Summer Dress Sale @ LairiJ.com

All summer dresses are 30% off through the weekend.

Use the code: SUMMERSALE

It's not a raise, but it'll do!

I just had to share this little story that happened to me today.  We have been out of town for almost a week.  I have been trying to unpack and get some food in the fridge and get us back to a routine because school starts next week (cue the angels and the tears)  We had a great summer.  We had a busy summer.  It went by fast, but the last few weeks I had that feeling that parents talk about.. the one where  you say, "OKAY! I think it's time for school to start."  She likes school and routine and we haven't had one.  So today I was trying to clean out the fridge and scrub it down before I get groceries and Alaire wanted me to open a jar of olives, get her a drink, and make her a sandwich.  She wasn't being impatient but she asked me a few times for each thing.  I told her I would as soon as I wiped the shelves out.

Then this conversation happened:
Alaire: Being a mom and taking care of kids is really hard.
Me: It is? Why do you think that?
Alaire: Because it's hard getting food and drinks for everyone all day.
Me: Sometimes it is hard to do everything for everyone.  I'm glad you are sitting patiently for me.  it makes my job easier.
Alaire: After I realized how hard it is to be a mom I decided I would help you more.

MIC DROP

This made my life.  She might forget in a few hours that she is going to help me more or that she thinks what I do is hard But, the fact that she thought of me and appreciated me, or any person who takes care of her like that, just melted me.

Drew and I always say Alaire is the one we have to be nice to,  she's a natural care taker and definitely the one who will keep us out of the "home" someday when our other kids want to dump us there!

I think all parents SAH or working parents just want to feel appreciated in some way.  Even if a four year old has to tell you that you are doing a good job, it feels good.  Enjoy your little munchkins even if they make you want pull your hair out and drink a lot of wine!

Sewing For Baby: Take Home Outfit

My sweet little Stella turned one last week!?!? 

How did that happen. 

 It seems like it was yesterday and a million years ago at the same time. 

 Isn't that how your babies growing up feels?  

I have a bunch of half written posts to finish and share so, I'll start with this one : )

I made this outfit for Stella to come home in from the hospital. 

 I ended up finding something different to bring her home in but she still wore this in the hospital and after we were home.  

I started with a blank baby gown and this tank top.  Someone gave it to me when they returned some borrowed maternity clothes.  

I used a seem ripper to untack the flowers off of it.  I had enough to make the baby gown and a headband.  It was a REALLY EASY project.  You could hand sew if you wanted, but I just tacked them down with the sewing machine quickly.  I took a piece of the connected flowers and put an elastic band on it for the headband.

I also made a little gauze blanket to go with it.

It would be a really cute baby gift for someone.

Here she is in the hospital wearing it.

Here she is a week old with her sister.

Aww, these sweet little girls!  I cannot believe this was a year ago!  

You, Me and Capri Giveaway

Today I have something fun for you.  I teamed up with Jill of You, Me, and Capri.  Jill is a high school friend of mine.  She has a beautiful family including their newest member, Caprilee (love the name!)

She writes on her blog about fitness, family, finances, fashion, and anything else that is going on in her life.  You won't be disappointed.  My favorite thing about her blog is the POSITIVITY that she radiates.
Today on her blog she reviewed this dress that I sent her last week.

She is also giving away one item of your choice from LairiJ.com 50% off!  So head over for your chance and enter the giveaway.

ENTER GIVEAWAY HERE

Anyone who enters the giveaway will also receive a code for 15% off entire order.  So everyone is a winner!

Lairi J Dot Com

If you follow Lairi J on Facebook, you might have already guessed by this picture I posted:

I have been unpacking boxes filled with clothes over the past week.  

I have been working on www.LairiJ.com.

Lairij.com

If you have checked it out, you will see it has had a facelift. 

If you haven't, well then you should, because it is now the home of my little clothing boutique. 

Lairij.com

I am very excited about all of the items that are in it.  

As each package has arrived, I find myself saying "oooh this is my favorite" to each piece.

Lairij.com

I hope everyone who visits can find something that they love too.

Lairij.com

 Some of the great features you can expect when shopping at LairiJ.com are:

• affordable prices
• $2 flat rate shipping on all orders
• fun new styles arriving frequently
• timely customer service

LairiJ.com

I will keep you updated via Facebook for any promotions or upcoming sales.  

Be sure to like Lairi J to stay in the loop and make sure to check out LairiJ.com to find something fun to wear this spring  summer (if it ever gets here!)

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions please feel free to contact me at lairij@gmail.com

I will still be posting here, on this blog, about all of the other creative things I have going on at home.  

On occasion I will offer handmade items in the boutique as well.  

Thanks for all of your support.

Anna 

Quick Project: Iron on Faux Gold Collar

A lot of people tell me that they ARE NOT creative and ARE NOT crafty.  You don't have to be. Sometimes I do projects that are really fast and easy and don't require a lot of thinking but give me a sense of accomplishment when I do them.  This is one of them.  These are projects that any monkey can do.

Supplies Needed: 

Iron on Vinyl

Scissors

Iron

T-shirt

 I bought a kids long sleeved shirt from Target ($5)

I bought a roll of this Glitter Iron-on Vinyl from Hobby Lobby with a coupon. ($7) 

There is a lot left over too!

