Checking off the To-Do List

 I had a very lengthy to do list that I wanted to accomplish over the weekend that I posted

here.



Well...not everything was accomplished, not even half of my list was checked off.  But, considering that my 4-year old has been sick & barfing since Friday & my 8-month old only allowing me a few hours of sleep each night, I think, in hindsight, that I did my fair amount. 

Here is what I was able to successfully check off on my list ( the rest will still be there for me to check off later) :

#3 on my list

Whoopie Pies for "The Annual Men Only Ice Fishing Trip"

I made two different flavors:

a standard whoopie pie

&

a dark chocolate whoopie pie filled with a fluffy and lite peanut butter frosting then rolled into peanut butter chips

Yummmmmmmmmmmmm!

#7 on my list

Desserts for the Restaurants:

These magical ingredients helped to create these:

Dark chocolate stout cupcakes filled with an Irish whiskey ganache center and then topped with a salted caramel buttercream frosting!  AMAZING! 

I also made a flourless chocolate and vanilla marble cake but forgot to take a picture of.  {Big Sigh}

Rich and decadent...oh my.

In between the baking I was able to enforce some child labor...

Yet, another storm in the northeast.  Not so much a big shocker, really.  It is winter in Maine after all and "snow happens".  Just gives many "Mainers" (you know, the ones that have lived here their entire life or pretty much their entire life) something to complain and rant about like this kind of thing doesn't happen EVERY FREAKIN' YEAR! 

Oh, just so you know, I didn't actually force my 7-year old to shovel.  He is the one that asks me if it's okay to go out & shovel.  Given that in a couple of years he probably won't be doing any shoveling without heavy arguing and grumbling, I thought I would, just this one time, allow him to shovel to all his heart's content.   I know, "Mom of the Year" candidate, right?  :)

#5 on my list

Finish mom's very belated birthday gift(s)

Because I am afraid my really cool mom will be reading this post, I will not be showing you what I made for her until she receives it. 

#8 on my list

  Do a little housework

I did do some, even if only a minimal amount. 

All and all, I think I was pretty successful.  To top it all off, I was also able to get myself and my three wee ones out the door by 7:30am this morning for my son's last hockey practice for this season!  Yay for the last day of hockey season!! 

Woot! Woot!  No more hockey until next season!  Whoo hoo!

Am I sounding a bit too excited?  Well, that's because I am!!!!!!!! 

Hockey seems to go on & on & on & on.....

Love hockey, but good grief!

So, amongst all the chaos, the barfing, and some minor melt downs (me, being the one with the melt-downs) it was a pretty great weekend.

So much to do, So much to do!!!!!

I have so much that I want to accomplish by the end of the weekend.  It involves endless amounts of sewing and crocheting/knitting.  Oh, not to mention that  both restaurants need more desserts!  Did I mention that I have 3 children that I have to entertain while attempting to cross off items from my very long to do list?

Let's see..........my list:

(1)  create items to stock up my Etsy store

(2) sew curtains for my french doors, entryway door, kitchen window

(this will be put on the bottom of the list)

(3) make requested whoopee pies for the "Only Men Annual Ice Fishing Trip"  aka smelly men acting disgusting, drinking waaaaaay too much beer, cussing, behaving like small boys, freezing their biscuits off trip.  Not my idea of a good time but, hey, I don't have to go and husband stays out of my hair.

On these annual trips, something always dramatic happens like...trailer hitched onto back of a truck flying off the truck that is carrying snowmobiles, four wheelers, and other supplies.

(4)  make  skirts, skirts skirts for my sweet girls.  My 4 year- old has been demanding skirts in every color.  Therefore, I am going to try my best, to sew one or two skirts a week to meet her demands.  :)

(5)  finish mom's very belated birthday gift(s)

(6)  make a little something for a special auntie in Texas

(7)  desserts for our restaurants, which by the way take FOREVER!!!!!  Especially on short notice.

(8) some housework somewhere along the way

(9)  clean out backroom in order to re-do for son's new bedroom

(10)  make pajama bottoms for my three bundles of joy.  They are growing fast and furious! All of Little Man N's current pj bottoms look like he is wearing clam diggers!

I'll stop there for now because "time's a wastin'".

If you don't hear from me in a couple of days, send out the search and rescue party.  I may be buried under mounds of fabric and flour and unable to find my way out!

Growing so Fast...

                

 Sweet, beautiful Baby M is 8 months old today.  I tried, without much success, to capture a few photos of her today.  She was not having it.  Grumpy Baby M is teething...4 little chompers all coming in at the same time!  Yikes!  Needless to say, she didn't want to play nice today and she certainly did not find the need or desire to smile often, if at all,  for the camera.

I was, however, able to capture a couple shots of her making her newest squishy/snorting face which makes us all laugh.

                           
                                      I love the corn between her eyes!     

                                 I am so in love with her...

 

D-O-N-E, DONE!

         Woot! Woot! 

 I have finished my task with the reading bags for my son's 2nd grade class. 

Velcro has been sewn onto 67 reading bags and they are ready to be handed off to the next mom, who will now serge them all!

I am feeling like a rock star! 

Why 67 reading bags?

As most of us know, teachers spend much of their own income to help supply their classrooms. Which to me is unfathomable considering how, most, are incredibly underpaid and underappreciated.  

