More Fabric Friday

I love seeing everyone's projects and fabric. And I like Fabric Fridays because it makes me write at least once a week. It's just a hard time of year to show off because it is all so top secret!!! But luckily, Erica was wearing a shirt I remade down for her from Clara. It turned out so cute! I took it in a bit, shortened the sleeves and added the lace in the front to hide some stains. I love it. Plus it is extra long on her. Got to love that.


This is just some of the fleece I bought to make skirts for the girls to wear to church. So nice and warm for all those cold mornings we walk to church. It makes me just want to curl up right now.
Hope you all have a great weekend.

Fabric Friday

I saw this over at Rosebud Quilting and knew I had to join in, but I had to wait a whole week and then I almost missed it. But here is my fabric. There is a spot in the corner of my room where finished projects sit until it is time (birthdays, Christmas, etc...) to reveal them. The corner is getting very full right now.

This one is for someone in the middle, who loves color. I love all the color, too.

This is for someone very little who, I think, will get the most use out of these. And I absolutly love how it turned out!!!! I can hardly wait for the big day and have to stop myself lots of times a day from giving it out early.

I really can't say what the others are in case of prying eyes, but this one I can. It is a pile of very soft and warm fleece that is almost made into two snugly skirts for church. My girls' (and mine) legs get cold walking to church this time of year so I love fleece skirts. (oh, and they do too)

Enjoy your Friday!

Sew Happy..

A few weeks ago we went down to St. George for a wedding. I was looking forward to doing a bit of shopping. Well, the only shopping I got to do was a quick trip through the D.I. (a thrift store). I spent the rest of the trip in the bathroom. Sara, Tessa, and I took turns being sick. It was not a pretty sight!! But at least I didn't have to clean up the mess. =>
But I did pick up this beauty at the DI. So I guess it wasn't a complete loss. Yeah!!! Doug squeezed it in with all our stuff and even more stuff from his parents. I am so glad we have a big ol' burb!!! He even set to refinishing it for me. Isn't is beautiful!!! I love it. And the machine that was in it works great too. It is an old Singer 600, with a knee control instead of a foot control. Kind of cool. I did clean up my sewing room to make room for it and it fits perfectly! I love all the drawers. I have a good hubby, don't I!!!!

Happy, happy, joy, joy!!!!

Faries are everywhere...

This year at Halloween my house was invaded by faries. Five of them to be exact. My girls were the faries from the movie Tinkerbell. Funny how that worked out. So they spent the night before running around at a school dance and then all day Sat. in their cute little farie costumes. Yes, I made them, but not the wings. Sara did add all the orange to her wings. They were just white. But I was very pleased with how they all turned out. Erica's costume had a cute little tutu to go with it, but she wouldn't have anything to do with that. Oh, well, at least she loved the wings. She loved running around in them. It was so cute!!! It was actually warm-ish, for us, here. We had a church party in the afternoon, then went trick or treating, then out to dinner with some friends. It was lots of fun!. Sorry the pix are so blurry, my camera isn't talking to me anymore.

Amber, Tessa, Clara, Sara, and Erica

Erica is now running around too fast for everyone else.

Yes, I won....

Here are pix of Erica and the outfit I won from over at Sewing Dork. You have got to go check her out. She is so fun and makes the cutest things for her little girl. I love her no rules sewing. I was also very excited to get her package from a give away she had! I wasn't expecting it for a little while longer. I love getting packages earlier than expected!!! She sent me a knit top and a cute skirt. Erica has been running around in it all day. The other girls were very jealous that there was only one and they tried real hard to squeeze into it. But alas, it is all Erica's. Thank you so much, Cynthia!!

Too Cute!!

I came across this pix when I was digging others out for my kindergartner's Birthday book. They get to take a book full of pix of themselves and then share it on their Birthday. But I found this old one and had to share with everyone. It is a too cute shot of Amber and a cousin at a family reunion. Those faces are just too adorable!!! Enjoy!

Why I sew, or how to boost your self-esteem

If you sew all that you need is one little girl who gets sooooo excited when ever you make her something new. This keeps you motivated to buy more fabric so you can sew more for her to keep her saying "you're the best mommy in the whole world!!!" (does that count as bribing???) Hearing that makes it all worth it!!! That being said, I have 5 little girls who all say the same thing when I make them something new, (well, okay, just 4, but I know somewhere in all that babble the youngest is saying "you're the bestest mommy in the WHOLE world!!") That is what keeps me sewing or at least how I justify all my fabric stash. I have got to make a lot of fun new stuff for school and now that Halloween is coming up I have a whole new reason for getting more material. (I can stop at any time.) The girls are all going to be fairies this year and so I got to get lots of pretty, shiny, bright colors and I can't wait to get them made. Then I can hear them all shriek and say what a great mommy I am. (my self-esteem is just fine, thank you)
I must though that I am loving this whole re-fashionist faze that is going around. Everywhere I turn in the blogging world I see another idea of how to remake something into something better. I love it!! I have made several more little girls tops out of the men's dress shirts and even hacked apart a couple of onesies to make them into little tops for my too tall baby. It is lots of fun to take something un-useful to us and make it into something spectacular. That, and I love telling my hubby how I made something cute and didn't have to buy any new fabric. (that makes him shriek and say, "you're the bestest mommy ever!!")
And isn't that what domestic bliss is all about?!!!

August sewing

First off this is what happens to your baby when the older girls are playing with makeup and she won't keep her eyes closed. The uni-brow and pretty colors around her mouth. My poor baby.


But I have been sewing up a storm since we got home this summer. Scroll down to next several posts to see what I have been making. This is just a few of them that I could round up to snap some pix of. I have been having fun, hiding away in my sewing room and using up all my stash, so I could go buy more, while the kids run wild through the neighborhood. I love our street.
I also now keep the laptop in my sewing room so I can read through all the sewing blogs when ever I want. I also found a couple of sites that have some really great free down load patterns and tutorials. Oh, that reminds me, I don't have a pix of the really cute skirt I made from one of those sites. I'll get one and get it on up here. So now you can scroll on down and see what I have been up to and I will try to be better with the postings. Happy viewing.

Shirred dress , aug. sewing

Sara and Tessa have grown out of all of their church dresses and skirts, except for their Christmas dresses, which are a little warm for right now, so I told them I would make them some new dresses. Being me I sewed everything else all week except for the much needed church dresses. SOOOOO, Saturday night found me in my sewing room making this cute little number. It started out to be pleated like the tops I made the girls earlier, but this material is very light weight and slicky (is that a word??) so I bagged that and shirred it. (I love doing that!!!) It took me a while to do it the first time, but now that I have (thanks to several tutorials on line) ( I love having a computer in my sewing room, who knew) I love doing it!!! This dress took 1 hour from start to finish. easy-peasy! And it is nice and light weight for the summer heat and is so cute on the girls! And they love it!!! It's kind of hard to see the gather with is print. I'll have to go back sometime and take a pix of it on one of the girls. Very flattering!!!

Tessa's dress

This is Tessa modeling her new top from one of my f-i-l's dress shirts. This one has the sleeves cut off and cut across the top just above the pocket. I then shirred it (I am loving this process). I even left the hem line in tact. ( so much less work!!) We just happened to have this belt that goes perfectly with it!!! The nice thing about this is that she can wear a shirt underneath when it gets cold. This pix she has brown capris on but we decided they just weren't the right color and she put on a pair of jeans and they were perfect. Which is great because Tessa loves wearing jeans. This went together way fast and was so easy!

monkey undies, aug. sewing

It's a little hard to tell but those are monkey's all over those panties. Sara loves them. I got a pattern on-line from "You can make this" (link on my side bar) for children's undies by "That darn Cat", a little while ago. I made a couple of pairs for Sara and Tessa to test them out and they were such a hit I decided to make a weeks worth for each of the girls, then they would know whose undies are whose. Sara's are almost done, I just need to finish the ribbing. They are all knit and seem to be so comfy. And the nice thing is that they cover their butt!. These are a nice yellow and brown. Sara can't wait to wear her monkeys!!

Amber's undies, aug. sewing

These are some more undies. I really like this pattern. I bought it online at "You can make this". The link is on my side bar. I highly recommend it!! The patterns are great and all of them that I have got have lots of pix for each step. They are very easy to follow and understand. The girls really like this underwear, too. It is very comfy and fits nicely. I wish I could make myself some! I picked these colors out for Amber. She loves all things colorful!

Purse bag, August sewing

This is a bag I made using a pattern book I bought. It has several patterns in it and I have made 4 of them so far. I really like the book. But I really LOVE this material. I fell in love with it right away and have lots of it to make several other projects with it. This one is for Tessa for her church bag. The first one I made her like 4 years ago is falling apart at the seems.



Pretty cute huh!!! I really like the handles too.

on vacation

So for the next little while, I am on vacation. Doug had a business trip to Tiawon for 2 weeks, so I loaded up the kids and our stuff and drove and drove, to stay with my sister Teri in Council Bluffs, Iowa. We are here until Doug flys into town and drives us back home. I miss him, but we are having fun. I am glad Teri has a new BIG house, otherwise with 10 kids we would not survive. But we are having fun and enjoying our visit. I will post pix when I get home to a good computer. ( they have a mac) ( janet understands). Until then I hope you all are having a good summer.

