2013 in Photos

Happy New Year everyone!!! 

2013 was another great year.  I can't wait to see where 2014 takes us.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

The kids wanted to make photo valentines again this year.  I showed them several ideas, but they were stuck on the "Rock On" theme with pop rocks attached.

This is very much like Harper's valentine last year. She really wanted to do another one this year, so that's what we did.  She processed hers using picmonkey.  Miller lost interest after the photo shoot, so I processed his for him.  He didn't want any funky colors.

We have been battling the funk at our house this week.  Miller had strep throat over the weekend.  Then Harper starting feeling bad on Monday.  Instead of strep she has the flu.  Ugh.  She had the flu back in December too.  I mean what are the odds of her getting strain A and B?  We all got the flu shot after our bout with the flu in December, but I guess it didn't really help Harper.  Poor thing.  Hopefully the rest of us will dodge this round.

I hope everyone has a healthy Valentine's Day!!!

Elfie and a Christmas Parade

Well, Elfie is back again this year.  

 

 

Harper has decided she has some very important questions that need to be answered.

 

 

 

 

 

We also participated in the local Christmas Parade on Saturday with Harper's brownie troop.  It was a perfect day.  Can you tell from the red faces that it was in the 70's.  The girls (and Miller) had a blast.

 

Labor Day 2012

 

We spent Labor Day on Center Hill Lake with family.  My youngest brother is getting married next Saturday, so we did a little celebrating.

 

 We caught some really small fish......
 

 

 

We tubed....


 

 

That girl is crazy.

 

The slide got a good workout. Miller must have gone down the slide 100 times.
 

My daredevil daughter jumped from the top of the double decker pontoon boat.

 

 We played until we were all pooped out.
 

What an awesome day!!

Happy Valentine's Day

We got the idea here for Harper's valentine.  I uploaded the photo to picnik and let Harper make the decisions on the processing.  She loved how it turned out.

We used this tutorial for the Angry birds.  These things took forever to put together, but as you can see from the photo Miller did most of the work.

This owl has nothing to do with Valentine's Day.  I made her last week to go with the baby quilt.  I took photos so I can provide a tutorial.  I just need to scan and upload the pattern pieces.  Hopefully I will have something up in the next few days.  

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Happy 2012

Since I have made a collage of some of my favorite photos the last several years, I decided I would continue the tradition.  I really can't believe that this is the my 4th New Year's post on this blog.  My other New Year's Post are linked below.

2011

2010

2009

Overall 2011 was a really great year.   Miller started playing baseball.  I ran (and walked) the half marathon despite my pesky hip injury.  We took a family trip to Louisville for Spring Break.  We visited family in Minnesota this summer.  Miller started kindergarten, so both kids are in school this year.  Wahoo!! Harper started Taekwondo.  We went camping and made a trip to Atlanta to celebrate my niece's birthday.  We started a major kitchen remodel and much, much more.  I really could not ask for more to be packed into one year.

I do have some things that I would like to accomplish in 2012.  I want to get back into running.  I really want to run the half marathon again this year, but train for it properly.  I haven't signed up yet because I want to make sure my hip isn't going to flare up again. So we will see. 

Last year was a very busy year and I am sure 2012 is going to be the same.  I need to figure out a better way to get healthy, quick dinners on the table when we are running in all different directions.  I think meal planning is key for this to actually happen.

I sure hope our kitchen remodel is finished this year along with refinishing the floors and drywalling the living room.  I know we have a long way to go, but hopefully we can get it all done this year.

Happy New Year's everyone!!

 

Christmas Craftiness

I kept it very low key this year for Christmas, but I did manage to sew this Super Hero Cape for my nephew.  It is reversible.  The other side is Batman.   I did not get any photos before I wrapped it up, so here are a few action shots.

 

 

I also put together a doctor's kit for my niece.  I made the casts using felt.  Then I purchased a bunch of medical supplies.  I found a real stethoscope on Amazon.com for $5.  I also printed off some x-rays.  I had fun putting it all together.

 

 

I also managed to make Miller the Angry Birds game.  Mitch and I painted all the rocks and then paired them with a slingshot.  He loved them.

 

 

Here's an action shot.

That was all the craftiness I could muster this year. 

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!

Eco Holiday Guide & Green Goes Simple

I just wanted to give you guys a heads up on a couple of things. I am working on a gift guide series featuring some of my favorite eco-friendly gifts. The gift guides will post the week after Thanksgiving.

I also wanted to let you know that I have teamed up with Studio One Networks to provide more Green content on my blog. Be sure to check out my Green Goes Simple tab at the top of my blog.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Hello there

I am just checking in since I have been a very bad blogger lately. I have not done any crafting or sewing since last week. Instead I cleaned out the kids closets, which gobbled up my sewing time. So there has been no progress on Harper's quilt. I did order a walking foot for my sewing machine to help with the quilting. Now I just need to do some practicing.

The half marathon is this weekend. Although I have not really trained at all, I am still going to do the race. There is no way I can run the whole thing, so I am just going to go out there and do my best. I am trying to let go of any time goals I had and just enjoy the race.

Since I can't have a post without photos, here are a few from this weekend. I only took a few. I think my camera might be lonely because she has not seen a whole lot of action lately.

The kids easter egg huntin' with their cousins.

More easter egg huntin' with more cousins.

Our new friend that is living in our yard. He actually let the kids get so close to him that they were able to touch him.

Valentine's 2011

I did a little sewing last week, but I will have to wait to show you. Today is my mother in law's birthday. (Happy Birthday Grammie!!!) I don't want to ruin any surprises, you know?

So instead I will show you what I did this year for the kid's valentines. It really isn't that crafty, but it's all I have to show. It was cheap, easy, and I thought they turned out cute.

I found the design on Eighteen 25. They have such cute ideas.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day. My Valentine surprised me with a date night Saturday night. We went to a swanky wine bar and then a very nice restaurant. It was the perfect way to celebrate Valentine's day.

Almost there

My crafting has been in high gear this week. I am really, really close to being finished with all my sewing. I am looking forward to just relaxing this week.

Here's a preview of some my projects completed this week.

Some bibs and burp cloths

The bottle cap necklaces all packaged up.

some custom cozies

Homemade Irish Cream and Pomegranate Cosmo

Hopefully, I will remember to take photos of the rest of the goodies before I wrap them up.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas.

Team-Up Thursday- December

Cara and I went with the group this week and did December as our theme. My shot is on the left. Cara's is on the right. I love how both shots have bokeh, greenery, and a pop of red. They work perfectly together. If I do say so myself.

If you look closely, you can see me in the red ball. Hello.

For more Team-Up Thursday hosted by Megan and Melody visit Mental Inventory.

Team-Up Thursday- Busy

Cara and I chose busy as our theme this week. It is a very appropriate theme for this time of year. I feel like I barely have time to breather some days.

Cara's shot is genius. I absolutely love it. I tried and tried to come up with a creative idea for busy, but was not successful. Cara on the other hand nailed it. It would be so nice to have some clones to put to work wouldn't it?

Since I have been so busy, my shot is a little lame. It shows you a glimpse of what has been keeping us busy at our house.

Join in on the fun over at Mental Inventory.

Last Minute Advent Calendar

I really wanted to make a special Advent Calendar for the kids this year, but like always time slipped away from me. I mean seriously where did November go? Wasn't it just Halloween? Anyway, in a mad scramble to get one up before today we put a calendar together yesterday afternoon. Originally I was going to use envelopes, but I knew I would have to do two sets to avoid sibling conflict. That means I would need 50 envelopes. I knew I could scrounge up maybe 25, but not 50. I wanted to use things that we had on hand. Then I saw this post and knew it was a great compromise. I already had tons of tags cut out that we could use. I also had Christmas scrapbook paper that I have had for about 6 years. So we went to work. Miller pooped out after writing all of his numbers and making a couple of presents. But Harper worked very diligently on her calendar.

So each night I will place a treat, reward, good deed to do, riddle etc. behind the corresponding number. I was not organized enough to have it all together at once. At least this way I have a little time to come up with some good ideas.

We ran out of clothes pins so we had to improvise.

Happy December 1st everyone!!

The 4th of July

This week Cara chose 4th of July as our theme. I thought that would be a perfect theme since we had a long weekend full of celebrating. I really wanted to get a shot of some big fireworks. I don't know how many shots I took. I never really got that money shot, but I did like how this one made the sky look red.

Don't you just love Cara's bokeh? I think it is the perfect 4th of July shot.

Visit Mental Inventory for more Team-Up Thursday.

It's Just Another Crafty Tuesday

I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday weekend. We sure made the most it.

Last week's free time was spent making these two guys. The last two I made for a shop here locally sold really fast so she requested a couple more. The owls have quite of a reputation at the shop. The person I sell them to always lets me know where they go to live. It is fun.

I snuck away on Friday afternoon for some thrifting at Goodwill. I lucked out and found a bunch of different fabric. I usually find sheets or pillowcases. Rarely do I find fabric. I felt like I had hit the jackpot. I found the blue fabric below and thought it would be perfect for the Fourth of July. I already had the red polka dot fabric from Christmas. I had planned on making a shirt, but Harper requested a skirt. It worked out better because I was short on time. The skirt was easy to throw together.

Don't you just love the natural pose?

I have a couple of birthday presents to make. Hopefully I will get around to those this week so I will have something new and different to show next week.

Happy Crafty Tuesday!!