Giveaway!!!!

Ok, it's been entirely too long. (I'm pretty sure I say that or something similar at the beginning of every post) anyway, for the last 3 days I have shirked my responsibilities around this house (let's be honest, I have 4 kids so I did do SOME stuff still) and made the most awesome baby blanket ever. Seriously, I absolutely adore this blanket. The colors remind me of all things little girl related, fairies, flowers, tea parties, you name it, it's in there. I already have so many blankets around here for all 4 girls and my intentions were to finish this and charge someone for it. I can't really explain it but I love how this turned out so much, that I would feel terrible charging someone for it. That brings me to this giveaway!!! It's simple really, if you know a Momma who has or is expecting a little girl I want you to nominate them!!! You CANNOT nominate yourself, this is a chance to be selfless and think about those wonderful Mommys (and little ladies) in your lives. If you really want it for yourself, pass the word along and have someone nominate you!
So, send me an email at buttonsringsandthings@live.com I need the name of your nominee and why you nominated them. I will narrow it down to 3 (or 5) depending on how many entries I get, and then have my husband or another family member decide from there, just to be fair.
I will be accepting emails until this coming Wednesday, July 4th. Also, instead of just announcing the winner I thought it would be kind of fun of I just go ahead and mail the blanket along with the winning email and anything nice you want to say about that person! Fun right?!
If this goes well I have every intention of doing it again in the future ;)

Little headband tutorial :)

So it's been entirely too long since I blogged, but Miss Erica gave me a perfect reason to post a new one. She just started sewing and making the cutest little headbands, so I thought I would make a tutorial for her on how I see headbands for my ladies.

1. Choose your fabric!!! I have used cotton and silk and they both work great, but the cotton is a little easier to work with. And you also need a ponytail holder. The elastic kind with the little metal piece holding it together. You will need to take a measurement of the persons head, minus an inch or 2. For example, Charlees head measures 18 inches so I made the length 16 on hers. Then you need to decide the width you want your headband times 4 or a little more. I wanted hers about an inch so I measured the fabric around 4 1/2 inches wide.
So, we have a piece of fabric that is 16 inches in length and 4 1/2 inches wide.

2. Fold you fabric in half lengthwise (wrong sides towards each other) and iron on the fold to give yourself a nice crisp line.

3. Unfold then fold each half in towards the center line and iron again.

3. Now fold the entire thing in half where you ironed your first line. Your fabric should now be the width you wanted it to be in the first place!!

4. Using a straight stitch, sew down both sides (lengthwise) as close to te edge as possible. Make sure you catch both sides of the fabric.

5. Now you're going to make little creases on both ends for your hair holder. Fold up about 1/4 of an inch and iron, then fold it and iron again to hide the raw edge. Sew your holder under the fold. One side, then the other.

All done :)

I added a little ruffled flower and a button to Charlee's but you can leave them plain and they are just as cute!!!

Busy little bee....

Oh boy, I seriously suck at this whole blogging thing haha. Our ladies have started back to school (well Rylee has started back, it's Sof's first year) and we are busier than ever. Back and forth to school, packing lunches, picking out clothes, fixing hair and all of the other things that go with keeping a home in one piece. I miss them while they are gone but Charlee enjoys the time with just Mama.
She will enjoy it until April anyway, then our newest addition will arrive :) Our first ultrasound went very well and the baby is growing like it should be. As I'm sure most of you know, we suffered a miscarriage back in May and it was devastating. Our children are our world and to have something like that happen, well it just sucks. So we were relieved that this time around things seem to be on track.

