Archives for October 2010

I do soooo love fall.  The one thing I like most is the pumpkin carving.

Really it’s just total fun for me.  The kids don’t stick with it too long, especially the boys.  They are too busy and want to move on.  Harper will stick it out with me at least for the cleaning the insides out.  She really digs that part.

So really it’s just super fun for me and, Josh lets me do my own thing.  He has no pumpkin carving preferences.  This year I carved/punctured 6 pumpkins…did I mention that I LOVE to carve pumpkins.

For the name pumpkins, I had Harper write her own name on her pumpkin and then I used a manual screwdriver to make their names show up.  This will be something I do every year…if I had had more pumpkins there would be other designs…the ideas are endless.  And Sunday we will get all dressed up and get some yummy treats.

This will be a good weekend.

Now for some orders.  These two key fobs were ordered by Lindsay in Washington and Debi in Texas.  Thanks so much ladies.

And Debi actually send me this amazing wood ornament…I LOVE!!!

If you would like one to please check out her store HERE.  All the money goes towards their adoption process.  Thanks so much Debi.

This next sweet little bracelet was ordered by Lauren in Louisiana.  Thanks so much Lauren.

This next big order of key fobs was ordered by Ashley in Kentucky.  Love how all these turned out.  Thanks a TON Ashley and hope everyone loves them.

This next order of  key fobs is headed to Ashton in Georgia.  Thanks so much Ashton.  I love that customers are really making these their own creations by adding all the different texts…love all the new ideas.

This sweet long sleeved Big Bro shirt was ordered by Kristen in Illinois.  Thanks so much Kristen and hope your little guy sports it well.

These two shirts were mailed in my Ivy in Georgia.  She wanted a shirt that showed love to Haiti, Peru and Africa.  She also wanted a special shirt for her sister.  Thanks so much Ivy…it was a pleasure.

And this last order was placed by Margo in Oklahoma.  She wanted a 11×14 Africa Adopted piece for her new little girl’s room.  She also wanted a 16×20 Names of Jesus piece.  These canvases just do not get old to me…I LOVE creating these.  Thanks so much Margo.

Thank you guys so much for keeping me so busy and helping us fill our adoption account.  It really is just such a blessing.  Hope everyone has a great weekend.

**REMINDER:  Due to the overwhelming and amazing amount of orders I have placed, the last day to order for 2010 is November 1st.  This is to ensure that all orders are completed and in customers hands before Christmas.**

So did you know that Christmas is literally like 2 months away?  Just typing that makes my blood pressure rise and makes me very excited too.  So due to a wonderful, crazy amount of orders, I will be taking no new orders after November 1st. This is to ensure that all orders are completed and in customer’s hands before Christmas.  So if you are wanting certain items for Christmas, please make sure you have placed the order by November 1st.

Now onto some new orders.  This first order was totally new to me and honestly, really intimidating.  Mary in Alabama mailed me lots of her little girl’s clothes and bibs, along with a special blanket.  She wanted to me to use certain portions of the items and sew them onto the blanket.

You should have felt my clammy hands as I cut apart these sweet little worn baby clothes that were so precious to this momma.  After a lot of planning, several lay outs, lots of thinking and running dimensions, I finally made the first cut.

This project was not easy for my OCD brain.  These little clothes were so soft and worn and unpredictable.  No matter how hard I tried to get everything just perfect and straight, I just could not make everything perfectly even.  I ended up forgiving myself and just tried to let go and realize what a sweet little keepsake this was going to be, no matter the imperfections.  After that I was on a mission.  Lots of cutting, tons of heat-n-bond and even more stitching and here is the end result.

Thanks so much Mary for trusting me with this project.  Hope this blanket is loved for many years.

This next order was placed by Emilee in Ilinois.  She wanted an Africa tee to show some love.  Thanks so much Emilee…hope this was just what you were wanting.

These sweet Africa tees were ordered by Taryn in Florida.  Taryn wanting matching shirts for her and their new baby girl to sport.  Thanks so much Taryn and hope you guys have an amazing trip to bring your little girl home.

And I may have a new favorite Africa tee.  LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. this fabric.

This fabric is one of four more new fabrics I have just picked up.  These are all now available in my fabric selection.

