Summer Project/ Quilt Along

Crazy Mom Quilts (one of my heroes) is hosting a quilt along and I decided to join in to give me a fun, easy project to do. We do one block a day for seventy days and when we are finished we have 70 blocks to make a twin sized quilt out of. She has all of the directions on her blog and it is super simple. Since I know I will not be able to sew everyday for the next two months, I am going to make 4 or so blocks a couple of times a week so I can stay caught up. here is what I made today:

It is so fun and easy that it would be great for anyone who hasn't done a quilt before and wants to try. I plan to make the blocks completely from my stash and scraps so I really won't feel like it costs me anything. If you have been wanting to take on a quilt (Linley- please do this!) you should definitely try this!

The Amazing Macy

I have been wanting to catch this on video for a while. I think this speaks for itself:

End of Week

So my crazy week of trying to get my store stocked up came to an end and I am relieved and although I have not added everything that I want to, I feel like I made a good sized dent. I should be adding multiple patterns in the next few days and maybe one or two more little projects. Anyway, here is what I have come up with:

This was a custom order for my cousin's wife, Jodie. Can I just say I was thrilled to get this request? I fell in love when I saw this fabric and really wanted to make an apron out of it but I didn't want to make any if people weren't going to want them. When she made her request I bought several yards of this fabric so now I can make many more. I can also make the accent color different such as yellow, brown or red. I was so glad my gorgeous friend Heather was willing to model this for me :).

This is a purse I have been designing in my head for several week and I finally decided to make it on Saturday night. I love the fabric I used and I think it turned out great. I really don't want to part with it :)

And here is a book of patterns for baby clothes and accessories. It is over 20 years old and I think it is great. It includes several sheets of patterns inside and a lot of different options of things to make. If I still had a little tiny one, I would use this for myself!
Thanks for reading guys. I have a few giveaways coming up on different blogs soon and I am thinking of doing one of my own. What should I do? A purse? Wash cloths? A kimono dress? or just some fat quarters of something wonderful? Please comment and let me know, I see people visiting on here from all over the world (mostly for the apron tutorial) so I would love some input from all of you! Please comment and tell em what you want to see more (or less) of. And I promise to get more pictures of my girls of soon!

More Wash Cloths

Today I added two bundles of wash cloths to my store. I have two more bundles in the works that are a bit more feminine so check back soon!
I have been using my wash clothes for my girls for a little over a month and they have worked great for us. I made these a half inch larger than my original group but they are the same other than that. I hardly ever use paper towels anymore to clean up the girls so it is nice to ave money there, plus I am certain I have saved a very large amount of garbage by using these reusable wash cloths. Some people uses these as baby wipes but I just don't think I am that dedicated :).

Peanut Butter Play Doh

Yesterday we were bored and it was cold and rainy out so we decided to do something fun and cheap indoors. I remembered playing with eatable play doh when I was little and thought the kiddos might enjoy it and enjoy it they did.

This picture is for Ashley. I just thought she would especially like it:






So here is how you make it:
1 cup of peanut butter
2-3 Tablespoons of Honey
2/3-1 cup of fat free powdered milk.

Mix and add powdered milk until the dough is not too sticky and can be handled like play doh. I figure it is fairly healthy (lots of milk and then protein) with just the honey for some sugar. So in case you were wondering, this was lunch yesterday. :) Feel free to add some raisins for the kids to play with too! This made more than enough for my two girls even though it doesn't see like much when you are making it. Enjoy!

April in Anchorage

When it is sunny and 45 degrees in Anchorage you will find dozens of children at the playground across the street wearing short sleeves and shorts. Some were barefoot.

And when going on a walk you will also have to dodge Moose droppings found on the sidewalk right by our house.

You will find people chipping away at the remaining ice and snow that has not yet melted away from their yards and driveways. They are also spraying ash off of everything.

Macy will want to go to the playground. Every day. I am so sick of being stuck in the house all of the time that I take her.

She will want to pick leaves up off of the ground to play with only to put it down, shaking her head and saying "That one is too dirty. It has ash on it."

Macy and Kylie will collect hundreds of gravelly pebbles and every time we go to a park (there are more than three within walking distance and we rotate which one we go to). Their pockets are full of them after every trip.


So this is a random post, I know. But I just wanted to let you all know how life is in Alaska right now. And here are some fun new phrases from Kylie Bug:
"I do it!"
"Clean Up! Clean up!"
"All done!"
"Whoa" for whenever she trips or falls off the couch- yes, this happens all of the time.
"Silly Mommy."
and my not so favorite:
"Macy! Macy!" which would be great except she does it in the mornings to wake Macy up and no one wants Macy awake before she is ready. I can promise you that. I woke up at 4:30 yesterday to her standing in her crib yelling for Macy. Oh, this is going to be fun with both of them talking so much :)

And on a final note:
Happy Anniversary Justin!
I love you more every day and I am so proud of you! I am so blessed to have such a hardworking and loving husband. Thanks for all you do!

