Meeska Mooska...Huddy is 2!

I can't believe my baby boy is 2 already. I also can't believe it took me a week to recover from his party and actually write this blog!

I had a great time working on many elements for his party, starting with his invitations down the great time decorating cupcakes with my family. While Spencer begged me to NOT go overboard this year, there is just something special about handmaking most of his birthday party decor. He truly enjoyed his party and that is all that really mattered.



Party Pictures:

Invitations

Party Decorations

Cupcakes by ME and my Mom...with a little help from Spencer :)

Mickey Oreos. Made by my Mom. Inspired by Kathie Cooks.

Birthday Banner

Huddy's Cupcake!

Family Picture

Super blurry, but best picture of his Mickey shorts.

Favor Bags.



I can't wait until next year to see how much he changes and what he is really "into".

It will be a blast, I am sure of this!

Happy Birthday Huddy

I can't believe how quickly two years of  life rushed by for my little family.

On July 27, 2009, my life forever changed as I welcomed my son into the world. After many, many hours of labor, Huddy decided to join us. He scared the doctor, the nurses, his daddy and his mom that day. I will never forget the doctor counting to three after my final push and waiting on that cry. It was the scariest moment in my life as they rushed my sweet baby to a table on the far side of the room and finally I heard him cry. Hudson was born with his cord wrapped around his neck three times and was extra "smurfy" blue. I will never forget his daddy bouncing, literally bouncing around the room in joy after that first cry.

The first few moments were almost unreal I was so elated and I also remember the excitement on our families faces as they entered the room. Huddy immediately knew my mom's voice when she spoke. It amazed me in those first few hours how quickly his personality began to shine.

The past two years of my life have brought surprises, fear, excitement, joy, anger, laughter and above all a love that I didn't know I was capable of feeling. Huddy keeps his mum (this is what he is currently calling me) on her toes. He is such an amazing little boy and holds a special place in so many hearts. He lights up a room and has the ability to bring laughter when it is most needed. I love him more than I know how to explain.

Now for a few highlights of the past two years through pictures....and trust me he has had a few pictures made haha

 

Last Belly Picture



Holding Huddy for the first time

very proud daddy










1st Birthday, 1st Haircut



scariest day EVER



Courtesy of Keep Me Photography by Sherry Hodge

courtesy of AshleyPricePhotography.com

I could add pictures for days of Huddy but all of these jumped out to me today. I miss my little baby but I love my little boy even more each day. Each day brings a new milestone and each milestone is just as exciting as the last. So I am ready for his year of being 2 :)

headband love :)

I found an amazing headband tutorial...here: Happy Together

I love the look of these and the pictures just really show off her work! Amazing!

I decided to give it a test run with a simple style on round one. I was unsure of how I would like the fit and didn't want to waste too much fabric if I didn't like it.

Well, let's just say... I LOVE it! Unlike other headbands, it does not hurt my head at all. It is super comfy and even Spencer thought it looked great on me.

It is a winner in my book and new color/fabrics mixes are in the works.

Enjoy! And check out her other posts, I  have been inspired by every single one I read.

A bag for Crisbee.

First off, let me introduce you to Crisbee. We adopted Crisbee from Lu & Ed a couple of months ago and he is now one of Huddy's favorite stuffed critters.

Crisbee hangs out in Huddy's bed most of the day, but as of lately he has been found in various locations around the house. He also seems to be quite the cover hog and I have recently found him hiding under my pillow. Spencer and I decided that he must go on our 4th of July adventure with Huddy.

After making the seersucker shorts yesterday, I decided Huddy needed a matching bag. It did not take long in my internet search to find the perfect candidate.

Finding quiet time to sew in this house is not easy, so I grabbed a couple of early Saturday morning hours to complete this task. Overall, I am in love with the outcome. As always, there is room for improvement, but I love this little bag. It is just the size of Huddy's back and Crisbee fits snugly inside.

Front with pocket

back with stretchy straps

Crisbee hanging out.

Want a monster of your own? Visit Lu & Ed online!

