right on, Target!

All the way back in March I saw this on the Pleated Poppy.  I had long admired Lindsey's product, but in this purse revamp I was finally like, "I can do this! And the bag is from Target - my Mecca!"

So off to Target I went and stocked up on bags. I started playing around with fabrics. Just looking at fabrics is fun enough there are so many pretty ones. Lindsey is absolutely correct when she says you should check out Hawthorne Threads - uh-mazing! 

Now with my nice little stash of fabric and embellishments I had made an awesome bag for myself. 

Well, as you can imagine, I started getting lots of compliments on this fun bag. And it is fun. I had fun playing with all the different types of materials - I've got a zipper flower on there, ribbon flowers, fabric flowers, and little felt buttons. It is definitely something that took time. I had reached a point where I thought I was done, so I hung it on the back of a chair and kept looking at it for a day. A few things stuck out at me so I pulled them off and readjusted - just like fine tuning or "sleeping on it."

I kind of had in mind that these bags would make excellent diaper bags and my cousin was expecting twins this month. Back in April she said to me, "what if I found some fabric for you, would you maybe make me a bag?" And I said, "what if you just wait and see what people have planned for you!"

Well there went my surprise, but it did take me all the way until now to get it to her. She had those two sweet girls yesterday morning and I got to meet them today. Baby A weighed 4 lbs. 1oz. Baby B weighed 4 lbs. 11ozs. I can officially say those are the smallest babies I have ever held, let alone seen. Here's how her bag turned out:

And well for me, it's all about presentation, so you have to fill a diaper bag with all kind of little goodies!

I made sure to include the Big Sis, with her very cool t-shirt of course. And at Target, of course, they have these awesome marker boxes and notebooks that you can 'make your own.' See how they are black and white and have designs? You just get markers to color in the designs. I thought she would have fun with that. Plus a few new frames for the babies when she is in kindergarten next year. Then, in the diaper bag went two receiving blankets, their Lil Sis t's and two dry erase boards that I made. Again, the frames came from Target. They came in a two-pack (ha, so did the receiving blankets). I used some of the same fabric from the diaper bag, put it inside the glass, as well as a few stickers on the inside, and voila! I think my cousin will be all set, at least for a couple of hours :)

*go see this and lots of other great ideas at 

and since this was a gift, go check out  for this and more great gift ideas! 

it's a brand new day

Here I am, as promised. So, after I wrote my little blurb last night, I looked at the date and found it kind of ironic - it may not have been February 12th (my birthday), but it was still a 12th. Guess it's just my number like I had always thought. In keeping with that, I'm going to let you learn a little bit about me, through pictures -- not pictures of me, but pictures of my crafts. And maybe if you're lucky someday I will even show you how to do some of them. OR you can let me know what you want to learn how to do, because trust me, I am bursting at the seams here (ha, corny yes, but no pun intended!).

As I mentioned in my 1st post back in September I was about to become an Aunt. Well, I poured my heart and soul into that baby shower - excuse me, the baby shower that wasn't very "baby!" There wasn't pink or blue, there was beer - but tasteful. Let me show you what I mean:

That was the invite I did - nothing baby-ish, nothing gender specific. Not bad, huh?! And I'm not even a pro with graphic design.

 

The decor: see those flowers, each one handmade by me, out of paper. On the little table there are poppies, and then notice the buffet (yes it's fried chicken) but also some giant handmade sunflowers. The kits for the flowers came from The Paper Source but you could very easily make a pattern of your own. In fact, I just may and upload it here. And then there are the parents admiring the scrapbook that was literally 9 months in the making. I'll have to get some better pictures for you because it is truly a masterpiece.

Then my niece arrived, and of course everyone had to have a shirt - so there I went with Photoshop again. With the help of a great place here in Atlanta - Atlanta Contract Embroidery - every Aunt, Uncle, and Grandparent had one with their name on it. That's my Dad admiring his first grandchild. 

I have to show you the welcome home sign I made for my niece. It's still hanging over her crib today! 

I'm SO very pleased with how this came out! And I'm SO very honored that it hasn't been taken down yet. 

Okay, now I am moving on, if you haven't gotten bored yet. 

Here are just a few Valentine/Winter goodies. I got my inspiration from a few of my favorite blogs...

Well, it doesn't snow so often here in Atlanta, but on my birthday it sure did! So the next morning my 5 year-old cousin and I built a snowman. I don't know how well you can see the great detail. But this scarf was a great, easy fleece project I found at Creative Jewish Mom.

While I fully do give Creative Jewish Mom credit for the scarf idea, I like to think I was pretty onto my game even back in my college days when we had our craft nights. Check out my pink and brown blanket my friends used as the decor for my surprise birthday party. I made that one all on my own before I ever knew about blogs. But I had never even thought to do a scarf. So, thanks Creative Jewish Mom. I love new friends and ideas! 

And this heart...well, I have a love/hate relationship with Valentine's Day. I have no problem with the actual day. Tell people you love them, care about them - fine. You don't have to have a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, or even significant other in order to do this. I'm one of those who is of the opinion that you can tell your friends and your family how much you care and how important they are to you. However, I also believe that you don't need a specific day. Thus, my real problem with Valentine's is that it interferes with my birthday. Call me selfish if you must, but there are always crowds at restaurants and special priced menus. It's just ridiculous. I've actually decided that next year, I'm going to pick a random weekend and go the whole Alice in Wonderland route and do a "A Very Merry Unbirthday to Me" and then I won't even have to worry about Valentine's being in the way. (Secretly, I'm very excited for the possibilities with decor and baking that can be done with this idea:). So to make do all these years, I've just gone ahead and pretended all the hearts are for me - I know, again with the selfishness, I know! So, I LOVE hearts. The above wreath was a combination of inspiration from Craftaholics Anonymous and Tatertots and Jello. I wanted something a little different. I still bent a coat hanger into a heart, but I didn't use cupcake liners or burlap. Though I love both, I used fabric, in the hopes that I would conquer the sewing machine in the very near future. Well my friends - I own a machine now. I can't wait to show you...