cupcakes.

I made cupcakes the other day for no reason...too bad that look better than they taste. I used new recipes for the icing and cake...box cake makes me gag a little, no offense and they turned out...ok...not great...neither is a recipe I plan to use again.

So I am wondering...do you have a favorite from scratch recipe for cake and icing?

Leave me a link or a recipe in the comments, please. :)

xo

10 things.

1. Awesome in-laws.
2. A nice place to be able to get away to.
3. Baby swans.
4. Seeing Moses and Aaron with family who love them.
5. Home cooked meals.
6. Quality time.
7. Quiet times.
8. Enjoying the Lake!
9. Five more days!
10. A great life to go home to.

Let's see your ten things you are thankful for...

xo

color.

In case you need some.

Bright.

Beautiful.

Simple.

Fun.

Sweet.

Happy Friday!
xo

check.

Get Moses new shoes....that are cooler than anything I ever had at his age...or before the age of 18 for that matter.
Check.

Make matching outfits for the cousins photos.
Check.

Make new neck cushies for Aaron's carseat.
Check.

Make Aaron a cute new crinkle square using Julie's tutorial.
Check.

Pack Moses' backpack with new books, goodies, a new movie and snacks for the 6 1/2 hour road trip.
Check.

Fill a bonus container with little doo-dads that Moses is sure to love...including tiny colored pencils!
Check.

Turning off my phone because we are OFF to our vacation!
Check!!

Don't worry...I've left you with some new reading material for between now and when I return...you won't even miss me.

Peace out!
xo

i think i'm funny.

So this is the ice cream truck that comes by our house daily. And sits outside our door for a good twenty minutes or more waiting for each child within a five mile radius to come to it.

I personally think ice cream trucks are creepy...I expect some equally creepy clown to pop out of them...

Anyway...you ask Moses what this is and he will tell you that it is the "Time out truck". :) I presently have him convinced that this truck drives around giving out time outs and spankings...though he has no idea what a spanking is he is fearful enough of a timeout to want to avoid this truck. :)

I am sure that believing this won't last too long.

And my current favorite way to entertain my infant? Put his own feet in his hands...his instinct is to clamp down on whatever gets close enough to them...it's cute to see him confused about who is tugging on his feet. :)

Hey, a stay at home mom has to keep it interesting somehow, right?

xo

available.

I will be listing a high chair sling before I leave on vacation and in time to ship before I leave...send me a convo via Etsy if you would like it reserved for you. :)

It will be made from THIS. and brown polka dot material. :)

If you don't get this one I will add you to a list. :)

XO

10 things.

1. Vacation!!!!
2. A husband who works hard and expects nothing in return.
3. Blue skies!
4. Two paid for cars!
5. Aaron's awesome naps on Saturday that allowed for Moses and mommy to have some good quality time!
6. As much business as I can handle!
7. A new lens!! Coming soon!
8. Being saved by grace.
9. Having lost ALL of my baby weight!
10. Peanut butter sauce!

Let's see your ten things you are thankful for!
xo

success.

He did it!

I love the toes curled tight in concentration!

Love the tray...

Cute!

And happy!

Made my first family name pillow...makes me wish this was my name...

My favorite DREAM pillow so far is in the shop...working on a RAINBOW one!

Happy Saturday!

xo

product tester.

So say you have a small apartment...or restaurant highchairs gross you out...or you don't want to throw down $100 for a highchair...what DO you do?

You get one of these of course...portable, washable, fun and clean!

I saw these in passing at Target...then my best gal out in L.A. told me how she needed a highchair...then last night I was wide awake making them in my head...I wanted to make them more simple...and cuter of course. I busted this one out in about an hour...

It even works to keep big kids in their seat...you know when they are too big for the highchair but move around too much for the booster?

I love my sewing machine. And product testers. For real.

xo

i love this kid.

