Family Ever After....

My kids with their Strider ST-4 Bikes and a GIVEAWAY!!!

2013-05-10T07:00:00.000-04:00

This is one of my favorite posts I have ever photographed! :) After the pictures, stay tuned... there is a giveaway at the end of this post!!! A few months ago, I was looking into bikes for our kids. A friend of mine had got a Strider Bike for her son's birthday. I was so impressed by what she had to say about the bike, so I went about finding some Strider bikes for our kids. Not only do we

My Mother's Day Mantle + Blue Nile Earrings Giveaway!!

2013-05-08T07:00:00.000-04:00

I try to decorate this little ledge (which I call my mantle, hehe) every month. For May, I chose a simple Mother's Day theme. I'm currently obsessing over turquoise (my favorite color of all-time, ever since I can remember) mixed with red. I am usually not a big fan of red (typically just in clothing), but I am loving the pop of color that is has given my living room! It's kind of

Kid Craft: Button Flower Bouquet

2013-05-07T07:30:00.000-04:00

Happy May! I have always loved this month, because of spring and all the flowers around, and because it is my birthday month! And today happens to be my birthday! So I am sharing something that makes me incredibly happy and cheerful. My daughters made this darling button bouquet for me, with the help of one of my best friends and next door neighbor. She is the activities director at an

Revamp your Kitchen with Home Depot

2013-05-06T09:33:00.000-04:00

Do you remember my kitchen self portraits from way back when? I love spending time in the kitchen. It's the main place that we all hang out it our home. Here is the kitchen in 2010 when we first moved into our house. It's far from perfect, but I still love it. Honestly, not much in our kitchen has changed since we moved in... except the refrigerator! Upon moving in, we had a white fridge that

CD Giveaway: Sweet is the Work from Opus 2

2013-05-02T07:00:00.000-04:00

My baby sister is about to head off on a special adventure. She will be serving a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Paraguay. I am so excited for her. As she prepares herself to go, I am trying to think of things that I can give her to help prepare, and also trying to think of things to send while she is there. One of the things I am excited to give to her

Fabric Hoop Decor with HGTV's New Fabric Line

2013-04-30T13:14:00.004-04:00

Any HGTV fans out there? How about Joann? I'm a big fan of both!!! I have some fun news... they recently teamed up, and HGTV has released a new line of indoor/outdoor home decor weight fabrics, sold exclusively at Joann. I was so excited when I found out about this, and even more thrilled when I saw how lovely they are. I was just at Joanns last week, and I checked out the entire line of the

Sew-vivor Season 2 FINAL RESULTS!!!

2013-04-24T12:44:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the final results of Sew-vivor Season 2!!! This season has been such a blast, with so much talent sewing talent showcased. Before I announce the winners, I would like to thank: You-- The voters, readers, fans, friends and family of our contestants! Thank you for stopping by to vote for your favorite projects! Our Other 6 Contestants-- It was hard to say goodbye. You are all

My First Blog and Business Cards

2013-04-23T10:18:00.004-04:00

My blogging has been a little sporadic lately... whoops. I've been working on some fun sewing projects, and I'm excited to get those finished up and blogged :) And for like my fifth time, I've revamped my blogging schedule. I am excited about it, and I'll tell you about it soon. For today... I'm sharing a silly little secret. Way back when, like all the way back in 2009, I had a blog called

Silhouette Portrait Giveaway Winner + Promo Details

2013-04-21T08:00:00.000-04:00

The winner from the Silhouette Portrait giveaway is: Vicki Barnes! Congrats! I have emailed her already :) If anyone is looking for some great sales on vinyl, cutting machines, and other great Silhouette projects, there are some great deals still going on until Friday, April 26th. Here are the Promotion Details: *April 18-26th, 2013 · 1 Silhouette Portrait™ + 1 roll of black

Silhouette Portrait GIVEAWAY!

2013-04-18T07:00:00.000-04:00

I love Silhouette machines! I can't tell you how many times I've entered to win a Silhouette machine from my favorite bloggers. I was never so lucky, so I eventually talked my husband into letting me have one for Christmas. I love this machine. It is awesome, and can do so many cool things. I'm pinching myself that I get to give one away today! One lucky reader is going to be so very happy!!!

Sew-vivor: Quilted Challenge Reveals + Voting!

2013-04-17T09:37:00.001-04:00

Welcome to the final round of Sew-vivor Season 2! I hope that you've enjoyed following along this season. We've had some incredibly talented girls who have showcased amazing projects. It's been so fun to work with each of them. Here were the button results- you can see who we said goodbye to, and the final 3 who are competing in this round. The final round was to sew something, and it

Sew-vivor: Button Challenge Results

2013-04-10T10:48:00.000-04:00

Button, button... whose got the button? Did you see the amazing button projects last week? Once again, I was blown away by the creativity from our amazing 7 contestants. Today, we say goodbye to 4 of them. This is the absolute worst part of Sew-vivor. I hate to part with anyone. Congrats to the Top 3, who have advanced to the final Challenge 3: Quilted. Melissa from Melly

Once Upon a Weekend... Conference, Bike Rides and Christmas Lights

2013-04-08T13:39:00.002-04:00

How was your weekend? Ours was amazing!!! My husband's schedule has changed from working 100+ hours a week to 40 hours a week. For the first time in about 10 years, we feel like normal people. It won't last forever, but we are saving every moment with him around. The best part of the weekend was watching General Conference, the biannual meeting that our church broadcasts every year. You can

Sewing for Kids: Doll Pillow Tutorial

2013-04-05T07:30:00.000-04:00

This was a guest post I did a few weeks ago on The Sewing Rabbit (the former "Me Sew Crazy" blog), as part of the K.I.D.S. series. .................................................................................................................... I want to thank Jessica for inviting me to participate in this wonderful series. The word "KIDS" really struck a chord with me. There is nothing

Sew-vivor: Button Challenge Reveals + Voting!

