Thursday, October 22, 2009

After

Not completely finished but as good as it was going to get. It has worked out tremendously well considering that at the old house the only place I had to sew was at the kitchen table. My hubby put up lots of new shelf space and put in 2' by 6' shelves to cut and sew on. If I have something really big to cut out I do it on the floor. He was going to give me a 4' by 8' sheet of finished plywood as a cutting table but we realized that if we did that there would be no room for anything else in the room. I used left over paint from other projects to paint the wall and hated it but figured that most of it would be covered with fabric and the like so I didn't take the time to repaint it.


These not so great photos were taken a couple of months ago and my shelves are now overflowing with fabric, quilting supplies, etc. My mom received most of my Aunt Graces stuff when she pasted away and we brought it all down here so that at least all the stuff was together in one place and we would know what we have. We have a lot!! But I am having so much fun I don't care. The only thing that I would love to be able to do is finish a project from start to end without being interrupted, I know that day will come, so for now I will appreciate the time I have.


Before

This is what my studio space looked like a few short months ago. It was/is the storage/furnace utility room and it was so stuffed with everything from the move that I thought I would never get it back. The only real bummer is that the only window I have is the little one and it doesn't let in much light which means most of my photos are not that great unless I come upstairs which involves trying not to be seen by the local natives for fear of being captured and never returning to my space. My wonderful husband has said that he would be more than willing to build me my own space outside the house but with little ones that doesn't seem very practical. Right now I can at least sneak away for a second when I am "doing laundry" to finish up a seam or sew on a button.





I like to refer to the space as "my studio" because it sounds so grown up and people take you more seriously than when you say "craftroom", next up, the after pictures.


Friday, October 16, 2009

Diaper Give Away

There's another great diaper give away at clothdiaperblog. This week it is 1 Kissaluvs V2 Fitted Diaper, 1 Kissaluvs One Size Contour Diaper, and 1 Kissaluvs Marvel Diaper.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Did Somebody Say Pizza

This picture was just to pretty or yummy, which ever you chose, not to share. Zach was having a really hard day so I took the extra time to make him a stuff crust pizza and it turned out really, really good. It has a whole wheat crust, so its a little better for you, at least we are getting a couple servings of whole grains.

Another Diaper Idea

For all of those who are cloth diapering out there or soon will be, here is another idea. I used a plain old shoe lace from the odds and ends box to secure this diaper instead of velcro or snaps. It works really well and I can even just let him run around as is, it will stay on without a cover. The only thing I would change is I only sewed the shoe lace on in one spot in the back instead of around the diaper to the side flaps.

We Have Eggs

And not just any eggs, our very own eggs from our very own chickens. The boys are still really excited every time they find one or two. We have even had a few that have had double yokes. Store bought eggs are just about the grossest thing after you have had the real deal. Store eggs run all over the pan and have pale yellow yokes, even the free range ones that we were buying before. Asa dropped one of our eggs on the floor this morning, I was able to pick it right up even though it split in two and fry it right up (non of it ran out, it all stayed in its shell) they stand right up on the pan and look like a poached egg on your plate they are so compacted. Yum!!!
This is my cast iron double skillet and I absolutely love it. It was a gift from my dad before we went camping. I love cooking on cast iron, the heat distribution is perfect once you learn how to cook on them, there is a bit of a learning curve. I ditched my non-stick pans once I found out that they leach florin gas into your food as it cooks, not really some thing that I want my family to be ingesting.
Our eggs may be little, but they have awesome flavor to make up for it. The yokes are about the size of a quarter. I was holding the quarter as close to the egg as I could without getting burned.
This was our egg with a double yoke, I ended up breaking the one so it looks like it has three yokes, Asa got this one and he was about as happy as can be.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Smoothie Heaven

My baby will be a year old in a month, where does the time go? Dad's smoothie turned into his smoothie and he was all smiles and excitement. I think I saw his facial expressions change about five times before the camera took the picture.

