Finishing up and new fun projects...

I have been wanting to finish Madeline's quilt however I knew it would require me to hand-stitch the binding. I hate hand-stitching anything! But I did it finally and I am so thankful that I did! I love her quilt and am so glad it is finished. I can't wait for her to use it because of course that is what a quilt is for...now onto the fun new stuff:

I made a knock-off of a really expensive type of pants I love! It was alot of fun and something I have never tried before. I went to find a cute black shirt to match it but couldn't so I cut up one of Madeline's black turtleneck's and lopped off the sleeves. I added some detail and voila! I love it and have other fun revamps for some of her bluejeans that I am working on. Can't wait to post them and share. :)

What I have been up to...

I have been crafting a little here and there but not alot. My time has been taken up by a very cute little helper. She loves to take off with my yarn, fabric and other miscellaneous items. Unfortunately little gets done unless it is around the house. Here's what I have been up to:

I wanted a pretty cover for my Kindel Fire.

The inside of my Kindel cover. I wanted a pocket and something to keep

the Kindel in place instead of elastic sides.

A hat for a friend's daughter.

A fun new hair flower.

The fun new Frilly Scarf I am making...

And a crocheted kitchen scrubbie...because if you have to dishes it should be fun.

My neighbor has 'hired' me to make 3 notebook covers for her daughters so that should be fun. They will be similar to the Kindel covers and I will hopefully have time to make them before too long. So they get done I 'hired' her to watch Madeline for me while I work on them. My other lofty goal will be to create enough to do a craft fair this fall. It should be fun and I am excited for the challenge.

Happy crafting!

Count down!!!

We are moving again! I am so excited for the new house but really dislike, ok...hate moving! I just did this 9 months ago. Thankfully most stuff is still packed but there is the stuff we unpacked to make the apartment more homey feeling. We are moving our personal stuff like clothes, breakables and dishes ourselves but we are actually hiring movers this time! I am psyched!!! The movers we are using are very reasonably priced and will save us from rounding up our friends and renting a truck and feeding everyone. In all honesty it will cost just about $100 more for the movers and we keep our friends. So, since we are moving and I am packing that leads to no sewing. I was in the mood and very ready but I have no room at the apartment to spread out fabric and Madeline can always see me so that means she wants me. In the new house we are turning the formal dining area into a work-out room slash craft room. The other part about not sewing in the apartment is she can hear the sewing machine and it wakes her up. Stinky I know. So the countdown begins to April 28th as closing day and 29th is when we are moving our personal stuff and the movers get us all in on Saturday the 30th. Oh yeah, and we are having Madeline's first birthday party in our new house two weeks after we move in. Very exciting and busy for us but we are so thankful to God for providing us just the right house! We looked at many homes and even had an offer on a different one but it didn't work out. This is the perfect home for us. When we put in our offer we offered a little lower than asking price and for a few pieces of the furniture (the house was a model home for a local builder and the furniture was negotiable) and also for the seller to pay closing costs. He came back asking for full price and would pay closing and give us all the furniture!!! Well that was a deal! The home is half way furnished! So see, God is GREAT and He had this perfect deal for us and if we wouldn't have waited on His timing we would have missed out completely. We are looking forward to many years in this home and really making it ours and welcoming to friends and family.

Changes...

Nate has a contract to work as a Fixed Duration Employee for Eli Lilly and it is up in 1 1/2 years. We sold the house last year in case he got a new job and we had to pick up and move across the country or something fun like that...well he did get a new job but we are staying in Indy! WOOT WOOT! I am very happy about that. I like it here, we are in between family and we have a great group of friends here. So smiles all around on it. Nate will have to travel to Chicago a couple times a month but not for long thankfully. Since there is a secure job, we can have a house! I love house hunting and think it is tons of fun. There are some great deals out there but man do they need work. We walked through one house that looked like they put mud or grease all over their feet and their animals and stomped through the house! I think we found one we really like and will probably put an offer on it the week Nate starts his job; March 7th. I am excited about the stability this brings. It is all still in God's hands and we are very thankful for the new job.
*side note: it is really hard to type with a 9 month old banging on the keyboard*

We have also been fighting this horrible virus again. We all had it for a month back in October but this time it is even worse. I have felt like death warmed over and Madeline has been clingy and fussy with this crud. She has been pitiful looking too with red eyes filled with yellow goop that hardens and a nose like a faucet! It is awful...She perks up for a while after she gets her medicine then fades pretty quickly. She is also a brute! She body slams the poor dog, 13lb dog verses 20lb baby is not really fair. She pulls hand fulls of fur from poor Maggie's tail and Mag's just sits there and looks at her. She finally growled yesterday but licked her 5 minutes later. I feel for that poor dog but she sure is such a good girl!
Well I still have plans to finish the pillows soon and think Saturday looks like a great day to do that. I hate unfinished projects and it has been since fall that I started 4 measly little pillows. Pretty pathetic that they are not done. Here's to finishing them Saturday and getting rid of this crud!

Here's to a new year...

I am psyched a friend has offered to come by and have a play date for our munchkins so I can sew. WOOO HOOO! I really miss it and feel bad that none is getting done. I have even made up a few new patterns in that time and am still looking at the pillowcase half done on my sewing machine. I have to finish those pillowcases! Its not challenging maybe is why they are not done? I'll give any excuse right about now but I WANT them DONE and shipped to my poor friend who is waiting for them. I sure do love her for not freaking out that they are not done. Good friends are hard to find huh? Well here's to sewing on Thursday; it may not hurt that she knows I am cooking lunch for us as well...Chicken Corn Chowder in the crock pot. YUMMY, full belly and an afternoon of sewing. The only thing that would make a day better is to add a nap to that line-up huh?

My Cute Little Model (aka: my little ham)

I have been crocheting hats lately. They are quick and easy for me to knock out and they pass time in the car or when I am watching tv in the evenings when the little bug goes to bed. My sis-in-laws friend was poking around the blog and saw one of Madeline in her hat and wanted one so....here it is. I added the flower for her to go with the hat. I never know what to charge for things; since they are handmade you cannot get them just anywhere but I think people would sometimes rather just go to the store and buy something cheap. I thought $15 was reasonable for a wool blend chunky hat with flower. She thought so too so SOLD. Woo hoo. I have left a little basket of these flowers and some other designs at my cousins hair salon and they have not sold? I am at a loss. I put $5 on most and $8 on the really big ones. They come with a hair clip or a pin so you can add them to your blouse/coat/______ fill in the blank. I just don't get it. Oh well. I am feeling some inspiration again. I just need to finish my friends pillows and then I have a few little lovies to make up and I designed a pattern for a Bible cover I want to try to make. That will be an adventure since I MADE it up and have no idea how that will turn out. Its only fabric huh? Well if there is a need for a nice warm hat, let me know I love making them...we can work out prices.

Time vs. Lack of inspiration & the battle of wills

I have no time it feels like. I put Madeline down for her nap and she wakes up. What to do. I hate giving up time with Nate and her in the evenings to sew but I just need to. There is also the lack of inspiration. I have no lack of fabric, just the other two problems...Its a dilemma huh? Right now was the perfect opportunity to sew but just this second we are in a battle of wills, she wants up from nap (only 1 hr and is still exhausted but screaming at me!) and I want her to sleep! I don't know how much of the crying is okay. She looks abused when I finally give in and go in and get her-eyes red and face blotchy and it looks like she breaks out in heat rash. My child does not give up! She gets madder and finally just wakes herself up completely screaming instead of giving in to the exhaustion. SHE DOES NOT SELF SOOTHE! Passy be darned and blankie or bunny too...she just gets really ticked.
Who can be inspired when there is the sad, screaming baby? By the way she is normally a very, very happy child, just not at sleepy time.
There, blew off steam, sorry.

Madeline's New Hat

When I travel I always take my crochet with me. It is so easy to get a hat or scarf done in the hour or two that we are in the car. Madeline normally sleeps when Nate drives and so here is her hat I made and a little flower as well. She did scratch her face (baby nails are vicious!) but I still love this photo.

Back to sewing

These are a few of the little tag blankets I have made. The first was for Madeline and the second in red was for a friend. I am selling them for $15.00 if anyone is interested.