Leelersinc

Evaleigh Talking

2009-11-08T20:13:00.002-05:00

Here is Evaleigh talking to her favorite friend, the Raccoon.

Cloth Diaper Adventures

2009-11-06T14:29:00.005-05:00

I thought it was about time to write about cloth diapering now that I have the experience. I used disposables for the first couple weeks (and went through over 4 packs of newborn diapers!) After Evaleigh's cord fell off then we started using cloth diapers. I love it! I would not want to use disposables instead!

I use mostly Bummis prefolds and covers. I fold a diaper in thirds and put it in the cover and put it on the baby. It's that simple!

At night I add a stay dry liner so it lasts longer.

There aren't many in this picture but I also use cloth wipes in the wipes warmer. I feel like these do a better job of cleaning than the disposable wipes, but I have to mix the solution every couple of days. They are also easier because I just throw them in the wash with the diapers.

When the diapers are dirty, I put them in the diaper pail. It's small, but just the right size. When it's full, it's time to wash the diapers.

I use Charlie's Soap and I think it works well. When it's time to wash, I just take the bag out of the pail, turn it inside out and dump all the dirty diapers into the washing machine. I first do a prewash, then add soap and do a normal wash with hot water. I always line dry my diapers because it not only saves energy and money, but it helps the diapers last longer, and when they dry in the sun the stains get bleached away. However, we've been having a lot rainy days lately and they've been drying in the nursery for a long time.. when it is sunny, they dry pretty fast outside!

Here is a picture of Evaleigh with a clean diaper. There's a dirty diaper in the background...

When the diapers are dry, I fold them in thirds and put them in the drawer. I also make solution for the wipes and add them to the warmer.

The covers can usually be used more than once so we have less of those. We have 19 prefolds and do laundry about every other day. The recommended amount is about 24 for newborns but we are doing ok with only 19. We have 5 covers and 4 gdiaper covers. I use the prefold diapers in the gdiaper covers which doesn't work as well but it still works. We also have one all-in-one diaper I use at night. I still need to sit down and figure out how much we spent on cloth diapers to see when we start saving money. Every time I hang the diapers up to dry, I count them and add them to the tally count. As of right now, we used 269 cloth diapers, and that doesn't count the load in the washer that just finished that I am going to hang as soon as I finish this post.. And that doesn't count the wipes either. We went through 5(?) boxes of wipes the first few weeks. So I know we are saving by using cloth wipes too! Also, we pretty much got all the cloth diapers and supplies from showers or shower money, but we are still going to see when we start saving money...

Dancing Evaleigh

2009-11-01T23:25:00.003-05:00

Evaleigh was 8 weeks old on Friday. This past week she grew so much! She now smiles and coos. She is also bigger and more active and alert. And in this video she is moving so much! Joel was singing to her and she was going crazy! I took several videos but I had to post a shorter one. That same night, she slept for the longest stretch so far- 6 hours! I guess she was really worn out. She is growing so fast!

Dad and Holly's Visit

2009-10-25T14:56:00.006-04:00

Last week we had a visit from my dad and Holly! Evaleigh enjoyed seeing her grandpa and grandma. We did a lot too! Evaleigh had her first trip to Atlanta to pick them up from the airport. We made breakfast and ate dinner at a friends' house and played the Wii. We took a hike to a waterfall and ate a birthday dinner for my dad at Okinawa hibachi. We went to church and walked around the square in Ellijay and looked at the booths and ate treats. We hung out at Whitepath Lodge where Dad and Holly were staying and had dinner and played 1,000. We went to Dahlonega and went gold panning. And we relaxed a little and had fun with Evaleigh.

Natural

2009-10-08T18:13:00.004-04:00

Dangerous chemicals are everywhere! Even in our food and baby products. Here is a blog where you can download a recipe booklet for making natural household cleaners.
http://junie-moon.blogspot.com/2008/04/natural-cleaning-recipes-booklet.html

Here is a website where you can search cosmetic products and find out what's in them and how safe they are. Even baby products have dangerous chemicals in them! It's best to use products that have a 0 or 1 rating.
http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/index.php?nothanks=1

There is a new Parasol magazine.. I bought this one.
http://aprintaday.blogspot.com/2009/10/parasolcraft-2-is-up.html

Cute Baby!

