Pocket Full of Whimsy

DIY: Making Annual Photo Books Manageable

2012-02-28T11:45:00.000-08:00

Being a photographer I have literally thousands of personal pictures stored on my hard-drive each year. Though I use them a lot on Facebook and on the blog, probably less than 1% are ever printed. That made me a little sad. I've always intended on creating photobooks from these pictures but to be frank the task seemed ridiculously overwhelming.

However, in attempt to embrace my "mantra" if you can call that, from the last few years, "something is better than nothing," I decided to start with current life and make a book (set of books) for 2011. The OCD me wanted to go back at least until the birth of our first child but I gave myself grace to get there in time but to at least just start with this most recent year.

I used My Publisher (and I'll share more about them later) but I am absolutely thrilled with the results!

In case you'd like to tackle your own project I'll share my process and tips.

Getting Started:

If you don't already, try to arrange your photos into folders by month or at least in chronological order. I use Lightroom for business and personal and so all photos taken in a certain month get uploaded into a file marked "January 2011 Personal" and so on. It makes it much easier to find them even if there are 400 images in a folder.

Next you need to select which pictures you'll include in your book. I would look at each picture in the month's folder and rate every picture I wanted to use with one star. If your editing program has any other way of flagging a picture you can do that as well. Then once I had them all flagged I selected them and exported them to a file on my desktop for just that month. I obviously did this for each month.

Once you've selected your pictures you've made a huge step!

Creating the Book:

I tried out My Publisher based on the recommendation from Ashley Anne from Under the Sycamore. I fully recommend them as well.

What I loved initially is that you actually download the My Publisher application to your computer and it was able to access all of my images without uploading them to an external website which meant that I could use them right away.

To keep it manageable I would only drag and drop one month folder of photos into the program at a time and finish all the pages for that month before I moved on.

In effort to keep it simple I chose a classic theme with just nice white pages and no text. I would look at my pictures, decide how many I wanted on a page and then search for a template that suited it. I also liked that I had the option to create my own image boxes and layout if none of theirs fit the pictures I wanted together.

Being that I ended up with 180 pages between two books (each holds a max of 100 pages) it could end up being quite costly. Companies like this though have really great and quite frequent promotions.

I had 3 months left to complete when I received an email offering "All Extra Pages Free". That meant I would only pay the flat rate of $35 for a 20 page book and all of my extra pages were free. Considering I had 140 extra pages that was the most. amazing. deal. ever. I kicked it into high gear and finished my remaining months just in time to take advantage of the offer! Woot woot!

I think the wisest idea is to create your photo book and have it ready to print and then wait for a great offer to come along rather than pay full price. There are loads of buy one get one free or 50% off. Just be patient.

When you're ready to print you'll need to upload your entire book then to their website. This can take a while, especially if you're me and didn't read their size recommendations and used images that were probably 20x the size necessary for even full page pictures. Ooops.

I really would like to have books printed from the several years prior as well and so I'll slowly work on them and have them ready to print. It's also my goal to start on this year's photo books by creating pages at the end of each month or two so that by the end of the year it's all completed. We'll see how that goes.

I'm so happy with these books. The quality is fantastic. So much better than the few Snapfish books I've created. I love them and am so excited for the library we'll have after a few years. As a friend jested on Facebook that I had received my "Willms Encyclopedia of Living Series". It's such a great name I may have to use it on next year's book!

And for a little randomness... here are my littles cuddling after looking at the books watching "'Spicable Me".

Have a great week!

Super Hero Birthday Brunch | Part II

2012-02-14T06:37:00.000-08:00

We have really cool friends. When I sent the party invites I didn't plan for guests to wear costumes but said that Kai and Hanny would be and if people felt like it they definitely could. It was super fun to see all the amazing super heroes that showed up :)

Uncle Matt and Finley. Canada Boy and Canglish Boy! Finners how cute are you?!

Little Spidey Hunter.

Clark Kent with Canglish boy!

We've got a Super lady here!

What a cute Super family. Canada Boy, English Woman and Canglish Boy!

Super Sadie!

More of our super family!

I'm so blessed.

Auntie Crystal and Uncle Collin!

Plasma cars were a big hit.

Super Hanny having some cake :)

Playing a little B-Ball!

You would never know this was a toddler party by the looks of the next couple of pictures!

There may have been a few Plasma car races...

Nice of you to share tall one ;)

Miss Emma as Bat Girl!

Part of the Wagstaff clan. Erin and her Super boys!

All the mini Supers! I'm learning that whole group pictures should always be taken in the first half of the party or it's not going to happen!

Oh my little Hanny... you are so tired!

Present time! Love how all the little girls are congregating around the musical My Little Pony toy :)

Apparently I thought something was funny.

Angry Birds finger puppets. Good times.

Party favours!

Little Ryker :)

Love it!

Finger lasers! No super hero is complete without one.

The Super Tregonings!

Family!

We had such an amazing time and were so thankful for all the help setting up and taking down. I'm blown away by all of the effort people put into being "super" for a day.

Thanks for loving our kids!

Super Hero Birthday Brunch | Part I

2012-02-13T12:53:00.000-08:00

The girl one and the boy one have birthdays 5 days apart. This year their Auntie Crystal and her boyfriend Collin made arrangements to come down this month so we could have family at a birthday party - so cool! So, we decided to throw a combined party for our little "supers".

I find mornings a great time for toddler birthdays and so we hosted a birthday brunch. This also made it much more economical to feed 30+ guests. A cereal bar!

Over 300 pics were taken at the party so I'll split the posts up. This one will just focus on decor and tips on pulling it off.

Here is our food table.

Cityscape Backdrop - I purchased a tri-fold cardboard piece from Hobby Lobby that was already blue and glued/taped black poster board to it, topped with the yellow poster board "windows".

Comic Book Bunting - I needed "G" rated comic book pages for the bunting and came across an "Incredibles" book at the dollar store. I just cut pennants and sewed them to ribbon.

The cereals were the main course. I collected various glass containers to hold them and created custom super hero labels in photo shop. By using the same shape and "scheme" it saved a lot of time. For the graphics I searched for free graphics in google images.

Cereal Names:
Shredder Wheat
Rings of Power
Invisicharms
Thor's Hammers
Wonder Puffs
Cookie Kryptonite
Apple Jacks Bauer (My personal fave cause Jack Bauer should definitely count as a super hero!)
The Lone Granola
Captain America Crunch

We also rounded out the carb overload with Co-op donuts. They are the bomb. I also found delish Devil's Food Cake sprinkled donut holes in the Minot Walmart.

We just used inexpensive plastic table cloths for the tables and topped with our hero balloons.

Each child place setting had a super hero picture to colour (with crayons), a super mask, their plate/bowl and a juice. I fully recommend juice boxes for the kids as it cuts down on spillage exponentially!

Rather than finding helium balloons that would float I purchased balloons on a stick so we could put them in vases. Using scrapbook paper we cut masks for each balloon and just taped them on. The kids enjoyed taking these home as well.

I will say it again, a bounce house is one of the best investments a parent of a toddler can make. We use ours for EVERYTHING!!

The English one blessed us by volunteering to make a super cake for the kids. It was absolutely amazing! Everyone loved it and it tasted delicious. She included the Wonder Woman for Hanny specifically and then Batman and Superman. I love all the details and that it has clean simple lines. So beautiful. It was a great center piece!

The birthday boy and girl sitting with their cake as we sang "Happy Birthday". They are so tired.

Along one wall in the gym I had the tall one (and then Crys/Collin) create a city scape using newspaper. It's perfect as it nods to things like "The Daily Planet" newspaper and comic book prints in general plus it's already in rectangles. They taped them up the wall and then added more windows. I had created the "pop" and "Kaboom" signs on photoshop. "Badaboom" from Dafonts is a great free font you can use for your own.

As you can see the tall one is rocking Clark Kent and I at last minute decided to go as his Lois Lane. That's my press I.D. around my neck. We thought it fitting to go with Lois Lane and Clark Kent who got married and had little super babies. I made each of the kids' capes and forgot to get pictures of them. I guess we'll have to have another photo shoot!

We got most of our guests to get pics done in the photo booth - I'll share all of the fun pics with real live people in them in the next post!!!

Nater's and Karah! More Little People Pics :)

2012-02-03T12:23:00.000-08:00

If you recall I mentioned that one of Kai's good friend's birthday is 2 days after his. We even got to have adjoining rooms at the hospital for one night after we had them. They've been friends since day one.

This morning Nater's and I headed outside for 10 minutes for his birthday shoot. I think I got a good 80 + shots of him in that time. A few times after I had clicked a 10 shot burst he'd say "I think that's too many!" he he.

He's turning 4!

Handsome little man. With quite the personality as well. When doing kid's pictures I like to keep them talking about the things they love because they usually end their sentences with a smile that I can snap. When I was asking questions about Monster Trucks he'd answer, "Yeah, Man!"

My boy one was a little distraught that I was leaving with Naters and not him so we grabbed him for a few "friend shots" at the end. They mostly pretended that they were freezing so we went inside :)

Karah's birthday is in a few months but it's always good to have more pictures :) I must admit that I feel a wee bit victorious that I was able to get Karah to look at me and smile for pictures. Pretty much a photographer Ninja. Usually K is a master avoider of the lens but not today!

A win for Auntie Mo!

Sweetheart.

Love her little laugh.

Super Kai Kai

2012-02-01T12:21:00.000-08:00

The boy one and the girl one are having a together birthday party this year. They are very excited to celebrate with all of their friends at their "Super Hero Birthday Brunch"! They will of course be decked out in their super hero gear and in preparation for the party we did a few "super" birthday pictures of the boy one.

I love the whole idea of Clark Kent to Superman and so here is my little man rocking Clark Kent.

Beware bad guys - Super Kai Kai has his mad face on!

Seriously... someone's in trouble again? Sigh.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?...

Pow!

Faster than a speeding bullet!

Even super's feel shy sometimes.

Ta da! It's me - Superman!

Have a super day :)

2 Years Old | Cute, Funny and Fabulous

2012-01-31T07:22:00.000-08:00

In less than one week my baby will turn 2 years old! I will admit that I am struggling with my oldest transitioning out of toddlerhood. I love toddlers. At their first birthdays it was more of a celebration of "Yay we survived the first year!" As much as I loved them at that stage I think the toddler years are magic. I love that Hanny is turning two... but maybe she can slow it down from here on out :)

The girl one wasn't loving the outdoor birthday shoots (even though it was 0 degrees in JANUARY!) - practically summer. Instead we attempted them indoors today.

I had such a hard time picking outfits. I could have chosen like 18 but she was only willing to allow 1. I can't get enough of that fur vest.

She looks so short and smooshy here. She is neither.

Toddler Photo Tip : If you have a "runner" as Hanny would most definitely be put them on something where they can't escape but makes them feel special and like a big kid. I had the boy one sit on the fireplace in my room first to show her how cool it was and then asked him if Hanny could have a turn. She then was most pleased to sit on the fireplace on not run away.

Another tip: Give them a prop to keep them occupied but that you don't mind having in the shot. My kids share my love of vintage cameras and so we use them a lot in photo shoots.

Another thing to note is that I did all of these blue wall pictures in about 3 foot wide space. You don't need loads of space.

Due to the nature of my first child (outgoing and hilarious) I kind of expected that my second might be quiet and settle somewhat in her older brother's shadow. Thankfully she does nothing of the sort.

Hanny is thoughtful and kind. She is such a nurturer and has the most gentle touch.

Beautifully complimenting that is her fierce and passionate nature. She is fearless and she leads in that. At this age it is most often her brother that draws from her strength. She will tackle the intimidating rides at the amusement park and make the boy one feel safe. I dropped them off at a friends during my hair appointment the other day and Kai asked, "Will Hannah be there to protect me?" So cute and so true to their relationship.

Hanny is vibrant and hilarious. Her and her brother make each other laugh constantly.

Beautiful girl I pray you always know how stunning you are and who God made you to be. You are a daughter of the King. You have a royal anointing and the fierceness of a lioness. I pray you always stay fearless.

DIY | Love Notes Photo Pillow

2012-01-30T06:33:00.000-08:00

I'm still quite enamored with the whole printing on regular fabric with a freezer paper backing thing. If you missed the how to you can get up to speed with this tutorial.

With Valentine's day approaching I decided to make a "love notes" pillow.

