Childhood Treasures

Just setting up all these little people by Fisher Price bring back many memories.  We had the garage with the elevator and also the a-frame house.  We would play with these for hours.  I loved putting the "gas" in the cars.  That little detail on the cars was perfect. We didn't worry at the time that they were small and probably a chocking hazard!  Today's little people aren't as cute.  I'm glad my mom kept these all these years.  I got them out for my girls to play with a few years ago.  The still love making up all kinds of stories with them.  Did you play with little people?  If so, what ones do you remember having?

Almost 7

Friday my baby will be turning 7.  How does this happen so fast?!  Today, I'm going to tackle the birthday outfit.  Last year, I made her a skirt with a matching applique t-shirt.  I loved the cupcake fabric.  For this years dress, I went through my fabrics, um yes, I do have quite a selection....and found the perfect thing.  Now mind you, I did make sure with the birthday girl that it IS going to be something she would wear.  She is getting to the point of wanting to pick out fabrics herself.  I was not about to make something for the special day and not have her wear it!  I bought this fabric about a year ago.  I love it!  It almost makes me panic to think I'm going to cut into it!  Wish me lots of luck otherwise you might see it in the shop as a pillow instead!

New items

Yesterday, I indulged myself by making some badge clips.  I've made these before for craft fairs and friends, but never for Etsy.  Let me just say, I love making these.  I could spend hours contemplating which fabrics to use.  It is really one of my favorite things to do.  Strange right? 

Today is fabulous sunny day.  I took a bunch of pictures this morning.  You know you're having a great day when your memory card is full!  I'll be deleting pictures tonight.  I hate doing that.  I always fear pushing the wrong button and loosing the good ones.  Hope your day is happy !  

Winner....and just a few things

The winner of the thankful pillow is Stacy!  Please contact me with your info, and I'll get it out in the mail.  I enjoyed reading what you were all thankful for.  It was fun to offer a giveaway on the blog.  I really didn't expect anyone to enter.  I'm hoping to do another one in the near future.  I must admit that I missed blogging for a couple of days.  It's been a bit quiet here in my google reader with a lot of the bloggers gone to Blissdom.  I'm jealous, but can't wait for them to be back.  I've been busy in the shop getting things stocked up.  It's been so realxing for me.  Sewing does that for me except when I drop the dish with all the bobbins in it!!!  Yesterday, two lovely people wrote about my shop/blog on their blogs.  I was shocked!  One was a customer, Shannon, who showed a picture of one of my pillows in her bedroom.  Her house is awesome!  Go check it out at http://www.akadesign.ca/.  Laurie offered some kind words over on her blog and mentioned my giveaway.  Go visit her and her cute family at http://www.justinandlauriestory.blogspot.com/.  It really made my day!  Thanks ladies!

Giveaway!

                                                             *****Giveaway is now closed.  I'll announce the winner Friday.*****

This is a little scary for me.  It's my first giveaway!  Does anyone read my blog?  What if no one enters?  If you read my blog, your chances are probably pretty good.  Please enter by leaving a comment.   Only one comment per person.  Contest runs until Thursday @ 7:00 p.m. EST.  I'll announce the winner Friday.  The winner will receive this thankful pillow with Chinese lantern fabric on the back of it.  Pillow measure 11" long   x 8" wide. It had been my most popular pillow in the shop so far.  What are you thankful for? 

Childhood Treasures

These metal lunch boxes were stuck away in a cupboard up until a few months ago.  I think I have found a perfect place to display them.  My husband made this coat cabinet out of cherry for the girls.  He wood  burned each of their names above their hooks.  They store their book bags, coats and boots in there.  On top I placed our vintage lunch boxes.  We each kept two which is kind of weird!  Mine are Raggedy Ann and Andy, and Mickey Mouse.  His are Kiss and Hanna -Barbera.  How cool is that Kiss lunch box?!

Come back here tomorrow for my first giveaway!  

