Photobombed Gnome Embroidery

A couple months ago I changed this photo (see original at end of post) to black and white then printed it on a Printed Treasures Inkjet Printable Fabric sheet and then embroidered the gnome. If you type in "embroidered photo" to Pinterest you'll see all the inspiration I saw. Some cool stuff there! 

*

If you don't have the printable fabric sheets it is possible to do it another way (probably many ways). 

I also printed a photo on bleached muslin by cutting a piece of bleached muslin a little smaller than an 8.5x11 printer paper. I then cut a piece of freezer paper 8.5x11 and ironed it to the muslin. I fed it through the printed and printed a black and white photo on it. It came out really really good!  The freezer paper is to keep it stiff..you're not actually printing on the freezer paper.

The photo is a little blurry but I loved it so much I didn't care. I have another one of the girls at this same spot from the year before that I want to embroider as well. Ava is also making a face in it!

the original below.

Kürbisfest Schloss Ludwigsburg year 8!!

 It's that time of year again! Ludwigsburg Palace pumpkin patch and what I can't believe is that we've been 8 times! Since Emily was 3 months old. 

Just a warning and an explanation: 

There are a lot of photos below and one reason is I have family members who do not use facebook and this is one way of showing off the girls to them. So no crafting in this post just family photos!

This years theme was Switzerland. If you look at the previous years themes you'll see that this year was by far the most boring year ever! I was so disappointed but I (we) did still enjoy ourselves.

2011 Dinosaur theme

2010 Under the Sea theme

2009 Fairy Tale theme

2008 (part 1, part 2, part 3) Outer Space theme

and before that I didn't blog but if you look at part 3 of year 2008 you can see Emily at 3 months in her bear costume.

The Matterhorn

I got a little redundant with the next set of photos but I just loved them all:)

 I really hope we can go one more time as we leave Germany this time next year:( 

I have no idea where we'll go at this point and our chances of staying another 3 years here are pretty slim. As it is we will have been in Germany 10 years by the time we leave:) 

That's all folks! Thanks for looking:) 

Ludwigsburg Palace Pumpkin Patch year 7

This years theme was Dinosaurs!! How cool is that?? And we went on my birthday and with good friends. The only thing that could have made it the perfect day was if Jon was there.

*for last year and all the years before, look here.

year 6

year 5

year 4 (here here and here)

2005, 2006, 2007 can be seen here.

2

I think Ava looks just like my brother in the photo below.

I'll have to dig out a photo of him pouting at that age.

Who has the coolest shoes ever?

Ava's crazy.

Crazy I tell you!

These are the other kids we went with. Nicolas, Annabel & Sienna.

If you can take your eyes off Ava's crack, take a look at that huge pumpkin!!

Thanks Heidi and Mary for some of the photos:)

Ludwigsburg Palace Pumpkin Patch Year 6

Once again no crafting stuff. Sorry:( I hope I'm not losing anyone!

I'm in limbo between two apartments and can't sew at either.

So Saturday we were able to squeeze in a few hours at the Pumpkin Festival. This years theme is under the sea

Ava is looking at some geese in these photos. When we made her leave that area we had serious melt down. She wore her voice out (it's now scratchy and smoker-like) from screaming.

You can see lasts years visit here and 2008 here and here and here.
Check out this collage of Emily.

Last night was my going away dinner and I got some good going away presents! They are awesome! Kelly took photos so I'll have to get them from her. My friends know me so well...it was lots of mushroom and Gnome stuff! Plus fabric and handmade stuff. I'm really really shy about expressing thanks becasue it never feels like it's coming across right. Just know Kara, Josanna, katelyn, Kelly, Mary and Heidi, that I was so happy you all took the time to have dinner with me at my favorite restaurant and I love and appreciate the time and thought that went in to each gift.