arrhhh matey.

so, i'm loving the pirate thing right now :)
i'm about to make myself a skull purse.
or something.

enjoy the littlest pirates.




Hope you are having a good week!!

Introducing...

My newest little embroidery model.

Bryce.

He even got his hair highlighted just for the photos :)
Can you BELIEVE that hair??? SO cute!

Seriously though... this is the newest addition to 'my group of kids'.

Dave, the kids and I went over to their front yard for a little photo shoot. Here are some of our favorite shots... all courtesy of Dave.

And here is the announcement that I made up for them :)

(I actually made a handful of similar ones, because you know I can't be satisfied with making anything simple on myself... but this one was the keeper!)

When picking up the pics at the photo shop they asked for copyright information. Now that's a nice compliment :)

And of course, I have to share a few little things I made for the handsome boy.

His mom loves the burps so much, that she ordered 3 more!

(They really are nice... and a lot of moms claim that my burps are their favorites!)

Check out my new designs too!! The skull and the beach car... so fun!! I had been waiting for a reason to get that skull, and I'd been eyeing that beach car too!

And one last picture... Bryce was eager for a picture with his Wildcats onesie :)

So... there you have it.

The photo shoot.
The announcement.
The embroidery.

The new little man.

delightfully tacky.

each year my mom and her sister's go on a 'sister's vacation'. they occasionally like to do the matching thing.

Purses on clearance at Target + my favorite embroidery monogram = great Sister's Week gifts!! (These bags were just screaming sister's week!)


I'm sure my mom and all of my aunties just look adorable carrying their gorgeous matching purses :) I should have made some business cards, because I'm sure everyone will be wondering where they got such delightfully tacky bags!!

(Hi, I'm a cute 4 year old.)


(And now I'm 14. But still cute!)



I also got some fun new embroidery designs!! Can't wait to share :)
Have a photo shoot to share.
Some other fun crafty things to share too.

Oh, and I sent out a 3rd version of the cookbook.
So sorry :( But I messed up some page numbers in the index.

I'm off! Have a great week :)

my sister's famous cupcake (and her living cupcake)

(lots of links today.. but they are FUN links!! did you ever meet a link you didn't click?!?!)

So... remember the awesome cupcakes that my sister made? (scroll down past my bday stuff)

Well, they are now famous... HERE!!
How fun is that?? On a cupcake blog!!

She made those cutie little cupcakes for her boyfriend's bday back in April.

Speaking of her boyfriend, Joe (who Lilly calls Potato Joe)... I've been wanting to share a few of his sites and talents for a while now, so now is a good time :)

Ever seen the Planet Green ads?? (click the slide show)
That's his.

How about this one? (well, if you're in the UK you might have seen it) I just now watched it for the 1st time... AWESOME!! (and one of my favorite songs is on in the background! yay!!)

And another... what? are you kidding me? seriously? he did that!?!
(I ask my sister that every time she shows me something else...teehee)

How about The Next Foodnetwork Star??

His 2007 Reel.
For Real. He is soooo talented.

And... he is working on his own film right now... Fathoms.
Check out the blog here.
I am completely amazed!!

That's just some of his work.

I would love to have just a smidge of that talent in working with the computer!!
I may be crafty, but not so much artistic ;)

Hope you enjoyed all the links!!

(Thanks for letting me share m&j!!)

vacation.

Here are some photos from our vacation!
Of course I can never take photos of everything... but here are some of the fun times.


Chipping away at a 'treasure ice block'.

Daddy's pizza night!

Some fun rock sculptures by the lake. This was hanging at the top of the stairs in the cottage we stayed in. It was nice to read each time I climbed the stairs.

It's nice to have subtle reminders like these :)

Have a good week everyone!

here comes the cookbook!!

Recipe sharing people... watch your email :)
The cookbook is headed out soon!
***COOKBOOKS HAVE BEEN SENT!!***
(and a 2nd edition went out... with a few minor changes)

(It will be coming from my yahoo email address.)


It was more work than I expected to get it all together, but well worth it! I'm always jumping into projects like that :)

THANK YOU to all who submitted recipes!
I'm so happy with the turnout, that I'll probably do this again sometime. Not any time soon though :)

ENJOY!!


Happy Friday!

quick post!

Just a quick post while I am working on putting the recipe book together!! I'm up to page 46 so far :) Just a few more categories to go!

There are a bunch of new pictures up on my stitching blog :)

Here are a few fun things I've made for orders and gifts in the past month or so...

