Riccar has been busy...

(Riccar is my sewing machine, silly!)

I'm REALLY happy with the way this one turned out! I can't wait to see pictures of my Niece Jessi in it!

Feeling domestic

I've been feeling the itch lately to pull my new (to me) sewing machine and serger out and put them to good use! I've been drooling over several sewing blogs and tutorials and then last month I stopped in at Joanns and bought some adorable fabric. It's been rainy and wet the last few days so I decided it was time to start creating! I did most of it yesterday and last night and when Kyrie saw it she was begging for me to finish it so she could wear it to school. I finished it about 11:40 - in time for her to wear it to school at 12:05!
Here's the tutorial if you're interested!

It's great for twirling too!

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I would do a few things different next time... the tutorial doesn't say anything about what to do with the pockets in the back when you're cutting off the jeans, and I didn't want to pull them off so I just left the tops intact, took the seams out of the bottom part and then hemmed them under when the rest was done.
Next time, I'll make the denim part shorter so it's not so tight on her hips. But all in all, I really like it!
(and THANK YOU to those who donated old jeans for this project!!!)

Bakerella made me do it!

Title says it all. Bakerella made me do it!
Ok, I guess half the blame can go on Pioneer Woman because if it hadn't been for that fatefull day that I visited her blog and saw THIS, I would have never known that Bakerella even existed!

Kyrie's class Valentine's day party is tomorrow and I, being the over-acheiver that I am, signed up to bring treats. Not store bought treats of course, but something way more time consuming than any preschooler would appreciate!
Kyrie has been having fun helping me though, so if you don't mind the messy kitchen and messy kids and messy-rest-of-the-house-because-you're-not-paying-attention-to-anything-other-than-how-precisely-the-sprinkles-are-placed, then go ahead, check out the tutorial

(no silly, I didn't take my own step by step pictures!) and your kids will love you for it!

That's what you get...

When you don't obey your Mother!

It's a tough lesson to learn, and I'm very un-sympathetic when my kids get hurt doing something that I told them NOT to do in the first place!

It was a very fine day outdoors so I sent the boys out to play, with strict instructions NOT to go out of the gate. (the gate was still frozen open from our last snow so I couldn't close it.)

Soon, from my station at the dinning room table, I hear little voices and I knew they had gone out the gate - they were "ice skating" and quite enjoying it until Trey boy fell down and couldn't get back up because of the ice underneath him! What did I do? I laughed! And then went and got the camera and took a picture out the window.

But out the window wasn't quite good enough, and he was eventually going to need some help up, so out the door with the camera I went!
He was not pleased that I was taking pictures of him.

E was trying to help him up but with the ice underneath, no luck!

I finally took pity on the poor wet, cold boy and got him up out of the water.

And made him walk to the house, taking pictures all the way!

So next time your Mom says "DON'T go out of the gate", you'll remember why! (maybe...)

Love a good deal? (and who doesn't!)

Who doesn't love a good deal??? Starting today, Longaberger's Woven Reflections™ 9" Bowl is on sale for $15.00!!! (originally $49.00!) Available in the following colors: Cornflower, Cream, Ebony, Ivory, Paprika and Tomato
Visit www.longaberger.com/lynishaweeda and click on "shop factory and homestead store" or click on the picture below!

Skinny kids - sewing project

I don't get all this talk of childhood obesity problems. I mean, I do, but I sure don't see the problem in my house! Just the opposite. In fact, I'm sure if I was good about routine well child visits, the pediatrician would have labeled my kids as "failure to thrive"! At 1 year, Kyrie was 17 lbs, and impressively enough, Trey was actually 20 lbs at 1 year but was only 23 lbs at 24 mos!

So as you can imagine (or maybe you can't...), clothes shopping is REALLY fun. I am SO glad that a lot of brands put adjustable waist bands in their "bottoms", but there is still a lot that don't. And I don't like to be limited when I find cute clothes for my kids! This spring, Trey ended up with 4 pairs of shorts that didn't have an adjustable waist in them and of course, basically fell off of him! So I pulled out my (not so) trusty sewing machine and got to work. I had intended to post these pictures right after I took them, but as we know, the best laid plans...

So lets get started. (our model wasn't too sure about having pictures with his shirt off!)

It's really hard to play cars when you have to go around holding your shorts up!

On the inside of the waist band, using a seam ripper, I made a vertical slit

Attaching a safety pin to the end of the elastic,

Thread it through and out the other side.

Secure one side with a pin and tighten to the desired size.

Now we're all pinned and ready to sew.

Zig zag stitch forward and backwards a few times to secure the elastic well.

Here is the inside, finished.

And the outside stitch... you can hardly see it with this pattern!

No more holding your shorts up!

This is a very simple thing... it can be sewn by hand if you don't have a machine, and honestly takes no sewing skills!

What we did today... by Kyrie & Trey

First I (Kyrie) managed to sneak Aunt Jeanne's camera out the back door.

Trey was standing there so I said "come with me to the play house... let's have some fun!"

Up we went...
Left our shoes at the door (really, they were probably already up there. That's where everything I can't find, is.)
We had a grand view of the backyard and Dad's pickup.
This was our view out the north window.
Earlier, we had snuck some golden grams outside... we like to eat dry cereal all day long. Mom is ready to put a lock on the pantry door!
They tasted great with a little mud pie in place of the milk!
no comment needed.
Lets make sure Mom knows who took these pictures!

Mom would have found these pictures anyway, but became suspicious when she went to take some pictures of the yummy butter braid we were making, and she couldn't find the camera! Oops! I left it in the playhouse!

the scene out our window at 5am

Jim woke up a little before 5 this morning and took the fan out of the window because it was getting a bit chilly in the bedroom. He shut the window and curtains and went back to bed. That's Trey's normal time to wake up and come up to our bed and nurse, so he was just coming up the stairs. I decided to use the bathroom before going back to sleep (no, 5 am is NOT my waking time!) I noticed that there were flashing red lights through a crack in the curtains and asked Jim about it but he just said there's a police car with it's lights on outside. Not all that strange considering our neighbor is a police man, but enough to get my curiosity up! So I went to the window and saw THIS scene and I said to Jim, "more like a fire across the street!" They hadn't been there a few minuets before when he shut the window! The crazy lady that I am had to go downstairs, load my memory card back into my camera, change to my wide angle lens and take a picture! I wanted to wake Kyrie up so she could see it because we've been talking a lot about fire safety, but I decided to let her sleep and see the picture later!
Glad it wasn't our house! I don't think the damage was extensive, it looked like it might have been limited to the "attic" on the porch but don't know for sure!
Good reminder to test the smoke detectors and teach those little ones about fire safety and have a fire plan!!!