Last minute crafting…

Eeek! I can’t resist a good online craft swap, but I may have taken on slightly too much this time. I am trying to crank out 2 backpacks, 3 traveling artist totes, a wristlet, and yarn before I leave on Wednesday.  Yikes!

1 of the backpacks from the Made by Rae pattern (which is a lovely, relatively easy pattern with great results) is from this funky japanese robot fabric and denim.  I think the sturdiness of these packs is perfect for Ethan.  The second backpack is going to be out of this funky viewfinder fabric… I LOVE it!

The boys and I are having so much fun with our summer projects.  We worked on a garden stone this morning.

Joey is now finishing up work on a script and setting up for filming a puppet show 🙂

Summer’s Here!

It’s been such a beautiful, enjoyable couple of weeks. We all needed a break from school. Aside from Ethan and I doing a toddler/independence/power struggle dance that often leaves me at a loss, we are making the most of every minute.

Sometimes I feel like I don’t have much time. I blinked and Chris is just months away from double digits. I want to make sure that every second counts.

We have made log boats, mini books, painted, journaled, cooked, played, gardened, visited friends and had friends visit. We have plans to camp, play more, cook more, hike and letterbox (a very cool geocaching sort of thing).

Speaking of camping, check out our new toy!  We are planning a trip to the Sierra’s next week.  The boys are crazy excited.  A week of camping, fishing, camp fires and bike riding!  I’m hoping the weather continues to warm up.  The snow up there a couple weeks ago had me nervous!

I have lots on my plate with crafting and business, but I am keeping up.  I finished a great b/w bag for a customer the other day.  It made me smile (I love little birds on fabrics!)

Gardening and baseball…

That’s my life! I don’t know how families with more than 2 kids in sports do it. More than half of the boys games are at the same time! They are both doing so well this year.

And my garden pics. I love that we decided to extend it. I convinced Paul that it was just silly to waste water on a lawn that does nothing but look nice 20% of the time (it’s mostly weeds that are super green in the summer, LOL).

School is almost over. Joey is doing so well in kindy. He loves reading Nate the Great and all the street signs while we drive, it’s so amazing to watch. Chris received an award from the state senator for his grades, is in the top 8 readers of his grade, and is almost as tall as me (not really school related, but it’s killing me that he is getting so big so fast!). Ethan is busy. I think busy might be an understatement. I was pretty convinced that I would have it easy after Joey’s crazy toddlerhood (I mean really, should a mom have to endure that level of insanity twice?!), but I was wrong. He is getting slightly more reasonable as he approaches 2.5. He will start preschool/playschool in the fall… It seems like it went too fast.

Just some fun crafty goodness…

First up, finished objects.

The quilted checkerboard

A cardigan for a baby that was born this morning!!!

And a couple of little goodies for me :).
shawl.

cardigan.

That’s all for this week!

Halloween was awesome!

The boys had a great time. Ethan was very picky about his costume… he wanted to wear the woody outfit with no pants. Then we finally convinced him to be the pirate that we had in the dress up box. By the end of the night he was loving it all! Joey kept true to himself and was the only 6 year old boy we saw that wasn’t a character of some sort. He was a chef and LOVED it. And Chris kept true to the Star Wars tradition, this year being a clone trooper. It was really nice not to agonize over homemade costumes this year, but I definitely want to do it next year. I’m thinking the mad hatter from the most recent version of Alice in Wonderland for Ethan ;).

In the creative section of life, all of my holiday crafty ideas have me shopping for supplies. This set of wool felt arrived last week and I am excited about all of the possibilities.

It actually inspired these yarns…

I used a new dye method and I couldn’t be happier with the results.  Joey tried to get me to knit them up for him, but I declined… this mama doesn’t knit up fingering yarn.  I plan on dyeing up some quick knitting worsted in a similar color scheme and making him some mittens or a hat though.

I’m looking forward to the rest of this week.  I have a parent conference for Chris, he has a game tomorrow, Thursday is my mom’s club and bible study at our house.  Super busy, but in a good way.

We have come full circle.

Or close. Here we are, coming up to November, and I haven’t updated since Feb. It’s been a nice, necessary break. Parenting 3 boys, having the home biz, volunteering, enjoying/dealing with (depending on how close we are to nap-time) a toddler who defines the word toddler, and playing taxi doesn’t leave much time for a blog. I hope to at least update once a month from here on out though.

Big changes? Not many. We bought a camping trailer and a cool new-to-us car. Got a cat named Catty (he’s just darling). Finished up the house… well, as finished as you can be. We actually just checked the kitchen table off our list! Took the legs from our old one and redid the top more of a farmhouse style. Still need to do a couple more coats of finish. We went with a natural sealer, and it’s not quite as strong as a poly-type one would have been. (sorry for the dark pic, it’s been raining for days!)

The weather change has me really looking forward to this fall/winter season. I am just feeling so thankful for everything I have. I’ve been thinking about crafty gifts already and have a little list going. Recently I bought these patterns-
Sweet Mama Small sugar mitts

Just enough Ruffles

so I am looking forward to doing those for people.  I actually just finished a pair of mittens-

I am also planning goodies for the boys… a quilted checker board for Chris, a tic tac toe board for Joe, a scarf for Ethan (he is obsessed with my scarves :)).

So many goodies, so little time. Now I am off and running again!

All grown up!

Well, sorta :). My friend made these awesome ties for Valentine’s day and let us borrow them. They make the boys look so big! I even got a good smile from Chris. Generally when the camera comes out he shows his teeth in a very painful looking way.

I’ve had a busy couple months.  December chaos generally carries right into January with Chris’ birthday.  He had a wonderful one.  Low key, lazer tag with his Dad, uncle and cousin.  He just started baseball, and his coach/team are serious about it.  Practice every day… I’m not sure how I feel about that (well, I know how I feel about it, but he loves baseball, so we are sticking it out)

Ethan has fallen right into being a toddler.  Complete with small fits… he is still a super content guy, he just knows what he wants!  He enjoys climbing on the kitchen table, counters, going out the dog door and playing in the tub.  He can say quite a few words now, his funniest is probably “get down”.  We tell the dogs that often.

Joey is enjoying new friends, music and looking forward to spring soccer.  I’m a bit sad that we register him for Kindergarten in just a few weeks.  It just doesn’t seem possible.  He recently learned to ride a 2 wheeler.  He had never been on one, and we let him give Chris’ smaller bike a try and he took off!  Speeds around like a crazy man, and loves weekend bike rides.

I’m busy.  But enjoying it.  Work is good and consistent, can’t ask for much more.  Here’s some recent lovlies…

And I’m off to make dinner.  Then watch some Survivor…

Handmade Christmas ’09

Yeah, yeah!  I’m speeding through my list… it’s possible I am avoiding my mom’s gift though.  I mean seriously, who decides to make luggage?  Me.  All of the supplies are sitting in my sewing studio staring at me.  All 5 yards of fabric, 5 yards of cording & bias tape, 7 yards of various interfacings, size 20 (yes, 20!) needles, and upholstery weight thread.  Maybe I should get started soon, right?

In the avoidance meantime, I’ve finished quite a few things.

The boys Christmas hats.

A black apple doll.

A dropstitch scarf.

Jammie pants and slippers for Joey

Slippers for Ethan

Still waiting to be done are washcloths for the boys teachers (they are getting hand dyed ones with a small bundle of Indigo Wild soaps), caramel to be cooked and wrapped, a towel/napkin set for a family friend, and the outdoor fort :).  It’s their big gift this year.  We told them we were building a gazebo, they are buying it for now :).  We did really well on our budget too, Craigslist saved us a few times!

So, the boys Christmas is 90% handmade (the exceptions being books… sadly, I’m not a writer, and their gifts from the big jolly guy), and I want to say that the rest of the giving we do is about 60%ish handmade.  Not to shabby!

E’s room, sorta finished

Well, $$ are running low, so while there are a few things left to do, we are calling it done for now.

I love our fishy decals.  They are so cute.

The school goes all the way around the room.

And we have our ikea shelf, it holds the diapering supplies and shoes.

I forgot to take a picture of the toy box and framed fabric… I’ll add it when I show off the big boys room.  We still need some sort of short shelving unit for a small assortment of books and toys, and a fish rug.  I am also thinking about hanging curtains where his closet doors were/should be.  We had old school sliding doors that each weighed about 200lbs, so they came down right away.

I’ll show the big boys room next 🙂

I love fall.

It’s my favorite season, by far. I find myself too busy though. The weather is just right to do anything and everything.

Today we are enjoying E’s first birthday.  It’s so exciting to watch him grow and take on a fantastic personality that is a very precise mix of Chris and Joey. He loves to be the spotlight of anyone’s attention, yet he is very content to study his surroundings and decide how everything feels around him before jumping in. He has a beautiful laugh, an incredible hug, and dark chocolate eyes. His favorite things to do are climb on the entertainment center and go for walks. When we walk, we are not allowed to hold his hand or his legs turn to jello cause he wants to do it himself… :D.

Happy birthday sweet boy.

1 year ago.

Today.