Making baby (stuff)

Finally got around to a couple pictures.
Here's my big Ikea fabric pillow with his new friend, the other big Ikea fabric pillow. They now hang out in the new reading nook we've made in our family room.
And here's the first thing I've made for Zeke. The fabric is Moda Woodland Bloom. I machine quilted it but hand tacked the binding. May I repeat: I. Hand. Tacked. The. Binding.
Yes, it's that big a deal.I'm almost done with a little dress for Zeke that has made me question my sanity and say swear words in my head. B informed me it will be the cutest dress Zeke will own but I'm so filled with hatred over the bodice that I can't see it clearly. Perhaps it is really cute? I'll finish it up and let you decide.

First package

FINALLY. Sent the first package.
This is for my friend, Leah. She has three cute little girls. I do not have little girls. Although I will someday. Just one. Therefore, we will pretend I know what is cute for little girls. Come, pretend with me, will you?
First up? Crayon rolls for her two oldest.
I used both fabrics on each, so the one with the stripes outside has the farm print inside, and vice versa.
They even include crayons! I'm full-service, y'all.
Next up, for her sweet little one (whom I wisely assumed should not have access to crayons), a rags n' tags.
Girls like pink and butterflies, right?
And polka-dot ribbon? How does that go over with little girls?
So there you have it. Colorful stuff for Leah's girls. And I'll be including a jar of my homemade apple butter as well. Mmm, apple butter. Because I got a little excited about the whole "sewing for little girls" thing and need to make sure I include something for the person who actually won the giveaway. Sheesh.

A real post, depending on your definition

What?
This is a craft blog?

Really?

Seriously?

Well, okay then.
I'll post something crafty.

Here's the purse I finally finished for my sister. I'm not going to tell you how long I've been working on this. I just don't want to talk about it.
I also don't want to talk about how I forgot to put interior pockets in it. And didn't realize it until after I sewed the lining in. It's just too hard to think about.This is the second purse I've completed made from a pattern I developed all by my lonesome using a way too large Target bag as an example. The purse is roomy without being HUGE and has outside pockets. Guess that counts for something. I'm pretty happy with these straps. I put batting in them to try and make them more comfy.
If this is satisfactory (Dani? Whatcha think?), it will be in the mail soon. I just need to get to work on mine!
Hmm, something else crafty.
Oh, yes. Our advent calendar.Paper mache boxes that I Modge-Podged. I am the queen of Modge-Podge now. I did 24, because I wanted to. Actually, I did 24 because I wanted to put their Christmas jammies in the last one and we open those on Christmas Eve, a terribly special tradition that seems to be shared by about half the Christmas-celebrating world.This is #24. It's nice and big and there's glitter and gold paint involved. Could anything be better?
The others are small and there are candies in each one.Some have a little scroll telling the boys to decorate the tree or make brownies to share with friends. It would also be good to put in scriptures or tell them to read a Christmas book, I just didn't do that this time. My sister-in-law made some too. She did the 12 days of Christmas and I believe she needs to post hers on her blog (amazingly subtle hint).
The boys are so excited about Christmas, they've been making things to decorate. This is a cookie and milk Benson made for Santa. They wrote a note to Santa on the back because they are REALLY ready for Christmas Eve! Little J told me I had to take a picture, so I complied.
Because I'm good that way.
And just so you know? Our star tree topper is having problems.And yes, we're aware of it.

Hey, I baked a cake!

My son's birthday was this week. I made him a cake using marshmallow fondant.
I'm in love. With the fondant.
It tastes good! And is not evil to work with!
Here's a couple pics:
We did cupcakes number 1-8 and the cake was, of course, number 9. My sister-in-law pointed out that the cake was the letter b upside down. B for Benson! Of course I meant to do that.
One thing I learned from this was to always sift your powdered sugar! It left little dents in the fondant that annoyed me, but otherwise was great stuff. The cake inside was red velvet with vanilla frosting to adhere the fondant. It was a very colorful cake when it was cut!

