Handmade Goodies

I love getting handmade gifts. Especially from crafty friends. One day last week, I headed up to Janna's house with our friend Erin for lunch and a time to hang out and let the kids play. You may remember Janna and Erin visiting me in NYC for Janna's 30th bday last March. Check 'em out.

Well the most exciting thing is that we are all pregnant! Erin is due one week before me with her first, and Janna is due mid-June with her third. Pregnancy is so much more fun when you can share it with other pregos.

Janna surprised me with some Christmas presents that she made. Look at these adorable coasters she made and hand stitched for me!! I am super impressed with her embroidery skills. The Statue of Liberty cannot be the easiest thing.



And if you are a photographer and don't have a Shootsac, go get one. Then contact Janna for a custom shootsac cover. This fabric is what I used for Ava's bedskirt in her room, and I just love it!!

Thanks friend for all the wonderful gifts.

Dana's Baby Party

Have I ever told you that my dream is to be a freelance photographer for magazines? OK, I said it. That's my dream.

I love to photograph parties, events, places and details. I would love to photograph for Real Simple, Country Living or Cottage Living...if it was still published!! Still mourning the loss of my favorite magazine...

So yesterday I helped host my fabulous neighbor Dana's baby shower with Dana's good friends Diane and Heidi. Dana is having her first baby, a girl, and is due in February. I can't believe I won't be here to meet her, and I won't be here for her to Baby Gus!!!

We hosted it at the Rye Square House Museum, which is one of the oldest houses in Rye, built in 1730 I think. It was a great location, and I had sooooo much fun getting all the decor together.

Check it...

The front door with baby things put together by Diane.


Diane and Heidi also did this this clothespin line filled with baby clothes for Dana. Isn't it adorable?? It looked so great and they had to get Dana's baby a Brooklyn onesie since that's where Dana lived before Rye.


I had a lot of fun doing this setup. I got baby pictures and young girl pictures of Dana and displayed them on my vintage potato chip holder that I snagged for $6 at the Paris Street Market in Denver. This is a staple in my house and holds pictures, Christmas Cards, announcements, vintage postcards....anything that I want to display.

I also framed Dana's ultrasound picture and used my scrabble letters so everyone would know what they are looking at. Idea courtesy of my sister as she always has scrabble letters in her house.


On to the cakes. Oh my. It doesn't hurt that our neighbor across the street (the one whose chocolate shop we went to in Boston a couple weeks ago) used to be a pastry chef. What? You're offering to do a cake for the shower?? Um, let's think about that one. YES!!!!!

Wow, it was good, and Wade is enjoying some of the leftovers.


OK, now this was too cute. Diane and Heidi put together this diaper cake. Every diaper was individually rolled and taped down and set up as a tiered cake. Is this not the coolest thing ever? So it was double duty...decoration and gift. Dana is set for the first week (OK, maybe just the first few days) of diaper changing!


This next project belonged to me and Tyson. We went on a nature walk at the Nature Center and collected sticks, then spray painted them white. I ordered these tissue paper flowers from Oriental Trading Company and displayed them in white vases as the food table centerpieces. Then we pinned extra baby socks and stuff to them.

So each centerpiece cost like $3. Love it!


I love all my enamelware, some of which I picked up recently at flea markets here, and I used them for forks and napkins. White white white was the theme.


There were two fireplaces in the room, so I bought scrapbook paper and sewed a garland of flags to go across the mantels and used my telephone pole glass things that I picked up at Hell's Kitchen Flea Market in NYC as weights. I also used my spinning gourds from that I won from Janna's blog to decorate the mantel.

By the way, the flag idea also came from my sister. She made some for Tyson's shower and we hung them in his room. So Dana took these home and can use them to decorate in her baby room. And again...like $3 per garland.




Dana's mom came up from Savannah, which was so special. She reminds me on my own Mom and I just got attached to her immediately. She helped us shop for food at Costco on Saturday and was such a trooper.

Diane and I had asked everyone coming to write a wish or blessing for Dana that they could read (if they wanted) at the shower and bless Dana and her baby girl.

