Etsy Envy

I have recently found, fell in love, shopped til I dropped, and now envy a wonderful website called Etsy. This is a website with many types of goods. I love the handmade goods. They have the largest selection of everything you never knew you needed.

After window shopping, and many purchases, I decided I could make a lot of these adorable items myself for cheaper. So here are some of my Etsy inspired (or stolen) projects.

I started making these fabric bows for Ivy's baby. Then I went bigger and bigger for Olivia (these aren't pictured). I have had a lot of fun making these and I have had about six people offer me money to make them for her. I don't know if I am ready to go there yet, but maybe.


Ivy and my mom have been busy cranking out tons of baby bibs, burb rags and blankets. I haven't really sewn anything since I was pregnant with Bradley. I have been toying with the idea so while shopping around on Etsy I saw these cute little dresses. The fun part is that they give you the fabric pre-cut and you sew it. I bought the red dress and made a pattern with it for the blue and brown dresses. My sewing is not that straight, but Olivia loves them, and I am giving the mostly blue one to Brooklyn.

This is my favorite steal. My friend Erin gave me some of her daughter's clothes that didn't fit. This skirt being one of them. I added the ribbons on the bottom. The same skirt on Etsy $35.00. This cost me $5.00 in ribbon, and I had enough ribbon to add it to a plain yellow shirt Olivia already had from Walmart. So cute if I say so myself.

Just another boring Museum

I decided to take the kids to the Fort Douglas Museum this week. My Reserve unit was stationed there for 3 years, but I haven't gone to the Museum. We went inside and checked out all of the displays, including history of how the fort was established, and displays of soldiers life from the Civil War days to Present.

Bradley loved the guns and all the bullets.

Olivia wasn't as impressed. After looking at everything inside the building, we went outside and saw the really cool stuff. They had several artillery pieces including one from Germany that was brought back by US soldiers as a war trophy after WW2.


They had a Self Propelled Howitzer with a very large gun, several tanks including a Sherman from WW2.

They had a Huey Helicopter that had been in service since the Vietnam War where it had crashed twice. It was repaired each time and then went on to serve the Utah Air National Guard before being retired here. Bradley really liked the Cobra Attack Helicopter with the Rocket Pods on the sides.

Daddy Doo's

I have always thought that a couple pony tails were adequate for Olivia's hair, but they don't always stay in for very long and they have to be put back in every morning. Whenever Amanda does her hair, it usually lasts for a couple days and Olivia is always getting compliments on her cute hair. People even ask her "Who did your cute hair?" and she always says "My MOM". Well it is time for me to start taking some credit too. I wasn't too excited at first, it seemed like a lot of hassle trying to get her to hold still while I tried over and over to get it to look right. But Olivia braved it out and let me practice.

The first one had a bunch of braids and took the longest.

The second time I did it a little different.

I won't ever get as fancy as Amanda, but at least I know more than a simple ponytail now.

Birthday Boy!

I wanted to wish my wonderful husband a happy birthday. Richard has worked really hard this year helping others and updating our house more. Plus working extra hard for his company. He never ceases to amaze me (and spoil me).

Olivia's special birthday wish to Richard is "Her daddy is her favorite person in the whole world." This is definitely true. Her eyes light up when ever he walks in the door. She is usually attached to his legs, hip, or shoulders. Even if Richard thinks she is getting too big to carry.

Bradley's birthday wish to Richard is that "He gets more time to play Wii with him." Bradley really wants to beat Richard at Mario Cart on the Wii. Richard is the Master on Mario cart, even though Bradley can beat him at every other game. I guess he has to hold a Wii title on something.

Richard I hope you have a wonderful birthday. We love you!

Harvest Time!

This spring we planted our first garden, and the kids have been watching patiently as the weeds kept growing like crazy around the tiny plants that we planted. After a unseasonably wet few months, all of the plants started finally growing faster than the weeds. It was real exciting for the kids when they could actually see blackberries on the vine and pumpkins starting to take shape. Last week we picked a zucchini that was about 8 inches long. The other ones were still very small and we figured that they would be a few more weeks. Today I went out with Olivia and was very surprised to see how big they have gotten.

There was 2 zucchini plants that were almost too much for Olivia to carry. We also got some yellow squash that was ready.

Olivia is so excited to eat the vegetables that she helped grow. We are going to make some zucchini bread and have grilled veggies with dinner!