Health, Happiness, Hamstrings Featured on Tatertots & Jello.

I am SO excited to announce that Health, Happiness, Hamstrings has been featured on Tatertots & Jello. The spring wreath that I posted yesterday was included in Jen’s Great Ideas - - Spring Wreaths {1} post. It TOTALLY made my day. When I saw my wreath, I did a little happy dance and Bean started laughing hysterically. What a GREAT way to end my night. You can see my little feature by clicking here. Please join me in my happy dance. Would have gotten this on video, but Mr. Man said I was being a dork.

Jen, thanks for making my night! What a wonderful surprise.  So thrilled to be adding a I was featured on tatertots & jello badge on my blog.

 

It’s Official Spring is FINALLY Here!!!!!

NOW it is official. Spring is here!!!!!!! Many of you may be shaking your heads since the official day of spring is March 21st, and today is March 25th, but in my book it is now Spring because I have finished my Spring wreath and it is hanging on our door.
It came out SO much better than I imagined. My original thought was to do an interchangeable wreath since I loved the concept, especially since it would be great on our wallet, but when I thought to do the Spring sign I nixed that thrifty idea. Wait, you have no idea what I am talking about since I didn’t even share my creation with you. On that note, drum roll please, I present to you my wreath for Spring of 2011:


I am so proud of this little beauty, if I must say so myself, since I used many techniques. The whole idea originated from the wonderful wreath made by the fabulous Myra of the casabelala project, who did a picture perfect Ruffled Burlap & Jute Wreath with interchangeable embellishments. My GOAL was to have a ruffle, but for some reason my wreath had an0other plan. I am in no way complaining since I LOVE the way it turned out, so did Mr. Man. He was so excited to come home and see this beauty on our front door.
This post is not a step by step although I will give you the links to the tutorials I used when making the flowers. I will give you the instructions for the spring sign I added at the bottom. Also, one thing I learned from this wreath is a straw wreath is VERY hard to wrap. If you are planning on doing ANY type of wrapping, other than a fabircl, I highly suggest using a different form.
So, on to the parts of the wreath. I will start with the left:


For the multicolor flowers with the buttons I used this tutoral from NatSprat. Now I will warn you, there are MANY tutorials out there for fabric rosettes and this by far is my favorite. The green flower was made, kind of, using this tutorial from lemon tree creations. I say kind of because the sewing machine didn’t behave so I kind of had to fudge it. Still came out cute.

On to the left side:

The pink flower and the multicolor flower both with buttons were made by following this tutorial. This by far was the MOST fun to make. Will be using this to make Bean some clips as well as onsie’s. If you follow her directions they come out perfectly. The other two flowers are yoyo’s. I used this tutorial by Heather Baily. Please, if you are looking to make a yoyo this is THE tutorial to use. She explains why you should plan on using a short versus a long running stitch as well as gives you ways you can use yoyo’s in your projects.

Now on to the

sign. This was my little creation. Best part, you DO NOT need a di-cutting machine, because I do not own one. All I did was use MS Word and found a font that would be easy to cut out. I spelled out Spring in all capital letters, made it a big enough to print where I was happy with the size on the wreath, printed it out and made a stencil on cardboard. I then took my fabric used some fabric glue, glued the fabric to some more cardboard and used the stencils to cut out the letters. There you have it, a spring sign without a di-cutting machine. Hey, Mr. Man, if you are reading thins, add di-cutting machine as a possible gifts for me. Hint Hint!!!!!!!

Lastly, I used some coordinating ribbon to hand up my wreath like this:

When I cut the ribbon I made sure I had extra on top to tie a bow. To ensure the ends didn’t fray I used a match and sealed the ends. This was a suggestion I read in a post from Little Miss Momma. Worked PERFECTLY. Thanks Ashley!!
So, welcome Spring glad you finally decided to come. Even if you bought us some more snow.


Forgot to add this last night. Will be linking to:






Decided to link to Chic on a Shoestring Decorating:

Mr. Man WAS Freezing 4 a Reason

Hi guys! So it has been a very active couple of weeks and:

1. you will be seeing a bunch of posts soon. Need to catch up on what has been going on in Htothe3 land. Some crafting, some family time, and probably some randomness. The biggest post will be about the redesign.
2. This post will MAINLY include pictures. That being said, bare with me it was for a good cause and I am very proud of Mr. Man for what he did.

On to the pictures I mean post. =) This Saturday Mr. Man, my fabulous hubby, jumped into a VERY and I mean VERY cold lake to raise money for a charity. There is a 10 year old little girl in our community who has Cystic Fibrosis and every year her family has a fundraiser to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. At the event participants raise money by getting sponsors to sponsor them to jump into the lake. Thank goodness you can still attend without jumping. Bean, my mother and father-in-law and I were land lovers cheering Mr. Man on as he took the plunge. 

