Serged tablecloth

One day at the very beginning of summer I took a deep breath and got the serger out of the box. I got it threaded, played around a bit, and then started my first simple project.

I was attempting a rolled hem around the edges of this piece of double-knit fabric from Goodwill.

New tablecloth!

Early Bird Christmas Crafting

You may have noticed my new button over there on the side. I found this the other day, while avoiding my chores. :) I started a little late, but I have made several things already this summer, so I'm not too worried.

Here's the book I made to keep track:

I really like it. It's from the outside box from a DVD (obviously), and I put large envelopes in to act as dividers for different gifting categories, and also as a spot for receipts and other bits of paper, and it has a ribbon/velcro closure which may marginally decrease the likelihood of peeking.

Whee! And yay for Christmas all the year. :)

Summer List

So here's the progress on Spring:

Spring 2010:

1. 1 Scrapbook Project. Please. (that's the magic word, right?)
2. Sarah's Birthday gift.
3. Finish Room in the basement with Matthew.
4. Plant Garden.
5. One small landscaping project.
6. Anna jammies!
7. Anna Birthday Dress.
8. Run away with Anna.
9. Make something with Jelly Rolls.
10. Make something for myself.
11. Anna hall pictures.
12. Anna 8x10's for year.
13. Anna and Grammy Rita book.
14. Video Project.

Wow, I feel great about that. Almost everything! That's the nice thing about no school. It kind of feels like cheating.

The summer list falls half in my summer and half in the beginning of the year, so I'm trying to remember that and be reasonable.

Summer 2010 List

1. Keep up with garden and trees.

2. Preserve something from garden.

3. Make something from Jelly Rolls.

4. Scrapbook Project. Thanks to a free photo book offer from Shutterfly, I made Kiki & Joe's Wedding book!! Only 3 years later. :)

5. Complete the Sew Along.

6. Make a facebook page or group or something for my students. Susan is making a page for me! Kind of cheating, but it did get done...

7. Make Christmas gifts. Also cheating a bit, I made some...

8. Go to Oregon.

9. Go to the Cabin.

10. Make Anna a First Day of School Dress.

11. Make Anna a nap mat.

12. Cabin Book

13. Anna Fans Book I got started. This is going to be an enormous project.

2 years.

"Joy is in our hearts"--Sara Groves

Click tag "My Mama" for more videos.

Luggage Tags

Anna and I each got a new pair of pants this Spring, and they both had lovely hard cardboard tags. I couldn't possibly throw those away.

So I cut some cute pictures and words and remade them into luggage tags.

I plan to write our info on them and then maybe use the heavy lamination at Staples, or maybe just let them get beat up. Luggage tags so often are lost anyway...

Notebook frenzy.

Abby sighed sweetly and smiled when I lugged in all of the paper things again.

We made lots of notebooks.

This one was a notebook Susan gave me that had a nice heavy cover and holes that matched the bind-it-all! So I cut some paper, new and recycled, and refilled it. :)

I added an envelope in the back as a pocket. I'm very pleased with this addition. Handy for coupons, etc.

My favorite part of making notebooks is that after making one (out of trash), you can use the bits of paper left over to make another one, and then another, and the good feeling of making something out of trash is exponentially increased every time.

Anna Cards

The first week of summer Anna had VBS at BCC, and so Abby and I had several evenings sans kiddo to do whatever we wanted. Which I decided was paper crafting. (It may be appropriate to say whatever I wanted, but she's a good sport). We made LOTS of things.

I saw this sometime ago, and tucked it away in my brain as a brilliant use of the artwork that accumulates. Anna Art note cards!

And then we dug unto the stash of beautiful illustrations from books that have been destroyed and made another set. Abby made these. Didn't she choose some fantastic images?

More to come!

Trash (pants) to Treasure (bag)

When we had the fantastically full and fun week of cousins, when JEO and ELO were here, there was much playing (and little supervision). {side note-I wish I had thought of this book) [side side note-I haven't read it or anything, I just like the idea]

One of the fun things was when JEO, working diligently on the small hole in the knee of his pants, came running around the corner, surprised and panicked, with pants ripped from top to toe: "I need new pants!"

I used the other leg to make him a little bag to tote things around in, like a water bottle or sticks or, you know, earthworms.

Idea here.

Summer Plan

Sometimes I start to feel overwhelmed and out of control. Summer is so fun! There's so much to do! How will I get it all done?!

So, like any normal crazy person, I made a schedule.

Summer Schedule

6:30 am: Up, Breakfast, read and pray, dress.

7:30: Daily Chores

8:00: Computer Projects

9:00: Sewing Projects

10:00: Up to me!