Smoothie Recipe
1 organic banana
6 cubes of organic pineapple
1 small organic orange
small handful of organic blueberries
1/3 cup of Nancy's Organic Whole Milk Plain Yogurt

Blend and Enjoy

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Quiet is Scary

In one of my last post I mention when all is quiet, not all is good and it is good to check on the situation sooner rather than later. When, this is the result when you check later. Grace has potty trained herself at 2 1/2. She does awesome, she doesn't require any help, just supervision which I failed to provided. Apparently the temptation to unroll the tp got the better of her and then the lack of knowing what to do with all that tp led her to try and flush it. The more she flushed the worse it got, until, in her words, there was a toilet water flood all over the bathroom. She, being a do it yourself girl, set to work on unclogging the toilet, so the plunger was out. I guess that didn't work so then she tried to use the toilet bowl brush to clean up the mess, but that didn't work out so well either.

Yes, that happens to be my toothbrush on the floor, I'm just thankful she didn't put it back in the toothbrush basket.
By then she was all wet and icky, so she climbed up on the counter and proceeded to turn the water on full blast to clean herself up, flooding the counter top, too. Of course it had to be the upstairs bathroom that all of this took place in, so there was a huge puddle in the middle of the downstairs living room, thank goodness that we haven't finished the basement ceiling yet.

And, through it all I had to keep myself from laughing. This was my own fault, I should have checked on her when she yell "I have to go potty", a bit exasperated, but I have learned my lesson.

The First Snow

It feels funny saying that considering that it is only October 10th, but it did and it is freezing outside. The kids are having a blast and my husband is hoping for an Indian Summer, we'll see!!

I made this hat for Grace using this pattern from Vallieskids, I loved it, super easy and fast. The only thing I would change for Grace would be to add some earflaps and ties so it stays over her ears, which I will add as soon as I get her to take it off, lol. This was the best face I could get her to make, I don't know what her deal was.

These are my boys Asa and Zach, they were pretty much frozen by this point, but couldn't bring themselves to come in.



Thursday, October 8, 2009

Holy Cow.. Am I Behind

I was showing my MIL how to send a picture with am email the other day and in the process ended up going through all the pictures on the computer. I can't believe how many projects that I have done and not posted. So here we go, we will see how many we can get done before my little cling - on realizes that I am gone. I started this post at 2:30, it is not 4:41, just an FYI, when your 2 1/2 year old is quiet for too long, investigating sooner rather than later is a good idea


I made these fun polka dot fleece pants for Grace with some fleece that my sister gave me. They fit perfect, a little to perfect, the next growth spurt she has will make them to small. But, alas, not all is lost, my niece Clair can wear them next. I use Katrina's Sew Quick pattern. I now figured out why they fit so perfect, I didn't add the seam allowance like I was suppose to, it pays to read the directions (I apparently haven't figured that out yet)


I made this fleece cover for the little girl that comes and plays during the day. It is mermaid fleece with an extra soaker layer sewn in the crotch. I used a thinner fleece for binding on the edge. I sewed the extra in the middle first, then my elastic as close to the edge as I could, then the binding. I put right sides together and sew binding around the entire edge of cover, then I fold over the binding twice so you have a nice edge on the other side. It is easier for me this way because you don't have to make sure you catch both sides at the same time like with FOE. I have to take the velcro off the cover and make tabs instead, it was a touch to small around the middle. This is the Rita's Rump pattern, and while gathering the link I again discovered that reading the directions is a plus, there were supposed to be tabs on this cover in the first place.
I also made this cover for the little girl next door, it is a Katrina's Sew Quick Pull-up Cover, I love these because they work with fitteds or prefolds. I love them at night, fleece just seems so cozy and there is no elastic to rub or get too tight. I should have made it one size bigger, but because it is left over Christmas trees, Jairden can use it. Yes, I did sew the extra soaker layer in crooked, but I didn't notice it till the whole thing was done and I wasn't going to take it apart.
One down, I don't even know how many to go, but hey, at least I got the projects done in the first place.






Monday, October 5, 2009

This Weeks Diaper Giveaway

This week at the clothdiaperblog you have a chance to win 2 Rumparooz one size diapers.