I didn’t stop.

I felt God telling me to stop; and then to turn around and I didn’t. Since Saturday I have thought about this so many times and I feel terrible. I should have stopped. I should have given him a bag of groceries. I should have asked him if he knows Jesus. I should have prayed with him. I made all those excuses, but what if he does really need food? What if I could have helped that family? It was a busy intersection and nothing most likely would have happened. My family could have waited a few more minutes for me to get home.

I pray that someone did stop and that that man now has a job. I pray that God will forgive me for not stopping. I pray that the next time I am led to do something I don’t make excuses. Right now, I am not happy with what I didn’t do and I want to change that. I want to do the Lord’s work. I will if He just gives me another chance.

I made a cute little purse called the Buttercup bag, maybe a couple of years ago. I found the free pattern on made by RAE and then saw that if I bought the pattern in 2 sizes I could sell them too, so of course I bought the license! Then I proceeded to not make any more of the bags. Until now. A few weeks ago I gave that little bag to a little girl when her sister was born. The mom asked me if I could make the same bag, only without the strap and with a zipper as a pouch for keeping her stuff in the diaper bag. I said, “oh, yeah. I can do that.” I had never put a zipper in anything, but I knew I could figure it out. Now I can’t stop making these cute little bags! The zipper was surprisingly easy (I hope I’m doing it right!) and I’ve added a little wrist strap to my latest ones.

The aqua and green floral bag was my first zipper. :)

The yellow bag belongs to me. I used a napkin that I got from my favorite store to make it. I just love the combinations of fabric on all of them; it’s so hard to pick a favorite!

I have this black one cut out, but I am not sure how to finish it. Taylor has claimed it and she wants it to have a long strap (crossbody), but still have a zipper. I’m not sure how to go about that. I think she’s going to get upset if I wait too much longer to get it finished though!

I’m still making other things too. Have a couple of notebook covers on the back burner right now and finished a baby quilt yesterday that I wasn’t all that happy with when it was finished… Wish I could have a redo on it:

The front is fine and I really like it, but you can tell I was sewing quickly on the back. That’s what I get for procrastinating. I hope the back doesn’t drive the new parents as crazy as it did me in the 15 minutes I got to look at it. No pictures of the back since I was in a hurry. I’m just glad I made it to the baby shower, even if I was late. It was wonderful to see the family open all their gifts and to be a part of the blessing. And, someone asked me about my nest necklaces yesterday too. I just wish I could remember who it was! So, if I show you my necklace sometime this week it’s because I can’t remember who asked me to see one!

I’m thinking of changing my etsy shop name. I think I might go with Awesome Accessories. I like it, but I’m just not sure. I want to start putting things in there again, but I want to have a good name that I like… Any suggestions?

Have a blessed week friends!

1. A banner I made. It says “Happy 1 Birthday Kyler!” I forgot to at the st to the 1 before hanging it. I’ve been told I should have left spaces between the words, but I like it fine.
2. Kyler’s smash cake. This is the first time we’ve done this. The other kids all just got to have a piece of their cake in their high chair. It was fun! Cake made by my friend Courtney. Carrot Cake with buttercream icing. It was so good – a bunch of us tasted the back after he finished playing with the front.
3. The large cake for all the party guests. Also made by Courtney. This one was chocolate with white chocolate mousse filling and buttercream icing. The chocolate that she does never disappoints!
4. This was the food. That white platter held burgers, hotdogs and veggie burgers. Of course, I didn’t take a picture of it with food and I didn’t take any close up shots for the blog… Oh well! We had fruit salad and chips with the meat.
5 & 6. This is the picnic table gussied up. I made a little fabric banner and hung it from some tree branches stuck in jars of dirt. The wind was blowing pretty hard before the party, so the better picture is from after the party. We had mason jars with pretty stripey straws for drinks. My favorite!
7. The best picture I got showing his birthday shirt that I made. From soccer earlier in the day. It turned out so cute on him!
8. Obligatory birthday picture with Granddaddy.
9. Kyler and his friend Hunter. The only party guest his size who was able to make it.
10. Birthday dinner. Eating his first hamburger with his favorite, watermelon, on the side.
11. Testing the cake.
12-15. Smash Cake. He really didn’t dig into it too much, mostly just the icing. He did have lots of fun though!
16. Birthday boy after the party with Mommy.
17. Playing with a balloon and sitting with Daddy.

