How did I live with out her before?

This girl makes everyday *a-mazing*...I'm still, to this day. 23 months later. confused as to why she chose me to be her mom...?

Allie, I can't believe you're almost TWO! You're already so big, how can you get any bigger?

You are so brilliant. You've already learned "NO". It's been a joy. :-)
(can you hear the sarcasm)
Truthfully, behind your back. I think it's the cutest thing in the whole world. But, I will never admit it to your face.
(Unless, you catch me laughing at you one day. I know it will happen and that's when we'll be screwed!)
I love how much you love to read, sing and dance. Your fashion choices are just to die for.
And your love for animals is so awe-inspiring. You're kind...(unless someone has one of your toys. lol) Coloring with you is one of my favorite part of the days. Snuggles with you are so yummy. Amazed that others tell me how good you are in your Nursery class.
(You must get that from your Dad)Thank you for being so Silly and making me Laugh every day.
(Who knew dog kennels, mom's shoes and onion rings were so much fun?)
Thank you for somehow understanding mommy didn't feel good this week and being patient...how do they do that? Creep into your heart and do the sweetest things sometimes?
I know I'm WAY bias here but, I have the greatest 2 year old!

I wish I could be like her sometimes...but, I think I'm good with the whole throwing myself on the floor in public and having a melt down...even though sometimes it's very tempting. ;-)

YAY, for having an okay day and not feeling to bad. Hoping for positive vibes and that everything starts to get better!!?!!

Hug your babies today...*LOTS*!

Courtney...

Cowboy Crayons for SALE! :-)

SOoo, despite all of the headaches I've had these days (...literally), surprisingly I've been able to do a little work today.

I'm really excited for Christmas and have all ready decided to start working on gifts for everyone.

(All which will be hand made this year...yippie for me ;-) lol

Anywho, I had once shown off these adorable Cowboy Crayons that we put together for our Super Saturday my church does every year.I've been working on putting sets together to sell at a Bazaar this up-coming December and have some time to sell extra's.

If anyone was/is interested, you are in luck! I am now also selling them. On my Etsy site. :( Poor Etsy Shop. I've neglected it so...
So here's the Run-down on them:
- $10 for a set of 8 (In the pictures above there are only 7 but, there will be 8.)
-$3 for shipping
-Payments with PayPal
- They are Crayola crayons
- Colors: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Black, Brown, Blue and Purple
-And please, keep in mind that every set can vary a little since all of them are handmade!
(Fabric and Ribbon will be the same. Star will look the same, paper might be a different color.)
Any further questions, just ask!

Aren't they SO cute?
Umm, *Yeah*!
And little ones LOVE LOVE LOVE them!

Happy Christmas shopping! :-)

Courtney...

Link to Etsy Shop where you can buy them!
Spoiled Rotten Designs...

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was really fun for us this year.

Well besides the terrible two's part of it all.
All of the melt downs added that special touch to our memories! ;-)

Allie LOVED being "Blue" from Blue's Clue's! She continues to wear her costume daily. With her ears and mittens on. While she watches Blue's Clue's. What joy. ;-) HA!
Unfortunately, these are the only pictures (I'm serious, the ONLY)
she would let me take of her in it.

(On our way to the Trunk or Treat we do at our church every year)
(Front)
Tim thinks she just looked like a:
"Blue Woolie Polka- Dotted Sheep with bug antennas. lol
People got it though, and of course she loved being called "Blue"!(Back, I forgot to add the tail!) :(
Notice I had to put her on our table so I could get some decent pictures.
Oh, the toddler "Blurs" stage! ;-)

(Ears)
OH man, was I surprised she kept these on. I was originally going to order a Blue's Clue's costume but, knew she would not keep the hoodie part of it on. So long story short. The head band ears worked! :-)
(Feet "Paws")
Had to make her mittens with Blue's Paw print on them:

(These by the way, are now covered in Chocolate! lol)

And of course, we couldn't forget about her Handy Dandy Notebook! :-)
(Thanks Regan for your help!)

Tim had lots of fun handy out candy while Allie sat and ate her candy
And this picture pretty much sums up our Halloween! haha

(Enjoying the moment mom, Terrible Two's little girl, and a multi-tasking dad)

Happy Halloween!

Courtney

Halloween Bandanna Skirt Tutorial

So, a few weeks ago I came across these Halloween Bandanna's on an end-cap at Wal-Mart:

Cute Right?!!?
I'm not the Bandanna kinda girl but, I thought these were perfect to try and make a skirt for Allie. And for my first ever Bandanna skirt, I am one happy woman! Especially since it took me maybe a half hour to put it all together!

It's so easy! See:

Step One:
Fold in half and steam iron
Cut in half on the fold
I forgot a picture here but, Trim off and inch off of the sides. Your bandanna will have writing on the side and I didn't like it. So I cut mine off. Then fold the bottom hem under to the wrong side and iron in place. *You do not need to double fold because it's already hemmed at the bottom.

