Shhhhh....

I want to shout it from the roof tops: LAST WEEK I FINALLY MADE THE QUIET BOOK I'VE BEEN MEANING TO MAKE FOR THE LAST THREE YEARS!!!!!

Dress the kid:




Tic-tac-toe:



Camping/Zipper tent/Who-keeps-roasted-marshmallows-on-a-stick-in-their-camping-pack-in-real -life-but-I-thought-I-was-clever-anyway page:




Go fish and button:



Matching colors and numbers:



Matching colors and shapes:



Lacing and tying a shoe:


Yep, that's it.





Now my kids will be downgraded from most wild and unruly in sacrament meeting to contained for long enough to lose a handful of pieces and fight over a couple of pages right?

family quilt

Every family needs a family quilt.

The kind that sits on your couch unassumingly adding to the cozy of the room. The kind that keeps you warm on stormy mornings and is just the right size for Mama and her babes to snuggle up under and watch Parent Trap.

Pieced together entirely out of scraps I had laying around my sewing cabinet. I had fun with this one that I had been planning for two years now. Glad I finally did it! Thanks to my pal Katie for drawing the wavy waves for me to quilt on and my buddies Angie and Becky for helping me to breathe and re-pin the whole thing when it bunched up! Meg and Ash were great consultants on the design of the waves as well. We took a vote. It was serious. GO team!

Craft nights are great like that.

Now to decide what to sew next month... (I promise I won't put everyone to work each month, but boy am I glad you guys were there!)

Sewing Society: Help wanted... inquire within... the post. Thanks!

When I don't have work I get to blog more and make more stuff. It's fun! So, we have been making a lot of food around here and making everyone crazy since I have been reading these:


every time someone turns their back for a second... book six, I'm comin' for ya!

But anyway, last night I finally made these:

Huck Finn pants for four little Huck babies named:
Gideon

Asher

Calvin

and Shiloh

There's something so appropriate about Huck Finn pants all on a clothesline like that:

I have one more awesome project almost done... just getting a friend to help me with the last step and I can't wait to show you!

Oh yeah, speaking of help from crafty friends- anyone have a favorite Roman Shade tutorial? I've had the stuff to make them for the boy's room sitting on my floor for months. I think this is a pretty good one from What's New? Although, I'll admit the process intimidates me slightly.

Jenny at Little Green Notebook has a great alternative, but will it last and hold up to heavy fabric, plus black out fabric on a big window??

I need help! Anyone have experience in the Roman Shade department?

I asked Ambrose for help because he's crafty, but he was too busy constructing this:

Oh well.

so much fun. everywhere.

I think I blog more when I'm feeling inspired!

First of all, I have been listening to massive amounts of Birds, Beaks, and Bones by Quail and I would have a song from that album playing but it's one of those super cool indie albums that can only be found at the source. You can be in on the secret too. Order it straight from Marty today!

Next, I have so many cool crafty friends. Thanks for being so amazing y'all. You give me a lot to shoot for.

And then of course there was the little mixer last night:









You like my hair pretty? Katie made it. She's Pretty Swell if you didn't already know. Thanks Katie friend!

We came up with some great ideas:
-of course you already know about our society apron challenge. I hope you're cutting out fabric and getting that machine fired up!

-Katie and Becky have some great etsy support and workshop ideas we will do in Hawaii and then post about for all society members to take part in

-Echo and I are getting a fabric swap fired up

-I have a sewing music mix swap idea in the works for all society members near and far...stay tuned!

And so much more. It's fun to be surrounded by creativity.

Finally, I have a big goal to figure out Thomas' fancy pants camera this summer so I can take better pictures of my kids when they are doing awesome things while daddy is at work. All those magical everyday moments. I'm gonna work on it big time this summer and post good results for the grandparents and auntys as they hopefully happen.

Life is too amazing to be trapped in a dull, uninspiring routine. Do something magical today! Make something beautiful even if it isn't the best out there. I am not great at anything crafty, but I keep plugging along because it make me so happy and it's in my nature. Happiness is your heritage too. Go chase your inspiration down and let it take over!

our slice of paradise

My mom has been asking for these pictures since the first day we brought some boxes up and I never felt like I could post pictures of the new place, because even with all the sewing, sanding, painting, hammering, cleanning, organizing, designing...etc. we have been doing to get the place ready.... there is still so much we want to do!! I don't really think it will ever be "DONE" so here it is for now. I'll post more finished products or hung pictures as they are created and completed. Trust me, we still have more to do, but for all intents and purposes our beautiful, long wished for piece of paradise is ready to show off and WE LOVE LIVING HERE!!!!!

We LOVE it.

It feels like a dream. Or like we are playing house or something.

My poor boys. We hardly get out and do outdoorsy things anymore because I am having WAY TOO MUCH FUN living in my little dream home. It's all so fresh and just so so great.

Did I mention that we love it?

OK. Now it is time for WAY too many pictures. You'll be sorry you asked for them mom. ;)
















And now... I present for your viewing pleasure... way too many photos of my recently organized sewing stuff. I feel very accomplished. HAHA! I do though. I have never had it all OCD fancy like this before and it is AWESOME! Sometimes I go and open it all up and just stare and sigh..... love.


You sure you want me to open that cool clock knob? Once I do, we can never go back to time when you didn't know just how psycho I am.......

AHHHHHH!

PRINTS!

SOLIDS!

AN UNSATISFYINGLY DARK PHOTO OF FELTS, LEATHERS, NETTING, AND UNFINISHED PROJECTS!!!

And here she is:

The sewing cabinet all opened up and lovely. She is still missing cork boards on the inside of the top doors for hanging things on one side, and inspirational whosits and whatsits on the other. Oh, and a cool board with nails to hang my thread on in the back. Right now all my thread is tangled up in a huge bag. That just won't do. But here is what I do have done. Liko, can you spot something awesome that belongs to you in here?










Hey you mongrels. Get outta there.

Yes you. I can still see you. Even with that camo shirt.

Let's move on to the bathroom. Might be my favorite room in the house. I mean, look at it:

Sorry, I'm not very good at this indoor/flash thing. Sure wish Thomas was home to take all of these. Anyway, here's way more than you ever wanted to see of my bathroom:









And now for the little fishes in their life aquatic room. I feel like I want to do a couple more things in here, but here it is so far:

Swim on in friends.




We plan on living here for a while and growing up a little in this house. I like imagining what kind of friendship these two will have over the years. Someday this bed will be bunk beds. Or a trundle. Maybe it'll house three rowdy boys (!?) someday. It's fun when they play nice and I feel like this new space has already made us feel closer as a little family unit.










Ok boys


what else do we need to show them?

the tea cup tray on the little bookshelf?

the new and improved whiteboard... a HUGE upgrade from our old one we had for years that was so small and fell off the fridge sometimes?

Ambrose's second home: aka- the timeout chair? ;)

Asher's just upset that he can't do the dishes by hand. I, on the other hand, am not.














WHEW! If you made it to the end then congrats! I guess I wanted a post that represented the loooong journey it took to actually live in this happy place. Did I sound totally braggy in this post? I really can't help it. I can't. I am so unbelievably excited to live here. We love it! Thanks to my in-laws for helping us live our dreams and letting us design pretty much everything in the house. We love you guys and love being your tenants! We are lucky and I feel so grateful. Big smile on my face. All day. YAHOO!



It's so so good to be home.