Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Room to Sew

Can you guess what's in here?



Surprise!

(The fishbowl behind my machine is where I put my scraps.)

I love it!

There's no craft room for me.
And that's okay.
But I did need some designated space
because fabric was ending up everywhere!
In the hall closet,
in a box in my bedroom,
on the bookshelf next to my sewing machine....

I saw this tv hutch at goodwill
and knew it would be perfect
for a "sewing room".

And once I organized everything,
it looked so clean
I wanted to sit right down
and sew something!

Of course I didn't,
because at that point
it was 1am
and I have a baby
that tends to get up at 4am to eat
so that would have been crazy
but still...

In the bottom left cabinet
there are clear boxes for storage
designated for:
1) notions,
2 ) fabric already designated for projects,
3 ) huge batting scraps,
a basket of fat quarters,
and a basket of patterns:



The bottom right cabinet has the foot pedal
and a trash bag for scraps.

There's even a shelf where I can store
stacks of fabric for easy viewing:

(It kinda looks like there's room for more fabric!)
(ps, I should do a post on how I fold my fabric. Is that nerdy?)


And when I'm done,
I can close the doors up,
and there you go!


Hurray!



Monday, June 28, 2010

Not your mama's salad dressing!

I am doing what I can to raise
independent children.
I don't want my sons' wives
to complain that they didn't learn
to cook or clean up or do laundry...
(like I do....ahem....moving on)

Have I even mentioned that One
is an early bird?
Like 6am and he's ready to go?
Even on the weekends?

Well, I try to tell all my children
that they are my favorite,
but at 6am?
If you wake me up at 6am on a Saturday,
you are definitely not my favorite.

So we've gotten into the habit
of turning to PBS before we go to bed
so that One can turn on the TV in the morning
to something I don't have to worry about.
And now that he can -and loves- to read,
the early mornings can be filled
without any help from mama.

Until he gets this crazy notion
that he's hungry.

What's up with that?

Enter this little miracle:


It's not salad dressing gone bad...
it's an empty salad dressing bottle
filled with milk!!!

So now we store the cereal
down below the cabinets,
and even a few bowls too,
so that One can make
his own cereal in the morning.

Two has started doing it too.
She feels so grown up
getting to pour her own milk!

It's been such a great thing!
I can sleep past 6am,
One can be my favorite again,
Two feels independent...

Everybody wins!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Sunday & Four's Baptism




Our church does the baptism
as part of the children's sermon:



All of my kids have worn my grandad's,
their great-grandad's, baptismal gown.


It's at least 100 years old
and made from the thinnest muslim
with lace and hand-embroidered daisies.
It's actually a dress and a lining
and has the eensiest little shell buttons in the back.

Love sentimental stuff like that.
None of my cousins wanted it
for their children.
I think they might be a bit crazy
but I really can't complain because
I am so happy to have it for my own babies.

Four did so good during the baptism,
she didn't cry and she even had
her very own hallelujah moment:


Love it!

Friday, June 25, 2010

It's a cinch!

I needed a gift for a little superhero
who is turning 5 this weekend.
I decided to make a cinch bag
mostly using this tutorial from Martha
and some spiderman fabric from my stash.


First, I cut a 14-1/2" x 32" piece of fabric
and folded in the short ends 1/4 inch
and then another inch to make the tubes
for the drawstring:


Sew up your sides, but
stop before you get to the tubes!
You can also sew in short loops of ribbon
at the bottom for later.
(See Martha's tutorial or my picture at the bottom)


Then I cut letters of the superhero's name
out of interfacing
b a c k w a r d s
(remember that part)
(I do it wrong first everytime)
and ironed them onto some
coordinating fabric:



Cut out the letters and
sew them onto some black fabric:

I had red thread in my machine
and white thread in my bobbin...
something was definitely wrong with my tension
but in this instance,
I actually really like the outcome.



Cut two lengths of nylon cord - 50 inches
(heat seal the edges so they don't fray)
and slid them through the tubes at the top:

And knot them through the loops you sewed
into the bottom of the side seams
because you were too cheap
to fork out $22 for a grommet punch!

And there you have it!
A super-fun, personalized gift
for a superhero!

Friday, June 18, 2010

Going crazy

I love crazy quilts.
They seem so scrappy
and fancy
at the same time.

Since Four is such an urpy baby
-something I've never had-
I ended up making some
crazy quilt burp cloths.

Even better, I only used fabric
from my scrap stash!



I love it!

I also made another one
with scraps of my crazy quilt scraps:


What do you think?

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Summertime....

Today was One's last day of school!
It's incredible to me that he'll
be a 2nd grader!
Part of me is sad,
part of my is so excited!
He's my handful
and I keep thinking it'll get easier
when he figures out this whole
growing up thing.

Like, mom's in charge,
I don't always get my way....
that kind of thing.

So I was all fine with picking him up
on the last day of school.
Wasn't really planning on getting emotional.

Until I saw this:


All of the teachers and staff lining up to wave
good-bye to the students.

The kids were hanging out of buses
yelling good-bye to their favorite teachers,
the buses were going super slow
to give the kids time for that one last goodbye,
beeping their horns in celebration.
It was so moving.


One's teacher even came back from maternity leave
with her 2 week old baby so she could be there:


That got me bawling.
I love my kids' school!

Then here comes my boy:

(With the crossing guard/recess duty/who-knows-what-else guy, Jesse, whom he adores.)

Waving to his mama.

And oh my, it hit me...


My boy is growing up!



Monday, June 14, 2010

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Sunday

DaddyMan ran a Half-Marathon this weekend:



Friday, June 11, 2010

21 mos

Look at my cute boy:



He just happens to be 21 mos old today!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Money Math

We made money jars back at this post.
The only problem was
none of us ever knew how much money they had
and let's face it,
Mom's not the best at remembering
to give them their allowance.



So we counted up the money,
-it made a great math lesson-



and created a ledger for them to keep track
of the balance:

(Yes, I paid One to wash our windows. 25 cents a window...what a bargain!)


I love that it was:
1) fun
2) math
3) life skills
all in one!



Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Two Months

Look who's two month's old!


Time must be flying!

At two months, Four:
*smiles occasionally
*wears size 1-2 diapers
*is not really loving the binkie
*looks like she might be a thumb sucker
*generally wakes up only once at night
*still has brown hair (hurray!)


Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Flower Girl

I made this cute little outfit
for a little girl who was turning 4.


Two picked out the shirt
and the fabric was a find from the remnant bin
of Joann's Tutti Fruitie line!

Hurray!

I cut out one of the larger flowers
from the skirt fabric
and appliqued it onto the t-shirt
with some green fabric from my stash
to create a coordinating outfit.



I also used my hem foot to make the skirt hem!


It turned out nice but let me tell you,
I felt like I was doing it wrong
the entire time!

I found several tutorials that showed you
how to sew with the hem foot,
but none showed you how to start
sewing with a hem foot!
So that part was a disaster
and when I sewed the sides together
I just left that part out!


Monday, June 7, 2010

Dandelions

...in their fluffy white puffball stage
are not lollipops.


Having older sibs
(and plenty of dandelions in the backyard)
I just figured Three knew that.
But I handed him one
and he just popped that sucker
right in his mouth!



Apparently, they don't taste good.
Poor guy.

Life happens!