…and here’s the Nikki McClure print I’m giving Kyle for doing all the manual labor around the house while you’re gone (Dave)… I think he’s really going to like it.

Here the girls are, painting. They look great when they paint, don’t you think?

And now the girls are out of bed trying to convince me they’re suddenly scared of the dark and it’s not even dark outside yet…barely 9:00pm – geez. Olive’s telling me she’s scared of bumble bees. …convincing…

And finally…the most exciting thing of all. In preparation for the big cross county move, I’m streamlining some things around the house. Puzzles. I love them, but those stupid boxes take up so much space. It’s like a bag of chips – mostly air. Here’s what I did with the kids’ puzzles:

I cut the picture out of the box lid and put that and the pieces all in a zip lock. Now they take up like a millionth of the space. Nice.

Here’s the next project I completed: Snuggly Ribbon Blanket by Sarah Mikkelson from My Spare Time. It was easy and I like how it turned out. I can’t lie though, I did sneak ahead a while back and make one of these for baby e. This time though, I made four at once and they’re all gifts for upcoming babies. One thing I changed was I added a squeaky toy thing to the center…hopefully that will work out. Here are a ton of pictures…

I only skipped two projects this time…the sewn invitations (wasn’t feeling it)

and the hair clips (I can’t compete with Hayla on hair accessories).

So I am way behind with the sewing calendar, but I have not given up, no sir. I made the March 1 project (Recycled Bath Mat by Kristen Couse of cakehousedesign.com) before my trip and was finally able to get some photos today in the sunshine. I put it on the bathroom floor today for the girls so it hasn’t actually been used yet…we’ll see how it does.

This was pretty easy and I think it’s cute. I just used two old hand towels. I didn’t sew the individual strips, so I may do that after the first wash if necessary; again, we’ll see…

…and I love this Alexander Henry fish print.

I’m back in the swing of the calendar I think. This is the only project I skipped between this one and the last.

So, I have a few more days here and we may look at a place or two. I’m still getting my mind wrapped around the fact that we’ll be living here in a few short months, so looking at places may kind of freak me out…we’ll see. I’ll add some photos as soon as I take them.

I finally had a good use for the tiny pompom trim I got when we went to Portland and I figured the girls would be all over them…I was only half right.

Here’s Ramona loving hers…

Here’s Olive’s on a shelf in the closet where it lives. It’s not even allowed to be in her room…

…she hates it that much.

So, this is mostly for Dave since he’s all the way on the other coast and was not able to experience in person the gift giving preparatory ritual we are both used to me putting him through that involves a lot of him looking and watching and nodding and smiling and approving and praising and complimenting me on my creativity and gift giving talent.

It was kind of hard for me to part with this one because I really liked everything in it (even the Vegan cookbook because it looked like there were some things in there that might actually taste good); and only like three things in the basket were things I already have. And I REALLY want that orange basket (it was the last one Amber, so you have to know by now that I really do love you (if you didn’t already)).

Two things in there I made myself. I crocheted this market bag. And, these everyday cotton napkins. Some very awesome Kaffe Fasset prints in there and possibly even an Alexander Henry…not sure. One even matches a skirt I just made myself so now I can eat at their house and my napkin will be completely camouflaged in my outfit. Rad.

I took a HUGE break from the 2010 Sewing Calendar, but here is the latest (I’m way behind)… I decided to make an ice pack cozy instead of a pacifier pouch (since we don’t use those anymore) for this project:

February 22: Pacifier Pouch by Jana P. Nielson at lolaagain.blogspot.com

I simply made a rectangle about 7 inches by I forgot…should really write these things down (12 or 13 inches maybe); with two fabrics, right sides together and then turned out and topstitched all the way around. I folded one end up to form a pouch and sewed the sides; adhered some velcro with the iron and ta-da!

I’m pretty sure that’s my head in all the pictures, but I couldn’t get rid of it with the amount of effort I was willing to put in at the time.

I made four matching ones for daycare and now I think we need two for our house…and probably every kid needs one.

On a related note, I stopped buying those gel ice packs for the kids because someone (I won’t name names) always bites it and makes it leak that weird blue ooze. Now, I just keep the girls’ old teething rings in the freezer and they use those. Or we make our own in a zip lock bag with rubbing alcohol and water (equal parts). That’s kind of fun because they can draw on the bags first with sharpies. Of course, those don’t last long at our house and eventually we’re back to the teething rings. Daycare uses hard lunch box ice packs like the one above. Either way, it’s always nice to have something just the right size to put it in.

I nearly forgot how to post, it’s been so long… Right around my last post, Dave accepted a new job and we had about three weeks or so to get him moved to D.C. That’s right, D.C…as in Washington D.C. Well, the D.C. area anyway. My east coast geography is general at best, so that’s how I’m referring to it for now. So, needless to say, we were very busy in that time and immediately following his departure, the girls and I headed to Ellensburg for some Easter r & r. Of course, eventually, the three of us will be moving out there too, but we’re taking our time. I may even document the whole move process since it will be so drawn out…

Anyway, if you’re wondering what the photo is above, it’s some super cute Alexander Henry fabric (Alexander Henry is by far my favorite, just so you know) that I made a little bag out of the other night. The girls needed to have some “just in case” clothes at school, so they each got a new little bag, specifically for that purpose. Here are some pictures of the process.

Unfortunately that neat green fabric that I wanted to use for the lining of the black bag turned out not to be large enough. Darn. I went with light blue with white dots instead. I used some ticking just for fun and lined both bags. I love using twill tape for bag handles on small, light bags. It’s quick and easy. I think I’m finally mastering the correct method of lining bags from the inside out, which is a nice change from the way I used to do it (a really stupid way).

I messed up a little on that one. See, on the upper left corner…oops

My favorite. Of course this is a perfect example of me rushing through a project instead of doing careful planning. I totally would have run the ticking stripes vertically if I’d been thinking about it. That’s part of doing a project the night before I want to use it – not smart.

On another note, here are way too many pictures of the tiny Easter baskets I crocheted…I was really just LOVING my camera here. And I dyed some wooden eggs with food coloring (thanks to a fellow garage saler) which was an interesting experience. Again, not well planned.

These are the trick-or-treat baskets that I was going to recover for Halloween, but never got around to it. I decided I’d do one for Easter instead. These are really crappy instructions, mostly because I made it up as I went along at my normal, break-neck, instant gratification speed, but it’s pretty easy and a nice way to reuse those cheapo Halloween baskets. I’m planning to do two more for the girls for trick-or-treating this year. I also took about half the number photos I really needed to. My bad.

Here’s what I started with

First, I removed the cover from the basket, without ruining it.

Then, I opened up all the darts on the cover so it would lay flat, but I left the side seems in tact and laid it out on my Easter fabric to use as the pattern

Then I cut a double layer of fabric just a little bigger all around the pattern and sewed the two layers right sides together, up each side, leaving the top and bottom open.

I pinned the pattern to the fabric to get an idea of where to sew the darts.

Then, I sewed a bunch of darts around the bottom like this.

I just eyeballed it and did one centered between each side seem and then one each centered between each seem and dart, so there were eight seems/darts total.

I put the wire frame of the basket inside the new cover to see if I was close

Then, I hand-stitched a small circle of fabric to the bottom of the new cover to fill the hole.

After that, I put the frame back in and folded the top edge down a couple of times until it met up fairly close to the top of the frame, but still stuck up a little higher and pinned the top edge in place.

I folded another long piece of fabric into a handle and sewed that onto the top edge in two places

Then I put the frame back inside and stitched the frame to the cover in four or five places around the top and I was finished.

Olive was “making her letters” the other day; scribbling in her notebook and asking me what’s what’s…
Me: That’s a double you, Olive.
Olive: Yeah, double me!

Mona asked me where her “sweaty pants” were. (I think she meant sweat pants. She also wears her “cracky” pants with her school polo for field trips.)

Oh yeah, and apparently there is a witch with horns in their bedroom on a regular basis around bedtime……shadow of a wiener dog with sort of perky (well, half perky, half my spirit’s been killed by two toddlers over time, perky) ears, perhaps?

Got some new stuff…

I had a certain gift card to a certain store and got this. I’m a little hooked on Vera.

I just received this new book in the mail and LOVE it.

Check it out.

The photos are GREAT.

The instructions seem clear.

The projects are practical.

And the materials are neat.

I am totally going to make everything in it. Maybe. Probably not. I’ll keep you posted.