How To Be A Gentleman

I can't seem to get enough of hand embroidered wall art lately. When I saw THIS PIN a few months ago, I knew I wanted to make something similar for Finn's room. I used it as inspiration but I also changed and added a few rules of my own.

The last rule is totally me... it says "always call your mom". This is my biggest fear of having two boys, I hope they don't turn 18, say bye mom thanks for everything, I'm off to find a new girl then call once every few months. Maybe if I start brainwashing them now they will call me :)

I used iron on vinyl for the small letters but hand embroidered the rest. I printed out a template for the embroidery and then just used a pencil and traced to give myself a guide.

I also traced a border around the outside with pencil.

Then I started to embroider. I find it very relaxing for some reason... I like to sit in bed and do it while I watch TV... Geez how old am I? My husband calls me the youngest old person he knows.

Lastly, I ironed on my vinyl.

I love how it turned out. So far this makes one thing to hang on poor Finn's walls haha.

So do you have any rules to add? I live in Texas y'all, I have to raise gentlemen. Also, does anyone else have sons and want to weigh in on how often they call? Go easy on me :/ Also, I entered this into the Borderline Brilliant Contest, so PRETTY PLEASE vote for me, #14 :)

New PSA Stamps Design Member

Hint: It's Me! I am so excited to announce that I was chosen out of a ton of applicants to be on the new 2012-2013 Design Team for PSA Stamps. I am so excited and honored to be a part of such a talented group. I will be designing a few project each month for the PSA Stamp Blog and I will keep you guys updated over here too :) This first month, I got my stamps pretty late so I wasn't able to do big projects (I already started my October projects so I'm ahead of the ball this time :) But if you know me, you know I am queen of organizing. I would say it is literally on the list of top my 5 best attributes, when I figure out the other 4 I'll let you know.

Meet the kids corner. Right smack dab in one corner of my living room.

I used my PSA Stamps to label the toy bins and so far they are still on which is a good sign over here in this circus. I also used thick cardstock, embroidery thread and washi tape to hang them.

Is it just me or are the "happy meal toys" a favorite at your house. My kids like them more than the expensive toys. I call them small toys or tiny toys. And of course the cars are always popular.

You are probably thinking you want to admit me to some kind of OCD rehab. And you should, but in my defense I have a tiny house and this is in my living room so if i have to see it all day it needs to look somewhat cute. That and it doubles as a learning moment; Finn already pointed out some of the letters.

Also, this week PSA Stamps is having a week long event featuring Halloween Cards and three giveaways! I am no card maker so I am really impressed by some of the work already. You can enter to win HERE.  Get excited for one of my October projects that I am working on as we speak :)

Silhouette Cameo Dust Cover (with pattern)

Remember last Thanksgiving when I WON a Silhouette Cameo? It was an exciting moment in my blogs life. I used to own a regular ole Silhouette and I was totally fine with it. I even made it a Dust Cover HERE. But when I won my new one, it went naked for a while. This has been on my to do list for about a year. Better late than never :) 

You will need a piece of fabric that is 22 1/2" x 13". Then you need to print out the Edge PATTERN PIECE HERE. Made sure your edge pieces are facing opposite directions, you can cut on the fold too. Disclaimer: I used a serger to finish my edges, however if you want to add a hem, you might want to add a 1/2" to these measurements.

Then, with right sides together start pinning the edges to the main square of fabric. 

It will soon look like this, then you sew. Clip Your corners after you sew. 

Then I serged, or you could do 1/2" hem.

Now she's not naked, but she does have matching underwear :) Did anyone else make a custom face-plate or am I the only one? Oh come on guys, anyone?

Houston Blogger Symposium - A Recap

Last weekend I went to my first ever Blog Conference, The Houston Bloggers Symposium! I love that bloggers represent a cool, creative, sometimes weird, quirky, fun section of the www. I didn't know what to expect but I was so impressed. I don't really have any "real life" friends that blog so my favorite part of the weekend was talking with fellow bloggers. Sometimes if you tell people you have a blog they are like... oh, what is that anyway? Hello, its 2012 and its cool! 

The Kick-Off Party was held on Friday night at Langford Market, a cute boutique in Houston's Village. My awesome Mom went as my date :)

The next morning, the Symposium was held at Hotel ZaZa which is gorgeous. Thankfully I rode with Meg so  I didn't have to walk in alone - which apparently I'm a 7th grade school girl for even mentioning that. Paige Budde Photography took pics of us, paparazzi style :) New Blog friends, yay...

Our view from the conference room!

I loved the sponsors, Including StripedShirt, who doesn't love a good striped shirt? I am now the proud owner of a red and white one :)

Megan organized everything perfectly, I loved the Q&A section with the expert blog panel. They all had great advice, I love to see some good TX bloggers out there.

If I didn't get to meet, pretty please leave a comment so I can visit your blog! Has anyone else gone to a local Blog Meetup Lately?

Another Project Life Update

If you know me, you know I love this Project! I have no affiliation with PL, I just love it :) Read my other Project Life Posts HERE and HERE. I am working on my 2011 and 2012 at the exact same time which is crazy and not recommended ha! I keep forgetting what year and writing the wrong dates! Especially with the boys being only 18 mos apart I'm like what kid is that... and what year?? Here is a little update from the craft room. I am up to date on both years through May... woo hoo! For 2011 I have the Amber Core Kit and for 2012 I have the Cobalt Core Kit.

I am trying to use different materials like sequins and buttons. I have a love for sequins.

Another new thing I love, I just staple embelishments right onto the photo which is kind of liberating for some reason. I used quite a few staples on this page... also please don't judge these one month old Clyde pics, yes he is almost 2. Better late than never?

As I work more on my book I get more creative with other textures. It looks so much more interesting to break up the solid picture pages.

I am in love with this Monthly Calendar stamp. HERE is a similar one. I use it all the time!

I have been using these 6x12 page protectors for cards.

A lot of people use Project Life as a "week in the life project" or a "photo a day" but that's not really my style. Sometimes, like with Clyde's Bday above I have 50 pictures from one day. Then some months we don't have a lot going on so a whole month will fit on 1 page. Here, I made a whole page just about ampersand. These pics range from about 3 months but I thought they would look better together.

And here is a whole month on a page.

I love using these pages Design G and Design H for the Monthly Updates. I want them to be on their own page but I don't need 4 or 5 of the same picture so these smaller pages work great for me.

And two of my favorite title pages....

I used a real band-aid for a page all about first Clyde's ER Trip. I thought I was being so original but then I saw some band-aid stickers last week that looked just like it.

So does anyone out there do project life? If you have pictures PRETTY PLEASE link them up in the comments, I would love to see some new ideas.