The last few weeks have been super busy with all the yard sale prep and then the actual yard sale, so I am super behind on posting orders.  Here is what has gone out and some that I have finished up this week.  This first set of key fobs were ordered by Kari in Clinton, Tn, Susan in Idaho and Rory in Clarksville, Tn.  Thanks ladies so much and hope everyone loves them.

This next set of key fobs was ordered by Lynda in Missouri.  She wanted lots of key fobs to give as little gifts.  Love it.  Thanks so much Lynda.

These next three are headed to Britney in Arizona.  Britney was actually the Crafty Crow gift certificate winner.  Thanks so much Britney.

This last set of key fobs was actually ordered by my dad.  He needed some little stocking stuffers for his wife Judye to pass out to all the special woman in her life over the holidays.  Thanks so much Dad!  Love you.

This Africa tee was ordered by Codi in Texas.  Codi wanted a light blue tee, but let me pick the fabric.  I love how this pink pops.  Thanks again Codi.

This Africa tee is headed to Angie in Brentwood, Tn.  I am a huge fan of the blue and brown together.  First Africa tee in this fabric choice…great pick Angie.  Thanks again so much.

These two little Africa tees were ordered by Stacy in Texas.  Stacy wanted her son and daughter to have special tees to sport at their up and coming fundraiser.  Thanks so much Stacy and hope you guys raise lots of funds.

And check out this new funky, polka dot Africa tee.  Super bright and fun.

I also have lots of new fabrics that are now available in my fabric selections.  I am totally in love with some of these and cannot wait for a customer to pick one of these new fabrics.

That about wraps it up.  Have a great Thursday!

Well this weekend was our huge, massive, insanely big yard sale.  When I say it was big…I really mean it was big.  We have been working on this yard sale for well over a month now.  Getting the word out, picking up loads of stuff from people from all over, advertising, wrangling help, organizing, pricing and then organizing again and again.  Nothing prepared us for just how this yard sale would end.

I am super mad that my camera went dead early Friday, only after a few pictures and I left my charger at home.  We were so busy on Friday that I did not have a chance to run home.  But did snap a few pictures before it died.

Please ignore how terribly tired I look.  We continued to get more items for the yard sale all week, even Thursday night.  After helping my dad and Judye set up their place Thursday afternoon/evening, I ended up heading to my moms to continue to organize and price more things that had just been dropped off.  My best friend Ashley Mills (on the right) flew in from Florida to help us.  She and I stayed up until about 12:30 Thursday, aka Friday morning and then got up at 4:30 to pull everything from my mom’s garage, basement and shed.  My other dear friend Ashley Frost (on the left) showed up around 5am to help us set up.  You girls rock!  At 8 something we were still pulling things out.  I soooooo wish I had some hard core proof of just how much stuff we had.

Josh had to work all day Friday, so it was very interesting handling a giant yard sale and three kiddos.  They did get to hang out with their Nene and Big Daddy in the morning, but after that they were yard sale kids the rest of the weekend.

Our busiest day was definitely Friday, but our cutest day was Saturday.  My brother Chris and sister-in-law Kim came up on Saturday and set up a lemonade and hot chocolate stand for the kids.  Pretty confident they drank more than they sold.  But really this was the cutest little lemonade stand ever.

So what was our total after our two day yard sale?  We were totally unprepared for what God had in store.  We ended up making $11,360.04.  Is you jaw on the floor like mine still is?  On top of that we also sold $300 worth of our adoption shirts at the yard sale also.  We have talked with the family that said they would match whatever we made and they are still totally committed to matching our total.  I cannot begin to tell you how we feel.  I told Josh this morning that I feel lighter.  A load has been lifted and I feel as if I can breath again.  We never doubted for one minute that God would provide this money, but we were committed to working as hard as we could for it.  We knew God was giving us these opportunities to make this money and we were not going to pass them up.  We have been working insanely hard.  I have been keeping crazy late hours and getting orders out just as quickly as I can.  I know I have said it a million times, but we are not afraid to work for our son…we were committed to it.  But we were really getting tired and I just can’t really explain how I feel now…other than incredibly humbled and grateful and over the top amazed by God.  He is so mighty and He really likes to show off.  I’m not usually a super emotional person, but how could I not be about this.  I even cried in Target today while I was on the phone with my dad and brother telling each of them our final total.  It’s just down right crazy wonderful.

