fat quarter friday {still in the works}

So I'm running a bit behind this week on posting a tutorial for fat quarter friday. I would like to say my little fat quarter friday creation is finished, but it is not. It's almost finished...but almost doesn't count, right? Let's just say I have had a hard time sewing this week. Trust me, I'm chomping at the bit to get this one finished, I just need a little more time. I know you all understand. And I'm pretty sure, that no one is waiting by their computer dying to see what I will be posting today. But just in case there is that one person out there ( I love you by the way) here is a little peek at what I am still working on. Hopefully it will be finished today and posted, but I'm not going to fret about it, because this blog has always been fun and enjoyable for me and I want to keep it that way.

Oh and have you read this? I think everyone with a blog, etsy store and is trying to do it all needs to read it. I got it in my inbox this morning and felt much better about my not-yet-finished tutorial. Let's just say #1, #6 and #9 have struck a lot this week. And thank-you-very-much for #10...I'm so going to buy this bag!!

See ya in a bit!

embrace the camera {reminiscing}

This week I'm totally reminiscing of our days before baby #3, although she is with us, just in this momma's bump. Our little guy was 2 1/2 and our little missy girl was almost 1. We were on vacation and hiked one of our favorite mountains. Our pre-marriage and pre-baby days were filled hiking these mountains on a nightly basis. Looking at these pictures bring back such wonderful memories from the past.

Isn't it fun reminiscing? My-O-my, how those little kiddo's have grown!

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pom pom caterpillars

In a few weeks our littlest girl will be turning ONE. I still cannot believe she has been in our lives for a whole year. Sometimes it feels like she has been here forever while other times it seems like she was just born. Birthdays are hard for me, as I always want to throw a party for my kids with all of our friends and family. But our 1/2-a-house just doesn't allow it. And let's face it, it is just too expensive to throw a party somewhere else. So we decided to throw a party anyways...just the 5 of us. So for the past few days we have been in party planning mode. Nothing too fancy, just a bunch of homemade decorations, cake, goodie bags and some games for the kiddo's!

I decided to make a bunch of pom poms and use those as part of the decorations. They are cute, cheap and fun to make. While making some the other day, these little cute caterpillars were thought up.

As you can tell, they are not hard to make. All you need is some pom poms, a few wooden skewers and lots of hot glue.

I made each one a little different for each kid.

So I guess my little girl's first birthday is going to be filled with caterpillars and pom poms.

fat quarter friday {fabric scrapbook tutorial}

This week for fat quarter friday I wanted to share with you a little fabric scrapbook that we just put together for Grammy for Valentine's Day. I love this little book and it was so fun to put together with the kiddo's. I wanted to make the book extra special for Grammy so I had my little guy draw some hearts, x's and o's and write Grammy's name. Then I traced his little letters and objects onto some minky fabric and sewed them into the fabric. I also had the kiddo's do a little finger painting and added each of their hand prints to the book. These little books will make great gifts and you can customize them any way you want and for whoever you want. Get creative with them and embellish away!

Fabric Scrapbook Tutorial

(allow at least 2 hours for total project)

Materials Needed:

*Fabric fat quarter or fabric scraps

*plastic (I recycle mine from those bags sheet sets and curtains come in. But you can also buy plastic at JoAnn's)

*embellishments (buttons, ric rac, ribbon, fabric scraps)

*photo's

*iron-on stabilizer or flannel

Cut the following:

four pieces of fabric 8 1/2" x 6 1/2"

two pieces of fabric 18" x 7 1/2"

Cut one piece of stabilizer or batting 18" x 7 1/2"

Of course you can make these books any size you want. Just make sure you make the larger pieces ( the jacket of the book) 1/2" bigger then the (pages) on all sides.

Cut the pieces of plastic about 1/2" larger then the photo on all sides. You want to allow enough room around the photo's to sew onto the fabric without sewing through the photo's.

Place your photo's where you want them to be on the fabric. Now take a piece of plastic and lay it on top of the photo's.

*If you have a teflon foot for your machine you may want to switch to it. It will make sewing over the plastic easier.*

Sew around the plastic.

Repeat for the remaining pages. Add as many photo's as you want. And place them where you want. Get creative with it! There is no right or wrong here.

Grab your embellishments and embellish the pages. Since I was making the book for Grammy, I had my little guy draw some hearts and write Grammy. Then I traced his letters onto scraps of minky fabric and sewed his letters in. I also had the kiddo's do their hand prints and cut those out and placed them underneath some plastic instead of just using photo's.

Once all of your pages are embellished, it time to assemble the book. Line up the pages exactly how you want them to be in your scrapbook.

Take two of the pages and sew them wrong sides together. I sewed mine together using a simple zig-zag stitch. Serge them if you have a serger or you can just leave them as raw edges too. Remeber, no right or wrong way here. Repeat for the other pages.

Gather the two larger pieces of fabric (book jacket) and iron the stabilizer onto one on the pieces of fabric.

Now place the two pieces of fabric together with wrong sides facing. Stitch around the sides again.

Now you have the jacket of the book. Fold it in half, and iron the folded edge to crease it.

Take your pages and line them up in the middle where you made the crease.

Fold book closed and sew folded edge. I would sew in about 3/4."

And that's it!

Easy, and so adorable! I love the frayed and zig-zagged edges. It's one of those perfectly imperfect gifts.

I love seeing his letters sewn in fabric.

And his little hearts.

Since this was a gift for Valentines Day for Grammy I added a little printed card from here in with their hand prints. And the little printed tags on the outside of the book that we also used at Valentine's Day came from here.

Happy Valentine's Day Grammy!

This was such a fun and easy gift to make. I'm sure anyone would love to receive on of these. The kiddo's are already begging for one of their own.

**Please feel free to use this tutorial for your personal sewing projects. You may link this to your blog and use any photo's. Please be kind and give credit where credit is due.**

Any questions or comments please do not hesitate to contact me. If you make one using this tutorial, please add it to my flickr group. I would love to see it and you just might see it featured on my blog one day!

embrace the camera {Valentine's Day 2011}

Valentine's Day morning started early with two little girls sharing a cupcake on the kitchen floor. This momma was a bit mad, but look at how happy this little munchkin was to get her first tastes of a chocolate cupcake.

I quickly decided to get those cupcakes frosted and out of the reach of little hands. So while my little guy and I decorated our cupcakes and put them into canning jars, this little girl spent her time sneaking another cupcake and eating all the leftover sprinkles.

My little guy took his time placing all of the hearts on his cupcake. He is so unlike his sister and even decided to save his cupcake for later.

And it wouldn't be a holiday if we didn't make some type of cupcake in a canning jar.

We made Daddy his favorite treat, raspberry squares.

In the afternoon, once all our baking and decorating was done we gathered all our handmade goodies and delivered them to special friends and family.
Then we came home and just hung out impatiently waiting for daddy to come home from work and see his baked goodies.

At least I got some good snuggles in while waiting!

Once Daddy got home Momma made a scrumptious dinner of Giovonni Shrimp. It was scrumptious but far from being romantic. The baby was either crying or being held for the whole meal. And of course, there was the infamous 1/2-a-glass of milk spilled all over the floor. Oh well, but we sure did enjoy our cupcakes and chocolate covered strawberries. The baby got her first tastes of a chocolate covered strawberry too, thanks to her big sister. I think her sister is quickly becoming her bff.

So how was your Valentine's Day?