Still no baby!

Believe it or not we still don't have a baby! Apparently she is just too cozy in there! So in the meantime I have been getting all kinds of things done!

It has been a good week, especially in the Craft department! Here is a taste. For more photos and details I am now a contributor on my sisters craft blog Nannygoat and so I will post my crafts mostly on there to avoid double coverage!

Car Seat Cover

Mod Podge Christmas Star (to hang on your door)

Cute and simple bibs

Paper Montage

A Tag, My Bargains, and A SNEAK PEEK!!

A TAG-
My talented sister craft tagged me along with some other ladies in efforts to get some cute and simple Christmas gift ideas or just for craft ideas... we are ALWAYS looking for those! The rule for the tag are as follows:

1. Post a project that you have been working on lately or some thing you want to start soon.
2. Include pictures, a few instructions on how to make your fun project/craft idea, or a link to where you found the idea.
3. Then tag a few people to do the same!!

I am generally TErriBle at getting back to tags (more on that later) and frankly I probably would have slacked on this one too had I not just had a craft day with my dear friends Ashley and Chantel (Chantel is my cousin and my dear friend:))
For some reason this craft has taken us a while but we started on our Vision Boards some time ago and finally got together to make the cute cork boards to hang our 'visions' on.

Here is how we made them:

#1- We purchased unpainted open back frames from Michael's Arts and Crafts (with our 40% off coupon of course) and then painted and sealed them with our desired colors.



#2- We cut out a piece of solid cardboard to fit in the back of the open frame and proceeded to hot glue the corks onto the cardboard in our desired patterns. (My mom donated some wine corks she found at a yard sale and the rest we purchased on eBay.)



Notice in the picture below that the frame is not painted... we used it as a guide while the others were drying but do not glue all your corks down until the frame is painted and ready to go because you will not be able to get the cardboard with the corks attached in or out after they are all glued on.



#3- Hang and enjoy with either photos or as a vision board.




MY BARGAINS-

For those of you who know me at all know that I am one of the cheapest (in a good way) people you will ever meet. I was thankfully (maybe not always so thankfully at the time) brought up bargain shopping. My mom and dad always worked hard to save money so that my mom could stay home to raise us, another blessing I am truly grateful for!!! And I am also grateful to have married a man that knows how to bargain shop!
Well on with it now right?!?!
I have clipped coupons for years but have just recently gotten VERY serious about it and I am so excited and happy every time I go to the store and save SO SO much money and come away with bags full of groceries for practically nothing.



My total bill for the items shown above was.... $7.16

YEP! that is right ONLY $7.16 for:
8 bags of Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers Veggies
5 Zone Perfect Nutrition Bars
6 Arrid XX Deodorant - Ultra Fresh Scent- (the absolute only deodorant Jeff will use)

Keep in mind none of these items are pull dated or even close! They are all fresh off the shelves at my local Alberston's Super Market!

My bargain from several weeks ago:



4 Boxes of Electrosol Dishwashing power tabs...$0.36.
Yes, Yes, I typed that right, I paid 36 cents for the above pictures items. Once again fresh off the shelves of my local Albies.
I LOVE A GOOD BARGAIN!


A SNEAK PEEK-

I have been working on Avery's nursery for months and months and months now!!! The plans changed I think 2 times and even after that it has taken me way to long to get it done and well it is not actually ALL done. So here is just a sneak peek with more pictures to come once I have finished the bumper and other finishing touches!

Productive Weekend

August has been a whirlwind and I have not had any time of my own! I cannot believe how behind I am on everything in my life! Jeff got invited on a guys golf getaway this past weekend and so I planned MY weekend and could not wait to finally get some things done!


THURSDAY
**I have been working on the babies nursery for weeks and weeks and weeks now (just ask Jeff) and finally made some decisions and so it was time to go fabric shopping. Luckily, my wonderful mother agreed to go with me because after the countless trips I had taken to fabric stores alone over the past weeks I somehow left empty handed every time. My mom is so good and picking fabric that looks good together and I am so happy to finally have my fabric in hand. I am ready to get sewing.


It will make more sense when you see it finished and in the room!

**Later that day (until about 3 in the morning in fact) I brought the sewing machine upstairs!!! We had our ward Super Saturday several weeks ago and as usual I didn't get all my projects completed during the allotted time. So I finished these cute nursing covers. They probably don't make sense unless you have seen them before in person. You can check out this link to a lady that makes and sales them. The photos on the right hand side show how the covers work.



