11/28/14

#CelebrateSale

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Happy Black Friday y'all!
Just wanted to let y'all know that if y'all go buy this weekend, and use the code CELEBRATESALE, you can get 20% off anything in the shop!
Thank y'all so much for all your support and for just being there with us through the whole thing.  Hope you guys had a great thanksgiving and have a relaxing rest of the break!

11/27/14

Happy Thanksgiving

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From the Barstads.
We have so much to be thankful for this year and it just keeps getting better.
Hope you are all having a warm and content thanksgiving as you have hope for whatever comes for the rest of the holiday season and next year.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

11/23/14

11 Months

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11 months.
Just insanity.  I truly can not believe you are almost a year shea.  AN ENTIRE YEAR OLD.  That is blowing my mind.  I knowwwww that I say that every month, but the fact that in one month I will no longer count your life in months but in years, astounds me.
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You and me are quite a pair.  But not the pair that we were a month ago.  A month ago I was your all in all and now, now you love everyone.  You take just a minute to warm up, but once you see that they can get you to be the center of attention or to something that you are curious about, you jump my ship.  You love to be seen and noticed and a part.
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You can almost walk.  You stand on your own while holding whatever you are holding, but you dont go anywhere yet.  You are suppppper advanced for a barstad in this regard and we are throughly impressed by even your ability to stand before you are 1.
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Your favorite people are still your siblings.  You cry when they leave to go to school still and absolutely cant stand it when they are home.  You dole out kisses like its your job and say ahhhhhhh the whole time you are hugging them.  They love you right back (even though sass has said she only wants one kid when she grows up because it will be easier to take care of.  I think I have convinced her to at least have two so they can have siblings.  Time will tell.)
When aves was sick and home from school, I think you thought you had won the lottery.  You were so happy to have another kid around the house and not just me.
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And this month you pooped in the tub.
So, theres that.
You still laugh like crazy all the time and love to talk.  You can say "roar" so very quietly when we ask you what a dinosaur says.  You say mama and dada and nana and night night and papa and the kids say you said Jake the other night, too.  You have some other animals down, but not all the way yet.
I can not even begin to think about how the next one of these will be my last.  I love you more than I can put in words on this blog shea.  You are a light. Truly.
happy 11 months.

11/21/14

Getting the gang back together

Over the weekend, Allison and fam came in town and spent the night!
Al and I worked on the sweat shirts, and the kids, easily inspired, clearly, started their own entrepreneurial venture and made a Rainbow Loom Shop.  They spent most of the time that they were together, whether they were watching a movie or playing, multitasking by also making bracelets, rings, necklaces or anything they could out of those little bands that you can never really clean up.
Clearly they come by it all naturally.
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There was also some group braiding and dress up,
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movie watching on a pallet,
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and a little baby feeding.
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In the morning we tried to see if they kids could take our picture.
There are a lot of outtakes that I need to add to this post, but this is probably the only one where we are all in it (plus Kenna)
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Thank y'all for staying with us, al! It was just so fun being together and getting to start the shirt making under the same roof.
I can't wait until you are a lot closer and this can happen muchhhhh more often.

11/18/14

Holiday Sweatshirts

Al and I just started screen printing holiday designs onto the softest (alternative apparel) sweatshirt and we put them in our etsy shop!
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The car on this sweatshirt is a land rover Defender 110 that Jeff bought when we were first married off of craigslist. It is kindddddd of slow, so he rarely gets to drive it, but it definitely makes for a good looking tree hauler.  Funnily enough, Jeff didn't mind much about how I drew the car, but was much more particular about the tree.  He told me that the limbs would not hang over the car as much as I made them in my first drawing because the defender was so wide.  I told him it just shows how big of a tree it can carry :)
Needless to say, he took time and fixed the tree and it looks much better.
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These trees were inspired by the trees drew for Shea's birthday invitations and just ended up loving.  I made her one with the trees that says happy holiday on it underneath for her favorite holiday, her birthday :)
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Jeff got so excited about me using his car and the tree that he made his own rendition with the 'over the river and through the woods'.  Love that guy.
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I figured we needed something to represent my love for knitting.
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#celebratealways
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Giving the chickens a little love.
So, head on over and grab one if you want!

