SUPER PROUD MOM BLOG ALERT!!

you've been warned...if you don't wanna hear me brag on and on about my kid, just stop reading now. :)

so today was austin's parent/teacher conference. he has never had a "bad" conference....but i wasn't prepared for how *good* this one would be! his teacher, mrs. sund, went on and on about how great austin is, how respectful, how helpful....(and then i double-checked to make sure she was still talking about MY son LOL) anyhoos, she said he is a great student (evidenced by his 3.6 GPA and his 100% homework award)and how she had all the kids write down who they wanted to sit by because she is rearranging the room and everyone kept naming the same 3 or 4 kids....of which austin was one of. she said this was one of the easiest conferences ever because she had nothing to say about austin really except GOOD JOB, and KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK! i was on CLOUD NINE when i left. my heart was totally overflowing with pride for this child who many days makes me wanna rip my hair out by the roots and run for the hills. i really need to ingrain this feeling in my memory so i can recall it on those days. hehe.

from fugly to functional :)

so i grew weary of searching through katie's mountains of hair pretties every day in an attempt to find that bow that i *know* she has that matches THIS OUTFIT but where oh where did IT GOOO?! her hair stuff needed a new home. i found this cute hairbow holder tutorial over at julie's blog (which, by the way, is also fabulous. she has the most touching but heart wrenching story of how her blog/etsy shop came to be, you should go check it out.) since i am WAY too cheap to shell out the $12.99 they want at joann's for a stretched canvas, i hit the goodwill and voila! found the perfect ugly picture to give new life to (for a mere $3.99!).



since it was painted black, i stapled some white flannel to it before i covered it with the cupcake fabric so it wouldn't show through. i had all the materials on hand (besides the canvas) so for $3.99 i turned said hideous picture into this:



i wish i had taken a pic before the bows were on so you could actually see how cute it turned out. but i spent waay too long organizing the bows on there, so you will just have to take my word for it :)

thanks for looking!

gift for a friend.

hopefully she won't see this before i give it to her :)

i bought a couple cute but rather plain christmas towels and used this tutorial to dress them up....i was so happy with the end result!.



then i made her some matching coasters from allsorts tutorial.



and while i was at a holiday craft fair last weekend, i found the perfect little "merry" ornament to finish it off! it is made by a wonderfully talented steel artist out of port orchard, whose name escapes me right now.



thanks for looking!

handmade holidays time again!!

i am *so* super excited for handmade holidays month again at "sew mama sew"! it's the third annual installment and i love looking forward every day to see what great ideas they have in store! go check it out! i feel some crafting coming on....

sam's super spectacular space-needle birthday.

my in-laws were in town for a visit this week, and they wanted to go to the space needle for lunch one day. it ended up being on sam's birthday.....making it probably one of the nicest (most expensive) birthday lunches he'll ever have LOL.....anyhoos, some pics from his b-day.

on the ferry over

eating his birthday pasta

they were even shaped like space needles LOL

present time!

i think he likes the plane you got him mel!


playing with his new fire station

and his "sock-monkey in a box"

sam's monster cake (after he stuck his finger in the "I")


make a wish.

this one's for you, heidi. LOL