polka dot fun

I love this adorable little meal time set. Swoozies has a ton of new baby items and they are offering FREE shipping. I think I may have to order this for Bryar. Her birthday is in a few months and I think this would be perfect!

Memorial day

There is nothing like the sweet smell of a memorial day cookout, or any cookout for that matter. After our weekend of outdoor fun, I was in no mood for a high maintenance kind of cook out (not to mention that I had been up with a sick kid all night). We didn't plan a thing for Memorial day, we simply just had a day of doing what-nots. I took a trip to the fabric store, the girls rested with their Daddy. It was a kind of rainy and overcast day so we were hesitant to fire up the grill. After much debate, Tommy decided to take a trip to the store for some steaks and sides. He surprised me with a few treats....cantaloupe was one of them! Nothing says welcome summer like a good ripe cantaloupe. Their sweet, I love their orange color and they are a kid friendly food! Ya gotta love'em :)

update your fridge

If you are like most people trendy fads are somewhat costly, especially when it comes to large items such as appliances. Check out this DIY project for a simple way to get the look you want at a fraction of the price.

Kelly Edwards is one thrifty gal with great ideas!

Sweet strawberry pickin'

We headed out to Southern Belle Farm last week to pick some of the sweetest strawberries. They were vine ripe and ready to eat! I mean, who can resist a bright red strawberry? Southern Belle has lots of activities through the year for some "fun down on the farm". You can check out their web site with the link. If you live nearby it's worth a trip. The girls had such fun picking fresh strawberries and getting to pet some of the animals there. Here are a few pictures I thought I would share. I will post the rest of them on my Flickr page.

My Flickr badge is located on my sidebar.

Let them be little

This song says it all!

* Be sure to pause my playlist on the sidebar before you open the link*

tabletop color

I had a creative rush the other day. Do you ever get those? It's like any addiction I guess, it's a spontaneous rush of "I gotta have it", and you can't satisfy the rush until you get to sew, paint, draw, tinker with wood, paper, metal...whatever may be close at hand - LOL

Well, I grabbed a piece of scrap wood from our recent remodeling project and I pulled out my paint supplies and some craft odds and ends. This is what I came up with :) Shew, creative rush satisfied...that was a close one (wink)!

A dumb mom moment

OK guys, I need your support. Please tell me that I am not the only one who has had a seriously dumb mom moment. Roxanne had her end of the year program this past Sunday. The preschoolers put on a wonderful program and each child was presented a certificate for competing the preschool school year. Roxanne did a fantastic job and rocked the house with the High School Musical themed performance. So, you ask what did I do that was so dumb? Well, I had my camera, two actually and the video camera. Tommy recorded her every move while I took photos from start to finish. Photos of everything except Tommy and I with Roxanne! How dumb is that? Yep, I have no photos with Roxanne at her awards program. I could crawl under a rock and just die. What makes it so bad is that 6 other family members (whom I do have pictures of with Roxanne) came to her program, so it wasn't like I didn't have anyone around that I could ask to take the picture. So, again for my sanity's sake, please tell me you have had a dumb mom moment!

birds nest

Most of you know that I have a thing for birds. For some reason I am draw to these unique creatures. I find myself buying, looking and finding interesting items that have pictures, patterns and prints of birds on them. I thought these pillows would be a cute addition to any room and they are so "cheep" and easy to make - LOL

Click HERE for the DIY link :)

Nature

Chick-fil-a is great about giving kids an educational "toy" in their kids meals. This month we have gotten several kids activity books. While taking a quick look at one of the books with Roxanne we found a page that gives instructions for a nature walk, discovery, plant and bug life...and so on. Roxanne was intrigued by this and wanted to go on a nature walk.



We decided to take our nature walk this week. Boy was I surprised at some of the creepy crawlies that live around our home. Here are a few pictures of what we discovered. I will have to say, the nature walk was pretty cool!


These are baby praying mantis. They hatched on a chair on our patio last Monday, they were everywhere.

Here is a picture of their nest

Yes, birds do live in this gourd. I see them flying in and out several times a day.

charming

Yesterday was teacher appreciation day at Roxanne's preschool. Roxanne has been blessed to have wonderful teachers this year. Mrs. Jennifer has been Roxanne's teacher for two years now and Roxanne adores her. She connects with Roxanne and is not only a teacher but a friend. With the school year ending soon, I wanted to give the teachers a unique gift that would be useful and remind them of little Roxanne.

While at Inspire (I hope I am not overdoing my experience, sorry to bore you) I purchased a unique item...a watch! Not any watch, a handmade watch that was totally fashionable, comfy and was covered in awesome fabric. With this idea in mind, I decided to make the teachers a similar gift. I made them some simple and fun charm bracelets. They were a hit! The teachers loved them and I had a blast making them.

Mrs. Jennifer is a huge Georgia Bulldog fan, so I fancied hers up with red, white and black. Mrs. Rachael is new to Roxanne's class ( she replaced Mrs. Valerie). She has only been there a few weeks so I do not know her as well as I know Mrs. Jennifer. So, I decided to do something that would work well with jeans or that could be dressed up a bit. These little bracelets were so fun to make, I think I need to make about 4 or 5 for myself - LOL

a love for the art

I had the chance to meet the talented Kelly Rae Roberts at the Inspire conference. She was as sweet as could be and her work....amazing! She paints some of the most interesting yet fun pieces of art that I have seen in quite some time. I took a quick look around her booth picking out a few inspiring pieces that I wanted to purchase. However, once I made it back around to place my order, she was sold out! Yep, her stuff sold that quickly.



If you like unusual art you have gotta take a look at her work. You can find her HERE. There are some fun prints and also some heart touching phrases on her art work. They are all so wonderful...enjoy!

a trip worth taking

( Inspire conference gear )

Well, it's time for me to fill you in on "Inspire", the conference that I attended last Thursday. It all started last Monday when I was reading through my blog reads when I stumbled across this amazing news. Faced with a 4.5 hour drive to North Carolina, I knew this may be the only chance that I would get to attend a class taught by the well known, Heather Bailey. Being a huge fan of her products, I quickly made arrangements to attend. I called up my friend Lisa and she was all for taking the class (she's a big fan of Heather's as well). So, geared with our scrapbooking supplies, we headed out on Thursday morning to NC.

A journal by Donna Downey


fabric scrapbooking by Donna Downey

We had a great trip, the roads were clear and the cops kept their distance - LOL We arrived a few minutes early and kind of familiarized ourselves with things. As we took a quick peek into Donna Downey's booth, I came across this book. It tugged on my creative side and I had to purchase it. Then, by pure luck, I got the chance to meet Donna at the conference and she signed my book (smile). She is a great gal, very kind and she likes blue (wink)!

Lisa and I hung out and chatted with a few of the ladies waiting on the class to start. There were so many creative, talented women there. It was so inspiring (no pun intended)! There were ladies with handmade totes, carry all's, craft aprons, clothing items, jewelry...you name it. Lisa and I felt kind like duds that we had not went the extra mile to dress the part. However, it was a last minute road trip and we were just excited to be there.

(Me working on my flutterby book, sporting Heather's Trash Ties in my hair)

As we entered the class, Heather Bailey greeted the class with a warm Hello and a sweet smile. Everything about her was just as I had imagined, a simple, sweet and incredibly talented chic. Lisa and I began to work on our project as Heather was giving instructions. Heather did a few giveaways and I was a lucky winner. How cool is that! I won two patterns, the Fresh-Picked pincushions and the La Fluer Debris flower pin. I also got a set of clear stamps from her scrapbook line. I was so excited and it was so thoughtful of Heather to give door prizes.

We worked diligently on our project with time running out quickly. It seemed as if the class time (1 hour) passed so quickly. Heather offered to give photo opps. and autographs after class to those who were interested. Lisa and I definitely wanted to participate, I had to have my pincushion pattern signed! So, we hung around after class and were able to have a few pictures snapped with Heather and we even had a chance to chat one on one. Heather was so kind to us and she even agreed to join us for a quick bite to eat!

(Thanks Lisa for all of the great photos)

OK, so I will have to admit I was a little nervous, after all I was driving Heather Bailey around in a strange town. But, after just a few minutes of Lisa and I chatting with her, I was relaxed and enjoying myself. Heather is very down to earth and a super easy person to talk to. She is very interesting, she's got a lot of funny stories to tell. It would have been so great to have had more time to talk with Heather, she's just that kind of person. Maybe it's the common interest, maybe it's the name but something just tugged at me wanting to get to know her more.

To say the least, the class was worth the trip. I want to encourage any of you who have the least little spark of interest in creativity to ignite that spark with the Inspire conference. I will try to post the dates for the next conference as soon as they become available. Lisa and I def. plan on attending next year. I would love for others to join us. I promise, you will be "Inspired"!

( My finished flutterby book)

You can see more pictures of my finished flutterby book in my Flickr photostream

treated like a queen

I am not sure where to start, my heart is overwhelmed at the kindness that my family and others expressed to me this Mother's Day. it was probably just the same as many other Mother's Days in the past, but for some reason this one was special. Maybe it was the showering of cards, flowers, tokens of love and sweet words. Maybe it was the loving laughter of two special little girls. Maybe it was the realness of motherhood that I have grown to love and take delight in. Or maybe, it was the fact that I have learned to be content, to love the simple things of life...health, kindness and the blessings of love. I hope that each one of you enjoyed your Mother's Day celebrations as well. Mother's are special :)

It's going to busy around our home the next couple of weeks. I have a few projects that I am working on. I will also be posting about new ideas and some creative thinking that I have been doing. Summer is just around the corner. Roxanne will be out of school in just a few short weeks. We are planning to have a vacation, we think? However, busy or not, I plan to enjoy the summer and find some time to stretch my creative side. I would like to attend some classes in different areas of the arts. I have grown to love paper art, all kinds. Being creative is not only fun, but it becomes addicting!

Inspired but tired

The Inspired workshop was...INSPIRING! It was a long day, but so worth the trip. I will fill all of you in on the details a little later (lots of fun things). For now, it's off to be a mommy! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I wish you all a very happy Mother's day!