taidye.original

Summer Fun Challenge at I Heart Faces

2012-09-04T16:45:00.000-07:00

Happy September everyone! I was scrolling through my reader and came across the I Heart Faces Summer Fun Challenge. I love this one of boy and his daddy! I hope you like it too! Come play at I Heart Faces!

mini vacation! (part 2)

2012-08-03T12:33:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday friends!

I wanted to share just a *few* more photos I love from our mini vacation. You can read the first part here.

I really wanted to share a few shots I captured at Cade's Cove. Capturing the beauty and feeling of this place is not possible. Hands down one of the most amazing places on the planet. My heaven will surely look just like Cade's Cove. With, chocolate, diet coke, and shopping. tee hee.

See what I mean? The mountains here create the clouds. melt.

This picnic area is really beautiful. We packed a breakfast picnic and then played in the shallow part of the river

This was so fun

Heaven. seriously.

The kids loved all of the sights and sounds as we drove around the scenic loop

Get ready for this! We. Saw. A. Bear!! Been to the smokies many many times and I never saw a bear. I was beginning to think they were lying! The pictures aren't great he was pretty high in the tree but I loved it!

I truly hope I have made some memories for my babies. They are both old enough to remember this trip. I hope they will remember the fun times we had!

Goodbye for now, sweet Tennessee. We will return soon to Good Ole Rocky Top soon!

mini vacation!

2012-07-30T18:26:00.000-07:00

Hi friends!

I mentioned last week that I took my precious littles on vacation all by myself. This wouldnt be too big a deal but we went to Pigeon Forge, which is about an 8 hour drive from where we live. I have been there many times before so I was comfortable with the area and the drive.

We rented a little cabin, loaded up some crafts, hit up our favorite antique store, Cade's Cove, a fun candy store and the Dixie Stampede. It was a wonderful time for us! Here are some pictures from our adventure

This was the first night on our way to the dixie stampede

Day 2 we did some crafts! Thumbs up! Mom is about to catch herself on fire!

No really, baking shrink plastic in an unfamiliar oven and touching the towel to the heating element is a bad idea.

We LOVE the Action Antique Mall or as we love to call it - the JUNK BARN in Sevierville TN. Lauren wanted to buy this "adorable boyfriend!"

IT'S TOO BRIGHT!

The kids made a wish in this fountain in the Old Mill District. They both wished for Pop Pop (my dad) to come home from Afghanistan. So sweet. I wished too!

More cabin crafts! Air Dry Clay we glued magnets to the back. When did that boy get so big??

I will post some Cade's Cove pictures soon! Have you ever been to East Tennessee? It is my FAVVVEE!

Hebrews 13:8 printable

2012-07-22T08:05:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone. It has been a super fun week here. I took off with the kids and went to Pigeon Forge for a couple of days. We had so much fun bonding, crafting, eating and playing in the Great Smoky Mountains. If you have stuck around here for a while you might know the GSM hold a special place in my heart. :) I feel so refreshed and happy today to be home with my family. I will post some pictures hopefully later this week.

Today I am sharing a printable I created with one of my favorite verses! Hebrews 13:8! It is so nice to know that in life everything changes. Sometimes good, sometimes not so good, sometimes happy, sometimes painful, almost always hard. But have hope! Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever!

Click. Print. Enjoy.

A Scale of One to God - free printable

2012-07-15T16:04:00.000-07:00

I have missed posting printables for you! Hope you enjoy this one!! :)

Happy, happy Sunday!

...hello?

2012-07-13T17:02:00.000-07:00

Hello….anyone there…?? I haven’t posted in far too long here and I have been thinking lately that maybe I would post more if my blog weren’t in a box. I am stuck in this sort of craft box. Not that I don’t LOVE it in there! I love crafting and sewing and gluing stuff but the reality is that I just don’t have time to craft consistently between family and church and full time work. And then, when I do craft (which is actually more than you would think based on my posting habits) I do not have time to take pretty pictures or make a tutorial and put together a post.

So I figured it is my blog. I can write about whatever I choose. I am hoping to be inspired to post more but I wont promise all craft posts. There might be more family stuff, kid stuff, school stuff, church stuff. I might just post photos or even just stuff I am loving that day. I don’t know how often I will post but I am hoping for more than once per week. Don’t worry! I will still throw in occasional crafts and printables! I hope that you will stick around but I understand if this ends up not being your cup of tea.

p.s. Look how big my monsters are getting!

little ballerina feetsies - a pinned inspiration post!

