Two Very Different Bags.

Bag number 1 is just a simple little shoulder bag that I fell in love with the design. However I didn't seem to pick out the most durable fabric. Though I love the gray with the circles (cause you know me and my passion for circles and dots) I loved the touch of the hot pink inside. Oh and props to Mackenzie for being a good sport and modeling it for me while I took picture over picture to get it right. I apologize that her clothing and Gothic glove didn't really match the look and style of the purse. :)

Bag number 2 (I apologize for the ugliness of the background of these pictures. Seems they only way I could get any detail was to use this horrible setting. I'll do better next time, promise).

This is a wristlet. Have you seen these things? They are growing wildly popular and I started seeing them popping up on Etsy. I thought about buying myself and my mom one but then I thought...huh I can sew that. Sure enough I can. I took a few shots of this bag in action but I think I might have made the long strap a little too....well long. See how the long strap goes through the smaller one? Then you're suppose to slip the longer strap over your hand and wrist and it's suppose to hang from your wrist whilst you shop. How cool is that. It's big enough to hold my wallet, keys, cell phone and a lipstick. If you're desperate you could even squeeze a paperback in there!

I took this perfect purse to the movies with the kids the other day and LOVED it! I didn't have to worry about setting my purse in the floor or the kids stepping into it in the dark. I was able to slip the long handle over the cup holder and viola!!!! So very cool.

So all I have to do is whip up another one. This time I'm going to add in some interfacing, something thin but sturdy and maybe pick a tougher fabric for the outside.

Just drink it in.

Below I've posted 3 pictures from my parents front yard.

The first one is just one of the maples in the front yard. Oh so gorgeous right?



The 2nd picture is taken from the mailbox at the end of the drive, looking up the hill towards the front of the house. What a beautiful covering of leaves right?

The 3rd one is of me trudging through the leaves up to the house while taking these pictures. No, I didn't bury my feet the leaves are really this deep. I love this time of year.

I've already posted on the leaf pile we made so you know the fun my kids have already gotten from nature's toy.
Then something horrible happened.

Something I have a hard time putting in to words.

Something no child or even mother should have to ever go through during the fall.

Something I take no responsibility for but blame my father for.

Prepare yourself, maybe grab a tissue just in case you feel the pain from what I'm about to share.



I'll let the picture speak for it's self. :(

Clouds and Transformers.

Have I mentioned how easy and fast these PJ pants are to sew up? I love that. Isaac picked out the Transformer material, of course, and I picked out the clouds because it was marked to $2 a yard. (These take just a little under a yard and a half, so these were really cheap PJ pants.)


Isaac complained about the fabric, said he didn't like clouds. Guess what pair he put on first after they were finished and ready to wear to bed? That's right, the clouds. He said he thought they would give him happy dreams!
This is what my 2 goobers were doing while I was outside snapping pictures of the finished PJ pants.

Advent Stockings

So I was all excited. I finally, ok I barely have the time to whip up advent calendars for the kids this year and when I stumbled on the blog below I almost hit the roof with my excitment.

I printed out the pattern, got all my fabrics in a row and started cutting and cutting and cutting. I want to make a different calendar for each kid and I just knew one of the girls would like this one. Finally done with all the cutting I started sewing them up. They were easy enough to sew and I was cranking several out in a short time. Then I got to looking at them, and you know what? I don't like them. At all! I'm not exactly sure what it is about them that bugs me, the fabric? the overall shape? the cuffs? Would I like them better if I used only Christma fabic? Should they be a little bigger, maybe it's the porportion that was bugging me.

I can't put my finger on it. So...here's my attempt at Advent Calendar Sew Along. I'm not giving up though. I've found a few more ideas for advent calendar's I'm going to try. I just hope I like them better than the stockings.

My huggie

I was 13 maybe 14 when my grandmother did one of her famous, 'clean out her house and give sutff away' things. I ended up snagging some throw pillows, many of which I tossed over the years. There was one lucky one, however, that ended up not only lasting through time but won the label, 'Huggie".

My Huggie has been with me since that day and I honestly have a hard time sleeping without it. (I have that weird thing were both my arms go numb if I don't lay just...ahhhh.....right.)

