Loopy Blanky

Tonight I was able to make it to A.C. Moore to finally pick up ribbon that I have been needing to work on a blanket for our youngest, Aaron. Inspired by this wonderful woman and mommy, Kayteedids, who was also nice enough to give me a few pointers I was able to create my first loopy blanky. This was a very easy project and seriously it took me longer to pin everything, than it did to actually sew it! Here' my "loopy blanky", enjoy and as always leave some love!

~E

Rosette Headband

Well I sat down today and had my first attempt at making a rosette headband, and it was super fast and easy to make! I made it out of a headband I bought from CVS and scrap material I had lying around! Beware of the hot glue gun though...man those things get really really HOT!
Glue gun:1 Mommy:0 <---not fun! Check out the pics and tell me what you think :)

~E

Toddler bed blankets

After making Aaron's car seat cover last night and feeling so accomplished I decided to sit down this afternoon ~while our oldest was in preschool~ and make Angel and Ayden's new blankets for their toddler beds. When Angel originally got his toddler bed (nearly 2 years ago) we bought him a sheet set that had a cars and fire truck pattern. Needless to say 2 years later the comforter is dunzo... there is absolutely no life left in it, and he's not into cars or trucks anymore! So at my last trip to Joann's I picked up fleece material to make my oldest two boys new comforters. Angel was with me and he picked out his own Spiderman material and I picked out Ayden's Cars pattern because he is still OBSESSED with cars! I paired each fabric with solid fleece to match on the reverse side! I think they turned out great and were super duper easy to make :) Enjoy!

~E

Car Seat Cover

I just couldn't wait to post the latest project I worked on and finished tonight! So what does one do when they A. have a baby in the winter and B. have become a germophobe and can't stand strangers reaching in and touching their newborn baby (without permission)? Why they make a car seat cover of course! Thanks to Vanilla Joy and her wonderful and super easy tutorial found here on how to make a car seat cover! I ordered the fabric from the Fabric Shoppe on Etsy! This is easily becoming my favorite place to order fabric, she's got the BEST around :) These days to not have to leave the house with 3 kids for fabric is a dream come true! I think the cover is absolutely adorable (if I may say so myself!) and I am soooo glad to finally have something to keep all those strangers at bay! Enjoy the pics :)

~E

Changes

Slowly but surely you'll start noticing little *touches* I'll be adding to my blog. I feel like minor changes and adjustments need to be made to make this the best blog it can possibly be. I'll be trying new layouts, signatures, even perhaps trying to blog on a more scheduled basis. In the next few months I am hoping to really have a focus to my blog, perhaps a new name, as well as get it up and running with more followers. I'll be counting on Face Book and Twitter to hopefully get the word out there, as well as counting on YOU too! Growth happens a little at a time and I am hoping this will be a great addition to my Etsy shop! Fingers crossed XxX

~E

Dream a little dream

Here it goes... I'm laying everything on the table (p.s. this is something I almost NEVER do)!

Lately I have been so inspired and influenced by the many sellers on Etsy that I have started to think that one day I could open my own successful shop! As a little girl growing up I loved all things arts and crafts... at one point in time I was even in an arts and crafts club through our local recreation department. Lately I have felt that passion for arts and crafts enter my life just as it did when I was a little girl. I know that right now I am no where near ready to sell any of my projects I have made but after each project I complete, or for the ones I am filing away in my head to work on in the future, I always think to myself "this would look totally cute in my shop!"

My children have been my biggest inspiration in this adventure I have dreamed up. Everything I have created so far has been for them. The majority of me just loves a new challenge of making and creating a 100% hand made item rather than buying from a gigantic chain store where everybody will have the same thing. A tiny part of me loves knowing that I can save huge amounts of money by making these items rather than, again, buying from large corporations. Before I discovered Etsy I never knew that a market existed for the type of items I want to create and sell. Etsy has completely opened my mind and eyes to a whole new possibility. I think too that there is a special feeling that comes over a person knowing they have just purchased a hand made, unique item rather than something that has been mass-produced. To know that someone has personally sat down and made an item for you gives you a nice warm, fuzzy feeling!

