Family & Friends
Punched Fabric Ornaments for Our Tree 12 Days of Handmade Christmas Projects: Day 2
Our Christmas tree is covered with a beautiful array of handmade ornaments that range from incredibly intricate design work to designed with love by a two-year-old. It’s such a blessing to unpack them every December and share stories that they bring to mind of Christmases gone by. Adding new ornaments to our collection is a family tradition that we look forward to each year!
I ran across the Punched Fabric Ornament while browsing Pinterest a few weeks ago and knew that we just had to make these! I happen to love fabric, and I happen to have an enormous stash of fabric, so anything that uses fabric is obviously going to top my list. 
These were so simple to put together and really fun! The instructions can be found on the Crafts ‘n Coffee blog: Punched Fabric Ornament Instructions. We used Tacky Glue for a strong, long-lasting hold, and we punched the fabric pieces in with well-sharpened colored pencils.
Some of us got creative with patterns, some of us used a whole lot of fabric, some just enough to cover the ball and some of us had our hands full with a certain two-year-old who was a little too excited about stabbing something with a sharpened pencil!
Settling In
Our new house is slowly becoming our new home! The moving truck has come and gone.
My kitchen no longer looks like a black & white version of Christmas morning aftermath.
My beloved Pyrex bowls are safely tucked away in their new cabinet.
The rest of the house is starting to take shape, too. Maybe a little slower than I’d like, though. I can’t wait to be done with the unpacking and on to the decorating! (And, back to work on those new patterns, too!)
Happy Halloween!
Little Red Riding Hood,
the Big Bad Wolf,
Granny,
the Woodsman,
and the Muffin Man,
all hope you have lots of fun today, dressing up and gathering treats!
Celebrating Papa
This past weekend, we spent a beautiful Saturday afternoon celebrating the life of my step-dad who passed away unexpectedly several weeks ago. Ralph was “Papa” to my kids and my sister’s kids. He was a rough and tough outdoors-man with an enviable cache of hunting rifles and a beautiful garden full of corn and field peas. He was the kind of person that you never forget meeting. He had the crazy ability to annoy the heck out of you and make you love him to death at the same time. He held a wealth of knowledge about almost every topic under the sun and some pretty strong opinions, too. He was a man that showed his love for you through actions far more often than words.
Ralph loved to load all the kids on the back of his “tractor” and take them for drives around the acreage or turn on the garden sprinklers when he spotted the kids playing near the crops. (Kids need watering, too.) He relaxed every afternoon on the screened porch that he built with his own hands to watch the deer, turkey and other wildlife wander across the property. I don’t think I ever knew him to be afraid of anything, except maybe for that tunnel that goes under the Mobile River. (He was not going through that thing for anything!)
Ralph made a huge mark on my life, and I’m very grateful to have known him. He will be missed far more than words can say.
On the road to Florida with InstaGram
About two weeks ago now, the boxes were packed and labeled . . .
. . . and loaded. (Thanks so much to everyone who came out to help load the truck and to those who watched our little ones so we could get all the last minute details wrapped up! You were a huge blessing!)
We set out right after closing on Thursday morning and said, “Good-bye”, to Texas before lunch.
In the late afternoon, we crossed the Mississippi River,
and headed south across Mississippi.
We hit the Alabama state line after dark, exhausted and ready to collapse in a comfy bed.
After a little bit of excitement while traveling through the tunnel under the Mobile River, we did just that. (One thing you do not want to see when driving through an underwater tunnel is drops of water falling on the windshield. Thankfully, it only took a few seconds to see that a work crew was pressure-washing the inside of the tunnel. Shouldn’t they have to put up some kind of warning signs for that? “Do not panic! Pressure-washing crew ahead. You are not about to drown in a tunnel collapse!”)
After a good night’s sleep, we hit the road again and crossed the Florida state line early Friday morning. Woo-hoo!
We spent a week in Orlando, looking at houses, looking at houses and looking at more houses, but we did get one evening to pop over to the “Happiest Place on Earth” where we enjoyed a lovely afternoon of rides and a late night of amazing contemporary Christian music at Disney’s Night of Joy!
Now we’re settled into our temporary home in Melbourne while we wait for closing on our new permanent home. More on that to come!
Moving Day Is on Its Way!
I think it’s official enough now that I can say, “WE’RE MOVING NEXT WEEK!” The house is under contract. The inspection is done. The appraisal is back. Closing is set for next Thursday. A good bit of the house is packed, and the moving truck will be arriving next Wednesday morning. That’s only 10 days away! Anyone want to come help me pack or wrangle a few little boys who won’t stop climbing the stacks of boxes?
New Family Photos! Plus A Little About Choosing the Outfits for Our Session
Woo-hoo! We got our family pictures back! And, I LOVE them! I’m so excited to have beautiful family photographs to display when we’re finally settled into our new home in Florida. Our photographer was Brandi of Brandi Thompson Photography, and she is simply amazing! She does such a great job of showing families actually interacting and enjoying each other. There’s so much life in her photography!
Before I go any further, you really have to click on the images to see the larger versions. The small photo size that my blog allows, simply does not do justice to how gorgeous this photography is!
Having professional photographs done is an investment, and I really wanted to do everything that I could to make sure that I would be thrilled with the pictures. Because there are so many of us, I knew that our clothes would really have to work well together. A few weeks before our session, I decided on three primary colors to use for our clothing, then I set out to make sure that everything coordinated nicely without looking matchy-matchy. I chose the colors red, white and blue, allowing multiple shades of blue so that we didn’t look overly patriotic. (Of course, we are very patriotic, so if it comes out that way, it’s really okay!) As I found fabrics that I liked for the clothing that I planned to sew or ran across clothing items that I thought might work for the rest of us, I threw it onto a design board. It really helped me to better visualize how it all worked together. Here’s what our final design board looked like:
(My top, tank and skirt and the girls’ dresses are all from Old Navy, as well as Sean’s red and white striped tee. Ray’s blue polo came from JCPenney. We found Allen’s red striped polo at Macy’s. The flowered fabrics are organic cotton from the Chick Chick collection by Nancy Mims for Robert Kaufman. The red plaid fabric is from the Stars & Stripes Collection from Deena Rutter for Riley Blake Designs, and the solid red fabric is Kona Cotton also from Robert Kaufman.)
I didn’t stop with the clothes, though. I wanted everything to work together, so I coordinated our shoes, too! (Is that going a bit overboard?)
(The three youngest boys wore Chuck Taylor Converse All-Stars in red and dazzling blue. Sean’s shoes are navy blue Toms. Ray’s denim Vans and Samantha’s blue Candie’s sandals came from Kohls. Morgan’s white sandals can be found at Target, and Katie’s at Payless Shoes.)
I think the end result was definitely worth putting in a little planning time! We’re going to be looking at these pictures for many years. What do you think?
You can find lots more pictures and the larger versions of these, too, over on Brandi’s Blog: The “F” Family – Fun Frisco Family Session. While you’re there, be sure to check out the rest of her incredible photography, as well!
Maple Oatmeal Blueberry Crumble
Blueberry season is just wrapping up here in Texas which I think means it’s probably in full swing north of here. Our house is full of blueberry lovers, so when I was presented with an amazing deal on 1 1/2 gallons of fresh organic blueberries straight from the farm, how could I possibly pass it up? (I was actually excited not to have to take Charlie to the store to purchase these. He thinks blueberries are the best food ever created, but because he’s only two, he doesn’t say “blueberries” well. It comes out “boobies”. Have you ever stood in the produce department of a grocery store with a two-year-old screaming excitedly while bouncing in the cart, “BOOBIES! BOOBIES! BOOBIES!”?)
We’ve eaten loads of these straight from the bowl. We’ve made blueberry muffins, but for some reason, my kids don’t care for them much. They did inhale the blueberry maple syrup that I made with our weekly pancake dinner, though. (I used this recipe: Blueberry Maple Syrup.) Because we’re moving across the country, I didn’t want to freeze any, so I needed to come up with a recipe that we all really liked that would get these blueberries eaten! Enter my Maple Oatmeal Blueberry Crumble.
The Ingredient List
3 1/2 – 5 cups of blueberries (Blueberries are one of the “Dirty Dozen“, so try to choose organic only. Be sure that you’ve removed all the stems.)
3 tablespoons of maple syrup
2 1/2 cups of white whole wheat flour
2 cups of rolled oats
1 cup of maple syrup
1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
1 cup of butter
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Pour blueberries into a bowl. Drizzle the 3 tablespoons of maple syrup over them and toss them lightly to cover. Set the berries aside.
Melt butter.
In a separate large bowl, combine flour, oats and cinnamon.
Pour 1 cup of maple syrup into the melted butter and stir.
Combine the butter/maple syrup combination with the dry ingredient.
Enlist the help of any early risers. (Jamie helped me make this batch for breakfast yesterday. Please excuse his almost-too-small-just-woke-up-wrinkled-mama-made jammies! They were a great fit when I made them over a year ago. You can peek back at them and see how much he’s grown right here.)
Once the crumble is all mixed, pour about half of it into a buttered 9 1/2 x 11 glass or ceramic baking dish. Press it in well. If it’s sticky, try wetting your fingers a little, or just lick it off your fingers when you’re finished!
Pour the blueberries evenly over the top.
Use your fingers to sprinkle the remaining crumble over the top.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes until the topping is browned and the blueberries are bubbling up on the sides. Go ahead and try to resist the urge to grab one of those crumbles off of the top. They’re so yummy! (I wonder how this would work as an oatmeal cookie . . . might have to try that.)
Enjoy! 
(A tiny little word of caution: when you eat this straight from the oven, it may temporarily turn your teeth slightly purple. Your children will think this is absolutely hilarious. If you’re serving company, they may not feel the same way, but if you add a little homemade vanilla ice cream, they’ll totally forgive you!)
Look What I Found!
I was on the hunt for fabric for a couple of projects yesterday, so I ran up to this quilt shop, just north and east of Dallas, in McKinney. It’s called The Quilt Asylum. Is that not the greatest name for a quilt shop?! I love that they always have a nice selection of the latest fabric releases, and the ladies who work there are so friendly and helpful!
I browsed around the store for a bit looking for exactly the right fabric, then I turned and walked back towards the front of the store to see what I missed the first time around. (Do you do that when you shop for fabric? Sometimes I have to look over the rows multiple times to actually see everything!) When I turned, I saw this lovely rack of sewing patterns, and something on that rack of sewing patterns caught my eye! (Do you see what I saw?)
I don’t think I actually sprinted across the store, and I’m sure that I didn’t squeal as if I had just seen my favorite movie star, but I really wanted to do both of those things! Right there, hanging on the rack among stars like Serendipity Studios, Sew Liberated and Indygo Junction, were two Fishsticks Designs patterns!
It was the first time that I walked into a shop and found my patterns for sale! How cool is that? (I do wholesale my patterns directly to a few quilt shops around the country, but the majority of my wholesale distribution is through United Notions. Because of that, I don’t actually know what shops carry my patterns.)
It was so much fun having a few minutes of feeling a little like a celebrity, introducing myself and showing off my designs! Today, though, it’s back to reality, and my every-growing to-do list. My whole family is coming in this weekend, and we have a family photo session scheduled for Monday evening. Today’s goals include getting shirts done for Charlie and Jamie and working on a dress for Katie (one that I hope will end up as a new pattern for the fall).
There are just six days left to download and sew the free Mud Puddle Splashers pattern for Hopeful Threads and Children in Families! The latest count is 130 pairs of shorts! Think we can add 70 more for 200 total by next Tuesday?
In addition to the free pattern and the joy of sewing for someone in need, there are some great giveaways this month, including this Playdate Backpack filled with goodies from me! Each pair of shorts that you sew and donate enters you to win. You can check out all the other prizes including patterns from Figgy’s and Muddy Max Designs over on the Hopeful Threads blog.
Football Backpack for Jamie 52 (Family) Projects in 2012: #14
We have some traveling planned for the summer. Our Florida trip has been delayed for now, but that’s a story for another time. As I was saying, we have some traveling planned for late summer, and Jamie needed a new backpack. He asked for a football backpack, and it so happens that I had multiple pieces of leftover football fabric from various other projects hanging around my sewing studio. (In addition to being one of my 52 (Family) Projects, this is a stash-only project! That means bonus points, right?)
I love my new Playdate Bag pattern, but the backpack is really too small for Jamie at 5 1/2. So, I sized it up just a little, and I think it’s perfect now for that early school age group! If you have the pattern, it’s really easy to size it up. For Jamie, I added an inch to both the width and the height: 1/2″ on each side and 1/2″ on the top and bottom. To match the flap up to the new width, I added 1/2″ to the straight side of each outside curved piece and increased the back of the flap by 1″ in width. I left the length of the flap alone. I also added an inch to both the padded strap and the webbing strap. Here’s how the two backpacks look side by side:
Jamie’s new backpack conveniently matches the crayon roll that was my very first family project of the year.
That means that he doesn’t really need the crayon pocket on the inside, so I modified the inside pocket to hold two pencils and any other little things that he needs to take along, like headphones for his Leapster. Isn’t great how when you sew, you can tailor-make something perfect for it’s new owner?
I finished up a few more family projects this week that I’ll share with you next week. This weekend, I’ll be working on shorts for the Little Boys’ Shorts Project at Hopeful Threads along with a quick tutorial for how you can add another little “extra” to them. These are the fabrics that are in the line-up. Aren’t they fun?
Oh, I have to share a funny story from this morning before I go. Jamie pulled the madras shorts that are in my post from July 1st out of his drawer this morning, and as he was pulling them on I asked, “Do you like those shorts?” The response? “Yep! You let me splash in mud puddles in them!” Don’t forget that the Mud Puddle Splashers pattern is a free download this month to sew for charity and then for your own little ones!