With that beind said, at the beginning of the year, an amazing mommy volunteer, named Annie, came up with the idea of having a  "Wishing Well". Here  teachers/staff would be able to voice their wishes and/or needs for their classrooms. 

Through donations and volunteers, the wishing well could be a resource to make their wishes come true.

The 2nd grade teachers made a wish for every child in their classrooms to have a reading bag and that is where I came in, along with two other moms with 2nd graders.

We took on their wish and we are on our way of fulfilling it!

And it feels great!

My handsome 2nd grader with his baby sister.

Now this "Rock Star" is signing off to go play a little air guitar!

A Sunshine-y, Popsicle-y Kind of Day!

     Here in Maine, for the past couple of days, it has felt like a mini heat wave!  A whopping 45 degrees and I am cracking the windows open and I seem to  have a little more pep in my walk!  All this sunshine and the warmer temps make me smile a bit more knowing that this crummy, long winter will be passing soon. 

                       

It just feels like a

 popsicle-y kind of day!

                                                                           

                                                          Is there really anything

                                                                 better than that?

                                                                   

                                       

Well...maybe there is something just a little bit better than popsicles on a

sunshine-y, winter day...

and that little something would be a grumpy, teething baby finally sleeping.

Now, off to tackle the project that has been looming over my head while enjoying the sunshine...

    that being to sew velcro onto 60 bookbags for my son's 2nd grade class.       

Petal Pillow

               A long while back, a friend of mine gave me oodles of white fabric of all different weights and textures.  And when I say oodles, I am talking yards upon yards...FOR FREE!    I actually used the fabric to decorate my daughter's fairy birthday party back in October to only be piled up again in my sewing room after the event.  It has been taunting me and beckoning me, just waiting for me to do something with it.   Therefore, I have been finding ways to make use of some of it. 

    I decided to dye a few yards of a satin fabric a very pale pink as well as dying some silk material the same color.  I made a simple tablecloth with the satin material for Valentine's Day.  And, with the silky material , I made this...

                                        I just love it! 

 It oozes with frilly-ness and girly-girl.  Stuff that I go crazy for.   I actually made a similar one as a birthday gift a while back for a very special friend of my son's and knew that I must make some for myself.  Also, after seeing & hearing all of the reaction's from the other mom's, I knew it was a hit, not just for the gift receiver, but a hit with all of them.  Yay for me!  It's always a bit nerve rattling giving gifts to people that you have personally handmade.  You know?

       I was inspired by this pillow here.  Some of the most lovely and beautiful things created with fabric are displayed on this site.    I love visiting V and Co.  and admiring Vanessa's creativity and work.  It is so visually appealing.  You can totally see the passion she has for what she is doing.  She truly is inspiring.

             For the petal pillow, except for a couple minor modifications, I pretty much followed the instructions given to make this super-awesome pillow.  The modifications that I did were to add a fusible lite weight interfacing to each of the pillow pieces. Because of the fabric's delicate nature, I felt it needed a little more stability while sewing it together.  Because it wil be going into my daughter's bedroom, I felt it would also need a bit more durability.

                             In addition to, I opted to make a fabric flower and fabric covered button for the center of my felt flower instead of a felt round. 

                       A very simple & fun project!  I can't wait to make more...but before I can make more beautiful pillows, I must tackle 60 book bags for my son's 2nd grade class.  And that's a whole other posting!!

Through the Eyes of a 4-Year Old

                 Sweet Little L is obsessed with my camera.  If my back is turned for just a moment & the camera is in her reach, that camera will disappear.  Although it drives me a tad bit bonkers, I have to give her credit for her stealth-like snatching.  On Valentine's Day, while I am in the laundry room, I hear Sweet Little L puttering about, opening and closing doors, giggling and tee heeing and repeating Baby M's name over and over and over again.  And I think to myself, "She is up to no good."  I head upstairs and there is Sweet Little L with the biggest mischievous grin on her face and she says to me, "I have been taking pictures, Mommy."  How proud she is of herself.

           I find the camera and take a look.  The photos she has taken are pretty darn good!  I tell her this & she just giggles.  She  really is the cutest and sweetest thing.

           So without further ado, I offer you Sweet Little L's debut as    
                                    the "Photographer in the Making". 
                                           
 **I must warn you, if you are a wee bit squeamish, you may want to turn away.  Little L has been getting over a nasty cold and she has a few very  close-up self portraits (and I'm talking really close up). * *
       Also, lots of photos of Baby Sister M.

Happy Baby M

  
    

Happy Baby M...at the moment

Still happy

A slightly irritated Baby M

Baby M no longer amused

                                                                                       

Some self-portraits

ewwww...get a tissue, Sweet Little L...geez

   

The "Eye-clopse"

Photographing  some Valentine's Day loot & decor

Close up shot of Big Brother's pillowcase that I made

The two surviving balloons after the late night cat attack

This is an outdoor shot.  If you look very closely, in the trees you will
see an orange speck.  That would be our kitten Hammi clinging for his life in the tree. 
Little L found this to be very humorous.  No worries. All is well with Hammi.  A little price he had to pay for chasing squirrels. 

She had taken many more, but I won't torture you with them.
Overall, I think she did a beautiful job and has quite the eye.
Nice work Little L.

I have been working on a little something for my sneaky 4-year old that I can't wait to share with you all!
I hope to have it finished and posted tomorrow.
Until then...