Project!!

So I just found these cute homemade Peeps at twig & thistle and just may have to try and make them for Easter. However if they turn-out as well as the birthday cupcakes, I may swear off the kitchen all together!
Stay tuned for the results....

Embroidery, my new obsession

I was at the fabric store a couple of weeks ago and decided, while looking at the rainbow wall of thread, that I wanted, excuse me, needed to start embroidering. Immediately. (By the way... I do that with things, get an idea in my head and I don't sleep or eat until I have accomplished it. And after I have gone to bed and am just about to fall asleep, another idea pops up and I am awake for another hour.)

I bought a couple of skeins of thread, some needles, a couple of transfers and some muslin. Since my stitching knowledge goes as far as treading the needle I thought I may need some help, I found this website and her video tutorials were better than any class I could have taken. Quick, easy to understand and I was able to play it back again and again until I had it figured out. A few quick lessons and I was off.

This is my first project, I modified a piece of clip art and traced it on and later added the fabric around the edges to make it a full sized dish towel.

With this one I was hooked and have spent the last two weeks finding anything and everything I can to embroider, I warned my hubs that he may come home to a closet full of stitched jeans - wouldn't you just love a duck stitched on the side of your jeans?? He politely declined.

Here is project number 2 - another dishtowel, still getting the hang of the french knots.

There are several other works in progress.... stay tuned.

Good Intentions.... Gone Bad

Sometimes good intentions get the best of me. I am kinda a plan girl - as much as I would like to be a "fly by the seat of your pants type of gal" - I really need a concise plan of attack and I need to be armed with at least one list and perhaps a timeline in order to be most efficient and successful. Today was a prime example of that.

Today was my baby's 1st birthday party (sniff sniff) and what started as illusions of grandeur ended in disaster avoidance. One hour before the party I had a burned hand, not showered, the boys were not bathed and 12 little things that vaguely resembled cupcakes in my kitchen when I realized my intentions of having the "best 1st birthday party ever" had flown the coop so did my composure. A deep breath, a quick bath and 3 fights with the 3 year old over bath time later the party had begun (albeit with no actual food on the table).

What can I say, had I actually known what kind of cupcakes I was going to make when I entered the grocery store at 10 pm last night I may not have been irritated when I realized that I had just made plain cupcakes rather than the lemon ones I thought I was making and actually bought frosting so when the raspberry glaze I had intended failed miserably I would have had something to fall back on.

So this is what I had envisioned: (via Martha Stewart, (I think she just sets us up to fail, but that is a whole other post!))

And this is how it turned out (those are supposed to be R shaped cookies, at least I got the frosting color right.)

What I must remind myself is that in the end it doesn't matter, he won't remember that his cupcakes looked awful and weren't lemon, nor will he remember that his mama was a scatterbrained basket-case while preparing for the shindig. What does matter is that he is here, and everyone who loves him the most was here today too - that is what I want him to remember.

PS... The birthday crown and tee-shirt I made him earlier in the week turned out darling, so that obviously counts for something!

Happy Spring!!

The other morning I woke up to the sound of birds chirping rather than Geese honking, yesterday I noticed the willow treee behind our house is the faintest shade of green - all signs that spring is immenent....

I found this picture at forty-sixth at grace of tulip fields (can you believe it??) read more here.

28 Things

a very special cake from a very special boy

I had a birthday last month, a good one, one that exceeded my imaginary "grown-up" age by 4.
Inspired by hot diggity blog here is a list (or perhaps for tonight a list in progress) of 28 things I hope to accomplish before I am 29 - I better hop to it, only 10 months and 2 weeks to go!

1. (let me begin with the pink elephant) Start a Blog of Lovlies (check!)
2. Update aforementioned blog regularly
3. Make each gift I give at least partially handmade
4. Plant a garden
5. Preserve food from my garden to enjoy all year
6. Travel somewhere I've never been
7. Use my library card
8. Have "date nights" (okay, maybe afternoons) with my boys - one on one - monthly
9. Take a photography class
10. Frame more pictures for our home
11. Throw great birthday parties
12. Explore flea markets
13. Go to the Farmer's Market downtown
14. Create a "studio" somewhere for myself, even if it is just a corner
15. Start an etsy shop
16. Read 1 book/month

Lovely Littles

Here it is, something I've been mulling over for some time now. I spend a considerable amount of time online, especially late at night, when the house is quite and I can hear my thoughts. My Favorites folders are full of good intentions; things I have come across and love, want to own, want to create, things that inspire me. Here is where I will share them with you, hopefully you will be inspired too.