A Good Weekend

Did you have a good weekend? I had work to do but somehow, it just didn't get done. There was too much fun to be had with the family (and the kids didn't want to go to sleep at night!).

We had fun exploring the Children's Garden on the Michigan State campus and getting very dirty in the process. Well, what's fun without dirt, right?


We also stumbled upon the preparations for an outdoor wedding - someone had a beautiful wedding day! I only wish we could have stayed long enough to spy the bride.

I hope you had a great weekend too...

On the path.

Show Your Spirit

I am so pleased to finally reveal a small project I've been working on, planning for and losing sleep over: College Sweethearts!

I have been crazy over the felt hair barette craze and bought quite a few before I decided to finally sit down and try to make some myself. After trial and error, I think I finally have come up with a high-quality formula that turns out the best hair pretties, and they are so much fun to make.

I grew up in a family that was crazy over college sports, I lived in a town that had a specific color scheme, I married a college sports-lover and now live in a college town. So, it was pretty easy to come up with this formula.

I love the fact that I can get T-shirts and outfits for my little ones to show their school spirit, but I haven't been able to find cute enough hair clips that will actually stay in my daughter's hair. So, I came up with these:


And these:


And these:


And then I opened up shop at bigcartel.com:


As you can see, I only have green and white in the shop right now. That is because I am only allowed to show five items at a time in my current status as a Big Cartel shopkeeper. If my business grows, I will be able to post more clips to the site. Don't worry! As soon as one set sells, I will immediately post another set to take its place.

Please don't fret if you are not a green and white fan, I plan on branching out very soon and adding all the Big Ten schools to my site. If all goes well, I will branch out into some SEC schools and go from there.

So, if you have any thoughts or advice, I would gladly take some (please be nice - I'm highly excitable since I am low on sleep). I would also gladly take some free advertising! So, if you know someone who might be interested, please direct them to my shop or email me at jennyem1atgmaildotcom.

On the path...

Your Mid-Week Lift...

So, I don't have any happy NEWS exactly, but I do have a couple of cute videos to share with you. So, as I do most of my work on a mac and yes, most of my work is done in graphics programs, this is what my day feels like (again and again and again...):



Only, I'm not singing in Quicktime to myself.

This little cutie was sent over by my very good best friend Nikki (a.k.a Jackamo). This is the exact tune that runs through my head and I catch myself humming during meetings that last more than two hours:



Mnah, mnah! Have a good Wednesday.

Stay on that path...

Honored

Wow - what a surprise to wake up this morning and find I've been given an award! Em, over at Em and the Gang, handed out an award to some bloggers and I was on her list - I made the list! Thanks, Em. You are such a great virtual friend.

Isn't that how it is here in blog-land? Em and I are virtual friends because we live so far apart (Her NC to my MI), which is too bad, really because I feel like we could be actual friends too. She's a super-mommy that is super crafty and creative as well. She not only went through the first round of the Quilt-A-Long but is now well-embroiled into Round II (the star quilt), doing summer lessons with her kids, traveling with her family, crafting as always, and finding time to blog as well as trying to pass legislation on allowing backyard chickens in her home town!

Check out her ETG blog as well as her new Chicken blog. It will make you want to have some in your back yard...

On the path.

I'm Back!

Honestly, was I going to go a whole month without a blog post? I was very worried for a little while that might just happen. So, unfortunately summer is my absolute busiest time for work and even though I still tried to do some crafting for sanity, I really didn't get much done around here other than work. AND I mean WORK! Wow. What a whirlwind. I worked all day and started up again in the evening. A couple of times I actually had to work until 5 or 6 in the morning! Seriously. Ugh.

Well, enough of that. I can't cry about it because I got paid and anyway, I feel much better now that I have a few big projects all packed up and sent away. Yea! So I'm back in blog-land and feeling good. Shall we start?

Ava, my dear, sweet girl with the screech that could rival the tornado siren here in town, turned one on July 12th. It was so much fun and we all had a good time. As always, the baby dolls are invited to the party.


Here is the birthday girl with her proud mama:


Things are finally starting to bloom and flourish around here. June was such a weird month with hardly any sun, cooler days and lots of rain. Which is good, but when it's not followed by some hot sun, the plants go into hibernation. My veggies in pots are doing that now.





And yes, I have been knitting! Alas, it turns out that Debbie and I can no longer see each other. Remember the ill-fated toddler hoodie? Well, that was from this book by Debbie Bliss. I remember being so excited when I swiped it from the Barnes and Noble shelf, lapping up all of the beautiful pictures and planning my knitting for the next two years. Ah, no more.

I really wanted it to work out. Debbie and I seemed like we would get along so well! Remember this dress I was working on? Well, it turns out that when I finally got to the part where you normally just knit the armholes and finish off the straps the pattern directions really got all wonky. Deb had to be difficult. Even the OWNER of my lys couldn't figure the pattern out for me. Sadly, we have to break up. It's time. I found a new pattern for a cute girl's tank top. And this is what is happening to that stupid dress back:



And finally, FINALLY, today I got to do some baking. My sweet hubby is grilling some great burgers tomorrow so I made up some loaves of french bread (my first try) for the sandwiches. Yum! Apparently, I need to use a sharper blade for the slits - oh well.


I also bought these lovelies at the farmer's market. Aren't they pretty?




So often I will buy something at the FM just because it is so pretty and then I'll figure out what to do with it later. I found a fabulous recipe for Red Currant Pie. So good!





I am also trying to finish a quilt as a gift for someone who loves blue. It's almost halfway there...



I ALSO joined the Sassy Apron Swap for fall. I'm very excited - this will be my first swap! I love aprons and the thought of having someone make me one is so exciting. I can only hope that mine will be as good as theirs. Sign up is still open until July 25th so hurry up and get on the list! Maybe you and I will be swap partners?

I ALSO also (tired of the "alsos" yet?) finished off another bean bag for my shop. See my sidebar for details. Whew!

I'm back on the path!