Family & Friends
Happy 21st!
21 years ago today, I became “Mama”. What an incredible journey it’s been since I welcomed that tiny 4 pound, 6 ounce baby girl almost seven weeks before she was due to arrive! We’ve had so much fun and shared so many memories. I’ve gained so much wisdom, yet I still feel like I’m learning everyday. I wouldn’t trade the title of Mama for any other in the world! Very soon . . . I’ll get to be grandma to a brand new little one, too!
Today is Morgan’s 21st birthday, and in case you haven’t heard, she’s expecting a new little one in September. We celebrated her birthday on Saturday with a day full of shopping, eating (way too much eating) and family time!
Happy Birthday, Morgan! I pray that this next year brings you more joy than you can imagine as you welcome your new little girl or boy and begin the journey.
Happy 1st Birthday, Charlie!
Our little guy, Charlie is one year old! We affectionately refer to him as “Charlie Brown” all the time, so I was beside myself with excitement a few months ago to run across this Peanuts cotton knit fabric. I combined my Patrick Curved Raglan and my new Austin Lee Coverall to make his 1st birthday outfit.
I knew that I wanted a quilted bib to go with it, and I found the perfect cotton woven coordinate at Joanns last week. I used Busy Quilt Mom’s Perfect Fit Bib pattern for the bib. (We have a collection of these that I really need to show off to you. It’s a lovely pattern!)
Here’s the birthday boy in his Patrick Curved Austin Lee Coverall:
Charlie loves cuddling with stuffies, so I used the Bit of Whimsy Nutmeg Gnome pattern to sew up this sweet lovey for him as a first birthday gift.
Yay! I think this lovey is going to get lots of love!
Charlie had a wonderful birthday celebration, and he thoroughly enjoyed his birthday cake!
Happy Birthday, my Charlie Brown! You bring such great joy to our whole family. What an incredible blessing you are!
My Baby Girl is a Teenager!
Do you ever wish you could slow down time? Samantha, child number three in our family and our youngest girl, turned 13 yesterday! It’s so hard to believe that this young lady was once such a teeny baby, arriving five weeks before her due date. Today she’s a beautiful girl with a smile to share with everyone.
We celebrated her birthday with dinner out on Monday night since we’d heard that bad weather was coming in. We spent her actual birthday huddled up in our house enjoying a “snow/ice day”. Even Dad and big brother, Sean, got the day off to spend with us. Plenty of chocolate cake and mint chocolate chip ice cream was enjoyed by all.
Quite some time ago, Samantha asked me to make her some pajamas from some Little Miss Sunshine fabric that I found online. Since one of my resolutions this year is to teach her some sewing skills, I thought it would be fun to spend the afternoon of her birthday together sewing birthday PJs.
She did most of the cutting, and I did most of the sewing while she watched and we chatted.
The finished pajamas turned out so cute! The top is one that I drafted for Spring Top Week two years ago, and the pants are trace-a-pair-of-ready-to-wear-to-make-a-pattern pants.
We even did a simple applique on the bodice. (Knits are awesome for appliqueing since you don’t have worry about fraying!)
I think she likes them!
Happy 13th Birthday, Samantha! I pray that this year brings many happy memories as you grow in wisdom, faith and love.
The Comfy Sleep Set on a Newbie
A few corrections needed to be made to the Comfy Sleep Set pattern download, so it’s unavailable for a little bit. I’ll let you know as soon as it’s back up. In the meantime, there are still a few days to enter my drawing for a copy of the Spring 2011 Stitch Magazine and all the fabric you need to make your own Comfy Sleep Set: Bacon & Eggs Comfy Sleep Set Giveaway.
Today, I thought I’d share a newborn set that I sewed up with the pattern. It’s a great set for a baby shower gift! In fact, this one was a gift for my friend, Jenna, for her new baby boy. Jenna let me steal him away for a few pictures so you can see the fit on a new baby.
This “little” guy weighed in at about 9 pounds, and he’s got plenty of growing room in this outfit. The combination of the stretchy knit fabric and the fold-up cuffs make this a set that you’ll get a long life out of!
Jamie is Four!
My sweet Jamie is four years old! We had a great time celebrating his birthday with family and few of his friends on Saturday. We started the decorations with the birthday banner that I finally sewed up.
This was one of those projects that was on my to-sew list for . . . um . . . years. It really is such an easy project, though, and I love that it’s one we can use over and over again. Why did I wait so long to make it?
I used the tutorial at Pickup Some Creativity. I did modify the size of the triangles so that the whole thing would fit on a standard three-yard piece of double fold bias tape which fits perfectly across our huge kitchen window. I also used my handy-dandy pinking rotary cutter to trim off the edges. Have I mentioned before how much I love that thing?
Back to the party . . . I love this picture of Jamie peeking over the gifts in anticipation. He picked out the ninja fabric for his birthday Charlie Tee Hoodie. I made him a Charlie Tee last summer with a similar fabric, and he wore it everyday that it was clean. I’m guessing this one is going to be worn just as much since I did laundry yesterday, and it was his chosen top this morning!
From the Lego-covered cake and the Lego-themed games to the Lego goodies that his friends took home, it was a crazy Lego filled day! We held Legos by our noses and tried to drop them into Mason jars. (The little ones had a clear advantage in this game.)
And, we tried to guess how many Legos were in the jar. Can you guess how many?
Happy Birthday my big boy! I pray that the year ahead is full of joy and wonder and grand four-year-old achievements!
Celtic Crafting
It’s been a little while since I blogged about homeschooling. We just started a new study of the middle ages, and my amazing hubby found some great craft projects to go along with last week’s study of the Celts. Allen had a blast putting together the Celtic roundhouse village above.
On Tuesday, Samantha and Allen pulled out our box of polymer clay and created their own Celtic beads. Samantha turned hers into earrings . . .
. . . and Allen strung his beads together into a necklace.
My children often surprise me with their choices on things. Ray gave them a list of the projects that they could choose from for the week on Monday and let them decide which two to complete. Allen, my all-boy boy, choose the paper and glue craft at the top of this post, and, Samantha, my sweet little girl, built this working K’Nex ballista.
All of this week’s craft ideas came from the Tyne and Wear Museums site.
My Sister’s Apron
My sister asked me to sew her an apron for Christmas (well, okay, for sometime after Christmas). She manages a restaurant and shared with me that she is allowed to wear an apron that includes the colors black and red. (I did forget to ask if white was okay–I really hope it is!) I found this perfect fabric at Hobby Lobby last week. My dear husband when I said, “Look, I found the perfect fabric for Bobbie’s apron!” responded, “You mean because it has aprons on it?” (I might have rolled my eyes.) Well, yeah, sort of . . . but it’s also black and red–the perfect colors–and the aprons on it have this great retro feel to them. The whole fabric has a great feel to it. It was exactly what I wanted to give this simple apron a some excitement.
I used McCalls 2233 which went together perfectly according to the instructions included. (Yay! I didn’t have to modify anything!) I think it made for nice functional apron which should work very well for kitchen duties at home or on the job. I already have plans to make one for myself. I have the perfect fabric in my stash for it!
The Joy-Nicole Bag Tutorial
Each year, I sew new bags for my nieces and daughters for Christmas. Last year, with my Messenger Bag Tutorial, I started a tradition of designing a bag for them and sharing it in a tutorial here for all of you to use, too. I’m a little behind on Christmas sewing this year. (There was this wedding . . . and it took up just a tiny bit of my time . . . ) I wasn’t ready to give up on the bag or the tutorial, though, so I made some time for finishing up both over the last week.
The first two versions of this bag weren’t quite what I wanted, but I’m thrilled with this final version! I can’t wait to hear what you think of it, too. This one is Samantha’s–as soon as she saw it, she begged for it to be hers. I’m so happy with the piping around the flap. It gives the bag a great finished look. If you’ve never worked with piping before (or if you have without great results) don’t fret–I’ve included my suggestions for perfect piping in the tutorial.
My nieces were here for the wedding, so I had the opportunity to have them visit my sewing studio and share with me their fabric preferences. My oldest niece, Tristen, asked for a bag made with her school colors: green and orange. I had my doubts about how those two colors would work together, but I love the result. I can’t wait to hear what her friends at school have to say about it!
Allie loves polka dots. She showed me a fabric in my stash that she really liked, but there wasn’t enough of it to work with for a bag. These polka dotted fabrics jumped out at me at the fabric store, though, and then I found the button that looks like it was made just for this bag. (The button is just decorative–there’s a magnetic snap under the flap.)
Finally, this is Kristen’s bag. When Kristen walked into my sewing studio, she saw this Michael Miller Dino Dudes and immediately said, “I want the dinosaurs!” I can honestly say that it never would have occurred to me to sew up a handbag with this fabric, but I think it might be my favorite of the bunch. Seriously? How often do you see someone walking around with a dinosaur purse? It’s definitely one of a kind!
I really like how each of the bags that I made this year showcase so much personality. Ready to sew up one or two in your favorite fabrics? You can find the pdf tutorial complete with pattern pieces right here: Joy-Nicole Bag Tutorial. If you use the tutorial, I’d love to see your bag!
Merry Christmas!
Praying that you all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas overflowing with joy in the celebration of the birth of Jesus and the hope that He brings to those who believe!
We were blessed with a Christmas that was filled with love, laughter, fun, food, family . . . and one very happy little boy with a box full of green scary monster teeth.
Green Scary Monster Teeth
Not exactly what you expect to see at Christmas, huh? For the last several months, our almost-four-year-old, Jamie, has answered the question, “What do you want for Christmas?” exactly the same way everytime: “Green scary monster teeth.” Hmmmm . . . What’s a momma to do, though, but hunt the world over (or maybe just the Dallas metroplex) for green scary monster teeth.
Our local US Toy store came to the rescue. The only problem I have now is . . . well . . . you can only purchase green scary monster teeth in a package of 144 scary monster teeth. Anyone else happen to have a child who would like green (or pink, or orange, or purple) scary monster teeth for Christmas? We have several to spare.
