oh em gee

the weather is summer-like. absolutely. positively. wonderful.



elle's been staying up later. till like 10 lately. it's so nice that every night after dinner aaron's been taking her on loooong walks so by the time they get home and i give her a bath and she settles down its almost 10 before she goes to sleep. fine by me, really, because that means the longer she sleeps in in the morning. i've been setting my alarm clock for 6:00, but realistically i get up at 7:00. it's amazing all that i can accomplish with a fresh attitude and a sleeping baby!



i've been working my tail off to get caught up on all my elle and ollie orders. my goal is to have all my applique orders done, shipped, delivered by tomorrow and all my dress orders (except for a couple) to be done and shipped by monday! i want to be able to focus on elle's easter dress next week!

but today i just wanted to, had to get outside. so we headed to the park as soon as elle woke up and ate a late breakfast! we had fun. elle played hard and took a wonderful nap this afternoon!



this girl loves picking flowers! and today was a perfect day to do so!

my model {warning: this post may make you dizzy}

last weekend, aaron attempted to get some pics of elle in the reagan onesie dress for the shop. well, it was no easy feat...that girl does not/can not stand still for a single moment.



this pretty much sums up the "photo shoot". she is so full of energy!



aaron turned the flash on for a couple and they turned out less blurry, but still she couldn't be bothered to just look at the camera, stand still and smile.

this morning i posted a few "ready to ship" items in the shop and i wanted elle to model the shirt. again i had aaron take the pictures, because he can usually get a smile out of her!





as exhausting busy and ornery and manipulating she may be, she is just as sweet and funny and lovely and smart!



we are blessed because of that little girl!

finally some sunshine is in the sky today! we will be headed to the park after lunch and nap today! we need need need some vitamin d!

rain rain go away

looks like we will be needing the umbrella another day! at least its the weekend, hopefully we'll get to enjoy some sunshine and warmer weather!

random tuesday

sitting at work today on a not-my-usual-work-day and we are dead! as in, its spring break and it is quiet around here. my co-worker brought her 15-year old daughter with her today. i am not looking forward to the teenage years. she is a sweetheart but goes without saying that she is still a smartalic (to her momma) and short (with her momma) and just funny. using words and phrases that i just don't/can't relate to! ha! my time will come and all i can do to prepare is prayer i suppose.

she did ask me my age. "how old are you, like 25?" i could have hugged her neck and kissed her cheek, since i will be turning 29 in less than 6 weeks.

it is raining cats and dogs in northwest arkansas. elle keeps getting frustrated when we are in the car and she can't feel the water drops. how do you explain to a 2-year old that the water is on the other side of the window? she just doesn't get it. and bless her heart, she just wants to go outside and ride her "four leeler" and her bicycle and she just can't. first thing she asked me this morning was if we could go to the park.

i would take a couple days of rain over snow though. hands down. oh yea, happy first day of spring!

we did have wonderful weather this weekend, and elle spent almost every waking hour outside. so good for that little bundle of endless energy!



aaron's youngest sister asked him to take her and her fiance's engagement pics, so elle and i tagged along on saturday. i dressed her in an elle + ollie dress so that hopefully he could snap a few pictures of her in it for the shop. but the pic of her sitting on the bench was the only picture i got of her actually sitting still and cheesin', and it was with my phone.



as you can see, she could not be bothered to sit still for very long!



whitney and stephen "acting natural". aaron crouching taking the picture. i haven't even looked yet to see if he got any good ones, but i'm sure he did! i'll ask whitney if i can share them on my blog.



it was such a gorgeous day!



started the hunger games last week. so far, so good! wanted to finish in time to see the movie this weekend, but doesn't look like we are going to make it to the theater to see a movie any time soon. we've got stuff going on every weekend it seems like! and first, i want to take elle to see the lorax. i know she will love it!



sewed my first project from a pattern. completely solo. and it wasn't a complete disaster. i may or may not have congratulated myself a couple of times. still had zero success tying a bow. how can something so simple be so dadgum hard?! i was so lucky to have found an etsy customer willing to wait on me for almost 5 weeks! i made the above skirt for her 5-year old and her baby girl the matching audrey onesie dress! i can't wait to see pics of her babies in my creations!

i made the skirt from this pattern. very detailed, wonderful instructions, except for the last instruction about attaching the yoke to the last ruffle and sewing the casing. that was a little confusing for this beginner, but other than that it was great. i also bought one of her pillowcase dress patterns, and the ruffled pants/capris. i'll be tackling those next...along with elle's easter dress!

well, i guess that's all the randomness i have in me for today!

have a wonderful week!

ella + emelia

at the beginning of the month a friend (and very loyal customer, thank you leah) asked me to make coordinating onesie dresses for twin baby girls. her only request was that one be a chevron print. i love all chevron, i mean i just bought the largest rug ever for our living room that's black and white chevron, but i wanted something sweeter for sweet baby girls! i scoured the internet and came up with this amazingly beautiful collection by heather bailey. and fell in love with the zag stripe! and the florals. her work is amazing!




emelia onesie dress


ella onesie dress



they turned out just precious! i will be making elle louise one of each. she's going to be rockin' lots of onesie dresses this spring/summer/fall.

and because i can't post without a picture of my sweetie {so sweet she's in her bed "resting" because we are having kind of a rough morning}.....



