Today I Am...

Reading: Planning on reading Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In and Dan Brown's Inferno when I hop on a plane flight to visit my brother soon. :)

Listening to: #Beautiful by Mariah Carey feat. Miguel

Obsessed with:
**Food = greek yogurt in any flavor, string cheese, Nut Thins in Cheddar Cheese, shrimp
**Crafts = mostly quilting projects right now, but itching to make some cards too!
**TV Time wasters (most of which just ended for the summer) = Grey's Anatomy, Amazing Race, Survivor, Elementary, CSI, Law & Order: SVU, NCIS, NCIS: LA
**House = picking an accent paint color for our kitchen (more about that later this week!)

Thinking about: My upcoming trip east to visit my brother and sister-in-law!

Planning: What to pack.... :)

Dreaming of: What to do this summer!

Enjoying: Time spent with Brian hanging out watching TV or movies.

Vowing to: Finish Amy's quilt, Brian's quilt and get Madeline's in the mail to Sarah!

Working on: Getting everything cleaned up and put away before I leave for Pennsylvania.

Excited about: Traveling and spending time with Tom & Amy soon!

Favorite food I made in the last month: I haven't made much food this month, so I'm going to go with my most recent culinary success, Nutella Buddies.... YUM.

Getting out and about: Closest we got to that this month aside from a trip up to visit the families and celebrate our nephew's 5th birthday, was running errands at Costco and grabbing lunch at Famous Dave's last Saturday.  It was fun :)
Things that caught my eye recently:
I love this show. Probably because of all these awesome guests!
I definitely want to master this craft... so cool!

Favorite photo from the last week:

She loves to snuggle on the couch while we watch TV in the evening... wouldn't be complete without a pillow to sleep on or a blanket to sleep under! :)

Home Decor: In Celebration of Chuck & Katie

Earlier this year, I made a cute frame-able piece of meaningful word art for my sister to give to her husband... so when she was looking for a meaningful wedding gift to give her friend Katie and her now husband Chuck this weekend, she asked for my help putting something she saw surfing the web on her cell phone & took pictures of.  We changed all the fonts, but the general setup is very similar:

And here's a close-up of it actually in the frame:

Rumor has it, the bride and groom loved it and plan to hang in in their bedroom. :)

Congratulations Chuck & Katie!

*If anyone recognizes the artwork and knows the original source, please let me know and I will be happy to link to it! :)

Five Years of Birthday Invitations

So last weekend we celebrated my favorite little mister's fifth birthday a little early....


Picture taken at Disneyland in March :)

Where does the time go?!

Every year (but his first birthday - momma did those!), I make this little man's birthday invites and I thought it would be fun to show them all in one place, so here goes!

What do you think?! :)

Featured Altered Art: Andrea's Mason Jar Pincushions

The newest addition to my new sewing desk.... isn't it cute?! :)

Another craft done when Drea visited. :)  She had seen this tutorial and had some left over fabric from this project.... so a quick trip to my pantry for some jars, break out the glue gun and some stuffing.... and here you go!

I think they turned out awesome and I can't wait to put this one to use. :)

So now that I'm finally at the end of sharing all our crafty projects, here's a recap of everything we got done in that one weekend!

• {Drea & Amanda} Nutella Buddies
• {Drea & Amanda} Fleece Tied Blankets
• {Drea} Fabric Initial Canvas
• {Amanda} Magic Baby Blankets
• {Drea} Hawaiian Disappearing Nine Patch Quilt Top
• {Amanda} Hand Knit Gift Tags
• {Drea} Mason Jar Pincushions! :)

All-in-all, a pretty successful crafty weekend, don't you think?! :)

Magic Baby Blankets

And they totally lived up to their name too!

So I have two cousins who are expecting their second child in June... two more cute little boys in the family!  And of course, with their due dates so close together, their baby showers were a week apart.  So I needed something quick, easy and cute to make and my friend Drea suggested this video tutorial. 

Now we've both been eyeing that particular video for quite a while, so when she reminded me about it again, I knew we had to head off to the fabric store so I could throw these together over our crafty weekend we had back in April. 

