february

february is a good month. obviously we’ve got valentine’s day to celebrate, as well as mine and adalaide’s birthday. my birthday isn’t really that big of a deal to me, but i’ll tell ya what is…. my baby’s birthday. her FIRST birthday. We’re putting together a party that is fit just for her. small and simple, but a special party nonetheless. even though we’re only having a couple people over i couldn’t resist putting together an invitation- you know, for baby book purposes.

{front}

{back}

{three}

Our first baby turned THREE on friday! We celebrated her birthday with 7 of her friends, and their families, at Jubilee Farm. If you live in the Seattle area, you know that the weather this weekend couldn’t have been more gorgeous. Hallelujah! We had lots of fun going for a hay ride  out to the patch, picking pumpkins, doing a hay maze, and having a picnic lunch in the sunshine.  

finley had lots of fun helping me make these delicious treats for the favor bags.

party hats!

gifts

party favor bags

my proudest accomplishment, and finley’s very favorite element of the party

kid’s lunches

boxed up and ready to go

i’m sure i’ll think this every birthday, but i CANNOT believe she’s three!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dLPhVgi1cI&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&hd=1]

some random information

:: In 46 hours our family is going on holiday, and i cannot possibly put into words how excited i am. brian has worked all but two days in the last 2 months. and oftentimes he comes home after his 10 hour day and does more work {checking out jobs, writing up bids, shopping for materials}. i am extremely thankful that his business thriving, and i know that this is his busiest season… BUT… i am so frickin’ excited to have lots and lots of time with him. i’m giddy just thinking about it!

:: i’ve had a few people inquire about my camera. it’s a nikon D 3000. i think it retails for around $500. I am embarrassed to say that I’ve had it for 6 months and I still don’t know anything about it. The only button I ever touch is the dial on top which switches the modes {portrait, outdoor, no flash, etc}. Someday I’d love to take a class to learn how to use it to it’s full potential. Maybe I could even learn how to take a decent indoor picture?!

:: I’ve also had several people ask about the flowers that you see the girls wearing. Crazy as it is, people have even been paying me to make them!! If you are crafty at all, they are really simple to make. There’s a few different styles.

One style involves cutting out and folding fabric circles. here’s a tutorial

Another style is made by sewing a ruffle and shaping it into a flower. i like using linen, because i like the frayed look.

The easiest one, in my opinion, involves burning the edges of a burnable fabric. i use silk.
mostly i use the flowers as hair accessories for the girls, but sometimes i like to use them for other fun
things, like…
or
or
someone had me make over-sized flowers to embellish her adorable flower girl dresses {i wanna see a pic!}
someone else had me make pins to give away as gifts for mother’s day.
and someone else used them to put on top of gifts {i love doing this too}.
i think they’re a fun accessory, and i do love getting my girls dolled up for special occasions.
hope this was helpful.

allow me to introduce

bolero girl.

I made this little summer jacket for finley. The pattern calls it a bolero. The name really stuck with her. She has been running around saying “da na na na na na BOLERO GIRL!”
I think it will look better without long sleeves underneath, but of course it is raining on this JUNE day! On the way out of church it was pouring, and finley screamed “ahhhhhhhh my bolero is getting wet!!”
tell me that’s not hilarious.
This was a simplicity pattern, and it was titled “sewing for dummies”. While it was actually pretty simple in theory, I still messed up twice {which i guess makes me a huge dummy}. In my defense though, I was working with linen which does not have a right and wrong side.
And I ran into a little trouble because i wanted to line mine. and apparently when you line a bolero you should not sew the arm holes shut until you flip it right side out. You will end up with a huge ruffled log.
Thank goodness for thread snipers.
We’re off to celebrate my husband for the WONDERFUL father that he is.

cheap wallart

I had two little helpers in the kitchen this morning. Surprisingly, there was some batter left to bake with!

…………….
I’ve been trying to think of something to do with this odd shaped canvas we’ve had sitting around. I just used some pink and green papers and came up with some art for Finley’s room. It was super easy-probably took 45 minutes total. Cheap AND easy…my favorite kind of project!

nursery photos

Adalaide’s room has been finished for a while now, but I’ve been hesitant to post any pictures because I’m not quite finished working on it. I have no idea when I’ll actually get around to the last few projects so I’m just going to post some pictures anyway. I’m really happy with how it all turned out. It is such a bright, cozy space. We actually find ourselves congregating in there quite often. Which I guess is no surprise considering that the oversized chair pretty much calls my name all day long.

A big huge thanks to my dear husband for doing the woodwork. Because if we’re being honest, it’s what really makes the room {as he so humbly reminds me all the time}. And thank you to my mom for “working in meghan’s sweatshop” {her words} to help me finish all my sewing projects.

So, without further ado…

i shortened these $14 ikea curtains and used the
extra fabric to make these pillows & the crib skirt.
i love that this antique dresser came with a little girls silhoutte painted on it
i should also give brian credit for hanging these glitter numbers so precisely
No, one of these tissue paper pom poms did NOT fall down into the crib. and NO i did not find adalaide’s
arm all tangled in the fishing line. ok, that did happen, but don’t worry i hung them with better hooks.
crib skirt from extra fabric
and hands down the cutest part of the room.

little girls are fun to shop for…

…even when they aren’t your own. One of my very favorite people is welcoming her second baby girl any day now. I had so much fun putting together a gift, some of it made, and some from my favorite children stores.

{ bibs }
{ skirts }
{ burp cloths }
{ romper from crazy 8 }
{ dress & shoes from H&M }
looking fancy in her party attire
her shower {thrown by her sisters} was so much fun. yummy food, darling decorations, and lots of newborn babies. 
…………………
i can’t wait to meet you baby girl isaacson! 

Finley is turning into quite the little poser. She climbed into Adalaide’s bed and requested that i take their photo. Brian had our camera with him at a job so i had to track down our old one, but i’m so glad i did.

This weekend we went to two parties sans finley who still can’t be around other little ones. As much as we missed her, Brian and I had so much fun hanging out with other adults and actually being able to finish our sentences and enjoy our meals. First we went to a co-ed wedding shower for Laura and Israel, friends from our community group. Two words: GOOD FOOD!

Then we went to cousin Lucy’s first birthday party. She is such a darling little peanut, and she definitely did not disappoint when it came time for digging into her pie!

I also was able to do some fun sewing projects for some special little babies that are arriving soon. Can’t post pictures though cause that would ruin the surprise.
I’ve been drooling over these darling little baby shoes on etsy, but i just can’t justify spending $30 on a pair of baby shoes that will fit for a few months, at the most. So, I attempted to make my own. Now i understand why they are so expensive. These things are time consuming! My sewing is awful, but from afar they are cute. I’m hoping they’ll turn out better with some more practice.
More photos from both parties in the online album.
Holy long post!

the biggest shocker ever (and some crafts)

So, this weekend Brian and I had the biggest shocker EVER thrown to us by our little peanut. Let me tell you, this goes down in my book as probably the most splendid surprise of all time. For those of you whose babies never took a binky or got rid of it early on, it probably sounds absurd to you that our now 2 year old still had one. But, from day one she has loved sleeping with it, and we’ve allowed it (in her bed) because well, we have enjoyed reaping the rewards of our good little sleeper. A long time ago we agreed that when she turned two we would get rid of it. Basically we put it off for the last month because I’m a huge wuss and I kept coming up with excuses. I was really not looking forward to how this was going to affect her (my) sleep. We decided to approach it by being straight up with her, and a day or two before I forewarned her that we would be all done with the binkies because she is a big girl now. We talked about her other big kid friends who don’t have binkies anymore and that’s pretty much it. The first time without it happened to be a naptime and it was everything I expected and more. She cried/wailed/whimpered for her binky/mommy for an hour or more. It was really, really sad to listen to. But………

Guess what? That night she didn’t even ask for it. In fact, all you could hear over the monitor was her little voice singing ho ho ho hosana. And then she just fell right asleep. And she hasn’t asked for it once since!! I kid you not, we had prepared ourselves for several days, maybe even a weeks worth of withdrawals. We are sooooooo thrilled and so proud of her.
In other news… my wonderful, selfless mother came over this weekend to help me knock some things off my craft to do list. She tackled making curtains for Finley’s room out of some cute green fabric I picked up, and lined them with black out fabric. I love the finished result! Thanks, mom!

I tried to fool around with my camera to get a better picture, but cameras are not my forte. The fabric doesn’t look nearly as good in the pictures as it does in real life, but you get the idea.

While my mom was sewing, I worked on making over our goodwill dollhouse. I thought that this might take a couple hours, but it ended up taking much, much longer. I probably won’t use craft paint again, because it took a million coats. I went with green for this as well, because I’m trying to tone down the bubble gum factor in her room. I plan to repaint a little coffee table thingy white and put some sort of cute storage underneath for all the accessories.

here is the lovely “before”

I thought shingles would be fun, without realizing I would have to cut and hot glue over 250 popsicle stick pieces.

a little paint, trim, and shingles, and here you go!

I love that little face peaking in from behind!

Next up: repainting finley’s new (my old) headboard and nightstand.