Don’t be jealous.

We just harvested our garden today and I had to share the abundance of produce we picked.

Here they are! Our 2 dying finger carrots. Aren’t they pretty? I’m really proud of these 2 carrots. We started out with a bunch of baby carrots and tomatoes but they kept dying off one by lonely little one until all we had left was one broken tomato plant and 2 carrots. The tomatoes are still plugging along but will probably freeze before we ever get a ripe one. By golly we have 2 carrots and we did grow something. I grow kids much better than gardens ;).

Speaking of that here’s a shot for the Grandma’s. The traditional first day of school picture, an after school shot. Mary got a new haircut and it was crooked so I had to take her to the salon after she got out while the others were still in school. The morning pictures I took really bug me. I want to cock my head to the side just to look at Mary’s. They always look so cute the first day though.

They loved their first day!

I loved sending them to their first day :).

My fire runneth over

Oh my goodness, I think I have one too many irons in my sewing fire.  These are just what I have laid out for today and don’t include the conclusion of project cousin or about 15 other piles of junk I have sorted and waiting.

All baby projects and most of them are not for me. Thankfully they don’t have to be finished today but wouldn’t that be awesome.  I know 5 pregnant women all due before I am and some of them having their babies within the next few days and weeks.

Can everyone do me a favor and stop procreating for 5 minutes please! Do not drink Oregon water until my project piles dwindle down.  That’s a direct order.  Thanks a ton.

Next week should be rockin’ with the baby project shares though! I already have 2 down for my little bean, I just haven’t shared yet.  I’ll sketch up the cabana some time this weekend and get that on here to.

Have a fantastic weekend, school starts on Monday- hooray!

Birthday Cabana

It’s hard being the smack dab in the middle child. Mary’s our very middle one and she’s always the one being left out. The older two always play with the younger two and she’s left to her own devices, buddy-less, because for one reason or another she can’t or won’t play and when mom steps in and insists that she be included suddenly no one wants to play anymore. Rough! I thought it would be a great idea to give her her own space for her birthday. A special place just for her. A Mary kind of place. A princess cabana fairy tent playhouse veterinarian office spy hideout.

Roomy enough for 2 with a dog door off the back for those furry friends that need to come and go. Matching dog bed with new bull dog stuffed friend included, but not pictured ;).

No princess cabana vet spy tent would be complete without windows on the sides.

And big “I heart U” buttons on the inside to remind you your mom loves you more than much.

I hung a string of battery operated LED lights around the inside to give it that extra “My mom rocks” factor. Love is in every square inch of that little cabana. 2 a.m sewing for weeks kind of love that only a mom would do for her child. She picked out all the fabrics without knowing what she was getting so I could be sure it would be something she loved.

Only one problem. She doesn’t like it. It’s now Mary’s super deluxe storage unit that saw maybe 10 minutes of play time over the last 2 weeks. It’s tall enough for me to stand in so maybe it’ll become my “don’t bother me I’m eating a bag of chocolate chips and wondering what kind of children I’m raising” alone cone.

I didn’t take pictures of the process but if anyone else would like the how-to to make your own super deluxe storage unit I can sketch a rough guide.

Have a fantastic Friday!

Animal Abuse

I was cruising through my Google reader the other day when I came across this fantastic idea for making your own pet t-shirts from The Long Thread.  I almost bought some shirts just like that for back to school but I saw the tutorial and thought “I’ve got the stuff!” so I gave it a whirl.   I tried doing shirts with Perry our bulldog on them but it took me forever to figure it out so I opted for good ol’ generic pictures instead.

Everything was working just fine and they were looking cuter than cute until I applied the heat.  This little kitty didn’t like the iron very well.  There’s a big brown spot under her eye where a mysterious piece of lint got burnt under the iron on while I was ironing it on.  Iron 1, me 0.  Sorry Ash.

 

I’m not a quitter so on with shirt #2.  Cute princess pug- check.  Shirt that’s not very heat tolerant in one stinking spot- uh oh.  There’s a brown line of burnt shirt running from the pug’s head to the bottom hem.  Great.  Iron 2, me 0.  Not to mention the iron on package said to wash before wearing and now this pug has no recognizable face since the black washed out (no picture of that). Sorry Kaci.

Third times a charm right?  Right?  Um no.  Another piece of stinking lint under the puppies eye, but you can’t tell so Ha Ha iron!  I got a little cocky after the iron on actually worked, sort of, and tried blinging up the stitching under the puppy (by request).  That’s where the iron got me.  Dang you Panasonic!  The entire row of diamonds slipped under the stitching on one side only and I didn’t catch it until I was finished.  Of course they’re permanent you know.  Sorry Mack.

So I managed to create 3 burnt animal play shirts. It really is a great tutorial and really easy to do, it just wasn’t my craft night last night and anything that could go wrong did.  Sometimes we all have bummer days, most people just quit while the quittin’s good.  I don’t.  The plus is that my grandma gave me a stash of $1 shirts last year and these were the last 3 so I’m not out big bucks.  I’m just low on iron on self esteem and bling.

My tips for this project:  Don’t use black and white images, they wash out more than the colored.  Don’t iron while pregnant.

Have a fantastic Thursday and I hope your crafty luck is better than mine!

Miss Mary Mack

All dressed in… Good Folks? Much better than black if you ask me. I did manage to throw on a silver button though.

My little Mack turned 6 last week and it seemed only fair that if I’m going to be making things for all her cousins she should have one to, especially for her birthday.

I used Butterick B4118 view A for the basic shape (because figuring out sleeves stinks) but I know this pattern is not as full as I like so I cut it out one size bigger and used my own seam allowance. I just extended the length to make it a dress- easy!

I had a few questions that I forgot to answer before I accidently deleted all my mail so I thought I’d answer them here for the good of all. There were more than that but some were duplicates so I think this should cover it.

~Q&A’s~

Project cousin skirt

Shawnna said...

Can you tell us where to get the pattern for this skirt? it is uber cute!

A: Thanks, I made the skirts by looking at a picture I saved a few years ago and winging it so no pattern. Sorry! But if you want to buy one or try to wing it yourself I was inspired by a Matilda Jane skirt kind of like this one.

Big Bad Bermuda’s

Crafty Mama said...

I think they are super cute! How did you do the inside of the leg or were the pants already lined? Regardless they are adorable!

A: I cut the jeans off where I wanted them and opened up the outside seam on the legs by a few inches. I pinned a strip of fabric to the jeans right sides together and sewed up and around and then turned it so it’s just lined for a few inches on the inside and it kind of made it’s own vent that way. Hope that makes sense. I wish I would have skipped the top stitching I did though.

Back into the trenches for today. This lemon lime popcorn isn’t going to eat itself ;).

I want to cry!

I want to cry every day just because I’m hormonally imbalanced right now but I really want to cry because after a month I finally have my very own internet back!  I really appreciate those who let me steal their internet every once in a while but there’s nothing like being able to get on and blog in your jammies you know?  It might take me a year to get caught up with email and I don’t even want to look at my Google reader right now but I can, and it feels good.

We’re smack dab in the middle of a family reunion this weekend but while my pot yuck dessert is cooking I thought I’d share a little of what I’ve been up to.

 

Just a quick carrier cover in boyish colors.  I can’t wait to put a tiny little bum in there. I’ve been sewing up a storm the last few weeks so I have other good stuff I’ll show off when the family stuff slows down.  Have a fantastic weekend!  I love that I can say that- in my jammies even ;).