Bean Bag Chairs

Remember how I said I would really like to be able to find the time in my life to do a project every week?

Well... I have a newborn... so I'm sure I wasn't really thinking quite so clearly when I said that. But in the last 9 weeks I have accomplished a thing or two outside of nursing, laundry and cooking. I just haven't had the time or motivation to take pictures and blog them. But finally, you get some proof.

My kids got beanbag chairs!

I made both out of upholstery micofiber. The pink was off of JoAnn's red tag table during a 50% off sale (I think I got it for $4.50/yard) and the tan is leftovers from when I reupholstered a recliner something like 6 years ago. I still have bunches of leftovers (I initially bought enough to slipcover a couch that we no longer own... I never got brave enough for that project), so when I get around to recovering the glider, you'll see that fabric again.

I used this tutorial and generally liked how it turned out. I put zippers in instead of velcro, however, which I liked a lot better than the way the velcro behaved. Someday, if I'm really ambitious I'm going to dye Carter's dark brown and put ribbon on it to look like football threads.

The kids like them, and I like that these provide a cozy little reading spot... it makes me feel like a good mom to be encouraging them to read. And once I get some book slings up on that wall behind Allison she'll have a great little book nook. Carter doesn't get books in his room yet (not until he can be responsible enough to not read at 2 am, which is what happened last time we let him have books in his room), but hopefully soon.

Oh, and in care you're wondering, I found the bags of fill at Target during back-to-school time. 100 L bags were $5, and I used almost 3 bags to fill both chairs.

A completion and too many UFOs

Wanna know what football and crafting have in common? Completions are good, incompletions are bad.

Here's my best completion for the month of January: a t-shirt quilt!

I (and my mom) have been saving t-shirt for years. I mean, YEARS. There are lots of t-shirts from junior high and high school on here, but theres more: one from a progam at school in the 4th grade, one from going to Disney when I was 8, one from a play I did in the 2nd grade... this quilt is packratting put to good use, I guess. I think that this quilt (or something like it) was really the purpose of saving all these shirts. Its was a someday project for my mom that became my project.

This thing is huge. Like, twin sized wide, but half again as long as a standard twin. But that makes it great for cuddling on the couch, which is what we'll be using it for most, I'm sure. Our kids love cuddling under quilts to watch movies and read books.

Sadly, for every crafting completion, I have 2 or 3 UFOs. This t-shirt quilt spent a good 3 months in UFO status. Do you have any UFOs? Need some clarification? UFO... UnFinished Object. I know that I have TONS of them. Off the top of my head:


*painting the playroom
*ABC wall for the playroom
*Grapevine wreath for front door
*Quiet book for Carter
*crochet baby blanket for Carter (that I started while pregnant!)
*white dressy shirt for Allison
*tweed Easter dress for Allison (with that fabric that spoke to me...)

The only projects I've already purchased supplies for count as UFOs in my mind. Which is probably good, becuase if I had to count all the things in my head that I WANT to do... thats a much bigger list...

So I was thinking maybe I needed to have a challenge month. Anyone interested in an "Out With the UFOs" challenge? Let me know... I think, even if no one else needs to, I really need to challenge myself to get them finished. But really, all I want to do is start on something new.

Allison's dream house...

Or Barbie's, rather. The only thing Allison asked for at all this Christmas was a Barbie doll and a Barbie movie. I don't think it gets any easier than that.

She got more than she bargained for. The Barbie house that my dad built for me some 20 years ago is something that my parents hung onto. We brought it with us out to NY last January. I spent most of the December rehabing the house with fresh "carpet" (upholstery velvet and wood looking contact paper), wallpaper (scrapbook paper and wallpaper mod podged on) and paint. I think it turned out pretty cute!

Here's the before (sort of... this is after Brian ripped out the old carpet the the mice in our rental here loved so much... ick!)

And here's the after.

And here's my cute little girl...

