Mermaid Tails with Jordan Emmitt

A few weekends ago the girls and I got to take part in my pal Jordan's first local workshop. It was held at the most adorable shop in Orlando called Paper Goat Post. 

I took a few pictures of things around the shop that I especially loved. I regret not buying the mug and jewelry dish because they are gone now. I may still go back for one of the animal heads. How many mounted faux animal heads are too many for a child's room? Asking for a friend...

Jordan led the kiddos in making several mermaid crafts- shell necklaces, painted wooden spoon dolls, and no-sew mermaid tail blanket things (don't remember the technical term). The girls loved painting their spoons (both versions of Ariel who were then forced to fight to the death several times) and playing in the glitter meant to decorate the spoons. They also enjoyed watching me tie their blanket sides up for them. 

If you're local and looking for a good time check out Paper Goat's event calendar or Jordan's blog for upcoming workshop news. 

Bunny Love

I had to share this picture from yesterday. Since Ben is out of town I took pictures of her opening Valentines Day presents for him and caught this amazing face. I wish it wasn't so blurry but whatev. Still amazing. ANYWAY Lilly was a bit distraught when we shipped off the last pink bunny so I made one for her too. She has several toys made by mommy but this is the first one she has been excited about. Make me so happy!

♥ ♥ ♥

BOOM!

So for those of you who don't already know today is International Yarn Bombing Day! It was also the day of my first yarn bomb. I threw together some newly stitched hats and old headbands I had made a while back and took them to a local park.

It was such a rush! I was so excited/nervous. Last night I even dreamed about it. I dreamed that there were park rangers on bikes everywhere and that there was a festival in the park so I couldn't even get to the statues! haha. I'm such a nervous Nelly.

Happy IYBD! If you did any bombing today link it to me in the comments so I can see yours too.

♥

MN trip part 2: Linden Hills

On Saturday Emily and I went to Linden Hills. I immediately fell in love with this cute little neighborhood. I dare say it is close to the tippy top of my "I want to live here" places. We had lunch at Famous Dave's and admired the little quirks of Linden Hills.

This little book store had a little door for kiddo's in its regular sized door! Too cute.

We went to Linden Hills to go to a Vintage Button show. Emily had received a flyer for it at work and saved it for me. She knows me so well. The show was at Linden Hills Yarn which is a super cute yarn store. This little concrete chair was right out front. Check out their website here and blog here!

I chatted with Rebecca Lyon (who collects and sells the vintage buttons, slides and clasps) for a little bit and she allowed me to take some pictures to share here! Rebecca has been collecting buttons for many years. I wish I could remember how many but my silly brain likes to forget details like that. She even told me that she will get on a plane to shop for good buttons. Something that is just as amazing as her button collection is her detail in displaying them. Each set of buttons is stitched onto a special piece of architectural cardboard that is made in the twin cities. Before attaching the buttons she prints patterns onto decorative paper and presses it to the cardboard. She also gives a detailed description of the buttons: what they are made of, where they are from and when they were produced. Her whole setup is inspiring.

I took pictures of my faves. I bought one set (the one on the right in the picture below) but wish I could have bought them all. I'm pretty sure I said "wow..." about a million times. ps- you can click on the pictures to view them in a larger size.

Swoon. 

Hope you're having an inspiring day!

ps- Rebecca from our last giveaway has made some fun changes to her blog/etsy. Click here (or her button under sponsors) to check it out.

Let me introduce Marjorie

Marjorie is only a little rebellious. She would like to be a lot more rebellious but is too afraid. She has tried to express this by talking back to her parents and staying up late but they tell her to stop pretending. She is no rebel. She's a goodie goodie.

So she expresses her rebellion through loud accessories that annoy her mother. A happy compromise.

 Marjorie's accessories.

I love Marg. I think she is too stinkin cute. She has been floating around my house for a few weeks now. She was based on some toys I made for my good friend Jordan's nursery. (ps- how amazing is Autumn's nursery?)

The idea of dress up monsters just came to me this afternoon as I was sorting through all my unfinished items and I have to say that I love it! I mean, I'm a girl so I like to play dress up and I love little monsters so viola! A toy is born.

Marg should be available in my etsy shop later this evening.

emotions and elephants

It feels so good to finish a project like this. As you may remember, a wonderful gal from my church asked me to make her some "argyle elephants" for a baby shower she is throwing next weekend. 

