Cutting Implements and Other Nonsense

Someone came by the other day trying to sell me knives--someone I know from church. I'm usually not too keen on in-home sales/parties, etc. because I don't like the pressure to buy. She assured me that I was under no obligation to buy from her and that she was getting paid for each presentation regardless of whether I bought anything or not, so I did it as a favor to her. Anyway, she DID put on the pressure. I thought maybe I'd purchase one bread knife, just to make her happy. Well, guess what? They don't sell these particular knives like that. You have to buy the whole set, and the cheapest set costs $1,800. Ha ha ha!!!! If I had that kind of money laying around, I'd buy myself a new couch or a new sewing machine or all the fabric I wanted. Anyway, why I am telling you this? Not sure. Not much going on in my life these days, so I guess I have to write about solicitors.




A big thank you to Carrie at SommerDesigns. She has a beautiful website, which I visit often. Last week she was doing a scrap give-away, and look what I was fortunate enough to get. Thanks Carrie! :)I already know what I'm going to make with these pretties--2 tote bags for my nieces whom we will be visiting next month when we take a big trip to Pennsylvania. I think they need handmade goodies from Aunt Joanna. (Oh yeah, that's why we can't buy kitchen knives--we spent our money on plane tickets for 5!!!)

I'll leave you with a picture from our little jaunt to the beautiful Kirkland, WA waterfront last weekend. This photo was taken moments before Keith fell on the steps and scraped his leg. Then, of course the fun was over and we had to go home. Sigh. Dave and I have decided when we retire, we'll sell our house and buy a condo there. Ah. It is the most beautiful community where everything is in walking distance...Lake Washington, the library, art galleries, consignment stores, Noah's bagels and Sur La Table. What more could you need? It's a nice dream, anyway. :)

Baby Stuff

I made these before Mikey was born, but haven't had the chance to blog about them. These are onesies that I embellished with fabric scraps left over from various projects. Looks easy, huh? For some reason, I had trouble figuring it out. I'd seen it done on other blogs where it looked like someone had used a compressed zig zag stitch (sorry, I'm sure my terminology is off, but you know what I mean, right?), but when I tried that, it looked all wonky. The stretchy fabric pulled every which way. Then I tried tear-off interfacing, and that didn't work either. Finally I used fusible web and changed the stitching to the SS mode (assuming that means stretch stitch???--I wouldn't know, I can't find the manual that came with my sewing machine), and that seemed to do the trick. Mikey's worn the car one a few times, and it's held up just fine in the wash.

This little outfit was made from a bedsheet I thrifted at Goodwill. I worked on the pants the night before I went into labor. Had I known it was my last night, I'm not sure I would have been doing this. My time would have probably been better spent cuddling up with my husband, because goodness knows, who has much time for that anymore? Har har.

And finally, because my entire life these days centers around my children, I can't post without including a picture of them.

Five Years of one, One Month of the other

I'm a little behind on blogging.... Last weekend Davey my sweet, talkative, car-obsessed, bubbly little boy turned 5 years old. In lieu of throwing a big bash (which we've done for the past 3 years) we decided to take it easy on ourselves and take a road trip to Portland, OR where we got to attend the baptism of 3 month old cousin Samuel and, perhaps most exciting of all, we stayed in a hotel with A SWIMMING POOL! The kids had a blast, and so did the grownups! Grandma (my mom) was out visiting at the time and got to spend lots of time bonding with the boys.

And little Mikey is officially one month old. I finally just got around to ordering his birth announcements. In the past I made birth announcements by hand, which always seemed to involve lots of cutting, glueing, folding, etc. Stuff that I don't have the time and patience for these days. And besides, it seemed like the people we were sending them out to didn't have much appreciation for handmade stuff anyway. Made me sad to think that my handmade cards were probably ending up in someone's recyclables. So I tweaked a photo of him in photoshop and got cards printed up at winkflash.com. They turned out beautifully. Thank you winkflash for being quick and e-c-o-n-o-m-i-c-a-l. Here's the picture I used.

p.s. A big thanks to the commenters last time who recommended online shopping. Oh my goodness--sheer brilliance. And here's the bonus--I found out that one of my husband's work benefits is free delivery when shopping at Safeway.com. Yipppeeeee!

Car Tote

Not being crafty yet. At this point Dave and I are trying to be super duper efficient so that we can keep our house in order. I'm doing 2 loads of laundry a day (I used to just do it when the piles got high), and I'm actually putting the clothes away instead of letting them pile on the sofa. I'm trying to cook meals earlier in the afternoon when Keith is napping so that I can pay more attention to him during his wake time. I'm keeping an actual shopping list (gasp!). I used to just take my time perusing aisles at the store. It was one way of killing time with Keith when Davey was in preschool. Now that school is out, the thought of going shopping with three boys is a bit daunting. Especially the thought that the little one will wake up screaming and hungry, wanting to nurse, when I won't be anywhere near getting checked out yet. Hasn't happened yet. What do you other moms of 3 do? I think I may have to just go grocery shopping at night after the boys are in bed. Yup.

Remember these tote bags that I made for Davey's preschool teachers? Davey helped me pick out the fabric at the store. Ever since then, he's been very opinionated about fabric. He'll go right up to a bolt and say, "I want this." No matter what, I can't talk him out of it. His last day of preschool when we were driving back home and talking about how he wouldn't see his teachers and classmates for a long time since it was summer vacation, he started to cry and was quite upset. I told him I would take him to the fabric store so he could pick out fabric for his tote bag for next year. So we went, he picked out the car fabric, and some yellow fabric for the lining. We got home and he wanted me to make it for him right away.

me: Sorry, fabric hasn't been washed yet.
Davey: Mommy, can you make it?
me: Sorry, I have to make dinner.
Davey: Mommy, can you make it now?
me: Sorry, it's bath time and then bedtime. I'll make it for you when you're sleeping and then I'll hang it on the peg so you can find it in the morning when you wake up.
Davey: Mommy, I want to snuggle it when I'm sleeping.
me: OK. I'll put it right by your head and you can reach out and snuggle it.
Davey: I love you, Mommy.