That's all for now!

(and we are up to page 49 in the recipe book!!)

last call for recipes!!

Today is the "deadline' for your recipes to be added to the "Can I Get that Recipe?" collection!

All the details are HERE....

I hope to start working on making the recipes look pretty in some sort of 'cookbook' form this week! (So I'm sure I can take a few straggling recipes as I am puttting the book together)

THANK YOU to eveyone who has their recipes in!!! So many yummy ones!!

Hope eveyone enjoyed their weekend :)

video blog from lilly

sometimes i'm too lazy (or is it too tired...) to type :)

a questionnaire on mommy by lilly.

(i found these questions listed on another blog, i just thought i'd document via video)

apparently, i like ice cream.

i do.

though not as much as lilly believes i do :)

and, it's been proven... lilly is obsessed with full house.

AND... don't forget!! (this may be my LAST reminder.... or not, who knows!)

the deadline is almost here for the recipe collection... up to this point I have more than 10 categories filled with over 65 recipes!! don't miss out, the deadline is this Sunday the 20th! I may be hunting down some of you individually to get your submissions in :)

Enjoy the rest of your week :)

our 4th

our 4th was busy.

exhausting actually.

but fun :)

we started the morning bright and early at Erin's for breakfast and a parade. after the parade we came back for a cookout!

(click HERE for LOTS more pics of the morning on erin's blog)

dave and the kids rested between events.
my brain does not let me rest when i have so many things to do!

our evening consisted of a cul-de-sac neighborhood gathering!

SOOOO much fun!

i wish we would have been doing this yearly for the past 5 years.

lilly's lemonade stand getting some more use. free lemonade this time :)

one of our neighbors provided this entire table of food by herself:) teehee. we had almost two others filled with food too!! YUM!

a few custom orders :) the 2nd set of pictures was ordered for the newest little baby in our life! (no, not ours biologically... but another little one for me to watch!! i'll introduce him properly sooner or later...)

and just a few goofy ones of the kids.

daddy had to get a new backpack. the first one wasn't big enough.

sure.

and dont forget the recipe collection!! i think it's safe to say we have at least 50 recipes so far, if not more!!

have a great week everyone :)

happy 4th!

we have a busy weekend planned.
so we wanted to wish everyone a...

Stamps are MP, of course :)

And to keep you updated...
The recipe collection has a new due date!

SUNDAY, JULY 20TH

We are starting to get A LOT of recipes! YAY!!
Thank you to all who have already sent in recipes!
Thank you to everyone who is helping spread the word :)

Have a wonderful, safe holiday weekend!

Wii are Family

For Father's Day we surprised Dave with the Wii and WiiFit.

In fact, earlier that week... Dave had started up a Wii savings envelope. (Little did he know there was one sitting wrapped up in his closet.) This money later went to buy MarioKart. (There is now a no more spending money block on the Wii in our household.)


We had heard that the Wii and the WiiFit were nearly impossible to find, so I wasn't too bent on being able to find one in time. But... I was able to find them both on 2 separate occasions within a week of wanting to find them for Father's Day. So... i knew it was meant to be, and it was OK for me to splurge, since they were there at the store for us :)

Here is our little Wii Family :)
or Mii Family should i say...

It's so fun to see each other in all the games.

Like when I'm jogging... the Mii kids and Mii Dave will run by.
One time Dave's Mii winked at me :) That was nice.

Or Mii Dave and Mii Lilly will throw me hula-hoops. (There is video of me hula-hooping. I was unaware I was being taped, and this will not be shown on the blog. or anywhere.)

We are thinking of making all kinds of Miis... grandmas and grandpas, Paula Deen, Rachael Ray, Scott from Meijer, the neighbors.... all the people we know... ha!

Here are some videos... from the first few days with the Wii.

I haven't noticed any extra aggression with the kids, so we aren't being bad parents by letting them box:) To be honest, I don't think they've 'played' too much since the day we got it. Lilly gets worn out from it pretty easy... she can only handle so much running in place and punching before her little arms and legs get tired :)

Mommy and Daddy are enjoying it though!

I never thought I'd be a gaming family... the Wii is fun though. Very family oriented, and even better that it is made by Nintendo.

Gotta give love to the old school games :)

Still reading??

...dont forget about the SALE @ Mandarin Pixie!

... and the recipe collection!! (i may be extending the due date for this, with this being a busy week/weekend for everyone)

Enjoy the rest of your week :)