Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Weekend laughs

Well this post started out going to be a Friday Family Faves but after our mishaps on Friday it turned into more of a Friday Funny.  I will give you the long and the short of it in a bit.  Just remember it is all about observation.  :)

First I wanted to share my favorite meal this week.  Oh it was so good I telling you.  I really wouldn't mind sitting down and having it again tonight.  We grilled pork chops that my father in law raised (well he raised the pig that became the chop)  We actually named the pigs Bacon and Pork chop (who later came to be fondly called The Devil Hog) and I just kept my distance so I didn't get attached.   Sorry I am rambling and completely off the topic of dinner.  So we had grilled chops, stewed fresh potatoes, squash and onions, cabbage, and peas.  All the veggies came from the local farmers market except the peas, they were courtesy of a can.  And it was delish!  That is exactly how my 3 year old described it.  "This is de-lis-E-us Mommy!"

My big boy loves his brother but he doesn't always want to have a lot to do with him.  He will speak to him and play with him occasionally but he normally is busy doing his own thing.  On Wednesday I was putting away the laundry when I walked in on this.

Isn't that just sweet.  It melted my heart I tell ya.  I know they are gonna be best buds, when they are not fighting.  ;)

Oh and I have to share these cookies.  Yum they are so good.  I love dark chocolate and I rarely go down the cookie aisle but I needed some Nilla Wafer for a recipe and saw theses. 
You should so try them. (I will share the yummy dessert I am making for Father's Day later this week)

Ok now are you ready to laugh at strangers.  Come on sure you are.

Friday afternoon we ran by Babies R Us so I could exchange my little ones flip flops.  I left my hubby and boys in the van since I was just running in for a second.  They didn't have the right size so I was in and out in a matter of minutes.  I was thinking about where we were going next as I grabbed the handle of the van when I saw a huge scratch on the side door.  I let go of the door to examine the scratch and was still looking at it when I opened the door again about to tell my husband about it, when I noticed him waving frantically at me through the widow of the van I was trying to get in.  It was then that I realized he was a van over and there was a strange women staring at me.  I mumbled an apology and shut the door and ran to my van.  I was laughing about the whole thing as my hubby started lecturing me about how unobservant I am.  (now in my defense I was gone like 1 minute and the van was right in front of ours, same color, same make and model)    So we make it back on the road as he is still fussing about me being unobservant and telling me a story our preacher told about him being not being observant.  Then we go stomping on the breaks to keep from running a red light.  Now who was not paying attention.  Haha!  He was not paying attention to the lights as he was telling me a story about being unobservant because of my lack of attention.  Ok it was funny.

Hope you have a great week!  I will be trying out this magic shower cleaner, that is all over pinterest, and I will let you know how it works out.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Bumble bee onesie

I saw the cutest little onesie at the store a few months ago.  It had a bee on it and was just adorable but it cost around $20.  Way too much for a onesie, especially when I figure I can make my own for much cheaper.  I have not been blessed with little girls yet so this is for a friend (and hopefully she will not check my blog before I have time to give it to her) and maybe in a year or two we will be able to swap out clothing so I can put bows in a baby's hair and she can dress up a little man.  :)


sorry I don't know how to make the pictures rotate if someone does please inform me but cute huh?

See isn't that adorable.   Want to make your own?  Ok all you need is a plain onesie (it doesn't have to be white I think most any color would work), some yellow material (mine was an old scrap t-shirt), white material (again mine was a scrap t-shirt), tiny black buttons, small black buttons, 3/4 in black ribbon, 1/4 in black ribbon, sewing machine, gray/black embroidery thread  (Again with almost all my projects this is just what I used.  Play around with sizes and material.  I bet a bee would be cute with big buttons for eyes too.)

1st thing is to decide how big you want your bee to be.  Cut out the basic body shape, by folding your material in half so that it will be symmetrical.  Then lay out your material on your shirt to make your bee and see where you want everything and how you want to space it.  I used an erasable ink marker to put dots where I wanted the eyes, mouth, etc.  You also need to cut your ribbon to length and the right shape.  Lay your ribbon on the bee body and trim it just a bit larger than needed.  Then heat seal the edges with a lighter. 


Now sew on your eyes by hand and stitch your mouth on.  Look it is cute already.  ;)  Next are your stripes.  You can hand sew them on, use stitch witchery, your machine, etc.  My material is really small and thin so I decided to hand stitch them on.  It was a little more time consuming but I am happy with the result.



Now that you have your bee all put together pin it to your onesie and stitch it on with your sewing machine.  (you could sew it on by hand if you don't have a sewing machine) My machine wanted to fight with me for some reason but we made it around finally.  After the body is attached you will want to hand stitch the antenna down and add the buttons. 

You could stop here but I felt my bee needed wings.  I used my erasable ink to make the design of my wings and then just hand stitched them on using embroidery thread. 

I wasn't completely satisfied with my onesie and wanted to add some cuteness to the back.  I was going to make some ruffles across the bum but then decided that a bee needed flowers.  I made some super simple flowers out of the same yellow and put a little white in for contrast.  I just traced 3 different sized circles on my fabric, cut them out, and added a button in the middle.  Pretty cute huh? 

The bee went together fairly easy because all my fabric was knit and would not ravel so I did not have to work about frayed edges. 
You could do the same thing but use a more "manly" :) animal for a boy. 

Monday, June 11, 2012

Weekend Fun

Hi all!  I hope you had a fabulous weekend!  I spent a great one running around with family and friends. 

Saturday was filled with time at the local Farmer's Market.  If you have one you should so go check it out.  I love ours.  It is not big but that is kinda the best part, and until my garden starts putting out, it is a great way to get good pesticide free produce.  Yum just look at all the goodies I got.  Oh side note make sure you get there early.  We were really late this week and half of the stuff I normally get was gone.  No corn or cucumbers for me this week.  But take a look at some of the veggies I did get!
squash
blueberries

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and peaches
super sweet peaches
I also got some cauliflower, two tomatoes plants, and some peanuts.  Have I said I love fresh veggies and fruit!  :)
We also had a birthday party that evening and just some time at home playing with the boys.  The weather was great and there is no place better than being outside and enjoying it. 
Pool time!

playing outside

Sunday we didn't make it to morning church service because my littlest man decided that 4 in the morning was an acceptable time to get up and stay up till about 7am.  Needless to say I was past exhausted.  But we had a great day around the house that day and then made it to a wonderful evening service.  And for the frosting on the cake (haha pun intended) we had Birthday Bash at church last night so after the preaching we went to eating.  Baptist rarely meet when they don't eat.  So we enjoyed cake, ice cream, and chips in celebration of the June birthdays. 


Well that is all my rambling for the moment.  I will have some craftiness to share later this week.  Have a wonderful day!  What did you do for fun this weekend?

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Kitchen chair refashion


I am so excited about my post today because it is something I have been wanting to do for about a year and now that I finally got around to doing it, I love it!!  Over a year ago we bought a table off of a yard sale site and though it was in ok condition the cushions were not pretty.   They were your basic brown suede.  Well after looking around Hancocks for a while I found some material I LOVED and as an extra bonus I had a coupon!  Don't you just love coupons.   Well life got busy and I never took the time to stop and cover my cushions, until now.  And as just a side note it was really easy and quick.  I should have taken the time sooner but well then I probably wouldn't have photos to share.  If you need a complete step by step tutorial just google chair recovering and there are plenty of videos.  That being said it really is simple and only takes about an hour and a half start to finish.

BEFORE

Ok first thing unscrew your cushion from your chair.  Then you will want to either measure your seat so you can cut out the right dimensions or you can do what I did and just trace it.  Lay your fabric out on a smooth level surface.  I just used my living room floor.  I doubled my fabric so that I only had to trace and cut twice.  I am an unprofessional, lazy, quick crafter so if you want the proper way to do things well this post is not for you and most of my projects will not be up your alley.  I don't do a lot of technical measuring with cooking or crafting.  I like to look at it or taste as may be the case and kinda improvise as I go.  Sometimes it works out for me and sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it is a happy accident.  Ok that bit of disclosure out of the way, now we can get back to the chairs.  (sorry I tend to ramble and rarely remember to step on the clutch) :)

So lay your cushion down on your fabric and trace/cut around the seat going out at least a good 5 inches.  If in doubt pick up your fabric and test it.  I went as close as I could so that I could save all the extra fabric for some curtains (coming later this week or next).  After you have all four pieces cut out get your staple gun or air gun and prepare to staple.  Center your cushion on your material and start at the front (typically your widest side) and pull your material taunt and staple in the middle.  Do this for the other 3 sides adding just one staple to the middle.  After each side had been secured go back and staple each side down with at least 4 more staples.
sides stapled and working on the corners (I put my hubby to work with the staple gun)

Now time for the corners.  Pull/fold in your corners getting them as tight as flat as you can.  Make sure they do not make creases in your fabric that show on the top.  Staple your corners down with at least 2 staples.  Then trim off all excess material getting fairly close to the staples.  Now flip your cushion over and admire your newly covered seat.  Ahhhh

You can stop here and reattach your seat or you can get some felt or other cheap/non raveling material and cover up your work.  Depending on how much excess material you have hanging will determine if it is an important step. 

I am in love with my new cushions.  They make me smile every time I look at them.   Oh goodness I almost forgot to save my new lovely fabric I gave my cushions a good dose of Scotch Guard.

Linking to some of these great parties
            www.watchoutmartha.net
            www.funkypolkadotgiraffe.blogspot.com
            www.ladybug-blessings.com
            www.sugarbeecrafts.com
            www.creationsbykara.com
            www.733blog.com
            www.somedaycrafts.blogspot.com
            www.sugaranddots.com
                 http://bec4-beyondthepicketfence.blogspot.com
            www.katiesnestingspot.com
                www.chickenscratchny.com
            www.shabbynest.blogspot.com
            www.kojo-designs.com
            www.oneartmama.blogspot.com
            www.504main.com

Monday, June 4, 2012

John Deere Baby set - Lovey Blanket

Well today is part 3 of my baby set.  If you missed the burp cloth and the bib you can find them here and here.  OK so now on to the lovey blanket.  Like with the other two there are several different ways to make these.  I am only going to share one way today but if you have any questions feel free to ask.  Because I will apologize ahead of time that I did not take step by step pictures.

For my blanket I used flannel material because it is just softer.   So supplies you will need- 1/4 yard of two different materials (for your front), 1/2 yard of backing material, several different colors and textures of ribbon, a square (or object you can use of a square), and a sewing machine.

my square ;)
I made my lovey in a patchwork fashion, kinda like a quilt but with out the padding.  If you wanted the extra time you could definitely go back and add stuffing and quilt around the edges but I was fast and lazy.  :)  I only used two different colors of material for this blanket, the John Deere print and then a plain yellow for contrast and the backing.  You start by tracing out 9 squares.  I do not have a technical square so I use the top of a cd case.  :) Ok no laughing it works and it did not cost me a thing I just stole the top off of one of my cds.  Again you could make this blanket so many different ways.  You could make it bigger by adding more squares, or you could have several different patterns going on, or make it completely solid, etc.  I have made mine in a variety of patterns and styles, so this is only one way, feel free to experiment. 

Anyway to make this blanket, trace and cut out 5 squares from your 1st fabric and 4 squares from your second fabric.  Then you will need to serge/sew your squares together in rows of 3.  After you have your rows, sew them together to form your front.  Then lay your front layer on your backing fabric and trace out a large square to match it's size.  Again so sorry I do not have pictures but feel free to ask if you are confused.  I would add a drawing but that is something I have not learned how to do just yet, still super new to blogging.  I went back and took some pictures of a different blanket just for you!  Don't you feel loved now. :)
sewing squares together

cut out squares of fabric

Your 3 separate rows                                 2 rows sewed together


all sewn together


Now that you have both of your pieces, you need to decide how many ribbons you want on your blanket and how long you want each piece.  I chose 4 different colors with all the same texture but different widths.  Cut your ribbon to the length that you want and lay them out on your top piece to decide what kind of pattern you want.  Once you have decided on how you want it to look, you will want to pin your ribbon the the right side of the front piece.  I know that sounds funny but you will sew it tucked in so that when you turn your blanket the right side out your ribbon will be attached neatly on the inside.  So pin your ribbon so a little hangs over the edge of your material and the rest of the ribbon lays on your front piece.
(Here is a pic of another blanket I will show later)
I hope you can tell the ribbons have been pinned up with a little bit of over hang to catch when you sew.


Then pin your backing piece right side down on the ribbon to your front.  (I feel like this sounds confusing)  Make sure you leave a 1 inch opening so that you can turn it inside out.  I like to put several little pins where I am not going to sew to remind myself to stop.  Cause once I get going well sometimes I just keep going.  ;)   Now you can serge it closed or sew it on a regular machine.  I have done both but since I have a serger now I just love it!

After it is sewn together, push/pull your blanket right side out.  Tuck your extra fabric in your opening and then you can top stitch it closed or hand stitch it.  Most people think top stitching all the way around is more professional looking but again it is your choice.

Well this is probably one of my longest posts but I felt it was a tad confusing.  Please come back later this week I have a chair redo that I am just so tickled with!  Have a great day!
Linking to some of these great parties: