by way of explaination

You may have noticed that I haven't posted in a while. I am taking a bloggy hiatus. I don't know when I will return, if ever.

I love blogging. I love using my talents and sharing them with others. I love having a record of my projects and recipes. I actually go to my blog often to look up recipes or tutorials-- I don't have the memory capacity I used to.

The thing I love most about blogging is the friendships I've made along the way. So many ladies that I would have otherwise never met I now call friends. I love the communication I have with all of you readers. Like your comments on my most recent giveaway post. I was touched by your kind words.

Here's another example: I recently got this comment on my blog:

Erin, The writer of another blog that I read just announced that she's pregnant with her 10th child. I notice that you haven't been posting lately. It makes me wonder if you're about to be a mama again.

No matter, I hope you're away because you're well and out having fun!

I'm not pregnant again (thankfully!) but I loved this comment! I appreciated that she had noticed my absence and had taken the time to write to me about it. Thanks, Kathy!!

At this point you are probably wondering why I am giving up blogging if I love it so much, right? Well last month I went on a girls trip with some friends. I was gone for four days. I have never left my kids for so long. I felt guilty for leaving but I had such a fantastic time! Being removed from my daily life gave me time to reflect and ponder the way I do things. And I wasn't happy with what I saw.

Try as I might, I have never been able to master balancing my priorities. Blogging takes a lot of time, more than I would have imagined, especially when you are a craft blogger. Creating something, photographing it, editing the pictures, uploading and writing the post (writing does not come naturally to me either). Just for one post. Tutorials are even more time consuming! I would set certain times of the day or evening that I could blog or do projects but I would often try to squeeze things in during the day. I would choose working on a project over playing with my kids more than I would like to admit. I found that even when I was with my family I would find myself thinking about blogging-- projects to do, ways to photograph or present the project, composing blog posts in my head. It was just too much a part of my life.

Over the last year or so I kept getting the feeling that I needed to quit blogging. I finally decided to listen to the prompting. My kids are the best things I have ever created. Being their mother and teaching them is by far the most important thing I will ever do in this life. They deserve 100% of my attention. That is not to say that I can't have other interests or hobbies but I need to cut back and so blogging is what I am cutting. Without blogging I will actually have more free time to craft when I feel like it.

At first I thought I would just remove the ads from my blog. In doing so I would no longer be contractually obligated to blog. I would blog when I felt like it, not on a schedule mandated by someone else. I removed the ads but after a few weeks of not posting I found that I was happier, more relaxed. Without the self-imposed pressure to create on a daily basis I was free to do other things. I have been playing more games with my kids, reading with the kids more, I have been exercising (!!), keeping the house cleaner, staying on top of laundry, I still have managed to create too. I sewed myself a cute new skirt and have plans for a few more. I have even started teaching Liam how to sew! He's doing awesome, by the way! I am spending very little time on my computer. I even unsubscribed from 90% of the blogs I had been reading. Sometimes there can be too much of a good thing!

I still don't have enough hours in the day for everything I would like to do but I'm closer. I am getting more done and I am happier. This wasn't an easy choice. I know I will miss blogging, I already do, but I also know it was the right choice. In ten years it won't matter if I had a blog or not but my kids will be 18, 15, 13 and 11 (Yikes!) that is what is important. And that is what I want my focus to be.

I will be leaving the blog up. I will still be using it a reference I hope it will still be a source of inspiration for some out there. A big thank you to all who read and commented and supported. I will miss you! Love, Erin

perpetual daily journal calendar

I came across this DIY project on Design*Sponge sometime last year and purchased all the supplies for it but decided to wait until the new year to start. Of course I forgot all about it until a week or so ago when I was cleaning my sewing table and came across the adorable red berry basket I had purchased.

I bought the vintage post cards at my favorite local over priced antique store. They had some beautiful cards but they were in the $2-4 price range. Since I was going to be cutting the cards to size and they were only being used at dividers not framed art I decided to pick some from the 50 cent basket!

I quickly threw it all together and played catch-up for the first few weeks of the year that I had missed.

Now that I am caught up I can just jot down a highlight or lowlight or a funny quote from the day. It's completely simple and doable and is just what I needed because I have gotten so lazy in journaling the milestones of my family.

I have a feeling it is going to be a very rewarding and entertaining project in the years to come!

15 days

Thank you all for your congratulations and kind words! It means so much to me. Thank you.

We have successfully made it through the first two weeks of Gemma's life! There have been a couple really difficult nights but the good nights are outweighing the bad.


I couldn't have survived if it weren't for my sweet husband, he is my rock. When I am an exhausted, sobbing, hormonal mess he can talk me down off the edge. Also my saintly mother. Maybe saintly is exaggerating but every time I have a baby she comes and stays with us for two weeks. She takes care of the other kids, makes food, cleans the house, does laundry, basically everything. Pretty saintly, right?


Gemma is doing really well. She is absolutely precious and we are all smitten with her. Liam loves to hold her and does a good job of making Gemma feel comfortable, she doesn't cry at all when he holds her. Sutton is so excited to have a sister to "play Barbies with". Ezra is always wanting to hold, hug and kiss Gemma. He isn't jealous of her at all, in fact he shares his beloved "kiki's" (blankets) with her.


About Gemma's name: Michael and I both really liked the name Gemma, in fact it was the only name that we could both agree on. It is pronounced with a soft G (like George), phonetically "Jem-mah". It, of course, means gem or precious stone.


