CHRISTEPHI

Hubby asked me to make gifts for the two first-time mamas who work in his department. Both are having boys, so I settled on a cheerful bunting or coverall or snowsuit...whatever you want to call it. I used the "Corduroy baby coverall" pattern from Ottobre 6/2007 (#10, size 62).  I followed the pattern for the most part, with just a few minor changes -- like snaps instead of buttons up the front, and making the bird an applique rather than a 3D stuffed critter.  Oh, and I made the pacifier tether with a snap on the end rather than one big loop that could prove to be a strangulation hazard. The shell is soft baby wale corduroy I picked out at JoAnn specifically for this project.  The lining is organic cotton sweater knit from Fabric.com that I had leftover from some clothes I made for Miss M.  I ended up using every last bit of it!  It's very, very soft and snuggly!  I got the blue, red, and orange ribbons at Hobby Lobby, using  scrap of the...

Sometimes the house is such a mess it's hard to know where to start.  Sometimes I want to bury my head in a pillow and hope the mess goes away on its own.  Sometimes I do...but it never does.  I've figured out a few mind games to play with myself that have been quite effective. First, don't let Tuesday off the hook.  Tuesday likes you to think it's an unimportant beginning-of-the-week kind of day.  There's a whisper in your ear, "It's just Tuesday, you have plenty of time before Friday."  But somehow, it jumps from Tuesday to Thursday in the blink of an eye and that means Friday is the next day!  I have learned that Tuesday is pivotal.  If I slack off on Tuesday, I'll regret it on Thursday and Friday.  If I banish much of my To Do list on Tuesday, the rest of my week flows much more smoothly! Second, set the timer.  Maybe I just work well under pressure, but it seems if I ask myself, "How much can you do in an hour?" and th...

My mama sweeps the floor. My mama carries cookies on a tray. My mama irons a dress. My mama puts the baby to sleep. And that is how Miss M answers the question, "What does your mama do?"

 Monday was the deadline for my Fall SWAP .  Um...I'm not quite done. (And I'm not quite sure how I started this post Monday and now it's suddenly Friday, but that's a different story).  I did, however, make more good progress before the deadline went flying by! I made a second Puolukka bodysuit (Ottobre 6/2009, #1), this time of organic cotton baby rib knit from Fabric.com.  It's delicious!  I am going to have to order some in other colors to make myself undershirts for winter.  It's so soft and comfy!  Again, this is for Miss M to wear under dresses and with skirts this fall and winter.  It'll look especially nice with the Vadelma pinafore dress that isn't quite done (and therefore not pictured here). The Dolly dress (Ottobre 6/2008 #6) is darling, albeit a wee bit too short for a "dress."  But that's alright, I prefer Miss M to wear leggings in the fall and winter anyway, so no harm done.  It's funny though...Miss M is 8...

I found this darling knit bird pattern free from the Handmade Holiday post on Plain and Joyful Living .  I made a little I-cord worm to go with it per Miss M's insistence. To make it a little safer for my young children, I used a pipe cleaner for the feet (it's all one piece and the sharp ends go way inside the stuffing so even the baby can handle it) and felt for the beak.  I really like the look of the wooden feet in the original pattern, but it wouldn't have been practical for our home.  (I wanted to make a toy, not a decoration). If I can wrest it away from Miss M, it will be a Christmas present for one of her cousins. The pretty purple yarn was just a two inch ball of wool (leftovers my mom gave me).  It suits the birdie perfectly, don't you think?

It's been quiet around here.  Well, not quiet exactly.  Rather noisy in fact.  Just very little remarkable taking place.  Little Guy is teething, and therefore not sleeping very well, which means Mama doesn't sleep well either.  And that leads to Mama taking a nap with the kiddos midday and not getting done the things she wants to do. But such is life with kids, isn't it? We took a bit of a break toward the end of summer, but are back in the swing of things with Miss M's homeschooling.  We started PreK in March and are continuing it, along with lots of game-like supplements since she's very much interested in letters and spelling (though she's not quite reading yet). Her handwriting is getting to be really quite impressive for someone not quite four years old! Some days we don't "do" school and instead she sews, composes, creates, and explores all sorts of things!  She's learning all the time, so I don't mind...

