Behind every crafter is a roomful of unfinished crafts

This is probably gonna be another loooooooooooong post, just as a fore-warning!, since I haven't done any in awhile and I don't want to split it up into multiple, and I've done a lot of stuff around the house/craftwise/etc. since I got home from MO...so here it goes! :)

Ok first off, what we've done....nothing really too exciting I guess. It has been pretty hot so we haven't been going too many places/outside, which has been slightly frustrating for an energetic gal like Evelyn. Luckily she has her good friend next door and most days we end up going over there for awhile to play and me to chat with her friend's mom. Her husband has been gone since March and she has three kids so I know she appreciates a little adult interaction once and awhile and luckily we get along good as well as the kids...win win! :) I seriously spend half the day telling Evelyn excuses why we can't go play with Maddie and Maddie's mom does the same she says...they're best friends :) It's pretty cute though and they really do play well together.

Anyway....Mark did get almost an entire week off for the 4th of July, which was super nice, so we got to spend a lot of time with him. We went to the beach a couple times, once by ourselves and once with our friends, Erwin (yes that's his first name) and Morgan. Erwin works with Mark and is engaged to Morgan (I feel like I've said this before but can't remember so sorry if I"m repeating...). Morgan is SUPER sweet and nice and Evelyn and I just love her :) So that was fun to hang out with them...the guys built a nice castle and played in the sand a lot, which was kinda funny, and we just enjoyed the nice day! They also came over to our house on the 4th, along with our friends the Korpi's and their kids, and we had a little BBQ/fun afternoon to celebrate. That was also super fun and I really enjoyed having them all over! I'm so glad the Korpi's followed us here to NC and so glad to have found good friends here too. Really makes it all better when you're so far from your family and other friends! Anyway, the kids had a lot of fun and so did us adults so successful BBQ! :) We were gonna go watch fireworks but decided we were too lazy/tired/didn't really care much and didn't go....we did let Evelyn do a couple sparklers, which I thought she'd be afraid to do, but really wasn't. I guess they look too much like sparkly fairy wands to be scary :)

I just love this one

Mark trying to catch a wave with his boogie board :)

she thought it was so funny to be buried!

and she finally played in the water! 

Let's see...well I guess we did have Father's Day before the 4th which I haven't done anything on....we didn't really do much....Evelyn painted a frame for Mark to hang in his office and I put some pics in it....then Gwyn was out of town so we invited the rest of the Korpi clan over for dinner and played in the backyard for a good while, which the kids enjoyed. So nice, calm celebration there....Then we did also go to the Change of Command Ceremony for Mark's work....his Commanding Officer was getting moved to VA so the ceremony was for the change of CO's basically...old one leaving and new one coming in....kinda cool though...very formal and military like :) The new CO and his wife seem super nice though so once again we've got a good command to work for! :) (p.s.-sorry about the writing being off randomly like this...I don't know why it does this or how to fix it...)

Playing soccer with daddy on Father's Day!

at the Change of Command!

Mark was part of the ceremony....kinda standing guard type of thing/greeting the command on deck...I don't know the technical terms. 

I'm also a little fuzzy on exactly what this is for...Mark said some Marine/Navy achievement award? anyway...here's a pic of him getting it :) 

 I guess we have done a few things with Evelyn though...one day the base had a "wet'n'wild Wednesday" down at the marina with big blow up water slides and food and such so I took Evelyn to that....she really enjoyed the slip'n'slide one, which is pretty cool...then for the 4th of July our block had a little party (which unfortunately got stormed out) but our neighbor had rented one of the big water slides so Evelyn got to play on that for a bit...she was scared at first but after watching Maddie go down a few times she mustered up the courage and did it. Then one weekend Mark and I took Evelyn to see the new Disney/Pixar movie, "Brave", which Evelyn has been suuuper excited to go see since I got her the read-along book/cd. She Loved it!
Super cute movie! She did pretty good through it but got a little scared when the bears were fighting and started to get tired of sitting there watching it towards the end and asked to go home. But she still loved it and wants to see it again. Definitely getting that one!

