Of Books, Vintage Sheets, and Other Happinesses

Hey!  So you know the table runner and faux flowers, etc that I wrote about last week?
I did nada. 
Well, I found a milk bottle on Buy Nothing that I'm going to paint and use as a vase, but I haven't picked it up yet.  And that is all that I did.

But what I HAVE done has been pretty fun.  I've started gearing up for Chick's birthday party that will be at the start of February!!  You know how much I love to prep for parties!!!!!
Anyhow, it will be a cake decorating party...nothing too elaborate, but the girls will all get to decorate their own little cakes to take home.  And the fun part for now: they'll each get their own apron made out of vintage sheets.  Actually, some sheets may not be vintage...I don't know dates for them, you know.  But some are vintage, because they are the same sheets that I had growing up!!  (not the same exact sheets, but the same pattern.   You know.)  It has been super fun to scour the thrift stores for cool sheets.  And what I don't use for aprons will be used for EASTER DRESSES for my girlies!!  yay, I'm excited!!

Anyhow, I drew my own pattern based on an illustration that I found online.  They are no-tie cross-backed aprons.  I've just about gotten them all cut out, and the first test apron is done and ready.  Here it is:

Stay tuned for the rest...hopefully I can get 11 more aprons done in time!  (It totally sounds do-able, but it is amazing how the rest of my life can get in the way of these fun projects).

Ok, also this week was a trip to the library to pick up an obscene amount of books that were on hold for us (I think it was 25, but I also had books checked out already).  It is a big job keeping these kids supplied with books.  Chick is currently working on reading Newbery & Sasquatch award books for school.  Monkey and Moose both read whatever they can get their hands on.  All three kids are voracious, and Mr Fox and I have to be kind of mean about taking away books when we find post-bedtime reading (which happened a lot last week).

Anyhow, with all of this demand for books, I've come across some good series, and thought I'd share.

Monkey's latest series are: Emily Windsnap, The Mysterious Benedict Society, and The Cupcake Diaries.

Moose is currently devouring A to Z Mysteries (and Monkey is re-reading them...that probably is her favorite series ever, so far).  Moose is also reading Geronimo Stilton, Boxcar Children, Magic Treehouse, Kingdom of Wrenly, and we are trying out the Owen Foote books.

Our read-aloud is The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket (We are reading these before we can watch the new shows that are/will be on Netflix).  We aren't very far into it yet.

On CD we are listening to The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo (who I totally love)...it's an interesting one!  Lots of repetition...feels like a dream-like poem, and it's excellently read.

Also this week was a fun evening out with my friend, Kary.  I don't get out much, so that was fun.
 
And I watched Thoroughly Modern Millie, which I haven't seen in a long time.  It was fun to watch again.  I don't remember it having so very MANY innuendos, but maybe the last time I watched it I was too unsullied to recognize them??

I also went to the Goodwill Outlet a couple of times.  Have I mentioned that I'm feeling a bit like a compulsive shopper lately?  I did have the excuse of needing to find sheets and a vase....  Anyhow, I had a really good time.  The Outlet is a crazy shopping experience: everything is in huge carts and you have to dig for your treasures.  And pricing is per pound.  You get some amazing deals, but the shopping style is certainly not for everyone.  I like it, but after going several times already this month I promised Mr. Fox that I wouldn't go back for a month.

Mr. Fox spent some time this weekend working on our kitchen cabinets!!  We bought RTA cabinets (ready to assemble), so there's going to be quite a bit of putting together before we can actually put them in.  It would seem like a long time, but since it took us YEARS to actually get the ORDER in...well, I think my patience muscles are getting stronger.  {Not really...wish me luck.}

Hmm, I guess that's it.  Have a great week!

Double the Blessings

(the coordinated pacifiers were just a happy coincidence)

Owl and Otter were blessed at the end of September.

 

To be honest, I was pretty stressed leading up to it, because I'd procrastinated making the dresses mostly.  I also had planned to have a housecleaning service come clean the house for me, and then wasn't able to get them scheduled in time.  Also I got sick the week before.

