Rainy Weekend Turned Bright

 

It’s been raining here in Virginia Beach for what seems like an eternity.  Yet only two weeks ago I was bragging about the beautiful fall skies.  Shame on me for bragging too much about the amazing skies.  Mother Nature has shown me nothing but grey skies for 10 days now.  Vitamin D supplements have been consumed to combat any possibility of moodiness. 

 

Instead of giving in to the grey skies, high winds, damn air, and puddles, I embraced them.  I lit candles, turned on some tunes and went all Betty Homemaker!  It was glorious!  I made tomato soup from scratch…mostly from my garden and it was delicious!!  We are still eating it and my tummy is very happy!  I painted a little rocking chair fire engine red!  It’s a happy little chair, isn’t it?!  Oh and it was a thrifty endeavor!

 

Rocking Chair: $5.99 at Thrift Store

Spray Paint: $3 at Home Depot

Sand Paper: Already had

Damp Rag: Free

Total Cost: $8.99

Since I had this happy little red rocking chair, I only needed a cute little boy who adores climbing to model with it and model he did!!

 

 

 

While he loved climbing on the rocking chair and eating playing with the pumpkins, his mama and I had fun documenting his 8 month pictures.  His mom is so great at taking pictures each and every month of his little life so far!  I can only hope that I am as dedicated with my future kiddos as she is with him. 

Totally Random…having a dirty baby diaper in my trashcan kind of made me happy.  Oh and I was so proud of my little Lira puppy who belly crawled up to baby C man and sniffed him.  She was wonderful with the active baby!  Yay!  I think Lira and I are both ready for some babies in this house! 

 

Aside from these two creative endeavors, I hung out with friends, went on a spur of the momeny date with my hubby, and cuddled a ton with my puppy!  She was in such a cudde bug mood and I ate it up! 

 

SPIL: Simple Pleasures In Life

~Friends that "get" you

~Cute diners with Christmas lights & Flying Pigs

~Homemade Soup in the Fall

~Babies learning to be mobile

 

Much love.

 

Campsite Photography Fun!

First of all, I love having friends that let me practice my photography on their kids!  Thanks Heather!  Second of all, I have tons of fun ideas for photography props, but I haven't had much time to make them and put them to good use.  For our first photography session, we went camping...in their backyard!  Luckily, their backyard is gorgeous and doesn't contain neighbors!  They are the best kind of backyards in my opinion. This is the first of hopefully many fall photography sessions with little C-man.   

Welcome to the campsite!

 I headed to Home Depot yesterday and got some 1x2 wood cut to 6 feet, along with some twine.  Then I headed to the thrift store and got some sheets to use for the tent material.  Total Home Depot bill: $10.07.  Total Thrift Store bill: $2.12. 

What's a campsite without a dog?  This is Zeek.  He's pretty cool.  I dig his eyes.  

One thing to remember when you are working with children...they are human and not always super happy and full of smiles.  Little C-man is teething and he wasn't totally into having his picture taken, so there weren't many smiles despite some wonder singing of Old McDonald and I love You a Bushel and a Peck... It's ok though.  We captured teething C-man and some different facial expressions. 

Oh my heavens, look at those eyes and that face.  He was content, but definitely not his happy self today.  Poor little guy.  He kept smacking his lips and sucking on anything that would sooth his gums.  Here he is mid lip smacking. 

Oh the drool!  That's a dead giveaway that teething is in process!!  I adore this tongue picture!

Little C-man sitting up and sucking his thumb.  Balancing was hard outside because the ground was slanted, but we helped him out with a boppy pillow under the blanket.

Sometimes a little change creates just enough distraction!  The hat did the trick for a few moments!

Being outside really helped C-man!  He is a definitely a little outdoors man and digs the fresh air!  We gave him a little space from the lens and just let him hang out. 

When you subject decides looses his balance and is completely happy on his back, let him be and work with him! 