Lots of tears were shed, and it was one HUGE love fest.









It was such a great and special afternoon, and I'm so glad I had the chance to be a part of it. Love you Dana!!

License Plate Magnets

Well now that the package has arrived in Phoenix to Joanne, I can post my picture!

Last summer at the Paris Street Market in Denver, I bought the numbers 9.23.00 (my wedding date), that a creative person had made into magnets from old license plates. Since I love all things metal, I couldn't resist!

When we moved to NY, I kept the Colorado license plates from our cars in hopes of cutting them up someday. So when I was thinking of a present for Joanne, I realized I had the letters and numbers to make "J * T", Joanne and Toben, "1991", the year they got married, and "Colorado", the state where they were married. Since they moved to Phoenix for Toben to work in a marriage ministry, I thought it was fitting.

Janna's Etsy Shop

Hi guys!

Remember my craft day I had in Denver with Janna and Erin that I posted about here?? Janna's Etsy shop is now open! Go check it out! She has a variety of items for Moms, children, and babies.

And P.S....yours truly did the photography. :)

And here is the picture again of the master crafter at work....

Miss Janna's House

One day this last week, I spent the afternoon at Janna's house in between photo shoots. Erin also came over and we had a bit of a crafty afternoon. You may remember Janna and Erin when they came to visit my in NY back in March for Janna's 30th bday weekend....Mary Poppins, Manhattan's (yuck) at the Plaza, Zabar's on the Upper West, Purl SoHo....

Anyway, an afternoon at Janna's is always nice. We ate on her back deck and it was fabulous! Here is sweet Anne showing off her new lipstick.


"I'll just throw together some lunch stuff from my garden," she says. I was planning on munching on crackers and maybe a slice of ham or something. Throw it together?? Yeah right. More like something that belonged in a food magazine. See??



If any of you have read Janna's blog or been to her house, you know how creative and fun her living space is. I love Anne's room and all the little vignettes that are there. Anne has her kitchen, dining area, living area and dressing area. And since I love photographing children in their rooms and natural environments, I jumped at the chance to hang out with Anne in her room for a while.







And here is the master crafter at work. She surprised me with a new Shootsac cover. It's gorgeous, and I'm sorry I don't have a picture. It's hot pink fabric with orange polka dots. LOVE it!! By the way, if you don't have a Shootsac, go get one. They are great (not to mention cool looking) for you on your photo shoots.

And if you buy a Shootsac and need extra covers, Janna will sell you one. She is also planning on opening an Etsy shop with all her wonderful home made goodies, so keep posted via her blog.


Thanks Janna, for a fabulous girl's afternoon. I needed it!

TTV

One of my new projects is a wall of photos in the downstairs living room. I've decided to do 3 rows of 3 frames with images of the kids and/or our family with the following TTV look. I'm so excited to get this project done but I know it's going to take a while to go through all my photos and choose just 9!

Purl Patchwork

If you are a fabric junkie, this is the place for you. And if you are a REAL fabric junkie, I'm sure you are familiar with Purl Soho.

Purl Patchwork and Purl are two stores located a few doors away from eachother in Soho, on the edge of Greenwich Village in NYC. They are very small stores, but they pack a punch given their square footage.

Purl is a knitting store, but Purl Patchwork is what was calling our names that day as it was Janna's #1 pick for places to go on her Purty Thirty birthday trip to NYC. Times Square, Rockefeller, Central Park? Nope, Purl Patchwork was her pick of places to see in the City. And it was worth it!! She was a kid in a candy store!! She came armed with birthday money and a project list, and walked out with an armload of beautiful fabrics!























Thanks go to Karle, our fabulous salesperson! She was VERY willing to put up with our ooo's, ahh's, many cameras, and many questions. We spent well over an hour in there, and she was a joy to chat with! Turns out she helped make all of Mary Poppins coats for the Broadway production that we saw the very next day!! By the way Karle, the coats looked amazing. Nice work!!