From the Mending Crate

One of my February "things to do" was to catch up on mending. I had a milk crate full of mending...some which had languished there for a REALLY long time.

Yesterday I finished catching up!! So the jammies that I made for the girls for Christmas now have the buttonholes done (!). Anyhow, mostly it was run-of-the-mill mending, but these were the last two projects and are little refashions, so I'm sharing them with you (all supplies from my stash).

This first dress was bought on our cruise. Chick wore it to church a couple of weeks ago and two of the buttons came off, one of them lost completely. So for the new buttons I decided to use a coordinating fabric rather than white.

Before...

After...

This dress was from the thrift store (or possibly free? It's been in my "to do" pile for so long I can't even remember!). I bought it despite the very obvious & unremovable blue stains in the front, figuring that I could cover it easily enough...I totally love the fabric & sweet little style. I just never got around to it. When Chick had grown into it, I tried it on her and found that the top of the shirring gapped open in the front and back and the tags in the back rolled out to the outside.

Before...

After... (I tacked down the tags, took in a little on each side of the top of the shirring to tighten it up, and added fabric flowers in coordinating fabric. I also made an additional green flower with purple button center & sewed it onto a clippy barrette as a matching accessory). It's short, but looks DARLING on Chick with jeans underneath. I'm sure you'll see pictures of her in it one of these days.

Other projects: I have all of the fabric amassed for Chick's zig zag quilt, and I'll be cutting the pieces in the next week or so : )

Thanks for the feedback on the picture frame configuration. This morning I spent some time deciding approximately what to put in each frame, which to use matting in, etc.

Closet doors are still out in HH's truck. LOL.

Oh, and we had our first estimate on cabinet refacing last night. Well, he took the measurements, I don't have the actual estimate yet. Another company is coming to give an estimate on Monday. So exciting. Honey-colored shaker-style cabinets, here we come!!!!

Opinions needed

I'm trying to FINALLY get picture frames hung on the blank wall opposite my bed. Frames will all be black, some with white matting, possibly one (in the last picture below) with red canvas rather than matting. The largest picture (in the aforementioned & belowpictured frame) will be of HH and me. Not sure about the others...but I want it to be about us, so maybe a wedding picture or two, etc.

Anyhow, what do you think of this layout?ps--I bought the closet doors today! Yup, after a year and a half, we are finally getting closet doors up! Of course, they have to be painted & get the hardware put in...so it'll probably be another 1/2 year before they are REALLY up.....

pps--I'm a slightly penitent wife: Yesterday HH went to work when he was still sick. That is where he redeems himself...he RARELY misses work.

Finally Finished! and other news

After having it sit on my counter for 2 weeks, I finally finished the love swag! I didn't do it exactly like the tutorial, because I wanted it to be a stash-buster. So I used beads to put the hearts together, and a little metal heart for the center of the O. The letters are chipboards that I had, spray painted red with little red beady things & clear coat on top. The beaded strand above the LOVE is attached at the ends & was from a beaded lampshade that was getting thrown away & I took the bead strand off...for just such an occasion.

I also started reorganizing my ribbon onto clothespins a la this tutorial. I got about 2/3 of the way done, and had spent probably 2 hours doing it. Then I ran out of clothespins so I went to bed. When I got up, this is what I found...
Yes, Chick thought the new organizing system was too tempting to resist, and unrolled most of them. Thankfully she did put the ribbons, straightpins, and clothespins all back into the jar so they weren't all over the table or floor. I guess it's the price I pay to sleep in a little bit.

Tonight for dinner we tried this recipe for Asian Wonton Salad, which my SIL posted about on her blog here. It was indeed delicious--I wasn't as excited about the wontons as I was about the dressing...but Chick (who eats as much as an actual chick these days) loved the wontons AND the dressing and ate FOUR helpings! She just kept dishing it up! Everything except the tomato, at least (which she always forgets & calls a potato). (oh, I left out the onion...I don't do raw onions.)

Speaking of Chick: last night she offered me a pretend muffin or cupcake from her play muffin tin. I pretended to take one, and pretended to eat it, and told her that it was delicious & thanked her. She looked at me funny and said, "There wasn't anything in that one." ROFL.

Also speaking of Chick: she's really starting to get creative. She found two "Hercules Hooks" in the closet and brought them out and said that if we glued them together they'd make a heart.

