Quiet packet for little ones

Nina showed me a tutorial for this little art packet a few months ago.  In my current mode,  I cut it out about 3 weeks ago and finally got it sewed up this week.  

It has a lot of pieces and lots of instructions, but it actually went to together simply with no problems.  

here is the tutorial from a very big blog named U-Create

I used fabric from my stash while the creator of this tutorial used 4 fat quarters.

Yes,  I had the little hand buttons and hand print fabric, not sure where either of them came from.  

All the way open

the tutorial puts colored pencils in the 3rd panel and she also shows where she added an elastic pocket for little toys instead.  Since this packet is for a young boy,  I did the pocket with some Hot Wheels in them.  

The center packet calls for chalkboard fabric.  

Nope, I had never heard of it before and found out that Joanns Fabrics sells it.  I got a small piece on Etsy.  

Behind the chalk board is a pocket to insert a tablet.  

I thought one of those little half-size coloring books might fit instead of a tablet. The ones we have are about half an inch too long.

So I am thinking that when I make more,  I will increase the length by 1 inch.  

The only problem I had with the tutorial is that it does not say to round off the corners of the crayon flap.  It is very clear in the pictures but I like word instructions.  If you have any sewing experience,  I think you could make this project.  

A look at my current world - or why I have been AWOL from blogging

One day this week 

 learning to style hair like our Uncle

Watch Uncle Jimmy closely

 You get a little dab of hair stuff and you rub it in your hands....

 then you rub it on your head

 and rub some more and try to get even more hair stuff

 well.......

 Gavin's hair looks good but

 Elizabeth is looking a little fluffy.  

She is smiling so much, she must like it that way 

Uncle Jimmy went to Colorado for a wedding.  

He got back today and came over to see us and bring us some cool Colorado t-shirts.  

Elizabeth's shirt  is from Purgatory CO and Gavin's has horses.  

One day last week 

Elizabeth went to baby school in the morning.

Gavin and I did a few errands and then played on the ChicFilA play area

until it was time to pick up Elizabeth.

When we got back to our house, Gavin was so excited to see Grandpa's truck in the garage.

 Jeff took off from work early and was already home when we got there.

Gavin and Elizabeth ate lots of lunch,  

see that plate of strawberry tops?

It was full of big strawberries before Gavin and Elizabeth ate them all!

 Gavin is singing the "happy happy joy joy" song for us. 
We think the whole song is "I've got the joy, joy, joy down in my heart"

 Great Uncle Bert came by this day at lunch time.
He was going to Tulsa for a symposium at the law school there. 

 John came by for lunch too, and to pick up some pants he needed hemmed for tonight footballs game. 

 And Amanda came by at lunch too.
She did not eat but Gavin and Elizabeth thought she needed some chips and brought her some anyway. 

Gavin and Elizabeth have both had runny noses this week.
Elizabeth is helping Gavin with his.
Grandma thinks Elizabeth is just trying to use all the tissues
so there won't be any left  when  Elizabeth's nose needs wiping.  

Tired Gavin and Elizabeth, they ran out of energy!  so tired they just collapsed in the floor.  

They both had enough energy left to fuss about nap time though.  And that was the recap of that day up till about 130 when the toddlers took their naps.  




and if you got this far,  I did finish 2 sewing projects that are more interesting than the son in laws pants hemmed.   I will post them soon.  

My Parents 60th anniversary

 My parents have been married for 60 years this month so of course we had a party.

My brother and children did most all of the planning and hosting and they did a very good job coming up with a party that was perfect for my parents and the occasion.   

Nina baked the cake.  She decorated it with important symbols from my parents life.  

She also made a jar full of yummy lemon curd to serve with the cake. 

 The party was held at a very nice Italian restaurant in our town. 

 Jimmy worked there for 10 years so the restaurant went all out with the best food and nicest room. 

Nina and Jimmy did the decorations.  

They used lots of pictures of my parents.  

The smaller pictures are in Kerr jars because my parent's last name is Kerr.  

 Nina and Uncle Jimmy waiting for the party to begin.  

 from one end of the table - 

the pretty lady in blue that is giving her order to Jessica,  is my Aunt Betty.  

Her picture is also in photo header on this blog.  

 Elizabeth and Gavin enjoying their drinks with straws.  

Gavin was very happy when Pa and Roro cut the cake.  

He loves cake and thinks his Aunt Nina makes the best cakes in the world.  

this picture shows more of the room.  