Thank you Grandpa!!!!

Cute, huh! While I was laid up I came across a very cute idea, here. I sat there thinking "I could do that and it would be sooooo cute!!!" But unfortunately, it required a man's dress shirt and most of Doug's were still fairly new. I happened to mention this to my mother-in-law and she came through for me. My father-in-law has tons of shirts and so kindly sent me LOTS!!! This is one of the shirts. I wish I had taken a before pix, but I did take an after and it turned out great!!! So thank you so much Grandpa. My favorite part is the pink lace that I just happened to have on hand and looks great with it. (the lace came from a visit from Doug's grandma in Denver, if I remember correctly.) (Does that make this a family heirloom?)

My trip...

A few days before mother's day I went on a trip......down the stairs. And I twisted everything possible in my foot. I did go into the emergency room and had it x-rayed because I thought I had broke it, but I didn't. So they told me to take ibuprofen for the pain, and keep off it and keep my foot up. Yeah, right. So because I fell on it two more times, I spent the next 5 weeks on crutches and basically unable to do anything. Doug had to go grocery shopping and the girls had to do everything else. I just sat on my bed surfing the internet and trying not to fall again. But all that doing nothing paid off and I am finally back on my feet, sort of. I have a brace, (just in case) and I limp around very slowly. (that means my baby can get away from me) I did get some great ideas when I was on line and even made a few things. (although I didn't set foot in my sewing room for over a week in the beginning, that's how bad it was!) I am amazed and how much you can't do with only 1 foot. It was very frustrating, but thank you to my friends who came and kept my company and helped my out with stuff. It made my day!!!!
Here are a couple of pix of my foot, this was about 3 weeks into my injury. The bruises were pretty faded by then and it wasn't quite as swollen. But you get the general idea of what my foot looked like. It was bruised all over and was so ugly. I'll post pix of my projects soon, now that I am able to get upstairs to the computer.

Made my day!!

I just found this and thought I would share it. Happy Mother's Day!! And for all you moms I know you will get a good laugh. and really understand this! I sure did. Have a great day! You deserve it, I know I do. = >

http://www.forloveorfunny.blogspot.com/

I was so with this mom and could relate. And I laughed!! alot, while I was on the phone with my mom. So I shared and we both had a good laugh and related together. It was a moment. sniff, sniff.

Full Circle

The first pix is just Erica being very excited I had the camera. It is hard to get a pix of her that is not a close up. The rest are to show off the cute overalls. I made them when Sara and Tessa were 2. There is also a matching pair of short overalls of the same fabric. This was hand-down material from my m-i-l. Do you remember it, Janet and Laurie??? I am so excited they fit Erica. This really shows the size difference between my first babies and my last baby. These overalls are some of my fave. They are so cute and bright and cheery!!! Love them and my babies have all been so adorable in them. Clara wants a pair of overalls now. I guess I will have to get to work on that. = >






This pix is just one of what Erica likes to do when Clara is not around to kick her off the computer. She is clicking away with all she's got. I guess we have another budding computer junky. Just like her dad.

Day 5

Day 5....and this one was even easier. I made this one for Clara to go with a matching skort also. I did gather instead of pleat, and I think I like the pleats better. But I did add a button in back so it would be easier for her to put on and take off. The band is fitted and a little hard to get on and off. But it looks so cute and darling on her!!! Thank you Made by Rae. That is where I got the pattern from and the challenge. Check it out!

Day 4

Here is Sara's top. She wanted one like Tessa's, which made things even easier because I did all the adjustments on Tessa's. These I think are my fav. tops. So cute and summery. If only the weather would cooperate.

Day 3...

Yet another day and still going strong. Here is Amber's top, to match the skort I made for her last week. She picked out the material all by herself. We walked into the fabric shop and she went straight for it! It was a beautiful moment!!! I think a little bit of me is rubbing off on her. This outfit may well be my fav. yet.

Day 2

So far so good... Here we are in day 2 with top #2. This one is for Tessa. I saw the instructions for this one on line and knew it would be perfect for her! The best part is that this top will go with 2 different pair of shorts I made for Tessa last summer. Bonus!!!

A top a day...

As I was jumping from blog to blog... I came across this really neat sewing blog and the lady was doing a top a day challenge this week. I thought I can do that.... one top everyday this week. Piece of cake!! (Although her challenge was adult tops, but I am including kid tops too, because then I can make everyone one this week. = > ) Yeah!! I started with one for me. So for day number 1 here it is:

(Sara took the shot)

Erica can see!!!

