family pictures

I have avoided getting our family pictures done for years. The thought seriously terrified me. In fact the last time we got a family picture was about 7 years ago.

Well, I finally bucked up and made an appointment. Time to face my fears head on. What would we all wear? What if my kids don't behave or smile? What if the weather is bad?  What if I put all this money and effort into pictures and non of them turn out?

Luckily, it did all work out. No, my kids did not behave despite the pleadings and bribes of ice cream when we were done.

The trick was having an awesome photographer. He and his wife worked magic with my kids. They were so patient and full of ideas to keep everyone happy.  And,  he was quick to get a shot the split second it happened. I was shocked when I got my pictures back that half of them turned out well.

Not only is he a professional, but he's affordable.  One of the most important things to me, when picking a photographer is that they will sell or give you a digital copy of all your pictures at a decent price. My poor sister had her family pictures done and they looked amazing, but she would have had to pay a fortune to get digital copies. We always joke that the photographer was holding her precious family memories ransom.

For our clothing, I was able to pull most of our clothes from our closets. You might recognize a few things I've made.

I found THIS great post about how to dress your family for pictures. It's all about having everyone compliment each other, but not be "matchy-matchy."  I shows how to use layers, textured clothing, and pops of color to create a great photo. 

I was not paid or given anything to promote RLT photography. I just think he is that awesome. If you live in Utah you should check him out HERE.

Labor Day

I hope you all had a fabulous Labor Day weekend. We sure did. We ran up to the lake for one last trip. It was cooler than usual, just another reminder summer is over, but we still had fun relaxing, watching football and playing in the sand. 

Pie, anyone?

I thought I would show you some paintings I did a couple years ago for our little spot at the lake. 

I painted over some hideous old train paintings.I love how simple yet whimsical they are. 

It was so relaxing, sitting outside and painting by the lake. 

I loved watching my dad sail his little boat on the lake growing up and still love to look out and see white sails dotting the horizon. 

First Week

We survived our first week back to school, but it has been crazy around here. It's been a huge adjustment  getting back on a schedule. Even though we were late our first day, I made everyone run to the front porch for a quick picture. Instead of cute signs, we keep it simple and use our fingers to say what grade we are in. 

Oh, and guess what I got in the mail this weekend?

I'm so excited. I'll have some fun projects to show you and possibly a giveaway. 

so sorry

sorry, I have nothing crafty to show you today. I've been far to busy playing this summer. I mentioned that my sister was staying with me this summer, but I don't think I mentioned that she has four kids. 

Our life with eight kids has been crazy but so fun. Our kids are really close. My sister usually comes to stay with us twice a year, and usually for several weeks. They will be leaving this week and days of tears and depression will follow. 

Here's what we've been up to:

Lots of hours at the pool. We are so lucky to have a community pool two doors down from us. A day doesn't go by that we don't spend at least an hour at the pool. 

Camping. We had to cut our trip short when my youngest stepped on some hot coals from the night before. We had to run her to the ER. She's a brave one and has handled the accident better than I did. 

We always spend as much time at the Lake as we can. It's our second home during the summer. In fact, we lived there for a couple summers, a few years back, while my husband worked on his masters at a neighboring college. My favorite week of the whole year is a week we spend there with family. 

I especially enjoyed playing several rounds of croquette with the amazing set my dad made for Christmas.  

I'm hoping to get back to reality this week and post a tutorial for the maxi dress. thanks for being patient with me.

Recovering

I'm home and recovering from a week of gluttony and laziness. 

I don't expect any sympathy, but I'm having a hard time adjusting back to real life. 

We loved the dream ship and spending a week with some of our best friends who were also celebrating their 10th anniversaries. 

I now have a huge to-do list. For those of you interested in the Dora Backpack pattern, it's coming, I hope to get it done this week. 

Season 2 of One month to Win It is in full swing. Week two projects are up today and I wanted to do a shout out for this seasons sponsors, check them out:

And Guess What - Season 3 auditions start Wednesday right here on At Second Street. I hope you'll think about auditioning.

bon voyage

I won't be around much for the next week. I've got some important things to do. 

