Even Bigger Bows

I am always finding new ribbon patterns that are so cute that I just cannot resist.  What did I do with this new ribbon?  Well, I decided to make a few new stacked bows.  This was my first bow making experience since baby girl #3 was born and boy was it fun!  The teacher in me especially liked making this Back-to-School bow.  I originally made this bow for my kindergartner to wear her first week of school, but my preschooler has since claimed it as her own:)  I even got her to stop twirling long enough to take a picture of her modeling the new bow.  Here she is...

The Back-to-School Bow

What Is On Your Wish List?

While I do believe strongly that some of the best gifts in life do not come wrapped in paper and decorative ribbon, I do occasionally enjoy the opportunity to make out a wish list.  Oh to dream... without having to consider priorities or others' wants.  How often, as women/moms are we offered this opportunity.

Even more fun than dreaming up a wish list for myself is having the chance to give a gift that I have made for someone and being there to watch them open it.  This December, due to the blessing of pregnancy,  I have not been able to be the little Christmas elf that I usually am this time of year.  Many of the gifts I am giving did not come from my "workshop," but a store instead.

Just today, however, I had the pleasure of making a special Christmas gift for one of my customers.  This bracelet was specially ordered as a gift for Rosemary's grandmother. I had a great deal of fun making it.   Take a look...

Sterling Silver and Swarovski Crystal Bracelet

Bigger Bows

Until recently, I had mostly created smaller hair accessories with my young daughters in mind.  Now, however, I have decided to venture into the world of bigger bows.  My youngest daughter is two going on five and quite a large percentage of her little self is her HAIR.  I just cannot believe how quickly her hair is growing.  Her hair can definitely handle some bigger accessories.  If you are looking for bigger bows, I now have them...

Look to my Flickr Photostream to see more

Calling All Shoppers

Just recently 70 Miles West opened up shop on Etsy.com.  For those of you that have not heard of Etsy before, you should really check it out.  It is an online marketplace where people can sell and buy handmade or vintage items, art and supplies.  I like to think of Etsy as an unbelievably extensive art fair.  The best part is that it can be accessed from the comfort of your very own home.  No travel required, which also means no travel cost.  You will see that there is a link to Etsy in the upper left-hand corner of my blog, oh so accessible:)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/70MilesWest

Picture This!

While May was unseasonably cool in northern Illinois this year, the girls and I found plenty of fun activities indoors.  We had an exceptionally crafty month.

From September through May the girls and I have taken part in Bible Study Fellowship (BSF; http://bsfinternational.org).  We have been so truly blessed by this program and all of the wonderful ladies and children that we have met along the way.  It takes a very special person along with much dedication to be a children's leader.  The children's leaders have an important role: to shepherd Jesus' little lambs.  During class, the children would often sing a song entitled, I Am Jesus' Little Lamb.  I thought it would be fitting to take photos of each of my girls with their lambs.  They loved decorating the foam frames for their teachers.

Foam Frames for BSF Teachers

We always try to create something handmade for the grandmas for Mother's Day.  You know how grandmas love that sort of thing.  The girls picked out some fun flower embellishments and adhered them nicely to the frames.  I had fun editing the photos to give them an antique look and then matting them.

Mother's Day Gifts for some very special grandmas

What do you get for a teacher as an end-of-the-year gift?  A framed photo and a poem?  Teachers, especially preschool teachers, have such a huge, all-encompassing job.  It is hard to find a gift that really expresses adequate appreciation and gratitude for all that they are and all that they do.  My 3-year-old had an EXTRAordinary teacher this year.  Thanks to Mrs. Scheffers, school is a wonderful and inviting place.  What a fun year it has been!  It is hard to believe the end is here.

End-of-the-year gift for a truly Admired Teacher

Tangled Party Favors

I have two lovely nieces and they both turned three this spring.  One just recently had a May birthday and chose to have a Tangled themed party.  When I heard this I immediately volunteered to help with favors and/or decorations.  After all, Tangled is one of my favorite Disney movies.  I am such a kid at heart (can you tell I used to be a kindergarten teacher).  I had the privilege of gathering and assembling the favors.  I always try to start off by finding a cute container to hold the goodies.  This time I really got lucky.  Thank you Super $ Store.

