Mason shirt!

Sooooo there's this story.  I ordered a box of fabric from a new to me online fabric company.  I got some things I liked, some new fabrics to try, and 1 yard of "Mason" to make Lyrick some leggings. ONE yard.  JUUUUUST enough for her leggings.  But that's fine.  I don't wear animal print.  Not my style but I know she can rock it.  Then it came in.  And OMG I decide I DO like animal print and I HAD to have something with it.  Problem - I already told Lyrick it was for her....and she is attached.

So I started brain storming....I had gotten a tester piece of mason which means at one end there was a 5 inch circle cut from the fabric....which in turn means that I have a yard and 5 inches of this fabric around that hole. Then went to Hobby Lobby.  There I bought several yards of plain black ponte - not the exact same fabric but similar weight and drape and stretch.

I was very thankful for my big cutting board all spread out on my big cutting table (aka ping pong table) and I laid out the pieces I wanted in the Mason for BOTH my project and Lyrick's leggings.  And then I laid out the rest I needed on the black....colorblocking for the win!

And because its still hot and Lyrick can't wear her leggings yet....she has to wait.  But I stitched mine up.  And it is my new favorite shirt. I've worn it twice in the last week and gotten so many compliments every time.  I'm glad I wear animal print now.   :)

The pants are also made by me. But I'll talk about those in another post.  They have been an adventure.  

Summer Sweater

I've been working on the Diamond Lake Sweater by Kay Hopkins for the better part of the summer and I'm finally nearly getting there.  I got the yarn at YarnCon this spring but unfortunately I've misplaced the tag.  *sad face*

The pattern starts by knitting the yoke -shoulder to shoulder- with the lace pattern across the front.

The first repeat of the yoke lace.  Its going to be awesome!

After finishing the neckline and blocking the lace you stitch the armpit seams and pick up stitches around the body. It took me a couple tries to get it and it still isn't exactly right but its fitting so it works.  

I took the lacework out of the back so its just straight knit knit knit knit knit knit....

.just a few more inches till I can do the hem. 

 Im absolutely in love with knitting sweaters.  You can see behind me (in all the mess) a cubbie of sweaters.  All 5 of those are handknit.  The teal is my very first one and I've never even worn it.  The gold is my second and I've worn it many times but the sleeves aren't well fitted and I don't feel great in it.  I learn something new with almost every project....but sweater knitting is definitely a learning game! 

"New" Bathroom Cabinet

I found this old cabinet in "the old homeplace" and have been wanting to redo it for some time now.  I finally got a chance over our Christmas Break!

The old cabinet as it was when my dad and the King ripped it out of the old homeplace.  It was FILTHY!!!!

This is what it looked like after a good washing and nothing more. I LOVED the green paint that covered half of it but there were other sections that were raw wood so it had to be painted.

Here it is after the first coat of paint.  The color is called Earthy Gray and it was perfect.  I did not tape the glass because the left pane is broken so I will be removing both of them.  They will be replaced with chickenwire.

The cabinet is hung in the new master bathroom.  I still need to remove the one pane of glass and put in the chicken wire...but I LOVE it!  It adds a TON of storage to a small bathroom and looks so cool.  I will post another picture when the chicken wire is in and the rest of the stuff is finished....but I was too excited to wait for that.  :)

My favorite Christmas Gift!!

Ok, well a few months ago I got my gift from the King.  I went and bought it though.  This is very atypical of gifts from him....he likes to find something, buy it and surprise me....but this year I REALLY wanted a Kitchenaide mixer.  So when it went on sale, we decided that I would just get it.  And we've been enjoying ever since.  :)

But my favorite surprise Christmas gift came from my mom and dad (I think credit for this one especially goes to mom).  It is One Yard Wonders, a book with 101 patterns for things that require only 1 yard of fabric (and in some cases less).  I LOVE IT!  The day we traded gifts I looked through it at least a half dozen times since it would have been rude to leave and start sewing immediately.  There were about 6 of the 101 projects that I was not interested in trying....all the rest of them excite me.

