3 months...and a winner! :)

Happy Three months to Aaron! :) To celebrate he graduated to size two diapers. :)

And the winner of the Joyshope goody is Trish! :)
You know what to do Trish! :)

xo

is this normal...

I feel like I should start a new label for posts called "is this normal?" For example, if Moses is swimming in our backyard, alone, I usually let him go naked. Swim diapers aren't cheap, right? Again, avert your eyes from his paste-y whiteness.

Another new thing for the shop...what do you think...would you buy them/use them/carry them around in your purse for your hot cup of Starbucks?

And...I got such a response from Aaron's tie onesie that I thought I would see how they do in the shop...you pick the tie and onesie size.

I made this one for a friend...to coordinate with his big sisters pillowcase dress. :)
I hope you love it Lauren! :)

I'll choose a winner later on today...you still have time! :)

xo

10 things.

1. Grass in my backyard!
2. Nice warm weather.
3. My MOPS ladies. :)
4. My sweet sweet Moses.
5. My always happy Aaron.
6. My handsome (sassy) honey.
7. Being loved.
8. Being saved by Grace.
9. Vacation sooooon.
10. Meeting my new nephew soon!

Let's see yours thankful list...don't think about it...just write the first ten things that come to mind...

xo

see...

I totally let him eat Popsicles in the house.

He doesn't know that eating them in an empty bathtub is not normal. :)
(He waaaas about to take a bath.)

Just a little something I made for him yesterday morning...took about 45 minutes. We have tried to break him of the sleep sack but he won't have it...so I had to make him one that was big enough. Super easy. :)

And the dumpling sucks his thumb now...SO SO stinking cute. There is very little that melts my heart more than a bitty little thing and his thumb. :) It's a good thing he can't talk...because I would give him anything after seeing this cute scene.

Happy Friday to you!

Be sure to visit Joyshope for a super fun giveaway! :)

xo

strawberries and spg.

So I thought today would be fun...a little extra work but fun none the less.

I could not have been more wrong.

Let's start this off by clearing the air about something. I have NO NO NO sense of direction. Seriously. None. Blind, newly born kittens have more of a sense of direction than I do. At least they can find their way to their food source. I on the other hand, could be four blocks from a Wendy's and starve to death. Having asked for directions 10 times and written them down twice.
And I hate to be late. Hate it. Being late sends my lack of internal GPS even further into SPG (the opposite of GPS) as I get flustered and frustrated. Because I AM intelligent. I am. I graduated magna cum laude and everything. But there were no classes on how to get somewhere. Luckily.
We left the house with 15 minutes more than we needed to get to the orchard (according to mapquest). I still managed to get there about 30 minutes late. WITH a GPS...that was on...and working. I think the Tomtom was preying on my stupidity. It knew I was totally dependent on it. It sent me in the opposite direction than I was supposed to be going. And of course I had no idea. Until I was waaaaay off course. By the time I got to the orchard I wanted to punch the Tomtom in his faceface. Seriously.
Then we left early because this was Moses' attitude.
And Aaron was covered in sweat and screaming.
FYI
2 1/2 year old + 3 month old + 80 degrees +flustered mom = disaster.

You can file that equation away for when you need it.
And then to top it off...they charged us for our strawberries approximately twice as much I could have gone to Kroger and spent. In the AC. With NO children in tow. And gotten chocolate. Seriously.

So I am starting over right now at 2:39pm and celebrating the fact that instead of napping...Aaron rolled over for the first time just now. :)

Later taters.
xo

i. am. so. old.

And do you know why that is? Well, one reason is that I went to bed at 8pm a couple of nights ago...and I loved it. :) The other reason is that I am SO excited about grass. So very excited.

This is our backyard...or was our backyard. We have been trying forever to figure out what to do with this patch of earth back here...mulch just makes it dirty...stones seem very un-kid friendly and for some reason we couldn't get past those two options.

Then I asked Doug if we could just try sod...it ended up being only $24 to do this back patio area. I also added an edge around more of the garden area around the bbq.

And here is the finished product. I. Love. It!!!! It completely transformed the whole area and provided a nice finishing touch to all of the work we have put into this backyard over the past three years...grass, fence repair, fence staining, planting, edging and more. Now it provides the perfect place to play and hang out. I love it all!

And just for good measure...this is what the backyard looked like when we moved in...see how the fence is all uneven and messy looking? It literally looked like five different people built it at different times...none of which knew what they were doing. :) It had weird garden boxes...that ugly white stone walk, a vine that attracted beetles and spiders and no plants. (Sorry the photo is terrible...I scanned it in from the brochure we got when we looked at the house the first time).
I love what it looks like now! :)

And just one more shot of my sweet little dumpling. The first photo and this one above are a couple of good shots I got of him in the yard today. I swear...sometimes he is so sweet I could just nibble on him! :)

xo

r.i.p. or object of my affection.

I got bad news today at the camera shop. My poor 15-55 lens is dead. It started acting funny a few weeks ago and today we finally took her in for a look see. The guy told me that he sees the same problem in that lens all the time...so if I bought a replacement that was the same...it would probably happen again. And the cost to fix it is about as much for a whole new lens...that would just break again. Bummer. He did recommend the 18-200...which I have immediately fallen in love with. The only let down is that it costs about $425...not exactly an amount we can just go out and spend.
So I started thinking...$425 is only...
39 burp cloths or...
29 5 by 7 silhouettes or...
17 dresses or...
16 pillows or...
13 blankets.

I better get sewing.

The only thing saving my sanity...and keeping me in photos are the Mother's day gifts Doug got me...

This super spunky tote AND the 55-200 lens...which means I can still take photos...I just can't get too close. :)

So...back to that sewing...

xo

call me crazy.

