Little sproutlets

The flowers that the girls and I planted back on Earth Day are starting to peek out of the soil.

K.’s flowers

L.’s flower (picture is clickable to get a better view of the itty bitty little flower)

And my flower (again, picture is clickable)

Hope every enjoys their week!!!

Flea Market Finds

We had such of a beautiful weekend, that sun finally came around and warmed up the earth to 87 degrees!  We haven’t seen that temperature since, well, I can’t remember when.

It seems to be a tradition now that the first beautiful weekend we have, we play till that sun goes down, every meal is ate outside (as well as cooked outside), and make our way down to the flea market.  It’s offically at the point now that I know just which tables to go to, as well as which vendors remember me (and what I’ve purchased from them).

New clock and bookshelf, perfect for the little reading corner I set up for the girls and I (as well as my late night knitting spot).

Yes, notice that little yellow basket by the chair, that would be my new favorite find!  There were 2 sewing baskets sitting beside each other, the one that I now have in my possession, and another one very similar to this one here only plain.  Both $15 bucks, one ticket said “everything inside included” and the other was empty.  Gee, that didn’t make my decision to hard for me now did it!?

It’s a smidge damaged as you can see in the bottom of the photo above, but overall in pretty decent shape, sturdy, and very roomy.  Plus I’m in love with the buttery yellow color and the decopaged flowers (both on the lid and on the inside).

Wooden spools (still filled with sewing thread), vintage buttons, old tomatoe pincushion, 2 large buttons to be covered with fabric, tons of hand sewing needles, a few machine sewing needles, and the list goes on.  While everything is now officially put away in it’s spot (while I may not be able to organize the rest of my house, I’m pretty anal about my craft crap and knit shit being pretty organized), the sewing basket is empty, but I have plans for it that I’ll get into later.

Happy Earth Day!

Don’t all Mom’s feed their kids dirt, mud, and worms from the garden?  (By the way, it was so good and the girls said the cream from the cookie was bird poo)

And a sweet lil’ picture of my future blogger!  I gave her my old point and shoot camera as she has started to show interest in taking photos – hhmmmm……wonder why!?

beautiful weekend

Oh that weather, has a way of planning our days.  This past weekend was beautifully sunny, warm, relaxing, and the smell of the grill traveled around the neighborhood.

Let’s see, I got K.’s socks completed (while watching Grey Gardens the other night, Drew Barrymore played Little Edie spot on, anyone else watch that movie?), as well as started my cardigan (but no interesting pics of my cardigan yet).

Pattern: My own
Needles:  Size 1 for ribbing, size 2 for remaining
Yarn: Knit Picks Imagination in Pixie Dust (note to self: HANDWASH ONLY!!)
Anything else:  Worked cuff down, short row heel (love short rows now)
Overall:  K. loves them, says the yarn feels nice and soft on her feet.  Also, she says that the gray in the yarn looks like the shadows of John, Michael, and Wendy flying off to Neverland (I told you we’re Peter Pan fans).

The remaining of the weekend, well, that was spent 50% outside and 50% explaining to L. why I won’t hook up the sprinkler in 68 degree weather (she still don’t get it).  Luckily though we always have an endless supply of popsicles in our house.

Now, over the next few days, it’ll be raining, which is just fine with me because I have some sewing plans I’d like to get completed.

Hope everyone had a blessed weekend!

 

Man says it’s rainin, rainin outside

(10 pts. if you can guess which song those lyrics are from)

Got a few plans for this coming week being that the forcast is rain.  Meaning again we will be inside.

Last night I completed K.’s little secret project, and after our little trip to the library earlier this week, I know just what this little thing will become (but more on that later).

Also, I’m completely in love with the Search Ohio feature that our local library has and have found quite a few craft books that I’ve had my eye on, one in particular is Lotta Jansdotter’s Simple Sewing as well as Button It Up.

Hope everyone has a blessed weekend!

wips

WIP #1:

a little project I’m starting for K.  It’s the Sexy Librarian pattern from Sublime Stitching.  I have a few ideas running around in my head about what I’m going to make of it, but for now, it’s a fun little WIP for me.  She’s our little reader and I thought that this was highly appropriate for her.

WIP #2:

(I prefer knitting over folding laundry any day)  Also for K.  Past the short row heel, now just keep knitting the length of her foot.

Earlier this week, I was browsing Ravelry.  I’ve been debating, going back and forth over starting a new project for me.  The project being a new cardigan for myself.  I’ve browsed, who knows how many exactly, many patterns and finally decided that the perfect one will be CosmicPluto’s Easy Top-Down Raglan pattern.  Why start a cardigan in Spring?  Well, my reasoning is very good, by time I get it complete, it’ll be Fall, it’s a “travelin’ project” which means that when the girls and I go outside to play, I can bring it with us, and well, I think it’s about time I get off my tooshie and make myself a cardigan.  Of course that means that the girls will need new cardigans as well (I’m thinking of frogging K.’s sweater, using the same pattern and making it a cardigan).

those rainy days

Ever since I saw this post on her blog, I’ve been super hungry for fresh, homemade, bread (next time I think were going to have to use the WHO bread recipe).  I use to bake bread all the time, but that was in a bread machine that got lost during a move.

Those cold, rainy, stay in the house all day days are perfect for baking bread.  Why!? well….
1. there’s nothing else to do except read books and play games (all can be done while the bread is rising)
2. you have to stay inside which means you get those yummy bread smells traveling through your nose all day.
3. when the house already needs cleaned, why not make a little more of a mess

Yes, rainy days are perfect for baking bread if you ask me.

(my “fancy” rolling pin)

Oh yes, the perfect rainy day activity/snack is homemade bread.  Both of the girls have dubbed rainy days as “bread makin’ days” and I have to fully agree with them.  I do see lots of bread makin’ in our future!

oh dear

To those of you that know anything about sergers……..I need your advice/help.

My seam allowance that is getting cut off, is raggedy and rough, my stitches get bunched, and somehow my knife flips and jams my seam into my serger.

I looked around in the book The Ultimate Serger Answer Guide to try and find an answer and it said that the knife just needs oiling and to clean out any lint.  I’ve done both of those (the lint thing I do after each use because those things are messy), James even tried to help me out and took apart both the upper and lower knife to make sure they were not dull and still in proper working order.  It still does it!!  No matter if it’s in the Standard setting or the Rolled hem setting.

No matter what fabric I’ve used, cotton, poly cotton blend, knit, woven.  So, does anyone know how to solve this problem?  I’m really hoping that it’s something I (James) could fix.

Sunday sewing

James had taken the girls out on Sunday for a Daddy/daughter date which left me home…..alone…….with no interruptions.  Well what else was a lady to do but get to work on some Spring and Summer clothing (oh it was so nice!).

My favorite way to make a skirt for the girls are using up thrifted pillowcases (picked up with last weeks haul).  Takes all of about 10 minutes to complete and always looks so cute.  The one above I made for L.  I managed to find 4 of the same pillowcases at the thrift store last week (very rare) and when L. had learned I was making myself a skirt out of 2 of them, she asked if she could have a skirt as well.

And of course I couldn’t just stop there.  If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll come to find that my favorite “go to” pattern for L. is Butterick 4910, which I have made time and time again (if you don’t want to buy the pattern, Vegbee has a tutorial to make a peasant blouse on – my new favorite blog – Just Tutes).

The green fabric is a batik I got from GotFabric.com and the floral is from JoAnn’s.  The pink ric rac came from my Grandma’s stash.

(My little trick to help the girls determine the front from the back is adding remnants of ric rac.  Works everytime!)

Besides all the sewing I’ve been doing for the girls, I did manage to squeeze in a little sewing for myself.  I’ve been wanting new pajama pants for quite awhile and when I picked up these 2 vintage pillowcases (again from last weeks haul) I knew they would be perfect for Spring pajama pants.

 

They are the “Wear anywhere yoga pants” from the book S.E.W. by Diana Rupp.  Just a simple drawstring, wide leg pair of the world’s most comfortable pair of pants.  As I had said, I just used 2 pillowcases as my material, making sure I lined everything up so one leg wasn’t longer than the other.  Also, I used the bottom of the pillowcase as my hem, making these super quick and super easy.

While it may seem that it was a lot of sewing, it’s basically just the tip of the iceburg.  I’ve got Spring/Summer skirts on the brain, new tops, and who knows what else my brain will come up with to make.  Not to mention the pile of things sitting on my sewing table.

the birthday post

I love celebrating birthdays…..mainly other people’s birthdays, not my own (I have 1 more year left then I’m done having birthdays).

K. is exactly 9 years old today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So of course that meant I had an excuse to make her something (really, do I really need an excuse!?).  Besides her adorable skirt (which she loooooves by the way, and even her friends at school complimented her on it) I also had L. help me with another project for her.  Similar to the one her and I made K. last year (link takes you to my old blog), only we decided to go bigger (and a little cuter).

(I know it’s K., but I’m guessing that she is “holding” the hearts….one for her and one for L. rather than them being on her.  I have the worst time sometimes interpreting L.’s drawings and I don’t want to discourage her by asking “What is it?” so we’ll leave it at K. is holding the hearts.)

Fabric, of course, is the same I used for K.’s skirt that was so kindly given to me by Lisa (seriously Lisa!!! I love you SO much for this fabric!!!!)

And a semi action shot of K. in her skirt.

Happy Birthday honey!!!!

I’m off to bake a cake, assist in decorating the cake, and live in chocolate bliss from now till bedtime!