Family vacation

My family was able to spend a week together at a resort in Illinois about two weeks ago. We all got together because my parents had celebrated their 40th Wedding Anniversary in June. It was an incredible vacation with no set schedule and just doing whatever we wanted. We swam every day, played a little mini golf, there was a free 5 hole golf course that some people played, movies to watch, coloring, games and just hanging out with family (which was the best part).

My dad was having some health issues and ended up having to go back to WI for a dr. appointment and had to leave one night early for another one...he had surgery on his spinal cord this past Wednesday and is now at home recovering. We are praising God that his surgery was successful and that he can once again feel his hands and feet...the numbness and tingling was moving all the way up his legs and into his tummy. Scary. They said if he didn't have the surgery soon he could have been paralyzed. Again, we are thankful that God in His infinite wisdom has blessed my dad with good doctors and a successful surgery. He'll be in a neck brace for the next six weeks and then will probably have to do physical therapy. But he should make a full recovery.

We knew that while we were on vacation and had the whole family together (some from WI, some from CO, some from TN) we wanted to get a family photo. I had made these dresses for my girls a long time ago, in fact you can see how long ago because Hannah's used to be a dress but is now a shirt :). And I made the skirt and shirt for Lily for her third birthday. So, my sister-in-law suggested that I make another skirt for Ella to match and that we could use those outfits for our family photo! I love how we all coordinated and didn't really know what we were going to look like until the last minute. I am also totally impressed (if I may say so myself) that this photo was taken using a timer with the camera on the tripod. After the photo was taken I looked at it and said "we got a great one" and everyone said, we should do a few more just in case! Ha! I knew we had struck gold and probably wouldn't again.

My kiddos with their cousins!! Poor Micah will be the only boy on this side of the family!

Here is my family...Hannah was over having her photo taken at this point...but I still love this photo!

                          

Micah LOVES to take pictures with my camera and he's pretty good if you ask me. He took this shot of me at 29 weeks and 3 days prego!

                            

We also had a big surprise steak dinner to celebrate my parents 40th Anniversary and since Ruby is the 40th Anniversary color we all dressed in red and I made these little outfits for the kids to wear. These photos were taken the same day as the other ones so the kids were not totally thrilled about having to do it all again, but it's a great way for us to remember the Anniversary!

                              

My crazy family! LOVE them!!

Now it's time to get into school mode. Naomi will be starting kindergarten on the 16th and Micah will start pre-school on the 20th with an intro day on the 14th. We are so excited about the school they are going to and all they are going to learn this week. I'm also excited to have a little more "time" to go through some things and get some projects done before this baby girl comes. I hope Hannah is ready to help me :) Have your kids started school yet? Blessings on your last (maybe) free weekends before school starts! 

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Adventures in sewing

A couple of weeks ago I said I'd be back the next week with some of the things I've been sewing...

well, time got away from me, kids got sick, school ended, I got sick, company came, company is still here and more is coming tonight! So, I wanted to make sure to get these photos up before another month goes by.

I love to sew little dresses for my girls and my little man LOVES his tie shirts. And we got some good news this month too...baby #4 is healthy AND I'll get to make more dresses, that's right, we're having ANOTHER little girl!! All my girls will be October babies!! It's only appropriate right?

Anyway, here are the dresses and tie shirt that I made for my kiddos to wear to my cousins wedding. I think they turned out pretty good and I feel like I get better at making this dress every time I make it.

The fabric is from Hobby Lobby.

My mom sent me some fabric from Hong Kong while they were still there and asked me to make her a jacket to wear to my cousins wedding and also to wear when she and my dad speak at churches about their trip. I was TOTALLY intimidated to make this jacket. So intimidated in fact that I put it off and put it off and FINALLY got it done the day before we left for the wedding. Talk about procrastinating. I used a pretty simple pattern and I think it would be easier to make with a cotton fabric. This fabric is really beautiful but also REALLY slippery! So, it looks really wonky on the hanger but it looked better on my mom! I know I didn't do the bottom hem like I should have...but it turned out okay.

Here's the back.

Here's a close-up of the front...

And this is my mom wearing the jacket at my cousins wedding. Totally forgot to get a descent photo of her wearing the jacket.

I made these pillow cases for my cousins wedding gift. He plays and coaches basketball and she's a HUGE soccer fan and player. I hope they liked them!

I made these cute and quick little drawstring bags to hold the tumbler and smoothie king gift card that Naomi gave to her preschool teachers. The cups were a big hit and I know I saw at least one other mom give the same gift (sans reusable bag). Anyway, the bags were super easy to make and I like that not only did we give the teachers a cute tumbler but also a bag they can use for other little things...even re-gifting...I'm totally cool with that.

I have projects I've been doing around the house and LOTS of sewing in my to-do pile so make sure to come back and see what I've been up to! Also, working on making some jewelry...never a dull moment around here! Would love to see what you've been up to!!

 

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T-Shirt Headbands

Thought I'd change it up this week! I have been sharing T-Shirt Scarves for the past 4 weeks. Here they are...Scarf 1, Scarf 2, Scarf 3 and Scarf 4, if you want to check them out!

Well this week I thought I would share a t-shirt headband. As I was making one of my scarves with my mom (@Pine Creek Style), we thought it would be cute to use the same method on a small t-shirt for a kids headband.

I used the same method as the no sew scarf. See Scarf 2 for directions. Just used one of their old shirts. The size of the shirt was a 2T. It will be a little big, so I recommend a smaller shirt because after you stretch it out, well you know, it gets bigger. ;) I would say a 12 mo. shirt would be great.

...Look at how cute it turned out...

She really is happy to be wearing this. LOL I just thought it was a cute pic. Here is one of her smiling and showing that you can wear a clip with this too!

I love it and made a few of them for the girls. They even look cute with pony tails. The one below is another color I made.

And my oldest loved wearing hers too! Perfect for all ages. Mommy's too!

Cute! Cute! Will you make one? Have you made one?

These t-shirt headbands are awesome and a quick way to turn a simple hairdo into a fancy one!

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Art Case Birthday Gift

Well hello there old friends! It's been a while hey? Like over a month! Yikes! I never intended to be gone so long but life has just been going on and on and I've been enjoying the ride. We had a great and very relaxing Christmas and genuinely did not want to return home. January flew by in a flash and here it is the second weekend in February already.

Well, since Valentine's Day is next week I probably should be showing you the really cool craft that my daughter made for her little classmates but it really didn't turn out that well. We punched hearts into paint sample strips and then she wrote their name on the front and on a piece of construction paper of the same size she wrote her name for the back. The problem came when I laminated the bookmarks...the lamination didn't really stick and they just look a little chintzy. But I don't think the 4 and 5 year olds will be too concerned...plus, I added in a pencil and a box of conversation hearts just to make sure Naomi wasn't pegged as "the girl who gave lame valentines" (like they do that in 4K anyway). I'm so self conscious even as a mother that I want to make sure my kid gives cool valentines. Yikes. Maybe I need some therapy!

Well, onto the real post! My daughter got invited to a birthday party on Super Bowl Sunday at the local bounce house place. This was a party for a little girl in her class that I'd never met. She was so excited and I was feeling well, strapped for cash, self-conscious (was I going to have to stay at the party and mingle with people I didn't even know?), and just plain intimidated. I decided that her little friend would get a handmade gift and I would quit making excuses. Because dangit, it was gonna be cute and functional.

I was browsing my saved tutorials on my hard drive when I came across this art case. I knew I didn't have the quilted fabric that it called for so I improvised and just used regular cotton with a little fusible interfacing to make it a little more sturdy. Other than that, the only thing I did differently was sew it right sides together and turn it out. I had a hard time with attaching the handles and sewing the sides shut because my machine only likes to stitch through two layers of fabric at a time but four needles later the job was finished. And I think it came out pretty good and I think Naomi's little friend was happy with the gift, well, it didn't compare to the almost lifesize Rapunzel doll, but what does! (seriously, who gives that to a five year old that is not their own child?) Anyway, I think this will be a good go-to gift that I can easily (minus four needles) make that is a pretty neat and functional gift. Naomi kept telling her friend "You can even take it to church with you" -my little evangelist!

The party was great and yes I did mingle with some of the other mothers and actually had a good time. Little ol introvert, self-conscious me had a good time. yup!

And if you haven't checked out Carrie at This Mama Makes Stuff you REALLY need to. She has TONS of great tutorials and refashions and just great sewing advice and tips! go check her blog out...and tell her I sent you!

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Gifts for grandma and husbands

Hey there everyone, sorry for being absent on the blog last week, I was enjoying time with my family and didn't feel like spending any of that time on the computer...

So I owe you two weeks worth of gifts. Gifts for grandma and gifts for husbands.

There were a few things that my mom mentioned when I asked her about what the kids could make
for her that she would like to receive. She said she loves any handmade gift from the kids and
especially anything made with handprints. So, we did the handprint calendar for grandpa but obviously
grandma gets to enjoy that as well. She mentioned things like placemats, mousepads, an apron with
handprints on it...and while I think these are all great ideas and hopefully we'll still be able to make some
of these things before Christmas, we made something different. My parents are missionaries right now
over seas and they don't have a lot of the "comforts of home" with them over there. So, I decided to have my kids paint them a picture. I just gave the kids a square canvas board and let them use their own creativity to paint them a picture. Canvas boards can be found at JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby and Michael's. I bought mine at Hobby Lobby and it was a package of 6 boards for $7.99 and I had a 40% off coupon so each board only cost me about 80cents, and I already had the paints on hand so this is a VERY inexpensive gift idea.