The 2nd anniversary of my grandmother's passing was the 16th. It got me thinking about her and some special memories I had of her, and I got to looking at huggie. With all the sewing I've been doing lately I decided it was way past time to revamp huggie. I mean she needs to last the next 40-50 years and at this rate she was lucky if she had another 5 years in her

So needless to say, my dear sweet huggie has been through the war, what with 3 kids who like to use her for pillow fights, a dog that likes to suck on her and being my only defense against numb arms. She was starting to rip and a few of her threads were giving up their fight.

So I pulled out her stuffing and got slightly sick to my stomach after looking at what I'd been clutching to my chest the past 10 years, hand washed her, air dried her, sewed up all her little problem areas, then re-stuffed her with new, fresh, fluffy stuffing. To top it off I had picked up some uber cheap pretty girl fabric so I set out to make her a new pillowcase. She deserves a great pillowcase after her years of service right? Of course. I'm very very pleased with how it all turned out and I think I may just make a few more pillowcases for my other pillows.

Oh, don't you just love my owl? I picked him up a few weeks ago for $5. I just love him. I think he matches the decor very well. I'm looking for more like him so he'll not be lonely on my dresser.

Leaves and more leaves.

Fall in Virginia is like no other season in Virginia. It's a ball of colors, bright, shaded, cloudy and all of them falling in a swirl of leaves. It's gorgeous. The kids and I made a leaf pile the other day. Here are a few shots of the kids playing intheir first pile of leaves of the season. The dog, Daisy, even joined in with the fun.

I started these cute bags about a month and a half ago. I had to put off finishing them because I didn't have any drawstrings. I came across some and used it on the blue bag. I don't like it. Its too shiny and bulky. Soooo I'm going to pick up something thinner with no shine and redo. But I like these cute bags and wanted to post them. I think they would make great gift bags and maybe little play bags for kids. I even thought of using it as a wallet bag, something to throw my debit card and change purse in for the mall or something. Who knows, I'm sure to find a way to use them no matter.....once they are finished.

My Hobo Bag.

Remember this wonderful fabric I posted about awhile back? Well I've been cutting out a Hobo bag pattern out of it and taking my time sewing it up. Mainly because I had never sewn up a hobo bag let alone worked with fabric I liked so much. I've had this bag/purse finished for some time now but just haven't posted about it, or used it for that matter. You'll see why below.




Here's a picture of my Hobo bag/purse all finished. I'm really happy with how it turned out and the work I did on it. It took many man hours and I had to rip through a few seems or two and redo but I finally got it finished and looking how I want it. The only drawback.......

It's enormous!!!!!!!! I mean seriously. Before I finished sewing up the handle Evan Grace (she'll be four in 2 days climbed in the thing). It's massive. I just don't know if I'm going to actually use it because of it's sheer size and the fact that the material, I think, makes it look even so much longer.

I do love it though and I have it proudly displayed in my bedroom,.....maybe one day it'll have the experience of holding all my purse toys and being used...eh...maybe.

Four!

Today is Evan Grace's 4th birthday. I tried writing a poem, an acrostic, even a Haiku for this little goose of mine but words escaped me. I've lost my poetry chops. But Ev's dad seems to have an abundance of poetry chops so here's a cute collage of Evan Grace and an acrostic her dad worked up to try and capture her.

Happy Birthday my little one.

Entertainer, wild haired child of mine
Very image of your mother's wisecrack smile
All your strength in each neck wrenching hug
No one ever told you that a princess, can't throw a punch

Girl with her father wrapped tight on a tiny finger
Race your brother, hide from the bears
Always after the sweetest treat of tiny feet.
Chase laughter with every crazed pirouet and pose
Ever changing, ever mine, every grace that makes your name. -- Dad

Birthday Fairy

I never celebrated Halloween growing up. My kids have never celebrated Halloween either and I hope they don't celebrate it when they are grown and out on their own. BUT, every year, in all the stores, it never fails; all the costumes, headstones, witches and creepy stuff come out of hiding and litter the shelves. Every year without fail the kids start asking why other kids celebrate a holiday that is so bad and 'not good'. This year was a little different. Evan Grace said she didn't like Halloween but she would still like to wear a Fairy skirt (she had just spied one on the clothing racks.) I told her I thought I could probably make her one that she could wear whenever she liked.

