What It's REALLY About. :)

This is BEAUTIFUL...enjoy! Happy Easter!

This Easter, remember the sacred name, life, and sacrifice of our Savior.

Giveaway!!!

Do you want this camera strap? Read on, my dears!

I need your help! But, don't worry, there's something in it for you, too! You see, I have this WONDERFUL Sister-In-Law, Lauren.

Isn't she beautiful? :) Well, she is just as talented and hilarious as she is beautiful.

She and her husband just moved here to Colorado from Pennsylvania. She is an INCREDIBLY talented professional photographer, and was recently selected as a finalist for the Rocky Mountain Bride Magazine cover contest! (I know, right!?! AWESOME!!!) Would you like to see how talented she is? These were just a few of my favorites...



Freaking GORGEOUS, aren't they!?! So...here's where you come in. I'm doing a giveaway for this lovely camera strap made by yours truly.

Now, to enter the giveaway, I only ask one thing, and it will literally only take about 5 seconds of your time. All you need to do is click

HERE

where you will be taken to the Rocky Mountain Bride cover contest. Lauren's breathtaking picture is #6.



And that's it! My family and I would really REALLY appreciate it! We really want to help her transition from the East Coast to Colorado. And, of course, if you or anyone you know are getting married, and need an engagement or wedding photographer, check out her blog HERE.
I'll put in a good word for you, too. {wink wink}

Now, after you vote, come back and leave a comment that you voted, mmmmkay? Now, I'm totally just going by trust here...so please be honest. ;)

This contest ends on APRIL 27th, so act fast! :) Thank you guys SOOOOO much, I seriously do have the BEST readers in the world!

P.S. If you don't want/need the camera strap, I'll gladly do a custom rolled fabric rosette necklace for you instead! :)

Link To SPRING CLEANING MADE FUN!

I just found the GREATEST post on SPRING CLEANING at one of my favorite blogs,


Those girls are great! I'm not kidding, I was laughing through the whole post! It was so informative and inspiring and awesome! So...since all 3 of my kids are down with strep this week and are all chillin' on the couch watching Netflix Instant Watch goodness, I think I'll get some of these ideas done today. Pirate Booty...here I come! (You'll get it when you read the post! HAHAHA!)

Cupcake Pin Cushion TUTORIAL!

Remember when I did the cupcake pin cushion giveaway? Remember how I promised to do a tutorial for the cupcake? Good. Because I totally forgot! But, I'm going to make it up to you now! So, because I love you SOOOOO much (and because I totally just found these pictures all ready to go *cough cough*) here is the promised tutorial. Enjoy!

YOU WILL NEED:

2 colors of felt: one for the wrapper and one for the frosting
glue gun/glue sticks
sewing machine/thread
stuffing (not the turkey kind...)

*plug in your glue gun to get it nice and hot. Nice for the glue...not for the fingers*

Cut your strips. They will need to be 3-4 tall and about 8 1/2 inches long. (If the size isn't perfect, it totally doesn't matter. It'll still work great!)

Get your sewing machine all threaded and ready to go. You will fold over your felt strip about every quarter of an inch and sew down the edge with an 1/8" seam allowance. Do this for the whole length of the strip.



It will end up looking like this.

Fold over the top edge about a quarter inch and sew it down using an 1/8 inch seam allowance.

Do the same thing to the other side...



And it will turn out like this. Decide how big around you want your wrapper to be and cut it to the size you want.



Put the ends together and sew them together, remembering to do the back stitch at the beginning and the end of the stitch. Now you're done with the main wrapper part.

On to the sweet stuff! Mmmm. Frosting.

Take one of the strips for the frosting and fold it in half from top to bottom, not lengthwise.

(I totally forgot to take pictures of this part apparently...ARRRGH!)

Start to roll the fabric into a cinnamon bun type thing, gluing a little as you go to hold it together. Don't use too much glue or it'll be hard to get your pins into it. Use your other strip and do the same thing until it's about the circumference as your wrapper.

See how it's kind of taller in the center like an ice cream cone? Try to get it like that. ;)

*****

(Mmmmm....ice cream cone. Does anyone else hear a choir of angels singing? I must be hungry.)

*****

Now, stuff your frosting into the wrapper and glue around the edges to secure it. Awww, it's looking so nice and tasty!

Cut a circle of felt the same size as the wrapper hole. Flip it over and put in your stuffing.

*tip: I ended up putting in some of those little clear glass rock things at the bottom to kind of weigh it down*

Glue on the bottom! You can also use a piece of cardboard cut to the circumference of the wrapper to make it flat on the bottom.




And Voila! You're done, and you have the CUTEST little pin cushion ever! If you want a cherry on top, just use a mini red pom pom! ;)

Now...I have GOT to go get me an ice cream cone. Buh-bye!





Submitted to:










Fingerprints on the Fridge

Guest Post on ReMarkable Home: Rice Krispie Treat Easter Egg Tutorial!

Check out my feature on ReMarkable Home! It's a tutorial on making Rice Krispie Treat Easter eggs! :) Emily is a SWEETHEART. You'll love her! She has a great blog with lots of really great ideas and recipes! Be sure to check her out!

Strep Throat and DIY Camera Bag

I feel like I've kind of dropped off of the face of the planet. Planet Blogworld, that is. What have I been doing, you ask? I've been taking care of this:

Poor little girl! Her fever was up to 104 so I took her to the doctor. Turns out she had strep throat and hasn't let me do much of anything. But it's actually been kind of nice to be able to just hold her and love her while she actually holds still! I hope she can kick this illness soon!

Other than that, I've done a few guest posts on some great blogs this week! This one was posted a few days ago:

A Turtles Life For Me: Guest Post

and there's another one coming up tomorrow. It's so exciting! I can't believe people want to hear from little ol' me! :)

Oh! On another note...I made a camera bag this week! I had an old purse that has been sitting around for a while, and then I saw THIS tutorial on how to make your own camera bag out of a purse. Thank you, Crafter's File Box! :)

Here it is from the outside....lots of pockets and flat bottom. PERFECT for a camera bag.

And the inside. The tutorial was really easy to follow! I only have one other lens (for now...) so I only made one section to hold the lens. If I get more lenses later I'll have plenty of room to add more sections. I'm really happy with how it turned out! It'll be great for vacation because I can use it as my purse AND my camera bag! Yaaaaaay!

(picture credit goes to my 7 year old for this one! Hahaha!)

So...yes, I'm still alive and kicking! And praying my little Katesters gets better soon and I can get a full night's sleep tonight! ;)

Until next time...

Photobucket Woes.

Arrrgh. Is this whole Photobucket mess driving anyone else crazy!?! Do any of you know how long they'll be "doing a little work" for? Half of my images are gone!