Too many fabulous adventures

Over this last week, my mind has been obsessing over what is most important in life. Obviously this is God, husband, children,

(This photo is aweful andthe flowers aren't the most beautiful in the world but I love them!!! Emma picked them... :)


To finish off the list ... Family, friends, service, and living life to it's fullest.



It's the living life to it's fullest that that I have been obsessing over. What i have decided is that...There are just too many fabulous things in this life to love. Seriously. I love decor, photography, massage, writing, creating, Scrapbooking, cleaning, boating, skiing, biking, yoga, dancing, cooking, candy making, sewing, entertaining, swimming, gardening, reading, hiking, rock climbing, triathalons... And there's so many things I want to try but haven't had the time, and then I have my bucket list of things I want to before I die ..but You get my point. Any one of these things can become an obsessive hobby. If you have too many obsessive hobbies then the people on the top of my "most important list" get neglected and ignored. Which is obviously not good. How do we balance doing what we love - which is important in order to rejuvinate and restore ourselves - and keeping our family number one. Of course we always say our family is number one but do they feel that way? Do my children feel as though they are on the top of my heart when I am busy doing that huge list of passions that I love? Of couse not. So of course I try to keep my hobbies to when they are sleeping. But man there is just not enough time in a day, in a lifetime, to do all of the fabulous thing in life.

Brit

Sisters Friday!!!!- Typeface Makeover

Jocelyn's week was such a fun before and after that this post can be put into so many different categories, Before and after, Decor, Tutorial, and of course Sisters Friday!!!

So our fabulous friend told us that This weird box thing that Jocelyn found at a yard sale is an old typeface organizer for a printing press... how cool!!

Before...

 

So we spray painted it,

Made all these little boxes by first cutting out tons of the pieces of cardboard to fit the spaces in the wooden thing.

Glued them together with handy dandy hot glue.

 

Cut a ton of different fabrics into rectangles, then modge podged them onto the little cardboard boxes, the corners were the hardest part!  

We used a ton of modge podge to make it all stick and solidfy.  

Drilled the heavy thing to the studs- booya! with out the men-

And filled it with fun crafting and sewing paraphernalia.

 

So Fun and colorful!!

My bathroom before and after

So friends, Kyle and I have bit of gypsy blood in us since we have been married 7 years now and have moved 6 times. When we moved into the house we are now living (almost 3 years ago-gasp-this is a long time for us) we thought it would only be for a year. Now each house we lived in I had almost completely redone- paint, tile, countertops, a couple of walls etc... But this time Kyle asked that I wouldn't do the whole home makeover since for sure this home would be a short time move. Well now that it's been 3 years and looking longer- I'm more than ready to paint and paint and decorate- I really really love making things beautiful escpecially where you live. So here's my bathroom makeover, I hope you enjoy!



Before...

And after....

Way do you think?



Brit

A Mom's Ruffle Skirt- who said little girls get all the fun??

who said little girls get all the fun??- I don't! I want to have a 

cute ruffly skirt like them- in fact while making this skirt my 5

year old daughter asked the skirt was for her and I was so 

excited to no it's for me!!! (besides it has no pink or purple in 

it- so she wouldn't wear it anyway -believe me - I've tried!

SO I have been wanting new clothes...which really is nothing

new but I decided actually do something about it! I think it is

strange that Kyle is pretty much content wearing the same few 

church outfit every week but I have 20 plus options to wear to

 church and I can't find a thing I feel like wearing. Why is that? 

Okay back to doing something about my pitiful (insert heavily 

sarcastic tone of voice here) clothing selection. I started it last 

sunday before church but realized that the hour I had while 

everyone was still sleeping was not long enough. So I had to 

finish it later, in time for next sunday :)

I pulled out all the long left over selections of fabric that I have

in my ever growing stash and picked out what I had the most 

of that coordinated and was pleasantly surprised with my option!  

Next I organized it from what I had the most of to what I had the

least of so that I could form what fabric I had enough of to cut 

into strips to make the lowest tiers.

Here is what I came up with...

 

The Top tier would be plain white because...well the skirt 

needed to be longer and the plain white would be covered up

with my shirt. The next tier is the tiny brown and white poke

a dot, I didn't have enough to make more that one strip so that

had to be my next selection, Then the turquoise, then the white... 

I had enough to make 2 strips with that and three strips with my 

bottom selection the big poke a dots...what luck-it worked! Of 

course if you are more prepared than I you can go out and buy 

fabrics that you would like in your skirt instead of being limited 

to your options:)

Then I measured my waist and cut an elastic piece that is the 

same size as my waist and sewed it into the white, then I 

gathered the brown slightly to match the white, matched the 

centers, pinned and sewed.

 

I did the same for each lower tier.

 

When the bottom tier was sewn on, I put right sides together and 

matched up all the teirs seems. And sewed in place.  

 

If you have a serger, serge the bottom. If you don't, you can do

what I did and wear it to church or wherever without a bottom

hem or finish... no one will even notice. Now I did bring it to my 

sister's house to use her serger, but while there I forgot to actually

use the desired serger. So I wore it anyway!!

 

Enjoy!!

Brit

Jocelyn's Sewing Room Makeover

Before...

Fair warning this pictures may not be suitable for all eyes.  They are quite scary and may cause lasting damage....I even want to cry when I see them.

 

My sewing room has a lurking sewing room monster that likes to rear its ugly head as I get super busy.  I end up losing control of it and then it looks like this.......(cue scary music and loud sreaming:))

Can you see all the projects piling up in this crazy "waiting" room...When it looks like this very little sewing actually happens

 

Knowing that Sisters Friday was at my house this week I spent ALL week cleaning and reorganizing and resisting the urge to complete or start new projects.  I even threw some stuff away....when all was said and done  the Sisters came over and helped me do the finishing touches and rearrange some.

 

After.... (I love love love the color)

These fun red cabinets were beige filing cabinets that were on the side of the street in Brit's neighborhood, somehow we convinced her hubby to load the one million pound metal hunks into his truck and deliver them to my house where we spray painted them, I then painted some swirlies and loaded them with all of my fabrics...they work great!  I love them so much....

 
 
 
 
 The plan is always to keep my sewing room looking like this but who am I kidding...I just hope and pray that the sewing room monster doesn't rear its ugly head again...let's hope I vanquished that foe

~Jo

Therese's Living Room Tour!!

Here is our first home tour...Therese's living room.  I just love how open and airy her Front living room is.  The story of this house is cool.  It was built sometime in the 1960's and when they bought their home, it looked pretty badly run down :( So they completely gutted and rebuilt a ton.  The ceiling of this room was low and cave like, they tore up into the attic and raised the roof -well no not the roof, just the ceiling -  Sadly during the renovation the window was badly cracked, so when they redo all the drafty original windows this living room window is the first on the list. Also above their fireplace they just took their family photos so they are framing a large picture of their large family to place there-therese is way excited about that :) Oaky enough chat... So here is the view from the front door... You can see the hallway up to their sons room...

Their piano (which was Jeremy's family forever and that heavy too!) with a peek into the dining room...

Their ficus tree that the green thumbed Therese saved from our black thumbed mother...

The beautiful couches that we have had in our family since I can remember.  (Awful note...when they were in the process of gutting the house an army of mice infested their garage and made a home in the couches...don't worry the mice are gone ...thanks to Natalie's cat and lots of poison... and the couches saved, sanitized and repaired from grossness from a professional furniture guy)

And therese always has the funnest  selection of coffee table books out too browse through.

Notes on the last sentence-  the word "funnest"-(that is considered a word in our family)

and coffee table- (is it still considered a coffee table if no coffee is served in the house???)

That beautiful mosaic was made by my grandmother, i think it's inspiring and amazing to look at, but don't touch- you will bleed...or wait this is a blog, no touching possible :)


     

I hope you enjoyed the tour despite all my camera phone pictures!!!

Sister Friday!!! Making kids journals & bags

So this Friday we went to Therese's house to work on some very streamlined and simple entertainment for her kids during church service. Her husband just received some responsiblity in their church where he will no longer be sitting with them durin the service. Needless to say 4 children fighting over snacks, crayons and such is not fun to deal with on your own! So we made them each a bag big enough to hold a notebook, a religious childrens magazine, colored pencils, and a snack. Now they can just grab their bag and be done with whole ordeal!

To make the notebook we folded 5 sheets of regular printer paper in half at a time until we had a large stack,

We punched two holes in all the paper

I measured the material to fit the little notebooks and cut with the croc-o-dile holes to match up with the paper and snaped on the little fabulous rings- again with the croc-o-dile!

Therese really wanted a family picture on the front of each notebook, sooo...

We cut the pictures to the size we wanted thn laminated the pictures.

Next we measured from the pictures and cut out a whole in the front of the cover. And cut a piece of fabric just larger than the picture to go behind. At first I was designing it to be a little pocket for the picture, like what they have on je front of some scrapbooks, but that was NOT working! So Therese just sewed the pictures in the pocket...perfect! Done...easy and quick!

Jocelyn, in the meantime made bags for each child ...

First she made a pattern (yep that's the cover from the cord of paper...so rescourceful!) and cut out the bag.

Sewed up each side. Serge

Cut out a strip of fabric 27x3 inches for the strap, serge, folded it into 3rds and pinned down.

Sew down the edge of each side for a nice finished look.

Serge the top edge of the bag, fold over the top of the bag about an inch in towards the inside of the bag.

Pin the handle into the fold, tucking it up and under, do the same for the other side, making sure not to twist the handle.

Sew the top hem down twice, each stitching line about 3/4 of an inch apart.

Press and done!!

Kitchen before and after

About a month ago I painted my cabinets cream with a brown glaze, which I now love! It really lightened up my kitchen, which I love the lightness but I also feel that now it is almost white washes, there is now umph or focal point to the kitchen. So I've been wanting to paint the space between the backsplash and the cabinets a musty blue. So my mom told me of the cool second hand building material store. I'm always up for something like that ao I headed right over yesterday. The lighting wasn't great but they had a pretty big selection, at least bigger than I thought. So I picked up this paint for a whopping $2.00! Nut when I put it on the wall, I stated having second thoughts...it's not a big deal at all for me to repaint... So what do you think... To dark?

before...

after...




and...

The how to of canning apricots

We have been canning like CRAZY GIRLS!!

90 something cans in 2 days... I took a bunch of pictures but for the life of my they would not upload, I seriously have tried 5+ times over the last 2 days and so I give up...so here are the instructions with out pictures,,,sorry :(

So first off the processing time for the waterbath is 30 min between 190-200 degrees.

prep work:

before anything else...fill your dishwasher chalk full with quart jars in counts of 7 (that's how many jars fill a canner)

1.make sugar water by combinding 3 parts water to one part sugar (just make a ton of this...as much as your largest pot will fit..) then bring to a boil and turn it down

2. Fill your canner with hot water and keep heat on low on your stove top

3.count out 7 or 14 lids, place in a Pan with water, bring to a boil, then turn to low.

4.fill left sink with cold water to wash your fruit

5. Fill a large bowl or your right with water and sprinkle "fruit freash" over the top

6. Set towels ourt on the counter where you are going to put your finished canned fruit and put towels on the floor to help contol the absolute stickyness!

Ready!

First place a good amount of apricots in your washing sink

then cut them in half, removing pit and any yuckiness (we put a little bowl below where we are cutting to place the yuckiness

put the yummy apricot halves into the fruit freash bowl

once you have your bowl filled high, pull out 7 quart jars from the dishwasher and fill them up!

(we like the regular mouth for the apricots because the lip holds the fruit in their spot well but we don't have tiny hands like our mom so, use the bubbler ...or a butter knive... As a slide for the apricots, guiding them to the right spot!!

Make sure all your fruit is skin side up, is just prettier

Drain the excess liquid from the jar-otherwise when all finished the juice at the bottom looks cloudy

pour hot/warm sugar water in to the jars, then bubble- that's my favorite part!

Next take a wet wash cloth and wipe off the tops of the jars to remove any stuff- this ensures a nice seal

take a fork or magnets and fish out a lid from the pot place on the top of the jar and firmly tighten the ring around it.

Now you are ready to place your first set of apricots into the canner!!! Makesure you start with the center position so that it stays balanced.

When all the jars are in place, make sure the water is about and inch or so above the jar tops, then place the canner lid on and turn your heat to high. The water needs to reach between 190-200 degrees. When it reaches temp, turn your heat down to medium low and set the timer for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, start cutting again!

Once the timer sounds, turn the heat to "off" take the jars out-ending with the center to keep balance- and place them on the toweled counter. These need to sit for 24 hours before they can be washed and put away.

Add some ice to your canner to cool down the scalding water and finish prepping your next batch. When the water has cooled to 150-160ish the. You can put in your next set of 7 jars!!

