simple Analogy

Sebastian

Oh those lips!  Oh those cheeks!!!  Scrumptious!  My new nephew:  8 pounds 10 ounces  20 1/4 inches.  Healthy and hungry baby, happy mommy, proud daddy, excited sister.  In Magdalena's words, "My boy is here!"  Congratulations Tracy and Juan!  He's beautiful!

I'm Dying For a Burger and Fries

New life insurance policy = blood work = fasting until 3pm = one hungry girl.

Why is it that when you're sick you can go without eating for days and not really care, but when you're well and have to go for a few hours, food is all you can think about?  Hamburgers, fries, coke - I think I'll be stopping by McDonald's after my appointment.

To take my mind off my growling stomach, I figured I'd finish up a little sewing project.  Ok, all I had to do was sew some elastic together and finish the casing.  Two minutes of sewing at most.  But when I'd stabbed my fingers several times in those few minutes, I decided that sewing when you're hungry is not a good idea. 

So I'm blogging while my kids are in there eating lunch.  Sigh!  And now for some randomness...

* I have a new nephew!  I'll tell you more about him after I go see him.

* My dining room table is littered with pieces of Christmas sewing.

* The upcoming kid's craft along for November is delicious!  Make sure to come back on November 1st !

* Sew, Mama, Sew's scrap busters have been inspirational.  Vote for your favorite here.

* I found Happy Together through Wardrobe Refashion's Flickr group.  So happy I did.  She actually tells you how she does it!

* I am David is such a good book - finished reading it to the boys today.  I was getting choked up at the end and had to swallow those tears so the boys wouldn't make fun of me.

* I guess blogging while hungry isn't the best thing to do either.  You should have seen how many words were misspelled in this post when I ran the spell check. 

You Gotta See This

 

 

 

This!  This is what  Megan made me for my birthday.  Boy do I feel loved!!!!  Don'tcha think my hair blends in perfectly with these colors?

Refashion While Waiting

 

I really wanted to sew this afternoon, but forgot to throw my fabric into the wash.  My friend and sewing teacher, Megan, taught me to wash my fabrics before sewing and I have faithfully followed her advice.  So while I was waiting for the dry cycle to finish, I scrounged around in my closet to find a shirt that I'd been saving to try my first refashion on.  What do I mean by refashion?  Reuse, re-purpose, sew green, recycle... RE-FASHION.  

Last week I happened to find Wardrobe Refashion, and while I'm not ready to take the pledge (because I really don't know what I'm doing well enough yet) the idea sparked my interest.  What about that red shirt that I no longer wear?  I bet I could turn that into a skirt for Magdalena.

Dug out said red shirt, cut it one inch above the gathered empire waist, replaced the old worn out elastic with new, sewed about three inches where the stitches had broken, and ta da! 

 

It worked.  My first refashion!  Took all of five minutes. 

***UPDATED 10/26:  I just did what I wished others would not do on wardrobe refashion, and that is just generalize the directions.  So many times I see a refashion that I really would like to copy, but don't have enough information to do it successfully.  To rectify this, I'm adding detailed instructions.

1.  The shirt already had an elastic empire waist.  I lined up the waist and used a ruler and rotary cutter to cut one inch above the gathered waist.  This kind of gives the waist a ruffle of it's own.

2.  Since t-shirt material does not fray, I left the  edge raw.

3.  The existing elastic was worn out.  I opened up the casing and removed the existing elastic.

4.  With new elastic cut to my niece's waist measurement, I threaded it through the casing, sewed the elastic together, and closed up the casing. 

5.  I fixed a few seams where the original stitching had come undone. 

I'd really like to learn to sew with knits.  Anyone have any books/sites you could suggest?

34

 

This morning I woke up to beautiful cool weather, "Happy Birthday"s from my family, and emails from friends.  Noah made these for me.  He prefaced the hours locked away in his room with... "Mom don't come in my room.  I don't want to be bossy, but please just don't come in."  That was last week and he spent three or four whole evenings making all this for me.  I just love it!  My favorite is the hamster wheel.  We just watched Bolt.  I know!  Where have we been?  The little hamster, Rhino, is my favorite character.  He's just so chubby and funny.  I think I'll put this one on my desk at church, cause sometimes I feel like I'm running around in circles in the nursery. 

Decorating my room, lunch plans with Mom and Tracy, chocolate chip pumpkin bread instead of cake...

It's gonna be a good day.

Confidence

Confidence - the firm belief that something can be done

I guess you could say that I am gaining confidence in my bamboo growing skills.  The one I bought way back here is still alive and flourishing after all this time.  Its success gave me the confidence to make a bigger investment and try my hand at yet more.  I just have to keep telling myself, "Leave it alone!  No fussing!"

Plans

Ever since we moved back in, our room has been kind of put on hold.  No curtains, no pictures (except the big one above our bed), old tree - you get the picture!  Plain.  So for my combined birthday/anniversary present I asked to redo the room.  I'm in the planning stages.