12:00: Lunch, dinner prep

1:30: Leave for town

2:00: Patrick Dugan’s—work on Class.

3:40: Leave for Abby’s

4:00: Big Pool!

5:30: Sno Cones!

6:00: Laps/Water Aerobics

8:00: Home, water trees, garden, dinner

9:30: Anna Bed

10:30: Betsy Bed

Garden Bling (FAIL)

Anna and I sat down to make some pretty dividers for our big pot of herbs.

We strung pony beads on some old wire and stuck them into our pot.
Pretty! But too attractive to Bell, who keeps pulling them out and strewing them about the yard. I put the beads back on the wire once, and put the strings into the pot several times, but I finally gave up.

hmph.

Tea cup pincushion

I found this sweet little blue cup at Goodwill and decided it was just the thing for a housewarming present for my friend Sarah.

When I got home and sorted through my fabric I discovered this perfect little birdy fabric matched! It was a tiny little piece that bothered me, because I loved it, and I wanted to use it in something that would show it off, but it was so small I thought it would be lost among other fabrics.
It makes me so happy when things work out.

(This is a very simple project. Just a styrofoam ball, some hot glue, some batting scraps, and you're done. Here's a link to the inspiration-found in this post from years ago.)

Ariel Jammies

Last year before Anna's birthday I bought a yard of Ariel fabric to make her some jammies.

This year she finally got them.

Of course she continues to pose like a champ.

I underestimated how much fabric I would need. I was able to cut the front out with Ariel swimming along as she should...
But in order to get the back panel she has to swim upside down and sideways.

Anna likes them anyway.

Ball Fun

We had a perfect day, not too windy, not too hot or cold, with loads of sunshine.

We bounced some balls on the parachute. Little balls, giant balls, it was great.

Then we came inside and made bouncy balls from the kits I found that inspired the whole party. We poured some little crystal/sand-y bits in different colors into molds and then soaked them in water for a little while.

They lost their bounce after about 24 hours, but it was fun while it lasted-and I was glad to sneak in a project. :)

I loved the treat bags. I found ball bags, stuffed them full of all kinds of balls, and we got some ball shaped candy from our local candy store; Ewe's, which has lovely friendly people and free samples and great prices.

We had a ball!

Ball Food

Obviously, at a Ball Party we had to eat ball shaped food. I enjoyed trying to come up with this menu, though I still think it was a little scanty. MJL didn't think that anyone but me would eat peas, but I think they would have 'rounded' things out ;).

We had melon balls, rolls, new potatoes, and two kinds of meatballs; maple glazed from Southern Living, and Chicken Florentine from Taste of Home.

Abby and Anna were great helpers, though allowing a 4 year old to help make meatballs required deep breaths from Mama. "It is good for her, it is important for her, it's her party, relax." (repeat)

Taste of Home doesn't allow me to post a link, but they weren't my favorite anyway.

The maple glazed meatballs were delicious. I don't know what the rules are about posting recipes, but I'm going to share this one with you.

Maple-Glazed Meatballs

Prep: 25 minutes Cook: 25 minutes

3 slices white bread

1/2 cup milk

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 Tablespoon prepared horseradish

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

1/2 cup ketchup

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/3 cup maple syrup

3/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard (I didn't have any, so I just squirted in a little regular mustard)

Soak bread in milk. Combine bread mixture, eggs, and next 3 ingredients in a bowl; stir well. Add beef, mix well.

Shape beef mixture into 1 inch balls Place on a rack in shallow broiler pan. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes or until meatballs are done. (We did this step ahead of time, and then froze the meatballs. On party day, we just threw them into a crock pot with the sauce.)

Combine ketchup and remaining 5 ingredients in a saucepan, cook over medium heat 5 minutes or until bubbly, stirring occasionally. Add meatballs to sauce, and cook 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Serve warm.

Yield: 5 servings

Cake Balls

I'd never heard of cake balls before I spent some time googling for Ball shaped foods. Basically, you bake a cake, crumble it up, mix it with frosting, roll it into balls, and then dip it in chocolate. We made two batches, one with white cake and frosting and one with chocolate. I used vanilla almond bark to cover them. We used this tutorial. It takes a long time. :) Here is a perfect ball I plucked out to take pictures of. Isn't it pretty?

Most of them looked more lumpy, like these

The sprinkles are important, they cover the hole made from the stick used for dipping. They were tasty, and pretty fun to make, but I had lots of good help. Thanks Abby and Sarah and Katrina and Matthew!

Ball Party Invitations

OK, I'll finally get started filling you in about our super fun Ball Party.

For invitations, we blew up mini beach balls and wrote the info with a sharpie (I thought as I was finishing that maybe a wet erase marker would have been better? Because then the ball could revert to normal, but it'll kick either way).

Then we deflated them and put them into the mail. I was a little nervous about this step, because I just used regular envelopes and postage, but I think they all came through just fine.

Luke's Quilt

My nephew Luke graduated from High School this weekend.

See him here (circled) as the ring bearer in my wedding? He's all big now, and such a great kid. I still really like him.

His favorite colors though? Black and Blue. Seriously. So I did my best to make a manly quilt with black and blue. It was kind of hard to find fabric in those colors without flowers or hearts or stars or other baby/girly elements.

I don't think it comest through here, but this is a mottled black/blue. And see the fancy quilting? It was pretty fun to do.

I used this pattern from Craft Nectar. Off center rectangles, mostly just a big field of black and blue, with a black backing.

Congratulations Luke!

{Make} A Bag Sew Along!

Just found this and I'm going to do it!

{Make} A Bag Sew Along

Want to join me? Looks like bunches of fun, we'll make a bag and lots of stuff to go in it. And you can use scraps! Which is good because you know I can't throw stuff away.

Yippee!

Vacay

I'm taking this first week of summer!!! off, then I'll hit you with a recap of all of the birthday fun, etc.

summer...

Cake

So tired... up late making dozens of cake balls.

Here's a link to tide you over until tomorrow.

Cake Wrecks

(happy 5th birthday to our sweet girl today!)

Kansas Love

Look what we got in the mail last week.

How fun is that??


We'd better hit the road now and live up to it!

Thanks Marci and WenDee for all you do for Kansas! Your work has absolutely enriched our lives.

If I had a hammer

Do you know how much I love this song?

I really do.

(back to regular posting tomorrow, surely!)

Bien o mal

Julieta Venegas has a new CD out! It's going to be a great summer.

Chichen Itzá

Found this great video tonight that explains a little about Chichen Itzá and the equinox. In Spanish with English subtitles.

Mexico Geography Quizzes

In a dash-here are some fun online quizzes. Know where the states are? The rivers? Me neither!

Quizzes

Frida Kahlo Day

I spent an hour looking for a video on youtube with Frida's paintings, but no one has made one yet with just the elementary appropriate paintings. So be warned, if you have kiddos on your lap, this is not something I will show at school.

I had to settle on a video of photos.

I think this blog may be all cultural week this week, I'm so busy working on that I haven't had time to make anything new.

This week is Cultural Week at school and this year we're studying Mexico! Cultural Week is one of the many fantastic things about our school. Today we're having a museum in the library, all full of things from Mexico. I'm wearing a fun dress too. :)

Here are a couple of the videos we'll be talking about.

T

Anna's Graduation

Junk Mail

In this story I fall prey to direct mail advertising.

Somehow the world found out that I like to make stuff.

I got a packet full of advertisements for all sorts of different crafty websites and stores and was able to throw almost all of it away.

But Goodybeads sent me a coupon too! Stinkers. How am I supposed to throw away a $10 coupon? So I got online and browsed around and ended up buying a kit to make a letter opener and some beads to go with it.

I don't think beading is my craft. It was kind of fun to pick out the beads, but it would have been better in person, and I was disappointed in the letter opener. I stripped the screw trying to get the end on tight (it advertised that it would screw down 1/8" to get "a perfect fit" and mine was not perfect). I ended up using superglue-which I do always enjoy.

It's for Katrina, in her new fancy office job away from the kiddos. I do like it, and I suppose it was a good lesson in not succumbing to junk mail temptations.

¡Feliz cinco de mayo!

Una de mis canciones favoritas.

Simplicity 5504

I made Anna another dress!

I started Sunday night after she went to bed and finished in a squeezy bit of time Monday afternoon.
She is not into cooperating for pictures lately, so it's hard to tell that there are sweet pink roses and thin blue stripes. I think this is a calico? It's pretty, whatever it is.

We decided to put a really ruffled piece of lace on the bottom, just for fun. And because I really like to put something on the bottom, because then I don't worry so much if the hem is straight.

Sewing with patterns might be getting a teensy bit easier. :)

Things to make

On Saturday my friend Sarah posted some links to cute things she wants to make. As I added the bag to my list, I thought about the things that I want to make...

See here: my delicious

(Are you all using delicious? It's wonderful for gathering links and projects and websites, etc. Just start an account, add the bookmark tools, and have everything you ever thought was cool all in once place)

The ever growing and ridiculously long list of things I like.

This doesn't even include the random ideas percolating or the pile of things on my work table.

No wonder I get overwhelmed.