A couple inspiring reads

While I haven't actually read these books I would love to buy them when the finances permit! I found them through the author's blog: http://www.soulemama.com/soulemama/

Not sure if I can legally C&P images of the book cover so here are the titles and descriptions, both books by Amanda Blake Soule:

The Creative Family
Between work and school, music lessons, and sports practice, there is less and less time to connect as a family. Those few moments together are often spent making meals, doing homework, or watching TV. In this inspiring book, Amanda Soule, a young mother of three, presents simple ways to use arts and crafts and other forms of creativity to deepen family connections.

For parents of all backgrounds, The Creative Family offers unique creative activities for the whole family. The range of projects includes: imaginative play such as dress-up, home theater, and parlor games; arts and crafts such as family drawing time and knitting with children; nature explorations such as creating garden journals and using natural toys; and family celebrations that include making music and displaying children’s art. These fun and engaging alternatives to television, video games, and the computer are meant to captivate children’s imaginations, celebrate their achievements, and express love and gratitude as a family.

Handmade Home
Handmade Home offers simple sewing and craft projects for the home that reflect the needs, activities, and personalities of today’s families. Filled with thirty-three projects made by reusing and repurposing materials—from vintage feedsacks to old sheets and towels—and including some projects that children can help with, all of the items here offer a practical use in the home. Amanda Soule does much more than simply present a collection of handmade items; she reveals crafting as a lifestyle based on the principles of consuming less and reusing more, appreciating the earth, and connecting to our families. This is a craft book that gives you the tools for creating a life—and a home—full of beauty, integrity, and joy.
Projects include:
• Papa’s Healing Cozy: This hot water bottle cover becomes a simple way to offer comfort to a sick child
• Baby Sling: A simple pattern for an object that offers so much to a small child—refuge from the world and a place to lay their head next to a parent’ heart
• Beach Blanket To-Go: Repurpose old sheets to create the perfect picnic blanket for special outdoor meals
• Cozy Wall Pockets: A creative solution for storing a child's small treasures.

Let's try this again

About 4 months ago I tried posting a quilt-in-progress only to have to delete the post. Being the totally brain-dead mama that I am I didn't even think that the woman who was to be surprised with this quilt would somehow find the post (it wouldn't have been too hard seeing as she has access to my blog)!

The very short story of this quilt...it starts with another mama acquaintance of mine whom I "met" through an online fertility board while pregnant with my first child. A group of us connected and formed our own little private board. We have gone through the births and everyday lives of our September 2006 babies, many subsequent births of siblings, miscarriages, fertility issues, health issues, you name it. This mama was anxiously expecting the birth of her 3rd child, a sweet little girl. One fateful day, however, it was learned that the baby was no longer alive. This mama gave birth to a beautiful angel in January 2009 at 17 weeks. This tiny angel has touched all of our lives and we felt that it was only appropriate to give said mama a comforting reminder of her little girl. The group of us pieced together squares of a quilt, added our own personal touches and presented the finished project to the mama (via snail mail) around Mother's Day.

Here are the squares that I worked on before they were pieced:

This is the applique I added to each square. The three flowers represents each of this mama's babies.

Yoo-hoo!

I'm baaaaaack! So much has been going on since my last post and the blogging and projects took a bit of a backseat. In nutshell this has been my life for the last 3 months:

-Found out we are pregnant with baby #3. All is well, I am now 24-weeks and feel like a cow.
-Husband injured his knee which put him out of work as a firefighter and in an office job with the department (thank God he still had a job!).
-In-laws stayed with us for a very long, grueling month to "help us out"....did it help? NO! Will they be staying with us for this long again? NO!
-My little boy started crawling, turned 1 and started walking. The baby-proofing starts again!
-My little girl, who is almost 3 years old, has been busy with art and dance classes. On top of this we are beginning to get a glimpse of what life will look like with a teenager...JOY!

What about my projects? I've actually gotten some things done believe it or not!
-Made a few squares for a "memorial" quilt for a friend (that will be my next post) and quilted the pieced quilt.
-Made the brown/blue/green quilt that I had posted about.
-Made a baby quilt for friend.
-Made a diaper bag for another friend.
-Sewed a dress for my daughter...my first creation made primarily without the help of my mom!
-Just started the squares for a t-shirt quilt for my husband.
-Finished stenciling a wall in my daughter's bedroom.
-Stenciled some cute jungle animals in my son's bedroom.
-Painted my craft/sewing room.
-Scrapbooked a few pages in my daughter's album and started one in my son's album.

Bad, bad blogger

It has been about 3 weeks since my last post and quite honestly I'm not exactly sure when I'll feel motivated to post much soon. The projects (& my motivation) have taken a backseat to the other things that we have been dealt in life in the since the beginning of April. I will be back but not sure how soon.

More scrapbooking pages done!

I'm a on a roll! Honestly though, I wouldn't have even gotten this far if it wasn't for the bi-monthly scrapbooking get-togethers I've been having with a few friends. I actually might get Abigail's scrapbook done and Jacob's started before the end of the year!!

Stenciling

We moved into our new house back in October and the first thing I had to do was paint my daughter's room. We did lavender on the bottom (from chair rail height down) and pink on the top. I've been scouring stores & websites for the perfect stencil and at one point I thought I was ambitious enough to make my own. After several failed attempts I decided to improvise with an already-made stencil that was similar to the prints on the fabric I used to make her quilt. Flowers & bees...around her whole room! This is going to take awhile! So far I've done about 75% of one wall...only 3 more walls to go!

The the projects keep coming!

It's been a week since I last posted and only because I have added even more projects to add to the list!! Yay!
So, I've been visualizing the way I want to paint my sewing/craft room since we moved into our house last October. It's always been a lime green color with brown flowers stenciled on in random patterns. I went to Guiry's/Benjamin Moore the other day and picked up a couple samples and tried them on a wall. I was so excited about the stencil that I loaded the paint on...it won't be anything like that when I do it for real (plus I'll be using acrylic paint not wall paint).

Then, I found some eye-catching fabric that I'm going to use to cover a desk chair that I inherited when my Grandma passed away a little over a year ago. This should give it a whole new life!

Next, I was at the local fabric store and walked past a quilt kit with some great fabrics in green, brown & blue. The light blue will be the backing and the edges of the quilt & the brown will be the binding. I had to have it! This quilt will be used in the family room that is adjoining the craft room.






This isn't an added project but one that I've been working on for a few weeks. These are the pieces of the project that I'll hopefully be sewing together this week/weekend...and it's under wraps for now. I'll post pics of it once it's finally done!


Last, I got together with my friends for another scrapbooking day. It was rather stressful with 3 little toddler girls & 2 infant boys (actually one of the boys is so relaxed you wouldn't even know he's there) and this time my awesome husband wasn't able to help watch the kids...we MISSED him! Hence, I was only able to get one page done...barely!