Baby Shoes

I have a bit of a problem - when it comes to putting shoes on my babies, I fail.  It is just one more thing to remember and keep track of, and when they are little the bundle me and blankets keep them cozy.
But..... then I have babies who start walking and REFUSE to wear anything on their feet.  Fine if we spend our life at the beach, but ice rinks and schools and stores and everywhere are not really the cleanest places to have a baby running around with no shoes.

{Disclaimer - the mess is due to the fact that I spent the day lost in my sewing }

Recently I needed to solve that problem as we were spending most of our weekend out and about, requiring the baby to wear something on her feet.
Problem: She would not walk in any shoes that had a hard bottom all the soft soled shoes fell off her feet.
Solution: I found this pattern.

There is elastic that runs around the ankle just perfectly placed to keep the boot in place.  Our little Gem kept them on all day - socks stayed clean and feet were adequately protected form the environment.  I put faux suede on the bottoms to provide a bit more bulk under her feet.

The full side opening with a velcro closure makes them super easy to get on - even her daddy does not complain about that task!
I hope that these will transition her to actual shoes before baseball season starts.  Otherwise I better get working on beefing them up a bit more.  I love when projects I make can be used by my kids.

Hope your day is absolutely wonderful.

On a whim I painted...

This past week was a crazy week at our house.  It was already going to be a shortened week with no school Friday, but the kids were given 2 extra days off this week due to a blizzard that came through our hills.  By the afternoon of the second day we all were crawling the walls.

I was finally able to exit my driveway, so I ventured into town for lunch and to help advise on paint colors for the office.  At ACE filling the order for REL, Inc., I realized I was in the mood to paint.  They had kids in to do the office walls, so I came home and tackled my main bathroom.  That room needed to be re-painted since we moved in over 5 years ago.  It was one of the rooms that I never picked out paint for; instead, just dumped what I had left into a bucket and call it good enough.  {this is the before color}

Lately, I am drawn to  yellow and grey color palates.  Waiting to find a shower curtain was my plan initially, but now I'll just have to find one that works with my paint instead of finding paint to match.  I think a grey chevron pattern would be perfect.  For now the white is 'okay.'

Any projects around your house getting done?  {Seriously bathroom photos are hard to get right!}
Have a lovely weekend.

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Mailboxes

The other morning my two pre-school boys were bouncing off the walls, which starts to happen as winter closes in on us.

 I found this {very healthy} cereal box in my burnable pile, which I decided would make a great mailbox or 2.  After cutting it in half and re-gluing the open end, I covered each half in fabric - no sewing just a hot glue gun and fabric.  I forgot how quick and easy hot glue is, and for this project perfection was not necessary.

After each half was covered I put their initial on each mailbox and made a door flap.  Every mailbox needs a number, so theirs were not complete until the numbers were assigned to each box.

It was a relatively quiet afternoon of writing and coloring around our house!  With a few 'how do you spell...' questions.  I love how kids just like a space that is theirs - even if it is only a small portion of a cubic foot.

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Key chains (Wristlets)

I feel like every project on this blog lately has been of the quick and easy variety, but I suppose that is what stage of life I am in right now.  Things that do not take too much time, because time is at a premium.  Projects that are easy because in the course of a sewing day I am interrupted approximately 4,679 times!

 Made by the dozens this fall, these wristlets used up a large amount of scraps.  You know - those fabric pieces that you have from other projects that are really too small for anything, but you just cannot part with because you love the fabric too much.  In fact it took you so long to get the nerve to actually cut it that you are. not. wasting a single portion.

 I cut strips of fabric that were approximately 1.5" wide by about 10" long.  The outside of the loop is cotton, and the inside is a very heavy home decorating fabric that I used for a set of roman shades like these!  I sewed wrong sides together and the turned the tubes.

 Those 3 little words 'turned the tubes' took absolutely forever.  Most of the strips were actually skinnier than 1.5" making just a little too small of an area for easy turning.  My fingers and hands absolutely ached for a few days after that job.  If/when I make them again I will make sure that I make them a bit wider (1.75' would be perfect) or use different inside fabric.

 After all the turning, ironing is required before top-stitching along both edges.  Next, I threaded the tube through the key ring and sewed the tube into a circle.  To cover the raw edges, a ribbon is folded around the tube and top stitched keeping the key ring in place and finishing the project.

 So what kind of fun, quick, easy projects have you made?

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Old School {Checkbook covers}

Maybe I am old school, but I still carry a checkbook - some of the monthly bills we have require checks.  I do occasionally use the banks online bill payment system, but generally I sit down each month with my check book.

Paying bills each month is right up there with getting a root canal - as with most houses in this economy and with growing families there never seems to be enough to go around.  But a fancy schmancy check cover makes me smile!  {Kind of like packing lunches}

I made one for myself just over a year ago; jury is still out on if that makes the whole process better.  Early this fall I promised my grandma I would make her a new one, but with fall bazaar season and Christmas the project did not arrive at the top of my 'to-do' list until last month.  And in normal Amy fashion, once I was making one there was no good reason not to make several, in fact a couple of friends have already asked for one - perfect!  

I use carbon copies for my checks and it took me a bit of wracking my brain to figure out what I had around to use as a protector between checks.  After putting one together without anything, I realized I had page sleeves that would work perfectly.  The step of getting it to stay in the 'sandwich' as you sew and then turning it ride-side out is a bit tricky, and I do not love that it looks wrinkled/creased, but it serves the purpose.  The finishing portion of this project was the most difficult: mostly being careful with the iron - keeping it away from the plastic and ribbon.

There is nothing quite like finishing a project off with the perfect funky button!

I followed this tutorial - I had no alterations because why mess with measurements that are already perfect!