I'm so glad that I did!  They really were quick and easy.  Her directions are fantastic.  My only modification was to add a layer of batting since I was using to cotton prints and it gave the blanket the perfect weight and feel. :)

Highly recommend and I most definitely will be using this as my go-to baby blanket for baby shower gifts. And for size perspective, here's my model Scarlet showing her love for the blanket0s and, well let's face it, when the camera comes out she thinks it's for her! ;)

I hope the moms-to-be love them!

Do you have a go-to baby shower gift that you like to buy or make?

**Linking to the Spring Pinterest Challenge here.  Love the projects from the hosts Sherry, Katie, Emily & Renee!!**

Card: Henry Says Congratulations!

So I have two cousins that are both expecting their second baby this June!  Two more little boys will be joining the family :)

We used this card for the first baby shower gift and I needed to make a card for the second baby shower gift, so I went digging though my stamp stash and made this:

I went for bright and colorful... I think that it's both!

I messed around a bit with Vine at my phone to show you how I stamped that background by coloring the stamp:

I hope the momma to be likes it! :)

What do you think?

Supplies for this project:Stamps:  Henry Says
Cardstock:  Whisper White, Pacific Point

Specialty Paper: Basic Grey Designer Series Paper
Ink:  Basic Black, Real Red

Markers:  Poppy Parade (retired), Real Red, Peach Parfait, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Lucky Limeade, Gumball Green, Pacific Point, Midnight Muse, Chocolate Chip

Punches:  Modern Label, Word Window
Other: Sewing Machine + thread, Stampin' Dimensionals, White Signo Pen, Googlie Eye, and a background stamp from my stash :)

My New Obsession.... Stitch Fix!

***Disclaimer:  This post is not sponsored by Stitch Fix and I am not affiliated with them in any way. I just really love this concept, the company and the fun box on my doorstep when I schedule it to appear!***

In February, I read this blog post and it caught my attention immediately.  I HAD to try it!!

And now I'm obsessed.  Stitch Fix is awesome!!  And I can't wait until my next fix! :)

So before I go into what I got in my first fix, I'll back up and give a quick explanation of what it is from the Stitch Fix website:

You sign up and wait to be accepted. I waited a little over two weeks... no biggie.  Totally worth the wait!! :)

Once you are accepted, they send you a link where you fill out a style profile with fun questions like this:

It covers all kinds of info from sizes to preferences.  You can also tell them anything you like, so I included a note to avoid coral colors (not a flattering color with my skin tone) and that I was looking for weekend casual wear.

Once you complete the profile, you schedule your fix.  I scheduled mine quickly... what can I say, patience isn't my strong suit!  So a week later, my box showed up!!

I can't explain how exciting it was.  Better than Christmas!  A box of clothes that are my size (in theory) and are stylish (I hope!)... I ripped that box open as fast as I could.... and I was not disappointed. :)

I got to try on everything with my existing wardrobe, in my closet, NO RUSH.  No impulse purchases.  I actually slept on my decision.  It gave me time to get some friends' opinions via text message and get my husband's opinion too.  Each item came with a styling card which I found good because it made me think about what I already had I could use each piece with if I bought it.

The price point?  It wasn't bad.  Look, this isn't the GAP, Target or Old Navy.  You won't be getting a $5 tank top with a coupon! ;) It's on par with my normal price point at Ann Taylor Loft, Banana Republic, White House Black Market, Macys, so I'm comfortable with it.  That said, I sent an item back due to price, but it fit perfectly and I really liked it... but more on that in a minute.

So down to business.... here's what came in the box:

I kept the blue tulip print, the royal blue dolman top, and the necklace.  The white cardigan fit perfectly, but I couldn't justify the price considering I already have several like it in my closet.  The red tank top with the white cardigan is mine. :)

There was also a striped jersey/denim tank that was horrible on me... didn't like the fit or the combo of fabrics.  Total miss, but I have to give credit for sticking to the request I made for weekend casual clothes.

Verdict overall?  I'M OBSESSED.  Addicted.  In love. ♥ 

I already scheduled my next fix and I cannot wait!!

If you want to sign up, here is a referral link!

If you have any questions, please ask in the comments or send me an email.

Have a great weekend!! :)