Ohh And By The Way

I just realized until my “book” post, I hadn’t updated you guys since BEFORE Serenity started school! So just a little update:

Today was Serenity’s 100th day of school!!! They did a lot of creative 100’s activities. She has such a wonderful teacher, these past 100 days wouldn’t be the same without her. We have been very blessed to have Serenity in such a great school, with such a great teacher.

This picture is HORRIBLE quality but I don’t have time to find the original and I have decided it’s good enough haha. This is Serenity today: 100th day of school (she made the shirt in school the other day) 100 beads on her necklace and 100 dots on her shirt :)

Serenity knows all of the kids names in her class (and a little about each of them). One of her classmate has been battling Leukemia since he was about 18 months old, were all praying that this will be the last of the cancer when he is finished with this last round of treatments (in about a year and a half I believe). Both of the girls remind me every night that we need to pray for him, if you could pray for him as well that would be great. :)

Serenity will be 6 this September and Destiny will be 3 in one month from now. Absolutely insane, I know. We are trying to decide between a Minnie Mouse or Cinderella themed birthday party for the little munchkin but her mind changes hourly, so we shall see.

I now have that piano I told you all about in THIS post, needs a little fixing up but I am so insanely excited to have not only a wonderful piece of my childhood but a pretty cool family heirloom as well. <3 I think it is safe to say, I am in love with that thing.

I FINALY started taking my GED tests! I have taken two out of five, hopefully I will finish fairly soon and get to cross that off my list. That’s pretty exciting. I’m not sure if there is any more to update you all on but if I remember anything worth while I will come back and let you know. :) Have a wonderful night!

Kayla

Some of My Favorite Children's Books and Such

I know this was supposed to be a sewing/craft blog BUT please do forgive me, I have found that I get rather bored posting about the same things over and over so I believe I will try something new.

Lately the girls and I have been to the library quite often (we try for once every week or so) and we have recently discovered a few “new” favorites.

Fairly new favorites:
A Giraffe and A Half / Shel Silverstein
Tell Me Something Happy Before I Go To Sleep / Joyce Dunbar & Debi Gliori
I Love You This Much / Sue Buchanan

Not so new favorites:
The Magic Tree House (series) / Mary Pope Osborne
The Cat In The Hat / Dr Seuss (or really any book by him of course)
The BFG / Roald Dahl
Charlottes Web / E.B. White

Those are all the ones I can think of off the top of my head anyway. I wish our library kept a list of all the books you’ve checked out, then I could tell you all of our favorites haha. We also have a couple favorite movies from the library though.

The Secret Of Moonacre is a huge favorite, about a moon princess and well, I shouldn’t spoil it for you ;) You’ll have to go find out for your self.

The Great Music Caper

Signing Time this is a GREAT series of videos that do a wonderful job at teaching children (and your self) American Sign Language. Now before you close this window and call me a KOOK, I promise you – This isn’t one of those boring “teach your self”/ “self help” videos that you want to turn off five seconds after you turn it on. Trust me, I probably have the shortest attention span ever in the history of the universe when it comes to learning something new. But this is one my kids absolutely love and I even find my self listening/signing along haha. My two year old knows sign language because of this show…. Ok, anyway, moving on now…

I love books, I absolutely love them and I hope that if nothing else I am able to share that love for books with my children. A book is a place where you can escape reality and be consumed by a world of wonder, a world so completely different than your own, and not only that but you can also choose which “world” you enter.

I am currently reading The Hobbit for the very first time ever (at 23 years old haha horrible right?) and so far I am loving it. I saw the movie that just came out first and that is what sparked my interest in the book, there will be three movies so of course they had to end it without a real ending and everyone was left “wondering” until whenever they decide to release the next one so that is why I picked up the book. Did you know right now my library has over a hundred holds on this book??? Insane, right??? I was just lucky enough to find it in the “lucky” section where there are books that aren’t allowed to be renewed and are only available for seven day loans haha. Speaking of which I believe it was due yesterday (but I am not done) I am a horrible person…

So, I thought I would share a few of our current “favorites” and now I think I will get back to that book before the library starts hating me ;) Until next time,

Kayla

So Incredibly Excited!

