walked into the boys' room to find One's headboard had been drawn all over with ballpoint pen by Three. My heart sunk. I made the headboards and I just love them. But then I remembered a little tip that the Hubby and I have learned from photographing weddings. DIAPER WIPES! Yes, you read it right. DIAPER WIPES. Now, since we have a toddler in the house, I have them handy. Since many of my readers have no babies at home, I realize that you probably don't have them hanging around your house. But, babies or not, I would encourage you to get some. They get stains out of all sorts of fabric. We would carry them with us when we did bridal and wedding portraits because they remove stains from satin, silk and other fancy-type fabrics without leaving "water" marks - and they work just as well for cotton and other less-fancy fabrics. I use them on my sofas between launderings of the slipcovers. (Oh, and my personal opinion, is that the generic ones work best for this. Target wipes are my favorite - but this isn't an advertisement- so try 'em until you find a favorite.) Anyhoo, I went, grabbed me about ten wipes, and after some elbow grease...all of the pen was gone. GONE. Diaper wipes. They're not just for bottoms anymore! ;-)

Before the ballpoint pen attack: So you have something to compare the after to!

After cleaning up the mess: Do you see any pen marks?...Neither do I! Hooray!

Have a wonderful weekend~

I can't believe my good luck...

Photo from Camille of Thimble Blossoms

Anyone heard of an amazingly talented lady by the name of Camille? As if I need to prove that she's talented (which I don't), she was featured last week on a little blog called Today's Creative Blog. I've been reading her blog since I discovered it about a year ago. She is AMAZING! She owns her own quilting business and has even designed a line of fabrics for Moda. So she did this giveaway for one of her quilts that she would custom make for the winner. To enter the drawing, we left her a comment with the quilt pattern that we wanted, and the winner would get that quilt custom made by Camille! I didn't win that quilt.

But, a good friend of Camille's, Lissa, who's the director of marketing at Moda, offered to make a second quilt from one of Camille's patterns for another lucky winner. I DID WIN THAT QUILT! Wahoo!!!! I was seriously so excited, if everyone in my house hadn't been asleep when I found out, I would have screamed!!! The pattern I picked is the one in the photo! Isn't it darling? And Lissa is going to change the monogram for me so it will be personalized! You've gotta love a monogrammed quilt!!!

Thank you so much to these two wonderfully talented ladies...Christmas came early to my house! Please go check out both of their blogs...so.much.talent.

Oh, and while I'm on the subject of giveaways, Kirtsy is sponsoring a fantastic giveaway from One Laptop Per Child. Have you heard of this organization? Their goal is to get a laptop in the hands of every child in developing nations. Awesome! And they're giving one away. Here is their link. Drop by Kirtsy and enter!

Have a lovely Wednesday~

Waiting impatiently~

See these sad empty apothecary jars and my lonely mini-cloche? They are waiting. Waiting ever so patiently for Friday and some Christmas goodness! We have a tradition in our home that the day after Thanksgiving we pull out all of our Christmas decorations and deck the halls! This year it has taken every ounce of my willpower to wait until Friday as I have watched beautiful Christmas finery popping up on blogs everywhere. But, believe me, I have been planning and primping and come Friday, there will be Christmas galore at my house...hope these little jars can make it until then.

And since we all have the holidays on the brain, I wanted to share with you a wonderful little service being offered by a special lady. In order to pay off some big bills incurred from an adoption (an extremely worthy cause!) she took a job as Santa's Secretary. Go visit her website at North Pole Secretary and you can order personalized letters from Santa for that good little girl or boy! I was lucky enough to win some of these letters during a special giveaway, and when I went to her site, I was really happy with what she and Santa were offering. You can choose from a variety of letters but each one is personalized for it's recipient, and each one focuses not only on the fun aspects of Christmas, but also on the true meaning behind the holiday and on the Babe whose birth and life we truly celebrate on this special holiday. A great idea for creating a memorable holiday... (I'm so excited for ours to arrive in the mail!)

Have a happy Monday~

Friendly Homes Friday and a project

Welcome to this week's edition of Friendly Homes Friday! This week we are visiting my darling friend Trisha. Trisha is a ballerina turned marathon runner who is the wife of a PhD student and mother to beautiful twin girls (the Princess' BFFs) and an equally beautiful baby girl who is a true delight! Because Trisha's hubby is working on his PhD, Trisha knows how to decorate frugally (something we all should be doing anyway..am I right?) and her creativity is amazing! She is a seamstress extraordinaire who even slipcovered her own sofa (which I realized after the fact that I failed to get a photo of...so sorry!) She can sew just about anything and she puts her talents to good use beautifying her home! She is thoughtful and sweet and one of my very best friends. So, I hope you enjoy...