What to do after Husband saves your pan

B had to attack the bottom of my pan with a putty knife, metal spoon and lots of steel wool to save it. It was a lot of work that I'm pretty sure he didn't want to have to repeat so I tried to destroy it again by making peach butter!
Wait, I mean I was super careful making more peach butter.
Yes, I bought another box of peaches. Blasted farmer's market (Hi, Farmer John!)
I had two pans going to make four batches of butter. It went very well, but it's not a fast process. You have to make peach pulp first and then cook that with sugar, which takes about an hour per batch. Add in the initial peeling and cutting and the canning times and it takes quite a while!I had a helper for the first batch of butter, but he lost interest after stirring for about 1o minutes (I do like his two fisted method). After that it was all me. Until 1:30 in the morning. It's worth it, though. Benson wants to sell some of the half pint jars to our neighbors, which could be entertaining. He wants to be a neighborhood entrepreneur just like a girl down the road who makes and sells whole wheat bread. It's really good, especially with peach butter!
Haven't exactly figured out the price yet for the half pints, but I might let him take a couple jars around tomorrow.
So, any takers?

Kindness

I just wanted to say that I feel much better about people right now. First, there was the comment from Jacquie on my previous post (sorry I'm just replying now!). That was just so dang sweet of you to offer to send the boys something - it doesn't matter where the package comes from, it's just fun to receive something of your very own when you're a kid (maybe I should arrange my own swap - with just two partners, ha! I couldn't have you send anything without sending something in return).
And then today, the boys got a package from my sister, which was totally unexpected but hey, sometimes she's like that. They were so excited. When I told Benson it was for him and Jack, he said, "Really? We never get mail!" Aw.
My sister also sent this to me.

(Late night + Pathetic photographer = Blurry picture)

That's right, I'm 30 (although I don't look a day over 35). My birthday was Saturday and she sent me an eCard then, but a birthday isn't a birthday without one of her handmade cards.
Moving on.

The boys' package had bouncy balls and sidewalk chalk, which they put to immediate use.

Jack is just fine, he's just demonstrating the proper use of a chalk drawing light saber.
Benson drew a Yoda head and a lovely, um, bug.

A new superhero perhaps?He was obviously inspired by these.(those black specks are a swarm of ants)

Apparently it's time to get out the ant traps. How fun.

Annoyance

That's what I'm feeling, and I think enough time has passed to express that annoyance.
We participated in miniswap 3, the whole idea being that your kids are the main participants. We put together our package for some little girls in Australia and sent it out in February, admittedly a couple days after the Feb. 22 deadline, but still sent out that month.
Fast forward 2 1/2 months.
We still haven't received anything, and it's May 12th. I haven't wanted to say anything because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but hey, feelings were already hurt - my boys, mine.
People. If you are going to participate in a swap, participate in the swap.
Don't leave your partner hanging.
Especially when it's a swap for kids and they keep asking if they are ever going to get their package from Australia.
Gee, anyone from Australia want to send two cute little boys a prize? Although at this point, a package from anywhere would probably thrill them! Maybe I can slip a little something in the mail at my local post office ...
Thanks for letting me vent. I almost feel better already. I will probably participate in this swap again, but I hope I get a better partner next time!

HUGE pill'uh

I've had two 28x28 inch pillows from Ikea sitting around my house for way too long, waiting for me to do something with them.
Well, yesterday I did something. With one of them.I quilted the front because I really love quilted front pillows. I tried doing free motion quilting on my machine and as long as you don't look to closely, you don't notice how wonky the stitches are. I'm telling myself it's part of the pillow's charm. I used Ikea fabric that I absolutely love. I want to go buy more of it because I'm afraid of running out!My son approves of the pillow and has already found several uses for it.

As a hat.A crash test cushion.A meditation mat.

Now I just need to get to work on the other one. I'm planning on using a different section for the center panel so there are different animals, but otherwise I want it to look pretty much the same.

Girly

Now, we know I only have boys.
But some people in this world have girls.
And those girls have birthdays.
And they like presents.
So here's a crayon roll:And a bag:For my sister-in-law's niece.
I didn't use all of the two fabrics Cami gave me to make her present. I have just over a fat quarter of each, a cute pink toned floral and a very whimsical butterfly print.
So what else does this girl need?
A doll quilt?
A crown?
Hmm?

