Category Archives: Crafty Goodness

A Little Something

Here’s a picture of the little purse I made Kat for her birthday.

Actually, this is the second purse I made for Kat.  The first, I used this gorgeous, thick, woven fabric that unravelled before my eyes as I tried to sew it.  After much cursing and crying, I stuffed it into the trash bin and decided to start over with a good old quilting fabric and it went together easy-peasy.  You could also make it reversible but I’m a big fan of pockets so I nixed that option.

Since I have the pattern out still, I think I’ll make one of these for myself.  I might make the pockets a bit larger though.  I hate digging around the bottom of my bag.    I love having a place for everything.  The different length straps are the snazziest part.  Just loop together and go.  Totally my speed!

Oh yeah, and last night, it got down to 46 degees here.  I think we’ve been totally stood up by spring.  The bum!

For Liza

Liza emailed me to gripe about my lack of posting.  This from the woman who is so busy we haven’t seen each other in over a month!  So to appease her, I’m going to sum up my life for the last week in 2 words or less.

Hectic.  (Ha!  Less than two baby!)

No really.  First, my baby insisted on growing and having another birthday.  She is now three.  She says this proudly while announcing emphatically, “you have no more babies!  No more!  Alls big girls now!”, and each time she does another piece of my heart shatters.  She can’t be three.  Not yet!  I still have at least seven more years of baby snuggling left in me!

Papa and Manny threw her a birthday party with a bouncy house and presents.   She was in heaven.  Oddly enough, she really liked opening the birthday cards.   Most kids toss the cards and dive right into unwrapping the gift.  Not Kulia.  She loved opening each and every card.

Of course, she loved the gifts too.  The girls have been dying to try out the chalk animal print maker thing-a-ma-jig but it has been pouring rain here so no dice.  Sorry kids.  Maybe next month.

She fell in love with her little birthday teddy bear.  As soon as she opened it up, she gave it the biggest, sweetest hug ever.

Oh how I wish I was that little bear.

Along with Kulia, sweet baby Amelia is turning two this week.  We have to miss her party so I gave Anna her birthday present a wee bit early.  It’s the sweetest little summer jumper.  Of course, I probably should have knit her a sweater what with the weather we’re having.  Grrrr.  But it sure came out cute!

And then we had the last day of preschool for Leina.  Due to the excessive rain (did I mention it’s been pouring lately?), they had to cancel their field trip.  Instead, they had class as always.  Leina was hard at work making a masterpiece for her teacher.

You can’t tell from here but the petals on her flower had to be colored in like a rainbow.  Red, orange, yellow, blue, green, purple and repeat.  No amount of hurrying could daunt her.  She was determined to make it just perfect.  That’s my girl!

Finally, we had the last hug good-bye.  Teacher Michelle has been a dream.  Everything you’d want for your child’s first teacher – sweet, kind, loving and patient.  Leina is very interested to learn where teacher Michelle lives so she can go and visit her every day.  So far I’ve been able to avoid answering this question.  I’m sure Ms. Michelle doesn’t want a bunch of 4 yr olds camped out on her front lawn all summer long with reams of colored paper waiting to be admired.  We’ll see how much longer I can stall Leina.

And so, there it is, my life for the last few days. Happy Liza?  Good.  And don’t forget, we’re on for Tues!

Cans

We have a lot of craft supplies in the house. The girls are always cutting, pasteing, gluing, and sticking things together.   All this activity leads to crayons and glue sticks scattered around the house.  Often times, our crafting has to be stopped while we spread out to look for where the scissors were left or locate the missing blue crayon.  I’m a totally organize-a-holic so seeing their art supplies strew about the house gives me major fits.  But throwing things into a big container just meant pawing threw a deep pile of mixed up art suppliesf to find the right crayon or stamp.  There had to be a better way!  I stumbled upon a simple idea using old soup cans.  I added some snazzy fabric from my scrap pile and enlisted Kevin’s woodworking skills and the result is just perfect!  A carrying caddy that separates and organizes all their precious art supplies.

Even better, they can both use it easily at the same time so there’s no fighting.  Every item can be seen and reached without having to paw through a box all jumbled together.

For me, clean up is a snap.  Now when I find a colored pencil or a glue stick I know right where it goes.  Even better, the handy-dandy handle means the girls can lug it all round where ever their whim takes them.

I have another 8 empty cans lying around.  I may just need one of these for my own little craft table!

Mats – Check

I’m not an easy person to present shop for.  I like what I like and I’m not a fan of random clutter/useless junk.  I’m a big fan of gift cards or something homemade but stuff? Well, it just doesn’t float my boat.  After years and years and years of searching for the perfect present, Kevin has finally discovered it.  Time.  Yes, more than anything else, I crave time.  Time to myself.  Time to do what I want when I want without having to lug around a diaper pack and a bag of fishies.  Time to stroll through stores and eat at places that don’t offer chicken fingers.  Time.

Sure, I get to leave the house on weekends alone but I’m usually running errands and somewhere in the back of my mind I’m watching the clock aware of the fact that I have to get back home to clean house/fold laundry/cook/parent.  So Kevin has devised the ingenious plan of sending me off for a long weekend away from being a mother as a present.  This year, for my birthday, he sent me down to Ashland.  I took with me that which I needed most.  My sewing machine and Kat.  ‘Cause I don’t think I would want to do that looooong drive alone!  We stayed in a little old house two blocks from downtown Ashland.  We sewed, shopped, ate, talked, and watched all our favorite movies.  The weather was beyond beautiful and we could eat on outside patios beneath shade trees.  Ah, perfect.  Just perfect!

For my project, I took with the me Carla’s birthday present.  It turned out to be a bit more involved than I thought so I just now finished it.  A little late but I don’t think she’ll mind.  I saw this pattern in a catalogue and new I had to make it.  It’s a set of quilted placemats made from a line of fabric from Connecting Threads.  I love the little pocket in front for the matching napkin and silverware.  Take a peek!

Now wouldn’t you love to sit down at this table for a nice meal?