My Quilts

The sewing itch has grown to a quilting itch.  I love sewing and quilting and haven't had a chance to do much since we moved.

I have been mulling over the idea of making a quilt for myself.  I have yet to do that!  I have made Nate one, which we use now, but that's not quite the same thing.  Plus, it is a quilt perfect for a cabin, not what I had in mind.

This is the quilt I made for Nate:

My kids have crib quilts that I've made for them as well.  Check out Lulu's quilt here: Lulu's quilt.

BG's quilt

Jman's quilt

I made my brother a t-shirt quilt after he moved out east.  You can see it here.  Ever since I got it done and my sister saw it, she has said she wanted one.  She gave me a bunch of old t-shirts a while ago.  That will be my next project; then I can get started on my own.  I've been collecting pink, orange and yellow fabrics to get some ideas.  It's definitely time to get cracking!

Watch for updates...hopefully not too far into the future!

Blessings,

Up-Cycled T Shirt Dress

I have got the itch to sew again.  I found this yellow shirt in my closet that I didn't really wear anymore and decided to up-cycle it into a dress for my 13 month old girl.  I got this idea from my friend Caitlyn who has an awesome blog at www.hesowedshesewed.com.

This pink shirt is exactly like the yellow one before I started cutting it up!

I used a 2T dress as a pattern, lying it on top of the dress and pinning around the edges.

This is the post-pinning, cutting, unpinning, turning inside out and re-pinning picture.

I sewed the bottom hem first, then sewed the side seams.  The arm holes were sewed last.

I added some blue lace seam tape and a little red flower.  It covered up a little stain I found, plus made it a little fancier.

Here is the back.

My little model.  It is a little big, since it's a 2T, but she'll be wearing the dress until it no longer fits!  Jman thought it was beautiful!

This whole thing took me about an hour and a half.  It would have taken me less time if I hadn't sewn the arm holes closed the first time...oops.  But now I won't forget about them!!

Blessings,

Amanda

Getting Back to Healthy

I have had sick kids.  Lulu, my 13 month old, has been breaking in 6 teeth.  She's had a fever, been cranky and of course the runny nose.  She finally started to get over it when the first 2 teeth broke through.  That was the cue for BG to get sick.  He got a fever and strep throat.  The antibiotics he was on made his gums swollen and start to bleed.  It was a miserable few days.  Poor little guy cried every time he chewed, swallowed, flossed or brushed teeth.  We ended up taking him to a dentist, who not only didn't help, but also gave him a fright.  Uff.  On day 2 of BG's fever, Jman ended up getting a fever and vomited.  He was out of sorts for about 2 days and then recovered back to his old self.  BG is on the mend.  His gums have finally stopped bleeding.  He got prescribed a "magic mouthwash" to help with the pain and inflammation.  It has helped immensely.
In these type of days, I lean on God for strength, endurance and perseverance.  It is hard to have patience when I'm tired.  All the more reason to turn to Him!
Blessings,

Amanda

Family Time

Weekend Project #5: Color Dinosaur Pictures!

We always have to take time to play and be a family.  We enjoyed coloring pictures together!  Lulu was napping, which was unfortunate she wasn't with us, but fortunate that she wasn't throwing crayons all over the floor and ripping pictures away from people.

Nate and I really got into making our dinosaurs colorful.  :)

Jman's dinosaurs were scary!  "This red will make mine scary.  So will this blue!"  

BG colored one picture, then got a little bored.  He grabbed the Vtech - MobiGo Touch Learning System and played some games with us at the table.  He did decide to color again after a few minutes.  :)

I'm realizing that my kids are growing up fast and every moment is precious.  I want to have fun and enjoy them.  More importantly, I want to lead them to Jesus.  What better way than to show them love!  

Blessings,

Amanda

Garage Mayhem

Weekend Project #4: Organize the Garage

Nate was in charge of this one.  I get stressed out looking at "the corner."  It is mayhem.  We have tried finding things in the mountains of boxes and bins, but it is nearly impossible to find anything.  It was time to start the task.

Lulu had to, of course, be right in the thicket of the work.  She can be quite the "helper."  (I use the term "helper" VERY loosely!)

Nate started by assembling the shelving system we bought (ON SALE!).  It was super easy to put together.  

He also used an app on his phone to make an inventory list of everything he was putting away.  I was impressed!  He always does a good job, but he really hit it out of the park on this one.  He labeled the boxes to correspond with the lists on his phone.  Next time we're looking for something, we can track it down by his phone.  Awesome!

 Nate did get it organized and everything put away that would fit, but decided he wanted to get a workbench as well, so it isn't completely finished.  Once we get the workbench fit in, we'll be able to get it done!  

Blessings,

Amanda

Backyard Storage

Weekend Project #3: Backyard Clean Up

Our backyard has been kind of a mess.  The patio area isn't huge and we've managed to fit our large patio table, 6 chairs, a zero gravity lounger, a water table, 3 hoses, a slide, grill, miscellaneous yard tools and toys all in the small area.  It hasn't been pleasant.  When Nate's parents came to visit, they brought an outdoor storage chest they bought at Menard's per Nate's request.  You can see how small the patio area is below.  It was a bit crowded!

We put the kids in charge of filling it up with their toys.  It also helped clear out a few boxes from the garage too!  It worked out great!  And we know that it is waterproof.  We have had a ton of rain and it has been dry inside.  Perfect!

To take care of the hoses, I screwed some yellow hooks into the fence and hung two of them up.  Now we don't have to move them when Nate mows either!  

We cleaned up our outdoor living space with just a little organizing, storage, and handy work.  Now we can enjoy God's creation without tripping over toys to get to our chairs!  

Blessings,

Planting Our Lemon Tree

Weekend Project #2: Our New Lemon Tree

Nate and I love the idea of having fresh fruit at the tip of our fingers.  My parents have an apple tree in their backyard and we have helped take some apples off of their hands when we lived up North.  Now, we are not so fortunate.  When we go to Home Depot or Lowe's or any store with a garden center, we always walk by the fruit trees and dream.

We finally decided to buy a lemon tree!  Yeah!  I'm super excited to have one.  We bought one of the patio citrus fruit trees.  It came in its own little planter, but we decided to transplant it into a larger one before the tree got too big.  We have to have it in a planter since we are renting our duplex.

We bought a large planter and Nate drilled 3 holes into the bottom for drainage.

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I got Jman outside to help me pour the dirt into the planter.  We had fun getting a little dirty!

 We bought a plant with 3 lemons growing on it already.  I teased the roots before planting it and made sure it was well watered.  Planting this makes me miss having my own garden.  I love gardening and landscaping.

Now the fun part is keeping the bugs and animals away from it, and waiting for the lemons to ripen!  

Blessings,

Amanda