{ Quarter Century } Birthday!

I'm officially 25 years old as of yesterday :) 

My mom and Tyson were amazing this week and made sure I felt special 

and made sure this was a memorable birthday. 

Because this was a milestone birthday, I wanted to be sure my mom knew 

that I knew, that it was a big milestone for her as well; 

her baby is 25 :) 

I bought her a gift, a flower, and wrote her a note letting her know, 

"There wouldn't be Birthdays without moms." 

She's the most amazing woman in my life and I wanted to remind her of that. 

Well, not much else needs to be said so I'll let the pictures & captions do the talking :) 

On my way to work and pretty excited about the day to come lol

I've always wanted an Edible Arrangement; my momma is the best! 

Decorated cubie at work. (We recently got moved to smaller cubicles; kill me)

Co-worker bought me macaroons; everyone had devoured them at this point lol 

I got off work at noon and came home to a quick yummy lunch made by my adorable hubby. 

Tyson bought me a beautiful Marc Jacobs necklace, Nike shirt, and got my ring fixed and perfect again!

Tyson went golfing and I was gonna go shopping but decided to watch my shows and lounge instead;
I sent this to him to show how awesome I was being all afternoon lol 

This was from Thursday. My brother and his wife bought me a Mani Pedi.
Had to show off my nails to Tyson cuz he thinks hand models are so funny; that they are lol 

Me and my step-dad Steve at Hidden Valley County Club for dinner

My mom gave me a look if I tried to take these off lol

Mom was so sweet and made everyone party favors  

Loved the purple shades combo

Seriously my new favorite picture of my 16 mo. old niece. She came running in to give me my birthday card.
She is my favorite little person and I'm obsessed lol 

Madison, Addisyn, and my brother Ryan

Me, Tyson, Madison, Addi, Ryan, Alex, Sam { the kids } 

The birthday hat has been in our family for about 15 years now lol

My favorite movie as a kid. Raspberry filled vanilla cake.

 These next three photos are so funny. 

I wish I had the 4th to show Addi finally grab at the cake 

cuz she couldn't take it any longer lol.

"Oooh cake! I love cake!"

"Aunt Sarah, can you please cut just a little bit faster?"

"I can't take it! I'm about to just dig in!" 

 We finally gave her some cake and ice cream and she didn't even want it lol 

The stubborn terrible-twos are upon us lol (she still makes me laugh lol) 

My mom bought me this tiny little "S" necklace from Mark and Graham. 

Every Christmas, I make a DVD for the family of our year in review. They're amazing and I love them! 

I've also made them for anniversaries and big number birthdays. 

My mom wanted to surprise me and make one for my 25th. 

I bawled like a baby and will probably watch it a hundred more times. 

It was the best present! 

I'm so thankful she took the time to learn how to make one 

because it was absolutely perfect from beginning to end. 

Home for the day and lovin on my sweet husband. 

An absolutely perfect birthday.

 I wouldn't have had it any other way!!! 

Thank you to my friends and family who made it such an amazing day. 

I'm truly blessed to have so many great people in my life. 

// 

Tyson and I are off to dinner and a movie for our shared birthday 

and then it's time to celebrate his 26th Birthday tomorrow!! 

Photo Blanket for Taleah

Once we found out that Taleah's cancer came back, 

I immediately got to work on making a blanket for her. 

I knew I wanted to add pictures of her family on it so she would feel their comfort 

even when they weren't able to be with her at Primary Children's. 

Tyson was sweet enough to spend a Friday night at Jo-Ann's Fabric Store 

with me, picking out the materials I needed. 

I don't think he minded as much this time though, since it was all for Taleah. 

Although Taleah is only 5 years old, she's always had such a mature personality 

and I wanted the blanket to reflect that about her. 

I love how soft minky is, so a mature gray minky was my first selection.  

The leopard print caught my eye immediately because I think it's sassy; just like Taleah :) 

I chose the chevron because I love the pattern for children's bedding. 

Then the coral/pink pattern just seemed like the perfect girly touch. 

The solid yellow was to calm down the busyness of the patterns and to be a background for the photos. 

I have never printed on fabric before but it was so easy 

and I know i'll be using it on another project one day. 

The print-on fabric can be found next to the sewing machines at Jo-Ann's. 

// 

I used the same pattern for this blanket as I did with the baby blanket I made 

for my friend's baby shower as well as the breast cancer auction blanket I made. 

