I hinted about it and gave a couple sneak-peek shots in this post.
Here’s the final product…a personalized photo album that I made for my SIL Ali and her soon-to-arrive (in January) 3rd little girl, Ensley Grace.
I’ve been waiting for the perfect reason to use this fabric!
I love adding names to the front of albums. There will be no mistaking to whom this book belongs!
Satin ribbon tie closures:
The back cover. The paste pages and the photo pages both coordinate with the cover fabric.
Today has been a fun day. This (very chilly) morning, I ran in a 5k race with my husband Andrew, his brother Jacob, and two of their sisters, Katie and Erin.
It was my first official race since April 2009, when I did the OKC Memorial Half-Marathon. Being pregnant and then having a newborn sort of forced running to the back burner, but now I’m back after it. Given how little I’ve run in the past several months, I was satisfied with my time, (31:41), which is my best in recent history.
Running aside, this weekend is a busy, fun-filled one!
My SIL Ali’s baby shower is tomorrow, and I needed a card. Luckily, I have nearly as many scrapbooking doohickeys as Hobby Lobby itself, so it was easy to find things to use.
Here’s what I came up with in about 10 minutes. I wish the photo were better, but I’m pressed for time right now:
An acrylic tile reading “Baby Girl” is the focal point, surrounded by pink circles and swirls.
Tomorrow I’ll show details from the shower as well as the gift I made for Ali and her baby girl.
Made this sign for a baby shower this weekend. Besides taking out the trash, it’s about all I “accomplished” today. But I DID have lots of fun with my baby boy, who is 20 weeks old today!
Each year for Christmas, my husband’s side of the family draws names for gift-giving (there are 25 of us!). I’ve offered to organize the drawing this year, and it’s going to take place this Sunday.
I used this as an opportunity to play around with doodling and hand-lettering. Over the years, I’ve seen multiple examples of “color-splotching” instead of precise coloring, so I tried that today, too.
Here is the entire set as well as a few of my favorites:
After trimming the slips, I used a wooden skewer to roll each one into a tube. That way, no one can peek! I also marked the slips for the kids with red marker so they wouldn’t get mixed in with the adults’ names.
Granted, the drawing ‘buckets’ are nothing fancy, but now each family member can see which slip they are drawing without knowing who’s name they are getting.
I will also be emailing out a Christmas Survey this year. Each family member will fill out their “Wish List” and Reply All. That way, the secret of who drew who STAYS a secret (no need for covert spouse-interviewing operations this year!)
The list will also be a great reference throughout 2011 as we celebrate family birthdays.
Does your family have any fun holiday traditions? Do tell!
I’ve always been impressed with people who can make homemade yeast breads really well. I’ve asked several different people, “How’d you get so good at making bread?”
They all give me the same lame answer: Practice.
Ugh. Why is that always the answer?! 
With the cold weather approaching, I’ve added “become a better bread maker” to my list of winter to-dos. You see, I like to hibernate stay busy during the winter, and I don’t like to get out in the weather much.
Today Baby Beau and I started “practicing” by making a batch of focaccia for AEDM.
I always make my kitchen helpers swear by oath that they won’t drool into the dough.
We also whipped up a batch of Crock Pot Pizza Soup. Some friends of ours had a baby last week, so we delivered this meal to them for dinner tonight (along with some of those sinful cookies from yesterday!)
The dough was made using the good ol’ Betty Crocker cookbook that’s in its gazillionth printing. The dough after rising:
Beau helping stretch the dough to prepare it for baking:
The raw dough after being poked:
Whenever Beau is in the kitchen with me, I let him take a whiff of spices, zests, cut fruit, etc. He apparently likes Emeril’s Italian seasoning blend. BAM!
Here’s the final product. It turned out better than the last batch I made (not enough kneading that time, I think), but there’s still some room for improvement.
However, they do look and taste pretty darn good…and they will be PERFECT for dunking in pizza soup!
Now that you’ve seen the final result, check out this exclusive interview with my sous-chef, Beau.
Today has been a full day: working out at the gym, grocery shopping, picking up books at the library, etc. However, I do have something creative to share!
Several years ago, my sister Arica got me a Magnetic Poetry picture frame. Since then, it’s had the same photo and words on it (shame on me! That was, like, 8 Christmases ago!)
BUT THAT’S ALL CHANGED!
I replaced the previous photo (of me and my sisters) with a photo of my son when he was just 5 days old. Naturally, the prose had to change as well. I also added a blue border now that digital pictures are printed in a silly size, rather than the normal 4×6. Sigh.
While the limitations of the Magnetic Poetry bits often frustrate me, today it was a fun challenge to try and say what I wanted to say using the available tiles.
