My 2 year old loves taking selfies…
And my favorite…
I have a feeling this could be a series…
sugars and boogers
Tangled thread, paint splattered jeans & spit-up in my hair.
Birthdays and Babies
I love making homemade gifts. When I was a kid I would buy little teddy bears and hot glue lace tutus on them for birthday gifts for my friends. Looking back on that just now I realized what a lame birthday gift that must have been. If you ever received one of those teddy bears from me I’m really sorry; I owe you a Starbucks gift card.
These days I have a few more tricks up my sleeve that don’t involve hot glue and peach colored lace. But seriously, homemade gifts are just so much fun and this summer I had a handful of opportunities to make some seriously cute stuff.
Our good friends Heather and Eric had a baby boy and I had the pleasure of sewing a fitted sheet for his crib.
Unfortunately this is the only shot I got of it, but come on, grey and white polka dots? Adorbs. I LOVE making fitted crib sheets. They are super quick and easy and you just can’t find cute ones in stores. There is a great tutorial that I found over at danamadeit.com (Love her stuff. Take some time to check out her site; you won’t be sorry. She’s so fun.) You can find the tutorial for ithere.
I also couldn’t resist whipping up one of my minky blankies for him. ROBOTS! Little boys are fun.
Josh’s cousin Laura and her husband Lance threw a party for their sweet little girl who was turning 1. Bear loved playing with bean bags at that age so I raided my fabric stash and sewed these little cuties up.
I filled each one with different size beans and rice that we had on hand so each was a bit different from the next in weight and feel. I picked up a container from the dollar bin at Target and Volia! A quick and easy bean bag toss game.
Josh’s other cousin, Les, invited me to her baby shower (All these cousins having babies is the best!) and I got to make her a couple of things. First I sewed up some flannel burp rags; you can never have too many. I was pleasantly surprised by the selection of flannels at JoAnn’s. Pretty good right?
I found this great nursing shawl tutorial here and thought I’d try it out. They turned out pretty good, not sure how well they work, but it seemed like a much better idea than the nursing cover I used with B.
And last, but not least, our sweet friends Johnny and Anna’s little girl turned 5! They threw her a totally rad horse themed party and Anna made the most delicious and beautiful birthday cake covered in frosting roses. It looked too pretty to eat, but somehow we managed. I couldn’t decide what to make for sweet little ‘M’ so Josh stepped in and made an awesome suggestion.
And a reversible cape was made. What 5 year old doesn’t need a cape? You can find the tutorial here.
Well, that’s about it…Oh wait! There’s one other thing I’ve been working on…
That’s right, baby Deaner #2 is in the works.
This is my all time favorite thing to make! I should be finishing this big project up late March or early April. Can’t wait to see how it turns out!!
Leave me a comment and let me know what the best homemade gift you ever received was.
Cooking Up Some Fun
I guess since Fall is here it’s high time I show you what Josh and I worked on this summer.
I had been wanting to make Bear one of those super fancy Pinterest inspired play kitchens for a while and knew we had to scoop up this little beauty when I saw it on Craigslist. Only 30 buckaroos!
We didn’t have a lot of time to work on it due to just general business of the Nordean lifestyle but Josh was all in and spent his weekends working on it.
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I had visions of grandeur… (Please ignore our neighbors car lot in the background)
But even without getting to spend as much time on it as I would like, it turned out pretty good. (Please ignore the crazy amount of junk in our storage unit garage).
I painted a piece of plywood with chalkboard paint for the refrigerator door. It’s pretty fun right? There is still a lot of work I want to do on it like add cute little spinning nobs and decorate it up bit. We might even add doors to make an oven, but who really needs doors when you’ve got imagination? Am I right? Bear seems to like it just the way it is so for now it sits in our kitchen ready for fun. Big props to Big Deaner for all of his hard work. (I seriously only handled the spray painting).
“It’s hot”, he says. “I’m cooking.”
Summa Summa Summa Time
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This summer has been a lot of fun so far. Bear has been working on brushing his teeth and NOT been working on his potty skills.
In June my baby cousin Lindsay got married to a wonderful young man and Bear and I had the pleasure of attending their wedding back home in Missouri. Lindsay made a beautiful bride (as is the norm for the women in our family. Am I right girls?)
Have you ever seen such a good looking group of Bartons in all your life? Congrats Tim and Lindsay!
We took the opportunity to get a good pic of all the grand kids with Papa while everyone was all cleaned up.
We got to spend a few days in Oates and the cousins had a fun time throwing rocks in the creek. Amber and I spent many a summer day playing in that creek growing up.
‘E’ really loves Cousin Bear.
Grandma Metta and Aunt Enid came up from Florida for a visit, but none of my pictures turned out, too many squirmy kiddos.
Wish Amber could have gotten in on this shot.
Our good friends, the Taylors, threw an awesome party for the 4th of July with great food, fun times and awesome weather (interrupted briefly by a hail shower. Thank you Oklahoma weather.)
We all had a great time, especially Bear as you can see.
Happy summer everyone!
The Big 0-2
I’m about a month and a half behind on this one but….Bear turned 2! I can’t believe my little munchkin is such a big boy. He loves playing with puzzles (mostly on the IPad), reading, playing in the sprinkler at Mama Dub’s house (have I mentioned that we have the best nanny ever?!), reading, talking, climbing daddy like a jungle gym and reading. 17 books a day might seem a bit excessive, but not for Bear.