Now... I wouldn't decorate or paint my house this way (although the green on green stripe in the kitchen is pretty nice...), but I think its okay for Barbie.

Where've I Been?

Busy...

My kids are going to be SO cute this Halloween, if I do say so myself. All thats left is to finish Tink's wings (I need white knee-highs) and a feather for Peter's cap.

A Hand Built Play Kitchen

IT IS FINISHED!

Brian and I built Allison a play kitchen! I have wanted her to have one for SO long, and I'm so glad that she finally does! And I guess its only "mostly" finished... but finished enough to give her this morning.

I teased this project back in March, but things didn't go as I planned. The plans I drew up, although cute, weren't really working out for us, so I turned to Knock-Off Wood. Ana White has posted FREE plans for all sorts of furniture build projects. I love this site... its amazing! We intend to do several more projects from her plans, including this console table (topped with a slab of marble instead of the wood planked top), this bed (in King size, if I get my way) for our room and these bedside tables to match the bed... or maybe this one instead. But first we'll need a miter saw (can anyone guess what Brian's getting for his birthday this year?)...

We stuck the phone on there becuase the kids love playing with it. Allison frequently "calls Grandma and Grandpa." Its very cute... and the phone is more useful as a pretend toy for the kids than a connumication device when you don't have land-line service.

Anyway, the plans we used for the kitchen can be found here. There are several other plans on that page too. This kitchen is patterned after a now-discontinued Pottery Barn Kids play kitchen.

Was this cheaper than just going out and buying a plastic or MDF play kitchen at Walmart or Target? No. Total cost ran us almost $200... but it would have been cheaper if we'd through through the plans a little more and had bought the right wood the first time around. But caulk it up to experience. But this kitchen is larger, higher quality and CUTER than what $200 might have gotten us at Toys R Us... and something similar to this at Pottery Barn Kids would have run us anywhere from $300 (for the most recently discontinued model) to $600.

We still need to find something for a faucet (we're thinking a straight and a U- or a J-bend PVC pipe painted with a large pair of those glass faceted knobs) and I need to sew a curtain to hide the shelves under the sink (I tried last night, but my serger just WOULDN"T play nice! The needle kept hitting the upper and lower loopers, and it was casting the stitches onto the throat plate, instead of the pressure foot... tying knots that I had to snip off. I re-treaded the stupid thing 3 times and still could NOT figure out the problem... so I gave up until another day). After the curtain and the faucet it will be done... until we find more accessories to add to it! :)

$200 is a lot... but we love it, Allison loves its, Carter loves it and it will see a LOT of play time over the next several years. And that, makes a project worth it.

Projects and Accomplishments

I have a very long list of projects that I want to do. I think it might be longer than Brian's "Honey-Do" list... hard to tell, beceause some of the things on his honey-do list are on my list too, as I intend to be a big part of them.

I've had a very long list for a fairly long time. And things just seem to never get done. I often feel like I accomplish absolutely nothing. So, here I am reminding myself that I do accomplish things occasionally... and sometimes its even something more signifigant than the laundry.

This shouldn't even count, it was so easy. I've talked about having a bow-holder since Allison was born. A few weeks ago, I finally did it. Almost too easy to be called an accomplishment, but everything counts when you're a mom, right? Literally, I bought the A, stapled the big pink ribbons to the back and hung it on her wall.

We built our garden boxes and planted in June and its really taking off. I love that the garden required almost zero effort from me. I water it when its needs it (every day this week with our current 15 degree above average heat wave!), and pull a few small weeds here and there, and its flourishing! We planted cherry tomatoes (we've got some tiny green ones out there now!) cucumbers (a whole bunch of flowers on the plants!), red and gree bell peppers (I saw our first few tiny peppers on one of the plants yesterday) green beans, peas (which are getting taller than I expected!), pumpkins (with a few nice big flowers), zuchini and squash (both are starting to think about putting blossoms out). I'm so excited that I'm not failing at the garden. I'm thinking we'll expand next year and put in a third bed. I'm not sure what else we'll plant... I guess we'll start figuring that our when we see what kind of harvest we get this year.