Candid and lifestyle photography are two of my favorite photography styles.  I really enjoy capturing moments in life that people can look at, feel emotion, and relive the moment or moments like it.  It's not traditional photography, but it speaks to me.  I prefer to observe an interaction and capture it from my angle.

 

I hope you enjoyed little C-man at his crafty campsite photo shoot!  Please leave any and all feedback.  I am continually working on my photography skills.  This is the first of many sessions that I will be holding throughout the fall. 

 

Much love.

Life this weekend...

Little man got sick at school on Friday, so we hung low all weekend, watched Christmas movies and football, made peppermint bark, read books, finished Christmas shopping, crafted, and wrapped a tons of Christmas presents!

 

My little pleasure, proud mama moment this weekend was watching Jared pick out his pollyanna present.  He has a girl cousin, so he couldn't run to the nerf section like he was able to do last year.  Today we went to the junior girl section and spent a good 20 minutes looking through all of our options.  Little man did a really good job putting together the perfect gift for his pollyanna.  She's a lucky lady! 

 

After our shopping was done, we came home and wrapped.

 

He's just learning to wrap presents on his own, so he used an enormous amount of tape, listened to my instructions for the first present and then said, "I'm just going to do it my way" and folded the paper like a little boy would fold the paper.  It was cute!  He chose his wrapping paper according to what he thought the gift receiver would like best too!  My heart swelled!  I love seeing a little giver evolve in children!

 

Little Lira just enjoyed having her family around all weekend!  She stares at us as if we are the most amazing people in the entire world...probably because we spoil her and love on her every second we can!  She's the prettiest puppy in the whole wide world (said in a baby voice)!

 

It's a little fuzzy, but you get the idea.  She's perfect.

This was my afternoon reality and I enjoyed every second of it!

 

 

Sunday evening we went to Mass and tears flowed once again.  My heart is broken for all those little and big angels that lost their lives on Friday.  May they feel the love of the Lord and be enveloped by his loving arms.  May peace be in their hearts and love surround them.  My prayers are with each and every person affected by the tragedy.  God bless you. 

 

After Mass, I needed some alone time to reflect on life, so I sewed.  I made a very girly apron for my niece.  I've been putting it off, but this evening just seemed like the right time.  She is a sweet, innocent, perfect little angel and I needed to think of her goodness and all the goodness that still exists in this world. 

 

 

The presents are wrapped, the Nativity is glowing, the tree is decorated and I am relaxing.  May peace fill your heart and prayers flow from you.  The world needs us.  God Bless.

 

 

 

Much love.

Halloween 2012: Black Swan

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays!

Thinking of a creative costume is the most challenging part,

but this year I think I succeeded. 

Making the costume is super fun!

Play the part is hands down the best aspect of Halloween!

If you are going to dress up, go all out.

 

My attempt at a pose...totally incorrect probably, but I tried.

Love this "Swan" pose

Love the eyes

Black and white

 

Prim & Proper

I can still do a leg extension!!  Yay!

My face.

I am in love with my eye makeup.

 

I won the "most original" costume at the Dance Halloween Party on Friday!

On Saturday, my dance studio and I danced along the Wicked 10k. 

We did Gangham Style and the runners loved it!!

What are you being this Halloween?

Do you make your costumes?

 

Much love.

Making a House a Home cont.

It's amazing what you get done when you know you are expecting company for the first time on the same day that you start a new job and have a birthday in the family! I have been meaning to sew some curtains and a table cloth, hang some pictures and and paint some bottles for decorations. Well, yesterday I hit the ground running and got it all done! Yes, I got it ALL done. :)

Here are my projects in lots of pictures and few words...

Jared officially has curtains in his room!!

Here is a close-up of the fabric on the bottom.

My bathroom also got a curtain to cover the blinds.  Beware, we have a tiny bathroom even though it is called the "Master" bath.

 Here is a close-up of the fabric I used.

Spring is here and my kitchen table is screaming it loud and clear with its new tablecloth!

There is a new wall hanging to the right of the table, but I failed to get a picture of it.  It is a black metal sun with a mirror in the center. 