Repeat!

Yum!

Wakin up early

So Kyle woke me up earlier than I actually wanted, which is weird because I Love to wake up early early. But he left before the sun was ashinin' this morning and I couldn't go back to sleep, I just love the quietness of morning time, time to think, time to read, time to create!! I am all excited to spend the day with my sisters! Wahooooo for Sister Friday!!!! Being a sister is a weird thing...we are sooo so so different from each other, yet we love to be together. Sometimes I don't get how three girls who are so different can stand to constantly be hanging out together! Therese the adventerous go getter, Jocelyn the grandmother at heart and me, somewhere in the middle. But I do get it, all at the same time, our differences make things fun interesting perfect. Being a sister is incredible, God designed, after 6.5 years I am still so grateful my hunk of a hubby moved me close to them!

Sunshine Daisy Quilt Tutorial

Soooo, I found a fun find on craigslist this week, a lady selling all of her grandmothers vintage material, granted what she had was an astounding amount of fabric , most of it was ugly ugly but I found a fun garbage bag full!!!  As soon as I found this yellow on yellow print an image popped in my head and I knew what i was going to make!  I call it the sunshine quilt!  

 

Please dont laugh at my process but this is how I make stuff... I dont tend to be very specific when I am first cutting, I cut more material than I need and then size it down to exactly what I need it to be once I lay it all out.

1. I cut out of the yellow on yellow about how large I wanted the baby quilt to be, (ended up being almost exactly a yard)

2.  Then I cut out of cream on cream print from the little old seamstress a rectangle that looked pleasing to my eye that would fit in the middle.

3. I cut out a TON of 3 inch wide and very long strips of all different creams and some of the yelllow print, and quite a few of long flower petals.

4. Then I laid them all out, with the rectangle in the center and flower petals forming an off centered flower in the middle and switching all the stripes around until I found what worked for me.

 

5.  I sewed the 2 sets of 4 long strips together at 1/4 inch seam allowance), then the 2 sets of 4 short strips, (although this can be done in any order :)

 

6. Next up was the flower, a normal person uses wonder under ( a fabulous material that binds with an iron one fabric to another) but I didn't have wonder under and so I pinned that flower like it was going out of style!

 

7. Then slowly and carefully (which I am terrible at, I like to sew fast) I zig zagged around the petals, (you need to play with the zig zag a bit on some scraps before you find the right width and length and such)

 

8. Once that was sewn together I sewed the short sides to the flower rectangle and then finally the long stripes onto the rectangle (of course ironing my seams down as I went)

  

9.  Then I found the thinnest batting possible to fit between the back and the front  of the quilt.

10. I like the envelope finish the best when it comes to binding quilts, it just looks cleaner to me.  So you do this by laying down the right side of the back of the quilt facing up with the right side of the top of the quilt directly on top of it facing down (so right sides together) then placing the batting on top of the wrong side of the top of the quilt.. I hope that makes sense.. then pin

 

11. Sew along the outer edge, leaving at least a 6 inch gap in the middle of one side so that you can turn the quilt right sides out. I like to double pin the spot that i am going to leave open so that I remember to actually do it, half the time i forget!

12. Trim off all the left over egde, or serge it, then turn the quilt right sides out.

 

13. Once its turned facing out pin the edges so that the edge, when doing the finishing stitch looks straight and even, and clean. Making sure that the opening you left it tucked in together and looking like the rest of the edge, I pin this part really close together so that it says nice and perfect (at least that is the goal)

14. Do the finishing stitch around the outer edge very close (1/4 inch) , beautiful!

15. Then I pinned the center of the flower on top and did a zig zag around that,

 

16. And to keep the quilt from bunching in the wash, I did a bit of stitching in the ditch.

To stitch in the ditch just set you machine to sew a straight line and then as closely as possible stitch along the seamline from one end of the quilt to the other.  I did one row on each side of the quilt.  

 

And done!!!

 

  Wouldn't it just look so pretty in a room like this

or this...

FYI for those of you who live in eagle, this quilt was made for an auction that is going to be held at the Palmers house on Monday the 19th in the evening, it is a benefit BBQ and Auction for a friend that has cancer, to benefit his wife and children with all the expenses they have at the current time, if you want any more info give me a call and I hopefully gave help :)

Brit