2013-04-03T07:00:00.000-04:00

In case you didn't see the Emerald Results post last Wednesday, I want to let you know that the contestants and I made a unanimous decision to only cut 3 contestants instead of 5. So today, instead of presenting 5 contestants, you get to feast your eyes on 7 gorgeous projects! It is so amazing to me how each contestant has interpreted Challenge #2, which was to sew anything you want, as

My next big adventure...

2013-04-01T09:22:00.000-04:00

Hey guys, so now that Sew-vivor is going to be done soon, I can hardly wait to tell you guys about my next big adventure. Have any of you had any experience with the world of Geocaching? It is AWESOME!!! Some of you may be asking... um... "What the heck is Geocaching?" Well, let me tell you!!! I've been holding this in for a while, but I know it's the perfect next step for my blog. Starting

Organizing Your Fabric Stash (Free Printables)

2013-03-29T17:40:00.000-04:00

Over the last year or two, I have developed a little crush-- on fabric. The gorgeous, high quality, expensive, designer type. I've delved into the world of online fabric shopping (check out my sidebar for some of my favorite sources), and I'm obsessed with my local quilting shop (I could seriously live there, everything is so pretty). Oh geez, I sound like a fabric snob! lol. I really don't

Sew-vivor: Emerald Challenge Results

2013-03-27T17:02:00.004-04:00

*So sorry if you've been stopping by today to check on the results... my darn draft didn't automatically publish like I told it to. grr* Howdy folks! I was absolutely blown away by last week's Emerald projects. It was so fun to see how each contestant interpreted the challenge. We feasted our eyes on a gorgeous emerald sea of very different and unique projects, which was especially fun

7 Layer Cookies

2013-03-21T10:45:00.001-04:00

You know that time of day... for me it's about 3:00pm. The kids are about to come home from school, everyone is getting hungry, you have no idea what to make for dinner, you realize that you could use a treat? I try not to do this too often, but sometimes I just need a tasty, sugary pick-me-up. Sometimes it's a handful of chocolate chips. Sometimes a yogurt. Sometimes an apple. But

Sew-vivor: Emerald Challenge Reveals + Voting!

2013-03-20T08:25:00.000-04:00

I was nearly jumping up and down with excitement as the projects came rolling in over the last couple of days. They are all amazing!!! It doesn't seem right that we will already be saying goodbye to 5 of these incredibly talented contestants. Yes, you read that right... we are narrowing the competition down to the Top 5. Maybe next year I will set it up differently, so we're not saying

Sew-vivor Season 2: Introducing the TOP 10!

2013-03-13T10:23:00.002-04:00

I know you are all anxious to see who made Sew-vivor's Top 10. But before you start scrolling, don't skip this! All other pertinent info is found after the Top 10 reveal. We have one more AMAZING sponsor to welcome onto the Sew-vivor team. I'd like to welcome Coats and Clark, you know, the amazing company who has been around for 200 years, whose thread we have all sewn with, and notions we

Sew-vivor Top 10 TBA at 10:00am EST

2013-03-13T02:28:00.001-04:00

The Sew-vivor Top 10 will be announced at 10:00am EST! I know many of you are waiting on pins and needles to hear the news. I'm just finishing up the fine details on the post. Thanks for your patience!

Southern Fabric Giveaway: 2 Charm Packs

2013-03-12T08:42:00.003-04:00

While you guys are on pins and needles today, waiting to find out who the Sew-vivor Top 10 are, I've got a fun giveaway from Southern Fabric. I love Southern Fabric- their website is just as pretty as all the fabric they sell, and very organized and easy to navigate. Be sure to check them out this week, they have lots of really pretty things on sale until March 17! I've been organizing and

I'm on Instagram! and other ramblings...

2013-03-11T12:04:00.004-04:00

Dear Universe, I have an announcement... I am finally on Instagram! As a blogger, I could have been shunned for waiting so long. So I finally took control of the situation and hijacked my husband's ipad to create an account. Three days later, he surprised me with an ipad mini (thank you tax return). I think he wanted his ipad back. Well, I couldn't have planned that better myself!

"Lots of Buttons" Giveaway: Three $30 Gift Certificates

2013-03-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

A button can be the perfect accent to a project. It can really make an article of clothing 'pop.' I use buttons all the time (I used them twice just this week for some sewing projects). I also love them for embellishing my little girl's hairbows. I still remember when I learned how to properly sew a button, I was in college! I learned why factory-sewn buttons usually don't hold up well,