Jimmy's longtime friend and coworker, Jessica, was our server and she did a great job of making the dinner so nice.  

My Mom does stuff too

this beautiful crazy quilt was made by my mom for son Jimmy to congratulate him on his admission to the Bar.

My photography skills do not do it justice but here goes......

This quilt is made of old neckties - some belonged to relatives and others were thrifted.

all the blogs have lots of hand embroidery and other embellishments.

This block has Jimmy's law school's name and tower embroidered on it.

a dinosaur because young Jimmy planned to be a paleontologist.

this one has a section of a canary necktie that belonged to my dad.

My brother wore the same tie to work for an Ugly Tie contest and won first prize.

However, daughter Nina was very fond of this tie. One Sunday morning when she was about 2 years and too sick to go to church, my dad tied this canary tie around her neck and it made her very happy.

a button grape cluster because Jimmy worked at an Italian restaurant almost 10 years

frogs and peacocks

even some beading on this fancy crazy quilt

some machine embroidery on the block for Oklahoma State University

Mom used some of her sister's double knit scraps for the back and she pieced them together so pretty

Mom said this quilt was so much fun to make. She has even considered getting rid of all her other sewing and craft supplies so she could just make crazy quilts.

I don't expect she really will give up everything else but I do expect she will make more crazy quilts.

2 reasons new blog posts are not happening

Record-breaking hot weather has been around since the first of June

with very few days under 100 degrees.

It is not fun at all.

These 2 little urchins are sweet as can be and are spending lots of time with me while their parents go to work.

Here they are doing high-fives while they wait for their breakfast.

So between busy toddlers and this heat wave,

I am just not doing much extra.

Fall will be here soon and hopefully when it is cooler, we will all be more cheerful.

my kitchen assistants

Up until today, Gavin and Elizabeth have only ate food from my kitchen.

They are getting bigger, so today,

they learned how to make a family favorite,

salad crackers.

My grandmother made these at least 30 years ago. I know it was then because son Bobby ate them when he was a toddler and he is 30.

We have been eating them ever since.

Salad crackers are oyster/soup crackers moistened with salad oil so the seasoning mixture of dill, onion and garlic powder, and dry ranch dressing mix will stick.

The grandbabies had fun making and eating them.

And just a few crackers flew out of the bowl onto the floor.

salad crackers are popular with everyone in this family.

We all like them on top of salad instead of croutons. I think most recipes for these seasoned crackers call for 1 or 2 bags of crackers but I always make a big batch of 4 bags.

This makes a lot but they won't last long here,

especially since we have 2 more salad cracker fans.

Daughter Nina's latest project

Nina saw some very cute and very expensive fabric playhouses that fit over card tables on Etsy. At their home, the play area is in a nook beside the dining room and Nina wanted to use their tall dining table as the base.
She used low-cost brown sheets for all the walls and roof. Her big shortcut was using the finished edges of the sheets as the bottom of the walls so she would have less sewing.
She used fabric from my stash for the curtains, window boxes and door. _the door is not quite tall enough and will need to be adjust though.

The windows have clear vinyl in them, she bought it at Hobby Lobby and it looks good but my machine did not like sewing over it.

Pretty cute isn't it? And it can easily be moved and folded up at meal time.

Spice shelf - make do and mend project

BEFORE

My spice shelves just looked so messy to me.

I had some of the Starbucks bottles left from Nina's party so I started with those.

I painted the lids cherry red with a can of spray paint in the cabinet.

Then I printed off some free labels from

http://eatinginisin.wordpress.com/2009/01/25/round-labels-for-spice-jars/

I just printed them on regular paper, cut them out with scissors and glued them on with glue sticks. You could certainly use a cutter, sticker paper, pre-made labels - all kinds of ways to be more high-tech. There are also many free printable labels on line, just look around until you find ones than suit you.

AFTER

I also had a dozen tiny 4 ounce canning jars. I used them and the labels in their package to hold the smaller spices.

labels on top - easy to read

a few of the spices needed to be shaker jars so I re-used some of the original plastic containers with shaker tops. I covered them with red paper and added labels.

to see more Make and Do Mend Projects or to join in with Heidi with your own Make do and Mend

go to The Cranberry Chronicle

Now if only all of my house was as neat and tidy as the spices

Monday nights storm

July was the hottest month ever in Oklahoma since records have been kept sometime in the 1800's. It has also been dry. So we were really happy to see a storm that moved into our area last night. We got 1/2 inch or so of rain that was very welcome.

But we also had some straight line winds.

