Pottery Barn Pillows {look a likes}

I saw these pillows in the Pottery Barn catalog and really really wanted some....

but they are $36 a piece!

Come to my new blog to check out how to make your own!!!

Start at Home

Napkin Pumpkin!!!!!

 This weekend my Mom and I made this cute pumpkin. 

 {I LOVE crafting with my Mom}  

I know it looks like we are super crafty and excellent with a paint brush but don't be fooled!!  

IT IS A NAPKIN!

To make check out my new blog

Start at Home

Start at Home

Check out my new blog 

Startathome.blogspot.com

Where to start with this piece.  My mother in law gave this to my husband and I when we got married...ages ago and it has sat in the basement...as a gem waiting to be discovered.

My husbands grandpa actually made this out of old barn wood!  I didn't want to ruin the integrity of the piece so I lightly sanded it down to keep all the imperfections and texture.  I then brushed stain on and rubbed it off IMMEDIATELY with a wet rag.  The stain picked up all the imperfections as I had hoped.

I LOVE THIS PIECE!!!

Best fresh salsa ever

Check out my new blog for the recipe 

Start at Home

My Mom and I had been looking for a good salsa recipe forever...until we found one a couple years ago.  I have taken that one and made it my own.  The thing I have found with fresh salsa is that it always tastes different sometime I love a batch and sometimes it is not my favorite.  So just experiment.

Every time I take this salsa somewhere I am always handing out the recipe!  It is so easy too!

I would recommend chopping everything in a chopper NOT the blender.  It is better chunky!  You will also want to take the seeds out of your peppers if you don't want it to be spicy!

A good start to the nursery!

See more at Start at home

master bedroom

Check out my new blog for more pictures!  Start at Home

Pickers Heaven

Everything is on my new blog.....Start at Home

The style I have gone for with our new house is hmm....a vintage, picker, shabby chic look!!  LOL is there such a thing?  I guess we will find out!  I found this awesome website {wuslu} that sells super fun Items for much cheaper!  They have one deal a day and they are awesome!!!  I just ordered one of these!

Yesterday was quite the productive day!  Devin finished getting the pine planks down and we stained them!!!  I am in LOVE!  Our room and the 2 girls rooms are painted and waiting for molding, which hopefully comes today!  And Devin's family came and torn out EVERYTHING in our front yard....Here is a picture of what is used to be.  I have pictures of everything...I just left my camera at our house....so pictures to come!!  Here is the outside of the house before.....

A good Start

So I forgot to take a picture of the BEFORE so the picture above will have to do...but I think it will at least give you an idea of what my night stand looked like before.  The problem with this bedroom set is, it is a vanier.  So I really had to make sure it was primed right!  But IT WORKED!!  and here is the finished night stand.  

Check out my New blog Start @ Home

Start at Home

Hello out there.  I am back.....I hope to be back for a long time to come!  I have missed blogging.  I don't know what it is about blogging but for some reason it makes you feel like your voice is heard.  Even if no one is reading it!  We have bought a home and close in a week!  I am so excited to start making this house our home.  That being said I have started a new blog to track the progress of our home and would love for you to come along with me, I need lots of input.  My new blog is Start at Home.  It isn't too exciting right now as I am just trying to get all my thoughts and Ideas going!  I will not close this blog down and I may update it here and there with a fun wood craft!  A huge thanks to all those who have been following!  It makes me so happy to open up my blog and see I have a new follower!  THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

ttfn,

Brooke

Explanation....MUCH NEEDED!!

Okay I know I am a slacker but I have great cause to be one!!

We just had Princess number 2.....Hooray 

My husband also got transferred while I was pregnant so we moved too!  Most of my crafts are still in storage as we still have not found the RIGHT house yet!  So needless to say my crafting abilities have been limited!

However I have been loving Photography!!

Yes I have an addiction.....I WANTED TO SHARE!!! 

I have seen tons of fun photo contests out there.  I decided we need to do one at Brooke Larsen Photography! My favorite pictures of my kids are the SpUnKy ones!  They always make me smile.  I want to see yours too!!!

{definition of a [SpUnKy KiD] photo}

a lively fun spirited kid having fun

Of course there is always something to be won...

{ONE FREE HOUR SESSION}

{how to enter}

Submit any [SpUnKy KiD] picture ages 0-12 to Brookelarsenphotography@gmail.com

Include your child's name along with the picture

Pictures will be accepted from July 15th to July 24

{determining the winner}

all the pictures will be posted to an album at Brooke Larsen Photography on Facebook the morning of July 25 and YOU get to vote for your favorite [SpUnKy KiD] photo.  All you have to do is LIKE the photo. comments will not count as votes.

Anyone can vote just make sure you LIKE my photography page so your vote counts.

{rules}

sessions must be done in August or September

with your sessions you will receive a disc with 20 edited photos and all unedited photos to print as you please.

location must be between Ogden and North Salt Lake Utah (there will be a charge to travel outside of these perimeters) 

I will start....there are NO WORDS just giggles!

Music Class

I have decided to start a MUSIC CLASS in our neighborhood.  Klancee loves to dance and sing so we might as well have other people come too...right??  Plus I hope it will help with winter.

But my horrible confession is that I don't sing....I can stay on key but that is about it.  This is way out of my element but I decided to do it for Klancee...

So I am asking for any ideas on things to do with the kids, their parents have to come with them, I am not quite that ambition.  Any advice or help or anything would be great, I have found a few songs with cute actions....but that is about all I have got right now.

Thanks for your HELP!!!!

Quilt and Skirt!!

