I want to remember this little girl.

Little Sadie.  My number 3... my miracle, my joy.
I want to remember that smile, the bounce in her step, that hair.
I know these days will be gone soon... and I just want to remember.
Summer days... filled with laughing and giggling, captured effortlessly and purely by my Sadie.

You can read more about little Sadie's story here... if you haven't already :)

Blessings,

Mini Envelope Cards with Seals... Printable

Today it's a dear friend of mine's Birthday...
And I needed to do a post for you beautiful people :)
....So hurray for multi-tasking at its best!

I made some sweet little envelope cards this morning... perfect for attaching to a little gift.  And I'd like to share them with you....
I also made some little stickers to seal the envelope cards.

Here's what you do to make these for yourself:
Download the files...

Print the envelopes on card stock and cut on the lines into rectangles.  I would suggest folding them next, before you cut off the corners on the flaps.  This seems to be easier than trying to fold the flap after it's cut... it's kinda small and awkward!

Print the stickers on sticker paper (or plain paper if you don't have sticker paper) Then just punch out the stickers with a 1" circle punch. (Use a glue stick for your seals if you printed on plain paper...)

Leave a cheery hello if you plan to download!  Thanks and Enjoy! :)

DOWNLOAD ENVELOPES

DOWNLOAD STICKERS
 (Please Remember...File and finished product for personal use only... not for resale or profit of any kind.)


Happy Birthday, Kerstin!  I love you :)

Blessings,

HOME SWEET HOME TOUR... Spring Cleaning in the Office

A couple weeks ago, I took some time and did a little Spring cleaning in my office/work space... it felt so wonderful.  I organized pretty much every drawer, nook, and cranny.  This included cleaning out and my "decorative" cube shelves.  I wanted to display some of my favorite pretties and also make space for those crafting supplies that had gotten lost in some back drawers.  I figured if I could see some of those things I wanted to use, then maybe I'd actually remember to use them!  Genius, right? :)

I thought I'd show you the shelves... and a couple new things on the wall... Enjoy peaking into my office!  (if you'd like to see the rest of it... well at least what it looked like a year ago... click here!)

Scrap fabric... for projects like this, and this... oh, and this!

Vintage stationery... to use and for inspiration...  

 

Paint chips and vintage map puzzle pieces... color inspiration.

 Vintage books, magazines, cards to cut up or repurpose...  oh, the things I want to do with this pile!

Vintage catalogs... these are awesome!!  I've already used them for half a dozen projects...which I will share with you soon :)

These are a couple of my fav pages from those catalogs... 

I mounted them on foam core with spray glue... 

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Blessings,

HAPPY THING :) Vanilla Milk...

The other day when we were out as a family in OKC, the girls were thirsty and J.J. and I needed a boost as well, so we stopped at Starbucks.  We usually get the girls regular milk there, but they were out.  So we opted for their vanilla milk (rather than chocolate, because I don't like stains!).  Whoah.  That stuff was good.  The girls were licking there lips and rubbing there tummies acting like it was the best thing they had ever tasted! ... It reminded me of something I used to drink when I couldn't sleep.  I would heat a mug a milk in the microwave, add a teaspoonful of sugar and a drop of vanilla.  So... I offered that sometime I would make them vanilla milk at home.  Let's just say they take me up on that offer as frequently as they can :)  It's become a special "tea time" of sorts... we always use the special little flowered glasses, as they call them.  It's fun to see them get all excited.  It's definitely a Happy Thing :)

In case you'd like to try it as well...
I just warm 4 cups of milk and add 6-8 Tablespoons of sugar (depending on how sweet you want it) and a teaspoon of vanilla.  Chill and serve!  Yum.

Blessings,

A Pretty Little Gift

I wanted to show you the goodies I whipped up for the special moms in my life the other weekend...
Enjoy :)


First off, I filled some glassine bags with pretty colored treats...

I decorated the bags with fabric scrap flags, meaningful verses, little labels, and sewed it all together with a zig-zag stitch.

I made fabric covered little envelopes... to hold simple little Mother's Day notes.