Confession: Until now these are just thoughts I have kept to myself- none of this has ever been spoken aloud, written on a little piece of scrap paper, scribbled on a napkin, or jotted down in my blackberry. Practically every "crafty" item I come into contact with these days, whether its a picture I see or an item someone is wearing my mind automatically goes into crafter-mode.I begin to wonder what materials make up the headband/bracelet/accessory and I immediately start putting together a list of items needed to make the product as well as how I could best present it on my "shop". I'm inspired by colors that work well together, shapes that compliment one another, even patterns that are so different they are just enough alike to work well together. All of this, this entire process that I am going through is making me HAPPY and that is how I know this is something I truly want, and need to at least TRY to go for. This has begun to consume my thought process and for me that was the first light bulb that went off in my head that this could actually turn into something I have always wanted but just recently figured out how to do it.

From here on I would like to ask that if you have ANY input, or constructive criticism I am all ears! Over the next year or so I would really love, love, love, to take the time to perfect my crafty-ness so that one day I can open my own Etsy shop.

They say everyone has a niche right? Perhaps this is mine...

Merry Christmas!

'Tis the season! I feel like I have been away from this blogging thing forever, but ahh it feels good to be back. Ok...semi-back! Things are still crazy at our house, we haven't found a routine yet, but things are starting to feel slightly back to normal so that's a good thing, right?! Ha ha!

So the Christmas season is upon us and the busy-ness of it added to our already hectic schedule has made the month of December fly right by. Aaron will be exactly one month old tomorrow and I can't believe Christmas is a short 9 days away (eek! single digits- insert wide eyes and open mouth here)! I can safely say we are 98% done with our shopping, our tree is decorated, and the presents are wrapped.

Today we took the boys to the mall to get our annual family Christmas ornament and hopefully a quick picture with Santa. Fortunately we were able to accomplish both of these tasks and nobody had a tantrum or a meltdown (my husband and I included LOL)! You'll notice in the Santa picture there are only 2 children pictured...UNfortunately this year our 2 year old has decided he is scared to death of Santa so he wouldn't go anywhere near the big red guy! I figure 2 out of 3 kids isn't bad ha ha! I also snagged a really sweet deal on 2 Land's End jackets, one for winter and one for spring/fall, as well as a fleece vest! Confession: They are all TOTAL Mommy clothes and I absolutely LOVE them :)

Next week we are looking forward to our oldest son's Christmas play/party at his school as well as family coming in for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations! Until then I will leave you with these pictures to show our Christmas spirit thus far!

~E

"Baby" Angel at Bounce U last week with Santa!

Family Christmas Ornament 2010

2 out of 3 kids with Santa!

Our Christmas Tree 2010

Our Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving was a little bit different from years past. We decided we were still going to host Thanksgiving dinner at our house as we have for the past 4 years; however we weren't quite sure when baby Aaron was going to be making his appearance and whether or not I'd be majorly pregnant or just haven given birth. It turned out to be the latter since Aaron decided to make his debut on November 16th! We decided to ask everyone to bring a dish to complete our Thanksgiving meal this year and I have to say it worked out perfectly! I don't think there is any better feeling than family togetherness, and this year it was what our Thanksgiving was all about!

Unfortunately during all the mayhem I completely forgot to take even 1 picture this Thanksgiving-so instead I'll attach an adorable picture of Aaron Matthew with his big brothers!

SCORE!!

I won my first online giveaway contest last night and it couldn't have come at a better time! Recently I found kayteedid's website and FELL IN LOVE! If you have a little one at home, or know someone that will soon have a little one you need to visit her site and order a blanket-like now! Anyway I entered her contest on her Facebook page at the last minute last night thinking to myself "oh I never win anything, what are the chances?!" Well apparently luck was on my side because I did win, and I know our new little man Aaron is going to enjoy his blanket and get a lot of use out of it :) I won a free "Lovey Blanket" and can't wait to receive it in the mail!!

He's finally here!!!

