christmas 2 of ????

each year i make an ornament for my kids (all 6 of them now), my nephews & nieces (SO happy i get to say nieces now not just niece) and other family members/friends.  its something that i remember as a child my great aunt doing.  it was always so fun to see what we got each year.  i think that many were homemade, & many were a moose-her maiden name was moose! and each year mom would write down on sheet of paper in each of our ornament boxes who gave us each ornament for the year.  now that i have my own family, i have my list so that i can add to it.  i have also started a list for each of my kids & their own ornament box.  some day i hope that they do the same.  

christmas 1st of ???

wow.  it has been a while.  i promise i was busy.  but when you are making gifts for christmas and people who are receiving these gifts read this..... i dont like ruining surprises.

i dont know what i was thinking when picking out the hardware for our kitchen.  maybe that is the problem, i wasnt thinking.  too many decisions to be made!  but i didnt pick our drawer pull that you can wrap your hand around.  so for the past four years we have had to deal with all dish towels falling off of the dishwasher & oven handles.  stinks having to pick them up all the time.  big a really doesnt like it.  i am sure i had seen these before and dont know why it took so long for the light bulb to go off.  i got some towels and tried some for our house 1st.  it was awesome!!!  and was pretty sure that some people in my family had the same issue as we did with the drawer pulls.  the hardest part was finding nice kitchen towels. 

a little yard work before winter

i never really wanted the black plastic stuff to separate the rock around the house and the grass.  i dont like it.  but at the time, i didnt have much of a choice.  limited on time and i didnt know for sure what i wanted.  fast forward 4 years in this house and pinterest.  i found the perfect thing to separate them.  but again time was an issue.  so i had a local guy come and do most of it for me.  i just had to move rock away so that it would be easier to dig.

  this picture doesnt show, but we also have a rock bed FULL of spanish moss roses.  i love them, i dont ahve to water & they give some color.  the kids love picking the flowers for me too.  but i was liking having to step on or around them to get to the water spouts on the house.  so off i went to town to get me some flagstone.  this should work nicely i think!

but my FAVORITE part is the gutter down spouts.  we have a dog (used to have 2) and said dog(s) like to chase rabbits.  (we have them more now that there is a bit of shelter for them to hide in with the shelter belt we have started) rabbits like to hide after they have ran for a bit.  and what better spot than up my gutters??? did that stop my dog(s)??? NO NO NO.  and these werent just any gutters.  my grandpa cut some heavy duty galvanized big boys for me. off came the gutters to get those dang rabbits.  there are teeth marks in them from dog(s) chewing trying to get to the rabbit.  plus we had to have them staked down with the lovely nebraska winter winds.  so when i saw this idea on pinterest i knew it was perfect for us.   sorry bunnies.

and while i had someone do the BIG project around the house, i figured i could do the little one around the water hydrant.  and i did!  and after 3 long years and i dont know how many loads i finally killed the river rock pile in the driveway.  all but 2 loads i moved around the house.  that was a lot of rock! by the end i sure got good at backing the trailer behind the mower so i could dump.  

#3 and final post of quiet book

last pages of the quiet book... 

i can remember buttoning items onto our quiet books when i was younger.  and what could be more fun than matching a fabric gumball to the button?

puzzles.  i think this was the 2nd page (well set) that i made.  there are 3 different puzzles to complete-flower, butterfly and heart.  each has their own pocket to be tucked into when not in use. i got the idea for the gumball and puzzle pages from 

http://craftychiclyric.blogspot.com/2009/07/girls-quiet-book.html 

zip, buckle and snap... all kids want to learn how to do 'big' things themselves.  

and then the cover.  i did this last cause i wanted to make sure that i made it big enough.  while had an idea of how big it needed to be, i wasnt sure how thick the pages would be laying on top of each other.  and that was the measurement i was concerned about.  i added about 2" to the final addition of the height & length (times 2) so there would be a bit of cover overhang. Then  i had to find the middle of the cover and the ribbon i used for the binding so that they could be sewn together and turned right side out.  

you can kind of see how i sewed the ribbon down leaving a channel for the binder ring to go thru.  then i put a ribbon all around the outside of the cover with magnets in the ends to close the book.  with the cover all done, it was time to loop the pages onto the binder rings and then thru the book binding.  

hope you enjoy your quiet book t!

quiet book part 2 of 4 (maybe 5)

next 4 pages 

so i go the lace & tie my shoes patterns from a great blog http://www.threadridinghood.com/wordpress/sew-along/

the hard part was finding shoe lace.  these are still a bit big, but it was the best i could do.  

the pie page looked too cute to not do.  and while i know i have never done a lattice weave pie crust, i had fun weaving this pie crust. 