Late start

                                         

Today has been one of those days.  It's almost lunch time and I have so much to do.  Laundry, grocery list making, and getting ready for all this cold weather that is going to land here this weekend.  I'm hoping our old house will pull thru another cold snap.  Thankfully, it'll be over in a couple days.  Here is an unrelated picture of another one of my favorite things in our house.  Our tin ceilings.  It's on our dining room, kitchen and bathroom ceilings.  Each one is different.  I absolutely love them!

Priorities

Sometimes it's good to just stop and regroup.  I mean really, I am such a scheduler.  I crave routine.  If I get out of it, my day crumbles fast.  Sometimes though, I find it hard to add something to my schedule.  Exercise.  Ugh.  I know I should.  I go through times where I do but then I get  out of it.  So here's the thing.  I'm  going to start out S.L.O.W. Maybe, if I work it into my routine then I won't hate it so much.   Here is what I'm going to do:

week one and two
Monday, Wednesday, Friday- 30 mins. each day

week three and four
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and one weekend day- 30 mins. each day

I have decided that I need to get it over with early in the day.  I usually am up early so I'll aim at meeting my treadmill at 5:30 a.m.  Of coarse, I won't be alone.  Martha and Nate Berkus will be there too.  I need to keep my mind busy while on that machine. Expect an update right here one month from today, if you really care!

Loving

Here are some things I'm loving right now:

-winter
-sitting by the fire
-playing board games (scrabble and scattegories)
-skiing
-flannel sheets
-ordering new spring fabric
-dreaming of our garden
-friends
-my new coffee maker
-watching my girls play

Happy Birthday!

Our first daughter is twelve today.  They are so right.  The time goes by so fast.  I'm so happy to have been able to watch her grow into the person she is today.  She is bright, beautiful, caring, kind and a wonderful sister.  A sister that I wish I had.  My girls are so lucky to have each other.  I  love them.  Happy birthday Karlee! 

Childhood Treasures

If you are just stopping by, this is my second Monday post about items from my childhood.  I'll be doing this every Monday.  I have kept quite a few things!  I'm glad I did since I have three girls.  They love playing with my toys and I love seeing them play with all of it!

This week I had to share my two boys-Danny Ashley and Cedrick Norvil.  No, I didn't have to go looking for the birth certificate's.  Their names just rolled off my tongue.  It's funny, I never wanted a girl cabbage patch (I think it was the yarn hair).  Danny was my first one.  My Mom had to endure the whole craze, lines and all.  I've told my girls the story and I still don't think they truly understand how crazy it was!  Cedrick was my next one.  He's a preemie.  My Mom had clothes made for them.  I love the details in the clothing.  I especially love the coat.  From an early age I was exposed to handmade.  I think that is why I love handmade so much.  Did you have a cabbage patch when you were growing up ?

Hunkering down

We are receiving more snow today.  It's cold, only 13 degrees.  Soup is made and now we're by the fire.  There really is no other place I'd rather be today.  Wishing you a cozy weekend! 

Simple menu

Do you struggle with grocery shopping?  In our family, we go once a week.  I try to make a list ahead of time.  The non food items are easy to come up with.  I'm tired of buying prepackaged foods.  Lately I've gotten into a slump.  When I sat down to prepare this weeks list, I decided to first make a simple chart.  I divided it into sections.  1) muffins-banana 2) soup-vegetable w/ black beans 3) meat-turkey 4) breakfast-homemade granola 5) smoothie-yogurt w/ raspberries (from our garden) 6) salad-spinach 7)bread-who bread from http://www.soulemama.com/ .  I'm going to focus on these sections each week and see where it takes me.   I'm not going crazy here people.  Just a little extra time spent.  I need to make this simple.  Remember, the word I chose for this year is to simplify.   I'm loving this word.  My sewing room has benefited already from this.  Everything that is in there I love or need.  I can't wait to do this with the other rooms in my house.       

Magical

First off, don't you just love the date 1/11/11.  It looks so strange!  We are getting some beautiful fluffy snow today.  I had to take some pictures of it.  I wish there wasn't school today.  Skiing would be so much fun!  It's looks just like clouds on the ground.  Hope your day is beautiful too!