Starting at Trisha's front door...a group of our friends made these rustic cement planters this year. Trisha has hers filled with seasonal gourds. Made me think I should pull mine out and find a way to use them for Christmas. My apologies for this picture. I should have moved the whole thing out of the bright sunlight. But ya know, that would have taken effort. :-)

Such a pretty wreath, and I love the bow!


This little wood plaque with the leaves is so cute!



I love the color these berries add to the top of her entertainment armoire .



This is one of my favorite things in Trisha's house. She needed a little more storage in her kitchen, so she refinished this hutch! I love the fabric she added to the doors, and if you look closely you'll see that she covered a set of canisters to match. Yep, that's Trisha for you!


Okay, and she made these really cute little turkey placemats...she got the inspiration from an old Pottery Barn Kids catalog...just used some fabric scraps she had laying around the house. Of course she did. :-)



Same goes for this darling Thanksgiving banner. You all know how I love a banner. I almost took this one off the wall to bring home.

I thought this was too cute for words. Love those cute little bugs.

Here they are up close. Aren't they darling?

And speaking of bugs, Trisha knows how to pin insect specimens. That's a little trick she learned in college. Leave it to her to turn it into an art form. She pinned this beautiful swallowtail. I *heart* it.

She also pinned this Lunar Moth. This is another one of those things I could have taken home with me. Isn't it exquisite?

Some of you may remember these pretty autumn blocks. Trisha is the one who made them for me. Well, she also made this pretty monogram block. Just downloaded a freebie monogram from this website, printed it on cardstock and mod podged it to a painted block. So pretty! Of course, I am a sucker for a monogram.

She had a bunch of these sweet little pumpkins scattered around. She said they're made from bay leaves. Genius.

Hope you all enjoyed today's tour. Thanks to Trisha for opening her home and sharing with us some of her lovely decorating ideas.

And now for a little project of my own...

Many of you guessed that the projects I was planning were pillows. Well, you were right! I only had enough time to finish the crown pillow, but here she is in all her glory! I hope you all love her as much as I do. I'm planning on opening an etsy store sometime in the next week or so, and I will be selling some of these pillows, and some bee ones also. And perhaps some other designs and products...depending on how productive I am in the next little while. Soooo keep checking back for my grand opening! (I tell you all these sorts of things in advance because then it makes me get to it! Otherwise I might be forced to procrastinate a bit...anyone else have that problem?)

Ah, and before you go...did you all see that the Nester highlighted my mini-Mudroom that I wrote about both here and on Blissfully Domestic. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside that she liked it! She's like a bloggy superhero!woot woot!!

Have a happy weekend~

Thankful Thursday~

Just a couple of fun things to be thankful for this Thursday before Thanksgiving...

1st...I'm thankful for clearance sales! Got these cute little pumpkin baskets at Michael's on clearance for 80% off. Woot woot!! Oh yeah...we're talking 39 cents each. I figured even in the midst of a financial crisis I could fork over 78 cents for these little cuties!

 

2nd...I'm grateful for the time I am able to spend blogging. (Even though I'm sure it's more than I should.) I'm grateful for this wonderful outlet for my creative energies. I'm grateful for all the wonderful ideas I get from the other amazing, creative bloggers out there. And I'm grateful for everyone who reads my blog and leaves me such friendly,encouraging comments! Keep 'em coming! They make my day!

Join me tomorrow for the next installment of Friendly Homes Friday! And hopefully (with any luck and some spare time), I'll be able to share the project I was hinting at yesterday!

Can you guess...

WARNING...poor photo alert...

I'm going to apologize in advance because I waited until too late in the day to take these photos and there was no natural light! I just hate it when daylight savings time ends and it gets dark at 4:30 in the afternoon. Aargh! So these photos are really yellow. But they are hinting at some fun stuff to come...can you guess what these might become?

Fun with Photos

I have had several questions about my photography and the type of camera that I use. So I thought I'd take a minute to share my love of photography with you all. I caught the photography bug from the Hubby. But even though he has run his photography business for the last 7 years or so, it was just recently that I have nudged him into the world of digital photography (he is warming up to it, although he definitely still prefers film). As I have helped him in his business, I have really grown to love the art of photography. I wanted to join him photographing weddings and such (I got to be 2nd camera with him for the first time at a wedding this summer!) but I told him that I really needed immediate feedback on my photography so I talked him into buying a digital camera. I asked for a Nikon D40, but I let him go buy the camera, so he came back with a Nikon D60. I LOVE IT!

We still have not invested in any fancy photo-editing software, however. I mostly use the software that came with the camera. But recently I discovered a great website where you can edit photos...http://www.picnik.com/. It's a lot of fun! I got a lot of compliments on my photo of Two's tricycle last week but I hadn't done anything with it aside from adjusting the light a little, so I decided to see what I could do with it on Picnik.

Before....

After...

I like it! What do you all think? If you like photography, go check it out and have a little fun!

Oh, and before I forget...thank you Julie for this award!