2009-10-05T14:55:00.002-04:00

Here's a video of Evaleigh being a cute baby! She is about 1 month old!

2009-09-28T21:11:00.003-04:00

Evaleigh is over 3 weeks old now! The days are going by fast! Joel went back to work and the past 2 days I have been doing laundry- washing, drying, folding, putting away, and cleaning a little. I also gave Evaleigh a bath today and baked cookies- from scratch! It's fun being a stay-at-home mom but I still feel like I am changing diapers and nursing all day. But it's fun!

Evaleigh

2009-09-14T18:08:00.003-04:00

We are having fun with Evaleigh! She didn't sleep well last night.... but we are still enjoying her!

She puts her hands by her ears and sticks her legs up when she gets changed. That's how she keeps herself from crying.

Evaleigh Miriam Smith

2009-09-07T18:36:00.004-04:00

Well, she's here! Evaleigh Miriam Smith was born on Friday, 09-04-09, at 5:38 am. She weighed 6 lbs. and 15 ozs., 18.5 inches long. The birth was all an answer to prayer- natural and fast! Her whole birth story is an answer to prayer....

My mom and sister are here for about a week and it's great to have them helping out! Evaleigh is a great baby, and she sleeps well, at least during the day...

Minutes after she was born.

Relaxing after her first bath.

I took more but haven't put them on the computer yet..

2009-08-27T19:32:00.006-04:00

I got three great new books!

Click on the pictures to see them at amazon. I haven't made anything yet from any of them but they all look really good. I am just a little busy right now with school and other things.....

Here are a few pictures updates:

Our friend Will made this bookshelf for the baby's room.

Ants helping us put away the groceries.

Birthday flowers from Joel! My birthday was over a week ago and the flowers still look good.

Quilt made by my mom's cousin Dianne. It's really soft and nice!

We went to the doctor yesterday and the doctor said I was already 1-2 cm dilated... meaning it could be any day now! or still weeks away.. I am hoping to finish one more week of school and then rest a day or two first....
Just in case we started packing our bags for the hospital..

Stuff

2009-08-08T12:30:00.006-04:00

I just finished watching the online video the Story of Stuff. It was really interesting. I think it's something everyone needs to see. I added a link on my blog on the side so it's always there for people to see. Our house is small and already full of "stuff" so we are already trying to buy a lot less. We tried to have a garden this year, but didn't get a lot from it. We have big plans for next year. She didn't talk at all about cloth diapers but that's definitely one way to help! The organic cloth diapers don't have toxins and don't fill up the landfills! And there is definitely less waste to make a few cloth diapers and ship them than to make tons of disposables instead!

School started this week so it has been a busy week! I think I have a pretty good class this year! I will only be there for one more month and then I'll be on maternity leave! I am glad to have this month to get to know the kids and get everything started. So when I come back, hopefully they'll remember me and it will be pretty smooth transitioning back.

The cats went to the vet yesterday so we could get rid of fleas once and for all! They didn't wake me up this morning so I slept in pretty late. I think their eventful day yesterday left them really tired all night and morning.

My sister and her husband and some friends are coming next week. I need to make sure the house is ready.. At least the fleas are gone.

Here are some recent photos:
After my first week of school. I look like I am slouching.

We got 2 okra from our garden! A day or two later Joel saw that all the leaves were chewed off... I guess we'll only get 2 this year...

We are pretty sure this is a pumpkin plant. In the mornings the flowers are open and beautiful! The other plant had 2 huge flowers open yesterday but I didn't get a picture.

Ants was resting his arm on Eustace.

Where is Eustace's head?? He didn't seem to mind that Ants was using him as a headrest.

Cats

2009-07-27T13:12:00.002-04:00

Our cats, Ants and Eustace, do silly things. Here are a few photos from mostly this summer.

Ants is letting me know that they've been waiting for water from the sink.

He loves boxes.

Ants is hiding from Eustace. Eustace is on the other side.

Joel likes to throw his socks on the cats.

Ants is showing off/stretching his good leg.

Baby Shower and more

2009-07-25T16:49:00.005-04:00

We had a wonderful baby shower this past Sunday! Other people were taking pictures and I didn't get any yet, but a friend used my camera to take pictures of the gift opening.