Done

My sewing room is finally done!  Over the weekend I went through all my bins of fabric.  After lugging them upstairs one at a time I vowed not to buy any more for awhile.  We'll see how long that lasts!  Anywho, my fabulous husband made me shelves after a trip to Lowes.  That store is so overwhelming!  He also put shelves in the closet for all (some) of the girls toys.  I love it when they come up and play on the rug when I'm sewing away.  I'm going to have to hide the owls.  They saw them on the cutting board waiting to be brought to life and were asking for them.  How am I suppose to get them into the shop?!  Hunter (my youngest) did have a point though, she is the only one who doesn't own one yet.  I'll show you the window once I can get the stickers off it (fire safety).  They are on the outside and as my hubby put it, "I'm not going on the roof and risk sliding off."  We do have several inches of snow here.  Loving this weather, no really I am.   

Childhood Treasures

Every Monday I will post an item that I have kept from my childhood.  I'm looking forward to reliving these memories and sharing them with my daughters and with anyone who stops by.  Please feel free to comment and let me know if you shared some of these same treasures.

While going through some of the containers holding all of my sewing supplies, I stumbled upon one holding books that I kept from my childhood.  Quite often my parents would let me order books from the book orders sent home from school.  As soon as I saw Annie, it brought back all these memories.  The songs from the movie, and my Annie doll that came with a "gold" locket.  Saturday night I showed my girls the book.  We were going to settle down to read it.  They asked me if we had the movie, and at that moment, I realized that we did.  I ran around trying to locate it, thankfully it was right where it was suppose  to be.  So after making a call to my hubby for some tech help (v.c.r. isn't hooked up, ugh) we sat together and watched one of my favorite movies.  At the end, they decided it was one of their favorites too!  The singing get me every time.  It transported me back to a time when I was their age.  Pure goodness!  If you are having a bad day today just think, "The sun will come out tomorrow!"

The Owls are almost here

When I reopened my Etsy shop in September, I made four owls.  Since then they have sold  and I knew I had to make more.  Not to mention, I have made four others for gifts.  These are a bit smaller than the others.   Just the right size to ship in a priority envelope.  My favorite part was going through my stash of fabric and seeing what went best.  These would be great for a Valentine's Day gift.  Now, I'm off to put them together so they can fly into my shop!

JadieCakes

Some of you may be wondering how I came up with JadieCakes.  The name is actually my youngest daughter Hunter's nickname.  Her middle name is Jade.  We just started calling her that and well, here I am with a shop on Etsy called JadieCakes and a little blog named myjadiecakes.  She is only six but her artwork and storytelling amazes me.  She will be turning seven next month (deep breath).  This is what she brought home from school the other day.  It's certainly going in the keep for later folder.  Love the work boots on  my husband.  Check out her printing.  Wish mine was so fabulous!

Shop update

Today I will be updating the shop with some love themed pillows just in time for Valentines day.   Ideas keep swirling in my head, but unfortunately I'm short on time.  My house could really be cleaned, but I have a few hours sans kiddos and I really need to spend it with my sewing machine.  I do love her.  What are you doing today?   

Look what I found

Over the past month, our new batch of chickens started laying eggs.  Finally!  We got them back in June, and I was relieved to see that we were going to finally have eggs.  Our older chickens were still laying, but only two a day.  Not much when you're feeding 18 chickens!  Can you tell how happy I am now?  This is our first time with blue eggs though.  The girls think it's really neat!  I love them and almost feel a bit like Martha.  You know which Martha, right?  I think I'll make some crepes filled with Nutella for supper tonight.    

New Year-Simplify

I'm not much for making New Years resoultions, but I do like the idea of a fresh slate.  The word I chose was "simplify".  Go over to Lisa Leonard's blog www.lisaleonardonline.com/blog/  to read about this idea of choosing one word for the year.  I want to create a home that has less stuff.  I'm tired of the piles here and there.  I want what we have to be things we love and need.  This is our home and I want it to reflect us.  So, in the coming months, I hope to go through the closets and cupboards and keep just what we need and love.  I'll take pictures along the way (I do love tho see a before and after).  Happy New Year!