These paintings usually happen in "sessions", they paint for a bit then stop and add more too it at another time. They LOVE to paint and ask almost everyday if they can paint. I like to keep those square canvas boards on hand for times like these. They make great personal gifts. I didn't take a photo of the finished project because I don't want to spoil the surprise for my mom!

I don't have any photos of what I am getting/making for Greg...but I can tell you about it quick. I ordered some personalized products with some photos that my aunt took for us on Thanksgiving. He's in need of a new travel mug (takes his coffee to work with him every morning) so I ordered one from Shutterfly. I also ordered a desk calendar for him from Vistaprint (I got the same one as a wall calendar for free). And the thing I am making for him is pajama pants. He told me that he was a little sad last Christmas when the kids got new jammies but he didn't. SO, I  went to goodwill and had Micah pick out a top sheet that he liked (he picked solid navy blue) and I bought that and one flannel sheet for the girls and I plan to sew pj pants for the whole family out of those sheets. Sheets are so much cheaper (especially from goodwill) than buying that much yardage of fabric at the fabric store. Plus, isn't it nice to crawl into your sheets wearing sheets?! Ha, we'll see. I have a pair for myself that I cut out of some old vintage orange and yellow flower sheets about two years ago...maybe I'll actually sew them for my Christmas present this year!

Hope I've given you some ideas. I need something else for my hubby though, so if you have any good hubby gift ideas I'd love to hear them!! Have a great week!

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Gifts for the postman or other workers

For my gift for the post man or other workers I was really thinking about Christmas time...and hopefully some cooler weather. (I actually made these as Valentine's gifts, thus the hearts but I think it would be easy to adapt for Christmas...and maybe the hearts would be applicable for some people.)

These will be great to stick in the mailbox with a little note thanking your postal worker for their faithful service. These little coffee mugs can be filled with lots of different goodies...hot chocolate packets, tea, mini candy bars...you name it, the skies the limit.

These are pretty easy to make and I don't have a step by step tutorial but if you need some more help with figuring out how to make these let me know.

Start with two pieces of felt and your favorite coffee mug.
Lay your coffee mug on the felt and losely trace it (it doesn't need to be perfect it just gives you an idea of what size to make it)

Cut out your embelishments:

Christmas trees, ornaments, holly, whatever suits your fancy.

Sew the embelishments on to the top piece of the coffee mug with different colored thread
or the same color, use your creativity!
I also sewed a little brown oval near the top to make it look like the mug is
already filled with some hot chocolate (you could skip that if you want).

Then use your sewing machine (or sew by hand) and sew around the outside of the mug.

Make sure to not sew the top shut. I also sewed right up both sides and didn't worry about leaving the handle open (but make sure to sew the two pieces of the handle together).

 I will have some of these in my etsy store too!!!

Let me know if you have any questions about how to make these!

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Gifts for the boys in your life

Micah loves his fishing games. He has two of them. One has batteries that always die, the other has a suction cup that doesn't work very well. So I decided to make him a new fishing game that will be easy and fun to play with. And if something gets broken I'll know exactly how to fix it.

(excuse the poorly-lit-needed-to-use-my-flash photography...gotta craft at night so the youngins don't know what they're getting for Christmas!)

What you need:

Felt
Scissors
Thread
Magnets
Fiber fill
Dowl/Rod

Start by making a fish pattern on a piece of cardboard. I like to make the pattern on a folded edge so that I only have to draw one side of the fish but get a symetrical fish! Make sure that the fish pattern is big enough for your magnet to fit through the tail section and into the body.

Then trace your fish pattern onto the felt and cut out the fish. Make sure you have two pieces of the same fish...so stack your felt or just fold a piece in half when you're cutting it to make sure you have to exact pieces.

Sew around your fish but leave the bottom open so you can put the magnet and stuffing in.

Stuff the magnet in and then add some fiber fill to make the rest of the body puffed up. Then sew the end shut making it sorta look like scales.

My suggestion is to sew all the fish together before sitting down to stuff them in front of the tv. Then go back to your machine and sew them all shut. Of course you could sew them all by hand, if you have the time and patience to do so!

Then make a fishing pole. I just folded a black piece of felt in half and made a large J for the hook, making sure that my magnet would fit in the end. I then used a blanket stitch and stiched around the whole hook leaving a LONG piece at the top to be the fishing line. Then I stitched the fishing line to the yellow felt and hot glued that onto the dowl. I also added a little bit of felt by the handle.

And if you don't want to make your own I will have
ONE set in my etsy store in a couple of weeks!

Here are some other BOY gift ideas:

Art Kits

Tie Shirts:

Car Play/Storage mat

Personalized t-shirts

Reverse Applique T-shirt

Happy Crafting! can't wait to see what you're making for all the little boys in your life! Feel free to leave a link, I LOVE looking at boy projects! I've got lots of little boys in my life that I need to make gifts for!

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