I wanted to make something for my Mom's birthday.

Remember when I said I was taking a break from sewing diapers? This is what I made!!!! What is this????????????Um... I think I will blame this on my nonworking pregnancy brain. I am embarrassed to admit this but I made several that turned out just like this. I don't think 5-10 pictures of blobs like this are needed. After about 6 or more tries I took a break and got my head working again. The reason I was doing this was I wanted to make my Mom a purse for her birthday. I guess all the sewing diapers, blankets, and wipes I was doing I started thinking that I knew how to sew and create things. LOL!


After walking away for a few hours I thought I had figured out the mistake I kept making over and over I tried again. I still made several mistakes after that but I only had a king size sheet to experiment with and it was getting smaller and smaller. I didn't feel like grabbing the seam ripper for this project I was thinking this project would never turn out and I was so lazy I quit cutting out new ones to sew. Instead of using the seam ripper or cutting out a new bag to sew I started cutting out the seams and just making my project smaller every time I messed up I would cut it smaller, mess up again and cut smaller, and again smaller. After many tries I ended up with the bag above. It is about the right size for my 24 month old daughter. It is about 6 inches across. It started out being over 22 inches across. LOL! I guess you can tell I made a lot of mistakes!

After making a toddler sized bag I started feeling very good about my sewing ability again (must be my foggy prego head). I decided to try again and this time I was thinking if it turned out larger (without all the previous mistakes) I would be set. I wasn't ready to start using my good fabric so I used a pillow case this time. I was so sure it would turn out right. That didn't happen (I know you are not surprised). The pattern I made was so wide the purse ended up with the wrong shape. I added in a large tuck to try to fix it but I just wasn't happy. See the big huge tuck in the photo above? YUCK!



I convinced myself that if I made my pattern a bit smaller it would be perfect. I got tired of playing with sheets so I got out my nice fabric. I was convinced I would be able to make my Mom a purse. Now looking back it has to be my pregnancy messing with my head! I should know better than to think I could make something for someone! Anyway, I did end up making what looks like a bag this time. I made a lame attempt at stitching the inside up by hand. I convinced myself that it would be OK because my Mom would never use the inside as the outside because she isn't a polka dot kind of person (I wanted to make it reversible) I wasn't thrilled with the way the straps connected but with the texture of the fabric it didn't look that bad so I thought I could live with that. Then I ran into another problem. LOOK at how tiny and lame my buttons look in the 2 pictures above! GRRRRRrrrr! I couldn't live with that! I would have ran to the store to get larger and nicer buttons but my car is broke so I couldn't go out! After a bit of thinking I came up with the bright idea of making my own button out of fabric. I remember seeing something like a button made from knots in rope or something on TV many years ago. This is funny because I could not remember my children's date of birth or my due date at my Dr appointment last week but the memory of seeing rope knot buttons on TV years ago pops into my head. lol! This pregnancy is making me a bit goofy I guess. I did a bit of searching online and I found a thing called a Chinese Button Knot. It took me tons of tries to figure out how to do this! To be honest I am not sure I even got it right! It looks enough like a button for me and below you can see it! I felt bad that the bag didn't turn out perfect but I think I will be able to make her up a better one when I have my car fixed and I can get some more fabric.

I did make another try at one for a friend and that one didn't turn out any better than the one I made for my Mom. I could make another post as long as this one telling you all about all my mistakes with that one but I am sure you get the idea. I think I need to go back to making diapers and other baby stuff and I will try again at sewing something for adults after I get a bit better with sewing. LOL! I love the idea of making some nice bags for people someday but I think I might do a better job trying to do this AFTER the baby is born and hopefully I will be able to think better after the baby is born.

Snap happy!

A table full of fitted diapers all WITH snaps! I am getting very excited about having this baby and getting to try out all my diapers!

A basket of burp cloths.
Tomorrow if I get computer time I will try to post the story and pictures of my big sewing mess ups! I laugh just thinking about it. I made some HUGE mistakes! My mistakes are not on baby things it was on something else but it is a very funny story. I have no excuse for how it all happened except for being able to say my prego head doesn't think anymore. I guess this baby is sucking what little thinking ability I had right out of me.

