a wedding and a baby

I just love weddings. Love. Love. Love!

Really, if you've known me for a while, like before I ever got married, that statement could possibly surprise you. What would be even more surprising would be me saying that I love babies. I've been known to say that I don't do babies. And I really don't. Just my own. But I love, love, love my own babies.

But really, I love weddings. I think they are just so happy and so fun. I always want to get re-married, to my same husband, of course. I just remember how fun my own wedding day was. I was completely unaware of anything going on around me, besides my getting married. My cheeks burned from smiling. It was a fantastic day. Seriously, like the best! 

Kyle and I, six years ago!

When I learned that my sister-in-law, Chelsie, was engaged I was ecstatic!  Not just because I was super happy for her, because she was happy, but also because that meant I was going to get to go to a wedding, and be a part of it- all of it.

The new couple- aren't they so cute?

Kyle is an industrial designer by profession. I worked for many years, like 7, in copying and printing at BYU, and loved it. Our assignment: to design and print the wedding announcements. Alright!

I started playing around on the computer with some design ideas. Kyle came in, took pieces of them, refined it, and made it look awesome.

We were going for something simple and clean, without being boring. Mission accomplished, in my opinion.  We had the announcements printed with BYU Print Services, and they did a great job. The colors and the print looked great. Everyone was happy.

I spent all of last week back home in Washington visiting family and friends, and wedding prepping and partying it up. Included in that was a bridal shower, my other sister-in-law, Brittany, and I threw for bride Chelsie. This is the bridal shower invitation I designed.

The bridal shower turned out really well, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I meant to take pictures of it, but I really was too busy getting everything put together to worry about that. It wasn't anything fancy, but there were a lot of people there who love Chelsie, and that is what mattered most.

While I'm sharing, here is the birth announcement I made of our newest daughter, Keira.

I know the color is light and difficult to read on screen, but it printed darker at Costco. I'm still pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Toothbrush-a-saurus!

In my last post, I showed some fabric I had waiting to be cut and sewn. I made some fun pillows with it, that I’m excited to share with you. I just finished them up yesterday. It took me a lot longer to get it done than I had expected. Mostly because life happened and I just couldn’t get to it as often as I would have liked to. But, they are finished and I’m hoping to share it with you sometime next week!

Until then, check out this awesome idea for a toothbrush holder I ran across on Pinterest.

source: parents.com

I was cleaning the bathrooms today and kept thinking about what an awesome idea this is. I just love it! Someday when I get around to organizing the girls’ bathroom I plan to do something like this for them. So fun!

Free Printable: Do What You Love

I’m one of those people who in high school when you take those aptitude tests that are supposed to tell you what area you should focus on for a career ends up with results in every category. I like a little bit of a lot of things. I’ve always been that way. I’ve never excelled at any one thing. Mainly because I haven’t ever been able to focus on just one thing. I tend to go back and forth from one thing to the next: sewing to crochet to photography to quilting to baking to whatever else…

But you know what, in the past year I have come to the conclusion that I love sewing. I do. I love it. It is what I enjoy spending my time doing. Sometimes I get in a slump and struggle to get myself to my machine, but once I get there, it feels so good!

After being a part of the Sew-vivor sewing competition back in April, I didn’t do any sewing for almost 6 months. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. There were a lot of reasons behind it, but now I’m back. And I’m totally loving it. (And I have plenty of projects to share with you. Some done, some in the works, and some planned.)

As I’ve been getting back into sewing and enjoying myself I’ve had the phrase, do what you love, running through my head.

I think Pinterest is great. For me it is the perfect place to keep track of bookmarked ideas that once became lost and forgotten. It is also a great source of inspiration and a place to find ideas to remember and use.

Pinterest (and the internet in general) is also a good place to lose a sense of reality. Unfortunately. I know I do it. I often see so many great ideas, well designed and decorated homes, tips and tricks for keeping an insanely clean home, healthy foods (and not so healthy but very tempting foods), moms who appear to go above and beyond and spend what looks like all of their free time playing with and teaching their children, and homemade this and homemade that…

Sometimes I lump all of those pins and posts together and forget that no one is doing it all. Some people come pretty darn close, but there really is no way any one person can do it all, all day, all the time. Sometimes I try, but it never works. I always end up stressed and grumpy.

That is what that phrase, do what you love, has been reminding me. I need to do exactly that, just do the things I love to do. Do what makes me most happy. For me, I’ve found that it’s sewing. I still like to do an occasional craft or activity with Hailey, or bake up something fun. But I have been so happy keeping myself busy sewing in my sparetime. Yes, my house isn’t spotless. Yes, sometimes I don’t start dinner until nearly 6:00, and I try to cook only every other day or as long as I can get away with it. Yes, I don’t play with Hailey all day, everyday- I do make an effort to do something structured with her a few times a week, but if it doesn’t happen (because sometimes life happens), that’s ok, we’ll try again next week.

Another part of this has been getting our Etsy shop going. I’ve actually been enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. I love the earrings I’m selling- and that is making it fun and exciting for me. It’s pretty slow going, but I’m just getting started. Yes, I’d really like to make some extra income for our family, but I’m also doing it because I love what I sell, and I want to share that with others. (Just a reminder- get 28% off your purchase throughout October with the coupon code BDAY28).

If you’ve made it this far through this post, thanks for sticking with me. I’ve just wanted to get this off of my brain.

The point to it all- just do what you love. Just do it. Find some time, everyday, to do something you love, even if it’s just for a few minutes. For me, it’s making all the difference in my attitude toward everyday life at the moment. I have something to look forward to everyday.

I’m so serious about this, that I even made a printable you can download, if you so care to. (Yes, I’m a bit crazy, I know.) I plan to print it out and put it near my sewing table as a reminder.  I made two different versions, one with gray stripes in the background and one that has a solid white background. It is available for download as an 8x10, 5x7, or 4x6.

Follow the links to download the type and size you’d like.

Striped: 8x10, 5x7, 4x6

White: 8x10, 5x7, 4x6

Have fun doing what you love!

Linking up at: Thirty Handmade Days and Destination: Craft