 

All that said, I think that it was the nicest blessing day of all of the kids.  The stress continued up until we got to church ...late... and they had to switch around the meeting to do the blessing after the passing of the sacrament rather than before (with all of our visiting family looking around anxiously..."where are they?!"). 

 

But then the blessings were beautiful, and after that I enjoyed everything.

 

A funny thing about the blessings.  First of all, I can hardly remember any of either one...trying to remember one blessing is sometimes hard enough...two is too much for my tired brain!  But I had my sister tape it for me (hopefully she hasn't taped over it, since I haven't gotten it from her yet).  I know some feel that taping a blessing is taboo, but I'm ok with it in this situation.  Anyhow, the funny thing is that during Owl's blessing Fox called her Julia.  It's her middle name, but there's never been any discussion about CALLING her that, and he's never called her that before or since.  He denied it and says he doesn't remember calling her that...I think he just likes to give people something to wonder about ; )

When Mr. Fox saw this he said that he looks old and tired. 
I will admit that these few months have helped us both to FEEL old and tired,
but I still think he's a handsome devil.

Anyhow, then we finished out the meetings and everyone headed to our house for a luncheon.  There were Grandma and Grandpa J, Grandma and Grandpa N, my sister Laura, Fox's uncle Mark, and my sister Judy + family.  It was a much smaller group than for the others, but the food was delicious, the conversation interesting, and the happiness abundant (at least for me).

LOVE this picture of Owl with my goofy nephew Ben : )

Grandpa and Grandma N

Grandpa and Grandma J

Anyhow, the dresses.  I completely revised my plans for the dresses, because I'd procrastinated sewing them.  I decided to go with a simple shirred-top dress style.  I didn't use a pattern, and I made the dresses from an eyelet bedskirt that I'd bought at a yard sale for $1.  I love repurposing : )  Anyhow, I am happy with how they turned out, though they weren't as quick and easy as I'd expected.  And they aren't even the same, because I did one and then tried to improve upon it for the second.  There are things that I like better in one, and things that I like better in the other.  But I am happy with how both turned out.

Dresses with matching headbands and booties.

matching booties that didn't stay on well,
but were super adorable anyhow.

I know this isn't the best picture, but it shows Otter in her dress.
I love the sweet, innocent feel of white eyelet.

A note about the colors for the dresses:  I love both colors.  I kind of felt like the peachy color was more "Otter" and the bluer one was more "Owl"...but I don't want to type cast the babies before they've even had a chance to say what they like...so when it was time to get them dressed I just grabbed a baby without looking to see who it was, and I grabbed a dress, and that was that.  But it was contrary to how I had originally thought to do it...so I was confused for a lot of the day trying to remember.

 

It's enough to have to identify someone based on their clothing, but to have to go through the thought process of "that one is wearing peach, which I had in mind for Otter but today they are switched, so that is Owl" ...well, it's exhausting.  And I'd stayed up late making baby booties and headbands, and was recovering from being sick, so my thought process was a bit sluggish anyhow!  Long story short, I need to hurry up and get the babies' ears pierced, and when I do it, I need to make sure the earrings are what I really think fits that baby and not worry about it! sheesh.

I suppose it fits that Otter had the more watery color
and Owl had the more tree-ish color.  Right?
How much can I read into things?
wanna come over-analyse things with me?

 

Anyhow,  lunch was very nice and low-key, and then it was over and everyone left and I got to take a nap : )  and we ate leftovers for dinner.

the end.

Otter Pop.

Owly.

I felt Christmas

Ok, I have so much to catch up on, so I'll just jump in and show you my newest craftiness:  Felting.

First I did Felted Soap.  I did a lot of felted soap.  These were my go-to gift.  This picture shows the first half.  I used different soaps: Dr Bronner's, Kiss My Face, Goat Milk soaps, and one Old Spice for my Dad.  They all smelled great.

the Kiss My Face, though, discolored the felting after I was done (Jill, Amy, Sheena, & neighbors--this would be yours.  Sorry.  They aren't dirty, it's just the color of the olive oil from the soap, I guess).

