FREE! Etsy Banner Templates

I love freebies, don't you? I also love just designing banners for fun in my spare time.  I was searching out blank Etsy banner templates earlier today just to see what might come up and I wasn't in love with really anything I was seeing so I decided to play around with some designs and put them up on this blog for anyone who wants to use them. Enjoy!

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I Definitely Overdo It... Do you?

Have you ever wanted to make your child happy and give them everything you never had growing up? Yeah, me, too.  Have you ever gone to lengths you never thought you would just to give them what you think they might want?  Rosalie lost her favorite seahorse stuffed animal (Majestic) on our move from Texas to Washington and was absolutely distraught without it. Of course we bought it in Texas and so I had to hunt one down by phone and have it shipped. She was happy and I felt like I had done the right thing, but had I really?

Rosalie with Majestic, her seahorse.

There is a great article discussing this issue here that is definitely worth the read. What do you all think? Are we going to far to try and make our kids happy?

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The Power of PhotoShop

Have I told you guys yet how much I love PhotoShop?  I got it and put it on my computer a while ago but all those crazy buttons, well... Let's just say it sat completely untouched for far too long.

Yikes.

Well, I ended up figuring out a few of it's features this past week or two and honestly it's amazing and I can't believe I wasted so much time on awful pictures!  Check out some of these before & afters:

Before

After

Before

After

My camera tends to always take really dark, sort of "meh" shots and so I was really happy when I figured out how to brighten up the shots. What do you all think of PhotoShop? Have any fancy tricks or actions you want to share? Put them in the comments! 

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Behind the Scenes

Yes, I've been terrible about posting. It's been two whole months since the last time I posted and it feels like the blink of an eye. Here I am, though. I've been spending my time dabbling in some amateur photography in order to have better pictures for my Etsy shop. I have a built in model in my daughter as she has fantastic hair for modeling (unlike me, ha!).

Taking pictures with a 4-year-old, though, is definitely not always easy and there are many (MANY) instances of unusable pictures. I have to take 300 pictures to get 20 usable ones most of the time, so I thought it might be fun to share some of these fails with you.

Let's see... first there was the park:

Getting ready... and yes, her socks don't match. One is taller than the other. Shh...

Often we have to resort to candy as a bribe.  Today it's an Elsa PEZ dispenser and lemon PEZ.

Whenever she gets the chance to strike a silly pose she takes it!

Then there was the beach:

Tripping over a driftwood log.

Not at all impressed.

Taking pictures with a toddler is always an adventure for sure! I don't know how professional photographers do it.  Tomorrow I will post the better shots I got and show you how awesome Photoshop is for just a little editing. I just discovered it and I can totally see what all the hype is about.

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The Creative Process...

I like to follow what my sister calls the "craft itch" which means you basically work on whatever you feel called to work on.  For me this means sometimes I'm knitting, sometimes I'm crocheting, sometimes I'm sewing, sometimes I'm Mod-Podging... well, you get the idea.  Because of this, I almost always have piles of half completed projects laying around (which you know my husband just loves), but I feel like that's just my creative process and I embrace it.  It makes me feel happy to craft this way so I just go with it.  Today I'm super excited because I found a fabric I absolutely ADORE at the fabric store and grabbed some supplies to go with it which are going to be my next hair bow creation.  I felt inspired by the print and called to the colors.  Usually I just let something inspire me like that and just let it take me where it will.  Here is the gorgeous fabric:

Some ribbon I thought would look amazing with it:

Some coordinating flowers:

Just keep an eye out to see what these beautiful supplies turn into... 

-Heather

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Wouldn't It Be Wonderful?

Wouldn't it be wonderful to live to see 90?  My grandma, the one who got me started at the age of 6 with crafting, turned 90 years old yesterday!  She is so inspiring to me for so many reasons.  One thing I think we do wrong as a society is not value our elderly like we should.  I have tried to learn as many lessons as I can from my grandma and also try to get her to share with me stories from her past as often as I can.  I love sitting around knitting or crocheting with my grandma and letting her tell me about how she met my grandpa at a town dance when she was 16 and eloped with him, or how she had to leave her family behind when she left her home country of Canada and moved down here to the United States.  My grandma lived through everything from the Great Depression to the death of her husband of 50 years, my grandpa.  She's a remarkable lady and this post is dedicated to her awesomeness.  Happy birthday grandma!

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Just the beginning...

Welcome to my blog!  I'm Heather, a 30-something wife & mom just beginning my blogging journey.  I've felt like I wanted to blog for a while but have been too afraid to just put myself out there and actually do it.  But, here I am and I'm so glad I'm taking the leap!

I guess I should just start with a little background.  I was born and raised here in the Pacific Northwest, just north of Seattle.  A few years back my husband and I got a wild hair and just decided we needed a change of scenery, so we packed up and moved our little family to the gulf coast, specifically Galveston, Texas.

After three wonderful years, the homesickness finally caught up with me and we moved back to the great PNW last summer.

Back in the PNW hiking the Big Four Ice Caves.

On our move, New Mexico.

Wilson Arch, Utah

Oh the joys of a LONG drive!

Utah (which went on FOR-EVER)

Being back here in Washington has allowed me to do something I've always wanted to - stay home with Rosalie and craft full time!  So now I am so fulfilled and so happy to be able to make beautiful things during the day while dealing with the challenges of raising a 4-year-old, but more on that later.  For now I just wanted to give you all a little background.  Here I am, and this is me and my family.  I look forward to getting to know you all better!

Best Wishes,
Heather

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