The only damage to us was all the toys in the backyard blew around and we had a lot of leaves and mulch blown around in the front.

Many of our neighbors had more damage.

Our neighbors on the west side lost their backfence.

Our 2 neighbors on the east side lost the fence that divides their yards and that big Bradford pear tree split.

this house about 200 yards behind us lost a good size section of shingles.

On our walk this morning, we saw more fences blown over, garage doors blown in, debris all over the place.

The worst part of the storm was our power went off about 7 p.m. and was off until 1:38 a.m. Half our town was without power and we are very appreciative that our electric workers were able to get the problems repaired, even with more rain and lightening that continued through as they worked through the night.

Storms are scary but aren't the rainbows, God's promise, beautiful?

Boudreaux's Butt Paste winner

Thank you all so much for reading about and entering the giveaway for Boudreaux's.

The contest is now closed and the winner is Anne Marie.

Boudreaux's Butt Paste Product Review and Giveaway

The very nice Boudreaux company sent all these products for us to try.

We have used the original Butt Paste in the past and

it cleared up my diaper rash really quick.

We like the mild scent too.

Boudreauxs sent us

1- Boudreaux's Butt Paste

1- All Natural Boudreaux's Butt Paste

1- ALL NEW Maximum Strength Boudreaux's Butt Paste

1- Boudreaux's Baby Kisses Lip Balm

1- Boudreaux's Body Wash & Shampoo

1- Boudreaux's Rash Protector

Elizabeth says she hopes you will enter, this is good stuff!

One winner will get this same package of 6 full size products.

There are 3 ways to enter.

1 - just leave us a comment on my blog

2 - "like" Boudreaux's on Facebook

3 - follow the Boudreaux's blog

let me know in the comments which of these you do so I know how many entries you have.

and if you don't have a blog, leave me your email so I will be able to contact you if you win.

this is how clean Elizabeth was after her first bath in Boudreaux's Body Wash & Shampoo. It rinses off easy, has a very pleasant and light scent and is no-tear.

The Baby Kisses is for those red cheeks that babies get in cold weather. Although it has been so hot for so long in Oklahoma, and cold weather is hard to imagine, Elizabeth's face did get very red last winter and now we have a product that will help, if and when winter ever comes again.

Elizabeth will pick the winner at noon on Friday August 5th.

We hope you will enter and that you will look at Boudreaux's pages if you want to know more.

No Cost Chest Freezer Organization

We have a medium size chest freezer. Chest freezers cost less to buy and power than upright freezers but they do take some tricks to organize.

Most of the meat we have is bought in bulk and then I repackage it, so they are usually irregular sized and don't stack well.

Finding anything in this freezer was really taking effort.

Then, I spotted these fabric shopping bags that my daughter gave me, she hosted a Velveeta House Party and had extra bags.

I got 3 of the bags and sorted the meat - beef into one, pork into the 2nd one and chicken into the 3rd one.

I put them into the bottom of the freezer and all 3 fit perfectly!

Does anyone else have an abundance of these shopping bags? We bought some big ones at Aldi when they first came out and since then, Jeff and I have both got them from different companies and we have way more than we will ever need for shopping.

Anyone else have any good uses for these bags?

I fear that so many of them are being produced, that in a few years, there will be complaints that the reusable bags are filling up the landfills.

Tuesday sewing and thrift store goodies

I woke up early today, 4:30 a.m., so I did some sewing. I made 2 pair of bloomers for toddler Elizabeth. Most store-bought baby dresses come with bloomers/diaper covers but once you move up to toddler sizes, you usually just get a dress. Elizabeth is for-sure a busy toddler and she will just look a little more dressed with bloomers to cover her diapers when she is wearing dresses.

I met 4 girlfriends for lunch today but I had a few minutes before we were scheduled to meet so I stopped at one thrift store. These fancy embroidered letters, about 4 inches tall, were 5 cents for each bundle. These were they only letters they had. I have no idea what I will do with them but I could not resist for 25 cents total.

I can spell "busy" or "USA" except the A's are orange.

I love buying bias binding at thrift stores. I used bias binding on all 4 of the aprons I made last week as well as the casing for the elastic legs on the bloomers. And I really like it when I can find it for 5 cents a package.

3 nice lengths of fabric. The apple and polka dots pieces are 2+ yards each and the red checks have 4+ yards.

I also bought 1 shirt and 2 pair of shorts for Gavin and a vintage gold 8x10 photo frame for 10 cents.

Lunch was so much we fun, we are going to met again next week too.