2012-02-10T17:04:00.000-08:00

I have a tiny ballerina in my life right now. It is going to be short lived because said ballerina has informed me she does not want to do this again next year. In fact, she said "I only like ballet because I get to dress up and look pretty". HA! She can do that at home for cheap. :)

I have been meaning to get some nice photos of her since she might never want to be a dancer again and she is just so stinkin cute right now. Here are some of the sweet pictures I recently captured!

This one was inspired by PINTEREST! WOO! I saw this adorable photo by Smashed Peas and Carrots. Which is actually a fantastic link to pair of hand-knitted legwarmers. I co not knit or crotchet so I am always fascinated by anyone who does! Here is the photo which inspired me

We dont have her recital outfit yet but I will definitely be working on a bunch of pics when we do! :) Let me know what you think! Have you made anything PINspired lately?

super fun valentines and free printable!

2012-02-07T16:01:00.000-08:00

Hi friends! Can you feel the luuuvvvv in the air? No? Yeah, valentine's day is not my thing either. Except for all the pink stuff...and the romance...the lace, doilies, chocolates, jewelry...ok. fine. I like it a little.

Like it or not - my kiddos have parties coming up at school and a clever valentine is always in order for that! I created these:

I made the printable and you can use it to! Just click here to download!

Then print them on card stock, cut them out and use hot glue to attach drink mix to the card! Dont forget to use your pink, polka dotted glue gun if possible and rock that dixie plate!

You can sort of see from the image below there are two different color card on the page. The top actually has pink font (I know it looks sort of red here) and purple hearts and the bottom is red text with brick colored hearts. These were super fast and inexpensive! I already had the card stock and the Hawaiian punch was 1.00 per box at walmart for an 8 count. I made 40 of them for 5 bucks! YES!

Here is a closer view of the pintable. Just click to download! Happy love day!

some stuffola...I need feedback pretty pretty please! :)

2012-01-20T19:21:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday Friends!

Some random stuff...

ONE: My hubby has a job!! WOOOO It has been 6 months of praying and waiting and next week it is back to employment for him! I know many have prayed and I wanted to thank you all so much!

B: Winter in Ohio makes me really want to move to. Well, somewhere with no winter. But then I started thinking...I would NEVER get crafting done if I werent hunkered down this weekend! I can hear the "white death" (freezing rain) tink tink tinking on the window pane beside me. We are supposed to have quite a bit of ice in the morning. I think that calls for fresh baked muffins and jammie day.

3: I have been working on some things! and I need your help!

First. I tried my hand at embroidery...which...wasnt perfect but I still like the way my project turned out. I was VERY inspired by my good buddy BEV at Flamingo Toes when she made these ornaments at Christmas time.

Mine is a larger version (about 10") and it is still in the hoop...I honestly dont know what to do with it now? HELP! Should I make it into a pillow? 10" seems small. I am not in love with the idea of leaving it in the hoop and hanging it but I need some creative input! What would you do with this? (please dont say burn it! LOL! Just pretend you like it even if you dont. *wink*)

ALSO

I have mentioned a few times around here that I would really love to open my own pattern shop and I am working on a few stuffie patterns since they are my favorite to make right now. I have one close to completion and I think I would like to open it up to some pattern testers. Would anyone be interested in testing for me? This is a sneak peak of the one I have about ready to go. (this is a VERY rough prototype) but it will be a flannel horse stuffie. I would appreciate your feedback! I would LOVE to get 4 testers!! I am hoping to have this done in the next few weeks for testers to try it! If you are interested please leave a comment below and dont forget to leave your email address!

Thanks so much for listening to my ramblings tonight and for any feedback you might be willing to leave! :)

I heart Faces Submission - Family Fun

2012-01-16T06:39:00.000-08:00

This is a very special picture! Some cousins having fun and holding back before opening presents on Christmas Eve. They are usually hard to photograph all together! They were showing great restraint holding back from the packages because they wanted their "pop Pop" to watch from Afghanistan and he hadnt skyped in yet. He was able to skype in soon after and we all spent Christmas Eve together! Miss you Dad!

Join the fun at I Heart Faces! Click the button!

delight {psalm 37:4} printable

2012-01-15T16:35:00.000-08:00

Happy Sunday Friends! Enjoy this free printable! :)

my picks from 2011!

