Saturday, March 19, 2011

Random Bits & Pieces of My Week

                                           
Little Man turned 8 this week!



Once a chubby, gregarious baby...




                  now a beautiful, smart, funny Little Man as well as being a major pain in the butt 
&
super-awesome!


      



A birthday gift for my daughter's friend...



An apron using a tutorial at Skip to my Lou
& a child size oven mitt.  The flower that is attached to the apron can be found here along with the tute.
The oven mitt pattern I just made up myself by snagging my 4-year old, slapping her hand down on a piece of paper & tracing.
The oven mitt came out a bit wonky along the cuff. I was rushing to get the gift made &  I didn't have any double fold bias tape or blanket binding on hand so I used satin ribbon that I did have on hand.  Anyways, the ribbon wasn't quite wide enough & all I can say is, "GRRRRRRRRR!"
Oh, well.  I'll make the little girl another mitt and make the bias tape when there is time to spare.

Lots of sunshine=fun outside!














Last......




our very weird kitten, Hamilton aka Hammi.
If something belongs to the baby, he seems to think it belongs to him...such as the highchair.  I have to hide the car seat from this "Ding Dong"(a nickname Sweet Little L likes to call him).


Happy Weekend!

~Amy

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Repurposed Windowpane to Towel Rack




I am so thrilled at how this turned out! 
My husband & I have been remodeling our upstairs bathroom. He wanted to purchase a generic towel rack & I  thought  to myself, "I can do better than some crummy, generic, overpriced thing!"
So
I took this old windowpane....



that had been painted black and put a couple of coats of white paint on it. 


After painting it white, I then sanded it down to scuff it up a bit, which  allowed for some of the black to peak through.  I didn't want the towel rack to look so bright and shiny.  I wanted a more vintage-y feel to it.


Next, I cut out a piece of cardboard to fit the window- pane and then wrapped fabric around the cardboard.  I just taped the fabric to the backside with masking tape and then placed the fabric covered cardboard into the windowpane.  I then taped the fabric covered cardboard to the backside of the windowpane(along the edges) to help keep it placed inside the panes. 
( I forgot to take photos of that step, but I think it's pretty clear what I am trying to explain..if not, message me & I'll try to better explain or take a photo of what I am trying to say for you.)



I finally added a few glass knobs that were originally on something else that was not getting much use.

And there you have it! 



And one of the greatest things about making this little project...
it cost me next to NADA!

The windowpane was a find on the side of the road a long while back, the glass knobs were attached to something that was given to me and the paint is something that we seem to always have on hand because of all the remodeling being done to our home!

Yippee-doodles!


Thanks for visiting!
~Amy


I will be linking this post to these super-cool parties!



Friday, March 11, 2011

In-Between the Barfing...

The last couple of weeks have been me mostly covered in barf, poop, and tears.  All of my wee ones have been sick with whatever nastiness that people are seemingly wanting to share with us.  I am all about sharing, but seriously, keep your nasty/disgusting germs to yourselves.
To add to all the craziness, my Dad had a heart attack and miraculously is still here to tell about it.


With all of this going on, I was able to get a bit of sewing done.  I will post more about the projects and possibly a tutorial or two once things settle down a bit more. 

First Up:



Plump baby booty + cloth diaper= VERY plump baby booty

Being a cloth diapering mama means finding pants to fit Baby M's rotund  booty to be rather hard.  What happens is that I put pants on her that are a size or two bigger to accommodate her plump booty, then the leg length is obnoxiously long & requires lots of folding of the cuffs.  ICK!
I followed pattern that you can find here with a few minor mods.
Made By Rae is awesome!


I also made Baby M
a pair of sweet little  
cashmere
baby legs



I made Little Man N & Sweet Little L pajama bottoms.  Two pairs for each of them (but only showing 2 of the 4 pairs)...



I love how Little Man is sporting his new pair of kicks along with his pajama bottoms.  A definite fashion statement.


An apron skirt for Sweet Little L...




And finally, a few things for my really cool Mom:




 Mom, if you happen to be reading this post,  when you get these, just act surprised, okay?

I made her a simple tote that I stenciled using a paper doily,




a gathered clutch that I, mostly, followed here, but I modified a wee bit




and a little pouch that could hold either her digital camera, iPod or phone.




I am also going to add to her gift pack a case to carry her glasses, a pen holder and a key fob.


I also have started preparations for my son's 8th Birthday Bash.  Here is the invite that I made:


I just took a close-up photo a few of my son's Lego pieces using orange construction paper as the background and then used a fantastic site called Picnik
to add the wording and editing options.  I then had them printed at Target.  Easy-peasy, nice & cheesy, lemon squeezy!  (A little something my little buggers like to say.)

I got the idea from a few different places when I was poking around the web looking for some cool ideas for his birthday.  I will link to them once I locate them.

When things begin to finally settle down a little here, I am hoping to post more  with better descriptions and some tutorials. 


Have a great weekend!

 ~Amy 

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