Kasey's Little Monsters

Today I’ve just got to share what my friend and fellow Golden Tribe member, Kasey, at Buttonwood Cottage is up to. Do you see these DELIGHTFUL baby hats? She’s just launched the new line “My Little Monsters” in her shop. Take a peek at the new designs ~ my favorite is Vernon... he's a cutie!

And guess what? These designs were inspired by little ol' me! Remember when I was working on Parker's Monster Bash? Oh yes, I will be getting one of these precious little monster hats for my newest nephew... I am so excited to see these hats on happy babies!

Let us know: which monster is your favorite? which color do you like best?

P.S.
Also, be sure to check out Kasey's blog here!

The Week in Photos

In the midst of the madness, my hubby and I are trying to get back to a normal routine.  Our house is a disaster, but I've been trying to accomplish simple little tasks to keep us motivated.  It hasn't worked until last night, when I finally washed a couple loads of laundry and did some meal planning for the next week.  (Meal planning, which I have never done before, when the house is a disaster- priorities!)  Andrew and I have not made a home-cooked meal since this horrible situation happened to Little & her hubby a few weeks ago, so thanks to some inspiration from Kate, tonight I'm going to make spaghetti and my Ma's meatballs.

Apparently, the accomplishments from last night helped more than I thought, because this morning when I woke up eons before my alarm after another night of restless sleep, I got up and went for a run on the treadmill rather than lying in bed and moping.  It's been a while since my last run... so long that I had to dust the treadmill before turning it on!  The pups were so excited- they knew something was going on and as I was dusting the treadmill and getting the music going they kept nudging me with their little noses and and looking at me with their ears cocked (well, Copper's ears were cocked... Penny's ears just hang no matter how hard she tries, sweet little hound).  Finally, I opened both back doors in the sunroom and they hopped back and forth between them, chasing each other while I ran.  It cheered me up to see them acting so goofy.  I think I'll do it again tomorrow. :)

Another night out letting a restaurant feed us dinner.
They had a "Special Spring Drink".
I couldn't tell you what was in it,
but the Peep was dang cute.
P.S. My hubby had never heard of Peeps!  What?!

This was on Easter Sunday.
Penny was not thrilled with the Masters,
and did not appreciate that we let her on the couch.
She was making this face at me across the room.
I told her her face would get stuck like that.
She fell asleep with it, haha.

You know I have a thing for hooties.
I got this sweet hootie cookie jar for just $13!
I named her Ruby and she will be part of my new stitching space.
(I plan to move everything to one of the upstairs bedrooms,
once I get the motivation.)

Working on the RoadMap to Action at lunch,
before things went from bad to worse.

If I had to guess,
I'd say Copper was dreaming about farts.

Sweet Pups enjoying the ride around Andrew's parents' neighborhood.

Little Henry Snuggle Bug.
I hogged him for a very long time this past weekend.
It was so good to be with family.

My two favorite girls!
Aren't they so sweet in their coordinating clothes?
We were at another shower for Allie & Parker.
Parker will be here so soon and I can't wait to meet him.
Also, Caroline is 9 months old!
Time is flying by.

Once again, thank you all for the prayers and support!  (I feel like I can't thank you enough.)  Please keep them coming this weekend.  It's going to be a lonely Alumnae Weekend without my Little.

P.S.

Ok, so Instagram came to the Droid market.  I'm currently using Streamzoo.  Is it worth it to switch?

Hi There

Hi there.  We are still in the midst of this terrible situation, but I wanted to check in and say thank you for all of your prayers and support.  Please keep them coming, Little & her husband need them more now than ever.

We're still coming to terms with this horrific situation and all of the changes it is bringing.  Life, LittleStitch, and more... it is all changing/going to change.  It is hard to see the bigger picture with all of the bad-gone-worse things happening right now, but we have to believe that when this is over things will get better.  That this happened for a reason.  A good reason.

In the meantime, your good thoughts and prayers truly mean the world.

To our wonderful customers, I'm sad to say that in all likelihood LittleStitch is on hold for at least the next 6-8 weeks.  I'm not sure what state it will be in when it opens back up, but I look forward to continuing this endeavor regardless.

I've yet to sit back down at my sewing machine.  The motivation has been drowned in stress and sorrow.  But this morning I did have an idea spark and sketched a little something.  And I've been trying to work on the RoadMap to Action, but with everything up in the air right now, it's been hard to move forward with that.

For now, we're doing everything we can to support our dearest friends.  We can make it through this.  We will.

hope.

Prayer Request

You might have noticed that LittleStitch Shop on Etsy has been set to vacation mode.  Our very own Little Morgan and her husband are dealing with a situation that has thrown us all for a loop.  If/when it is appropriate, we will try to share some information with you, but for now any and all prayers are appreciated.

In the meantime, I will be still be posting a couple of times a week.  There are a few personal projects and new items for the shop I'll be working on.  I can't guarantee a set posting schedule, as right now my husband and I are focusing on supporting our dear Little & Larry.