So this is what I came up with. It's suppose to be way way way shorter but when I asked Evan Grace what she wanted she said and I quote, "I want it long, long, longer." So hopefully this it was 'long, long, longer' looks like. Isaac and Ev watched the entire process from start to finish, from. start. to. finish!!!! and yes Isaac did ask if he could wear it!

I measured and cut a strip of elastic, sewed the ends together, cut the tulle in 40 inch strips and started double knotting them on the elastic. I think it worked pretty well. You can see a pink flower at the bottom of the skirt, I had some cute flower buttons that I knotted on one of the strips of tulle. I have a few more different colored ones I hope to add on later. The only trouble I see with the Fairy skirt is the length. The longer she wore it the more tangled the fabric got within it's self. I may have to shorten it after all.

Oh, since her birthday is on the 12th of this month, she's now calling it her Birthday Skirt. :)

Owls

I've totally become obsessed with owls. I'm not sure how or why or exactly when this obsession crept upon me, but I find myself in the throws of it here lately. So of course with everything I've been sewing here lately I thought, why not sew an Owl family?

So here's what I ended up with. I have them hot glued to a fabric covered cardboard but I think eventually I'll figure out a way to give them their own solid bottom so they could stand on their own. Or even be little stuff toys for Evan Grace. We'll see. For now they are in my bedroom atop my dresser. :) Aren't they the cutest.

Football shakers.

My cousin, Connor, is a few months older than Mackenzie and he plays 8th grade football this year. He's really good and we've made everyone home game he's had this far except for one rainy, cold one. My aunt, Connor's mom, of course made up a sign that said Go, Connor Go and she let Isaac and Evan Grace take turns holding it up and cheering for their cousin. They loved it. The more games we go to, the more they get into the excitement of the game and the crowd.

Evan Grace watches the cheerleaders and copies the cheers about 2 beats after the cheerleaders. Isaac is convinced that his 'superpowers' actually help Cousin Connor's team and doesn't hesitate to stand up in the stands, stretch out his arms and call down lava on the other team, or a wind storm to blow the ball out of the opposing teams hands.

But the reason for my post. I wanted to give them something else to celebrate and enjoy at the football games other than a cardboard sign or heaven forbid a pompom. So we made shakers after school one day. They filled their empty water bottles half full of cheap plastic beads. I printed out a black and orange (school colors, go RR!!!) banner that said Go Connor, pasted it around the bottle and added some football ribbon as well as school color ribbons around the top.

They shake them everyday, getting in practice for the next football game. I think they turned out pretty well and boy are they loud. I don't know why Mackenzie didn't want to make one.... :)

More projects.

Recently the kids and I were house sitting. I had a lot of free time on my hands when the kids were in bed for the night. I whipped out the sewing machine and left it set up all week, it was wonderful and I sewed and sewed and sewed. Here are a few of the projects I started and completed while house sitting.

First, I sewed a quick Thread Bag for my machine. Hopefully this will help keep my work area thread and scarp free or at least cut down on the amount of threads and scraps I have to sweep off the table and floor when I'm finished. I quilted the main piece of white fabric though you can't see it with the picture. I'm so happy with it. Oh, the smaller pocket is for my small scissors, my favorite part of the entire project.

More tissue holders. The bottom one is out of the leftover fabric I had from my hobo bag which I finished a few days ago and need to take pics of to post. You will not believe how big the thing turned out to be. Trust me, you will not believe it.

And I also made a little pocket envelope for my purse, out of the same wonderful fabric, for make-up. I was thinking of sewing in a button to close it with and then I remembered I had picked up these round button size sticky back Velcro so I used that instead.

I started many many more projects that week but haven't finished them up yet. Maybe this weekend I'll have time to get back at the machine. I hope.

Rain

Sometimes you're given a very small, very quick gift when you're not even looking for it. This is what I followed on the way to the van as we left a rained out football game. I wonder if they will appreciate this picture when they get old enough to enjoy the sweetness from it?