Noah's 3rd Birthday

Last Sunday we celebrated Noah's (my nephew) 3rd birthday at the Mall of America. He got a wrist band for the rides and we all took turns being his chaperon. It was basically his day and he got to do whatever he wanted. He had a great time!


He was really anxious to get on the first ride (the carousel). He didn't want to wait in line.

He chose grandma to go with him first.

He went straight for the pig. He also liked the race horse and the ostrich. I think he went on the carousel 4 times!

Uncle Nathan took him on the train.


We only got one picture of Noah and I on the balloons. He didn't like them at all and got pretty scared.

He also got a little scared on the farm friends (??) ride, but by the end he enjoyed it. I think he was apprehensive because he had to go by himself. By the time he got off he wanted to go again.

He was a good listener when they said to "raise your hands."

On daddy's shoulders.


He enjoyed honking the horns on the semi trucks with uncle Jeremy.

Two days in a row?

That's right, I'm posting two days in a row! I thought I would post some of the projects that I have been working on. It isn't anything too exciting, but I like to document my projects. It is kind of fun to be able to go back and look at what you have done in the past and see how your style has changed.

In case anyone is wondering, I have posted all of these in my Etsy shop!!


I started out making these tags just from scraps. The funny thing is that most of the time when I do this I love the finished product from those little scraps even more than the finish product that created the scraps! I think it is because you really do have to be creative in the ways that you use the scraps.




I have created these hand-stitched cards before, but I really did like the way they turned out, so I decided to make them again. I'm not pleased with the white balance of these photos, but you get the picture!



I *think* I found this photo at an antique store in Omaha (either that or on ebay). This little girl is so cute and I was looking for the perfect paper for the longest time. I think this paper is from My Mind's Eye. I got it at Hobby Lobby and the flowers are from the Target Dollar Spot.



I have also made this card before. My aunt Carol bought it from me when I was first starting my Etsy shop. She was such an encouragement to me because she bought a ton of cards the first week I was open! It made me believe I might be able to do this thing!


These tags are also made from some scraps and I don't really love them as much as the above tags. I didn't feel very creative making them because I just stole an earlier idea that I had from the Friendly Flower card.



Finally, I have also made this card before and it sold out, so I made it again with a slight variation of the center brad on the flower. I love the bright colors on this card.



Thanks for looking my latest cards and tags! I feel a little silly by adding the commentary... Thanks so much for visiting!

Finally Back!

After almost a month I'm finally posting again! I have been really lazy in by blog posts mainly due to the fact that the holidays were really busy and I didn't bring my camera to many of the holiday functions. I don't really like to post without pictures because I personally become disinterested in blogs that are all writing and no photos. I like to skim through the photos and if there is something that interests me I then read the writing. That is probably pretty shallow of me, but it's the truth.

Anyway, as promised, there are some before and after photos of our counter tops and sink! The before isn't terrible. It's not like our counters were pink or in really bad shape, but we were just really getting tired of them. Whenever we put a metal pan, bowl, utensil or even opened a can on top of them it would leave a terrible mark that could only be removed by extreme scrubbing or the magic eraser. It also had a seam on the corner of the island. Here are the before pictures:
(much thanks to Jeremy the photographer who took these while I was in the shower and we were waiting for the guy to come.)


This is the mess of stuff on the table that is normally in the kitchen either on the counter, under the sink or in the top drawers.

Seam going through the corner of the island

Sink with old school sprayer.



Here's the new sink! I LOVE this sink! It seems deeper, even though I don't think it is. The sprayer is in the handle and can reach every inch of the sink. The right bowl is bigger than the left side which is nice when I have big pans. The left side is smaller and a little cutting board came in the box and it fits exactly over the sink. The new disposal is so quiet that I can barely hear it! The old one used to shake the whole kitchen.



The new corner has no seam!

Christmas Decorating

With the Christmas season in full swing I haven't had time to post much here. I thought I would share a couple of pictures of my decorations. They have been up since the day after Thanksgiving, but I just got around to taking pictures last weekend. It is really hard to get good pictures when it is dark when I leave in the morning and dark when I get home!

















I hope to have more pictures coming soon. Tomorrow we are getting new counter tops! They aren't anything spectacular, but to us they will be grand! The counters that we have now are original to the house (1989) and they are a very light off-white color. I have stainless steel mixing bowls and whenever I use them they mark up the counter, along with anything else that is stainless steel or metal (cake pans, any metal utensils, pans, etc.) Anyway, I'm going to take a before and after picture just so that I remember what the old one looks like. The new counters will also be light because I didn't want to make the room really dark, but they will have a texture and they also have a little bit of a pattern that makes it look like stone. Along with the counters also comes a new sink, faucet and disposal. Yippee! No more noisy disposal!

Please help out the little guy!

In February there is going to be a new law going into effect, the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act, which basically states that all children's products intended for children under the age of 12 (toys, clothes, shoes, etc.) sold in the United States need to have every component of the item tested for all kinds of chemicals. These tests will cost thousands of dollars for each item produced. This will probably eliminate handmade children's products as we know them.

While I can really understand that the reason behind this bill is to keep children safe, the products that we already know are safe are the the ones that will be wiped out instead of the harmful products that have been coming from overseas. Personally I have lots of family and friends who make products for children and this bill might really hurt what they do.

Please visit Cool Mom Picks for more information and for ways that you can contact government officials.