Snow Day

Snow is kind of a big deal in South Carolina. We typically don't see much of it. But Tuesday night was a different story. 

We woke up the next morning to a good 3 inches of accumulation!

My girl was excited to see it when she woke up and declared that we were going to build a snowman and an igloo. 

 The girl was ready to go out and play even before breakfast.

So we got ready to go play.

Her response when I told her to stop putting snow on the dog: "But he's pretty. He has on a snow suit."

It's been a while since my kids have seen snow that they can remember. The last time we got snow that my son could play in, I was pregnant with his sister and I know he doesn't remember that. He was almost 2 years old. 

When we went home for Christmas after the girl was born, it snowed in NC. We were so busy doing the Christmas thing that we didn't play in it.

The snow was a dry snow so it was more powdery and didn't stick together very well. Snowballs were a little difficult to make until the sun worked it magic on some of the snow.

The girl wanted hair on her snowman (R). The dogs kept stealing the carrot noses.


The best part of being a parent and having snow:
-Short work week=staying home during the storm
-Snow days with hubs (work cancelled) and kids
-Watching my son experience with first school snow day
-Throwing snowballs at little kids...so much fun!

"Stop it, Mommy. Stop it.", she said sweetly. Cracks me up!

It was nice to see snow and be able to play in it. Luckily, it melted on the roads and stuff by the afternoon so traveling wasn't a huge issue, even though we didn't go anywhere, but we would have go to work Thursday (today) and we want to be safe.

So pretty.

Now that we have had some cold, colder weather, and some snow, bring on the warm weather. 

Come on spring! 

I'm tired of being cold.

Husband's Tie

As a part of my Black Friday fabric purchase, I bought some Star Trek fabric (JoAnn's) for the hubs.

I found a great tie pattern for a full length man's tie on Pinterest. It worked great for this project. (The link for the pattern is in the pin text. The pdf document also has the tutorial).

He enjoyed me making a project for him. Once I finished it, the first time he wore it was to Church. He got some compliments on it as well. Then, he did something amazing. He told them that I made it. He gave me credit for it. It was a great feeling. 

My kids never give me credit for the things I make for them and I am ok with that, they are not big on getting attention for things like that. I don't make things for the attention, people eventually figure it out and they don't say much afterwards, which is fine, I'm not big on that type of attention anyway.

I'm happy that he likes it. When the kids sit on his lap and ask him questions about the tie he can name all of the characters and it gives them something to do while waiting for church to start. Nothing like good, quality time with the kids.

There was a still some fabric left over and he asked if I could make him a pillowcase for his childhood small pillow. So I did.

Cute.
He likes it, too. 

Happy husband, happy wife.

Just one more: Boy's Night Shirt

I have this fabric. It's totally cute and adorable. Very boy. Building blocks city scape with vehicles in flannel (city blocks snuggle flannel). What's not to love?

I purchased this fabric during my black Friday online shopping from JoAnn's. I was looking for fabric for the girl, but I knew this would be perfect for the boy.

The problem, one that happens more often than not, is what was I going to make with it? I had no idea.

Because we have a little girl in the house, she will sometimes wear nightgowns to bed, when weather permits. The thing about that is that my son wants to wear a nightgown too. It makes me giggle, it irks my husband. 

I explained to the boy that boys don't wear "nightgowns", but a long time ago they used to wear night shirts, which are like nightgowns, but different (not really).

Christmas came around and I was finishing up projects when the boy mentioned that he wanted a night shirt. 

Light bulb moment people! I had the perfect fabric for this project.

Never mind that Christmas was just a couple of days away, and that I had just finished my projects, and that it was my long week of work, and...

What's one more project during the busy holiday season?

It's for my boy, and he really wants one, and I can make it. 
I can! 
So I did.

ignore the wrinkles.

He was super happy to open it on Christmas day.

He loves it! Makes me happy.

Because this was a gift I couldn't have him try it on while I was working on it. I sort of hacked a pattern I got from a library book, Oliver +S Little Things to Sew: 20 Classic Accessories and Toys for Children by Liesl Gibson. (I use a pattern from the book to make my toddler backpacks as well). There was a pattern for a project called Dressing Gown. It was a child's robe and pants sleep set. I used the pattern for the robe to make the night shirt. The largest size was 4-5. I added to the pattern to make it bigger for my son who was already wearing a 4-5. Since I couldn't try it on him as I went, it was just a big guessing game.

When he first tried it on, it was a bit big. I wanted to make it a bit bigger so that he could wear it another season, at least. 

No worries on the size. He has plenty of room. Time was a factor so I was finishing it up on Christmas Eve. I made a few changes after he opened it at Christmas. 

I added some ribbing for the cuffs of the arms. They were supposed to make the arms tighter at the wrist, but I cut the ribbing exactly the same as the arm holes so it didn't pull it in like I had hoped. I can fix it, but he doesn't care. He has a night shirt to wear.

I had to add a triangle piece of fabric to provide more cover for him. The button is functional, but not at the moment because he had plenty of room for it to fit over his head.

He wears his night shirt whenever he can, hence the wrinkles in the photo, it gets laundered frequently. 

I have one happy boy who has something else to add to his "look what Mommy made me" collection. I like that I can make something for him because there are so many projects on my list to make for my girl that I don't want him to feel left out. His next boy project is making ninja turtle masks. :)

Out of the Mouths of My Kids

I don't have an actual post prepared or anything, but I do have some snipits of funny things that my kids have said over the past few years.

What comes out of the mouths of kids can be really...interesting. They ask strange questions. They say weird things. They make up stuff, and then ask you about it as if you were just in their head going through the secret compartments like going through old boxes in an attic, only you are not in their head and you have no idea what they are talking about.

Kids definitely make life interesting. And mine just crack me up sometimes.

Here are some quips my kids have said over the years:

-What is in your hand? A mickel. (nickel)

-When my husband was trying to put some food on our son's plate and having a conversation with someone and the boy kept protesting and trying to tell him he didn't want any more but hubs was just not paying attention...then the boy said this, "Don't do that, Father!"

-Son it's time to wake up... (in the process of stirring and waking up) I'm a chicken hatching from an egg.

-You silly goose. I'm not a goose. I'm a gazelle! (He still says this).

- While working on teaching my son to read, I was trying to get him to say the word "mother". I'm not a father...I'm____. Human.

-Teaching my son to read is an interesting endeavor. Getting him to sound out words can lead to funny moments and he has no idea why they are funny. For example, the word "as", short vowel a sound followed by an s that sounds like a z...unless you are learning to read then you get the short vowel with the normal s sound and a completely different word.

-My son made a little ring hat with a bat attached to it. He wore the thing in car line and for a while at home as well. The other day my husband put on the bat hat and proclaimed to be Batman. On the wing of the bat is my son's name. My son spelled his name and said, "You're not me. That's not how you spell your name." How do you spell Batman? My son stops, and thinks for a second, then pulls his pants down so he can see how to spell Batman from his underwear, and proceeds to spell it for Daddy.

-My daughter has been working on a "trick". She's learning to wink. "Wink". It's kind of funny that she thinks it's a trick, and she has been practicing. We went to the library and she wanted to show the librarian behind the desk her trick. I had to explain why her face was all scrunched up, but once I did it made sense to the librarian who was delighted that someone had given her a wink as it had been a while since anyone had done that. Her words, not mine. Watching my girl try to figure it out is so much fun. I kind of hope that she doesn't figure it out any time soon because I enjoy watching the process of her learning something new.

Where did she get that dimple from?

-We were trying to get the kids to hurry and take a shower before bedtime. The boy was almost done so my husband told the girl to go use the other bathroom so we wouldn't have to wait for her to decide right before she got in the tub that she needed to go potty. She was slowly making her way down the hall when my hubs told her to hurry up and then said, "schnell". To which my daughter  sassily, yet sweetly, repeated, "schnell, schnell". I started giggling at the scene because I found it funny. I told my hubs that she was sassing him in German. He was not amused. He doesn't like the kids being sassy. The girl is a bi-lingual sasser. Ha!

-There have also been some things I have said to the kids that I never thought would come out of my mouth. The one that has stuck with me over the years is, "Don't put the pretzel stick up your nose." To this day I can not fathom why a kid would do something like that. I know it is part of exploring their world and trying new things, but that's how kids/parents end up as fodder for the pediatricians office.

-Mommy, that (insert random slight against kid) hurt my feelings. Examples: That thunder hurt my feelings. That loud noise hurt my feelings. Those loud kids hurt my feelings.

-My son wanted to play with his Innotab, but I couldn't remember where I am placed it while cleaning up for the holidays. I told the kids that whoever found it would get a surprise. I was cleaning the stack of kid papers/art projects and found the Innotab. My kids were less than amused that I got the surprise. My girl tried to give me two of her toys as my surprise, the boy just pouted.

-The girl was being whiny with her brother as they were arguing over something, so I told her to go back to her room. She came to find me and told me that she wanted to be a Jedi.

-While at church, my girl wanted to sing along with one of the hymns but she didn't know the words. She was singing along anyway using the words to "Jingle Bells".


In closing, refer to 5 cent pieces as mickels from now on, don't put pretzel sticks up your nose, be a gazelle, scrunch your face, and remember that I am not only a mother, I am also human. Good to know, Son, good to know.

New

Another year has passed, and the new one just started. Usually during this season some people make plans, goals, resolutions, commitments, etc. I try to come up with some simple things to accomplish at some point in the year. 