Girl Favors

The girl guests received a round, purple foam container filled with:  a purple glittery brush, hair clippie, notepad, stampers, and candy all of which were Tangled themed except for the hairbrush.  I think we can all agree that the hairbrush is very fitting.

Boy Favors

And now for the boy guests:  a good sized yellow storage container, Glow-In-The-Dark adhesive stars, notepad, multi-colored pen, squishy lizards, and candy.

The above is proof that once again girl and boy favors can be tied to a single theme even if it revolves around one very girly princess:)   

Big Girl Room

It feels good to be back blogging again.  It had really been too long.  Where does time go?  Time has really been flying by in our household.  My baby just turned two.  I can't believe this!  Do you know what this means?  I got to design a big girl room, I got to design a big girl room, lalala!!!!  Can you tell how excited I am.  I love designing rooms, especially bedrooms for little girls.  I started buying items to decorate this room the end of last summer when I fell hard for the Target's Love and Nature Collection for girls.  I am not one to purchase a bedroom collection, because I usually love to design the theme and decorations myself.  However, this theme was so cute that I couldn't resist.  This weekend was a very happy weekend for me because I finally got to decorate the room.  Thanks to my very patient and handy husband for all his help.  I have these beautiful dreams of what a room could be and he helps to make it happen.
Such suspense, I know you cannot wait to see the room.  This room that was once an office decorated with diplomas and John Deere is now sweet and girly.  Take a peek...

                                                                        

Not bad for a day's work:)  To view additional photos of this room check out my Flicker photostream.

Make A Splash

My youngest daughter recently celebrated her 2nd birthday.  She has always loved the water and been fond of Ariel, so I thought The Little Mermaid would be an appropriate theme for her party.

Invitation

My favorite part of planning this party was picking out the party favors.  There were both boy and girl guests, which made things a bit tricky.  However, after visiting Party City and some other fav stores,  I was pretty satisfied.  The girls received a cup of goodies including: Ariel socks, necklace/bracelet set, purple flower clippie, stickers, aquatic life gummies, purple tiara, and Ariel activity pack.  The boys received a beach pail filled with: sunglasses or goggles, fish bubbles, sand castle mold, stickers, under the sea dry-erase placemat, inflatable fish and aquatic life gummies.  All young guest also took home a Little Mermaid audio cd complete with music and story.

Being that this was a March birthday party and we could not go outside to play, I thought it would be fun to do an art activity.  All the kids made their own sand art creation.  It was neat to see each child's design and they seemed to enjoy showing off their artwork as well.  Needless to say, the birthday girl had a blast at her 2nd birthday party.

More Sweet Annabelle Rose

I had said there would be more and I have kept my promise.  The Sweet Annabelle Rose Collection now includes bracelets.  While trying on her new necklace, my oldest daughter asked, "Can I have a bracelet too? Pleeeease!"

Little did she know, bracelets were already in the works.  When I showed my daughters the bracelets I had made, they had a hard time picking their favorite one.  A few of the bracelet options are shown below.  Which one is your favorite?

Lil' Lady bracelets

These Lil' Lady bracelets definitely have a different look when compared to the Just Like Mom necklaces.  These bracelets are made using mostly larger glass beads with occasional silver accent beads.  I especially like the blue flower beads with the daisies.  Does it get any sweeter?  While most children's jewelry is made with an elastic material, the jewelry pieces in the Sweet Annabelle Rose Collection are not.  The bracelets pictured above are beaded using durable flexi-wire and contain a silver lobster clasp, for a true Lil' Lady.

Loving Life

This is a necklace that I made for myself.  It represents those things that are important in my life, those things that I love: my love for Jesus, his love for me, my family, great friends, nature, and the color green.  Let's face it, it is hard to be loving all of life all of the time.  Sometimes life can be hard.  However, I have made it a very intentional goal to be learning to love all things in life more of the time, appreciating the little things.  God is working on my heart and I am being reminded that even when I have two little girls screaming while I try to finish making dinner, I am blessed.