**I also had to get one of these cute reversible capes. I don't know that Avery will want to use it necessarily;) but I am sure we will have a little boy eventually (I sure hope we do for Jeff's sake)!!





**I got the CUTEST little girl's tutu's but am holding off till I can make them with Kathryn when we go to Kentucky (in 2 weeks and 3 days:)).


FRIDAY
**After sleeping in till also 12 (after my above mentioned 3am sewing session) I headed off the the big sale going on at 'Babies R Us' to purchase some of our needed big ticket items.


This is just one of them! I also got a Pack n' Play, monitor and more!


SATURDAY
**I spent the day with a long time friend Savannah, helping her make a darling rag time quilt for the little boy she is expecting several weeks before we are due. She has yet to cut all the edges but she promised I could get more pictures when it is ALL the way done. It is cute and cuddly with warm flannels and super soft minke. This picture doesn't even do it justice.





Needless to say it has been a relaxing and productive weekend!! I am pretty sure September is going to be as busy and fast as August was. AHHHHH!

My Latest Crafty Projects

These are the first of many headband/bows to come especially if we are pregnant with a little girl! I have had the stuff and been wanting to make them for ages and finally just decided, 'I am not waiting to see what we are having, I am just making cute girly headbands anyway!!'

I saw these and many other darling appliqued onsies on my sisters friend Traci's craft blog and just had to make some of my own. I think hers are much cuter but either way they were easy and fun to make! I still want to make the ducky and little birdie and have one more project in mind. More show and tell to come soon:)

Behold the SEWING MACHINE

I grew up with the most talented woman I know! My mother was especially gifted (and still is) in the sewing department! I cannot even begin to recount the hours we spent in fabric stores growing up . Then Her and her sisters would get together to decide which of their craft items would be the biggest seller (oh my goodness Kathryn, we have turned into mom and the Auntie M's). We would go to every craft boutique within driving distance and they would figure out how they could make the cute things that they saw there. I don't know if my mom ever bought anything from a craft fair that didn't come home and get un-stitched to use as a pattern.

Why do I tell you about these quirky things that I love about my mother???

Because I have turned into her!!!

Lately, I LOVE Hancock fabric! And my mother will be glad to hear that the sewing machine I am quite sure she was inspired to give me for Christmas about 5 years ago, has been serving me well. I don't know if this is the baby factor that has me suddenly unable to purchase enough fabric, but whatever it is... bring it on!

I think sewing runs in our blood. My mother tried to teach my sister and I time and time again how to sew but I ALWAYS lost interest the second we had to cut out a pattern. I wanted to do the sewing part not the pattern part. Frankly, I am still scared of patterns! But I do feel like I have a gift for sewing (simple things right now!!) and crafts in general (thanks mom). We lack the creativity part (or at least I do) so lucky for us there are plenty of cute ideas out there to copy!

I am so so grateful for a mother that raised me to appreciate homemade!! It is so rewarding to me to make something with my own two hands. It has just been ingrained in me to see something I love (cute baby blankets lately) and go straight to the hem to see how they did that.

THANKS MOM, you taught me way more than you realize!!

1 year and 3 months in the making

For Christmas 2006 my sister-in-law and brother-in-law gave me this nice 'plate' holder and shortly thereafter Jeff and I hung it. It has been hanging empty in our dinning room/kitchen area ever since. I have just not been able to decide what I wanted to put on it. I kept waiting for the perfect plates that I loved to come along and well that just wasn't happening. So then one day my sister told me about a friend of hers that put picture frames on hers and so it came to be that that is what I was going to do too! Thanks Melissa from Kentucky and Kathryn for the great idea.

BEFORE:



AFTER:

This picture does not do them justice, they really are so cute! (Not to toot my own horn because I am NOT creative just a good copy cat!)

Hair Clips:)

I saw my friend Savannah wearing a one of these darling hair clips the other day. I thought that it was so cute that I had to make some immediately!! I purchased the supplies right after and made a few with my friend Darcie over the weekend. And have decided that they will be the next craft for Chantel, Ashley and my monthly craft day!!

I don't know what it is about them but I think they are just so so cute! I will post more pics after craft day!