So...those of you who know me "in real life", know about my obsession with changing furniture around...a lot. It's like I am on some impossible mission to find THE perfect arrangement of furniture in any given space. I have friends who have been to my house lots...and have never seen it look the same way twice. Doug has even been injured because of furniture moves that I failed to inform him of...(he ran into the TV hutch with his EYE because I moved it over 6 inches...he has to get up for work in the wee dark hours...sorry honey!)
I can't explain why I have the compulsion to do it...but once the urge has hit...I have to move furniture. It helps that I am stubborn...that comes in real handy for moving the large pieces of furniture...scooting it across the room with every ounce of stubborn pride I have. :)
So when Doug called me on his way home from work on Friday...I warned him..."Honey, I've been moving the furniture...and I think we should try switching the living room and dining room".
He said "Ok" immediately...because this was his idea months ago. (I had to put that in there or I would NEVER hear the end of it. :)

I was convinced, although months later, by Kristi.

We did it for lots of reasons...mostly because we spend the most amount of time either at our dining room table (eating, playing with Moses, talking with friends, entertaining, etc) and the layout of the living room makes it IMPOSSIBLE for the furniture to ever "flow" well. That may have been why I was always moving the living room furniture around...because I never loved how it looked.

So now our living room is our dining room and our dining room is our living room.

There is now plenty of room in the new dining room for eating, playing...

and sewing! :) Plus now when I am sewing and Doug is watching sports on the couch...we can see and hear each other...which was much more difficult before.

Now the new living room has a more family room feel to it...

We just need to work out lighting for the dining room since there is no overhead light in there.

We sold the chaise lounge on Craigslist...we bought that when we lived in our old apartment and it never really fit this house. It sold within 30 minutes!!

We used the money from the sale of the lounge to buy a couple of upholstered stools for extra seating (one is the pink polka dotted one above-the other is a couple of photos up next to the bookshelf).
And call me crazy...but it really works. I love it a little more every day! :)

You can go:

Here. or Here.
To see what the rooms looked like before.

xo

p.s. I am working on four more of the Dream pillows from a couple of posts back...two are claimed...contact me via etsy if you would like to claim one of the other ones. :)

Happy Monday!

10 things.

I want to try to do this every Sunday...when my brain lets me remember. Be sure to leave your 10 things you are thankful for today in the comments. :)

1. We made it to church today!
2. Everyone did well at church today! :)
3. Doug was off this weekend!
4. Aaron is sleeping SO well at night!
5. Friends coming for dinner!
6. Brownies just out of the oven!
7. Finally getting to the grocery store...it was echoing in our fridge...that's how empty it was!
8. The Tuesday playgroup I am hosting starts this week!
9. Going to pick strawberries tomorrow!
10. My three beautiful and wonderful boys!

xo

3 things.

1. super cute new pillow in the shop that I am IN LOVE with!

2. super cute new baby blanket in the shop. equally yummy!

3. I learned how to make a button hole...

...so I could make these...I want to call them "build a bunting". :) They connect to each other by buttons!! Cute, right?
Right now, this one is in the shop...but I want to make some more to show for examples in the listings. You could order as many letters as you need...to spell whatever you wanted! :) I want to make an ABC's set too...we'll see when/if that happens!

Ok...so now that I got that out of my system (I couldn't wait to share!!)...I am off to be productive in ways that aren't nearly as fun as my sewing machine!

xo

casual friday.

Do they come cuter? seriously. :)

I have LOTS of cute new things to show you(ok, like three)...and one idea that I am SUPER excited about...I hope to share really, really soon. :)

But for now...this photo makes me feel so so blessed. Just look at those wonderful boys. :) My mind can hardly fathom how blessed I am to have them in my life...and how absolutely wonderful they are...I can safely say that we are back to normal...like pre-Aaron normal but now with Aaron. :) We hardly ever have to give time outs and Moses is back to his sweet, silly self. :)
We are looking forward to the weekend...Doug is off! :)
We hope to either play hard or work hard (if it rains). :)

More soon...I hope. :)

xo

fakey. fakey.

Doug's favorite Starbucks drink is the caramel frap...tasty but not so nice to the budget at $4.50 a pop...so in true Crystal form, I am learning how to make them myself.

I am getting close...here is the recipe so far:

1/2c coffee chilled
1/2c milk (something with a little fat in it 2% or more)
3tbs sugar
3tbs caramel topping (you can also buy Starbucks caramel)
2c ice
Blend it all together until the ice is crushed smooth, pour in a glass (like the super cool insulated Starbucks cup I bought Doug for his birthday) and top with squirt cream and a drizzle of caramel.
I am still tweaking with it...I think the caramel needs to be adjusted but this is a comparable version. :)

We went on a mini adventure last night...Moses got to feed some koi fish, see some ducks and turtles and spend some good boy time with his daddy. :)

We woke up this morning to a huge to-do list...and then I invited friends for dinner...always a good motivator! :) In the spirit of "instead of doing nothing", which is always a work in progress, Moses and I made some of my favorite chocolate chip cookies for the childcare workers at MOPS. Those ladies are the BEST and you can tell they love what they do and that they really love Moses...and Moses loves them. So the cookies are just our little way of saying thank you. :)

I love the photo above because Moses is totally engrossed in the cookie making, Aaron looks totally annoyed at having to be part of it...and my muffin top is hardly noticeable! :)

Doing lots of thinking about the direction I want my blog and shop to go...serious thinking. If you have some feedback you have been dying to share...then now is the time! I would love to hear what you would love to see and hear about! :)

Hope your Wednesday is wonderful! :)

xo