It's a win-win.

I am LUCKY enough to have in-laws that live in Florida, hurray! So over the holidays we went to visit, with my then 11 month old. I saw this fabric highchair on Homemade by Jill and made it quickly before our trip.

Can I say I'm a genius? (For deciding to make it.)

It worked out so amazingly, so easy to keep clean and small to pack, it is so super handy!

Really, if I we didn't have this we would have been having to hold him and try to feed him and get messy ourselves...plus he likes to be messy and eat on his own so it was a win-win.

A view from the back, as long as there are some kind of holes or slats in the chair, it will work.

We even put our two year old in it now and push him up to the table so he's "stuck" and has to eat his dinner :)

Mmmm...delicious!
I also made him about 6 bibs before we left, I was in desperate need of them. So late one night I went to Walmart (my only craft option...I know) and they ONLY have iron-on Velcro...WHAT? So I tried it, left the heat on longer than recommended, and it still didn't stick all the way. Ugh all that work and I ended up tying the ends of the bibs together. Boo.


We're partying so go check out some other creations! Twice Remembered, The Girl Creative , Skip to my Lou, A Soft Place , Today's Creative Blog, Reinvented, Cottage Instincts AND AmyLouWho.

My favorite quilt thus far...that I made...

This isn't my favorite as far as tender memories go. No baby or child attached to this quilt. But is it my prettiest because I am in LOVE with the fabrics. I made it for my bedroom. And I LOVE it. This is still my favorite fabric line in 2 years! It is from House Inc's fabric line. I made this dress out of it too.

I love me some vintage looking prints. I love the blues and browns. I love the faded flowers!

I really loved this pattern too. It was fun to follow. The pattern I got out of American Patchwork and Quilting. I think it is from Heather of Anka's treasures.

Okay, check out the beautiful quilting my aunt did. I LOVE getting my quilts back from her, the quilting makes the quilt so much prettier.

And doesn't it look pretty on the porch swing? I love to snug in it. I feel like it came out of an old trunk. I hope you love it half as much as I do. Thanks for looking.

Linking at amylouwho, and a soft place to land. Also, my backyard eden

*Tear, sniffle*

Heather and I like to keep things light on our blog, but today I'm going straight up serious.

June 20, 2009 was our son Sawyer's 2nd birthday. Around 2 am that morning my husband was driving across many states to catch up with me and the boys while we were vacationing in Utah, and to make it to our boy's big day.

I was sleeping at Heather's house. Around 8 am she knocked on the door where my now 2 year old, 6 month old and I were sleeping. She was standing there, a phone in one hand holding onto the door frame with the other. She was shaking like crazy and whispering for me to come to the door.

When I got to her I remembered my husband had been driving through the night. The first thing she said was, "He's okay, but Ernesto's been in an accident."

He rolled. He flipped. He crossed the median into the other lane of traffic. He landed upright. A mother and daughter were the only other car on the road, and they came to his side and called 911.

He was taken in an ambulance to Cheyenne Regional Medical Center in Wyoming. They did all kinds of tests, and miraculously he was okay.

A reunion more special than Sawyer knows.

I vividly remember seeing my boys awake a few minutes after hearing the news and their huge brown eyes staring back at me. For a moment I allowed my mind to go to the place where my husband wasn't coming home...it made me realize more than ever before that he is irreplaceable to us.

Now, to bring it all back to crafting, where ultimately everything must go :) When he was taken to the ER they cut all of his clothes off him. He was wearing a nice brown button up shirt that was cut to shreds. When we got all of his stuff I knew I wanted to somehow use that shirt as a reminder of all the emotions from that time.

The brown border and "families" are from his shirt.

I started with a piece of muslin and traced "are" and "forever" with pencil onto the fabric. I embroidered those words. I printed and traced "families" and used fusible web to attach it to the muslin. I hand appliqued this because my machine skills are not that great on such small letters. Then I pieced the borders to fit in a 8 x 10 frame ($3 at Walmart). I put a thin piece of quilt batting and didn't use the glass.

I love how it turned out. It makes me happy every time I see it. I stressed a lot about how I would use it, what I would say, I wanted it to be perfect. But ultimately I went simple, and for this project I think that was just right.

