Friday, September 30, 2011

Smocked Shirt

It got hot around here again! Isn't is supposed to be fall? I got teased last week, but I know it will come soon enough. At least the hot weather pushed me to finally make this shirt out of some fabric I have had for almost a year now.


Ok, so the shirt is a little puffy, but I think once I wash it up it will lay a little flatter. C is my wonderful photographer for the photo as always.

This shirt was super easy to make, I just cut out a rectangle, the length I wanted and 1.5 times the width. Sewed the sides, hemmed and smocked the top and bottom 5 times and put some straps on.

Kristen

Thursday, September 29, 2011

More Dresses

Remember the Threads of Love project? Well, it's been a couple weeks since I have had a chance to sew for it, so I decided every other thing I sew will be for Threads of Love. This week, I got 3 more dresses done.


It turns out strapless is working best for the kids in the Orphanage in Haiti. So strapless it is. :-) Since I got all the kids measurements, it's fun to pick a name and sew for that child. These dresses are going to Thamara, Charlinda and Rachel. I think they are 10, 7 and 4.

I just love this lettuce hem. I haven't quite got it down on my serger, so I am still using my regular machine for that, but it works great. On this one I did the blue thread on the top and pink in the bobbin. I like the way it turned out with the colors in the dress.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Garden Update

This summer has not been good to us on the farm. Those lovely planter boxes that we built to keep the gofer out I guess had bad soil and not enough water, so we lost a lot of our plants in the first month. Things are finally starting to grow. There was one box that did well for us this summer, it was the box where I put compost and dirt from the ground in it.


We got and are getting lots and lots of peppers. The only problem is when it gets really hot they get sun scorched. I have a shader up, but it's not enough. The weather has been very mild this week and today I found all those peppers ready to harvest! I was so excited. I also found 1 cucumber ready to harvest as well. I am so excited to finally be finding food! Tonight we actually got to eat peppers, cucumbers and strawberries from our own garden. That's the most in one meal in a long time.

Our chickens are another story! It has been crazy, they started laying eggs under all the mango trees and I had to go on an egg hunt every day. Then they stopped laying eggs and went broody. For a while I could take one egg a day out from under them, they would take turns watching the egg they shared for that day. After almost 2 months, they stopped sitting on the eggs and stopped laying all together. Finally, we are up to 2 eggs a day again for the past 2 days in a row. Maybe it's the weather. It did get pretty hot for a couple weeks.

So, there is our update. I'm going to try to plant a bunch of squash after I get the garden all weeded. They are supposed to be pretty disease resistant in the fall.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Pallet Coat Rack

I saw this really cool coat rack made from an old pallet and I wanted to duplicate it. Here is how mine turned out.



I don't know where the original one came from because I only found it on google images and when I clicked on it, it was other bloggers putting it in their blog because they liked it too. I never found the owner. Anyway, I can't give proper credit. Mine is slightly different.

Anyway, here is what I started with. I only have a hand saw and a little box to saw with.


Here is the almost finished shelf. It doesn't actually look bad like that. It would be perfect with some words carved in the top piece of wood.


But, I liked the pictures on the original one. So, I did that. Besides, I only just thought of the words thing just now as I was typing.


L had to get in the picture with peanut butter on her face and all.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Craft Organization

My craft shelf has been driving me crazy. It would be amazing to have a nice and neat organized craft room, but I have my shelf in my room and my sewing machine in the living room. Luckily my wonderful husband doesn't mind.

Here is what the shelf looked like before:


Notice the big pile on the top, that is old clothes that I haven't decided what to do with yet. The rest is just a mess!

Now look! Yes, the big pile on the top is the same, I just couldn't get to that. Maybe I will have lots of new underwear soon. Some things I sew just don't get shown on this blog. So, I haven't posted in a while, I've been sewing private stuff. :-) Anyway...


Look closely, the bottom is so nice and neat. All piled up, but I can see everything now.


Remember the before?


That basket shelf was getting a little messy too, but much better now.


Now, I can sew. I have a few projects in line.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Checkers anyone?

I have been trying to spend some one on one time with C each day. I was thinking it was going to be homework during nap, but so far there hasn't been any. So, I thought it would be fun to have some old fashion games.


C really wanted Connect Four, and I wanted Checkers. Well, I went to Target and returned with what C wanted and Guess Who? (The game, I'm not really asking you to guess who.) They were all out of Checkers which turned out to be good because it saved me $13.99. Connect Four has checker pieces and I realized I can just make a board!


64 little squares later I decided it's much better this way, I had the scraps, no spending money, no waisted resources as in packaging and I lowered the carbon foot print, no deliveries. Perfect! Now, I'm sure tons of others have had this brilliant idea, but am just thinking of it now.


Yes, yes, I have said many times, I am not a quilter. Can you see why? This just irritates me so much. The darn squares are never perfect! At least it was only a couple that this happened to.



Also, this isn't a quilt, there was no quilting involved. I just sewed tiny squares together. Actually though, this is the tedious part of quilting to me, I would like the actual quilting part. (What ever it's called.) Yes, I am so technical in my terminology.


I also have to say, yes, I do know a checker board is black and read. BUT I didn't know I had red until I was all done with the top and looking for the bottom fabric. I couldn't find anything I liked until I stumbled upon this perfect red. Oh, well.

Ok, it's really late and I'm really tired. Off to bed and checkers tomorrow.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

New skirt

Remember this birthday present? Well, I had extra fabric and L loves her 1 long skirt. She wears it all the time. So, I made her another. Here she is getting ready. Don't you just love the shirt she paired with it?


Now, ready to go, shoes and everything.


She wore the skirt for 2 days straight, even to bed. I finally got it off of her today. At least she likes it, right? I guess I will be making a lot more long skirts.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Thrifty Finds

I have an old friend that moved back to CA from Canada and now I have someone to garage sale shop with. It's so much more fun with a friend. We went this weekend because one of the cities has certain days a year that their sales are and I thought it was this week. Well, we got out there at 6:30 and there was NOTHING! We got home and were told about an Estate Sale around the corner from me, so we quickly left for that one. Yeah!

Here is what we found.


I never got china when I got married. I thought it was a waist of money. But I have always wanted plain white china. I really can't stand my dishes, but back then it was slim pickings if you didn't want lead in your dishes. So, when I found this white china, 12 place settings minus 2 mugs and 1 large bowl, I was so excited. I was a little hesitant about the $65 price. I was just looking at it then, I heard the lady saying EVERYTHING is 50% off. I said, "Everything?! Even this china? All of this is $32.50?" She said, "Yes." and I took it! It included 2 large serving bowls and plates.


There are dinner plates, salad plates, big and little bowls (I don't know what for), mugs and serving bowls and plates. These suckers are coming out for Taco Tuesday.

Another thing on my list that I have been looking for on Craigslist for a while now is a picnic table. I have wanted one for the garden, but they are ridiculously expensive. But when I saw this for $5, I snatched it up.


Then I remembered 50% off again. That's 2.50 and they found the bench in the back of the house for me.


It needs a little sanding and staining, but I love my $2.50 table.


I also have to take the staples out from the carpet they stapled on it.

Remember that friend I told you about? Well, we were actually shopping for her because like I said they just moved back. They actually sold most of their furniture instead of moving it. So, she needs new. No luck on the furniture, but she did get this cute bedding and lamp for her daughters big girl room.


I know, not a great picture, but I will take a better one, once their house is painted and the bedding is all cleaned up and on the bed.


Their new house they bought is a nice fixer. Mostly dirt and grime then paint and floors, but lots of work none the less.

I just love the colors on the back of the bedding.


Oh, and this lamp for, I think $5.



Kristen

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Reusable Lunch Goodies

Now that school has started I need a new lunch sack and some more snack packs for C. I didn't have a great idea for his lunch/snack sack, but I knew I wanted it insulated. But, have wanted to change up my old snack packs and sandwich wraps.

Here is what I started with.


I needed to make the bag big enough for C's water bottle. It's been hot and we are riding our bikes to school some days. It's a little over a mile so, he needs plenty of water.


I made the new sandwich pack more like a baggie style. I like it much better. The other one was nice because it was like a place mat, but I couldn't make it big enough with the food saver plastic.


My new snack packs have the velcro on the inside and don't have the flap. I'll see how C likes it before I make more this way. It was definitely easy to sew like this.


So, any ideas for price for me if I decide to sale these?