Star Studding

What do you get when you combine this:

And this:

And these?

A cute little shirt that your daughter doesn't need!

I had this plain white shirt that Nina received as a gift, and since her hair is still super-short, she often gets mistaken for a boy. So I had to "girlify" this plain shirt for my sweet little girl!

As you know, I have no sewing ability, but I found Heat-n-Bond in a great big sheet, which means I can cut it to any shape I want! I bought a little fabric remnant at Joann's, and then Googled "star stencil" until I found a shape that I liked. I had to fiddle around with the size of the star a bit, but it wasn't hard to do on our printer. Then I traced the star onto the fabric and the Heat-n-Bond sheet, ironed them both onto the shirt, and embellished just a bit with a few green stitches that even I can do.

I got my idea from an even sweeter shirt that Nina received for her birthday.  Someone with more skills than I actually sewed an adorable letter "N" onto a shirt, and it just got my ideas going!  How cute is this?

What a great gift for any little girl!

I also want to add a big thank you to Jennykate of Jennykate's Spot for the Kreativ Blogger award!  Be sure to go over and say hi to her if you get a chance...such a sweetie!  She asked me to share six things that I value...I am a sleepy pregnant woman, so my six things are going to be of the non-deep variety.  I value hot coffee with cream in the mornings, comfort food like meatloaf and mashed potatoes, a cozy wood-burning fire, flannel sheets on my bed at night, a quiet hour or two for myself when my toddler takes a nap, and the smell of apples and cinnamon baking in the oven.  Yum!

Have a wonderful Thursday!

WFMW: Scrapblog is My New Best Friend!

**Updated to add: Remember that I am answering questions (with my very limited knowledge) in the comments section, so head over there to see what has come up!

I could not be more excited about this discovery!  Last week I heard about Scrapblog, an online scrapbook design website.  Totally free to use!  Well, this past weekend found me sick on the couch, so I had some time to play around.  It is so much fun, and so easy!  

See my new blog header up there?  I designed it myself on Scrapblog.  It is addicting to choose the backgrounds, fonts, stickers and borders.  They have so much to choose from.  Then I had the brilliant idea to try and make our Christmas cards on Scrapblog.  I fiddled around for a bit, and look what I came up with!

This is just a rough draft, but I am so excited about the possibilities!  I think I'll make our baby announcements on Scrapblog too, one for a boy and one for a girl, since I don't know what I am having!  

So here's my tip on using Scrapblog for your blog or to make something that you eventually want to print out.  After you create your page, save it and publish it.  This just means it is available for viewing on Scrapblog.  Then go to the File menu and choose Export as JPEG.  It will save it for you in JPEG, a format that Blogger or the nearest Kinko's will understand.

I would also recommend watching the Quick Tour video on Scrapblog if you are new to the website.  It helped me to see what it was capable of.

If you have any questions, go ahead and leave them in the comments section and I will try to respond in the comments section as well.  I am self-taught, so I don't know how helpful I can be, but I will try!

Tour My House Tuesday: Loft

On today's tour I'm going to show you the room at the top of our stairs.  We call it a loft but it really just has a half wall that overlooks the stairs.  It does allow for a lot of light in the upstairs hallway, and has a great view of the mountains, which we love!

Somehow this room has evolved into containing quite a few of old family pieces.  This bookshelf was in pieces when it came to us.  It was in my husband's room as a child, and his parents kind of dismantled it in their empty-nest enthusiasm.

Another piece from my husband's side.  They were really into collecting antiques for awhile.  They always refer to it as "the cow box."  I'm sure you can see why!  

This is the alternate view of the loft.  Those double doors lead to the master bedroom, which I will show you next week.  And that big wooden piece is the hope chest that my mom gave me when I graduated college.  A family friend made it for me.  I love it!

I love this little collection.  The desk comes from my husband's grandfather, and the needlepoint chair comes from my grandmother.  When we first got married and I put these two pieces together, I cried when I saw how well they fit, like they had been made for each other.  I know I am super-sentimental, but it just made me happy to think about our two families, our individual heritages, coming together to make a new one.