Like this bag, grab the tutorial here: http://sewingdork.blogspot.com/2010/09/simple-toddler-backpack-tutorial.html

seersucker makes my heart happy.

There is something simple, classic, and well just wonderful about seersucker. I absolutely love to dress Huddy in it and decided his summer wardrobe was definitely missing something in this very summer friendly fabric.

I made my first trip to Hancock Fabrics a few weeks ago. Overall, my trip was quite the letdown, but their amazing corporate team contacted me and resolved this issue. If you ever have an issue with local Hancock customer service, do not hesitate to take your comments higher up, the corporate staff is incredibly friendly, understanding and well ready to resolve issues.

My first trip ended with a couple of great finds. I have great plans for the pirate fabric thanks to a wonderful suggestion and guidance from my Aunt Valerie. The seersucker already had shorts written all over it when I picked it up that day.

After my shopping trip I found little time to devote to my plans until tonight. The seersucker was crying out to be made into an adorable pair of shorts for Huddy. I tried a tutorial for flat front shorts when I first got my machine and it turned out ok. I decided to try it once again and the results were quite better.

I of course still have miles to go in learning to sew, but improvement is already showing up in my work. I can't wait to try these on my little man.



Front



Back





The amazing tutorial for these shorts can be found here: http://www.dana-made-it.com/2011/05/kid-shorts-free-pattern-and-tutorial.html

I am in love with this blog and can't wait to try out many more of her patterns.

A first attempt- Dress Making

I know I have a son. Trust me, he is ALL boy. He loves anything sports, cars, and climbing. However, in my new adventure of sewing there are very few things to make for a boy compared to little girls. I decided a couple of weeks ago to make my first dress. I say first, but technically I think the first round of Megean dresses were for my dolls around age 7. Poor dolls.

I have the amazing opportunity to spend my days in an inspiring group of crafty ladies online. They are such an inspiration with each of their talents. I have seen some amazing dresses. I chose the pillowcase dress for my first project. Unfortunately, all of my pillowcases are white but I did have an awesome piece of orange fabric from a very awesome lady.

The orange screamed Auburn to me (this scares me, my heart sings Roll Tide Roll...not the other words). I knew that it was meant to be a dress for my cousin's adorable (seriously she is super cute) little girl, Lyndi.

It was quite the process and I learned quite a bit. At the end I enjoyed it quite a bit, took it on a visit to my granny's house and received many, many tips on how to improve it on the next time around. Someday I can only hope to have a fraction of my granny's sewing talent.

Here it is, not perfect, but not horrible and definitely a cute addition to Lyndi's already adorable closet.

New Camera for New Milestones

It has been a while since I posted, but I promise I am still here :)

A couple of weeks ago Huddy practiced throwing with my Canon Rebel XT. Unfortunately, cameras are not built for this type of activity. I dropped it off at the geek squad for repair and they told me it would be a few weeks. June 27th was the anticipated return date, so I called and was told to call back in 2 weeks. This morning I received an unexpected voicemail from the geek squad. It said I had been approved for an exchange and to come in to pick out a comparable model.

I was pretty excited and bummed at the same time. I have a lot of great memories with XT. It had been there through a lot of major milestones and we had found a comfort with one another. The tech informed me it had been "recycled" due to parts no longer being available.

I eagerly awaited to find out what my new camera would be and then felt letdown when I saw that a Nikon had been placed on the sheet. Don't get me wrong, I know Nikon is a great brand. It is as good as Canon in my book, maybe better in a lot of other's books, but I am a Canon girl now. I had also just bought my dream lens a couple of days after the great camera accident.

I kindly asked if I could please get a canon instead since a nikon would not fit my accessories. I was shocked when he said sure and that he would just put what I bought the camera for (3 years ago) plus the tax I paid on a giftcard.

It was at this moment I was happy that Spencer had not made the trip with me. I have no doubt we would have not went home with a camera. I chose the canon T3 to capture the next milestones in my life. I am pretty excited about it and feel like an old dog learning new tricks. The interface is a lot different and overall the updates since 2008 are quite impressive. The first thing I noticed was how much lighter the T3 is vs the XT.