I also talked to my SIL about borrowing her Pazzles Inspiration digital cutter to do some projects this month. I brought home the installation CDs and manual and quickly discovered it won’t work on a Mac…unless I run a Windows platform. ((Doesn’t that totally defeat the purpose of having a Mac?))
What I wanted to do was create some designs in Illustrator and have the Pazzles machine cut them for me. Looks like I’ll be over at her house a lot so I can actually use the thing…Glad we’re neighbors!
At any rate, AEDM has inspired me to try some new things or re-visit some old interests. Excited to see where this leads!
Not long ago, I found the cutest fabric in Hobby Lobby:
After my mom and I spent some time hashing out ideas, she created this cute maternity top for me:
And it fits The Bump and I perfectly!
Tomorrow, I will be 33 weeks pregnant. If my mom’s prediction of Baby’s arrival time (read: early!) turns out to be correct, that leaves me only about 5 weeks before I’m officially on Mama duty.
And there’s still plenty to do, like finish setting up Baby’s space:
Get all of Baby’s clothes and diapers washed and ready to go:
Bake a bunch of lasagnas and quiches and other dinners that can be made ahead and frozen:
(Just because I’ll take a break from baking for clients doesn’t mean I get off the hook completely!)
All that to say, I am taking some time off from creating. A Baby Sabbatical, if you will. In fact, “sabbatical” is defined as “a rest from work, or a hiatus, often lasting from two months to a year.”
I can’t predict whether my break will be closer to the two month end or the one year end of that spectrum. That will depend mostly on Baby’s temperament and my energy level. (I sure hope it’s not a YEAR!)
But I can tell you this for sure: I finished my last cake order this morning and I’m only taking orders for custom books through TUESDAY, MAY 25th.
So…if you are planning to want a journal, photo book, or sketchbook made for an upcoming birthday, anniversary, or other special occasion, please order NOW. I want to be able to guarantee I can get it done for you before Birth Day!
In the meantime, I will continue posting about the projects I have completed…until the queue runs dry!
Thank you so much for your understanding and for your patronage over the past few years. Your loving support and sweet comments mean a lot to me!
–Abbi
One of my good college buddies, Geoff, and his wife Cheyenne are among the many friends I have who are becoming parents this year. They are incredibly talented photographers and designers, so it came as no surprise that they planned a special party to announce their baby’s gender.
When they had their ultrasound, they had the technician write the gender down and place it in a sealed envelope. Then they took the envelope to a cake baker, who made a cake revealing the baby’s gender. They borrowed the idea from a friend, and as a cake baker, I can only wish I would’ve thought of this! Perhaps one day someone will want me to bake them a special announcement cake like this. Enjoy the video:
Boy? or Girl? from Cheyenne Schultz on Vimeo.
Geoff and Cheyenne: I am SO THRILLED for you guys! You are going to make terrific parents!! Congratulations, again!
My, how time flies! When Andrew and I met, his youngest daughter was just 5 years old. Now she’s a beautiful 8 year old who just gets smarter and funnier and prettier every day.
Since MJ was turning 8 on April 8th, this was her one and only Golden Birthday. So I was extra excited when she asked me if I’d make the cake for her party at Remington Park.
Her request was perfectly ‘MJ’: A tiered chocolate cake with pink icing and polka dots. So that’s what she got!
Her little friends were so cute. They kept saying, “You MADE that?” and “You make really good cakes!” I love kids…they are so easily pleased.
Happy birthday, sweet girl! We love you and are SO proud of you!
It’s not very often that I get to make journals for kids, so I was very excited when my friend Anne contact me regarding her nephew’s upcoming birthday.
Teddy will be turning 4 this month, and in Anne’s words, “he would love a personalized field journal to write down ‘observations.’”
How cute is that?! Anne did some research about Teddy’s favorites and as luck would have it, he loves green frogs! I happened to have the perfect fabric for his book!
To jazz up the fabric a bit, I added orange brads to give the frog’s warts some texture (eww?)
I also used silver embroidery floss for the bugs’ flight patterns.
I love the depth that the sewing gave both the wings and the swirls. I’d been wanting to try this technique for a while, and this fabric was the perfect opportunity!
Teddy’s favorite color is red, and since no observation journal is complete without a writing utensil, I added a red ribbon pen loop and a red mechanical pencil.
Teddy also loves the alphabet, so for the inside paste pages, I used lettered paper in coordinating colors. Anne also included the verbiage for a personalized inscription, so I added that to the inside cover as well.
Anne, thanks for asking me to make Teddy’s book! It was such a fun change of pace to make a child’s journal!
Teddy, HAPPIEST OF HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!! May this book house all your big ideas!