apples, apples and more apples

Yesterday all the kiddos had off school and we headed to Sky Top Orchard with our good friends for such a fun time. The trees were weighted down with apples and our kitchen is now full of so many, I am going to have to get cooking here soon!

What a great day to spend in the mountains! I truly love where we live!

Our gang! 11 kids and 4 mamas

What sweet brothers!

The "big" boys

It's Oliver and Kate, both sporting mama made tees!

Just half of our load

just swingin'

Backyard weather is here! Yeah for fall!

what my tuesdays look like

Ever since school has begun and I have a few days where all 3 kids are gone, I have marked off Tuesday as my sewing day. I knew if I didn't tell myself to have one day where I don't need to clean, run errands, volunteer etc, etc then I would never sew anything for the shop. So today I had about 3 almost uninterrupted hours to cut out bibs and appliques. We are having a sewing weekend in just a few days and I want to get as much cut out as I can. I am so excited, I can hardly stand it. Two whole days of no husband, no kids or anything else, just sewing! Rebecca and I are getting ready for an upcoming home show we are hosting in the fall. So we have grand plans.

Anyway, amongst all the cutting and hurrying I lifted my head and had to take a quick pic of this mess! So Tuesday mornings are for sewing and it looks like the rest of the day is for cleaning it all up!

There is a bed under there!

Piles of little elephants!

Bibs Galore!

9 years

Yesterday we celebrated our 9 year anniversary. It is funny how that time can fly by so quickly as we busy orselves with life. It was nice to take some time together to celebrate and think about all that may lie ahead of us as well.

A few well placed hints well over six months ago proved to work. I was given this gorgeous neckalce with the kid's initials. It is even prettier in person! It was made by Lisa Leonard who I had heard of online some time ago. She has really pretty jewelry. My man definitely did good this year!

new friends

We have a few new silly friends joining the olliekate gang. Meet Max. Charlie and LuluBelle. We are gearing up to do some fall craft fairs and have been dreaming up some new designs to add! All of our designs can be custom made in other sizes too if you need! Our family of creatures keeps growing, keep your eye on the shop for more to come :)

growing up

Well, it is the end to a busy weekend around here and while I should be getting my sleep I am up with an aching tooth from last week's crown incident and thinking about all the things we have done the past few days. A conversation I had with a friend is running through my head about our oldest boys. They are both 8 1/2 (and the half matters!), and are in that magical age of life where you can flow from being a big kid to being little again within moments and without judgement. It is so fleeting to watch them grow. I often long to press the pause button. The little boy that slept in my bed the night before "just because" can now hardly stop for a hug or hold my hand because he is speeding by so quickly! On to his next activity, running outside or dreaming of things he wants to do. I look at him and I

can see the big kid inside him just waiting at the gates to burst through. I know it is an age old sentiment, but I have realized that every mom will experience these feelings herself at some point and they are uniquely ours and different with every child. I just hope that I can remember all these sweet moments as he grows and they get buried with time!

dress it up

A new design at Olliekate! Rebecca has dreamed up these super cool fabric brooches. They are a great idea to dress up a handbag or a coat for mom or your little girl. A touch of style at an affordable price.

::Have a great weekend::

building

Life this week has been busy but good. I am in the middle of working with a web designer for my husband's building company. We do not have an official website yet for his company and in this day and age we might as well live under a rock without one. It has been a lot of research and computer time and lots of practice on my camera, that I love but don't know how to use 80% of the functions!

Some shots from his latest project. No, it is not our house, but I wish it was. For now our 100 year old house with small closets, slanted floors and quirkiness will have to do. One day..
But he is super talented (at least I think so) and this house looks amazing. We will be in our local Parade of Homes this fall and are busily getting ready for that. Hence I have to get the website done before then!



I had to stop while I was busy hurrying around today to get stuff done to shoot these pics of Kate. In order to get about 15 minutes of anything done, I gave her a box of poker chips and 3 buckets. She had a blast. After I took these shots, she began to throw them all over the floor laughing hysterically. Preschool is already paying off! Ah!!

pillow #2

I made another pillow a couple days ago for little one's room that I am oh so slowly redecorating. We have been wanting to experiment with our applique designs on pillows and this came out just how I had envisioned. It is a pink Amy Butler fabric and our Olliekate little poppy flower with her name on it too. Maybe one day these pillows can make it into our shop!
Happy weekend!

sprout design

Stumbling on the internet today looking for something totally unrelated, what do you know I found a new fabric designer web site. It is called Sprout Design and how adorable these fabrics are! I love them. This designer is out of Australia and makes bedding, bags and even some clothes with their line. Looks like the fabric is pretty pricey by the yard so there is not even a question of buying some, but I can dream. I wouldn't know which one to pick even if I could!

The skipping kids above though may be one of my faves. What a cute blanket or even skirt or dress it could make.

Love seeing all the talent out there, in my next life I think I will be more artistic and be a fabric designer. That is if I can make that happen :)

the pillow

I posted earlier about the new Amy Butler Daisy Chain line I had seen and went ahead and placed an order with fabric.com. It arrived and is even prettier in person. Probably because it is in all my favorite colors, but Amy has wrapped me back in. I also got some pink from her older charm line to make pillows in little one's room. My bed needed this pop of color and pattern, I couldn't wait to sew it up. Just a simple envelope closure and voila, a new pillow!

banner

We have been talking about and talking about creating a new banner for quite some time. But it just wasn't getting done and we just couldn't make up our minds. Well, the genious that is my partner got it together for both of us this weekend and made a super cool banner for out etsy shop. I really love it, what do you think?

We just needed a bit of pop while keeping our look of simple , classic and fun design that we use in our creations.

Plus we have even more items listed in new Asian themed fabrics, just beautiful!