Two New Family Members!

Sweet Woodruff Acres has been rocking and rolling this past month!  I'm proud to anounce our daughter and husband's new addition to the family:   Welcome Claira Elizabeth!  She was due September 12, just 6 days before our other daughter's wedding on September 18.  Sweet little Claira made her apperance on September 1, giving her mommy 18 days to recover from the birth for the wedding!  And you know what?  I give all the credit to God, He is in control and He works all things our for those who love Him.

Here she is:

Our second new addition to the family this month is our son--in-law, Craig.  Craig and Jessica were married Saturday, September 18 at our church, Calvary on the Bay.  The reception was held here at Sweet Woodruff Acres under a big white tent. 

Here is the newly wed couple:

Thank you all for your prayers for our family!  Thank you, family and friends for all your help with the wedding.  It was truly a family affair.  I'll post pictures here on my blog for quite a while.  But I'd like to end this short post with one of my favorite photos.  We danced the night away in celebration, and here I am with our two grand kids (while Claira slept in the house!):

Blessings, hugs and love, Heidi

Two by Two

Seems I'm seeing everything two by two these days:
           (Loads of photos today, not in any order or reason...)

-Two grandchildren, always bring us smiles and laughter:

(I like to set up a table for them to "play" school)

(John Mark was climbing the tree after Pancho)

(wearing Auntie Jessica's shoes...she was practicing being a flower girl)

-Two new family members arriving soon, new granddaughter and new son-in law

(Melissa is due September 12)

(Craig is always willing to help)

-Two flower girl dresses had to be sewn and and now are ready to be hemmed

(Jessica picked the floral lace from my stash of vintage laces, it matched perfectly)

-Two dresses to alter, mine and a one of the bridesmaids

(hey, what's that second black dress?  who is that for?  guess just an extra, just in case!)

(the center dress is mine)

-Two obelisks repainted and ready for the outdoor wedding.  Mark made these exactly nine years ago for Melissa and Kris's wedding:

-Two benches repaired and painted for the outdoor wedding.  These we made also nine years ago from old bed headboards, again for Melissa's and Kris's wedding:

(I'll make a matt like the one below)

-Two plastic flower pots faux painted for fern for ceremony.

-Two pair of shoes to select from, which ones will I wear depends on if I hem my own dress too short.

-Two people flying in from the Carolina's for the wedding; David from NC, and Jordon from SC.  Cool, huh?

(Jessica's college roommate, Jordon)

(our brother-in-law, David)

-Two new kittens here at Sweet Woodruff Acres.  We all agree there are the best and sweetest kitties we've ever had.  Names, you ask?  Pancho and Cisco.  They sleep with our lab at night, and nap in his paws by day.  I always wanted cats that would sleep with our dog!  Adorable, lovable and are have already taken up their responsibilities even at such a young age.  (Skip this if your skittish.....)  One small rat and one mouse already caught!

-Two by two signs to paint (another four due out by tomorrow)

-Two postage stamps were needed to send out the pocket fold invitations made

Okay....now do you see why I can't seem to find time to blog?

I do love your visits, and I do sneak around to visit your blogs!

What is your "two by two" project this summer?

Hugs, Heidi

We've got sun and so much more!

Thankful for:  sun, summer, family, food, fellowship, the Word, and so much more...

With so much going on it's just about impossible for me to blog!  Hopefully a few photos will speak for what's happening here at Sweet Woodruff Acres!  (click any photo to enlarge) 

(Making vintage sheet music liners for the wedding invitation envelopes)

Hugs! Heidi

The rain continues, but gives more time for wedding crafts and projects!

It's still raining here on the Oregon coast, but I guess that just gives me more time inside to work on wedding projects.  And play with the grand kids!  There's so much to be doing outside but whenever we go out to work on the property we slip and slide and get all muddy! 

Here's the "save the date" postcard Jessica and Craig sent out:

Craig's sister, Kelly, created the graphics and designed the postcard.  I'm in love with her work, she's so talented!  First, notice the initials, "C J", and how Kelly got the letters to tie together forming a heart; simply delightful!  (For a crafter like me!)  Then notice the sparkly ring, this IS Jessica's ring!  (But not their hands!)  She used one of the photos from an engagement photo shot Mark and I did with them on our property.  We took a hundred or so photos and ended up with some real cute pictures for Kelly to select from, as well as photos we can use for several other things later.  One thing about mailing out the save the date postcards was that we found out which people we had the wrong addresses on our list for, they came back undeliverable.  So we can correct this now before we send out the wedding invitations.   Also, on the back of the postcards was the Internet address for their online wedding site, which is very cool, too.  This site gives maps, local attractions, photos, hotel information, attendant stories and so much more.  A wedding website is a "must have" these days!

For Christmas we gave Jessica a Singer sewing machine.  Now that it's time for her wedding she's going to put the sewing machine to good use and make her two flower girls' dresses.  She'll use the "C" style dress on this pattern:

We've got a couple other cute and original ideas for the flower girls, but I'll show those in September!

I sent the logo of their initial to my custom rubber stamp maker, TerBearCo, and had a stamp made!  We'll use if for a few projects, but the first project I wanted to show is the organza fabric bags.  I ordered a large lot of these on eBay and stamped the bags with the custom stamp.  We used the darker color of Fuchsia Pink (StazOn ink) so that it would show up nicely.  These bags will be for the wedding "favors", which is a candy, from a Candy Buffet that the guests should have a lot of fun filling their bags with!  Have any of you ever went to a wedding or other event where there was a Candy Buffet (or Candy Bar)?  I'd love to hear some experiences, what was good, what was loved, etc. Thanks!  We've got all the glass jars and containers lined up already, would you believe I already had most of them around the house? 

The wedding reception will be here on our property, which for the last 18 years I have called, "Sweet Woodruff Acres".  When we first moved here I bought a bunch of the herb, called "sweet Woodruff", and planted it all around.  I'd love to say the place is loaded with that herb, but it's all long gone now.  Guess it didn't reseed itself like the wild mint and oregano did!  But the name stayed, and so the "Sweet" part is what we're playing with for the wedding favors, hence the Candy Buffet!  If you've never heard of a candy buffet (or candy bar) go do a google search, they are so much fun.

Another project we're doing called for stickers, which I made on office labels.  I first used a lace stamp and stamped all the labels.  Then I printed them out on my printer.  I will cut them down to smaller sizes for what we're using them for.  Again, I'll show that later or in September after the wedding!

We'll serve dinner at the reception and we've been working on the menu.  (This is NOT our menu, but I love the chalkboard and will make one for the wedding for our menu!):

I think we've got it all nailed down, with a local caterer coming out to do the grilling on site.  We'll rent a big tent, but with these endless Oregon rains I'm beginning to wonder if there could ever be a big enough tent!  We'll see...

We had the kids yesterday while Melissa went to town for a few hours of shopping (and some mommy time!).  Here's the two grand kids yesterday:

Thanks for the suggestions of using the iron on for my cards, it makes it much easier to sew them.  I still like to sew them on the cards just for the fun of it!  I'm experimenting with papers and wedding invitation ideas, I have a few designs, and we may just make them ourselves instead of ordering them printed.  Anyone have experience or suggestions I could consider for invitations?  We love the pocket fold ones, and will use those, just not sure if we'll cut them all ourselves or order the blanks.

So these are just a quick glimpse of a few projects I've been working on.  I realized I hadn't blogged for weeks now, and just wanted to say "hi" again to my faithful readers, and "hi" to any new readers! 

Blessings!  ~Heidi

Five Little Monkey's Jumping On The Bed

What's a grandma to do when it's raining outside? (Day after day?)

Yes, just let the monkeys jump on the guest bed! Luckly none fell off!  The balloons added a fun effect, I think they were trying to jump on the balloons ON the bed! This is their idea of fun!

I've been making cards from fabric scraps, stamped muslim, lace and ribbon scraps and more!  This one pictured was a test card, so you'll notice the stitching is a little off!  I stitch everything on the large fabric scrap, then when that's finished I stitch it to the card, inking up the edges for a vintage look.  I found it's easier to put a bit of glue on the card before I stitch the fabric, otherwise it tends to move on me!

This was a special order sign I sold on Etsy.  The buyer wanted every letter painted in different colors!  I wasn't sure at first how it'd look, but when I completed it I just loved it!

Lot's going on here at Sweet Woodruff Acres!  I'm loving everything that's blooming now, especially my lilacs.  Ummmmm....the scent is heavenly!

Hugs, Heidi

The One; She's the One; Abundant Life

Shopping...for the dress...

                (Anja, Jessica, me, and Melissa)
So we are deep into the wedding planning. We love the abundance of photos and inspiration that's available online. When I was planning Melissa's wedding exactly nine years ago the internet was nothing close to where it is today. Nine years ago most of our inspiration came from books and magazines. Today all I have to do is turn on my computer. We're still working on details, but the BIG decision has been made: The Dress. It's on order and I have to say, it's drop-dead-gorgeous! Not kidding. When Jessica walked out of the dressing room with The Dress on, it took my breath away. And her's too. After trying on almost 30 dresses, This Dress was The One. Big Smile. I can hardly wait until September when she wears The Dress to wed Craig. My prayer is for God to go before Craig and Jessica and make His footsteps their pathway. (Psalm 85:13). The Lord gives what is good to His children, and He has given Craig and Jessica to each other. I feel so blessed to recognize this gift.

And the other great blessing in my life right now is watching our third grand baby grow....in Melissa's tummy! Little four-year-old John Mark told me, "My mommy's growing a baby in her tummy!" It was so sweet. Last week Melissa invited me to join her and Kris to the ultrasound session when they were going to check on the baby's growth and find out the answer to the big question: boy or girl. I was so honored to be there and see "the three lines". (Do you know about the three lines that show up in an ultrasound? I now know!) The technician checked all the vitals, measuring and taking a ton of "pictures". Everything was as it should be, what a blast to see this process, I think it was about an hour and a half--very detailed! Then she said, "do you want to know?" Yes! "three lines".... It looks like Ellie is the one who will be sharing her darling bedroom with a new little sister in September when the new baby is born. (Due the week before Jessica's wedding!)

Melissa is such a good mommy. Her 28th birthday is Tuesday. Happy Birthday, Melissa! I love you! She's the matron of honor for Jessica. She works so hard and is such great support for Jessica. She put on a fabulous engagement dinner for Craig and Jessica!  Here she is helping pick out The Dress:

Mark and I are thrilled to see our family grow by two this year. We are honored that Craig has chosen our family to join, and that God blessed Melissa and Kris with a baby. One of my readers recently asked if I even craft any more, with so much going on! (I do a little, but for gifts mostly.) But my focus is on the people in my life. God put me on earth to have a relationship with Him and to those He's put in my life and that's what I'm busy doing!

Here's John Mark and Ellie:

I'm enjoying the abundant life He's given me here on earth, but I always keep that when God says "abundant life", He's really saying "eternal life with Him". 

Blessings, Heidi