Sweet Twin Blankets

I recently finished an order for set of twin girls. I didn't have much direction from the person who ordered them (as a gift for a friend) except that she wanted their monogram on the blanket and typically with twins or siblings, I like using coordinating fabric, which I did in this instance. I absolutely love how the blankets turned out and hope that the person who receives them as a gift will love them as much as I do!

Sweet coordinating blankets

I love how this monogram looked. The letters looked so great together! On rare occasion, letters can look awkward together, so I was thrilled with how this turned out.

I love how this monogram looked too. I love using blues for a girl. So sweet and unexpected. I really love the mushrooms on the blanket ruffle too.  

The little twins be so adorable strolling around together with their matching blankets! 

All wrapped up and ready to go! Seriously the perfect baby gift in my opinion. Everyone I gift them to for baby showers or after having a baby, seem to agree! :)

I am pretty positive you will see more of this Red Riding Hood fabric from me. I really love the sweetness of the coordinating fabrics, as well as, all of the fun colors!

Happy Tuesday!

Xoxo,

Ashley

Romper Chic

Rompers are so "in" right now and really who doesn't love a romper? I think they are pretty darn flattering on lots of body types and really fun too! I love them for myself and my little lady. I've been snatching them up right and left for both of us for summer! My buddy Grace, put a picture on Instagram a few weeks ago of her sweet baby girl in an adorable navy and white nautical stripe romper and I immediately text her to see where she bought it! I love pretty much anything nautical stripe! She bought it at H&M! I rushed over to H&M the next morning and bought the two romper options they had and came home and added my own personal touch. After all, I think almost everything can use some sort of a monogram on it. :) So excited for my girlie to wear these all summer long!

Here is the nautical stripe romper (LOVE IT!):

Here is a close up of the monogram. Did I mention I love how it turned out? :)

Here is the pink and white stripe romper:

A close-up of the R. This romper be so adorable with a lime green bow!

The rompers are being modeled by the new lady in my life, my new dress form. I named her Regina. Suits her, don't you think?

Hope you had a fabulous weekend! I am dealing with the Monday struggles a bit today, but at least I woke up early and got the gym class over with! Happy Monday!

xoxo,

Ashley

The Great Purge of 2012

I am sitting here wondering how our house ever got to the point that this HUGE purge was necessary. I'd like to blame it on the fact that baby and kid stuff takes up a bunch of space...and while it does, we still had/have WAY too much random stuff! I think the hubs and I have both been so anxious about the state of our garage and other parts of the house over the past year but really we just haven't had the time to go through it and fix the problem. Well, finally this weekend, I went crazy and purged a TON! I finally went through my closet and got rid of clothes that were seriously at least 6-7 years old. I have no idea why I thought anything would or could possibly come back to style. I'm not sure why I was hanging onto certain items, but in all reality, it was "out of sight, out of mind," so I ignored it. We have been discussing simplifying our lives for awhile now, mainly just getting rid of unnecessary stuff and finally I took the plunge. When my hubs got home on Thursday night, I could see the stress in his eyes when he walked into in our living room, dining room, office, etc because I had stuff thrown everywhere! I assured him it would all be gone soon and basically I slaved away all day Saturday and a lot of Sunday afternoon and night to get rid of unneeded stuff!

The hubs took a carload of stuff to the Goodwill and my car is huge so it was a very large load! I am pretty positive I may have another trip coming up in the next couple days after I finish the rest of the house!

It is really amazing how many random items we had just stuffed into cabinets/closets and piled in the garage just because we have the space to do so! Here is an example of how our coat closet looked before I got rid of pretty much everything in there...honestly awful (and uber embarrassing to post), right?? Makes me sick just looking at it. I think it was easy to let this get to this stage of awful because I could just throw anything there and shut the door and not see it! This will not happen again!

I also listed a bunch of baby items on Craigslist, so we shall see if I sell anything. I really don't have great luck with Craigslist whenever I use it but hopefully I do this time! This stuff piles up quickly when you aren't using it anyone. Even though I am sad to see these items go, as it is the end of the baby era for us, I am hoping to move these items out as quickly as possible because they are taking up space! 