Erica, we found out, is very visually impaired. So she now gets to wear glasses and boy does she look cute!!! She even does pretty good at leaving them on, except when she is in her high-chair, and then she starts pulling them off if she gets bored.
We can tell already that they make a big difference to her. Yeah!!! Enjoy the pix!

Random thoughts

*Be careful when looking for information or you will end up at the mall yelling into your cell phone to your father-in-law, "No, F-U...."
(I was trying to spell fuego to him and he kept asking "S-U...?". The store attendant thought it was pretty funny, too)

*Did you know Frecken street is between First street and Third street?
(yet another cell phone conversation((but not with my f-i-l)))

*The saddest and funniest thing in the world is a baby trying to poop when their poop is a bit hard. (they half walk, half squat, and scream and cry and turn red in the face and hold their breath and then come to you for comfort and help) (you know what I mean if you are a m0m)

*Nothing says spring like laundry hanging on the line to dry,( and it drys and not freezes.)

Happy Birthday to ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, it was my birthday last week and yes I was VERY sick. Not fun!! But on the other hand I got to have cake and ice cream for breakfast because not everyone was going to be around later and we did my celebrating in the morning. This is the yummy!!! ice cream cake Doug made for me. ( he does it every year!) (notice the + sign, I had got the 33 for his cake) ( so yes it says 33 + 1) on it. The kids loved that. The best thing of all was my presents. The girls all got me various wonderful, thoughtful, gifts they picked out themselves (thank goodness for the dollar store), and my hubby came through with flying colors and got me the legos game Indiana Jones and the star wars saga!!!!!!! I love legos games on the xbox. Clara and I play for hours. (Yes, we are junkies) He also claims he got me lazier pointing scissors ( they have yet to come in the mail) ( but it would be so cool if they ever did!!!!)
So in the time honored tradition of Birthday salutes in the blog world here are a few of my favorite things about the Birthday person. (ME)

1.I have always loved having red hair. Georgeous!!!
2. My smile. (it has brought many wonderful things to me, including my hubby)
3. My hubby
4. My kids (99% of the time)
5. My sewing. I love everything about it, buying the fabric, cutting the fabric, sewing the fabric, and making something wonderful.
6. My quick wit.
7. I love my giving nature.

Happy Birthday to ME!!!!

Weather or whether not...

It has just struck me funny as how I am so controlled by the weather, outside my home. I am sitting here in a nice tight, warm home and it starts to pour outside and immediately I starting thinking what I need to get, just in case. FOR INSTANCE: quick get the kids to a safe place...turn off all the electrical devices...do we have extra water somewhere???.....are all the outside things put away???(thank you Doug for picking up all the toys that got dragged out yesterday!)....Oh, what about the kids at school??? are they okay???....what if the power goes out??? Do we have candles, and flashlights????.....
On and on my mind goes, and it is all I can do not to jump up and run around the house like a made woman screaming "we're all going to die!!" I have to tell myself, "we're okay, we are in the house and safe from the rain. RELAX!!!"
Oh,.... I just saw lightning and heard the thunder....got to go turn everything off and get the kids in a safe place...just in case.

You are a winner......

So as I was randomly roaming around the blogsphere (is that a word??) I won something, just by commenting and decided to spread the love (it is Feb. after all) so read on.....

Something for YOU!!Something just for you! Lucky you! The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year. (might be a little while) (I will be waiting until I get my FAB-U-LOUS prize!)
4- You have no clue what it's going to be.
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it! Good luck!

Fabulous, absolutely Fabulous

Malauna saw a jacket on someone else's blog and decided she had to have one like it. So she dragged me in to it with her. We went and got us a jacket and then I embroidered on it and she hand appliced the heart on it. They turned out ablsolutely fabulous!! I had to share them with everyone. Mine is the one with Mr. Smith on it. I mean I only like Ryan as a friend, so the other one is for Malauna. = > Georgeous, huh!!!!

My baby is 1!!!!

Erica's 1st Birthday was Thursday and everyone was so excited, except Erica, it was just another day for her. Until that evening and Sara helped me make Erica's cake and then Erica got excited. Especially when we let her have the spatula from the batter. I thought I was taking pix but the camera was on and this is a couple of the clips I got. And then a few of the pix. She was liking the spatula with chocolate way too much....

wORDdles

You will have to go try this out.  I got this from my MIL.  Thanks this was so
much fun!!I made mine to reflect a few interests of mine.  Fun, huh!!!

Go here:  www.wordle.net/create