I've got a fabulous guest post and another post scheduled, but I won't be answering any comments or emails until next week. 

thanks for being such great friends, as excited as I am to have a break I will still miss my readers. 

oh my, I just realized it's April Fools. Luckily this isn't a joke. 

lucky

source

I consider myself to be a pretty lucky lady. I've won my fair share of prizes over the years. I've been lucky in love and have wonderful kids.  I would have to say almost all that I've hoped for and dreamed for in life has worked out for me...so far. 

I wanted to share something I constantly remind myself that I am lucky to have. 

You're Jealous right? This old trailer and all it's boxes make me happy.

Very Happy!

In all these boxes are Roxy's stash of fabric. Roxy's was a friend of my grandma's. She lived with her for several years after my grandpa died. Roxy was a fabric hoarded. Not only was an entire trailer full of boxes but there were more in the granary. 

Roxy died a year or so ago and my grandma asked my sister and I if we wanted to go through the fabric before she donated it to the church. 

Last spring we spent a few hours one night transporting the boxes into the house and sorted through it.

We found lots of treasures and lots of polyester. 

She had almost every kind of fabric you can imagine.

plaids, felt, velvet, wool, corduroy, canvas, levi, wool, flannel, silks, vintage cotton prints, burlap, etc.

The boxes were disgusting but she had everything tightly wrapped in plastic bags so the fabric was in good condition. 

I need to take some pictures of my loot, but I haven't taken the time yet. Here are few pieces I took pictures of that night. 

Every time I finish a project made with Roxy fabric I say to myself "Thank you Roxy!"

All of these are projects made almost entirely of Roxy fabric. 

My urge is to hoard the fabric especially the pieces I love, then I think of Roxy who never got to use the fabric she cherished. I'm lucky to have the fabric and I should use it. 

I hope you all are feeling Lucky today too. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Sewing Mends the Soul

I've had a couple rough weeks, my kids and husband have been getting sick on and off. I've been stuck at home a lot and really overwhelmed.  I might be a little vitamin D deficient too. I've just been down. Last week my friend Jess blogged about a sign she made HERE. 

The saying really struck a cord with me.  I realized it had been weeks since I've sewed or created anything. The joy I have when I create really helps me through rough patches.  

The next day I decided I better get going on my daughter's birthday present.  Her birthday isn't till the end of next month but I was hoping to make three sets of matching outfits for her new bitty baby twins. My sister found the most amazing deal on a brand new set still in the box. The only problem was that they were naked.  The person selling them had only bought them for their clothes.  I've got one outfit done. Consider this a sneak peak since I hope to show you five more outfits and the dolls in a month. 

When I was done I felt so much better. 

Since then I've started on a couple more projects, I'll be showing you soon.  

I don't know if you are one of those people who just struggle January and February, but if you are, I encourage you to create.  It may mend your soul too. 

I {heart} candy

Do you want to know something about me? I'm a recovering candy addict.  Seriously people.  If I were to walk into a room as see a display like this, I wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything else in the room.I think it is fair to say candy was the first love of my life.   I named my first doll Candy.  Basically any and all mischief as a child was centered around candy.  My only acts of theft involve candy. I would eat ALL of my Halloween candy in one night.  I developed a very high tolerance for sugar.  I would never get sick from eating too much.  

I'm getting so much better.  I think I've only snitched three candies in the last month. 

Do you want to know what I'm currently loving instead?

I found this beautiful candy jar at an antique store a few weeks ago. 

It was love at first sight, but I walked away.  Then I had to go back, again and again.

I knew if I didn't buy it I would think about it FOREVER.

So I bought it. I paid $30. I don't know if that is a good price, since I rarely go into antique stores. It doesn't really matter though, cause I'm in love it.  It brings a smile to my face, especially when I hear the click of the lid when kids are sneaking a treat. 

Besides your honey, what do you love?

Blog Birthday

Wow, it's been a year since I made my very first post.  When I think about how far this blog has come and how sweet all of you are to visit and leave me nice comments, I am amazed. I am so glad I have this little blog it has changed my life in many ways.  I've always been into sewing, crafting and just creating things.  I never did it on the level I do now, but having a blog gave me a reason to push myself a little harder.