I have made the pieces for an elephant before but never finished,stuffed or sewed it together. (shocking, I know)

I feel very strongly that I do not have any exceptional talent when it comes to knitting. I am simply following instructions written by someone else using techniques explained to me by another someone. Because I feel this way I tend to respond "I know!" when someone says "That is amazing!" about a project like the elephants. I am genuinely just as surprised as you are (I'm assuming) that I was able to turn out these little guys.

 As per usual, I under estimated the amount of work left to be done and was up until the wee hours of the morning finishing them. This is the aftermath.

WARNING: The following content is a little emotional. 

It give me such a satisfying sense of accomplishment to... you know... actually finish something. I know this sounds strange, but at times I need something to make me feel like more then just a mom. After hours of talking about Lilly, taking care of her and loving with my whole being it is nice to have something to show for myself. It feels very selfish and almost (ironically) childish to say those things out loud. I want to say that I do it out of some sort of support for other moms so they know that they aren't the only ones feeling that way but that's not true. I guess I'm just afraid that I am the only one and am hoping that someone else comes along and says "me too."

And just to be clear- I love my Lillian more then anyone has ever loved anything. 

(true story)

Ahoy, Land Lubbers

Lillian, me and Emily at Magen's Bay.

Well, on Saturday I arrived back in the Sun Shine State after cruising around the Caribbean for a few days. It was an amazingly wonderful family trip but I have to say that all that relaxing left me exhausted! Maybe it's the fact that I don't have my land legs back yet or that I have to prepare my own meals and clean up after myself again but real life has hit me like a ton of bricks. 

My "to do" list is getting longer by the minute but I have finished a few things (unpacking is not one of them)...

Erin's human bean! Even smaller then the previous one due to a smaller gauge yarn.

He will be on his way tomorrow!

Also, I got my first custom order! A gal from church wants some argyle elephants for the center piece of a baby shower she is throwing next month. 

Here is the sketch of the different design options.

She chose argyle ears and feet and I agree 100%.

I tried to get to the suppliy store today so I could start on them but my sweet little Lilly is also having a hard time re-adjusting to normal life after our tropical getaway... so it didn't happen.

There's always tomorrow, right?

PS- I'm trying to convince my body that it doesn't need as much sleep as it has been getting. I mean, 8+ hours a night?!? It is beginning to seem wasteful. So, I set my alarm for 7am this morning (after going to bed at midnight) and successfully got out of bed at 7:30. BUT NOW I'M EXHAUSTED!!! I think somethings wrong with me...

PPS- If this post doesn't make real sense I blame it on the aforementioned condition.

Jellys

This is just going to be a short and sweet blupdate since it is nearly 12:30am. (Can someone please let Lilly know that I would appreciate it if she slept in  tomorrow?)

As per my new years resolution of finishing things I start...

taa daaaa! I present, the completely finished, Jillian and James the Jellyfish. 

They are in love.

Seeing as I forgot to mention these two in the specifics of what needed to be finished I am kind of starting from square one now. But what a great place to start, right?

EDIT: I noticed that, according to blogspot, I posted this around 9:30pm. As it is actually close to 1am now I am not even going to try to fix it.

New Years

This year my dear friend Gigi made a traditional southern new years meal for us.

The meal was made up of ham, collard greens, black eyed peas, cheddar cheese corn bread and a seven layer salad. Each food represents something for the new year: ham for health (oh, the irony), collard greens for pocket money, black eyed peas for saving money, corn bread for a plentiful harvest and salad was added for flavor. I ate as much as I could because I could definitely use some help in all those areas.

So here it is-

food & resolution:

ham + more yoga

greens/peas + earn more/spend less

corn bread + finishing projects*

salad + thoughtfulness**             

                                      

*My harvest is the projects I have already started. This is going to be a process because I have A LOT of loose ends to tie up, literally. To be more specific I have to finish two sweaters, one hat, one embroidery piece, four stuffed animals and three cell phone cozies. Also, I joined Project Restyle (which I am super excited about). You can find out more info from the link on the left.

**To add flavor to my life I am going to be more thoughtful about my decisions, goals and life in general. I feel like I am in a funk and want to more clearly define who I am and what I stand for.

Here's to a new year, new goals and new opportunities!