Happy Halloween

Happy Birthday, Dear Elliot!

She's one! I cannot believe it. It seems like I just had her and now she's romping around, playing with her sister.

My dad was here over the weekend so we opened presents from him and mailed in presents from my mil then. She's also been wearing her birthday sweater all week!



Her birthday shirt was appliqued and a tutu was made in honor of her first year:) This peg bear was made using the pattern in one yard wonders. He even has a bell in his belly. Addy named him (her) Rosalita.

Remember Addy's birthday banner?


After a birthday dinner of mac n cheese and bananas, homemade applesauce spice cupcakes with browned butter frosting were eaten. She is one. Oh how I love homemade birthdays in this family.

Third Day!!

Aaron and I got to see Third Day last night. This was his first time and my second. God is amazing. Worshiping Him is a second close. Here are a few pictures from the show.

Max Lucado^


Micheal W. Smith, Toby Mac & Mac Powell^


Do you know Jesus? I do and would love to tell you about Him:)

Introducing Pongo

This very ugly kitty came about this afternoon. Addysen very convincingly asked me to make her a black kitty. So, with the sounds of my dear Billie Holiday and a (few) cups of peppermint mocha coffee, Pongo was made.
He did not cost a penny. Every peice of material was from my stash. His body is a knit fabric that used to be a pillow and did some rather wonky stretching during Pongo's making. I wanted him to be odd looking so all his stretching was really a good thing. The rest of his peices were thrifted colored felt I picked up last year. Pongo is stuff with about a third bag of batting (left over from high school!) and a lot of fabric scraps from my scrap bin.



Here Pongo is sitting with his friend Hootie. I made Hootie last summer and used the same book for inspiration.


To make both of these stuffed animals I used this book for a bit of instruction. It is a book called Stitch by Stitch, volume 2 copyright 1985. I did not use the pattern, just eyed the shapes of the animal and made my own. Hope you like them.

I think next up on the list might be a boat for them.

making already

for His birthday and Elliot's birthday :) I know, it's only October but I've got a lot of making to do. Elliot's little sweater is very near finished and with her birthday in less than a week I better add some buttons!

Away we went!

Addy and I got out of the house for a bit yesterday morning. We went mushroom hunting!! It was our first time ever and we found two different kinds. They were NOT edible but fun to hunt nonetheless. Addysen got super freaked out by a fuzzy, brown catapillar... Odd, since she usually likes creepy things. I cannot wait to go again with her!

paper dolls

they are not new by any means but totally new to Addy. I remember playing with these when I was little, they were much easier to punch out than cut out!! My hand is sore but we are having so much fun playing with these this morning. I just wanted to share a few fun links I've found this morning. There's skelitina, whom Addy decided was Jack from the nightmare before christmaS. We call this little lady Betty, whom shares hats with Jack. And there is this old blog I found full of awesome paper dolls. Enjoy!!

Little things,

like making curtains and thrifting plates make me extremely happy. One of the things I am enjoying is making for all the different rooms at this house. We have an actual laundry room on the first floor, (which is awesome!!) It is big enough to keep a table in, acts as a pantry & it needed some window treatments. This fabric was found at walmart, (sigh... I know,) and was on the clearance rack. I was able to make two valances for about $1.60. The cherry print is rather refreshing from all the floral prints that I pick up.

 

 

 

This window is my kitchen window and that yellow is one of two on the walls. The other yellow is very mustard-y and I absolutely love it! Now if I had time to actually finish painting is another story :)
I love hanging plates! I equally love thrifting for them. These plates were thrifted in Illinois at two different stores. I've actually had the brown one since this spring but wasn't put on the wall until after this move. I'm pretty sure I spent less than a dollar on the plates and the curtain was a thrifted bedsheet left over from this blanket made earlier this summer. The little flower pot up there is a wedding favor from our wedding.

 

I really like how these little spaces are slowly coming together. Our home is coming together.

oh, Elli

What a big girl she is. I started making for her birthday at the end of this month. These were supposed to be birthday pants... but are a little snug right now. I used the tracing pattern from this book for the pants. I think I should have given more of a seam allowance for her legs. They are still pretty darn cute on her :)

 

 

apples

This past weekend the girls and I got out of the house to let Aaron do some more reading.I swear, if that man is not reading he's sleeping,poor guy. He is so busy.
We found an apple orchard online and made our way over there.
We've been to orchards before but this was the first time we've actually picked apples ourselves. Addy had a blast. Elli was more than happy to chew on an apple and watch. We got to learn about their apple press that was made in the 1890's.





We are slowly getting out and exploring this foreign city. On Sunday we went to the annual Apple festival a few blocks away. We ate apple fritters and listened to live bluegrass. And because all four of us went, it was perfect.