Necessity is the Mother

So I needed a new bag for church and decided to make one. This was fun to do and I really enjoyed making it with no help from patterns or tutorials (Maybe I should do another tutorial?). Anyway, here it is:


It is perfect. It fits my binder, my scriptures, diapers and wipes plus there is a pocket inside for lip gloss, my phone, keys, etc. I have fabric for two more of these and they will be available in my store!

Fun Day

I have decided to devote this week to creating things to put in my Etsy store. I hope to use as much fabric from my stash as possible so I don't continually buy more fabric and I think it forces me to be a little bit more creative this way.
However, today's creating came to be after discovering this fabulous cupcake fabric. I had to have it, I just had to decide what to make with it.
What do you think?



I have also decided to include a purse I made several months ago and have received a great response to. Hopefully others out there in Etsy land will love it to!

These items are also all available to be custom ordered with any type of fabric that you may want! Thanks for looking and feel free to grab my store button and post it on your blog, I think we got all of the kinks worked out so it should work just fine!
Thanks to Jayna for all of her hard work on this and my banner!

A Little Introduction

Hello everyone out there in BlogStalk land. I am so happy you came back to see us. I would like to make a little introduction. People, meet the KC 135.

This guy is what my wonderful husband, Justin, will be flying for the Air national Guard for the next 10+ years. Its a great big refueler that fuels up planes as they fly over the North Pole. He will be running a "last stop" gas station in the sky, of sorts.
We are so happy and relieved that he got this position. After his interview he has been told that he would find out by the end of this week and if he wasn't chosen, he would get a letter a week later. By Thursday, we were discouraged and by Friday night we had accepted that he wasn't chosen. Much to our surprise they called him at 10:00 this morning (who calls on a Saturday???) and let him know that he was chosen. We are so happy he was chosen and I am happy that he is happy because I have never seen anyone work so hard for anything. I don't believe there was anything else left in the world he could have done to secure a position.
Anyway, I will leave you with one last imagine of this ginormous plane that my husband will be flying. Thanks all for your love and support!

Kimono Dress- Plus, I need help!

So I have not been feeling well lately so instead of cleaning my house and doing a lot of chores, I did about half of them and and sat around and sewed a Kimono Dress for Macy. It took far less energy than cleaning the bathrooms would have. Anyway, here it is. I actually bought the fabric at Walmart and I figure this dress cost me $3 to make. Okay, I will give Walmart cheap credit this time although I firmly believe that one can get much better stuff at Joann for the same or better price with a coupon. Anyway, here she is:


I think this turned out great. I am planning on going to one of the upcoming quilt store sales in the area to buy some pink floral prints for some other dresses. It will end up costing much more for the dresses but will be so worth it.

Anyway, I am trying to work on my etsy store. Anyone who has been around and seen some things I have done, can you give me some suggestions? I was thinking I could have a few Kimono dresses in different sizes, some bubble skirts, maybe a hot pad and oven mitt set or two... what do you think? Also, what do you think people would pay for things? I don't need a huge profit margin because it is fun to do, but I do want to make enough to buy more fabric :). I also plan to carry Favorite Things patterns as soon as I place my order to get some in. Any certain patterns any one thinks I need to get?
Any and all feedback would be helpful.
thanks!
And thanks for the serious comment love on my last post. I was so disappointed when the shirt didn't fit well but you all made me feel better.

My Shirt

Monday I decided to break out one of my copies of Simplicity #3835 to try out. I wanted to made a shirt because I had seen so many cute ones posted on other blogs. I combined a few elements from the dress options in the pattern and came up with this.

I liked it but I probably should have stuck with the original sleeves because these ended up being too tight for me. I guess I need to start sewing my patterns an additional size larger, sigh*. Anyway, this was easy and fun to do and I will definately have to give it another try soon.
P.S. This pattern is in my shop and if you post my button on your blog, you can save %10 on future orders. And I promise to add more things to my shop soon!

Macy's Kimono shirt

I have seen some cute Kimono shirts and Dresses floating around out there online so I decided to try to make one for Macy. This is what I came up with and I think it is pretty cute on her- I couldn't wait for her to get up from her nap so she could model. I am going to alter this a little bit next time and try a dress for her, we will see how it goes.



Isn't she cute??? I sure think so.

