So I haven't actually ridden off into the sunset...

I've been a wee bit scarce around here of late, and it will be just a wee bit longer before I can get back to regular posting, but I have a good reason. First of all, the holidays were CRAZY, but in a good way. But it's had me busy mostly every day, between photo shoots, finishing up Christmas gifts, and attending multiple family and work (Nick's) events. And then there was the tea. Sawyer somehow managed to knock a cup of tea halfway across the couch onto my poor laptop, which I was actually using at the time. Fortunately it's still under an extended warranty protection plan, so it's being sent off to be repaired, which I'll certainly be glad to get done, but in the meantime I'm without means to post photos, a circumstance that isn't quite conducive to being a successful craft blogger. SO...hang in there for me. When I get back I'll be posting all about the Christmas gifts I made, as well as a few other crafts I've got lined up. Happy New Year!

Behind the Scenes

Yikes, I've been a bad blogger! It's been crazy hereabout though. My birthday was the day after my last post, and it was so great! I got to spend some time with my awesome friend LaDonna, who I rarely get to see anymore, although we're working to remedy that! And she brought me a pumpkin spice latte, and Nick sent me these GORGEOUS flowers!

Then my parents in-law and brother and sister-in-law came by and showered me with gifts and cake (well, there was no actual cake shower, but there was cake presented.) There was a lovely cozy sweater/wrap, some pretty earrings, a cool paper bow maker, and some envelope stickers. Then we went to my parents' house, where they presented me with (heavy breathing here) another punch board! This one was the gift box punch board, and I've been having so much fun with it! They also kept {ALL THREE} kids for us so Nick could take me out for a birthday dinner! The festivity! The romance! The meal with no one spilling their tea in my plate!

I also received some terrific embossing folders from another brother and sister-in-law, birthday money from Nick's grandmother, a gift card from Nick's other sister and her husband, and a certificate for a manicure from my other brother. My parents also got me a couple of outfits. I'm totally spoiled!

I've been at my sewing machine doing some mending jobs, and also making up some note cards for a charity fundraiser. And I've had some photo shoots on the books, including some senior pics for a couple of my very favorite girls from church camp. They are just gorgeous, and they are every bit as lovely inside as out, which should tell you something. Take a look at these beauties:

I have another shoot on Saturday, but of course Halloween is the day before, so I've got to get going on a fairy princess tutu to go with the sweet light up Tinkerbell wings I scored at the thrift store for a cool 99¢! Also, there may be a red tutu in the works for a Superman themed costume, and can I tell you how excited I am that Sawyer's costume requires no more input on my part than putting it on him? Not that I mind making costumes, but this week I'll take store bought, especially when it's a crazy cool gorilla costume I scored at the same thrift store for $2.99. Ahem.

Anyway, coming soon on the blog, we'll be talking about that cool gift box punch board, the pinwheel punch board, a few of my favorite 30-minutes-to-the-table meals, a The Fault In Our Stars themed craft, some fun leather key fobs, a darling pin cushion, and a sweet baby headband. See you soon!

So hi there...

Hi! My name is Tracy Roach. I'm such a detail hound when I read people's blogs, so I'm going to be super wordy here. :) I'm a very happily married SAHM who also does on location family photography as well as crafting of all sorts. I've been married to my best friend Nick since 1998, and we have 3 beautiful children - Taylor, Lily, and Sawyer. 

I'm blessed, blessed, blessed to be a child of God, and He has given me a truly beautiful life! We had our first daughter, Taylor in 2001, and I loved being a mom! A few years later we decided to try for number two. After a year and a half with no pregnancy, I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. My doctor told me that, unless I started on several fertility drugs, we would never have another baby. Nick and I prayed hard about it, and in the end we decided it was not the path for us. I have no problem at all with anyone who chooses that route - the medical advances are phenomenal and it has done a lot of families great good. But for us, it felt like God was telling us to just be still and wait on Him.

So we decided that we would do just that. We had an amazing daughter in Taylor, and if we never had another baby, we were blessed to have her! A couple of years later, much to my doctor's surprise, I turned up in her office expecting again! Much to MY surprise, I was 3 months along! In October 2009 we welcomed Lily into our family, overwhelmed by how God had blessed us with another baby!

He really knocked our socks off when He blessed us with a baby boy in January 2012! I had some problems in that pregnancy, and Sawyer was born almost 6 weeks early at a whopping 3 lb 11 oz. But even there God's hand was so very clear. Sawyer did just great, and though he had to spend a little time in the NICU, he never even had to go on oxygen, and we got to bring him home when he was 11 days old and weighed just 3 lb 13 oz! He was the smallest baby ever released by our NICU, but he was getting along so famously that they just couldn't justify keeping him any longer!

When Lily was born, my husband had faith to follow God's leading in allowing me to quit my job and live my lifelong dream of being a stay at home mom! I started doing photography in my free time (haha, "free time" is such a relative term when you have little ones!), and a couple years later I started an Etsy shop called Sawyer Ford Home where I sell handmade pillow covers and other home decor items along with hair and jewelry items for girls and women of all ages.

I'm a really good cook at a very limited selection of dishes, a horrible housekeeper, a champion Pinner, a voracious reader, a redeemed child of God, a Nikon girl, my husband's biggest fan, a lover of sweets, an unreformed night owl, an abuser of emoticons, the best sweet tea maker on the planet, a devotee of high thread count Egyptian cotton sheets and squishy feather pillows, a craft store addict, an unrepentant user of ridiculously long, wordy, run-on sentences, and pretty nifty at origami. 

Some of the things I love soverymuch:

*God

*My husband

*My kiddos

*My church

*Books

*Sewing

*My Silhouette Machine

*Photography

*Blogging

*Pinterest

*Happy Mail

*Giving handmade gifts

*Getting handmade gifts

*Hobby Lobby/Michael's/Joann's/A.C. Moore

*My glue gun

*Date nights

*Criminal Minds

*Criminal Case on Facebook (Don't judge me!)

*Church Camp

*Brand new babies

*Potstickers

*Orange Italian Ice

*Finding out ALL the details!

I'm hoping this blog can be a place where I share my crafty goings-on as well as keep track of what's happening in our lives. And maybe I'll get to meet some great fellow crafters along the way!