Photo Restoration

A good friend of mine's father-in-law passed away very suddenly and she asked me to restore an old picture of him from the 1960's. Here are the results. Pretty nice huh? I hope that it will help the family keep his memory alive.

Baby Shower Quilt

Pretty soon I'm going to start offering a new product: Baby Shower Quilt Kits. This will be a fun and meaningful activity for mothers-to-be at a baby shower which becomes a great keepsake for baby. I made this one for Julia. You can see us making it at her shower here.

Basically in your kit you will receive:

• pre-cut quilt squares in the color scheme of your choice
  
• stencils to trace (such as animals, flowers, food, etc)
• fabric to cut out the animals, flowers, food, etc.

During the baby shower guests can choose a quilt square, trace a stencil design onto fabric (or make up their own), cut it out, and pin it together. This can be done during the snacks/ mingling of the party or as a separate activity time. After the party is over, send the pinned together quilt squares to me and I will sew it all together! Wouldn't this be a wonderful way to remember loved ones throughout the years and give the baby and mother something to cuddle up with?

I can also just make a quilt like this for you too, no baby shower needed!

Contact me for more information at shutterstitch@gmail.com

1st Birthday

My little cutie pie turned one recently. I was stoked to use his new cute felt applique shirts and birthday crown from Two Lollidots. They have some really neat little clothes for kids. (You may recognize their product photographer on their blog too.) :)

1st Birthday on the Farm

Recently we celebrated my son's first birthday with a party on our relative's cattle farm. I made some delicious barnyard cupcakes. The cows and chicks were vanilla cake with white icing and the pigs were strawberry. You can get the full recipe from the Disney Family Fun website.


These super cute animal balloons were bought at the Joy Shoppe in Commerce, Georgia. We had a whole farm of chickens, ducks, cows, dogs, horses, and pigs! All of the children took them home as favors.


I bought these cute animal plates at the grocery store. Silverware was stowed in pots for plants.


I tried to keep the menu farm-y so we had: bunny food (carrots and peppers with dip), fresh fruit, deviled eggs, moo-tastic meatballs, chips and fresh salsa, chickpea hummus, farm animal cupcakes, and I meant to also do pigs in a blanket but just didn't get around to it!


I made little tags for the food out of scrapbook paper.


I made a coordinating banner out of scrapbook paper, string, and die-cut letters. Thank goodness for being a teacher and having the die-cut machine handy!


When it came time for the birthday boy to blow out the candles, I took off his cute birthday shirt so it wouldn't get cake on it. The little girl in the red dress exclaimed, "The baby is getting naked!"


We gave him plain strawberry cupcake (no candy on top) and he was like, "What the heck is this?" He hadn't really had any sweets up to that point.


"Mommy it may taste funny to me, but it's fun to smash up!"


My two favorite guys in the whole world!




Everyone wanted some lovin' from the birthday boy!

Sneak Peek: Henry

This just might be the cutest little guy yet. Such squishy little cheeks and gorgeous black hair! It was a pleasure to hold this sweetie and photograph him on his 8th day in the world. His Momma and I have been friends for years and years and it did my heart so much good to see her cuddle up with her tiny baby Henry.

Two Lollidots

Ann Marie and Cody make hip, trendy children's clothing at Two Lollidots. They have a variety of tutus for special occasions and holidays, cute felt clips, t-shirts for boys and girls, and reversible sundresses. Everything is so cute! I will definitely have to get some of their tie t-shirts for my little boy.

I had the pleasure of doing a product photo shoot with them. Their children made great models and I think we all had a lot of fun trying out the different outfits and running around alleyways and on train tracks!

Adventures in Finger-painting

I recently let my son, (then about 10 months) try finger-painting. I mixed up some Jell-o vanilla pudding with pureed sweet potatoes, pureed peas, and pureed blueberries. I make my own baby food, so I had some readily on hand. Then I put them in little dishes with a large piece of drawing paper on the kitchen floor and let him have at it! It was fun watching him really get into it. The only thing I would do differently is put the "paint" in plastic cups instead of ceramic ones, because he did try to throw them!

Starry Night Bottlecap Mural

This fall I made a large 8 ft. x 12 ft. mural with my elementary art students completely out of bottlecaps. We studied Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night and then each of my 700 K-5th grade students took turns drilling in about 10 bottlecaps each. We used about 7,000 bottlecaps, all recycled from the students' homes! The idea came from artist, Michelle Stitzlein , who sells the complete instructions to the mural in her book, Bottlecap Little Bottlecap.

Favorite Artist of the Week: Toilet Paper Tube Art

I found this image online and it just made my heart smile. I love that the artist used a recycled toilet paper tube to create a tiny little world. I don't know who the artist is though, unfortunately.