We're at these linky parties: A soft Place to Land, Skip to My Lou, Amy Lou Who,The Girl Creative, Making the World Cuter, Cottage Instincts, Twice Remembered, Sumo's Sweet Stuff and Between Naps on the Porch.

happy love day

(this photo is of my sweet son Sawyer)

We hope you all are enjoying your day of love with family and friends!

We truly LOVE making this blog, creating things to share and making friends in blogland.

So thanks to all of our fans, I feel awkard just writing that, we truly LOVE each and every comment we receive (you have no idea how often we check) and we LOVE each and every follower (a number we check even more).

Thanks to you guys for making us feel so LOVED! Have a happy day!

♥♥♥

Sparkly Love

When I saw Heather's Winter Mantel, I was really jealous of her sparkly bird and wanted to add a little sparkle to my own house. Heaven knows, me being the only girl in the house, there isn't much sparkle to be had.

It was pretty easy. I traced out "love" onto a cereal box, preferably something unhealthy and sugary, such as Cinnamon Toast Crunch. You can do it freehand like me, because I was lazy and didn't want to go print something off, or trace a word you printed from your computer.

Next I applied one coat of white toll paint, my glitter was iridescent and so I wanted the background white. You can probably skip this step depending on your glitter. Than you apply a layer of Mod Podge, which you must have handy at all times during crafting...and shake on your glitter!

It as the perfect compliment to my mantel, I mean entertainment center. I'm not as fancy as Heather.

Do you have any quick and easy Valentine's projects? It's 6 days away, we have plenty of time to decorate.

We're partying with Kimba at A Soft Place to Land, The Girl Creative, Today's Creative Blog, It's So Very Cheri and Reinvented Trash to Treasure so go check out some creative ladies!

Happy Birthday Banner...a really cute one!

My dear older sister Amy made me this for Christmas. I kinda felt like a jerk because my gift to her was not near as cute or time consuming. I LOVE this banner. I love these fabrics, I am still mad at myself for not buying more when the line was out. Maybe I can still find it.

She did triangles front and back, and cut the edges with pinking shears. Then she stitched them together. She did the cute letters on the computer, then cut them out of fabric in the pretty chocolate brown.

I already got to use it once already for my husband. I don't think he cared about the pink. And the girls were SO excited to hang it up.

Thanks Amy. I just love my cute Happy Birthday banner. Now I would like one for Valentine's, St. Patricks day, Mothers day, fathers day, fourth of july, Halloween, thanksgiving, and Christmas if that is not too much to ask...

Again, we will be linking again with

PS Linking with Twice Remembered, Made by you Mondays   The girl creative, A soft place to land,  It's so Very Cheri, Reinvented, We are THAT family, Blue Cricket Design, Finding Fabulous , AmyLouWho, floral showers, and

My Winter Mantle....

 

Are you getting sick of my mantle yet?  I have lived in this house for 4 years, and I never really decorated for the seasons or holiday's. I don't know what my problem was. I think I was intimidated or something.  But now I get inspired by so many girls blogs that I want to cute up my house too!

You know the girls out there right? I look at some blogs and want to reach through my computer and onto theirs and punch them in the neck because I am so angry and jealous of their beautiful houses.  If my camera zoomed out enough , you would see the rest of my family room, and if you had any envy now, you would only have sympathy and want to come help me clean it up. PROMISE!

I am still switching out my fillers in my apothecary jars. EASY. And who knew to use epsom salt for snow? (All those fabulous girls with the fabulous houses and blogs knew.)

Most of the other fillers were a clearance garland cut up. Cheapo.  The large empty frame was a frame I had a plan for but never did. It looked cute empty. Then I just put in some snowflake garland.

Did you all know that Joanne's does 70% off christmas clearance, before it is christmas?  And they send out a 20% additional coupon too. So I got lots of this stuff for over 80% off before christmas!

Like this cute deer friend. I know he looks a little arrogant and acts like he is too good for us all. But he is really sweet. He only acts like this because all his bud's were purchased full price. And he was the only one left at such a good clearance price of $6. I love him and bought him. He is still ashamed, but we are working on our relationship. He is coming around.

There will not be a valentines mantle. Too short a holiday. Plus winter goes until march ish right? So we will go strait to spring.  

Again, we will be linking again with

PS Linking with A Soft Place to Land, The Girl Creative, Made by you Mondays, It's so Very Cheri, Reinvented, We are THAT family, Blue Cricket Design, Finding Fabulous , AmyLouWho, floral showers, and