Getting ready to watch Brave...doesn't she look excited? :)

So other than that I've actually been getting a lot done! I kinda went on a little "get'r'done" spree when I got home...don't know if it was because I really didn't do much the 3 weeks I was gone or cuz I realized I only had 9 weeks left before baby boy here comes or a combo of the two but I really got some stuff done! Mostly projects/sewing/house stuff but things I knew I wouldn't want to do at the end of the pregnancy (it's definitely getting harder to get around now! makes doing some projects just not worth the effort...)...and then some things I knew I wouldn't have time to do after he was born so I've just been getting them all done now!

One of the first things I worked on when I got home was the baby's room! I've been itching to work on it since I decided to do the nautical theme but made myself wait til I got some other things on my list done and til I got home from MO. So the first thing I did was paint the accent wall, which I LOVE! I really love the blue and yellow I chose, so super cute and fresh and I just love it!

Then I found this life saver thing in a Pottery Barn magazine and decided to try it out to hang up...didn't turn out quite as cute as theirs and I shoulda looked at other life saver examples before doing it but oh well...still cute!

the inspiration....

and mine :)

Then I repainted the extra nightstand I had to go with the room and made some pull out drawers to go in it cuz the ones that came with it were kinda falling apart on the bottom....I found this fabric at a local quilt shop on sale and the colors matched pretty perfect to my color swatches so I had to get it :) I know the plaid isn't exactly nautical-ish but I was having a hard time finding anything to match that was so I went with it anyway...then I had the rope/twine stuff for the handles which I thought was cute too :)

before and after! I have so many boxes so I kept the good sturdy ones and used them for this project...just cut them to the size I needed and covered them in fabric! 

and the drawers in action! :)

Then to go with that I got a lamp at Dollar General, wrapped it in the twine/rope, and painted the lampshade to go with my colors and wa-la! Super cute lamp! I kinda winged painting the lampshade but shoulda read the tutorial I found a little closer and it would have turned out a bit better...it looks good turned off but when you turn it on you can see the few spots the paint bled through to the lining...doesn't look as nice...but oh well! It won't be used horribly much I guess and whoever does use it can deal with it :)

before...

after! love it!

all of it together!

The next project in the nursery was my art work! I wanted to do the simple object outline for these three canvases and really like how they turned out. I just love it! :) Then on the other wall I did a frame gallery/collage, which is mostly empty now because I'm waiting on pictures of baby boy to put in them, but I did try to do some of my own "prints" to put in the other frames....I like my overall idea but don't love exactly how they turned out, seem kinda amateur to me, but I'm not gonna be too picky and they're still cute so they're there. :) I found the lyrics to "Anchors Aweigh" and printed that out and then I printed out a compass and then I did the world map with the Dr. Seuss, "oh the places you'll go" quote....I thought those all tied in pretty well with the room and I think I'll like it better when every frame is full. So yeah...trying to think of my own ideas but just not as good at designing them all cute like the amazing bloggers I follow :)

And the next project! I was kinda excited to try this one out...I found it on Pinterest, and the link to the actual site is here. I thought it was such a brilliant/cute/cheap idea to decorate a boxspring/get it off the ground rather than using a frame!  And overall it turned out great...I'm pretty happy with the job I did in covering it with the fabric...I found it on fabric.com and it matches pretty good with the room....and then I just got the wood feet at Home Depot and painted them brown and we put them on to get the bed up off the ground! I really love how it looks, totally changed it and it looks way better but boy were those legs a pain to put on! The wood on the boxspring was slightly soft so it was hard for the screw in the foot to catch and then we figured out that the screws needed to be longer to be more effective but even then they were having a hard time...but we finally go all of them in. We're gonna add a couple more to the middle to give it a little more support...it's pretty good, and luckily it's just the guest bed but I wouldn't recommend anybody jumping around on it :) Anyway, still love the idea and I totally want to cover my own boxspring with fabric instead of using a boring ol' bed skirt :)

and here's the link to this tutorial! 

So that's all for the nursery for now! I have a couple small things to add but for one I need the baby's name and just haven't found the right thing for the other so it's gonna have to wait...I have gotten a little bit of sewing done for lil' mister though! I did make these softie blankies for him a long while ago, before I decided to do the nautical theme unfortunately so I had gotten green...wish I had decided before/was patient enough to wait to do them! But I wasn't so they're blue and green and I still love them anyway.

