preoccupied

I've been a bit preoccupied lately...

We had a BOY on June 4th - 4 weeks early. I was early with my last one by 5 weeks, so I anticipated being early again.

I made these cute little announcements. They are very simple and super easy. The bunting is just 1" triangles sewn on and I stamped on the "hooray" using acrylic paint as the "ink" so it would look painted on. I think they turned out cute.

And my little boy is such a sweet heart. It's all so fun the third time around.

i've been published!

If you ever thought you'd be a scrap-booker, then you know the guilt of falling behind. Way behind! Like you've had another kid since you started your first kids baby book behind. Well, that was me. And it turns out. . . I hate scrap booking. It's just not for me. I'd rather see pictures and know the story then have fancy doo-dads and cutesy paper. Plus, I just don't have a talent for it.
SO, this is where blurb comes in. There are plenty of website where you can get pictures made into a book, but the great thing about blurb is that they offer software that slurps your blog into a book for you. After that you have to go through and choose your book size (this is set in stone once you choose, so choose wisely), add more pictures (like when you have a zillion pictures and you know you just can put them ALL on your blog), enlarge font, etc. The software's not perfect, it's totally SLOW and is crazy time consuming, but it's worth it in the end. I have been blogging since 2007 and thought I'd start there. So yes, I'm still behind printing my books, but it's ok. The pictures and stories are still there. All I have to do is add more pictures and viola. Family history.

My book has 200 pages in it and cost $63. It is the Standard Landscape (I wanted to be able to fit it in a bookshelf. The bigger ones are awesome, but I'm not sure where I'd store the books later). I think the Landscape version is good because it makes the book more coffee-table-like (less text book feeling) and I think you can fit more pictures on the pages. Maybe it seems expensive, but when you figure the book has 360 pictures in it and at IF I got them printed as 4 x 6 prints (and the majority of the prints are 5x7 and 8x10) for $.11 each that's approx. $40 plus having to buy albums to put all of the pictures in. And no story. And then writing dates on the back of 360 pictures. I hate doing that!It was totally worth it and I hope to get some birthday money so I can print 2008. Oh yeah - if you have (grand)parents or family who want a copy, you can always make it available online for them to go to the website and buy.

Tie Quilt

And. . . I'm still here. Is anyone else??? Sorry. . . Merry Christmas? Happy Holidays? Happy New Year?

I HAVE in fact been sewing and need to post soon, but I've also been working on having my family blog printed into a book and that, my friends, has taken forever. But! I just got it in the mail and it was worth every minute of computer torture. I'll take pictures and show it to you because you should totally make one. Anyway, the above quilt is NOT mine. In fact, I took a picture of it over a year ago and have been meaning to post about it because I think it's really neat. It was made by a woman in her 80's who's husband passed away and happened to own hundreds of ties. That's right. All of those strips of fabric came from her husbands ties! You can really see the 70's in there! What a fun concept. Not that I have EVER made a quilt, but I certainly appreciate the art/craft of it.

What a fun treasure this quilt will be. Seeing all of the different fabrics and remembering grandpa wearing them. I would like to do something similar, but with cotton shirts of my grandma's maybe?? Or maybe my daughter's baby/toddler clothes if I can stand cutting them at all?