No Blog Posts does not = No Sewing: A Catch-Up

I have been bumbarded with sewing projects the last few weeks. (weeks... eep). I have been working on switching my 15 month old over to cloth diapers and I have been working on Christmas presents for family and friends. I want to post pictures, but I'm not going to attach names, in case one of the receivers of the gifts happens to read this (unlikely).

So we'll start out with diapers. These were the first diapers I made.

Then I made a diaper for my daughter's baby doll. 

The most recent diapers have snaps, and a much better fit. 

Pre-fold

I also made some plush dolls.

And then I played around with some fabric paint. 

And then I tinkered with some beads, charms and chains.

I also took my kiddos trick or treating 

and tore down Halloween decorations. Oh yeah, and did mom and wife things. =] 

So that's what has kept me so busy. 

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day Nineteen

Your Biggest Regret In Life.

Not being there for my sisters more when I lived with them. Maybe things would be different...

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day Eighteen

A Book You Could Read Over and Over and Never Get Sick Of. 

Technically three books, but they are awesome. Of course, this is also my favorite author. 

Or 

And the other books in this series. Another favorite author of mine. 

Or 

And the other books in this series. Love them. 

Or 

I love books....

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day Seventeen

Your Highs and Lows of this Past Year.

This year hasn't had many ups and downs. From October 2010, being married with two kids to now, October 2011 being married with two kids, there hasn't really been much change. There hasn't been much challenge. And this worries me, because we have become too comfortable, it's too easy, there's a mountain to climb just over the horizon, I can feel it. Of course, feeling as I do could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. You  know, tell yourself something will happen so often that it actually happens...

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day Sixteen

Your Views on Mainstream Music.

I don't think I have views on mainstream music. I'm not much of a music critic. If I like a song, no matter the genre, I will listen to it. Over and over and over.... etc.

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day Fifteen

Write 15 Interesting Facts About Yourself

#1. I am not interesting.

#2. I am the oldest of four girls and we were raised by a single mother when we were 8, 6, 4 and 1 until present.

#3. I met my husband on MySpace when I was 17.

#4. We married when I was 19 and he was 20.

#5. He was the second person I had ever dated.

#6. We have only ever had sex with each other. That's right. We were virgins.

#7. I'm ALREADY running out of interesting things...

#8. My dad travels the globe selling fishing tackle. He has met the likes of Vin Diesel, Lisa from Ice Road Truckers, and many many others. Selling fishing tackle. Makes you want to fish, huh?

#9. I was in choir in high school. An all girl's group my freshman and sophomore years and the advanced show choir my junior and senior years.

#10. At 16, I sang the National Anthem with a friend, on the radio on July 3rd.

#11. I sang at our Baccalaureate (I graduated June 5, 2006) and the seniors in the show choir sang at our graduation. I had the first of the two solos.

#12. I played with Barbies until I was 18, and I only stopped because I started college, and my youngest sister stopped playing with them. After that, I had no excuse to keep doing it. (I do now though!)

#13. Haylie was born two weeks before our first wedding anniversary. I was 20 years old.

#14. Alexis was born 25 months later and she completed our family.

#15. Alexis is 14 months and still breastfed. Whoop whoop!

More Halloween Fun and a Tutorial

I mentioned before how we don't have much by way of Halloween decorations. I do, however, have craft paper, glass candle holders, chop sticks, and crayons. Today I made a center piece for our dining table using these things. And I took pictures along the way for a tutorial. 

First I took my orange paper, glass candle holder and tape. 

I put the cup in the middle of the paper like so...

Then I cut out some of the paper so it looked like this. 

Then I pulled the paper up around the cup and taped it in place (on the sides and inside the cup)

I then drew on a face with a sharpi.

Next I took my chop sticks....

And my black paper (or white paper with black crayon) 

And cut out various sized ovals and circles. These will be petals. I took one of the smaller 'petals' and wrapped it around the small point of the chop stick and taped it in place.

Keep adding petals to look like a rose. Then take your green paper and wrap it around the 'stem' of the flower, taping it in place.

Make as many flowers as you want. Put them in the pumpkin glass, add some marbles, top with some curly green paper if you want and this is what your center piece will kinda look like. 

Now, I don't have a tutorial for this next part, but I took the decorations into the kitchen as well and cut up some ghosts and bats. 

It's starting to look a lot like Halloween =D

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day Fourteen

Your Earliest Memory.

One of my earliest memories is a simple one. Laying on the floor in my parents bedroom staring at their vertical blinds until my eyes lost focus and the blinds looked like waves. My imagination took over and orcas and dolphins jumped out the waves, and mermaids waved at me. It was in our house in southern California so I was about 4 or 5. I have a few other memories in that house, but the one with the blinds I remember most clearly, though I could draw out the layout of our apartment and I'm certain my mom would say it is correct. I remember things in vivid images.

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day Thirteen

Somewhere you'd like to move or visit.

I would like to visit New York. I want to meet my dad's side of the family. I also want to visit the whole eastern side of the US so I could visit the landmarks and soak up the history.

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day Twelve

Bullet Your Day.