I did start sewing as quickly as I could and very quickly I made these 2 projects.  They were fun, simple, and came together great!  Looking forward to making many many more of the projects in the book. 

I love Baby Sister's little stuffed elephant.  Can you just get any cuter than this?

This hanging file is perfect in this spot next to my desk.  Each kid will have a file for finished school work instead of it making a huge mess ON my desk!  Although my desk will likely still be at least a little messy....I just can't help it.

So I've had success with the first 2 projects and am anxious to try out the others.  My best friend is also a seamstress and I think this winter we plan to sew some projects together while our kids destroy the rest of the house play (after school work is finished for the day, of course).  I'll keep posting pics of the finished projects.  :)

PS.  My dad also got me a great gift.  He is hanging me a new clothesline on pulleys so I can hang clothes out on the line without leaving the deck.  Truly, I scored all around this year.  :)

Kids Crafting!

My last post was about my crafting ADD and I mentioned briefly that I don't really enjoy crafting with my kids...then we had Thanksgiving at my mom's and I saw the napkins rings we made with their handprints 2 (or 3) years ago.  And I was embarrassed and a little sad that I had stopped doing those things.  Those will be cherished trinkets someday.  So I decided that although I enjoy crafting as my "me time" a lot I need to do crafts with them as well.

So before I went to Hobby Lobby, google and I spent some quality time together.  I found several Christmas craft projects to do this month.  I bought the supplies (and some extras) at Hobby Lobby and we are going to decorate their own special tree that we set up in the school room.  Some crafts are simple and geared for the little guy who is just 4.  Others are more complex and geared for the Prince (who is 8).  We'll all do them together though and I'll post pics when we are done.

Another thing that we are going to do each week is BAKE!  I bake often...I enjoy it.  But I have stopped baking with the kids often and that is a shame.  So yesterday we started with some cookies from our "If you give a mouse a cookie" book.  The Prince read the recipe (I helped with the fractions), little guy stirred, and Knight did all the measuring and pouring.  The cookies turned out great!!! 


Tomorrow Ordinary Hero is starting a Grant Contest!  We will be entering....be prepared to hear all about it...more than once.  :)

Crafters ADD!

It is no secret that I love doing crafts.  I wish I loved doing them with my children but that is truly another blog post (and one I should probably do and then work on).  Anyway, I am talking about crafting ADD (which is oddly appropriate since I haven't been able to stay on topic for more than one sentence at a time so far).

I have been an avid scrapbooker and I still would enjoy it, I think, if I ever got it out.  All three of our children have elaborate scrapbooks up to a certain age and then it is like I threw up my hands and quit which is essentially exactly what I did.  Scrapbooking takes so much space and makes such a mess and you just can't do it little bits at a time.  When Baby Sister gets here...I plan to do a scrapbook for her of her first year which is how long I scrapbooked for Griffin.  Then I will hopefully be able to keep up a family scrapbook that they can all fight over when I die.  I just can't keep individual ones up anymore.

Recently, I've been sewing.  I started with purses and crayon rolls and really loved doing them.  I sewed a BUNCH of  them because of a craft booth I did earlier this fall.  I also made pie plate/brownie pan carriers.  The booth went well and I was able to sell several.  I am so over sewing those purses and crayon rolls.  There are only so many times I can do the same thing over again apparently.

Now I'm doing more craft shows (thank you holiday shoppers) and I need to make sure my booth is filled up.  It would be smart to make more of what I already know...but where is the fun in that.  For the one this past weekend, my mom and I made Christmas ornaments...they did not sell very well so I am not making any more of those.  So.... I am making crocheted hats and headbands (and they are AWESOME!)  And I am making little girl hairbows.  And I am working on some different styles of bags.  I found directions for hairbow making online (posted that last week) and I am having a blast doing it.  I also have been finding crochet directions and help and I LOVE it!  I am not exceedingly great at reading a pattern but making it up as I go has been working well so far and I am learning.  :)  I just need to work on my sizing and learn how to gauge that better.  But if my baby hat ends up being a hat sized for tweens (or even adults)...where is the harm in that?  It is still a stinkin cool hat!  Right?  Right?!?!?!

