Another Bird Family

 A friend of mine had seen my bird family painting hanging in our last house. She asked if I would paint one for her. I finally got it finished (not that it took to long to do it just got put on the back burner). Anyways I am so happy with how it turned out. I love the look of the long framed picture and the 6 birds instead of 4 (of course I can't change that on mine, it's a bird for each family member). I also like the look of the black silhouette instead of white and I think the green background will suit my friends house perfectly.

 She likes it and I am so happy! It was a long time coming, haha.

Happy Thursday!

the stockings were hung by the chimney with care

I finished these stockings quite awhile ago, you may remember me working on them here and here. I wanted to make sure I got them done well in time for Christmas (which I did, yay!).

I have to thank Melissa at Sew Like My Mom who offers this super easy tutorial (and free pattern) to make fully lined stockings. I changed it up slightly, instead of appliquéing on initials I decided to hand stitch the girls names on. They turned out exactly how I was hoping!

Whip one up, the tutorial is really easy to follow. The most time consuming part of this whole project was the embroidery for sure!

Happy Tuesday! ... P.S. Less than a month til Christmas!

insta-pics #36

 Because I was gone last week (more about that in this post)  I never did an insta-pics post, 

so here is double the pics for ya!

1. Got the girls passport pictures taken.
2. My new business cards came in the mail, yay!
3. T got away from the breakfast table covered in oatmeal and shirtless, too cute, she was on the run!
4. Hubby and his friend checking in for their flight to Oklahoma.
5. Waiting for my connecting flight... enjoying a Chai Latte, chocolate pretzel, the Hobbit, and no children.
6. Got to visit this little cutie, my sweet niece. Also got to play with my nephew who is 2, such a blast. He is so funny.

7. Breaking Dawn night last friday night! Kind of sad that it is over. A quick pick of the Edwards showing off the cookies I made (I know I am a complete nerd, haha).
8. While shopping my sis and I bought each other slouchy hats (as our Christmas gift to each other), I have wanted one for awhile so I was pumped.
9. At Homesense we saw this awesome leopard print chair, I needed a pic! It made me think of Amy and her Super Chair....except this would be the luxury version!
10. Little diva joined us shopping.
11. Back home and running errands at Walmart came across the complete collection of Saved by the Bell. Didn't buy it but it is still so tempting.
12. My big girl fell asleep next to me last night while I was reading. She is getting so big.

Happy Sunday!

Family.

I realized just recently that I never did share our family photos that were taken this summer (other than the one for S's birthday and the one on my sidebar). So here are some of my favorites, nice cheery summery pics to get you out of the winter blues.

I am truly blessed.
- all photos taken by Wild Pony Photography

Almost Caught Up

At the end of October I was able to go to the local scrapbook retreat, again. This time I came home with a total of 28 pages completed. It felt so great to be caught up again. Although I now have Halloween to do and I didn't quite finish up T's first year album, so that's now at the top of my list.

Anyways I thought I would share a few of the layouts I did.

From T's album...

 Mothers Day...

 

A random layout of T's cuteness in the family album...

 Some summer activities....

S's third birthday...

And last but not least, my favorite layout from the weekend. One of the girlies together...

Why am I covered in Feathers?

 This is a scheduled post as I should be now hanging out with my sister and her lil ones. 

I have left my girlies (with my wonderful mother and father in law) and took a short plane ride to be with my mom and sis for the Breaking Dawn Pt.2 movie tonight! Yay! 

(Hubby has also went on a trip to Oklahoma to watch a couple hockey games and play golf with a friend, lucky guy!)

 Anyways I had a quick couple of minutes (literally) to share with you some cookies that I had made and have taken with me for the par-tay tonight. Aren't they cute?

 (I used the same recipe that I used for S's pirate cookies.)

...and just for fun, I saw that picmonkey offered a 'vampire' editing option for halloween. 

So I did up our group pic from the Eclipse movie night out. 

(Checkout my layout from that night HERE.)

Kinda freaky...but hey all in the name of Twilight!

So excited for tonight!

Happy Friday!

Repurposed: Baby Sling

I had a friend buy a used Petunia Pickle Bottom baby sling and she was hoping that I would be able to use the fabric to make a bag for her. And that is exactly what I did!

 I forgot to get a 'real' before pic. Besides the cut down the middle, you get the idea. 

A long piece of lined fabric, sewn in a loop.

I took the bottom half and stitched up both sides. Hemmed around the top. 

Then I cut two strips to make a long strap.

There was even enough fabric to make her a little zippered pouch to go inside.