Have a lovely Monday~

Friendly Homes Friday~

I'm super excited about today's edition of Friendly Homes Friday! That's because today I get to share the home of someone who is not only one of my dear friends, but I am also related to her... It's my sister-in-law Alissa! (Our hubbies are brothers.) Alissa is one of the most amazing women I know. She has more energy than any other three women put together. And she puts her energy to good work being a very enthusiastic mother to four super-busy and fun little boys! She is an amazingly creative mother...I am constantly in awe at her parenting prowess. And even though she is so busy with her boys, she also has the time to be a super-talented crafter and to create a very beautiful home. I hope you all enjoy today's Friendly Home...


Our tour begins just outside the front door...isn't this display charming? Pretty pumpkins and a berry covered wreath hanging from an old garden planter cart.

She also has two of these pretty lanterns...I just love the ribbon.


This bowl is on a table in her foyer...yes, she has a foyer. I love the textures and the addition of the pretty little berry wreath for some autumn-y color.

This has to be one of my favorite parts of Alissa's house. The formal living room has a two story ceiling. I love the double windows on this wall and the huge barn star hanging in between?...well, I just love barn stars!

I thought this little pilgim couple was just too cute!

I love how she put this pumpkin on top of this old scale. I love the vintage patina of the scale. So charming!

I'm a sucker for a pretty fireplace. And Alissa really has one! The painting above the fireplace was painted by our super-talented father-in-law. I've shared some of his art before...here. I also love the long wooden container with the dried hydrangeas. So pretty.

She has a knack for display. Look at this fun box just full of little things to enjoy.

I love this idea. An old chippy mailbox mounted to a board. I bet they really use it to leave love notes for each other. I didn't ask, but I know that family pretty well ;-)

I'm not sure what this is, but I love the look of it with these cute jack-be-littles!

Alissa has cute vintage-inspired airplanes hanging from the ceiling in two of her boys' rooms. She and I joked that this photo would like it was really flying if you couldn't see the corner of the ceiling. (I tried to crop it out of the photo with no luck.)


Yep, she made this too! Old croquet mallets mounted to a board for a coat rack in one of her boys' room. She really is that kind of a girl!

I have long admired this chippy chair. It sits on the half-landing of her staircase. Isn't it pretty?

And last, I wanted to share this cute frame. I love the fact that she has a key for each member of the family...biggest to smallest. Sweet! (and if you look closely you can see me taking the picture...hee hee!)

Thanks to Alissa for letting us peek in her lovely home...I hope you all enjoyed it!

I'll be back next week with some exciting projects, so y'all come back now!

Have a lovely weekend~

Thankful Thursday~

For our family night this past Monday, the Hubby, the kiddos and I made a thankful tree. We wrote down the things that we are thankful for on construction paper "leaves" and then I tied them to the tree with raffia. Since I shared with you many of the "serious" things I am thankful for during last week's Thankful Thursday, this week I thought I'd share with you some of the things we wrote down that made me smile.

One is thankful for snowy days with hot cocoa (come to think of it, so am I...and isn't his handwriting so cute? )

Two is thankful for firemen, Thomas the train, and Spongebob Squarepants (I mean, who isn't?)

Three, well he is too little to tell us, but I think he is thankful for his binky (although it will be "going away" soon) and for his belly button which he likes to poke whenever I am changing him.

The Princess is thankful for water (I think it is neat that she thought of that) and Barbie.

I am thankful for icecream and a good decorating magazine.

And the Hubby, well everything that he wrote was serious, but I think I can safely say that he is grateful when all of his angels are tucked into bed at night ;-)

Happy Thankful Thursday~

Simple Seasonal Decor~

In my humble opinion, simple decor is the best kind. I just thought I'd share with you a couple of easy autumn/Thanksgiving decor ideas.

These cute blocks were actually a gift to me from one of my dear friends, but I thought they were so cute, I wanted to share them with all of you. She painted a couple of wood blocks black and then decoupaged some fall themed fabric on the front and finished it off with pretty grosgrain ribbon bows. Simple and pretty!

And what can be simpler than gathering a few fall berries and putting them in a vase. I love the clear pitcher because it really puts the emphasis on the lines of the twigs and the color of the berries. They just pop!

And finally, the simplest of all fall decor...unraked leaves. Just kidding! Two's tricycle was sitting in the driveway surrounded by blown leaves, and I just loved how it looked so I had to pull out the camera and snap a photo. Doesn't it just ooze a vintage-y autumn feel?

Happy Wednesday~

Inspire-Me Tuesday~

Today's inspiration comes from PB Teen. You know I love all things Pottery Barn, and if you've been reading my blog for any length of time at all (cause I only mention it about every other day or so) , you must know how I love banners. Well I found an adorable one in the latest PBTeen catalog, and it inspired me to make one for the Princess' bedroom with some of  that fabric that I showed you all last week and some skinny green polka dot ribbon.

Easy-peasy and a big statement!
Thanks PB Teen!