I have been MIA for a few days because this past Tuesday we welcomed baby boy #3 to our family. Aaron Matthew Acosta was born at 8:23pm weighing in at 6lbs 9oz and is 19.5 inches long! I'm sure my posts will be very sporadic through the next few weeks, so please bear with me! I'm hoping to get on in the next few days as well to post my birth story so I can have a little memento from the birth of our newest son :)

Happy Saturday, plus some exciting news :)

It's a Saturday morning and I'm sitting here enjoying my coffee (decaf of course!) while the boys eat their breakfast and watch yet another episode of iCarly on demand. I went to the doctor yesterday and in addition to being nearly 38 weeks pregnant I'm also 2cm dilated so it's just a matter of time at this point! We're super excited and cannot wait to meet our new little guy that will be joining our family.

Thursday I found myself at Joann's again buying more fabric, and supplies to get started on my newest project-baby bibs!! Yesterday I was able to take some time in the morning while my husband watched the boys (he's really been so good with that lately) to get started. I'm posting pictures of bibs that I started working on yesterday thanks to this tutorial. They're not perfect, but I did find they were easier with each one I made. I also like this project because it helped me learn how to control my sewing machine's speed and the way the material needed to be moved through the machine with precision. It was really fun! Enjoy and happy Saturday!

Getting out

With the change of weather hitting the East coast we have been hesitant to take the boys outdoors because we don't want them catching anything with me being this close to have our newest addition! Plus lets face it-it's NO fun taking care of sick kids!! Well spending all that time cooped up in the house was starting to wear on the kids as well as my husband and I, so we decided to take a trip to our local aquarium. Even though it was small in size compared to others in our area it was practically empty which is always a mom's dream (no worries about losing your kids, germs, or other kids misbehaving!), very inexpensive, and had a great touch tank that both the boys were able to explore and learn about the animals living inside. Angel and Ayden really enjoyed themselves and I was able to get some GREAT shots with our camera! Here's our adventure to the aquarium.

Another sewing project :)

Ever since the birth of our second son, Ayden, we have become a very pro-breast feeding family so I was out shopping the other day at Target and while walking up and down the baby aisles looking at all the cute stuff I came across the disposable nursing pads I used and noticed that the price went up on them AGAIN! At first I thought to myself no biggie, you need them so there's nothing you can do just suck it up and put them in the cart. Then I remembered seeing adorable, handmade reusable nursing pads on Etsy and I thought to myself WHY NOT?!! I came home and started researching them online and was able to use a combination of this tutorial as well as this one for when I decide to try to make them contoured. So ladies and gentlemen here they are my first batch of reusable nursing pads (pink w/ elephants)! I was able to make 12 more this afternoon in just 30 minutes, how awesome!!

P.S. The front is made of fleece and the backs are 3 layers of cotton/flannelet.

Burp Cloths!!

YESSS, they are finally finished! They were my first sewing "project" on my sewing machine and completely SELF TAUGHT!! Hubby was awesome enough to let me finish these this afternoon while he entertained Angel and Ayden for a bit. VERY VERY easy is the best way to explain them and once you get the hang of it you are able to bang them out very quickly. I used this tutorial which was just perfect. I'm hoping to get a few more sets of these finished before the new baby makes his arrival. The size of these also makes them great to double as changing pads too! Let me know what you think :)

Fabric!!

More fabric is on it's wayyyy! I just placed another order on Etsy from this awesome seller Sew Materialistic. Last night was my first bad night with my sewing machine..we got into a fight and the machine won :( I broke the needle, I had to rethread the bobbin half way through my project, and the top thread wasn't going all the way through the material amongst other things (including my 4 year old waking up and lounging on the couch for a bit while Mommy did some sewing). With all of that it took me nearly 2 hours to finish 1 burp cloth-VERY frustrating. Through it all I'm determined to get back on the horse and figure out what went wrong. So I've ordered more material for burp cloths and found a really cute pattern for bibs! I can't wait to get started tonight! I promise as soon as I have these burp cloths finished I am going to post a picture for everyone to see!

A loooong week!

