Monday, July 30, 2012

Berry Patch Quilt

Seriously I could make quilts all day... unfortunately (fortunately?!) I have babies to take care of... lol 





Friday, July 27, 2012

Berry Stripe Quilt and some crack....

Shot cotton is a new favorite for me. Especially mixed with linen.
I really have to resist the urge to keep every quilt... Moo!




 This boy LOVES the water... any water.... even a cup of water
 every post should have some crack... seriously have to remember to put sunscreen there! 
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Dear Jess, Sorry I Forgot About Our Blog

Okay, I didn't just forget about our blog, I pretty much forgot about everyone's blog. I am sure no one was holding their breath for me to come back, but in the off chance you were, oops, sorry, I'm back. For the most part. While I've been MIA I have been doing things, not doing things, not noticing when things are done and working. The other day Jess and I decided to put aside everything we should be doing and play. I ended up making a quilt. She made two. She'll show her's to you later.

I've wanted to try and make a large log cabin block for a long time. After starting an all blue block, I had an ah-hah moment and decided on some Roy G Biv. This is one more project that is completely from things I had already in my stash. If I add up all the things that I've done and haven't shown you, I think I've gone through about 15 yards of fabric in the last month. It could be a bit more. I don't know whether to be proud or freaked out since my cupboard is not bare.

Anyway, enough, if I wear myself out with this one post I may never come back. Then Jess will probably stop making me cool labels that I don't notice and I really couldn't bear that. On to the pictures.
 45x46
 Backed with Kona in yellow and bound with Kona in coal.
 Quilted in a square spiral starting from the middle and going down the middle of each "log".
I've put this one up for sale in the shop because, well, I guess you can have too many quilts. If it doesn't sell though, I won't be crushed because in my heart I believe, you really can't ever have too many quilts.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Organizing for zero dollars

I've been trying hard to use what I have on hand and not buy a bunch of stuff... it's working out pretty well but mainly because it is so hard to get out with two kids to look at stuff... Winning : ) 
A friend was mentioning that she wanted chalkboard labels for her pantry and I had a duh! moment-- as in I had been wanting to label my pantry too, I also like chalkboard labels and had already made some for Micah's room... so why not my pantry?! 
Sometimes I am very slow. I still had a large roll of chalkboard vinyl from my stairs project so I put my sorely underused silhouette to work. I really need to use it more often!

 So my pantry went from this
 To this
 and Mom's went from this
 To this
Yes we use a LOT of pasta- which reminds me we still haven't told you about our new favorite recipe....  

Also while I am remembering I think I also forgot to tell you guys that I came up with the best pantry organization solution ever! And it's cheap! I once had my entire craft room organized with the plastic shoe tubs and as my supplies grew the boxes no longer organized everything well so I had a ton of them and no where to use them... until it hit me, they fit my pantry shelves PERFECTLY, seriously people! and they use up almost every bit of space on the shelf and are super easy to stack. So I organized Mum's pantry too... of course she didn't know where anything was because she was at work so I am not altogether sure it was appreciated- but I then labeled it for her ( a year later and also while she was at work... haha) Is it mean that I am waiting for her to notice to see what else she wants labeled? She's seen my pantry but I am pretty sure she hasn't looked up in hers! Does the meanness outweigh the help?!
Mum here - The help totally outweighs the meanness. If you hadn't posted this and I hadn't decided to read it before it went live, I'd have found out you labeled my pantry while I was at work. This way was more fun. I seriously looked at the picture and thought you'd photo shopped the labels on. Yes, I'm short. No, I never look up (except when Micah and I are looking at birds and planes). Yes, I love my labels.

Micah is allergic to Peanuts... so we now have our own snack jars (or I just don't want to share!)
 This next project was free because mom had the supplies laying around and she was nice enough to give them to me.
This is the window in our bedroom it lets in lots of lovely afternoon light. The parking lot actually does not bother me (it's ridiculously quiet in this community) and my absolute number one requirement for our house searching was lots of afternoon light. The only unfortunate thing to this window being SO huge is that I don't really like to open it since there is a sidewalk just one story below and you have to constantly remember that people could look up and see in... the master bathroom with large double doors is directly across from it... ahem... 
 So I used scrap 'adhesive' frosting on the bottom 18" of the window. I chose 18" because that is what I had supplies for. 
 So now I can comfortable leave my window open. Though most of the time the blinds still stay shut. It allows in so much light and it also cuts down on the how much the room heats up compared to when I opened the window and it wasn't there. 
 Isabella's room got the same treatment. The beautiful flower kept me from being able to fully shut the blinds at night... which is not so great since I am in there at night feeding her. 
 Much better!
 Micah likes to snack while I am fixing dinner. I decided yesterday to sit him in the corner with a peach. That is the longest he has remained happy and still while I've cooked! 

Now before I forget- the new pasta recipe! 

It's Pioneer Woman's Pasta with Pesto Cream Sauce as the base. But then in addition add in a small (4oz) package of goat cheese and a whole rotisserie chicken shredded up. Also we use Rotini Pasta. IT IS AMAZING we eat it at least once every two weeks... and then we always make sure there are leftovers!
Mum again - The recipe is easy, but we make it even easier by having our pesto already made up. I freeze it in small containers that end up being the perfect size for this dish. By the way, this bowl is huge and we usually have just enough leftovers to fight over...... 
oh she just had to go and add a picture of it... now I WANT SOME!!!!! 

Mum


Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Micah's Tee Pee (the Pinterest Challenge Summer Edition)

I finally got my act together to participate in the Summer Pinterest Challege hosted by Young House Love, Bower Power, Centsational Girl, and Ten June (love them!). Since I am completely addicted to Pinterest it's awesome that someone has taken the initiative to get everyone to actually do something with their pins. 

For my project inspiration, I originally pinned a teepee featured on Happiness is Eva, who I started following after she used my garland for her daughters first birthday party. Hers was purchased from Angel at my Table which is an Australian company. I loved how beautiful and finished it looked. So after much additional perusing of available children's Tee Pee's I knew this was the one that I wanted to reproduce. 

My version--
I am thrilled with the way it turned out. I looked all over trying to see every random picture of these Tee Pee's I could find to figure out how they put them together. I finally lucked out when I found (duh!) the assembly instructions at their site. It filled in all of the details I wasn't sure about.  
It's large enough to grow with him as he gets older. (Uber and I can sit in there with him comfortably now...at the same time...) It's roughly 8 feet tall (to the top of the poles), 68" tall inside and 60" across at its largest point. 
I used a set of herringbone sheets (found at target), 5 bamboo poles, 5 dowels, 5 cord stops, clear vinyl plumbing tubing, cotton clothes line rope, velcro, scrap leather and leather cord to create my own version of the tee pee. It ended up running around $70 in supplies and took about a week of nap times to finish. 
close up details.  Seriously I think the photo below is my favorite. 
It was completely worth it to add such a fun (and I think stylish) play space to our living room for Micah. It sits in a corner that was wasted before and lucky him it has an awesome view of the TV. The adults in the house (and most who visit) may or may not spend time in there hanging out and wishing it were theirs. 
the lucky little boy!

Thanks for visiting!

P.S. I tried so hard to make a tutorial for you guys on this one but I got to the sewing part and was all DARN IT... they can figure this out for themselves!!! But if there is a lot of interest I can do a post on the set up and at least point you in the direction of how to go about it on your own. I really have to say the project turned out exceptionally well ... and believe me I tried very hard to mess it up! 

Friday, July 6, 2012

Isabella Update

A few more pages for her book. 
Still not 100% finished but at least I've got a start. I LOVE her 7 week photos... seriously what a ham! I feel bad about the fact that I haven't taken as many photos of her as Micah ... not that she will likely care but I am glad that since I am finally getting my act together that she is at the fun smiley stage!