Then I made a car seat cover blanket that attaches to the car seat...so handy! Turned out pretty cute and works perfect with my car seat so yeah me on that! I was afraid I made it too long.

Then let's see...Grammy made him a Navy/Nautical blanket for my baby shower gift and I happened to have one of the Navy fabrics she used in it so I made a matching swaddler for him with it. Evelyn LOVED her swaddler and it was a saving grace for me with the little wiggle worm she was, so I'm definitely using them with baby boy and found a tutorial online to do one...wasn't too hard either! Plus the ones I have from Evelyn are more winter-like ones so I though a thinner/cotton one would be better for my summer baby rather than hot fleece. Anyway, I love it.

 This next sewing project is one of my favs so far and I'm praying he fits it for at least a little while! I was wanting to make a cute homecoming outfit and came up with this but who knows when/if it will fit. But it's adorable! I found these seer sucker on sale and got some for this project idea and then decided to make the shorts and bowtie with it....then they turned out so cute I made the matching shoes (which I really think won't fit...I knew I shoulda done a bigger size!), and did the anchor onesie and THEN had enough to make Evelyn a semi-matching outfit! I found this super cute seer sucker ruffle skirt from danamadeit.com and decided to do it and a matching anchor shirt for her. I didn't have quite enough to do the full skirt in seer sucker but decided to use the solid pink for the bottom layer and think it turned out pretty cute! She loves it so that helps too :) I can't wait to take some pics of her and baby boy in them though! SO super cute :)

here's the link to the bowtie tutorial

seer sucker is SO cute! i just love it, especially with the anchor!

Whew! this really is getting long......maybe I should split it up....maybe not...either way I'm going to bed now and will finish it tomorrow...I still have a lot of projects to post about!

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And I'm back! Evelyn's quietly watching Monsters, Inc. (we've been gone all day playing at the park and at the Korpi's) so I'm taking a minute to try and finish this up! K so next up.....well I guess I'll share the rest of my "home" projects I've finished up....I added some wall art/prints to the wall in my craft/office area and made this super cute wreath from old music sheets. It turned out a lot bigger than I had planned but I really love it! Then I was going to do a type of valance thing for the big window in here by cutting up strips of fabric and tying them all the way across but right before I started to cut I had this idea with my burlap....I had two yards of burlap, which fit almost perfect across the window but after I evened it up and scrunched it up, it turned up a little short, but I don't really care too much, still looks cute and it's better than nothing like I had before! Then I added the two bows to add some color and tie it in to the rest of the room a bit.

I used the same fabric plus a few others to use in this next project too...I decided I didn't like the big empty space above my tv so I saw this idea of adding fabric or maps to embroidery hoops and hanging them up so I used both and got this! I used maps of where we've lived so far. I like it cuz it's cute/easy/and easy to add on to the next time we move! So I really love that.

The next little project downstairs was one Mark finished up for me. I had decided to use this little hallway to hang up Evelyn's "artwork" cuz I didn't know what to do with it all and wanted to display it somehow, and then I decided to add a chalkboard underneath and make it a complete art wall! I had chalkboard paint leftover from my calendar so that worked out perfect, and then I just added a little border to make it a smidge nicer. Then I saw someone online use cheap plastic cups and put magnets on them to put on the fridge for the summertime when kiddos are always using up cups and too that idea and changed it by putting on the sticky wall mounting things on the cup instead so the cup can be taken off the wall or stuck on and it holds the chalk/eraser! Thought that was pretty smart :) I had just gotten a ton of solid plastic cups from Target super cheap too so it worked out perfect!

I've already shown you the island but Mark also finished this up while I was in MO (it was a bit short so he got some wooden feet and added them onto the existing legs to make it taller...perfecto!), and then I added this little curtain on the side because I put the trash at the end and didn't want trash stuff falling onto my pans/bowls etc....

plus it ties into my next project which is...........

A fun new little entryway! :) I've been wanting to do this since we moved in cuz I hated having all our shoes just thrown in boxes/piled right there along with all Mark's work stuff/my purse/etc. I wanted it a little more organized/nice/cute so we came up with this! I'd looked up quite a few plans/examples online and kinda just made this one up to fit our space/what we wanted for the bench and then made a super simple shelf for the shelf. And I love it! so much nicer and it was a nice quick, easy project too! I even made the box liners and the cushion, which I was super proud of...I was kinda worried the cover wouldn't fit but it was perfect...I even did a zipper for the first time! Love it :) And then the box liners were nice and easy too...I still need to do two more for the top shelf and also get another anchor hook to add to it too....I actually went a little box crazy the week I did this...I made the two for the nursery nightstand, the two small ones here, and then bottom four, and then two more for my dresser for diapers/baby stuff. They were fun to make! :)

still need two more boxes up top but haven't done them yet....

and the ugly pile of shoes are hidden! cover tutorial here

So that actually pretty much sums up all my home projects! I'm pretty much done with the house now too...which I'm sure Mark is suuuuuper glad about :) This is the first place we're gonna actually STAY in for more than 8 months (which is the longest we've lived in one place) so I've had all these ideas saved up and aching to do so I really went for it here. This is also the homiest home we've lived in so far too and I really wanted to make it feel ours. So yeah, I went a bit overboard I'm sure but it was fun and kept me busy and I know I won't be able to do too much craftiness like this for awhile with little mister coming so I wanted to get it all out of my system now...not that it is but I tried right? :) Anyway...rambling now (I've been staying up too late the last few nights...no bueno for writing an organized blog post! :)

Well....let me just double check my pictures, I know I have more! Thought I was done right? Well no....along with all my home/baby projects, I've also gotten a bit of sewing in, for myself and Evelyn! Super simple, quick things (people think I'm so crafty/don't know how I have time to do all this stuff but I really honestly don't spend a whole lot of time on my projects! I find something I like, plan it out, and get it done! I also generally find simple projects that won't take forever to do or do them a simpler way cuz I'm too impatient/don't want to take the time to draw it out the long way...so that's how I do it....I get a lot done during naptime/Evelyn's daddy time too, which helps...no interruptions!). Anyway, I've mostly done some simple skirts/dresses which have turned out pretty good! I'm super happy with the two skirts I made myself- their both knit and super comfy and super easy/quick projects. And then I made a matching knit cardigan to go with one of them and I LOVE how it turned out. I really want to make more but haven't found knit I want to use for it yet (I got this blue online). (Also the tutorials for these three are all on icandyhandmade.blogspot.com, here's the long skirt, short skirt although I can't find the pic of it so you'll have to deal without...it's a basic knee length circle skirt though, and cardi...LOVE her blog!) I've been wearing a lot of skirts lately though...so much comfier in this heat and being 8 months prego!

this is me at 33 weeks, just fyi :)

Then for Evelyn I've made some fun twirly dresses (dress tutorial here craftycupboard.blogspot.com)...one just for fun because I had this extra knit and old dress that didn't fit anymore so I cut it up and added the skirt! She LOVES it and wants to wear it all the time.

she loves to twirl!

Then after we saw Brave I had to make her a Merida dress and found a turquoise shirt in my pile, cut it up a bit to try and fit her better (had a hard time with that), and then had this perfect color fabric for the skirt! I did add the gold but it's a super crappy material and has already ripped so I'm gonna have to redo that. But Evelyn loves this one too and goes around twirling and shooting arrows in it :) Super cute.

not the best craftsmanship/fit but hey! it's a play dress! 

 And then this last skirt was just a simple one I made with the extra knit from mine....

poser! :)

Such a funny girl!

and just a random pic of Evelyn! She loves "playing" games with us and was being so funny playing monopoly! Someday I'll post the video of her rolling the dice...

Whew! and I'm done! I started this Tuesday night and it's now Thursday morning...takes a long time to add all the pics after I type everything up! :) Well Evelyn and I are off to Virginia this morning for a little weekend trip. My awesome cousin Crystal happens to live 10 minutes from the base Mark is taking his class with (if I didn't mention that, he's at a class in VA for 3 weeks....) so I decided to take one last little trip before little mister arrives! I haven't seen Crystal in like two years too so I'm excited to see her! And it's not too far of a drive too so I'm glad to have some fam on the East Coast with me! :) Anywho...I'm sure we'll have some pics from our trip so til next week!

"The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosum of my family." --Thomas Jefferson--

Well Evelyn and I have been home from our Missouri trip for two weeks now so I guess it's about time that I do some blogs! Although it just might end up being one looooooong one so there's your warning. :) Anyway, we got to MO without any troubles, Evelyn was a good little traveler and was very excited to see her Grandpa at the airport. For those of you who don't know, my dad has called Evelyn "Dora" since last year when we lived there cuz she watched Dora so much....so anyway, when I told her Grandpa was picking us up at the airport she looked at me and said, "I'm not Dora, I'm Evelyn." She has been particular about being called Evelyn for awhile and I guess wanted to make sure that Grandpa didn't call her Dora anymore. :) anyway...I thought that was funny and so did he. :) She pretty much talked the whoooole way home from the airport, which my dad had a laugh over...she just kept going til she nodded off! Silly girl.....

The first day there we actually had a baby shower for me. I wanted to have it with my family this time so we had it right away because Sierra was visiting from Alaska and was gonna leave in a couple days. So part of my going for so long was to see her! I missed my Cici! :) Anyway...the shower was pretty low-key...Grammy put up some cute decorations and made some good food....and the fam came and then three of my very best high school friends, Rori, Jeanie, and Cheryl, and on of my very good church friends, Shauna, with her fiance (the other reason for my visit, I went to her wedding...more on that later though!). So it wasn't a huge turn out but the people I really wanted to see were there and the others I knew I'd see later so it all worked out. We pretty much just sat around talking and eating and such, which was fine with me! I'm not such a fan of the baby shower games/awkwardness. So yeah! I got quite a few clothing items for baby boy and then a few other things....like an Alabama hat from Auntie Monie and a cute Navy baby blanket from Grammy! So that was a fun evening!

My Momma's cute decor for the shower...she hung up a "laundry line" of old baby clothes...so cute!

and then added little things around like this old baby doll and carriage and booties...

And this is the super cute accordion album Auntie Annie made for me! I wanted it for the shower to have people write down advice/etc on but it never happened and all my friends that came anyway didn't have kids...sooo I'm just gonna use it for a mini-album of the baby after he's born. I love it though Annie! Thanks again!

After that things were fairly chill....we didn't really do a whole lot while we were there! Just hung out with the fam, ran errands for Grammy, played a lot with the cousins...Evelyn LOVED having a playmate pretty much all the time. She loved seeing Kady, Jeremiah, and Tani especially, and everyday had a different "best friend" depending on who was there to play :) Some fun things we did with them were playing at the park quite a few times (she got to sit in a real firetruck at one of the parks one day), playing at Auntie Emily's, and going to the pool a couple times! Evelyn really enjoyed that, although I got burnt pretty nice the first time....luckily she didn't! The fam also did a bonfire one night with hot dogs and s'mores...yum! So pretty much just some nice family time all around :)

Evelyn got to spend a lot of quality time with Grammy during the trip though because I was able to take some pictures while I was there! It had been a loooong while since I'd taken any than ones for me so I was actually kinda nervous but all around I was pretty happy with how they all turned out! The first ones I did were engagements for my friend Jeanie. She was a good person to start back with because she just has a natural/good smile and was relaxed and just kinda went with whatever so I was able to focus on getting back in the groove of things again. Her fiance wasn't too excited about taking pics but that tends to be the case a lot I think :) I still need to blog all the sessions I did on my other blog but I'll put one or two on here of what I did as well....so here's the happy couple!

a little haze action....

they brought their dogs for the end shots :)

The next session I did was for my sister Emily's good friend Hillary and her family. Emily met her through foster care (they both have foster babies right now and things are looking good for Hillary to adopt her little chubby boy...he's pretty darn cute! I can't post any of him online yet though so the ones I've posted are just Hillary, her husband, and their little boy...who is ADORABLE!). They live out in the country so they had some nice areas to take some pics in. I looved the wheat field, such a pretty golden color! My favorite though was the ones I took of their little boy...toooo cute!