Pregnancy update.

I have had a wonderful pregnancy this time (I know it is still early a lot can change). I have been so busy chasing my very active 2 year old I haven't had any time to sit and think about being tired, aches, pains, swelling, and all the problems most pregnancies bring. I feel like I have a TON of energy and haven't had any problems this time. I was very worried when I first found out my pregnancy was labeled high risk. I now feel good about it all. All my test look good and no signs of any problems. I talked over delivery options and I am OK with them saying they will not let me deliver natural. My son and daughter both arrived c-section so I am not upset at all with the advice I got from the Doctors. I have just ran into what might become an interesting adventure with the birth of this baby. My son was born at 36 1/2 weeks (scheduled c-section). My daughter born at 38 weeks (another scheduled c-section). The hospital I had both my children at now requires you to go 40 weeks (or more) to have the baby. I could have picked the earliest date they would allow me to go but I didn't like not picking the Dr. I wanted. I guess because this pregnancy is going so smooth I am OK with staying pregnant. LOL! I am going to see if this baby wants to cook a bit longer than we planned. The scheduling lady wanted me to know that I need to be aware that I might go into labor before I hit this date. At first I was uncomfortable with this but I didn't see any good options to work around this. I will talk it over with the doctor who is doing my section when I see him but that will not be for almost a month from now. For right now I have a date set (Sept 24). I know I might go into labor before that date. If I do I know I will have an hour drive to the hospital. I know it will take me longer than 1 hour to get to the hospital because I have 2 children, no babysitter, and a hubby who works out of state (1 hour drive the opposite direction of the hospital). I am not going to stress out with this. I am putting it in God's hands and I feel that he knows best. I know I might end up having or trying a natural birth or I might get rushed in for a c-section before the date I have scheduled. I will wait and see what happens. I am going to be OK with however it ends up happening. I am going to plan on having my baby on the day scheduled but be ready to adjust if the baby doesn't hold out that long. I think I might need that extra time to get ready for the new baby anyway. I have been thinking about the difference from giving birth Sept. 15 (what I first thought I would do) and Sept 24 (the new day I am planning on) is not that big of a difference. I guess if this was a hard pregnancy I would be singing another tune (I still might do that when I get closer to having the baby). For now I am feeling well and doing fine being pregnant so I guess a week or so difference is no big deal. I know many Moms go past a due date. I think this new twist might make it all that much more exciting not knowing what will happen. I guess I will let you all know if something changes but for now it looks like I will be pregnant a bit longer than I planned. I wonder how large a baby will grow in that extra time. T and D both weighed 7 lbs 11 oz at birth. This baby will have 4 weeks more to bake than my DS did and over 2 weeks more than my DD did. I think the baby should grow to over 8 pounds easy maybe even get close to 9 (I am just guessing I know I can be way off with this). I guess I will enjoy the extra sewing, spinning, and learning to knit time I think I will have before the baby arrives.

I LOVE THIS!

TAKE A LOOK AT THIS!!!!!




First let me say I did NOT make this! My wonderful friend Vicky made me this. She took some of my sadly spun and dyed yarn and made it into something beautiful for my baby! I am learning how to knit (still just learning to do the knit and purl stitches). I can't read a pattern or make anything yet. I am not even very good at spinning yarn (but it is the hobby I enjoy doing the most). I dream of the day that I will be able to make something from a knit or crochet pattern with yarn I spun myself for my children to wear. Vicky made this dream come true (except I didn't have to learn to do the knitting work LOL). My yarn looked very uneven and sort of ugly when I made it. I then used food colors to dye it I just wanted it to be done with this yarn so I rushed along when I dyed it. She somehow turned that into something beautiful!! I think it is called a sleeper soaker sack (I might be wrong about that). I think it is WONDERFUL! It is my most treasured baby item! I can't tell you all how excited I am with the thought of putting this on my baby! OH! Wait! I should give you the link to her stuff I keep forgetting she set one up.... Vick's esty shop She also owns a coop that sells all sorts of wonderful fabric and stuff. I guess you all now know how I am able to get such a large fabric stash without having a car most of the time. LOL! She delivers to my house (she lives right down the road). She ran me over something like 25 yards of elastic so I could keep making my diapers last week. She is the the type of person I want to become (I am sad to say that I still have a long way to go with that but I will keep trying). I just had to post a picture of this beautiful baby item! I can't wait to have my baby and post a picture of my little on wearing this!

