{sweet baby boy}

In case you hadn't heard - it's another baby boy!!

Meet our son: William James, expected September 5th!

{Christmas in April, project 4}

This project has been sitting on my dresser to be completed since before Christmas!! And it is finally done!

I wanted to create a nativity that would be friendly for little hands to touch without looking necessarily childish. The 2011 Christmas issue of Life:Beautiful magazine {I just love this magazine!} had a pattern in it for a cookie nativity. A cookie nativity is decidedly not a little hand friendly type of thing, so I modified it to be my own.

I copied the cookie pattern onto cross-stitch linen, and embroidered it with DMC floss and DMC metallic thread for some extra sparkle. 

I did end up lining it with fusible interfacing, just so that the stitching would be a little bit more secure, and also so the stabilizing plastic canvas would not show through.

My wonderful Dad made me a beautiful walnut stand for it. I am so excited with the way it all turned out and I think it will make a lovely nativity for my little guys.

It was a bit hard to photograph, it is so 3D in person. Total out of pocket costs: $3 for more interfacing. Hours spent working on it (this week!): around 10, but so worth it. 

The Bethlehem buildings are my absolute favorite.

{my Redeemer lives}

"On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, 'Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen!' " 


Luke 24: 1-6

What a wonderful thing! My Redeemer is victorious in death!

A very blessed Easter to you and your dear ones!

{an Easter gift}

I am so excited to share this post with you and with the Dear Lillie Easter Link Party!

Every Monday I meet with a fabulous group of ladies for some girl time. I thought this week I would bring a little Easter gift (that did not involve candy!).  

I had everything for the boxes already: pre-fabricated boxes from Paper Source, little brads, a black ink pad, Martha Stewart stamps, a stamp block, and Bic markers (I ended up not using the markers). 

Because I did not want to use any sort of grass or filler, I stamped the inside of the boxes for a little extra sweetness. I had some leftover tea lights in glass holders (all from Ikea), from a bridal shower I had given for a friend. They were tied with some perle cotton.

I made the white linen flower pins using an article from my favorite magazine, Life:Beautiful. This particular tutorial is from the Spring 2010 issue. (This is the only magazine I keep every issue of, and I would highly encourage you to look it up!!)

I love the results and think they would be darling as a place setting for an Easter get-together!!

This is a continuation of my  previous series, and is Project 3 in the lofty crafty goal. The only thing I purchased was one-half yard of white linen for the flowers: out-of-pocket expense: $5. Total time on this project: about 2 hours.

I am also linking up with the lovely Dear Lille and their Easter Link Party!!!

{project 1 and project 2 from my lofty crafty goal}

I promise I have not spent all my time (or even most of my time) working on these two projects. But, working an hour here and an hour there on ten other projects does not produce a lot of instantaneous results. I am pretty excited with how my other projects are coming, but I thought I would give you an update on my lofty crafty goal.

project 1: lavender sachets

For this project, I did have to purchase the dried lavender. I had on hand all of the felted wool, and just used matching embroidery floss from my collection. I only spent around 3-4 hours total, and have 12 lovely smelling sachets! Total out-of-pocket expense: $10.

project 2: tags and labels

This isn't exactly the most glamorous or creative project, but sometimes it is the little things that make all the difference. I already had the Avery name tags, the stamps, and the ink on hand. I did purchase the hang tags for a special need that I will feature below. I spent around a 1/2 hour on these and have 20 hang tags, and 16 labels. Total out-of-pocket expense: $3.

 Both of these crafty projects were used to complete another project: prepare our linens for moving. I have been spending the majority of this week attempting to go through all of our closets and nooks and crannies (I still have tons more to go through!). I tackled our linens this week and washed and dried them all. Tonight I folded them, added a few of the sachets, slipped them in a pillowcase and tied them with some ribbon I found in the closet and labeled everything with one of my new hang tags.

I love the way they came out and know it will be a welcome present to open later!

{a lofty crafty goal}

I have a lot of lofty crafty goals. 1. To be completely caught up on scrapbooking/memory keeping before our big move in the middle of May (probably not going to happen, but I can still plan.) 2. To use up the craft supplies I own instead of buying anything new for projects. A few things will be allowed, like photos for goal 1. and things that I never keep on hand, like quilt batting and stuffing, but I feel I should be able to make a significant number of wonderful things without spending a significant amount of money. 3. Actually stick to 1. and 2.! I'll keep you updated. P.S. My husband has already written this off as impossible for me..I'll show him!

{memory keeping}

One of my million goals the next few weeks is to find someway to do memory keeping for our little family. I just cannot decide how!! I used to scrapbook all the time, but I want something a little less delicate than the elaborate scrapbooks of my past. I want something my young kids can pull out and look at. Maybe I just need to use sheet protectors for my pages (gee, what a thought). I love everything to match. I love the years to all be in the same sort of album. Maybe I'll switch to a standard 8 1/2 x 11 3-ring binder. I just know whatever I do, I just gotta do it. The pictures and paraphernalia is piling up. And I figure I'll never have as much time as I have now. Today is the day of decisions!!!