2012-01-02T09:19:00.000-08:00

Hi Again! It has been a while since I had 2 posts in 1 week. I am quite proud of myself. Someday I will be able to post more. Much more! I really want this blog to thrive and for taidye original to push me to be a better crafter! I will get there. I am a slow learner.

I am trying to re-cap what I actually accomplished around here last year and this is my round up! I must say this was hard to choose. I cant imagine how hard this would be if I was like a REAL craft blogger who actually posted daily/weekly crafts! WHEW! Hats off to you all! Here are {some of} my favorite posts of 2011!

First let me say how AMAZED I am with the popularity of my printables! I really enjoy making them and decided to throw them out there on the blog. I NEVER dreamed that I would EVER get so many hits from them! I think my top 2 posts are certainly the NEST printable and the MUSTACHE printable. I am so happy you all like them! Here are the links to correspond to the images above which are in no particular order:

1. Mustache Printable

2. NEST Printable

3. PRAY (without ceasing) printable

4. LOVE BUGS - fabric bugs with full photo tutorial and free pattern by me

5. SHINE teacher gift (plus printable tags)

6. Anthro knockoff necklace tutorial

7. Little Man Magnetic Bow Tie Tutorial

8. Mummy Necklace Tutorial (made with plumbers thread tape!)

9. Turkey Day necklace tutorial

10. Butterfly Mask Tutorial

11. Butterfly Bookbag Tutorial

12. Baseball Bracelet Tutorial

13. Scrappy (Butterfly) Tutu Tutorial

Also remember you can quickly access my tutorials and printables from the top of the page! :)

Thanks to everyone for checking out my blog last year! It was fun to get so many new followers and sweet comments! Special thanks to a few of my bloggy buddies for helpful hints and sweet comments!!

Rachel from Bubbly Nature Creations

Rachel from Maybe Matilda

Rachel from One Pretty Thing

Laurie from Tip Junkie

Lorie from Be Different Act Normal

Bev from Flamingo Toes

Kate from See Kate Sew

re-cap...Handmade Christmas

2012-01-01T18:36:00.000-08:00

Happy 2012 everyone!! I did not mean to take such a longggg bloggy break but hey, things got nuts.

I hope you all had a beautiful Christmas and New Year celebration with family, friends and food. We had a really great few weeks. I have been on vacation this week and boy was it ever wonderful!

I wanted to share a few of the handmade items I made for various family members this year! BEWARE! These are alllll crappy cell phone photos. I really must get a better camera phone. Mine is truly terrible but I hope to give you some idea of what I made. I am super proud of myself for making SEVERAL items that I pinned! WOOO! There should be a button you can click under projects that says "TRIED IT"! I love the inspiration love love love my pinterest. Follow me! I'll follow ya back! pinky promise!

So here are some of the things I made...

I made little pants some sock puppies inspired by this pin. FUN project and a bonus DORK picture of me. These where SO FAST and simple! Lauren loves her puppy twins!

I really wish I had a better picture of this quilt inspired by this pin. The fabrics are so nice. My mom was super surprised to receive this!

My kids decorated these fun ornaments and filled them with photos. Then we shipped them to my dad in Afghanistan for his little tree.

PRINCESSES! Obviously inspired by this pin from Lil Blue Boo. Mine are not Disney inspired princesses but Lauren really like them anyhow and I had a lot of fun making them even though I am not that great a painter

ROOTDEER! I saw these all over pinterest. LOTS of sources out there! I made these for a few good buddies at the office:

I made bunches of these teeny nativities. I KNOW I saw this on pinterest and would love to give credit to the appropriate person but I must not have pinned it and my searches are coming up blank! If you are the owner of this idea or know who is please let me know so I can link back. These were fun and easy to make in an assembly line. To make the face of Jesus I used a small sticker from the kids' stash and then peeled it off after the white paint dried:

Tree of Life pendant for MIL inspired by this pin

I also made this platypus stuffie (actually 2 of them. I made one pink also!) I didnt follow the exact instructions but this is a free pattern I have pinned here. My kids are OBSESSED with ~~platypuses? Platypus'?~~ Platypi? (Yeah whatever...) Thanks to Phineas and Ferb

And this was super awesome. I got a Kindle Fire for Christmas which I ADORE! I actually found time to READ a book! Amazing. Me. Dog. PJs. Slippers. Water for Elephants (book and movie on Kindle). Not pictured: Homemade chocolate chip cookies and pizza - cause I was not about to ruin this day with cooking!

