another baby book

I made another custom order baby book. I hope she enjoys it. This one was for her baby boy, Skylar. I yet to make a baby book for a girl. The only difference would be the cover and ribbon of course, but it would still be fun!

If you know of any one having a baby, these make great gifts. Each one is custom made and hand printed to feature a little bundle of joy. You can order one here .

free card

After having lunch with an old friend, I decided to send her a card. Hope she doesn't read this before she gets it in the mail... hee hee. But I decided to make it available for FREE to my readers. Just print it out on your normal, every day printer on white card stock and you've got yourself a simple, beautiful, blank card.

I used it as a thank you card, but it would work for just about anything. Just click here {right click to download} to get the pdf {which comes with crop marks and all!}

Enjoy!

a free birthday gift

My birthday is coming up next month and since we are putting all of our money into getting a house this year, I thought it would be a good idea to see what I could get for FREE.

I did a search online and found this site called FreeBirthdayTreats.com There are free treats for kids, adults and even pets. Go check it out and see what kind of FREE treats you can find for your birthday!

Yeah for FREE!

fabric flower tutorial

I found these great fabric flower tutorials online. I've been wanting to try one of these ever since I saw them! I didn't realize how EASY they were to make. And the best part is that it requires little or no sewing.

Also, I have been wanting to try fabric covered buttons for a while and finally got around to it. I think I'm addicted to them. Plus, Joann Fabric is having a great sale right now and I found these coupons online. Check out the fabric remnants section while you're there. I found all of mine for around a $1 each.

Here are some links that I found helpful. The first is from Maize Hutton over at Maize in Montana . She came up with the adorable frayed flower tutorial, that I just adore. What a great idea.

Next is Blair over at Wise Craft . She has a great tutorial how to make a fabric flower and even a pdf that you can print out of the flower, so that it makes it easy to cut out. Adorable!

The third one if from Kristin at Grace Violet . I haven't tried these flowers yet, but I'm going to soon. Wouldn't that be fun to put on a shirt.

Here's a great idea...


{wear it in your hair or...}


{or on your clothes...}

To do this, sew on a small oval piece of felt onto the back of each flower. Then hot glue an alligator clip and a pin onto the felt. That way, you can wear it in your hair or on your clothes. Fun, huh?

reason to celebrate

We locked in a killer rate yesterday! And I received a large sum of money from a job I did a few months ago. So, we went out to Wingers last night and celebrated. Yum. We even got free Asphault pie, when you spend $20 or more. Char especially enjoys the french fries. What is it about kids loving fries.


{image from Winger's}

We are getting closer and closer to owning a home. I didn't realize how many decisions need to be made and papers signed. We are done with most of the paper signing, but still have so much to decide on, as far as the bathroom is concerned. It needs some serious updating. The tub is like a 1970's jetted tub. Disgusting! And the floor a nasty vinyl that is coming up. Blah! I'll have to post some before and after photos later.

The kitchen, on the other hand, has already been updated. Isn't it beautiful. These are just some screen shots I took a while ago, but I will take some real photos later and post them when the home is finally ours. The kitchen has granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances. Of course, we still need to purchase our own fridge, but that won't come 'till later.


{updated kitchen}


{Kitchen with granite counter tops}


{Living room with original hardwood floors}


{master bedroom. very small, but cute}


{End of hallway office. but we are going to convert it back to storage, because I'm going to have my very own room for an office! Whoo hoo!}

What do ya'll think? Isn't it adorable?

a couple of trips

Due to it being summer, I have been enjoying the outdoors. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but blogging has taken second on the list to other fun things.

I took a trip to Moab with a few of my girl friends and had a blast! We even did an all day rafting trip down the Colorado River! I even saw my sister, Penny there. She had planned a trip to Moab the same weekend as me. Crazy, huh?


{View from our campsite, next to the Colorado River}


{Me and my little sister, Penny. When I say little, I really do mean little. She's only 5'2" and I'm 6'1". Plus we're only 18 months apart.}

Then last weekend we drove to Kimberly, Idaho, where we had a family reunion at the Pinedell campground. It was a blast! I attended girl's camp there, and remember it being much bigger than it is. Maybe because I was younger.


{Char playing in the dirt}

What are you doing this summer? Do you have any fun trips planned?

photography lessons...

I'm so excited to be taking some lessons from my good friend Darby! If any of you are going to be in either Arizona or Utah for these dates, I would highly recommend it!


{click on the image for a larger view}

Darby runs DarbyElizabeth Photography and her work is amazing! I told her I would help spread the word! You can view her work here .

Thanks Darby!

{image via Darby from DarbyElizabeth Photography}

my dream studio

So, we are on our way to purchasing our first home! I'm so excited! The bank approved our offer in only like 2 weeks, which is unheard of for a short sale. But, we are so excited and look forward to decorating the way we want and painting the colors we want!

I'm so sick of white walls. I can't wait to paint my kitchen green and have a real studio! Yeah!

My favorite part about this house is that it's move-in ready. We wouldn't have to do a thing to it if we didn't want to, but I think we want to tile the bathroom, and tear out the carpet in "the studio" bedroom. There are original hardwood floors under there.

Here are a few pictures of inspiration for my studio. I have seriously been collecting inspirational pictures for the past two years! I can't wait to actually have a place to do all of my crafts and work. The past year and a half I've been working off of our kitchen table and hardly ever do we eat off of it because I have so much stuff on it. Yeah!!! I think my husband, Chris, is getting sick of eating at the coffee table with our 18 month old daughter begging for his food.

{note: Click on image for a larger view}











Here is some link love for all of my inspiration:
LOVE LOVE LOVE all of the rugs at funky rugs!

Here are a few more places to find contemporary rugs.
• erugs.co.uk
• contemporaryrugs.com

Places to find the fabric that I love!
• purlsoho.com
• tonicliving
• imaginefabric.com
• daisyjanie.com

And inspiration for everything else can be found at Urban Outfitters or Anthropologie . Love, love, love these stores!!! Too bad most of the stuff at Anthropologie is far out of my price range... but I can window shop can't I?

Most of the storage stuff comes from a website called thisisnotikea.com . It is a little vintage shop in Los Angeles. If I lived closer, I would definitely be shopping there!

a screensaver

Here is a FREE screensaver just for you. I thought it was appropriate for Summer. I'm so glad that Summer is finally here! And wow! Is it hot here in the West. Do any of you from the west agree?

It is saved at four different sizes. Please right click to download the appropriate sized image for your screen.

1024x768

1280x1024

1600x1200

1920x1200

Thanks and have a great day!

apologies

So, after some thought, I've decided that I can't keep posting all of my designs, especially those for larger companies, such as Target.

Why?

Because it's not ethical. I guess someone else could somehow see my designs and rip them off and have the exact same product that another large retailer could have and in the end, I would probably get blamed and no one would ever hire me again.

But, I will continue to give you sneak peaks and if my product does make it to the final revisions and I know for a fact that it will be in stores, I will tell you. So no fears.

Also, I guess I was so excited to show the world my designs, that I forgot to think about the large retailers in this picture.

So, sorry if any of you were getting super excited to continue to see my designs for other large companies, but I guess I'll have to keep them to myself.

But don't worry, I'll continue posting my personal designs.

Stay posted, I will be posting some screen saver designs that you can save to your desktop for free! Yeah!