I feel like I am back at square one and ready to take on the adventure of a new camera, plus a new lens. Wish me luck, follow the journey, because I can promise it will be well documented.

It is unfortunate when you realize you must take a picture of your awesome new camera with your letdown of a camera called the droid x.

Camera Love

Beach Bag

I am so excited about our beach trip this weekend. We are headed for a one night stay to celebrate my 25th birthday! I was feeling a little bummed about turning 25, but honestly my life is the best it has ever been...so I am accepting 25 with thankfulness.

Our beach bag from last year disappeared after the move. Since it is just one night, I can't justify spending a lot of money on a bag. So I took this as an opportunity to play with my new toy, and birthday present from Spencer, my sewing machine!

Unfortunately, due to the tornado Hobby Lobby is no longer standing and Hancock fabrics has been closed. The only option for fabric has been walmart. I am going to be honest that the days of a big sewing section in Walmart is long gone. It is now one aisle of pre-cut packages of 2 yds of fabric. The selection is ok at best and a tad boring for my taste.

But guess what, I am a lucky girl. A couple of ladies from my crafting group sent me some amazing fabric. I chose a bright yellow from one of the packages to go with my tealish blue I picked up from Walmart.

After searching many, many tutorials/patterns I found one I liked. It boasted being big and easy to carry. Well with a toddler, I can just imagine the load of things I will take for our one day beach trip. I tried it out and loved it! So here it is, my completed beach bag. It is not perfect and I could definitely improve my sewing skills. But who cares, it serves its purpose and that is what counts.

New Blog!

If you are following this blog, please take a moment to check out my new blog. It is for my company, The Individuality. This blog will follow the creative explorations of my company, my goals as a designer, and my progress as a business owner.

I also plan to include updates on my clients and the wonderful things they are doing. I have some amazingly, creative clients and it would be selfish to not share what they are creating.

So take a minute, follow the new blog, share it with someone and enjoy :)

The Individuality Blog

I am still here.

I promise I have not left my blog. Although it might seem that way. Life has been really busy lately and due to the lack of internet for so long, the blog was put to the side. I have been playing catch up with work since the day internet was restored. I feel like no matter how many hours I put in each day, I can not catch up. However, I am beyond happy for the work :)

On a good note, new things are coming. Specifically, a blog redo. I will no longer be using this blog to follow the adventures of my company, The Individuality. It will now have a separate space to show off my work. This blog will move back into it's original purpose, more of a following of my personal endeavors as a mom.

I have a joined a wonderful crafting group through another website, and they have inspired me to pick back up my crafty side. This blog will serve to follow those adventures.

Spencer recently bought me a sewing machine and I can't wait to show off the progress I make as I jump back into the world of sewing, it has been a while. So bear with me as these changes emerge over the next couple of weeks.

And a sneak peek...

Logo Love: Giveaway Corner

I loved working on this logo, almost as much as I love this website!

http://giveawaycorner.blogspot.com/



Logo Love: Melli's Trinkets

I had a wonderful time working on this logo! You can check out more information on this company in my previous blog!

Creative Mom - Melli's Trinkets

Entry 2: Creative Moms!

I love Melli's Trinkets! Melli, the owner creates jewerly with a personalized touch. In my opinion it has quite the artsy flare to catch anyone's attention. I personally couldn't help but grab a really cute handmade pearl necklace from her Etsy site last night, as a small mother's day treat to myself.



Image courtesy of http://mellistrinkets.blogspot.com/

 I also have the honor of working on a completely custom branding package for this company. I love letting my creativity out of the box and working on something that is a bit "edgy". I can't wait to show off the logo once the final is approved, very soon. Take a moment to check out her blog and etsy page. If you hurry, she has a special for Mother's Day!

http://mellistrinkets.blogspot.com/
http://www.etsy.com/shop/melliburger?ref=si_shop