Kitchen Towel Apron

I came up with this pattern as a gift for my daughter's friend's birthday. Very easy. I found some cute kitchen towels on clearance after valentine's day. I cut off the top corners of the towel to give it an apron shape (you could use another apron as a pattern), leaving the rest of the sides, top and bottom alone. I then took a package of extra wide double fold bias tape, left enough tail on one end for tying, sewed it to the cut edge, left a large enough loop to fit over a child's head (measure this), sewed tape to the other cut edge, and left an equal tail on the other side. DONE! I added a contrasting pocket on the first one I made, just for some extra fun.

Twilight

OK, so I am a closet Stephenie Meyer fan. I just saw the trailer for the "Twilight" movie, and am pleasantly surprised. Now, if only the 4th book would come out...
Here is a link to the movie trailer: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.fullscreen&videoid=33429578

Fabric Book Covers

I wanted to make my son's journal more appealing, hoping that he would be more likely to write in it when I came up with this idea. For his I used a pair of jeans he had torn out at the knees, lining it up so I could keep the pockets, which are great to keep pens, pictures, and other momentos.
The general instructions are:
1. measure the outside of the book you want to cover ( I measure with the book closed). Add 1/2" to both the horizontal and vertical measurements.
2. measure the inside flap of the book, add 3/4 " as above, cut 2.
3. Press one side of inside flaps under approx 1/2" and stitch.
4. Line up inside flaps with outside edges (raw edges together) of outside cover. Stitch outside edges on both sides.
5. Trim corners, turn right side out, and press.

For the white cover, I quilted a small sunbonnet sue for a bit of added interest. I also added a piece of ribbon to be used as a page marker. To finish the edge around the binding I cut a rectangle of fabric about 2"x 3", turned under the bottom edge and stitched it, then placed a piece of ribbon on the top edge between the two layers and stitched it along with step 4, above.

trip down memory lane

Yesterday I put in an old home movie for the kids to watch while I got ready for church. I couldn't believe how quickly they have grown, so I just had to put up a pic of Riley and Ethan from about 4 years ago to remind myself how quickly time flies.

graduation

My littlest brother, Parker, graduated from UW this past weekend (B.S. in Animal Science), that's him behind the girl in the blue scarf who actually is looking at the camera. The kids all did quite well during the ceremony, no yelling like at my other brother's (Josh). My baby sis, Brittany also had her baby- Lorenzo "Zo" James- blessed, so the whole family was gathered. Good times!

fleece baby blanket

Here is a sweet baby blanket that I came up with. I something similar was given to a friend of mine, but when I couldn't find a pattern online, I came up with my own. I started with 1 yard, squared, of a fleece that I liked. Then I took one of my small metal crochet hooks (the kind used for doilies) and I used it to punch a hole in the edge every 1/2" apart, about 1/4" from the edge. Then a took a skein of very fuzzy yarn and my H-hook and put a single-crochet (sc) in each hole, followed by a chain (ch), then a sc in next hole, ch, etc. all the way around, I closed it with a slip stitch, then for the next round used a double-crochet (dc), ch, dc, ch, etc. all the way around. Since I rounded the corners a bit, I used a couple of extra chains in those areas to keep the edging lying flat. My pattern isn't very precise, and can be easily modified to fit your taste.

My little clown

Last night the kindergartens at Riley's school put on their spring circus-themed program. She was an adorable little clown and did a fantastic job of singing half a dozen circus inspired songs. She is the one in the flowery dress and white sweater.

Yes, my B.S. is in nutrition

So... Kiechel leaves for work by 6:15a most mornings, this means that the kids are usually still asleep when he leaves, but this morning the oldest 3 were up at 5:45 for some odd reason. This means they were up when Kie fixed his lunch, which means they were up to first of all beg a bowl of cereal off of him while he ate, but they also beg off rather large piles of potato chips that he was putting in his lunch. They rounded off their delightfully healthy meal with a brownie, their fhe treat from last night that they didn't get to eat because we finished with our activity too late in the day. NICE!

Organization

I aspire to be organized and frequently make little stabs toward that goal. My latest- I came across where someone had used a shoe organizer like this for their kids' art supplies, so I thought it would be great for my crafty things. I plan on getting a 2nd for the laundry room door to keep batteries, chargers, etc. separate and easy to find. If only I can keep Carson (1) out of them.

ok, so I realize that this is my 3rd blog of the day, but I did want to post this last one while I still have a bit of time. I made this super sweet messenger bag for my little girl out of 4 coordinating fabrics. The ruffles hold the flap down, no need for hooks or buttons. Much sweeter than your average bag purchased at the store. I based this bag off of one I saw in a Mary Englebreit magazine.

Riley's closet

My project this past week was to turn my little girl's closet into her own (pink) reading nook. I took out all the clothes/shoes and painted the walls a shade of pink she chose (iced berry). Then I screwed 4 hooks into the corners of the closet and hung a string of twinkly Christmas lights on them. I found a large floral print pet bed at TJ Maxx and put that on the floor along with a (clearanced) soft Valentine's Day rug. She loves to go in there to read, nap, or just take a break from her 3 brothers.
I am now in the planning stages of designing an explorer-themed closet for her brothers.

A beginning

Hello. I am new to this whole blogging thing, but it looks like it could be fun. I am the busy S.A.H.M. of 4 (Ethan-8, Riley-6, Mason-4, and Carson-1) who runs marathons and all kinds of crafting.