This little fabric playhouse has been on my list forever. You can find the tutorial here, at UK Lass in US. Apparently her idea also made it into One Yard Wonders. Pretty neat! I enjoyed making this little barn for Allison's barn animals (and I love, even more, that the barn animals now have somewhere to live!). Its not totally done yet... Allison wants me to put in a puddle for the pigs (who are currently MIA) and I should put a door on the outside. But I wanted Allison to be able to play with it, and I haven't been able to get it away from her since! I'm also already have fabric for a Littlest Pet Shop home of sorts. I found some Littlest Pet Shop pets on clearance, and I happened to also have buy-one-get-one coupons... so I picked up half a dozen for $0.75 each. They've made great little prizes for Allison, and now they need a home too.

A little home organization. This is going to go on my kitchen wall to help me keep track of what we have going on. I decided we needed one when I forget to pick Brian up from work in time for his chiropractic appointment a few weeks ago. I just created the calendar, had it blown up (22x28) at a copy center and put it in a frame... instant wipe-off family calendar. Now maybe I'll actually get my monthly dinner menu done to put on it one of these days.

I've also done a little paper crafting recently, but don't have any pictures of those taken. But I'm hoping to do a bunch more soon... our trip to Europe is calling my name, so I finally ordered prints and hope to work on that soon.

An Adorable (Magnetic) Accomplishment!

And an alliteration to boot...

My mom visits this site called One Pretty Thing, a dailky round up of pretty things found online in various and sundry categories. The other day she found this adorable tutorial for magnetic dress up dolls on One Pearl Button. A-DORABLE!

My immediate thought was "I want that for Allison" followed almost immediatly by "What a great church/car/airplane toy!" As luck would have it I happen to need airplane toys, and have nothing but time on my hands in the evenings now that all of my worldly possessions are on a 53 foot semi headed for Syracuse.

I followed her directions pretty close and heres how they turned out...

Love it, love it, love it. And hey look... thats one thing marked off my "Wanna Do" list. Maybe someday I really will conquer it. Maybe.

Something I want to do...

A little background info: I was in 4-H for 10 years. And for most of those years I was a fairly active 4-Her. I didn't show horses or dogs or raise pigs or cows... I was involved in the domestic arts side (bet you didn't know that 4-H had a non-animal side). I sewed, did arts & crafts, photography, cooking... that sort of thing. And every year I entered lots of projects in the county fair, and a few in the state fair.

Today, while trying to get packed up (again) I came across a box labeled "Rosie Memorbelia" (yes, apparently I'm famous enough or novel or enough or just plain cool enough to have my own brand of memorbelia! Check a gift store near you...). Inside the box? 10 years worth of 4-H ribbons. Two bundles of blue awards, a bundle of red awards, a smattering of whites and several stacks of those cool special award championship type rosettes (yep... they let us non-hosre kids have those too).

I feel like, at age 27, 9 years after the fact, I really ought to be able to let go of these... I mean what are they going to do besides sit in a box? But they represent so much hard work, and the just look cool!

So I hit google. And I found this...

and this...

Photos from www.Showthrow.com

and a whole bunch more. Quilts & quilt wall-hangings made of of award ribbons. WOW! I want to make one of my very own. But I'm pretty sure the last thing I need is one more project on my "Wanna Do" list (which, for the record, has more than likely surpassed Brian's "Honey Do" list in length. I know... its long).

So tell me... yay or nay? Take the ribbons with me and put one on my to-do list (it would live in my craft/sewing room...), or leave them behind... in the garbage. What would you do?

Halloween and such...

Yes, we are still alive. And now that Halloween has come and gone (and I'd discovered that my dad's computer has an SD card reader) I have something to blog about that doesn't involve discussing how much I dislike unemployment and job hunting.