pattern found here  http://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/cutting-corners/2014/01/17/cherry-pie/

this one, i used inspiration from my sisters quiet book.  i remember moving those beads up and down as a child.  p arranged the flower beads for me before i put them on the ribbon.  

every girl needs to know how to braid.  at least in my family.  point in case, i taught my niece how to french braid while they were here for a weekend stay this summer.  keep practicing k!

one of my longest... post 1 of 4

so here is what has been consuming ALL my time.... a while ago a friend noticed that i had been pinning quiet book ideas.  the plan was to make one for t for her bday (which never got done by the way) so c asked if i was making or just thinking... i said if you can wait (cause i had other orders that needed to get done 1st at the time) that i would make one for her youngest. (SO sorry c that it took so long... i promise i worked on it all that i could and as fast as i could) it was fun finding ideas on pinterest and etsy.  even making my own patterns for some of the pages.  

here are the 1st four pages.  

what little girl wouldn't love to be able to spell her name and learn to recognize the letters 

in her name?  

so the bee with all the yellow cording behind him has to go thru all the numbers correctly 

to get to his hive.

  

the color of the rainbow with a few ribbons. 

she can learn the shapes name along with the shape.

 i made a pocket for the pieces to go into, BUT remembering from my youth and quiet books, pieces can get lost... so i decided that i would attach most of the piece to the page.  its hard to keep track of things when you are little (heck its still hard some days) 

stay tuned for more but i didn't want this to be a HUGE post.  

baby for my niece

i finished this project a while ago (almost a month, but i have been SUPER busy-more on that next time) i had made this doll for t's 1st birthday.  and is was fast approaching h's 1st birthday.  i think the hardest part on this doll was getting the right blue for her eyes.  those are some pretty piercing blue eyes.  and i got the dress along with the skirt made for her baby.  (which i am told they named penny)  enjoy your baby my little h!

john deere for some dear boys!

i love my friend krn.  while i have almost all girls (5 girls and 1 boy-who knew-i thought i would have all boys) she is blessed with all boys (4 of them) & boy are they cute.  the older 2 look just like their daddy, the 3rd like his mom's brothers and i think that #4 is a mix of everyone.  i told her we could switch for a day if she needs some girls.  anyway, she wanted comforters for the middle 2's beds.  being the farm boys that they are, k wanted john deere for them.  we had wanted to go shopping together, but the selection in our big town just wasnt there.  so she found this great print online.  just plain and easy she said.  so it's just a rectangle of the jd fabric with a black border.  but i thought they needed just a bit of pop with the binding.  then i had enough fabric left for pillow cases (well technically i kinda planned for that) i really had enough of the yellow to do that pop on the pillow cases.  i really LOVE how those turned out.  super easy diy that i found here http://www.momtastic.com/diy/170222-diy-perfect-pillowcase/  i just added the trim and stitched that down again since it was so big.  

hope you and the boys love them k!

wipes of fun

t loves to pull things out and put them back in.  well maybe sometimes, just pull things out.  if you don't know where she is, look for the trail of items laying where they aren't supposed to be.  

a while ago, i saw where scraps of fabric were cut to fit in an old wipe box for babies to play their in and out game with.  just so happens that i had an extra wipe box laying around.  i cut my scraps to a double layer of 7x9".  well not the fleece one, that doesn't fray and both sides are the same.  did a zig-zag around the sides (this was a quick project, you could cut the scraps bigger, sew them inside out & turn to make them look nicer)

t loves them.  not sure if she has a favorite scrap, but they have also been put in other items....a water pitcher she got out of the cabinet. and now she has leaned to open the whole box, so its also fun to put the fabric in and then dump it all out.    

the golden pink princess mermaid party!

what an interesting combination.... golden, pink & princess for my 20 year old's golden birthday & mermaid/pirate for my 4 year old.  it was fun though.  i found an awesome tutorial on mermaid skirts for the little girls @ ikatbag's blog http://www.ikatbag.com/2012/03/listen-to-children-mermaid-tale-er-tail.html.  e was SO happy and excited to have a mermaid tail!!!!!  she had been wanting to wear it swimming after i got it finished and was always sad when i said not til after your party. so guess who wore it in the water a few times that sunday? it didnt last too long, think it was a bit too hard to swim.   they were cool cause they can be long for play and then pulled up for easier walking/play.   then the big girls skirts were fun as well.  i remember why i dont work with tulle a lot.  but they loved them. little a made all the girl's tops and had some nice burnt fingers for her troubles.  all the sequins (that are hard to see) 

all my beautiful mermaids!

i did make pirate eye patches for the boys, but ran out of time to make the hats, so i ordered those from oriental trading.  big a really had fun with his exp while he was grilling supper (steaks!!!) but said that he couldnt have the eye patch down cause it messed with his balance too much.  and t didnt get to dress up cause what was i going to make for a 1 year old that would allow her to walk in her sometimes drunk like fashion?  maybe next time.

