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Author: Elizabeth Smillie

Hello there! I'm Elizabeth. Welcome to my website and blog space. All the products in my little shop are hand crafted and stem from my desire to provide creative and high quality products that make people feel lovely. I believe the little moments of life matter, every day should be celebrated, and that the beauty all around us is a gift from the Creator to be enjoyed. I'm married to a wonderful guy who happens to be my greatest cheerleader and best friend, mama to three little ones and currently reside in the heartland of America.
hello again : )

hello again : )

It’s June 23 and Summer has officially been here for 2 days. And I haven’t blogged since May 14 – yikes!

I had every intention of posting a new silhouette in the shop for Father’s Day, using the one that I was making as John’s gift as the example. Um …. I got his done on Father’s Day afternoon. Definitely not in time to post.
His dessert this year was a Strawberry Upside-down Cake (recipe from here) and it was delicious. : )

Emma had seconds. : )

Blurry, but the best shot of John and the little ones from the day.

Father’s Day was relaxed, fun and John got showered with loves from our children. He’s such a wonderful daddy, and their love is proof of that!

So, yes, I have plans to post about all that I’ve been doing during the silence on this blog. And it’s been a lot!

something new?

something new?

I just love the brides who order from thePathLessTraveled.
Not only is it fun to fill their orders for their coming weddings, but many of them have wonderful ideas of things that they’d like to see if I can make for them – often giving me ideas of new things to add to the shop (remember this post?)!

One such bride asked if I could make her some fabric streamers – of course I can! She sent along the photo shown above to give me an idea of what she had in mind: soft colors, maybe some lace too.
It sounds so lovely, so fluttery and romantic.

So what do you think? Add something like them to the shop? Would you enjoy using fabric streamers?
I’m king of thinking of using some instead of or with the classic crepe paper ones at Ian’s first birthday. I could then roll them up and save them to use over and over – or maybe hang them across his bedroom ceiling. :)

my creative space today: sewing for baby

my creative space today: sewing for baby

We had a new nephew show up a few nights ago (so proud of you Leah! and so looking forward to meeting the little guy!) and so yesterday I quickly pulled out the material that I had stashed to make his blanket. :)


The blanket is brown minky on one side and a JoAnn’s print on the other. I used the Scallop Baby Blanket pattern from Bend-the-Rules Sewing (such a fun book – if you haven’t thumbed through it yet I highly recommend it!).

Brett’s blanket is coming together quickly – now all I need to do is run it through the wash to get all the extra fuzz off and wrap it up for the little guy. :)

you find more creative inspiration over here today 

we have a winner!

we have a winner!

I’m so sorry that this didn’t get posted until today, but we do have a winner for the CSN Stores giftcard giveaway!

I used random.org to find our winner:

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; The numbers generated by this widget come from RANDOM.ORG’s true random number generator.&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>
There were 16 entries (a big thank you to all of you who shared the giveaway on facebook or your blogs). For some reason I can’t get the winning number to display, but it was number 10! So congratulations to Gretchen :)

Gretchen said…
I posted about your giveaway on facebook.
March 9, 2011 5:03 PM

I’ll email you all the info you need to claim your prize!

help me love Japan

help me love Japan

Have you been watching the updates on t.v. and online about Japan? Every time they show images of the devastation my heart goes out to the Japanese, wanting to do something more tangible than pray (even though I know that prayer does help).

So, I decided to donate all the proceeds (that’s right, 100%)  from my new garland – Romantic Hearts, white with a single red heart – to one of my favorite faith-based disaster relief organizations: Samaritan’s Purse. They have a wonderful track record of not only providing relief and care to those most in need, but they also share Christ and His love with them.

If you’d like to donate directly through the website of Samaritan’s Purse you can find all the info you’ll need right here.

And, on a happier note, if you are itching to do some Spring-y projects you can find a ton of creative ideas over on these blogs. I’ll be linking this at some of them. :)

sewing for babies

sewing for babies

Babies seem to be popping up all over this year (what joy!). It seems that every week I hear of someone else who is having a baby. :)
Our family circle is adding two – John’s brothers are each having a boy. Emma and Ian are getting their first cousins this Spring! Of course, I have been itching to do some sewing for our new little nephews. :)

One of the things that was on my “Ideas” page was this tutorial for embellished burp cloths on Diary of a Quilter.  I (kind of) followed it to make a set for each new nephew:


burp cloths for baby Owen, whose nursery is animal themed with bright colors

burp cloths for baby Brett, whose nursery is elephant themed with pale greens and blues

Each baby is also getting some of Ikea’s wooden child size hangers. I bought some when we were expecting Emma Grace and have loved them ever since! They are really classic feeling – and they never break (a huge plus!). One of the last things I did before we left Cincinnati was to stop by Ikea and buy some for each baby (and their mommies). :)

There are a few days left to enter to win the CSN Stores gift card. If you haven’t yet I highly recommend it!

And you’ll be seeing this (and a ton of other people’s crafty Spring ideas) linked at a few of these blogs (click here) – you might enjoy checking them out!


a little lace for Spring

a little lace for Spring

  *there are a few days left if you’d like to enter the CSN Stores $25 giftcard giveaway! click here to find out how to enter*

A few weeks ago I was out and about doing some shopping for Emma’s birthday party and found a package of little white paper doilies at the dollar store.
I picked them up thinking it’s always good to have some doilies on hand, even if they didn’t make it into the party decor. :)

It turned out to be a good thing that I did, because they turned into this pretty garland. :) I folded each one in half and then simply ran them through my sewing machine.
It was incredibly easy to do, and, because the doilies are 4″ across, it was quick, too!

I have them listed in the shop here if you’d like me to mail you one (or more!). <3 It's amazing how just draping a lace garland across the wall can soften it and brighten the room.
I’m linking this over at a few of these darling blogs. There are a bunch of gorgeous ideas for Spring being posted in their link parties – I highly recommend you checking them out. :)