Mr. Man, I am so so so proud of you. Thank you for representing our family and raising money for such a wonderful cause. You are THE best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So here are the pictures. Hope you enjoy them.

 

My Baby Holds Her “Baby”~A Glimpse Into a Personal Moment

 

Besides Mommy, Dada and more, one of Bean’s FAVORITE words, these days, is baby. Now, I have to give her credit, at times she uses this word correctly, identifying a baby at a trip to Michael’s or at the grocery store, but other times, not so much. Either way we, and I am referring and Mr. Man and myself, can see the brain waves in action.

Since I knew Bean is fascinated by dolls, gravitating towards dolls at play dates,  it was time to introduce her to her very own baby. Ironically, for the holidays, Mr. Man’s brother and sister-in-law gave Bean a doll. I had tucked it away, as leverage, to pull out at a time when I needed to grab her attention, or when she was getting tired of her toys. Another motivating factor was seeing the wonderful pictures taken by Kelle Hampton of Enjoying the Small Things of and her absolutely beautiful daughter Nella enjoying her baby. That being said, I warn you ahead of time, this post has a lot of pictures. I wanted to document the introduction of Bean to her very own baby making pictures of this experience important.

I decided the best time to give Bean her baby was when Mr. Man was home. As many of you know, my husband juggles a full schedule. So, I try to include him on moments that I find note worthy. While I knew he may not appreciate this introduction I knew I wouldn’t want him to miss it. As a girl, having a doll was such an important thing to my own development as a female. It was my first taste of being a mommy. So, I present to you a moment in my life I will cherish: my baby holds her fist “baby.”

 

 

I hope you enjoy taking a peek at this very personal moment in my life.

~Lauren

Help!!!! How To Dress This Door?

 

I don’t know about you, but lately all I have been dreaming about is Spring. Anything, and I mean anything, that has to do with Spring catches my attention. Since I have been bitten by the Spring “bug” I am totally indecisive on what wreath I am going to make for our front door. I go back and forth on what to choose. Also, since we really don’t celebrate St. Patrick’s day, although this year we are marching in the parade since Mr. Man is a Rotarian, my front door is naked.

That is why I am asking for your help! This door needs some love.

Below please find the wreaths, also known as craft eye candy, that I have I have been admiring and help me figure how to dress this door. 

a    b 

C D

                                                                                   [will adjust to have spring paper]

 

The votes are open. I am looking for your help. Please comment below.

What will it ???????????

 

~Lauren

“Oh Happy Day” ~ The Big Reveal

In the words of the great Aretha Franklin: “Oh happy day (oh happy day).” All I can say is we have been having a few more of these oh happy days in our household. Mainly because the three of us are finally on the mend. I am crossing my fingers and we are taking a hiatus from tissues and ginger ale.
As I said in a previous post, without tapping into my creative side I really do not think I would have gotten through the last couple of weeks. Might sound silly, but glue all over my hands and cutting felt allowed me to leave my reality and go somewhere else. I am proud to say I have finished a project and have hung it in Bean’s room this afternoon. It was my first wreath I have EVER made and my first REAL project using a glue gun. It is amazing HOW much you can learn from one project.
Well, I am ready to make my big reveal. Here it is:


The tutorial I used was from Our Best Bites, specifically their Valentine Rosette Wreath. I adjusted the colors to match Bean’s room (pink and brown). Originally I was going to put this over her dresser, which you can see in this post but decided to put in over the changing table. The picture that was originally over the changing table (a fabulous HomeGoods find) I moved to another spot and it looks SO much better in its new place.
Back to the details of the project. My initial goal was to give you specifics like EXACTLY how many felt sheets I used, but since I did a terrible job keeping track of instead I have a collage of pictures I took while creating the wreath using her tutorial.

I will also leave you with things I learned and tips I would suggest:

1. It is easier to make the spirals by first cutting out circles then cutting those into spirals. There is no ONE way to do it, but try different ways until you are comfortable.
2. I originally rolled the rosettes from the insides out and the outside in. I ended up liking how the rosettes look when you roll them from the outside of the spiral in, instead of the inside of the spiral out.
3. Use a little glue along the way and glue the final flap at the end on the bottom of the rose. Using the flap to glue the rosette onto the was easier for me.
4. Instead of spraying wreath with paint I wrapped mine in brown ribbon.
5. Follow her suggestion of “I did the top part first to make sure it looked good, and then moved around the sides and into the middle.” I didn’t do this and in the end I think this would have made my life easier.

While my wreath might not be perfect I know I have a happy little girl. When I changed her diaper  this afternoon all she did was stare at the wreath. It was the most uneventful diaper change I have had in a VERY long time. To me that was the biggest compliment of all.
~Lauren

Will be linking up to: