A Little Celebrating The Boy For The Little Boy

Today Made By Rae featured a project by Mme Zsazsa for one of the last days of Celebrate The Boy Month. Dinosaur Mittens! I had to make them for my little monster.

(Survival of the Fittest)

It took me a while to find unclaimed buttons. These were in my sewing kit at the bottom from Wal-mart eons ago. Inspired by Mme Zsazsa's jacket with the spikes on the back I added some to the mittens. I didn't cuff them, but I can always go back and do that later. Full disclosure, I originally sewed one of the buttons to the wrong side so he would have been looking up from under Alex's palm instead of the top of his hand. That's ok though, I had stitched the thumb funny anyway so I just seam ripped it a little and then sewed the button back on. Then I realized the button was half way down the cuff.... So I hand sewed the button on to the correct place in the end. Anyway, they aren't perfect, but they are perfect for Alex.

It also occurred to me they look a little more like sharks than dinosaurs, but, either way, very boyish.

Foiled By A Safety Pin

Seriously. Alex's jammies are almost done. Built and buttoned. The problem comes in the form of the waistband of the pants. I've tried various things I have around the house to get the elastic around the pants, but nothing has worked. I know before the move I had a whole box of safety pins. Big, medium, small, teeny tiny gold. Now post-move I have no clue if they are in a box some where or if they got tossed. Guess I'll add them to the list.

I think this little snafu means I can get working on the next project without guilt (Simplicty 2651). I was thinking about making the short sleeve with the sash, but the pockets intimidate me. There are four of them and they are more fancy than I usually do. However, I like learning new things so, although I'm intimidated, I'm also interested and intrigued (and perhaps a few more in- words). So...BRING IT POCKETS!

So Far So Good

So here is a picture of the jammie top so far.


I'm pretty pleased for a first time jammie effort. Alex can't wait to put them on. He watches me sewing and shouts "Clifford jammies! Clifford jammies!".

I got a new book from Amazon with some fun projects that look pretty easy. The New Handmade: Simple Sewing For Contemporary Style by Cassie Barden.



I got it to complete another order to get free shipping, but I was drawn to the simple and fun projects listed. There is a cover for a French Press. My husband is in love with his French Press so we gotta protect it!

Busy Bee

I am posting to just let peeps know I haven't forgotten and am still working on projects. I am working on Alex's Clifford jammies still. Conquered the pocket, but botched the collar. Debating leaving it botched or going seam-ripper crazy.

Went to Joann's today and had some fun with their clearance fabrics and remnants. Found a green fabric with frogs I'm thinking of for a shirt for Alex.

I was out of town last Saturday and recovering Sunday. Been a busy bee in general.

If It's Not One Thing....

When we moved from TX to WV we moved ourselves using you pack cubes. This was a big mistake. Amidst all the stressing and crying we had too much stuff to fit in our 4 cubes so A LOT of stuff was trashed. Things we thought we would replace once we got to WV.

One of those things was an iron. I have no idea how old our iron was or what made me pick that particular one. I know we'd had it for years. I thought buying a new one was no big deal. Just go to Wal-mart and pick out one. MISTAKE. I evidently picked the wrong one. My husband had used it one time with a lot of swearing. I thought he was over-reacting and it couldn't be that bad. I was so wrong.

We aren't big iron people. Most of the time I either get the clothes right out of the dryer or use the dryer-wet cloth method or even hang in the shower method. For the coat I made I used sew-in interfacing on fleece so no iron involved. The jammies I'm working on for Alex use the fusible kind. Problem: The iron, even on the highest level, isn't hot enough to fuse the interfacing. It doesn't even get the damp cloth dry.

I never thought I would miss an inanimate object so much.

Valentine Cookies

We were supposed to make the Valentine cookies yesterday, but we got distracted by Lego Rockband. Alex loves baking and so it wasn't hard to convince him to give up cartoons today.


They were basic cut out sugar cookies. Used one of the recipes from allrecipes.com (contributed by Laria Tabul). This recipe was different because it used confectioners' sugar instead of granulated. Although very tasty I don't recommend it because the cookies were too crumbly and it was hard to get good shapes.

The recipe called for pink frosting, but I filled them with apricot jam and decorated some of them with sanding sugar.

In other news, I hate making pockets.

Projects On The Horizon

I have the materials needed to get started on a few things. I was trying to do a 20-min project, but the stretch knit I was using was ticking me off so I'm moving on. These are the two projects I'm going to be working on. With no time and space (esp space) I have a hard time completing projects in a quick like a bunny speed so these may take me a little while.

#1

First we have jammies for Alex. I was going to use this flannel for a backpack, but decided I wanted to do that in another fabric (that I have to set aside money for) so I had asked on Facebook for ideas for this material. Katie (Kadiddlehopper) recommended this pattern. Looks pretty straight forward and Alex loves Clifford.

#2



This is a shirt for me! How about that. I love this pattern and think I will probably use it often. I'm planning on making the short sleeve with the sash.

Hopefully, these will not take me a really long time to complete. I didn't see a fabric at the local Joann that I liked for a Alex shirt for St. Patty's, but sometime this week I should be in Pittsburgh again for a toddler zoo class so I'm hoping to make it to the big Joann across from the mall I like. At least Simplicity patterns were on sale 5 for $5 so I got some from my list. I also got a rotary cutter. I've never worked with a rotary cutter and hopefully no one gets cut (least of all me).

Valentine's Day

I've been really busy the last two days, but last night I finally got around to making the Valentine's Day gifts for my guys. My guys got "boy-ish" cards and candy.

My husband loves English toffee and after looking at a couple of recipes I went with a recipe from The Idea Room.

Although I have a culinary degree and love making sweets I am not a big sugar candy maker. It's because I'm a multi-tasker and I'm not good at sitting there and watching something. I finally just put everything on hold and only paid attention to the candy. I made it with almonds because Target had a bulk item sale and saw a big jar of raw almonds. I toasted them myself on the stovetop and chopped them.

For my son the chocoholic I bought the name brand Strawberry marshmallows that were shaped like hearts and coated them in semi-sweet chocolate.

I love coating things in chocolate. My favorites are pretzels and nuts, but I couldn't resist those marshmallows. Marshmallows are one of the harder things to chocolate coat because they will melt in the hot chocolate. You have to work really fast, especially if you care about retaining the shape. I really like the way these turned out.

Because I was focused on other things all week I didn't get around to making stuff until last night. These Valentine's Day cards were made at 10pm (after getting up at a quarter till 6am) so they weren't super complicated.


For my son I went with a dinosaur and my husband got the robot.


This was our first homemade Valentine's Day. It also marked the first time the three of us are able to celebrate together. The last time Brian was here for Valentine's Day Alex was 9 months old. My husband helped our son make me a cute card filled with a bunch of images that Alex cut out himself. Adorable!

Later Alex and I are going to make jam-filled heart sugar cookies. He loves to bake!

Only one real post and I got nominated for an award. I think it speaks more to the fact that I have an awesome and supportive friend than my current show of talent. I'm supposed to tell you 7 unknown facts about me.

1. Disney World is my happiest place on Earth. We've been four times in the last two years and are going again in Sept (with Disney Cruise). Sometimes my husband and now three year old go back to the room and I park hop alone riding rides over and over (and shopping in World Showcase).

2. Until my husband came back from Iraq the first time we had never been on vacation. We now know why people do that.

3. I'm a total video game dork.

4. I'm a total comic book dork.

5. When I was pregnant with my son I had nightmares about giving birth to a girl and even woke up crying one time. But now I hope my next one is a girl.

6. When I feel overwhelmed, my house is a disaster, I don't feel like cooking, and I have no extra spending cash I play The Sims 2 where I make them clean their house, cook, and buy lots and lots of clothes and furniture.

7. I like Zombie movies a lot. My husband does too, but not as much as me. I got him a Dismember Me Zombie from Think Geek, but I really wanted it for me.

I'm supposed to nominate 7 other bloggers, but I really don't know anyone other than Katie. I'm "follow"-ing other people, but they are big fish and until I have some stuff under my belt I am little fish. One day, one day....

Toddler Jacket, A Pirate, and A Monster

To get this kicked off I'm going to show the jacket for my kiddo that I just finished last weekend. I have never made a jacket. Clothing-wise I usually stick to Halloween costumes. When I was a teenager I was interested in making clothes, but over time (and inches) I lost interest. When I moved out of my parents' house I didn't sew at all. Then I got married and....well, I'm surprised newlyweds get anything done at all.

After that life just got fast. I still occasionally made things and even bought a "As Seen On TV" Easy Sew. (If you've never seen one it's an extremely basic sewing machine that just does straight stitches.) In May of 06 I had Alex. Once out of the fog of new parent-syndrome I started getting interested in sewing again. Also like some new parents I never finished anything. I had a lot of things cut out or just pinned that never made it to the machine. With my husband in Iraq for the last two years and my no-nap-as-of-two kid not a whole lot of projects got finished then either.

I did make my son's pirate Halloween costume in Oct 08.


Most of my sewing was hand sewing of silly stuff (stress relief). Here is a sock monster I sent to my husband from the Stupid Sock Creatures kit I bought.


Everything has now settled down and I have more time to work on stuff. I got a new sewing machine (Thanks Mom!) and completed my first project on it. A jacket for my kid.


This is the first big thing I've completed in a long while and, while it looks like a beginner effort, I'm very proud of it. The pattern I used was Simplicity 5284. (Couldn't find on Simplicity website so it's a link to PatternReview.com).

I'm still debating my next project, but I'm at a stall because I'm snowed in and have no thread. :(

New First Post

After spending weeks looking at other people's craft/hobby blogs I decided to just say "why not?" and put a blog out for the things I'm working on. I just moved to West Virginia a little over two months ago from Round Rock, TX (suburb of Austin). Since my son was born in May of 06 I haven't spent a whole lot of time on hobbies. Then my husband took a job in Iraq for two years in Oct 07. That really cut my hobby time. My half finished projects double my finished projects and most of what I make is never seen by any other than my son and husband. I didn't have many crafty friends and didn't really connect with the crafty women I met.

On this blog what I'm hoping to do is show what I am working on and what I've made. Eventually I will put up the links of the blogs I love to read for ideas. Fingers crossed I will actually have some stuff to show. I'm interested in croquet, scrapbooking, cooking, and sewing.

I'm very interested in photography, but so far am not so good at it. Not that I'm stellar at the other stuff, but if I had to pick a big weakness it's my photography which seems to get worse as I get older (I have very nice pics from my teenage years to early twenties). It may be my camera that I bought in May 08. I hate that camera. Anyway, point is I will photograph what I've made, but I will probably not be very proud of the pics. Hopefully, they will get better. Perhaps if I can unearth the camera manual from a moving box somewhere...