Beautiful Day

It's very sunny, although still cold. A day not to go outside, but to stay in and look out through the window.
I had some organic blueberries in the fridge that I needed to use. So I needed to make blueberry muffins. NEEDED.I used my favorite recipe from here. I didn't feel like going to the store, so I used powdered buttermilk for the first time and it worked great.We added some orange zest, which made them taste even better, in my opinion.
My messy faced, blurry helper likes to cook, but he didn't like to eat the finished product. Instead he took my camera and snapped a couple pictures:
It's interesting to see things from his perspective. I guess sometimes I forget that he's short and sees the world in a different way.

Oh, and I may have been making muffins to avoid dealing with this:

Know what time it is?

Time to show you what I've been working on! Complete with crappy pictures! Now with Spam!
Big deal, another layout, right?
Wrong!
I am another layout closer to being done with Christmas 2006! Another layout closer to being done with 2006 altogether! I think I've been scrapbooking 2006 since 2006!
I've been in a paper crafting slump, so this bodes well for my scrapbooks. Except I think I need to buy a new album. I've been using binders from Provo Craft, and there's this part of me that really wants all my albums to be exactly the same with labels on the spine. Which means that in order to not risk going completely bonkers, I must either continue buying the binders from Roberts or I need to replace all the ones I have. ALL 14 OF THEM.
Hmm. Did I mention that I'm cheap?

Wow

I made stuff.
AND I TOOK PICTURES.
Bad pictures, but pictures nonetheless.
If you are Aimee - DON'T LOOK.
DO NOT SCROLL DOWN.



Unless you like to spoil surprises.



Don't look.



Are you looking?




Okay.
I put together a little package for a friend who is unfortunately on bed rest right now.
First we have the gift for my friend's baby girl, due in March.
It's a Rags N Tags blanket and a hoodie towel.
Then for the mom, a rice heat therapy bag, from this tutorial. With a couple modifications, of course.And then for the big brother, a crayon roll: He's a big Ute fan and I'm happy to continue the indoctrination.
I'm going to be mailing it out tomorrow. I'm so grateful for flat rate boxes because I don't want to know how much it costs to send 2 pounds of rice in the mail!
Hope they enjoy this!

Hi. It's been awhile. Where you been?

Or, um, where I been?
Huh?
Anyway, time to report on Christmas. I didn't take the homemade Christmas pledge because I know my limits but I did try to make as many presents as possible.
I'm proud to say that almost all the gifts we gave to others were handmade. By me.
The gifts to my boys? Purchased.
It would have been rather difficult to hide the gift making process from them and I like gifts to be a surprise. So maybe next year.
Anyway, my cousin's daughter got this:and this (it's the smock she's wearing - isn't she adorable?):I ended up making five crayon rolls total, three more for my nephews and one for a family friend.I also made the presents my siblings and I gave my dad and stepmom. We gave Mom a set of DVDs with videos I made of her parents talking about their lives and we gave Dad a scrapbook with all the LDS temples that he's worked on (60!). These were very time consuming and oh so very fun to work on. And their reactions? It was wonderful. There was a lot of crying that night. Which is why I'm giving them useless, meaningless items next year. Can't handle any more crying.
And this is the final Christmas gift, finished today. Because no, I didn't finish everything.But this is for my sister, Goobie, who didn't finish her Christmas gifts either. So we're okay.

Christmas

Ooh, a slideshow! With completely inappropriate music!
By inappropriate I mean not related to the pictures, not full of swearing and references to private parts.
I also like that my VERY messy sewing area gets shown too. I'm so proud of it.
The smock and pink crayon roll go to my cousin's daughter, Ashley. She's VERY girly. Which was interesting because we are NOT girly at all around here.
The other crayon roll is going to a different cousin's son, along with a stuffed robot that I haven't taken pictures of yet.
———
I'm talking to my sister right now. She says her son is naked, standing on the phone stand playing with some oatmeal and watching TV. Word World. He's learning a lot.

Day 3

Remember the giveaway!
This is an easel from Ikea (of course). Every two weeks or so, I pull out fresh paper. We keep crayons, markers and pencils handy. There is no set drawing time at our house. And slowly it gets filled up (faster if my sister-in-law comes to visit - maybe she needs one of her own?). I love seeing what each boy has drawn. It is a collaborative effort, with each adding to what the other has drawn. I think they like seeing what the other has drawn as much as I do.
And here's Jack, drawing on a large notepad at the top of the stairs. Maybe not the ideal place to be drawing, but it works.