So tonight, I am sitting a breathing and soaking up just how big God is.  We give Him all the glory because it is His.  We are so grateful to everyone who came out to the sale and bought items, let us keep the change, made a donation, bought a shirt, lemonade or baked goods.  And thank you to everyone who donated items to the yard sale or baked up some goodies for the bake sale.  If you have not received your thank you card yet, it will be in the mail soon.

An enormous thank you to my mom, dad and Judye for working so hard for our sweet boy.  We know you guys are tired and probably don’t want to see small change or trinkets for a really long time, but we just cannot say thank you enough.  You went above and beyond for us and our new little guy and for that we are forever grateful.  And to the matching family…thank you.  How totally inadequate that sounds to me.  I wish we could say more.  Thank you for your crazy generosity and thank you for letting God use you in such an amazing way.  There really are no words that would ever remotely capture how thankful we really are.

So there you have it.  I’m tired and headed to bed.  God is so so incredibly good and we totally do not deserve it.  But isn’t that just how God’s love is.  Happy, Super, Fantastic Sunday!

Our big yard sale is this coming Friday and Saturday.  We are beyond excited and it is just down right huge.  Our yard sale last year brought in $4900 and this years sale is so much bigger.  We have no idea what God has in store for our family, but we are anxious to see.  Whatever He has planned, we are already thankful for it.  We have worked so hard and are still working every night this week to make sure everything is just right.  And we are just so blessed by all the people who have donated such awesome stuff.  Each location is just bursting.  So come out and see us this weekend.  **1934 Hwy 41 S Ridgetop Tn 37152 and 1905 Lake Rd Greenbrier Tn 37073**  These locations are just right down the road from each other.  Sale will start this Friday, October 15th and Saturday, October 16th.  And we would still love to pick up baked goods or you can drop them off.  Just send me an email or Facebook message and we can work out the details.  Lastly, don’t forget, whatever we make will be matched by a sweet and oh so generous family.

I am so behind on posting orders, so let’s get to it.  This first tee was ordered by Abby in Washington.  She loved the black and white damask Africa and wanted one to show some love.  Thanks so much Abby.  Hope your adoption journey is smooth and quick.

These next tees are SO SO sweet.  Christy in Texas contacted me about making some really special tees.  Christy and her room mate will be headed to Uganda, Africa soon to meet their sponsor children.  They wanted me to make tees for them to wear and these sweet Texas tees to give to each of their little girls they sponsor.  I LOVE IT!  What a special and symbolic gift.  And I love how girly the Texas tees are.  Thanks so much Christy and hope you guys have an amazing trip.  I would love to see pictures!

This next order was placed by Allyson in Hendersonville, Tn.  Allyson wanted a 15×30 canvas for her new little brother.  His adoption is about to be finalized and she wanted just the right gift for his blue and brown room.  Thanks so much Allyson.  It was such a pleasure and glad you mom loved it.

This little letter C taggie block was ordered by Amber in Indiana.  She wanted a blue, green and brown taggie block for a new little guy.  I love these blocks…so fun.  Thanks so much Amber.  Hope little boy C loves it too.

This next order was placed by Shannon in North Carolina.  Shannon is a returning customer and I was elated to work on such a large order for her.  She wanted 2 8×10 Africa Adoption pieces,

a set of fabulous key fobs,

a special 1st birthday onesie for her new baby girl and

an argyle Africa tee for a new little guy who will be making his way home soon.

Thank you so much Shannon.  It was awesome to work with you again.

These next items were all gifts for family members.  I do love handmade gifts and am hopefully passing this onto other family members.  Maybe it’s just because I really know what goes into a handmade gift, especially time, but I just love giving things I make.  My brother just had a recent birthday and he is a total music guy.  And he and my sister-in-law actually just bought Josh and I tickets to see The Avett Brothers concert (thank you!).  I wanted to make him something for his office using one of his favorite music lyrics.  This is what I came up with.  Love you Chris and Happy Birthday to the best big brother!

These next tees I made up for my niece Lyla and my nephew Van.  Lyla just had her dress up birthday party this last weekend.  She loves mermaids and even dressed up like one for her party.  Of course, I just had to make her up a cute, girly mermaid tee.

