Melissa and I

Sorry..... we are busy around here.

Melissa flew out to Kentucky to visit me (and probably the rest of my family too) so we are too busy shopping, playing games, eating, and taking pictures of babies who are growing way too fast.

(These photos are of Melissa's little angel, Avery)

PS She is wearing the tutu we made here.

Photoshop Actions (PS and PS elements)

Found the coffeeshop blog from my friend Traci at Amazing Mae where you

can get free actions for your photoshop. WAHOO!

For those of you who don't know what an "action" is, basically someone else does all the work (messes with colors, levels, layers, etc.) so that all you have to do is click the mouse and it takes your pictures

from this:
To this: Do you like the vintage look? Then try this one...

From this:

To this:

Or if you just need a "little perk"

From this:

To this:

gotta LOVE it!

Find all of the great coffeeshop actions HERE and have fun playing with your pictures!

Babylegs

I saw these here with a link to a tutorial here.

I HAD to make them!!!

Mine turned out like this...

(gotta love that spit up:)
...stockings too BIG and babies legs too SKINNY.

Still cute though!

I will be purchasing more tomorrow!!

I, like Ashley from makeitandloveit.blogspot.com, thought that parts of this tutorial were just a little bit confusing. So I thought I would do a tutorial of my own because like she mentioned, they are SO easy to make. Honestly, you can make a pair in 5 min.

Here goes: (warning: 1 million pictures!)

All you need is, KNEE HIGH SOCKS, SCISSORS, SEWING MACHINE and THREAD.

Make the above 3 cuts in your socks.

Now make your last cut as shown above. Cut more or less off the bottom to make a bigger or smaller cuff (for older or younger bebes).

You will now take the larger piece and flip it so the right sides are together.

Take that same piece (soon to be your cuff) and close the open edge with a zig zag stitch.

Your cuff is well on it's way. Now turn the long part (leg) inside out.

Start to turn your cuff right side out... but not all the way.

Just till it is exactly in half. (folded edge towards the leg, unfinished edge toward the toe).

Simply slide the leg up so it is even with the cuff.

Move that cuff closer to the leg.

Even closer, till it is inside the leg.

In a little more.

And just a touch more so all the unfinished edges are together.

Move that same piece to the sewing machine, place your foot on three layers of fabric (2 cuff, 1 leg) and sew all the way around (line up the right edge of your presser foot with rough edges).

Since the cuff is a little smaller than the leg, you can pull on the cuff to stretch it a bit while you sew. (Don't stretch the bottom layer.)

Once you have made it all the way around, go around one more time, this time sew right on the rough edge.

This is what it will look like.

Flip out that cuff.

Now turn it right side out.

Toss those little scraps and WALAA!!!

You made BABYLEGS!!!

The blue pair were made exactly the same way, I just cut the sock a little higher above the ankle than the green sock for a shorter BABYLEG.

Let me know what you think and if you need clarification I can do that too!

** Melissa **

lamp shade silhouette

Saw this idea on U create and LOVED it...So I did it... using just a SHARPIE... I'm serious!

I found the silhouette to trace here.

I think I need to do a little more on the other sides but I had to show you first.

I think I love it.
What do you think? Be honest.

Easy taco bowl

My sis shared this trick with me and I thought I'd pass it on...

We love taco salad at our house and this is a super easy way to make a taco bowl.

Take some tin foil and scrunch it loosely into balls,

Then take a flour tortilla and spray both sides of the tortilla with PAM (or any nonstick spray) and lay on top of the tin foil balls (the tortilla will form better to the ball if it is a little warm so I microwave it for a few seconds first). Bake at 375 for about 10-15 minutes or until golden.

And Walaa! You have a taco bowl... mmmm. Now I'm hungry.

My first curtain

My mother is a seamstress, I am not. I have been making an effort lately though and have really enjoyed becoming familiar with my sewing machine.

My daughters brightly colored nursery needed a brightly colored window treatment and I thought to myself... 'Self, I bet you could whip up a little somethin' to dress this place up!'

I managed to make the entire thing without unpicking even one stitch! I was off to bed feeling very tired (1:00am) and very proud of myself.

THEN IT HIT ME (while casually brushing my teeth) ...

I made it about 2 inches to short (width wise) ARGGG! ARGGGG!!

I WAS going to rectify the problem (so much for no unpicking) but my wonderful mom convinced me that is was fine just the way it was and that no one would ever notice.

So now that I have drawn your attention to it... can you tell?

Way before: After:

(the room desperately needs a cozy chair and some other touches to warm it up but it is a work in progress. I am unbelievably slow when it comes to these kinds of things and I'm cheap so it will have to wait until I find a steal of a deal on just the right chair.)

The moral of this story: Window treatment, not nearly as intimidating as I thought!

Here are a couple more pictures of the mostly completed nursery.

**Melissa**

Can't remember

My baby is 3 months old now.

I'm trying to get him on a better feeding/ sleeping schedule and since my brain is pretty much mush nowadays I thought I'd make a couple of these "nursing bracelets".

(this one makes me want some bubblicious gum)

There are three beads in between each number and they represent 15 min each like so...

Each bracelet has a charm to clip on in between the beads to tell you when you last fed the baby and you just put the bracelet on the right or left wrist (whichever side you last nursed on).
I hope it helps but if nothing else I like my new funky jewelry.

Inspired by color

I didn't really need new wash clothes.... I just loved these colors... so I bought them to look at.

Don't tell my husband, he doesn't understand these things.