we have been having the most incredible weather for march! it has been in the low 80's. amazing. makes me want to move somewhere with year 'round 70s-80s. i could easily get used to that. aaron has been taking elle on looooong walks every evening so that i can work on my elle+ollie orders in peace+quiet. its been wonderful for us all. such sweet bonding time for elle and her daddy.

have a wonderful friday and weekend!

tasty tuesday {slow cooker chicken tortilla soup}

slow-cooker chicken tortilla soup
recipe from fix-it and forget-it cookbook
makes 8 servings

ingredients:
4 chicken breast halves
2 15-oz cans black beans, undrained
2 15-oz cans rotel
1 cup salsa
1 4-oz can chopped green chiles
1 14 1/2-oz can tomato sauce
tortilla chips
grated cheese

directions:

mix all ingredients, except chips and cheese, in slow-cooker. cover and cook on low 8 hours.

just before serving, remove chicken from slow-cooker, shred or cube it and put back in pot.



to serve, put chips in bowl, ladle soup over chips (or serve chips on the side) and top with grated cheese and sour cream!





an elle louise favorite!

enjoy!

we are off to the park this morning. it is going to be a gorgeous 80-degrees today! its not even spring ye. loving this spring weather.

linking up with 33 shades of green! head over for some good recipes!

something sweet saturday

on thursday cousin taylor came to play....

2 sweet girls...one an only child, one a little sister to a rough and tumble brother. some fighting. lots of giggling. too much "mine"ing. sweet snuggling.

it was a grand time!

tasty tuesday {kale, onion, + cheddar frittata}

who says ya need the crust?

aaron requests crustless quiche, aka frittata, everytime i make quiche. my reply is usually "crust is what makes it so yummy"...

well tonight i forgot to prepare my pie crust so i went crustless and glad am i that i did. totally wasn't planning on posting this recipe because i figured it would be kind of blah, but it was delicious!



kale frittata
{original recipe}

ingredients:
3(ish) tbs. canola oil
1 onion chopped
5 ounces kale (or more)
5 large eggs
1 cup shredded cheddar jack cheese
salt

directions:
heat 2 tbs. oil in cast iron skillet over medium-high heat, add onion and let saute for a couple minutes. add kale and let wilt. once wilted turn heat to low and let cook for 20 minutes or until caramelized.

while kale is caramelizing, whisk eggs. add a little salt and cheese and mix well. preheat broiler now.

once kale is caramelized, remove from skillet and let cool for a couple of minutes. add 1 tbs oil to skillet and increase heat to medium.

stir kale into egg mixture and pour back into skillet. let cook on stovetop just until egg has set. broil in oven until top is golden brown and egg is completely set.



enjoy!

linking up with 33 shades of green!

diaper wreath {tutorial}

my friend, ashley's, sister-in-law made one of these for her baby shower last summer and it was so cute. i had also been seeing them all over pinterest, so i really wanted to make one for sarah's shower.

i had not a clue what i was doing and i just kind of made it up as i went along. ran across this tutorial, but it suggested using a wooden frame. i couldn't find one and while shower shopping with ashley, she suggested the wire frame, so i got that and made it work! super easy. super fun. and didn't take a ton of time to do. maybe an hour all together.





supplies:
wire wreath frame (i think i used the 24" one)
white stem wire
1.5" grosgrain ribbon (i used approx 18 yards)
diapers (whatever size you prefer)


somebody needs of a manicure...



cut the stem wire in half. pinch diaper at the center, wrap the wire around the diaper and twist twice at the back. i made sure that the white part of the diaper would be the front of the wreath, i think it looks better when you see no decorations on a diaper wreath or a diaper cake.



cut ribbon in 10"-11" strips.



put the wire through the wreath frame and secure it. i threaded (is that the right word?) mine up and down and then wrapped it around the frame a couple of times to insure the diapers would not fall off.









tie a strip around the diaper and double knot it the back. trim off excess ribbon. tie a diaper one at a time to the frame. if you put a bunch of diapers on the wreath and then try to tie the ribbons around the diapers, it makes it more difficult to slip the ribbon through the frame, believe me i tried.



do that all the way around the wreath, and voila! you've got yourself a pretty little diaper wreath!



i added a paper bunting and a chalkboard! got the idea for the bunting {here} on pinterest. but, you can do whatever you want to dress it up! i've seen them with one letter or with baby necessities stuck to them. the possibilities are endless!

i will be the first to say that i am horrible at instructing, and i'm sure i probably left something out, sorry for that in advance!

happy saturday!

additions

wow!
450 posts!
256 followers!

a giveaway soon? ok, when i get to 500 posts or 300 followers, whichever one happens first!

quickly wanted to share the latest additions to elle + ollie handmades:



paisley and penelope onesie dresses (coordinated for sisters)





ruffled kitchen towels



reagan long sleeve onesie dress

love the coordinating dresses i made for sisters! kaffe fassett makes the most gorgeous fabric! and of course amy butler is always a big hit! and the linen flowers are becoming a personal favorite!



i'm working on this tiered ruffle skirt today! my first pattern project solo. i've read and reread the pattern several times trying to prepare myself. i really hope that i am capable of this because if i am the possibilities are endless! and, supposedly its an advanced beginner pattern and i like to think of myself as an advanced beginner seamstress! stay tuned...

hope everyone has a good thursday. the weather here is wonderful...high 70s! we will definitely be getting outside at some point today!