This has been a very long week for us in our house. In addition to me having a throat infection (and we know mommy's don't get sick days) we have been struggling to get into a new routine as well. I haven't mentioned anything for fear of "jinxing" it but I can't hold it in any longer. This week I made a promise to myself that I would start having Angel and Ayden sleep in their own bedroom. With Angel, our oldest, we were a co-sleeping family and he slept in our bed till he was nearly 2 1/2 and we brought his brother home from the hospital. When Ayden was born we swore we were going to do things differently, but of course ended up not! Eventually we were able to move both boys our of our bed and into their own separate beds, but still in our bedroom. The thought of bringing home baby #3 and having all 5 of us in our bedroom gave me nightmares so I am trying to do something to avoid it. As a result we have all had a VERY long week trying to adjust to the boys sleeping in their own room. Ayden has done better with the transition than Angel but you can tell during the day they are both exhausted from waking multiple times at night :( As for my husband and myself I am considering this a dry-run for when we bring home the new baby due to how little sleep we have been getting at night because of the boys waking up. Some nights have been better than others and next week I plan on putting the boys in their rooms to fall asleep by themselves...this week i have been staying in there with them until they fall asleep and then tippy-toeing out! Fingers crossed :)

Feeling Homey :)

Blame it on the fall weather, how the leaves just float and fly through the crisp fresh air in their fiery oranges and bright reds. Blame it on me being 36 weeks pregnant and entering my nesting phase, or you can blame it on me realizing that we are about to bring baby #3 into the world and feeling the need to have a stronger grip on our everyday activities and routine. Something has come over me lately that makes me feel very domestic. I try to take each day a day at a time and remember that we are blessed by all we have. Our faith, family, friends, and children are the most important things to us. Lately I have been finding inspiration from other mom's through blogs, books, or even their Etsy shops. If you have been following a long you would know that recently I have taken up sewing and have completely immersed myself in the culture of it and all it has to offer. This is something I have wanted to learn since shortly after having Ayden, more than 2 years ago and I'm so glad that I've finally started doing it, instead of just wanting to do it! Most days my house is a mess, there is laundry to be folded, and my kids don't listen to me but in the grand scheme of things it's all about enjoying life and taking each day as it comes!

Fabric Giveaway!

So there's this amazing Fabric Shoppe (literally) on Etsy that has the most amazing fabrics...many of which I will have to wait to purchase until AFTER my maternity leave LOL! However right now they are doing a crazy giveaway so go check it out here to find out all the details. Good Luck and happy sewing!!

Cute Headband!

I found this fellow blogger E while searching for tutorials on how to make reusable nursing pads and I fell in love with not only her blog, and Etsy store but also this headband! Totally cute and I would totally ROCK it :)

Halloween

Halloween was very busy this year. Thursday Angel had his Halloween parade and party at school, then we did trick or treating in central Jersey with his cousins and family friends- oh and i'm now 36 weeks pregnant! This year Angel wanted to be Iron man and Ayden was Frankenstein. Here are some pictures from our weekend!

A great buy!

I've been pretty good since I've been back to blogging at keeping up with a post every day or so...but this past weekend was just so INCREDIBLY busy that it was impossible. Between Halloween parties at school, going away, and trick or treating we've been swamped! So now that I'm done giving excuses as to why i haven't been blogging LOL let me tell you about my latest and greatest find on Craigslist! I was patient enough,kept checking back, and it paid off. A lady in my town was selling a sewing machine she bought for her teenage daughter that her daughter ended up barely using. Their loss was my treasure! This lady gave me a practically BRAND NEW sewing machine (with the instruction manual), a ton of accessories, a bunch of fabric, (which is great because I can use it to practice on rather than buying fabric at the store) and a huge bag filled with batting to stuff pillows and make little kids items/dolls. She sold me all of this, including the sewing machine, for only $15!!!!!! So i brought it home one night last week and taught myself how to thread the needle, thread the bobbin, etc and 2 hours later practiced some stitches on fabric! Needless to say it felt great! I've included pictures so you can see everything i purchased. I've already got a few beginner projects in mind so i'll keep you posted when I attempt them!

Ayden is almost 27 months old and has been obsessed with cars and trucks since shortly after his first birthday! Oh who am i kidding...as soon as he was able to sit himself up and push anything with wheels back and forth he has been obsessed. Well our little guy has so many Hot Wheels cars these days that were spread ALL over the house so hubby and I finally decided to do something about it. On our venture to Toys R Us last week we found a really neat Hot Wheels carrying case that is a back pack and he just loves it. It works out perfectly too because it holds all of his cars he has and knows when him and his brother are finished playing with them they need to go back in his back pack. The only problem is we haven't been able to get him to take the back pack off! Here he is with it!