A Homemade Holiday

We tried to make this holiday as homemade as possibly and succeeded for the most part although I did get sucked into a few sales but I'd like to share a few handmade gifts some by me and some we bought made by others....

By me...
This year our budget was tight-I mean TIGHT and we had to cut down on gifts quite a bit and try to get somewhat creative. I made these for both E and P and they were a huge hit-I'm seriously even thinking about making one for myself-so comfortable! Plus they were pretty easy to make-I made one for my nephew in Nov for his birthday so I was able to whip them out somewhat quickly. Tutorial HERE  

I also turned into a baker extraordinaire-well not really but I kind of felt like it after making homemade Dulce de Leche(from Elsie Marley) and these super yummy Hazelnut Nutella thumbprint cookies oh and nutella fudge-yeah I think I have a nutella addiction).

By others....

I was browsing etsy late one night and came across this awesome shirt-anyone that had met our son has probably heard him RAWR-it's his go to when he's being shy or nervous-yup he RAWRS instead of talking-too cute.

I also finally purchased a pair of these shoes for P that I've been eyeing up forever-they're super cute, made by someone local(bonus) and even stay on her feet

 Hope everyone had a great holiday and didn't get what I am calling the "holiday hangover" like I did. Seriously I think I need to move somewhere warmer-I did up my Vitamin D though and it seems to help.

I did it!

So everything came together for Saturday and our little girl had a great 1st birthday. The theme was colors of the rainbow and after about a 10 minute discussion between me and my husband-I can say we've figured out what color indigo is-crazy huh he works at a paint store and I have an interior design degree and neither one of us was quite sure what color indigo was :)   The theme was built off of the shirt that I made for P with a "1" on it and it went from there- and our cupcakes were even yellow and choc with vanilla frosting and ROYGBIV shimmer dust-courtesy of big brother E. I wasn't crazy enough to try to do the rainbow layer cake-too much pressure. We kept things easy and ordered pizza for dinner but also kept it local and ordered from a great pizza place just down the street, Classic Slice, seriously if you ever are in Bay View, get some of their pizza, the chunky chicken is my fav. Anyways, it was a much more low key party than Ethan's first but it was spent with close family and we all had a great time(or atleast I think we did!) Oh and there's some random chocolate zebra print that I had that seemed to break up the craziness of all the colors.

I'll get into the tutorials for some of the crafts and why we ended up giving up on some and moving on to others, but thanks to everyone on here and FB for the support-gotta love all the crafty people out there :)

Can I do it?

Two Days......

$20 in supplies......

1 husband whom I am now calling the "Crabby Crafter".......


and a lot of great ideas.........


Can I do it?

Can I pull together a FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY for my daughter in 2 days????? I don't think I would be able to function if I weren't a last minute person :) Plus for some reason it's incredibly hard for me to pick a theme and just go with it.

I still have orders to get out, Christmas presents to sew/make, some more ideas for Christmas presents that involve my husband and he's going to kill me and a First Birthday to celebrate-so exciting and I love every minute of it!

Check back Monday to see if my ideas turned into a great party-

Can you smell it?

The Highlander Grogg we're brewing that is. I don't know why, but there's just something about the holidays that calls for some yummy Highlander Grogg coffee-if you're not familiar here's the description on the Berres Brothers website  "Indulgently sweet, richly enticing...an explosion of caramel, butterscotch and hazelnut." YES! I wholeheatedly agree with the description. I have found that one of the perks from working at home is this coffee just steps away from me at all times-

I also tried out this recipe today that I found via pinterest and am loving them-I made them with carob chips instead of chocolate because they were on sale at our co-op and next time I think I'll add some craisins-but excellent non-the-less and paired with my coffee I'll be ready to work for hours now :)

I'm hoping to post this week about our plan for the holidays and less consumerism and more homemade



gifts and family memories.

Source: smashedpeasandcarrots.blogspot.com via Danielle on Pinterest

Not even THREE yet

Our son doesn't turn 3 until March-yet today we were at a school tour and submitted an application for enrollment. Only a few months ago I would have thought this was crazy-that is until I started talking to people about schools. We live in a city that has a couple of different school options-we have chosen(for a variety of reasons, which I will share with you if you are interested-just email me) to send our son to a Montessori based program. There are two in our immediate area-one is a private charter school and the other part of the the public school system. We are applying to both and then weighing our options-both are hard to get into-so fingers are crossed!!!! We also know people that have children at both schools and love it.

The thing that came up today is the size of the school we toured. It was small. They like that they have a small school. I liked the school...but my husband brought up a good point. He went to a small school-now don't get me wrong-his experience was very different-he went to a Catholic school in a suburban neighborhood. He is lucky because he met some of his best friends there that he still talks to, but at the same time-he disliked that it was such a small school. Granted I think some of that may be the extreme lack of diversity there. Which in turn both schools in our area are more diverse. Other main issue for us is that 3k is not covered by the state at the Charter school-yeah it's expensive but is it worth it???????? Sidenote: we still need to tour the other school.

Ok sorry for my random babbling....just had to get it out of my head.

It's Been A While

So after running into a customer at Target tonight I realized that I haven't blogged in quite awhile...so what have I been up to?
-I moved most of the inventory out of the store and instore my home office-my children have already invaded.

-Robyn from Ticklebugs moved in to the studio-seriously if you're in Milwaukee and are looking for a photographer-she's one of the best
-I've been working like crazy on curtain orders-I am beyond excited that this venture is going well so far-If you're interested in any-check me out HERE
-We're cleaning out the basement to make a sewing studio in the basement-I've been perusing Pinterest for some ideas-did I mention we're on a budget? You can follow me on Pinterest HERE

Source: inhonorofdesign.blogspot.com via Danielle on Pinterest

Source: bhg.com via Danielle on Pinterest

-oh yeah and I turned 30-I am actually pretty ok with it-I've heard it hits some people hard but the way I look at it, my twenties were better than my teens so I can only imagine that my thirties will be better than my twenties.