mama-made!!

I was able to make Ellie a few new things

to add to her wardrobe this weekend!

I love a cute "mama made" outfit!! (I mean top!)

&

Taking photos of an almost 15 mo. old = BLURRY!!! :)

this girl is on the go!

I found a small scrap of this blue calico print fabric at goodwill

knowing I could at least make something Ellie sized out of it!

I didn't have a pattern so I just winged it (wung it???),

figuring out what it would become as I went.

(She's not upset in the above pic, just cheesin' it up for the camera!)

I decided on a simple top with some fun ties over the shoulders!

Pair it with a matching cloth diaper and you've got a summer outfit!

It doubles as a skirt actually

if you untie the straps and tuck them in!

Don't worry, we'll put a shirt with it when we're out in public :)

I also made a pinafore using a pattern from my friend's etsy shop!

Check her out to get your own pinafore pattern or other great stuff!!

She's got cute stuff for your littles to wear!

I love how the straps cross in the back

and that Ellie can wear it in

warm weather with even just a diaper or shorts

or even cooler weather

if I layer it over long sleeves and leggings!

Plus! It's REVERSIBLE!! :)

I think I'll be making several more!

It might become her summer "uniform"!!

Where did those chubby legs go? :(

And her arm roll creases are almost gone too!

Welcome to toddler hood, sweet girl!!

Ellie's 1st Birthday PARTY!!

What a great day! Ellie's 1st Bithday Party went perfectly!

We had a happy, sweet girl the entire time!

Her party theme was "tiny"!!

With the help of my sister's computer skills,

we made "tiny" invititations about the size of a business card

that I then put inside 3 different envelopes to mail!

I also used shades of pink and orange as theme colors and

used the penant style bunting (the triangles!) as a theme too!

You'll see it in all the decor :)

A table of "tiny" treats!

Mini sodas, mini water bottles, little juices for the other kids there!

A tiny cake just for Ellie, tiny cupcakes, tiny chocolate chip cookies!

Baby pickles, baby carrots and celery, tiny bite size chips and salsa!

&

tiny carmel apples!!

(which deserve a whole blog post in themselves!!

they may have caused a few choice words to come out of my mouth!)

I used the same tape from the invitations and made fun cupcake toppers!

The cake and the cupcakes were made

by a nice talented lady from our church,

because this mama is not a baker!

(the carmel apple blog will prove this!)

I wanted a few special touches for party

as a way to really celebrate our girl!

I made a slideshow that went chronologically through her 1st year

as well as a time capsule.

Read the note to see how long she has to wait to open it!!

Present time!!! She was interested for about 2 presents

and then wanted to sit in her Grandma Miller's lap

for most of the present opening!

Good thing we had her cousin Garrett and 2nd cousin Jayda to help!!

Ellie didn't mind mostly watching :)

Cute girl hamming it up for the camera!!

Showing off her number "1" shirt!! Also made by her Auntie Noel!

Grandma Miller is hiding from the camera back there!

Her face while we sang "Happy Birthday!"

She wasn't quite sure what was going on!

"Hmmmm? What is this thing!?!?!"

"Here Dad, you try it first!"

(she's all about feeding us lately!!)

"Ok, my turn!!"

She pretty much just took frosting!

She did like it but also didn't know quite what to think!

She did take several finger swipes and licks of frosting

one right after another that we got on video!

And then she was just kinda over it :)

That's ok, cause with never having sugar yet,

I was a little curious what she'd be like with it.

So not too much was good I think!

The "aftermath"!!!

Daddy finished it all the next day......

FOR DINNER :)

Family photo!! This is something I hope to get EVERY year on her birthday!

I still can't believe my baby is ONE!!!

We love our Ellie June!!

a little Christmas decor...

Once again, I shopped my own house to come up with some Christmas-y looking mantle decor! It's fun to try and change it up for the different holidays and to do it without spending any money. I made the wreath out of coffee filters, believe it or not! Also, we can't help it that our living room paint color coordinates so well!! (which I am actually so sick of that green!)

I also made us a Advent Calendar to count down to Christmas with and put something fun to do each day underneath each of those little circles, like get the christmas tree, make Ellie a stocking, watch a Christmas movie, get Ellie's pictures with Santa, go see Keizer lights, etc. This is definitely a tradition I want to do for all the years to come!

click on the photo to see it larger

click here to see the Halloween mantle!

and some more crafty mama-ness

hmmm... is this blog turning into a craft blog too?

I made this little quilt for a new friend who is having a boy in the end of November!

I was on a really tight budget for her gift so I dug through my fabric stash

and came up with just enough odds and end to put together the pattern.

I often get sucked into buying random fat quarters of fabrics I like

but never more than one or two at a time.

Fortunately, I was into buying greens and yellows for awhile!

I also ended up using the fabric that I was going to make Ellie's crib sheets out of

which never happened ;)

I'm glad it still got put to good use for another sweet babe!

Making it reminded me how much I like quilting!

I better figure out which friend is having the next baby?!?!

a little fall decor

I've been wanting to decorate for the seasons and holidays

for quite awhile now but have never really done it.

Mostly because our house has always been

in some sort of construction craziness.

Now that that is coming to a end!!!!!

(with most all our big projects done!!)

I figured I would give it a shot.

Also, hosting a mom's night out

with a craftiness aspect to it doesn't hurt the motivation factor either!

I'm not really a fan of witches, ghosts, and goblins sort of decor.

Cute and funky and vintage is MUCH more my style.

I tried to pull it off just by using stuff all found around my house

and a few .33 cent pumpkins from winco!

(please ignore the nasty brick fireplace!! one last project to be done!!)

(click the photo to see it bigger)