Things I know I want to do:

new curtains and rod

new pictures - I've been drooling over Alicia Bock's photography for the longest time.  I'm thinking now is the time if I have enough wiggle room in the budget.  Plan on spending some time here if you click the link.  You'll want to look at them ALL!

paint the frame and mat on the big picture above our bed

bedside tables - I think this small shelving unit will be just the thing for my side of the bed!

reading lamp

tall up-light

ditch our large banana tree

Things I haven't made up my mind about:

duvet - I have a huge pale blue Ralph Lauren featherbed in storage at my mom's.  I keep forgetting to bring it back to my house.  It may be just fine without a duvet.  We'll see.

paint - We painted the room a golden color, but the more I look at it the more it just blends with the wood of the bed and dresser.  I really don't know if I want to go through the trouble of painting all over again, but you can see that my thoughts are heading that direction.  (Loving the Restoration Hardware Flax or Cappuccino.  Try them on the wall by clicking the color swatch.)  ****This one's been squelched.  When I hinted at repainting, Joel gave me a look like, "You've GOT to be kidding me!" and so we'll just stick with the golden color on the wall.  I don't really know if I would have been up for painting anyway!  Maybe in a year or two.

It's a lot to do on my small budget, so it's a good thing I can DIY with the best of 'em!

Evil

Thursdays are evil as far as our homeschooling schedule goes.  As a busy family, we have several commitments during the week that eat up our time.  Since I am not one of "those" homeschool moms that let their kids slip and slide around school work, this makes Thursday our day to accomplish not only all our regular everyday subjects, but also those extra things that I want my children to have in their education.  Like piano lessons.  Like writing class.  Like art.  What would the world be without art, the written word, and music?  Dull and drab is what. 

 

Landon's (the DIY-er's dream hammer)  

Our usual Friday art has been moved to Thursday this year.  Today's lesson was very uninspiring - draw hammers.  Ok, the fact that you can draw them funny, crazy, etc. just didn't cut it for me.  I usually do art with the boys, but today I tried to slip out of it by telling them they could draw while I read a book to them.  They were rather disappointed.  "What?  You always draw with us!  Come on, Mother!"  (They've taken to calling me "Mother".  Sounds so formal, but whatever.)  Oh all right!  Hammers.  Mine were very blah, until I started drawing nails along with them.  Nails are more fun to draw than hammers, so my Thursday art session kind of took on a shape of it's own.  I am banning hammers!  They are evil.

Noah's Hammerhead Shark (he was uninspired by hammers as well)

Catch the Spirit

Holiday crafting has begun.  Since I will have TWO nephews by Christmas, which is a first - only nieces up until now, I started searching through my books and magazines to see what kind of boy-ish present I could make them.  These cloth balls (from Seams to Me, but you can find a tutorial here with a variety of sizes) are perfect.  What boy doesn't like to play with a ball?  Of course these balls are very nearly the size of my nephews, but they can grow into them.

I'm thinking they can also come in handy for several other uses besides just playing catch...

1.  Teaching shapes.  Who needs "mama" or "dada"?  Wouldn't it be awesome if my nephews' first words are "pentagon" or "hexagon"?  They just might be categorized as geniuses and all because of Aunt Heather.  Ok, maybe not.  My sister and sister-in-law might never speak to me again if they don't hear their names first.  Maybe we'll start up geometry class when they're three.

2.  Slobber control.  On those days when the slobber faucet is constantly running, these can be used to sop up the puddles.  Nice thing about them - they are MACHINE WASHABLE AND DRY-ABLE which is a major plus for any baby toy.  So, sop away!

3.  Bowling.  Of course the older siblings can use the ball as entertainment while baby is being fed.  How about a nice game of bowling?  Recycle some 2 liter bottles for this purpose.

4.  Yoga.  Shoot!  At approximately 31" in circumference it's almost big enough for a yoga ball.  Ok, exaggeration!  But what little kid wouldn't love to roll around and wrestle with it?

5.  Pillow.  Might give a bit of a crick in the neck, but it's soft enough!

6.  Mobile.  Hang it from the ceiling with some ribbon and give it a spin.  Those patches are sure to mesmerize even the most colicky baby.  No money back guarantee!

7.  Soccer.  Perfect for those indoor soccer games in the hallway - provided there are no pictures or vases to break.

8.  Shooting hoops.  I'm seeing this ball as it sails through the air in slow motion and slams into the laundry basket for a three pointer!  The crowd goes wild!

9.  Floor cushion.  Run out of seats for guests?  Just pull up a ball.

10.  Body pillow.  They may just love the ball so much they want to sleep with it. 

Of course some of these suggestions are far fetched, but really there are so many uses for a cloth ball.  Make up your own!  These balls will make it far beyond the baby years! 

What Boys Are Made Of (and Mine In Particular)

What a surprise to be featured on the "What Little Boy's Are Made Of " weekly round up.

So what are they made of?  Snips and snails and puppy dog tails?  Hardly!  My guys are made of noise, energy, movement, competitiveness, big appetites, a little bit of mischief, and hearts of gold.  Really and truly I love being the mother of boys!