Busy, busy!

I'm getting ready for Haven's 2nd 1st Birthday Party.  We had one last weekend while we were in Idaho for Thanksgiving, and we're having another this weekend with our family up here.  I've had a lot of fun making her decorations and deciding what kind of cupcakes to make for her and that sort of thing.  Still working on that one, although I know how I'm decorating them.  I'll post pictures after we're done with the whole thing.
I just got a Cricut, and it's SO much fun!  I made her a birthday banner, and now I'm working on tags for Hannukah gifts.  I'm having a ball!
Anyway, this is short, but sweet!  Have a wonderful week!

We are back in business!

At least I feel like I am.  I have a goal of adding new items to my etsy site at least once a week, and blogging at least twice a week.  No guarantees on how well I'll be able to stick to that, but we'll give it a shot.
I'm busy getting ready to make a trip back to good ol' Idaho for Turkey day.  Lots of packing this time, as it will include a birthday party for Lil' Miss Haven, too.
I'm super excited, though.  It'll be good to see family and friends, and celebrate Thanksgiving with them as well as Haven's first birthday.  I made some really cute bows for her to wear with her birthday dress, but you'll have to stay tuned to see them on her.

Here's a picture of her in her Thanksgiving ones, though:  Pretty cute, eh?  And the Asher man thought he was all sorts of cool holding her, too.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Hmmmm...

I'm feeling a bit down today...  Not exactly lonely.  That was when I was without my husband.  Just missing my friends.  I would LOVE to go have coffee with someone or just sit and visit for a while.  I love it here, it really is HOME already, but I don't have any friends that live close.
So, in the next day or so, I plan on hitting the little itty bitty library in the next town, to see if there's any other moms in the area.  Hopefully I'll meet someone.  We shall see....
Meanwhile, I've been keeping my house spotless, cooking and baking like there's no tomorrow, and spending wonderful time with my family.  Loving that!

Home Sweet Home, Sweet Home!

What a crazy couple of months!  We were able to find a house where Jim is working, and we've been up here about three weeks.  It's MUCH better than we imagined.  Right on the river with GORGEOUS views and a perfect layout.  It even has a completely separate space for Jim's dad to stay with us during the week.  Here's a picture of one of my views:
Yes, that's my backyard.  And no worries about the kids, it's a little jaunt down to the river, and they're not allowed to open the gate.  Besides that, I can see them from almost every room in the house because the entire back of the house is lined with huge picture windows.
I haven't had much time for bow making lately, but I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things in the next week or so.  All of the boxes have been unpacked now, and I'm getting used to being in the middle of nowhere....  And we really are in the middle of nowhere.  There's a town about 5 miles away, but there's basically just a grocery store there.  It's enough to get what we need, but we're getting into the habit of making a shopping trip once a week into Richland.
I have an enormous kitchen, and I'm really enjoying cooking and baking again.  (While Jim was gone, I basically lived off of Mac & Cheese and corn dogs since I knew the kids would eat them)  REAL food tastes WONDERFUL!
The kids have adjusted really well, as kids usually do.  They're growing like weeds and we've gotten back into a pretty good routine.  I'm starting to work with Jay on his ABCs and he's catching on so quickly!  My goal is to have him reading before he goes to kindergarten next fall.
The Asher-man is... the Asher-man.  He's always making us laugh.  He's just a goofball, and there's really no other way to describe his little personality.  He's growing, too, and copies everything his big brother does.

And then there's Lil' Miss Haven.  She's my Diva Baby.  I really have so much fun with her, dressing her and getting her all "dolled" up.  After 2 boys, it's been a blast to put her in dresses and put bows in her hair.  She's pulling herself up, crawling all over the place and getting into everything.  It won't be long before she's walking.  She already says a couple of words, and jabbers the rest, and expects you to understand every word that she utters.  Adorable! (And yes, I made those bows that are in her hair.)
So, all in all, we've settled in quite nicely, and words cannot express how happy I am to be together again!  The separation was hard, but I'm SO thankful that I have a husband that's willing to do whatever it takes to provide for his family.  He's pretty amazing.
Hopefully I'll be able to get back into the swing of blogging and bow making and all that other good stuff!

Party Time

Prunes and an enema... What more could a girl need?

