I heart maps...

I am addicted to Pinterest! I wish I had enough time in the day to make lots of new things for the house and for Weston! I pinned this picture a few weeks ago and am totally digging it!

Each map represents an important place in your life. My maps would be Harford County Maryland (where Chad and I both grew up and met each other), Nevis (honeymoon), and Charlottesville, VA (where we lived for 2 years after we got married while Chad attended business school). 
I have been searching for printable maps online and will try to print a few and see how they turn out. I may just have to buy them? Hopefully I will be posting my heart maps in a few weeks!

Tiered Terracotta Planter

Look what we were working on yesterday...

Kristin's colors are purple and yellow and my colors are burnt red and aqua. I really like all four colors together and may buy more post to set around in the other two colors. 

Hoping it will look like this one that I found on pinterest:

Go to the blog Positively Splendid to see how to make one for your porch. :)

Felt Fries

Today I spent the day with my grandmother. Chad was away in Florida for the weekend so I made sure I kept myself pretty busy! Thank goodness we had no trips to the emergency room this time. After shopping a bit, we stopped by McDonalds for a quick bite to eat. While my grandmother waited in line to order, Weston at some cantaloupe which he finally figured out he loves it. She bought Weston a chicken nugget happy meal and of course he LOVED the fries. As we were cleaning up the trash and getting ready to leave I thought it would be a good idea to save the cute little fry pouches for Weston's kitchen set. After Weston's 25 minute nap ... yep for the past TWO days he has only slept 25 minutes for each nap which totals not even an hour nap the whole weekend now that we are doing only one nap a day. Ahhhhhhhh. Oh so anyway after his nap, we played with his kitchen set. It is so funny to watch him "pour" his ingredients into the pot and stir it. He really knows what he is doing. I guess he does watch Mommy in the kitchen! While he was busy "cooking", I decided to make felt fries for the little pouches I brought home. All I needed was a half a sheet of yellow felt, yellow DMC, and straws. I thought straws would be an easy material to use to stuff the fries instead of using the polyfil stuffing. Here is how I made them:
1. Cut the felt in strips
2. Fold the felt strips in half
3. Cut the straw to the size needed to fill fry. Place in fry. 
4. Blanket stitch fry closed. 

Tonight I gave the fries to Weston. He liked pouring the fries onto the floor and then putting them back in the pouch. I am trying to teach him how to pretend to eat the food instead of really biting it. He had a few felt hairs in his mouth after playing with the fries! ;)

Weekend Fun and Dessert Stand

This weekend we enjoyed some time outside. Weston is feeling much better. His right foot was still very sore this whole weekend so there was not much walking going on. But boy did we have a blast playing with his pedal tractor!

The tractor is so heavy to push! So why not just drive it and stick Weston in the trailer!?! 

After playing outside we explored in the kitchen and climbed on the chairs. :)

I also had a chance to paint this little stand I picked up at the consignment store a few weeks ago. I bought it for only $3!! 

I bought some yellow spray paint and painted it... love it!! I originally bought it for a dessert stand, but for now it SO matches the daffodils from the garden!! I love SPRING!!!!!

Shamrock Onesie

Only 2 more days until a new month- March! Time just flies by. 

The other day I decided to make Weston a shamrock onesie so he can wear it a few times next month for Saint Patrick's Day. 

All you need is Steam a Seam 2 Fusible Web:

And the shamrock template: (print the size you would like, trace on the fusible web paper, iron on opposite side of fabric and cut out)

Peel off back of shamrock paper and iron on onesie!

Tada!

Then I realized that this shamrock looked really boring. So I sewed a few colored buttons on it. 

Weston loves his new shirt!! :)

Kisses from W!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

It is hard to believe that last year Weston was this little...

And this year he is this big!

Today Weston wore a special onesie that I made for him for Valentine's Day! 

These appliques are SO easy to make! All you need is double sided fusible web (I used Steam-A-Seam2) and fabric! The directions on how to do it is right on the package. Seriously it is fast and easy. :) Click on the image below, save it to your computer, and print as a full page if you would like a copy of the truck template that I made. I have seen where the truck is holding a tree at Christmas time. Maybe a carrot or eggs would be cute on the back of the truck for Easter! ;)

truck template

Weston reading his favorite book: "Ghost Gets Dressed"

Ghost wears a coat.

Ghost wears a hat!

Scrap Gift! {beanbags}

This weekend Weston and I will be going to a first birthday party for a little girl . The invitation said no gifts please, but I would still like to give her something little. I decided to try to make her something with stuff I already have around the house. I have TONS of scrap fabric, 3 bags of beans in my craft closet, and thought beanbags would be perfect! 

If you do not have a rotary cutter you will just have to go out and get one! You can cut multiple fabrics at once. I printed a 4"x4" square template and cut 5 pieces of colorful fabric (front of beanbag) and 5 pieces of muslin fabric (back of beanbag).

4"x4" beanbag template

Then, I pinned the pieces with the patterned side facing each other and sewed them together leaving about a half of an inch to stuff beans in the hole. After bringing the fabric through the hole to see the shell of the bean bag, I made sure to iron it.

I filled the bean bags with pinto beans because that is what I had. Any beans would work. Then I sewed the hole together and DONE! Super easy. :)

I have a fun beanbag song/exercise cd that I would always play for my kindergarteners. So I burned that and printed a cd label for that. Weston also helped adding stickers to the cd! :)

I even used scraps of scrapbook paper to embellish the bag and scrap ribbon too!! I loved how this gift is all homemade and it cost me nothing because I already had all of the materials! :) I LOVE receiving homemade gifts and hope that baby C will too!

Beanbags for C! :)

Window Pane Picture Frame

A few years ago I bought this old window at a yard sale for $5. I had no clue what I was going to do with it?!?! But I bought it anyway! Then we moved to Charlottesville and I gave it to Chad's mom. I've noticed it in their garage ever since. A few weeks ago I asked her if I could have it back. I know... I am an indian giver! I was actually planning to use it in a photoshoot, but then did not think of the glass and the glare I would end up getting in my pictures. So instead I decided to make it into a picture frame!

I planned out which pictures I would like to use. Of course they were all of Weston! Then, I printed the pics small to see if the colors would look good together. I wanted to make it very colorful. It seriously took no time to print them small... I just printed my checkout cart online. I also added a fresh coat of white paint to the window too.

I ordered the pictures through Wal-Mart.... HUGE mistake. The quality is soooo crappy and the pictures look so  much darker. I will be ordering them again through mpix or winkflash. But for now, here is what it looks like!! I LOVE it!

Weston's Silhouette

Last year my mother cut out a silhouette of Weston and framed it. She gave it to us for Christmas from Weston. I LOVED it! The silhouette was when he was first born laying in the hospital crib. 

I want to do this every year right around his birthday. I took a side profile pic of him and printed it as a 5x7 (fast draft on regular computer paper). 

Oh my... look at those chunker cheeks!

Then, I laid the printed picture on top of black cardstock and used an X-acto knife to cut around his profile. 

I was just going to mount his silhouette on white cardstock, but thought scrapbook paper would give it a little more character. I found this paper in my stash and loved the vintage look. 

After cutting it to fit the frame, I mounted his silhouette on the scrapbook paper. Then put it in the frame (I have SOOOO many black frames packed away in the barn so I just used one of them). I LOVE IT! Now his 1 year old silhouette took place of his newborn silhouette on the shelf. It would be neat to have them displayed together throughout the years. So I will be tucking it away somewhere safe until then. :)