Anyhow, its a fun, easy process and we may never go back to naked soap ever again! 
Here are the labels that I used:

Ok, next was felted balls (approx 4" diameter).  These are fun and easy too.  I made them for 3 little nieces, and am working on a collection of them for my living room.   I thought I took a picture of them, but it's nowhere to be found.  I followed instructions on youtube (video by crunchyparent.com)

Lastly, I had my first venture into felt food.  HH and I were giving the girls a shopping cart for Christmas, so I made them shopping bags and food.  

I'd read on other blogs that people were addicted to making felt food.  I can understand that somewhat--it's so cute and fun to make.  BUT it takes a fair amount of time.  So I won't say that I am addicted, but I will say that I'm not done.  I made two slices of bread, a slice of deli meat (ham? bologna? raw turkey?), a leaf of lettuce, two orange wedges, and five carrots.  That's all that I had time for.

The shopping bags have custom designed logos that I freezer-paper stencilled.  I'm pretty proud of them : )

I had never done any felting, so all of these projects were exciting.  It's a forgiving medium.

Sleep and the Dress

Here are more pictures of the dress that I did for the competition.  I wasn't picked for the top 50, which was disappointing of course (I won't say more since it'll just be sour grapes), but I'm glad that I did it because it gave me incentive to get the dress DONE. Quickly, even.

the difference between ironed and not.

Anyhow, it's breastfeeding-friendly, comfortable, and fits. And I'm proud of myself for making something so very wearable without a pattern.


I'm setting a 2 week goal, starting yesterday, to get to bed by 10pm each night. This week is layout, so it might be very very hard, but I think I need to do it anyhow. It'll help in many aspects of my life.

yesterday: 9pm.

A Newsy, My-Blog-Is-Getting-Backlogged Post

KCWC Days 5,6,7:

About a year ago I bought this tunic at the thrift store specifically to refashion because I liked the fabric.

Chick's new tunic-y dress:

The neckband is made from a costume that was being made for a production but then wasn't used.  The underlining is an old slip (that was my grandma's and then mine & the waistband was wearing out but the fabric still was wearing like armor).

My favorite part?  The mismatchy fabric covered buttons.

Monkey will be getting a very similar one, but I haven't gotten to do it yet.  Her's will be made from the sleeves.

When Monkey's is done I'll post pics of the girls wearing them.

Other Sewing Adventures:

The first episode of Project Runway: They had the designers take something out of their suitcases to refashion.  Then the twist? They had to pass their item of clothing to the person next to them.  So they had to use a random article of clothing.  They had 15 minutes to sketch, and 5 hours to sew.

When I watched it I thought I'd really like to give myself the same challenge.  So I had my sister randomly select something from the thrift store for me to refashion.  She picked this dress:

Even though she took color into consideration for me, it was very true to the show because I would NEVER have picked that dress.  The fabric isn't dye-able, and the skirt fabric isn't bleachable (the top bleaches into a pretty orangy yellow, though).  But there was a LOT of fabric to work with, because the dress was huge. 

Here's my sketch:

I hadn't started the dress when, during KCWC, I saw the BurdaStyle/Rowenta Project Runway Competition!  I had to finish KCWC, but then this week I got started on the dress to enter the contest.  But it's been a busy week, so most of the sewing took place yesterday (the last day to enter).  I did exceed 5 hours, and though I have a finished product to enter (at almost the very last possible minute, because that's how I operate, unfortunately) I am doing some tweaking today to make it a better fit for me specifically.  But here's my entry:

The bodice pattern is a copy of a blouse in my closet.  The back is strips sewn together because I didn't have enough fabric to cut it in one piece, but I like it like that.  My life is full of happy accidents (Moose).  The skirt is just wide strips sewn into gathered tiers, and shirred at the waist.  The satiny trim is what the crazy original puckery stippled fabric looks like when you iron it!

This week:

I went to the Relief Society General Broadcast last weekend, and we had a dinner in congunction.  I loved the cupcake decor, and I got to bring home these beautiful flowers (which I'm still enjoying everytime I'm in my kitchen).