My mom's birthday was in July, but since she was out of the state, I decided to throw her a party now. She didn't have a clue! Everyone (almost) dressed "old", we played Bingo, and ate our food off of divided "nursing home" trays. There were "Pill Cups" for everyone to take home (full of Smarties and Good N' Plenty's) and we had a food processor set up at the end of the buffet for those who no longer had enough teeth to chew their food. It was an awesome time! 

We definitely had a full house, and a really good time.  Happy Birthday again, Mom!  I love you!

I don't know what to do today...

There's always laundry, you know, but I'm having a BRAND NEW washer and dryer delivered tomorrow, so I'm putting that off...  I'm starting to get stir crazy at home, though.  Jim's not sure whether or not he'll be able to come home this weekend, so I'm not sure whether or not I need to drive up there.  My parents are leaving SD today to come home for the winter. YAY!  Six months without my mom is a long time.  Sheesh.
So...  I may load up the kids and take them to Monkey Bizness, which is an indoor playground... I may bake cookies or something else yummy, I may go shopping, but I DO need to get out of the house.
Jay (my oldest) just started taking Taekwondo, and he looks so tough in his little uniform.  And, I gotta tell you, nothing beats watching a four year old do jumping jacks.  :D  Here's some pictures I took of him before his class yesterday.

It's been a while

Yes, I know... and I know you're supposed to write in your blog at least a couple of times a week, but, I've gotta tell ya, these last few weeks have been beyond crazy.  Jim ended up working 60 hours a week, and so in order to see him at all, I packed the kids up and went up there.  Hotels with 3 kids under 5 are... interesting.  It worked out, though, and I'm so thankful that we were at least able to spend a little bit of time together.  He did have a long weekend this weekend, and I just said "goodbye" again...
I have been able to make a few more bows, and got some really pretty designed ribbon for fall.  I also found some more butterflies, and these ones are glittery.  SO cute!
Little Haven's hair is finally getting long enough to put in little pigtails, (although they look more like horns at this point.) and I'm really having a ball with that.  I'm brainstorming on how to make itty bitty bows to clip on her little pigtails.
Football season's almost in full swing, and I'm hoping that more of my BSU and Vandals bows will start selling.  I've also got my eye out for other college themed ribbon.  NFL's hopeless, though.  They don't sell it anywhere... And I've looked everywhere.

So.... Here are my new additions:  First, the glittery butterflies:

Aren't they pretty?  And they come in two sizes, the large, seen here, and small, which I'm selling as sets of two.  Here's picture of the small green ones:

Next are the bows that I've made.  Purple with green flowers and a green center, and brown satin with pink cherry blossoms.  SO CUTE!

It's picking up!

Last Friday I sold a whopping THIRTEEN clips.  Awesome.  I'm still excited about it when I think about it.  Some of my newest creations are my multicolor daisy clips.  I've posted the pink one before, but I've since made brown and white, black and white, and a couple of other combinations.


 Here's a picture of the brown and white ones.  If you look closely, you can see an initial button.  CUSTOM clips, ya'll!  Put your little girl's initial on her hair clips.  Pretty cute, eh?

I'm having SO much fun with these ones.  I'll keep posting more pictures!  Let me know if you have any ideas!

Gotta go make lunch for the kiddos.  Have a stupendous day!

It's been a few days...

But I'm back.  I've had a lonely couple of weeks.  I'm really disliking the fact that I only see my husband on the weekends.  We're looking for a house where he's at, though, so hopefully we'll all be together soon.

I've had a pretty productive day today, though.  I made a few clips, and helped my house recover from the weekend.  I think these turned out rather well!
This is another of my flower clips.  It's got one of those adorable ladybug buttons in the center, along with a couple of other buttons.

Here's a picture of the back of it, which gives you a pretty good idea of how I line my clips.  They're all lined, and it makes them easier to stay in fine hair.

These ones are pigtail bows that I made for my niece, Olivia.  She's absolutely adorable, and I know these'll be super cute on her.

The lighting's not best on these because they were taken with my phone, but you get the idea of how cute they are.  The center is pink and green polka dot ribbon, and it really adds to them, I think.  SO cute!

