Stuck

Do you ever have those days where you are just stuck in a rut and you can't seem to shake it? I just can't seem to get motivated to do anything. And lo and behold! Rhonna
has just the cure on her blog! And then I realized, there are so many other blogs that I check on a daily basis for ideas and inspiration to inject in to my own life, that I should really share them with you. There are sooooooooo many great ideas out there, I really just need to pick one and plow through it then my creative momentum will definitely pick up.

1) Design & Paper Crafts

House of 3 is my favorite digital design warehouse that is full of great ideas and projects. Check out the adorable 4th of July stuff that you can use for shirts (you don't have to buy a generic $5 one at Old Navy now! Hooray!), invitations to your Independence Day Barbecues, or this awesome 4th of July album that Heidi Swapp made to stick in all your July snapshots! So cute.
2) Sewing

Amy Butler just came out with a new fabric line Daisy Chain and it is fabulous. You can find the fabric here or here, and visit her website for some free patterns which include quilts, duvets, pillows, and a whole bunch of other fab projects. I am going to start a throw for my couch this week from her book, and make some more of these ruffle pillows from Sandi Henderson's blog (which co-incidentally is full of great ideas too!) with the Heather Bailey fabric (another great blog that is full of bright colors and goodies) I am ordering from this store. She is located in Higley, which I love because I would so much rather support small local businesses.
3) Food

Raspberry Ice Cream Cake via Martha Stewart

I am on Food Network and Martha Stewart on a daily basis finding new recipes and ideas for the coming week's dinner. Seriously, without those 2 sites my family would starve. I also love this blog, this blog, and this blog because they have some really delicious looking recipes all the time. My favorites are this and this.
4) Pretties
There are some sites/blogs I go to just for the eye candy. Snippet & Ink would probably be my favorite especially because of the lovely color boards she does. It is a wedding blog, but I believe you could take her ideas and use them to pretty up your everyday life.

Inspiration Board by Kathryn at Snippet & Ink

I also LOVE Anthropologie (who doesn't?) and I think I'm ready to ask if I can move into one of their stores. I got an email saying that their new floor set is a study in color. Be still my heart.



I literally have hundreds more blogs in my favorites list, but I don't want your head to explode from overexposure to awesomeness in one day. I'm sure I have caused you to waste plenty of time today. Now, let us go forth, refreshed and inspired and CREATE!

****UPDATE: Head on over to House of 3 to get your FREE 4th of July Blog Couture! I love it!

4th of July outfits

It's finally finished. Lord almighty, it took forever. I felt like I was drowning in royal blue chiffon. But, at last I am done and it looks spectacular. And La La loves her "new ballet". She hasn't stopped twirling since she put it on. It's the perfect outfit for 4th of July.

I took a white shirt I had stashed away for her, but it was way big so I cut the bottom and added a red polka dot ruffle. I also tied the sleeves with some red tulle and ironed on a designs for a red white and blue ensemble. She even has fireworks puffs to match her pettiskirt. You can find some fabulous designs here to iron on. Hooray for pettiskirts!

Sugar Comas all around

I think I have creative ADD. It's really really hard for me to finish an entire project before starting a new one. Yesterday I worked on my pettiskirt, but there's soooooooo much fabric, I start to get bored. So, I decided to try out some cupcake recipes for the kids birthday party. After many trials, I decided on mixing 4 different recipes to make.....wait for it.........



What are Carnival Cupcakes you ask? Well, let me introduce them to you


Hello Dolly!


These babies are Rainbow vanilla cake with marshmallow frosting. With sprinkles. And cupcake flags, naturally.

I found this recipe from the famous Magnolia Bakery in NYC for the vanilla cake. Once mixed, I separated it into 6 mugs (use mugs, it's so much easier to spoon into the muffin tins using the handles.) and added a generous amount of food coloring in each color. I found this gel food coloring at Walmart, and I swear they are the best. A little goes a loooooong way. I got the idea for the rainbow cupcakes from this blog


I followed this recipe for the marshmallow frosting
These are regular sized cupcakes, but for the birthday party I think I'm gonna do minis or we're going to have some hyper kids running around with sugar highs. I found this recipe for adorable hi hat cupcakes that top these little tasties with chocolate (who doesn't love chocolate covered marshmallows?)

To top them off, I added sprinkles and cupcake flags to finish the perfect birthday cupcakes for my sweet baby angels (who deserve nothing because they have been screaming at each other since 4:30 am and now I have a wicked headache).
Here's the recipe all in one so you don't have to go bouncing around.

Weekend Recap

What a nice break I had. Fathers Day went well, Braden loved the new watch I bought him. Unfortunately I didn't get around to any of the things I had planned, so instead I worked on La La's pettiskirt and had a photo session with the Barba Family. Here's peek at some of the shots, you can see the rest here.

Housewarming Book: Revisited

Remember my Housewarming Book I threw together? Well, since we have new family pictures, I want to redo it and add some of the new photos in with the old.

I looked on the House of 3 website, and found the samples that the designers did for themselves. I followed Rhonna's instructions for her cover, and first pages.

I printed the cover on a manila envelope from Office Max, then I backed it with a big piece of chipboard. (Do you want to know a secret? Chipboard is just the stuff that the outside of cereal boxes is made of. So, you can join the green bandwagon and reuse those boxes for scrapbooking :). I made these stickers using the Housewarming Digital Kit, the French Ooh La La Brushes, and the Easter Butterfly Brushes to stick on my chipboard page. I printed this sheet out on white sticker paper I got at Office Max and now I have cute custom stickers.

I also redid the 1st page of the book to add the clock overlay to our photo.


I'll post more on the book as I go through it!

Multi Purpose art

Feeling better today, yesterday sucked. And if anyone was wondering why I missed dance it was because we got a surprise visit from Braden's aunt who lives in Tucson so I couldn't ditch her to go to dance. Anyway, to add to my Summer Project To Do List check out this awesome project from House of 3. These magnet boards are so cute! I want one to make one to put above the piano. You can get the whole kit here, or just the digital files if you don't want the stickers sent to you (but why wouldn't you, they can be used anywhere). Check here for 3 different ideas how to put together your own magnet board and how to make your own magnets to put on your board.

Corsages & Chicken Noodle Soup

Still working on my pettiskirt, but I wanted to squeeze in one more accessory project, since I am head over heels in love with the Miss Ruby Sue stuff on Etsy. She has these adorable bracelet/corsages (she calls them brasages. Like Brangelina. barf) and they are not only gorgeous, but they are also affordable so if you are not a sewer, hop on over to her shop and check them out. Corsages are something that people only ever wear in high school when you are going to dances, but are super cute so why not wear them more often? Life is too short to not wear fun stuff. They are very easy to make, I think it took me total of 10 minutes to finish my bracelet corsage. Follow the same tutorial as the necklace to make the roses, sew some tulle and a peacock feather to a band of gold sequins, and add the roses last. I added another one of those vintage jewels on the bracelet, and I think the end result looks fabulous. I'm going to wear this tomorrow night when we go to the movies and I'm sure Braden will make fun of me, but whatever because he's just jealous. Secretly.


Oh, and I'm making Chicken Noodle Soup today. This is one of my all time favorite recipes, from the Southern Belle Paula Deen who I want to be when I grow up. She serves this soup at her restaurant, The Lady & Sons, in Savannah Georgia and it is worth all the work, I promise. It makes a buttload too so you will be eating this for lunch for days and be so so happy. After it is refrigerated all the broth is soaked up by the noodles so it really isn't even soup anymore, its chicken pasta with vegetables. This is literally the only way my children will consume veggies. My mouth is starting to water, so I better go start my soup before I start drooling all over the place.

Accessory Projects

I found these bib necklaces on Etsy and they are to die for. I decided I absolutely needed one. And then I saw that they were $100. Not really in my budget right now, unless I want to stop sewing for the rest of the summer (and that is NOT in the plans). So, I decided to make my own. On my unsuccessful trip to Joanne's I bought some satin in a bunch of different colors, the clasps, buttons, & trim. When I got home that night I started on my necklace using this tutorial. Here is what the finished product looks like:


I absolutely LOVE it. Braden hates it, but who asked him anyway?
And I made the girls their hair pieces to match their carnival dresses.


I got the frames for my photos here, aren't they wonderful?

Updates

So, I went to Joanne's for the pettiskirt material, and I left empty handed. Well, that's a lie, I left with plenty of stuff for other projects, but nothing for the pettiskirts. So Eryn & I made a trip out to SAS in Tempe. Have you been there? That place is a goldmine. It was my first time and I was in heaven. I left with my blue pettiskirt supplies, stretchy sequins bands for headbands/bracelets, peacock feathers, sparkly white tulle for headbands/tutus/whatever else, and some loose sequins. I am so excited to start my new projects! Go to SAS-but be prepared to dig. Take a deep breath and start treasure hunting.


Oh, and remember my piano? Well, it took some patience, some pouting, some whining, and finally a threat to paint it myself, but it is finally getting painted today!!!! Hooray! Some days my husband is really a pain in the ass, but other days I want to cover his face with red lipstick smooches. I can't wait to see it all done in my living room.

Sew a long Project

Do you want to do a project with me? I'm going to make Olivia a blue pettiskirt and Penelope a yellow tutu, and you can craft a long with me to make some of your own. My sister Eryn found this video on Martha Stewart's website on how to make your own pettiskirt for your little girl. These are darling, but retail for like $60 or more so I think I can tackle this project myself. Check out the video, go to Joanne's and buy some satin & chiffon and lets get sewing!

I finished my girls first dresses of the summer, and they are sweet. I made them a little big & long, so they can grow into them. We're going to go out and take their birthday pictures in them this week, so I need to get working on their second outfits for the pictures- a yellow tutu for Peepers and a blue pettiskirt for LaLa.

Moo

Yay! I got my mini moo cards in today and I LOVE them. Look how cute they are.




They are pretty much half a business card size and they are thick like plastic. Go here if you need some unique business cards, or calling cards, or tags, or anything else. They have lots of ideas on their blog to use them for. Now I need to go pass these out.

***Stacey: The Summer Projects Group is for ANY crafty stuff you're doing, not just sewing stuff. Become a member here and start sharing your projects!

Are you doing summer projects?

I've started a Flickr group for everyone to upload photos of their favorite summer projects! Go here to join the Summer Projects group and start sharing!


I'm finishing up my next project, but I'm going to start counting from scratch because I'm going to organize them now in an album. Check House of 3, Rhonna Farrer, 30 days, and Moda Bake Shop for summer project inspiration and ideas! My theme for my album is straight from Rhonna's Summer Projects and I can't wait to turn it into a scrapbook.


Oh, and Faun was wondering if I could do a button to put on the side bar. Here are the instructions:
1)Right click on the picture above and save it to your desktop.
2)Go into the layout section of your blog (Its 2 tabs over from the Posting tab when you do a new post.)-If you click the word Customize on the upper Right hand corner of your blog you go right to the Layout Section.
3) Click on Add a Gadget on the side bar.
4) Click on the Picture icon
5) Choose the picture you downloaded to your desktop, title it whatever you want (Rosemary Watson, Queen of the World, whatev)
6) Copy and paste my blog web address: http://www.watsonfam2007.blogspot.com into the Link section
7) Click Save and move it where ever you want on the sidebar.
Thanks for the Love.