I think this is my favorite shot...of the session and one of my favs ever! adore it! :)

The other family session I did was for Asa and Aubree McMains...my first repeat customer! That was also a little nerve-wracking to do but luckily they chose a very different location this time and were a little more "relaxed" (clothes-wise and with the kiddos) so it was a different shoot/feeling to it. We went to Powell Gardens (a place in MO) and pretty much just followed the kids around the trails until we saw a spot they liked or the kids liked :) It definitely was a challenging session though, besides it being a repeat customer, it was just difficult getting good group shots! With four young kids who just wanna play and two adults trying to keep everyone together...it can get kinda hectic! :) Luckily last time she was really happy with the individuals and wanted good ones of each of the kids, which I got definitely (her one little boy was such a cutie all by himself but almost refused to smile/look when it was a group shot), and I did get some good group ones so I was happy with how that all turned out too :) I'm glad it worked out to do some pics while I was home though! I've wanted to do more but with moving twice since November and to a brand new area where I know like one person....well that tends to slow things down :) I am gonna do another engagement session for a couple we met here....the guy works with Mark and I've become friends with the gal (Evelyn adoooores her!) so I'm excited for that soon.

Other than those three all's I did was pics for the family. Emily. of course, had me take some but mainly of just Jeremiah and her little foster girl, who's SO cute! But can't post any of her yet either :( Then I tried to take some of Monie's kiddos...I got some of Kellen (he was following me around like a puppy trying to get my camera), but Kady wasn't being too cooperative and then we didn't get around to trying again. Then I did do some of Mellisa's kids for her the last night I was there, which turned out pretty cute! We tried some pics inside, which didn't go so well, then we went outside and I went out with the kiddos by myself and then it went better. I've read a lot to get good pics of the kids you gotta just tell the parents to go away for a bit and it's totally true! :) It also helps that there's only one person telling them what to do rather than multiple. But anywho...here's some of those pics!

Other than all those I really didn't take many pictures while I was home! I did get some pics of Evelyn with her cousins, which I printed yesterday and hung in her room, she was excited about that!

Love this one of Kady and Evelyn! 

Miah calls Evelyn Dora too :)

So on with the trip! The last weekend I was there was my friends wedding. On Friday I went up to KC with my dad to the temple, he did a session and I went to the sealing ceremony for Shauna and her fiance/now hubby Jeremy! I was excited to go to her wedding cuz, well she's my friend and it's always exciting to see a friend get married, and another cuz I got to see/go inside the KC Temple! It's so pretty and I wish I could have done a session to see more of it since I didn't get to go to the Open House but another time I guess! I'm so glad it's done though, and I know my parents are too! They used to have to drive to St. Louis to the temple there, which is a good 3 1/2 hours one way and now they can get to one in almost 2! Much better drive :) Anyway, I'm excited it's there and am so excited to have been able to go to Shauna/Jeremy's sealing! I've been to quite a few of my friend's sealings and probably won't have anymore to go to for a long while! But they are always amazing and wonderful and I'm always so happy to witness it :)

The Kansas City Temple!

And the new couple!

I'll include a pic of myself with the couple just as proof that I do show up in pics once and awhile... :)

The next day I went back to KC (I took the McMains pics that morning and then spent the day by myself in the city shopping, had lunch with Emily, enjoyed some time off....so nice!). Then that night I went to Shauna's reception, which was very nice, got to talk to Shauna a bit more, visit with another friend, ate some good wedding cake...and then went home! It was a long day, enjoyable but long.

They really went for it...and then went back and smooshed some more! they're such a fun couple. 

So yeah! That's pretty much the sum up of my trip! Not extremely, horribly exciting, but I'm glad I got to go home and see everyone and I know Evelyn loved it. She sure does miss everybody and so do I! I got my family fix in, plus a Chipotle/Hobby Lobby/Panera/Good BBQ fix (totally not a fan of Carolina BBQ...so disappointing!)...so overall great trip home! :)

My little farm girl! :)