 Then draft half of the collar.

 Cut the collar out of your vinyl.

Lay it out where you want it.

Then use the iron on instructions for your specific material.  

The stuff I used had you heat the shirt up with the iron first, and then iron the vinyl on.  I flipped the shirt inside out and ironed the back really good, especially around the collar and the shoulder areas, where the edges were lifting.

Peel off the top liner when it cools and you are done.

 Alaire thinks it is a mustache.  Either way she likes it!
(PS I would wash it inside out and hang dry to make it last longer.)

Happy Holidays!

I hope you all had a great Holiday season.  It already seems like Christmas was a million years ago.  Maybe because we had a weeks worth of snow days after two weeks of winter break!  I finally got my Holiday cards out in the mail last week, so I can give you a digital one here.  Hopefully by the time I post this, my Christmas tree is down and put away. : )
We had our family pictures taken in November when we were visiting family in Nebraska and South Dakota.  The photographer we used was Leah Welch.  She is awesome, easy going, patient, sweet and super super reasonable.  She gave us an entire hour of her time and we did indoor and on location shots.  If you are in the Sioux City, Iowa area, check her out and book a session!

The dresses were made by me.  Pattern by Lil Blue Boo.   Fabric by Girl Charlee Fabrics.

Both Girls have changed so much since these pictures.  Alaire got a huge haircut and turned four.  Stella is two months older!  She turned 6 months yesterday!!  I am going to get her pictures taken this week and then I'll share.  

I hope your week is off to a great start!  Drew is off work today for MLK Day and we have actually both relaxed and got some things checked off of our perpetual list.  That's a pretty good Monday around here!

Holiday Hangover: Card Binders and Tutorial

I have so many things to write about that have been happening over the last few weeks, but Alaire has been out of school going on three weeks, so that's not great for writing time.  I'll have to put up some Christmas pictures later.  This was an easy post that I thought might inspire someone else to organize their holiday cards before throwing them in a box in the basement.

I LOVE getting cards and photos in the mail.  I also love sending them out. They aren't always out on time, but better late than never right? RIGHT( I also haven't got to the post office with the snow and the thought of dragging 2 kids to the post office in the crappy weather so hold your horses the damn cards will be sent today, tomorrow, or whenever I get around to it!) 

Anyway, I save ALL of the cards we get, because I have plans for them.  This is a common theme in my house... great ideas that don't always get accomplished!

(Anna Palmer finishes what she starts. Anna Palmer finishes what she starts. Anna Palmer finishes what she starts.)

I digress.

I was talking about holiday cards.

I keep them in hopes that I will put them in a little album and set them out during the holidays so that I can look back and see how families have grown and changed over the years.  Well this was the year.  I did it.  After the holiday is really the best time to work on these kinds of projects.  I know I've got a holiday hangover too, but next year I won't be saying "next year" I'll do this, because it's already done.

I headed to Target to get some of these cute mini binders they have in their office supplies section.

For some reason I looked through the clearance stuff in the scrap booking section and found these "Christmas Card Binders" for $4.98.  They had two so I bought them both.  They were pretty much a kit for what I was setting out to make.  Sometimes it's best just to go with the easy route! They already had dividers and sticky tabs for the cards, but I'll show you how I added extras, so you can make your own too!

 I took all of my Christmas Cards, which were already divided by year.  I separated the photo cards and the regular folded cards.
I also kept "Save the Dates", Wedding or engagement announcements and invites, baby announcements, graduation invitations and school pictures of any little people that I received.  So I guess that's a lot more than Christmas Cards, but whatever.   It's my book and what else do you do with that stuff?

Next, I used the dividers to label each year starting with the first Christmas Drew and I were together.  It's funny how few cards I had the first year when none of our friends were married or had kids.

 The binders came with little paper rectangles like this with holes punched and a sticky tab to attach the cards.

 Their book only had 24 tabs and I needed a lot more.  I just cut out the same tabs from similar paper and ran scrap booking two sided tape on each one.

 Then simply place each card or picture on the sticky tape.  If the cards are double sided make sure you don't cover up anything you will want to see later.

 Place the cards behind the correct year and you are done.

 I punched the folded cards.  I weeded out money holder cards and kept ones that had hand written notes in them.  The girls might want to read some of the sweet things people said to them someday.

 The first card behind each year is our Holiday card from that year.  If I didn't send one, I put a picture of us on Christmas or our family photo that year.

I put the photo cards after our card and then followed it with the folded cards.

I haven't done this yet, but I am going to make a copy of all of our "Santa Pictures" and put one on the front of each years' divider.

 I put all of the extras, like this baby announcement, after the folded cards.

And that's it.  The whole thing took me a few hours over the course of a few days.  I started out just doing this years stuff because it was already out.  Alaire was helping me and wanted to do more, so I went upstairs and got all of the other stacks that I had been saving.  She really did help a lot too.  She stuck all of the cards to the paper tabs and put them in the binders.  I only gave her one envelope, from one year at a time, so there wasn't any craziness.

Thanks for reading. TGIF.

I had to throw in a little people picture.  She's getting so big and silly these days : )