homemade onesies

One of the etsy inspired crafts I wanted to attempt before the baby came was to make these:
{Can be found and purchased here.}

and some of these:

{Can be found and purchased here.}

I had attempted to make things like this before with some success, but found it to be time consuming and I definitely could have improved on my first attempts. These are some gifts I made for two of my sisters who had babies within the last year:

Like I said, they worked and were cute enough, but could have been improved upon (sorry sisters... I still thought they were pretty cute).

Anyway, then I remembered that I had t-shirt transfer printer paper in my stash of stuff and wondered what my results might be if I were to try to create some t-shirts and onesies via that route. It was certainly a lot easier and I loved the results:

It was addicting too. I find myself thinking of all sorts I want to do with t-shirts and onesies for my little guys now. So until I can afford a YUDU, or have time to make cute appliqued stuff, t-shirt transfer printer paper will be my answer for designing fast cute clothes for my little kiddos!

baby due any day

As I've mentioned a couple times before, I'm pregnant, very pregnant these days. I am due at the end of September and am excited, nervous, scared, anxious, can't wait, can't believe it, have a bunch I want to do, and am not sure how/if I am going to do it all.

So today, as I debated on whether to head into my little crafting bungalow and get some of the stuff made for my little bambino or look at etsy for some 'inspiration' (as well as see if I wanted to just go ahead and buy some handmade stuff rather than try to make all that I wanted to make), I stumbled across these adorable waterproof diapers from Olive Jane's etsy shop.

Seriously, how cute is her stuff?!

I love the peas and carrots set so much, they almost make me wish I were having twins.

Then I saw that I could enter a giveaway here and have a chance at actually winning one... even better! You can enter to win too here: utahetsy.blogspot.com/

Hopefully soon I will have some of my own creations to share with you... or maybe I will just show off some more cute stuff I want from etsy. Ha!

free font friday

Free font Friday is not something you will see every Friday. Just today. I just wanted to show those who aren't familiar with all of the fonts there are to download off of the internet for free some of my favorite sources. There. are. lots. And they are super easy to install on your computer.

If you are unsure of how to install them here is an easy guide for Windows users: http://www.myfonts.com/support/help_install_win.html

And one for Macs: http://www.myfonts.com/support/help_install_mac.html

You see, in addition to me being a magazineaholic I am also kind of a fontaholic. I’m a lot of “aholics” actually. I am kind of a collector of free things and good deals.

If you look around you will find that there really are a lot of free things and good deals up for grabs. The trick to picking up the habit of being a deal finder is to have discriminating taste. Otherwise you will soon find you have a lot of junk. I could go on about this, but I am sure this will be a recurring theme in this blog and will be covered many different ways in many different forms as I share with you things that I like and find.

Today I want to focus on fonts... erh I mean typefaces (sorry to all my fellow graphic designers, but let's face it- most people know them as fonts).

The picture above shows just a few fun fonts from my favorite website for free fonts,http://www.dafont.com/. New fonts are always being added and it seems to be the most complete source for all free fonts. A good place to start looking on this site is at their top 100, but they really do have a font for anything. I also love that their site is really easy to navigate around and the fonts are easy to download.

Above are some fonts from a great blog I recently stumbled upon that is an awesome source for many things, but especially for free handwriting and scrapbooking fonts. Visit it here: http://www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts/ {Be sure to check out her normal blog as well and see all of her super yummy recipes and pictures to drool over as well- she is quite the domestic diva!}

You can download the popular Ali Edward’s as seen above font here: http://www.lifeartmedia.com/aliedwardsfont

And as far as good deals go, you can find a ton of free fun fonts for cheap at Two Peas here: http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/shop/fonts/ (You can also find a few free fonts on this site).

So there is my quick guide to my favorite sources. Hope you will take the time to download a few new fonts to your computer over the weekend. I promise, you will not be sorry!

$5.00 Magazine Subscriptions

Are you a magazineaholic like me? Then you will love the opportunity to take advantage of some serious magazine subscription discount rates that Amazon is offering. Most of them will look like they are in the $9-10, but the discount is applied when you check out. So far, I have been able to subscribe to Real Simple, Country Living, and People Style Watch- each for $5, which is close to the price of one magazine and I generally am tempted to buy at least one issue of each of these magazines a year. How could I resist?

For a complete list, click here. (They currently are listing Country Living, Woman's Day, Health, Bazaar, Seventeen, Parents, Field & Stream, Town & Country, Spin, Outdoor Life, Los Angeles, Parenting, Working Mother, Sport Fishing, Wakeboarding, and Wind Surfing but they seem to change it up a bit as time goes by. I bookmarked it so I could check back and see what else they offer as time goes by).

at it again

These days I am feeling kind of settled in our new home and just waiting for this little baby to come. I have to stay on top of housework still of course, but other than that, things are feeling somewhat under control these days. I have a renewed desire to blog (well, I always have the desire but was seriously lacking the time) and plan to be posting here regularly again. I have revamped the layout of the blog, simplifying it and refocusing it. I have also created a photoblog for fun, which you can check out by clicking here. If that wasn't enough, I decided to create a blog for my husband and his wood working hobby which you can check out here. See, I told you... I'm baaaaa-aaaaack. Wahaaahaaaaha:)

about this blog

I started this blog at the same time I opened up my custom design etsy shop. I was happy with how well my etsy shop did off the bat, and struggled to keep up with my life and blogging. Since then we have moved, our family is expanding, and life has been busier than we anticipated. I have put my etsy shop on hold, seeing as how we have a new baby scheduled to arrive within the month, but hope to be able to open it up again when I get into the swing of taking care of two little boys (three if you count my husband, though he certainly doesn't qualify as little).

Still though, I have the desire to blog. Ideally I would like to share whatever I am up to, whatever I see that inspires me, and tips and tricks I have found and use that help me in my hobbies or just in life. Whether that be about food, fashion (what little sense I have), crafting, kids, mothering, photography, shopping, homemaking, cleaning, gardening, or some other random thing… I just love sharing information, mainly because I love getting information and would like to return the favor. Subscribing to inspiring blogs has completely enhanced my life (as long as I remember to keep the slight obsession I have in check), so I would like to give back. I hope you will enjoy visiting me often as I strive to put worthwhile things on here.

latest designs

Two coordinating blogs for Anna: joeandannafam.blogspot.com and joeandanna.blogspot.com

A new header and logo for Shannon: amorganperspective.blogspot.com