I am still working on all the cabinets in the house and hope to have them all cleaned out and organized by Wednesday night since trash pick-up is Thursday mornings. I have already called and paid extra for all the bags/boxes that won't fit in our trashcans or recycling bin. Again, I am truly amazed that we had that much garbage and junk hanging around! While I don't feel 100% better about the state of our house, I am on a serious roll and am hoping I can keep going and get the rest hammered out before this weekend rolls around and finally be in a state of organizational peace! Wish me luck! 

xoxo,

Ashley

Ps I hope everyone had a fabulous Mother's Day! I had a really nice day and was able to sneak away from my purge chaos for a couple hours to have lunch with my sweet family at a new favorite restaurant of mine, The Naked Cafe. :)

Little Red Riding Hood

The month of May has totally crept up on me...I'm really having a hard time believing that we are actually 10 days in already! My "to do" list is seriously overflowing between the kids, organizing the house, moving my craft suite, reading the Fifty Shades Trilogy (Haha!) and reading Simplicity Parenting, upcoming trips and orders, etc!  First up on my order to do list is blankets for a set of twin girls! With twins and siblings, I think it's so fun to coordinate their blankets to match. For this set of girlies, I chose Little Red Riding Hood fabric. I love this fabric collection so much. I'm sure I'll end up making one for my own sweet girl. I can't help but make her a lot of the cute blankets I sell. After all, it was my kiddos that inspired my business to begin with! The below fabric will possibly be in my summer collection...I am still finalizing all of the fabric choices for that! 

Sweet Little Red Riding Hood fabric:

One of the twins will get this color combo(the pink and red bows are just so sweet):

For the other twin, I'm going back and forth between this combo(I LOVE the mushroom fabric for the ruffle! Love it!):

And this color combo:

But, like I said, the whole collection is just so adorable, it's tough to decide. Each girlie will have her sweet monogram in the corner of each blanket as well. These are my favorite gift for baby showers and baby arrivals! Look for the finished product post in the next couple of days! Hope everyone is having a fabulous week!!

xoxo,

Ashley

TEA-cher Appreciation

Friday night, I was laying in bed with my mind racing, as always and I was going back and forth about what to do for Teddy's preschool teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week which is May 7th-11th. I know most parents probably won't do anything but these ladies are very important people in my son's life and I wanted to do something small to remind them how much we appreciate them! As I was drifting off to sleep it came to me! Mugs with tea and a cute card! I decided to use these adorable monogrammed mugs from Anthropologie! If you know me, you know, I LOVE anything monogrammed...whether it is a traditional three letter monogram, two letters or even a one letter mono. I knew the monogrammed mugs would be the perfect start to this cute little gift. Then I added a box of Tazo Zen Tea to each mug. I'm sure after or even during a long day dealing with 3-5 year olds, this tea could be just what the doctor teacher ordered! Honestly, these ladies probably need something stronger than tea at the end of a long day but wine just doesn't seem appropriate to gift my child's teacher! ha! Then, I tied one of these awesomely adorable spoons to each little gift...the spoons are really sweet and cute in person.  I love them and am going to buy more to keep around...they would be a cute topper to lots of different gifts!!! I wrapped each mug in a little cellophane bag and attached little tea bag cards to each gift...they are pretty darn cute if I say so myself! They say "You are a wonderful TEA-cher! I appreciate all you do! xoxo, Teddy" I LOVE how the cards turned out. They are exactly as I imagined them to look! Yay! I love when that happens...though for me, most projects do not go as planned and I think they often turn out better that way! These little gifts were really so simple to make and didn't take much time to assemble after I purchased my supplies! This could be a perfect gift for pretty much anyone on your list, but if you're looking for the perfect thing to gift one of your child's teachers this week, look no further! Easy and affordable! This is definitely a gift I would love to receive myself! So, go ahead, show your teachers some love this week!

xoxo,

Ashley