At 12 months old he:

weighs 16 lbs. 5 oz.
is 27″ tall.
is sitting up well.
is crawling (army style) everywhere and trying to keep up with all the “big” people.
is pulling up on things – mostly chairs and stools. He likes to pull up on the bottom step and look at what has been left on the steps.
is still so patient and calm and sweet and perfect!

Tomorrow is his party, so I’ll be back with pictures. He will be our only baby to have his own smash cake and I can’t wait to photograph him playing! Maybe that will help him gain some weight too, since he got a less than stellar report at the doctor. Apparently he lost some weight according to their records, but I’m not seeing the same thing in mine… Anyway, I’m still interested to find out more about getting more calories into my two littlest boys who eat all the time and are still little bitty. So, back on the subject, I can’t wait for the party and I will post about it all soon. Going to be a fun busy day and I hope he enjoys it!

I made his invitations a few weeks ago and handed them out. Here they are:

He is having an owl themed party, since he is my owl baby. He can decide what he likes for future parties…the first one is really for the parents anyway. ;) We are on a “spend no money” budget currently, so I have had to search for all the owls in our house. Since I love owls this isn’t too hard of a task. I have some cute little owl statues and I made a little banner with some fabric scraps that I will tie to some small branches on party day. I also am making a paper banner with owls on each end that will say something birthday related – haven’t gotten that far. I will use the two owls that are on that scrapbook paper. I stamped some little food labels. We’re having a cookout, so these probably aren’t needed, but are cute!

Last in the picture is Kyler’s new shirt that I just finished a little bit ago. I saw some shirts like this when I did a search. They were all crazy expensive from companies that just churn them out quickly on machines. I like mine better and it was an easy quick thing to make, using a cheap t-shirt from Wally World and supplies I already had. I didn’t use anything to stabilize the back where I did embroidery, which probably would make the shirt last longer, but it will definitely last for a few washes. (and really, how many times will he wear a shirt with a 1 on it?)

Easy peasy birthday on a budget if you have a large supply of crafty things in themes you like at your house. The only things I’m buying are food and that t-shirt. My friend Courtney is making the cake and a cute little owl smash cake for Kyler. I can’t wait to see them – she is awesome! Hoping for something similar to the bottom of this with an owl on top. I decided that this would be fun and then I don’t have to try to make the cake that I am dreaming of. This weekend will already be busy enough!

Happy Resurrection Sunday, everyone! I hope that your day is blessed as you celebrate our risen Lord, and Saviour. I pray that if you don’t already know Him or about the Life He gives that you will find someone to tell you about Him. 

We celebrated in pretty much the same way we always have. We dressed up (as I said yesterday I do love to dress up in new clothes. I realize it isn’t important and am doing better with that his year. I still think that one can try to look pretty for Jesus and went to church.) We sang my favorite song ever at church and I tried to contain myself when I really wanted to dance and raise my hands. Then we “hunted” eggs on the front lawn of the church with many of our friends. After that we headed to my in-laws house for our own egg hunt and a wonderful dinner of grilled chicken, vegetables and fruit salad.

Unlike other years, I omitted the kids Easter baskets this year. Kody has always wondered why I buy so much little junk for every holiday and this year I saw how silly it really is. My kids have plenty of stuff and most of the little things don’t last. Easter, the day we celebrate Jesus rising from the grave, is about life. It’s not about plastic junk. And the Easter Bunny doesn’t make an appearance anywhere for us. My kids could care less about him anyway. If you do these things, and enjoy them, I have no qualms with you. We all have to do what is right for our family. I have just realized that a little bit of fun and candy are all we want. All we need is Christ Himself.

A post that really encouraged me and helped me to make this decision to simplify Easter is here, an excerpt from the book 7 by Jen Hatmaker. I would like to do something similar and applaud that church for what they did. I am hoping to get the book 7 and read it. It sounds perfect for helping me and encouraging me in what I already want to do.

Be blessed, friends. Help someone today, make disciples, love Jesus by loving others, show Him you appreciate his sacrifice. Encourage others to do the same.

Fast forward a few hours. I was looking through some stuff in our sunroom and my eyes ran across the fabric that was partially cut for an outfit I was going to make Taylor for her birthday last year. I obviously never made it. I had all the pieces of the top cut out and it was to have ruffle pants with it. I decided right then, that Taylor would wear that for Easter. I think that was Thursday…

I decided to start with the pants and make them capris so that even if I didn’t finish the whole outfit she could still wear those with a plain shirt and look a little bit dressy. I cut them out and just barely had enough fabric. I had to piece a few pieces together for the ruffle on one leg, but it looks great anyway (if I do say so myself!) I worked on those Thursday night and Friday and finished them. This morning I got up and started working on the top. It was super easy, just took a little time. I worked on it from 9 am until about 2 along with planting some veggies and taking care of kiddos; it really came together quickly. Here is the finished outfit:

She didn’t want to take it off after the photo shoot. I am so glad that she will have something cute and new to wear even if my original plan was shattered. Also super glad that she likes the outfit that I worked hard on!

Details: I made the top using the Sydney pattern from modkid. I did the top option with the pointed hood option. I made the pants using the ruffle pants pattern from Portabellopixie. Love these two designers and the patterns are very easy to follow. The fabric is Flower Fairies from Michael Miller. Here is the fairy print. I think the roses were also in that line, but can’t find a picture. The pink print was given to me by a friend and I don’t know what it is.

We’ve had some really nice weather this week and were able to go outside in short sleeves a couple of days! Here he is practicing sitting outside:

And, one of the perks of sitting up is getting to tickle your big brother. Such sweet children I have.

Of course, with the little mama around it’s hard to get much time to yourself. :)

Taylor was signed up for a Preschool program at our church and, while there, would need a pillow, sheet and blanket. I, of course, wanted her to have a pretty blanket. The best blanket. I decided to try my hand at this quilt. It turned out beautiful and I wanted to keep it for myself. You can read more about that here. (I did let her take it to school and now I do get to use it as a throw blanket.]

A few weeks ago, I threw a baby shower for a close friend. I wanted to give her a gift that would be useful and would be something she could keep forever. I had originally planned to make her some cute baby pants and other small things, but had just been looking at Taylor’s quilt again and thought that would be perfect. So, I went out and bought some farm animal fabric that I thought looked like it fit in with their family. Since she likes red/yellow stuff I chose things with those colors.

The quilt was a hit and apparently I enjoyed making it too, because…

I turned around and ordered some fabric to make Kyler the same quilt. I had been wanting to make him a special quilt, since I’m trying to make one for all the kids. I decided that this one is easy and turns out so pretty and that I wanted to get it done. I didn’t search for fabric, but happened to see this line of Backyard Baby fabric that just came out and I had to get some. I love the trees and bugs/animals in jars. The colors are great and the prints are so cute. I decided to actually do bias tape binding on this one too. The other two quilts I sewed right sides together and turned. I also did 3 stripes on the back of his instead of one fabric. I like it this way, but I only did this because I changed my mind on backing after ordering the fabric. The grey was originally going to be the binding and the white was going to be the backing. I liked the grey print too much and wanted it to show more. When I finished it I wasn’t sure I really liked it for many silly little reasons, but it is growing on me and I am happy he has a quilt.

Now Kristopher needs some kind of quilt…

I was in the mood for some fruit salad, so I made some last night. I can’t think about fruit salad now without singing the Wiggles song. Anyway, I wanted fruit salad because of a picture I found on Pinterest. It had all kinds of berries and kiwi and it looked so good! Had to have some right away. Anyway, here’s my “recipe”:

Fruit Salad
1/2 pint strawberries, cut up
small box blueberries
small box raspberries
blackberries
1 nectarine, cut into cubes
1 golden apple, cubed
2 kiwi, cut up
1 banana, sliced
a little lemon juice to keep the apples from turning brown
1 can mandarin oranges

It was a little tart so I added a tiny bit of sugar, maybe a teaspoon. Then this morning I added some watermelon. I just didn’t feel like cutting it up last night. The watermelon helped sweeten it a lot and it was so good for breakfast! I think you definitely need to add some kind of melon, and some mango or pineapple might be good too.

Last night we also had Pampered Chef’s Deep Dish BLT Pizza, which I remembered liking a whole lot more. Maybe it’s because I’m sick, but it just wasn’t as good as I thought it was going to be. I still like it, just not well enough to make often. :)