doesn't it always happen that you get back into blogging and your life falls apart again?

so while things smooth themselves out, here's a quick snapshot...

thank you to my friend melissa who loaned me her studio equiptment for a recent indoor photo shoot thanks to the rain!

sunny california?

whoever said it doesn't rain in california is lying! lol. we've gotten A LOT of it lately!

life lately...

christmas pictures were coming, so i changed up my hair and got bangs.

nathan had his first haircut too!

(click on picture to enlarge)

i went to 3 baby showers within a weeks time. so i whipped up this changing pad clutch for the mom to-be's.  here's the tutorial.

i was put in charge of the awards for our wards annual chili cook-off.

these are wooden blocks that were painted black and decopauged with the title of the catergory. then i found mini cauldrons at party city, glued dried pinto beans in them and stuck a spoon in the top. then spray painted the whole thing gold. they turned out better than i thought :)

i've been sleeping at my sewing machine the past few weeks, and here's why...

my little sister moved in with us and wanted to learn how to sew. so far we've made a skirt and her halloween costume. more to come on this i'm sure!

i was also asked to sew 2 bridesmaids outfits for a friend in the ward. this was my first time sewing anything like this. glad she had faith in me because i gave up many times! lol. first, i learned how to sew satin, she's a mean lady! i learned how to sew real buttonholes :) and i mastered sewing a zipper on. yay for me!

in the midst of all my sewing was halloween. here are our costumes i made this year. we were a family of gnomes :)

nathan LOVED trick or treating! he got the hang of it real quick!

stay tuned...

upcoming blog posts:

princess pony birthday party
brown recluse spider bite (gross graphic pictures included)

4th of july decorations, ward breakfast and bbq

Learn to Crochet

i've always wanted to learn to crochet! my husband has tried to teach me, but his skills weren't up to snuff, lol. so i went to trusty ol' youtube and found a great video tutorial!

thanks to the above video, here's my first finished afghan. just a basic granny square stitch.


can i just say... one, i love that the video is a male crocheter. and second, he's a truck driver and so his my hubby. so of course i would think a male truck driver that crochets is awesome :)

CARD MAKER'S CHRISTMAS EVE/A Quilters Night Before Christmas

CARD MAKER'S CHRISTMAS EVE

T'was the night before Christmas, I'm glued to the tree,
I'm wondering what Santa has brought just for me.

Could it be card stock or chipboard or lace,
Or maybe a Cricut, I said with a smile on my face.

And that's when I heard him, "Hi Santa," I said.
He responded "You know... good little girls should be in their beds."

I know I should Santa, and now I've got caught,
But I was just so excited, to see what you brought.

Well, let's take a look in this room where you work.
He shook his head quickly and left with a jerk.

I heard him exclaim as he put it in gear'
"You've got enough crap, I'll see you next year!"

A Quilters Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas,
and the quilts were not made.
The threads were all tangled,
The cookies delayed.
The stockings weren't hung, the pantry was bare,
The poor weary quilter was tearing her hair.
Stacks of fat quarters tipped over in streams,
Visions of Log Cabins had turned into dreams.
When what to her wondering eyes should appear
but a bus full of quilters with all of their gear.
They went straight to work with just a few mutters,
Sorting and stitching and brandishing cutters.
The patterns emerged from all of the clutter,
Like magic the fabrics arranged in a flutter.
Log Cabins, Lone Stars, Flying Geese and Bear Tracks,
Each quilt was a beauty--even the backs.
Her house how it twinkled, her quilts, how they glowed,
The cookies were baking, the stockings were sewed.
Their work was all done, so they folded their frames,
and packed up their needles, without giving their names.
They boarded the bus and checked the next address,
More quilts to be made, another quilter in distress.
She heard one voice echo as they drove out of sight,
Happy quilting to all, and to all a good night!

--Author Unknown

the other great part of vacation was the shopping! i asked jaren to grab a FEW things of salt water taffy and he came out with $27 worth! LOL. also at the jelly belly factory, i got a $2 bag worth, he got an $8 bag! LOL.

while at fishermans wharf, we had nathans charicature made. have you ever had to hold a 9 month old while someone is drawing him? not that easy!
picked up this fabric covered chinese takeout box in chinatown. it's so cute, i love it!
and some drums. (like the ones in karate kid, lol)

it seems everywhere we went offered something in a souvenir bucket or cup. we couldn't resist!

wine bottle dresses. pretty hilarious!

6 placemats, 6 napkins w/ 6 matching chopsticks.... $6!!!!!!!

these pincushions made me laugh.
nathans first pair of chopsticks. we need to master the spoon first, but eventually we'll get him on these. you stick the chopsticks up the leg of the red silicone kid and all they have to do is squeeze.
fishermans wharf had a store called leftys. everything you would need for a lefthanded person! we picked up a lefthanded notebook (spiral on the rightside, 3 hole punch on the left side, very weird) with obama (whos lefthanded) on it for a lefthanded obama relative we have ;)
i think that about wraps up our san francisco trip. onto other things... this was a cute picture i took of nathan the other day. just chillin on his beanbag.
here's his mini pumpkin jaren picked out at the harvest party.
he loves to roll the pumpkin around the living room.


and look what happened.....
i went to get the boy i babysit from naptime to find that he had torn a 4 ft. section of wallpaper off the wall. and it wasn't in one straight piece. HUNDREDS of LITTLE pieces. i'm so sad! i just barely finished nathan's room 2 weeks ago :(

courtesy of awkwardfamilyphotos.com

duct tape

ROFL!

not photoshopped ;)

courtesy of anne taintor and last night we hung out with the fortners. here was a cute moment...

found these pictures on a website where they can put them on a

baby onesie for ya. LOL.they're quite funny!