and Happy Birthday Quinn!

In a couple of weeks one of our nephews will be 1! My brother and sister-in-law asked me to make him a Birthday crown. I was so excited, because it is always on my list for the girls and I never get around to it. Now that I’ve made one I think I will be more motivated to make more. They are so fun. So, I made two for Donovan so that could choose which one they wanted to keep. Unfortunately I only have a picture of one and it’s before I tacked on a 1 over the front. Oh well, here it is.

Here is a reversible dress that I made last year and never sold. It’s perfect for Harriet now. I had a really hard time catching her standing still long enough for a picture.

I like how this turned out.

I have a lot going on this week. Not so much going on in my schedule, but a lot of things that I need to get done. I don’t think I will be spending too much time on the computer. That usually helps. Last night I finished a new project that I have never tried before. It was a learning experience. Lot’s of pieces and lots of sewing and a whole bag of stuffing. There were some parts of the pattern that were just completely left out, so that was interesting. I just had to stand there staring at it for about 10 minutes to figure out the missing part. This is a present for my nephew so I can’t show you until he gets it, but I will post a picture next week.

I am a part of a button swap that I sent out on Monday. My swap partner is in Portugal so I’m not sure how long it will take for the both of us to get our packages. Also some pictures that I can’t post because I don’t want to ruin the surprise.

I can show something I got for my Birthday though. I have loved these birds forever but have never allowed myself to buy them. Well, guess what? Super John remembered how much I liked them and got them for me.

Okay, I’m off to play. We have some adventures to play out upstairs today.

We went to Des Moines over the weekend for my Birthday. On Friday night my mom made an amazing dinner. Curry chicken and rice! Yum. It was sooo good. Here it is bubbling up in the pan.

On Saturday my friend took me out to get my hair done. It was awesome! I haven’t had a trim or anything since Fall of ‘06, before Harriet was even born! I got it colored and styled with some layers and bangs. All new to me. I’ve never had my hair dyed and I haven’t had bangs since I was like 10, so it was a lot of fun to just go for it!

That night we went out to dinner at Cafe Di Scala. Our friend Adam’s birthday was the day before so we picked up him and his wife Lisa to celebrate with us. Another night of amazing food. Here is my finished lamb chop. I bet you would’ve liked have seen before I ate it! Sorry, it went too fast.

After dinner we went back to Adam and Lisa’s where we were going to hang out for a bit and then go out with some other friends. Well, when we walked in SURPRISE! There were all of our friends and my mom with the girls too! It was a surprise party for me and Adam! Unbelievable! I still can’t believe it. It was such a big surprise. Then more and more people kept showing up. It was an awesome night. I didn’t get very many good pictures from that night but here is one out of focus pic of me and two of my girlfriends.

I believe this was the best Birthday I’ve ever had. What a great weekend. Another nice thing this weekend was how nice the weather was. It was warm and breezy all weekend. Not hot, not cold, not too much rain. Just perfect.

Thanks John, and thank you to everyone else involved for planning this party! (and keeping it a surprise.)

Here is Harriet from the park my mom took the girls to.

Here are some pants I finished up last week for Vincent.

My big plan to do yo-yos in the car did not really pan out the way I had planned. I cut a bunch of circles, brought a needle, thread, and even scissors and just never really wanted to do it! Reading was calling my name and then on the way home I drove. What do you do?

A few months ago I used a coupon and finally bought a yo-yo maker. I have now spent the last 5 or 6 weeks looking for the darn thing and still can’t seem to find it anywhere. We are going out of town this weekend so I finally decided to sit down and just figure it out on my own so I can potentially make some in the car. It’s super easy, super fun, and super addictive!

The girls room is painted pink so I have been trying to find some brown curtains to add pink to and hang in their room. This task is not as easy as I thought it would be. Finally one day I saw sheets on sale and bought a top sheet for $7. Perfect. The other night I cut it in half and then added some pink binding so that I wouldn’t have to hem the sides that I cut. (cheater) After I finish a bunch of yo-yo’s then I will randomly sew them all over the curtains and be done!

Here is my first yo-yo on a curtain panel.

Help me name this colorful yarn.

Also, if anyone is interested in joining a pincushion swap I will be hosting one coming up very soon. Tell anyone else that you think would be interested and start thinking about a fun way to make a new pincushion for someone!

that Laughing Cow cheese never expires? I checked the expiration date on our spreading triangles the other day and it’s not until 2009! Crazy.

Here is Harriet using  her own knife to spread cheese on a cracker.

Here’s the girls with Dan Wardell from Iowa Public Television.

I have always wanted to have something hand made that I hand out with my orders, but I have never been able to come up with something inexpensive and that won’t take me forever to make. Well, I think I’ve come up with an idea. Button Flowers! They are simple, yet cute, and I think they would bring a smile to someone’s face if it was an extra in their package.

I don’t know if anyone has noticed but I have closed my etsy shop for a short period. I just got too busy around the house to stress out about it. I will be returning sometime in July though. When I know the exact date I will make an announcement on my blog.

We have been doing a lot of art projects around here lately.

Painting at our easel.

Molding and sculpting, then baking, then painting.

Working with buttons.

We even made some treats using purple candy melts and a flower mold.

-Let’s see, when everyone left last week I spent a day cleaning while the girls played nicely by themselves. Now they are back to being crazy and bored without all the extra people.

-We started the Summer Reading Program at our library last week. Today we are looking forward to Dan Wardell coming to our library for  a visit. He is making his way across Iowa. Should be fun to see him in person.

-I got a lot of spinning done this week. Some hand sewing. I made a crown and started a new one. I made a bunch of flowers using wire and buttons. I feel somewhat accomplished this week even though my list does not seem to be going down.

-Thursday was our 6th Wedding Anniversary so I made a special dinner for John. Crab cakes, fried fish, hush puppies, and shrimp poppers. It was good but a little too much frying oil for me.

-On Friday John’s dad came over to be with the girls so we could go see a movie. We only get one movie at a time in our theater so we were lucky that it happened to be Indiana Jones, the one movie that we really wanted to see.

-John took Mary to the pool today for a much needed swim day. She had so much fun, hopefully we will be going back soon.