a few faves from the link up

well, well, well, for the first link me up party i think we did pretty well. almost 180 links. not bad.
there were so many of you that entered that i wasn't able to comment on each. oh but i did check out each and every one of you! fabulous things being created out there! if i could i would put up a ton more pictures but for now here are a few of my favorites:
1.mary on lake pulski's awesome hexagon quilt 2.scatter sunshine's too cute lima bean wreath in my favorite green 3. thimbleanna's gorgeous wedding quilt (i'm so digging the different shades of creams)
1. just another day in paradise's cute party hat 2. diary of a quilter's gorgeous Dresden plate quilt 3.helping little hand's adorable caterpillar applique.
1. scraps and strings cute bow tie 2. quilt fabric delight's adorable apron 3.noodle head's gorgeous red riding hood coat. (i want one for katie)
1. moda home mom's too cute bunny eggs 2. pick up some creativity's fabric easter basket 3. trey and lucy's beautiful button earings

1. cressall pictures (ahem using my pattern) adorably cute strawberry cake 2.love in the mommyhood's too cute for words dress 3. a pretty cool life's awesome bean bags (congrats on being sytyc round three contestant!)
1. house of hepsworth's dollar store ball 2.yarn and hook's adorable little hat! 3. lemon tree creation's awesome clock
1. terrace hill's vintage inspired apron 2.made by a momma monster's lovely hydrangea 3. casy random's awesome granny neclace

1.lemon squeezy's adorably cute basket 2. at second street's (always creative!) leather bracelets 3. bijou lovley's classy neclace

SO many amazing links! i wish i had more time to upload even more up!
i must admit there is one link up that i was just blown away by.

this baptism dress made by brown paper packages. i mean holy hannah look at that dress!
um can i pre-order mine by 4 years for katie?a.maz.ing!

some of you mentioned that i needed to have my own button for the link me up party. well next time i promise to! but this time if you've been mentioned ever on my blog make sure to get your button!

we'll do this again soon!
come monday we will have a sponsored giveaway ;)


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the starts of our garden

so i've mentioned before that we live at the altitude of 7000+ feet.
gardening (and cooking) follow a whole different set of rules here from where the husband and i grew up... near ocean level.
because our growing time is shorter than most other places (it's been snowing the past few days..and we've been known to get snow in june even!) a few of the people around here (the serious gardeners) have some kind of outside green house. that's not in our budget at the moment, so i started researching indoor gardens.
this is intriguing but i am just wanting to make my growing season longer so that's why i started things early this time around.
last year we experimented just to see if we could even grow a garden.
we started late. but we still had quite the garden of zucchinis and peas.
this year i wanted more of what i knew my family would eat and eat and eat and eat.
MORE FRUIT and some vegies.

i love strawberries and so do my kids. if we had endless amounts of strawberries for each individual mentioned...we would all eat as many as we could and we wouldn't care about the runs we would all get because of it.

that.is.love.
of a fruit.
and we have it.
the husband likes them but not enough to give himself self induced runs.

we've already noticed a few growing. and it is not uncommon to hear in the midst of the chaos i like to call my home...somebody yelling out "i call that strawberry! that one's mine!!!" to which another one will be like "NO! that one's MINE!!! i called it like yesterday."
good times.

we also went to walmart and bought 2 of these little starter green houses. each cost us $5 each.

each comes with 72 individual pockets of soil for each little plant to grow.
we have cantaloupe, carrots, lettuce, watermelon, tomatoes, pumpkins, and peas.
no zucchini this year. because people door bell ditch it here in town. just kidding but you can't go to the post office without someone asking if you want peaches or zucchinis.

the kids are more excited then i expected. the boys think its cool that we are growing little chia pets...katie can't stop talking about the strawberries. i mean hello...that's what strawberry shortcake grows and one thing is for sure the girl loves strawberry shortcake.
we'll have a long(er) growing season this year. thanks to starting early this year. i really hope and cross my fingers that this will work out but in the mean time

we'll just have to keep waiting.


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vinyl on canvas : mini tutorial

first off hello! and THANK YOU for linking up soo many wonderful things! wow! come later this week (as i finish making my rounds) i'll showcase a few of your creations here on the blog.
second, the jedi robes.
so many of you asked where i got the pattern...they are modified versions of this pattern. maybe i can make a tutorial for the kid's version. we'll see.
so no, to the gal who asked if i "just winged them". you don't have to hate me. ;)
now lets talk about a little of what i've been working on, on top of the jedi robes. i love that at this stage in blogging i have sponsors that like to be... well my sponsors. (waving thank you and high five)
one major thing i try to do with my sponsors is look at their products and show you somethings that i personally would put in my house, on myself, or on my kids. another thing i like to do is link up to things i've bought from these sponsors. you can see my links at the bottom of my posts. basically i take the time to check out my sponsors and my sponsors are people i would buy stuff from and often do as well!
here is one thing that i saw from one of my sponsors janey mac that i had to have. now i think i've mentioned before: i'm not a huge vinyl on the walls girl. not that there's anything wrong with others having it on their walls...but for me having it on my walls is too permanent. and when you change things around all the time...permanent can be a little bit on the bad side.


before i got this vinyl i asked lynnette (the owner) if it would work on canvas. she said "yeah!" so i said "i want it!"
i wanted a sort of "work of art" so here's what i did:

*i took a 24 by 36 artist stretch canvas ( it took me two weeks to get one because i didn't know anyone going up to where a joann's was for that long...and you want to get it there because they are 40% off at the moment!)

*then i took watered down acrylic paint (in a light blue found at the craft section in walmart) and did a light wash over the whole canvas. let it dry.

* next i spray painted the canvas with that ivy leaf green i use all the time from walmart. (love that color.) you could still see the brush strokes i did of the watered down color underneath (but not the color so much)

*then i took the vinyl and used the picture as my guide as to where to place my flowers. following the general guidelines that she includes in her instructions on how to "install" you vinyl properly. i modified them a little by "scratching" the paper that's over the vinyl so that it stuck onto the canvas before i pulled it off. (the picture above is of me doing the scratching before i pull it off)

*gently pull off the top paper leaving the vinyl behind.
and that's it.

and just in case you want to make a work of art of your own: lynnette of janey mac is offering a 15% discount off your purchase if you mention V and Co. in the notes. they will refund you your discount through paypal.

my work of art now hangs in my living room...which i didn't get a picture of because this weekend we were too busy with G.C., easter-ing it up with egg hunting, egg war-ing, eating, and laughing with friends.
we had a wonderful weekend.
best one in a long time.
hope you had a wonderful weekend too.
i'll add a picture later on when the light is right in my living room.

edited: here it is in my living room. i love how just one thing of art can change the dynamics of a the room.
we'll talk soon.


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and psst check out the furniture here!
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link me up, you will...

so my boys have been begging for jedi robes.
for like ever.
last week while i was tired and probably half asleep boy #1 had a conversation with me that i can't remember for the life of me what was said in it, but at the end i did the "pinky promise" to seal the deal.
oh crap what the...what had i just promise to?
apparently i pinky promised that by the end of the week i would have made and outfitted all three male noisemakers under the age of 11 with a jedi robes.
nicely played my friend nicely played...

i've been working on a lot of other things. yes i have. and yes it's been rather quiet on the V and Co tutorial front...but there is a reason. in due time, made known to you, it will.
but for now here's what i've worked on this week.
three jedi robes for the boys...and one jedi robe for the girl...only because the first jedi robe for the third noise maker was too small. so she got it and wore out in town. she loves it and calls it her "sen-sen rofe" which translates out to "princess robe" because hello princess leah and hello padme before she's made queen or after or... whatever...i'm not the nerd in the house.
and so here it is the first ever "link me up" post i've ever done.
show me what you've been doing
whether it's a V and Co tutorial or not. show it you will!
okay sorry with all the yoda talk.
have a sweet weekend. come monday i have one of the things i've been working on to show you.
we'll talk soon.
the force is strong. now link up you will:

babies a plenty

see growing up in the great city of los angeles and then moving to the "smaller" city of san diego...i didn't have the opportunity to see many brand new baby farm animals while in my childhood years. that is so not the case for my children as we find ourselves here in the middle of nowhere. baby farm animals are a-plenty. so much that going to the farm to see the new baby lambs has sort of become a "awwww, do we have to mom?" from the two older noisemakers. to which i answer rather kindly cause that's how i roll "yes, and so help me if you ruin this for me the two younger kids, i'll do something mean to you."
to which eye rolls are made a-plenty, sweatshirts are put on, and we happily drive away in the mini van to meet up with friends.

to see the cute baby lambs...and making memories and traditions completely different from my childhood...but still with the same intentions.


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