I recently put all of my "Christmas money" into purchasing an iPad 2. We LOVE it. One of the apps I purchased was Notability. It is a great note taking app where you can actually hand write notes, add pictures, make diagrams, etc. I pretty much just let my kids scribble on pages :)

One day though I wondered if there was a way to send the "notes" to my computer and thus print them... onto fabric... see where I'm going with this?

Of course there is a way. You just hit email.

I sent it as a pdf. Excuse the messy-ish handwriting, I wanted it to look like scribbled love notes and it's hard to hand write with your finger :)

I printed the "note" onto the freezer paper backed fabric. My initial thought was to cover the majority of the pillow in a patchwork of notes but then I decided to make a bigger pillow and ended up choosing a picture for the pillow as well.

The English one took this pic of the tall one and I shortly after we had the girl one. It was a mini date for us. Fun times :)

With both printed out I cut them into patches (rather than using just one 8.5 x 11 piece of fabric as the cover.)

Using the same material that I printed on I cut another 16 x 16" piece and started arranging the notes, the picture, a doily and other pieces of coordinating fabric on top of it.

Once I was happy with the arrangement I started sewing the "bottom most" layers on which in this case was the yellow polka dot fabric. To sew the picture and note patches on I used a zig zag stitch right on the edges to prevent fraying and because I liked the look of it.

The doilies are tricky to sew at times because they bunch and stretch. It did pucker my pillow a bit but helped when I sewed an "x" though it. The floral is a print from a vintage sheet that I cut out and zig zagged on.

With everything sewn on the front I cut a piece of 16 x 16 grey corduroy, placed right sides together and sewed the pillow leaving an opening at the bottom for turning and stuffing.

After it was stuffed I used a hidden stitch to close the opening and chucked it on my ever growing collection of bed pillows.

The "sunshine" quote has special meaning for us. I started "liking" the tall one when I was in grade 9 and he in grade 11. We'd flirt at youth group and in the hallways at school and though I only lived 3 blocks from school he'd rumble up to me half way through my journey in his 434 blue Chevy and offer me a ride home. I of course always accepted. My friends gave him the code name "Sunshine" and would write notes asking "How is the sun shining today?" or leave voicemails wishing me a "very sunny Sunday." When he rumbled up in the truck they'd start singing, "I've got sunshine... on a cloudy day!"

We started dating in my grade 10 year and here we are 15 years later, ridiculously happily married with two children we adore. My whole life has been pretty sunny :)

Though this really wasn't my initial vision for the pillow at all, it does make me happy and I think it looks pretty "sunny". I'll still likely try out a version that is just "notes".

I'm thinking that the tall one wouldn't be overly thrilled to receive a frilly pillow for Valentine's day but it's a cute romantic piece of nostalgia for the bedroom. The possibilities for variations are literally endless when you don't restrict yourself to the 8.5 x 11 format and work with pieces.

If you've made or make a pillow of your own using the freezer paper technique please share, we'd love to see them!

~ Monique

The Boy One

2012-01-27T20:49:00.000-08:00

February is a busy month for us. More specifically the second week of February is very busy. The girl one was born on February 6th and the boy one on the 11th. To make it even more fun they have two other close friends born on the 11th and 13th.

I pout a little bit that for the rest of my life I will never get to throw a backyard birthday party outdoors, utilizing our party sized deck :( I will inevitably be renting venues and trying to find space for all the amazing people that help celebrate our kids.

Another consideration is that I also usually have to do the kids birthday pictures indoors because normally my camera lens would likely freeze shut in the -30 to -50 temps we'd usually have. However, the Lord has blessed us this year and this last week it hit +7 in January!!!

The snowfall was so beautiful last night that I dragged the kids outside for a 10 minute mini shoot this afternoon before all the snow would blow off of the trees.

I have another shoot or two in mind and will definitely need it as the girl one wasn't super cooperative.

When shooting the boy one I've learned to wait for the "in between" expressions. His silly faces and "cheese" face are great. But it's the "in between" expressions that reflect some of the most beautiful parts of his personality.

Sigh... I love him.

He is such a sweet boy.

I spend a lot of time talking to God about who my kids are and who He created them to be. It's imperative for me to know in order to know how to parent them wisely.

My son feels a lot. In seeking the Lord in this, He has been very clear that Kai feels the heart of God and that is a large part of his calling and gifting. He will hear the heart of God, he will feel the heart of God, he will move with the heart of God.

My son is captivated by the story of Samuel in the Old Testament. If you're unfamiliar with it, Samuel was raised in the temple under Eli the priest. As a young boy God called out to him in the night and after finally recognizing it was the Lord, Samuel answered, "Speak. I am your servant, ready to listen." God spoke and from then on Samuel lived and operated as a prophet.

Kai asks to read the story of Samuel multiple times a week. We've been having good conversations about what it means to hear from God. He already does. He will insist we need to pray for a friend and he'll be spot on. We will have been praying for somebody and later in the day out of the blue he'll inform me that we need to thank Jesus because he's answered our prayer and I find out later that he had.

Little boy, I pray you keep listening just like Samuel.

DIY | Crochet Heart Headband

2012-01-24T12:18:00.000-08:00

I pinned this adorable little heart garland from Julia Crossland. It is so cute and I thought the two-tone hearts would make great headband embellishments. Julia does a fantastic job of the pattern and has many pictures to accompany the tutorial. Click on the blog name above to get the pattern for yourself!

I had the girl one model the headband for pics even though this headband and it's twin are on route to two special little girls as an early Valentine's gift.

To attach it to the headband I just ran a bead of hot glue along the band and stuck the heart to it. If I wanted to be fancier or hold it's shape better it would have been a good idea to glue a felt heart to the back of it, sandwiching the headband between the two.

Cutie little girl and her bear - always together. I love that she still sort of fits in her doll stroller :)

Turns out that these charming hearts are so addicting to make that I'm making the heart garland that the tutorial was initially for as well! Stay tuned!

Pugged

2012-01-22T08:23:00.000-08:00

Since my brother and I moved out and left my parents as empty nesters they have replaced us with dogs. Poncho (male pug) was actually added to the family by brother and somehow in my family we all end up owning each other's pets (it is how we came to own our chocolate lab Molly). The parents then adopted CoCo (like Channel, not chocolate) and travel North America with their two little diva babies.

Things got a little complicated though when in spite of all their efforts to prevent it, Poncho knocked up CoCo. Poncho is apparently quite the stud and rather than CoCo delivering a typical first litter of 2-4 puppies she delivered 7 - in a Semi truck. Two unfortunately were stillborn but she had 5 thriving little pups.

These 5 little pups were dropped off in my kitchen last week as my parents drove through town. Yes, in this picture there are 6 but the front middle one is their stuffed toy they like to snuggle with. Que the melting...

We've had these little characters for almost a week now...

Don't be fooled by their cute faces. This is normally what they are doing - attacking my feet! I have to shuffle around the kitchen with at least 3 puppies dragging from my slippers.

The girl one likes the puppies and isn't afraid to boss them around.

I'm learning that little puppies can make you feel like a horrible person. If I walk by their box and don't let me out or don't give them a little snuggle, they look at you like this. Or worse, they prop themselves up with their front paws on the box and look at you like this.

This little dude is Frodo. He's the male runt of the litter and he's feisty. His personality makes me laugh daily and he's proven to be the brains of the operation as well. He's a master at escaping.

They are seriously so cute. It almost makes up for all the poop and pee I have to clean up on their training pad. Almost.

I love their natural instinct to play. That's all they do. They sleep, play, eat, poop, play and then sleep some more. Their antics of batting each other around and pouncing one another is hilarious.

Not gonna lie, they also chew EVERYTHING. Living or not.

Here they are conspiring as to how they will attack my toes next.

"What? I'm not about to pounce you."

Judging by the paws I think this is Jethro.

This might be Millicent. She's a doll.

This has been my week. Dealing with these 5 babies and my own 2. No I will not be keeping one - which means there are more for you!

Mom and Dad can deliver anywhere from Saskatoon to Regina, to Winnipeg or Brandon, to Estevan and to Calgary!

DIY | Felt PB & J Game

2012-01-21T14:48:00.000-08:00

I can't even remember how exactly I came upon this cute little tutorial (probably Pinterest, via another website and then another...) but I absolutely adore it! Mollie from Wild Olive created this charming felt Peanut Butter and Jelly game. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to make one!

She based the felt version on a popomatic game she had as a child where you had to create peanut butter and jelly sandwiches out of foam. I needed a project for craft night and this was perfect!

You can download a PDF template for the pieces at the above link. I pinned each to my felt and cut. The most time consuming part was stitching around each bread slice. But I like my happy little bread pieces :)

It's a great game for toddlers. To begin you have stacks of bread, peanut butter and jam. Then you must roll the felt dice trying to get the first piece of your sandwich which must be bread. If you don't get bread you don't pick up and you have to try for it again next time. Once you have your bread then you attempt to roll peanut butter or jam (you need both eventually) and then another piece of bread to finish your sandwich. The first player to finish a sandwich wins.

My son loves it and fully gets the concept. My daughter just loves to make sandwiches :)

This was a really satisfying project to make and I think they'd make adorable little gifts packaged in a sandwich bag with a print out of the rules. Seeing as everyone I know was born in February I may be making a few of these :)

DIY | Vintage Card Notebooks and Postcards

2012-01-14T14:48:00.000-08:00

Last year I scored two bags of vintage-ish assorted cards. My best guess is that a sweet little old lady stocked up on cards for years and years and then realized she'd likely not use them all and donated them to Salvation Army. I'm glad she passed them on.

I've never been a big celebrator of Valentine's Day, and now that my children's birthdays both fall the week of I celebrate it even less, but I decided I'd make a few Valentine type things just in case.

First off I created little note books made from these vintage cards.

I cut regular printer paper a tad smaller than the entire size of the card (opened).

Here is the paper at the correct size. Fold it in half and line up the spine of the card to the half line of the paper.

Sew right down the middle of the card and paper (back stitching on each end.)

Fold it closed and you're done. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Next I grabbed a stack of old gardening post cards. Personally I find them pretty cheesy looking so I grabbed my scrap bin and started putting fabric and trim over the floral pictures.

When I had an arrangement I liked I brought it to the sewing machine and sewed the pieces on.

I didn't try to stitch exactly around shapes. I made an "x" through the heart and left tails of thread on. I think these lame postcards are now fabulous!

A fave colour combo - red, teal and yellow.

These are so quick you could whip up a whole batch and gift them as a personal stationary set!

Even if I don't use them for Valentine's day (which is the most likely scenario) I will definitely send them as "happy mail" to some girl friends around the country. This whole "mailing things" has become a whole lot simpler and convenient since the tall one "went postal". Now all I have to do is address my postcards and pop them into his coat pocket and he'll mail them from work!

Mr. Postman has also informed me that I can indeed just use a little sticker to keep my notebooks closed, slap an address and a stamp on the back of the book and mail it as a postcard. Sweet!

Blink Photo | Mantei Maternity Sneak Peek

2012-01-10T10:07:00.000-08:00

My first session of the day was with the Mantei family. Lee and Simone are expecting obviously their second child. Chloe was a gem to shoot AND it was her 3rd birthday!

She was seriously so cute and so natural in front of the camera!

All the best Mantei family!

Blink Photo | Ashton is 2 Sneak Peek

2012-01-10T10:05:00.000-08:00

This fall I met the Stepp family along with their ridiculously cute little boy Ashton. Ashton is turning 2 in February and we had a shoot dedicated just to him.

Happy Birthday Ashton!

Blink Photo | Rosner Maternity Sneak Peek

2012-01-10T10:03:00.000-08:00

Saturday I took advantage of the glorious January weather and shot 3 sessions back to back.

I had the privilege of meeting Mandi and Kelly Rosner and their 35+ week baby bump! Aren't they an adorable couple?

Here's your sneak peek Rosners!

I just love a sun flare on a baby belly... and silhouettes of baby bellies!

Wishing all the best Rosner family!

DIY | Crochet Trim Pillow Case

2012-01-09T12:49:00.000-08:00

My dear friend Lori presented me with this beautiful pillow case just before Christmas. She said she thought the fabric belonged under my pink tree (whom I've now named Merry Pink) and suggested I first use it as a Santa sack. I did just that and it toted fun little presents to and from gatherings.

Now that Christmas is over I can at times feel at a loss as for what to make next. With a holiday looming there are infinite number of things to create for other people as gifts. When that all winds down and I feel like my house needs to be decluttered I tend to lean more towards practical projects that are still beautiful. What's more practical than pillow cases?

I've seen various versions of pillow cases with crochet trim on Pinterest. They are beautiful. What was frustrating though was that all of the pics I had "repinned" didn't actually lead to a link where they told you how to do it. They were just google searches, which really isn't helpful at all. (Just a note, Pins are much more helpful when they lead to a "permalink" which means you have to actually click on the post that the picture is in so that when you click your pin you'll go back to that post rather than just the general blog and have to spend hours scrolling to find the actual post you were looking for!)

Anways... I finally found a site with a great tutorial on adding the crochet edge and created this pillow case last night.

The site is Heidi Bears and if you click on the name it will bring you to the tutorial.

First things first though, I needed a pillow case. This vintage sheet had a beautiful top edge on it that would save me at least one hem. I folded the fabric on itself and cut a (folded) piece 20 " x 32 ".

I then folded and pressed hems on the two sides needing them. The hem should be pressed to the back of the fabric even though you'll be sewing them with right sides facing.

Side note: Apparently in addition to needing to increase my pressing speed I also need to learn to press smaller seams. Right now I can't do anything under 1/2 an inch. Grrr.

Pin right sides together, sew two sides (three if you didn't cheat like me with the finished sheet), turn inside out and press.

The yarn I was using was a bit thick to be doing a dainty edge and so I had to forgo the "running stitch" (outlined in the tutorial) and just improvised. I made the stitches 1 inch long so that I could fit 3 SC (single crochets) into each. I also started doing the scalloped edge in the tutorial but because my yarn was thicker it started to look really bulking and was adding a lot of width to the edge making it wavy. It didn't look good.

Instead in every other SC I would do a treble stitch, chain 1, skip a stitch and then treble stitch and chain 1 again. That gave me the pattern below.

Here it is on my bed. A fancy pillow case just for me.

The little ones had just had their shower/bath while I was taking pictures and then as they do every time spent the next 45 minutes jumping on the bed in their "gotch" and diaper.

It was hard to get a picture of the pillow as they insisted on "sleeping" on it.

Can't wait to sleep on my pretty new pillow case AND to get some thinner yarn so I can make some more!

These would make a fabulous gift. I've seen them pinned with the idea to wrap a bedtime story in the pillow case or for an adult maybe a calming tea?

DIY | The Man Cuff

2012-01-07T20:58:00.000-08:00

Last Christmas I made a LOT of Coffee Sleeves before Christmas and one of those was for the tall one. You can find a link to a tutorial for them here. From the moment I gave it to him he decided that it made a cool cuff and then if you're wearing it and you grab a cup of coffee you can just whip it off and put it on your cup. Handy.

A few months ago he suggested, "You could make me a new cuff for Christmas."

Say what? You want me to craft something for you to WEAR?

Don't get me wrong, the tall one is super supportive of the crafting and he loves the stuff I add to our home and tolerates the whirlwind of me creating in the rec room. But to be honest, I never really expected a request for an accessory.

I didn't get around to making it for Christmas but this evening as we were hanging out (i.e. the tall one was organizing all of our new DVD's)...

I whipped up his new "Man Cuff".

He thinks it's pretty spiffy.

Materials:
- 9 x 3.5 " piece of felt (for backing) and exterior material
- hair elastic
- button
- embroider thread
- needle

I usually make a pattern for anything I'm creating because I inevitably end up making more and it saves a lot of steps if I can just grab the pattern, pin and cut. After measuring his wrist I created a rectangle 9 " wide and 3.5 " tall. Based on the finished product I would likely add an inch to the length next time to insure that the edges wouldn't stick up.

Pin the pattern in place and cut a piece of felt for backing and an exterior fabric. I used a vintage brown stretch denim I found at the thrift store.

To add some interesting detail I used embroidery thread to add some "manly" stitching to the fabric. If you want to top stitch around the cuff later I'd suggest adding your stitching further away from the edges.

Pin your fabrics with right sides facing and add a hair elastic to the side that you'd like to sit on top when it overlaps. Insert your elastic between the fabrics about an inch (or pinch the elastic in half and place it in the fabric so half is inside and half is out.)

Sew around the fabric with a 1/4 " or less inseam and leave an opening for turning. Then, clip the corners and press the cuff (while inside out). My friend Lori says it helps the seams lay better :) Also trim the excess elastic off.

Turn the cuff right side out, poke out the corners and press again. It would have looked nice to top stitch the entire cuff as well as serve as the way you'd close the turning opening but my embroidery was too close the edge to I decided to forgo it. Instead I used embroidery thread to stitch the opening closed and didn't mind that the stitches were visible as they tied into the overall theme.

Measure the cuff on the wrist and place the button so that the end of the elastic goes just beyond the thread holes on the button. Sew the button in place and you are finished.

Look at him all trendy and cool wearing a man cuff.

This is how he really feels about it.

And to sign off I'll leave you with a few of Jimmy Fallon's Thank You Notes. The tall one bought me the book for Christmas. They are hilarious.

"Thank you Cool Whip for being whip cream that has a pretty high opinion of itself."

"Thank you arm wrestling for being the manliest way to hold another dudes hand."

"Thank you America's Funniest Home Videos for being like YouTube for old people."

Ba ha ha - have a great weekend!

Creative is a Verb

2012-01-04T14:56:00.000-08:00

I am part of an incredible book club that meets monthly. I seriously love these ladies to bits. Right now we are doing a "Members Pick" series where each month one of us picks a book for us to read. It definitely pushes me out of my comfort zone in terms of what I read, aka I never pick any book that has a hint of sadness to it as I find it really hard to dissociate and things bother me for weeks. I think about them, dream about them, pray about them... 2 of our most recent 3 books dealt with the holocaust. I'm glad I read them, I'd actually like to talk about them here eventually but with January being my pick I was ready for something a little lighter.

After scouring the Amazon Kindle site for hours I found a book - not available on Kindle - sorry Book Club! It's called "Creative is a Verb: If you're alive you're creative" by Patti Digh. Intriguing right?

I'm really enjoying it so far. At the beginning the author asks you to equip yourselves with a stack of unlined index cards and a black pen. Then, after each chapter she gives a "Take 10 Challenge" that is a quick prompt for writing (one one side of the card) and then an image prompt (for the other side.)

I love that it is quick, accessible and makes me think.

I read one chapter last week that started with this quote:

And so our mothers and grandmothers have,

more often than not anonymously handed on the creative spark,

the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see -

or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read. - Alice Walker

Throughout the chapter she discussed the creative sparks that have been handed down to us by either parents or other influential people as well as how those people and we ourselves can often "tell stories" about our children or students that sometimes cast a shadow on their true creative selves.

It got me thinking about a lot of things. As I've grown I've had the eyes to see more and more that I come from a very creative family. Most of their outlets are quite different (embroidery, painting, rock work, carving, woodwork, landscaping, painting, sewing, etc) but they are all quite fearless in their creating.

When I dream up a project that I think would be cool to do I rarely ever doubt that I can. Everyone in my life dreams and creates something from practically nothing all the time. I am blessed to have that kind of heritage. It challenges me to ponder how I can pass that on to my own children. How I can embrace their creating even if it doesn't look like mine.

The girl one was painting as I took out my cards to work on this "Take 10" and then my son came to join us. I decided I would experiment and attempt to create as they created and see what I could learn.

My first lesson: Double dipping is O.K.

My kids just dunk their loaded paint brush from one colour to the next. It was a little tough for me initially. Normally after their done with water colours I take a set a wipes and clean each palette so that you can tell its original colour again!

I don't ever want to squelch their story. Yes, at times I'll teach them techniques and there is a place for colouring in the lines (fine motor development I guess) but I really want them to have freedom to create in a way that they enjoy. Thankfully my kids are quite confident in themselves and if I try to push my "ways" on them they just say "No thanks."

Another lesson I learned is that they don't really care about the finished product, they just do what is fun and looks cool in the moment. It takes a lot for me to paint over what I've already painted. I have this idea that I need to save everything, that I can't go over it, even if I don't particularly like it. I pushed myself to keep painting over and over my same card and just enjoy the process. It was fun.

(the boy one's roads and race tracks)

(the girl one's cards. She took it to a new level by stacking and smearing her cards on one another - and of course painting herself... should I be worried tatoos are in her future?)

When we were done we had a table full of colourful index cards and I had learned much about myself and my kids.

Keepsakes + Vintagey Tea Towels

2012-01-03T06:30:00.000-08:00

My Grandma Martens "Mama" is an embroidering Ninja. She is crazy talented and makes beautiful things. It is a legacy that her and my Grandpa have definitely created - the joy in making beautiful things.

Shortly after I was married I received my first set of embroidered tea towels from my Grandma. I love them. Unfortunately because I was too scared to actually use them I kept them stored and they yellowed a bit from whatever conditions they were stored in. I was so bummed. This year, my Grandma surprised me with a whole new set! Wahoo!

She makes the tea towel themselves too and I'm a little amazed at her perfect hemming. So tiny and so perfect. I don't actually know if she hand or machine embroidered the images but either way they are as well, perfect.

My new tea towels got me all excited so when the urge to create something hit the other night I figured I'd try to make some more tea towels to display next to my embroidered ones. One of my current goals is to start using my vintage sheets (and not just stockpiling them for the fun of it!) and so I started selecting!

I used one of Grandma's tea towels as a template for size and added extra on the edges for the hem.

Next I started piecing little "bits and bobs" (as the English one would call them) onto the base of the tea towel.

It takes me FOREVER to press a seam. I am determined to learn ways to be quicker. Anyways, I think it ended up a cute little tea towel. I have 3 more cut... I just need the time to finish them. Another thing I'm learning is that it's a good idea for me to prep projects and store them so that I can work on things in short spurts as I find the time.

I'm not really sure how effective bedsheets will be as a tea towel. Pretty sure the polyester in it won't make it super absorbent but I don't know that I want to use used bedsheets to dry my dishes anyways. For know I think their purpose is just to look pretty hanging on my stove and add a bit more colour and vintageness to my kitchen.

Thanks Mama for the tea towels!

It was a very merry Christmas...

2012-01-02T00:30:00.000-08:00

We had a very merry Christmas indeed. We started early with the celebrations. The tall one's mom came down on the 12th and so we were able to spend a few days with her and enjoy a Christmas celebration. Because we head up North for 25th we also have our own nuclear family Christmas on the Saturday before we leave. On the 17th we were due to open pressies and I had my heart set on all wearing matching Christmas PJ pants. The tall one has never really had PJ pants before - cause he's so tall. Like 6'6" tall.

I looked up a tutorial on Pinterest, drafted patterns and whipped us up some Santa pants just in the nick of time! (As in an hour before bed time!)

"Christmas morning" we were greeted by the pink tree, coordinating wrapping paper and of course the Faux Fire on the T.V.

Hanny was loving her new baby and feeding accessories. It took forever to open gifts as the kids wanted to open and play with each toy as they received it. To the point that they actually refused to open other gifts.

The boy one got a wooden work bench... that was missing 2 INTEGRAL PIECES! Thus, at 10:30 the night before I had to traipse through my snowy yard with a flash light, unearth suitable lumber, haul our chop saw from shed to deck, measure and cut new pieces to use so we could still give it to him in the morning. Melissa and Doug... I have a bone to pick with you!

We all enjoyed some Hungry Hippo.

Self timer, just woke up shot. Yay.

Later that day the Holiday Train rolled through town. It's be crazy warm for December. I think it was +5 that day (unlike last year that was around - 38) so we were able actually enjoy a bit of the entertainment.

Shot with my new fish eye lens for my iphone.

The next day we took the kids to see "Chipwrecked". It was Hanny's first theater experience and she loved it!

The next week and a bit were a whirlwind of activity! After the entire family battling a crazy flu bug while trying to make an 8 hour road trip we finally made it my parents home. It took an hour and a half less because we didn't have to stop to eat once :)

1st row: Christmas morning with the Kaminski's! Do you spy pink pyrex and an anthro apron? Yes, my mother knows me well :)

2nd Row: Christmas day with the Martens (my grandparents).

Row 3: Boxing day with the Willms! You can see Grandma and Grandpa opening a big green bag which we all thought for sure was the infamous insanely large stuffed fish pillow. (Back Story: each year at the Willms gathering we have a "re-gift exchange" where everything has to be something you already owned. The fish showed up the first year we did it and has come back wrapped every year.)

We were sure Gram and Gramps were doomed to be stuck with the fish in their nursing home but... it was just a big duffel bag! Would the fish not appear? There were no packages large enough left... that is until I unwrapped a box... a box that contained a cleverly vacuum sealed fish pillow! Well done.

Don't worry, I've got plans for this guy.

Another highlight for the kids was playing with the litter of pug puppies my parents have.

They are just over 3 weeks old here. Adorable!

So sweet. Let me know if you want one... $600 each and ready near the beginning of February :)

Happy New Year!

Merry Bobble Hanging Thing | DIY-ish

2011-12-15T22:23:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

We are in holiday mode full swing and have already had one Christmas celebration. Next week is jam packed and we head up to the lake at the end of it so not sure if I'll manage another post before then so if I don't I just wanted to say Merry Christmas to you and yours now :)

Thanks so much for stopping by here when you do, I really do appreciate it so much! This blog has brought me much joy this year and I'm blessed to have this outlet and the amazing support of all of you who choose to come and check out what I'm up to.

Moving on from the gushy stuff... Miss Dottie Angel has been doing a series called 12 Days of Joyfullness and that is exactly what it is. Day 2 was a cute little hanging made from a fabric covered hanger and vintage bobbles. I didn't have any appropriate hangers so I thought I'd improvise with a stick.

Then I went back to Dottie Angel's blog whilst constructing mine and found that using a stick for the hanging was her Day 11 project :)

Adorable right?

I made mine at our weekly girly craft night that the English one hosts. It has been such a refreshing time with the girls and I totally love that it's right next door so I can run back home every time I think of something else I need!

Please excuse the pictures. The sun has not shone here for the last 4 days. Like at all. Though it has been crazy warm - as in only 2 below zero. That's like no socks weather for sure in December no less, so I won't complain... except to say that it does nothing for the lighting in my house. I was also too lazy to change my lens and so the pics are not as close up as I'd like. Any who... here's my version.

I was having trouble finding a space for it.

Totally scored on these little deer at the thrift store.

I do quite love my little bobble hanging stick. You can't tell in this pic but it actually looks great there. They are kind of addicting to make. I'm thinking that possibly all of our doors upstairs need winter themed ones (so that I don't have to take them down.)

Blessings this Christmas season!

Blink Photo | Gallipeaus Bump to Baby

2011-12-13T21:09:00.000-08:00

Let me start this post by saying that I am being forced by the English one to write it.

Well maybe not forced but she put in an official request for the portraits I did of her family to be featured on the blog :)

In my defense (trying to prove that I actually am a good friend) I have always intended to put these pictures up on the blog but as with most of my photo sessions it's usually just a rush to get them processed and proofs uploaded on time that I rarely anymore find the time to blog them.

So... this pretty much counts as one of her Christmas gifts. Merry Christmas!

O.K. All kidding aside (and that is what that was - kidding. In case you couldn't tell. Which is understandable. I'm not naturally very funny... I digress.)

It's a pleasure to share these photos and I kind of like that I get to share all my favourites at once... so you can see the whole journey. Bump to baby.

Matt and Dani (the English one) are dear friends and by an act of God our neighbours. Like right next door neighbours. As in we share a fence. A fence through which we will make a gate in our back yard (or gardens as she likes to call them.)

When they were around 7 months pregnant we did this little shoot. English one made the dress herself. Did I mention she's crafty?

Together we love all things vintagey.

At closer to 9 months we did another shoot out at the fabulous Johnson farm. They pretty much have a little antique street with multiple buildings on their yard. I could play their for hours.

Love this one... in a mirror in the "bar".

10 days after her due date they welcomed little Finley into the world! Finley-Stephen David Timothy Stobbs-Gallipeau or as I prefer - Finners.

Sorry Matt - this one is just too awesome not to share.

Stunning.

Ah Fin! So cute! Did I mention that Hanners adores "Finwey"? She is absolutely enamored with him and just wants to hold him and care for him. It's adorable.

Finners you are such a handsome little man and we love you. We are so excited that we get to know you and watch you grow up!

Give a Gift | Crochet Chain Necklace

2011-12-09T21:46:00.000-08:00

These crochet necklaces were one of the items I used to make for my "grown up lemonade stand" - Pink Lemonade. They are quite simple to make and I think they make great gifts!

If you know how to crochet a chain you can make this necklace.

Start your chain.

Crochet. Crochet some more... and a little more. Make a lot of chain.

Once you've got a nice pile, start wrapping it around your neck in loops that are the length you'd like the necklace to be. If you don't have enough loops, keep crocheting.

The tall one would like me to point out his outstanding photography skills. Nice work husband.

Once you reach a "thickness" or number of loops that you're comfortable with cut your yarn with a good 10 inches of extra. Tie the tail of the start of your chain to the end of the chain.

Take the necklace off and then begin wrapping the extra yarn around the section where you've knotted the yarn.

Once you tie it off it should look like this.

For a little bling you can add a broach to the wrapped area.

I'd like to point out that this is my first "self blog portrait" in the mirror. Giggle - I feel like I should make it my facebook profile picture or something - cause that's what the cool kids do right? Anyways... I didn't have much of a choice. It was midnight and I had no one to take the "after" picture and was far too tired to set up a tripod.

You can also wear it without the bling and put the wrapped part to the back. I think it makes it look like a cute cowl. You can could actually make a great cowl if you just kept making more chain loops.

DIY | Exposed Ruffle Skirt

2011-12-07T22:38:00.001-08:00

I saw this skirt on Pinterest a while ago. I absolutely adored the little bustle with ruffles peeking out. In Hobby Lobby a couple of weeks ago I finally found pre-ruffled fabric (to make the girl one ruffle bloomers) and with the left overs I decided to attempt this little peek-a-boo skirt.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a seamstress. I just wing it.. I rarely do anything that I should technically do.

That said, this is how i made the skirt. First off I started with a skirt that currently fits Hanny and used it to make a pattern. This whole making a pattern from existing clothes is very new to me and VERY liberating!

To get the correct sizing stretch out the elastic. You should have a big rectangle. Trace onto to newspaper adding about 3/4 of an inch at the top and a 1/2 inch on the bottom.

Next pin your pattern to the fabric with one edge lining up with a fold (so you're cutting a double thickness of fabric.)

Fold the bottom hem over 1/4 inch, iron and then fold and iron again. Sew the hem in place.

Placing right sides together, sew the sides together so you have a tube. Then fold over your top waistband a 1/4 inch, iron and then fold and iron it over 1/2 inch or however much you need to fit your elastic.

Sew as close as you can to the seam leaving an opening where you'll insert the elastic.

Using a safety pin or this elastic threader (that I didn't know existed until Lori whipped out hers) thread your elastic through the waistband and then sew the ends of the elastic together. Put it back inside the waistband and sew the waistband closed.

Now it's time for the bustle. I gathered the fabric and folded it up three times until I had a drape I liked. Pin it and sew it in place.

With the skirt folded sew that the side seams line up, measure the width of the skirt and the height from the bottom hem to the top of the bustle. Cut a rectangular piece of ruffle fabric. Mine was 15 " x 4".

Pin the fabric in place so that it covers the "opening" and lines up with the bottom hem. Sew the ruffle fabric on by sewing on top of the hem stitching already there.

Turn the skirt inside out and trim all excess ruffle fabric.

And you're done!

Even though I shouldn't allow myself to sew after 9pm as I make way too many dumb mistakes I am quite please with how her skirt turned out.

The boy one needed a bit of camera attention as well. I really need to come up with more things to sew for boys!

Crazy eyes.

Such a doll.

The Tunetastic Tradition

2011-12-04T07:58:00.001-08:00

Back in 2008 we threw our first "Tunetastic" Christmas party. The idea was a simple but a fun one.

On the afternoon of the party all of the men go to one house and all of the women to another. Over the years many children have been added to our families and so we do our best to "evenly distribute" them. Each group is given a CD of possible song choices, a video camera and a Mac... the task? Create a Christmas music video!

Each group has a few hours to pick their song, film the video and then edit and put it all together on iMovie (Mac program). Once everything is finished we all meet at one house, order in supper and reveal our videos to each other. This is by far the best part!

There is usually a bit of friendly competition between the girls and guys but I must admit that the boys are usually more funny. In our defense though, guys can get away with more. For example, it is not funny for girls to show and rub their bellies but for some reason it is with guys. The guys will also inevitably end up partially dressed in the snow even if it's 30 degrees below. Again, funny.

We've been doing Tunetastic for 4 straight years now and it's become a tradition. Last night after watching our new video we also watched all of our previous videos. It was hilarious to watch them, reminisce and see all of our kids grow through the videos as well. I created a DVD after the party of all of our videos up to date. I am SO excited to be able to pass these on to our kids and hope it will be a treasure of memories for them. It would be great if we were still doing these when they become teenagers. Maybe they'll get their own house and compete against their parents!

Yesterday's party fell on a date where a lot of our "regular participants" were out of town and unable to attend so we attempted our first "co-ed" video. It was a lot of fun. We made our first Pop-Up Video. Genius.

Lucky for all of you I have permission from each group member to share our 2011 Tunetastic video with you here!

It's a pretty small version (needed to be to be uploaded here) so it might be hard to read the pop ups.

UPDATE: Here is a link to YouTube to view a larger version!

Sleigh Ride
She & Him
Performed by: The Gallipeaus, The Tregonings and The Willms

DIY | Vintage Photo Pillows

2011-12-02T07:54:00.001-08:00

I've been trying to figure out what to make some of our family members for Christmas. Last week I saw this pic in my December Country Living Magazine (my FAVOURITE magazine) and thought they looked pretty cute. I think photos on fabric can very easily look tacky or cheesy but being that these were old photos, black and white... I thought they were kind of classy.

It inspired me to make this.

It's a photo I took of my two kids this summer while at Grandma and Grandpa's. They are standing on the corral fence trying to entice the horses and "Mee-Moo" the cow to come over. In the editing program I used the Timeless preset from One Willow Presets for the effect. Then I "washed out" the edges of the picture with a highlight priority.

Did you know that you don't need special fabric for the printer? Nope... you just need... Freezer Paper!

Can you find Freezer Paper in Canada? Not sure... I haven't. But I haven't looked all over Canada :) I grabbed mine at Walmart in Minot, ND.

Cut a piece of freezer paper the size of a 8.5 x 11 piece of computer paper. Then, just iron it on to the back of the fabric that you'd like to print the photo on. Cut the fabric to the size of the freezer paper after it's been ironed on.

UPDATE: I had a reader who commented and then found a solution that you can prepare your fabric with that will "set" the ink so that it's permanent and can be washed in the future. It's called Bubble Jet Set and you can read about how to use it here.
Thanks "Swankygirl109"!

I took my picture and put it on a word document so that I could size it to fill up the most of a regular sheet of paper. Put your freezer papered fabric into the printer so that it will print on just the fabric side (NOT the freezer paper).

Press print and viola!

I wanted to add a little depth to my pillow so I threw on an embroidery hoop and free-handed a little vine and leaf pattern on opposite corners in a dark gray that matched the ink.

Once I finished the embroidery I gently ironed out the kinks made by the hoop.

Pick out a fabric for the backing and then pin the two fabrics right sides facing. Sew all the way around but leave an opening for turning and stuffing. When you've got it turned right side out and have it stuffed to perfection you can use a hidden stitch to close the opening.

And here you'll have a charming, personalized gift.

Another Update:

These pillows were so easy to make and so personal that I ended up making probably 8 for people for Christmas. Foolishly I didn't take pictures of them all but did snag this one of the one I made my dad after he opened it on Christmas morning. My dad is an all around outdoorsman and it was important to him to pass on these things to his grandchildren. He bought my son his first fishing rod and gave it to him this summer. He put a lead weight on the line and taught Kai to cast on the grass and then took us out on the boat and was the one to help him cast in the water - with a real hook. This picture was from Kai's second fishing outing and where he caught his first fish so it was quite the event.