I took the kids to the Picture People at the mall for Moose's baby pics and a picture of the three all together.  Monkey had to be bribed just to be IN the picture (I couldn't afford to get her to smile, though).  Moose, though very smily usually, was tired and not so cooperative.  I think I should get an award for attempting it by myself.  Here's the link, though.  I bought #3 & #10.

I was busy with slightly sick kids, my new calling, babysitting, rotating toys, etc.  HH worked late every night.  So no improvements for the home.  But we sodded this little bit of land recently (to the left of Chick in the picture).  It's been dirt and weeds for the past couple of years.

A while ago:

We got a new car.  It's been a couple of weeks now.  Anyhow, I really like it.  It has some really great features, and best of all it seats seven : )

Ok.  Next time I'll tell you about Victoria!

KCWC: Days 3 & 4

I'm super lame.  Day 3 was spent working on the ruffle dresses.  I was up until 1 a.m. working on them.  But sadly, I didn't measure well to begin with.   I'm not using a pattern, and I'm not even clear on the process to arrive at the finished product.  So I made them too small and must now order more fabric.  I do have hope that they'll turn out well in the end, but getting to that point might be a long haul. 

There's a tiered pink satin skirt, with a neutral (white & beige) chiffon ruffle skirt over that, and a beige, pink, gray chiffon ruffle skirt on top.  The bodice will be gray-- Chick's will be drop waisted, and Monkey's will be empire waisted.  Little cap sleeves, and probably some chiffon ruffle flowery-thing up near the neckline.  Possibly a sash. 

Anyhow, KCWC day 4 was spent putzing around.  I got out a project that I came up with a year or so ago, but had stashed away before actually doing it.  It's another matchy-match thing for the girls, but won't be completely matching because Monkey has grown in the past year, so I had to alter my plan for hers.  Sewing time for yesterday and today have been ineffective cutting out & planning days.  I have yet to actually start sewing it.  I've just been tired....

HH, on the other hand, has been productive.  The "fuzzy wall" that was stripped naked over a year ago (!) is finally making progress.  My sister L came to help me mud it last week, and HH has sanded it and put a second coat on.  I'm starting to feel hopeful that it'll be a normal wall someday!! wahoo!

He also put in a new doorbell & porch light!  Yay HH!  (I bought them...can I say Yay Me?). 

Other than that, I dehydrated a bunch of bananas this week. basta.

KCWC: Days 1 & 2

I'm participating in the Kid's Clothing Week Challenge, from over at Elsie Marley.  It is one hour each day this week spent sewing childrens clothing.

Day 1 I finally sewed this tie-dye baby gown that I've had cut out for ages.  (again, it's from THIS TUTORIAL from This Mama Makes Stuff)

Day 2 was just mending little people's clothes.  Sewing on buttons, mostly.

Day 3 (today) is yet to happen, but I get to work on the ruffle dresses that I started mid-summer.  I hope to have something to show for myself tomorrow....

Burgandy BBQ

The day after the 50th Anniversary Party we had a Family Reunion at Cascade Park.

There was coloring & a candy hunt for the little kids...

 trying to keep the paparazzi away... (I think it'll be my goal to use the word paparazzi in every post from now on)

relay races and a water balloon toss for the adults...

playing in the river...

naptime...

spending time with family...

and first attempts at slacklining.

Even our two missionaries were there.

It was a really fun day.  There was also food.  But the Little Man was eating at the same time as everyone else, so I was admiring the stunning blue sky and green leaves above the hammock...without a camera, sadly.

A couple of special-to-me things:

Obviously we all had matching t-shirts (no, it wasn't one of those funny coincidences), and since they didn't have baby sizes, I altered an XL to fit the Little Man.  I used the baby gown tutorial for the neckline & sleeves, and more or less traced an existing shorts romper for the rest.  I'm happy with how it turned out.

These two were thick as thieves, and I wish the didn't live so far away (UT).  This is one of my favorite pictures of them.