easy to love critters

Yea! Our new friends (which I nick named "critters") are here! I am partnering with an extremely creative mama who lives in South Carolina and loves to knit!

Meet our new critters..they will be up on the website soon!

DIY site

I'm dying at the creative DIY genius that this woman is. I just came across her site in one of my 2-3 hour stints getting lost on the internet. Check it out, so inspiring to turn something that got hit with the ugly stick into something amazing. There are just so many creative people out there! Dying over here...

http://www.centsationalgirl.com/

Beans (elle)

My baby is growing up..I don't know where the time is going!

new product pictures

I'm finally updating my website with new product pictures, remember don't judge me for my photography skills. I can't believe I took pictures of my blankets against that hideous white wall..someone forgot to give me an photog intervention!

Anyways here's a couple pictures!

The cute little table is from when I was a kid..I recently borrowed it indefinitely from my mom along with a little chair that has spindles on it. Chair is not photograph ready yet as it has paint splattered all over it. Hubs is loving me for adding that to the honey-do list to refinish :). It will be really cute though to use with my blankets in photographs!

Napa

Took a really great trip to Napa with the hubby this weekend(no little people allowed).

We left early Saturday morning and dropped both kiddo's off at my father-in-laws house for the night. We basically peeled out of the driveway. It was the first time we've had a night alone with out both kids since Elle was born almost 1 1/2 years ago...way overdue! Note to self - make more time for hubby and I. On our way up we accidentally took the bay bridge 80 WEST instead of 80 EAST so we took a slight detour onto Treasure Island..oops. Actually is was a refreshing stop since it was such a beautiful day (and my husband had to "pee").

We arrived in Napa rather quickly and made our first stop at GOTTS for lunch. I put a Facebook post up and got all kinds of great suggestions for food..love FB for that reason. I had a nice big juicy bacon cheese burger with these sinful garlic/parsley fries. Yikes..diet went out the window this weekend! Anyways it was de-lish and a must stop when you are up there.
We didn't even check into the hotel and headed up to the Artesa Winery for a little tour and flight. Wine was so so..but the winery itself was beautiful and such amazing views. After our stop at Artesa we dashed up to the Hess Winery which was also a so beautiful and the wine was quite tasty here so we bought a couple bottles.

That night we decided to go to the Rutherford Grill for a late dinner! Another great restaurant. They have the most insane Corn bread(best I've ever had) and this homemade Oreo cookie dessert..yum! I was in a serious food coma after those two meals.

Sunday morning we headed to Boon Fly Cafe for breakfast and once again yummy! It was a perfect location on the Carneros HWY since we decided to take the scenic route home through Somoma county, over the golden gate and then down HWY 1.

I highly recommend all the above restaurants!

Here are some pics from the trip:

Our detour...looking out from Treasure island onto the Bay bridge!

View from Artessa....ahhh.

Hubs in front of Artesa!

Wine at Artessa!

More wine....

and more..it just kept on going!

Plan a trip...so fun!

Winner!

We're back!
Had a great weekend and will do a post all about the wine and food tomorrow! I wanted to keep my promise and announce the Winner of the blanket!
I had my handy assistant in his jammies help me.

He picked the name and opened it for me..all caught on camera!

Congrats to Renee!
Please shoot me an email at J@thebundleshop.com with your blanket selection and address so I can ship it out to you! Please give me your first and second choice just in case one is out of stock. p.s I have four new ones on my blog. Thanks for playing everyone!

pic

Don't call CPS..I know I'm posting a picture of my daughter with a tear but it was post freak out and it had been sitting on her cheek for a while. I swear she was happy at this point. I just kinda liked it.

new fabric

We have some new fabric!

(Please excuse my photography skills...I know I need an intervention).

Numbers..let's count.

New owl's...the pink and blue owls will be so happy.

whales..finally some primary colors right?

And last but not least some strawberries...who doesn't love strawberries.

paint

Honey do list #2 Paint...check!

We've lived here for almost 7 years and I don't know why we didn't' think to paint the house before...I feel like we got a makeover!

BEFORE/AFTER

Front yard with our camouflage paint swatches.

Our house was this cream color w/white trim.
Backyard

Don't mind the crap everywhere..construction zone.

My office before

we(ha, my husband) recently built this and it's been naked(stucco only) for several months.

Drum roll

Front yard, after!

Backyard, after!

And...last but not least office...Ahh!

On to plant the veggie garden and plant some flowers!

flagstone in the backyard

The hubs (aka general contractor) got a welcomed two week break in between jobs and he hit the honey do list like a man on a mission!

Love him for that!

First order of business was the flagstone in our backyard. About 5 years ago we put in several palates of flagstone in with tiny pea gravel in between the cracks (not a good idea especially for little ones) and it has been a thorn in our side ever since.

The rocks(pea gravel) come out of the cracks and then sit on top of the flag stone and it hurts to walk on them. Not to mention the dog who has a minor case of spazitis (hyper) runs on them and even more rocks fly on top of the flagstone. Oh... and the lovely weeds that come up between the rocks are ugly and who has time to pull weeds with a 4 year old and a 1.5 year old. It is like playing hopscotch on every two inches but you land on rocks and not the lines..you know what I'm say'in.

Anyways..here it is before! Notice the face on my child? Oh and pay no attention to my Shi**y photography skills. Rocks and weeds all over the place. Jagged edges, rocks, rocks and rocks..yuk!!

And now for after...Ahh. So thankful for contractor husband!

hazards of making blankets for your own babies

Over the last few months as my little one has gotten more mobile and I realize that sometimes it's a hazard to have her in the office.

When she was born I made her some thin blankets(don't sell them on the site, sorry) and so now every time she is in my office she takes a new one. It goes a little something like this:

In the office, baby spots the blankets in a nearby in bag!

Little toddler hands make contact on the blankets!

Caught!

Insert thumb with blanket still in bag...ahhhh!

What else can I get my hands on?

Hi..still alive!

OMG. I've been slacking on posting these days! Been busy and just recently started blogging for my home town Scotts Valley Patch. Check out my first blog when you get a chance.

I have new fabrics (will take pictures this week) and my easy to love little critters are in production and on their way! I can't wait to update the site with them. They are the most adorable hand knitted little animals.

Thanks for checking in! More update soon!

bunny hat--love!

OMG..a must make!

Take a look at this easy to make bunny hat. Best part is you can use an old tank top or something from around the house.

knitting

I would REALLY love to learn how to knit. Let me take that back..I mean find the time to learn how to knit. This is on my bucket list. I mean look how cute these little buggers are!

new friends

We're going to be adding some easy to love hand knit friendly critters to the website soon!

Here's a sneak peak!

stella and dot

I am going through a massive pile of magazines that have been gathering dust on my bedside table tonight. I came across Inc. 500 Sept 2010 issue and found a great article on the woman who started Stella and Dot. Check it out!

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20100901/balancing-a-start-up-and-a-baby.html#

soft baby rattles

I think this is the next project..how cute are these soft rattles that are made out of scrap material?

The secret is to put a jingle bell in the nose and then lightly stuff it, the eyes and nose are hand sewn with thread and you can use scrap ribbon for the ears.

Tooth Fairy Pillow

With the rain this weekend I was able to do some "speed sewing" during naps and experiment a little. The tooth fairy pillow is a work in progress but I'm liking it so far. I'm thinking maybe a border on it and then spice it up with different fabrics.

Items to make:

pink minky fabric 8.5 x 8.5 inches

white felt

black embroidery floss

polyester stuffing

(so you can throw it in the wash)

sewing machine with clear thread

new site!

yea!

so excited to launch my new site!

I had a lot of fun creating it and hope to keep it evolving and changing now that I can do it all myself! I am still working on the burp cloth section since in the middle of all of this I got talked into redoing my husbands site as well. I will be launching that in a couple of days.

Jessica, thanks for telling me about bludomain, love all their templates and it was so easy!

www.thebundleshop.com

cupcakes

My BFF sent me this article and I love this kind of inspiration...especially since we all long to do something different when we have been in the same job for a while!

Everyone love cupcakes!

http://http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/26/pf/second_act_cupcakes.moneymag/index.htm?hpt=C2