Category Archives: crafty

Feb 10 2011
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crafty, hayden, Valentines

Valentines Day Upcycled Blowing Kisses Skirt

This Valentines I had made a commitment to myself that I would NOT buy my girls new clothes to wear for Valentines. But I did want Hayden to have something cute to wear for her school party. I found this idea a while back and made a mental note that it would be the perfect little outfit for her party. Not too fancy for school. Easy to move in (its made out of an old T-shirt) and super cute. Hayden loves wearing skirts so I thought NO problem.

Last week while I was sick, I was pulling all of my big tshirts out day after day to wear. When I pulled out my old great AmeriMcCAIN Hero tshirt, I thought, this is a perfect red for that skirt and I can do without one less giant shirt to sleep or be sick in. Then the days passed and we had church every night this week and the time just got away from me.

Well just like many of the wishful-thinking crafts in my to-do list, I figured this one would go to the “don’t have enough time for it” box. I hate when I find cute ideas, have a reason for them and then don’t have 39 hours in my day to get them done. So last night when we returned from church, we started gathering all the things we needed for the party.

Strike 1: Found a box of leftover valentines from last year  (once again,I  found a super-cute idea for v-day favors too late, We’ll be ready next year though!)
 Strike 2: realized that the roll of cookie dough in my freezer that I had written off buying a replacement for, was indeed gingerbread dough instead of cookie dough .So, I had to whip up a batch of homemade sugar cookies at 12:30am.

So apparently the way my brain works is when things go wrong, that’s when I need to make things harder on myself instead of just saying, “Eh, wear something red to school. ” That would have been strike 3, and striking out is not an option for this Mamma . It was after the last pan of cookies came out of the oven that I decided…”that skirt can’t be too hard!?” Plus, I’ve already got the t-shirt washed and ready. So up to the sewing machine I went. The tutorial said it would take about 30 minutes. AWESOME!

Well it didn’t take 30 minutes, BUT, I’m very pleased with the result and so glad that I stuck to my guns and didn’t buy anything “Valentines-y” and now my little Hayden gets to wear something special made by me on this day of celebrating Love. And to top it off, the white hearts that are reverse appliqued (sewed underneath the skirt) are from my PawPaw’s old tshirt. When my Granny died, I inherited her sewing machine and much of her sewing supplies. In her stash was a stack of tshirts that she had cut up from his track meets. I’m glad I finally found a purpose for one of them. I think she would be proud to see how I was able to make use of them.
Hayden was very excited to see her new skirt and get to wear it to her Valentines party. I finished a new design of a hairbow I had been working on. It went well with the colors for today.

XOXO,

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Jan 25 2011
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cleaning 11, crafty, hayden, sick day

rain on a green tin roof

Last night around 6pm is when it started. The first of 10-12 episodes of hurling. My poor Hayden. It hit her like a ton of bricks and wouldn’t let up until the wee hours of the morning. I slept on the couch so I could hear her when she needed me.

Let me tell ya, bolting awake to the sound of your child calling for you or already throwing up is not the number one way I prefer to be awoken…and not once but multiple times. My heart hurt for her as I watched her whole body turn red as the blood rushed through her pale skin. I held her hair and rubbed her and felt horrible. Every time she finished she would raise her head up and tears were just rolling down her bright red cheeks. My heart ached to take the pain from her.

So this morning, came and went and we slept in. The rain falling softly on our tin roof was just what the doctor ordered. I heard the twins wake up and start their gymnastics match in their room that quickly had to come to a halt. Those monkeys! They were starting to rearrange the furniture and had literally ever single toy they owned out and scattered all over the room.

I dragged myself off the couch and up to find out what awaited me. A limp little Hayden, still in her bed. Poor girl. That is a sign right there, because she is normally the first to wake up every day, rain or shine, school day or not.

So the toast was made, the juice started, Leapster to the rescue, along with magnet dolls and a couple of books. Sick day had begun. Once I had her settled for a bit, on to the disaster that awaited. At least it had bought me a few extra winks of much needed sleep!

I decided instead of just cleaning up, it would be a reorganizing and purging day. So we spent the greater part of the day sorting toys in to piles, finding missing pieces, rearranging, putting toys in the attic that were no longer age appropriate and boxing up others that were going to be given away.

The girls were on board with the concept. Most of the time. Ella kept asking me why we were giving some toys away. I told her they had too many and couldn’t even play with all of them. Some little girls would love to have some of their toys that they no longer played with. So she replied in a worried voice, “But how do you know we are giving us toys away???” It totally caught me by surprise and made me laugh and reply, ” Well, because I’m the one giving them away.”

I have also been wanting to shorten their curtains for months now. Our windows in this house are a strange size and nearly impossible to find curtains that fit. I didn’t want to buy new ones, since they had only been used for the year we were at our past home. Instead they have just been hanging, not looking “right” but just serving their purpose to darken the room. So today seemed like a good day to get that type of project done, since it had been a declared sick day and I didn’t have any pressing work to get done. (I had done all that in between Hayden’s episodes last night, before I finally crashed around 2am, thinking the worst was behind us.)

So, my rainy day/sick day project is now complete! The room is reorganized, lighter on the toy-front, cleaned and vacuumed.

Before

After

I put together my own recipe for spaghetti sauce and it was delish (recipe to come later), served it with a fabulous salad, loaded with veggies, homemade dressing (also to come later)and wheat pasta. Kids are bathed and tucked in their beds and now the sick day is officially over.
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Dec 01 2010
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crafty, girls, thanksgiving

Turkey Shirts for the Girls

For thanksgiving I got inspired when I saw my friend Leslie’s little turkey shirt she handmade for her little Brenley. Why didn’t I think of that sooner!?!?!? I thought as I picked up Hayden from her Thanksgiving Day Celebration at school. I figured it was Thursday, I had until Saturday until we had our first family T-day event. Plenty of time to crank out not 1, but 3 turkey shirts….how hard could it be????? Oh did I mention that Sunday was also going to be the twins 3rd birthday bash. Not like I didn’t have anything else I needed to be doing. (Total sarcasm intended)

So the turkey shirt-a-palooza began. I wrestled and fought and maybe even growled at my sewing machine. It hated me at times. I was sure it was purposefully holding out on its magical powers, on purpose, because HELLO! doesn’t it know that I am on a strict timeline of, I’m-already-crunched-for-time-and-now-I-want-to-throw-in-one-more-MUST-complete-task-before-said-deadline!?! COME ON! work with me machine.

Needless to say that I worked hard, stitched and unstitched. Taught myself new things, even read the sewing manual! All of my skills are totally self-taught since I was not properly schooled in the ways of the sewing machine. Instead I inherited a sewing room of supplies with high aspirations that I would easily “catch on”.  Well it wasn’t easy, but I did enjoy when I finally started “catching on”.

So , I will show you some shots of my finished product. I only managed to finish Hayden’s for the first family Thanksgiving. Which was a week early, so technically, I didn’t miss the holiday . I finished Preslyn and Ella’s by the actual day of Thanks.

Here are the photos.

Ella was so thrilled to get a matching shirt like Hayden and proceeded to walk around waiting for her’s to be complete saying, ” Mommy making us Tuwkey shuwts” .

Here you can see what I see on a daily basis. Ella has really taken the role of Hayden Jr. to a whole new level. She and Hayden are more like twins than Preslyn and her. Its very interesting to see it all play out. Preslyn is in her own little world. She is going to be an interesting little girl to watch.
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Jul 14 2010
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crafty, P90x

Getting sucked into craftiness

I have recently found some new crafting blogs that have lit up my crafty fire. http://www.u-createcrafts.com/ and http://www.themotherhuddle.com/ Oh I am so excited about some upcoming projects that I hope will turn out lovely! I recently was given a bunch of fabric, buttons, tools, etc. for sewing and I intend on putting them to great use. I have some cute thoughts for some handmade gifts for the girls’ upcoming birthdays and Christmas and I need to start early so I can get them all worked out.

Day 4- shoulders and arms, ab ripper DONE!

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Sep 17 2009
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crafty, project

Just a box of Fabric

My parents have been remodeling their entire upstairs and in the process have cleared out everything and it is all downstairs wherever they could stash it until the remodel was complete. Every time we go over there I have spotted something new to add to my “wish list” 🙂 Recently mom brought me two boxes of fabric scraps and swatches and they are wonderful. Many are really vintage style and eclectic. Right up my alley. I instantly  had ideas for making curtins for the girls, skirts, dresses, sprucing up some of their stained shirts…baby gifts for friends. oh the ideas have been flowing.

I finally had a second to try some out, so I thought I’d show ya.

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