And just in honor of my blog's name, I had to show you my little bee pillow.  I am always drawn to bees in decorating...so charming!

So there we are!  The loft is one of my favorite rooms in the house, because it is removed from the hustle and bustle of downstairs, and has such comfortable pieces that remind me of our families.  Maybe I'll go curl up with a book in there today!

Dreary Fall Weekend

Happy Monday!  How was your weekend?  Around here, we thought we were going to have a fun fall weekend.  However, when we woke up on Saturday morning, it was to this:

Mother Nature decided to dump a cloudy, overcast, foggy, rainy, 5o degree day on us.  Of course, this was the day we had planned to go to a charming local Pumpkin Festival, complete with corn maze, rides and games for kids, and a pick-your-own-pumpkin field.

When I was growing up in Ohio, fall activities were some of my favorites.  We always went to Rouster's Apple Farm where they had apple orchards, a crackling wood fire in the fireplace, lots of yummy apple cider, and, of course, pumpkins.  For Nina's first October, back in 2006, we made sure to take her to the apple farm.  Check out this photo with baby Nina and the little bin of apples (that has been there since I was a kid!), labeled "Little apples for Little people." 

So I guess you could say that I was the most disappointed member of the family this weekend!  I had very high hopes for fall family fun, and it just didn't turn out.  The only good thing was that my husband found a really cool green pumpkin at the Pumpkin Fest (you know, in the 20 minutes we were there before the rain and cold forced us to go home!).  Check out my little set-up outside the front door!
I sincerely hope that your weekend was better than mine!  What did you do?

Halloween Advent Calendar (just a little late!)

I am totally innocent.  I just happened to stop by Goodwill recently, and this clock literally jumped off the shelf into my cart.  It was $3.99.  

OK, not really.  Well, the Goodwill part is true.  And the price.  I have been loving the Halloween advent calendars that have popped up in blogland lately.  (Has anyone not seen Chris's adorable concoction?  Her kids must be so excited to wake up every morning!).  But I knew I was planning on copying Chris shamelessly to make a Christmas advent calendar, so Halloween was not very high on the priority list.

Then, I saw the ridiculously cute clock that Cherry made.  Again, I loved it, but I knew I had other things on my agenda (like my family and home, you know, the usual!).  However, when I saw this clock at Goodwill, all the ideas came together in my head to form...well, go take a look for yourself!

The "Before":

And the "After":
It's a Halloween advent calendar/clock all rolled into one!  Actually, the project was super easy.  It's simply scrapbooking paper Mod Podged onto the back of the clock.  I got a piece of sheet metal to put under the polka dot paper so that it would be magnetic (about $5 at Lowes).  The numbers on the clock, and the numbers on the "countdown" pumpkins, are rub-ons (Hobby Lobby).

You can't see the pumpkins all that well but they were on sale at Hobby Lobby for $1 per bag of 24.  Just little wooden decorative pieces with a little magnet glue gunned on the back.

Then I picked up this little bucket at Target, added a sticker and some cute ribbon, and it is the perfect container for the yet-to-be used pumpkins.  Nina loves putting a new pumpkin up for every day, even though she doesn't remember what Halloween is or the concept of a countdown.  But I figure as my kids get older it will be fun to have these little Halloween traditions and memories!  Even more special because I made it myself, although it was hard to resist this Pottery Barn Kids version!

Have a great weekend!

Awards, a Tag and "Vintage" Pillows

**I want to give a shout out to Naturally Caffeinated Family for giving me an award today!  Wow, I am so excited and am definitely feeling the love!  Be sure to head over and visit her lovely blog...it is a good one!  Also a big thanks to The Undomesticated Wife (don't you love that name?) for a sweet award as well!  I am overwhelmed!  Two amazing bloggers think I am nice.  :)  I am thrilled!  

