I’ve Gotten to Be Creative!

Christmas Drinks! Thanks to a special friend for the gift card!

Hello Everyone!

I’m so excited that I was able to have time to be creative over the last month or so. Thanks to my amazing husband and family, I’ve had a little bit of free time here and there to de-stress and enjoy crafting. I’ve always loved making things with my hands and baking. With Bella, I haven’t had a lot of time, energy, or funds to do it! For Christmas I received some awesome craft items from generous family members and I discovered felt quiet books as well!

Jaxson’s Quiet Book

I learned about Quiet Books and became obsessed with them. I started by teaching myself and cutting everything out and sewing it by hand. In the end I learned how to do a blanket stitch, install grommets (metal rings) and follow free patterns. The other things I knew how to do before.

I used templates from the blog Imagine Our Life (thank you!) as well as some I found online and others I freehanded.

In the end, I made the following pages:

Cover Page, Tractor, wheels spin

Pizza Page, Pizza slices with pepperoni can be counted and can Velcro onto right spaces

Ice Cream Page, Stack a fun colorful ice cream cone

Farm Pages, Finger puppets with open/close barn doors, Page for puppets to “play”

Dump Truck Page, Dump Truck “empties” and you can take rock in/out of truck bed

I bound the pages with grommets and binder rings. This way. I can add/subtract to the book. I choose to finish off each page individually so that we could interchange them easier. Believe it or not, I never took pictures of the finished book! I gifted it to Jaxson and forgot to do a video of the book pages. I will have to do that. A lot of these pictures aren’t or it finished but in different stages. I loved it. It took a lot of time though, and planning!

Baby Christmas Felt Books

Then, I decided to make Christmas themed baby felt books. I made a total of 4. They also took more time than I planned! Almost all of these I freehanded but the fox. I found the pattern here.

I really loved how these turned out. I stuck to easy silhouettes and only used embroidery thread and felt. I struggled with binding them, since I didn’t want to use the grommets or things that could be a choking hazard. I ended up threading them together and tying a knot. For two of them I attached them to little baby links. Of course for Isabella’s I had to “sign” it on the back. Each had 4 pages. They are pretty small. Jaxsons was bigger, but these were meant to be handled by little fingers!

Bella’s face doesn’t show it, but I swear she loved it and enjoys the contrast!

I began a baby book (first) when learning but abandoned it because I switched to the Christmas idea. Below is where I began and I’ll get back to completing it eventually.

I Got to Bake!

We have an old German family recipe for lard sugar cookies. Yes, lard! It’s crazy but really addictive. I’ve been making and eating them since I was a little girl. We made them with my dad (as always) and I was creative and decorated the ones below.

I also was able to get my mixer out! I made some quick peanut butter cup cookies. They were a big hit at our family get togethers. I didn’t make my fun “twisted buckeyes” but may make some for New Years Eve.

Fleece Blankets

Money has been a bit tight this year! We cut our budget back by quite a bit. Instead of buying everyone on our list individual gifts, we made everyone a fleece blanket! This was fun because

1.) it was pretty cost effective (no blanket was more than $17 each) We bought the kits from Joanns when they were 40% off.

2.) it gave me something to work on and craft

3.) each was picked out based on the person’s likes

Everyone liked theirs. They wash up really well (I’ve washed mine A LOT with Bella vomiting) and I did a different tie which made the prints switch sides. It was more of a “in/out” fold instead of a tie. It helped the blankets to lay nicely. I’m not sure what it’s called. I used this video and cut the notches.

This project took longer than I thought as well. Haha. I was rushing around trying to finish them in time. I folded and tied them with yarn.

I Got A Cricut! And Used It!

Not the best lighting above, but you can see that I’ve been busy organizing my office/craft space. I’ve moved it upstairs and in the dining room. I received the Cricut Air 2 in mint for Christmas from my dad and other wonderful accessories from other family members.

Before Christmas, I used $50 to get everything above. It was all 50% off at Joanns!

I received this tool set (it matched my Cricut) and new mats!

I’m still learning, but thus far I’ve made mugs with vinyl, phone decals, platters, cards, Christmas decorations, coloring sheets, and more.

This fun personalized platter was bought at the $ tree! I used my Cricut to cut permanent vinyl for it. I placed my peanut butter cookie cups on it to take to family get togethers.

The mug I made for Dustin was my first attempt. I don’t love it because it’s too big, but it held up to our dishwasher and is fun. I will probably redo one and make the design smaller.

I really love the Christmas village I made with cardstock and vinyl. It was one of the “make it now” projects. I already had a glittery metal house on my mantel. I added this fun accordion style paper village behind it. You can place tea lights behind it as well to make the windows glow.

I adore the glitter snow on the rooftops. It feels so cozy

Instead of only using white, I added in blue for a pop of color.

Baby Craft

I saw this idea on Pinterest and had to try it. I wasn’t crazy about it, but was bored and wanted to make a Grandparent gifts from the baby. I made a big mistake by getting her toe nails dyed green after applying water color paints! haha The cards weren’t perfect, but it was a free craft (I had all supplies at home) and I had fun making memories with Bella.

You can see I’ve been pretty busy crafting! This has helped a lot with stress. It’s been very fun to work with my hands and make beautiful things.

Hope you had a blessed Christmas,

Living Over 100 Days in the NICU

8 / 10 / 18

It seems like just yesterday that we left the NICU at Akron Children’s Hospital. I have very many mixed memories of that place. Some of the scariest times of my life happened behind those walls and some of the happiest.

In the midst of a dark time we did our best to make the NICU home. Years ago I bought an art print that says, “Home is wherever I’m with you.” (Yes, it was bought from Urban Outfitters and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros were popular…ok now listening to them on repeat).

Since our marriage, Dustin and I have moved six times. It’s funny to add “NICU” to that list. We spent most nights there but spent 17 at Ronald McDonald House and once a week at home to rest up. I plan on writing a lot more about making the NICU home and our experiences there. In the meantime, enjoy this video I took near the end of our stay. You can tell Bella is much more stable and is even in an open cot!

XOXO

Tiff

Acting Like Millionaires & Exploring The Biltmore In Asheville

7 / 16 / 157 / 16 / 15

While staying at The Yellow House, we took all day Saturday, May 30th to explore Asheville, North Carolina. Unfortunately I had a lot of writing to do, so after we finished breakfast on the porch of the inn, we drove to a coffee shop in downtown Asheville.

waking-life-hand-brewed-coffee-and-espresso-1528404 2 — Photo Credit: roadtrippers.com

Waking Life Espresso was exactly what we needed to get our work done while in the mountains. This little coffee shop is located in a remodeled house and is light filled and airy. In the front there are bar seats and in a smaller room in the back there are couches and a table. The coffee was no-frills and especially delicious. To see how serious they are about their coffee, watch this video.

I worked on my articles and Dustin just hung out. (Perhaps working? I’m not sure.) At about 2:00pm, we drove the ten minutes to The Biltmore, the main attraction for the day.

When I was a little girl, I remember visiting The Biltmore. This mansion is known as the largest privately owned house in the United States. It’s interesting because Dustin had also been there with his parents when he was eighteen. We remembered bits and parts (like the indoor swimming pool) but wanted to go together. The Yellow House was about thirty minutes from Asheville, where The Biltmore is located.

The price tag was enough to shy us away, but we decided since we were close we should go. My love for interiors and art history really helped to sway the decision to drop the $120 ($60 per ticket) and spend the day there. I also used my vacation money to buy the tickets.

Words and pictures really don’t do this place justice. It took hours to tour and there was a room dedicated to arranging flowers. The Vanderbilt’s, who owned the home, were fascinating people who loved art and each other. An example of architecture from The Gilded Age, the mansion has 252 rooms.

Pictures and videos are prohibited of the inside. George Vanderbilt shared a love for technology and entertaining guests. It was really interesting to see the parallels between the couple, George and Edith, and us. He loved technology and had electricity throughout the home and Edith loved books and taking care of guests. You should see her library! It reminded me of the library in Beauty and the Beast! This couple was madly in love and took the best care of those they employed. Even the servants quarters were nice!

Dustin and I found ourselves staring on multiple occasions at the craziness of it all. The massive dining room had three fireplaces and there were separate rooms dedicated to guns, smoking, and games. I personally loved seeing the restored furniture and paintings by famous artists.

You can easily spend more than a day at The Biltmore. Along with the mansion, there is shopping, dining, a winery, hiking trails, gardens, and entertainment. There are hotels on site and even tours for taking horseback rides. We didn’t have enough time to see everything, but after going through the mansion we enjoyed the gardens for a bit. We drove over to Antler Hill Village where there were shops and a winery. While there, there was also live music in the center gazebo.

We brought our own snacks and got an appetizer at Cedric’s Tavern located at the Antler Hill Village. We had hoped to eat dinner at Cedric’s, but after seeing the menu, nothing seemed that good. The place was over-priced. Since we were hungry and still had more to see, we ordered an appetizer. It was way too salty and not very good. After wasting $20 on an appetizer and water, we asked for our bill.

The winery wasn’t anything too special. We tried a few wines but didn’t like waiting in line. (Wine tasting is free with your ticket.) After buying a book about the mansion, we left to eat somewhere outside of the park.

Overall, it was a really neat experience. A $60 ticket only included admission to the mansion and property. The audio tour was an additional amount and there were other behind-the-scenes tours we didn’t take. I felt that the $60 ticket was fine for us. We saw plenty and I purchased a book to learn even more.

Dustin and I said we loved it, but wouldn’t go back anytime soon. It was one of those places that you go once and don’t need to keep going back. I would like to see it decorated for Christmas though. The property was very romantic.

In the future, we’d go back if we had kids. It’s one of those places that’s so out of this world, but very expensive. If you plan on going, eat ahead of time or bring snacks. We left and ate at an amazing place called The White Duck Taco.

While walking about, we acted like we owned the place. We laughed and told stories about our day to day lives as millionaires. It was fun to dream.

Above, Dustin always carrying my purse while I take pictures. Haha.

You could go and spend a day just going through the gardens. It felt like I was transported into the book The Secret Garden. It was hot and we were hungry so we only walked a short ways and drove the rest. I don’t usually suggest buying more than a one day ticket, but for The Biltmore, it would be worth it.

This stop on May, 30th was one of our favorite places on our Southern Road Trip. To see an overview of all we did on this vacation, click here!

Have you been to Asheville? Have you seen the massive Christmas tree at The Biltmore?

Love & Laughter,

Tiffany