Do Good Day

A few weeks ago I received an e-mail asing if I wanted to participate in Do Good Day. I jumped at the chance - a day to do good things, count me in.

Truthfully, I don't do enough good things and I don't do enough giving back. I used to - in high school I volunteered at a bereavement center and a local hospital - among other various one day activities. I continued to do things in college and then I gave birth to my daughter. And it was a lot harder to get out - I was young, trying to finish school, working part time, had a husband, blah, blah, blah - the excuses just rolled off my tongue. My husband, picked up my slack though and volunteered at the local hospital for more than a couple of years (I'll never forget when I gave birth to our second child, after all the excitement, etc, he left to go tell a couple of patients he had gotten to know through his volunteer work that we had had the baby - which I think is beyond sweet).

Anyway, I do what I can from home now - some sewing/knitting/donating money things. And while I think that's all good - when I received an e-mail from 77 Kids (a kids clothing line from American Eagle) and The Motherhood to actually get out of the house and work in a team with other moms in the area, well, I was all over it. 

So next week, on July 14, the kids and I are going to head downtown - to a Ronald McDonald house and do some good! We can't wait to do it. And it gets even more exciting - you too can help us out. One of the other moms participating Hyacynth is hosting a link up on July 14 for anyone else who goes out and also does some good. And it gets better:

I'll be hosting a link-up Wednesday, July 14-15 for anyone who decides to engage with their kiddos in a random act of kindness.

If you and your little ones engage in a pay-it-forward type of kindess, simply post a picture of your little ones acting part of it out on your blog and briefly write about it.

After the link-up closes, random.org will choose one person to win $25 {cash}. And additionally, that person will choose a charity* to recieve an additional $30.

It can be as simple as your little ones weeding a neighbor's flower bed or helping them clean out some of their unused toys and donating them to a local women's shelter. It's totally up to you!

And though I've been commissioned by ae to participate in Do Good Day, the company has NOT asked me to host this link up. I simply just wanted to pay it forward to one of my friends here by giving away $25 to her family and $25 to a charity* chosen by her {and I think the simple act of engaging our little ones in a little do-good project is worthwhile in itself}.

Fun! Fun! Fun! I will remind you all about this on the 14th and link back to her again. I hope you'll all join me, Hyacynth and all the Chicago moms participating (the list is here!) and go out and do some good =)

We can't wait - and if you need some help on where to start - here is the Ronald McDonald House Wishlist. And if you want to donate some things on that list - let me know. I'll even try to arrange to get them from you so I can bring them down with me. =)

Anyway, can't wait to tell you all about this on the 14th and about how it all went! =)

What? I have a blog!

I know, I know, my poor neglected little blog. I swear I didn't forget about you. Not did I purposefully leave you. It's just that that pesky little thing called life gets in the way. And here's the deal - without that life, I'd have nothing to blog about so, there it is.

Anyway, the girls are almost done with softball (2 weeks left). It's kept us quite busy. I'm still working weekends (till the end of the month!). And hubs has been swamped at work. And I've dealt with some stomach-bug type thingy. So, it commonly feels like there isn't enough time to catch my breath these days.

Sadly very little crafting has happened in between all of this stuff. I hope, and pray, life will get back to more normal terms when softball ends. Don't get me wrong - I love it a lot. And I love watching the girls play. And they both love it. But it's taking time. And often both girls have games/practice at the same time - which means hubs takes the younger one and I take the older one and we get about 5 minutes to say hi, how was your day, anything important we need to know before turning around and heading out!

Anyway, not trying to be downer here - really, I've had a lot of great moments - I just haven't had time to blog them all lately! LOL! =) Next week we have something really FUN coming up that I can't wait to talk about (post coming on that in a few moments LOL!) And tonight, my oldest has her very first play off game and so we are all very excited about that! =)

Pillow!

