in other news :: vote for my new header!

as you may have noticed, i've been playing with my header over the past couple day and would love your help deciding which direction to take. (i changed it back to the old one during the poll so as not to influence anyone's vote). i'd like it to be immediately apparent to people who stop by my blog for the first time, just what my blog is about, with a quick glance at my header.

i'd like it to include something that reflects both family and my work. the photos of the boys are obvious additions for family. the pattern on the blue bar is a pattern from my fin+roe brand. in some of the headers i have an option of either one of my marzipan illustrations or multiple illustrations.

once the header is decided on, i'd like to alter some of the other items on my blog to coincide with the new theme. so, that will all come as well....

with that said, i'd love it if you'd take a minute to vote for your favorite header option below. if you have additional comments, feel free to add them in the comment section! i'd love to hear what you have to say.  i'll leave the poll up until this coming friday, the 23rd.

things i want (and made myself) tuesday :: an apple a day

i found this amazing poster online at the end of the year. the idea is that each day you place the sticker from an apple on the corresponding date to remind yourself to eat your fruit! i take no credit for this idea. (although i wish i had thought of it!) since i'm trying to loose some weight i thought this would be a fun thing to try! i made up a poster of my own and started on the first day of the year.



so much for an apple a day keeps the dr. away. you can see after day 4, there are some spots without stickers. yeah, that's because i came down with the flu after 4 days of apples. coincidence? just kidding. so anyway, i wasn't up to eating much for those 5 days so i stamped it with the letter "s" from my kids' stamp set so that i know why i didn't accomplish my goal that day.



i'm also not limiting myself to apples. any large-ish piece of fruit counts. i try to eat it with, or before, dinner so that i eat less of my other food. tomorrow will be day 20. so far so good!

homemade :: holiday gifts

first of all i need to apologize for the blurry first photo. i forgot to take final photos of this gift until after i gave them. i had to take photos in the evening at my mom's house.....



this was my first official cross stitch design that i've ever done from scratch. i've done small cross stitch projects in the past from patterns, but had never designed one myself.



it all started when i saw the quote: "home is where my mom is" somewhere on the interweb. i knew i wanted to do something with it, and finally decided on cross stitch. i made one for both my mom and my mother-in-law.



i was surprisingly able to create these with mostly thrifted materials. the hoops were all thrifted, some of the thread, and even the aida cloth. i bought maybe 2 or 3 skeens of thread retail.

marzipan monday :: sneak peek of new designs

welcome back! even though i did manage to post a few times over the last couple weeks it was a really great break. i hope you're well rested and ready to start the new year with fresh eyes.

one of my goals over the holiday break was to take advantage of the time my hubby was home to concentrate on getting some major design time in. i wanted to get the designs for my march release finished before he went back to work so that when i was home with the boys i wouldn't have to worry about it. i'm happy to say that i accomplished that goal by saturday evening! there's still a lot of work to do, including preparing the files for the printer and finalizing embellishments, but at least the basic design work is done. there are 12 new designs in all and i'm super excited about them. here's a sneak peek of 4 of them in their pre-embellished phase.