Felt Coffee Cozy

I won this beautiful coffee cozy from the amazing Chirpings of Little Bird. It is made with the softest felt and she even added this adorable appliqued bird. I think it is just beautiful. If you have a minute go check out her shop. You can pick up a cozy for a great price or look at these mustard seed necklaces. The teal one is on my wish list.

Lately

Lately I've been...

- packing boxes and getting ready to move into our first home. Yay!
- dreaming of paint colors, decorating ideas, and future projects for previously mentioned new house.
- celebrating my favorite person with bananas foster bread, cupcakes, and snickerdoodle cake. (We know how to eat around here.)
- trying to convince an adorable boy to sleep just a bit more at night.
- watching a beautiful butterfly perform with about 300 other first graders. Such fun chaos.
- seeking moments out to cuddle and play trains with my 2-year old.
- wishing I had more time to make this granola and try other recipes found on pinterest.
- needing to spend less time on pinterest.
- preparing and planning gifts and celebrations for two nephews due later this year.
- spending time with cousins.
- savoring every quiet moment with family and reminding myself that all the craziness lately is due to God's abundant blessings.
- enjoying the warm weather with picnics, walks, and trips to the zoo.

- celebrating a milestone 80th birthday for my grandpa who is such an example of Christ's love to me.

Swoon Quilt in Progress

I've been turning all these pretty little stacks into Swoon blocks. This pattern comes together quickly especially after the first block is complete. I'm close to finishing it up and I'll share more pictures soon. It has been good to practice half square triangles and flying geese blocks.

I have lots to learn for perfect piecing but I'm definitely happy with how they are coming together. Just needs a little ironing.

What are you working on right now? I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced today so if you have a few minutes go check out all the fun craftiness people are working on and be inspired.

Striped Crocheted Beanie

I recently was asked to make a brown and green beanie. I really enjoyed a smaller project I could do while sitting on the floor with all the kids playing near by. This beanie was made with Simply Soft yarn so it is machine washable. I worked it in rounds from the top down with double stitches. Then I finished it with a few rows of single stitch. It is basically an adult version of Luke's hat. Both of the girls want one now and kept asking if this one was for them. Even though they have numerous Mama made hats I think I'll make them some striped ones. Maybe next fall since our cold weather seems to be about over already for this year.

Project Simplify: Week 1 Kids' Stuff

Tsh over at Simple Mom is spring cleaning and organizing four hot spots this month. First up is those pesky kid spaces. It is funny how quickly craft supplies, books, and projects can multiply around my house. I definitely needed the motivation and weekly goals to keep me accountable and working towards completing some of these trouble areas so I decided to join in. I also have a little extra job. We will be moving into our new home in about three months. I really want to organize and reduce our stuff before packing and taking all the mess into the new house. Further, with three kids running around I am trying to pack a few boxes a week to make things easier this summer. So what two areas did I tackle this week?

First was Sydney's desk area. This is the only area that is just her's. Her sister is only allowed at the desk when invited. This means that all prized possessions get put thrown on the desk for safe keeping. Between school, church, Awanas, and projects at home this desk quickly gets lost. So with her help we went through everything. We wanted her to be able to use the desk again so only her radio and a couple pictures were going to be kept on there. We hung up a couple favorite pictures and projects on the cork board and the rest either were thrown out or filed in our keepsakes for last year. As you can see things look much better now. We will see if she can keep it that way.

The second area was this area of their bookcase. These four cubbies are supposed to hold art supplies that they are allowed to use any time like coloring books, sketch pads, crayons, markers, stencils, etc. It is also for their small but growing collect of Korean books. No wonder they can't find the pencils they want to use without help.

Although it took a bit longer, I had both girls help me. First we took everything off the shelves. I had Violet organize all the pencils, crayons, and markers while Sydney picked out which coloring, sticker, activity books she wanted to keep. I helped her narrow down a bit more and then we put all her books up high and all Violet's on the lower shelf so she can get then herself.

It worked well to tell Sydney she could keep everything she wanted as long as it all fit in a magazine holder. It also is making clean up much easier. They will each put all their books right back into the holder and back on the shelf. I noticed that they are using them more now and Sydney has been reading her Korean books more these past couple days. I think that while the kids have trouble keeping things simple and organized they really like to be able to see what is available, are more likely to play with it, and have an easier time picking it up. I'm thinking that we need to do a major simplification of all their toys before we move.

How do you keep kid's toys and stuff organized? Any tips or tricks you can share? Next week is all about the kitchen and/or pantry if you'd like to join in.