fitted newborn diapers

This is 2 dozen of my newborn fitted diapers. I have lots more diapers made up I need to buy a new basket put them in. The baskets we used to hold all our diapers and stuff on our changing table when DD was a baby are now all being used holding her toys. My hubby offered to get me all new baskets but I told him we should just get one at a time as I make stuff. I feel better treating myself to a $10 basket AFTER I have worked on making enough stuff up to fill the basket. I would feel bad if I had a bunch of (about 9) empty baskets when the baby is born. I would feel that I wasted a lot of money on baskets. I guess I am a person who would rather waste money on fabric and fiber than baskets. LOL!

baby sewing wet bags and cloth wipes.

Wet bags for dirty diapers when we are away from home. I didn't think this pul would make a baby looking diapers so I used it up making some nice size wet bags. I can't imagine needing 4 of them but I guess having more than I need is better than not enough.


cloth wipes. I guess you can see I went crazy making them. I have a lot more than this made up but they don't fit in the basket. It was so easy to cut and sew them and watch my DD in the little pool at the same time. I guess I didn't ever think to look at how many I made. Making them all helped me learn how to use my serger. I think I have close to 100 baby wipes now sewn up. I will probably even make more up because I like having a way to use up fabric scraps.

I am a sewing nut!

I don't have a car it is still at the garage being fixed so I can't go out at all. It is HOT (90 deg) in my area. My children have been busy playing in the inflatable pools, sandboxes, sprinklers, and such. I have to keep a close eye on them because even with only a few inches of water in our inflatable tiny pool my youngest (wild child) can slip and drown (a huge fear of mine). I started putting my sewing machine out on my porch and I set up the pool in the yard in front of the porch. I am right next to her (less than 3 feet away) and I can see and hear her when I am sewing. The things I have been sewing only take a few seconds to sew so keeping a very close eye on the children is very easy to do. She spends a few hours a day playing in the sand (a safer activity). This setup is working out to be a win win situation for me and the children. I would rather be inside in the AC (fat prego me feels more comfy in the ac) but my children want to be outside all the time. The hot temps don't bother them at all. When we are inside they seem to need me more than they do outside so I am getting lots of time to get stuff done by moving it all outside. I am slowly figuring out how to use my serger. That has increased my sewing speed a lot! Anyway I have TONS of pictures of the stuff I made over the last several days. I will try to post a few at a time. I feel very good about all I have done. I no longer worry that I will not be ready when the baby comes. I think I am a lot more ready for this baby than I was with my other two. My next several post will be of all the stuff I have done. Once I have that done I will try to take the patterns I am using and turn them into a PDF file to share. I hope my life keeps going this smooth! I am loving this summer!


Below are receiving blankets I made from 2 layers of flannel (they have the same prints on the other side of them). I just serged around the sides. Took me longer to cut the fabric than to sew them. I would have made more but I ran out of fabric. My hubby picked out all this fabric for the baby. He dose a lot of my fabric shopping for me. He knows his way around the fabric stores much better than I do. He works close to a fabric store so he likes to surprise me with fabric. If he brings me home some more I will add more blankets to the basket.

Over a dozen time for a break.

I know taking a break now is not a good idea for me. I sew faster and better if I keep making things over and over. I cut out 5 diapers, added elastic, and serged all around them in record time this time (5 in a row goes fast). BUT I am getting tired of doing the same thing over and over. I can't make wipes today because I don't see any fabric in my box that I think will work well. I was running to the store yesterday to get some but my car broke so now I am stuck at home with no car. I know sherpa would work nice for wipes but I am cheap and I don't want to use any of my diaper fabric up for wipes yet. If I had 4 dozen diapers made I would think about it but 15 diapers with lots more to make yet is keeping me from using any of my diaper fabric. I think I might make something just for fun tonight. Either a bag for myself, toys for the children, or maybe I will see what fiber I have in my fiber box and spin some wool. I would like to try and knit or crochet something for the baby. I will let you all know what I came up with. Maybe I will fall asleep and not make anything. I guess I should start to think about some diaper covers. Hmmm..... I can make them with pull, procare, wool, recycled clothing. So many fun choices! I haven't made a diaper cover in umm.... Close to a year. I guess as long as I stay excited over making fun things I will keep making them. Maybe I will be ready for the baby before the birth.

Picture of my 5 natural sherpa diapers.

15 happy diapers. Just waiting on snaps.

End of my white sherpa fitted diapers!

I was up late sewing last night. I now have 10 fitted diapers done. I would have made a few more but that is all I could get out of the fabric I had out. I am now out of white sherpa. I still have a good amount of fabric to keep sewing with. I just need to bring another piece down from my fabric box. I will be starting with the natural sherpa I have next. I am only going to make up a few more before I take a little break from diapers. I think I will make some wipes or baby carriers next then go back to diapers. Can you see how much better I am sewing? My tabs are looking better. NOT perfect but a lot better than my first few. I am starting to like this machine. We are slowly becoming friends. LOL! I have to say in all the time I have owned my Huskylock we haven't been very nice to each other. I am so happy I am finally figuring this thing out and becoming friend with my machine. I felt that I wasted a lot of my hubby's money because I couldn't figure out how to work it. I know they are not the best looking diapers but I am so happy with how much I have improved!


They are so tiny, soft, and fluffy!

Sewing progress.

I now have 7 fitted diapers sewn. I am a bit worried because I don't have marks showing my snap placement. I hope I can get them marked OK when I get some tiny snaps. I guess if I can't I can just add some hook and loop on them. Once I get 1 dozen done I am going to take a break and make some cloth wipes. I am sewing a LOT better on corners with my using this machine I hope to get even better with making a stack of baby wipes. I feel 7 diapers is a wonderful amount of progress to make in a very short time. I am not very good at sewing so this is a huge step for me!

I started my diapers

I just realized that I am in my 3rd trimester already! WOW! This pregnancy is flying by! I think a lot of the reason it is going by so fast is because of my just turned 2 year old daughter. She is fast, active, loves to climb, loves to explore, and keeps me going all day long. I don't have much time to sit and think about the baby on the way. Now that I know I am getting to the end of this pregnancy I know I need to get going with things. I am not due until Sept. but I have a lot to do so I better get working on it all now.

I made a fitted diaper. I made it to resemble a kissaluvs fitted diaper. My first try was UGLY! I walked away and tried again a few hours later and that one turned out a lot better. I need to put snaps on it yet. I don't have any tiny snaps for a newborn diaper. Once I get the snaps I will have 1 newborn diaper done. I will only have 5-6 dozen more to sew up. LOL! I think I can do a dozen a week without cutting into much of my day. I can cut them out when my children are playing nice together and I can sew them up fast when hubby is reading stories to the children at night. That is my plan anyway. I will let you all know how it works out. I hope to learn how to sew around corners with my serger soon. My diaper tabs are a bit ugly to look at. They have loose loops in spots. I think the diaper is usable so I am happy.

My diaper is on the left a Kissaluvs diaper on the right. they look close in size to me.

Picture of the inside.
Shot of the back. I can't remember my children being this small! I am starting to get very excited about the birth of this baby. The red spot is just a fuzzy (tiny piece of thread).

