Craft Hope

Remember this quilt I started - like 5-6 years ago.  Well, it is on it's way to craft hope - which is working on Project #5 and getting quilts into the hands of all the homeless children in the Michigan area.  More on craft hope project #5 here:

http://crafthope.com/2009/10/project-5-margarets-hope-chest/

Sunday Ramblings

Last week was rough, with my sinus infection and sinus migraines. I have had a migraine everyday since Wed. It will go away for a while and then come back in full force before the day is over. I'm going to make an appointment with my doctor Monday to get on some stronger allergy medicine to see if it helps, if not, I'll have to go on my daily migraine medicine again.

Other things that have been happening around here:

• I think I'm getting the hang of this knitting thing. I've got about 8 rows on my 'practice' project done now. The first few look really rough, but you can tell I'm getting better. I think I should be doing this the left handed way though. I seem to be doing most of the work with my left hand, even though I'm learning to do it the right handed way. My goal is to eventually make Peyton a knitted stuffed animal. I would love to give him one for his birthday, but that isn't too far off, so maybe Christmas would be a better goal.
• A long time ago we decided to try and sell off our land instead of our house. We have people constantly calling to get info and directions - but no one has made an offer. We are considering listing it with a real estate agent.
• We have finally gotten somewhere with a lawyer to try and sue the guy that built our house. She thinks we have a really good case and is going to represent us for free - and we will only have to pay her if we win, which is great b/c we couldn't take the risk of a trial/lawsuit that we were having to pay for. If we do lose, we would be even worse off that we are now. Our main problem is our A/C (we haven't had a bill under $250 the whole time we have been here, and last month it was $330). We think the unit is too small for our house, so it is running constantly trying to keep up - and living in GA, you have to have a good a/c. We also have problems with our wood flooring. It is buckling and splitting in some areas. We contacted him within a few months of living here and he hasn't done anything about it. He also never provided us with all the receipts/invoices from the construction - and considering that we went $50,000 over budget, we want proof that he wasn't taking money from us - and to prove that we need all the invoices. He is going to be supenoed (i have no idea how to spell this, and spell checker isn't helping) to give us all that info - and she is going to supeno all the subcontractors to make sure the numbers match.
• He also messed up the foundation - which made our house almost 200 sq ft larger than the plans, and we want part of the money that we went over due to HIS mistake back. And we want closure and for the nightmare to be over.
• Our little league team is in the LL World Series. They have been playing on ESPN for the last two nights. Last night they lost though. It is cool to get caught up in the excitement!!! i have enjoyed the games and I hope they go all the way. Last year, the team from Columbus, GA won the Series, and they are the team that put our team out of the playoffs...anyway, it would be very neat for a GA team to win two years in a row.
• Peyton slept better last night - but we still have a big battle to win with this sleeping issue.
• Yesterday i bought a new pair of jeans - one size smaller!!! I was holding out for 5 more lbs, but since that seems to be taking forever b/c I'm having a hard time staying motivated, i decided to go ahead and get them. i think wearing the other pair so baggy was making me look bigger than i really am, so hope this will up my confidence some and help get me back in gear to lose more weight!

Well, I'm off to get some scrapbooking done while Peyton is taking his nap, then we are going to Eric's parents for lunch.

Another horrible night

Not only did I have a migraine, but Peyton was up 3 times. I'm getting migraines from not getting enough sleep (or I think that is part of the problem anyway). I don't know what to do. I've started dreading nights. What could have changed so much in the last few weeks? He has never been a great sleeper - but typically only once a night was how often he would wake up. And at least once or twice a week we had nights where he didn't wake up at all.

Onto another topic - I'm trying to learn how to knit. I've figured out the cast-on part, but the stitches are giving me tons of grief. My question to all you knitters - what size needles should I be working with to learn. I'm using large needles, I don't know what size, but they are about as fat as a pen, and they are pretty long - about 12 inches. Should I try a smaller size?

I also bought some embroidery needles yesterday at walmart - so I'm going to be participating in the embroidery lessons over at crafty daisies, go and check it out if you haven't already.

My package is in the mail

I sent off my Crafty Daisies Summer Swap package today. I was 2 days early!! That is pretty impressive for me. I can wait until the last minute to do stuff like this, but not this time.

So, my swap partner will be getting 2 books, 1 premade scrapbook ready for pictures and personalizations, one blank scrapbook, one card making kit, one pack of handmade cards, a garden apron with 2 gardening tools, a girls dress pattern and one yard of bright and colorful fabric.

I hope she likes everything. I see all the talent out in 'webland' and I just hope she isn't disappointed in the gifts that I made for her. I would be happy if I got my package though, so hopefully she will too.

The package was $11 bucks to ship. I thought that was kind of high, but the two hardback books might have made it a bit heavier.

And now I cannot wait until I get my package!!!

A little project this weekend...

For my swap partner. This is a fun summer scrapbook, that is ready for my swap partner to fill with summer photos and journaling. Hope she likes it...



Just a few of the pages, the book has 24 pages total.

