Skirt #1

In August I've been asked to teach a couple of classes to the ladies at church. One on how to make skirts out of jeans and the other on how to do freezer paper stencils. I decided to raffle off my example pieces that I make. Here is the first one. It's a size 12mths pair of jeans with a corduroy insert. The flower is done using the tutorial from Molly Chicken. I can't decide yet, but I'm thinking of doing some random embroidered flowers all over. My week of doing lots of amazing crafty things turned into the week of being a human pacifier, since the baby is sick! Oh well.

Finished baby gifts

Yesterday I finished up this knitted bib. I love this pattern from Mason Dixxon. It's so easy to whip these things out. The flower is made using the pattern from
Wisecraft . Then I was also able to make a couple of slings. Theres so many people having babies right now, I love it! I think baby gifts are the most fun to make.

Let's Do A Swap!

Ever since my dear friend Moki told me about embroidered buttons I have become obsessed! I think I will host my first swap of embroidered buttons. The tutorial of how to make these can be found here. Follow the tutorial to make 5 appropriately sized buttons. Buttons must be sent to me by July 30 along with a self addressed envelope and (5)39¢ stamps. Any unused stamps will be sent back. Please email me at jezzc at hotmail dot com for more info.
Tell all your friends about it, it's going to be lots of fun! By the way thanks Moki for all your help on doing this!

So begins our Vacation #1!

The kids are now up at Grandma and Grandpas house for a couple of weeks. It's a very magical place. It seems every year we've gone up it's fallen on Summer Solstice. So, every year we have a fairie tea party on that night. We make a little fairie house and set out the little tea sets and in the morning they have left a little gift as a thank you. This year it was a peacock feather.
Fairie houses and fairie things are a big deal in this household. We always have a house that we're working on. It's lots of fun pulling things from nature and thinking how little creatures would best use it.
I'm going to miss my little munchkins, but it's going to be fun to get things done without being interrupted. Today we're off to Ft. Collins for the weekend. I hope to finish some knitting projects while on the ride up. While we're there I hope to do some thrifting and window shopping at some fun little boutiques. It's a fun place to go to and just walk around. Hopefully the heat won't be too awful!
I'm toying around with doing an embroidered button swap? Anyone interested?

8 years

True to me, kind to me,

Never decieving;

Cheering me, helping me,

Ever believing;

Sad for me, glad for me,

never apart;

Dear to me

Near to me,

Pal of my heart,

Clean-hearted,

strong-hearted all the way through;

Uplifting and tender,

Wonderful you!

Fair to me, square to me,

life's dearest part,

Best to me, Blessed to me

Pal of my heart.

-Author Unknown

I can't believe that it's been 8 years already! I am blessed to have you as my Husband. I love you .

Thank you Dads

Happy Fathers Day to the amazing Daddy of our house! Thank you for being a wonderful father. Thank you for taking your little girl on dates. Thank you for sword fighting with our little pirate. Thank you for holding our baby until he falls asleep. Thank you for being there for the kids to talk to. Thank you for teaching them the things that you know and fixing the things that they break. Thank you for caring about them and letting them know how much you love them. Thank you for always giving them hugs and kisses and saying I love you. Thank you for being a Dad!


Thank you to my Dad. Thank you for teaching me to appreciate cultures outside of mine. Thank you for giving me a love of reading. Thankyou for making it important that we travel. Thank you for teaching me about good music. Thank you for giving me an appreciation of the past and things that came before. Thank you for supporting whatever I do. Thank you for being my Dad, I love you.

I get a break!

This week I'm taking the kids up to my parents house for 2 weeks. I'm so excited for what I'll be able to get done. Since I had the baby 4 months ago, I still have not been able to figure out how to clean my house with 3 kids. That is #1 on the list. I can't wait to wipe down my cupboards, mop the floors, wash all the sheets and shampoo the carpets! I have list and lists of things I want to get done..... finish the baby bibs I've been knitting, start the embroidery piece for the mini quilt I'm making for my Dads birthday, make peach jam, date my husband, start the name plaque with the letters I got from Mokis letter swap last year, make a cake stand, send letters to the kids, toy around more with the idea of doing an embroidered button swap, really I could go on and on. A couple of years ago I cut this picture out of an Anthropologie catalog. I'd like to make some of these little ornaments to hang in C's room. One night I'll have to watch Lifetime movies all night, just because I can!

accomplished day

My goodness, what a bust day we had! I love days where I'm so tired at the end of the day because we were so productive. It's much more satisfying than being tired because you lazed about all day doing nothing! After a very long day of grocery shopping, going to Costco and Joanns, I came home and made freezer jam. King Soopers had raspberries 10 for 10, so I stocked up and made 14 jars of raspberry and 5 jars of jam. I also got some peaches to make peach jam later in the week. I think we'll have waffles in the morning. I think jam on waffles is so much better than syrup. Now it's off to eat dinner and chocolate licorice, then go to bed. I'm tired!