We got a visit yesterday from one Mr. Shawn Hebrank!! What a nice guy. Seriously he drove like 12 hrs yesterday, spent the night with us and then finished his trip to wherever it was that he was going today. Well, he's finishing his trip right now actually. We haven't seen him in years and it was like no time had passed at all. It was Miss Charlee's first time meeting him, now for anyone who has met Charlee you know she's not really a people person....but with Shawn it was like they were old friends. They were pictures colored and lots of good manners flying around, he even got to hold her. Some of my very own family members still aren't allowed to do that. He drew the girls up a little girl elephant in exchange for the many pictures they drew for him, and boy were they thrilled. Make sure you check out his blog shawnhebrankart.blogspot.com 

Lastly, check this out JR has a little something written about him here. It's just a little piece of a full interview that he has coming out. It's very well written and we are pretty excited to see the full thing. What a guy that husband o' mine is huh?

Oh goodness and Charlee totally turns 2 this Friday!! Crazy how fast the years go. She will be enjoying a Spongebob themed Bday party with our closest friends and fam on Sunday. I will be sure to take lots of pics :)

Wowza's!!!!

Ahhhhh, sorry for the extended break between blogs here. I guess I'm really not very good at this.
In family news, we found out last week that we are 5 weeks pregnant :) We lost a baby in May so we are praying everything works out this time. We are beyond excited. Of course I was supposed to get my long awaited tattoo from the ever incredible Shawn Hebrank from Identity Tattoo, obviously that's not happening now. He's taking it personally since the last time he came to visit I got pregnant with Charlee. I promised I would start saving money so after I have the baby, I can fly out to him to get tattooed. I swear we have nothing against you Shawn, my womb does however.

Speaking of family I feel like I should clarify for those of you who don't (or do for that matter) know me. I'm not a party person. I don't drink and I don't go around hanging out at bars. It's disturbing to me that because I go to shows maybe once every couple of months, that people have the need to say something about that. I recently heard that a family member told someone that I work with that JR ALWAYS has the kids. Yeah guess what, if it's not myself or my Mom with them, it's their daddy. The point is I wouldn't say that me not being with them once every couple of months is that big of a deal. I love my girls more than anything in this world and I will do everything I can to make sure that they don't turn out like your kids :) There, now I feel better. Moving on........

Oh sweet Charlee, she was nice enough to model this little skirt for me. It's a patchwork skirt that I made out of scrap fabric.

Hammin' it up. She knows how cute she is.

Rylee thought Charlee was working too hard and needed a juice break.

Showing off.

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.....how cute is this?! I'm may be biased since they are mine, but you have to admit this is adorable. It's not very often that they all get along, I just happened to catch them at a good time. Rylee, Sofia and Charlee.

Our little cowgirl.

The front porch is almost done, it's sooooo close to being finished and I really don't want to post any pics until it's all the way there. It looks really good though. JR has been busting his behind to get it right for me. I have to admit I'm pretty lucky. Next outside project will be the roof on the addition. It rained so hard this morning that it leaked. Awesome stuff to wake up to. Annnnd the basement flooded once again. Hahaha, at least the kids are healthy!!!
I have some really fun things that I'm working on and I'm sure I will have plenty of pictures to show for it soon-ish. We will making a trip to PA this week and the girls are so very excited. Grandpa and Daddy are taking them fishing :) The older they get, the more the hillbilly in them really comes out. I think it's great.
Hope everyone is fantastic.

Big Time Spoiled....

Wednesday was our big time roadtrip to the Ohio State Fair....I was not really that impressed by the fair itself. I mean, it seems just like any other fair to me, just more people. I mean except for the fact that Big Time Rush was there to perform. If you don't have kids you may not know who they are. They are 4 boys who have evolved from a Nickelodeon show into a real live boy band. (Rylee is asking that I type that they are also really cute and that Kendall is her favorite) Anywho, the girls got the thrill of a lifetime when Kendall and James from said boy band walked about a foot in front of us. Cue the girls swooning here. Seriously, it was crazy business.

Rylee and myself at the hotel.

Sofia, Rylee and I waiting and waiting hahaha.