Buying fabric

I heard a few months ago that walmart was going to stop selling fabric, but I just read on another blog that Hancock will also be closing about half of their stores. I called our local store, and they will not be closing - but I don't know how I would buy fabric without walmart or hancock. Luckily we have the Hobby Lobby about 30 minutes away, but I love being able to take a 'quick' look for fabric everytime I go to walmart. And Hobby Lobby is more expensive that walmart to. {Sigh}

My bunny flopped

This week I have been trying to do something for me each night (it was one of my goals for this year, remember?). Well, I pretty much wasted two perfectly good nights making a stuffed fabric bunny. I sketched the 'pattern' myself, and then I added about an inch or so to everything to allow for the seam allowance. My bunny was a complete flop - the arms and legs were too skinny, and I had the hardest time turning them right side out and stuffing them. Then once I had all the legs, arms and ears made and sewn to half of the rabbit main body, I couldn't stuff all the parts inward in order to sew around the egde of the bunny and the turn it inside out. i made a very good attempt, but lets just say, this will be yet another wasted craft project. At least I learn from all my mistakes. i think i might better stick to scrapbooking.

today i went to goodwill at lunch, and I found a few good finds. The best find was a vera bradley purse for 1.50, i don't know if i'll keep it or resell it on ebay. I also got peyton a pair of sketcher shoes for $2.00 that look brand new (and i don't have a problem buying used shoes as long as they look really good), a craft book that has lots of patterns for stuffed animals (which might help with the problem above), two colorful belts that i'm thinking will be used as straps for bags that i hope to make soon, and i got Peyton a summer swim/outside floopy hat.

I'm already trying to find goodies for my crafty daisies summer swap buddy. I don't have much to go on though, so I'm going to have to get creative. I wish she had a blog so i could read up on her interests and see what type of things she likes, but I think i'm just going to get cool stuff that i know i would like and hope that she enjoys them once she gets them.

Lookie what I made

I finally got around to making Peyton a taggie last night. I bought this yummy Pooh fabric at Walmart yesterday. I was going to use a fleece fabric, since I wouldn't have to worry about the edges fraying - but they didn't have any good fleece prints left. I also wanted to pick a fabric that wouldn't show stains too bad, since I can imagine that if he likes this, it will be getting lots of use. Since this is a fairly light-weight fabric, I added a little interfacing to give it some weight and I sewed it kind of like a pillow and then turned it inside out and sewed the last corner together. I think it turned out great.



Except for one small problem. Notice anything different about the front and the back (picture below)? Yeah, I made a small mistake and the fabric on the back is inside out. Yep. I goofed it up big time. I'm not stressing it though, Peyton loves it already and he doesn't care (or even know) that the back fabric is wrong side out.




And these are the other two yummy fabrics that I picked up. I think I'm going to make a purse out of the pink paisley pattern and maybe a taggie for my little niece with the other fabric.

Projects lined up

Today at lunch I went to walmart and bought some yummy fabrics. One is for a tote that I would like to make for myself, and the other is for a taggie for Peyton. I'm really hoping that I can find some time to work on those this afternoon or over the weekend. We have the longest to do list for the house, but we both still need to find time to do stuff for us. I made out a two page to do list last night, and already crossed off about 3 things, and Eric has been working on a few things too.

Last night I wrote a short story (from Heather's challenge) so I want to get that into a document so I can post it. The story isn't all that great, but while I was trying to "take us back" I remembered quite a few details from that time in my life that I don't believe I have ever captured on paper. So, 8 pages later, I had a short story on my 'first kiss'.

I have been keeping a journal for Peyton since he was born, and I have recently started keeping a written journal for myself. I'm still going to be doing the whole blogging thing, but I think that hand written journals are just a little more personal. And I can write anything in them without fear b/c I'm the only one that will be reading it (and sometimes Eric).

New Project

I mentioned last week how I really wanted to learn to knit so I could make really cute knit stuffed animals for me, Peyton and family. Well, I decided that maybe since I already know how to sew I could make an attempt at this. I will post my bunny after I make an attempt to make one. Of course, this could turn out very badly - so I'm going to be using scrap fabrics for the first one. And - time is always an issue. I have got to find the time to work on it. ;)

These bunnies are the ones that inspired me in the first place. After seeing these cute things I did a google search on 'making fabric bunnies' (or something to that effect) and the tutorial above is what I came up with.

Typical

I was inspired by Candace's ornaments, so yesterday I was going to dig out my felt and try to make a duck ornament for Peyton. I've carried around a few sheets per color of felt for quite a while, over 5 years. Well, when I was organizing my stuff a few months ago, guess what? yep, I threw away all of my felt. I figured it had been so long since I used it that it was wasting space. Figures!! So, now I need to go and buy a few colors again.

At least now I have an excuse to go to the new Hobby Lobby. It opened a few weeks before Peyton was due, and I've been trying to stay away b/c I know that I will want to spend money whenever I do go. But, hopefully next week I can go one day...if not sometime today or tomorrow. ;)

Ode to craftyness

I would LOVE to be more like Soulemama. She made this cute skirt and an adorable dress for her little girl. I have no idea how she has the time to do anything. She is a SAHM, but she has 3 kids, which are all pretty young. I don't think I would be able to do a fourth of what she does with just Peyton. However, she is so inspiring. I want a little girl one day so I can make her dresses and teach her all the 'crafty' things that I know, including how to sew. Sewing seems to be becoming a lost talent. Just like woodworking. Yes, people still do it, but nothing like back in the old days. I have so many fond memories of my Grandma making me little outfits when I was a kid and then once I got to highschool she started teaching me and helping me make my own clothes. I have made many dresses and skirts for myself, all of which will probably NEVER fit me again, yet I cannot throw them out. They are all special. Especially the ones that we made together. I attribute most of my craftyness to my Grandma. We did so many different types of crafts when I was growing up! I hope to be able to enjoy things like that with my children and grandchildren. These are the things that make me even more excited about being a MOM!!!