April Sponsored Giveaway WINNER!

The WINNER is:

JWIZ!! Congrats & Enjoy your new banner!

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April Giveaway from Uprinting.com:
(1) 24x36 Vinyl Banner w/ Grommets, including FREE UPS Ground Shipping!!

Uprinting has a great assortment of banners and wall graphics. Check them out for all your needs! This prize would be perfect for parents, photographers, artists and crafters. Show season is about to start for handmade artists. Spice up your booth display.

To enter, please post a comment here with your name & email. For fun if you want to add what you'd like to make with your prize, that would be great! Contest ends on April 29th. One winner will be drawn at random. You will be contacted by uprinting shortly after to claim your prize.

Good Luck!
[Eligibility: Limited to US Residents only, 18 years+]

Earth Day Party

Little {L} turned two year old last week. Over the weekend we had an Earth Day themed birthday party. The kids had SO much fun! We had decorations made from natural & recycled items. An earth cake, including an earth colored inside! Seedling cupcakes made with chocolate frosting and green jelly beans, "sprouting" from the dirt.

The backdrop is made from upcycled paint chips. I had a whole bunch of paint sample books from the last time we painted. A quick circle punch job, and then they were glued to yarn. Mr. {D} was proud to say all day that he picked the stick they were hung from.

I made these little journals to give to the children at the party.

Peek a boo!

Go Green!!

Smile

Smile: it's a beautiful day! Look around you to see all you to be thankful for!

Waiting

Lots of waiting going on at our house. Waiting for the veggies to sprout, waiting for school to end for the season, waiting for lots of warm days, waiting for playing in the pool and dancing in sprinklers, and most of all waiting for baby!

I can't wait to meet this little one. This pregnancy at time has seemed to last so long. I never experienced that with the others. Typically at this point I am starting to get sad because soon I will no longer be pregnant. This time, I am counting down the days. Partly due to the surprising, painful aspects of this pregnancy [baby please more OFF my pelvic bone!], and partly I want to know if we have a new little girl or boy to love. The waiting is driving me crazy! I've tried to fill my time with sewing, gardening and the bigger kids homeschooling, but my mind always lingers on thoughts of the baby.

growing up

Little {L} will turn two this week! Yes two years old already. I have no idea where the time has gone. One minute he was this sweet little newborn snuggling in close to sleep, and the blink of an eye...he's an adventurous, tough little explorer.

He's grown into such a funny little personality. The other kids laugh and say no one can ever stay mad at Little {L} cause he has special, magic charming powers. Sometimes, I think they are so right! Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

Growing

It's been wonderful watching all the plants growing and blooming. To keep busy while waiting for my own little bean to grow, we've done way more planting than we ever get done this early. The tomato's & lettuce seeds are planted. The children are anxiously waiting for them to sprout. We planted lots of spring flowers and have even seen a few come back from last year!

The pink blooms on the photo are from a tree in our backyard. My husband and I planted it the first summer we bought our house. It's really cool to watch it grow and realize how much we have grown. We've grown older, sometimes wiser, watched our family double, gained new friends, and shared a lot in the few years since we planted the little tree. I do mean little too, she was kinda sad looking for the first 2 years. We had no idea what we were doing and just walked into the garden center and picked a "cheap" one. When I look at the pretty blooms, I can't help but feel nostalgic abmy husband and the direction our lives has gone. Soon baby #4 will be welcomed into the home and someday play under this very tree with smiling, giggling siblings.

Andrea Creates nominated me for a Kreative Blogger Award a few weeks ago. It's been so crazy that I never got a chance to get to it. Then it occurred to me that Kym from Sugarmouse , had also nominated me for a Sunshine Award quite some time ago. Sorry guys! This baby bean has been slowing me down more than I'd like. So here's 7 new things about me:

[1. ]I love ANYTHING having to do with vampires. I've read hundreds of books with vampire story lines! I can't turn down a vampire movie either, no matter how stupid it may look.

[2. ]Sewing is not my first creative outlet. I have been a painter since I was a young child. I studied painting and design in college. I taught myself how to sew after mr. {D} was born. With a hectic household full of young children, I don't paint very often these days, but the love is still there, waiting to find the time again.

[3. ]I love being pregnant. Lots of women cringe at the thought, but not me. I feel so special having a new little being growing stronger each day inside me. Can't wait to meet baby #4 in a few weeks!

[4. ]I've been with my husband since high school. We met when I was 15 years old. Ahhh, young love, lol

[5. ] If we suddenly won the lottery and were able to have a bigger house, I'd be THRILLED to have a few more kids.

[6. ] I love napping in the sunshine on a cool, spring day. Replenishes the soul!

