Getting Crafty - Burp Cloths

I recently made a scrapbook page and framed it for a sorority sister and great friend who had just had her third child.  I think it turned out pretty cute and all she has to do is add her pictures and hang it on her new little boy's wall.  Here's my finished product:

Once I finished this page, I started looking around for something else I could make for Drew.  I had just bought some fabric scraps at Hobby Lobby that would be perfect for burp cloths; however, I had never made burp cloths before.  I started my search for a good tutorial and stumbled upon this blog with lots of great homemade projects.  Making these literally took less than 30 minutes from start to finish.  Easy peasy.

First, I printed out my template, cut it out and pieced it together.  Then I pinned it to my material.  

Then I cut out my pieces, including quilt batting.

I then pinned it all together - wrong sides facing and quilt batting in the middle.  This is one time you won't actually sew it wrong side out and flip it when you're done.  You'll see why in a bit.

Then sew around the edges allowing a little extra on the ends.  Once it's sewn together, cut the extra quilt batting as close to sewn edges as possible.  You're also going to sew a straight line straight down the middle to keep the quilt batting from slipping.

Once everything is sewn, cut slits around the edges to create fringe.  

Once you wash it, it will look something like this.  The fringe will fray out and be oh so cute.  

The finished product.

My baby projects are complete and on their way to Kentucky.  Hope you enjoyed it!

My Improved Creative Space

Good morning! I'm very excited to give you a little preview of what I've been working on for the last week or so. My 1/3 of the office started to feel very cramped and unorganized so I decided it was time to spruce it up a bit. I wanted something functional, organized and a bit on the girly and creative side. I also didn't want to spend a lot of money - I enjoy being married. I am not quite finished but finished enough to show it off a bit. Here is my desk. This is the first thing you see walking into our office. I tried to make the pictures bigger so you could get a better view but I somehow distorted them. Sorry. Just click on the images to get the bigger picture. I would love to eventually replace the lamp with something more artistic and girly but haven't found the right one yet.

The desk came from Pier One as well as the hutch that would normally sit on the desk. The hubs mounted it on the wall to give me more desk space. We've had these desks for a while now so I'm not sure you can still get them. But they've been great pieces to have. Hubs has a matching one on his side of the office (that space has yet to be tackled).

Here's a better look at the hutch. I LOVE my vintage cameras and hope to add more to my collection. The camera on the far left is a Brownie Hawkeye and was actually my great-grandmother's camera. This was the first in my small collection.

The baskets within the hutch came from Old Time Pottery a while back. They fit perfectly and conceal and organize a lot of my scrapbooking tools.

These letters are actually chipboard and came from Hobby Lobby. I painted them with acrylic paint and covered them with scrapbook paper. Then, of course, EMBELLISH! I'm very pleased with the result and how they immediately catch your eye the minute you walk into the room. This little project rekindled my love/hate relationship with my glue gun.

Excuse my impatience but I posted these pictures a little prematurely. These organizational shelves from Michaels will eventually be painted black. However, I didn't want to wait a minute longer. These shelves are nothing fancy but they are affordable, easy to assemble and I love the little baskets within to conceal those things that might not be so cutesy. They are pretty deep and hold much more than I ever anticipated.

This is the area to the left of my desk. I found the shelf on sale at Michaels. I added some pictures of my kiddos and another vintage camera. Just some things to girly it up a bit.

This spin organizer came from Hobby Lobby and I was so excited to find one in black rather than white. Why is most scrapbook furniture white? Anyhow, I've been continually impressed with it since the purchase. It holds all of my scissors, all of my sharpies and other pens & markers, as well as tons of other things. It fits nicely on my desk within arm's reach.

A peak inside my baskets on my hutch. Again, from Old Time Pottery.

These little "paint cans" came from Michaels as well. They are great for ribbon...

and stamps. They have larger ones as well.

