My Little House
or, rather, Taylor and her best friend, L’s, little houses. I made these little house pouches lsat night and finished them up this morning. The tutorial can be found here. The house is made with some canvas I had because I wanted them to be sturdy without extra work. I used little scraps of fabric for the doors and windows. I had some Timeless Treasure Apple Tree fabric (one of my favorites) that I cut the trees out of. I decided I would like this better than the flowers – I am a tree girl! This was a fun little project and was pretty quick too. I almost don’t want to give them to the girls for their upcoming birthdays. I really want to keep the blue one, which Taylor has claimed for herself. I might just have to make myself another one to match.
I also finished the knitting of my vest. I ended up just doing a ribbed edging, because I just can’t do the applied I-cord edging. This is the second project that I have tried to do it on (really tried) and I just don’t understand. My hands and needles just don’t work together. Anyway, since I did the ribbed edging I decided that I needed a zipper up the front instead of toggles and I can’t find a brown zipper of the right length right now. I’ll have to check the thrift store soon – then I can wear the vest this fall:) Yay!
Here’s a parting gift – Kameron with our basket of veggies that we picked yesterday. We are not getting much at a time, but we are getting some, so I should be happy. I am getting ready to plant some lettuce and snap peas and spinach this weekend so that we’ll have some good stuff for the fall. I hope that your garden is doing well if you have one. I hear of many that aren’t this year. Probably not the best year to start gardening, but at least I’m learning!
Finally, an apron for me!
I have wanted an apron for awhile now. My grandmother always had an apron on and I have such fond memories of her in the kitchen. It also seems like aprons have made a comeback and are actually cool now. So of course I want one – I’ve always wanted to sit at the cool table;) Anyway, I bought the book A is for Apron last year and there are so many cute ones in there that I want to make. I made a reversible gingerbread apron, for my secret pal last year, from that book. But while the patterns in that book are very nice I just never got around to making myself one. I got burned out on the ones I made for other people last year. So, when this pattern came up on the sew4home blog on Monday I knew I had to make it. The apron is so cute and looked much simpler to make than the ones in my book…and it was. It took me an afternoon to whip this out and I used fabric from my stash: ‘surf & sand’ by Michele D’Amore for Marcus Fabrics. I loved the colors and patterns of these fabrics and had 5 yards laying around in the different patterns, so it was perfect! The back is khaki with the white and turquoise stars, so it is reversible, the back just doesn’t have any pockets. I love the way it turned out and I have worn it the last 2 days to cook and check on my garden. Perfect!
Filed under Creations, Sewing | Comment (1)Merry Christmas to Kameron
4 months late.
This monkey (Mikey Monkey from Larissa Holland) was meant to be a gift for Kameron Christmas 2009. I kept putting it off because it looked difficult and even though I really wanted to make it I just didn’t have the time during December of last year. Finally on Christmas Eve I cut out the pieces and then was too tired to go any further and since he was just 15 months he wouldn’t notice, right? Babies always get jipped because they won’t notice or care… So the pieces have been sitting on my desk since then and today I decided to go for it and start…and I finished, because Larissa’s pattern is totally awesome! The pattern is so well written and it looks like a lot, but it is pretty simple. She has it all there for you so you won’t make mistakes. :) I am so glad I finally made Kameron his pirate monkey. I decided that his name will be Jolly Bean. Kameron just happened to be eating Jelly Bellys when I finished sewing him up. I just finished the pirate pieces five minutes ago though, so he hasn’t seen those. I am so happy with this monkey! I hope he becomes a family heirloom and that he isplayed with and loved and hugged millions of times. I really think this might be the coolest thing I’ve made so far. Can you tell I love it?! Have a beautiful week everyone!
Filed under Creations, Holidays, Sewing | Comments (4)Easter Baskets
When I pulled the Easter stuff out this year I realized that Kameron didn’t have a fabric covered pail yet, like I had made the other two a few years ago. I wasn’t planning to be somewhere I could buy a metal pail, so I started looking for other ideas. I found this cute tutorial via How About Orange (a favorite blog for ideas!) and got to work. At first I was just going to use these as Easter baskets and put them away, but I’ve decided that they’re so cute that the kids can just use them to hold toys on their shelves. Taylor’s matches her toddler bed quilt that I made and the boys’ baskets are made with Michael Miller’s Bot Camp line of fabric. Taylor’s wasn’t finished until Monday morning, but they are all pleased with their little baskets. :)
We had a wonderful Easter day and a beautiful weekend! We were able to get a lot accomplished in our yard (though there’s still much more to go!) and had fun as a family. Then on Easter we went to church and then waited in town for my mother in law who came and purchased a wooden swingset for the kids. We are all very excited about that – hopefully we can put it together this weekend. Thank you, Gram & Grandaddy! After that we went on to their house and had our annual egg hunt and huge meal. We cooked the ham that Kody got for part of his Christmas bonus from work and it was so good. We got home around midnight I think. Perfect weekend. Here are some pictures from Sunday. Eventually, I’ll try to get my facebook page updated. A family photo was not taken again this year – big surprise. I am never in any Easter pictures. I manage to get in at least one from all the other holidays, but never Easter… Hope your day was happy and filled with Christ’s love for you. I’ve said before we only celebrate “Easter” because everyone else does, but we celebrate Jesus and what he’s done for us everyday and will continue to do so forever!