And Katy, their mom, loves the tie tees I have been making, so I just thought Van needed one to sport.

And speaking of Lyla’s dress up birthday party.  Harper really wanted to be a bumble bee this year for Halloween…actually she had narrowed it down to a pumpkin, a spider or a bumble bee.  Luckily, we happened upon a cheap bumble bee costume at TJ Maxx.  But the boys still didn’t have anything to wear to Lyla’s party.  They are not that opinionated yet, at least about Halloween costumes.  So I decided to  take a dig through their fall clothes.  I found two plain long sleeved tees and made them up some cute little tie tees.

Eye penciled on some mustaches and threw on some over sized hats from the Walmart clearance and this is what you get:

Two adorable little men and their bumble bee sister.  I must say, they really rocked their costumes.

And don’t forget, our adoption tees are in and they are selling.  So excited!  We will also have them out at the yard sale this weekend.  Remember they are $25 and you can buy them using the Pay Now button in the side bar.  Thanks to everyone who has already purchased shirts.  They will be in the mail this week.  Happy Monday everyone!

I have so many orders to post, but I am just too excited…our fundraiser tees are finally in.  I have been anticipating this post for what seems like forever so bare with me.  This design and idea has been in my head and heart for so long now and it just feels great to finally see it come to life.  We really wanted the tees to be different and we wanted them to have meaning.  The most important thing to us, was that they be complimentary to our son.  We know that one day he will see these shirts and when he does, we want him to know that he is such a blessing to our family…period!  I still stand behind my opinion that adoption is really about God’s plan for His children.  And that God puts everything together in his time.  I have had so many conversations and emails about this lately.  I have heard and read about so many adoptive parents recently that talk about all the “What Ifs” for their adopted children.  I think about this too for Sol and our next little guy.  But here is the truth.  I did the study of Esther a while back and the one enormous thing that I took from it was that God’s plan is God’s plan.  He is mighty and doesn’t need us one bit.  We don’t complete His plans…He does.  Now we can be apart of His plans and be used by Him, but if we choose not too, that doesn’t mean His plans don’t happen, that just means He is going to use someone else.  I love the part in Esther when Mordecai sends Esther the letter and in so many words of less, Mordecai tells Esther she either steps up and obeys or steps aside and God will use someone else.  So the truth is this:  Sol wasn’t going to die in Ethiopia if we didn’t adopt him and he wasn’t going to live a hopeless life unloved.  God’s plan for him was to live and be loved and have a family.  The real “What If” that makes my stomach turn, is that if we didn’t hear God’s calling for our family and obey, Sol would have been someone else’s son.  There were families behind us waiting and we would have so greatly missed out on our boy.  That’s the “What If” that I think about.  God’s plan was for Sol to have a family and He was going to complete His plan with or without us.  This is why we wanted the shirts to be something we would want our next little guy to see one day.  We know that we are blessed to be chosen to be his parents and we never want him to think any different or ever, ever feel like he owes us one thing.  Because we only owe God everything.  We are nothing but blessed to be his mom and dad!

So here is the run down on our tees.  They are $25 and we have sizes Small, Medium, Large and X-Large.  If you would like to purchase a tee, just click on either the Pay Now button or the picture of our tee in the side bar.  Enter your payment for however many tees you would like and just make sure to include the size(s) you would like and the address of where to ship them to in the “Instructions” part of your check out.  We will get them packaged up and on their way to you.  And please feel free to help us spread the word about them.  We would so greatly appreciate it.

If you live locally, we would love for you to purchase yours in person and we can even deliver them to you.  We will also have them for sale at our yard sale.  Happy Friday!

Dana at Lifelines Designs who hosted the recent giveaway on my blog was nice enough to handle the drawing of the winner for her giveaway.  This morning I had an email from Dana with the following message:

“I have a lovely little assistant at home, but she would probably eat the slips of paper with your names, so I used an online random number generator. The winner is comment #36 Sarah Lyons.

I have had so many emails about Hud’s bubble gum birthday party, so I am going to try and give a few more details than usual.

Huddy’s actual birthday was on Wednesday and keeping with Kelley tradition we decorated his door with a bubble gum machine to match his bubble gum party.  And actually, I have to give props to Josh because he did Huddy’s door all on his own…I was busy making the bubble gum machine cake pops for the kids to have for breakfast.

Another Kelley family birthday tradition is cake for breakfast on their birthdays.

And I love these cake pops.

I discovered cake balls/cake pops when I did Harper’s lady bug party this year. I actually only used cake balls at her party, but for her snack to take to her little mother’s day out class, I put the cake balls on little sticks, so she could take ladybug cake pops to her class.  The kids loved them and the teachers loved that they were small and easy to eat for the kids.

The bubble gum machine cake pops I made, I used the directions from THIS SITE.

And we are a big Funfetti family, so the cake balls were actually made with Funfetti cake and Rainbow Chip icing.  YUM!!

Party day was today.  And Huddy had a blast.  I think all the kids did.  It is just too much fun seeing them all playing and celebrating together.

As part of Huddy’s gift from his Grandaddy and Ms. Judye, they actually bought him his very own gumball machine.  He is in love…all the kids were.  All of my kiddos sported their gumball machine tees for the party.

I also made each niece and nephew (all the little guests at the party) a bubble gum tee for their treat bag.

The bags I found at Hobby Lobby and the tags I made using paper, stamps, markers and little ribbon.  Each treat bag had a bubble gum machine tee, a cake pop, homemade glitter play-do and a small bubble gum machine.  The play-do is my aunt’s recipe that she has used for years and years.  It make the softest, best play-do that will keep for months.  Harper and I made the play-do one evening together.  We added glitter and then wrapped it like a piece of gum, just to make it a little more fun.  If you would like the play-do recipe just email me.  It’s super easy though.  The little gumball machines came from Joann’s and were maybe $1.49, but then I waited to buy all of them until they had a big coupon week and used a 40% off coupon for each of them.  The cashier laughed at me.  Oh well!

For the wrapping on the play-do I just cut the ends off of sandwich zip lock bags and wrapped each end with a small rubber band and then added a little ribbon.

For some fun decorations I just used some of the boy’s toy balls and wrapped them in paper like gum.

For food we did some yummy crock pot soups for the adults (the weather was perfect for this) and for the kids we did little circle sandwiches (wrapped like gum), chips, watermelon and cantaloupe ball skewers and little bagged chips.  I have never melon balled before, but one thing I learned is never make the first attempts wearing a white sweater.  By the time I finished I finally got the hang of it, but in the beginning it was not pretty 🙂

For the wrapping on the sandwiches, I had some leftover clear plastic treat bags and just cut the end off of each bag and tied them up with some ribbon.  I also did not have a circle cookie cutter that would use up almost the whole piece of bread, so I just used one of our glasses that used almost the whole piece of bread.  And then we ended the party with some yummy cake.  Found the cake idea HERE.

Cake was probably Huddy’s favorite part of the day.  And he totally rocked at blowing out his candles.  Seriously, the kid was a pro.  He took both candles out, with two direct blows…one for each candle.  The kid was ready for his cake.

(By the way, I LOVE Harper’s face in these pictures.  She is totally in love with her brothers and is just so proud of them)

And there you have it.  A bubble gum birthday party fit for our Huddy!  We love you boy…more than you know.  You are just pure joy and you make our days so much fun.  Cannot imagine life without you.  God is going to do big things through you… can’t wait to see how your sweet life plays out.  Happy 2nd birthday buddy!

**And another hugely exciting thing to end the day on was an email from a sweet family (who has asked to remain anonymous).  This family is going to match whatever we make at our yard sale.  Josh and I are so excited about this and floored by their generosity.  If you have items you would like to donate, just let us know and we will gladly come and pick up.  Also if you would like to make baked goods, that would be awesome too.  You can drop off or we can pick up baked goods on Thursday, October 14th.  Please come a see us on Friday, October 15th or Saturday, October 16th.  This yard sale is going to be huge!  Email me if you have any questions pitterpatterart at gmail dot com  And thank you to the sweet family whos generosity is just overwhelming.  God is really, really good.**

And don’t forget to enter the awesome giveaway by Dana over at Lifelines Designs. To enter to win one of her awesome products just CLICK HERE or scroll down to the post below.  Just check out what she just designed using one of my boys’ recent pictures.  She just has the best ideas.