Waiting on Piper...

 The crowd we're in... theres a few things you gotta have yer own of.

A horse, and a feed bucket.



A cowgirl....

I see this as a big canvas print hung somewhere cool, like a barn.

You know, a cowgirl can never start too early. :-)

{Big Boy} Blaze @ 10 weeks

He's 12 weeks now, but this was 2 weeks ago... Cutest boy on the planet and he's getting so big!

He does the 'normal' boston thing of questioning you with the angle of his head...

 and if you talk to him and turn your head... he copies... hee hee.

 

This face! I just want to smooch it! Let me tell you, he gets LOTS of smooches!  

So, that's Blaze @ 10 weeks, I'll do some more photos of him this week sometime... so you'll get to see my big boy even bigger!

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Blaze is home!

He's actually been home a few weeks, but isn't he cute??

His name is Blaze, and he is our new boston terrier.

Bring your daughter to work day; every day? How does that even work?

This is a topic I rarely discuss with people; because it seem so irrelevant to my craftiness and life at home. In our house, this is a big deal. Why, you may ask? Because, I work 30-35 hours a week and bring my 4 year old with me everyday. I'm lucky enough to have a wonderful job, working for a wonderful man; my dad. He's allowed me to get back into the workforce and still be a full time mom. He sees his granddaughter almost everyday, and I don't pay for daycare. That said, I haven't found a way to convey the way I really feel about it.

 

I appreciate that I can bring my daughter to work everyday. I also feel stressed out, overwhelmed and discouraged sometimes. My daughter has been labeled the 'productivity killer' by my co-workers (my brothers) and I understand their frustrations. She IS a productivity killer. In my office, we always have snacks, coloring supplies and my daughter has an unbelievable knowledge of tech gear. She can turn on, and load cartoons (from the internet) onto the laptop to play with. She naps in her own office (which she does have) and is learning to be quiet when I answer the company phones. Again; I KNOW I'm lucky. How many working parents have the option to not pay for daycare and see everything their child can do daily? Not many. I missed her first steps, working a corporate type job and her being in daycare. I was laid off from that job when the company closed down and she had just turned 1, I was pregnant with #2 and we made the decision for me to be a stay at home mom until they were in school based on daycare costs. After we lost him, I NEEDED something to do and my dad had the work for me. I came into work on my own schedule; cried at work when I needed to and continued with my day.

Zoe is nearing 5, and with that will start school (of some sort, that is a whole other post!) in the fall. Come October, Piper will be joining us and will start going to work with me while Zoe is in school. I'm thinking that my hours are going to HAVE to be cut back, since managing a newborn and a preschooler will be close to impossible. 

I find that 'quiet time activities' for anytime work well to manage my 4 year old's time currently. I'm probably a terrible mother, but she does watch a movie everyday while I'm at work and then we move onto the other activities.

As a mother, our struggles are all unique. Not everyone struggles with the same hardships, and many times we can't compare our hardships to anothers.

As a parent, what is something that you struggle with and how do you manage to cope on a daily basis? 

Zoe's 1st Horse Show

Growing up, I chose not to participate in horse shows. Along with the expense of it all (the fancy clothes, the fancy tack, the time, the energy, etc) I was just too lazy. Still to this day I am glad that I had such a level head and didn't care for it.

Zoe's shown some interest in showing Latte, and a schooling show came up that had a lead-line class. We decided to enter Zoe and her best friend Riley into the show. Kim, from Horse Head Quarters graciously trailered the horses there for us, and arranged a borrowed horse for Riley.

The girls did great! Though we got there at 11am or so, and planned for their show to start at 12:30pm, they didn't actually show until closer to 3pm. A LONG day with two four years, and two bored horses surrounded by other unknown horses.

New Addiction: Bountiful Baskets Produce Co-Op

I do have a new addiction, as of within a few months I became aware of a website called 'Bountiful Baskets'. Their goal is to provide as much produce in your weekly 'basket' as possible for a $15 contribution.

Basically some thousands and thousands of people each contribute $15 to produce and the national group orders as much produce as they can with the money they've got and then evenly distribute it among the participants. Seems like a good deal right?

Well, let me tell you that each week that I've participated I've gotten a minimum of $50 worth of produce. Before Bountiful Baskets came into my life, I was actually spending that much each week on produce, because it is important to me to feed Zoe healthy food for her growing body and to eat well myself.

This week I brought home: 5lb potatoes, 2 spaghetti squash, 1 head of celery, 2lbs or so nectarines, 3-4lbs cherries, 1  pint blueberries, 1 cantalope, 5 big yellow onions, 3 on the vine tomatoes, 7 bananas and 1 big head of romaine lettuce.

Worth the contribution? I think so!

Want to see prior weeks baskets?

This is 5/26/12 pickup in Snohomish, WA

Lettuce, Apples, Bananas, Cantelope,

Corn, Artichokes, Carrots, Peppers,

Peaches (or Nectarines, I don't remember) Tomatoes and Oranges

Snohomish Pickup 5/12/12

Giant heads of spinach and lettuce along with avocado, tomatoes, red potatoes, mangos, blackberries, apricots, apples, bananas, honeydew melons and pineapples.

Did I mention this is a thing that they do in 20 states? Check out their site http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/ and check out the LOCATIONS tab to see if they have a pickup near you!  If not, don't worry because people volunteer to run sites, they start up new ones all the time. If it's something you are interested to have in your area email them and talk to them about how to go about it.

I started a site in Everett, at Doodlebug Sportz Indoor Paintball Arena (thanks, Dad!) and have had great success with it. It is all volunteer, no one gets paid... so all the money you contribute goes right back into the produce!

Purrrfect Cricut Layout

For Halloween 2011, Zoe was a cat. She wore the most adorable fur jacket (faux, of course) and ears with a cute little tail and cozy boots. I've needed to get scrapbooking, but since my scrapbooking stuff is in shambles from the move, I haven't done much.

I know, right? Cutest little kitty I've ever seen.

After needing some space yesterday, I disappeared into my bedroom and set up a foldable table and got working.



I used paper from Cosmo Cricut as the background (From their Wanted Line), Paper Pizazz for the animal print and the black sparkle from Joann's.



That black cat is from Create A Critter, as well as the 'Purrfect' title. The shape behind 'Purrfect' is from Storybook.




I hope you enjoy this one! I'm going to be shopping for a desk that will fit my space so that I can keep crafting!

Dawn

Valentine's Applique Project

Hey Everyone!!

It's almost Valentine's Day and with that, I'm sure that the web is going to be flooded, literally with cute, adorable, give-everyone-you-know-something Tutorials...

That said; here's another one! :-)

Today, I'm going to show y’all how to make an Appliqued Shirt. A pretty simple tutorial really... but also can be a little overwhelming if you've never done appliqueing before. It shouldn't be overwhelming... it's so simple and makes something store bought look handmade with love quickly. Let's get started!

For this, you will need:

1 t-shirt/shirt/item to add the applique to

fabric for the applique

Template of the shape you'd like

Pen of some sort

Heat n Bond Lite

Scissors

Iron

Sewing Machine

Thread

Isn't this just the most adorable, versatile fabric? I LOVE it!

So, we need to iron the loose fabric to one side of the Heat n Bond. Using the iron setting that matches your fabric type (make sure it's hot enough for the Heat n Bond), place it paper side UP to the wrong-side of the fabric you are using. Iron it on, using the directions on the Heat n Bond.

Once you've attached it to the fabric, you'll use whatever template you have to draw your lines to the paper. From there, cut it out. Peel the paper off the fabric, there should be a clear sheen to the back of the fabric, this is the adhesive.

Place it wherever you'd like it to lay on the shirt and using the same iron setting, adhere it to the shirt. Once its completely adhered onto your item, we're going to sew around it, to add a zigzag to hold down the edges and permanently adhere it to the item.

I use my Sewing Machine with a quilting thread at a medium tension, the highest width setting, a towards the lower end length with the zig-zag stitch.

Being careful not to sew in the back of the shirt/arms as they wiggle or any other part of the shirt carefully go around it sewing the edges about half on half off the applique.

Adorable, Quick... and Easy Peasy, right?

I whipped up two today, in under 1/2 hour; one for my little girl and one for her best friend!

Enjoy!!

Dawn

Aprons

I've been on a sewing kick lately; and when I saw this tutorial for a toolbelt/apron through a friend on Facebook, I couldn't help but think of all the small pieces of fabric I had at home I could use.

So... I sewed up three of them. One for each of her toddlers, and one for mine!

On for her son (complete with the hammer loop). What little boy doesn't love little cars?

I know that they have cats, and I would assume because of this her daughter likes cats. Could I be wrong? Very possibly but I'm not a cat person. at all. But, because these are pink, teal & green cats I'm in. No hammer loop on this one, but an extra mini pocketon the front! I think they turned out adorable! Zoe's is a horse print, and somehow I managed to not get a photo of hers. Shocking, I know since it hasn't stopped moving since I gave it to her (and I was obligated to make hers first!)

Enjoy!

Dawn

Winter is Here!!!

Winter is here, and along with that goes dry skin and chapped lips.

I made some Lemon Sugar Scrub, for myself and to give as little gifts. It was really simple, I adjusted the recipe some for my liking; and may try and find a substitute for the olive oil, and not because of any reason other than I think it clings a little too well to skin.

Yesterday, Zoe and I spent time in the backyard. She wanted to make a snowman, I thought it may be an issue that our backyard is mostly trees, so we missed A LOT of the snow that would normally hit the ground. We managed to make it work, and although he's a little homely looking we did get a snowman.

Somehow, his nose is missing today. She isn't real thrilled about that.



In the evening, I whipped up a card using some of the new things I got for christmas. Since we just moved, I haven't had the time (or the patience to sort through and find things!) to make anything. I got a Fiskars Continuous Stamp Wheel from my hubbs and I love it! Look how pretty the card turned out? I like the subtle stamped image. I couldn't figure out how to make it a better impression, or darker for the sake of explaining, but it worked well. He also bought me gobs and gobs of clear stamps, so that flower stamp came from one of the sets. I used Zoe's Markers (because they were close. Lazy? Me, nooo.... okay, maybe a little!)

Inside:

Cheers and have a great day!

Homemade Hot Cocoa

Looking out at the snow in our yard, as I was sipping my coffee this morning my daughter was in the back, playing with our dog. When she came in, she was shivering (shocking, I know) and begging for hot cocoa.

Bad mom moment because instantly I knew we didn't have any. My mommy brain also told me that the basics in the packets were powdered milk, chocolate of some sort and sugar. I can McGuiver this one... it should be easy enough, right?

Here is a simple, and delicious Hot Cocoa Recipe I whipped up in my kitchen this morning!

You will need (for a kids size cup!)

4oz. hot milk (I microwaved it...)
2oz cold milk
1tsp cocoa powder (I used Dutch Baking Cocoa that I got in bulk, from winco for some insanely cheap price for how good it is)
2tsp sugar (I used C&H quick dissolving sugar because we had it)

Pretty much the easiest directions ever:

Put hot milk in mug. Add cocoa powder and sugar, stir until dissolved. Add cold milk (to make it safe temp for a kiddo).

Drink.

Yum.

This would make a great (and simple) holiday gift in a little tin (the powder that is) with directions on how to make it.

Quick Homemade Gift Idea

I have a few friends who are pregnant and due in 2012. We know one is a girl and the other we won't know the gender until we meet him/her. The baby girl has an older sister, so I know that her mom probaby doesn't want a bunch more baby girl clothes and would rather have more practical gifts. The unknown baby will be #3 for the family, so practical is always better after baby #1!

I am making my Goal for 2012 to make more of the gifts we give people, so for baby presents; I want to make burp rags, recieving type blankets and bibs; to include with a package of diapers for the new mom. I whipped up three burp clothes this morning; before my sewing in the kitchen irritated the other family member in the living room. :-) Either way, it wasn't something that had to get done today, so I'm okay with three! I'll probably make some fabric gift bags also at some point (not today!)

Here are some photos:

I love this pattern, it's so mellow and pretty. I backed this one with a solid tan flannel that matches the color on the front.

Here are the two matching burp clothes. I really adore this busy pink paisley pattern also. It has some blues, greens and various shades of pink in it. Very happy looking!

Due to a lack of pink flannel (and with all the snow here, I'm not leaving the house today to get some!) I just used a solid cotton twill type fabric. I really like the tight, zig zag stitching; I know they don't really have to be very tough but I think they look more complete with a nicer stitch.

The best part? They were basically FREE to make, other than my time; since these were all various scraps I had left from other projects.

I'm thinking I'll whip up some more for the friend whose having a girl, and shop for some gender neutral fabrics (on clearance, maybe?) for the other.