On our way

Back home!  I really had a good time this trip, and I have bow orders to fill when I get home!  Good stuff!
We got Jim "settled" in the camper that he and his dad are staying in during the week and then the kids and I drove an extra hour and a half up to Moses Lake, WA.  My aunt and uncle live there, and opened their home up to us.
They have gigantic backyard and toys and things that little boys love, so there's been no boredom whatsoever!  Yesterday we went to the aquatic center and the kids really had an awesome time there, too.  Jay told me a little while ago that he doesn't want to go home.  I guess that's the sign of a successful trip, eh?
Anyway, we're anxious to get back home and this mommy's ready to get my kids back to their routine.  I hope you all had as wonderful of a week as I did!

Florida!

My good friend Kelly asked me to make her some bows the other day for a friend of hers who had just had a baby and lives in Florida.  Supposedly this friend is a big football fan...  So, the clips I made are football themed.  Well, football team themed at least.  A couple of them are Tampa Bay Buccaneers colors and the other is one of the Universities in Southern Florida.  I think they turned out pretty well.

This one is the University bow.  I can't remember the name... Sorry about that... I'd hate to name the wrong school.  The bottom ribbon is organza,, and I think it made a really pretty backdrop for the satin gold ribbon on top.  It'll look pretty cute attached to a headband on that baby's head.

The flower is red, black and white layered on a clip.  They're sewed and glued together, so they're not coming apart anytime soon.  There's a football button and rhinestones that make up the center.  I think it turned out pretty cute.

And now for the Buccaneers bow.  It's just their team colors, but this is actually more difficult to make than it looks.  The ribbon is satin, and it's a little slippery and hard to work with, but I really like how it turned out.  It's about 4 inches wide, so it's definitely a good size.  I plan on getting more team colors and making more bows for football season..


This may be my last post for a few days.  I'm heading out of town again on Saturday.  I may get the urge to blog while I'm away, though.  Who knows?  I'll be heading up to Moses Lake, Washington to visit a very special aunt and uncle of mine.  I'm pretty excited about it.  I'm sure we'll have an awesome time, and I know my kids will really enjoy "Great-Uncle Weirdo and Aunt Katie."

Tuesday

For me, Tuesday is just like any other day...  Laundry, dishes, diapers...  Bows!  I actually made 9 or 10 different ones yesterday, but I'll upload them one at a time so I don't overwhelm you again.  This is one that I made for my niece Alyah, who is in England.
Today, though, I'm seriously considering just having a lazy day...  Sitting out on the patio with the baby watching the boys play in their pool.  Until they go to Nana's anyway.  I'm going to get a manicure.  I've found that I have a serious need for pampering when Jim's not around to pamper me!
So...  I may just go for the manicure, and I may stop off at a craft store and do a little scrapbooking or something...  I've looked at some of their classes, and there's several that look like a lot of fun.  I'm seriously behind in the scrapbooking world.  I have a lot of baby pages for Jay, maybe 3 or 4 for the Asher-man, and NONE for the baby.  I need to get busy!  But, with three little ones getting into everything, it's really been hard to haul all my stuff out of the closet and create a page.  We'll see though.  My printer pooped out on me yesterday, so I can't even print anymore pictures, which is a serious issue.  Oh, well.....  I'm sure I'll be plenty busy.

I found some super cute embellishments for my bows yesterday.  These lady bug buttons will be absolutely adorable in the center of the black and white bows.  And rhinestones!  HUGE rhinestones for the center of my flowers.  A girl can never have too much bling, you know.
All right, I'd better get back to the grind, I guess.  Have a wonderful day!

I'm organized!!

I found this awesome ribbon organizer, and now I can actually SEE everything that I have!  It really makes everything so much easier since I don't have to dig through a box now.  LOVE it!

I was able to get some more ribbon and a few more flowers and things to make clips out of.  I've really had a good time over the last couple of days shopping and making things.  So, pardon the overload of pictures, but I really want to show off my work!

 

Pink & White Daisy Clip that I designed myself! 

Monarch Butterfly Clip.  I have these in several different colors.  I need to take some pictures with them on a headband so you can see what they look like on a baby head.  Trust me, though, they're adorable!

University of Idaho Vandals Bow.  I need to rework this one so the letters are more visible.

