Create a wall display.

Hello! Yes I'm still alive! Priorities change, blogging hasn't been one of those. So sorry.

Slowly I'm getting decorating projects done around our house. Between working full time and enjoying Caraline every single minute I can, crafts don't get completed like they used to. But I'm okay with that.

This arrangement was a long time coming. I've wanted to display family photos on our wall for quite some time. Finally I got around to cutting the cardboard, deciding which photos and wall art I wanted to use and I got to work. I mapped out everything to size using cardboard scraps to get an idea of where on the wall I liked it. This method proved to be awesome. It was easy to cut the cardboard and shifting and changing was a snap using painter's tape. Once I had everything where I liked it, I worked top to bottom and secured nails into the wall.

I love how it turned out.

Eventually, we will have a piano sitting below this collage, but until then we enjoy seeing our family every day.

It makes me happy.

It makes me smile.

I hope you enjoy it.

Happy arranging!!

Six months.

Miss Caraline Grace is 6 months old! Wowza! She is such a ball of joy and we love seeing what we can do to get her to flash her gummy smile!

Starting on solid food has been a fun adventure. I've been putting veggies and fruits in a blender and making her different foods. She does pretty good so far!

I also thought it'd be fun to get a picture of her with all her stuffed animals. She just loves telling stories (bah bah bah, gah gah gah, etc.) and here she was doing just that! So funny!

The photo was taken in our living room against one of the walls. I had to do some tweaking to get it to look how I wanted it. Here's the before & after. It's not perfect, but it's better than what it started looking like!

Happy 6 months!

Create a t-shirt design.

Each year, National Kidney Foundation hosts a Kidney Walk at Headwaters Park in Fort Wayne, IN, to raise awareness for kidney disease. Since 2008, my family and I have joined this walk to honor my cousin's mother-in-law, Lou, who had a kidney transplant. Our team name is We Love Our Kidneys!

It's always a lot of fun and any excuse to get out and go for a walk for a good cause is good enough for me!

Our team 2009 from left,  Elizabeth (my cousin); Adam (Lou's son/Elizabeth's husband) carrying Abby (our t-shirt designer), Me, Lou (Adam's mom) and Amanda (my cousin).

A couple years ago we started having Lou's granddaughter Abby, design our t-shirts. Last year, she gave me two designs and I combined them to make our final design. This was Abby's creation for 2012.

This year, she designed this for us. 

So, I quickly got to work transferring it to a digital image using Photoshop. I have a kick butt t-shirt printer that I use locally. He took Abby's design from my digital file, created a screen, then made as many shirts as we needed! This year we sported RED! 

Our team 2014 from left: Jennifer (Lou's daughter), Adam (Lou's son/my cousin's husband), Charlotte (Adam & Elizabeth's daughter in the stroller), Nathan (Jenn's son), Lou (the women we walk for), Elizabeth (my cousin), Abby (our t-shirt designer and Jenn's daughter), Me holding Caraline and Mike (my husband).

I look forward to next year to see Abby's design for us! She's such a talented young lady!

If you'd like to donate to the National Kidney Foundation, please go here (http://donate.kidney.org/goto/angiedeak). I thank you in advance for your contribution. 

Happy Kidneys!

Five months.

As Caraline approaches her 6 month milestone, I realize I never posted her 5 month photo!

Shame on me!

She's absolutely the best thing to ever happen to me. Most of the time, she's a smiley, happy, cheerful baby and one can't help by smile back at her. She's so curious about animals and other babies and looks so deep in thought (if only I knew what she was thinking) when she's studying them.

Every day brings a new adventure with her and I am so thankful she's part of my life.

So here is her 5 month photo - and hopefully it won't take me a month to post her 6 month photo after I take it next week!

Happy memory making!

Baby boy neckties.

My friend Karen gave birth to their son, Colton, 2 months ago. She loved the idea of documenting his growth each month (similar to how I document Caraline's, see Here and Here). She wanted something geared for a baby boy.

So, she asked me to design some neckties for little Colton. She plans to attach them to onesies each month and take a picture of him like that.

I love any chance to design and be creative so I said ABSOLUTELY! & I'm happy with how they turned out!

Little Colton is such a cutie! He and Caraline have awesome hair in common, as you can see. Maybe some day they can swap taming secrets with each other!

Happy babies!

Live. Love. Teach.

My good friend Dina is a teacher. An awesome wish-she-had-been-my-fifth-grade-teacher teacher. But that would've been weird because she's only a few years older than I am.

Because she's an awesome teacher she loves her students so much. She recently celebrated a birthday, so I made her an extra special present.

All I used was wood scraps, sand paper, printed images, glue, water and a paintbrush.

Sand Paper not shown. Not sure why I had a pencil, either.