Hope you have a great weekend.

Wallets

A project to share!  Finally...

Sewing days have begun again for the year - I feel so so so lucky to have a friend who will travel to my house each week with her sewing projects for several reasons.  1. I would have a really hard time packing up my 3 pre-schoolers each week or even every other week.  2. It makes me set aside a whole day and dedicate it to sewing, and although I have so many projects on my to-do list I have a hard time actually carving out time, and these days a so needed.  3. We are so compatible when it comes to creating and working together on crafty projects - whether we are doing our own very different projects or working on similar items together.  This is sometimes difficult to find!  4. She does not mind when the littles are acting like little boys do and creating noise/mess/disturbances in the background (or foreground as is may be) - thank you my dear {I could likely list several more if I took longer to think harder, but for now this list sums it up}!

Last week I needed to make a wallet for our oldest as we are have a 'Money Management Contract' in place to begin teaching basic budgeting skills.  We decided that he would need a wallet to keep track of the money he needed to use to fund basic pre-teen expenses.  I found this tutorial at LBG Studio and it seemed like the perfect thing to make for him.  It was a very easy to follow pattern - great photos and wording for simple to understand instructions.  The longest step in this wallet was the piece cutting.  I had several interruptions and had to keep reminding myself where I was in the process, but from start to finish, actual crafting was approximately 1 hour.

The fabric matches well the iPod case - he is one of our baseball players.  The pocket on the right was intended to be the memo pad, but he has informed me that he has slide his iPod in that pocket and uses the curved one for his money.  Currently, the only card he has is his library card, but that little slot keeps it from getting lost in the clutter on my counters (what clutter - well I am not always hyper organized).  He did mention that it was a bit large, but figured it would serve the purpose.

After making that one I analyzed how I would personally use a similar sized wallet.

Because my new phone has several apps dedicated to tracking life's meanderings, I decided that the memo pad was not something I needed to carry with me at all times.  Two slots for cards would not be enough to hold the debit, credit, store, rewards, gift cards that I carry with me on a regular basis, so I made a few modifications to the original design:

I loved the curved shape of the phone pocket, so kept that, but instead of dividing the pocket behind I left it large and able to hold paper money.  The right side was completely revamped as a card holder for most modern adults are carrying more that a couple of cards.  (Photo detail looking from the top of the wallet)

My design had 5 slots for cards and this way each slot potentially holds 2 or 3 cards comfortably.  I did not leave a pocket behind the cards because the floppiness would be a potential for lost cards, plus the purpose of this wallet would be to keep your purse/bag clean and organized not stuffed with junk and things you do not need to carry.
A little ribbon loop allows attachment to a wristlet for quick in-and-out shopping.
As a 'prototype' item there are a few things that I would clean up in future - largely the bias tape along the top edge of the wallet on this right side - I needed it because I cut the fabric a bit too short.  Perhaps adjust the width to make it a bit smaller to fit in a pocket.

As I looked at the first wallet I made there was just something not quite complete, but I could not decided what I needed to do to finish the product.  However, I do love the button I added the to elastic on the second wallet - it just finishes the wallet.

Have an awesome beginning to your week.

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Dinosaurs = Scary or not: Review

As a child, dinosaurs intrigued me but also terrified me.  Learning about them in school, I did with interest, but like that of someone readying to ride a roller coaster - anticipating the fun but halfway dreading it at the same time!

LeapFrog recently sent me a Tag Reader system with Leap and the Lost Dinosaur.  As usual, I have nothing but positive things to say about their product.
First, although it was not part of my 'assignment,' I have to tell you how great the Tag Reader is - I love it; it could possibly be the greatest item in the LeapFrog repertoire.  We definitely will be stocking our our already overflowing book shelves with more Tag books.  This week I have already heard 'it is time to replace the batteries.'  It has been well used the past 10 days.

I always like to figure out how things actually work - usually as an adult you can determine how elecronic books 'know' where you are in the book because you have to indicate which page you are on before 'playing' on a page.  With the Tag you do not have to do this and the game icons are in. the. same. spot. on every page.  Today I marveled to my dear that there must be some type of bar code reader or something built into the 'pen.'   I was showing him how it works; playing a game on one page, I flipped to a completely different page and taped on a nest of eggs, and Tag knew exactly where I was with no prior indicating maneuver by me - simply amazing!  Lovely things for this brain of mine to ponder and think about.

On to my task - a review of the book Leap and the Lost Dinosaur:
So as I said earlier, my relationship with dinosaurs is a bit of love/hate - bottom line they scare me.  My kids have never shown a huge interest in dinosaurs - sure we have books around the house about them going to school, waking up in the museum, and cleaning their room.  I am not even sure how much they learn about them in school, and whatever I thought I knew is a bit out of date (I found out).  Leap takes them on an exciting journey with Dr. Quigley back in time - through the 3 (yes THREE) periods of dinosaurs.  I am not sure if I just do not recall, but I never knew that there were 3 periods of dinosaurs.  Kids learn about several different types of dinosaurs - where they lived, what they eat, size of the animal.  It has been about 20 years since my introduction to dinosaurs, and many of the names of dinosaurs are different - likely due to new paleontologists findings.

The book also contains dinosaur fact cards that are full of information for kids to absorb individually or as they play the game at the end of the book.  Finding similar and different characteristics kids have to navigate through Dinosaur Jungle Survivor Game.  Completing the book has piqued my kids interest in the world of dinosaurs with out making them nervous or frightened - thank you LeapFrog!



Disclosure:  In exchange for this review, I have received a Tag Reader system and the Leap and the Lost Dinosaur book.  All opinions contained here are completely my own and I have not been coerced by Leapster or any of their affiliates while writing my review.