Friday, December 16, 2011

We have a winner!!





Congrats to the winner of my giveaway!! I used Mr. Random Generator and it came up with number...


 #20!!
       "Hi there!! Thanks for the chance to win such a fabulous bag!! :) Have a fun giveaway!" -Lauranie


Congrats, Lauranie!! You'll be hearing from me soon!
Thanks, all, for participating! 

Blessings! -Me

Sunday, December 11, 2011

It's GIVEAWAY DAY!


One of my absolute favorite sewing sites, SewMamaSew, is doing their semi-annual Giveaway day today, and I am SO psyched. I waste entire days scrolling through the giveaways, entering, leaving fun comments, and hopefully winning something! It's a fantastic way to snag a free prize that you can turn around and give as a Christmas present! How sweet is that. Seriously.
Ok, so as you can guess, I am participating!
Here's the cute bag that I'll be giving to one lucky blog visitor...
Ta-da!
So cute, right? I know. I was tempted to keep this one, but I figured I should share. :)
Anyway, on to the rules.
I'm  not gonna make this difficult, as I know how annoyed I get when I have to answer a question on these giveaway days for my comment entry. So here's what ya do.

Madatory entry:  Say hi to me in the comments section!
Second entry option: Follow my blog!
Third entry option: go 'Like' the Make Mine Blue facebook page and come back to let me know you did.
Fourth entry: go to my shop and let me know what you're favorite item is over there.
*If you don't have a blogger account, don't forget to leave your email or some way to contact you in your comment so I can let you know that you won!*

The giveaway entry time will end on Dec 16th at 5 p.m, and I'll announce the winner shortly after that.  Yay!!  And P.S, I dont ship internationally for giveaways, but shop orders do! (hint hint.)

Have fun! Grab your cup of coffee, a comfy pillow to sit on, and surf through the amazing list of talented crafters and bloggers over at SMS.

Enjoy!
-Jenn

**P.S.  All SewMamaSew Giveaway participants are offered a 15% discount on any single item in my shop!! Head on over, enter 'SEWMAMASEW' in the coupon code during checkout! The code is good until the 16th.**

Friday, December 2, 2011

Christmas sale!

This weekend only, you can buy any item from my shop for 40% off!!! Just enter the coupon code 'MERRY' in checkout and voila! A new Christmas gift, or just a treat for yourself.

Come on over and shop around!
Lots of cute bags and gifts to choose from...






See you there! :) Merry Christmas. And look for another sale before Christmas, too! Maybe even a giveaway....

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

My dining room wall.

I thought it was about time to show you my pretty wall!
I suppose I should preface this with telling you that I'm incapable of hanging pictures straight. No matter what I do, it's just not possible for me.  Not to mention that in our old house, none of the floors or ceilings are straight either. So, on that note, here's what the wall used to look like:
Yeah...I thought it looked good after I hung them all.  Ha!!
So a little while ago, my mother in law, who is amazing at most things, helped me hang shelves up so that I could put my pictures on them and they'd stay straight!
Isn't that better?! I think so.  I let out an audible sigh of gratitude and appreciation when they were finished being hung.  And how do you like my Christmas decoration!?  That's as good as it gets in my house this year....hopefully next year I'll be more motivated to get festive.

Hope you enjoyed this little peek into my home! Have a good rest of the week. Blessings!

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Pictures. Because it's been too long!

I have some random, un-thought-out things I can put on here right now because, frankly, I remembered that sometimes people do check this blog! And maybe you're thinking, "man, it's been ages since Jenn has posted ridiculously cute pictures of her kids and random musings on life, and by golly, I miss it."

Today's your lucky day!

from our weekend camping. an attempt at a place for Haven to nap! He loved it too much to sleep in it.

Just too cute.

in the poncho Grammy made her! She's saying 'cheese!'

Asher made this firetruck out of play-do. Do you see the sirens?

Ro in his Thanksgiving play. He refused to wear his costume but he sang and said his lines brilliantly! I was one proud mommy.
And some pictures of my latest inspiration of projects I'd love to do soon. Sorry I can't link to them: I have no idea where they came from. Ha!
Thinking about doing this above my dining room door. Love the scroll-y brackets

So easy and cute, how could I not?
This is going in Havens room. Someday.
How much would your hubby's love this? Heck, I'd love it myself!

Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving. Who is making gifts for Christmas this year? I'm working on some baby gifts because get this: 2 of my sisters and one sister-in-law are having babies soon!!
I've currently got these projects, some gifts and some not,  cut and sitting on my desk:

4 pairs of leggings
3 shirts
1 flannel jammy pants
2 blankets
a nursing cover
wipes case
changing pad
3 purses for the shop
a pillow cover for my new guest bed

I may be in over my head, but I guess we'll find out! :)
Blessings, all!

Friday, November 11, 2011

Some thoughts on vaccinations.


I was watching a news clip this morning, featuring a man who has done research in connecting vaccines with autism. Totally brought me back to 5 years ago when we first started vaccinating Rowan.
I guess you can probably see where I'm going with this.

I'm not gonna spend this time harping on whether or not I think people should vaccinate, because we are all aware that vaccines can be very helpful and preventative. What I am going to say here is, please, pretty please with a cherry on top, get educated about vaccines. Read both sides of the story. You need to know what is in these concoctions that you are having injected into your infants. At the very least, do a google search about the connection with vaccines and autism. You'll see lots of theories and explanations, but you need to read about it. You really do. I wish we had.
Go here and see the list of vaccines, what is in them, who makes them, etc.  http://www.informedchoice.info/cocktail.html

A few things, though, that I will mention right here that I believe to be very important:
Do not give your baby the Hep B shot at the hospital. It is completely unnecessary and their body is not capable of handling that.
Wait to vaccinate until your baby is at least 18 months old. If you can't wait, please consider doing a revised schedule of vaccines where you get one shot per appointment, with a month or two in between. And have the shots split up, i.e. get the MMR split up into separate measles, mumps and rubella vaccines and get them one at a time.

I pray that nobody is feeling guilty or condemned for not researching this prior to vaccinations, or for just taking their pediatricians advice.  Doctors are awesome and I'd hate to see life without them. But, they are uneducated in regards to what is actually in these shots, and the American Medical Association sees to it that they are not taught these things.
A conspiracy theorist I am not, but one thing I do know. If parents stopped vaccinating, the pharmacuetical industry would freak out and our economy would collapse.  Vaccines are very important to the government, they're a big money-maker for the country and world. So when you read articles defending the use of vaccines, consider the source and the funding behind those studies.

And because this is my blog, I can tell you this. I believe 100% that, if you are a Christian (meaning that you have a daily, ongoing relationship with Jesus), He can tell you by the Holy Spirit which shots to get and not to get.  He can show you the way you should go.  But lest we forget, He gave us brains. When you ride in the car, do you know it's safer to wear your seat belt? Common sense.
So let's understand about vaccines.
When you plop your kid on that paper-covered table at the doc, you need to know for sure if the seat belt is vaccinations, or if it's not.  I tend to lean towards 'not'.  I think the best seat belt you can give your child is prayer, a healthy diet, washing hands and a strong immune system, at least until the age of 2 when their immune system is more ready. And even then, you need to know that some vaccines are absolutely useless. (Hep B, chicken pox and Rotavirus. So stupid. Google it.)

Get educated, because autism is just increasing, and there is an undeniable connection with immunizations.   I hate to say it, but it's true. 

I know some of you are wondering if I think vaccines caused Rowan's autism. I'll tell you flat out, I am positive they contributed. Whether it was the cause, I won't know til I see Jesus.  But knowing what I know now, I can say with certainty that had I known before, I wouldn't have done it. 

Bless you guys. Go get educated!
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20049118-10391695.html
http://www.generationrescue.org/
http://www.taca.org

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Friday, October 28, 2011

AHL BE BOCK.

Get it? I'll be back?
I guess this is one of those times in my life where this here blog isn't one of my top priorities. (gasp!). I know, it's just wrong. But alas, such is the current state of things.  Hopefully in a week or two things will settle down and I'll be able to focus more on this. 
Some people say that, to be a successful online blogger/business, you have to update as frequently as you can, and I'd probably agree. Which is most likely why my shop and blog have been scarcely visited as of late. What's even more surprising to me is that, I'm fine with it! I've needed a break and I'm enjoying spending more time with my kids and making my house more housey.

Today we celebrated two amazing events in history:
1. Bella Rose was born 3 years ago! Can you even believe it? I gave birth to her via emergency c-section (freaky! Lost half my blood in that delivery!) and then got to spend the next week recovering in bed with her next to me, sleeping soundly. I watched Monk, read the Word, prayed, slept, took pills, and watched more Monk.  All the while spending every moment with my new baby girl. I loved it. The C-section part; coulda done without that, but it gave me a very wonderful gift.

2.  Ash accepted Jesus into his heart yesterday! So, we celebrated tonite with a double party for him and Bell. Two very wonderful reasons to praise God.

So for now, with this blog, I give you no false promises. I'm a busy lady and I'll update when I can. I do enjoy posting projects and such on here, though, and as soon as I finish Ash's duvet cover, I'll post the pic of the kids new room.  Don't give up on me, I'll be back on here posting daily as soon as the momentum returns and I can spend my time thinking about it again. I promise, I'll be back!

In the meantime, enjoy this pic I found on pinterest. Gave me a chuckle.
Ha!
-Jenn

Monday, October 24, 2011

WOW.

It's been WAY too long since I've posted on here!
And, I'm sorry to disappoint, but I don't really have anything to say right now. I just felt bad looking at the date of the last post.

So, how about some of my latest pins?
Here's a couple from my 'hilarious' board.  Dare you not to laugh.
Pretty good, eh? I chuckled a little at all of those. And how about a few from my style pinboard?
I would wear all of these every sing day.
Pretty much everything.
Don't you want to just hug that shirt?
Ok, I guess that's enough. You can go to my pinterest if you're so interested in the stuff I like! :)

And if you are wondering about the progress of my bathroom, and kids rooms, you'll still be waiting a bit...It's a long process to re-do 3 rooms at once!! We're getting there though.
Blessings, y'all!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

DIY Sweater Pillow


I know you might all be thinking "When will she do a post that I don't have to SEW for?!" Well, not today. Sorry. :) I am in the middle of redecorating the kids bedrooms and was about to start on this pillow for Bell's bed when I realized, hey, this would be a great DIY for beginning sew-ers. So, here it is! Go dig through your or your hubby's closet for a sweater that you can cut up. Or head to your thrift store and buy one for super duper cheapies.

Supplies:
A sweater
A pillow
Scissors
Velcro (forgot it in the picture. woopsadaisys.)

1. Put the pillow on top of the sweater.
2. Cut the sweater to the size of your pillow, with the bottom side of the pillow at the bottom edge of the sweater. (like in my picture here.) That way, when you add the velcro, you don't have to hem anything because the edge is already finished!
3.  Turn the sweater inside out  if you haven't already and sew up all but the bottom side of the sweater.

4.  Grab your velcro and pin it in the desired locations. In my project, I only did one strip of velcro.  I wish I'd done it at least twice as long. Or maybe 2 strips evenly spaced. My little strip wasn't really enough, but here is what it looked like.


5.  Sew it on and you've got your pillow cover!!


Pardon the grainy photos. The lighting up there in the bedroom is not the greatest for pictures but you get the idea! Don't you like her new duvet cover? I am in love. The top part is a vintage sheet and I just adore the pairing with the black and white checks.  Abs Gorg.

Enjoy!

Monday, October 10, 2011

Dream Interiors: Kids Room Inspiration

I thought this was funny. A bit over the line maybe, but still gave me a chuckle!
Moving right along.

So, as I told you last week, we moved the 3 big kids all into the same room. It just seemed wrong to have one kid in that huge master bedroom upstairs. (Huge, meaning, probably about the size of most people's smallest bedroom. But thats what ya get when you live in a teeny colonial cottage!). 
But, I digress.
The 3 beds fit great in there.  However, as many of you know, I cannot go very long between colors of rooms. Right now, it is the color I painted it almost 2 years ago: Avacado green.  So, I'll soon be repainting that bedroom. And I already have the paint. A very cool grey, almost white.
I've been leaning towards cooler colors lately, and away from the warm earthy tones I used to love. Here are some of my favorite inspiration photos I've found while searching the Interwebs.








As you can see, I also lean towards vintage. This last picture is almost the exact wall color that I just painted Haven's room, and I plan on decorating with a little bit of that olive green there on the bed.
I'll make sure and show you the before/after shots of the kids rooms because, well, this is a crafty blog so how could I not?!
Since we're moving the kids all upstairs, I will also be able to have an office/craft room/guest room. So, you'll be seeing photos of that too!
PS almost all of these photos are on my 'Youngin's' board on my Pinterest. Come follow me!

Blessings!