Halloween was fun this year... Allison went as Cinderella (her favorite princess) and Carter was a guitar. I got to make both kid's costumes and I loved how they turned out. Carter's didn't end up exactly how I thought it would, but I ran short on time, and what I managed worked out anyway. We took the kids to a 2-ward trunk-or-treat at the stake center. It was huge and it was a good one. Allison thouroughly enjoyed herself and has periodically been asking to go trick or treating again. We have yet to oblige her on that point, but I do let her wear her "halloween dress" around as she sees fit.

Allison. Isn't that dress (and the girl in it) too cute? Best part, it was totally free. The blue fabric was left over from decorating for my wedding. Mom donated the starry fabric and the little trim... tiara was one hanging around the house from our pagenting past. Oh... wait... I lied. I did buy a little dollar store princesses bracelet to steal the Cinderella "gem" from. So this costume cost $1.

Allison up close, with the dress all done.

Apparently Carter was the devil baby guitar... I had intended this to go on his front, but then decided it would look just as good on his back and bug him less. He was happy to just be held during trick-or-treating... no candy required for this kid.

Beyond Halloween, life has mostly been revolving around trying to find a job (which I'm beginning to think might not happen before the first of the year) and trying to help my mom accomplish as many projects as possible for Emily's wedding on the 21st (note to self: hire a wedding planner to do all the projects for Allison's wedding...).

Allison has provided us with some recent excitement too... Thursday evening she pulled a 30 inch barstool down onto her big toe, splitting the toe nail in half, pulling the nail matrix out completely, splitting her toe open pretty well and chipping the bone a little. She got her toe numbed, nail replaced 3 stitches and a splint to keep her from pushing off with her toes when she walks... oh, and 15 stickers (we've been to the urgent care 3 times now... once for the injury and two wound checks). Hopefully we'll be able to get her stitches out next Thursday when we take her in again. And, heaven willing, then never go back.

Fat Burning Friday...

Andrea at Mommy Snacks does a "Fat Burning Friday" post every Friday, documents her ups and downs of trying to lose her mommy weight. Figured I'd jump in as a way of keeping me honest with my goals...

Since I last posted about my weight loss goals things went not well, but got better this week. Several weeks ago I strained my IT Band... its the long muscle that runs down the outside of your leg from hip to past your knee. It would hurt when I ran, then I'd rest and day and it would feel better, so I'd go running again only to have it hurt again. Its a repetitive stress strain, so it got so bad that one day I was able to run the first half of my route, but when I stopped to stretch and take my pulse my hip acted up again. I couldn't run back... I couldn't hardly walk back. So I took 3 weeks off.

In 3 weeks, I gained 2 pounds. Luckily, my little sister is now free in the mornings to come running with me and my hip is healed. We've been running 3 times this will and will go again tomorrow morning. Brian and I have also made a concerted effort to get all the sugary junk out of our house (again) in ways other than eating it. Thats helped.

So, that being said my progess is... down one pound (from my original starting weight, so down 3 pounds total). Yeah! Slow, but steady.

I'll think I'll be adding in a workout cardio/tone DVD (for the non-running days) and I keep telling myself I'll do pilates during nap time, but I end up doing things like blogging instead. Maybe I'll get the willpower soon... Emily and I are also planning to lengthen the distance of our run, but I think we'll probably stick to our current one and three quarters or two miles for next week. Don't want to get burned out... or restrain that hip!

Pounds lost to date: 1
Pounds to go: 9

Mmmm...

What's a girl to do when she (through no fault of her own of course) ends up with 7 pounds of strawberries in the house?

*Disclaime: they were an AMAZING price!*

Strawberry Freezer Jam! Yummy!

Want some? Its so easy. Strawberries, sugar and pectin. Be sure to buy "no cook" or freezer jam pectin. Just follow the super easy directions on the box. I made two batches... thats about 5 pints. Probably enough jam for about a year.

Too bad we'll be moving in less than a year... guess I should have thought that one through a little better and made cooked jam. Oh well.

The Quiet Encyclopedia

For Christmas, Allison is getting a quiet book. I made a couple a few years ago for neices and nephews and figured it was about time for Allison to have one. She's SO busy and hopefully this will allow Brian and I to actually pay attention to part of our Sunday meetings.

Little did I know when I started that Allison would be receiving not a just a quiet book, and The HUGE Encyclopedia Britannica of quiet books. The thing is 3 inches thick! I think I got a little carried away. There were just so many good ideas that I wanted to include.

At least this way I can split the book in two in another year or so and add a page or two (since I didn't use up all of my ideas) and I'll have two quiet books to keep two kids quiet at the same time. Bright side, right? =) Here are the photos!

Front Cover. Notice how its curved? That would be becuase its so HUGE!

Alphabet page. We have all the letter in the pocket on the front cover. They velcro on & off.

Getting dressed page & closet. It's got a zipper to play with and the doll clothes velcro on & off.

Lacing and tying shoes & counting/number recognition gumball machine. The gumballs velcro on & off.

The house is "Lift the flaps". Weaving page... some of these pages she'll grow into.

The balloons are color matching. They velcro on and off. I made a buckles page becuase Allison LOVES to play with buckles on her puppy leash, her car seat, the grocery cart...

Winter and spring themed pages. Build a snowman (velcro part) and button on the flowers.

Summer and fall themed pages. The apples snap on and off and the leaves velcro on and off.

Shape matching and hanging clothes on a clothesline.

Counting with beads and a peek-a-book page. When she's older she can braid the yarn hair too.

"Whats in mommy's purse" and a notepad for drawing. Some keys, dead credit cards and play make-up will probably go in the purse.

If you want to try your hand at making your own (its a great project, but its not really any cheaper than buying one, except when you make your own you get a lot more pages for your $30), here are some resources that I found and used to make Allison's.

• Anna Fowler's Quiet Book blog ... lots of good ideas and a work in progress. You might check her family blog for her post that shows all her quiet book pages on it.
• LDS Quiet Book Packets ... for purchase, but can give you some good ideas.
• Mommy Chic: Quiet Books
• How to make an LDS Quiet Book ... this one now has patterns for quiet book pages. The author of the book by the same name as the website gave permission for them to be publish on the website.

If you want to know more about how I made mine or what I used comment here or email me. =)

PS - this was my 100th post, and I just passed my 1 year blog-o-versary! Stay tuned for some blog candy... (aka: a give-away) =)

Ribbon Organizer!

I have tons of ribbon. I kind of collect it... I love pretty ribbons and I use them in my scrapbooking and to make hair bows for Miss Allison. I am always on the look out for cute ribbon at a great price. The problem with that is organization. Last month while I was busy flinging and organizing I realized I needed an organized storage solution for my ribbons. I found one. My inspiration came from this article at Real Simple Magazine, then I modified to fit my personality better. This is what I came up with.

I found the box at Michaels (craft storage boxes for $2.39!), poked holes in it and fitted it with large eyelets. Most eyelets now have the end of a ribbon spool poking out. Easy to see what I have, easy to use and ORGANIZED!!! Yeah!

I LOVE my post-baby body!

Today, six months after my little angel was born, I feel better than I have in years! I absolutely LOVE my post-baby body. I recently went on South Beach Diet. Since I'm still nursing I didn't stay on the super-strict part of very long, but about a week of it did break me of my incredibly strong sweet tooth. I've now cut almost all sugar out of my diet and, in the process, lost 8 pounds. I am back to my wedding weight and only 5 pounds from my high school weight... I've I've been trying to take off those extra 15 pounds (I lost 4 from my pre-pregnancy weight in the first month of Allison's life) for 3 years! I feel great! Yesterday I realized how good I was doing with this new change... I tried on my pair of size 8 Gap jeans, which I haven't worn in nearly 2 and a half years... and they fit! Not only did they fit, but they're COMFORTABLE and they look pretty good! Check them out below!