sidewalk paint fun

i promise i haven't forgotten about my blog.  i've just been crazy busy.  some days its a tough choice between outside work or sewing.  if i am lucky i can get in both.

the other day, a told the kids that they were all going to take a square of the sidewalk and chalk it all up.  time got away from him, and he forgot all about it.  just so happened that i had been thinking about making sidewalk paint for the kids to try out on the same night.  it was a HIT!!!  esp with miss p.  we found out that regular paint brushes work better.  i got the cheap 50c, 1" brushes from the farm store.  the foam brushes just soak up the color.  for the most part everyone did a square, some did more.  you can really tell that p loves to draw & paint.  she did the most.  she has asked me when i am going to make it again.  

here is the recipe.  ready?  its pretty hard.

mix 1 c water with 1 c corn starch & some food coloring.  then go have fun! 

we also found out that you should stir your paint every once in a while otherwise the corn starch starts to seprerate & settle to the bottom.  

 p's designs

 a's anchor and foreign language (anyone know what he wrote?)

 z's large mouth bass

a & the girls having fun with the paint.  

spring never has enough time

while i LOVE spring and summer-warm weather, camping, lightening shows, rainbows, swimming, lightening bugs.... i don't like that it means that i have to divide my time.  inside crafting or outside working. one of the 1st things we do is get the camper out and ready.  big a (bless him) parked the camper on the cement for me so we/i could get it ready this year.  plus he's been bugging me about washing the outside for the past few years. he did a great job (though we should have done it last year).  mother nature has been a bit too bipolar with temps to do much of anything else. so while little a was in jersey (she gets back tonight) i decided i had better get her bed fixed. it was attached to a metal frame....but it was SO noisy! she couldn't breathe without it squeaking.  so i had been looking on pinterest and found a tutorial for making a wooden bed frame & head board.  didn't need the head or foot board (thanks to a great friends dad for making these for me a few years back out of old doors), but the info on the frame-heck yes! got my lumber and went to town.  (twice cause i originally got 2x8's which were too big-that should have been my 1st clue) cut a good 9" of the head & foot board, they were kinda tall and then i would have had to deal with big holes from where the bolts were at for the metal frame. cut the side supports and slats.  made 3 supports for the slats since the mattress is so heavy.  get it all put together (after issues with a few of my screws) and the box spring wont fit :( so on to plan b.  big a had suggested to move up my slat supports, but that would have made the bed awful high with nothing to keep the box spring in place.  so back to town for more lumber i went.  i was only about an inch off, so i decided to put the side supports on the outside of the  head/foot boards.  i was SO happy that it fit.... that bed wasn't going to beat me! 

now it makes me think that i should maybe do the same to p's bed..... 

my baby's baby doll

crazy to think that its been a month since my baby turned 1!  i made her this doll as her gift.  its always fun to do an 'i want to project'.  i got a couple requests from my sister & sister in law for when my nieces turn 1....hopefully i remember that i want to make the arms a bit different.  thanks to a bit o whimsy for the pattern. 

progress in craft room

i have not only been busy in the craft room, but for the craft room as well.  and so have the kids.  i had them each paint some pictures for me to hang up on the wall.  

i love seeing each of them create something. z and p each did a house and water scene.  e just paints. 

 i also had drawers made for this antique desk i had picked up a long time ago.  i think technically its upside down, but works best that way for my purposes.  i love it cause everything now has a permanent place and it's labeled.  and i still have a few drawers open. 

 then i had to do some creative thinking on how in the heck i was going to hang up all my stamps.  the clips i have had for a long time have way smaller hooks than any cafe rod i could find.  so a trip to menards and the farm store (thanks uncle mark) solved my problem.  

 and i wanted a place to write down ideas, my to do list (never ending), what i need to make for up coming shows, and any thing else.  so up went a chalk board.  i love it and have already wiped some things off my list (and a had to leave me a note-love that man so)

 i do have a sewing box that i love, but as i was paroosing pinterest one day i saw something awesome.  a board with nails.... to put all my spools and bobbins on!!! unfortunately i ran out of nails so i cant put all my spools up til i can get back to menards.  but what i do have up has been super nice. no more lifting up a spool to see it its the right color, all my bobbins are on the same nail as the spool they match, so i don't have to hunt for those, either.  and this was a while ago project, but i used pic line (plumbing line) cut into short rings with a slit in it as bobbin stoppers so the tread doesn't come off (as easy anyway)

and my new storage.  this was a fun project that i decided to go with plan b in the end.  but i love how it turned out and know that if i need more storage (cause you never know) that i can just make another bracket and get longer boards and bam, i have another 32 inches or so of storage.  

next will be the kids area.....