These are the bookshelves. The one on the left is filled with scrapbooking supplies and the one on the right complete with the kids' TV (now showing: "Horton Hears a Who"), movies and a collection of books. Office supplies (paper, photo paper, USB cords, envelopes, CDs, etc.) are concealed in the baskets purchased from Old Time Pottery. I'm not terribly satisfied with these shelves and will probably find a better way to organize them in the future. But it works for now.

This is a better look at the top of the bookshelves. There are two cameras - my first ever digital cameras. The paintbrushes were my grandmother's. She was a great painter, something I did not inherit. Because they were so important to her, they are important to me and I wanted to display them somehow. The box underneath the pot of brushes was her art box - chalks, charcoals, etc. It's as she left it. I hope to one day pass it on to one of my kids to use.

I hope you enjoyed your tour of my creative space. As I add things and improve it, I'll be sure to post new pictures. I would LOVE to hear any suggestions you might have for improvement - the more creative the better. Next on my list is to spruce up the kids' little area of the office. Then, on to the manly side. Any suggestions for that would also be appreciated.

Happy Hump Day!

For My Sanity....

I woke up this morning with a billion thoughts in my head. I've been trying to narrow down my blogging thoughts and hone in on just one subject that might be of some sort of interest to my frequent readers. But even a good, strong cup of coffee has not allowed me to make any sense of the noise in my head. So this post might be a big mumble jumble of nonsense. Feel free to check out now. This is mostly for MY sanity since there seems to be a lack thereof today.

My first thoughts were of my grandmother, God rest her soul. She passed away back in August rather unexpectedly. I was very close to her and not a day goes by that I do not think of her. I am saddened by the thoughts of my kids only remembering her through pictures and stories because they are so young, especially my daughter who was not quite one at the time of her passing. Presley is so much like her. Frequently, I have snapped pictures of my sweet girl with an expression on her little face reminding me of her great-grandmother. I find myself all choked up even now knowing how much alike they are and that they'll never truly know one another. My son, bless his heart, still prays for her. God, please make Mar Mar well. Only three when she died, he doesn't fully grasp the concept of death. He knows Mommy gets sad sometimes and he'll say, you miss Mar Mar, Mommy? Me too. He knows that Mar Mar (short for Martha) went to live with Jesus. But what four year old really understands what that means? Had I known her death would have come when it did, I would have taken my kids to see her more often, spent more time with her, shown her just how much she was loved. Don't we all say that when death affects us personally? We think we have all the time in the world. However, I do find myself very convicted some days that I didn't make more of an effort. I can't help my children's ages and the lack of memory, but my grandmother would have been overjoyed at the opportunity to spend more time with her grandchildren & great grandchildren. Enter conviction. Today, I find myself wanting to pick up the phone and talk with her so badly. But I cannot. And so with a heavy heart, I move on to my next random though.....

I am SO READY for spring. I long for sunshine, for warm weather, for blooming flowers and green grass. The older I get the less tolerant I find myself of the colder months. Living in Memphis, we usually don't have a long winter; however, this winter we've had our share of cold weather including snow and I am ready for it to go. I am looking ahead to our family vacation to the coast - the beach, the ocean, the sand. Better than Calgon.

This weekend I have taken on the task of revamping our office space. It's been feeling very claustrophobic in here for quite sometime. We've managed to cram 2 full-size desks, a kids table & chairs, and art easel, 2 book shelves and all of my scrapbooking paraphernalia into this tiny space. I've been searching for better organization ideas to which you may have seen my previous post. Some women manage to have a WHOLE room to themselves to bring life to their many creations while I have about 1/3 of a room. So I set out to achieve a more girly, organized space of my own, however tiny that space might be. I have enjoyed the last day and hope to wrap it all up today. I think it's coming along nicely, though I may have to tweak a few original ideas to make it a bit more practical. The hubs just might have a heart attack if I don't quit making trips to Hobby Lobby & Michaels. I have close, personal relationships with these stores. They know me well. I hope to post pics of my finished project early in the week.

So with that, I shall leave you - drained, I'm sure, after reading all my craziness. But I thank you for allowing me to clear my head a little so that I may now focus on finishing my weekend project.

Praise God for this beautiful day and allowing me to breathe it all in.

Oh, To be Organized....

I admit that I'm a bit of an anal retentive person when it comes to my house and my space. I'm constantly rearranging the kids' rooms to accommodate for toys as well as space. My scrapbooking area (or our office) is a room that seems to be a constant thorn in my side. I hate walking into a room and feeling overcrowded and right now, our office is just that. We have somehow managed to shove 2 desks (one for the hubs and one for myself), a little art table for the kids, and art easel (for the kids), 2 book shelves filled from top to bottom and 2 bean bags for the kids to sit and enjoy a movie while I scrapbook or the hubs and I just browse online. I feel claustrophobic just typing all that. And here I sit in the middle of my chaos.

I'm always on the search for a better way to organize my scrapbooking materials or to organize the kids' art supplies. I ran across this blog a while back that I have thoroughly enjoyed following these last few weeks. The blog is Crafty Storage and you can visit them here. Crafty Storage is a team of women that are always on the lookout for new storage ideas as well as accepting readers photos of their own spaces. That's what I really enjoy - seeing other readers' spaces. Some of them are truly amazing and I dream of having a room of my own that is completely organized just for me. Here are a few rooms that have caught my attention.


This is Robyn's Pink Loft and you can see more pictures of it here.

This is Kerry's craft room and you can see more pictures of her space here.

This is Bendichte's studio and you can see more pictures of it here.

Tickle Me Tuesday

Saw this browsing this morning while wondering what to blog about. Thought it kinda funny being a scrapbooker.

Snowed In

Or should I say ICED in. So what better way to pass the time than scrapbooking? I was feeling a little more girly so I turned to my daughter's scrapbook. I'm still documenting my pregnancy with her so this is a picture of the diaper wreath I made for her. Someone made one for my son when he was born and so I thought it only right to make one for her as well. It's actually the same diaper wreath minus the "boy stuff", plus the "girl stuff". However, I did add the plastic pacifiers dangling down in the middle. I hung this wreath on our hospital door as well as our front door to our house to show everyone we were blessed with each new child. (I make it sound like we had a litter.)

Anyhow, the page itself is just the one picture so I printed it 5x7 to use more space on the page. I backed it several times and used some extra large photo corners by heidi swapp (www.heidiswapp.com) which I purchased at Hobby Lobby. Then I just added the flower stickers by Creative Imaginations (www.CreativeImaginations.us), also purchased at Hobby Lobby. Very girly indeed.

If there are any preggos out there interested in a diaper wreath, I'd be happy to make you one. Prices vary depending on how much stuff you want on it but we could work it out. Just contact me!

Simple but Fun

While the President was giving his State of the Union speech, I decided to do a little scrapbooking. The hubs and I watched it in our office so I was able to dig in to all my scrapbooking supplies. While these pages are simple (again, at this stage I'm all about just getting it done) they are colorful and fun. The first is "I'm just a Toddler" and it's inspired by a little embellishment kit about toddlers. I just picked out some colorful paper and took off. Brads were used on the journaling box to spruce it up just a bit.

This next one is very simplistic. I had only one picture so I printed a 5x7 & just backed the picture several times. I also used photo corners on the picture itself. Brads were used on the journaling box to add just a little embellishment. I didn't want to do too much with this page because the paper is so busy and it pretty much speaks for itself - "Boys".

Happy Scrapbooking!

Splish Splash

This weekend I had some time be creative & I thoroughly enjoyed myself. This scrapbook page is of my son playing with the water hose in our backyard when he was about 16 or 17 months old. Yes, I'm that behind - he's now 4 years old. The page is pretty simple because of limited time. I'm all about getting it done. The letters I cut out using the Jasmine font for the Cricut. I LOVE this machine and if you're a scrapbooker, you should definitely look into getting one. Then after backing my pictures and arranging them on the page, I added some splash stickers to play up the "Splish Splash" water theme. To add just a little something extra, I added a simple bow to my journaling box. Very simple, but I think it turned out very cute.