[7. ] I reorganize [as in move all the furniture] in my house often. My husband jokes that the ONLY place the couches have not been is on the ceiling. I like a change what can I say?

In lieu of nominating other bloggers, how about anyone who reads this post, add a comment with one new tidbit of information about you.

New Spring Brooches

SHOP UPDATE:

I've added some new brooches to the shop. I love these colorful designs for spring. If your looking for a specific color scheme, and you don't see if. Send me an email and I can make a custom one for you.

View the current selection:
Kunklebaby Brooches

Happiness

Small moments of pure happiness put everything into perspective! Breathe, smile and enjoy those moments!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everyone! Enjoy your day!

Fashion Design

The kids did some fashion design with old fabric scraps the other day. It was fun to see how creative they were. Each child definitely has their own style and idea's! Mr. {D} was all about incorporating skulls into his clothing. Miss {M} wanted her to be pretty and frilly. It makes me smile, how she always draws her girls with bog, rosy pink cheeks.

Something quick, easy and fun to try with the kids when they are bored. For smaller kids you can even draw the people yourself and have little ones glue strips of fabric to the paper.

Eggs!

We spend the weekend fighting through a cold--that everyone here managed to pick up! It was LONG week last week, so Saturday we needed something fun to lift our sick spirits.

Easter Egg coloring seemed to be the perfect choice! This was the first year that we dyed both brown and white eggs. Typically all we have in the house are brown eggs. I have to go to another grocery store to pick up white eggs. After seeing a post on Ohdeedoh about brown eggs, I thought we'd give it a shot. They turned out great!

Little {L} liked breaking and eating the eggs more than coloring them. He went through quite a few that were thrown from the table with a menacing giggle.

Happy Birthday

Today is my Birthday!! I decided to use a little bit of "free" time [aka-nap time] t finally sew this makeup bag. I've had the pieces cut for this since Thanksgiving. If today isn't a good day to make something for myself, I don't know when is. I love the blue circles of this print. They pair nicely with the blue lining fabric. The pattern is from the Heather Ross book, Weekend Sewing.

This year will be my very last year in my 20's-man am I feeling old today. I remember when I thought I'd never be 30, and it's looming in the near future now! To counteract this feeling, I've been thinking of all the amazing things that will happen in my 29th year. I will give birth for the fourth time. My family will grow, which is always amazing! I plan to try and find a tiny bit of "me" time and get back into painting. I will get to watch my children grow and learn through everyday experiences and homeschool. So many unknown and great things can happen in the next year. I want to enjoy each and every one!

Spring!

We are so excited about the arrival of Spring!! The kids helped me make this fun spring wreath out of scraps today. It's quick, easy and fun to do with little helpers. They can be customized to any season or event by changing colors and adding little trinkets. Mr. {D} is already planning his approach to the Summer wreath.

I really like how the colors turned out! It's cheerful and bright, which will help us get through the rest of the rainy, yucky weather that is still waiting to come.

On a side note, we're 30 weeks into the pregnancy!! Yay! Crazy that it's passed so fast. Even crazier is the thought that in a few short weeks, we'll be a family of 6!!!!I hope the rest of my pregnancy passes as smoothly as the past weeks. My last two babies came at 38 weeks, so we are in preparation mode, making sure everything is set up and ready for the arrival. I'm getting so impatient to know if we will be adding a boy or girl to the family--we'll know pretty soon!

Baby Unicorn

Some sewing for baby! When I was pregnant with Little {L}, the two older kids decided he or she needed a name. No baby could be without a name!! They decided to call him Eggy. Yes, weeks after he was born and named the kids still called him Eggy. They did finally start calling him by his actual name. That was quickly followed with their cousin Poppy's birth. She is a 1.5 years old now, and they still call her Poppy instead of her real name.

So, this new growing baby needed a name too! Within hours of telling them I was was pregnant with #4, the kids were calling him, or her, Baby Unicorn. When I said I was pregnant, Mr. {D} asked me how I knew it was going to be a baby? Cause really, if you can't "see" it, how could I be so sure a baby was growing in my belly, not something else, like a .....unicorn. This got such great laughs from his sister that this baby was named in that moment! I'm hoping for it's sake that it's a girl with that nickname. If we have another little boy, I'm not sure how much he'll like that--or this dress!

I've been in love with the Heather Ross, far far away fabric line as soon as I saw it! I have some of the princess and the pea fabric for a year now, but I've been too scared to cut it! My sister got me some of the unicorn, snails, and frogs fabric for my birthday! Thanks baby sister! I had to take advantage of this babies nickname and make a "if you come out a girl, dress". I love it. Right now it is hanging over the crib, and I smile every time I look at it! Mr. {D} actually asked me if the baby comes out a boy, will you make him wear that dress anyways, Mama?" Hilarious!

Some embroidered artwork for the wall. I love this fun mermaid pattern from Badbird!

Spring

With the upcoming arrival of Spring, I've been dreaming of lush grass, warm sunshine and color! The past week has been spent in a frenzy of house cleaning and sewing. I usually make most of Miss {M}'s clothes for the warmer months, and a few things for the boys. With the baby due to arrive in 2 short months[!] I needed to get started!

I made this fun reversible jumper from a Sandy Henderson pattern. I love how easy & quick this design is! The shirt I made from this pattern last year was well worn!! There is just something so fun to kids about "reversible" clothes too! My favorite part is the fun button details down the back!

Reverses to the pink stripes print-so pretty!

Every new season needs a new handbag. This one turned out so cute, I considered keeping it for myself. This fun print is a Japanese import that I've been holding onto! I used the Made by Rae bag pattern. It was easy to follow and quick too! I see some family birthday gifts in the making.

This weekend, I have more sewing on the adgenda, and kids club tomorrow at Whole Foods-the kids are super excited! What's your weekend look like?

The Eco-nomical Baby Guide

Book review time! I jumped at the chance to write a review of the new book by Joy Hatch and Rebecca Kelley, The eco-nomical baby guide! With the arrival of baby #4 coming in a few short months, we are thinking -all baby- at our house right now. Our family tries to live as eco-friendly as we can, so this book was right up my alley.

The authors write a blog, the greenbabyguide, where they discuss lots of eco-friendly tips, products and idea's. As my family has grown, we have incorporated more and more earth friendly ways, but at the same time, our income has been stretched a little more each time. What I love about this book is the premise that you can be good to our planet, AND afford it! There are so many eco-friendly, really awesome products I come across that are sadly, just way, WAY out of our price range.

This would be a perfect baby shower gift for first time parents! I wish I had this back when our family started growing. Much of the idea's in the book, we have already incorporated into our lives, but through trial and error and many years. It would have been so much easier to have a great reference guide like this! We are definitely a pro-breastfeeding, repurposing, green cleaning product, and organic eating family! The book really shows the pro's of these without being too preachy [as some books get]. Any family with young children, wanting to green up their choices would find this book helpful!

While we are are no longer first time parents, there was still plenty for me to learn too. There is a HUGE section on cloth diapering. Cloth diapering is the one thing that I always wanted to do, but just didn't know enough about it. I have no one to ask, and most resources list such dated material. This was fantastic for me. The different types of cloth diapers, uses, pro's/con's, and cost were shown in an easy to understand manner. I really likes the charts used in this section. Easy to see the choices compared to each other.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book. It has a nice, easy flow, that can put down and picked up [as anyone with little kids at home HAS to do!] without forgetting what your reading about. Each chapter focus on another subject which I really liked.

Winner!

The winner for the Uprinting Poster Giveaway is: Annalea!! Congrats! Thanks to everyone that entered. Please check back for future giveaways too. :D

Annalea, Uprinting will be in contact with you soon with instructions to claim your prize.

In the Sea

For school last week, the kids learned about some small sea creatures. We took a field trip to the pet store to look at fish and the HUGE aquarium at the Columbus Zoo, read lots of books and colored, painted, sketched, and glued. The kids made these paper aquariums housing the animals we learned about. It was really fun to study and the kids were able to chose which creatures they wanted to learn more about. The only mama pick was the seahorses. Honestly how can anyone not love them? Mr. {D} chose the Sea Anemone as the first to study.

We made a trip to Ikea the other day, and among other things [many other things], {D} got a new duvet cover for his bed. I had picked it out at our last trip, thinking it would be perfect for him & the boys room. He approved and said he like it because..."it looks like millions of tiny sea anemone".

For Baby

I finally did some sewing for the baby last week. I finished a cute little kimono from the pattern in Weekend Sewing, and a little sweater shirt inspired by that pattern. I love how they turned out. The little bird fabric is organic fabric from Cloud9-ahhh, pure love! I've been saving this fabric for the perfect baby gift to our upcoming addition. It will be perfect whether the baby comes out a boy or girl. I'm taking this one to the hospital with me.

The pink and green bunny shirt is wishful thinking. I'm hoping for a baby girl this time, but if she is actually a he, I'm sure this will make a lovely baby gift in the near future. This is the first time I've been pregnant, and no one else I know is! No friends, or family. What's up guys? :D

The pattern in the book is really easy to follow, and can be sewn up in a flash. Making the bias tape is the longest step. I try to keep a bunch here, so if you have a nice "stock", these are incredibly fast. What I don't like about the pattern is the kimono ties on the inside, as well as the outside. Not super comfy for a new babe. I am going to make a few more, but alter the pattern to use a snap for the inside closure.