V's birthday

I can't believe our baby girl turned 2 yesterday! My sister-in-law helped plan the french-themed party and she did such an amazing job. We had crepes, quiche, and check out the cool cake she made. Thanks a million Melissa. (I am bummed these aren't the best photos.)

Serene Nursery

I love the serene modern nature of this nursery over at ohdeedoh. It is hard to believe that a lot of the items including some furniture is from Walmart?! Also, have you popped by to see their children's color contest? There are lots of fun kid's rooms to vote on. Check it out!

Halloween ideas

Some Halloween styled photographs taken by Gemma Comas for Good Housekeeping and Country Home magazines. My ... she is talented.

Thought of the day

I love the simplicity and photography of these messages by Jessica Williams, especially the last one. Say aloud, "Everything will be okay" and for some reason whatever is going on in life, it just seems to help a little. (via Bees Knees)

Tulips

Check out these amazing tulip gardens via Seesaw Designs. Anyone seen them in person while in Holland?

I make things complicated sometimes...

... like when I decide to come up with a pattern for a tote bag on my own, instead of first searching the internet for advice. Yes, a square bottom tote bag sounds incredibly easy, so I blithely sketched out a pattern.

Unfortunately, it turns out that sewing together a square corner with multiple pieces of fabric sucks. There's also the small problem of my complete lack of ability to mentally picture how large something is going to be. Turns out 18 wide x 15 tall x 8 deep is absolutely massive - more suited to a beach tote. Sigh. I showed the results to my mom and the first thing she said was "You should have done gussets," which meant nothing to me.

So I ended up doing what I should have done in the first place. I googled it, and found an amazing tutorial online (here!) that is about a million times simpler than my attempt.

Result - a perfect little bag to carry a change of clothes for when I go to the gym.



I lined it with some super soft pink material from some vintage sheets.



Lesson learned - other people are smarter than me and I should at least see what they have to say before I go haring off on my own.

Thank You Micah!

Wow... thanks Micah for sharing with us your wonderful posts last week! It is always fun to see what a friend/and former classmate is up to, and it looks like you are up to a lot of impressive creative goodness. I especially loved the "Stuff you Do" post (totally not unqualified) and those outrageously cool costumes. I am anxious to see shots of the handmade little fish costume for Simon (his son) this year. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to share with us all!! Check out some of Micah's other projects here.