GETTING BACK TO CRAFTY

The house is currently silent.  This morning we hosted Mason's birthday party, and I can't believe so much time has passed that he is already turning three.  He partied and ate too much sugar all morning with friends and relatives and we were successfully able to get him to take a nap this afternoon, so I thought I would take a minute to show you a project I did a few days ago - one that gets back to my Craftnight roots.

This project is a direct result of me being a hoarder.  It starts like this.  I moved into this house just over four years ago. Prior to that, Byron and I lived in the townhouse I lived in when I was single.  It was just after we got married (over 6 years ago) that we got our dog Minnie.  And sometime when she was a puppy, she chewed up some throw pillows.  Those pillows, until recently, were in my basement.  WHO KEEPS CHEWED UP PILLOWS IN THEIR BASEMENT FOR SIX YEARS?  Oh right, me, Katie, the hoarder.

So anyway, I came across these pillows recently, and thank the Lord I convinced myself to throw away the chewed up pillow covers.  But the inserts...well I surely could find something to do with them, right?  Spoiler alert:  I did (see above).

I spent the first year of Mason's life taking photos of him weekly, each time on a different background.  This left me with a lot of fabric left over, just waiting for the right project to come along.  Enter this fabric:

I cut that sucker up, sewed it into some new pillow covers, and voila!  Enter style and softness to my front porch.  Next time we want to take a sit on the porch (yes, another slightly inappropriate inside joke within my family) we'll be nice and comfy.

FIREWORKS

This isn't really a Fourth of July recap, but rather too many pictures of my adorable baby.  On the third of July, we got together with our neighbors who have a little boy just a little bit older than Mason.  They are best buddies.  We just did a few little snakes and sparklers, because apparently those are the only type of legal "fireworks" there are.  But either way, I knew the little boys would have a ball, so I grabbed my camera and tried to catch the magic.  I just love experiencing new things with our boy.

These boys.  Here they are looking at the first snakes to emerge.  What is going to happen?!?!?!

 This is the one where I told them to scream.  Ha!  Oh, and Byron is totally faking.

Mason's first sparkler.

And this is the one where I told the boys to give each other a hug.  Kellen went in for it, and Mason, well, he wanted no part.

Oh, that kid!  Now right about here, something hilarious happened.  I was looking through the 200+ pictures I took (in 15 minutes, I KNOW!) and in pictures like the two right above this, I turn to whoever is next to me and say "Look at that face!"  Not long after that, I was looking at them with Mason and with the exact same tone and inflection he turned to Byron and I and said "Look at that face!"  I'm sure parents everywhere experience this, but it was one of the first times that he repeated me and it totally caught me off guard.  (To be fair, probably the first thing he repeated that I say was "Oh, crap!"  Whoops.)  But anyway, I just can't help it.  LOOK AT THAT FACE, PEOPLE!  Have you ever seen anything cuter?  I have not.