Soiree Baby Quilt

A friend of mine commissioned me to make this baby quilt for a soon to be born God- Daughter. The was so much fun to make, I am just sad that I don't get to keep it! I got the pattern from here and this is now one of my favorite places to look for ideas.
I just love it!

Justin wasn't home so Macy got to be my quilt holder.



I can't wait for her to get it in the mail! I hope she loves it as much as I do.

Easter Sunday/ The Big Reveal

So here are the much anticipated pictures of the dresses! I definately took on too much this week and the house suffered a bit and the girls got a little bored being stuck at home (but who wants to go out during breakup anyway???) but I finished two Easter baskets and 3 dresses this week. I ended up not loving the dresses I made for the girls. The pattern was just okay and would probably make a cuter shirt than dresses but I think they are alright. I had to alter Macy's a little because it looked more like a nightgown than dress but Kylie's turned out pretty cute. I was also thrilled with the way that my dress turned out. I had been very hesitant to make any clothing for myself because I am picky about my clothes and I didn't want to look like some frumpy, hippie mom that makes her own everything (it looks alright on some people...just not for me). I do like my dress, but I made it a tad too tight and even after lengthening it from the pattern three inches, I would still prefer it to be longer but for a first attempt, I am pretty proud. It is fully lined and I loved the compliments I got on it today at church and most people had no idea that I had made it until someone else told them. That's good- again I don't want to look like I am in something homemade. Anyway, enough talk, here are some pictures-

Saturday Morning Easter

Today we did part one of Easter which, for us, was the Easter Bunny baskets and searching for eggs. We try to devote Sunday to the religious aspect of Easter (the real purpose) and keep the fun stuff for today. As soon as Macy woke up this morning she wanted to go and see that the Easter Bunny came. I am pretty sure she thought he was coming to stay and play with her. She was very patient to wait for Kylie to wake up before we ventured out into the living room to find their baskets and then search for eggs.

Here is Kylie's Easter basket. I learned my lesson and made this one a bit bigger. Easter Bunny Brenda sent a few things for the girls (stickers and Color Wonder markers, bunny ears and candy) and then Mom and Dad Bunny included a pair of scissors for Macy (she had been wanting some since she got to use Grandma Terri's) and The Children's Songbook CD's for Kylie.



Kylie figured out the egg hunt thing faster than Macy did. It didn't take long for both of them to get into ti and we loved their little squeals whenever they would discover another egg. It was lots of fun getting to play Easter Bunny this year and really fun this morning because they are finally old enough to "get it."
Tomorrow we will head to church and then we have a big Easter dinner planned with friends for the evening. We are still excited for that part!
And video will come as soon as I figure out how to break video from our recorder into small enough segments.

Cutest Easter Basket EVER

So I have mostly finished two of the three Easter dresses that I am making this week and I decided to take a break today and make on of the two Easter Baskets. I saw the tutorial here a few months ago and I have been wanting to make one ever since.
I made the handles a little larger and left a little border on top. I think it turned out great!

Sunday Stash #1

I joined this sewing group online where you post some great fabric from your "stash" every Sunday. This is my first one, enjoy! And if you aren't into sewing, just watch the adorable video of Justin and Kylie in the previous post. :)

I bought these at Joann this week and I plan to make a simple shirt for myself out of each of them after I finish our three Easter dresses plus the Easter baskets I need to make this week... I am nuts, I know.

If you want to join Sunday Stash, click the button on the side for instructions!

For Ashley

The other day my sister, Ashley, requested that I post some cute video. I didn't get around to taking any until today but this is for you!

Homemade Presents

I had the need to make a few gifts for some people and I decided to finally try oven mitts and hot pads. They weren't too difficult to do and I am pretty proud of how cute they turned out. I tried to pick fabrics that these people would like so it was fun to do something different from what I would normally pick. I hope they like them when they get them!

Bucket list

My sister did a "Bucket List" post and challenged others to do so as well so here are the things that I want to do before I "kick the bucket."

1. Visit Europe and Asia. Specifically, I want to go to Spain.
2. Get good enough at sewing that I can tackle anything (special occasion fabrics scare me a little).
3. Get to a point where all of our bedspreads in our house are made by me. And I want them to look professional.
4. Get at least one Masters. I am not sure what I want to get it in yet, maybe Counseling. Some friends have been getting me to think about PA school quite a bit lately...
5. Touch the Arctic ocean (I think Justin would be a little surprised to hear this one).
6. Go to fashion week in New York. Lets throw Paris in as well.
7. Own one pair of truly fabulous shoes. I am talking Choo, Manolos, something of that variety.

Alright, that is all I can come up with but I have plenty to keep my busy (like convincing Justin that I need a $500 pair of shoes). :)