Bad For You

"Mommy today we made snowmen at pre-school with candy cereal, you know the round ones like cheerios but the kind that's bad for you."

"Cool."

"Yeah but I left it at school, can we go back and get it so I can eat it?  I will eat vegetables later."

"Why sure."

She loves pre-school.  We stop in to pick up her snowman and the teachers come over and great us and take time to catch me up on what's happening.  It's such a lovely place we are soooooo lucky!

Take Two: 3 of 48

This was a bit lame but it counts as stash sewing so here goes....

Sick of 15 plastic bags when you come back from the grocery store?  Make a couple of these fruit bags.  This was a mesh type fabric that I got from Mary and it's better looking in person though the dimensions I came up with are dorky.  I made 3 of them.  I need vege and bulk bags too but I think they need to be out of cotton.  I used them this week for apples, oranges, and onions.

Drawing With Phia

Sophia was drawing these amazing birds and I asked her to show me how.  Watching her explain it to me was like wow!!!  I grabbed my camera and said show me again.  Watch this...




I know I am totally bias, but is she not totally freaking amazing or what! 
Do you see the swell of mama pride encompassing the planet?  I'm sure you do!

Sno....nope

Last week or there abouts we got a bit of snow. 

Now if there is one true deal about me...I am nuts for the stuff. 

I love it.

So at 5:00am when I awoke without the aid of my alarm clock because of the snow hush.  What did I do?  I got my kids up and in their gear and out into the back yard (yes I am sure my neighbors do not like me).

 It was awesome and true to Washington form by 6:00 it was raining.

Look at that beautiful mushy mess!

This Little Boy

This little boy is always in motion.  Always building and creating, and sometimes destroying.  He has spent hours banging those little pieces in and out of those boards, and even though we will no longer be able to play the games as it was intended, the amount of creative play he has enjoyed is so worth it. 

Work Work Work

Play Play Play

The Vegan Times

Veganized Bran Muffins

These were great the kids snarfed them down!

I am not much of a cook.  Never have been.  My brother got my mom's mad skills in the kitchen and I got my Dad's.  (Sorry Dad)  Yearly I go to a candy making party with some great friends at her parents farm.  We spend the day yakking and making candy.  This lovely group of ladies know me.  I stumble around, read the recipes about 30 times, and even though in the past 9 some years I have improved I am the weak link of the group.  Well this year we got a special treat.  Maggie's Dad supplied me with a massive and I truly mean massive amount of potatoes and acorn squash.

We have eaten them every which way but up and I have to  say we are not sick of them.  I still have a little stash left and they are the best tasting and bizarrest shaped babies you have ever seen.

My point oh yeah... so we went to a vegan restaurant last weekend and they had a poorboy sandwich that was potato salad in a sandwich so what has David been eating this week?

No idea what's up with the color there but this was yummm!  This whole vegan adventure has been good for me.  I have taken more cooking chances and had more cooking successes then I have ever had before. I will definitely walk away with a few more recipes to add to my box.

Birds

We have a heap of birds in our area and the kids love to watch them.  On a cold afternoon we went for a walk and found pine cones.  Added bird seed and peanut butter and tada instant Bird attractors. (Squirrels like them too.

Knitted Bowls

I made knitted bowls fro Christmas this year and loved them so much that I just made myself two of them!

Here it is ready to get felted.

It's stretched over a bowl so you can see it better.

Then magically they both vanished only to be found yesterday as a doll hat :(... I will get you a new picture when I can steal it back and throw it in the washer to felt it.

Tails... Socks...Shake-it

What do you do on a rainy day???

Steal your mama's socks right off her feet and take them out for a tail shakin'

That's right those would be my worn socks hangin out on their bums.

Again why do they have toys??

Take 2 2 of 48

Bag number two was made for my boy.  He needed a bag for his motorcycle.

Spidey fabric anyone???

The pattern was from this book that yes, was sitting on my shelf.

Sorry for the glare but you can sort of see the picture.

Very easy to put together took me about an hour from cut to last stitch.

Lovely Leaves

This photo was taken back in November but it is my current favorite!

This is so them!  It's hard to believe how much they have grown.  I wish they would stay little just a bit longer.

Vegan Times

Oh yeah David was diggin' these and then I broke it to him... they are soy dogs in them there corn dogs...He was totally cool with it and asked if they could eat them for lunch sometime!  Wow have we come a long way.  Don't get me wrong we miss subway (me cheese and him chicken) sandwiches and Youskyme our local fav but we are doing well and halfway so I am very confident we will make it! 