11/17/14

How the Holiday Sweatshirts actually made it to the shop

Allison and I have been making shirts since 8th grade and screen printing since we first started lullaby lubbock when the twins and Ella were about 9 months.
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 We made these horrible hibiscus flowers and these terrible snowmen shirts for the kids.  And we hand dyed all of those babies.  We were pretty obsessed with RIT dye at that point.  And we loved how adding those buttons added to the entire look.  Its hard to say what exactly they added.
OH, we thought they were so cute.  We have since improved the entire look…
 We always want to put our shirts in the shop (looking back, I am glad some of them we didnt), but we are always a little late on it or lose steam before we actually put them up.
Thats where Sweet Tees came in.
A few months ago, my friends Jennifer and Brandie started a tee shirt company called Sweet Tees Shop.
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Isn't that the cutest name ever? (You can follow them on instagram and they are on etsy too.)  I love it all- they knew they could design shirts so they found away to get them out there and created a company. It was truly the most inspiring thing for me.
They were so inspiration for me- they just did it.  They figured out all the little things and just did it. They are doing so great and I could not be more excited for them! (Go check out their cute holiday shirts!)
This was around the time I started making thanksgiving tees for my kids. And I actually made them before the night before thanksgiving, like usual.  Huge thrill over here.  I know the gizzard thing is weird, and the sweet as pie is recycled and renewed from last year, but I thought I was hilarious, and luckily my kids wanted to wear them.
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I didnt sell them in the shop, but it got me excited to be making shirts before the night before their wear.
Along the way, I started dreaming about having Rainbow Roost sweatshirts and putting them in the shop.  I had bought the hello sweatshirts last year and realized that was all I was wearing this fall and winter.  I tried to find the actual sweatshirt online and figured out how to buy them wholesale with a tax ID.  So I ordered some, printed off a million ideas of how I wanted to make the logo on the shirt and then actually printed one.  I was critical of it at first, but now I love it.
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I had more fun doing that than I have had in a really long time.
This summer has been a hard one for me for a few reasons and I was in the biggest creative slump of my life.  I prayed and prayed for more creativity and ideas. I lost my appetite (not weight, of course.  that would required actually not eating instead of just loosing my appetite and still trying everything just in case it sounded good once it was in my mouth), couldn't sleep, or wanted to sleep all the time, and just was having a hard time.  I loved making the leggings, but the sewing part is hard for me.  My favorite part is designing them.  So, I ended up with a lot of swatches of fabric and not enough motivation to make them into anything. Making shirts was one of the first times that I have come alive in a while.  I remembered why I love it so much and I am just so thankful for the creative outlet that it gives me.  It is truly an answer to prayer for me.
SO after the shirts came in, I just kept dreaming of holiday shirts.  I tried printing off and making a lot of different options and eventually felt like I had a few I loved.  I told Allison about the shirts, and she, of course, had tons of amazing ideas for shirts she wanted to put in the shop. My cousin Lindsey came over and made some with us and came up with the cutest ideas ever for shirts and we were all set to make them (until the screen didnt burn due to the incredible cold front that came in and warped my light that I burn screens with). It was still fun.  Then, Al came in town and we stayed up until 3 in the morning printing shirts.  We got so excited and had so much fun being together and making shirts.  It was just like we lived down the street from each other in Lubbock again, or were at our parents house making shirts again for lindsays 16th bday.  It was so much fun.
All that to say, holiday shirts are in the shop and we are so excited.  I want to add my kid leggings and headbands and am testing some patterns to see if they work, so be on the lookout for those, if you want.  You can almostttt call me stella.  I think I have almost gotten my groove back.
Thanks to Sweet Tees for your creativity and for the incredible inspiration.
Thank you guys for buying scarves from us, good kid jars, crochet hats, and whatever we have put up in the past.  We hope you like the sweatshirts!

11/5/14

Turkey Time

I can't believe I am actually posting a holiday post in the current month. I have been a little behind lately and I don't think there has ever been a year where my annual Turkey shirts were posted before Thanksgiving Day. I haven't printed the girls Thankful list on the backs yet so I guess I shouldn't give myself too much credit just yet...
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I have changed up the turkey through the years and have still never really settled on one I love. This one at least looks happier than years past shirts. I have switched back and forth from screen print to vinyl each year. Overall the screen print look is my all time fave on a shirt but sometimes the heat press vinyl is more predictable and faster. I did my turkey and words using a screen this year and heat pressed the heart with glitter vinyl. So, it's really the best of both worlds for a tshirt making gal.  
Every. single. year. Kristen and I talk about maybe putting some of our Holiday shirts in our etsy shop but every. single. year. we can't get our act together in time. Even though Thanksgiving is right around the corner, I am going to make a few extra of these Turkey shirts if anyone is interested. They will be in our shop. And I'm not just talking kid sizes. You know how much we love to wear a cheesy themed adult tee. Too much.
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Speaking of Turkeys, Ella had to come up with a Turkey disguise for a school project. She wanted it to be all about the hair and for it to have a crazy hair do. I educated her on what a perm was and then this fabulous Turkey was created. Ella is also very intrigued on perms now and would love one. Maybe I should tell her the story when I permed Kristen's hair. From a box! How crazy are we?! It ended in a very short haircut for Kristen. Perm in a box is not the best route to go.
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Happy November everyone! 

11/1/14

Little of Lately

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birthdays//friends//lake weekends//park play//marooning out//birthday shirts for their old teacher//chickens//shoes//student of the months
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bringing back the bunks
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field trip with the whole school//sass didnt want me to wear my workout clothes for fear I would embarrass her because I look "weird" with my hair in a bun and running clothes.  Jokes on her bc I cut my hair.  Clearly I am the embarrassing mom.  Wont be the last time// everyone got sick and it was so so sad.  It took aves the longest to get well and shea wanted to give her a little encouragement.

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