2011 August

Connect With JIAD!

August 20, 2011 2 Comments

Want to be able to interact with me instantly?!

Ask me a quick question without typing up an entire email?!

Just say “Hey!”

Get the latest updates on blog posts?!

Find out what is inspiring me at the moment (who knows… it just may be YOU!)?!

Find out as soon as new items are listed in The Shop before everyone else?!

Get special discount codes to The Shop?!

Then make sure you come and hang with me at these places:

Facebook

Twitter

In The Looop

I have 3 invites available for In The Looop
and
6 invites for Pinterest left.

Want one?!

Then email me johnnyinadress@hotmail.com and I will send you an invite!

Invites will be sent on a first come first serve basis!

Filed Under: JIAD

Moments.

August 19, 2011 4 Comments

These moments are the ones I want to remember forever.

The Girl still has that “baby” look.

Seeing this when I check on them in the playroom.

They are still best friends and I hope they remain to be best friends forever.

These little moments melt my heart.

With strength comes confidence.

The Boy is now performing “stunts” on his 4 wheeler.

Seeing him have the confidence and ability to do “boy” stuff warms my heart.

I want to remember the days when The Girl fell asleep in her highchair at dinner because we played so hard earlier that day.

I want to remember when she was small enough to even fit in a highchair.

These are the moments when I stop, close my eyes and etch them into my mind.

These are the little moments that remind me how blessed we are.

These are the everyday moments that we all need to stop and take note of because before we know it, these moments will be a distant memory.

Filed Under: Family, The Boy, The Girl

The Ruffle Dress.

August 18, 2011 7 Comments

I am so excited to share with you The Ruffled Dress!

Isn’t it so flirty and fun?!

I just LOVE wearing it – It makes me super happy!

And the ruffle around the neck – simple fabulous!

Guess what?!

I will make one JUST for YOU!

This is a recent one I made for someone else

(I think I may just HAVE to make one out of this fabric for myself… Wanna be twins Rikki?!)

Aren’t you dying to get one for yourself?

Here is what you do:

Purchase The Ruffle Dress from The Shop.

I will get in contact with you via email.

I will get your measurements (nothing too complicated – promise) and ask you about colors, prints, etc that you look fabulous in.

Then I will send you fabric choices.

You choose your fabric and I will custom make you The Ruffle Dress!

When you wear The Ruffle Dress, you can rest assured no one will be wearing the same dress as you EVER again – and you in your super cutie dress will be sure to be the talk of the party!

Happy Shopping!

Oh yea, The dresses are made in the order they are purchased.

Filed Under: Sewing, The Shop

Lee La La Review!

August 17, 2011 3 Comments

Have you heard of Lee La La?!

If not, then you GOTTA go check it out!

Lindsay is soo sweet, talented and has the cutest Etsy Shop EVER!

I was sooo excited when I received this cutie in the mail:

Lindsay creates the most fabulous wrap bracelets! I love mine to pieces and wear it ALL THE TIME! One thing I love about it is that I can wear it to Church on Sundays, on a date with the Hubs then wear it with jeans and a tank to a play date with the littles!

Here are a few more items I heart in Lindsay’s shop:

(OMG if I have another little girl, she will DEFINITELY have one of these cuties!)

Isn’t this A little bit of Whimsy Turquoise and Silver Wrap Bracelet soooo stinkin’ cutie?!

And I am also lovin’ this little hat too!

(wonder if I could squeeze Harper’s head in it?!)

And this Sage Wrap Bracelet is to die for!

I sent Lindsay some of my goodies in the mail too!

So make sure you click on over to Lee La La and leave tons and tons of JIAD love!

Aren’t fabulous bloggy friends the BEST?!

Thank you so much Lindsay!

I really LOVE my bracelet (and so does everyone else that sees it!)!

Filed Under: Review

FAQ Vlog!

August 16, 2011 9 Comments

Ok, here it is…

My first EVER Vlog!
It is in TWO parts because I rambled too long… Oopsies!

….Wait! There is more…

(Could I have rambled ANY longer?….)

Because I totally forgot to introduce you the newest member of our family….

Meet Gigi!

There were a bunch of questions I did not get to answer!

I will try my best to reply to you via email as soon as possible.

Filed Under: FAQ, Vlog

Monogram Frame Tutorial!

August 15, 2011 19 Comments

Make sure you submit a question for me to answer on my first ever Vlog tomorrow!

My CPIC (Crafting Partner In Crime – Duh!), McKeever and I got together a few weeks ago and created these super cute Monogram Frames for our girl’s rooms!

I already had the frames stuffed in a closet…

so we pulled them out and put a few coats of Krylon Ballet Slipper on them!

While the frames were drying, we went inside and made these cute bows:

After the frames were completely dry, we roughed the edges up with sandpaper.

Then we hot glued the bows onto the top-center of the frame.

Next we cut the girl’s initials using my Silhouette and then spray painted them green and applied it to hot pink fabric that we already cut to fit inside of the frame!

(Yes – I SPRAY PAINT vinyl)

(… it would be smart to iron the fabric before applying the vinyl… just sayin’)

Now Harper’s monogram is displayed cutely in her room!

Love it!

I am linking this post here here here here here here and to these awesome places!

Filed Under: Make Your Own..., Silhouette, Spray Paint, The Girl, Thrifty, Tutorial

Conductive Education Summer Session COMPLETE!