There are more than a few things going on around here which is why I haven’t posted anything lately. Also the fact that my sewing machine is “out of order” at the moment… A huge bummer, so I am trying to get that fixed this week or hopefully next. Until then I will probably be away from the blog for the most part but for now I thought I would share a few exciting things taking place in the near-ish future.

I remember -when I was very young -a huge (or to me it was huge) piano sitting in the dining room of my grandpa’s house, we weren’t allowed on it often and I never quite understood why… Regardless of that and the fact that I could not and still cannot play worth a penny, I grew very fond of this piano – It would soon hold some of the best memories of my childhood… It was one of the few things that was just “always there”, never changing, never moving… That is until my grandpa decided to retire and move. After he moved (not sure what year but it was somewhere around 2000), I had no idea where that piano went. I have always hoped it was still in the family somewhere but never counted on seeing it again. Well talking to my great aunt KC (my grandfathers sister) a few months ago I learned a lot more about that piano. Like the fact that it originally belonged to their mother, and it in fact WAS still in the family… Jump forward a few months and they have decided they can’t store it any longer and need to find a new home for it… Guess who was asked? THAT’S RIGHT! She asked me if I would like to have her mothers/or as I knew it-my grandpas piano! Absolutely, YES! So that is my very most exciting news…. Possibly ever. That thing means more to me than I even know how to express… Even more so now that my grandpa has passed on.

Next bit of exciting news, Serenity starts Kindergarten THIS September! I don’t know about you but September 3rd 2007 does not seem like it was that long ago. I remember so clearly the night/early morning that little girl decided to come into this world. *tear, sniffle sniffle* Yeah. yeah, yeah, they grow up… My babies aren’t supposed to grow up this fast though haha, can’t they be exempt???? Ok. Ok. Really though I am so excited but still a bit sad that she is growing up so quickly…

There could be another exciting thing (or maybe two) that I can’t quite post about until I know for sure if we want to go through with it… Lots more brainstorming and debating first. That is all I am saying about that. Well and I’ll tell all of you asking if it has anything to do with another baby, that is a negative. Not completely ruled out forever but for right now in our lives the two we have are perfect. :) Also – like I said to a friend- have you been to our house?! The two (lovely) girls we have now can be quite the handful ;) Currently Ren’s thing is telling destiny to do or get something after I have already told Ren no, and Destiny’s thing is climbing in the pantry to "get snacks" at all hours of the day - claiming that she is starving - when lord knows she's not (I think she eats more than serenity – Destiny is my foodie child) -I can't imagine what a third would bring into the mix, it could get a little scary haha.

So, that covers most of the updates for now. If you’re looking for a new project head over to Make It and Love It for a neat baby Bubble Romper tutorial. Or if you’re looking for a little something to spice up your home you can try this Decorative Satin Flower Pillow also by Make It and Love It, she says “I triple promise you that this will be the easiest/loveliest little satin flower pillow you will ever make.” What are you waiting for?? Go see if she’s right!

New patterns!!

I just got FIVE new patterns from Violette Field Threads and I can't wait to test them out!

I got these five patterns:

Emmaline- a cute maxi dress                                     Elise- adorable shirt

Vivienne- beautiful skirt                                            Audrey- cute peasant dress

Chloe- party dress

*Tip* If you plan to buy more than one buy them in a bundle from their etsy store instead of their website. It's a little cheaper this way. :)

These patterns include very descriptive instructions, use words even I know ;) and they have a ton of pictures to reference too! I would say they definitely look user friendly!

You can count on a new post featuring one of these projects soon!

*Note* All pictures in this post are the property of Violette Field Threads. Please do not use without getting permission and giving proper credit where it is due.

Thank you!

Childrens Pajama Pants

I made these a couple weeks ago and JUST got around to posting this.... Yeah, I guess you can call me a slacker ;)
I just want to say this is one of my easier tutorials here. You will need fabric - the specific amount depends on your child's size and whether you are making pants or shorts (I made pants). Regardless, you will need enough for four "leg cut outs" (you can see what I mean below), a pair of pajama pants the same size or a size bigger to trace, and if you're doing this for a girl maybe a little piece of ribbon tied into a bow for the front of the waist band. Last, but definitely not least, elastic- enough to go around your child's waist.

