Sunday, November 15, 2009

Lately



I'm so not good at posting on my blog... These are a few of the things I've been working on lately. For Halloween I sewed mr. man a costume out of fleece which was horrible to work with. He was Max from Where the Wild Things Are. A friend sent me a link to a tutorial for the hat on Instructables. The jumpsuit was an old pattern I found on etsy for $3 for flannel pjs. Worked out pretty well.




I've been wanting to learn how to knit and crochet for a long time now. I tried a little bit of knitting, and I made my husband a huge ass scarf he will never wear. lol... Crocheting so far seems so much easier. I still haven't perfected it, but my first project was little beanies for the nieces. This one I was happy with. Practice makes perfect! I ordered the pattern on etsy. This girl's patterns rock because not only are they inexpensive, easy to read, and delivered electronically.... she also will allow you to sell what you make using her pattern.




I've also found some projects on ravelry.com I'd like to give a whirl, but for now, I think I need to get started on the advent calendar I want to make before December gets here. I really dig this felt kit I found, but I obviously won't have time to do that before the end of the month. Last year I was pretty ambitious with my son's felt kit stocking, and I had no idea how long it would take. It truly takes patience.

Anyway, those are a few of the things I've been working on. Not terribly exciting but still fun!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Diaper Bag


This is a diaper bag I am working on for a friend. (Hoping she likes it.) The bag turned out larger than I expected, but I think that will be great to hold lots of schtuff. (Amy Butler pattern and fabrics.) I chose this pattern because you can swing it over your shoulder & it doesn't have a difficult zipper. Everything is accessible right there, which you can't believe how much easier that makes your life when you have a baby. Plenty of room for diapers, clothes, binkies, wipies and bottles. And of course any lovies... This isn't a tutorial; just a quick overview of some of the "checkpoints."

I chose this as the exterior fabric because she is having a boy. But, you still want your bag to be girlie a bit... You're the one carrying it. Blues, browns, greens... boyish. And it can afford to get dirty.


This is the lining fabric. This bag took for friggin ever. Mostly because it had layers and layers of fusible fleece and interfacing to make the bag sturdy. Lots of measuring, cutting, piecing and ironing. I HATE cutting. But, I love sewing.


Working on the pockets in the interior. Major pain. Darts, box pleats, lots of basting.


Pockets finished! Now just to sew them into the interior.


Now bottomless, but the interior is almost finished.


Finished exterior. Went much more quickly than the interior. Only one outside pocket. Other than the darts, pretty easy.


Completed interior.

And once again, completed bag. I truly hope she likes it. If not, I killed about $100 and many many hours. But I had fun doing it!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Superhero

I finished the cape I've been working on for Liam. I got the tutorial here:http://thelongthread.com/?p=98

I've been praying about a ministry that I've been welcomed to join and God gave me the following scriptures:
Psalm 125:4 "Do good, O Lord, to those who are good, and to those who are upright in their hearts."

Jeremiah 17:8 "For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit."

Galations 5:22-23 "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

Monday, May 18, 2009

Balloon Message

Today I was watering some shrubs we planted last year in hopes of rescuing them. They were sold on clearance because of their rough condition, and they never did quite recover. I walked out first to notice that most of the watering I had done was down to the sidewalk and into the curb. Thankfully my husband wasn't home to see it. Then I noticed there was a yellow balloon caught up in the midst of the shrub that was the least likely to survive. I assumed my son had somehow drug out one of the fading balloons from his birthday party weeks prior. I picked it up and found a tiny piece of paper folded inside.

I got a little excited remembering when I was a child and we released hundreds of bright balloons into the sky with messages about our school in hopes that someone would retrieve them and find our hidden treasure. Who knows where a balloon drifts to or what stranger would happen upon it. I never did hear word of anyone finding our balloons. We did however, end up on the intro of Good Morning America. As a child, that was equally exciting.

I searched for scissors excited to see if this was such a balloon. As an adult, I had come to believe that most of those balloons popped high in the atmosphere and never made it anywhere. If they did, what were the chances of someone happening across one before it fizzled into a shriveled blob and opening it up, reading my handwritten message and least of all.... responding? HIGHLY unlikely.

Unable to find scissors i used some shears for our trees to rip apart the balloon. The paper was tiny and folded many times over like I use to fold my gum wrappers when I was bored in class. And inside... on the paper... what do you know... it was a handwritten note!!

"Hi. I am 12 and live in Ft. Morgan, CO. Email me if you find my balloon." Also included was her first name and an email address. I quickly did a search on mapquest to see where Ft. Morgan was. 425 miles away!!! In my wildest dreams as a child I would not have imagined a balloon to travel 425 miles to find its resting place. I responded to the email.

I imagine I was more excited than the child was. I found a little treasure today, and it made me smile.


Wednesday, May 13, 2009

The Wind


Watching too many Law and Order episodes, the howling dogs, and the relentless wind on my window has made it hard for me to force myself to go to sleep. Every night I think of the three children sleeping soundly and pray and worry for them. I pray they are safe from all the crazies out there. Nothing is such a blessing as these babies in our lives. Soooo grateful that I'm a mommy. I've always felt this pressing need to finish school and get a job I'm successful at... and then push, push, push. But I am more content now as a mother than I had ever been before. Even with simple moments like today when the girls came over playing in the back yard with their tutus. My niece finally decided that her tutu was as good as a swimsuit and took a dip into the pool. I could only laugh and be a bit envious of their carefree attitude. I'm so blessed. This wind though... it makes me nervous.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Finished!


Lil' man's party was a blast. So much hard work, but it was totally worth it. I sewed together small monsters for the kids as party favors and painted a monster for them to stick their faces in and get pix made. Also did the Gocco invitations, banner and bean bag toss. Sigh.... what new thing to stress me out?

Few pix from the party: http://www.flickr.com/photos/babytyty/sets/72157617432386471/

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Tyson's BDay Two

Tyson's birthday is coming up. I can't believe he'll be two. Trying to think of some cute party ideas and thinking of doing some Gocco invitations. Should be fun. Just have to come up with a theme. I'm thinking like a Monster Mash....

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Give it a Whirl

I've tried this a couple of times, but I've never been able to commit. I don't think my life is exciting enough to blog about... haha... but I don't think that's the point. This will be pretty brief because I have actual work I need to be doing. I'll do an entry worth something later on. :)