My sweet, sweet Moses. He is such a cool kid...and I am not saying that just because I am his mom...but he is. He is thoughtful and sensitive...qualities that are too often extinguished in little boys...in our house we encourage and praise him for these things. :)

Of course he is also two and a half...and can go from sweet to nearly biting your hand off in a second. :)

He is also funny...sometimes we laugh when we shouldn't because he is just that funny...

He is also a little odd sometimes...notice the mittens on his hands...in June. He has a fascination with putting socks on his hands...I have no idea where he gets it from...the other day I pulled out some "hand sockies" for him...aka mittens.
Apparently they are a must for water golf.

He eventually soaked himself in the pool...repeatedly refusing my offers to get his bathing suit...

This is him dunking his head in the pool...

Then saying "aww man"...like it was not intentional.

This is him "falling" into the pool...

I did my best to stand back and let him have his fun...he was having a great adventure.

Eventually he plopped right down in it...and I said "hold it right there"...

It was nearly bath time anyway...I gave him some soap, stripped him and told him to scrub up. He thought it was fun until we rinsed it out of his hair. :)

I love being a mom of boys!
xo

in case you haven't seen..

a couple of new things in the shop...

...love this sweet JOY pillow...it has a mermaid fabric backing...yum!

...and personalized funky name pillows...soon to come also are family name pillows with the est date on them...you know...Johnsen Est. 2006...in the same style. :) Let me know if you need to be the first to have one. :)

...and first birthday shirts for girls...soon to be followed by first birthday shirts for boys. :)

I can't stop making things lately...I daydream about it when I am not doing it and am more than willing to stay up late or get up early to sew...such a fun place to be! :)

Happy Wednesday!
xo

mary, mary.

I love Mary, mother of Jesus.

She is my mom example. On many levels but mostly on
1) why I don't have to be a perfect mom and
2) it is OK to do something other than coo and dote on your kids all day long.

1)
I mean this in the best way possible. If it is OK for the Savior, Son of God, the Lamb, the Lord to have an imperfect mother then it is OK for my kids too. How do I (think I) know that she was imperfect? Well for one, God sent his Son to Earth to experience the human condition...not to experience Heaven on Earth. When Jesus was here it was still business as usual for the world. God did not make the planet perfect for thirty some years while Jesus was here. People still worked, still farmed, still had to cook and clean and still broke laws. The world was still messy and sinful, full of sinful people...every single one. Even the mother of Jesus. She was human just like any of us.

There is even an example of her imperfectness in the Bible...she left her child behind at the temple...and didn't even know it for a while!! A perfect mom would never do that right? Pshew...it's good to be off the hook, right?
This doesn't mean that I don't try my best...but I WILL make mistakes and plenty of them but it is nice to have a reasonable example to look up to, right?
2)
Yes, Mary was the mother of the Lord. But she was also a wife, a daughter and a keeper of her home. I would bet that she had a lot to do in a day...she couldn't run to the store to buy a loaf of bread...she had to possibly harvest the grain, grind it into flour, make the dough, knead it, let it rise, build a fire and THEN bake the bread. She had to keep her home clean. She washed clothes one at a time, by hand...clothes that she may have made...for her whole family. She had to prepare all the meals...from scratch...from animals that maybe she had to slaughter. She was the seamstress, the cook, the housekeeping, the wife, the mother and on and on and on.
My point...I don't think she sat around ALL day long and doted on the Savior. I don't think that God expected her to drop it all and hold Him all day. I don't think she was expected to give into his every whim or every attempt for her undivided attention.

Nope, I think she had to work out a balance between caring for her responsibilities and the things she wanted to do and playing with her kids. This doesn't mean she ignored them all day...they probably accompanied her on errands and chores...the children learned how to help and be part of a family. There was a time for all things.

I remind myself about this when I feel guilty about NOT playing with my kids ALL day. This doesn't mean I ignore them AT ALL. But I don't play all day. I take care of my home and my family. I do things that I WANT to do. I play with my kids. But I remind myself that if it was good enough and good FOR Jesus to have a mother that didn't dote on him ALL day...then it is good FOR my kids. I think kids need parents that leave them alone sometimes.