I still have more fabric than anyone should really have in their house but I will get through it too.  I am going to have to sew a few things for this booth.  I want to make sure it is full since it is 3 days long.  I have just under a month to figure things out...so I am going to be busy.  But I love to craft!  And being able to personally help plump up the adoption account makes me feel great.  There is so little I can do that each craft booth makes me feel so...useful.  :) So if you live in my area and you want to swing by a craft show the second weekend in December....keep an eye on this blog and I'll give you lots of details as the time gets closer.  Also I'll be posting pics of finished products between now and then so you can see a sampling of what I am making. 

Of course, cleaning my house is also useful but way less fun!  And it gets messed up in about 5 minutes anyway so no one even notices I did it most of the time.

Hairbows!!!

I have quite a bit of ribbon that I really don't have any use for.  And someday, I am going to have a baby girl.  And baby girls NEED hairbows, right?!?!?!  So I did the math (this is math I can enjoy) and decided to learn how to make hairbows.  Where do you go when you need to learn a new skill...google, of course.  And I found this site.  And I realized I hit the motherload!!!!!  And I've been in a ribbon and hot glue state of euphoria ever since.

*As I side note, I have used hot glue on and off but it has not really been a go to crafting item.  Oh, how things have changed.  Hot glue gun, I love you!!!

As I write this I have made 5 successful bows and 2 of those are a matching pair.  All but one are of the same style (as in they are made the same but with different ribbon).  There are a few things (wider ribbon is a BIG must have) I need to get to try some of the other styles but I am having fun.  This girl o' mine is gonna have awesome head gear!!!!

This one is in "honor" of my sister who is obsessed with black & hot pink....

I think this one needs some denim romper.  Lovin the bling!

Won't these make the cutest pigtails EVER!!!

This is the only ribbon wide enough to try this style of bow.  I am pleased with how it turned out but am ready to buy some other wide ribbons.

My first successful baby headband.

After the glue gun cooled and I had really run out of ideas with the ribbon I have on hand, I decided she would need headbands to clip the bows in, of course.  She could be either bald or have a big puffball of hair or anything in between but any way you slice it, headbands will be nice.  So my friend google and I did some searching and I found a couple tutorials for headbands.  I found some yarn in the craft closet and started with a crocheted one.  I like it.  But the yarn was a little heavy.  

Sewing Frenzy!

Realistically, I've been sewing a lot lately.  Purses and other things to try to sell to raise adoption money.  I have enjoyed that sewing and have helped add money to the savings account for adopting our little girl.

However, yesterday I decided I am tired of sewing because I have to.  I do not want to make another purse, or Christmas decoration, or whatever.  I enjoy sewing but I do not want to have a "job" sewing anymore.  So, I sewed something just for fun.  I found some online tutorials for things I'd like to make for myself but I didn't have the fabric to do those.  So I found some other tutorials online and made a few things for Baby Sister.  It was FUN!  It is hard sewing (or shopping for that matter) for her because we don't know in which season she will be joining our family...but I decided I don't really care.  I am going to make things that I feel like making.

These two projects were made from tutorials I found online.  The sleepsack comes from www.sewingmamas.com.  The booties are from  www.HELLOmynameisHeather.com

 
This is a sleep sack...think like a sleeping bag for babies.  It unzips all the way and the straps velcro up over baby's shoulders so after baby is asleep you can lay her down and not have to get arms in any holes.  She will still wear a sleeper...this is just the "blanket"

These are faux suede newborn booties.  The pink bows aren't yet attached and I think I found some that I like better.  I am not thrilled with the finishing around the top edge and am thinking about adding a decorative stitch up there.