To start, lay out your fabric and fold the pants you will be tracing in half, and trace them like this:

Picture From Simply Modern Mom

Apparently I didn't get as many pictures as I thought I did, please for give me. The picture above is from SimplyModernMom.com

Make sure to add a few inches to the top (we will be folding it over to create the casing for the elastic to go through later) about 2 ish inches should be fine *I used 3/4in elastic*. (I traced a regular pair of jeans and didn't add enough extra fabric to the top and ended up with a waist a bit lower than I like.... So just know this is the worst that can happen lol).
Now after you have traced and cut out your "quarter of the pants" four times (see the picture below) you can start sewing them together, going down the longest side of each. Make sure right sides are together, again see the pictures below...

Two of the 4 pieces - BTW I these are a size 5
I told you the waist was a bit short... Make
Sure you add those couple extra inches ;)

If you look closely you can see where I have sewn
down the right side (longest side) -now do this again
with the other two leg pieces

Instead of four quarters (four leg pieces) at this point you should have two pieces that look like the picture above.

Now you're ready to sew the shortest two seams - so open up each of the two leg pieces...
Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of this part either so I will substitute with this one from "My Cotton Creations"

Picture By My Cotton Creations

Imagine there is a seam down the middle of this (because that's what yours should look like), After you place your two pieces together like this you will be sewing the short curvy part ONLY. DO NOT sew down the legs yet and DO NOT sew the top.

Now fold this together so that both of those curvy pieces you have just sewn are touching...

You will see on yours that the insides of the legs aren't sewn together yet (this photo of mine they are - didn't get a picture of the before but you get the hint...) You will want to sew them together now. I sewed up one and right down the other so I didn't have to stop and go up the other leg and hope everything matched up etc.

All that's left at this point is hemming up the bottom of the legs, I folded them up twice so that I didn't have another raw edge *exactly why you'll need those extra couple inches*, and creating a casing for the elastic at the top.

The top of the pants I folded over about 1/4 inch and over again about an inch. You'll sew just at the bottom of this ALMOST all the way around. Leave about an inch opening to get your elastic through.



I suggest using a safety pin at the end of the
elastic to help pull it through.

Once you have pulled your elastic through, sew the ends together - Thought I had a picture of this too but I guess not. Basically you will pull on both ends and over lap them about 1/4-1/2 inch and do a zig-zag stitch to hold them together. Now you can close up the hole that you used to pull the elastic through.

TADA! Now you have pajama pants :D I had this piece of blue ribbon laying around that just happened to match, tied it in a bow and hand sewed it on. Perfect finishing touch!

Have you made pajama pants yet? Any ideas or suggestions? What should I do next? Please share in the comments section below!

Moving and the Craziness That Follows...

I believe we have moved over a million times in the six and a half years Dustin and I have been together... Ok, that MAY be a LITTLE exaggerated..... Just a little though haha. So hopefully for the last time for a long while we started our new moving adventure last thursday. And what an adventure it has been too! So, if you've been wondering why there havent been many posts lately - here it is...

We had made the decision to move back in January but didn't really start looking around until february. Even after we really started looking we just couldnt seem to agree on anything, didnt exactly like much of anything we saw... Finally mid February we settled on an apartment in Oregon City, put a small down payment on it and put in our 30 day notice at our appartment. At this point you'd think we would be done looking, right? Wrong... I'm not sure what it was really, I guess just after really thinking it through we realized that wasn't exactly what we wanted. Not only have we wanted a yard for the girls literally forever but I realized, Serenity will be FIVE this year... That means she will be starting school this fall. Holy COW! And if I am going to be taking her to a school, I want to make sure it's a GOOD school. In the almost 5 years we've been in this area I have heard nothing BUT good things about the schools around here. I want Serenity to have the best possible school experience. I don't want to move her around a bunch, I don't want to send her to a school and just "hope" that it's a good school. I want to be confident about it. So, we decided to keep looking. It felt like we had been looking forever and everything kept falling through, we had already put a small down payment on the place in Oregon City and were starting to think that was going to have to be the one. After a lot of looking, a lot of places falling through and even more praying, I pulled up a place in listed just down the street that I had been missing, overlooking-whatever you want to call it, the whole time... Why havent I looked at this place?? It looks like it's big enough, has a small yard... So finally I open it up on the computer and it looks allright... We set up an appointment to come see it and the lady fell through but gave us the code to the lock box the key was in... (weird, we had never met her), we walked through and absolutely fell in love. It was the one we have been looking for all along.