David has also been Pepsi free for 3 days. YEAH DAVID!

Auntie Visit

We had an awesome visit with Aunt Hillarie and Dylan.

A little nail painting.

Truck playing.

Gift opening.... Check out the amazing dream catchers... If you are in the market for one I know a talented aunt that could make you one!

Drawing of said aunt.

Racing cars and hangin' with Dylan.  Was an awesome visit hope they come again soon!

Zoo Lights

We got these shots on our new camera before Christmas and I never got back to them... Sooo a bit of Christmas lights in January what the heck!

Not sure why this is sideways in my browser it isn't....oh well.

Fabric Stash

This is messy OK I get it, please remember I am a full time working mom of a 2 year old and a 5 year old. The fact that I even know where my fabric is ... is a miracle.  The right shelf from top to bottom and the bottom three to the left are all fabric... I know beautiful and inspiring right! So as stated in my challenge I would like to USE enough of this that by next year I will be all on one shelf.... doable??  We shall see!

Those lovely Hobbit feet are David's :)

Sewing for Birthdays and a new challange!

Well Sophia got invited to a bowling party today! FUN!  She had never been bowling before and wow it was a hit.  I can see taking the whole family sometime. She had an amazing time with her buddies which is always fun to watch.

Part of the time they used this wire contraption and part they did it on their own.

For Kellan's gift bag I made a hobo sac http://www.danamadeit.com/2008/07/tutorial-the-hobo-sack.html

Kellan has this superman shirt and he looks just like superman in it (ADORABLE) so a superman logo with a K inside was in order.  David drew it out and Sophia picked out blue cord material from my stash.  It is long so it would fit the remote control dump truck she picked out for him. 

Sisterly love!

I liked the way it turned out and both kids said they wanted one soooo looks like I will be doing a little more sewing.

I think this was a good way to start my newest stash busting challenge.   Here goes... One project a week from only stash fabrics.  This would be 48 projects this year.  

RULES YOU ASK???

I can of course purchase notions, I can accept donated fabrics  and I can buy muslin if necessary for lining but no purchasing any other fabrics.  I can also use recycled fabrics only if they are already owned or donated.  Sound good?? Any loop holes you think I can finagle?? OK full disclosure tomorrow I will take pictures of the amount of fabric I have... it is almost embarrassing though in my defense lots of it has been donated to the umm cause I mean me.

BB Bags

I got this pattern from my Mother in Law Mary two summers ago I think, and I made a fatal error when putting it together and couldn't get it figured out.  Put it away and couldn't find it. (not sure how that happened as I am so organized I am almost Martha Stewart... NOT)  While she was here over Christmas she looked it over and true to form figured it out in a flash. I love it, will be great for traveling.  Sorry the pictures are sort of sketchy.

Just a random note.  Mary liked the pattern so much she got fabrics out of my stash (I am so proud) and made herself one.  Not to brag or anything but she whipped that second one out in an hour give or take.  Lets just say I went up to put the kids to bed and by the time I came down it was done.

Here are pics of her bag

Here's to a new year of finishing projects and more sewing!

Lists

Looking at a new year is always so appealing to me.  With library books and some birthday books on hand I started my list of things I would like to take a crack at this year. 

Vegan

Sewing

Blog

Crafting with kids

Writing

Home projects

Art

I could go on and on.... I read a book over Christmas break that really helped me get it all organized.

"Getting Things Done" by David Allen

One of his tips is to get it all down on paper so it's not all floating around in your head.

I got this awesome journal for my birthday from a dear friend and I put it to use.  I added tabs with categories and I started writing things down as they came up.  I added a sticky note to the back for work items (then I can just take the sticky out and add it to my work list and put in a new sticky.

Wow has it made a difference.  I am noticing that as I have written things down when I see something that relates I know just where to put it.  I also have a few projects started.  The next thing he recommended was putting down the next action step.  For example I always have clean house.  No no no... now I have sweep front porch. (which I did today and got to check off)  So as I did this I started noticing themes of things I need to do and those I want to do.  Blogging more would be on the want side.  So I started a plan in that little notebook.  From those next action steps I needed to do some research so off to the library I went.  Here is what I came back with.  There are also a few Christmas books in there.

I must say armed with information and next action steps I actually feel empowered and not overwhelmed.

So let's just see how far Mr. David Allen can get me this year.