Boston's 1st Birthday Party: The Invitations

Not totally finished with the back side of the invitations, but here's the front all finished:

I Know I Sounds Like A...

. So guess what, I've been slacking in the blogging department. I've been so busy it's ridiculous. Good ridiculous.

I shot my first wedding last weekend! I've put in a lot of late nights this past week, but I think it's paid off a bit. I've been thinking more and more about it lately and have decided I need to do something to get my "business" straightened out. More and more people are asking me to take photos for them. I never in one million years dreamed of myself as a photographer. It is a hobby that I love, but never thought I was any better than a hobbiest (is that even a word?). Other people seem to think otherwise. Thanks for the flattery and compliments everyone!

I fancy myself a designer, not really a photographer. Just reading about setting up a small business is making my head spin and I have a business degree! I'm not setting out in this endeavor to make a ton of money. I'm not even really looking to make much of a profit at all, but I know Uncle Sam will want to get his slice of whatever meager pie I get. All I want to do is be legitimate. If anyone reading has any expertise in this area, feel free to sound off!

Crib Bedding: Quilt Dunzo!

I'm so excited to announce that I finished the crib quilt. FINALLY! On Mother's Day I just decided to do it. Get it done. We went out to my in-laws like we do every Sunday and with my mother-in-laws supervision and guidance I finished it! I feel so accomplished! This is the first sewing project I've done since quilting class in high school. It's weird too because I used to LOVE quilting and sewing in general.

I also have the mobile on the crib finally.



I'm finally getting around to posting his name picture. It wasn't posted before he was born because his name was a secret, and I guess I just forgot to ever post it! It's still not hung though! Since it's going to hang above the crib, we have to get something to not only hang it, but secure it to the wall so it doesn't fall on or get pulled off the wall by little man. I just made the print in Photoshop and painted the frame white. I quite like how it goes with the quilt and the room in general.



And a view of them together.

Crib Bedding: Crib Skirt Done and Quilt Blocks Laid Out

The crib skirt is done and all put together. I loooove how it looks with the rest of the room! Thanks for hemming it for me Char! Boston is still in the co-sleeper next to our bed, and not in his crib yet. I've been using the crib as a stuffed animal storage container haha!





I also got the quilt blocks all cut out (FINALLY!!!!) and laid out how I want them to be sewed together. I quite like the fabrics together. I was sort of worried it would look more like a hot mess than a cute quilt, and I think it looks pretty cute. I can't wait to get them all sewed and finished! The only other things we need to do are:





1. Hang Boston's name picture above the crib. Ryan ordered some hardware that will secure it to the wall. You have to slide it and lift up to get it off the wall that way. The last thing I'd want is that picture falling down on my baby!

2. Get the shelves and get them installed. I sooo can't wait to get this done, I have a bunch of cute stuff stuffed in tote drawers just waiting to be displayed. Other than that, his room is pretty much DONE! Well, I mean any room is always going to be a work in progress, but when these things are finished, I'll feel good about calling it a day on this nursery!

New Business?

I'm thinking of starting up a very small home business doing:

- photo retouching
- announcement and card design
- album design
- marketing materials
- photography (I'm still an amateur and know I can't run with the big dogs on this, but I love it, and practice makes better (I never say perfect with things like this, haha.)
- web design
- pretty much anything you can design on a computer and give to someone, I'm willing to make. I already have my first wedding to photograph this summer and I'm super excited for that. I like to think my style is a lot different than others around the area and since I've never shot a wedding, I'm excited to see how my style pans out in this category.

I'd also like to start selling little things here and there on www.etsy.com. You can buy/sell just about anything handmade on that site!

This will probably be a few months away at least. I want to spend as much time with my little Singer as possible. He’s already growing so fast!

Curtains Part 3: Elephants and Elephants and Elephants, Oh My!

DONE!!!!!! Sorry, I really just wanted to shout that from the rooftops. For some reason, this turned into the project that would never end. It took forever and a day to get all those ink elephants onto the curtains. Bending over a table and painting intricate faces for 2 days REALLY took a huge tole on my back. I could barely walk yesterday, and I'm pretty much just hovering today. But I'm quite happy with how they turned out, so that's good!

It was hard to get a bright picture since it's so horribly overcast outside today. Yuck, I'm so ready for spring!




Here they are before getting their faces


We're really coming down to the wire! I just hope I can get it all done in time.

Rabbit (in da) Hat

Since Baby B is going to be born the year of the Rabbit (Chinese Zodiac) I thought I'd crochet him a little bunny hat. I still have to add the bunny face on it. I just hope it's not too small for him. I guess we'll see very soon!



The fabric that it's laying on is for the crib skirt. I really wish I could get that project going!

Curtains Part 2: Adventures in Elephant Application

As you've probably seen in earlier posts, my generous mother-in-law has taken on a lot of my sewing projects for me. She hemmed the curtains for me and I hung them (without the elephants added) and I LOVE how they look in the room!


Please ignore all the power tools, this was taken last week when the room wasn't as put together.

Some people might look at this picture and say 'what the heck? Why are they sooooo far away from the window? They are basically touching the ceiling!' Observant! If you google how to hang curtains to make a room look bigger, it says to hang them high and wide. By hanging them wide, it makes the window appear so much bigger. I want to allow as much light as I possibly can into the room. The ONE good thing about the mirrored closet doors (see I guess since I have to live with them for awhile I'll spend some time looking for at least one redeeming quality in them) is they are awesome at bouncing the light all around--making for a very bright bedroom! With the room being so small, I'll do anything I can to make it feel not so cavernous! Hanging them high makes the room appear taller. I'm sure some might say that floor length curtains in a nursery is a ridiculous choice, but I'm happy with it. Since I'm totally trying to break the matchy-matchy nursery mold in this room, the last thing I wanted was a generic valance. Not that there's anything wrong with matchy-matchy or bed-in-a-bag-decor nurseries. There are some really cute themes out there. It's just not what I wanted when I envisioned this space. Half the fun for me in this whole thing is hand picking every piece of fabric, every toy, every book, everything really.



So far all I've done is make the elephant template and make a sample elephant on a scrap that was left over after hemming. I have to say it turned out pretty nice! I was afraid the ink coverage would be cloudy, but it's pretty solid. Though it's pretty easy to apply an elephant, it's kind of time consuming, so this is going to take me awhile. I hope to have the finished product very soon!



Judy was just dying to get her Fiddler on the Roof on. Okay, maybe that was me, not her.

More Room Art

A few more in the series for baby's room. I just have a few left to make, then I'll get them ordered and in their frames! Ryan likes Bob the Builder, so I had to include him in the room somewhere without getting all theme-y about it.

Alphabet Art

Alphabet art is a lot of fun! This was a lot of fun to make. I wanted to stay pretty strict to his room color scheme for this piece.

More Artwork

I got pretty ambitious last night while Ryan was playing Call of Duty. I made a Name picture of baby B's name to go over the crib. Since we're not revealing his name till he's born that one will have to wait. Here is another I made last night. I like the look of collage/cut out art, so I made something like that. Keeping the color scheme of his room in mind this is what I came up with.



I have a few more ideas for the remaining pieces, nothing too concrete yet though.

Kewpieville Framed Pieces

I LOVE how these turned out. These are postcards adapted by Florence Baker in the style of Rose O'Neill. They are from the 1950s and I love them. I really like the rich colors in them, and I think they will look great on the seafoam wall. I was initially going to paint the wooden frame gold to match the triptych frame, but I really love how the rich wood looks with the postcards.



Yes, I typed the word "love" three times in this post. But it's true, I love these (okay, now four times).

Mockup on Seafoam wall: