Baby Girl is 1! {Happy Birthday}

On July 19th, my baby girl turned 1! On July 20th we celebrated her birthday with friends and family. :) Over at GYCT Designs I'm sharing the sheets I made to help me with planning and organizing the birthday party as part of her Sizzlin' Summer Organization Series.

Enjoy some of the pictures here of the party, her cake Hubby decorated and her 'eating' it, and the dress I made her. :)

We used a Koala theme for the birthday cake and invitations. It also happens to be the mural that is on her wall in her bedroom! :) We used the Koala from the Create a Critter for the  (affiliate)for the Cricut Expression Cutting Machine (affiliate) , cut it out from cardstock and used it to make an impression in the frosting.  Hubby then filled it in with frosting once removing the cardstock.

She was shy listening to happy birthday

Baby girl, just like her brother, was not a fan of the frosting!

And some more cake eating pictures, mostly because I missed the first bite...

We had family and friends over, and I am so thankful for them celebrating with us. I was too busy to take too many pictures, but here are a few good ones.

Cousin's helped open presents. They are such good helpers.

I made her a dress for the day too, in a very thin material to help stay cool. It's the Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop's Sweetheart Halter (affiliate). I just extended the shirt to make it a dress. 

Don't forget to head over to GYCT Designs and check out the sheets I made that help me plan birthday parties (and other parties). 

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl! May you have many more!

Little Man's 3-Year Dinosaur Birthday Party

I cannot believe that my little man is now three years old! Crazy!

Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop's Classic Polo (affiliate link) Repurposed from an old shirt and fabric!

We celebrated with a dinosaur cake, a '3' on his shirt using dinosaur printed flannel, and making hand-print stegosaurus' with family and friends! What more could a 3-year-old ask for in a birthday party? I don't know, but I do know that my little man had fun!

I cut triangles from felt for the kids to use as the back plates. I think it added a neat texture element to their hand-prints. :)

cousin's looked awesome using the triangles to create a tail!

name letters tutorial here.

The chickens seemed to be a main attraction! :)

Pants were pattern flip blogged about here.

Images cut with cricut, pressed into frosting to imprint, then outlined with frosting... Love how it turned out! Brandon does such a great job!

I think he was a little embarrassed 

My sister-in-law took the pictures! She does such a good job! :)

*affiliate link

Now to start planning Samara's first birthday... Only 7 months to go! :) Hahah, right...

Until next time, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

My Craft Space

I am excited to show you my craft room, though right now it isn't nearly anywhere I want it to be. But hey, it's a craft room and it's usable! :)  And, it is a lot better than what it used to look like. Isn't it just the way that things seem to go, the craft room or spare room seems to turn into a catch all for stuff around the house when trying to clean... Maybe if we had spots for everything it would be easier, or not as much stuff.... ;)

So when you first walk into the craft room, to the left is the desk where my sewing machine is located. I love the size (though a little big for the room). We acquired it in the move into this house 5 months ago. Brandon wants to cut a portion off the table to set the sewing machine down into it, but I don't think that is going to happen and now I am not sure if I want it to. The red chair was an acquisition with the house too.

The drawers are filled with scissors, sewing notions, thread, bobbins, old eye glasses and other crafting supplies, even baby food jars!

On the other side of the desk is an old couch that folds out into a bed but I am not totally taking a picture of that as it is in need of reupholstering, not to mention is has a box of carousels in need of a home and my yarn supplies for crochet work.

One more look at my Huge desk... It's awesome...

I have my ironing board set up in front of the window. That window gets so hot during the day. I think this room is one of the hottest in the house! I would show the view, but it is of the broken trampoline and the chicken coop. Granted the mountains are awesome, but not the other things...

My one bookcase is crammed with fabric in photo boxes, books, papers, albums, crayons and markers... I think I need more bookcases, but there is no room for them. The small plastic containers holds my scraps and WOF cuts organized by size. I very much prefer having these sorted by size than by color. If I need something 1.5" then I go into that container. It's so easy! The photo boxes are organized by color. :)

Then it is my craft table. Brandon made it when we lived in the old house. It's great for scrapbooking when I am putting my layouts together. I like to spread out. Course now it spans almost the full length of the room! The unpainted top was supposed to be a second table, but I am not sure the plans with it now...

I like my little cork display above the table... and my music notes...

This just makes me happy...

My grandpa made this, and my grandma painted it. It will always be special, and hopefully the current children can keep all the pieces together!

My project wall. A simple fleece blanket pinned to the wall. It works for what it has been used for. Right now it is sporting the blocks I got from the baby shower. I am still waiting on a bunch and trying to figure out the layout which has changed many times and probably will again before it is actually pieced together...

Last but not least, my music notes above the door... :)

I am linking up at Ellison Lane: Studio Spotlight Linky Party! :) Check out the craft/sewing spaces of others for some inspiration, admiration, or just to snoop... ;)

Nikolai's Shirt

Before I talk about Christmas, because it was crazy and we still aren't finished celebrating yet, I want to talk about Nikolai's shirt from the last post, Holiday Family Portraits. Yes, we still aren't finished celebrating yet. My niece was in California spending time with her Dad, step-mom, half-brothers and half-sister. So we were waiting to finish celebrating when she returned to Arizona. :)

Now, on to his shirt...

Printable Alphabet Cards

If you don't recall, I had a post a while ago about Alphabet Flash Cards I made for Nikolai. And he really loves them!

 

Well, a family member requested that I scan in the cards so she could have them too. Maybe I should have offered to make them for her? But instead I canned them into the computer. I did not have an X at that point in time and thought this might give me an opportunity to create and X card. Though it is not a cricut card, it is still an X card...

Sleeping Bag Liner

One other thing I wanted to have done before the camping trip was a sleeping bag liner. My sad little sleeping bag is only rated to 40 °F. It was a quick cheap replacement for a sleeping bag that got lost in a move around 3.5 years ago. Of course that sleeping bag had been around since the early 90's and it was time for retirement anyway.

My Listed UFOs

So, following this Sunday thing of unfinished objects, I have started taking pictures and trying to remember what it is that I have yet to finish. I figure that Nikolai's quilt no longer counts as a UFO and instead a WIP. Don't worry. I will post updates on his quilt later. I have 1/6 of the quilting on the inside to do, quilting the borders then the binding! Yay! Thanks for your comments, it has made the process so much more fun! Nikolai and I sing and dance (as well as I can seated anyway) to the kids station I have through Pandora. I think he is as excited as I am!

Alphabet Flash Cards

I have so much that I need to share, and it is probably going to take me more than all weekend to get it all out. Not too much special stuff going on right at this moment, but everything that has to do with little man is always special! :)