Step Two:*This step is optional. But, I thought it added a lot to the skirt. So, I made some ruffles to stick under the skirt. Pinned it in place on the wrong side.

Flipped it over and sewed a hem straight down...repeat with the other half of your bandanna
Here's what your skirt will look like on the right side:

Now, pin the two pieces together, wrong side out and sew straight down.
Back stitching at each end.
(Sorry the picture is sideways!)

Step Three:

This step happened on accident! ;-) I had realized that once I had sewn both ends together I had forgotten to make a spot for the elastic! Whoops! lol
(And I ended up thinking it turned out really cute anyways, so oh well! ;-) But, if you know what I mean with the elastic go ahead and do it the right way. If not, here's what I did:
Turn the top of your fabric over so the right side is now on top of your wrong side. You'll have to take some measurements with your elastic to make sure you have enough fabric turned over. Now, sew a stitch at the top. (In the picture above it's the only seam you see)

Then I made another seam to create a "pocket" for the elastic.

(Here's a bigger picture for ya...kinda confused? lol)
Making sure to leave an opening so I could run the elastic through...measure your little ones tummy around before you cut your piece of elastic. I cut mine to 19 and 1/2 then I trimmed off about two inches once it was in the "pocket" on the skirt.


And, of course I couldn't get to far with out my little helper to come and help me! :-)

Once your elastic is all the way through snip off a little extra like I mentioned above and sew the two ends together.
And here's what it looks like:

*love*
My "Oops" turned out to be great! ;-) lol

And because I know it's like next to impossible to capture a "still" picture of an almost 2 year old I grabbed one before I put it on her!
Umm? Adorable?
YES!Of course I couldn't stop there! I had to make her a bow! hehe ;-)

I was able to catch one good picture of her this morning...it wasn't easy but I got one! :-)

How much do you think it cost me to make? What? Only $2? I know, it's great! The Bandanna was a dollar. I might have used .25cents worth of my elastic and .75 cents for the 1/4th of a yard of tulle I got.

Enjoy your Thursday!!
Courtney

Happy Harvest and Family Blocks

I think I've become obsessed with wood. LOL

I'm going to end up having Count Down blocks and Block sets for every holiday/occasion you can think of the rate I'm going!! ;-)

Well, while I was a "Deer Hunting Widow" this past week I teamed up with Regan. Who is one crafty lady! ;-) Thanks Regan! I had a blast and I can only speak for myself, but I am super excited about what we came up with this past week!

Take a look:
(Happy Harvest Block Set)

(Cute embellishments...)

("Happy" block...)

I LOVE how the wood turned out! All done with paint...

Now onto our "Family Block" set we came up with:

Sorry for the weird lighting. Put these in Allie's bathroom that is completely white everywhere...still! :( Hopefully, I'll come up with something soon for her. I'm getting tired of it being so boring in there!


(More cute embellishments...)

(love the paper flowers she taught me how to make!!)
One last time since I love this set so much! :-)

SOO much fun to make! Wish I had as much of the neat crafting supplies as Regan has! But, it's okay. I just have a great excuse to go spend some time with her! :D

What do you guys think??

Happy Monday
Courtney

Pumpkin Picking

A few days ago we went out to pick pumpkins out on Carver Farms and we had a blast! Especially Allie. She could not get over how many pumpkins there were. She would pick one up, carry it around with her for a good 10 minutes and then drop it and find another favorite.

I would look behind me every once and awhile and notice she would just walk like this with her hands in her pockets. I don't think she has her hands in her pockets in this picture but it was still way cute. Sometimes she would get to carried away if she didn't watch where she was going and trip over her toes. But, she was tough and would get right back up to carry more pumpkins!

She was dead serious about making sure she got the right one! :-)

She finally the one she liked the most and ended up carting it around the most (we ended up getting her a different one) but, she found another little pumpkin as well and would not go anywhere without both of them. Way cut. She kept dropping them and going "Uh!" Bend back over for the 4th time and pick them up again...

Tim and I did really good too! (BTW, it was Tim's idea to hold the pumpkin in the picture! haha)

We had quite the packed car on the ride home! Carver Farms has much more than just Pumpkins! So needless to say, we picked WAY more than we had originally thought! ;-)
Here's everything we picked after I got it home and cleaned it:


Carrots, Strawberries, Gourds (for decorations), Tiny Pumpkins, Zucchini (the biggest I've ever seen!), tomatoes, and the yummiest corn ever!

And here's everything we got for our front porch:


I had no idea that this is what Popcorn looked like:

Tim reached down at one point and picked this gourd up and said " Hey, this one's kinda cool!" I was like "Tim! It looks like a ghost! We have to get it!" LOL So I brought him home, cleaned him up, and drew eyes and a mouth on him...Anyone know if you can preserve gourds?? haha
The best part about how much fun we had and everything we got was the cost! We paid a grand total of $24 dollars for everything! Carver Farms is very friendly and welcoming. I can't wait for their Christmas sales! Now off to chop tons of Zucchini! lol

Courtney