*Seriously, to Dustin it's probably not such a big deal but for me it most definitely is a HUGE deal. I have ALWAYS wanted to live in a house with a tree out front that had pink flowers - When I was a kid my uncle had a house with a cherry tree out front and I LOVED it. This place even has a tree out front and guess what?! Little pink flowers are beginnning to blossom on it!*

I know, people don't decide on where to live based on wether or not there's a tree with pink flowers out front haha! It has a cute little back yard that isn't too small but isn't too big either, the perfect little tree out front, and everything we need on the inside... Where do we sign?! So we played phone tag with the lady that said she was leasing the place, finally turned in applicaations and were accepted - She asked when we wanted to move in and we told her that we really needed to move by the 10th at the latest... (this was MAYBE a week before the 10th...) So, she wasn't quite ready... I'm not sure we could have been more ready haha, we hadn't started moving and already wanted to be done with it! This lady gave us a date we could start moving in and by that date still didn't have the lease ready and everything else blah blah blah but told us we could move in anyway - Here's where Dustin started getting skeptical...( Is this a scam?! Why are we moving in before we have signed a lease?! Where is this lady?! )Eventually we did sign the lease, thank God, and everything started to settle down. It took forever to get moved in - this time without packing beforehand - I told you it's been an adventure :) - The first couple days of being here we had no heat (it's gas heating and Dustin forgot to call to have it turned on Friday lol) and the night before it gets turned on it decides to SNOW in MARCH! Thank god the guy was able to make it in the snow and we didn't freeze too much ;) We had our first snow ball fight in our new back yard that day and the girls had a blast!

Now we get to look forward to Destiny's 2nd birthday party here at our new home, I'm just not so sure about baking her cake/cupcakes (haven't decided) in a gas oven! I am a bit intimidated by the gas oven/stove haha! I am glad safeway is just down the street if I decide baking here is too much of a challenge LOL. I still just can't believe Destiny will be two... CRAZINESS.

I will be doing more "crafting" very soon- Just gotta get it all unpacked/organized first ;)

I think I may try this one very soon, the girls need more pajama pants that FIT... :)
http://www.danamadeit.com/2012/03/jammies-and-jammies.html



So until next time... <3

Lots-A-Ruffles!

I found this great post over at Ucreate with a ton of ruffle tutorials - Of course I had to go through and pick my favorites!

1. A fun party idea, ruffled streamers how-to, over at Dana Made It

Picture from danamadeit.com

2. I have always loved this douvet cover tutorial by Kiki Creates, one day I will over come my fear of making so many ruffles haha!

3. I would absolutely LOVE to recreate this Anthropologie shower curtain also done by Sister View

Picture from anthropologie.com

4. These ruffled curtains are adorable, over at Better Homes and Gardens

5. This fabric combination and ruffle dress tutorial over at iveyc95 is to die for!

Picture from iveyc95

6. Need a new tote bag? This ruffled tote tutorial posted over at Ucreate may be the one ;)

7. I have to make this cute ruffled rugby dress for my little miss! Tutorial posted over at Sumo's Sweet Stuff

8. From An Igloo posted this great tutorial on a ruffle tunic - Could also make a cute dress.

9. Last but definitely not least - A tutorial for you! A simple ruffled shirt tutorial over at Tea Rose Home

Of course these are only my favorites from the list over at Ucreate, so after you're done here go check out what else she has over there! Or if you're looking for more ruffles check out my Once Upon A Time ruffle skirt!