I was even able to incorporate the portions of fabric that had the original tags, just for fun!

insta-pics #35

1. The kids have been sick this past week, so this was an attempt to cheer up my lil girl.
2. Daddy throwing snowballs at the girls. They thought it was so funny!
3. On Thursday I shared with you some recipes I found through Pinterest. I tried another one, Biscuit Donuts. They are soooo good!
4. My great Auntie Charlotte made T another blankie out of the same yarn as the original. I am so excited to have a true back up. And it's smaller, so easier to lug around. Thanks Auntie!!
5. S planted a bean at Awana and it started to sprout this week. S kept singing 'Let it grow, let it grow' (a song from The Lorax movie) and sometimes 'Let it die, let it die' (also from the song).
6. She loves airplane rides.
7. A day later, beans really do grow fast!
8. It has been snowing so much, so I bought the girls each a shovel. S was quite excited to start working at snow removal.
9. Went out to dinner and a  movie with my friend Candace...everyone needs a girls night out!

Today is Remembrance day so please take a moment to remember all the brave men and women who fought for our freedom!

Happy Sunday!

Pinned.Made.Yum.

 The hubby has been very thankful for Pinterest lately. I've been making lots of recipe's that I've found on there. I thought today I would share a few of them with you!

 Pictured above is a cake mix cookie dip (think dunkaroos, yum!). This recipe, Funfetti Cake Dip comes from Eat Yourself Skinny. I love how she has the calorie count for everything and all of her recipe's look awesome (check out her recipe box)! I brought this as my potluck snack for the scrapbook retreat a couple of weeks back. A lot of the ladies loved it!

 Now moving on to some main course options:

 Below is Chicken Alfredo Rollups which come from MMM...Cafe. I have made something similar to this before using spinach and ricotta cheese, but I found this to be easier/less messy/tastier! Paired with a side ceasar salad = a great supper for the whole fam!

Below can either be for a meal (which is what we had it for) or as a snack. Baked Zucchini sticks from Eat Yourself Skinny and Cheesy Quinoa Cakes with a Roasted Garlic and Lemon Aioli from Spoon Fork Bacon. I have now made the zucchini strips twice (the kids don't care for them but I think they are awesome!) and I love the Aioli that goes with the Quinoa cakes, so yummy.

 

These Slow Cooker Herbed Chicken Drumsticks from Make Dinner Easy were just that... easy! And the flavor was a change up from the usual, so that was nice.

 This next one I've got to thank my wonderful sister for. She pinned it, made it, and told me how incredible it was (and it IS incredible!). I was pretty skeptical of a bread that can be made from scratch a couple of hours (rising time included) before being served at a meal, but it worked. Try this Quick French Bread recipe from Keep Home Simple the next time you think fresh bread would be complimentary to your meal. (The recipe makes two loaves and my sis said that they freeze well too!...I didn't try freezing we ate these up pretty quick.)

 There are other recipes that I've tried but never got pics of (or they were flops)...

 Here are some more favorites:

- Cowboy Casserole from The Cutting Edge of Ordinary

- Cheesy Vegetable Chowder from Lulu the Baker

- Honey Spice Chicken Thighs from Budget Bytes

- Buffalo Chicken Garbage Bread from Finding a New Life Through Food

- Slow Cooker Mediterranean Chicken from Happy Home Fairy

All of these recipes and more are on my Yum board on pinterest. Feel free to follow along!

On a related note, this could be true....

Source: ohmyfreakingstars.blogspot.com via Justine on Pinterest

Repurposed: Onesie

I meant to do this post before Halloween, but never got around to it. 

I figure this is not a Halloween specific project, so I still want to share it with you. 

I bought this cute stitched spider onesie for $2 with the intention of putting it in a frame (which I already had) for another piece of Halloween decor.

I was planning on actually cutting up the onesie and putting it in the frame (which I still might do) but for a quick fix I was able to wrap it around a piece of cardboard(cut to fit inside the frame), fold, and simply tape into place.

Not that pretty to look at from the back...but from the front it is exactly what I was hoping for! And it looked great on my Halloween mantel.

 

 Now I might have to go through the girls onesies that they have out grown and use this concept for some decorations in their rooms! So quick and Easy!

And lastly, just one more Halloween related pic, my sweeties ready to go 'trick or treat'ing.

They had an absolute blast!

Other projects made by me in this post: 

Halloween Frame, Halloween Mini Album, and Rapunzel Costume.

P.S. Did you notice the new Welcome and Easy Access Button on the sidebar?