The usual

On my schedule today is “blog.” I’m supposed to have time for it…it’s on my schedule. The thing is, we were out of town this weekend, we’ll be gone next weekend AND the weekend after that. So I’m feeling a bit behind before I even get started! More fabric is here – and more is on the way. My UPS man is on vacation – and I suppose he’s allowed. The thing is, the substitute doesn’t know my name and he doesn’t carry these heavy boxes of fabric inside for me. And I had kinda gotten used to that extra help and the sweet comments about how I was going to overtake Hancock’s any day. I’m anxious for Mike to return! I have so much work to do over the next 3 days – and hopefully you’ll see these cute little Christmas fabrics in my store before long in addition to other really cute Christmas fabric. Plus new lines from Anna Maria Horner, Sandi Henderson, Heather Bailey and others. And new patterns too! See, I told you! I’m swamped!

The boys got their hair cut last week. Oh man! are they cute! These are during the haircuts – after pictures will come another day.

And Haley loves her dance class! I need to find a pure black leotard in a size XS (4) with SHORT sleeves (I can only find LONG sleeved ones here in Tucson. What is up with that?!?!?) If you find one, let me know!

So more pictures from our great get-away this weekend will follow. Now, the littlest is still asleep and the other two are jumping on the neighbors trampoline – so I must WORK!

Student Loans

Today I paid off one of my student loans from college! Oh Happy Day!!!!

Swimming

It’s hot in Tucson. No doubt about it. This afternoon, our neighbor invited us to go swimming with them. “Perfect!” I thought. The kids needed to get out of the house anyway. Here are a few of my favorite pictures. Now, back to work!

Toddler Sheets

My littlest one moved into a toddler bed not all that long ago. He’s so happy to be in his big boy bed! I wanted to make it special, so I got a few twin sheet sets from the store and converted them into toddler sheets to go onto his bed. They are pretty easy to make. Anyway, when this fabric from Michael Miller arrived, I figure that I may need to make another set!

Could you find a better fabric for a little boy? I think not! And you could make them too…I suppose I could write up a proper tutorial on this. What do you think? It might be a good idea, but that means I’ll need to find some spare time!

I’ll give you the super quick low down here – for a fitted crib sheet you’ll need 2 yards of 44/45 inch fabric. Out of each corner, cut an 8 inch square. Then match up the right sides of this newly formed open square area and sew the raw edges together. (It’ll be what gives the sheet the depth of the mattress.) Hem around the whole bottom edge, but leave an opening of 2 inches or so that you can insert elastic into. I like to put elastic around the entire bottom. After your elastic is inserted, sew the 2 inch opening shut and tack elastic in place. I will have to figure out how many inches of elastic I use – because right now I can’t recall.

I like to do a top sheet with a fitted bottom – and how about a pillow case too? Well, when I get around to making a set for him, I’ll take pictures and try writing up a real tutorial. Of course, he may be in college before it moves high enough on my ‘to-do’ list – so don’t hold your breath!

New Blog, New Pictures

This keeping up with two blogs is crazy. No more, I say! One person = one blog. So I’m testing out wordpress. We’ll see how I like it and if I stay here. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you posted. 🙂 I’ve imported my posts, so you can catch up on everything from the past.

So I thought I’d start this new blog with a picture of the siblings. This is for my Mother-In-Law…because she always reads my blogs. 🙂 We went to the caves and it was a lot of fun.

Next is my birthday boy! Kyle turned 6. We had a fun night at Chuck E. Cheese with many great presents.

These next pictures are with my new camera. WHOO HOO!!! So far, I love it – and the picture quality is obviously better. (Oddly enough, it is the exact camera that my Mom just bought! HA) Kyle is enjoying a cupcake after a couple hours of swimming at a friend’s birthday party. Yes, hours. He was a little prune.

And lastly, I will post a couple more pictures of the house…because it is what our life is right now. Building this house. It’s a lot of fun to see things coming together. A lot of people ask when we’ll be able to move in…I honestly don’t know. “Sometime hopefully,” is all I can say.

Here is the front and the back of our house. The last picture I showed you primarily showed the garage. This is a little better picture that shows the front door and all of that. I’ll go into more detail later. Now, I must cook for my family!

House pictures

Before my family kills me…I had better post some pictures! Things are moving along at a busy speed….which is good, I guess. These aren’t even completely up to date – but it’s more than you’ve seen so far.

The front of the house. Looking good…looking large!

Two of the kiddos under the stairs – which is a storage area.

Another child playing in the area under the stairs. What fun this is going to be!

All the kids on the stairs! Yep – they are goofy. 🙂

So that is all for now. In case you didn’t notice the time stamp on this post – I need to get to sleep. More later.

An Apple a Day

So let me ask you… how do you find the food your daughter has not wanted to eat? Look on her plate? In the trash? Oh no – that would be TOO easy. “So how?” you ask.

Follow the ants!

This morning, Haley came to tell me “Mom, we have piles of ants in the kitchen.” Upon further investigation (ie following the little ant line) I see they are headed up the cabinet we have our microwave setting on. I’m thinking there are going to be ants inside the microwave. Nope. “Hmm…where are they going?” Then I bend over to look under the microwave. BINGO. Under there I find the remnants of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, crackers, ham, apple slices, a cereal bar and more. A good cleaning was in order, to say the least. And Haley was there helping the whole time. Hopefully she won’t do it again.

Patterns and Schedules

I bought some patterns today! I had to stop and get needles for my serger and found that patterns were on sale for 99 cents. WOO HOO!!! Hopefully I’ll show them to you, completed before long. I have had this fabric for quite some time…but now I have the pattern I want to use to make Haley a dress!

It’s a little school girl dress pattern that I think will be super cute this fall for Haley. (That is very soft corduroy fabric in case you were wondering!) There are a few other patterns as well – all for Haley. Poor boys.

Oh and in case you were wondering about this pattern…

The dress is cute but to be honest I wasn’t so happy with the pattern. Which I feel really really guilty about – and that is why I haven’t share more regarding that dress.

So what else is there? Let’s see – how can I say this….my life seems to be a little bit crazy right now. With building the house, 3 children (on summer break), the sewing side of my business and selling fabric – I often feel like I don’t have a minute to spare. And, well, ya know, I kinda like spare minutes. I want to take the kids to the water park, I would like to have lunch with friends on occasion, and I’d really like to sew some things for our new house and my children.

So last night, after the kids had gone to bed, I sat down with my wise and supportive husband to talk things over. He has really great ideas, good perspective and manages to balance things very well. We came up with a new schedule for me to test out. I should still be able to get everything done and hopefully it will give a few spare minutes back….if I can stick to it.

So it means I won’t answer emails 10 seconds after you send them. (That is an exaggeration…I was never THAT fast!) It means I am really really really limiting the sewing orders I’ll take over the next few months, and hopefully it means that I’ll be able to enjoy the summer with the kids a little bit more!

In addition to the dress patterns, I am really anxious to try out some of the patterns from Amy Bulter‘s Sew-It Kit.

And in case you didn’t already know, she has a new book coming out – Little Stitches. I’ve ordered several. Very excited about that too!

All for now, I’m scheduled to blog again next week – so see you then!

Firplaces

We have many many choices to make in the next day or two. One is whether or not to add a fireplace to the master bedroom. My opinion differs from my husbands – so I’m just curious what you all think. The poll is to your right. A simple yes or no vote is all that is required. Don’t put too much thought into this.

You can do fun stuff

So, I figure I had better dispel rumors that I only like fabric because it allows me to escape my real life. Not true. I also like fabric because of the cool things you can do with it. A frequent stop of mine for browsing is Quiltville. She is an amazing artist! I am always in awe of her creations. What a talented seamstress!

She made this quilt with the Ginger Blossom fabric from my store. Fantastic – isn’t it? Maybe later I’ll show you some more fun things from my other fantastic customers. (But…I’ll need you to email me your pictures and say it’s ok to post them!)