I am 24 Weeks pregnant now....more than HALF way HOORAY!!!  I have been making our baby girl a quilt, and Klancee felt left out.  SO....... I patched all the scraps together and made this CUTE skirt.  Klancee calls it her BEAUTIFUL PRINCESS!!  I love how it turned out, and I LOVE this pattern...I am not much of a seamstress......but this skirt is so so easy and fun!!  The pattern is a Portabellopixie it is so so cute!!

Here is a sneak peek at LUCI's quilt...I just need to get it quilted and then bind it!!  HooRaY...I may just finish it in time!!  I loved this pattern for the main reason that I didn't have to match any corners together...and the other reason ....... I LOVE THE RUFFLES!!!  This quilt was also so simple!!

Purple Princess for the Day.....

As a Mother winter time sure is hard.  My daughter is a free spirit and hates to be cooped up.  So I have scrambled to find things for us to do...today is Princess day PURPLE princess day that is.  We had to be all purple from head to toe....We changed our ear rings, painted our toes and fingers, colored our crown, made a wand and of course we put on our princess tu tu!  We ate a princess lunch, danced and now we are watching Cinderella!  Klancee has loved being the princess today!  I love to make things with her and see her have fun doing it!

Numbers Matching Game

My daughter loves to count everything!  I made this cute easy game to help her understand how to count and what number is what!  So far she has loved to match the numbers up and count them into the jar.

I got the little glass rocks at Dollar Tree!  

Cut out your paper the size of your glass rocks and I used a permanent marker to write the numbers!

 Glue the paper on to the back of the glass rocks.  I just put the glue stick right on the glass rock!

Once they have dried use sand paper and lightly sand the paper down so it can not be easily peeled off.

you can download the PDF file I made  for the matching board here.

I printed mine on Cardstock but anything will work!

 I found a cute jar for all the rocks, Klancee loves to count them into the jar.  It has been a great help to her to learn that we count things one by one.

I love to watch little people learn something and when they finally understand they are so proud of themselves.  

CrAzy SubWaY ABC's

I am feeling the subway art vib!!  I love to design subway art it is so much fun!  I made this cute sign for my daughters room and it fits her just perfectly.

 I am selling the vinyl if you want one too send me an email curlyq.expressions@gmail.com.  This one is 8 inches x 8 inches for $6 shipped!!  They are great for baby gifts too!!

FHE Lesson 1

Here is the first lesson I decided on!  THE CREATION...seems fitting!!!  I will post something to add to your kit at least every Thursday!

I have included on the links below...hopefully.....you should be able to go to the link and print the items off.

I included a Conference Talk as well, I figured my children will not always be young so something a little older might be helpful in the future.  If you hate to color you can load the pictures into your photoshop and add color that way!

FHE Lesson Plan

The Lesson (here is the lesson if you want to print it separately)

Pictures for lesson (page 25)

Coloring Page as the activity

Conference talk

I don't have a treat Idea yet....Cooking is really not my specialty......so if anyone has a great treat please leave a comment!!

Rag Flowers

I LOVE how these cute fun Rag Flowers turned out!!!

My daughter is finally getting some hair...so I needed smaller flowers to go on her head...so here they are.  They are so so simple too!

I used quilting Fabric it seems to fray the best.

I cut out 5 squares each a little smaller than the one before and then I rounded off the corners to create my circles.  I don't have a fancy anything to cut circles so I found that to be the easiest way for me.

I then just made slits every half inch in toward the center which created the petals. Don't go all the way to the center you want to leave about an 1 circle area in the center that is not cut so when you wash the layers they will stay together.

Next soak the layers in water and help to fray them with your hands just a little.

Throw them in the dryer until they are dry this will continue to fray them and create the rolling on the edges

Once they are dry stack the layers largest on the bottom smallest on the top.

You will have to decide on your center now.  On one of them I used a button and the other I didn't use anything.  The button flattens the flower slightly giving it a different look.  it all depends on what you like!

Next sew all the layers together...without the center.

Next as shown in this picture pinch the flower together on the bottom center and sew with your needle to hold the pinch together.  This will make your flower much more full.

If you are using a center item turn your flower over now and place in the top center and continue to sew it on.  Once it is all sewn on you can put and alligator clip on it or use a safety pin if you want to wear it on your clothes!!!

My new goal...Family Home Evening!

Well the whole crafting thing has not been going to well...and I have been so sad.  I realized crafting is what keeps me sane as a Mommy.  It is so hard to find a balance, before my daughter, Klancee, used to take a nap which translated into CRAFT TIME FOR MOMMY....those days apparently have come and gone no matter how much I fight for them back she is just as stubborn as I am!!  I am going to try to find things Klancee and I can do together.


My first project is a FAMILY HOME EVENING kit or box or whatever it ends up being.   Klancee is now 2 and we had our first Family Home Evening tonight.  It only lasted for 10 minutes but I would say it was a success.   Obviously since it was only 10 minutes it was super simple, we had a prayer, read the story Pudgy the Polite Pig, that I found at Oopsey Daisy, it was so so cute and Klancee loved it, we sang a song, and had brownies and ice cream.  SUPER SUPER EASY but it was so fun and Klancee loved it.  As you can see!!  I decided to use a magnet board instead of a flannel board...mainly because I had the magnet board downstairs.  I hope to start getting things laminated and then putting magnets on back of them.  But that will have to wait for now!!

My biggest challenge so far has been to find lessons that a 2 year old can actually sit through and so my quest begins.  I will post new ideas as I find them and you can create one too!  If anyone has any other ideas or links to share please post them or send me an email.

BROOKE!!