Once again, we appreciate your prayers.  You guys are the best.  Go give your significant others, kids, pups, kitties, and everyone/thing else you love a hug and a kiss.

For now we're holding fast to this quote my dear Cuz shared with us:

When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you can not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.  

—Harriet Beecher Stowe

Thank you again for your prayers and support,

Monday Inspiration

via rawartletterpress on Etsy

You are braver than you believe,

Stronger than you seem,

Smarter than you think,

and Loved more than you know.

The Week in Photos

Preparing for the Parker's Monster Bash!
My sister cut lots of colored paper into strips, and we stitched
them straight down the middle.
They were easy, fun and cute!

Caroline Marie is getting too big!
She's trying to learn how to stand on her own.
At this rate she'll be running a 5K on her 1st birthday.

Saturday night I snuck away from party prepping to have dinner at
Andrew's parents' house.
This little cutie and his parents were there!
Aunt Chels might have hogged him a little bit. :)

Late night monster bash prep.
I asked my little brother to blow up some balloons.
He blew them ALL up.
He's awesome like that.

Sweets in her monster shirt!
Us hostesses all made a monster shirt to wear.
It was a blast!

Andrew fishing on Wednesday.
It was a gorgeous evening.

I walked the pups while Andrew fished.
Copper hid behind me because he was terrified of a 12 year old.
At one point he ran straight out of his harness.
My pansy Budd. :)

My Sister sent me the sweetest email from Caroline Marie, full of photos!
I cried happy tears and then decided to print it and keep it forever.
I printed it as a booklet and now it fits perfectly in my planner.

I work in the Management Office at an outdoor mall.
Sometimes for my lunch break, I go park in an upper lot,
roll the windows down and let the breeze blow through the car
while I read or catch up on emails.
Yesterday was amazing with this storm rolling in.
I made it back to the office just as the rain hit.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Parkersaurus

When my sister (Shannon) was pregnant with sweet Caroline Marie, she picked out the most adorable bedding for Sweets' room!  It inspired me to get back into sewing, and I stitched up a growth chart for the nursery.

It is still one of my most favorite things I've ever sewn, and I have to say "one of" now because it is tied with the growth chart I stitched up for Parker!  When my sister-in-law (Allie) decided to go with dinosaurs as the theme for Parker's nursery, I immediately imagined a long-necked dinosaur growth chart.  The inspiration fully hit at work one day, so I sketched the idea on a post-it.

Soon after, I was stopping in at JoAnn's for a completely different reason (Kasey, I was shopping for your buttons!), and I left with 2 fabrics for Parker's growth chart!  (Aunt Chels is already sharing her love for stripes and polka-dots with Parker Man!)

When the time came to cut out the fabric, I was so nervous.  It wasn't until after I cut out the dinosaur template that I realized this thing is going to have to hang on the wall somehow.  After a dramatic flop on the couch (this happens more often then I care to admit), my hubby asked me what was wrong and I told him that this growth chart wasn't going to work because there's no way to hang it up.  He looked at me like I was crazy (don't worry- I'm used to it), and said something along the lines of, "Can't you just put some sort of fabric strip or hook on one of the spikes on top of his head and another one on his back for it to hang on?"  Yeah, total DUH moment.  When in doubt, ask your significant other.  If you don't mind being embarrassed about your lack of common sense.  Moving on!

Back when I picked out the fabric, I knew the stripes would be the body, and the dots would be the spikes. My process was: create dino template, cut striped fabric, create spike template, cut polka dot fabric & batting for spikes, stitch spikes, stitch on a button eyeball, cut out & stitch on Parker's name and the measuring ticks to the front of the dinosaur, cut large piece of batting, pin everything (except the spikes) together to see how it looked: 

Please ignore the wine rack turned plate rack turned stitching rack that makes Parkersaurus look like he has fancy spikes... oh, yes!  At this point, Parker's growth chart was dubbed Parkersaurus!  My next step was to create a pocket for the back (I'm planning to give Allie some tags she can pin to the front to track Parker's growth).  I didn't get any pictures of it, though.  (That was the day we found out Patches' kittens were murdered and I was little upset.)  Last Tuesday night, I finished up all of the stitching and Parkersaurus was COMPLETE!  I immediately hung him up in the kitchen to see how he looked.

I laid on the floor to take that photo and Copper thought I'd make a cozy bed and Penny thought I wanted her to give me lots of wet willies.  It took five minutes just to get one photo (and I need to spend less time stitching and more time playing with my Pups so they don't attack me as soon as I'm away from my stitching space!).

You can kind of tell in the photo above which spike on his back has the added fabric loop for hanging.  And (since I stole these photos from Parker's Mom's facebook), here's a peek at his nursery!

A lot of love went into Parker's room.  My brother spackled, sanded and smoothed out lots of spots on the wall where mirrors used to hang, Allie's mom and sisters painted, my Pa installed the gorgeous chair rail and molding, and Allie created the precious dinosaur border!  And now Parkersaurus, made with love by Aunt Chels, is hanging on the closet. :)

My next personal project: stitching up a giraffe growth chart for little Henry!