I don't remember what goals I set for in 2013. I may have written them down somewhere. I think my main goal was to get healthy. Another goal had to do with finances. I'm still working on the healthy goal, but I am better than I was in 2013. I did accomplish the financial goal. Yea, me!

So, this brings me to what I should accomplish in 2014. I still have some financial goals I want to meet. I make a budget every year and do the best I can to stick with it. I'm not terribly disciplined when it comes to sticking to a budget. I'm working on that.

Some 2014 goals:

I want to add some storage to my sewing studio.

I want to work on decluttering my stuff, house, kids stuff, etc. We just have way too much of everything.

I want to finish my daughter's room makeover. The majority of it has been done, but there's a little bit more to do.

I have some sewing projects, of course, I want to start and finish.

I have some family goals as well: spend quality time with the kids, plan summer activities for them, do some educational skill building with both of them, and to actively spend more time with my husband. That was actually a part of his Christmas present...to give him the gift of time. We will plan something every month to do together, no kids, no distractions. Because of my work schedule we don't go to bed at the same time very often. At least twice a month we will make a point of going to bed at the same time: one early (me) and one late (him).

I am looking forward to everything that 2014 will bring. I hope that you have a great year as well!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

I won't get to see the looks on my kids' faces when they wake up this morning, but I will be getting relieved a few hours early so that we can open presents together, and they won't have to be tortured waiting all day for the unwrapping-fun to start.

We hope you have a wonderful day with loved ones.

Sending you tidings of good cheer, joy, happiness, love, and prayers for a wonderful Christmas and fantastic New Year!

Crafty Christmas

I have been working hard, and long, on projects for the holidays. I have declared myself finished for the season. 

Done. Finito. No more. 

Mostly likely. 

If I come up with something that can be done quickly then I will be sewing some more. Actually, I have a couple of hair bows I want to make before Christmas, but it's not a major project.

Here are the results of my hard work:

My son is loving all things Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I found a T-shirt in the bigger boys clearance section ($5) at Wal-mart and decided to use it to make a battle shell for him. I added interfacing, cut out the shape, sewed a lining to the insides, and added straps to go over his shoulders and around his waist. On the back shell I added a couple of "pockets"- to hold weapons that we don't have-and I am ok with that. All he needs are some masks and some pillow fight weapons and he will be ready for some harmless fun--Ninja style.
I hope he likes it.

I made the girl's skirt and the boy's tie for picture taking. Love it.

I made a panel skirt in holiday fabric and added an ornament embellishment to a t-shirt. So cute.

I made some more ties and some holiday bow ties for my son, as well for another kid-cousin. I turned some bow ties into hair bows for the girl. She took one of my son's bow ties and held it up to her head because she wanted to be a present and it was adorable. How could I not make her some?  

And I can't forget about the three matching golden Christmas outfits.

These are the reversible dresses I was talking about in an earlier post. They can go from Christmas to Valentine's Day.

Lovely.

I finally did add buttons to them. A word about reversible dress buttons: they are kind of awkward to sew on, and really hard to get through the button hole because of the other button behind it. But super cute still. The pattern for the dress came from the book Stitch Savvy by Deborah Moebes. The pattern ranges from xs-l. I looked on her blog to see the what sizes the ranges were actually for and lo and behold there was information on it. A welcome change from the peacoat pattern. The small can go fit a 2-5 year old and go from a dress to tunic to top. The pattern calls for ties at the shoulder line,  but I adjusted the pattern to make it more like a jumper with buttons instead of ties.

I made some leg warmers from knee socks for my girl. Some knee socks were longer than others, but I love how easy they were to make and how adorable they turned out.

The final projects were these uber-cute baby doll baskets and a round stuffed cow. I made one basket for a kid-cousin (R) and one for my girl (L). I love the pattern that Dana from MADE released. I made the medium sized baskets. The instructions were wonderful (as always with Dana's stuff) and it was a fun project. I can't wait for my girl to see hers. I hope she will love it. 

I love the pink on pink checkered fabric with the gray on gray dot fabric (all from Wal-mart). I was going to do my girls' one in different fabric but I loved the pink and gray so much I went to buy more of it. I was lucky enough to find the perfect color of gray bias tape as well.

One of the kid-cousin babies loves cows so I made her a stuffie. I hope she enjoys it. 

We also did baking and Christmas ornament crafting and teacher gift making. I didn't get many photos of that stuff because of time issues, but we had fun.

A full range of holiday craftiness. 
And I enjoyed it all.
I am 99.99% done with everything. There were some projects I didn't get around to doing but I can do them when I have more time off. All I have to do now is wait on Christmas to arrive, play Santa and put the stuff under the tree. 

That wraps it up for my Christmas crafts and sewing projects. Next year, if I have any projects, I will try to start earlier in the year, but the last minute stuff is pretty fun too.