Enjoying Fall

We're having incredible Fall weather around here. Last weekend we did our best to soak it up. And, what's a better way to do that than visiting Iowa farms? Nothing. So, we did two in one weekend.

On Saturday we did the pumpkin farm. We had three older children staying with us and this was the perfect destination for entertainment. They had it all - bounce houses, haunted cornfield, hay ride, pumpkins being shot out of a canon, farm animals and of course - a pumpkin patch. We had a great time. In fact, it was so hot and lovely I actually wished I had worn shorts! That never happens in Iowa in October!
The next day we visited a friend's family farm. They were in the middle of harvest and we got to ride in the combine. I'll admit - I totally enjoyed it more than Jude did!
If you look really close Jesse and Jude are in the combine together. Can you see them?
We even took a little drive in an effort to appreciate the Fall foliage. Got a picture of my boys together. Sure do love that combo.
And at the end of all this there is a crafty project to show off. That doesn't surprise you, right?

When the kids and I returned from the pumpkin farm we painted our pumpkins with acrylic paints. I saw this idea of the bats on a white pumpkin in a magazine article my mother-in-law gave to me. Now I can't remember the magazine. Anyway, it was fun to pull out the paints and paintbrushes and create on the fly with the kids.

Won't be long until we're carving pumpkins now. Halloween is on its way!

Two Little Boys

My older sister's boy, Tommy, just turned one. And, lucky for all of us, she just had another little boy, Matthew David, three days ago. I can barely hold in my excitement! I just wish I could hold that little bundle in my arms.

I sewed up a few little things to send their way this week.

In the package was:
Two new bibs. I found the bike print at Pacific Fabrics while we were in Seattle. It makes me think of David since I think he's been biking a lot recently. Plus, I bought it while we were visiting them so it only makes sense.

On the second one I freezer painted utensils on the front. I don't know. Just seemed like the thing to do.

And, secondly, I included my version of the Big Brother, Little Brother shirts.

For Tommy I painted a bike on the front of a long sleeve shirt from Target.

And, the baby got a tricycle on his. Awww.

I'm pretty proud of myself for that little combo. I'm totally patting myself on the back right now. So cute, right?

Paint Chip Skirt

My little niece, Jane, just turned two, so, as usual, I whipped up a little gift and sent it late. I'm afraid I'll never get a birthday gift to those kids on time.

I had this skirt in my project list for a couple of years now and finally had a chance to sew it up.

I just love the simple style and color palette - totally up my alley. I used the simple skirt pattern from MADE and changed the measurements a bit to fit a 2T.


Originally it was only the three pink colors, but as I was putting it together it started looking REALLY short and knew my brother (Jane's dad) wouldn't let her wear it. Apparently he's fairly opinionated that her skirts must touch her knees. (I guess I can see where he's coming from.) So, for him I added the white to the top and like how it turned out.

By the way, did you notice my labels? I just printed my little logo onto printable fabric and cut it up into tags. They probably won't last through many washes, but it's a cheap thrill.

I hope you had a fabulous birthday, Jane! We love you very much, little one!

Pintuck Obsession

After many many hours my bedding is now complete! This is definitely the biggest project I've tackled and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

It started with the completion of the duvet cover back in April. That was the boring part (and I knew it would be). Now I have two pillows and a blanket to spice the whole thing up a bit.

I bought 10 yards of gray linen from Denver Fabrics online for a great price. I really really love it. It's soft and cozy. Plus, I love the way linen wrinkles.

I was going to do box pleats like this for the entire length of the pillows and blanket, but I just couldn't figure out how to iron and sew those lines perfectly straight on such large pieces. I knew if I couldn't do it really well it was going to look really stupid. So, after a few hours of trying to wrack my brain around that I finally landed on pintucking instead. And, I'm so happy that I did. I like it even better.


I don't think I've pintucked anything before. I did 52 lines total. Crazy. It was fun but quickly tedious and exhausting. I'm glad it's done.

Here's to a big project finally getting completed! Feels good.

Toddler Backpack

This turned out to be one of my favorite projects of all time.

We're on our way to Seattle for vacation soon. I was thinking ahead about preparing to take Jude on a long flight, and it occurred to me that the whole thing would be better if he was carrying his own little backpack. That's logical, right? Okay, it's not. But, it is adorable.

I've been admiring Made By Rae's Toddler Backpack Pattern for awhile now, so I splurged $6 and bought it. The pattern requires home decor weight fabric in coordinating colors. Since I didn't have time to purchase online I went to Hancock Fabrics and this yellow chevron fabric was the only boyish fabric I could find. Well, besides solid colored canvas and camo.

Jesse would have appreciated the camo WAY more than the chevron stripes, but I disagree. And, my opinion counts twice as much as Jesse's does in this scenario.

The pattern was in the medium to difficult sewing range - considering the zipper, piping, etc. But, it was easy to follow and fun to put together.

Jude actually wears the backpack quite well - like it's not even there. It looks so cute and so funny on him. I can barely stand how adorable it is. I think it will keep me smiling in the airport terminals.

Watch out, Seattle, here we come!

"Horsey Horsey On Your Way . . .

. . . We've been together for many a day. So let your tail go swish and your wheels go round. Giddy up we're homeward bound."

One of the things I was looking forward to the most about moving was a bigger living room space where we could show off our family heirloom rocking horse. His name is "Pete" and Jesse's Great Grandpa made him.

Not too long ago Jesse's Grandma moved from her house into a smaller apartment. At that time she handed down the beloved rocking horse to her oldest grandson (Jesse). I'm just the lucky wife and I'm giddy over it.

Here's Jesse enjoying him when he was about Jude's age.

And here's our little Jude who is finally coordinated to ride the horse without falling off.

Did you notice that we also inherited the adorable cowboy hat? Oh, and did you also notice how much he looks like his dad? Ridiculous, I tell you.


I love it. I hope Pete the Horse can be in our house for as long as he was in Grandma's house. We'll be sure to take good care of him.

The Big Move

Well, it's official. We're all moved in to the yellow house across town. It's been quite a process. But, we're finished and we're so happy!

Jesse wrote about it a little at his blog. (By the way, if you want updates about Jesse's perspective on what's going on at the Waterloo Campus you can subscribe to that blog.)

In the post he talks about how we feel like we're emerging from the fog. I couldn't agree more! It's amazing how all-consuming the house selling/buying/moving process is. There hasn't been much going on around here except packing, cleaning, unpacking, painting and resting.

The gist of our move is this . . . about a year ago Jesse became the Interim Campus Pastor at Prairie Lakes Church Waterloo. A couple of months later he realized he wanted to stay. So, we've been driving across town to attend the Waterloo campus and Jesse was commuting a little longer to get to the office over the last nine months. Since the beginning we've been ready to become Waterloo residents - we just didn't know which part of town we were supposed to land in.

Through a lot of soul searching and God interventions we decided to move to the urban part of Waterloo, which is quite literally "on the other side of the tracks". I don't think I have all the words to talk in detail about how and why we're here, but to sum it up . . . we are. God has been clear and faithful, and we're doing our best to be obedient. So far, we couldn't be happier.

We live in this beauty. She's obnoxiously yellow with a wishing well in front. She's twice the size of our previous home and less expensive. She's a two story colonial with a finished basement. And, her backyard is fenced in to house our little Scout.

She needs a lot of cosmetic work, but I'm eager to start the projects. I look forward to watching her transform into a real looker!