my favorite picture

I love this picture! stayed tuned, we are having some sort of contest for a giveaway for our new spring pique dresses. anyone have any ideas of what kind of contest we should have?

this is awesome!

the lego church. how cool is this?

a few quick facts:
how long to build it? it was about a year and a half of planning, building and photographing.

how many pieces of LEGO to build it? more than 75,000
how big is it? about 7 feet by 5 1/2 feet by 30 inches
how many LEGO people does it seat? 1,372
how many windows? 3,976

it features a balcony, a Narthex, stairs to the balcony, restrooms, coat rooms, several mosaics, a nave, a baptistery, an altar, a crucifix, a pulpit and an elaborate pipe organ.

$20 valentine's day special

our special to you this valentine's day is a kisses 25c onesie or tee paired with cherry pants. limited quantities available. find it here!. offer ends january 31st or until we are sold out. happy valentine's day from tiny sprouts

needs a good home

I love ribbon, I love stripes but it is time to say goodbye to these beloved striped ribbons. there is about 90 yards of each ribbon and retails for around $165 total. would love to get rid of it all for around $55 + $8 for shipping. let me know if interested!

I had to go back

once someone told me that branding is everything in a business. I truly believe that. I had this bread I LOVED merely because of the packaging. you know what the packaging was? (brooke I know you already answered this!). kraft paper. I love it. it is so organic looking and reminds me of laura ingalls. I love her. so I switched to tyvek envelopes for a while. they are so easy to package things in but they are SO ugly. if they'd be chocolate then I would be fine with them but I just had to go back to kraft paper. it takes so much longer to wrap things but I think my mid-afternoon headaches were caused by staring at ugly white envelopes. so I will be happy when traveling to the post office again looking at a bunch of kraft paper in the backseat. the other reason I love it so much is because it is 100% recyclable. stayed tuned because we have new gift boxes coming in that are 100% recyclable and tissue paper and this great new sticker that will be lovingly posted on each package.

exciting things

we have some exciting new things coming around for tiny sprouts! it has all I have been able to think about lately but luckily have not had sleepless nights.
here is a sneak peek:

sweet apron

one must always be stylin' while working

she's at it again!

stayed tuned, more new pictures and our valentine's day special!

my new obsession

vintage children's books. I love them. I love how the pages look worn, everything is matte and the illustrations are classic. and for $1 each, you can't beat it!

more pictures!

I woke up this morning with these in my inbox. what a great way to start the day! thank you shannon! aren't these children beautiful?






I have major baby itch.

I want to paint my kitchen

I need a change in there. I love our kitchen. tired of the wall color and HATE our counter tops. they are tile. I hated them the day we looked at our house but I didn't care at the time either. I just wanted the house. I L-O-V-E our house. it is small, quaint and has lots of character. we were watching a dumb movie last night and I kept staring into the kitchen. our kitchen color is a limey-green as you can see. it looks good with the tile in there but I really want the color "mission tile" from behr. it is a cranberry-brownish color, I think. we had it in one of our other homes but it was so long ago and so many homes ago that I can't remember exactly. here, I found the picture:

I either want to paint our kitchen or paint our cabinets. I want them a grayish-dull celery color. we'd still have to paint the walls and if we did paint them that color I would want cream walls. ew la la, I can see it now. I would love to add crown to our cabinets too but it is hard to convince my husband to do anything with our house on the market even though it WON'T sell in 2008. I almost guarantee it AND I am not living my life this year as though we are moving. I realized I spent most of 2007 doing that when I found my 2 gallon glass jars underneath the sink. I spent a whole year without them because a realtor said they made the counter seemed smaller. seriously, who doesn't have things on their countertops?
here is a quick before-and-after picture of a house we remodeled and lived in for 6 months. I will tell you that story one day. I try not to relive it if possible!
before:
after:
we were without a kitchen for 2 solid months. I really don't know how we survived it but in the end it was worth it. except for the floors. we were out of money by then and I couldn't get the hand-scraped hardwoods I wanted in there.
nonetheless it was MUCH better than what was in there before!

off to stitch...

photography class

I bought my d40 a few months ago and really have no idea how to use it! my bil sent me an article on lenses, etc but it is so long and boring, I could not bare to read it! (I really do not like to read as sad as that is). this morning I found this class. it is not too late to get started. tomorrow starts week 3 but here are week one and week two. the graphics are AWESOME and they number their steps! LOVE that!

she's amazing

check out the new photos. i love my photographer. aren't these photos gorgeous?

r&r

oh yeah, less than 3 months from now we will be heading to the bahamas. so excited! it has been almost 3 years since our last vacation and it had to end! we will be celebrating our 3 year anniversary in nassau. it doesn't get much better than that!

our honeymoon was awesome! loved every minute of it. we spent 5 nights in negril, jamaica. we upgraded to a beach front room and it was the best. here is a picture from the porch off of our room.

and this cute couple that sat on the beach each night

my husband went cliff jumping while we were there. I stayed on the boat. I could never climb the steps to get to the top OR swim under the rock and hold my breath to actually get to those steps. he did and I said a silent prayer as he jumped!

new thread box

I went to a flea market in indy and found this great new box.
it was $3.75. sweet.

from this:

to this:

it is old and on the bottom stamped with the city. love that!

and the winner is....