If you don't want to be restricted to an 8.5 x 11 pillow you can make "photo patches". Check out the "Love Notes" pillow I made for Valentine's Day!

ifamily | Elf on the Shelf

2011-11-27T19:53:00.001-08:00

I'd like to introduce you to a little visitor to our home. His name is Sparky. He's an Elf... on a shelf.

If you haven't seen/heard of Elf on a Shelf all you need to do is go on Pinterest to see a plethora of ideas on how this little guy can show up in your home. To summarize though... each morning you put your elf in a different area of your house doing something that he supposedly did over night. Some can be a bit of mischief he got into, some can include a gift for the kids and some can provide an activity for your family to do together. Fun right?

Sparky here had a little letter of introduction for his first visit.

The kids were immediately drawn into the imaginative play.

Apparently they ran out of time for painting in Santa's workshop and Sparky needed a little help with a family of Nutcrackers.

The tall one is quite nostalgic of Nutrcrackers. This activity was for him.
( I love that they are making the Nutcrackers have a little conversation here :)

Sparky needed help painting and help we did!

I love seeing how different my kids can be at times. The boy one dropped his paintbrush on his shirt which was kind of the end of the world... or at least this painting time. The girl one though painted her Nutcracker, her nails, her apron, her leg, her hand, the table, her daddy, etc.

The tall one is actually pretty artistic. He's also a bit of a perfectionist in art. He spent a good 2 more hours painting his guy then the rest of us :)

And here we have a little Nutcracker family and an afternoon of memories.

And just because I wanted somewhere to put this picture... her is the boy one.. contemplating something in the morning sun. It's such a blessing to capture these moments. I love him.

It's the SHOEBOX time of year!

2011-11-27T19:17:00.001-08:00

Sunday was the last day to bring in your shoebox gifts for Operation Christmas Child. Samaratin's Purse is such a great organization and the shoebox initiative is an amazing idea. What I love so much about it is that it is a wonderful way to involve children in giving and also provides a good opportunity to open their eyes to the poverty that many children live in.

During breakfast one day I started talking with my kids about what I had been reading in the Word that morning and summarized that Jesus wanted us to be generous. Whatever you have done for the least of these, you have done for me... challenging.

Later in the day we watched a couple of videos on YouTube about Operation Christmas Child. There was even a Veggie Tale promo where Larry packs a shoebox and accidentally gets sent with it :) They were great for showing the kids the children that would be receiving their boxes and the type of conditions that they live in. They also saw Mom cry at every video - oi.

As a family we made a date to go shopping for our shoeboxes. Each kid bought for a boy/girl their own age and the tall one and I each shopped for a teenager. The next morning we set about packing our shoeboxes.

First we sorted it all into piles for each child.

It's always a struggle to fit as much as you possibly can into a box! I packed for a 10-14 year old girl... sometimes I feel lost on what to buy teenagers... this year I figured I'd try to add a crafty element to the box. I picked up a small sewing kit along with some fabric and also made 3 headbands to include in the gift.

We managed to squeeze everything into our boxes (including a custom Christmas card in each) and they were almost ready to go.

One of the most important things we pack into our boxes is prayer. Each of us grabbed our box and took turns praying over it and for the child that would receive it.

I know it's too late to physically pack a shoebox but you can still give one by "Building a Box Online" on the Samaratin's Purse Website. Also be on the look out for various community initiatives in your city such as Christmas Hampers and the Angel Tree. Here in Estevan you can pick an ornament off the Angel tree in the Walmart and buy a gift for a local child in need. I believe the trees go up around December 5.

It's Begining to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

2011-11-13T18:35:00.001-08:00

Christmas trees always make me happy but I must admit... my pink tree makes me extra happy.

Every year we put up our tree on the Remembrance Day weekend. That day we take the kids to pick out their special ornament for the tree, usually us adults get one too :) Kai picked an adorable little cupcake and since Hanny was napping we picked out a Buzz and Woody mini lunch box ornament that I am positive that she would have grabbed herself given her current obsession with Toy Story.

The kids had a blast helping hang the ornaments and wrapping themselves in lights.

We gave I'm sure at least 8 time outs (for hurling glass ornaments across the room and other general over tired misbehaviour) and Dean suggested during the 5 minutes it takes to string the lights up that "I don't really feel like finishing decorating tonight. How about we just do it tomorrow." like he does every year while stringing lights.

I calmly suggested... "Maybe you could try for one year not to quit before we've even started decorating Mr. Debbie Downer." or maybe that's what it sounded like in my head and may have come out more like "How about you try to not to ruin tree trimming night EVERY YEAR!"

Ha ha - I said it in jest because he totally knows he does it. And he always ends up decorating with me until the end and then we cuddle and just look at the lights :)

Here's the classic toddler style of three of the same colour ornaments all on the same branch.

Notice the sweet fibre optic lights? My sis in law and her boyfriend bought them for us from Ikea. Kind of killing me not to put coloured lights up on the tree but they didn't look good and the green cord was really distracting.

I grabbed my fav crazy afgan from Elsie to throw on the chaise. My anthro afgan wasn't flowing with the seasonal colour scheme and this one works perfectly!

I thought the chaise needed a little something else so I whipped up this Christmas pillow today. It says "Ho", I hope you can tell... as in "Ho, Ho, Ho Merry Christmas". I thought the blue doily looked kind of like a snowflake and I made a mini bunting from my peppermint ribbon.

I saw the idea to hang the ornaments in the window on Pinterest. Love it.

Love this sign. I snagged it at Real Deals in Minot for less than $2.

Over on my office hutch resides my random little winter wonderland :)

A few months ago I found this 4 foot doily at Salvation Army. I bought it not really knowing what to do with it but who can pass up a 4 foot doily? Thankfully it makes a pretty sweet tree skirt!

Yay for Christmas!

I'm dreaming of a... pink Christmas???

2011-11-09T10:45:00.000-08:00

The thing about committing to a pink Christmas tree is that it kind of changes what other decor you can use for Christmas. Most of the traditional red and green is just not going to cut it in the whole scheme of things. So, I've been attempting to collect and create pink and other complimentary coloured Christmas decor.

(Disclaimer: All of these pics are from my iphone because I was too lazy to haul out the K-5)

I am quite liking my pink wreath. I don't think it's big enough to earn front door privileges but it'll be cute somewhere in the living room.

Next up I made what is now becoming my yearly Christmas Organizer. I saw the idea last year on Under the Sycamore and I believe she linked to Eighteen 25 who actually created it and shared a tutorial.

I love them - such a huge help during the crazy season!

Basically start with a notebook from a dollar store, cover it with pretty paper (wrap the closure ribbon all the way around before the paper goes on though.)

Glue envelopes to the front and back covers to hold receipts and coupons.

Cut tabs and label them with your planner categories then staple them to about 3 sheets of paper.

My categories are:
Calendar
The List (gift ideas)
Projects
Cards (where you keep everyone's addresses)
To Do

I found cute little sparkly deer at Dollarama that I thought might look good if I added pink glitter. I'm kind of counting this project as a DIY fail. I don't love them. I may try spray painting them next :)

Now for a little more randomness. Gluesticks and I attempted a few more wreaths. Here is hers... tied a small twig wreath to the center of her green wreath and garnished with fabric/twine rosettes. Looks great!

I attempted a burlap wreath. I liked it the night of but now I don't love it. The staples are falling out and it just isn't going to go with my colour scheme this year. Another fail.

And the last piece of random... an iphone pic of my final gallery wall placement. I love it! Looks like a few frames need to be straightened but I love how it spans the entire wall. I love the mix of frame colours and prints! It makes me happy and tells a story (even though the randomness of it makes some of my friends - ahem - Erin - cough cough twitch.)

Blink Photo | Sneak Peek Vandenhurks

2011-11-07T19:24:00.000-08:00

In September I had the privilege of shooting Zacch and Michelle Vandenhurk's wedding. They are super cool, laid back and willing to go for anything. My kind of clients! They let me shoot all of their portraits on an industrial loading dock. The results? Fabulous!

Enjoy your sneak peek Zacch and Michelle!

First off, their adorable daughter Natalie. So flipping cute :)

The loading dock in all it's glory :)

She is so STUNNING!

Congrats Zacch and Michelle!

DIY | Felted Sweater Headband with Jenna!

2011-11-03T07:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had the good fortune of hosting the lovely Jenna Holmgren for "Take a Kid to Work Day". I have had past students join me in the classroom in years prior but this was my first time having a student come and see what life is like as a "stay at home mom/photographer/columnist/blogger".

Our morning started off how mine normally does... breakfast at the table with my littles (still in their jammies) and reading the Word. Right now we're reading through the "My First Message" that I downloaded for my Kindle and iphone. I highly recommend it!

I introduced Jenna to the wonderful world of Pinterest and had her pick a DIY project for this blog post. She has good taste and chose to make felted head bands. So - we packed up the kids and headed off to Sally Anne in search of some 100% wool sweaters. We were there before the store opened and felt really cool waiting for them to open the doors :)

We read a little tutorial on felting at The Magic Onions.

First we needed a pillow case and golf balls.

Our 100% wool sweaters!

We threw them into a pillow case and tied it up. This is to catch all the fibers that will come loose and the golf balls apparently help with the felting process. All you do next is throw it into the wash and wash with the hottest water possible. I listened for changes in the laundry cycle and before it drained and rinsed I reset the agitation phase twice more.

While we waited for the sweaters to felt I gave Jenna a quick lesson on how to use an SLR camera. Jenna learned the full joys of being a multi-tasking mom as she had to learn the camera while we played kitchen with Hanny and Sonic with Kai.

Jenna caught on to everything super quick, she's a natural. We took the kids on a little walk so she could practice and she did amazing!

Here are a couple of her shots.

I also set her up on Lightroom so she could get the feel of post processing. Here is one she processed of Hanny.

O.K. back to felting! Here are our mini sweaters! Time to cut 'em up!

I drafted us a pattern. Our template was 24 inches long, 4.5 inches at the widest part and tapered to 1.5 inches at the ends.

In order to get it symmetrical cut a 24" x 4.5" rectangle, fold it in half and then taper the ends and then cut.

Jenna wanted to use the super cute teal/gray chevron print but none of our pieces were long enough to do the entire length. Instead we cut the middle (front) section from the chevron and then cut matching end pieces from the gray sewed them all together.

Next she cut out irregular flower shapes and stacked them for embellishments. She made two flowers (one larger) and sewed them on with yellow embroidery thread (to match the gold button she used on the back) in an "X". They are darling.

For a closure all you need to do is fit the headband and mark where you want the button. Sew it on. Then draw a box where the button hole should be and sew around in a zig zag stitch and then cut a slit down the middle. I've never done a button hole before but it was easy peasy.

I adore how it turned out! Great job Jenna!!! We headed outside to do a mini shoot of her creation.

How stunning is she?

Love the detail. It all looks so great!

Thanks for spending the day with me and the kids Jenna - we had a blast! Also, stay tuned as Jenna will also become a published author next week as she is writing my ifamily column for me!

DIY | Library Kit

2011-10-28T06:51:00.000-07:00

I love books. I think that's kind of a prerequisite for English teachers. For as long as I can remember I got a thrill every time we had "library" class. As a kid I used to make little slips of paper to go in my books where I would write the author and title and borrower so I could pretend that I was a librarian.

Because I'm hoping that my kids will want to play library with me I decided to whip up a little library kit for them as well as one as a birthday present for their friend.

I totally lucked out and at the office store where I went to purchase the date stamp and pad I found a random stack of REAL library cards on shelf for only $2.78. Woo hoo! It saved me printing my own!

If you aren't lucky enough to find real library cards you can download free printables at the Creature Comforts blog. I printed off the library pocket template to use for this project. It's a pretty cute blog, while you're there you should take a look around!

After printing off a template I then traced them onto paper from my Amy Butler stash.

Fold them as per instructions, glue and viola!

Here they are stuffed with library cards. All ready to be taped or glued into a book!

The date stamp is a key ingredient. I had to search to find one that had a bit of a vintage look to it. Most office stores will have some version. If you want a "less potential mess" one you can get a self inking stamp.

I think the stamping will be one of the funnest parts.

A last minute addition to the gift were the cliche "librarian glasses". I just couldn't resist. I raced to the dollar store over the tall one's lunch hour and bought a few sets of child sunglasses and popped out the lenses.

Doesn't he look like he should be smoking a pipe and reading that book?