August 14, 2011 4 Comments

The Boy attended Conductive Education at The Therapy Place for 4 weeks! Friday was his last day, so I popped in a few minutes early and took a few shots of Cliff working super hard!

Cliff is working very hard on walking independently!

He can now crawl on hands and knees all the time. The Boy is also climbing onto and off of furniture. He is pulling to stand all by himself too! We are so proud of Cliff and all that he has accomplished in just 4 short weeks!

Cliff LOVES Ms. Krisztina!

Cliff chose a little Thank You gift for each of the aides and Ms. Krisztina from The Shop! He walked to each of the girls to give them their gifts! They also each got a BIG hug (and maybe even a kiss) from Cliff. The ladies better watch out - The Boy is a little charmer! I feel so great knowing that Cliff is in such wonderful hands while he is at The Therapy Place!

Everyone there is AMAZING.

They really LOVE all of these children to pieces.

These women are patient.

Kind.

They are cheerleaders and coaches.

They know the perfect balance when to push and when to back off.

They BELIEVE in these children.

They KNOW that these children CAN when other’s say they can’t.

Most of all, these wonderful ladies are helping our children have the best opportunity to live as independently as possible.

I hope that we can all learn from these special women.

Their patience is like nothing I have ever seen.

Their determination.

Drive.

Their faith.

They never give up.

With them, ANYTHING is POSSIBLE.

When other’s shut their doors, they open theirs with welcome arms.

They have made huge sacrifices to dedicate their lives to helping these children with special needs – sacrifices we could never relate to.

I am so incredibly thankful that Cliff had the opportunity to work with them everyday.

His progress is amazing.

We are so proud.

We are to thankful.

To Krisztina, Katie, Eszter and Amanda ,

We cannot thank you enough! Cliff loves each of you so much and so do Ross and I! You are making such a huge difference in the lives of all of these wonderful kids that participate in The Therapy Place. You are putting your lives on hold and taking time out of your day to help these children have the brightest future. I speak for all of the parents when I say thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! Each of you are amazing, talented and are making a huge impact in the lives of these children and their families.

We will be forever grateful.

Ross and I are so excited to share with you that Cilff will be attending Conductive Education at The Therapy Place 6 hours a day, five days a week, for the 2011 – 2012 school year. There will be some major changes in our lives as we transition from home based therapy to The Therapy Place, but we are so excited for Cliff and all of the resources he will have available to him. Another major change is that I will be homeschooling Cliff for this year to prepare him for Kindergarten (more on this will come soon!) – Please pray for me (LOL…no, really…)! It will be difficult for me to be away from Cliff for so much of the day, but I KNOW he is is wonderful hands and that he is right where he needs to be!

Cliff has one week off then we are full steam ahead and the most exciting part -

If Cliff has made such wonderful progress going to The Therapy Place 3 hours a day, 5 days a week for 4 weeks, IMAGINE what he will be doing by next Spring?!?!?

“He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.”

Job 5:9

Filed Under: Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy, The Boy

Shop.

August 13, 2011 1 Comment

I have been cranking out items for The Shop!

You will find things like Crayon Rolls:

Aren’t they super fun?!

You will also find Bloomin’ Barrettes and Bloomin’ Broaches too!

Oh yea, and make sure you check out the latest item just for boys!

Introducing The Boy’s Custom Applique Shirt!

Did I mention I am now offering CUSTOM vinyl creations for your home?!

Like the Masterpiece Wall in our playroom?!

Click on over and check it out!

Filed Under: The Shop

A Basket & A Basket

August 12, 2011 3 Comments

These super cute baskets now sit on my cutting table in the playroom:

When I stumbled upon them at Hobby Lobby (What?! You aren’t surprised?!) they were on major clearance $1 and two of the just HAPPENED to hop in my basket!

They yellow one looked like this before I went all JIAD on it:

(note, I do not hate bees, but they just aren’t my “thing”ya know?! If you LOVE the basket in it’s original form, it’s ok, I will still think you are super cool!)

I grabbed some of my favorite ribbon and…

and my hot glue gun…

Then I glued that ribbon right around the top of the basket!

See?!

Now the blue basket in the first picture actually started out red. As you know, I love me some red, but red was just not right for this project…

So, I got out my handy dandy acrylic paint and got to paintin’…

Then I ruffled a coordinating ribbon and hot glued that bad boy right onto the top of the basket and…

I ended up with this!

Now I have two fabulous baskets sitting on my cutting table.

One for scraps and one for unfinished Bloomin’ blooms!

Next time you are out and about, scope out the clearance section with a creative eye. Imagine what something would look like after you took 5 minutes to “spruce” it up. Every revamp doesn’t have to be a difficult project that takes days, in fact, simple quick projects like these baskets are my favorites because I can actually complete a smaller project before the littles get into the candy cabinet and smear chocolate all over the floors or find a pen and “decorate” our ottoman or see how many matchbox cars it takes to fill up the potty (… not that MY little angels would EVER do any of those things). Projects like this one gives me a sense of accomplishment.

The moral of today’s post:

Just because something isn’t EXACTLY what you want, snag it off of that clearance isle and take a few minutes to turn it into EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT!

Be flexible, be creative, be fabulous!

Filed Under: Crafting, Decorating, My Craft Room, Revamping, Thrifty