I created my design using Photoshop, then printed it using a laser jet printer. I cut the prints to fit the wood blocks that I'd cut to size.

Mied water and glue (ratio of 3 parts glue to 1 part water) with my brush, then brushed a thin layer onto the wood pieces.

I placed each piece of paper over the wood, and smoothed out any bumps.

After they'd all three dried, I used sand paper to roughen up the edges so it wasn't so crisp.

I was so happy with the final product and I know Dina really loved her gift.

Happy Teaching!

Host A Bridal Shower.

My younger sister got married in October of last year, and I hosted a shower at my house for her. Yes, I'm just now getting around to telling you about it because, oh, I don't know, I'm just that far behind.

It's true. And I've said it before. Having a baby makes you forget things.

Like things that happened almost a year ago.

That I was planning to blog about.

Sorry about that.

So my older sister and I threw my younger sister a shower. It wasn't anything fancy, because lesbi-honest I'm not fancy. I try not to seem fancy, either.

The theme was "travel" because my sister and her (now) husband love to visit places all over the world. They went to Europe for their honeymoon!!

The invitations resembled boarding passes . . .

There were veggies & dip . . . 

And make-your-own fruit pies (complete with cream cheese and all the goodies) . . .

Apple slices . . .

And the coolest cake I've ever seen in person . . .

I bought "Oh The Places You'll Go" by Dr. Seuss and had guests sign a page inside with well wishes.

It was fun to host and my sister and her hubby are enjoying married bliss!

Happy showering!

Daddy Rocks.

Happy Father's Day to all you daddies, grandpas, uncles, grampies, papas, etc!

As usual, I've been doing some crafts in my "free" time. Though, now Caraline is included in that time! I love it.

This year for Mother's Day we made our gifts. Father's Day it was the same way. I think handmade gifts are more special than most things I could buy in a store.

Now, to warn you, any craft involving a 4 month old and paint can be tricky! (Does that surprise you?)

The handprint project we did for the Mother's Day canvases was challenging. I learned my lesson and made two changes when doing a new craft with paint for Father's Day.

1) I switched to a footprint instead of a handprint (more stable)

2) I put her in her Bumbo seat, so she was stuck!

My adorable slobbering assistant.

If you ask me, it was pretty genius. And it totally worked better.

We started with a few rocks that were about the size of softballs or baseballs. I had four: One for Mike, one for my dad, one for Mike's dad and one for my grandpa.

I painted them all a different solid color and let them dry. I then painted the cute little foot of my daughter and pressed each rock up against her foot. She just sat and gave me funny looks. I'm sure it felt strange to have paint on her little toesies.

The blue rock that was for Mike turned out the best. It was the cleanest print out of all of them.

After all the footprints had dried, I added glitter paint to the white prints and later wrote with puffy paint. And even though the other prints were not perfect, I still love how they turned out. 

My friend Kristi did the same thing for her husband with her daughter Kinley's hand print. She gave me permission to use a photo of how hers turned out. I love the polka dots she made! So cute!

The footprint craft wasn't the only gift I had handmade for Mike this year. I also commissioned my friend D'ann with Creative Metals by D to have a keyring made for him.

I just love it. And it's so special. D'ann is so talented.

Happy Father's Day, my friends!

Fresh Summer Veggie Bake.

WARNING: This recipe was delicious!

Okay, maybe not a warning . . . but an alert so you're prepared for major YUM!

I found this recipe for Fresh Summer Veggie Bake on Can't Stay Out Of The Kitchen. I knew I wanted to make it for our annual family get together for Memorial Day weekend. Like a pinhead (that's an awesome person who pins lots of things, makes said things and then forgets to take pictures of the final product), I forgot to take pictures of the final product. Or really I forgot to take any pictures except ONE, right before I put it in the oven.

Here's how Teresa's turned out (She's the author of Can't Stay Out Of The Kitchen).

IMAGE SOURCE

http://cantstayoutofthekitchen.com/2013/03/09/fresh-summer-veggie-bake/

It has yellow squash zucchini, green zucchini, potatoes (I used red) and tomatoes. You sauté garlic and onions, put those in the bottom of the dish, then slice all the veggies and layer those in. Then you add a couple spices and pop it in the oven. After that, you add some parmesan cheese and put it back in the oven. It's so easy! And it's pretty to look at, too!

I did take a pic of how mine looked right before putting it in the oven. But that's all you get from me. Sorry.

This was pre-cheese which is the best part. I added mozzarella cheese in addition to shredded parmesan cheese. I'll be doing THAT again. I'm such a sucker for mozzarella cheese!

**Another thing to remember when making this, cut your tomatoes thicker than the rest of the veggies. They'll break down in the oven and if they're too thin they'll turn to sauce. You don't want that. . .

Happy Summer Baking!