Why thank you Mr. Librarian. I will treasure this book!

Next up I made a few bookmarks from coordinating Amy Butler paper and used baker's twine for the tassel.

While my kit sat assembled it struck me that I should make patron library cards! Photoshop to the rescue!

I created a document that was 3" wide by 2" tall. I put a clipping mask on for the picture. The bar code was a free clip art I found in a google search.

If you would like to make your own patron cards you can download my psd file HERE. You will likely need some type of "insert image" action to insert the picture into the image layer and you can customize all of your own text!

Once you have it the way you like it, save it as a jpg, put on a word document and print. I made one for each member in Sadie's family so that they can all borrow from her library.

I bought the cute little case to keep it all together.

I'm not going to lie. I'm pretty excited to play library with my kids!

Wouldn't these be perfect little Christmas gifts as well?

Give a Gift: Guitar Pillow DIY

2011-10-27T08:12:00.000-07:00

Glue Sticks' birthday was over the the long weekend in September or as we still refer to it - staycation weekend. Hers is a music loving family and so I wanted to make something that might reflect that a bit. She also has a thing for pillows - thus the guitar pillow was created :)

I pinned this picture a while ago and thought they were absolutely adorable. I loved how they used decorating fabric but in a fun shape. Classy.

What you'll need:

1/2 - 1 yard of main fabric plus coordinating scraps
sewing machine
pillow stuffing
paper/pencil for the drafting

I used a large piece of paper from my kids drawing roll to create the template for the pillow. I free handed a general guitar shape. When you sketch something like this don't worry about making perfect lines. If a corner is wonky just keep sketching over it until you get the shape you want, no one will see this anyways.

Cut it out and pin to the fabric.

Cut out a circle of your coordinating fabric, sew around it in a 1/4 inch inseam and then pin it to the guitar. Sew.

Cut a long piece of fabric that is roughly twice as long as the length you want it to run on your guitar. Hem the edges and then run a gathering stitch down the middle. To do this, set your machine to the highest tension (mine is 9) and on the longest stitch (mine is 4). Do not back over at either end, just run it straight through.

It should gather to some degree but you can pull a string to gather it more into the ruffle that you like. Sew it to the front piece of the fabric.

K... I just realized I didn't use a gathering stitch at all - I was too lazy! Ha, you could though :) I just pleated it as I sewed it onto the guitar piece.

Place the right sides of the guitar together and sew all the way around leaving a 5 inch opening at the bottom (for stuffing).

Pull it right side out and stuff. When it's the firmness you desire tuck the seams of the opening in, pin and sew closed.

I think it suits her home perfectly! It's also a big hit with the kids who use it in their pretend bands all of the time :)

DIY | Custom Christmas Tree

2011-10-24T06:53:00.000-07:00

Even though we were beyond blessed and didn't personally suffer at all from the flood in June I still feel like I have post traumatic stress from the Spring that we had. Thankfully our summer was hot, hot, hot and we've had a gorgeous fall... but I'm not ready for winter. I'm not ready to be cooped up with two toddlers who prefer to spend 90 % of their days outside.

This picture (from Pinterest) though reminds me that with winter comes Christmas and it eases my dread a little bit.

It's such a perfect little vignette. So vintage and colourful. More than anything it makes me want to have a pink tree.

So I started searching. The results? Reasonable price = 4 foot tree. Sorry, my ceilings are 9.5 feet and and my 3 year old would likely be taller than the tree. Not going to work.

Reasonable height tree = $1000. Yup, not going to happen.

"Glue Sticks" suggested I just paint one. Genius. Done!

Meet my 7 foot "garage sale" find.

Fortunately Glue Sticks' husband is a professional painter. I gave him a ring and asked for his advice on painting my tree. Primer.

I feel like I grow up a little bit more every time I use primer - any one else? I just feel so wise and patient :)

I took the boy one with me to buy paint. He was really excited about a painting venture and asked if he could paint too. He got to pick out his very own can of spray paint so that he could do a project. He picked red. I let him go to town on a canvas while I worked on the tree. It was a fun mother-son DIY moment.

I really am loving the way it's turned out, though none of the pictures show quite the true colour of the tree. There really isn't any purple hue to it at all. It's a very pretty pale pink.

I searched the web before I started to see if there were any tips on painting a Christmas tree. None. Go figure! Here are a few things I learned:

Primer really is a good idea. Go water based.
Do not use cans of spray paint. It'll cost a fortune as you'll blow through a gazillion of them. I used at least 3/4 of a gallon of paint.
Use a high velocity low output paint sprayer.
Start by spraying the underside of the branch and then move to the top. Then spray from each side. Pull apart branches and really get into the root.
Spray from absolutely every angle and when you've got them all, find another one!

The thing about DIY is not necessarily that you can do it for less money. Often times I spend more making it myself. What I like though is that I can create something original.

I'm quite excited to decorate my pink tree. I'm going to need to find new ornaments as my current colour scheme won't really work. I can't wait for Halloween to be over so I can start perusing Sally Anne for vintage ornaments!

Here's another pic from Pinterest. I think I'll do it in the window next to the tree :)

And aren't these "Santa Sacks" adorable? I love the look of presents under the tree but I think I'll make a couple to pack family gifts in for transport over the holidays. So cute!

Still not ready for winter but at least I can look forward to my pink tree :)

Oh... and another happy note... I was thrilled on Friday to have my FAVOURITE fabric designer Heather Bailey do a feature on our camper Elsie! I used fabric from her Pop Garden collection in the makeover and she wrote a sweet little post on our Elsie journey. Thanks Heather!

If you haven't seen it you can check it out here!

Give a Gift Series | Coffee Cozy DIY

2011-10-20T12:14:00.000-07:00

One of the my favourite items that I've made myself is my coffee cozy. I use it all the time! It's small and easy to keep in my purse and I find I always grab for it whenever I get a coffee or even to put around a cold drink. I must say, I also feel pretty stylish with my pretty, eco friendly coffee cozy wrapped around my London Fog.

I made this cloth cozy using the pattern and tutorial found here. I loved that I could just print out the pattern and use it to cut all my pieces. It's a super simple tutorial and didn't take long to make the cozy. In fact, I even made a bulk stash of them to give my family as our "table presents" last year for Christmas.

If you don't have a printer (or like me are refusing to pay $50 for the ink cartridge!) you could just use a cardboard sleeve and trace a 1/2 inch inseam all the way around and use that as your pattern. For my elastics I use hair elastics rather than the elastic by the yard. It's prettier.

I've also seen a lot of crochet coffee sleeves popping up on Pinterest and I figured they looked pretty simple to make. I was right. Last night around 1am, while crafting with a friend I decided to try and whip up a few. I actually think they're pretty cute! (Excuse the mini coffee cup, it's all I had on hand - from my kids play kitchen - Ha!)

Brace yourselves... what you're about to see is the most hack attempt at a crochet patter that you've ever seen! I shouldn't even include it but in the event that you want a "jumping off" point for making your own crochet cozy pattern, this may help.

I basically just crocheted a chain as long as my current coffee cozy (or you could use a starbucks sleeve). Mine was 28 stitches long.
So:
Row 1: Chain 28.
Row 2: Chain 1, turn and then do 28 SC (Single Crochet). Chain 1.
Row 3: Turn, 28 DC (Double Crochet), Chain 1.
Row 4: Turn, 28 DC, Chain 1.
(Depending on the bulk of your yarn and the tightness of your stitches stop her or add one more row.)
Row 5: Turn, 28 DC, Slip stitch and knot.
** This will give you a pretty straight cozy. If you want it to be wider at the top just increase each row by 1 or 2 stitches each time. To increase, just do 2 DC in the same stitch.

I then used a yarn needle to sew a button on one side. I didn't crochet in a button hole but because I tend to have a loose and flexible stitch I knew I'd just be able to push my button through wherever. This way I can make it tighter or looser depending on the size of the cup.

I had no issues getting the button through my stitching.

The great thing about these are that it really took 15 minutes or less to make one.

These are perfect stocking stuffers or you could even make a set to give as a hostess gift. Or, make at least 5 to go in your purse ;)

~ Monique

Stick Wreath

2011-10-19T20:44:00.000-07:00

We saw this pin on Pinterest over the weekend. Gorgeous. Let's do it.

We set a date. Tuesday night.
We'll probably need more glue sticks... Kim offered to pick them up.
I texted that we might need around 3 bags each.
She called back later and left a message that she had bought 17.
17 packs.

After we put the kids to bed the tall one asked, "When is 'glue sticks' coming over?"
That will hence be her name on this blog :)

The boy one helped me gather a huge bucket of sticks. And by help I mean he fought off all the trees with a big stick sword.

We ended up with these beautiful wreaths. I don't have pics of glue sticks' wreaths but they are stunning.

It's easy peasy lemon squeezy:

- Cut a round piece of cardboard.

- Glue sticks around the cardboard.

- Make fabric rosettes and glue in a ring to cover the cardboard showing through the sticks.

Done!

Glue sticks learned a lot about hot glue... namely that it hurts and gives blisters :)

We were up until almost 3 am. Yikes. I prayed as she left that God would make our 4 hours of sleep we would get feel like 8. He did. So thankful for that.

Now I can't decide where to put the wreath. Front door?

Gate? Doesn't really show up...

Inside on my gray wall? I think that's what I'm leaning towards.

Fun night. Great project. And I think glue sticks is more crafty than she knows :)

DIY | Super Cape

2011-10-17T09:36:00.000-07:00

The boy one isn't really old enough to watch many "Super Hero" shows but he has picked up on the notion of a "super cape" from a few features in programs like Backyardigans and Max and Ruby. I love how his imagination is blossoming and to facilitate a bit more pretend play I figured I'd make him a super cape.

Doesn't he look super?

Materials:

- Old T-shirt

- felt

- scissors

I started by grabbing an old t-shirt of mine. It's from a stash of shirts I plan to make a quilt out of. I wanted to save the front of this shirt for the quilt as it was one of my warm up shirts from when I played for the U of R Cougars.

You need to essentially cut out the back of the shirt while keeping it attached to the entire collar.

Once you have that cut you can shape the cape. Here I only cut a slight angle at the top but I find it a bit flappy so I'm going to slope it even more to round his shoulders better.

I also rounded off the bottom corners. Fold the cape in half before you cut to make sure you have symmetrical corners.

Next you need some embellishment. To make the popular Super Man diamond, cut a square from another t-shirt scrap, fold it on the diagonal and then clip the top and side corners.

From an old baby onesie I cut out a "K" for Super Kai. His real name is Miciah but Super Miciah is a little syllable intensive :) Jersey stretches a lot so pin everything in place before you sew!

With the K sewed on I then sewed the patch to the cape. Also what I didn't grab pictures of is where I sewed a length of blue ribbon and a length of red ric rac to the bottom of the cape for a little more pizazz.

Every hero also needs a mask to hide his true identity so I sketched out a quick pattern on paper and then pinned it to felt folded in half. To guide the mask creation I measured my son's face, and the distance between his pupils (for the eye holes). Pin on the fold and cut!

Once it's cut out sew on elastic to the back. I sewed one side on and then fit it on his head and sewed the next side on.

After I finished his ensemble, which took less than 30 minutes we went upstairs for a little "super shoot." This kid cracks me up.

**Photo Tip: It was a rainy day and so my room was actually quite poorly lit. What was important to me was getting great action shots and so I jacked my iso up where it needed to be regardless of a bit of grain. To freeze action you need to set your shutter speed to at least 1/500. That's a fast shutter speed so you'll need to compensate with your aperture and iso. If you use your Tv setting your camera will do it for you or you can set it all in M.**

Yeah, he's totally crunching his head in the bottom right corner. Flips make me crazy nervous - for good reason!

"Look Mommy - I'm Super Cape!" Not Super Kai, he's Super Cape. Adorable.

I love how it fully looks like he's floating here!

Ninja.

Every super hero needs a side-kick and so we have a Super Hanny cape as well. Complete with pom pom trim of course (and sponsored by Adidas.)

These were crazy easy to whip up. After my first run with Kai's cape it only took me 15 minutes to make Hanny's. This is a perfect gift for all the littles in your life. Customize a cape, sew a mask and even a couple of felt cuffs (with laser buttons of course) and pack them all together as a "Super Kit".