Loving Life necklace

Just Like Mom

 The Sweet Annabelle Rose collection is a new line of jewelry----strictly for young girls.  Inspired by my daughters, these Just Like Mom necklaces are are a bit more sophisticated and are sure to please your little sweeties.      While my daughters have had hours of endless fun with their Mardi Gras beads and $ Store bracelets, it seems as though the dress-up jewels are no match for mommy's jewelry.  "Don't want dress-up jewelry, want to play with mommy's necklaces,"is a line I frequently hear spoken.

As for me, I do not wish to have my jewelry in quite so little hands.   We compromised...

Under the Sea necklace

On My Toes necklace

Be sure to look for new additions to the 
Sweet Annabelle Rose collection
COMING SOON

An Easy Decision

Yesterday, before we left for church, my daughters each picked out their hair accessories as a special treat.  My oldest daughter has really been trying to match her outfit with her hair accessories and her shoes.  At three years of age, she seems to think that everything she wears must match.  I don't know where she got that idea from?  She chose a pair of purple butterfly clippies. The black and white matched her black and white dress.  As for the purple butterflies, purple is her favorite color, and she just could not resist.

Purple Butterfly clippies

My youngest daughter, however, is not as into fashion just yet.  As many 18 month olds do, she absolutely adores Elmo.  If she could, she would wear her Elmo t-shirt everyday.  Naturally, she chose an Elmo barrette to wear to church (with her Elmo shirt, of course).

Elmo barrette (also available as a clippie)

OBSERVATION:  When my daughters' choose their own hair accessories they actually stay in their hair all morning long!

Loop Flowers

Sweet child of mine!  This is the best job of modeling she has done yet.   My daughters love their accessories.  I love it when they ask me to do their hair and I like it even more when they leave the clippies in for more than five minutes.  Since I started making hair accessories, my girls love to view the final projects and pick out which ones they think I should make for them.

The Loop Flowers can be worn as a single flower above or behind the ear, but would also look great as a duo adorning a cute pair of pigtails.

I have started to make these Loop Flowers in several colors and I have photographed a few of my favorites.  The tan and the pink clippies are neutral and therefore quite versatile, which I like.  With October just around the corner, the black and orange flower clippie will be quite festive.

Going Green!

This afternoon, with a couple of sleepy girls snuggled in bed,  I found myself with a few quiet hours.  It was too hot to do much of anything outside, so I debated starting any one of the many household chores that had been calling my name.  I decided instead that I would have an afternoon of jewelry making.  I cleared off my ten person dining room table only to cover it once again with all of my jewelry making supplies (a mess that would need too be all clear before my little darlings would awaken).  It was only after I had completed these first two bracelets, featured below, that I realized I definitely had a green theme going.  What can I say, I do love the color green!

Jasper Blossom

This first bracelet is more casual and has a bit of an earthy appeal.  The glass beads look great with silver accent beads.  However, I feel that the green Jasper, my favorite, makes this bracelet complete.  

Elegantly Emerald

This second bracelet is more elegant and could definitely be worn with a dress.   Although, I have to admit, I rarely hesitate to wear blue jeans with my pearls.  Take a look, I believe that this bracelet speaks for itself.

What's In a Name?

When asked where we were from, my dad would always answer that we lived 70 miles west of Chicago.  To me, 70 Miles West represents so much more.  It is a part of me, it holds my past and will forever have an influence on all that lies ahead.

I feel blessed to have grown-up in rural Illinois, away from the city and the city lifestyle.  70 miles west is a quieter, slower-paced place, a peaceful state of mind.  It is a place of comfort and familiarity.  As I take a walk with my family down that dusty gravel road, I am reminded of all that really matters. Time and time again I find myself of great awareness, with a newfound appreciation for that which I love.  My family, friends, the countryside---how beautiful.  It is at this point that I wish to capture the moment and keep this enlightened spirit for always.  

This spirit inspires me.  It is my heart's desire to express that creative part of myself and be able to share it with others.  I hope that you will truly find 70 Miles West to be where inspiration begins and the heart remains.