Bow ties

The boys love their ties for church. They have some small clip-ons, but they also regularly wear a full-sized tie of Spencer's - just tied shorter with a big knot. For some time they have been asking ms to make them neckties. A wonderful (and sometimes frustrating) thing about being a mother is that you have children who think you can make/do anything. I wanted to make the boys Easter ties when I made the girls their dresses, but only Lilia got a dress. Anne will have to wait another year - if only that short a time! (I'll be honest, she still needs a stocking!)

Early last week I ran to the fabric store for something and the boys were asking - this time - for me to make them bow ties. How hard could those be, I thought. The real ones. Not the pre-done. And I was sure there are videos showing how to tie them online - since I've never tied a bow tie in my life! So I bought some fabric - enough to make some quick, matching elastic-waist skirts for the girls (Anne's would be first this time!).

Then Saturday rolls around. One of those long call-days for Spencer. And I get ambitious. While dinner was cooking, I was pinning and cutting. While the kids were sleeping and Spencer was doing his dictations (and eating dinner), I was sewing. Then Spencer was helping me turn the ties right side out. And I proceeded to stay up way too late (it was before midnight) to finish closing up the ties.

It had been a while since having a project like that. I think I need to allow myself more days per project. The ties turned out well and the boys love them. And they look great. Now we'll see if I can ever get the skirts done for the girls. Or Anne's stocking for that matter...

lately (long with lots of pictures)

Thought I'd share some of our latest.

Benny showed up one day with this (very faint) black eye (his left - it's okay if you don't see it.) He didn't complain about anything hurting or about him "bonking" somewhere. Who knows?



Then there was this scratch above his left eye. He didn't even complain about it. It just showed up. Again, no idea where it came from. I'm just glad he's not hurting his eyes!



Benny loves for Lilia to wear her shoes. They're still too big for her, but they're awfully cute! He also gives her a hat any time he and Andy are wearing them. Benny recently found this little hat that came with the blessing outfit we used for him and Andy and it's the perfect size for Lilia now (it's size 0-3 months - she and Benny have always had abnormally-proportional heads to their bodies. Andy on the other hand...).



A favorite game of the boys right now: sliding down the couch cushions.



One of my favorite pictures right now.
All biases aside, I am mother to some of the best kids in the world. :)



Another favorite game of the boys. I think this one is called "Flip-flops." They prop the cushion up against the couch and flop down on it.
Lilia likes to come over and join in on the fun (the boys are great and stop playing rough when she gets too close).




The whole ensemble from "Flip-flop" day.
Spencer says it looks like he was dressed by a blind man.
(the 24-month shorts he's wearing barely fit around his waist.)



playing "with" her brothers.


I found these two pictures on the camera one afternoon. Benny and Andy had taken pictures of each other.
Andy really was enjoying himself!


Andy is still mastering the art of capturing a whole subject.


At the end of last week I got ambitious. I had been wanting to try to make a dress for Lilia for a little while and I just decided to do it. My projects need to be limited for now because I'm not letting myself buy more fabric for now. I have a big collection that I bought for a quilt that still needs to be quilted and bound. Until I finish the quilt I need to pull from that stash for any projects I work on.
Using a new dress (from three pictures above) as a loose pattern, I came up with the dress below. For a first try I am really happy with how it turned out. It wouldn't hold up to any close scrutiny, but it sure looks great on our beautiful little girl!




As you can see in the last couple of pictures, Lilia is turning into quite the ham!
Also, if you click on the last picture to make it big and look closely, you'll see that Lilia cut her first two teeth! They were a long time coming, but they made it.

new project

It's been a while since I've had anything crafty going on. I've been thinking for a while of making some skirts for lilia at some point and today I finally tried my hand at it. I made the pattern out of an old paper grocery bag. It worked quite well! It was definitely a good first try. I think I have a good idea of what to change for next time. You better believe there will be more - but maybe not until she's not growing out of things so fast! Last Monday Lilia turned 8-months-old. I have recently started putting her in 12-month clothes. She's a skinny little thing, but she sure is long!

before I made the final decision to add the ruffle.

so glad I added the ruffle. It completes the skirt.

shortly after eating dinner. As you can probably tell, she eats a ton (more than either of the boys ever did)!

the girl definitely makes the skirt!

latest project

i have wanted to make a quiet book for a really long time. i finally started a couple of weeks ago. the first sunday i had one page front and back done. the following week i added the next. this week i was able to get two pages front and back done. i was working hard because we've got stake conference tomorrow. i have really liked each successive page better than the last. i've got a few more ideas to go, so we'll see what i end up liking the best.


flowers to button on



beads on ribbons to count and slide across. the four vertical strands on the right are only connected at the top so they swing around.
this page was an original idea of mine. it doesn't look very pretty, but it's entertaining. andy love this one!



the apples snap onto the tree and can be put in the basket.



a page to weave.
a little advanced for now, but they'll get the hang of it!


reverse of the weave.



your basic barn.
i borrowed this idea. i did a much simpler version of the one i saw. i was trying to be efficient. i only wish it had more color variety.


finger puppets inside.


i may add a cow and/or horse to the mix at some point. we'll see.



the three fish velcro on.
this is another design i borrowed. i will say that the shell was an original idea of mine.



butterfly with zipper body.


open it up and find baby butterflies inside with ribbon.
i have seen this page done with a ladybug before and i wanted to be a little more original. i know, i know, it's not biologically accurate (that was spencer's one problem with it), but it's cute and fun. i decided last minute to put matching beads on the ribbons. just something extra to play with.



shoe lace to tie.
i was debating for a while on what color shoe to do. i decided on black and white. it was spencer's suggestion to make them wingtip shoes. i'm glad he did. i think it turned out great. it's one of my favorites!


a lot of these ideas i got from my mom. some i got here. i didn't use any templates. everything was done (for better or for worse) freehand. i'm quite happy with how everything turned out. and the best thing, it gets the job done!

stockings

well, here are the finished products. although, i still have to do the loops on spencer's, benny's, and andy's. all of my projects seem to be on-going...

the quilting on spencer's. you can't see it very well on the outside.

benny's quilting detail. i am really happy with how this turned out. it was much harder than i thought it would be. all done free-hand.

you can see this one better if you enlarge the picture by clicking on it.

i love how all the fabrics look grouped together.

sorry, no pictures

life is going really well. we've really been enjoying our break time. it's been fabulous to have spencer around. the boys just love it! i think i've been taking advantage a-plenty myself. he's been great to help out tons with the boys.

we had a wonderful christmas and are so grateful for the chance we had to enjoy our first christmas together as our own family. we missed not being with either of our families, but we didn't feel like we missed out on anything. the boys had a great time - mostly benny, of course! benny was adorable and kept saying thank you to santa.

before christmas, i was working hard to get our stockings done. i decided that because we were having our first christmas together, i was time to make some stockings. i didn't even want to spend a little money for cheap ones because i knew that some day i'd want to make them. i was able to and i'm so happy with how they turned out! i even have enough fabric to make them for future kids (i won't say how many). the stocking for baby #3 is already cut out, but that doesn't have to be done until next year. i've got some time.

okay, here's are two pictures of the first finished product. i've got a bunch more pictures of the whole process that i'll put up some time (maybe soon) with the other stockings. i used mine as the guinea pig in case i totally botched it. i did everything on my machine (even the round letters! though definitely not perfect). (you can click on the pictures to see them bigger.)

it was really weird for my stocking to be the one to say "mom." it still feels very new to me.

a close-up of the quilting detail.
each stocking has different quilting (i'll post the others later).

early this morning we said good-bye to our second group of visitors within 2 1/2 weeks. spencer's parents came 12 december through the 15th and my parents with eden and graydon (sister and brother) got here early tuesday morning and left this morning. we're so glad to have the chance to visit with family and for our family to see us in our home. we had a nice time and tried to really soak it all up because we won't be seeing any more family until mid-july when we go back to utah for a few weeks. the boys (again, especially benny) really enjoy the time with their grandparents and aunt and uncle. benny loved being able to ride in the car with grandma and grandpa and then the "big car" with bubbe, papa, eden, and graydon. we all had a really fun time! we're also looking forward to getting back to our normal routine. spencer's even looking forward to starting school again!

not quite finished, but...

i'm going to post the pictures anyway. it's now been about a year since i first started the project. i probably shouldn't admit that, but oh well. i've been really excited about this quilt for a long time. it's the first project for me that i've done in a really long time. i've had the fabrics since spring 2004. believe it or not, most of the fabrics for benny's quilt came from this stash. i didn't want andy's quilt (that he'll get some day) to look just like benny's, but i couldn't justify buying more fabric, so i decided that i needed to use the fabrics for what they were meant - a quilt for me.
several years ago i made a quilt for my good friend holland that was completely random. i had her pick the fabrics she wanted and the different blocks she wanted. she chose pinwheels, nine-patch, log cabin, and roman square. i added what i call four square (four equal squares) and some solid blocks. honestly, i thought it would turn out horribly. the colors holland picked out were some different browns, black, olive green, tan, and a brick red. i was so surprised when i ended up loving the quilt! i still think it's one of my best (even though there are several mistakes).
although the fabrics i have are quite different from the fabrics in holland's quilt, i used that as my guide. it's definitely not the same, but i did the same blocks (except for the solid). i'm very happy with how it turned out. i still need to pick out a back and quilt it, but it's such a feat having the top finished!

the pictures aren't the best - you can't see detail of the different fabrics. you can click on the pictures and they'll get bigger, but the quality gets worse. you'll get the idea.

two different views of the fabric selection. i actually used some of every fabric.

i got to this stage before we moved. i wanted to try to push and get the border done, but there was packing to be done.

and with the border that i finished last night.
i'll do the quilting myself (just straight lines - boy would i love to have a long-arm quilter and to know what to do with it!). i haven't exactly decided how, but the different kinds of squares will probably have their own pattern.

t-shirt pants take 2

the pictures aren't very good because of the flash reflecting on the mirror. i really like this pair. i think they turned out pretty well. i used xl shirts this time instead of medium and i really like the length. again, they're very comfortable.

t-shirt pants

*updated - see pictures below

i'll have to get pictures of my final product up later. i need spencer to take them. i found this website from a friend's blog. it's a tutorial on making cropped pants out of a t-shirt or t-shirts. i successfully completed my first pair yesterday - i would have gotten them done on monday, but i had sewing machine trouble. i never did understand the waistband instructions on the website, so i just did my own. and i added a drawstring to help them stay up. seriously, though, i'm ready to go out and get a bunch more cheap t-shirts to make more cropped pants. i'm really happy with how they turned out. especially for a couple of t-shirts.

happy sewing!

definitely not perfect, but they're made from a couple of cheap t-shirts.
oh, and maybe i shouldn't admit this, but i never could understand the directions on the website for the waist band so i did my own. i also added a draw-string that i made out of t-shirt.

i think my next project will be making matching jumpers for the boys out of the awesome drapes behind me. what do you think?