Here I just covered an old coffee tin in scrapbook paper to house all the items. It's a cute presentation and can be kept as a practical space to store their super clothes :)

Have a Super day!

P.S. He's acquired another fellow Super. I was promptly informed that Naters needs a cape too :)

Thickwood Hills Picker | Part 2

2011-10-15T08:31:00.000-07:00

Usually when someone asks me what my dream job would be, I can honestly answer that I'm currently doing it. When I was teaching Middle Years I really couldn't imagine doing anything else. I loved it. Now I'm fully living the dream by being able to stay home with my kids as well as running a photography business. Had I the sufficient hours in a day though, I would add to my list of jobs, being a picker.

Though for it to be a dream job I would have to be picking with someone else's money for somebody else's store where I have no responsibility to sell any of the items. Brilliant right?

Over the Thanksgiving weekend we got to do a little picking in Thickwood Hills. I called up the owner of General Store Memories and he agreed to open up the store just for us. Score!

As soon as we walked up to the store to meet him he announced, "Well you picked a good day to come, I'm going to give you everything for half off." Um - SCORE!

We had a blast picking through the jam packed store. Oohing and awing and loading our finds on the counter and doing our best to be "enablers".

Mom has been trying to get him to sell this bench for months. She finally got it.

She's also been trying to get this table for ages. I was able to snatch it for her birthday present.

Love the legs.

We found these great canisters that match my old breadbox (which I stole from my mom). The yellow wire thing is a metal corner shelf - love it.

By far my favourite find of the day was this vintage leather camera case. It is in perfect condition, the inside is lined in crushed red velvet and it even has folding dividers for my lenses. It's so perfect for the times I just want to take my SLR along but don't want to haul a backpack with all my lenses, batteries and cords along with it. Best thing about it.... $5!

Accidental iphone pic but kind of cool.

Kim and her sweet "industrial wreath". It now sits on her mantle - looks fab.

Mom with her table and coffee tin.

The one thing I rarely think about when shopping.... how to get it all home!

No worries though. We're ninjas. Throw it all in, use some ratchet straps to tie it all shut and we're good to go. Let's just say the men were a tad apprehensive when we drove up. Apparently they weren't expecting such a glorious haul.

Such a great morning of picking!

Thanksgiving Highlight Reel

2011-10-14T07:19:00.000-07:00

This Thanksgiving we were able to head up North to my parents home. I love being there this time of the year as Autumn is out in full force. We didn't tell the boy one until half way through the drive up that his friend Naters was also coming to Grandma and Grandpa's along with Uncle Matt, Auntie Kim and Karah of course! He was thrilled!

We had such a relaxed weekend and had so much fun making memories.

Uncle Matt and I took the boys canoeing around the pond.

They were so excited and listened so well in the canoe. Pieces of drift wood were dinosaurs and we explored beaver homes and tree bough caves. It was great.

Cute friends.

We also took a couple of quad rides through the country side. We fit 8 people on the quad and trailer - awesome. I'm pretty sure Naters even fell asleep on this ride :)

The boy one playing with a new vintage camera for my collection.

We did a bit of hay bale jumping.

Kim and Karah.

Sweet jump off the bale. Total trust.

Chasing Poncho the pug.

So much exploring and climbing.

Moms and boys + a tree in front of our faces.

I have absolutely no idea what is happening here but I think it's hilarious.

The boys found ~~sticks~~ swords and were fierce pirates. Until Otis (the Bull Mastif) mistook their sword wielding for a friendly game of fetch and continually stole their massive tree branch.

The whole Martens clan came for supper on Sunday and Hanny got some quality time with her great grandma.

Bouncy house cuddles.

I love these boys.

Hanners disgusted with Otis for walking past her. The gall!

Using remnants from the veranda building to play blocks.

My bro Cory and his baby.

On the way home we squeezed in an hour at the Pumpkin Hollow Corn Maze. Super fun, wish we had had more time.

We had to catch Hanny a few times.

The Tregs.

The Willms. Thank you children for posing so nicely.

Massive jumping pillow. Sweet.

Playing in the Corn Box.

It was such a great weekend. So many memories were made :)

Thanksgiving Table Styling

2011-10-13T08:24:00.000-07:00

My mom was in charge of hosting Thanksgiving dinner for the extended family this year. Their house is a hundred years old and very much divided into smaller rooms so it was obvious we'd have to get creative in seating roughly 30 people. My friend Kim (who ventured North with us) and I tackled the job of creating a rustic outdoor dining area.

Here is our little eating area sat midway down the valley.

I frequently "shop" in my parents outbuildings. They are a wealth of treasures. To create our first table we set a door (original to the house) atop two rustic saw horses. On either side we put benches found around the property. The handmade bench in the foreground was a super "find" from antiquing the day before. She had been asking the shop owner for months to buy the bench and he wouldn't let it go - until that day :)

For the table center piece we positioned antlers with a vintage jam tin and plain old tin can filled with foliage from the forest floor. I love it.

Around our outdoor dining area we propped up old framed kitchen prints that had hung in our previous home. The large wire basket was a find from an antique shop in Michigan the week before. My parents are both long haul truck drivers which basically means my mom just gets to shop all over North America.

Another antler tin can center piece.

I think this bench is absolutely stunning. I can see why she's been after it for so long.

I wish I knew where to put a door table in my own house :)

I'm always amazed at the stuff I find lying around in my parents out buildings!

A vertical garden on the edge of the bush.

A little rest area.

I had to throw in a pic of my sweet new vintage camera case. More on that story later ;)

A little afternoon snack at our table.

It turned out to be quite a cool evening and so most everyone ended up eating indoors except for these troopers. Mom, Dad, Grandpa and Grandma (who is not outside yet here.)

And of course our two families. Kim and I had to enjoy our handiwork and it was nice to have a little more space for the kids (and less ears to hear their meltdowns.)

Grandpa :)

We are blessed.

DIY | Desktop Wallpaper Organizer

2011-10-07T07:33:00.000-07:00

This is the last type of post I ever thought I'd be writing... I'm going to attempt to show you how to create a wallpaper organizer for your computer desktop. It really is a testament to how incredibly easy I found it to be that I am sharing it here!

First off - let me give a shout out to Pugly Pixel. If you have not been to this site - you need to go. Like go now, I'll wait... amazing right! Katrina Tan is genius and generous, a nice combination. She is brilliant in the photoshop graphics and templates that she creates. Click on Freebies and you'll find yourself overwhelmed with all of the goodies available to download! You can also purchase a membership and get lots of extra fun stuff.

I was browsing through her site and found a post where she offered a free Desktop Wallpaper Organizer for RSS subscribers. The idea is genius! Primarily it's just a jpg that gives you structure of where to place your folders on your desktop.

I use my desktop a lot! During the post processing pictures process of my business Blink Photo, I am constantly exporting to and from my editing program, uploading proofs to my website, sneak peeks to my blog and then folders of high res images for discs. I just find it easiest to find things I'm going to use right away there but my desktop becomes a gnarly mess.

So, I created this!

It was super easy. Start out by opening up Photoshop (I use elements - and remember if you want to fiddle around with it you can download a free 30 day trial!). Create a blank document with white background at 1280x720 pixels.

I used the colour dropper to pull a colour from the tape strips to get the teal for my background and then used the paint bucket to colour the entire background.

I used free Ric Rac strips from Pugly Pixel to create my "borders". Just lay them out horizontally and vertically wherever you like.

The tabs are Pugly Pixel Tape Strips that I just put white text over and positioned where I wanted to.

When you're happy with your wallpaper, save it as a psd document and then as a jpg. The 1280x720 dimensions work on my imac but I'm not sure what other screens would be like. Go to your system preferences, choose desktop and screen saver, and then press the little "+" sign to add your wallpaper jpg to the list of options, select it and it'll put it on the screen!

Then all you need to do is organize your folders and you're all organized! My desktop has never been this clean and hopefully it'll stay that way.

Give a Gift | DIY Listography

2011-10-06T06:55:00.000-07:00

I'm a writer. I love to journal. Like many mom's I started a journal for each of my kids when they were born and like many moms I now barely find the time to write in it.

A year ago I attended a Memoir Writing workshop at the local library. The author/facilitator had a lot of good advice on making a memoir manageable. One of her suggestions was to start with a list of something, like houses, and then pick a memory from the list and write a quick anecdote about it. Good advice.

Related somewhat to that is a motto that I try to live out daily, "Something is better than nothing."
Running for 15 minutes before the kids get up? Better than not running at all.
Writing in the kids' journal once every two months? Better than nothing at all.
Washing all the dishes but leaving the cutlery? Better than not washing any dishes ;) I hate washing cutlery.

What I also find happens in most cases is that if I give myself the grace to just do a little bit, I usually end up doing more. Getting started is always the hardest.

O.K. that's a long introduction to a journal I came across last year. It's called Listography by Lisa Nola. The concept is simple and genius. It's an autobiography written in lists. On each page the author gives a list prompt and you just fill it out. I wish I had been the one to think of it - imagine the money she has made by writing a book of 50 questions. Genius.

I love my Listography. We also have Love Listography that the tall one and I fill out together. It's great for us to do together and will be so fun to look back on in the years ahead.

Inside Listography.

The thing about this book is that it's crazy easy to create and customize yourself. Almost exactly a year ago I gave the English one a Pregnancy Listography that I made. I tried to think of all the random things I would have liked to remember about my pregnancy, especially the things that your regular Pregnancy scrapbook won't ask you. Like,
"List the people you wanted to punch in the face..."
"List the most insensitive things people said to you..."
"List the names your parents suggested for the baby..."

I also made my sister in law a customized Listography for Christmas last year. All you need to do is grab a cute little notebook...

and then write a question on each right hand page (it's too hard to write on the left side). And done.

I also have all the questions for a book for each of my children "Little Lists". Things like their favourite toys, their cute mispronunciations, their biggest acts of disobedience, their proudest moments, etc.

On a side note, when you're filling out your listography I suggest dating the entries so that you can keep adding to the lists and see how your life evolved and changed.

Here's a sneak peek at some of my lists :)

List the things you'd save if your house was on fire.
- Laptop with all of our pictures
- External Hard drive
- Camera
- I'd pretty much chuck as much as I possibly could out of the window

List your guilty pleasures.
- Chips dipped in ice cream
- Mocha Cheesecake
- I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Thing night
- Desperate Housewives

What list would you find most interesting to write?

Give a Gift Series: Yo Yo Paper Clips

2011-10-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

One of my primary love languages is gift giving. (If you haven't read The Five Love Languages, I recommend you do). It's really freeing to know that I'm actually hardwired to love giving gifts. Because I also love to "make", I get an extra thrill out of hand making a gift to give someone and thus I will be doing a little series on the blog called "Give a Gift". Most of these gifts can be used for really any occasion at any time during the year but these tutorials should also come just in time to start creating Christmas gifts!

My first gift falls under the "stationary" category. I don't know if it's being a teacher or what but stationary and school supplies make my heart flutter. I just love them. Especially the ones that are pretty and functional. It's a win-win really.

Yo yo paper clips are delightful and uber useful too and are a great gift for anyone with any sort of home or work office or just likes pretty things. They also make a fabulous stocking stuffer!

Materials:
- Fabric scraps
- Large plastic coated paper clips
- Glue gun/glue
- Cardstock
- Buttons (optional)

Start off by cutting out a circle 2.5 inches in diameter from a scrap piece of fabric.

Next, thread your needle and knot it at the end. Start stitching in and out (not going around the edges) along the outer edge of the circle.

Once you've stitched all of the way around, gently pull on your thread (needle still attached) until the fabric all gathers to the middle. Push out the fabric and flatten until you see what looks like this yo-yo. Use the needle and thread still attached to tie a couple of knots in the center.

Grab a coordinating paper clip from your cute little stash.

Hot glue the back of the yo-yo to a paper clip and let dry. To add a bit of variety I also glued cute buttons from my collection to the paper clips as well.

For a cute presentation I printed out a doily graphic from Pugly Pixel. Using photoshop I added a simple quote in the center. "We adore chaos because we love to produce order." by M.C. Escher seemed fitting given the gift. After cutting around the doily I used a exacto knife to make horizontal slits around the doily (8 of them). Slip the paper clips in and viola you are finished!

How cute are these? I just love them!

This is a great gift to "mass" produce as you can sew a bunch of little yo-yo's while watching T.V. and then spend another time gluing.

