Water The Cure For Everything

Once again, my girls were struck with a nasty virus over Easter weekend.  I took them to get their throats cultured for strep, but all three came back negative. The doctor's advice. . . . drink LOTS of water, which is what I'm constantly telling them.

I send them to school with water bottles, but am always hearing excuses about why they couldn't drink their water. Well, no more excuses for my kids because I made this awesome insulated water bottle carrier and will be making at least two more. They will have their water bottles with them wherever they go.  I saw this a while back on Pink Chalk Studio and have been wanting to make it for a couple of years now. I'm excited about the idea and hope they prove successful in more water consumption and those nasty cold/flu bugs stay away for the rest of the year. 

Until the next time. . . .

Saved by Scraps

I was so excited this morning as I had scored these inexpensive sheets and I was going to embroider some Christmas designs to make holiday duvet covers for my girls.

So I set my machine to work while I did chores and it did just that. Only it was an "Epic Failure" as my girls would say. Because I am new to my machine, I didn't factor in shifting. My machine did what it was supposed to and I failed to secure the  parts of the sheet that weren't getting embroidered, so it caught some of it and embroidered onto itself. I know that explanation made no sense so just look at the picture please.

The great thing about $3.99 sheets, is that I wasn't too upset about having to cut it up. So I decided to make lemonade out of the situation and dug out my scrap fabric and an extra pillow form I just happened to have on hand.

And I made a pillow cover.

After it was all said and done, I realized that I probably shouldn't have used a couple of the fabric choices, but really I'm pleased with the results and so are my girls. It will go in their room to go with their holiday duvets, if I ever get them done. 

Another successful saved by scraps moment! 

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It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Now that the ghouls and goblins are behind us, it's onto winter holiday preparations. . . 

I'm having fun with my new embroidery machine.

And I have a few projects up my sleeve.

So stay tuned. . .

For a few up coming holiday goodies.

Halloween Apron

I actually finished a project!  I say this with excitement because more often than not, I start a project, get bored, and move onto the next before I've completed my original project.

It is far from perfect and certainly not a pattern I love.  I don't know, it could be because I decided to wing it and not use a pattern. I'll be looking up some tutorials for my next apron attempt. Nice thing about the way I sewed this, is that it's reversible and completely finished on both sides. The other side doesn't have a Halloween theme so it could be used year round.  It's late, I didn't have a model so I'm sorry for the lame photos. 

My new machine and the fact that I've been completely glued to it, has put the sewing bug in my nine year old. She made a deal with me two years ago that if I ever got a new sewing machine, she would get my old one. Well she reminded me of our deal last night. I pulled out my trusty old machine and she got busy making this cute little hand bag for herself.  We started with something simple for her first project and I made sure to put my control freak self aside and just sat next to her giving her direction. I have a feeling my fabric stash is going to dwindle quickly with three sewers in this house. Guess I can't complain though, it does count as family time, right?

Sew Much Fun

For my birthday my husband and kids gave me an awesome new embroidery machine.  So I immediately put it to use and made a quilt for my Linus baby. I used a charm pack she chose from Wal-Mart. . . BIG MISTAKE!  I will stick with Moda from now on. Each square was so off. Unfortunately I didn't realize it until I was about half way through with the quilt and ready to piece my rows together. 

I was quite discouraged and the perfectionist in me wanted to abandon the project, but I had my baby asking me every few minutes if her new blankie was done yet. I not only failed to use a pattern, but I ended up having to improvise on all my measurements because of those horrible cheapie charm squares. It's quite possibly the sloppiest job I've ever done, but I kept telling myself to be okay with that fact. It was my first attempt at actually using the binding method. I will say that I proudly cut my binding, sewed it together to form a long enough strip to go around the entire quilt, and hand stitched it to the quilt. It's perfectly imperfect and I love it.  I'm also totally in love with the happy colors.

Oh and I've got a few other projects going.

So stay tuned to see what these are going to be!

Finally Sewing!

Okay so it may not be a big project, but thanks to retro mama I was finally motivated to play with fabric and my neglected sewing machine again.

These little easter eggs are so cute, I'll definitely be digging out my scraps to make a basketful. The best thing about this little project is that I actually learned how to do slip/ladder stitches! Stay tuned for more photos!

Handmade Gifts

I have to admit, I'm not the best at planning ahead so often times I find myself scrambling to buy/make gifts at the last minute. My cousin's daughter had identical twins, and while I had purchased super cute clothes for the girls, I just didn't think that was enough. I thought about what I loved when I had my babies, and the first thing that came to my mind were the handmade flannel receiving blankets that were gifted to me. They were the perfect size and gauge, not too thin and not too thick. So I decided to whip out a couple for the twins. I did make another similar receiving blanket this past weekend along with a hooter hider, but because I was so in a hurry to get to the baby shower, I failed to take pictures.

Very simple, I know, but they're wonderful for newborns. I figured the girls would have a lot of pink so I chose other cute colors.

I also put together eight teacher gifts last night, as well as this cute little zippered pouch for my daughter's Chinese Auction. She was instructed to bring a gift for a female that was under $5. There isn't much you can buy in AK, at least that's worth anything to a 10 year old, for under $5 so I decided to make this. It's a variation from the gathered clutch from Noodlehead. I was trying to go for a messy, but colorful look and I think I achieved my goal. What matters is that my 10 year old was happy. Hopefully who ever ends up with it will be happy as well. I don't know that many 10 year olds who really appreciate handmade gifts.
I didn't take any photos of the picture frames, sugar scrubs and bags I made for the teachers as I was running behind putting them together and packaging them up. Oh well. I'm just glad Christmas break has started. I will be whipping up a batch of hot buttered rum and enjoying some Christmas cheer this weekend.