Random Wednesday
I need to get back on track after taking a week off, so random it is…
1. I’ve tried to start shredding with Jillian again. Last week I was able to keep it up Monday through Thursday and it was difficult because I have three children to get ready on Tuesdays and Thursdays and we cannot be late getting Taylor to preschool. So those mornings were basically spent shredding while listening to people cry and I just could not handle that. So Friday & Saturday, when I had to be somewhere early, I just didn’t do it and Sundays are always off. Then I didn’t do it Monday either and Tuesday was a preschool day. I did Shred this morning though, and I am going to try to keep it up for M-W-F from now on. Every T-T-S-S I have a place to be at 9 with all children dressed and fed and I just don’t miserable people anymore!
2. Last night was our September Women on Mission meeting for church and we voted on a slate of officers. I am the secretary now! Not that I had anyone against me, but I am still excited to get to do this. We also talked about fundraisers and are going to do a craft bazaar in November (on my suggestion!) that I am so excited about! If you’re not in WOM and would like to know more about this, let me know!
3. I made 2 Baby Taggy Blankeys as gifts for Kameron and Jakin. I’ve been wanting to make one of these since Taylor was a baby and just now got around to it. I know the boys are approaching being to old for one of these, but I really wanted to make them each one. Kameron’s is the monkey one (of course) and Jakin got the corduroy polkadot one. I have a huge basket full of ribbon, so I just picked out some cute ones and on they went! The back is white minky dot fabric.
4. Homeschooling Kristopher is going great! He is waking up and wanting to get started every morning and we have been having a good time with it. The only part that isn’t really great is the math. He doesn’t seem to have any confidence in himself with math and it isn’t really my favorite subject. He can do it though…that subject just takes longer for us. His Unit 1 tests will all be this week and next, so I can see how he is actually doing with the material. Then we get to move on to some new books! We really are enjoying this for our family and everytime I hear about something that has happened in school this year I praise the Lord that we made this decision. Here is a picture of him at his desk. This sewing desk was in the house when we bought it and my machine doesn’t fit it so we had it out in the garage. We are using it for now since it was free. It is working much better than the kitchen table did on our first day. My desk is next to it and the computer desk is across the room from it, so I can just slide my chair over from where ever I’m sitting to help him.
5. I have been trying to find coupons for my groceries and everything else I buy in the last couple of weeks. I read about a woman who gets a full cart of groceries every week for $4-$10 and that inspired me to at least get a few dollars off ours! It would be so nice to be able to do what she does, but I am not willing to spend 4 hours in a grocery store messing with all of it; 1 to 1 1/2 hours is enough! SO, if you find any good coupons let me know – I’ll take them!
6. Kody has started training his replacement at NCR and will be starting his new job at Ag Connections on October 1. We are very excited, but also nervous about this.
7. I am going to be setting up an informational meeting sometime in the next few months to try to guage interest in American Heritage Girls and getting a troop in Murray. If anyone would be interested in helping me with that or interested in having this sort of program for girls here, please contact me. This is a Christ centered scouting program for girls 5-18. They stress purity and service and stewardship to the girls and I would really like to have this available to my daughter next year when she is the right age. Go to the site to learn more about their Mission Statement and what they do.
8. I have signed up to be an Usborne Books consultant. I will be having a show at the end of September to “announce” my business and let everyone see some books. If you would like to see some before then contact me or visit my website. If you would like to order or book your own show/party let me know as well. Right now, I can get you double free books as a hostess. These books are so wonderful for kids. We have so many at our house and they are the favorite “go to” books for my kids. They really are “The books kids love to read!”
9. I am wondering, this morning, why my children cannot grasp the concept of “being quiet.” Why is this so hard. I think since we moved here last year that everyone has gotten louder…is it because of the extra space? Do they think it has to be filled with noise all the time? I just don’t get it.
10. And because I feel like I need to have an even 10 things… Here is a scripture that I read on Martin’s blog yesterday and have been thinking on. Go read what he has to say – so good!
Filed under Creations, Homeschool, Kids, News, Sewing | Comment (0)“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly.” 2 Tim 2:15-16 NIV