Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Sweet Girl turns 2

Zachary is friends with a sweet little girl named Macy who just turned 2! Her mama has a small addiction love for pillowcase dresses so I knew the perfect gift for her. I found adorable bright colored fabric that matched Macy's bright and sassy personality and off I went. This was whipped up while all my little guys were napping one afternoon! Can't wait to see her in it!

Thinking WAY ahead

I saw these adorable stuffed sea turtles and knew my nephew (well, his mama!) would love them. Might just have to make him one or two of these for his 1st birthday. He is only a week older than my youngest so I have quite a while to get them made.

We all know, I am a planner :)

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Summer Fun

My boys are already wanting to constantly be entertained now that summer is here.  Without activities to break up the day, they very quickly get bored (despite the hundreds of toys, games, and books in our house!).

I saw this idea for a summer activity board and a few others on various blogs that were quite similiar. It sounded like the solution I needed to keep my little men happy and to save my sanity over the summer. I am currently in the process of making my own version. I just finished making the cards on my laptop after brainstorming a list of activities with the boys and my hubby. Now to decorate the huge pickle jar we just polished off and start using it!

Marshmallow Guns seem like a great way to entertain my rambunctious little men. I think daddy will be making a trip to the Lowe's soon for the supplies!

Monday, June 13, 2011

A Sweet & Sexy Shower

 My sister-in-law Kim recently asked me to help her with her best friend, Amanda's personal shower. She did a great job with all the planning and just needed a bit of help with the tags and such. I was thrilled to get to help with Amanda's special day!  We played the game where each guest brings a pair of panties that describes their personality. Upon arriving each person put the panties they brought in the vase and then we strung them up like a banner and had Amanda guess who they were from. 

Below are just some of the shots of the things we made. It was a success and lots of people commented on how cute everything was. Kim did a great job and I was happy to be able to help her.
 Water bottle wraps

Tags for the wine to go with the theme:
white was sweet, red was sexy and the blush was blush 
(it is a lingerie shower after all!) 

Tags for the glasses with each of the ladies names printed on them 

Special glass for the guest of honor! 

The yummy sweets table
(I once again forgot to take a picture once we had ALL the food set out) 

Sweet and Sexy banner

"His Banner over me is LOVE..." Song of Solomon 2:4

I love to craft and I love it even more when I get to create things for others. So when I saw this post for a blessing banner, God placed someone special on my heart immediately. You see my sister-in-law and her husband have been praying for a child for quite a while now. God for whatever reason has not allowed that to happen... YET!  Well, after seeking medical help they are going forward with IVF this month!  Our whole family has been praying that they would be blessed with a baby. I don't know any couple that would be better parents!  

When they do get blessed with a little one, Angie said she would decorate the nursery in brown and pink or brown, blue, and green.  With that information, I was off to the fabric store in search of fabric for her very own blessing banner. As some of you may know, IVF (invetro fertilization) is not an easy process and it involves hormone shots. This was quite scary for Angie and Tim. I wanted to get the banner made before she started her shots so she would have something positive and encouraging to focus on. 


Once I picked out the fabric, I cut out rectangles in each of the patterns as well as smaller white rectangles. This is where our family would all write our words of encouragement, Bible verses, etc for Angie and Tim.  Once all the cutting was done, the rest came together pretty quickly (sorry, but I am HORRIBLE at remembering to take pictures of each step as I work!).  I sewed on the top flaps of coordinating fabrics, then the banner was sewn onto a wide ribbon. To finish it off I tied a few different size and colors of ribbon in between the panels. 


Here is one side of the finished banner before the family wrote on it. There were 8 panels for writing and then the center was a panel with a pink heart on it. As I was pinning the banner together, God placed the verse, "His banner over me is LOVE..." on my heart. That is the perfect verse for this project. It was a project to show people that we love very much that we are here for them and behind them in all they are going through. 


If I only had a girl!

...she would LIVE in pillowcase dresses!  Now, I really do love being a mommy to my 4 adorable and energetic boys. They are loving, helpful, super sweet, and stinkin' cute!  While I would love a daughter, I wouldn't trade my boys for anything. 

But, when I come across adorable crafting projects for little girls I can't help but dream about how a little girl of my own would look sporting a huge hairbow or a homemade skirt I made for her. I have always been a fan of pillowcase dresses. Several friends of mine have precious little girls that model them often. So one day, while wandering around JoAnn's in search of inspiration, I decided I would make a pillowcase dress for my sweet friend Tracey's daughter, Emma who was turning 3. I found an adorable fabric, grabbed some coordinating ribbon and I was ready to sew!  

 After a quick search on Google for a tutorial, I whipped up a pillowcase dress in no time (well, almost no time. I had to stop at one point and wait until I went to JoAnn's again the next day for some bias tape). These dresses are SUPER easy to make. And of course I had to make hairbows to go with it!  Since Emma was having a sweets themed birthday party, she needed candy hairbows!


I would make one of these for every occasion...
if I only had a girl!

Mother's Day Gifts 2011


It was that time of year again. Time to create presents for the mom's in my life. This year TWO of my sister in laws were mommies so I made these frames for them. 



I didn't take pictures of the presents I made for my mom and my mother in law. They actually aren't fully finished yet for a couple of reasons. 1. Bryan needs to drill holes in the frames and 2. they are just adding on to the picture frames of all their grandkids from this post. My mom had one new grandson born this past year and my mother in law gained 2 new grandsons. Needless to say, they needed more frames added to their gift from last year :)

About Me

My photo
The Mills family was established on April 20th, 2002 when Bryan C. Mills married Allison Wilson. The family grew in 2005 with the birth of Christopher and then again in 2007 when Cameron first made his appearance. It just grew a little more in 2009 with Zachary's arrival and then again in 2011 when Ethan entered the world with a bang! We hope to continue to grow our family as God allows. We are truly blessed and praise God each day for the joy we bring each other!