Last year we went to Applefest in Weston, MO where I waited a half hour to purchase a pint off fresh, hot apple butter.  Oh, how disappointed I was when I got home and tasted it.  The nutmeg was overpowering!  I'm not a big fan of nutmeg.  I prefer cinnamon with my apples.  I vowed that I would make my own next time.  Well, Applefest is just around the corner and I won't have to buy any nutmeg-laden apple butter, because...I made my own!  (Though mine has very little nutmeg!) Half the fun was picking the apples ourselves at our favorite local orchard .  Apple picking is a yearly family tradition. Only the Galas were open for picking that day.  They were kind of ugly since most had split open, but they made great applesauce and apple butter, so who cares what they looked like before? I used a recipe my friend found online (with only half the nutmeg called for) that used up the apple peels from making appl...

For some reason, I was unable to find time to sew a single stitch for several weeks.  (Ever wonder how time gets away from you so quickly?)  But once I got started, things progressed quickly!  I have five of my SWAP garments done. I sat down and did both pairs of Vilkas velour pants (Ottobre 4/2008, #2) in one evening.  One pair is chocolate brown stretch velvet I got from Chez Ami last year (remember this skirt ?) and the other pair is from organic cotton sweatshirt knit I got from Fabric.com.  When it first arrived in the mail, it was a little brighter than I had anticipated and looked like a construction zone or hunter's vest, but Hubby picked it out of the pile and repeatedly told me how much he liked it, so I opted to keep it instead of exchanging it. Next I made the Puolukka bodysuit (Ottobre 6/2009, #1).  It may seem a bit strange to make a "baby" garment for my nearly-four-year-old daughter, but in addition to being warm, I thought it would a...

Next week we start our 2010-11 school year.  Of course, Miss M is only in preschool, so it's a very easy school year.  I expect we'll do about an hour a day of "schoolwork" and the rest of the time will be spent learning through play as kids ought to do. Today Miss M wanted to do a craft, so I gave her some pieces of cardboard to decorate and we assemled them into a wagon.  (Yes, the wheels are from Laughing Cow cheese boxes...it's dangerous to have in the house as I tend to eat it all day long till it's gone!) It's perfect to carry her sidewalk chalk! Little Guy likes to ride his big sister's tricycle. It's follow-the-leader on wheels! In sewing news, I finally started sewing my Fall SWAP.  Yesterday I made two pairs of knit pants and today I nearly finished a bodysuit (like a long-sleeved t-shirt that snaps between the legs...it'll be great for wearing under pinafores and skirts!)  Once the top is finished, I'll get so...

Miss M asked to use her rubber stamp set the other day.  While I was tending to Little Guy, she sat peaceably at the table making this piece of art. Lolo  means grandpa in Tagalog.  I drew the face of the far right cat (I'm no artist!) and she gained the confidence to draw some of her own. She even finished mine off for me! I love their striped tails!

As every mother knows, that first year of their kid's life goes so FAST!  So many changes and stages all within such a short period of time.  Little Guy learned to crawl this week. And on the same day, he stood alone (without holding onto anything) for more than just a few seconds.  I've been taking time every day to just play with him, snuggle him, enjoy him as he is because before long he won't be a baby anymore! Miss M is already growing into a tall preschooler. She isn't a toddler anymore. And Oh! The ideas she comes up with! "Daddy, will you type me at work?  I'll type you back, okay?"  By this she means, she'll wake up before Mama does, launch the word processing program on the family computer (conveniently left on by daddy when he went to work), type "d-a-d-d-y" and press enter.  Yes, this actually happened. "Mama, you know, tadpoles turn into frogs and are baby frogs."  How does she come by this knowledge anyway...