The directions are so easy to follow and the final result is so cute! 

I measured and cut the minkie, then cut out all of the squares. 

I then rearranged the squares until I found a pattern I liked. 

Then came all the sewing. 

Quilt patterns are not my favorite. 

There are so many little pieces to sew together 

so the chances of making a mistake are higher. 

I had one mistake where I sewed the wrong rows together, 

but I was able to quickly unstitch the row and fix my mistake. 

Once the squares were sewn together, and I trimmed the gray and quilt squares 

to the correct measurements, I then proceeded to make the photos pieces. 

I found my 5 favorite pictures of Taleah and her family and printed them to the fabric. 

The paper goes in your printer like regular paper and it's so easy. 

The directions were very easy to understand and the pieces came out beautifully.
Once the fabric photos were dry, 

I cut them to size, and zig-zag stitched them to the yellow squares. 

I found it easiest to tape down the photo fabric with masking tape; 

don't use needles as it will poke holes in the fabric.

Once I had all 5 photos sewn on, it was time to sew the quilt squares to the minky 

and voila! 

I love the way it turned out! 

We were lucky enough to get to take it up to Primary Children's that same day and see Taleah. 

She was having a rough first week and was pretty tired. 

We didn't actually get to talk to her because she was sleeping, 

but it was a lot of fun getting to talk with Tosha, Scott, and Tyson's other cousin Tavia. 

What an amazing little family they have. 

I'm constantly amazed at the strength they have and how much support they have 

from their family to take care of the twins and Slade when Tosha & Scott can't be with them. 

Tosha is really good at keeping Taleah's blog updated so feel free to stay updated there 

on Taleah's progress. 

Tosha is a wonderful writer and has been great at creating the real, sometimes painful 

picture for what's going on day to day. 

As I mentioned before, you can follow along on the blog and even donate 

to help with Taleah's medical bills. 

This is the best link if you can help. 

Together for Taleah donations

I love when I see pictures of Taleah wrapped in the blanket. 

Seeing her enveloped with the love of her family 

makes me feel blessed to have been able to give that gift to her. 

We love the Stevenson family so much and continue to pray for them 

and keep Taleah in our thoughts. 

Self-Binding Blanket { pt 2 }

There was an auction going on at my mom's office the other day 

and she asked if I would make a blanket that she could donate. 

She loved the way this baby blanket turned out so I stuck with the same pattern. 

It's seriously so quick and easy and I am loving the way they are turning out. 

The full tutorial can be found on my first Self-Binding Baby Blanket tutorial post. 

Let me just say, REALLY follow the directions she gives in the YouTube video 

and take your time. 

I kind of got ahead of myself and ended up cutting one of the corners at a wrong angle.

 I had to create a corner since I cut mine off wrong. 

It seriously stressed me out but once I took a step back, I knew how to fix it. 

The blanket wasn't perfect, but honestly, had I not even pointed it out to my mom, 

she said she probably wouldn't have even noticed. 

The blanket was actually the first item sold at the auction! 

I was so relieved that the "imperfection" didnt even matter.

I definitely need to make myself one of these! 

Guest Book Balloons

I'm finally getting around to posting the final piece from the baby shower I threw for my co-worker. 

Instead of just having people sign a little guest book, 

I wanted Danielle to be able to see and use it for her nursery. 

I've seen this idea before and I just loved it. 

And it was actually super easy to make! 

I set this sign up at work so everyone would sign a circle as they arrived to the shower. 

We had a wonderful turn out so I had plenty of circles to work with. 

Poem by me :) 

I had some poster board cut to size at Hobby Lobby, bought some paper to match the nursery, 

and then found a sticker for the animal I wanted holding the balloon bouquet. 

Don't mind my fuzzy filled glue gun lol 

I placed a dot of glue on the back of the circle... 

Waited a couple of seconds and then pushed the thread into the glue to flatten and dry it all. 

Over and over and over :) 

I used my glue dot stickies instead of hot glue to place the circles on the poster board. 

Just incase I wanted to move them around - which I did. 

Once I had them all pasted down, I placed the elephant at the bottom corner, tied all of the threads

 together, and hot glued it down so it looked like the elephant was  holding the balloons. 

I found perfect letter stickers at Hobby Lobby to use for the baby's name. 

I think it turned out so cute and Danielle just loved it!