NEGLECT

I know, I know, I know, my poor little blog has been very neglected as of late. After my family was here back at the beginning of June, I just have not been able to get back into my normal swing of things. And now, the summer is almost over. My oldest starts preschool in four weeks... Yikes!!

But apart from what I just stated above, I've been working on other passions lately, so my crafting has taken a backseat. I've been trying my hand at portrait photography, hoping to start a little business. Here are a few shots from a couple of my recent sessions. Tell me what ya'll think.

Thanks for still following me, and I hope to become a little more diligent with my posts.

WREATH?

Sooo... my family was coming to visit... I had to have something new for my front door.

I actually made this back in January using twine, sticks from the yard, and mini clothes pins. But, it was pretty boring. At that time, it just said "Welcome" - I didn't have any embellishments on it. Then a couple of weeks ago, I saw this tutorial for the 5 point star, so I made a couple.

My favorite part of this is how I used the twine to create the letters.

Sooo... family's coming... need something for the door... whipped something up for free.

I'm linking up here...

Tatertots & Jello

A LITTLE FAMILY REUNION

The weekend before last, I hosted a little Family Reunion. Including my family of four, there were a total of 20 family members - 10 adults and 10 kids - ages ranging from 2 to 16. My parents flew in from New Mexico, but everyone else drove here from Indiana (that's where I grew up).

Because of the great neighborhood we live in, and the awesome friends we have, we were able to "borrow" two homes for all of my family to stay in. Since I needed to be able to direct everyone to what beds they would be sleeping in, I created a little something for each of them when they arrived.

Located on each family member's bed was a t-shirt (more on that in a minute) and a little goody snack bag.

These two were for my cousin and her husband.

No, my last name is not Flick. T.H.E. F.L.I.C.K. is actually an acronym using the first letter of all of our last names, including my Grandparents, Gene and Maxine Edwards. They've long since passed, but without them, none of us would be here. That's them in the picture on the goody bag label. Every label had the letter "E" in a light green, and then based on whatever your last name happened to be, then that letter was in a darker green - my cousin's family's last name is Koons.

Now for the t-shirts. Before Memorial Day, I started thinking about designing a t-shirt for our little reunion. I scoured the internet looking for the least expensive way to possibly do this for 20 people. Then I went to CustomInk.com to check out their prices. I have used this website three times before, and have always been very pleased with their product. Their prices were pretty reasonable (about $9.50/shirt)- reasonable enough that I felt comfortable asking everyone if they would be interested in purchasing the shirts for their each individual family. BUT THEN, my amazing father, offered to BUY the shirts for EVERYONE. WOW!! Thank You Again, Dad!!!

Here's all of my family, sporting the custom designed t-shirts from Custom Ink.

T.H.E. F.L.I.C.K. Family Weekend

So wish they were all still here. We had an absolute blast!!

I'm linking up here...

Tatertots & Jello

GROWTH CHART

I don't mean to offend anyone when I ask this question, but seriously, why are most all the Growth Charts that are out there for sale, so babyish / cheesy / too colorful / tacky - whatever? You know what I mean, right?

I have been looking for one since my first son was born almost four years ago, but everything I'd seen made me want to puke. So early last summer (before I started my serious craft blog surfing obsession), I started to formulate this idea in my head. I went to a craft store and bought some wood numbers and some 1/8" balsa wood. I knew I wanted a board with numbers running up the middle and little tick marks every 2" using the balsa wood. But I had NO idea how I wanted to decorate the board, only that it couldn't be "babyish / cheese / too colorful or tacky".

Then a few months back, while visiting a Linky Party (sorry, I don't remember which one), I saw this sign someone had made for their potting shed... all it said was "grow" - so simple, so telling. I thought I had bookmarked that project, but I didn't, so I'm sorry that I can't link you to the original inspiration for this...

My Growth Chart.

One of our friends had given me the 1X10 pine board last summer when the plan was first starting to percolate. Even though this past holiday weekend should have been spent replenishing my stock for the Farmer's Market or preparing for my family's big visit next weekend (I have 16 people coming), but no, I whipped up this bad boy.

I painted the board using leftover white interior trim paint. Then using my Cricut, I printed out the letters on Freezer Paper. I know Freezer Paper is great for making stencils, but I used the actual letter shape to trace around. I painted the letters using orange craft paint. I taped off the 1/4" wide line up the middle, and used leftover grey paint from my husband's office to paint it, the numbers and the little tick marks, which are 2" long. I then made a little template to help me equally space the tick marks, and glued them down, along with the numbers, using E600 glue.

This morning, when I took the above pictures, I wasn't sure how I was going to hang it, but then I had an idea based on something I had seen once over at Tatertots & Jello.

I knew I didn't have any wire that would be strong enough, but I did have plenty of wire hangers from my husband's dry cleaning. So I took one apart, and straightened it out before I bent it at the center.

I then drilled two tiny holes in the board and threaded the wire through. Then I just bent the wire into an interesting shape.

I chose to hang the Growth Chart in my husband's office, not because it matches the decor, but because my boys don't go in there that often, so less chance for the numbers and tick marks to get "accidentally" knocked off.

I plan to record my oldest son's growth on the left and my youngest son's growth on the right.

I REALLY LOVE how it turned out!!! Definitely (at least in my eyes) not "babyish / cheesy / too colorful or tacky". What do you think?

I'm linking up at these Linky Parties, so be sure to go there to check out all the other fabulous ideas...

A Glimpse Inside

Tatertots & Jello

Under the Table & Dreaming

Flamingo Toes

C.R.A.F.T.

Embellishing Life

A LITTLE BIT OF AMERICANA

I was walking past my front door the other day, and this is what I saw...

... it stopped me in my tracks.

Something about the red of the tricycle and the green of the fern, with the warm morning sun shining down on them... all visible through my new screen door.

Talk about "The Magic of Ordinary Things".

A SEWING FIEND...

This is why I haven't been posting much lately. My first weekend at the Farmer's Market was quite successful, so I had to replenish my selection of Quilted Tote Bags.