Lots of Undocumented Sewing & A little rambling

I've been bad lately, neglecting my poor blog and just living life like everyone else. There's been a lot of turmoil in my personal life that's really been hard for me to deal with and that's also stunted my desire to share on the blog for fear that I might say too much (I'm really bad about over-sharing) and make things worse.

Some things I've made though, well I got two precious aprons made for my mother and daughter for my mom's birthday. She's been begging me to make her and Addy matching aprons since Addy always wants to cook with her so that was her birthday present.

My coming soon nephew, Lawson James, had a baby shower in his honor this past weekend and I made a few things for him. A little taggy blanket (I shared that on the Facebook Page) and a onesie that I hand stamped "rock star" and appliqued 2 stars to, one blue and one green.

I've been feeling the need lately to come up with some new things, but just haven't had the energy or creative inspiration that I usually can find. It's so draining trying to find something that you know is right in front of you but you just CANT SEE. My picture taking has been terrible this month, honestly, my husband has been taking more pictures lately than I have. It's just shameful, I know, but it's true ;).

Have you ever seen the movie How does she do it? My favorite part of the entire movie is when her husband tells his friend, after being asked what she does, that his wife is a juggler. It's just so sweet and true about so many women. I've got to tell you, I'm an awful juggler, literally and figuratively. I've always tried and never quite got it right.

If you've made it this far, God bless you, if you stopped way up at the top, I don't blame you. I just want to say one last thing, thank you to anyone who reads these silly posts on this silly blog. I try my best to share things that I think other people would like to see and sometimes I feel good about it, other times, well not so much, but the fact that there are people that come and visit this blog at all makes it worth my time and effort; so thanks!

~Allison

P.S. Sorry I know that was painfully random.

What's new?

Well not much around here has been happening, as far as sewing. I've been so crazy busy with the kiddos and just life; my poor Etsy shop and blog have been a little bit neglected. I've been squeezing in a little bit of sewing here and there, but not as much as I typically do. For whatever reason, I've just been completely wiped out at the end of the day.

We've been trying to take the kids to more activities now that they're out of the tiny infant stage, so we went to the Zoo last weekend, the park a few times during the week,

 

 and Saturday the little ones got to see their big sister at her dance recital, followed by a water slide party with their cousins!

It makes me tired just thinking about it all again.

I think both me and my husband need a break from all the activity, we need to get back to our normal routine.

Look at that sexy man!

Overall, even with being tired, we're feeling very blessed to have our family safe and sound. The tragic events that happened in Oklahoma today has reminded me how fragile life can be and how much we need to appreciate the ones we love. My heart goes out to all those who've lost in the Tornado's and I pray that help and relief come to them quickly.

~Allison

Had to add this one last cute photo!

Valentines Mantel Goodness

With all the projects I've been doing everyday, I have a lot of Valentines decor and had no idea what to do with it without filling the entire house with pink, flowers and hearts. This way all of the Valentines things are all on display I'm one place and will be easy to tidy when the holiday is over!

You've all seen, and maybe even made, the Ombre Heart Art.

The stuffed pouch hearts are the same kind that I sell on my Etsy shop.

I had hugs and kisses left over from the hugs and kisses cookies that I put in vases with some shiny red decorative grass and a Grosgrain ribbon bow tied around them.

The paper flowers I posted a couple days ago.
I can't remember where the red candle came from, but it was perfect with everything else.

 The X and O were a spur of the moment project with cardboard letter forms and little squares of tissue paper glued all over them.

The pink and white flower garland was made out of coffee filters and string. To make the pink flowers pink I dyed them with food coloring and to dry them quickly I baked them flat on a cookie sheet at 250 until they were completely dry. Then folded the filters in half, scalloped the edges, formed my flowers and tied them on string.
 
Check back tomorrow for another tutorial for 14 Days of Valentines and on Saturday my beautiful and crafty friend Hailey will be guest posting with her Valentines tutorial!

~Allison

Paper Flowers :)

I love the way paper flowers look and the fact that they don't wilt and will stay vibrant and beautiful for a very very long time, well unless your children get into them! My plan for today's post was to write up a paper flower tutorial, but after looking at all the wonderful posts already done by so many talented people it seemed to me that they would be much better at showing you how it's done. So, I'm going to share with you some of my favorites with links to their tutorials and then in a few days I'll talk about what we can do with our flowers!

These are so cute!

They look just like carnations and how EASY?!

Isn't that so pretty?

So simple and pretty.

I love the different flowers together :)

















I'll be making some of these beauties for some projects in a few days so make a few too and we'll do it together! Hope you enjoy!

~Allison

Warning and Party Planning

So, I just wanted to warn everybody about the changes coming to the blog. I will be making the blog more personal as far as the look of AtoZ.the other thing I wanted to let you in on was that I will be incorporating ads to my blog as well, if we didn't need the extra income they wouldn't be there but I hope everyone understands.
...........
Ok, now that all that's said we can move in to some much more fun things I wanted to tell you about!

Drum roll please.....

Baby boys first birthday party theme is Dino-mite! That's right; dinosaurs :) because every little boy's got to have at least one dinosaur birthday party in his life.

So of course I'll try to get his party to look something similar to this....

Original Source: Sweet Designs

Original Source: Celebrations At Home

 But of course it'll probably end up looking more like this haha....

Original Source: Dinochick Blogs
http://paleochick.blogspot.com/2009/07/threadless-thursday.html

Either way it'll be fun for my little guy and if it does turn disastrous, at least he won't be old enough to remember. I'll be adding projects as I complete them and with any luck he'll have a Dino-mite first birthday party!

~Allison~