The show was actually really really good. They played pretty much their entire album (yes, I knew every word hahah) and they were very entertaining. In fact, the girls had such a good time that we are taking them to see them again in Lima Ohio at the end of August. One last hoorah before school starts. My sister got some pretty good pictures so I think we are going to make them some new t-shirts to wear next time :)

Speaking of spending more money on concert tickets, Momma needs to pay some bills!!!

I just finished a really cute skirt and for some reason this thing is uploading it weird. Anyway it's about 11 1/2 inches long and the waist can go up to 32 inches. It's a tiered skirt, polka dots, stripes and a pretty paisley and floral fabric. I am willing to let it go for $15 instead of my usual $25. If you are interested in seeing pictures of it let me know and I will email you a couple :) 

I think I will actually make some custom skirts if anyone is interested. I just need a waist measurement and the length you would want it to be. I have all kinds of fabric so I think this could be fun. JR insists that I need to make a facebook just for that reason. I have an etsy account but it seems like there is soooo much stuff on there already that it just gets passed up, so maybe he's onto something. I guess I can do that, you know in my spare time hahaha!!



What are you doing to your sister, and why does she sound like a goat??

I actually spoke those words to my children yesterday. Strange I know. You just never know what you're going to get with these little ladies.
I started this with the intention of keeping it up to date pretty regularly....I started out good haha. work, family, and house guests I've been a little busy. Mr. Rod Kelly is visiting us from Georgia this week. What a character he is, Peg Jean he insists that I don't like him for some reason, that's not true. I did find it interesting that he's never heard of cornhole before. The game that is, he said where he's from cornhole means something else entirely hahahaha.
Did I mention we are also doing lots of work on the house? Well, we are. JR, Josh and Billy have been busy trying to get Momma's front porch together. I'm pretty excited to get it finished. They swear it will be done by Sunday, I'm a little skeptical but I guess we'll see. I can't wait to decorate it with all sorts of fun fall things. That's right, like it or not that's right around the corner. I'm even more excited that we don't have to use cinder blocks for steps anymore hahah. That's not very convenient when you're trying to haul 3 little girls and their things out the door.
I will post pictures when the boys get it all done :) I haven't just been sitting around....I am sanding the fireplace so I can stain it, and I'm stripping the stain off of the steps in the house. It's a slow process but it will all look so nice when it's complete.

Tomorrow it's off to the Ohio State Fair with Rylee, Sofia and Auntie Jeri to see Big Time Rush. My girls are beyond ecstatic. I will be sure to take lots of pics so you can all share in on the fun. I don't think I will let them talk me into the scrambler this time, last time I almost lost it. By it I mean my lunch. So the scrambler will be a no go. No fun but who wants to walk around with vomit in their hair. Certainly not this girl. Hope everyone is doing great!!!!!!!!!!

Totally cute.

It seems like the first thing I want to do when I wake up lately (aside from walking my 2 miles and drinking my coffee) is to sew. This morning I pulled out some of this super duper cute owl fabric that I just HAD to buy from Hobby Lobby. It only took me about an hour and a half from start to finish and it's the cutest skirt ever. I used Charlee as a guide, mind you she's pretty small for a 22 month old so it's pretty long on her.
It's about 11 inches long and the waist stretches to 22 inches. So an average 18-24 month old should be perfect for this!!

Have you seen anything cuter?! I doubt it.

I still have some of the fabric left, I'm thinking maybe a couple of little zippered pouches may be in order.

If anyone is interested in this get at me.
I'm also working on designing and ordering some fabric with some of JR's art on it. Fun right?! I will be the first one to tell you that I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to computers/computer programs, I'm guessing with the hubbs and I working together though we should be able to get it figured out and ordered hahah. I mean if anyone wants to help with that, we are totally willing to accept it.

Before I forget, I feel like I need to point out that I'm not a professional.....at anything really. Except for being a wife. I'm pretty sure JR will agree with me there, if not he's sleeping in the living room with Josh tonight. Anyway, I just do things how they work for me. If that doesn't work for you, find something that does :) 

Laters.