• Woke up at 9 am to get ready for church. 
• Woke up the girls and got them dressed and ready to go.
• Drove to Thomas Hammer for coffee. 
• Drove to church (starts at 10). 
• Left church before noon.
• Came home. 
• Played with the kids. 
• Ate mac 'n' cheese for lunch.
• Put the kids down for a nap.
• Sat on computer and typed up blog while the husband rides quads with the neighbor. 
• No clue what the rest of the day will be like. 

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day Eleven

Put your iPod on shuffle and list the first 10 songs.


Well, I don't have an iPod. =D

Jack-O-Lanterns and Candy Corn.

Today is October first. YAY! This means out come the Halloween decorations! We don't have much by way of decorations for this holiday. We have a ghost I made using a white sheet, a coat hanger and a sharpi.

So today I decided to make something for the dining room. I googled a bunch of Halloween banner ideas and finally came up with this. 

I look forward to making a lot more decorations for around the house. I will share them as I create them. 

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day Ten

Your Guilty Pleasure.

Books.

I am a book worm. I also have an insane love of words. And word origins. And grammar. That is why I was an English major in college.

After having two kids, my reading time.... is pretty much obsolete. Where I used to be able to read one 400 page book a night, I now have trouble reading a chapter a week. I could cut into my computer time (which has also minimized since having children) but we have family online that I keep up-to-date since they don't get to see the girls more than twice a year. Some haven't gotten to meet them at all.

So, as odd as books sound in answer to my guilty pleasure, there you have it.

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day Nine

If you could have any job in the world, what would it be?

Oh gosh, really? I have no idea. Ideally, I would love to be a writer, or an illustrator. Or both. And who knows, maybe I will accomplish that someday. But I also have so many side projects and hobbies that I would like to pursue as a career... it's a little confusing. So, any job? Maybe just something that isn't too time consuming, no real manual labor, good pay and good hours, and I can go home and write, sew, sketch... like usual.

I know, unromantic. Sorry.

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day Eight

A moment you felt most satisfied with your life.

This is way too easy. I felt most satisfied with my life the moment Alexis was born. I heard her first cry and instantly my world was complete. In that moment I had the love of a good man, a healthy, brilliant and beautiful 2 year old and a perfect newborn. I had a car of my own, a home, food, clothes. My life was perfect. And over all, it still is. =] There will always be obstacles here and there, but my life is wonderful and I wouldn't change a thing.

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day Seven

Your favorite childhood toys. I wish I had pictures for this one. 

When I was younger I had this little yellow worm-ish looking rocking toy. You sit on it, and it was curved on the bottom so you could rock forward and backwards. Anyway, I named it Shamu. I don't know how I came up with that. Maybe my mom helped. It is the only toy I had as a small (small) child that I remember. 

When I was a little older I got this stuffed German Shepard. I loved it. I got it because my mom had a German Shepard whom I loved, and was great with me, would even eat out of my toddler hands. So I named my stuffed animal after her. Pepsi. 

Now, I know that 14 doesn't really count as a 'child,' but I can't do a post like this and leave out my blue stuffed bear. The month after my 14th birthday I started having abdominal pain. After what felt like months of doctors appointments and hearing "well, it ISN'T this" they finally discovered that my gull bladder needed to be removed. Immediately. I didn't have that healthy green gull bladder, oh no. Mine was black, full of gunk and gull stones and was starting to spread to the rest of my body. My gull bladder was dying, and had to be cut out before the rest of me died as well. My pediatrician was right by my side through all of it. She is more like family than my life long doctor. Anyway, after my surgery my pediatrician enters my hospital room with a blue stuffed bear that her son had picked out for me. Like any abdominal surgery I needed pressure on my stomach when I laughed, sneezed, coughed.... or moved at all. And I replaced my itty bitty pillow for the bear. I slept with that bear in the beginning because it helped me physically. But I soon grew attached and continued to sleep with it until I was ... 19. Yup. All the way up until my wedding day when I moved in with my husband. After that my bear went into storage until a year later when our oldest was born. 

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day Six

What is your Zodiac sign and does it fit your personality.

My Zodiac sign is Pisces. And I AM a Pisces. I copied this from an astrology site:

Imaginative and sensitive
Compassionate and kind
Selfless and unworldly
Intuitive and sympathetic

On the dark side....
Escapist and idealistic
Secretive and vague
Weak-willed and easily led

Yeah. That's me to a 'T.' Not only does this one description totally identify me as a Pisces, but the fact that the symbol are fish... a food I love to eat... and as a kid I LOVED to swim and practically lived in our pool. I still love to swim, I just do it less often. And I love water in general. Oceans, lakes... tap water... So that covers the fish thing.

Then there is the color. Soft seagreen. Green is my all time favorite color. It has been since I was  a child. Sea green to be specific. Light sea green. (I was also due to be born on Saint Patrick's Day)

So all in all, yes, I do think my sign fits my personality. 

Rediscovering Canvas

I broke out my paints yesterday. What inspired me was our master bathroom. (Wha????) Yeah. So after the Orca, I was inspired to bust out my canvas and do something for our bedroom. We have this awesome headboard for our bed, 

It looks really nautical and natural, you know? And I wanted a spin off painting of that for the wall opposite the bed. 

End result was this impressionistic lighthouse scene I painted. I think it fits perfectly. (That's the four of us silhouetted in the sand)