A little over a year ago I could barely sew and had never seen a craft blog or even knew they existed.  Then one day I found The Nester which led to other blogs and more and more blogs and I was hooked.  I'm embarrassed to admit I  spent countless hours staring at this computer screen.  I was so inspired that I started making stuff. Then I thought, why not share my stuff too?

No one read it in the beginning.  I didn't tell my family or friends, I was embarrassed. I don't know why.  Then I started linking my projects and people SLOWLY started coming by.  I remember getting excited that 20 people visited my blog in one day.  It was weeks before I got my first follower.   That was a happy day. Then started getting featured for some of my projects and that is when I finally started telling friends and family I had a blog.  But I was still hesitant.

You see I create things because it is what I love to do.  I don't feel like it's my duty or that I'm a better mom because of it. I hated the thought of sending the message that to be a good homemaker you have to do everything yourself.  I didn't want anyone to feel like they needed to do what I was doing.  And at the same time, I worried about people thinking I was wasting my time.  Why would I spend my time making things when I should be reading to my kids, going to the park, or cleaning my house. I hate that women have to judge others and themselves so much. Am I making any sense? Am I the only one who thinks this way?

Anyway, I think I'm over all that now.  I love making things and I love sharing them here.  I love the friends that I've made.  I love looking at a million other projects and being inspired by amazing women.  This is my niche and I love being part of it.

I can't tell you how many times I've looked at other blogs and think I could never do that or she has a cuter personality or I wish I was thinner so I could make my own clothes.  I'm trying to be better and overcome my fears.  This blog has helped me with that.  I've taken risks I never thought I would.  I've made and done things a year ago I wouldn't have believed. I love that I can edit out my mistakes and blog in my PJ's. I don't have to be perfect because I get to show you what I want.

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! For all of your support.  Your kind comments get me through rough days. You encouragement makes me want to do more and try harder.

It's hard to be a mom.  I lost a part of who I was when I started having kids. It's hard to have your own identity.  You all know me as Kalleen not my kids mom.  I love that.

Thanks for reading my ramblings. I just thought I would share my thoughts on this last year.  Sorry no big giveaways.

The first post I shared was my Halloween Decorations. I finally got mine up for this year and I have some new things I'm excited to share over the weekend.

One Mans Trash

First of all, thank you for all the kind birthday wishes. You all were so kind to guess a lower age than you probably actually thought. I just celebrated my big 3-0. I'm so glad to finally be in my 30's. I'm tired of the looks I would get when people learned I had 4 kids and was still in my 20's. I will admit though, I didn't like my son asking me why I had little scratches (wrinkles) under my eyes this morning.

Okay, I've mentioned that I've had some big projects going on around our house, well they are all outside. Basically we finally put in a sprinkling system, laid sod and planted flowers. We haven't had a front lawn for the last two years. We are those neighbors everyone hates. It's been a lot of hard work. We finally got to a point were we enjoying a nice yard and decided the finishing touch would be a playhouse for the kids.

After spending way to much time looking, I realized what I wanted wasn't in our price range. Thats when I had the idea to ask my dad to custom build it for us. I should have known better, my dad always goes over the top.

Instead of buying all his supplies at the store, he visited all the neighborhoods having their yearly garbage pickup. Soon our yard was covered in this,

and this,

and he even filled the garage too.

He has the ability to see new things in others trash. I think if it were anyone else I would be scared. I asked for a five foot playhouse with a sandbox under it. I wanted a slide and a simple railing around the sides.

Instead he built this. It's got three levels. The sandbox on the bottom, a middle inclosed level, and a top level that will be half inclosed and half a balcony.

My kids are loving the sandbox.

Here is my favorite part. He's designed it to be a castle. He took these old fence boards and cut them down to look like bricks.

Don't you love the look.

Now here is the sad part. Our neighbors have a hard time minding there own business and like to call the city for EVERYTHING. We were red flagged today and can't work on it anymore until we get proper approval. Who knew you had to get a permit for a treehouse. I'm so mad right now.

It will be weeks before we hear back from the city and we are praying they don't make us take it down. We didn't break any codes, our neighborhood is just like that. Wish us luck, I was so excited to show you a finished product.