Hi everyone!  I have lots to say today, and a little project to show you.  First of all, thanks to those of you who have given me awards in the past few weeks.  I have not forgotten about you, or the honor that you think my blog is worthy of being talked about at all!  Thank you to the following blog friends:

Brie from My Home-My Life for the "I Heart Your Blog" award

AngiDe from Nana's Box for the "Brilliant Weblog" award

Sandy from Shell In Your Pocket for the "BFF Gold Card" award

Lulu from The Dirty Martini Diaries for "The Smile"award

Sebi from Pearls and Grace for the "Brilliant Weblog" award

Christy from Between Here and Home for "The Smile" award

I totally should have posted about these as I was given them, but I am not that organized, and for that I am sorry!  But that doesn't mean that I am not oh-so-appreciative to these wonderful women for sharing the love with me.  I can honestly say that I have thoroughly enjoyed each of their blogs.  It makes me sad that this community will remain mostly "inside the computer" because I know I would love to have a cozy cup of coffee or a nice glass of wine with each of you!  As it is, please take the time to visit these ladies' blogs.  You won't be sorry!

Next, I was tagged a few weeks ago by Amanda from Baby Makes 5.  I am supposed to share seven random or weird things about myself.  You would think this would be easy because I am definitely random and weird.  Here we go!

1. I have to put chapstick on before bed.  Can't sleep without it.

2. I cannot stand overhead lighting.  I will follow my family around and turn off lights behind them.  They love it.

3. I always gag when I brush my teeth.  It's really charming.

4. Ironically, though I gag when brushing my teeth, I can't throw up.  I recently spent two days with the stomach flu, trying to throw up just to get some relief...doesn't work.

5. If I ride in the car for more than half an hour I will fall asleep, day or night, but I can't take naps in my own bed.  I guess I can't slow down enough when I am home.

6. I hate mushrooms.  My grandfather used to say they tasted like ears.  I agree.

7. I will still buy those blow pops with the gum in the middle whenever I go to a gas station.  I love them! 

Lastly, I want to show you a little project that I have been working on for awhile.  I truly hope that Marie from Watch the Wind Blow By believes that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  Ever since I saw this post on her cute little vintage Halloween pillows, I have been using my glue gun and pitiful little sewing box to make some of my own.  Oh, who are we kidding?  I shamelessly copied her pillows!  But they are finally done and I just love how they turned out.  Plus, since they are made of nothing but pieces of felt, a little pillow stuffing, and my own blood, sweat and tears (Yes, I burned myself on the glue gun again.  And poked my finger with a needle.), they are very inexpensive to make!  OK, enough drama.  Here they are!

I am not sure how long they will last living in a house with Nina, who loves to put everything in sight down for a nap.  Dolls, pumpkin pillows, her pretend Elmo phone...they all have to have "sleepytimes" and she drags them around the house looking for the perfect nap spot.  But for now, I love these little vintage-y guys and they are the perfect little blast of fall color in my house!

Works For Me: An Easy and Unique Gift!

It always seems like friends' birthdays creep up on me.  I have the best of intentions to buy them a perfect and thoughtful gift.  Then, life (and very often, the budget) gets in the way and I end up scrambling at the last minute, which I hate! 

Here's a good idea that has really worked for me: When I am out at thrift shops or garage sales, I buy little flower pots.  They are everywhere this time of year!  It helps if they are cute "as is," but ugly pots work too, if you have the time to spray paint them.  Then when I need a gift, I use my rub-on letters (I know, I know, me with the rub-on letters again.  I should get paid for this!) to put the person's monogram on the pot.  Vinyl letters work well too.  A little Mod Podge on top makes the pot look really "finished," and then I just stick some flowers from the grocery store in there to complete it.

Check out this pot that I just did for my sister's 1st wedding anniversary (with her and her husband's joint monogram):

  
As you've heard me say many times, I just love monogramming!  Adding a little personal touch turns a bland gift into something utterly unique.  I would be so happy to get a little pot like this for my birthday, wouldn't you?  :)