Guest Posting at Happy Homemaker Me

Today, I am guest posting over on the Happy Homemaker Me blog which is written by the lovely, Bethany. She asked me to be a party of her Christmas series and I was so honored that I just had to say yes! I created my very first tutorial for this special occasion and I hope you enjoy it! So head over to Bethany's blog and check out my scalloped bunting banner tutorial.

Family Photos

A friend of ours took some photos for us a little while ago. Micah is a young lady with a love for photography, and, even though Elora was behaving like a two year old, we got some fun photos :)

Take a look!

Colman Family Photos

This one is my absolute favorite shot of Elora from the session

Welcome, Fall!

Fall is definitely my favorite season. I love watching the trees changing colors, I love rain, I love pumpkin candles, and I love that I can pull out some jeans, a sweater, and some full coverage shoes! Oh, and a scarf of course. This week fall officially came to northern California. It's raining as we speak, I have some pumpkin spice candles burning, and I drank some hot chocolate this past weekend. I am loving it! I'm really looking forward to pulling out my box of sweaters and putting away my warm weather clothes.

One of my most favorite fall activities, is our annual trip to Apple Hill. Apple Hill is an area where there are lots and lots of apple orchards. There are wineries too, and pumpkin patches, and all kinds of fun things.

Apple Hill, High Hill Ranch 2008

Apple Hill, Kids Inc. 2009

Apple Hill, Kids Inc. 2010

I'm very excited to take Elora back to Apple Hill this year. She's a little bit apple crazy right now so it's going to be like heaven for her. 

Apple Hill, Able's Acres 2010

Apple Hill, Kids Inc. 2010

Craft Hope Sewing Party

On Saturday I turned 26. And, to celebrate my big day, I decided I wanted to have a sewing party. I figured what better way to celebrate than with my favorite pass-time, and what better cause than Craft Hope. We fit about 12 ladies in our house with their sewing machines to whip up a bunch of Christmas stockings for Craft Hope and Christmas in Dixie to send to survivors of the tornadoes that happened this spring.

The party was super fun, although I must admit that I didn't do a stitch of sewing, except to thread my two machines, and I sat down for only about 10 minutes during the 6 hour party. 

Everyone just spread out and got right to work making stockings. I was hoping they would burn through some of the fabric in my stash, but they all brought their own fabric and hardly touched mine! Oh well.


There were many different skill levels represented at the party, from very accomplished seamstresses (like my mom, who made my wedding dress) to the "I've never touched a sewing machine in my life" gals. Everyone seemed to enjoy the day.

 There were a few babies who came with their mommies to the party and my husband really enjoyed that. He was playing with the little ones while all of us ladies chatted and sewed. I think he got a bit of baby fever, but Elora wasn't too thrilled with the whole "share your things with the baby" situation.
  

At the end of the day we had about 17 stockings and 5 more ready to be assembled. I am planning on whipping up a few more before shipping them off. 

Fun was had by all and we hope to do this again very soon!

Hello September!

Wow, where did July and August go? How is it already September 1st? Time is flying ridiculously fast and I can't believe that 2 months have passed since I was last here...sorry about that! Well, to catch up on what I've been up to, here's a little summary of July and August in the life of the Colmans :)

 Forth of July was pretty fun. We went to a parade in the morning but I don't think Elora really understood why we were there. Then we went swimming with Grandma and Grandpa. It was Elora's first time in a swimming pool and after taking a minute to get used to it, she totally loved it. The afternoon was spent at a barbecue followed by our very own fireworks show in the street. It was really fun.

 

 Later in July, my sister had her 4th baby, a boy, Eli Thomas. He was born at home on a Sunday afternoon while we had the other kids with us all day. It was a fun time and we were all excited to meet the newest little one. They did not find out that he was a boy before the birth, but I wanted to make something special to be able to give to the new baby on his birthday. So I ventured in to making my very first quilt, from this tutorial. I was quite proud of myself for sticking with the project and finishing it in time for little Eli's arrival. I went with a black and white color scheme since I didn't know he would be a boy, and I really like how it turned out. Like I said, this was my very first quilt, my first time piecing, my first time free motion quilting, my first time for everything, and I was so pleased! (sorry, no baby pics, I don't have any on my computer!)

One thing my sister requested that I make for her was a new diaper bag. She had some specifications like it has to be able to carry enough stuff for 3 kids and a newborn, and it must have backpack straps. Other than that, I was pretty free to design it as I wanted. This is what I came up with I love it! In fact, a lot of people seem to really like it and I have orders for 3 more! It was a lot of work but it was really fun to accomplish something like this. Oh, and my sister loved it!

At the beginning of August, we took a little weekend trip to San Luis Obispbo for a wedding. I made an infinity dress to wear. I really love it :)

While in SLO, we visited the beach, which Elora absolutely loved. She is such a water baby.

 We also visited Hearst Castle. I have heard about this place but this was my first visit and it's pretty spectacular. William Randolph Hearst had it built to display his Mediterranean art collection. Apparently, there are 8 of these types of homes built by Hearst in different styles for his various art collections.

I was pretty excited that I got my camera to take some decent photos in the dim lighting inside the castle without the flash. I'm slowly learning how to use my fancy camera :)

So....a ton of other stuff has gone on the past two months, but I just wanted to share a quick catch up and a few photos. Thanks for bearing with me :)

I'm really looking forward to the 3 1/2 day weekend we have coming up. Corey gets a half day tomorrow (so I will be braving the Joann's Labor Day sale sans toddler tomorrow). And he gets Monday off. So we're going to have great fun and I'm looking forward to a bit of relaxation.

