I've Turned Over a New Leaf

I finished a project! Within my projected time frame! I made an Elephant and some burp cloths for my cousin Stephanie's safari themed nursery. The baby shower was today, but I actually had her gift ready on Wednesday. I had no idea what to do with myself on Thursday. If I keep performing miracles like this, I might be nominated for Sainthood.



On another note, this little guy is 10-months-old today. 10!!!

Suzy Michelle

I finished Winnie's Christmas doll on Christmas Eve. Well, I sort of finished Winnie's doll. Playing with her has proved that I did NOT tack her hair down well enough and she still only has one dress instead of the 4 outfits and 2 pairs of shoes she was intended to have. What Winnie doesn't know won't hurt her, right?


Winnie has christened her Suzy-Michelle. Maybe the Easter Bunny will bring more clothes for Suzy in Winnie's Easter basket.

Christmas Projects #3 & #4.

At this point, I have admitted defeat and severely cut back on projects I had planned to make for Christmas. Luckily, no one knows what my intentions were, so they won't feel cheated, right?

I did complete projects number 3 and 4 this week.

I'm very proud of project number 3. This just happens to be the first round ball that I've ever made. I knew there had to be a trick --you have to cut your pieces out on the bias, rather than with the grain. Hooray! Round on the first try!

This necklace was, surprisingly, my first attempt at jewelry making. It didn't turn out exactly the way I wanted it to (the button I chose to embellish it looks surprisingly like a lemon slice now that it's all put together), but I like it anyway. I think I'd wear it, so I don't feel bad giving it as a gift.

As I type this, project #6 is sitting in a basket next to me--a mess of dismembered body parts. Hopefully that body will come together with hair and clothes by Christmas. Otherwise, it will look like I made my daughter an ET doll.

Christmas Dress

I finished Winnie's Christmas dress. That makes the tally two completed projects, 15 to go.

Christmas Checklist

This morning I had 17 projects on my Christmas "To-Do" list.


Now I have 16.


Sad, isn't it? I won't even tell you how long this belt took me. I made it way more difficult than it had to be and it brought out the worst in my sewing machine. If all of my projects take me this long, I should be done by Easter!

Confessions, Part 3 & A Munchkin

I made another ball. Another lemon-shaped ball. Remember attempt 1 and attempt 2? Isn't this supposed to be a simple sewing project?

After much tweeking and fussing around with it, it actually looked a little bit round. I then arranged it just so to take the picture so that you could almost believe it to be round! This one is for Luke, who doesn't care if it's round or not. I should have just sewn a football and called it a day.

On a happier note, here is Winnie modeling her new coat, awesome pigtails and some Halloween decorations.

Project #1,973

I've been wanting a cuckoo clock for the kids' room, but haven't been able to find the right combination of features in a clock I could afford.


When I saw this embroidered clock from the preview of Meg McElwee's new book, "Sew Liberated", I decided an embroidered cuckoo clock might be even better than what I've been looking for. Unfortunately, I've just renewed my vow to not start another project until I've finished all the projects I've already started or purchased supplies for.

At least I have a few years to learn how to embroider.

P.S. I just bought this pattern to make a Christmas dress for Winnie.

Confessions, Part 2

I have no pride. I gave the last ball anyway, proceeded to make an even worse one and then gave that too.

I thought I'd try a simpler pattern, but somehow I could only end up with a lemon-shaped ball. Can you even call a lemon shape a ball? This is of my second attempt--after I'd unpicked the fist very pointy version and resewn it all.

We added this book to our library today and thought it was everything that a book should be.

Confessions, Part 1

Rushed, took short-cuts, ignored directions, made-up steps = not giving this at baby shower tomorrow.

I've been adding to my stash for a big project I'm planning. Now I just need to add a couple of hours to each day to get them done!

The blinds in Winnie's room came unstrung and are stuck open. After a few weeks of her getting up with the sun (about an hour and a half earlier than any of us usually get up) I finally decided to do something about it. Fixing he blinds was going to cost $65.00 so I bought new curtains from JCPenney.com. Happily, expedited shipping is the same price as standard shipping right now. Maybe we'll get to sleep until 7:30 on Saturday!

Quilting

Even though I've yet to finish my first quilt (I'm to the point where I need to actually quilt it and I'm scared I'll mess it up), I'm looking for fabric to make Winnie a quilt for her move from the crib to a bed. I think I'm going to do a large cream linen center panel with a brown corduroy tree applique and a pieced border all around. The multi-colored floral will be the back and the red will be the binding. The "leaves" on the tree will be fabric yo-yo's in all of the patchwork fabrics. I don't know what pattern to do the patchwork in, but I think I better keep it simple if I want to actually finish it.

I also want to make a coordinating quilt for the doll crib she's getting for Christmas.

Matt's a good sport to listen to all of my plans without reminding me that my house is already filled with half finished projects (including the half painted wall I blogged about last July). I think I need to start scheduling my time more like Matt does and say "I am going to work on this project from 8:00 to 10:00" and when 8:00 comes around stop whatever else I'm doing and work on my project. Matt seems to get more done than I do with my "work on something until it's finished" approach. I usually put housework first and that's one project that's never finished. The only kink in my new approach to efficiency is getting Luke to agree.

A long weekend?

Matt and I both had yesterday off for Memorial Day. It was a long weekend that didn't feel very long at all! We were considering taking Winnie to the zoo yesterday, but it turned out to be rainy and a little cold. That coupled with the length of my to-do list kept us home to work on projects, but I still don't feel like I even put a dent in my list!


We painted Winnie's new crib/toddler bed black. For this painting project I used Krylon 360 spray paint. I love this stuff! The paint went on with a beautiful finish and had a great nozzle that really is much easier on your fingers than a traditional nozzle. Right now the crib is airing out in Matt's parents' shop because the 360 is a lot more smelly than the Krylon H2O I used on the dresser, but when everything is assembled and in place, I'll post pictures.

I made a mobile for my cousin's baby shower, which ended up being cancelled because baby decided to come a month early. I've been planning to make something similar for Winnie since before she was born, but never even got around to buying the supplies until last week. The shower was a great motivation to get going on this project.

I actually really love how this turned out, but couldn't get a picture that I think showed it well. You can't really tell in this picture, but the leaves are green vellum so they have a nice translucence. The birds are regular card stock, and the branch is from a Redbud in Marshall and Susan's yard that died last summer. The arm in the top corner belongs to Matt and does not come with the mobile. I'm planning to make Winnie's about twice as large (I had to keep transportation in mind with this first one) with red vellum flowers instead of leaves. I am somewhat concerned about how well this one will travel from Utah to Las Vegas--especially since, when we got back in the car after leaving it at Aunt Sue's, I found a leaf that had already been pulled off. If it doesn't make it in one piece, sorry Patrice!

Other than that, Winnie took her first tumble down the stairs, we did some projects around the house (a new shelf in the office, some hooks for my aprons in the kitchen, miscellaneous wall repair for damaged caused by my tendency to hang things on the wall and then decide to move them), tried to organize the office/Winnie's room/Matt's recording studio to help them all co-exist peacefully, and did laundry, laundry, laundry. How can 3 little people create so much laundry?