Training, Trailers, and Toddlers

It has been a crazy, fun week! On Thursday while the girls were driving me bonky and refusing naps, my hubby bought his dream toy -a camping trailer! He's been lusting after one for awhile now. We love to go tent camping, but now with another baby it's just too much work. I'm so looking forward to being able to camp this summer in a little comfort. Here is our 28' monster!
When I'm inside I'm flooded with all the future memories we'll share as a family. Isabelle wants to spend every waking moment in there. She loves to show me all the beds, the kitchen, and closets. I can not wait to fix up the interior! I want to make a ton of quilts, do some reupholstery and I'm researching how I can the change the walls - anyone out there ever painted or wallpapered their trailer??

And I finally began training for Little Red Riding Hood. Granted I'm doing the shortest distance, 20 miles, but that is a lot more miles than I'm used to riding! I had wanted to to do the Goldilocks ride today with some friends as well, but as it turned out my training ride was partially on their trail, so in the end I was a rogue Goldilocks as well!

Lastly we spent the afternoon together on a family date to one of Isabelle's friend's birthday parties. If you live in SLC and want to entertain your kiddo for a couple hours on rides, take them to Jungle Jim's! Isabelle and I have gone before a few times and she always has such a good time.

You have to tune it tomorrow if you want to see the cutest toddler dress to date! I'm telling you folks, this pattern would be phenomenal for a spring flower girl dress!!

Friday Freebie - Mom Banner

Here is a sweet little banner you can print out and post around the house. I originally designed it to be a coloring page for little ones - so feel free to let the kiddos color in the letters & heart!

I added tabs to the top so you can fold them over and tape down to the ribbon.

Here is mine! I strung it on some fun Martha Stewart bakers twine. This is our gate to our bottom floor where my parent's guest room is - I thought it would be a fun way to welcome my mom.

I have the green version here

I made a girly pink one here

Do you want a different color?

Leave me a comment and I'll post some color options this evening!

If you like my downloads, could you *follow* me?

That way I know ya'll like them

and you'll know when I post the next one!

American Crafter - Week 1 - Trash to Treasure

For our first week American Crafter, our challenge was "Trash to Treasure". I'm not the biggest recycle crafter, so I thought about some projects that I had been wanting to make. Have you seen eighteen25's Pickle Jar tutorial? Yup, I loved that one. And how about the mason jar planters on Just Another Day in Paradise? Adorable.. So those were my inspiration pieces for this recycle craft.

Here is my Patriotic Focal Feature!

Ain't it sweet?? You can use them as vases like I did, but originally I had planned on using them to hold sparklers and pinwheels. We didn't have any! But totally keep that in mind if you make this - it would be an awesome play station for the 4th of July.

What do you need?

*Glass jars - I used Smucker's jam jars. You could use pasta sauce, pickles, etc..

*White spray paint

*Red,white,blue hobby paint

*Scrap vinyl in red and blue

*Scrap wood pieces

How long do you need?

I did mine in about 2 hours including painting drying time.

What do you do?

*Make sure those glasses are clean and labels removed. I soaked mine in super hot water. Dry them off good and do a couple coats of white spray paint. I just another cute tutorial and they spray painted the inside., with mine I painted the outside. It will take 2-3 light coats to make them really opaque.

*I used some graphics from Silhouette to cut the vinyl, but you could absolutely cut them with an Exacto knife or even use some stickers from the craft store.

*Paint the scrap pieces of wood in red, white, and blue. After they have dried, distress sides with heavy grade sandpaper.

*Enjoy - that's it!

I hope you like my Trash to Treasure tutorial. If you have a moment, I would really appreciate your vote!!

Chica's Cookies

I met my Bestie, Karen, when we were freshmen in college. She actually worked for my mom, so I kept running into her. We seemed so different at the time. She is so level headed and I'm so..well not. But she puts up with my craziness and maybe even loves me for it. We've known each for a very long time now (Chica, we're getting old!) and I don't often make her gifts. This year for her birthday, I wanted to do something sweet. I decided that I would etch her a cookie jar and fill it with treats. We live far apart and haven't been able to share a birthday cake in forever - this was my way of celebrating with her.

It is super easy, but I did learn some tricks along the way. I cut out the stencil for the etch on my Pazzle with contact paper. Now contact paper is *great* because it is cheap, BUT it's clear. So for your very first project you may want to use some dark scrap vinyl so that you can see where you are placing it. Make sure to clean your glass item with some Windex - you don't want any fingerprint smudgies!

Now lay on the etch cream - THICK. Much thicker than what I did. It is reusable! Just scrape it off back into the jar when you are done, so go crazy and lay it on THICK!

Let it sit for a LONG time. Like go do a load of laundry time. Whatever it says on the container, it lies. I'm not sure why. But seriously give it like 30 minutes.
Scrape off the gunk and save it for later. Rinse & dry your glassware.

That's it!
Fill it up with treats - and tada, a birthday sweet for your Bestie that will last long after the cookies have been enjoyed.

WoW 18 - Details for 19

For this WoW I decided to make my gift for Juliette's Godmother, who is also my aunt. I know my aunt was very touched to have this extra special role in our lives. I hope that this little plaque is a daily reminder of how much we love & appreciate her.

((If you would like the cutting file for this quote, just let me know and I'll post it))

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After several weeks of blogging like crazy and having no time to pursue my artistic endeavors, I've decided to make WoW a month long challenge. On a weekly basis it requires a ton of work on my end. But I love the idea of it, I appreciate it so much when you participate, and I hope in time it will grow.

For WoW #19, I am tasking you to make something masculine. I find it sooo tough to think of items to make the men in life ( though lately I have had a ton of ideas..) You will have until midnight on June 4th (MTN time) to enter this challenge. Just in time for Father's Day!! Please use the linky tool below to enter..