Wall art finished

I've just about finished up my little project. Decided after trying to cut out the silhouettes that the X-acto knife idea I found wasn't the smartest idea. Didn't give me crisp edges, so I resorted to tracing the images onto cardstock and cutting it with scissors. I still need to run out tomorrow and get some double-sided tape since one of the kids probably used it up. Nice.

I also need to decide if I want the silhouettes in individual frames like this, or put them in a 16"x 20" poster frame. Thoughts?

Swimming and other things

Two weeks ago, the kids started up swimming lessons. To be honest, I wasn't sure how Collin would do being in a non-"parent & me" session and handling the deep side of the pool. The first 20 minutes of class are in the shallow(3-4 ft.) and the second 20 minutes are in the deep side(6 ft). The first few days, Collin had a really hard time. The second and third day I spent all but the last 5 minutes of each 20 minutes getting Collin in the water & staying in the water. I made quick acquaintances with the pool managers. I am happy to say that I am the only parent allowed to be all the way up next to the edge of the pool when I need to assist Collin--keeping him on task & being an extra set of eyes to make sure he does not let go of the pool.

By the end of the first week(each class lasts 2 weeks), Collin had decided he liked staying in the water. Now I just have to deal with keeping Collin on task & having a bored 2 year old--Brent just turned 2 on Friday. Drew was in Collin's class. Drew's done well enough to move up to the next swim level. Collin, no surprise, is in the same class as last week. He can do most things but won't put his head or face in the water without help. Ivy's doing well, as expected. This week, she's in a new class and actually learning new things.

Brent had his 2nd birthday on Friday. Thursday night I took Brent to Target to pick out a couple toys. Between the toy stimulus overload and close to bedtime--I didn't want to take all 4 kids if I could help it--we had some pretty serious tantrums. We finally(after over an hour) came home with a Lighting McQueen toy car that sticks out its tongue, a 5 pack of Hot Wheels cars, and a book about trucks. Tom got whisked away to a Scout campout, so we only saw him for about 30 minutes between Friday morning and about 2 pm on Saturday. He got a Funfetti(?) cake with homemade buttercream frosting--I almost had a cow that the cheapest storebought frosting was like $2 for a tiny thing. I drew Elmo on it. Didn't turn out as nice as I wanted, but it was still recognizable and enjoyed by all. I did some fingerpainting with the food coloring since I forgot to set aside some frosting. Whoops. Lesson learned.

Today, keeping the kids as busy as I can. I'm making some cheap wall art today. Probably will be done in a day or two. The tutorial is here  (click for link) and here is a picture of me doing a layout with a poster size frame. Ivy's silhouette looks funny, since she had a low ponytail and I was being nit-picky about Collin's looked larger than her head size. So I cut off the ponytail and taped it on higher. Then I photocopied it 104% a couple times to get it the right size.

Here's the original picture I had for Ivy.

More pics and video of the swim class & birthday up in a couple days.

No-sew diy charging station part 2

Fabric is now all attached with the adhesive spray. All that's left is to cut out 3 circles for cords. This is partly why I chose this particular fabric--circles are already there for me. ;) That and it's not to girly for Tom. The colors go well with the green on the walls in the kitchen too.

Total cost was ~$15, since I had to buy the adhesive spray($8) & buy a multi-outlet plug strip($7) for everything to go into.

A no-sew diy charging station

I've been inspired by today's IHeartOrganizing blog post on using what you have but re-purpose it, as well as another post she wrote on covering cardboard boxes in fabric so it looks nicer.

The idea hit me today when I found an empty shoe box.

Starting materials: Shoe box, 4 pieces of foam from a jewelry box,  2 pieces of 12x12 scrapbooking paper cut to size, 1 piece of fabric a little bigger than the bottom of the box(to cover foam), and outside fabric

Using double-sided tape, I taped down the 5 pieces of scrapbooking paper that I had measured

Added one layer of foam(2 pieces). The foam is to help it sit higher in the shoe box.

Added the other foam pieces, this time, upside down. I had contemplated putting the  phones & ipod just on the foam, but needed contrast, hence them upside down.

Ended up covering the foam with the fabric, just tucked the excess in & under the foam

Testing out width. This'll hold what it needs to: ipod & 2 cell phones

All that's left is cover the outside of the box(need to run & get spray adhesive from Home Depot) & cut 3 holes for the chargers to reach through.

Entering the Land of DIY(yet again)

Went to a friend's yard sale this afternoon, and got all these for a grand total of $1.50. Saw this tutorial(via a friend's Pinterest board) and my wheels started turning.

First order of business was the baskets. Removed the handles to get rid of the picnic basket vibe. Next order of business, do something about the red & green stripes. Stayed tuned.

Good times and miracles

So, it didn't finish it up all exactly like the pattern, but got it all done in a short afternoon and Brent loves it. I had issues with the circles for the ends so I skipped those. What I may end up doing next time is cut out 4 circles, and sew 2 pieces with right sides together with small opening, turn right side out, stitch the opening closed and then hand-sew on to the ball.

Anyway, Drew just turned 5!

Can't believe he's going to be in kindergarten in the fall. We just  picked up his registration packet this morning. Having a birthday party with a small group of friends and some cousins on Saturday. Spent a lot of time today cleaning up for that, so in theory there will be less to do before Saturday morning. We're all cake/cupcake'd out from celebrating on Sunday, so he's decided on lemon bars. Tom's mom isn't too thrilled about the no cake, but seriously, it's our house and cake leftovers lasts like a week here. He just started up karate classes, and after a couple classes says he'd rather not go. Which is odd. I take him and he loves it. Typical 5 year old: doesn't know what he wants/likes.

Collin just switched classes at school a couple weeks ago. Can't remember off the top of my head if I mentioned that or not. His teacher went on early maternity leave, and in the meantime he was picking up some behaviors from some of the younger kids in the class. It's pretty good now. Only one incident, but with an amended IEP behavior plan I think he'll be fine.

Got a phone call about our meeting with the county last week. Kept praying & praying about it. Even had friends and family too. Well, during the meeting, after about 5 minutes into it, I got the distinct feeling like this is not going well, or how we want. Sure enough, by the end they were recommending a trial period of 3 months for the therapy company we're having problems with to get their act together, and if we were still have issues in 3 months we could switch. So, one of the first things we had talked about was swapping out staff. Almost a week goes by, and reality's setting in about it going to be a long 3 months--we were committed to documenting everything that went wrong or was questionable for our next meeting in 3 months. I still was thinking to myself, we got this in the bag. We switch staff, there is no way in heck that Collin would adjust to new staff & be able to work on his goals. So, the upper supervisor calls me and informs me that apparently we have the "popular time slot"(ie. after school) and they are understaffed(didn't say it specifically, but it's because everyone's leaving to the company we're trying to switch to) so would we be okay with either reducing hours by 2/3 and just wait for it to be filled or put in a request for a vendor change(and the county would be okay with it). So of course we say switch. I had no problem. It's exactly what we wanted in the first place. What a miracle!!!

Speaking of which, how I managed to get the kids to mostly behave themselves so I could listen to 85% of a 2 hour funeral this afternoon is beyond me. The last 30 minutes were the hardest. I brought our iPod with us to occupy mostly Collin, but also for him to work on turn taking. The battery completely dies with 30 minutes left. Thankfully, we took a few walks in the halls, since I was smart enough to sit in the foyer, and came back for some coloring with pen on scratch paper and eating Japanese rice crackers that thankfully were still in the diaper bag. For those who used to be in our stake, the service was for Kurt Weaver from Cypress 1st ward.

Another sort of miracle, if you will. I managed to somehow get my belly button infected for the first time ever in my life. How does this happen? I don't touch my belly button unless I'm washing in the shower. After a day and a half of it, I took myself to the doctor's office. I got some steriod/cream/antibiotic all rolled into one. It's too bad the doctor was right that the cream burns a lot, but it works.

In other news, we just got a new vacuum. We are having not so good luck with vacuums. We're on our 3rd in  11.5 years. Did my research, and ended up with a canister style vacuum that's rated very well for carpet & non-carpeted floor all with in our price range of not going over $300. It's got the HEPA filter Tom wanted, and the bag in it that I wanted. I really love it. I got it Monday night, and tried it out all Tuesday. Does better vacuuming than our uprights have. I can get up to wall and furniture edges with no attachments on. I can clean under 98% of our furniture without having to move the furniture. So far, only not liking the color, but I can live with it.

New Project

Awhile back, one of the kids(I've got my hunches who) decided to cut right in the center of one of the pentagon shapes in the fabric ball (that I put in my January 29th post).

Since I can't find the original online pattern I used, I came across this free one, which in my opinion, should be able to sew up faster & the shapes are easier to work with.

Here's the link I'm using to make a new fabric ball: http://www.purlbee.com/fabric-beach-balls/

Finished sewing

Baby quilt has been finished & delivered just over a week ago. I ended up switched to a creamy-yellow for the back & binding instead of the pink butterfly. I felt like the pink clashed too much. I pulled an all-nighter the night before the baby shower, and was up probably a total of 36-38 hours(total from Friday morning to Saturday night) before I finally fell asleep. Tom has advised no more projects like that.

Here are some other things I've sewn in the past couple years that are baby related.

For a niece:

Thought this was a cute iron-on from Joann's

Another iron-on from Joann's. Pronounced "Me-so cute". Thought it fitting since her parent's like take-out.

Front

I couldn't help myself with this one. I did call first before I did it to make sure I wasn't going to offend my sister.

Front

Back. You'll notice the iron-on "Does this diaper make my butt look big?" is appropriately placed over where the diaper should sit on a baby this size.

For a nephew:

He was named after the '90's tv show "Parker Lewis can't lose"

Some iron-on's I got at Joann's. This side is the front

The back. I thought the iron-on was so funny that I got 1 blue & 1 pink(above)

Iron-on from Joann's. My brother & his wife loved it.

Iron-on from Joann's

They really enjoyed this too

Big (play) size blanket, front

Put a Thomas the Train flannel on the back

For another nephew:

Made some cute fabric blocks with foam inside. I made 6 since his first name was 5 letters, middle name is 6 letters, and last name is 7 letter.  All the first name matches up with same fabric background, same for the middle & last name.

Tried to throw in a "manly" fabric on the blocks. And what's more manly than tools?

Tried out this burp cloth idea after seeing my mom do some for another sister with a cloth-diaper

For a friend:

My first time at a quilt. I pre-bought the front panel and sewed in batting & a back myself.

For a friend's baby shower:

My first try at iron-on appliques for onesies. The J was for "Jack"

For one of the kid's cousins:

For our own home:

Matching church tops for all 3 boys

Brent's newborn tie onesie

Brent's 5 day old, 4th of July tie onesie

Brent's 5 day old, 4th of July tie onesie

Fabric ball

Kimono fabric shoes

Sewing

Feeling in a crafty mood again, so I'm just going with it. Will post later this week of stuff I've made for family & friends the past couple years--mostly baby related items.

Getting ready for another baby shower soon & taking a stab at my first appliqué quilt--I made another one a couple years ago but cheated by buying something pre-made and putting batting and a backing on it. Here's what I'm working on right now:

This is what the rest of the fabric looks like(pink butterflies fabric is for the back):

The pattern was purchased here: http://www.e-patternscentral.com/detail.html?prod_id=3668&cat_id=&criteria=quilt+for+baby

The finished product will look like this(except purple instead of blue) and no ruffle:

And here's the other thing I finished up for the baby shower(a soft book of the Little Mermaid--bought a kit years ago at Joann's and never got around to finishing for Ivy, who's no longer interested in it):