A Little Vintage Fun

I just wanted to share this little dress I made for Elora.

I whipped it up this morning and I totally love it. It came out almost exactly as I envisioned it :)

I didn't use a pattern, just made my own, and I used a pretty floral vintage sheet that I found at a thrift store.

I totally love it.

And so does she :)

Gussy Sews Inspiration Workshop #3- Green

The Gussy Sews Inspiration Workshop prompt this week was green. I immediately knew I wanted to find a pretty piece of clothing in a fabulous shade of green. I also knew Pinterest was a great place to look.

Lately I've been trying to figure out how to spruce up my look. So, I am trying to figure out what I like and what my style is. I tend to wear plain clothes so I am trying to venture out. This dress is beautiful and completely inspires me.

Obviously this dress is not something I would wear every day, but I just really love it. I can pull out what I like and try to incorporate it in to daily wear.

Love the color! I love to wear green and this is such a lovely shade. The neckline is fabulous, it's interesting, soft, and feminine. And the embellishment is BEAUTIFUL! Wouldn't it look great on a headband? I love it all.

So, I will try to learn from pretty things like this and try to make myself a little prettier every day (mostly for my husband, poor guy has had to look at my "mom frump" for far too long).

Artsy Father's Day Cards- by Elora

While I was growing up, my dad always said he wanted me to make something for his gifts. I was always crafty growing up so I usually drew him a picture or made a card and he always loved it. Now that I am much older and not that great of an artist any more (as I got older my drawing and painting skills sort of petered out), my dad probably wouldn't appreciate a drawing of the mail man (one of his favorites when I was about 6) or a painting of a rainbow, so, I'm passing on this task to Elora. It is now her job to make the cards for holidays and special occasions.

Since Father's Day is in just a few days, we whipped up some cards today.

First, I used masking tape to put the cards on the fridge (currently the fridge acts as Elora's easel). The masking tape also made sure we'd have a nice clean, white frame around the paintings.

We used one of Elora's plates as a palette. The paint we used is Crayola Kid's Paint, it's non-toxic and super easy to clean up. And it comes right out of clothes without any extra effort. Love it (I wasn't paid by Crayola to say that...I wish I was though).

And then she went to work creating her masterpieces.

Once she finished up, we left them to dry on the fridge while we did a little damage control. I love how easily these paints wash up.

Once they were all dry, I took them off of the fridge and very carefully removed the masking tape. I think they turned out fun and I know that Elora's grandpas and her daddy will all love them.

Amazing Giveaway on Oh Happy Day

There is a crazy awesome giveaway going on right now at Oh Happy Day where you can...

Totally crazy, right? I'm thinking this would be perfect for Corey's and my 5th anniversary in October.

So, go check out the giveaway but don't enter because that will decrease my chances of winning! Haha, just kidding, go ahead and enter and let me know if you win so that I can rejoice with you :)

Gussy Sews Inspiration Workshop- Week #1

A friend of mine started an organization that helps women in Africa support themselves. It's called The Nakate Project. The women make beads from magazines and use them to make these beautiful necklaces.

I've been wanting to buy one of these necklaces so I've been looking at the website a lot, and when I saw the inspiration workshop prompt from Gussy Sews was "Handmade", I immediately thought of these beautiful creations.

I love the work of this organization and I can't wait to get my hands on one of these handmade beauties. The only jewelry I ever wear is my wedding ring, but I'd really like to step up my look this summer and I think one of these necklaces would be a perfect place to start. Not too fancy, totally fun, and it's for a great cause.

Now I just have to choose one....

I'm leaning toward this one:

Or maybe this one...

Crafty Sewing Mamas Blog Challenge 12

Life has a way of getting crazy sometimes. I'm in one of those times right now but still managing to get some sewing done because it's my way of relaxing :)

For the Crafty Sewing Mamas sew along/blog challenge thing, I made both projects, which were slippers and a cushion. I decided to make Elora a fun floor cushion that she could tote around and she loved it more than I thought she would.

As soon as I finished it and brought it out to her, she grabbed it and started bouncing on it. Then she'd pick it up, drag it somewhere else, and begin bouncing. It was cute and I'm so glad she liked it. She (and a few friends who came to visit the other day) loved it so much, a seam burst and it's back in the sewing room for a little mending. I think it taught me a lesson about using home decor fabric from Joann's, next time leave a big seam allowance, fray block the raw edges, serge the raw edges, and double up the stitching all around. That stuff frays like crazy!

I used this tutorial from Living with Punks: Land of Nod inspired floor cushion

But I didn't have piping so I just top stitched the seams which seemed to create a similar effect. I also added a zipper because Elora is a pretty messy kid and I couldn't imagine never throwing this thing in the washer!

So, for project number two, I made myself some slippers. I used this slipper pattern and tutorial from Prudent Baby. It was super quick and easy and I used some pretty Amy Butler fabric that I got on sale a little while back. The slippers are lined with minky which feels pretty nice on my toes. They are perfect for the chilly days we've been having for so long, not too warm since it's not technically winter, but warm enough since even though it's JUNE it still feels like we're barely out of winter.

Turns out it's kind of difficult to photograph your own feet without your ankles looking like they are retaining many gallons of water.

Anyways, hopefully we get some good entries to our sewing/blog challenge this time around. Check out what everyone else is making here: