Fun for mom & the kids!

As anyone with young children knows, long car rides can be pretty painful at times. This year when we started planing our annual trip to Northern Michigan I started thinking of ways to keep the kids entertained in the car. I decided to make the kids some activities bags for vacation and fill them with plenty of books and art supplies for the trip. So here was one of my favorite sewing projects of this year; I am very happy with the way they turned out. You can find this AMAZING free pattern for messenger bags here:

New Favorite Sewing Project

Okay so I know this isn't the best picture, but I had to

write about this Anna Marie Horner bag (Multi-Tasker Tote) that I just made. I LOVE it! Not only is it cute, and functional, but the realm of possibilities are endless with so many great fabrics out there right now. It was a fairly easy project that came together a lot faster than I expected. You can find the pattern here and while you are there check out her amazing fabrics, other patterns and blog. I have already planned on making another one for myself and a few for birthday presents this year.

Fabric I am drooling over right now!

This is from Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow fabric line and I bought this fabric to make the Anna Marie Horner Multi-task Tote for my mom not anticipating how much I would LOVE this fabric...it is going to be very hard for me to let go of it!

This is from Laura Gunn's Poppy fabric collection and I AM IN LOVE!!! I have thought about all of the wonderful things I can do with this fabric and I am thinking of a few gifts for a few very special people and then a Multi-task tote for me. If I had a more money I would snag up every piece of this collection, so in love with it!

Here are a few fun fabrics that I couldn't resist. Starting from the left is a fabric by Alexander Henry Fabrics in the 2D Zoo collection, then there are the luna moths from the Flora & Fauna collection by Patty Young, Garden Party by Anna Marie Horner and then the snails from the Shade Garden collection by Michelie Engel Bencsko. These are basically for baby gifts, well except the garden party material...I bought that to make gorgeous napkins to go with my Fiestaware collection!

Recent Sewing Projects

Here are my favorite sewing projects yet...banners for the kidz!

More Projects Completed

Coffee cuff...

P.J. top for little Jonah

Mom's old ugly sewing table....

Newly painted just the way I want it!

Projects completed!

Here are the set of pajamas that I FINALLY finished! I finished this set last week as well as the top of another set I started back in the summer and seemed to never get around to finishing (sorry Rebecca- I hope they still fit!) I am not sure why, but I seemed to have issues every time I sat down to a project. First it was not measuring enough fabric and so then I had to go back to the store I purchased it to find out that they were completely out and not getting anymore in. So, the search online began to find this flower fabric or one that was complementary. I also had some issues with my bobbin winder that delayed these projects that sent me to friendly neighbor's machines to do some bobin winding. Then I ran out of thread and well, let's just say there was a lot of life happening in the midst of all of this as well.

But I am very happy that both projects are done and now I can FINALLY move on to start Christmas gifts and goodies! By the way for those of you who are interested the fabric for this set is by Erin McMorris; part of her Park Slope collection.

Beautiful new fabric for new projects

Calgone take me away!

This summer has been rough; I am not going to lie or even sugar coat things. The weather this summer has been anything but summer-like. Greg has been sick and is still dealing with infections and such. The kids have been at war with each other ALL summer, which has been comical at times, but mostly just a tad bit of hell. And I have been in a really pissy mood and weird funk all summer.

Lately, I have been trying to pull myself back to realms of normalcy and I have been trying to find the good in everything and everyone (including myself), which hasn't been easy. Do you ever have those days/weeks/months where nothing seems to come easily? Not joy, laughter, peace, love, or even anger...a time in which you feel like you are just suspended in time trying to get somewhere, trying to rip the callouses off your heart and remember what it is like to feel again; really FEEL. I have been trying to do this as of lately and by lately I mean these last few weeks or so and I am not sure how far I am getting in this process. I know this week I have had some wicked PMS and so I have regressed a bit! But honestly, I am trying and that is what counts right?

So in doing so I decided I would post some pictures of things that bring joy to my heart and puts a smile on my face. And then I am going to go take a lovely bubble bath in the dark. Good night.

I found it!!

It has been quite some time since I have posted and life has been very busy since my motivation was hiding from me. First I will let you know that it came one night in the end of March at about...8 p.m. when I was least expecting it. For some odd reason I decided it was time to paint my laundry room. Yes, that is right; on a weeknight after the kids were in bed and my main squeeze was doing his ironing I decided that it was time to crack open that "Lemon Curd" paint I bought in the fall and get to work painting oven the very drab sage green that I stare at way too often these days. I began this paint job from hell and I am close to being finished which is a good thing. Since I have to cover up the green it has taken me a lot longer than I anticipated, but I am hoping to finish it over the weekend. Aside from the fact that I do numerous loads of laundry every week, my primary motivation is the fact that I have set up my sewing station in the laundry room and right now I have a pretty intimate relationship with this machine.


This machine was given to me by a dear friend last year who had no need for it and wasn't quite sure if it worked and if so, exactly how to thread this crazy ol' beast. I took it in to have serviced last winter and even though I was told it was in "mint condition for it's age" and that this was "a keeper" I still had no idea how the hell to thread the needle, or the bobbin or set the tensions and then actually use it. So it sat in my basement all of last year yearning for attention, but with the garden I couldn't help but to ignore it and promise that I would put it to work in the fall and winter. In December I started messing around with it, but I didn't have a manual and I couldn't find this machine anywhere on the net after numerous hours of searching. With the holidays in full swing I had little time or patience to devote to this overwhelming task.

After the new year I decided it was time and so with the help of You Tube I found a tutorial on how to thread needles and bobbins on vintage machines and then with a couple of books and fabric designer's blogs I have been going from one sewing project to the next. My first was this pin cushion.
Then I did this apron for a friend

And then I decided to take it up a level and do these baby pajamas for one of my daugher's teachers who is due with her first baby in the next couple of weeks. The pattern is from a company called Oliver and S and they have very cute patterns for children's clothes.

Right now I am working on matching dresses for my daughter and her cousin since they both are turning five this spring. Here is one of them that is done and I am working on the other.

So yeah...I found my motivation and a new hobby that I LOVE~

The boy is 2!

I can't believe that as I sit here and watch this little dude run around this morning that he was born two years ago! I can still remember the details of his early and extremely fast birth (woke up at 3:20 a.m. because my water broke as I rolled over in bed; he was born on the bathroom floor at 4:59 a.m.). The call to the midwife; the anxiety about the pace of the birth; the sun rising as we took our first bath; the excitement of his sister and his dad as they held him for the first time; the beautiful, little details of this boy that were now physically present: tiny fingers and toes, a head full of dark hair, big eyes, tiny perfect pink lips. Now he is two and I am just as in awe of him today as I was then. How time flies, eh?

Yesterday was an interesting day. It didn't go as I had hoped or planned, but he did not seem to mind. He was very happy and content with the events of the day even if I was not. His sister has been having a very hard time this last week and yesterday definitely was the day that the rest of the week was building up to for one HUGE day of meltdowns. Wednesday night was a full moon and we are well aware that when the moon is full it has some type of pull on this child. She is usually really squirrely or really emotional; but yesterday she was not only emotional and squirrely, but also mean and whiny which made the day emotionally exhausting for me.

While the kids napped I finished sewing up Keegan's birthday crown and was going to make his honey cake until I realized I didn't have enough eggs. So I scrapped that idea and I will make the cake today and we will have two days of celebrating. Here is a picture of the crown. It wasn't as easy as the blog made it out to be, but I think it was worth it. I am pleased with the way it looks and so is he. This morning he has been riding around his "horse" with his crown and it is simply adorable!


I also stole some time to myself while they napped and looked through birth photos and wrote in his special journal that I started the day he was born. I am so amazed that these two little people were in my belly at one point and now are such amazing and beautiful little people with such STRONG personalities. Every time I look at the photos of my children's "birth day" I get so weepy. Today was no different, but due to the emotional aspects of the morning I didn't just cry; I sobbed. It was at that point that I knew I needed a nap as well; so I crashed on the couch and 30 minutes later the kids were up and ready to play and we all felt much better.

The birthday evening ended with the boy's favorite meal; pasta with homemade pesto, a salad (which he surprised us by actually eating) and then more presents and yogurt covered pretzels for dessert.