Memorial Day Weekend Camping Trip

The weather over here has NOT been cooperating. It is now June and it is still raining everyday and the temperature is in the mid 60's. Is summer going to ever get here? Well....regardless I am not about to let the rain and cold get the best of my summer! NO WAY!

This Memorial Day weekend we made plans to go camping at Deception Pass. Rain or no rain. Even though it was the later and was wet we still had fun. Luckily for us when we arrived at the campsite that evening the rain had stopped and we were able to set up camp, cook dinner in the dutch oven, roast marshmallows, and enjoy the fire. As soon as we went to bed though, it rained and rained and rained. I don't believe there was a break all night long. Someone must have been looking out for us :)

I also loved that there were restrooms just across the path from us. Great to keep up with our potty training! I just wish they were the automatic flushing toilets. They freaked Kiera out and she wouldn't go. Luckily I didn't attempt underwear on this trip. Pull-ups were my sanity! Ethan had no problems though. He thought it was cool.

The morning was still drizzly but we managed to dry out the firewood and build a fire and make breakfast. Nothing like pancakes and bacon when you're camping! After breakfast we all hiked down to the beach (it was just a 5-10 minute walk with the kiddos) and tossed rocks into the water. Got to love cheap and easy entertainment!

Once we were cold enough we headed back to camp and packed everything back up. We barely made check out time. It was perfect! About 2 minutes out of camp was the deception pass bridge. We parked, ate some pre-made PB and J sandwiches and then got out of the car for a little hike. The view was beautiful! We strolled along the trails for a bit, took some pictures, and enjoyed the break in the rain. We really need to plan some more hikes this summer. There are so many trails around here!

On our way out we stopped at the little cafe and got some waffle cones at the drive-thru. The ice cream was WONDERFUL! I think we started a new tradition!

I am so glad we went. Rain and all! Now its just a matter of washing and drying everything out before company gets here this weekend! I LOVE summer!

Here are some pics from our trip...

I love this man!

The kids were so excited to get the tent up! They talked about our camping trip all week! Ethan called it his house.

Before

Yummy after. We even put string cheese in the crust to make stuffed crust pizza. mmm!

Look at that craftsmanship! Daddy we love you! Thanks for helping keep us all toasty!

Playing around the fire.

Morning breakfast

Look at how thick that piece of bacon is! 

Hike down to the beach.

What did you do for Memorial Day weekend?

Picture Frame Makeover into Mirror

This project is one I did a while back for my nieces birthday. I have been wanting to blog about it for awhile now but have just been on the busy side getting my Etsy shop up and running. I have made 2 sales so far! And it feels great!

For my project I took an old picture frame I had laying around from my husband's grandmothers house. The frame always bugged me since I am NOT a gold fan. But I loved the details in the wood so I kept it knowing that someday I'd figure out what to do with it.
I knew that I wanted to make a mirror as a gift and I was orginally going to build my own frame but I walked past this frame in my craft room and had an awh ha moment! Here's a picture of what the frame look like originally.

 The first thing I did was take the painting out of the frame. The painting doesn't bug me at all. I think it is pretty. It just needs a new home/frame now. But that is a future project.

 

For the mirror part I had some of this airline grade mirror scrap that the hubby had brought home from work (another thing that has been laying around waiting for me to come up with a project for). It is really cool stuff too. It isn't glass so it won't break. Perfect for an energetic niece too.

 I took the original painting and traced its size onto the back of my mirror scrap

And then cut it out with my jigsaw. It cut pretty easy too! I was sort of worried about how I was going to do it.

I then went back to work on the frame. I first painted it with some leftover house paint we had lying around. I didn't bother covering the black velvet stripe since I knew I'd be covering that later. And then I got some plain old craft paint and mixed up a dark turquoise color that I liked and painted the inner molding piece of the frame.

I let that dry and then with the left over turquoise paint, I added water to turn it into a glaze. I used that to brush onto the white making sure to get into all the groves of the fancy molding and then quickly wiped it back off with paper towel. Sorry I didn't take pictures of this step.

I was loving the effect! I then took some Light blue/teal grosgrain ribbon I had in my stash (I think I got it at the dollar store). I hot glued it over the black velvet and then added another skinny burgundy ribbon top of that. It still needed a little something so I added the bows on the corners. And TA DAH!

Isn't it pretty! I almost didn't want to give it away I liked it so much!

Quilt completed!

I finished the quilt! Some of you may have already seen it since it is now up in my Etsy shop but for more bragging rights those who haven't seen it I decided to make a separate post.
Here she is....I am in love!

Makes me smile! I think I am becoming addicted to quilt making. Look out!

My Etsy Shop is Up!

I've finally done it and have gone ahead and started an Etsy shop. I'm just getting started so I only have 4 listings so far but I plan on adding more to it soon. I am excited about it and hope to see something happen with it. I've put it off because I tend to doubt myself and think "nobody is going to want to pay for this." But I've gotten enough comments and people telling me otherwise so I am giving it a shot.

I am in the process of coming up with a good name for my shop. Right now it is the "B.G. Boutique" and the banner is something I threw together just to have something up there but my husband has put his two cents in and says that B.G. at first glance looks like "BIG" so I am now looking for a different name that I can build a cute banner around. Can you help me? I'd also love it if you could pass the word along.

I am planning on adding some baby slings, nursing covers, some baby blessing/christening dresses, and the bunkbed playhouse that you may have already seen in one of my previous posts. I thought it'd be fun to offer some other fun designs/themes to them.

The link to my shop is HERE. Go and check it out and let me know what you think. Tell me what your favorite item is too. It'll give me a better idea of what people like.

Craft Time! Nothing else to do while Hubby is away.

It's amazing what I get done when the hubby is gone. This weekend Dan is away at a scout camp-out and it's been a very quiet evening. For some reason I avoid going to bed until I absolutely have to. With him away the house seems lonely and eerie I guess. So it is now 1:00 in the morning if that gives you a better understanding of what I mean when I say I avoid going to bed. Although it has been a very fun and productive night. I have done 3 different sewing projects! THREE!

I will tell you about them in more detail later but for now I wanted to show off the latest which is a quilt top. YAY! I have only made 1 or 2 "real" quilts in my life and it is such an accomplishment to say "here's another!"

I can't wait to finish it, but I think it is time to hit the hay. Here's a peek...

Sorry about the bad lighting. It is 1:15 a.m. afterall. zzzzzzzzzzzz....

Tent Playhouse for Bunkbed FINISHED!

I did it! I finished the playhouse panel for the kids' bunkbed. I love it I love it I love it! It turned out just as I imagined it!

All the apples and flowers are removable and can be placed in the basket at the base of the tree, and the mailbox opens and has 3 letters that go with it. I am in love with how it turned out!!! It was so fun to make and I can still add to it if I want to. I am thinking it needs a puppy and maybe some crawling critters.

I got the idea when I saw the card table playhouses that are all around blog land and thought "That is soo cute, but I am cramped on space in the kids room as it is." Then we built the kid's bunkbeds and while trying to find plans on how to build one I came across things like THIS. And then it just clicked! We built the bunk bed from plans we found on Knock Off Wood, and since then I have had the project swimming in my head.

I drew up plans and took it with me to the fabric store. I bought all the different colors of felt that I needed and it sat in a bag in the craft room. (Story of my life). This past weekend I broke it out knowing that in a couple weeks my niece and nephew would be coming for a visit and wanted to have something fun for the cousins to play in together. It's going to be perfect!

The kids discovered it a minute ago while I was writing this post and what I heard was, "WOW! ETHAN! LOOK! It's a house! Come here!" It made me smile and glow. Knowing I had made something special makes me proud. I am sure it will provide hours of imaginative play and story times together. I can't wait!

*please ignore the mess and the scuff marks on the top bunk bed posts, I need to touch it back up with some paint but didn't want to wait to show you the tent playhouse.

*And if anyone is wanting one I am thinking about selling some in my Etsy shop. I have an account set up but nothing to sell yet (sad I know). What do you think? Would anyone be interested? I need to come up with a better name for them too. Any suggestions?

Right Before my Eyes

Time has flown by! Wasn't it yesterday I was pregnant for the first time, still in college, absolutely no money, yet extremely happy. I am still extremely happy but now that happiness has multiplied. I now have two little miracles running around. It was also just yesterday they were saying their first words and learning how to walk. Now they are running, climbing, carrying on conversations and doing what big kids do.

This past weekend my baby girl got her first two wheeler! (training wheels included of course). She was so excited to have a big girl bike! She spent all Saturday evening riding up and down our little street without any help at all! I can't believe it! I couldn't help but stare and try to drink it all in. She looked so beautiful! So happy! So me! I love my little girl and love these little moments that make being a mom incredible!