It was a couples' shower so we both got to open gifts! Here we are opening a cloth diaper with a Bummis cover. Can't wait to use them!

Handmade booties from Peru.

Joel thanking everyone for coming and for all the gifts.

I sorted through everything and took pictures of everything. I kind of organized it all on the couch.

We got a nice variety with not many doubles of things!

This is our pack 'n play set up. The swing in the back is a hand-me-down from Joel's older siblings.

The cloth diaper collection so far. 2 bummis super whisper wrap covers, gerber and Bummis organic cloth diapers, small wet bag, liners, reusable liners, and eco-friendly disposable wipes. Most of this stuff was ordered from suburbantreehugger.com. Great service and even free shipping with the promotional code! I now also have some reusable flannel wipes.

We hung up our IKEA lamp and mobile!

Diaper bag, Toms, cobbler, baby gym... updates!

2009-07-15T15:50:00.008-04:00

I have several things to update- July is going by way too fast!
This was how far I was on the green bean suit, but now I am a lot farther. So this picture is old.

I was in the mood for cobbler. Instead of making peach or blueberry cobbler, we made peach, blueberry, strawberry cobbler. It was really good! In fact, we made it twice this week...

I was also in the mood for cherries so I bought these...

I got new Toms! There is a store 5 minutes from our house that sells them! And these were 30% off because they were the spring styles. Fun!

I finally finished my diaper bag last night! I hated sewing on the vinyl- it stuck to the presser foot and caused problems the whole time.... but somehow I still finished it!

Here are the pieces cut and ready to start sewing.

The exterior is finished, just need to do the interior and assemble it.

Finished!!!!

Pockets on the front under the flap and on the sides with velcro. The flap uses snaps.

The back has a zippered pocket.

The inside is all vinyl and waterproof with elastic pockets.

I got the pattern here. It looks like her vinyl is thicker and patterned. Mine was clear and thinner.. oh well. I think it will still work. The fabric is from ThisandThatFromJapan on etsy.

I put together the activity gym from IKEA. Ants thinks I put it together for him.

Here he is trying it out and showing off his good leg.

Here I am at 31 weeks working on the green bean suit, Eustace couldn't get on my lap so he settled for leaning on my leg.

Anniversary Trip to Helen, GA

2009-07-05T14:20:00.010-04:00

I ordered myself a birthday present. Two new books that I really wanted, one that is now available, and one that won't be available until August, are expected to arrive Aug. 17- the day before my birthday! I really wanted both, but I couldn't get free shipping unless I spent $25, which would be buying them both. So I ordered them hoping the one would come right away and the other one when it's available, but it said they'd come in one package by Aug. 17. Oh well, I am excited for them to come! They are Ana Paula Rimoli's crochet book and Amanda Blake Soule's Handmade Home book.

There is an interesting movie I heard about, seems to be big in MN- Fresh, all about the food we eat. I'd like to see it, but looks like I'd have to buy it or go to another state. They said there were a bunch of other food movies coming out soon too.

I am going to post some pictures of our trip! For our 4th anniversary we went to Helen, GA. It's a little tourist town in the Blue Ridge Mountains made to look like a European town in the Alps. First, we stayed at Lucille's Mountaintop Bed and Breakfast, which was really nice. Turns out Lucille, the lady who owns it, is from Bethlehem, PA! Weird! She went to Moravian College.
Views from the porch at the bed and breakfast.

Watching the sunset from the porch.

The view from our bathroom window.

Our first night we ate at The Vines restaurant. At our hotel we saw a menu and I really wanted the vegetable lasagna. When we got there the menu was different and they didn't have that.. so I tried the eggplant parmesan for the first time. It was pretty good! Then we went to the Hansel and Gretel Candy Kitchen and got some jelly bellies.

The next day we went to a soap store. The B&B had handmade soaps from a local place called Greenstone Soap Company. They are made with natural materials and essential oils. We bought a few small things.

Then we went to a coffeeshop called Sweetwater Coffeehouse. They have fairtrade items and I bought a bag that was handmade in Ghana, Africa (where Joel has been) for a company called Global Mamas. They help support women in Ghana. My bag was made by someone named Esther and Eli-Emma! It's cool to see pictures of the women who made the bag I am using!

Then we went miniature golfing! We realized we had never been miniature golfing together. We had fun and Joel wanted to do it again, but neither of us got a hole-in-one when we could've gotten a free game. I got a hole-in-one on another hole! We ended up tying in the the end!

Then we visited some shops. We went to The Glass Blowing Shop. The day we left, Joel was watering the garden and a hummingbird came to explore. While we were on the porch of our B&B in Helen we saw some hummingbirds. We decided to get a hummingbird feeder when we got home. Well, we liked the ones in the glass shop so we got one there. We already filled it up and hung it outside. I hope we get some visitors!

Then we walked around some more and visited a store called Scandinavian and European Import Company. They had all kids of little things from Europe. I bought a Dala horse and a little straw ornament. I saw a mug that I got from Grandma! There were a lot of neat things to get.

We didn't go on a horse and carriage ride this time. We did that for our honeymoon in Savannah, but not here. But we did go to the Live Tarantulas Gallery!! We watched a video all about tarantulas and spiders. Ick! Tarantulas are not really dangerous to humans, but other spiders are like the banana spider and the black widow. Here are some live spider pictures:
This last one is the Goliath Birdeating spider. It's the biggest spider and can get to be as big as a dinner plate. Sick!! They also had a scorpion, some lizards and iguanas, and a huge albino snake.

After that we went to Dahlonega. We were going to pan for gold, but it was getting late and we wanted to be home earlier. So we ate at a yummy restaurant (I had vegetable lasagna) and then went home. As we were leaving Dahlonega I noticed that our gas light was on. I remembered that we were low on gas coming to Helen and we drove a bit since then. We had no idea how long the light had been on but Joel said we better turn around because the next gas station would be in our hometown! So we did. Joel put it in neutral every chance he got and we turned off the air conditioning. We made it safely to the gas station!

When we got home, the cats were lonely, but we saw my yarn all over the living room, dining room, and bedroom! And the project I was working on was under the table! Eustace!!!

We made some sugar water and hung up the hummingbird feeder.

And, while I was watering the watermelons and Joel was watering the ivy behind the house, a black widow spider crawled out!! I called for Joel and he came over. We watched it for a while and brought it to the pavement with the watering can, and then Joel killed it. We just watched a video about spiders and how black widows are one of the dangerous kinds and then I found one! That was the closest I ever was to one.

Joel is at work today so I am planning on working on my diaper bag! I can't believe summer is over half over and the baby is due in about 2 months!!

Crafting

2009-07-04T13:29:00.007-04:00

Here are some more sewing projects I finished:
I didn't know where to hang this banner so I just took a picture of it on the sofa. The Creative Family book said to make it twice as long. I thought I would make a smaller one and then maybe one day make another small one.

Here are more bibs. One with a terry cloth back and two with chenille backs. I cut the fabric different ways, one because I thought it looked better and the other because I could get more cut from the fabric. The chenille is rather expensive and so far the bibs are just for me, so I think I will go with the save-the-fabric way rather than style.

I made this grocery bag holder a little while ago. I looked online for patterns, and then just kind of improvised an easy way to make one. We had a HUGE bag of plastic bags to recycle, and that's after we started using reusable bags. We've been really good lately at bringing our bags in the store to use. We don't get many plastic bags any more which is great! But we needed to save a few.

I ordered this fabric at the beginning of June for a diaper bag. It finally came! It came from Japan and I ordered it from ThisandThatFromJapan on etsy.com. I haven't started the bag yet but I want to soon!!

Yum.. muffins on a favorite plate and juice in a favorite mug.

My favorite summer "craving"-chocolate milk and fake hot dogs, and I like dill relish on them! (I've never liked pickles.)

One minute the cats are wrestling, and the next they are snuggled up on the couch using each other as pillows. Silly cats...

July 2 was our 4th anniversary and we went to Helen, GA. I'll have to post more about that later...

Fun Freebies!

2009-06-26T09:43:00.011-04:00

Here I am again, in front of the computer finding tons of cute free crafts, mostly printables today. Here are some things I found so far:

http://www.etsy.com/storque/search/tags/How-Tuesday/ This link takes you to a bunch of free tutorials on etsy. I'll share some of my favorites... (click on the picture for the pdf file of link)

If you click on that picture it will take you to a long list of really cute Valentine cards to print by all different people.

http://www.livinglocurto.com/?page_id=132 Tons of neat printables at this site too.

Christmas gift tags
Weekly meal planning sheet with grocery list

http://www.cakejournal.com/ Really neat cake making site.

http://purlbeehive.squarespace.com/busy-bees/ A site with tons of crafting blogs. I could spend hours on here!!

Canon has tons of cute printables including calendars here: cp.c-ij.com

Cute memory game and other printables here: http://del4yo.squarespace.com/non-dairy-avant/category/paper-toys

Good and Sad News

2009-06-24T15:19:00.002-04:00

The sad news... Ichiban Kan is closing their online store! I made two (large) orders from there so far and planned to order more in the future.... They are one of my favorite online stores! They have the cutest bento products and are cheap! And the only online store I found like that. If I lived in CA or Japan, I wouldn't mind so much. But since there are no stores on the mid- or eastern side of the USA I am rather disappointed....!

The good news isn't quite as exciting, but there's a cool website that has lots and lots of free stuff. Actually, they just list all the free things and you go to the actual websites to sign up if you'd like. I've gotten many awesome free things by using this site: http://freethingy.com
It's good to check every few days so you don't miss anything. Warning- whoever types the words doesn't always use proper grammar... but hey- it's free!

Sewing

2009-06-21T21:35:00.004-04:00

I sewed a bib the other day and finished a few today:
This one has a pocket and a nylon back. The rest have a terrycloth back.

I made a fleece sleep sack. It seems pretty big... it was a medium. I should add a cute applique in the corner.

This is the first time I sewed a zipper, which will be good practice for when I make my diaper bag. I am still waiting on the fabric to come from Japan. The lady said it should be here any day now....

Painting

2009-06-19T10:55:00.003-04:00

We painted the baby's room! It was hard finding a place to put all the stuff we had in that room. Our TV and computer are now in the living room. We are going to keep the futon in the baby's room. I have to find places for all my yarn and craft supplies. But the room is pretty much empty now and we painted the ceiling "Nightfall"- a light blue for a sky, and "Northern Pear Tree"- a light green for the walls. We are thinking of painting designs on the ceiling and maybe walls. I can't wait to start setting up the crib and changing table!!Painting the ceiling...

What the wall color was before the green...

Finished! Except for a few touch ups.

Eustace is so glad to be allowed in the room. He hates having any door closed. While we were painting he was pulling the newspaper out from under the door and scratching at the door (he got in trouble for the scratching).

Patterns to make

2009-06-17T11:29:00.005-04:00

Here are three more things I want to sew!

A super cute fabric dollhouse! UK lass in US has great tutorial.

Another neat bib from Nested. Here is the pdf.

A diaper changing pad from sewtakeahike.

thelongthread.com has a list of great baby sewing projects, with more projects on the side links. Now I need to get off the internet and start sewing! Except I need to finish taping the baby's room so we can paint. And figure out where to put all the stuff we took out of that room... I really shouldn't be sewing (or looking at projects online) much at all today....

Sewing and Buying

2009-06-16T16:33:00.006-04:00

It's hard when I don't post every couple of days because then I have too much to write about. I sewed a few more bibs. Some were the same and one was based on a pattern from Martha Stewart but with nylon backing.

I also made a drawstring bag for some baby toys based on the tutorials from happythings. I had to change it slightly because of the shape of my fabric.

We went to the doctor today and I had to take my glucose test. Everything seems fine! We also went to Kroger- saved about $87 and spent about $67 on groceries. I am ready to eat a second bowl of cocoa krispies... yum! It was nice- on the door of the store I saw a sign as we walked in asking if we remembered our reusable bags. I always have 3 small ones in my purse but the sign reminded me to run back to the car to get a bigger bag we have. I'm glad they put the sign there! We also bought paint and rollers to paint the baby's room at Home Depot! The paint has no chemical odors so I will be able to paint too!
Last week we went to Babies R Us and got our crib! It would not fit in our tiny car so we had to take out each piece and then it just barely fit. While we were there we saw that the stroller set we liked was on sale, so we got that too. We had to take it out of the box and stuff some in the trunk and some in the middle on top of the crib pieces. Then we went to Target and Joann's and I got more sewing things. Then we went to IKEA and got some really cute baby things. They have some really neat items there for cheaper than other stores and made out of more natural materials. Everything there is reusable or recyclable. In fact, they don't even have disposable bags as an option. And the cafe uses all washable dishes and cups and silverware. There were a few more baby things I would have liked to get but they are for older babies so I guess I can wait a year or two and then go back. After IKEA we went to see mewithoutYou.
Here are some baby things we got at IKEA:
A hot air balloon mobile, frog lamp for the wall, soft rattles, little toys, bibs, and one of those things they always have at doctor's offices with the beads and metal loopty-loops.

You can kinda see what the mobile looks like. There are animals in the basket and they look over the edge at the baby.

The dish set has a cute penguin cup.The blue is a rubbery piece that comes off so the baby can drink. There are hangers, cloths, wooden rings to stack, and a toy on a stick to push around.

Here are some pictures of the stroller set after we put it together:
Joel put Ants in the stroller to try it out and he liked it!

Ants got in the carrier by himself this time.

I had to take a big state test on Saturday. I graduated with my master's in TESOL but can't Teach English as a Second Language until I have it on my certificate, meaning I have to pass the GACE test. I had to drive over an hour. I had 4 hours to take both tests, and then drive over an hour home. I felt pretty good about it... I think I passed. I won't know until July 13 when the scores are released. At least now I don't have that in the back of mind anymore. My summer is free to sew and crochet and relax!
Joel moved the cats' apartment into our bedroom. Ants LOVES his apartment. He's a good house cat. Eustace likes going in the second story. They don't sleep on our bed as much anymore because they sleep on the apartment at night now.

Ahh... a nice Sunday afternoon family nap...

Finally, some good crafty blogs or sites:
http://thelongthread.com/
http://www.sewmamasew.com/blog2/
http://www.freekidcrafts.com/
http://www.youcanmakethis.com/index.htm
http://indiefixx.com/Feed_your_soul/index.html
http://retro-mama.blogspot.com/

So many neat ideas out there- not enough time to make everything!

Sewing and New Fabric and Stationary!

2009-06-05T17:13:00.008-04:00

I just posted yesterday and by the evening had enough to post again. Then today I had enough to make another post- so this will be two days worth if I have enough time. Joel and his band are playing tonight and we leave pretty soon.

Yesterday I sewed a bunny from Wee Wonderfuls. I really liked how it turned out! I just need to add the pom pom and hand stitch it closed (my least favorite part). I also made a baby block in similar colors (that also needs to be hand stitched closed). I used some foam cushion inserts I got at Walmart for the inside. I used cotton fabric and fleece for the outside.

Also yesterday, my order from starlit nest came! With kawaii Japanese fabric pieces!
These are 6" squares perfect for quilting.

Here are 7 fat quarters. I plan on making bibs, triangles for the banner, and quilt pieces.

Here are some bibs already cut and ready to sew. I am going to have a lot of bibs! The terry cloth on the back is from a pack of Walmart washcloths that I got for a really good deal. I hope they are quality enough....

I was so excited! I went to Walmart today and decided to look around the craft section (I almost always look around for something on sale or sale fabric). I knew they sold quilting squares, but I never really looked at them. Well, instead of regular price ($1.47), the fat quarters were on sale for only $1.00, and there were prints I really liked!! So I had to get several....

Here are some close ups of the fabric:
Now I will be able to make tons of banners, quilt squares, bibs, blocks, bunnies, and other cute small crafts!

And last but definitely not least, my order from shopkawaii.com came today!!
I got a mini notepad and mini-mini calander (it's 2008, I got it for the cute pictures):

I also got a letter set, mini stickers, and two bigger notepads. These notepads have 8 different designs each. They will be so cute to decoupage something in the baby's room!
I tore out one page from each design and laid them all out here. There are so many things I could cut out for papr crafts! I think I will also scan them and then I can blow them up and print the designs for projects too.
Here is a close up of some cute pages:

I finished writing this just in time! It's time for us to go. I'm sure I'll have some more finished projects to write about tomorrow (but hopefully no more purchases for a while..)

More Inspiration

2009-06-04T12:03:00.010-04:00

I usually spend too much time online looking at all the cool things others have made. Then I have less time to work on my projects and my list of projects grows longer... Here are some cool things I've found lately:
Sweet Jessie has these bookplates to download for free!

If I ever finally start embroidering, here are some free (and some to buy) vintage embroidery designs at patternbee.

Here are some really cute tags and embroidery designs, but not for free...

I am really enjoying the happythings blog. That is where I am learning to make my quilt. She has several tutorials to teach you how to make things, like drawstring bags, quilts, bibs, and other neat things.

There is a lot of inspiration at this flickr site!

Martha Stewart's website has tons of project ideas. My favorite right now is a really cute project from Petit Collage with 2 free templates to download:

You can watch the video from the show to see how to make them.

Here is a tutorial for making a crayon roll. The only thing I would change is adding more fabric across the top to fold over the crayons so they stay in the roll better.

Here is a tutorial for sewing a tote bag.

The cutest paper dolls to download for free!
Here are more free downloads from A Wee Wonderfuls.

I think that's all for right now.... However I did add cloth baby blocks to my list of things to sew, and I am almost finished with one. I also need to add crayon roll, tote bag, fabric concentration, wee bunny, and bean bags. Here's a picture of the banner I am going to make (with different fabric of course). I have a lot of fabric cut, now I need to sit down and sew.

Crafting and Shopping

2009-06-02T19:59:00.009-04:00

I started sewing the other night and finished one bib, except for the snaps:
The back is a washcloth. The part I had to keep open to turn it inside out got a little weird when I sewed it shut, but the rest looks great!

I found some fat quarters I bought in the quilting section at Michael's and figured out I can make one bib, a double-sided triangle for the banner, and 1 large and 3 small squares for my little quilt. I have 4 fat quarters I bought at Michael's and 7 more on the way- Japanese fabric!! That will make a bunch of bibs and several triangles and lots of cute quilt squares. I have some other fabric to use also.

I found several neat fabrics at Walmart lately. I have quite a collection of different odds and ends of fabric.

It was very sunny and hot yesterday, so I decided to wash all my fabric, and hang it in the sun. It dried so quickly! Joel is watering our garden in the background..

We went shopping today. We were going to buy the crib at Babies R Us but they didn't have it in stock. We had to order it and will have to drive another hour in about a week to pick it up. We drove home right at rush hour and it was busy traffic. At least I'll be able to visit JoAnn's again then. I bought some things but not everything I need because we had to go. I wanted to get a mat, ruler, and rotary cutter. Walmart didn't have a very good selection, and I'm glad I waited- all the cutting tools were 40% off!! So I got a mat, rotary cutter, clear ruler, and pinker shears for 40% off! That stuff is not cheap so I was very glad for the discount. I also got some bias binding for the banner and some of the bibs. And I got a zipper for the baby sleeper and vinyl for the diaper bag and other projects. I still need to get some interfacing and a zipper for the diaper bag and shop for cute fabrics and chenille. I will do that when we have to go back in a week or so.

We did buy our bedding set while we were at Babies R Us. It is organic and cute! And expensive... I wanted to have it so we could use it to match colors for paint for the room.
We ate at a restaurant called Sweet Tomatoes. You pay one price and then it's an unlimited buffet of salad and veggies, all different soups, breads, some pasta, and frozen yogurt and jello. It was pretty healthy and pretty good! Joel and I both liked the Moroccan Garbanzo Bean and Lentil soup.

I got a bag of Amish Friendship Bread starter. Sunday was day 10 so I baked the bread. I gave away 2 starters and froze the other two (I read somewhere that you can freeze them). I also gave those 2 people a mini loaf so they could taste it.

I have learned a lot about crocheting over the years and will make several things this summer. But now I am also learning a lot about sewing. I have so much yarn, we don't have room for me to start collecting a lot of fabric! I do have some, and the rest that I bought so far is for a specific project. Maybe next summer I'll try knitting.. at least I already have yarn to use.