We have a wedding to attend this weekend. And so I asked a bit ago if the bride and groom would be interested in me making their ring bearer's pillow! I've done this for several weddings we've gone to and can honestly say I love it! I love getting to make something to be used in the wedding and the pillows are small enough that's it's pretty stress free for me to make them (although one time I made one with a lot of bead/hand ribbon embroidery and that did stress me a bit LOL!)

Anyway, this time I whipped up this little pillow. I can't lie. I am absolutely in love with this one! Don't get me wrong, I have loved all the pillows I made - but I don't know, this might just be my favorite! (Okay, okay. So I say that after every pillow I make. It's true). I love the embroidery design (which I got from Urban Threads). I think the rings will look gorgeous tied in the center.

The ribbon to hold the rings is secure enough to hold the rings, but not overly stitched so it can be cut off after the wedding should they want to save the pillow.

I'm bringing at least the groom the pillow tomorrow. This is always nerve wracking for me - what if they hate it? I don't want something they hate in the wedding. I always ask the bride/groom to tell me if they don't like it and I'll make something else if there's time. I never had anyone actually say that. So no one has disliked their pillow OR they didn't want to hurt my feelings. Although, seriously, I'd rather know so I can give them something they will love than not know and give them something I love - if that makes sense.

Anyway, I really do love this pillow. =)

Happy Anniversary!

11 years ago today hubs and I were getting married! I can't believe it's been 11 years. Most days, it feels like time sure is flying. 

My dad walking me down the aisle

It was a Thursday - just like today. It was a lovely day outside - which was good since we got married outside! LOL!

It was a small ceremony - only immediate family and grandparents were there. It was just very nice. And I was so excited. I think maybe it could have been rainy and windy and cold I might not have noticed though ;-)

And it's been lovely ever since! I seriously did marry the man of my dreams. No, he's not perfect. And yes sometimes I get mad or annoyed at him - but he really and truly is the man of my dreams. I feel blessed he's my husband, that he is the father of my children! 

So happy anniversary dear. And I hope for many many more years with you =)

Time sure flies ...

when you are not able to post on the blog! It feels like I just posted a few days ago. Alas, I have been running around like crazy and dealing with a broken computer. The good news is the misbehaving laptop has been mailed in to get (hopefully) fixed - and thank goodness for warrenties ;-)

Anyway, I did lots of knitting and lots of sewing recently. Both for gifts and both with some time constraints I hope to avoid in the future! 

 Up first was a baby shower gift. I decided a while ago to do some sewing and fell completely in love with the kimono pj's in Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones.


I ended up with 3 jammies for the baby boy on the way. And I was pretty pleased with myself for being able to actually sew and make them. Aside from a few doll items, I've never worked on such small clothes - but I liked it so much. I think I could make a million of these and never get tired of them. And they are so cute!

Well, I might be biased in thinking they are so cute since I made them. Okay, actually that's a lie. The one pair - the stripes - I admit, after making them, I decided they looked more like something a hospital would have a baby wear than anything else. I really liked the stripes when I bought it and didn't envision it having that kind of effect. But I do actually still like them a lot. I'd put them on my baby for sure!










I think my favorite ones though, are the monkey pj's. I heart these monkey pj's. So much in fact I embroidered a little onsie to match them.

 

Aww, I love those little monkeys for sure! So sweet!

In addition to the pj's, I did a few bibs - these were so easy to make and so fast! I think I might have to whip some of these up for every new baby I get lucky enough to meet!

Most fun for me though, they had snaps on them. I've never added snaps to something before, so I had a lot of fun doing that. In fact, I (semi) joked that I made the bibs just so I could add snaps. Because snaps are fun! But really, I made them becuase we were supposed to bring an item to add to the diaper bag and I thought some fun bibs would be just right for that! =)

I really had fun sewing for a little baby - it (again) made me wish I had a baby of my own to be sewing for, but of course, the irony is if I had a baby I wouldn't have time to do these things - I know becuase none of my three children had things like this when they were babies!