Make sense?

As usual...love to hear your thoughts. :)
xo

for dinner.

Don't worry...you can do this. It is much easier than it looks or sounds. I promise. These are a tasty tasty alternative to your normal chops...with salty provolone and prosciutto...mmmmm. They have officially been added to our rotation....

Calzone Stuffed Pork Chops
8 pork loin chops (the thicker the better)
1 package pepperoni
1 package provolone
1 package prosciutto
olive oil
salt and pepper
tooth picks

1. Cut a slit in the pork chop---horizontally...like you are making an envelope out of it.
2. Stuff with a slice of cheese...3-4 pepperoni and about a half a slice of prosciutto.
3. Seal with toothpicks.
4. Line a pan with olive oil and place chops in.
5. Salt and pepper the top sides then flip...do the same to the other side.
6. Heat up your grill while they marinade a little.
7. Grill for 4-7minutes per side until done. :)

I served ours with homemade mac and cheese. :)

Get to the grocery store.

xo

direction.

So...for a while now I have hinted that I am thinking real hard about both my shop and my blog. Like where I want them to go...what I want from them...how I want them to function for me. And I think I have decided. The pillow above is my dare to myself...to dream. Big.

First the shop. As you may have noticed, I don't do much with paper lately. Except for the silhouettes I really haven't touched my paper goodies in months. Months. Paper to me, is a fickle love. Some days I can sit down and make 20 cards in a day. Other days it's like I have never made a card in my life. It's so touch and go. Makes me crazy. So I think I am done with paper...at least in the card/tag making for the shop kind of way. I have enough fickleness in my life.
My sewing machine on the other hand. Love. Love it every day. Every day it loves me back. I can't remember the last day I didn't use it...(maybe since being in the hospital with Aaron?). Every single day I am inspired to use it...to learn a new sewing skill...to learn how to make something new...to try a new pattern or shop (too much) for fabric. Sewing is the future for my shop. I have never loved a hobby more.
You may have noticed a lot of new things lately in the shop. That is part of the future. I want my shop to be full to the brim of FUN, BEAUTIFUL, FUNCTIONAL, FUNKY and above all UNIQUE (because if you don't have integrity...you don't have much) items. So I have been on the hunt...for new things to make, to try and to include in my inventory. I have been pushing myself to learn/make something new each day.
My kids and husband are my lifelong career, love, and focus but my goal is to make sewing my livelihood by the time the boys are in school. Does that make sense?
People ask me every once in a while what I am doing to stay relevant in my field (social work) so that I can get a job when the boys are in school...uuuuh nothing...because I have no intention of going back to "work" like that. And why do people assume that when your kids are finally in school that you, as a stay at home mom, are done raising them and should run right back to the work world?
That's for another post...back to the sewing.
Sewing is the field that I want to stay relevant in. Does that sound completely ridiculous?
And the blog. I love this blog. Love it more than I thought I would love writing. It helps that there are no rules. :) But not so long ago I learned that I could afford to have it printed...like a book...that I could document the lives of my boys...of our lives as a family and have it in black in white for them to read when they are older...in a way that I LOVE doing. For some reason, the blog comes easily to me...journaling, scrapbooking, video taping...those all do very little to hold my interest. Blogging I love to do every day...to document a moment, a funny story or a favorite photo. To share a recipe or a new friend...love it all.
So if you notice more of the "documenting" type stuff on here...that is why.
Plus I think the blog shows another side to the shop owner...hopefully you can see that I am someone who tries my best in all I do...who has integrity in business and in life. Who loves her family, her friends and all facets of her life. :) Who keeps it real...because life is not ALL cupcakes and daisies.

So that is the tip of the future for all things Little Bit Funky. I would love to hear your feedback...or if there is some item you would like to see me make or carry in the shop.

I am thankful for you if you are reading this.

xo