Houses

I hope you all are enjoying back to school. I love the freedom of summer, but love the routine and schedule of school. I just miss my kids when they are gone all day. I wish the school day was shorter. 

Now I'm busy with teaching preschool, taking care of the little ones, cleaning over and over again, working on my bachelors degree, planning school and church activities, and finding time to live a creative life. How do you guys juggle it all? It's a constant struggle isn't it? Each week I sit down and set goals and plan my week. Some of my goals for this year are to spend more one-on-one time with my sweet kids when they get home, focus on reading my scriptures, and blog more regularly. (I guess exercising will have to be on the back burner for now, oh well. You'll still love me if I don't lose those 10 pounds right? lol) 

This summer we had lots of preschool camp days. We started by having a fun stuffed animal field day. Everyone brought a stuffed animal and came up with a game for us to play. We had three-legged races, toss your stuffed animal in the circle, a tug of war, and more. It was fun to play outside and learn about team work, sportsmanship, and leadership. 

Then we came inside and painted some houses for our stuffed animals. I bought these small packing boxes at Walmart and then cut out doors and windows. Then I let the kids paint away. 

After paint the big kids added details with markers. 

It's all ready for a little stuffed animal to live. 

These were a great art project and were lots of fun to play with! I hope this gives you some preschool art ideas!

Herringbone Quilt!!

So this summer I have been sewing like crazy. If you follow me on Instagram, you've already seen sneak peeks of my latest projects. Sometimes in life I need the clam predictability of a quilt. Some people don't think quilting is relaxing, but for me it is. It helps me deal with stress. It calms my mind and soothes me. I love knowing if I follow the steps it will be beautiful every time. I love accomplishing that and knowing I made something beautiful. 

This quilt is one of my very favorites. I used the Herringbone Tutorial by Micheal Ann Made. It was easy to follow and come together beautifully. Simply sign up for emails and you'll get this free tutorial. 

This is an in-process shot of me laying out the fabric and getting ready to quilt it. This is the first time I have ever sewn a quilt together and it came together great. I simply followed the straight lines. 

You can kind of see the quilting here. I used this chevron minky on the back. I got it at Fabric.com and I love it!!!

Before I quilted this together I decided to add some stitching. I added some zig zags all over just to add some more character. I love the detail it gives. 

Here's the finished quilt.  I used a combination of fabric from several different lines. Most of the turquoise and navy fabric comes from Basic Grey's PB & J Line. It was an older line that I fell in love with and knew I wanted to make a quilt for myself one day. 

My family loves it and I love knowing I made something warm and comforting for them. This quilt is full of love. 

I've been decorating our living room and it looks great on our new couch. Now I need some really fun funky pillows!!!

The Best Family in the World

I finally took a break from sewing like crazy to do some scrapbooking. I used one of my favorite lines The Polka Dot Party by Elizabeth Kartchner. I love the wood, the florals, and the colors. Pink, turquoise and yellow are my favorite colors ever! I also totally adore the pencil marks and quotes in this collection. They fit my family perfectly. 

I did this 2 page layout for my scrapbook. 

Then I did this one page version for my sweet little girl's book. This is my favorite layout right now. I totally love it!

Summer Memories

So how's your summer been? I hope it's been great. Ours was too short as always, but some how we were ready for school to start too. This year it was full of ups and downs, but I try to focus on the good stuff. 

We had fun with friends and ate lots of popsicles!

We spent time around a camp fire and roasted marshmallows!

We spent lots of time in swim suits and made great memories with our wonderful family. 

In the midst of the craziness I found some time for me. 

And I have a big exciting announcement! I now have prints, greeting cards, and prints on canvas on sale in my Etsy store! You can click on the link here or search for my store on Etsy, called Juliana Hall Creates. This is a big step for me and I'm so excited to get my art out there. The whole reason I started my Etsy store was to market my art work. I am so excited to share this with you. Just click on the image you want and then select if you want a print or card and what size you want. I even have some originals for sale. 

These are a few of my favorites. 

Get yours today and enjoy!!

Ruffled Dresses

Can you tell that I have been in a sewing mood lately?? lol. These dresses are so cute and so easy!!! This idea is one I got from my crafty friend Becky. She made these dresses for her little girls for Easter and every time I saw them I loved them! I knew I had to make some for my girls! They are so bright and colorful! 

It's really easy. You take some pre-ruffled fabric and sew it on to a shirt and then add some ribbon over the seam. It's that easy. I did some where I simply sewed it to the shirt and some where I cute the  shirt and matched up the edges and then sewed. The second where you have to cut the shirt is way easier. You can do the ruffles horizontal or vertical. 

I did them each with different colors and shirts so they each have their own feel. I love them! 

Maxi Skirt Love!

I saw some cute knit at Hobby Lobby and finally got up the courage to make some maxi skirts!!! These make the perfect summer outfit. I used this tutorial here. Which gave a rough outline. We also used a maxi skirt I bought at Target for an outline. Of course I'll have to make more, so when I get it down I'll put together my own tutorial. 

I love these little cuties! 

Next I wanted to make something from this old baby blanket I had. It was light weight, the edges were surged. It was practically screaming- turn me into a skirt. I simple folded it in half so I would have a ruffle and because it was really long. Then I rolled the edge and stitched it. I inserted some elastic which caused it to gather. 

 It turned out perfect. I love it!