At the county fair, Hubby moved like a special ops guy (he'd like that description) through the displays and straight to Madam Pig .  Before I knew it, he was back at my side. "Second," he said. Yes, it seems our dear friend Humpty Dumpty  trumped the piggies and ran off with First Place.  Doesn't he look pleased with himself!?  (You don't suppose it'll all go to his head, do you?) And my Indoor Hopscotch got Fourth Place in the Toys category. I entered some of the clothes I made over the past year ( here , here  and here ) and received ribbons on two of them. I was delighted to see that there was a lot more competition in the Clothes category this year! Last year I won first, second, and third but there were only a few other entries and most of them were aprons. But the best fun of all was getting the Committee's Choice Ribbon for Madam Pig and her piglets!  It turns out they did charm the judges after all! Tomorrow...

It's time for another SWAP, that is, Sewing With a Plan.  Miss M has grown an inch in height since March.  Her girth on the other hand hasn't changed a bit.  Which means store-bought clothes are not going to fit her well this fall, especially pants.  Which is a bit of a problem since it can get pretty cold in the fall and pants are a must.  Enter the ability to sew! (Not to mention it's just plain fun!) I followed the basic guideline set forth by the lovely ladies in the Ottobre English group on Yahoo.  I already had some fabric and put in an order last night for the rest.  I always get fabric envy for the gorgeous designer prints I see out there, so I figured it's time to allow myself the pleasure of using some high-quality prints before Miss M's clothes require too much yardage for it to be feasible.  Among my choices are a Michael Miller corduroy and a Hilco velveteen. Yum! You can click on the picture to ...

Meet Madam Pig. And her six wee piglets. They are preparing themselves to go to the county fair. Where they will charm the judges... And delight the  masses... With their roly poly antics. I <heart> them! The pattern is from LiEr at Ikatbag .

After "marrying her husband" this morning, Miss M thought it would be nice to "have a tea party with him." Using the tea set she received for Christmas last year... And a pink tupperware of freshly baked shortbread  cookies*... And real tea with real sugar and cream... I think she made the little man quite pleased!  And hopefully these "special occasions" will be fondly remembered when she grows up. *I usually add 1 tsp. vanilla and 1 tsp. almond extract to the recipe.  If you don't like shortbread cookies from a tin, try these ! They are infinitely better!

We were rained out this Fourth of July.  A storm came through right at nightfall.  The local fireworks show was postponed until July 5th, but we weren't allowed to do our personal ones (at least, not in the city limits...we could probably take them up to the Farm and do them, but we aren't planning to).  Still, I think Miss M had a mighty fine day.  She's always begging me to let her play in the rain, but most of the time there's too much thunder and lightening to allow her that pleasure.  This time, however, the rain was warm, there was no thunder, and I let her stay out till lunchtime.  Unfortunately, she was wearing the Fourth of July Dress I made her and she had to change into dry clothes before I got a chance to snap her picture.  I finally got her to put it back on today for a quick photo session. I used the "Polka dot blouse" pattern (#16 from Ottobre 1/2008) in a size 98.  I really like this pattern because it's cute and comfy ...

I rarely make clothes for myself.  Mostly because patterns don't fit me well and it takes too much time to get them to fit right.  I wear my clothes to death and then buy what I need on sale from a local outlet store.  Last weekend I convinced hubby to let me buy a piece of fabric from JoAnn's specifically to make myself a sundress.  I came away with a yard and a half of linen for just under $9 with tax.  I was originally going to use this tutorial*, but decided this pattern would be more suitable for the material I had purchased. It turns out I made the dress just in time.  This past weekend was my 10 year high school reunion and, boy, was it hot!  It was about  97 degrees and humid !  There are a bunch of pictures of me wearing the dress at the zoo, but only one really bad one of the front of the dress.  I was under some sort of walkway with windows to see the otters which did something really strange to the lig...

I have very fond memories of the cursive letter banner that was posted around the top of the walls in my fifth grade classroom.  I thought it would be fun to make something similar for our homeschool classroom (a.k.a. our kitchen). I decided to include a Bible verse for each letter.  At this point it's mostly for my own benefit since Miss M doesn't read yet.  They serve as great reminders to help her memorize these important bits of Scripture while her little mind is still a sponge.  (It saddens me that my memorization skills are not what they were when I was a kid!)   The fun part is I saved my work in a pdf file for you to use too! Just click the image above to download the file.  I laminated mine before sticking them around my kitchen walls with ticky tacky.  (The laminator is a new toy!)  Enjoy!