A Little Unique

I can finally post this now that I've given the gift to my friend. I've held on to this for a while because I didn't want to spoil the surprise. Expecting a new baby, I wanted to give her something a little different which also allowed me to be a little creative. Now, I'd like to share it with all of you. I think she really liked it and was touched that I made it especially for her new little man. It's simply a 12x12 scrapbook page that I framed using a scrapbook frame that you can find at Hobby Lobby and probably any other craft stores that sell frames. I enjoyed making it for them. Take some time to be creative today!

Sick Kids Trump Computer Time

I haven't posted in several days due to two sick kiddos here at our house.  Presley started running a fever, seemed to recover and now Keegan is running a fever.  Looks like he will recover also.  I have been so paranoid about this swine flu epidemic that I began to panic as soon as I took Presley's temperature the first day.  But I don't think that's what got the kids down.  I'm not sure what they've come into contact with, but it hit Keegan harder than Presley.  We have never gotten flu vaccinations but this year we are ALL getting vaccinated.  We're just anxiously awaiting a new shipment to our area.  I think most who know me know that I am not usually paranoid about germs.  We do exercise good hand washing and sanitizing but I don't freak out if one of the kids eats something off the floor.  My kids are generally pretty healthy kids.  But I have to admit that this flu has got me a little freaked out.  I've been careful to spray everything down with lysol, religiously use Clorox wipes, etc.  I guess you just can't be too careful because both kids came into contact with something.  What about you and your family?  Are you getting vaccinated?  Are you a little more than freaked out about all of this flu talk?

Because both of the kids haven't felt well this weekend, they've been napping pretty good and actually napped at the same time one afternoon.  So I was able to get another scrapbook page done for Keegan's scrapbook.  This is when we first bought Keegan's sandbox.  Keegan was about 15 or 16 months old, I think and we were living in Hendersonville at the time.  Again, I'm way behind.  Hoping to start another page today!

Getting Down to Business

It's Monday morning and I am already inspired by this blog.  Kids are fed, dog is fed, laundry is going but now I am taking five minutes to myself to make a post.  YAY ME - as I watch my 10 month old walk into the other room.  Better go fetch her.....

I haven't quite decided if I'm going to have a theme for each day of the week or just see where this all goes and let this blog take it's own shape.  But there are a few of things on my mind this morning that I think a lot of people probably have opinions about.  So here it goes.

I'm sure everyone has seen or heard about the balloon boy.  My first reaction after hearing the story was pure horror at the thought of a 6 year old boy being whisked away inside a homemade balloon.  Then I started wondering where the boy would actually be in that homemade balloon while watching the video on the Today Show.  Next come all the stories about this family being on Wife Swap and how they've made a rap video for YouTube, not to mention their storm chasing life.  I start thinking "hoax".  Now, they are reporting these parents could be facing felony charges after further investigations.  Seriously?  These parents want to be on TV so bad that they'd use their kids to achieve that.  Serves these crazy people right, but I feel sorry for those kids.  They don't deserve this.  Okay, enough of this and on to something more fun.

So I did a little scrapbooking yesterday for the first time in months.  I usually can't find time during the day unless I put something else off (laundry, cleaning house, etc.) and I always tell myself that I'll take time to do it after putting the kids to bed.  However, that never happens because the hubs and I usually curl up to watch one of our favorite shows or catch up on some movies we've been wanting to watch.  Or I find myself too exhausted do anything and just go to bed.  But yesterday, both kids took great naps so I decided to blow off everything else and do something for myself.  I'll admit, I'm a little out of practice and so behind on my kids' scrapbooks that I'm really more into just getting it done than I am being super creative.  But I think it turned out okay.  This page is for Keegan's book.  Keegan wasn't quite two years old yet, if that tells you how far behind I am.  He's now almost four.  Better late than never, right?!  The subject matter is a trip back home to Kentucky.  If memory serves me correctly, I think we had a good time.  ;)  Hope this inspires you to be a little creative for yourself today!