Remember that table I painted white, well I finally have some decorations on it.  I painted wine bottles and beer bottles then added some coral and drift wood I found on the beach.  I'm diggin' it! 

Again...

And since I painted an extra beer bottle, I decided to make a bracelet, necklace, ring holder!  Take the bottle, place bracelets over the neck, put a stick in the bottle with a fork in it.  Hang necklaces from one and place rings on the other.

Have you been crafting lately?  If so, please feel free to share!

Much love.

Recent Crafts

Being that I am unemployed at the time being and that the office is organized, kitchen drawers are clean, J-man's room is rearrange, garaged is clean, and the list goes on, I had to get creative.  As much as I love to sit and read, I can't actually sit and read all day long...unless I am sick.

These cute little owls were crafted before Christmas for two of my niece's.  J-man helps sew the nose of the red owl.  We used scrap fabrics and made combinations that we thought looked good together.  It was easy and fun!

We sent the book Good Night Owl along with the stuffed owls.  It's a great book about a father taking his youngest child out into the woods to hear the owls.  I have fond memories of my father reading it to me.  Anyone with kids should look into this book...in my opinion.

Our bed needed a little pizazz, so I covered a pillow I had without sewing!  Its a fabric wrap.  What do you think?

To recreate a pillow cover like above, all you have to do is get a piece of fabric that is 3 times the length and 2 times the height of the pillow.  Place the pillow in the center of the fabric.  Fold the top down and fold the bottom up.  Fold the sides in to make two triangles.  Fold the triangle across the pillow.  Tie the two ends and tuck. 

An earring hanger! 

This is also super easy.  It's an old picture frame with screen stapled to the back of it. I used gold spray paint to soften the screen and paint the frame.  I used wood glue to add decorative stones and made a fabric rose which is also quite simple to make.

This isn't quite a craft, but rather a neat trick I discovered.  I have candle holders that I absolutely adore, but I can never seem to find candles thick enough to fit in them. Well, thanks to a little table salt, problem solved!

Put the thin candle in the wide candle holder. Hold the candle up straight and pour the salt into the holder.  The salt fills in the extra space and holds the candle in place.  An added bonus is that when the candle melts, the wax hits the salt as opposed to getting stuck in the bottom of the holder and makes for super easy and clean removal. 

Much love.

Lovin Pinterest

Dearest Pinterest,

Thank you for the inspiration to be crafty again!  I've always had a passion for sewing, designing, and creating unique items, but over the past few years, I have set it aside.  No longer I say, no longer!  Creativity is back in my life and just in time for Christmas!  My mission now is to be creative in ways that J-man can participate in!  Luckily he is quite the little seamster! 

With much appreciation,

Sarah

Today J-man and I made some craft "To Do" and "Chore" lists with old picture frames, a little paint and some scrap paper.

We can easily modify the lists because it's erasable marker!  Plus J-man loves to be able to make his own check marks when he is done the chore.  Sadly, the command hooks I used didn't work and they both fell to the ground.  I hate nails, so I might try command again...any suggestions on the specific type?

J-man and I broke out the sewing machine yesterday and made the sweet little girlies in our life adorable Christmas presents!  I can't share the picture of them because their mamas are readers and I don't want to spoil the surprise.  All I have to say is they are amazing and I want to make one for my future babies!!

Oh what to do with all those scraps of fabric?!?  Make a fabric tutu/skirt that can be worn for a photo opportunity, for dress-up or everyday!  I think this little skirt is simply lovely!  No longer will I be throwing my scraps away!  Whether I have a little girl or not, all the little girls in my life will be twirling around in one of these!  And I must add, I love the cowgirl boots!   

Or make cloth diapers with that extra fabric!

Photography Ideas for babies...

Christmas Baking ideas...

Fake snow decorations for those of us who won't have a white Christmas, but want one so dearly!

There are so many wonderful ideas that I'd love to share, but instead I'll let you explore for yourself!  The DIY section is my favorite!  Happy Pinning! 

Much love.