Jason and Caryn

thanks to all who posted a comment about the new site!

more contests to come later....for now Jason and Caryn contact me: tracey at tinysprouts.com for your gift certificate!

love this

this will be soon what my office will look like. love all the prints and those embroidery rings as frames!

photo from The Purl Bee

footprints on our hearts

remembering emma claire
born and sent to heaven january 9th, 2007


her funeral was on january 13th, my sister's 30th birthday. I will never forget that day or the time we had with emma. my sister and I spent the night together in the hospital with baby emma in between us. it brings tears to my eyes to think of it. how special it was. how strong my sister was and continues to be. how perfect her feet were and how she had her dadda's toes. how her nose looked liked elsa's. how perfect she was. we will always remember her. she is forever in our hearts.

total delish

you've GOT to try this!

total delish bean dip

in saucepan combine the following:
3/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tsp. water
1/2 cup oil
1 cup sugar
1 tsp salt and pepper
boil until sugar dissolves, set aside.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..
In separate bowl combine (I use a colander so I could drain and rinse):
15 oz can garbanzo beans
15 oz can black beans
15 oz can black eyed peas
2 cans white corn
2 cans chopped green chilies
1 diced red pepper
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped red onion
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..
mix the sauce and bean mix and refrigerate
YUM!
oh, and it can be eaten with tortilla chips or tostadas

in a few days

I get to see my niece and nephew! I'm so excited!

brennan is now well over 10 pounds

and elsa is as cute as ever.

i love candles

I received a soy candle for christmas (thanks brookie!) and I have burned the entire thing. I love soy candles. if you haven't tried soy, you must! it is entirely different from paraffin (the normal candles you buy in stores). they burn cleaner, longer and just smell better. the candle I received for christmas was banana bread. so tonight I tried a new candle place. I loved the clear, plain jars these are in AND there is free shipping and I am a sucker for that!

i love this boy

meet our dog stewart. he is around 8 or 9 years old. we adopted him from lab rescue in march of 2003. we are not sure how old he is but he is beginning to turn white on his face. he has been sick for about a month. you can't tell because he acts normal but he has been on antibiotics. we took him a few weeks ago and we thought everything was cured but we learned later the infection was really, really bad. poor guy. we had to take him back to the vet on thursday. I couldn't quit crying because I was thinking only the worst. I honestly thought he had cancer because the vet had mentioned it the time before. thank goodness he doesn't. it is amazing how in love you become with animals. he is our "snuggle bunny" because he sleeps in between us every night in bed. we look forward to many more years with him!

new tiny sprouts office

I have been wanting to reorganize for quite some time now. all of my products are throughout our house and it was driving me nuts. I had been looking for a really long and wide work table. I wanted something old and vintagy but hadn't been able to find it. until today. I visited my favorite shop right down the street from me. this find was pushed back against the wall surrounded by other furniture. this table is 7 feet long by 2 feet wide. perfect. the best part? it was $100. I love my favorite shop.

I had been saving these storage totes for this day and they just happen to fit perfectly on the shelf.

yesterday we went to IKEA. I found these great little jars to store my dyes in for $2 each. so cute.

happy weekend!

p.s. i love you

this movie is a must see. for girls, that is. this was one of those movies where I felt I needed to come up for air. I am going to see it again because I loved it so much. I haven't done that since titanic. I suppose every girl loves those romantic movies that makes them wonder, would my husband do that for me? or maybe just sappy girls!

land o' land

I've not posted about this house before because it is no longer on the market and we looked at it a few years ago. I was in love with it. it was 3 bedrooms, 2 baths. the master bedroom was upstairs with a fireplace. it had a really ugly kitchen and a small basement but LOTS of land.
sunken family room with a window seat, built-in bookshelves and a fireplace.
huge screened porch that was accessed off 2 bedrooms.
a huge barn that I wanted to convert into my tiny sprouts office
this home sat on 5 1/2 acres. our dogs would love to run in this yard!
main bath with original floor.
view from the family room.
cutest garage
love this yard!
these trees were in the front yard and covered the windy road.peace and quiet

maybe one day we will walk up to the door and see if they still want to sell. I love to dream

what is wrong with this picture?

note the machine is UNPLUGGED
now note that machine is UNPLUGGLED AND filling with water!

I walked into our laundry room today to put the clothes from the washer into dryer. it had been finished for about an hour. I heard water running. I looked at the machine. it was off. I opened the lid and the water was filling and it wouldn't stop. it was almost to the very, very top before it overflowed. I unplugged the machine and it kept filling. I plugged it back in and tried to operate it but the buttons wouldn't move. I had to stop the water by shutting off the main water valve.

I came inside laughing really hard and my husband was in the other room and he thought I was crying. he came running in and asking what was wrong. I told him the story. you know what he said? the washer doesn't have to be plugged in for water to run. huh? you serious, clark? that is like saying you don't have to lift the faucet in the kitchen for water to come out. so anyway, fisher & paykel, will you please just give me my money back? we had the entire washer completely rebuilt. they paid for it (f&p). a new computer, a new washer valve, a new water valve, and 2 other parts I don't know the name of only that the repair man said they are really expensive.

I really just found the whole thing funny because it just is. and if you don't think so look at the pictures again and see that the machine is unplugged.

oh, and check out the pancakes I made for breakfast. whole wheat with ghardelli caramel squares. yum!

almost there

almost everything is fixed. some of the products in the "accessories" are not working yet but will be soon (thanks carla!). I can't quit staring at my website. I LOVE it. julie has been great to work with. I have a few more new pictures that are being done in the next few weeks for our spring items. some of the new products for january are chocolate corduroy dress, the baby blue corduroy dress, the chocolate overalls and the baby blue overalls. I love those colors for january. spring will have some great new pique dresses too. LOVE my job!

our new site is live!

it is the new year and we are starting it off with a brand new site! so excited about it and our new pictures. still working on getting it all perfect but it is finished for the most part. I hope you love it!