I also pair them with a cute notepad with pretty scrapbook paper glued to the top and a pencil to complete the set. Just cut your scrapbook paper to the correct width, add glue to the top and affix paper in place. Once the front is glued, fold the paper over the top and glue it to the back.

To attach the pencil I wrapped a bit of Baker's Twine around the pad and pencil together. I'll use any excuse to use my massive coil of Baker's Twine.

Now you have an adorable little stationary set that makes a perfect little gift!

To package it, throw it in a paper bag, fold a paper doily over the top and close with a wooden clothespin. I had these quaint little hen clips left so I thought I'd use it :)

Happy gift giving!

We Are Ninjas

2011-10-04T18:48:00.000-07:00

This weekend the tall one's sister flew down from Calgary to hang out for a few days. It was a super fun weekend and I only wish we could do it more often. The small ones were so excited to spend time with Auntie.

They road cars.

They got many wagon rides (and pretended they were planes.)

They played dolls.

We sat around the sandbox.

Played in the sandbox...

After the littles went to bed we made Cheesecake stuffed strawberries. Yes, they are as good as they sound. So good we made them two nights in a row :)

We downed the strawberries pretty quickly and without reservation so we headed downstairs to burn off a few calories playing Fruit Ninja on the Kinect. It's the same game as on the iphone but on the Kinect you can use your hands and technically any body part to slice through fruit. This game alone makes the Kinect worth owning!

You can't even see their hands they're slicing so fast!

We're all about a challenge so we made a rule "only feet". Giggle, it was awesome.

Pretty high kicks right? All that Tae-Bo has paid off.

Love the "in the air" shot.

Hi Yah!

Blindfolded. It really does heighten your other senses :)

We also played "only elbows". Genius. The next day even the boy one and the girl one displayed some ninja skills!

Before Auntie left we rushed around to try and get a few "posed" pics of her and the kids.

Love this one of Kai and Auntie.

I also conned Crystal into taking a few updated family shots of us as I love at least one fall picture :) I'm thinking this one will go up on the wall!

We said our good byes hurriedly so she could make it to the airport in time and the tall one took a few pics of the Hannah one and I. I realize I have so few pics of us girls together...

She was miserable from teething and I was loving her cuddles.

She seriously gives the best. hugs. ever.

On a side note... the Sister in Law has found a new passion in Pole Fitness. At the park the one day she was teaching Dean and I (mostly Dean) a few pole moves. The tall lanky one is surprisingly fluid on a pole. Who knew?

The next day we were in Chapters and the Hannah one started trying moves on a pole in the store. Hilarious. The Kai one had to try too :)

We had a great weekend and were blessed to spend time with family. I'll leave you with this pic, my little man pulling off Daddy's glasses and striking a very GQ pose :)

Cook Off Date!

2011-09-29T07:14:00.000-07:00

I have an amazing husband. I knew he was amazing even when I started crushing on him in Grade 9. Let me tell ya - he only gets better with age. We were talking one night about where our hearts were at and I shared how I was feeling a little overwhelmed with "Blink" (my photography business). I have been starting to feel that every spare minute I have where the kids don't need me and after they go to bed is being spent on photo shoots, communicating with clients and post processing... meaning that my house is barely tidy and not clean and that often the day reaches 5:00pm and I haven't even thought about what to make for supper.

A solution to one of the issues is to pre-make a bunch of meals and store them in the freezer. I suggested that it would be more fun and less daunting if he would do it with me - like a date... he said "Absolutely". I just love him.

On the week of the cooking date we sat down and made a list of meals that we enjoyed and worked well as freezer meals and then narrowed that down to 4 meals with the intention of making at least 3 of each. On the Sunday I went out and power shopped for all of our ingredients while he put the kids down to sleep.

This is how we started...

And... 15 minutes in the boy one joined us. He's phasing out of napping.... and looking pretty stellar in his "Cars" apron ready to help!

I could have used a few more stove elements... and a few more pots!

We started by prepping all the vegetables.

Hamburger soup! So great on a chilly fall day!

The tall one chopping cabbage.

Hanners didn't nap very long either and joined us... in her cowboy hat.

Mixing/eating Chicken Tetrazzini. My friend Amanda made this when we did freezer meals. It's a Martha Stewart recipe. Martha suggests that it makes 2 casseroles but I'm able to make 3 meals out of it for our size of family. It's really yummy, you can check it out here.

My Rolkuchen bowl came in handy for mixing copious amounts of pasta!

Wow... I am a hot mess in this picture but it proves I was there.

During out cooking date we made:
- 3 meals of meatballs to go with various sauces and rice
- 3 Chicken Tetrazzini casseroles
- 3 Hashbrown casseroles with farmer sausage
- 4 pots of Hamburger Soup

Meatballs are one of our "go to" freezer meals. It's easy to make loads of them and then you can freeze them in meal size portions to go with any sauce. I try to make the meatballs a bit healthier by adding black beans. Here's how:

- Rinse and drain one can of black beans
- Puree the beans and add to one pound of extra lean ground beef
- Add 1 egg, bread crumbs, salt, pepper and 1 tsp ginger
- mix it all up and roll your meatballs
- Freeze them on a tray before dividing into freezer bags

*When I baked these the other day there was virtually no grease in the dish at all. They taste great and you can't even taste the black beans but they add lots of great fibre and cut down on the amount of fat!

One of our favourite sauces for the meatballs is from the Simply Delicious magazine (if you haven't checked it out you need to.)

Cranberry Chili Meatballs
- 1 can jellied cranberry sauce
- 1 jar sweet chili dipping sauce
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp chili powder

Mix it all together and pour over meatballs halfway through baking. Serve with rice. They are delish and definitely have a bit of kick!

We had such a great time cooking together and even with the kids awake and "helping", we managed half a month of meals in 2.5 hours. Can't wait to do it again. What are your favourite freezer meal recipes?

Up in the Air

2011-09-27T14:51:00.000-07:00

On Saturday the Estevan Airport (yes, Estevan has an airport...) hosted an Airport Open House. Us and the Tregs headed out for a quick trip to see some planes up close!

First though we saw a mini quad :)

The same guy who let them sit on the mini quad also let them sit in the drag racing car. Vrrrrooom!

Hanny loves fast toys too :)

Unfortunately attendees weren't allowed to roam the tarmac and look at all the planes. For safety reasons you had to be escorted to where you wanted to go and look, which is understandable but I think that having an area fenced off (or in the hanger) where kids could look at planes would have been a big hit. We did however request an escort and went to view a charter plane and "Marvin's Grandpa's plane".

Here's the boy one in the charter plane.

Uncle Matt explaining something to us :)

The highlight of the day for us was that we booked a short flight for the boy one and the tall one to go on! It was super cool of the airport to offer and from what I understand most of the planes were privately owned and they volunteered to take people up in the air all day.

Here we all are sending them off!

Cockpit.

The excitement in his eyes melts me!

He's even rocking aviators..

It was so fun to watch them taxi and take off! My son has an eagle eye for spotting planes in the air and he gets ridiculously excited every time he sees one. Him being able to be the one "up in the air" was truly a cool experience!

Daddy took a few iphone pics in the plane as well... So handsome in their headsets. Whenever Kai tells anyone about his airplane ride he says "We got to fly in the air and talk to each other!" (referring to the headsets.) Cute.

The pilot.

Our little city.

And then they were done! Dean said he was a rock star the entire flight and they both had a blast!

Blink Photo | Jenn and Scott's Sneak Peek

2011-09-25T22:13:00.000-07:00

Do you remember this sweet family? I was able to do their E-Session a few months ago and 2 weeks ago I shot their wedding on a gorgeous September day! Gorgeous as in over +30 degrees... maybe not so fun in a big dress and tuxes... but they rocked it :)

Scott, Jenn, Chase and Braya here's your sneak peek!

A little fun with frames...

Congrats Jenn and Scott!

A New Tab!

2011-09-24T22:34:00.000-07:00

I've got a new tab! Look above you and you should see a tab labeled "Tutorials".... See it?

Click on it and now you'll be brought to a page that shows a categorized list of Pocket Full of Whimsy tutorials. Just click on the picture of the project and it will take you directly to that post!

I've been wanting to do this for forever and hopefully this makes it a bit easier to navigate the blog!

Also, stay tuned because I'm working on a "Give a Gift" series just in time to get you rolling on some handmade Christmas gifts!

~ Monique

2011-09-24T22:29:00.000-07:00

For the Little Ones

Ruffle Bum Onesie

Doily Onesie

Tab Blanket

Pom Pom Petticoat

Numbered Bean Bag Toss Game

Tree Stump Table and Chairs

Chalkboard Table

Ruffle Headband

For the Home

Book Page Wreath

Tea Cup Centerpiece

Corral Board Headboard

Cheeky Welcome Mat (Freezer Paper Stencil)

Custom Typography Print

Vintage Dish Magnetic Pin Holder

Just for Fun

Yo-Yo and Button Paper Clips

Rain Boot Cuff from Old Sweater

"Mommy Needs Space" Door Hanger and Eye Mask

Grunge Family Tree Shirt

Chalkboard Speech Bubble Sign

Date Weekend!

2011-09-19T23:31:00.000-07:00

This past weekend my parents drove 7 hours to come and babysit our kids for a night. They drive a semi for a living - so I thought it was pretty huge that they'd do that. We were able to take off Saturday morning for Regina and had 2 days and one whole night to ourselves. It was an incredible date weekend!

When we got to Regina we had no agenda really. We just wanted to hang out. We ended up at London Drugs looking at their camera equipment. I'd been having a few issues with my camera and one of my lenses. The camera really just needs a good cleaning and tune up and I'm not sure what the deal with the lens is but I was interested in purchasing another anyways.

I got to play with the new Pentax K-5 in order to check out the lens.. it was dreamy. In the car a while later the tall one looked at me and said, "So are we going back to get the camera?" Um, what? Yeah... so he totally wanted me to get a new camera, and the amazing lens...

I had no intention of getting either, I usually research every minute detail and option when buying something but we prayed about it and God said "Yup. Go for it." WOO HOO!

I finally took them out of the box today and played around a bit. Oh. My. Word. I am in love.

So, with my ~~day, week,~~ year made we headed out for a little java...

and then to the hotel to get ready. Did I mention that Bayer Crop Insurance put everyone at the tall one's work up in a hotel, took us out for supper and then transported us via limo to the Keith Urban concert? Yeah... that was nice of them :)

My discreet shot of the limo interior. I didn't want to look like I didn't do this every day ;)

We had great seats, with great people. Yay for being on a date!

The Band Perry opened for Keith. I recognized one of their songs but liked them all. They were a great opening act! I've just downloaded their album and am pleased to hear they have 5 CMA nominations. Cool.

Then there was the man himself. I was so thoroughly impressed with the show Keith Urban put on. He went hard for almost 3 hours and did not take one break. He sweat through everything he was wearing, sang his heart out, played amazing guitar and looked like he enjoyed every minute of it. It was so fun!

He had loads of crowd interaction! At one point he brought this girl up on stage because she had a sign that said "You were my grad present. Please make my wish come true!" When they put the camera on her I realized it was Brittany Orsted - one of my grad clients from this year! Neat

He had a couple stages in the crowd and that was pretty cool. At one point he also went way up into the bleachers at the back and sang an entire song. When he was done he signed his guitar and gave it to a woman sitting there. He was absolutely mobbed getting back to the stage.

The finale after the 3 song encore. Another cool part was during the encore he brought out The Band Perry and they sang Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream." It was fun :)

After going out to eat after the concert and waking ourselves up in time to have breakfast and check out we were exhausted on Sunday. We shopped a bit, had a late lunch and then picked up Coldstone Ice Cream Cupcakes for my dad's birthday.

We totally missed our kids but were so glad they had such a great time with grandma and grandpa. It was amazing to have time all to ourselves and focus just on each other. People even treated us like we were just dating. One woman exclaimed in the elevator... "Oh my... you two will have very tall children if you ever decided to have kids!"

We laughed and said "Yeah, we already do. Two of them and our 3 year old is as tall as most 6 year olds we know :)"

It's funny to me that after 9 years of marriage we can look like a newbie couple at that stage where we could be deciding if we might have kids together one day. If we had been on the ball we should have made it awkward and said something like, "Uh... we just met last night..."