More than one

Here's a peek at some of the projects I'm working on at the moment. A very long time ago, I realized that I need to have more than one project going at a time in order to be happy. If I only have one thing going I feel bored and restless. There's just something about being able to rotate and feel continually excited about something and not just anxious for it to be over.

spools

I love ebay. I've been looking quite some time for wooden spools for an idea I'm working on. Only I wanted the authentic thing and not reproductions from Hobby Lobby. I've been trying for quite some time to win some, only to be outbid time after time. Finally I placed a bid and won 150 wooden spools for $5.50. Apparently they belonged to a little old Grandma in Idaho who had been saving them for a very long time. She passed away recently and her grand daughter came across them and didn't know what to do with them and now they are mine. 10 years ago I never would have guessed that I would have been able to get so excited about wooden spools!

1st tea party

Thank goodness that summer is finally here. In our house it always goes by much too quickly. We love going to Grandma and Grandpas house in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We spend lots of time there. Playing in the woods, going to the lake, hiking, finding buffalo, eating yummy food outside. When we're home we spend time doing crafts, going to park, having tea parties and being happily lazy. It's so nice having days where we can just kick back and not HAVE to be places. By the way, no tea party is complete without a ninja turtle in attendance.

Crayons

This weekend we have a birthday party to go to for a little boy about to turn 5. In an effort to be resourceful and not spend money this week, I tried to come up with something that he would like. I love how these turned out! I decided to go with crayons. I just happened to have a candy mold with tool shapes, so I melted down a bunch of old crayons and poured them all in. I know it's probably not the most practical crayon shape, because they'll probably break when he starts to color with them, but they're still cute!

60 Things to do

I hate having bored children with nothing to do! So, with the last day of school being tomorrow, I have been compiling my list of things to do over the summer. I have a rule that you are not allowed to come to me and say that you have nothing to do. First you have to consult the list of things to do and if you can't find something to do on the list, you must be creative and think of something on your own. So, here it is: My list of 60 things to do over the summer.

1. Mosaic pavers for the garden

2. Tiddly Winks with buttons

3. Marbles

4. Play in the pool

5. Make paper dresses

6. Make hot pads

7. Do latch hook

8. Make a bracelet

9. Cats Cradle

10. Tea party picnic

11. Make an iceberg

12. Balloon volleyball

13. Bean bag toss

14. Clothes pin race

15. finger puppett play

16. marble bowling

17. Write a secret message

18. Wash doll clothes

19. Write a letter

20. lacing cards

21. leaf rubbing

22. Do a puzzle

23. Art in the dark

24. Etching coloring

25. Knock Knock card

26. Make pom poms

27. jump rope.

28. Paper Airplanes

29. Simon Says

30. Red light Green light

31. coin toss in a muffin tin

32. Fashion plates

33. Chalk coloring

34. Make a treasure map

35. Brick Garden

36. Paper hats

37. Read a book

38. Paper doll chain

39. get a tadpole.

40. Make cookies

41. Fabric flowers

42. Go to Barnes and Noble to look at books and play checkers

43. paint rocks

44. make playdough

45. Play with playdough

46. knit something

47. Work on a Brownie Patch

48. Build a sandcastle

49. Press flowers

50. Make dresses out of pressed flowers

51. Bean bag tic tac toe

52. Hopscotch

53. Make bagels

54. Take a hike

55. Make nature bracelets by wrapping packing tape around your wrist like a bracelet with the sticky side out and sticking things to it while on your walk

56. Embroider something

57. Play t-ball

58. Sit outside and look at stars while eating microwaved smores

59. Go antiquing

60. take a nap ;)

I hope this gives you ideas if you need them!

Mini Quilt

I have been inspired by all the mini quilts I've seen online and decided to try one of my own. (Keep in mind that my camera is not that great). I made it for my sister for her birthday. I was delighted with how it turned out. This was my first attempt at a "real" quilt- something other than just squares. I used the tutorial found over at happy things. I embroidered the mermaid. She was a lot of fun to do.

Tonight through all my surfing I discovered that this Saturday is World Wide Knitting day. I think I'll go and take the kids. I love that my daughter enjoys knitting. It's something we can do together when we're old.

Tomorrow I'm going to work on a list for things to do over the summer when my children start whining because they're board. Wednesday is the last day of school.. Woo Hoo!

Bread

I had nothing to do tonight, so I thought I would go ahead and whip up 8 loaves of bread.
I absolutely love bread. I love making it, there's something so soothing about the whole process of mixing and kneading. Then the aromas as it's cooking. The best part of all is eating it while it's still warm with homemade peach jam.