Giveaway | Yellow Quakies

Hey-oh! Hi guys! Our family just got back from a family vacation to visit Andrew's parents and I am LOADED with pictures! So, while I work on that, may I interest you in a giveaway?

Remember this post from a while back?

Remember how it was all about doing service with your little ones? Well, it was all inspired by this heart-stamped piece of jewelry from Yellow Quakies.

This necklace has become so much more than a pretty accessory. It has become a reminder to do something for someone else and forget yourself for a little while. And I make sure I put it on every Sunday to remind myself and my family about it. Yesterday, we made rolls together to deliver to a friend who's having a hard time right now (because who doesn't love delicious home-baked rolls?!)

c/o my iphone and my husband's AMAZING photography skills! ;)

Not every service project we do together is a big one. A couple of weeks ago, our service project was to call an Aunt we hadn't talked to in a while. The service was probably more on Aunt Lauren's part because I'm sure she didn't anticipate talking for so long, but I want my children to know and understand that giving of your time just to talk with someone can be a service and that service doesn't always have to be some huge undertaking.

Anyway, I'm really excited about this giveaway because the necklace really is so cute and Shaylee is a woman of many talents. In addition to jewelry, she paints, and is a videographer. Seriously. Talented.

So make sure you visit my instagram to see how to enter to win!

See you on Friday!

Rope and Circle Mirror DIY | Barrett's Nursery Tutorial

Have you seen these mirrors around? I discovered it first on Amazon and loved it, but $36.00? Eeeeeeeeeee... that's a bit of a stretch for me.

I thought it would look amazing on my wall with a boxwood wreath (I ended up buying a boxwood tile topper that was WAY cheaper) and my clock, but kind of gave up on it until an idea trickled into my brain. I knew that Hobby Lobby sold circular candle plates and rope, but I just had to think of something to make a brim around the mirror. That's when the embroidery hoop just popped into my mind!

The whole thing cost me about $10.00 and it was REALLY easy to make. Get ready for a tutorial!

You will need:
Circular mirror (like this one from Hobby Lobby that I used my 40% off coupon on)
Embroidery hoop (same size as the mirror)
Natural Rope (I purchased the same rope trim for this as my rope + wood frame and picked the stitches out to separate it from the lip)
Glue gun
Super Glue
Sand Paper
Stain
Foam brush
**I thought I wanted to use the screw eyes/cup holders to attach my rope, but decided that it would end up looking too much like Mickey Mouse. So ignore those pretty gold cup holders in the pic above.

Step 1: sand and stain hoop
Use the foam brush to apply the stain and follow the directions provided.

Step 2: Glue

Set the mirror face down on top of the back side of the embroidery hoop and use your glue gun to glue the hoop to the mirror. Glue around the outside edge so that none of the glue seeps to the inside of the brim.

Step 3: Rope

Trim your rope to just the right size and super glue the ends so it won't fray. Use the glue gun to glue the rope to the mirror.
**I also hammered the ends of my rope to make them lay flat**

Step 4: Hang
Easiest tutorial ever, right? And I LOVE the end result!

So give it a shot and let me know how it goes! Share a picture and tag @suesnews. I'd love to see how yours turns out!

click here to see the rest of the nursery!

August 2016 Family Photos | KC Film and Photo + Roots Floral Design

Family Picture time! I loved preparing for this shoot you guys. Truly. The outfits sorta just came together of their own volition. I spent less time on this dress than just about any other dress I've ever made (which is really saying something!)

But the story behind this shoot is HILARIOUS. It's one of those "hilarious" stories that's not funny at the time, but sorta funny looking back on it. Let's just say, it involves a change of date, a car out of gas, bad timing, a really, REALLY bumpy road at 30 mph, a car breakdown, and a 4-year-old learning a valuable life-lesson about not touching water when you've REALLY got to go (luckily she learned this lesson after the shoot, and the car ended up being an easy fix).

Even though there were A LOT of things that went wrong with this shoot, my photographer, Kallie worked her magic and still somehow managed to produce some beautiful shots of our family. And those floral crowns from Roots Floral Design? SO in love.

Don't the floral crowns from Roots Floral Design just add the perfect little touch? Plus they smelled REALLY yummy!

The best parts of the whole experience happened while we were in the car, though.

After we hit the horrible, horrible holes in the road that broke our car and continued our way up the dirt road, Andrew was cursing under his breath, I was covering my eyes (like the monkey emoji), Chelsea was startled from sleep, not sure what Barrett was doing, but Alexa could be heard going "uhhh-uh-uh-uhhhhhh-uhh-uhhh-uh" over the bumpy road. It was hilarious!

And while we were driving back down the dusty road, Chelsea said the sweetest prayer. She prayed that we would be safe, that we would have a good time, and that Daddy wouldn't hate Family Pictures. Haha! It really was the sweetest prayer I've ever heard.

Thank you so much to Kallie for taking our photos, and thank you so much to Roots Floral Design for our Floral Crowns! I really flipped your world upside-down when I asked you to make our crowns a day early!

And I'd be remiss if I didn't say a big thank you to this guy for totally going with the flow and all the ideas I had for this shoot, from the location to the floral crowns. He is so supportive and perfect for me. I sure do love that soccer-playing, hard-working, fun, hunk-of-a-man!

his smile still melts me. also, there's a photo-bomber in this pic. did you notice? ;)

DIY Rope and Wood Frame | Barrett's Nursery Tutorial

When I saw this artwork from Amy Hamilton for the first time, I KNEW I had to have it for Barrett's room. The only problem was that I wanted it in a fairly large size and my budget wasn't accommodating the larger art prints. So I had decided to buy a poster and just display it in a poster frame when I found this way of displaying art instead!

Favorite. DIY. ever.

I love it because it's a modern and elegant way to display a piece of art and you don't have to worry about finding the right sized frame because you can make it with just about any size of print, including poster size, which is WAY cheaper than a regular art print of the same size, and exactly what I did!

So let's get started!

You will need:
Art print
Natural rope (found mine here and used a stitch picker to pick off the lip)
Wood square dowel (I used two of these)
Sandpaper
Stain (I used this stain)
Foam brush
Cardboard (same height, but not quite as wide as your art print)
paper clips (or tape)
Staple gun
2 Gold screw eyes (I used these)
White Oven Bake Clay (here)
Super glue

Step 1: wood dowels
Your first step is to prep the wooden dowels. Have them cut to be about 1-1.5 inches longer than the width of the art print. Sand all sides and ends of the wooden dowel, clean off with a damp rag, then use the foam brush to apply the stain. Follow the directions on the stain to finish this step.

Step 2: staple gun
Lay out your art print on top of the cardboard. Use paper clips (or tape) to secure the print to the cardboard. Turn the cardboard and art print upside down and lay on top of the wooden dowels, one at the top, and one at the bottom. Use the staple gun to secure the cardboard and print to the wooden dowels.

Step 3: screw eyes
Decide where you want the screw eyes (about 1.5-2 inches in from the ends) and screw them into the top of the wood dowels.

Step 4: oven bake clay
Work the polymer clay to make two big beads that your rope will fit through and follow the directions on the packaging to bake the clay.


Step 5: rope
Slide the beads onto the rope, weave the rope through the screw eyes and tie them in knots around the eyes (or cup hooks in my case). Trim the rope, and use the super glue to glue the ends of the rope where you cut so that the rope won't fray. Also glue the knot so that it won't come undone.

Step 6: hang
Your artwork is complete, and it looks beautiful!!!

click here for more pictures of how my baby boy's nursery turned out!

Let me know how yours turns out! Share a pic on Instagram and tag @suesnews I'd love to see!

Good luck!