We have had an AMAZING break. So much family time that was much needed.

Please continue to keep my family in prayers as my Daddy will still be deployed for quite sometime (especially my little guy who misses his Pop Pop SO MUCH) and also for my hubby to find work SOON! He has been without a job since July.

I am hoping to at least post a 2011 round up of my favorite posts and maybe a printable this week. Miss you guys!!

i heart faces - bust a gut

2011-11-29T09:20:00.000-08:00

I am entering the I Heart Faces challenge this week! The theme is "bust a gut" You can link up HERE.

This is my submission:

advent printable

2011-11-26T18:08:00.000-08:00

My very favorite time of year begins tomorrow. Happy New Year church!!

Click to download, save, print, use as wallpaper, whatever you like! It's free. Enjoy!

holy night printable

2011-11-19T06:33:00.000-08:00

WARNING TO TEAM TURKEY! I am posting something Christmas before Thanksgiving. I cant help it! I hope you like the print!

As you might have noticed with my last printable I have changed the way I am uploading and now when you click these they are offered in google docs for download. hey are large files so you can resize or they make very nice wallpaper for your desktop. I am open to suggestions on ways to make these better for everyone!

enjoy!

turkey day necklace

2011-11-13T15:15:00.000-08:00

Can you guys believe it is almost Thanksgiving? I really love this time of year and I am trying to get festive in any way I can. It is helping to bring me out of this funk. So I am focusing this month on being thankful and also anticipating Advent. Which is, of course a great season of hope and expectation for Christians.

In my attempt to get super festive I started digging through the craft supplies with no real ideas in mind. That is when I saw some small wooden hearts and it hit me! TURKEY NECKLACE. (dont laugh. you are a crafting freak who thinks like this too.)

Isnt she CUTE????

I didnt do a whole tutorial or anything but you get the idea. I just used some fine tip sharpies, ribbons, teeny tiny ric-rac, wooden hearts, a ball chain, and hot glue

I started by drawing a turkey face on the front of one of the hearts

They I just glued it all together. I didnt even bother with a bail. I just added a teeny loop of the ric-rac behind the feathers and put the chain through.

Look at my little turkey! Love her!

thanks printable

2011-11-12T19:44:00.000-08:00

a new printable for you!! :)

click. print. enjoy!

Shabby Apple WINNER!!!

2011-11-12T18:39:00.000-08:00

I am so excited to announce the winner of this amazing Shabby Apple Lost in Wonderland necklace!

The winner is MARIBEL! You can check out her SUPER cute, spankin' new blog THE CRAFT HOPPER.

Congrats MARIBEL!! I have sent you an email!

If you are not Maribel DONT WORRY! Shabby Apple is STILL offering and EXCLUSIVE 10% discount for taidye original readers for the next couple of weeks! WOO HOO! Just use the code "original10off".

i heart faces photo challenge - black

2011-11-07T16:30:00.000-08:00

this week's challenge is "black". Made me think of this fun picture of e-bot when he was just 3. He still loves this guitar!

submitting to the i heart faces challenge! :)

Shabby Apple Giveaway!!!

2011-11-06T19:50:00.000-08:00

Ya'll I am so excited to write this post! I was contacted by the wonderful, amazing Shabby Apple because they want to give a GORGEOUS piece of jewelry away to one of you!!! I wont lie. I am totally jealous that one of you will be getting this beautiful (my favorite!) Lost in Wonderland necklace.

lost in wonderland

Isnt it amazing? A lot of you may know Shabby Apple for their amazing selection of women's dresses, little girls dresses and maternity dresses...

but I really adore their vintage jewelry and accessories. ESPECIALLY the vintage jewelry. swooooon. Some of my other favorites:

unlock the queen's castle

through the looking glass

the white rabbit's time keeper

Shabby Apple is also offering and EXCLUSIVE 10% discount for taidye original readers! WOO HOO! Just use the code "original10off".

Excited??? Here it is again! One of you will win this amazing Lost in Wonderland necklace!