BTW I know 6 dozen newborn diapers sounds like a LOT of diapers! I want to have enough for 2 days. I will wash them every day but I will need time for them to line dry and I want to have some for my daughter to use with her dolls. When my children are babies they seem to wet a LOT (more than other babies)! My daughter was using 3 dozen a day until she was well over a year old. I know sometimes a baby is born large and doesn't get to use NB diapers at all. That will be OK with me. I will give all my newborn diapers to my 2 year old for her dolls. When I was 2 years old my mom gave birth to my sister. I got a new doll (baby alive). When my Mom gave my sister bath I gave one to my dolly. When my Mom changed my sisters diaper I changed my dolls diaper. I hope if I do this kind of thing my 2 year old will adjust well to the new baby (not get jealous) and give me the time I need to care for the new baby.

Finding time to blog.

Getting to a computer that is inside a house when you spend most of your days outside with the children is hard. I wish we had money to buy a laptop that would be a huge help in getting to the computer. I am going to try to give myself a bit of computer time each morning before I take the children outside. I don't know how this will work but I am going to try. I haven't done a lot of sewing. I plan to take my sewing machine out on my porch this week and sew. I am thinking if I do that I can watch the children and sew at the same time. My pregnancy seems to be going well. I am still feeling sick a lot. Food smells bother me. BUT!!! I have a lot more energy with this pregnancy. I am so thankful for that. My daughter just turned 2 and she is FAST! I feel a lot of my day is spent chasing after her.

A friend and I got together and tie-dyed hemp baby wraps. I saw this one and thought making one sounded like fun. It was fun. This is a picture of mine laying in my yard.

This is a picture of my daughter in it. I have to wear her on my back most of the time because my stomach is getting very large so front carries get harder to do every day. I am around 30 weeks along in my pregnancy. I don't know the exact number so that is give or take a week or two. I have been so busy I haven't had a lot of time to think about and enjoy this pregnancy. I heard that stretchy wraps work wonderful for little babies so I will try this with the baby this fall.


I have done a few other things sewing, spinning, and knitting but not enough to be ready for the baby. I hope taking my sewing machine out on my porch will help me get done all I need to do yet. I will try harder to post updates. I am going to try and talk DH into a laptop. I doubt it will work because he likes the computer in a small room in our house (away from the children). He can go into the room and use the computer. It is a lot harder for me because I have to keep a close eye on the children and my youngest likes to find things to get into. She is always climbing and exploring. I hope to have a stack of cute tiny baby diapers to show you all by the end of the week.

I'm back!

Sorry I have been gone so long! I haven't had much computer time. I was busy with some small projects. They are almost all done (I have to mail out several of them this week). I have 2 to finish up and then I hope to sneak in some free time to make some things for my family. I have a LONG list of things I need to do before I deliver this baby in Sept. I want to make up a ton of cloth diapers for this baby, baby slings, Mei Tais, baby pouch, doll pouch, baby wipes, wet bags, bibs, wash cloths, baby blankets, and I would love to learn to knit enough to make something for this baby. Anyway, I thought I should get back to posting on this blog. I am also going to post some of the simple things I make for my children to keep them busy. I will try to do at least one thing a week. I now feel like I have to get this done because I wrote it down and shared it with others. I hope this helps keep me on track. I don't want to be up all night the day before I have this baby making diapers! I would LOVE to not put ANY disposable diapers on this child ever! I should be able to do it! I clothed diapered both my children from around 1 week old. I could have done it from birth but both times I read over and over how that would be more work than a new mom can do. Looking back I know I could have done it! I know I need to have enough diapers to do it! I hope to get it all done. I will be happy if I get 5 or 6 dozen NB diapers done 5 or 6 dozen smalls some fitteds some AIO or pockets, diaper covers, a baby carrier, 6 dozen wipes and a wet bag done in time. I will post my progress weekly. My son will be done with school soon and I hope to have a bit more free time in my day. I hope that my 2 children will play nice together and I can do some sewing early in the day right now I teach my son from 7 AM -1 PM Mon-Fri. I hope when he finishes his classes I can sneak some of that time for sewing. I have to finish up a small project for a friend now and I hope to have some time to start sewing later in the day. It is going to snow again today so my hubby has my car again. I haven't had my car much at all this winter (hubby has had it for over 4 months now). I hope to get a lot done today. If I do get some of it done I will post again later in the day.

March in like a Lion

First I should tell you all why I haven't posted on this blog in so long. I haven't had much time to sew or do crafts. I am pregnant again and I have had a lot of morning sickness over the last month or two. I am going to try to add something on this blog every week. I hope my family gives me free time to do this.

I am going to share a lion costume I made up for my children I am happy I took pictures as I created it because I am happy with how it turned out. My children are not thrilled with it but maybe in a few days it will look more like fun.

Materials
3 sheets of tan felt (I used a large piece of felt about the same size) for hood and ears.

2 sheets of darker felt for the mane and center of ear.

Velcro dots.

I am sorry to say that I wasn't exact in my measuring so you might need a bit more of felt than I wrote. To be honest I didn't think it would turn out. I made it up as I went along.


I had some felt in a box of fabric. One is tan and the other is shades of brown. They are not my first pick for lion colors but because I already had them I decided to use them.

This is the tan hood folded in half. It is about an inch wider and longer than a small felt sheet. It turned out VERY large (fits me and I still have extra room). I think 2 felt sheets would work just as well. I rounded the one end so the back of the head wouldn't have a huge point.

I stitched up around the rounded edge ONLY the back to form a hood.This is the hood turned right side out. It is open at the bottom and front.

For ears I thought circles would work best. I reached for the first circle shape I could find. I used the large end (top) of the cup for the outside of the ear and the small end (bottom of cup) to make the inside of the ear. I left a tab at the bottom of the cream felt to attach the ear. Cut 2 outsides and 2 insides.
This shows my pencil marks and how I cut it. I left a bit of a tab at the bottom.

This shows the small circles on the inside.


To attach the ear I folded the ear in half lining up the flat bottoms. I then folded the flat part under about 1 cm. This makes the ear stand up.

I stitched it on just a inch or so to attach it to the hood. If you look in the picture above my finger is holding the spot I stitched.


One ear done!

This is how I lined the second one up so it was even on both sides.

This is the hood open with ears standing up.


The mane is just a strip of felt about 3 inches wide. I did use 2 strips but it would have worked with just one.

I cut fringe to make the mane and attached it to the hood. I left 1inch from the end ONLY because I thought I was going to need elastic to pull it around the face but I didn't need elastic in the end so this inch isn't needed!

Another picture of it.

I then turned the edge of the fringe under (stitching to the inside the hood) and it popped into a lion! I was very happy! Many of my ideas don't turn out.

This is a side view.
I added Velcro dots to close the hood.


This is my son NOT happy about having to put on the silly lion costume!

This is a picture showing how half of the hood is about the size of a felt sheet.

If this is hard to understand feel free to email me at schoolnsuch@aol.com

I hope to make a few more and I will try to remember to draw a pattern out for you to print out. I can't promise when I will get that done I am always short on time.

More baby legs

More baby leg warmers. I am not feeling well so I haven't done any sewing, painting, spinning, or knitting. This is some baby legs I made a few weeks ago. This pair was made the same as the ones I posted last time. I just cut off toes and serged the end.



This set I made the way I found online a long time ago. I was making them all like this or I would use FOE on the ends. It is still quick to make them but the socks with toes only takes seconds to make and this way takes a few minutes. LOL!

Lazy mom's leg warmers (baby legs)

I like making baby legs. I think they are fast and fun. I still don't know how to work my serger well so doing tiny things like baby legg warmers is how I practice on it. I was in Walmart before Christmas and I saw a bunch of toe socks. They had cute winter patterns on them. I noticed that they are flat they have no heal. I started thinking about how much easier they would be to make baby legs with. I bought a few pair and I have decided that it will be hard for me to find an easier way of making them than this!

I took 1 pair of toe socks and I cut off the toes.



Some color from the toes was still on them. I used that as my guide to serge along. I think you could use a zigzag stitch on a sewing machine.

That is it! That is all I did!

This is them on her. She is climbing up the back of the sofa. She is a climber. We don't let her do it but that doesn't stop her from trying over and over again.

Another fiber gift

This is NEAT. I am sorry that I couldn't get a nice picture of it. It is so much nicer than it looks in the picture. I need to learn how to take pictures of fiber! This is 6 OZ of wool with BLUE JEAN COTTON! So neat! She cut up jeans and put it in herself! My son is amazed with this he loves looking at it. He asked if I could cut up his jeans and put them in wool. I had to tell him that I am still very new to spinning I think it will be years before I will have the skill and knowledge to do things like that. I have to admit I am afraid to try spinning this. I am afraid I am going to mess something up. The White wool is 6 OZ of Superwash. I have never tried to spin super wash so this will also be new for me. THANK YOU SO MUCH Cena Brown! You are very kind! I hope to sneak in spinning time this week! I feel that I am so behind on everything I might not get to spin wool for another week! I hope things slow down in my house SOON!

Mittens and Mercy

First I want to say I am behind in everything once again! We did some remodeling on our house (still isn't done) it messed up our schedule. Then we went on a small vacation so my son says. I call it a long but very nice trip. Anyway, I will try to get caught up in the next few days. I want to write first about today or I will forget about it.

MITTENS!

My naughty kitten has lost his mittens and he began to cry. Oh Mommy dear I fear my mittens I have lost! and then he cried some more.... I forgot it was winter... AND CRIED More..... It in Jan 10 and we didn't have ANY snow until the tiny bit we got last night. I will not be able to find my gloves before it melts away if I have to look any longer!

Hmmmm.... The Mommy in me thought.... Than you shall have no pie????? I don't know? It is Jan 10 and he does have a point! It was 60 degrees last week. My solution was to offer our yearly Mom made mittens. The mittens that he always snubs his nose at because they are not gloves with fingers and moans his unhappy thank you mom just loud enough to show SOME respect. The same mittens that every year he becomes VERY thankful for when he can't find his new gloves or they are still wet from playing outside earlier that day. Only I called them mercy Mittens today. When we got him new gloves this season he was told he needed to put his gloves away so when we got snow he would have them. My son doesn't like mittens ever so he was disappointed he couldn't find his gloves but the thought of having a pair of mittens to be able to play in the tiny amount of snow sounded WONDERFUL to him today! I enjoyed seeing his eyes perk up when I said I would make him some mittens. I told him how I do expect him to take care of his gloves and when he finds them he MUST put them away. I also told him that I would give mercy. Shhhhh PLEASE don't tell him how many pairs of gloves I misplaced when I was his age! LOL! I am walking that fine line of trying to teach my child responsibility but at the same time remember what 6 year old children do because they are still children. The hardest thing is when I have to take a look back to how careless I was as a child. My Mom always understood and I think I must have got about 20 pairs of mercy mittens a season! I DREAM of being as patient and understanding as my Mom was but that is a HARD thing to do. I will keep trying. Anyway this is my mercy mittens! I guess when he finds his gloves I will bake the pie. LOL! The mittens are not beautiful or perfect but if you can turn on a sewing machine and put the thread in you can make them in about 10 minutes time. They kept his hands warm and helped him create a wonderful childhood memory of playing in snow that he has wanted to play in for months now.

Place hand with fingers open some on some fleece fabric. It doesn't take much fabric. Then just traced around it.


Cut out 4 layers 2 for right hand 2 for left. Stitch around them using a zigzag VERY QUICK.


Turn them so the seam is on the inside. In past years if I made them smaller than expected he did wear them with the stitching on the outside. LOL! This year I used my hand so he has LOTS of room. I added some FOE elastic around the bottom so they wouldn't fall off.



One not so perfect set of mittens but one new and very precious memory made for him to have forever. I doubt he will remember the gloves when he is grown but he might remember the year he had to wait until Jan 10th to play in the snow and how exciting it was.

A little more catching up!

My washer broke 2 days before Christmas! We have been living almost a year without a dryer. My first thought was OH NO! I am NOT going to try to wash all our clothes in the tub!!! I QUICKLY rethought that! Over and over again in the last 2 years I have said or thought "I will not do that or live like that" OR "I need or have to have that" I have found out the hard way many times that when it comes to it I WILL LIVE WITHOUT! I CAN LIVE WITHOUT AND I DON'T NEED OR HAVE TO HAVE IT! I quickly said to my husband that I didn't WANT to try to wash all our clothes in the tub. HE quickly replied you are NOT going to have to worry about that I will take care of it. He has a bonus coming in March (we don't like to count our chickens before they hatch but this one time we will) He put on credit a NEW WASHER AND DRYER! We will have the money to pay them off before we have to make payments so it will be OK. We didn't want to use credit at all but this one time we decided to do it. My husband is such a wonderful man! I am so lucky to have him! He had them delivered the next day! I got to wash and dry clothes on Christmas. I know that is something that many people wouldn't want to do on a holiday but I was so excited about having them it was FUN. I think my family was confused by some of it..... I know my hubby understood but other family members didn't seem to understand why I was so much more excited over fiber to spin than a new dryer. I am happy to have them and Christmas was so nice having people over WITHOUT 4 loads of clothes hanging to dry from my ceiling (yes this is a real picture of how things have been in our house over the last year). I liked the money I was saving on electric not using a dryer. I didn't like all the clothes being covered with lint, all wrinkly, and towels that felt like sandpaper. LOL! I am so happy to now have my new appliances! I am still going to try and hang clothes often. I will use the dryer to remove the lint and fluff our towels. Hmmmm.... Maybe if people are coming over I will use it so people don't have to see our laundry hanging.

My poor hubby! Christmas eve we stayed up until about 2:30 wrapping gifts and such. My children both got sick that lasted for about 2 weeks in early December then my husband got very sick a few days before that and the doctor said he had the flu. I was so worried that his Christmas would be ruined! He wasn't sick on Christmas I was so Happy! OH! back to my story... We fell way behind with holiday plans because of everyone being sick. We had lots to do the night before Christmas. Rob and I worked on getting everything wrapped and under the tree. At 2:30 we went off to bed. At 2:35 the phone rang. He answered the phone it was the security company calling. They said that a alarm was set off at my husbands work and they needed someone to meet the police at the store. My hubby had to go! I was so afraid that he was going to fall asleep driving I couldn't sleep. I got up and went down to lay on the couch. I would close my eyes and then get the thought of my poor hubby falling asleep driving I would get up in a panic. This would happen over and over until he got home. He got home at around 5 am. I then fell asleep on the couch because I was so tired I couldn't get up to go upstairs. My hubby went upstairs to bed. At around 7 am his family came. We all got up (only 2 hours of sleep) and Christmas started. It was a very long day. It was wonderful but I think a little more sleep would have been nice. We all had a happy day. I was to tired to worry or get upset with anything. LOL! I got to do laundry, spin a little yarn, enjoy my children and my very tired hubby.

Knitting try #2

First let me say that I have been trying to get caught up on this blog but blogger is giving me a hard time signing in and when I do get signed in my pictures don't always load! UUUGGH!



This is another attempt at knitting! The flat part near the bottom is knit and purl but then I caught myself wrapping the needle wrong direction again so I the bumpy part about is just knit rows that is why the look like that. I feel a lot better with this bib. I don't think I have any 1/2 rows this time. My last one I sat down several times and when I started again I would knit back to the beginning without ever getting to the end of the row. That caused my bib to have that odd shape. I didn't add any stitches that I have noticed this time. Last time I would forget to take my stitch off the needle and I would add another. This is another reason my first bib had an ODD shape. I feel that I am getting much better with the knit stitch and I have started to wrap the yarn counter clockwise out of habit I no longer have to think when I am doing it so I am going to try to finish this up with all knit and purl rows. I will add a picture of my progress as I get time. I hope this blogger page starts working better for me. I don't get much computer time so I get upset wasting the time I have trying to sign in to a site. KWIM?