Gemma's middle name is in honor of my maternal grandmother. When I was little my sisters and I referred to Grandma Hazel as the "mean grandma". Hazel had 9 children and almost 40 grandchildren. She was old and tired and often in pain and therefor somewhat grumpy and impatient with noisy grandchildren running through her house.


As I got older (10-12 years old) I spent more one on one time with my grandmother and really got to know her. She wasn't mean, she was actually a very fun and loving woman. I loved spending time with her. She taught me how to play chinese checkers. We would spend hours playing that game. When I surprised her with a really good move she would say, "Dammit Hazel, your as blind as a bat." That always made me laugh.


She died in 1992 but I still think of her and the time I spent in her home. I was very excited about giving my daughter her name. The really amazing part is that Grandma Hazel's birthday was January 22nd (I had forgotten this until my mom reminded me a couple of days before Gemma's birth) so Gemma and her namesake actually share a birthday. I couldn't have planned it better!

I am taking it easy, trying to enjoy this time with a newborn. It is so very fleeting. Posting will be light for a few months but I will be back! Promise!

she's arrived!

Gemma Hazel
January 22, 2011, 9:38 am
8 lbs 4 oz, 20 inches

my little supers

I usually take a nap Sunday afternoon. Yesterday though I wasn't feeling very tired (miracle!) so I decided to venture into my sewing room. I hadn't touched my sewing machine in so long I just stood there trying to figure out what to work on. Cue Liam and Sutton coming in and begging for capes. I figured, why not?

don't you just love the post church throw-on-whatever-you-can-find mismatched outfits?

These are not the cute, well-made capes that you have seen around the blogosphere. I let the kids pick out whatever material they liked. Liam's is a cheap dress lining material and Suttons is some pink polyester stuff I inherited from my MIL. Because I was trying to get the capes done before the kids lost interest and I lost my energy, I quickly serged the all raw edges (except for Ezra's cape which I made from jersey), added a free handed felt letter applique with double sided fusible stuff (I use Steam-A-Seam), and sticky velcro dot finished them off.


I was unsure whether Ezra would like a cape. The child has refused to wear bibs since infancy (I am not even exaggerating!) but he loved it. He ran and jumped just like the big kids.


I even allowed a little furniture jumping which is usually off limits at our house. Sometimes it's fun to ignore the rules!

why I have been neglecting the blog...

I am alive and well! Thank you for emails and comments inquiring about my whereabouts. It is nice to be missed! But attention seeking is not why I have been absent. It also wasn't the anonymous comment on the infant canopy post. Though I won't lie, it did upset me when I first read it, but that is not enough to keep me away. I have been working on a new project. The kind of project that practically sucks the life out of you. That's right, Woodward baby #4 is on it's way! The big debut will be sometime mid-January.


While I have been less sick with this pregnancy than my previous ones I have never been so exhausted! Most days I lay on the couch while the kids destroy the house. Once Michael gets home he cleans up and makes dinner. What a lucky guy, right? :)

I have many half finished projects awaiting my attention and I feel like I will be able to tackle them once I hit the second trimester which is about a week or so away. So don't give up on me!!


UPDATE: Thank you for your well wishes! You guys are the best!

chore charts

Go here to download the chore chart!

In December Liam, my oldest, was begging me to make a chore chart. Strange, I know. I finally got around to it a couple of weeks ago.

I found this one at ModEcoKids.com that I love. I love it because it is free, it is customizable, it is simple and it is cute. I copied the polka dot design (I LOVE polka dots) to spruce up our Family Rules page.


I made one for Liam and one for Sutton. Their chores are not identical (they are better at and enjoy doing different types of chores) but they are age appropriate. I wish I had left one line blank for extra credit type things. Like last week when Liam surprised me by cleaning his bathroom. After printing the charts I used self-laminating sheets to laminate them. Now we can make check marks with a dry erase marker and re-use the charts each week.

Um, I just realized that I spelled vacuum wrong. Please don't mock me! :)

Michael and I deliberated whether or not to pay them for their chores. On one hand we felt we didn't need to pay them for helping out around the house on the other hand we thought it was a good opportunity to teach them about saving, spending and giving money. In the end we decided that the kids will earn $.05 for every check mark at the end of the week. Not much, the most they could earn in a week is $2.80, but it is enough to get them excited. And they are! These charts are working better so far than any chore system we have tried before.

UPDATE: This is for you Celeste! Our family rules and daily expectations. (Click on the photo to enlarge)

 Go here to download the chore chart!

i caved

i am not really keen on the disney princess empire. i am not totally anti though. my daughter Sutton has books and toys and a few dvds but i have always refused to decorate with or dress Sutton in disney princess garb.

BUT recently Sutton started waking up at night because she was scared of the wall. that's right, the WALL. she was so scared that she wouldn't even sleep on her bed anymore.

while at wal-mart Sutton spotted princess fabric and she wanted it so bad. i asked her if i made a princess pillow case if she would sleep in her bed. she said she would. i was doubtful but went for it anyway.


that night i made her the princess pillow case and we talked before bed. i told her that she had her princesses there with her and she had "princess power" and a bunch of other garbage (i was so desperate for a full nights sleep i would have told her anything!). then we took turns smacking the wall and saying "i'm not scared of you!"

and it worked! she now sleeps in her bed again and hasn't talked about the wall for more than a week. go princess power!