Here is how to enter:

1. (Mandatory) like Shabby Apple on facebook in order to get in on special promotions and exclusive discounts - leave a comment below that you did

for bonus entries you can do each of the following (leave a separate comment for each thing you so)

*Follow taidye original (public follower with GFC) - all the cool kids are doing it :)

*Like taidye original on facebook

IMPORTANT!! Please please please include your email address on each entry!! I must have a way to contact you if you are the winner.

This giveaway will be open all week. I will draw a winner at 11p.m. this Friday night, October 11, 2011!

the mustache printable

2011-11-01T11:02:00.000-07:00

I have noticed one of my favorite older printables has been getting A LOT A LOT A LOT of traffic lately. And I have a sneaky suspicion this is because it is MOVEMBER!

If you are having an event, want to help spread awareness or just love a sweet mustache here is the printable again for you!

mummy key chain tutorial

2011-10-25T19:29:00.000-07:00

Here is the deal. I must be insane.

I am volunteered to bring goodie bags for Lauren's preschool Halloween Party and I am also signed up to do the craft for E-Bots Kindergarten "Harvest" Party.

I am still slightly amused that my daughter goes to preschool in a CHURCH, they are having a HALLOWEEN party and wearing costumes. My son goes to PUBLIC school. They are having a "HARVEST" Party with NO costumes.

Dont get me wrong. I am TOTALLY cool with it either way. Just seems funny to me.

For the kindergarten craft I decided to go with a mummy theme again. I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased some small (I think they are 1 1/2" or so) wooden peg doll thingies and some tiny eye screws. These are super easy to make. I love him!

Here is a quickie tutorial for a super fast last minute Halloween project.

You need:

Wooden peg doll thingies

Small strips of fabric

School Glue

Eye Screws

Drill

Marker

clip thingies

Use a teeny drill bit to predrill into the heads of the dolls

Use jewelry pliers to screw in the teeny eye screws

like this

I bought this bag of assorted findings and used the small hooks

Draw on some eyes with a sharpie and add some glue to the doll. Then wrap the doll up with the small fabric strips

I really like him! I will take this clip with me and help the children each create their own at Elijah's party this week. I predrilled and added the eye screws and clips to all of the pegs, then I placed the peg with attachments and a few small strips of fabric into snack sized ziplock bags. It will be a fast project for all 20 kids and they can leave with a little mummy clipped to their book bags! I really hope they like the project.

sweet scallops tote

2011-10-23T11:58:00.000-07:00

I have been singing the praises of the wonderfully amazing Kate from see kate sew the last few weeks. I cant help it! The girl is dripping with awesome!!

Kate just had her bloggy birthday and celebrated by offering a free pattern and tutorial for the most adorable tote bag EVER. THEN she announced a sew along and now has a linky for everyone to share their bags made with her super cute pattern.

Sooooo of course I signed up and yesterday I finished my bag. It was fast and simple. Just the reason I like Kate's fun patterns. Yep. this project rocks like fraggles. You can click here to view the tutorial and get the pattern or here to join the fun and link up!

Here is my creation!

These colors are very much my style. I love the bright fun girliness!

I added a scallop detail with my machine just to go with the theme

Other than that I made no real modifications to the pattern. I do sort of wish I would have put pockets inside. I was way to excited to get this finished though so I skipped that idea

What do you think? I am in love! AND I am slightly concerned that Kate lives in my head and fishes around in there to piece together stuff she knows I will love. THEN she is awesome enough to create the patterns which saves me tons of work hahaha!

Kate has even inspired me to start designing some of my own patterns and possibly open a shop. I am still thinking about it. I have some ideas though and with winter coming fast in Ohio I imagine when Christmas is over I will have plenty of winter nights to try to create some patterns of my own!

a big change for me

2011-10-21T19:31:00.000-07:00

HAIR! I have never ever ever in my entire life had short hair. It has always been a MINIMUM 3 inches below my shoulder. Until I was 13 I had to pull my hair over my shoulder just to pee!

But today?

Today I turned 29.

Last year in my twenties begins today. An honestly? For a YEAR I have pretty much hated my hair.

So today...I had it allll chopped off! And I dont know what I was waiting for. This is awesome!

Hopefully tomorrow when I attempt to style it myslef I will still feel the same way. Since my stlyist refused to come and live in my bathroom. What is up with that?

In other news I finished my bag for this sew along at see kate sew! I cant WAIT TO SHOW YOU! But I need to wait for daylight to take some pretty pictures!