I wrapped Hershey's Nuggets with Avery address labels... which I had printed vintage floral patterns and polka dots on.

And finally, I wrapped  little boxes in vintage sewing pattern paper and vintage Montgomery Ward catalog pages... (I don't have a pic of the one in the catalog pages :(  )  to hold all the goodies!  I used plenty of double stick tape to secure the brittle paper onto the box... that worked much better than regular tape or glue. 

I liked the wrapped boxes so much, I think I'm going to have to make some for myself... they'd look great on my office shelves :)

Blessings,

Dates to Celebrate Printable... and Some Mid-Year Resolutions

 

I used to be pretty good at remembering birthdays, anniversaries, smaller holidays (like Mother's Day), writing thank-you notes, etc... but in the last few years I have really slipped.  It's very discouraging to me (especially since, that's kinda one my thing... making creative pretty things!!)!  I want to show my love and appreciation to my family and friends, but I feel like life is often so overwhelming that those things get pushed to the back and usually get forgotten.

When I was in high-school, I used to dream about one day being a stay-at-home mom :)  I remember telling Jeremy when we were dating about how I wanted have time to do those things that everyone else says they don't have time for... and I specifically mentioned sending notes and sweet gifts to friends, family, and little old ladies :) :)  ..oh, the idealism.  

Now I laugh at that, because I didn't realize how incredibly time consuming it would be just to be a mom! ... not to mention house-keeping!   But at the same time, it reminds me of where my priorities began.  And I believe they were pure.  I knew those things were important... showing love and appreciation to friends and family... and at that young age, I was trying to figure out how I could make sure I was always able to do those thing.

So I have a mid-year resolution:  The first part of my resolution is to do some weeding in my schedule.  

You see, I feel kind of like a hypocrite.  It is so important to me to put my husband and my kids first in my daily life.  They are currently my primary assignment and responsibility from God.  I believe that everything else should take a backseat to their spiritual, emotional, and physical needs.  This includes my recreation, my work ambitions, my friends, outside activities, and even church involvement.  If anything gets in the way of me fulfilling my God-given responsibilities to my husband and kids then it should not be in my life...

Sounds good.  BUT... it's really hard to live out.  EVERYTHING wants to creep in and steal my devotion to my call.... even good things like church involvement!  so hard.  So I have to admit to you, I've messed up.  I've allowed myself to be distracted from my original calling.  I've let my work (Etsy, freelance design projects, and even blogging) invade on my time with my kids.  My work load makes me grumpy and steals my best hours away from those little hearts eager for my attention.

So the first part of my resolution is to clear out my schedule... and make room for being the mom I need to be.  And I've been doing this!  I've been turning down pretty much all new freelance projects.  This is unbelievably hard for me considering I've only been building my graphic design business for the past 2  years.  God has blessed me with more business that time permits.  So now he's teaching me how to trust him every time I tell someone "no."    I fear that all that I've worked so hard at the last 2 years with be for nothing if I reject project offers, but I know God is the one who causes me to succeed or fail... not any skills I might have or how hard I work at it.

Okay, so the second part of my resolution is to get back to that place of fulfilling my original call... my God-given assignment for this stage of life. 

 I've been thinking really hard about those early dreams and ambitions for being a wife, a mom, and a home-maker.  I'm jotting down all those things that I want to focus on again: meaningful time with my husband and kids, making meals, keeping up with the house work, keeping up relationships with my family...including those cards and gifts I was talking about earlier (it took me awhile, but I eventually got back to my original point!!).... and it goes on and on to more specific things....

So... in the middle of this process, I made this printable to help me with all those important dates that I need to remember!  I thought I'd share it with you as well... maybe it will help you get back to some of those things that actually have lasting impact on others :) 

This calendar-of-sorts is for recording all those dates to celebrate... including birthdays, anniversaries, holidays that you should call or send someone something...   I'm putting it in my household binder...along with my other planner pages (blog/etsy planner, Christmas gift planner).

DOWNLOAD HERE

*As always...File and finished product for personal use only... not for resale or profit of any kind.



Blessings,