And last, but definitely not least, a Boise State Bow. This one's really cute.  Notice the tails?  I need to make them a bit longer so you can see "BSU" on them, but I think this one's one of my favorites.

Ink-a-bink, a bottle of PINK!

Pink, pink, pink! I LOVE being overrun with pink! And with my little Haven, I have pink aplenty! I've decided to grace her with more, however, and will also being selling these precious polka dotted pink bows. They come in two styles, double loop, and triple loop. CUUUUUTE!

I went to see my friend Amber today. She seemed to be in pretty high spirits. Hopefully the Dr. will release her by the end of this week and she can recover at home for a couple of weeks before she has to start chemotherapy. Keep her in your prayers! And remember those teal "Amber bows"!

Thanks for stopping by!

All about Black and White

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a thing for black and white. I don't know why, I just LOVE it! It just seems so classic, I guess. Anyway, I made a couple of adorable black and white bows. is a stacked bow. I started with white satin ribbon, and stacked some black and white plaid on it. It's finished with a black and white polka dot center knot. This one's a bit bigger than the other, but the big ones are absolutely adorable on baby's heads.

The next is white with black polka dots with an opposite center knot. SO cute! I love how this one turned out.

I have a few more pieces of black and white ribbon from reasonableribbon.com. They have a Ribbon of the Month Club, and this month's theme was black and white. LOVE it! Anyway, look for more black and white bows in the near future!

Ovarian Cancer Awareness

Some of you may know that I recently a friend of mine was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer. She's gone through surgery now, and will be in pretty hardcore chemo for a while. Please keep her in your prayers. She has two little boys to take of and is a single mom.

I wanted to do something to help, so I've decided to make some bows in her honor. The color for Ovarian Cancer Awareness is teal, so my "Amber Bows" will be teal. These bows will sell for the same price as all my others, but 50% of the proceeds will go to Amber herself (if you wish) or towards the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance. (http://www.ovariancancer.org/)

I'll be posting updates on Amber, and information about Ovarian Cancer periodically, so stay tuned for that. Here's the two styles of "Amber Bows" that I've made so far, and I can add different colors of tails and that sort of thing. For right now, though, these are what will be posted.

Home again, home again.

It was SO nice to sleep in my own bed last night! Jim pulled in just as the kids and I were getting out of the car, so it was nice to have someone help me unload, not to mention, it was nice just to see him. We had a wonderful time with my grandparents, and I thinking we'll have to do it again soon.

The boys played in the pool, and with the little golf sets I got them, and basically wore themselves out. Haven was a little cranky because she was out of her element, but I think she had a good time, too.

I just got my first shipment from www.reasonableribbon.com and I'm super excited about it! They have a ribbon of the month club, and this is my first month of that. Lots of accent ribbon, and I figure what I can't use to make bows, I'll use to scrapbook. This month's assortment is black and white, and I already have tons of ideas floating through my head on how to use them. Look for pictures later on today.

48th EMS Airman displays excellence in all we do

My little brother. I couldn't be more proud of him!

48th EMS Airman displays excellence in all we do

Mini Vacation

Sorta.... Actually, it's probably going to be a lot of work. I'm packing the kids in the car and heading up to see my grandparents today. It's only a little over five hours, so that's not bad, but it could get interesting with three kids under 5. I'm looking forward to it, though. I still love to visit my grandparents and my extended family, so I'm super excited about our little trip.

Hopefully the Dr. will tell me that I'm fine to walk (he'd better, I've already been weight bearing for 2 weeks) and I'll be able to move a little bit without this boot. I'll try to keep everyone posted, but I'm not making any promises. Have a wonderful couple of days!

Happy Independence Day!

And of course I had to make a bow for Haven. She's just so darn cute! It was really hard to choose which pictures to post. My boys are adorable too, but they don't look as good in my bows. :D Hopefully there will be more pictures of all of us later... (It really depends on whether or not I remember to put the camera in my diaper bag. :D)

Have a safe day, everyone! Enjoy!

So...

On Tuesday I should find out whether or not I can put any weight on this foot. I'll admit, I've been hobbling about on it a lot more than I probably should, but hey, I've got three kids to take care of. The Asher-man helped me out a bit today, though. He decided he was going to fix my hurt foot, and grabbed a "Handy Manny" hammer and screwdriver and went to work. I don't understand why real doctors don't use those kind of tools. My foot feels great!

