January 27th, 2012
So I haven’t really posted recently. I have been under this little cloud called “unmotivated” and every time I thought about doing a blog post I would get really discouraged and I would think of all the posts that I have just waiting to be written and get overwhelmed and then I would just hang out on facebook and watch something mindless on TV. Anyone else ever have weeks like that?
So this morning I had a lightbulb moment… I don’t have to do any of those lined-up blog posts, I can post whatever I want! Yeah simple I know, but sometimes it’s hard to get there. So in the shower I had a fun idea for a post: things that I’ve been thinking about lately.
1. Politics
We’ve been talking about politics, watching every (stupid) debate, discussing back and forth our issues with each candidate, and generally groaning about how crazy people are. I really like Mitt Romney, he’s handsome (hey we have to look at the guy a lot!), and hard working, is an honorable human being, and a lot of his ideals fit into my moderate perspective. Newt on the other hand I want to poke my eyes out every time I see him, and he has an ego the size of… well bigger than Texas (been there, done that). I actually like the sitting president though I feel his hands have been tied on so many things both by congress and his inexperience, as well as his desire to make everyone happy. If it were between Newt and Obama I would surely vote for Obama, but for now I’ll keep dreaming and hoping that Romney gets the bid.
2. Oliver and playdates
I’m always obsessed with my little guy, he’s the BEST! He started walking a few days after Christmas (at 9 months!) and is pretty good at it now. We also started play dates – I actually had 2 this week which is crazy! I have found that he loves to poke other babies in the eyes, and he loves swings. It was a great week! There was also a huge sale at Baby Gap, and I got him a ton of cute new clothes which was sorely needed since he decided to GROW out of pretty much everything else we had. So now he’s in between his old jammies making him look like a stuffed sausage and his new jammies which bunch up on his feet when he walks around. He had his 10 month dr. visit and he’s 21lbs and 30″ tall. that’s 50th percentile weight and 75th percentile height. What a big kiddo!
3. CHA
layouts by Amber Packer
I’m on my way to CHA in the morning. For those not in “the know” it’s the Craft and Hobby Association trade show. My new scrapbooking line (that I haven’t talked about here yet) Miss Caroline is debuting and so I’m going to go and have some fun and see some folks I haven’t seen in awhile and generally just get some inspiration and time away from home (I’m sure I’ll miss Ollie like crazy). I am PLANNING on doing some good blog updates while at CHA so if you’re into that type of thing visit often!
4. Blog Re-design
Up until this point in blog-dom I have had Mr. Project do the majority of the programming of my blog, but I wanted a few specialty things so we’ve turned it over to a good friend who is also an awesome programmer. We are going full-speed ahead on a new look for the blog, and more important better functionality via search and tags etc. Hopefully that will be up sometime in March. I need to get it in gear as far as working on all the new graphics etc.
5. Young Women’s
I just got called in our ward as the Personal Progress Leader. Or something like that. I’m basically in charge of keeping track of and motivating the young women in the ward to keep up with their Personal Progress Program. It’s been so long since I’ve done anything YW related so this should be very interesting. I’m super excited in some ways, and completely terrified in others. But I’m mostly happy to be able to use some of my talents. For me that is so important when I accept a church calling.
6. Pinterest
Who is NOT obsessed with pinterest?
7. Decorating
I spent some time and money getting some empty parts of the house filled thanks in part to these awesome (and cheap) lamps at target. Now to take pictures…
8. iPhone 4S Camera
It takes awesome pictures and I always have it on me which allows me to get quick shots of Ollie and his daddy. ALL of my January pics have been taken with it, which means that I really need to dust off the SLR. It also means that I’ve gotten a lot of cute video too. Love my phone!
January 25th, 2012
Don’t mind me, but you will be seeing some Christmas in this post. 
One of my Christmas presents was a little organizer, typically intended for use in a shop or garage.
But my mom had a grand idea. She thought it would be great for me to store some of my crafting ‘stuff’ in it.
And she’s right!
Check it out.
Space galore!
I liked it and all. Great storage for buttons/brads/clips/etc.
But….. it still seened too shop/garagish for me.
So I jazzed it up using some of Jen’s fabulous fabrics.
I believe the fabric I selected is from the Lost & Found line.
Really, making over this organizer was easy!
I cut a strip of material so it would would fit around 3 sides of the organizer.
I then applied Mod Podge to the organizer. {1 side at a time until it was dry}
After I got the material attached to the 3 sides, I tried to trim any loose threads.
In the end, I decided to add more Mod Podge to the edges to make sure it won’t fray.
Had I thought ahead, I would have used some stitch-witch and folded the rough ends under.
Mental note for next time!
Just wait!
I have one more craft involving this material.
How about a custom mouse pad?
Yup. I made one of these for myself for the office, as well as one for my mom.
You can find the original idea for this HERE, via Pinterest….of course!
What fun crafts or projects have you done where you use material in a way that isn’t typical?
January 23rd, 2012
I totally missed the whole sharing of holiday cards this past year so I was determined to make up for it in the form of a sweet Valentine. Most of the cards I received were from family and close friends so I decided that a photo card of my boys would be just the trick. Jen has some lovely digital collections available from Design House Digital and I grabbed the Vanity Fair: Persimmon and Aubergine and Nostalgia collections and decided upon a few images that would work with my photo. I like to go with the standard 4×6 photograph size so each Valentine will only cost pennies to produce.
In my digital editing program, (I use Photoshop) I cropped my image but still making sure I kept the dimension to the original size of the photo from my camera, 3000×4000 pixels. This way I know when I upload the flattened image to a digital photo processing site there won’t be any unusual cropping surprises. (At the ages my boys are now, it was difficult to get a great picture so I had to count my blessing that I got an almost decent image of both of them!) I then layered the two tape accessories from Vanity Fair Aubergine in the bottom right corner and then the Love button from Nostalgia on top of that for a quick message. I felt that I needed to bring the brown from the background down as well, so I recolored the border stamp from the Persimmon Vanity Fair and brought that in as a layer behind the button. Just be sure to leave enough “border” around your main images and design to allow for any cropping during the photo process. I flattened the file and after a bunch have been printed I will have my boys write their names and we’ll send them out before Valentine’s Day!
With just a few beautiful digital elements available at Design House Digital and simple skills in photo editing, you can create put a smile on someone’s face when you send them a special hand designed photo card! The most difficult part is getting a good photo!
January 17th, 2012
This isn’t really household organization, but many of you need to record mileage on your vehicles. We record mileage on a really ratty piece of paper, so I’m looking forward to using this cute form. l made it so that it could be folded in half or cut in half so that it takes up less space in your car.
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January 13th, 2012
Playing with fabrics is possibly my newest addiction. Collecting pretty fabric is first…then sewing! I made this quilt for my daughter using most all the red + pink fabric from the Lost & Found collection. My favorite part of quilting is selecting fabric patterns and colors! I may not be a good quilter…but I’d say I’m a pro at colors, no fakin’ it here!
If you’ve never sewn anything, or quilted, the first step would usually be to decide what you are making. In my opinion…I go off color first. Find your inspiration, what stands out and then think of what you could make with it. I couldn’t have found a more perfect collection to start with! I’ve been looking for a couple years too. I knew I wanted pink, red, and brown to match my other daughter’s quilt. But I just couldn’t find anything until recently…thanks to Jen! Sometimes you just have to wait for something that perfect! Next decide on your pattern. I used Camille’s Shortcake pattern, super cute, and reminds me of a scrapbook page. The most time consuming part for me is arranging the fabrics. This is where I’m super picky and indecisive…because I’m a perfectionist that way, I can’t help it! Here’s where I couldn’t decide to use the red floral fabric or not. They sent me the wrong one…however it was very similiar to what I did want.
Okay…made up my mind!
Start cutting and piecing fabric together. I had to be extra careful and make sure all the script in the polka.dot and the damask fabric were all the same direction. That may not matter to some…but to me it would drive me crazy! Depends on the quilter.
This red and pink stripe fabric is my favorite!
I layed it out on her bed to get the full effect…I can already see where I would have switched a few fabrics around…so hard for me to embrace imperfection!
And that’s it! You can either quilt it yourself, or send it off to a professional! I simply don’t have patience for that. If you do, wow I’m impressed! Once I get it back, I just have to add the ric rack and then bind the quilt. I can’t wait to see it all done and quilted! If you’ve never sewn something before…but would like to…I encourage you to just start. Most would say to start on something small…I say go big! It’s much easier to sew a quilt, even if it’s a baby quilt than say…a hot pad! {or maybe that’s just me still having nightmares from sewing stuff in Teen Living back in high school.} You can always take it apart…a seam ripper can be your best friend!
