Get well, Grammy...

A fun project I've been working on today...It was my mother-in-law's birthday last week and she's having surgery tomorrow. Since she lives out of state I wanted to send her a little happy birthday/get well package. All of the tags on the gifts are from emma to her grammy. I had Emma and her dad work on 12 different cards for her. I put each one in an envelope for Grammy to open...one a day for 12 days! I also made a cute little sign for her to hang in her room.

I made her personalized stationery to send to Emma while she's recovering. I also included stamps with the notecards...and made some for Emma to send back to her!

Some handmade cards being sent her way...

Some cute little notebooks... I made these for the pictures of Emma that I'll be sending along with Emma's notecards over the next few weeks. I also included some photo corners...

I made a little set of personalized birdie coasters and threw in a couple of magazines and a movie...

It's all packed up and ready to mail. I can't wait for her to get it... Handmade presents are the best!!

Projects around the house...

This is for you LL...

I've been trying to do little projects around the house...the kind that drive you nuts until you mark them off your list. I recently cleaned out and organized my closet along with the stuff under my bathroom cabinets. The cabinets had become a war zone with all of Emma's "rearranging" she does down there while I'm blow drying my hair! Finally everything is put back to normal! We also added some flowers and a few fall decorations to the outside of the house. The landscaping is far from looking professional, but it's definately an improvement to our yard... we've never put in flowers before! We felt very Martha Stewart-ish (at least I did, I don't know how Vance felt!).

We have several projects planned for this week as well since we'll be on our "going nowhere" vacation. I'll be posting pics of our vacation adventures at the end of the week!

Enjoy...

Some great storage boxes I picked up at Marshall's.

Would love to redo our closet one day with built-in cabinetry... also a sad display of how very flew clothes I have!

Our new flowers... what makes them even more amazing is that my husband dug all of the holes with a long screwdriver because we don't own a trowel! Can you say "ghetto"... It was hillarious and I was proud of him for doing it anyway to make me happy!

Perfect Weather for a Festival

The fam and I went to the Midlothian Craft Fair this afternoon. It's a gorgeous day - blue skies and breezy. The craft fair wasn't the best I've ever been to, but it was nice to get outside and walk around. I think Em had a good time...what two year old wouldn't with a perfect red balloon and paw print tattoo?

I was a little shocked at how few ACTUAL craft booths there were. It seem like there were more businesses with booths handing out fliers. A little disappointing. Maybe this is normal and I'm just spoiled by all the wonderful handmade items on Etsy. Either way, it was a beautiful day and I was happy to be outside enjoying the day with my family!

I hope Em doesn't make a habit out of riding in cop cars!

Also hoping this is the only kind of tattoo she ever get!!

Taking the traditional "dad holding the camera out as far as he can" picture!

A few cookie crumbs on the lips...yum!

Vance swears he can make this $3,000 playhouse for $400...hmmm.

A walk with Emma

I took Emma for a little walk through the neighborhood last night. She picked up a pumpkin from our front porch and decided to take it along for the walk! It's becoming a bit of a tradition for us - she likes to bring along some sort of object for the trip! We took random pictures of things we saw along the way. So fun letting her tell me what to take pictures of!!

Taking a moment to look at Mr. Pumpkin!

Emma enjoying the "flowers" in someone's yard! No need to mention they're actually weeds, right?!

There aren't too many of these around our newly developed neighborhood, so you take notice when you see one lying on the ground!

There are, however, a lot of these around our neighborhood!

Precious hand!

It looks like someone silverleafed the hydrant!

Emma's favorite!

Enjoying the little things...

The past few days I've been thinking about how special the little moments during the day with my two year old are. She is so precious and says the cutest little things. Even though some days it seems like the hours drag on, I am keenly aware that time is flying by. I know that one day soon I will wake up early to take my baby to school. I'm so thankful for the lazy mornings she and I have. I'm so thankful that I get to play with her during the day. I'm so thankful that I'm the one who gets to potty train her. I'm so thankful that I'm the one who gets to hear: sure mommy, be careful mommy or you will hurt yourself, i love you too much mommy!, mommy you're my best friend, and I come wit you mommy.

I'm so thankful for the sweet little blessing God has given me. I just want to enjoy every moment and be thankful for even the little, not so glamorous moments tat everyday brings. These are the times I know I will look back on with such fondness. I want to be able to do so without the regret of not having enjoyed the moments as they happened...

Casualty of War...

...paper cutter war, that is. unfortunately the paper cutter won. yesterday i accidentially stepped on the paper cutter that i had conveniently left in the floor of my office (with the arm up) and cut the top of my big toe. i had no idea what hit me...thankfully, it didn't cut through my tendon, but it did go through all of the skin. the fact that i could see my tendon was so wierd. i prefer to not even think about all of the gross things that are just below the surface of my skin, much less see them! i'm not too familiar with serious cuts, broken bones, etc. i've been lucky in my life so far and haven't had too many injuries like that. i was seriously freaking out and didn't know what to do with it. should i go to the doctor, etc.? anyway, i did go. i guess i'm glad that i did. but now i'm limping around like something more serious than a cut on my toe is wrong with me. you don't realize how much you need all of your limbs to be in perfect running order until something happens to one of them! my left arm is killing me now since they also gave me a tetnis shot. i also forgot to mention that we had guests coming over for dinner and i was totally stressing because i was at the doctor's office all afternoon and couldn't straighten up my less than perfectly clean house. my husband stayed at home with my daughter and was in charge of cleaning up. very nice of him, but not my first choice. when i got home my guest had already arrived...and i had on a baseball cap covering up slightly greasy hair that really needed a shower, but was too late to get one. i felt gross and ugly all night!

so as a reward (or consolation prize) for my hard luck day, i made this wonderful trifle. not exactly the most difficult culinary concoction, but seriously good. brownies, strawberries, bananas, cool whip and heath bar layered together to create a wonderfuly harmonious bite!

Where I spend most of my days...

Since I fall asleep listening to The Fresh Prince television show many nights, it only makes sense that I would wind up quoting the theme song! This is a picture of some of the storage in my home office. I have been spending so much time in here working on projects lately. I feel like I'm at work again. It's been a long time since I've had a "real" job. Feels kind of nice, but different. In my old office I never had a two year old sitting on the floor next to me reading library books and eating animal crackers! I think I like this version better. Happy Wednesday.

Handmade kitty

Not exactly a stuffed animal you'd find in the stores...but I think he's special because Em and I made him together (well, sort of)! I had a pair of pajama pants that ripped and wanting to recycle the fabric somehow. The other night I cut up the pants and turned them into this little kitty.

Em was so proud of him. Everywhere she went with him she kept saying "momma made it" in a very excited voice. I love that even a two year old notices that handmade things have something special that things bought in the store don't. I look forward to all of the crafts that she and I will do together as she gets old. To quote Em "this is sooo fun!"

Even though I'm okay with the fact that this little guy doesn't look perfect, I can't help but wish that my mother had taught me how to sew. My two session sewing class at Joann's hasn't quite made me into a seamstress!