Speaking of Hearts: HH has been sick all weekend. In bed until noon yesterday, and then laying on the couch for the rest of the day. Today he was a little better better, but he said that Monkey's cereal breath made him want to vomit & he stayed home from church (I left Monkey with him). He went to bed at 7:30. (Will you think less of me if I admit to being a bit resentful that he can just essentially stop living when he's sick? Seriously, I had a sore throat for a few days this week & didn't get to take to my bed. Men.)

Speaking of Monkey: she had her hand under the running water while I was changing her diaper the other day. At first the water wasn't hot, but then it started heating up more than she liked & pulled her hand back and signed "hot" and said "haaa!" She also signed potty for the first time today. She also signs "please" a lot, but the funny thing is that she doesn't sign what it is she's asking for, so we can't always help her. She also is super fast at going down the stairs--she does that trick where you just lay on the tops of the stairs & scoot down without touching the flat part of the stairs. Such a clever little Monkey. We're all crazy about her.

Speaking of: Have you ever played the "Speaking of" game? Probably not, since an old roommate and I made it up. But anyhow, someone says something, and whatever they ended with is the new topic. Someone else has to say, "speaking of ____, blah blah blah" and then whatever that statement ended with is the next sentence. It makes for a funny dinner conversation. You can do it when you have guests over for dinner & not tell them and they think you have really strange conversation skills.

example of the game:
"I worked out in the garden today raking up leaves."
"Speaking of leaves, did you hear that Steven is leaving to go to Kentucky?"
"Speaking of Kentucky, this fried chicken is delicious! I'd love the recipe."
"Speaking of recipes, ..." etc

Speaking of super cool people who happen to be pregnant: Here's me a week ago (at 25.5 wks).

Tinkerbell-ish

Chick has another birthday party to go to today, and I decided to make the gift again.

The little girl likes Tinkerbell, so I did a bracelet, headband, and bag set in Tinkerbell colors.

I've never sewn a bag like this (never sewn a bag ever?) and I love how it turned out. I used stash items for some of it & bought the green fabric & purple flowers.

The Week in Review

This past week I had Layout, Pregnancy (feeling it for the first time, really....), Yuen Lui pics, Quarterly Activity, Talks (went well), and Valentine's Day.

Here are some pictures.

Making watercolor, laced valentines. I didn't get a picture of the end product, but here are pics of the process & here's the blog that had the idea in the first place....

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I started several projects...cute valentine ideas that I rationalized could be used as decorations at the primary activity yesterday. One or two got finished, but mostly I just have to clean up half-done projects now. Here's a picture of one that's half done (here's what it looks like finished), and here's a link to another that's cut out but not glued & assembled.

Some projects had to get done. These coloring booklets were for my station at the activity. I also did a slideshow. The slideshow had a few things that needed tweaking, but it was still cute...it was my first time doing a slideshow, so it was good to figure out how to do it (because I have to do another one later this year).

Door signs for the primary activity.This is one project that did get done, but I'm not thrilled with it. It's a hybrid of THIS project and THIS project, and somehow it just didn't turn out that cute. But it does brighted a doorway, so maybe I'll stash them for next V-day.... or maybe I'll retire them. I'm undecided.

So we don't really do anything for Valentine's Day. Once in a while we go out to dinner, but it's always a low-key thing. Sometimes cards, that's about it. But because "I'm in charge of celebrations" and the girls are old enough to be excited by special holiday decor, I do put up some decorations and I do fix special foods.

This V-day we had heart-shaped scones & red (but really ended up purple) smoothies for breakfast, and red heart-shaped jigglers with heart-shaped grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner (healthy, I know. We also had carrot sticks, but that doesn't redeem the meal in the least. All I can say is it was EASY. AND THAT WAS ALL I CARED ABOUT!) Anyhow, for dessert we had heart-shaped pudding pie, which wasn't all that great & I'll probably be throwing away 1/2 of it.

The breakfast was the best part--the food was good, and it felt really special and valentines-y.

So that's my week. Honestly, I'm glad it's over. This week has nothing but visiting family and friends, a birthday party, and a midwife appt. Nice and relaxed. Maybe I'll even find time to finish the blasted projects that I started this past week. bah.

Impromptu Photoshoot

This morning we had a photoshoot at Yuen Lui. The problem is that it takes 2 weeks to get the pictures in hand...I'm used to instant gratification when it comes to pictures. So, while the girls were still in their dresses (Easter dresses from last year...Monkey finally fits hers, and Chick is barely still in hers) I did an impromptu photoshoot at home. The pictures of the two of them together aren't very good, but I'm including them anyhow, because they're still sweet. In preparation for the official photoshoot today, I was up until almost 1 making their headbands. Here's a closeup. The tutorial is on sewhipmama's blog. It would be SUPER EASY except that I found it very hard to sew the rosettes together--maybe I had them too tightly twisted up? But I'm pleased as punch with the end product, and when my hand stops being tender it'll all be worth it.

OK, now I'm going to do something productive.

"My neighbor comes for a cup of tea. We have a party by the cherry tree."

Or under the computer. (the title is a quote from one of our favorite books: Little Mommy)

Today the girls had a tea party inside the computer cabinet.

These pictures show that these little girls are resilient. EVEN THOUGH they have a mama that yells way too much this week & EVEN THOUGH their mama had to call their daddy today to warn him that she was going to bake brownies and there probably wouldn't be any left by the time he got home... despite all of that misfortune, they are happy. Even when she didn't get to help MAKE the brownies, Chick was happy. Resilient, I tell you.

Here's another: both reading Eric Carle books from the library.

In which I confess all

I'm grumpy. I've been feeling "off" all weekend--maybe a little under the weather? Tired, cold at times, and generally BLECH. At church yesterday I felt like I couldn't keep two coherent thoughts together enough to function. Today I keep warning Chick that I'm grumpy, in hopes of her not annoying me.

She doesn't stand a chance, though...everyone is annoying me. I am annoying me.

I wish I could just go back to bed, but I am too busy procrastinating layout, which will continue until Friday. Plus this weekend is a primary quarterly activity (I need to get my station's activity ready, as well as put together a slideshow of the kids & pictures of Christ). And Sunday--is Valentine's day, of course (Chick needs help finishing her Valentine's for her preschool party tomorrow....), and we've been asked to give talks at church.

I'm now 6 months pregnant, and STILL have YET to take a picture of this belly (I actually got "I think you're having triplets!" comment yesterday. Come on, I'm NOT that big). I can't complain about the pregnancy. But I can complain that it's going too fast & I am too busy looking up Valentine's day garlands & reading felting project books to do the things that need to get done (like Monkey's scrapbook, which is barely started, or like Chick's quilt).But on a happier note: it looks like the sun is coming out. And I'm very proud to report that my New Year's Resolutions are going great.

• Flylady has made my home presentable, at least, and it keeps getting better & better.
• I've put money into my savings acct as planned (even a little extra!) & I also overpaid my credit card last week.
• We've been a little spotty with FHE, but generally it's gone well.
• We had guests over a few times last month. I was going to have a little V-day get together on Sunday, but now we're giving talks and I don't want to be stressed out.
• I've been following my dinner menu almost every day, and it's such a relief to not have 5:30 roll around & everyone is hungry & looking for dinner & I don't know what I'm going to fix.
• The only two things that aren't getting done yet: logging onto sparkpeople...I did a few days. And the kitchen isn't remodelled yet, but that's a year-long goal...I had no intention of getting it done in January.

Also on a happy note: I think my kids are darling & I still like my husband. : )

Oh, and thanks to my new microfiber cloths there are less "unremovable stains" in the kitchen.

And thanks to craigslist & people wanting free stuff, the tool room is getting closer to becoming a bedroom for Chick.

Crayon Rolls

Today Chick is going to a double birthday party, so I made crayon rolls for her to take as gifts. I also made one for her, which was a last minute thought for a birthday gift but didn't get done in time (because it was so last minute)...so I did her's at the same time as the other two.

This was the first one I made, and I just followed the directions from this tutorial & didn't try anything fancy.

This one I thought would be fun with double needle stitching between & X-stitches around the outside. I like it, but I ended up messing up the spacing, so only 15 crayons fit into the roll & the last spot is too small for a crayon. It would also look better if the double stitching was in the same color, but I used what I had handy & I don't suppose a 3 yr old will care.

On the last one I did X-stitches in between, which I really like, and a vine around the edge (I can take it or leave it...I like the X-stitches around the other one, but was worried that it might be too much to do the dividers & the border like that.)

Anyhow, the outside of the third is made from an old stained t-shirt that I had in my refashion box. All of the other fabrics & materials were from my stash.