In other news, I sold two of my Fourth of July clips yesterday. I'm pretty pleased with how those have sold, but surprised that I haven't sold more off of my Etsy site.

My younger brother is in the military, and is stationed in England. He received a promotion yesterday to Staff Sergeant, and we are all so proud of him! I'm thankful for the freedom that he is protecting for our country.

Quiet Time....

I love quiet time. Not that it's so quiet, but just that I can sit and breathe for a few minutes. The Asher-man and Haven are sleeping, and Jay's usually looking at books or playing upstairs. Today I have a friend doing some running for me while her son is mowing our yard. I'm so thankful for the family and friends that I have close by to help me while Jim's working.

So, yesterday, the boys did something so cute that I have to share:

They were sitting on the floor each with a Bible on his lap. Jay was saying to Asher, "Let's have Bible Study." Asher listened intently. Jay continued, "I can do all things through God and don't make Him cry."

I love that my kids are already seeking a relationship with God. I'm so thankful for this mostly because Jim & I have chosen not to do things the "traditional" way. We don't attend a church, yet we attempt to show our kids our own relationships with God. It's so cool to me that they're seeing that, and that they want to know more about Him.

Kids are awesome! Truly gifts from God!

play time

I get the play mat out for the baby, and this is what happens....

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Lovely Morning...

I was awakened at 6 am by my 4 year old telling me he had to go potty. Steph was in the kid's bathroom getting ready for summer school, so he couldn't go in there. Ugh. I wish I had coffee right next to my bed so I could prepare myself for my day before even getting up.

So, now that we've been up for a while, I'm looking around at my house and thinking of all the things I wish I could do. I'm sorta limited right now by my bum leg. Anyway, my laundry and my dishes need done. I'm trying to convince the boys to go upstairs and play, but they want to watch 'Veggie Tales.' Yeah. I'm not giving in to that one. Not only do they not need to sit in front of the TV, but I need to save my sanity by not talking to tomatoes for a day or two.

All in all our day should be pretty uneventful. I'll clean my house, change diapers, keep kids happy and fed, and go to a BBQ at my mother-in-law's tonight. I may throw a couple more bows together, I may get caught up on my coupon stuff, and I may go out with a friend after the BBQ. We'll see.

A Couple (or Three) New Bows

Stars & Stripes with White Satin


So I was looking at Etsy and comparing prices from other shops with mine (mine are better) and felt inspired to try a couple of new things. I think they turned out SUPER cute! If I keep this up, I'm going to run out of ribbon! Here they are:

Green Polka Dot with White

Turquoise & Pink Polka Dot

So, we're up and running...

It's still a work in progress, of course, but the blog is pretty, I've got it on my Android, set up a Picasa account and.... sheesh. It really was a lot more work than I thought it would be. I think I'm going to enjoy it, though. It'll be something else to keep me busy, though. (Like I really need that, right?)

We're getting ready for Jim's 2nd week of work away from home. I'm so thankful that I've got help since I'm off my feet, but it sure is hard when Daddy's not here. I know it'll become routine fairly quickly, but just because it's routine doesn't mean it's easy. He'll be leaving in a couple of hours, though.

I plan on making more bows this week, getting caught up on all my coupon stuff (I'm a couple of weeks behind) and watching chic flicks. (We just subscribed to Netflix.)

So, for now, I'm going to spend some time with Jim, and try to make the next couple of hours as pleasant as possible.

In the Beginning?

I guess that's an appropriate title for my first blog post... Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I'm married to the most wonderful man, Jim, who works his tail off so that I can stay home with our three kids, Jay (4), Asher (2), and Haven (6 months).

Currently, I'm spending a lot of time off my feet as I just had surgery to remove an extra bone in my foot. I'm on week 5 of recovery, and my foot's in a boot. I wore a bright purple cast for 3 weeks, and hopefully I'll get this silly boot off in the next week or so.

I've been thinking about blogging for a long time, and really have decided to do it primarily to give my etsy shop more exposure. I'll be writing about that along with the other things that I enjoy and am passionate about. We'll see how it goes. Wish me luck!