I've moved!

Oh no, not actually physically moving. Good gosh that was exhausting. I've moved to a whole new blogging place. Wordpress to be exact. Blogger and I just haven't been getting along lately, taking forever to upload, eating my pictures before I can post them, and being a real pain in the a**.

So, my new blogging place is at http://multicrafty.wordpress.com. Same cheesy style, but with less of the grunts and aggravation. Oh, and on a side note, before I hit "publish" I did a little spellcheck and Blogger highlighted that Wordpress was spelled incorrectly. Ok, so I know it's actually 2 words but just thought it was funny. WOW! Am I bored or what?

New Springy outfit

for L. (K.'s is on it's way, I made the elastic a smidge to big on her's so I have to go back and fix it then whip up a top for her.)

My Mom gave me yards and yards of this ladybug fabric and I'm finally putting it to some good use. So far out of it I've made L. a dress and now this top, and still have 1 yard out of the one section and a few (probably 3 maybe 4 yds) out of the other section. Not a clue what my Mom was thinking on making when she bought this fabric. Anyways, I'll take it and make L. some cute summery outfits out of it since she loves ladybugs.

The peasant top is made from Butterick 4910 which is a pj pattern (that I've already made for L. here) but I thought I could change it up a bit, shorten it and make her a cutesy little peasant top for the summer. The capri's are made from Simplicity 4336 (that I've made before in the past) which ironically are also a pj pattern.

But the best part that she loves about her outfit is that it matches her new cherry shoes. Yes, she's 3 years old and has to make sure that things match (sometimes, let me point reference to this picture here of an outfit she picked out to wear that day).

My girl and I's Day

Yesterday K. had a field trip and being that I'm a "room mom" for her class I got to go as a chaperone. The field trip was to Sippo Lake as part of a science learning experience for her school. So much fun and we couldn't ask for better weather. (It has been raining for a week now, yesterday was 70 and sunny and now we are back to rain until next Wednesday.)

The best part of the whole day though was that K. and I got to spend it just the two of us. My Mom had L. spend the night at her house. That I think is the hardest part of being a Mom with more than one child. I sometimes find it difficult to spend equal amount of quality time with both of them. Well, it's actually easier for L. and I because she's not in school so we spend all day together. But I really look forward to when K. and I can spend time just the two of us.

The only part of the whole field trip that was absolutely no fun at all was the 30 minute school bus ride. Apparently the bus driver had a death wish and wanted to take 50 kids, 2 school teachers, and 4 room mom's with him. No fun at all!

We visited the wetlands part of the park first, then did a little animal learning experience (and no, I did not know that Ohio's State Reptile was the Black Racer Snake, yuk!) then went for a little nature hike. Such of a wonderful learning experience for both her and I.

*related links*

Ohio History Central

Discover Ohio

INFOhio

OhioKids!

Happy Mother's Day!

(left photo is of K. and I when she was 2, right photo is of me breastfeeding L.)

And to think that I never wanted kids. Glad I didn't miss out. I've had tons of jobs, working at a movie theater (which meant coming home smelling like popcorn each night, yuk!), worked in mostly doctor offices, did X-rays, and was the bookkeeper for my Dad's company for 3 years. But I have to say that my most favorite job of all time is being a Mother. The hours are long, I don't get weekends off, my boss' are very bossy, I feel over worked sometimes, and sometimes I feel like pulling my hair out.

I do however, get the best artwork anyone could ever ask for, I get to hear daily "I love you!", their hugs I wouldn't miss for the world, when they are sick my heart breaks for them, I get flowers picked just for me when we go on a walk, I can have a conversation about anything with them, there is always laughter, I have an excuse to go skipping down the street, I also have an excuse to act like a complete goof and get roars of laughter, the term "Girl's Night Out" has a whole new meaning, but best of all, I get to watch them grow and learn about the world around them.

I had K. when I was young. 19 to be exact. And while some people would call what I did a mistake, I think the bigger mistake would be to not even have her at all. My kids are the reason why I get up in the morning (mainly because K. is an early bird). They make me happy and I'm so proud that God picked me to be their Mother. It's a tough job sometimes being a Mom but I look at them at night while their sleeping and wouldn't want my life any other way.

Happy Mother's Day!

A few more recons

Yesterday I had posted a few recons that I've done and today I did just two more. L. picked out the fabric for her dress and K. picked out which shirt she wanted re-done out of the "what can we make out of these" clothing pile that has accumulated in my craft room.

L. had no choice however which shirt was going to be re-done. Her's was a plain white shirt that had a nice chocolate milk stain down the front bottom half of it. So I hacked it in half then hacked off the sleeves. The fabric was what she had picked out (which I was shocked that she picked this particular fabric because it's not purple, although it does have cherries and strawberries on it).

L.'s shirt before

L.'s shirt turned into a dress

I even made my own bias tape to go around the raw edge of the sleeves that I hacked off. I'm not happy with how tiny it came out though. I think I bought the 1" size bias tape maker but I can't remember.

The shirt K. picked out is actually her shirt from last Valentine's Day. To go with it, she picked out some Valentine's Day fabric that I had in my stash. It does however look really cute and I guess at first glance you wouldn't be able to tell that it was actually a Valentines Day dress. Either way, it looks really cute on her.

K.'s shirt before

K.'s shirt turned dress

I tell ya, I'm on a roll with this whole recon thing. On a side note, the baby robin count is now up to 3 with one egg still needing to hatch. And yes, the girls do think it's hilarious that Mama Robin sits on her babes.

Just a few tutorials

With Spring here and Summer right around the corner, I've really been in the mood to make the girls and I some new clothes. So, doing a little searchy this morning and I found a few nice tutorials.

~Two Hour Dress/Tunic~ via Lula Louise
~Easy Pleated Skirt Tutorial~ via Lula Louise
~Reversible Wrap Dress~ via What Did She Do Today?
~Wrap Skirt Tutorial~ via What Did She Do Today?
~Tiered Skirt Tutorial (so cute!)~ via Kuky Ideas
~Patchwork Circle Skirt~ via Just Tutes
~Peasant Blouse~ via Just Tutes
~Another Wrap Skirt Tutorial~ via Home Grown
~Reconstructed T Shirt~ via CinDC

Their Here!!!!!!!!!!

I walked into the bedroom this afternoon and looked over at the window. The infamous one that now during the day we have to leave the blind fully open so the girls can sit there and watch Mama Robin.

Well, Mama Robin wasn't sitting on her nest this afternoon so I went over there and sure enough, two little baby robins were laying in there. To me, they actually look like aliens with beaks. I called for the girls to come up and we sat there and watched the baby birds ooing and ahing over how little they were. L. even found out that if you tap on the window, the birdies pop up their heads and open up their beaks expecting Mama Robin to pop in a worm.

Just a few recons

Things have been rather a mess around here lately. Nothing that I really want to go into great detail about right now (and nothing serious) but just a mess. To help me get through it, I've been doing some spring cleaning of our wardrobe's (sshhhh! don't tell James but I took a pair of his fave corduroy's and am hoping I can turn them into a fun skirt for this fall) and seeing what exactly could be transformed into something else (to help extend the "life" of our clothes).

To begin with, my Mom gave me a bunch of her clothes a while ago that she no longer wanted to cut up and use as fabric. This one shirt in particular I was thinking about re-doing and making it into a really cute shirt for myself but I was afraid that it would come out a little to "grandma-ey". So, I hacked away at it and changed it into a cute apron.

Mom's shirt before

Turned into my new apron

The only part of the apron that was not from the shirt was I used red bias tape around the pocket area to off set it from the rest of the apron.

Another re-do I did was I had this Xilaration cotton knit shirt that I got from Target a few years ago. It had this stretchy lace around the bottom that when I accidentally threw it in the dryer one day and it shrunk the lace in this very weird way. I tried ironing it out but it seemed as if nothing I did brought it back to life. So, hacked that shirt up along with another shirt that I had that I got from the thrift store a while ago (a polo shirt that was on the verge of death, but I saved it) and came up with this little creation (no before pics on this one). The green fabric was the Target shirt and the plaid was the polo shirt.

Added the shrunken lace going up the bust area. On a side note, it will definitely take some practice on my part with working with knit fabric.

The green band going around under the bust area didn't come out exactly how I intended it to be but I still love it.

Then lastly, L. had this red stretch knit onesie that still fit her everywhere else except for the crotch area.

L.'s onesie before

L.'s onesie after

So again, hacking up more clothes, I transformed it into a cute little dress for her. Super easy to do. Just cut out 2-29"x19" rectangles, stitch up the sides, add gathering stitch across the top, match up seams to the hacked up onesie, pull gathering stitching until it fit perfectly, then stitched up that seam. After all that was done, just hemmed up the bottom and she was off to play.

Jewelry making

It has been a looooong time since I've done anything in jewelry making. In fact, I don't even think I've ever blogged about any of my jewelry making on here. Jewelry making has always been something of mine that I've always enjoyed. I can whip up a pair of earrings moments before having to head out the door, or spend a hour working on a simple bracelet. And just like sewing and knitting, jewelry making has a wide array of beads, findings, etc. My favorite our of course the beads. So many pretty colors, shapes, sizes, types, etc.

So, being that James got me a cigar box at my disposal, I figured that I would spend sometime and sort out my beads and store them in the cigar box. The girls enjoyed it as well because I gave K. all the beads that I didn't want anymore (making herself a very cute "modge podge" necklace).

Now that I had my beads sorted through, I needed to make jewelry. I've used up the majority (of my favorite) beads making stitch markers so I think a nice trip to the local bead shop is in my future. (With no kids I might add because they have a gazillion beads all in these little glass dishes right at childs height. NO thank you! I do not feel like playing gazillion pick up!)

I did manage to make just a few things though and I'm in love with my new jewelry.

My favorite is the bracelet. I've had this green bead in my stash forever and every time I've looked at it always reminded me of a green mushroom top. So, I made a little mushroom charm and added it to the bracelet.

A while ago a posted a photo on my Flickr account about some buttons that my Grandmother had given to me from her stash (see photos here, here, here, and here) . I've finally put (a few) of them to good use and made these button rings.

They are so super easy to make. I just took these rings that you decorate yourself and stitched the buttons on. Some have holes in them (as the ones that I've used) and others just have a flat surface for you to glue something or rather onto it. You can view a better picture of the rings that I'm talking about here.