We had a small get together with family at the house. Got this awesome shot of 4 generations. Gigi, Nonie, Bear and Josh.
And then we partied it up!
Pretty great pic right? Thanks Hayley!
Check out this sweet little guy.
And this even sweeter even bigger guy.
Too much cuteness for me to handle.
Simple and Sweet.
Waaaaaay back in December, Josh’s cousin sent me some fabric and a sketch to make a quilt for her little girl ‘M’ who will soon be sleeping in a big girl bed!
Unfortunately, with Josh in grad school there hasn’t been a lot of free time for me to do much of anything. But I got a day off work for the 4th of July and got busy! It was medicine for my weary soul to be sewing again.
Pretty close to the plan?
I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to handle making the bow, but once I started playing around with the fabric it just took shape. I think it turned out pretty good.
Gotta have a little fun with the back.
And with all the left over fabric I just had to make sweet ‘M’ a matching quilt for her baby doll.
Sending it off next week. I can’t wait for her to get it!
Shelf-erific
This weekend was very busy at the Nordean houshold. We took a walk to the park to take advantage of the beautiful Spring-like weather we are having, we finally had time to take down our outdoor Christmas lights, we attended an incredible talent show hosted by some of the amazing students in our Jr. High Youth Group and we still had time to make these:
How about these killer shelves!
So impressed with the hubs for putting these together.
So cool.
I wish I could take credit for them but Josh is the mastermind behind this coolness. They just add so much character to the room. Love them!!
I really wanted to wait to post pictures of the finished product until it was, well, finished…BUT I JUST CAN’T WAIT!!!!! I love my new bathroom so much I HAVE to share it with you. And when I say love, I mean loooooooove. Compared to our old bathroom it’s like having my own teensy-weensy fancy schmansy spa. Tile floors, one paint color, a clean and mold free shower pan, a sink with STORAGE!!! I said STORAGE people!
But before the big reveal I’m going to do what I was so thoroughly trained in my Musical Theater class NOT to do: use a disclaimer.
Disclaimer: This in not the finished product. We still have super fly, awesome shelves to install above the toilet, the medicine cabinet will get a new splash of paint and the fabric for my soon to be homemade shower curtain just arrived.
SooOOOOooo, without further ado:
Please disregard the fancy gold doorknob. It shall be finding a new home on the shelf of our local Salvation Army soon enough.
Shelves will go here. Also, check out the stellar light fixture the hubs picked out.
Saving space by using a shower rod with built in towel rack. Pretty brainy of me if I do say so.
I hear the angels singing.
Look how clean!
Big time shout out to our contractor and friend Johnny Taylor for his awesome handy work – and for removing the scald guard on the shower so I don’t freeze to death every time I wash my hair.
Not too shabby huh? Especially considering that last week it looked like this:
Squishy Floors Are Way Overrated
Bathroom Redo
Since purchasing our home, 4 years ago, the Hubs and I have known that at some point we would renovate our teeny-tiny Master Bathroom. It’s proven to be the sort of bathroom horror stories are made of: dry rot, a sagging floor and all kinds of critters that would make their way into our hobbit size shower. I’ve stepped on one too many slugs, barefoot, in the middle of the night (Gag!). The outdated fixtures, laminate flooring and etched glass shower door (A hummingbird; I knew you’d ask) were on their way O.U.T. Finally , finally the day has come!!!! I can hear angels singing Handel’s Messiah.
Currently we are smack dab in the middle of the reno. New floor joists are in, plywood is down, new heating duct is in to replace the old one that was rusted through and dry rot is sawed out. But before we get to all of that, please enjoy the before pictures. You know, so you can get a real good feel for the grossness. (Slugs, mice, and killer vampire spiders not pictured.)
Pay special attention to the high quality paint job.
Etched-glasserific.
Who needs that extra foot of shower room? Not us, my husband is a wee little guy.
Eeewwww. I just threw up in my mouth a bit.
And today Josh and I bought a new vanity, a light fixture AND we picked out tile. I’m giddy. (Josh wanted me to say “I’m as giddy as a magical pony in rainbow fields of honeycomb.” But I think it’s a bit over the top.
Stay tuned for more pics!!
Gettin’ my paint on
For the past 4 years Josh and I have had a very large, very blank canvas hanging on our bedroom wall. I had been meaning to paint something on it for a long time…about 4 years, but wasn’t sure what I wanted until I stumbled upon this little beauty on Pinterest. It’s a custom ‘stained glass’ window made, from recycled glass and sea glass, by Daniel Maher Stained Glass. (Check out their website to see more really amazing stained glass art.) I fell in love and was instantly inspired.
Isn’t it breathtaking?!
And by ‘inspired’ I mean I totally copied the entire design of this window. I’m such a hack, I know. But I love it so much and just couldn’t swing the $4,000 for a custom piece for myself. (Someday Afton; someday.)
So here is my interpretation in paint.
Not as good as the original for sure, but just right for above our bed.
And now we have something better to look at than a blank canvas.
And one more shot just for funsies.
sugars and boogers 