My Life In An Instant - Weekly

Yes...29.

This past Saturday I celebrated my 29th birthday...yes, I said 29. And what did I do, well...nothing! And that is exactly what I wanted to do. We were going to go to a parade and a fair and shop and do several other things but the night before I decided that all I really wanted to do was relax, sleep in (which I did get to do for the first time in 4 months!) and spend my day with my family. After all, it is my first b-day as a mommy and my first with a family.

TJ got up with Rory, made me breakfast when I got up and gave me a totally cool new hobby as a gift. My new hobby...metal stamping! He got me a kit and all the fixings to create my own metal stamped jewelry. I'm totally hooked! Can't wait to get some things in my shop!

Rory let me sleep in, gave me big smiles and cuddles all day long, was really good about the car ride to get latte's and burritos (yes they do go together!) and the extra 1/2 hour when we got lost trying to take a back road home and she also gave me a card and bouquet of tulips. It was all quite lovely and the best gift of all was having her here to celebrate with me.

I did get a few pics but didn't have time to download them since I spent my weekend relaxing instead of taking care of, well, life. So that is what I've been up to all day cleaning and organizing. If I do get the chance I will post some pics later this week!

Did you know about this?

Cause I didn't! But now that I do I am having a ton of fun playing with it. Oh, you want to know what it is? It's BigHugeLabs, a photo editing and flickr toy site. Check it out!

I made these and got that cute little flickr widget in my right margin from the website for free of course. No, I'm not advertising for them, I just thought it was fun and I had to share with you.

You can do so many neat things with your photos. This is just all I had time for. You should take a peak if you have a moment.

Sorry for the ad-like post!

 

I Am No Martha!

TJ and I wanted to do something fun for Easter this year and since we are all about making our own gifts and decorations for holidays we decided to try our hand at something new for Easter. So we decided to make papier mache' eggs. We send a shout out to Martha Stewart for the idea!

Since my sister and her fiance will be joining us for the holiday this year, we made some extra big eggs to fill with goodies (Note to Laura and Brad: I know I ruined the suprise but you can't expect a blogger/crafter not to share their projects). Rory already has an Easter basket so we made her a few small ones to stick inside since she won't be getting any candy this year. hehe.

So I am no Martha! My eggs don't really even look like eggs, but rather like footballs and paper mush balls. Though the pink one I made Rory was a success.

But TJ is! Check out his master piece!

I can't wait to show you how everything comes together for the holiday!

What projects are you doing for Easter?

Yummmmm!

I was having a craving for something a little sweet and naughty last night and since I promised TJ that I would cut back on my rather expensive chocolate addiction (3+ visits to the chocolate shop a week and I'm not talking Hershey's here. Take a peak, but be careful, you might become just as addicted), I decided to try my hand at baking my own lemon poppy seed muffins.

Now, I am not a baker, I can cook a mean meal but I just can't bake. I know, it shouldn't be that hard but for some reason I can't get it. I know, you are thinking what kind of stay at home mom can't make brownies? I'm supposed to be a June Cleaver or Donna Reed but that's just not me. I got lucky though, TJ is a great baker, in fact he is a great cook too! So he makes the brownies and I truly appreciate his baking skills for we would never have a decent dessert around here otherwise.

Back to my sweet treat, Lemon Poppyseed Muffins! I have to say they came out quite yummy and they look yummy too! Don't you think?

So I had one when they just came out of the oven, the best time to eat anything baked is when it is fresh out of the over and warm. Okay, I lied I had two.

I had another for breakfast!

And another for snack!

And another for another snack!

And now I feel really guilty cause that baby weight isn't gonna go anywhere if I keep eating these things.

I know you are wondering how I have time to take care of my baby, keep up this blog, work on my shop, clean the house and bake muffins. I must be some kind of supermom. Well, though i wish i could hold that title I can't cause my muffins came from a box. But I made them with one hand while holding my daughter in the other cause she would freak everytime I put her down (don't worry, I put her down whenever I had to open the oven. Safety first!) so that should get me some sort of supermom title...but maybe not.

The Sweetest Hands

Oh, to think of all of the great things these lovely little hands will do!

They make me smile!


After a long weekend visiting family, TJ having to work and a cranky baby that has needed mommy by her side at all times, TJ and I are finally getting to the Easter project that we thought would be fun to do together. We started last night and will hopefully finish tonight, maybe tomorrow, but as soon as it is done, I promise to share with you all.


Happy Tuesday!

My Sunshine

A little bit of sunshine on this gloomy, rainy day!

Rory is 12 weeks old!

I love this retro style dress her daddy bought her!

Yet Another Handmade Holiday

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

I just love this holiday because it is all about love and showing our loved ones how much we really care about them. And this was a particularly special vday since it was my daughters first and the first we celebrated together as a family.

I decided to give a handmade holiday another try. Though my handmade Christmas was a bit of a wash due to the early birth of my daughter, I actually managed to complete almost all of the gifts I wanted to make for my lovies for Valentine's Day. I do have to admit most of my ideas are not original to me. My creative instinct has been temporarily lost due to lack of sleep and time. So I must give credit where credit is due.

For Rory I made a love owl. She has several stuffed owls already but I just love owls so I hope she does too, since I can't seem to stop making them.

Rory's owl

I didn't mean to give it evil looking horns!

The inspiration behind Rory's owl.

I found this adorable little creature while looking around on etsy. Made by Buttercupbloom, Violetta is just one among many other tiny wee hoot owls and some other fun animal friends. Now I totally would have ordered this owl cause I love it but the sewer, crafter, creator inside of me just couldn't do it. I often find things like this that I really want but I find myself unable to purchase items that I may be able to make myself. However, I usually don't get around to making half the items I say I am going to. I've decided that I am still going to have to adopt Violetta, I just love that owl. She is so much cuter and sweeter than the one I made. Plus, as I learned from my grandmother who collected owls, you can never have enough of those smart little things around.

A little love fortune for TJ (darling husband)from me and Rory. I did get this idea from another blog but I cannot for the life of me remember which one it was. So if I copied you and you are reading this please don't be mad, email me and I will certainly give you the credit you deserve. I paired that little fortune with a yummy dark chocolate bar from Chocolate Springs (I hope he shares!).

The tree of love for TJ

The inspiration behind the tree of love.

Again, another etsy find. You should definately check out Jellybeans shop. I absolutely love every single print she makes. I plan on getting a few in the next couple of months, maybe I could get one for an easter present, but I'm not sure I can wait that long. I really want her Poppies Print. Anyway, I saw this and really wanted to get it for darling husband but knew I could manage to make something sort of like it. I am not a painter and certainly don't claim to be but I thought I'd give it a whirl and I have to say I am quite proud of how it came out. I think it's cute! I just hope that TJ doesn't think it is to girly a gift to give a manly man.

I made this felt card for Rory so that she would have it forever. This I came up with myself. I think it came out kind of cute...she couldn't have been less interested.

So I got this idea from Rubyellen's blog Cakies, where I get so much of my inspirations from. I'm not only inspired by her crafty ideas but also her family life and relationships. She is an awesome blogger, crafter and mommy! She made this for her husbands birthday, I had every intention of making one for my husbands love day but I didn't get the chance to. I just thought the idea was so cute that I wanted to share it anyway.

So it is now clear to you that I really wasn't kidding about the lack of creative ability right now. Yes, I copied most every thing that I made for Valentine's Day. But I am not ashamed because I copied some very amazing crafters that make things that I just wouldn't have thought of otherwise.

I hope you had a great Valentine's Day!!!

What gifts did you give and recieve for Valentine's Day?