Made with Love.

I am so thankful to have inherited some of my mother's crafting skills.

Some how she is always able to pull of some of the most bizarre costumes and concepts gracefully. I am always a complete mess covered head to toe in atleast paint, thread and hot glue!

We custom make 99% of our garb for events.
I have recently discovered the energy a mother finds when she is still up past midnight the day before an event or project is due. Somewhere there is a special amount of time you obtain from doing sometime for your children; and yes with all your heart it gets done.

Faire season is approaching quickly as always! Hopefully this year it won't sneak up on us too bad...
I'm sure there will be many interesting and innovative ways that I will have to share with you on how to travel on the road and camp outdoors all summer long with a little one!

Crafting!

I love scrapbooking and paper crafting! I really prefer dedicating my time on functional projects like the chalkboard window for gorcery lists, or the father's day gifts I have been working on.
But its fun to craft with pictures because for me it preserves memories!

This was a thank you card that I sent out to
Grandaddy & Nana Jode for sending us a bumbo seat!

Hopefully i can figure out how to take better pictures to keep from casting glares...


I love getting inspiration from some different youtube videos; I am by no means a pro but I have improved quite a bit from when we first decided we wanted to scrapbook Tyr's baby book.
{ I almost forgot here are two scrapbooking channels I love: http://www.youtube.com/user/TwoPeasInABucket?feature=watch
http://www.youtube.com/user/swissgirl90?ob=0 }

Beginning of book when I was just getting a hang of
capturing our favorite photographs

Unfornuately I don't have much time to dedicate to crafts but I try to get as much done as quickly as possible because I don't have room to leave stamps and scraps about...

A much more recent page from our gloucester trip

Recently I became inspired again to get photos together to show our families.

This is one of the first pages I started back up on in two months...

Hopefully I can keep up the determination to continue so I can also practice figuring out layouts and color concepts

Wish me luck!

Kitchen!

We thought we were going to move out the
table but now we actually eat at it
every chance we get! And yes we are using
a short durable coffee table as a bench (which I am
making a cushion for)
Its nice having a clean place reserved to
sit down for lunch break...

I'm pretty happy with our current kitchen layout! When it came down to it all the tips and advice I found helped but it mainly inspired us to figure out what would work best for us.

There is really no specific home for the
highchair, but because its a table top
seat its easy to move around in a small
apartment.

The white furniture piece (which we salvaged and refinished) was actually where the grey shelves are now
but with just moving furniture around the house we
found better uses for them.

The frame that is supposed to resemble a little cottage window is a little chalkboard that my fiance and I designed. Underneath there is a shallow shelf for smaller spices so theres more room on the larger spice rack for storing baby food because the different store bought and homemade purees fit so perfectly.

A simple overview of what works for us <3

Some little tips that made things easier for us:
~ Trash Can beside the sink counterspace; another really useful place at our old place was beside the oven.
~ Catch all basket on the grey shelves: for papers that we are working on or other things that may clutter the kitchen table
~ We love having our A/C in the kitchen; the kicthen is considered the hearth/heart of the home for us the center. It keeps the kitchen the coolest room so it helps perserve foods you typically don't refridgerate but can sour in heat: bananas, chocolate, and other produce. And we have found that funny enough our fridge has kept cooler as well.
~ Shelf in corner. We have fun china and silver we haven't had the chance to use so we love displaying our pretties on tops of shelves or above the cabinetry. When our son is older to toddle into things and climb on furniture we were most defintely have to change our layout a bit ;) Having a thin piece in the corner is also convienent because it doesn't get cluttered and we are less likely to bump into them.
~ Baskets, jars, and boxes: Anything you can use to reduce clutter in the cabinets, counter space, shelves (or even the fridgerator) can often be found in things you can repurpose. We reuse ALL of our baby food jars and even the thin boxes we buy them in. The boxes are perfect for his little feeding and bottle accessories. We organize everything from jewerly to screws and bolts with jars from canned goods, and we love the useful totes and wire baskets you can find at the dollar tree!

I'm sure theres more things I could elaborate on but those are the ones that came to mind!
Let me know if your curious on other things I discovered about a busy working families kitchen ;)

Making up for lost time...

Thank you for the recent emails and even a text yesterday! Yes, I have been rather busy...

First Things First...

Pump Accessory Looks like this guy

which my mom picked out because
we've always called our little one
our turtle because thats how he
looked in utero

Sits on top like this

Mother's Day Gifts that were too fun! Bath & Body Works has a aromatherapy set that I have always adored; My mother got me Stress Relief- Eucalyptus Spearmint : body wash with Energy Lemon Zest: shampoo. Nothing more rejuvenating than lovely pampering products <3 Also from bath and body works I got Hand Sanitizer with the bloody cutest topper for the pump!!! 

I love keeping hand sanitizer around any convienent location that I may need it; kitchen, changing table, bathroom, desk, & especially the diaper bag!
I'm not a clean freak but its for my little man's best interest to keep yucky germs to the minium!
Daddy took good care of me with chocolates and watched the little guy long enough for me to take a bubble bath and eat little cheese bites. yummy!

Nana got me a giant necklace with tons of charms all over it! Absolutely adorable; I always love the mismatch look of random charms... I'm a bit of a magpie bird; love 'em shinies!

With the birthday wishes I was able to go clearance shopping for little scrapbooking trinkets which I can't wait to show off what I've used them for.

I am so thankfully to have shared my birthday with mother's day. I thanked my mom for all she's done for me especially now that I now what she went through working full time when I was an infant. I am so fornuate to be able to take my loved one to work with me!

Gramommy with Tyr at STG promo

Create and Clean

The previous weekend was nothing short of perfect!

 My birthday and my first Mother's day as a mommy on Sunday.

For each lady with children or expecting I designed little memorabilia scrapbooking favors inspired by the unique personalities of their children!
 Pictures to follow!

I am constantly inspired by independent new mommy's I see at the gorcery store with twins with bulky strollers and full shopping carts. Also by expectant mothers who stay at home and move    I hardly get to work in the morning with everything I need for the day; let alone get the house picked up after a busy work day.

I have been finishing up the kitchen reorganization!

Next post I'll have pictures of some of my gifts and why I love them! As well as the apartment project progress :)

Step 1: Conquering the Counterplace

The only counterspace.

Determing my "zones":

Counter space is for preparing and cooking food....

  So don't clutter it! In our apartment there is no space to waste.

For instance consider what you actually use everyday.

 We don't make coffee every morning, We also unplug the microwave after using it; they have been proven to absorb energy while sitting idle.

Most foods can be refridgerated and if nothing else its a better way to keep the kitchen table and counters cleared.

We all love a little candy dish on the coffee table but theres no need for a 9x13 sheet with brownines taking up room; especially if you don't want the temptation to eat them all!!!

All the medicines can be moved into a more consealed place but keeping them in the kitchen helps me remember to take them with breakfast.

Sink Tip:

We get to hand wash all our dishes...whoppee (sarcastically)

Try using a shelf  with slots or one of those wire racks to keep smaller things like utensils or bottle accesories from falling beneath the plates.

It also saves time that you don't have to organize the dishes before you wash them.

Apartment Project Part 1: Overview

Yesterday was an exciting day!!!

  I was fairly productive ( since Tyr was not fussy ). Then I found organizing tipes and sites for suggestion in my fairly cluttered and teeny space!

Tyr's tragically adorable face when I told to clean his room.

After many youtube videos about space efficent apartments; I will be starting my first little documentary of my space and how to make it work for the four of us!

Last night I worked on the kitchen for a bit or atleast as much as I could. Even took a scary video of what the apartment looks like.

This is my first home edited video so forgive me, its just a rough draft the chaos!

Next Food Record!

Tyr and I decided we needed a switch up from just veggies or fruits, 2 oz, twice a day.

Found http://www.gerber.com/supportedsitter/default.aspx and used the Menu Planner.

We puree' all of Tyr's food ourselves therefore we had to figure out the conversion of the gerber tubs they recommend verus the baby bullet 2 oz servings we use.

For this week we made a "Meal Plan"

We based this off the Supported Sitter Menu. Tyr turned 4 months old on Thursday. He has much more content and takes several naps throughout the day! The only change we need to make thus far is that he does not eat "Dinner" that early. Of course we can't assume that he will always eat at 9:00 on the dot like this morning once I got to work he napped until 10.

Tip : Gramommy's pressure cooker seems to cook the best for making the fruits or veggies nice and soft to put in the baby bullet.

Debut at Courtland Reniassance Faire!

Other than his road trip to see his daddy's family in Gloucester, this was his first camping trip!!!

Admittedly it was quite a bit intimidating!

You always think you know what to expect but theres always the unexpected!
It's too easy to get overwhelmed with all the diapers, wipes, food, bottles, blankets, bibs, blankets, washcloths, burp cloths, etc...
And when your going green with cloth diapers, reusable wipes, and pureeing all your own baby food it is too easy to take the easy road and just pay the difference for convienence.

Always striking a precious pose!

It has been worth all the effort! We still have a lot to figure out to make things easy at faires, but we are defintely looking forward to the adventure!

This is Grammommy in her campout! She has this new beautiful hand crafted bed from Woodgrain Innovation. At this particular event she and Grandpapa were merchants where they typically re-enact Nobility.

Our friend Kaylei crocheted this adorable knight helm for Tyr!! He's lounging in his Pack-n-play that we disguised with deer hides that his father cured and his favorite blankets.

Daddy and Tyr defending the homefront!!!

These two are the best for making a musty, yucky,cold morning comedic!

We made an incredibly long.... list of things we either forgot or defintely need for next time!

 Can't wait to see how our summer season goes! <3