The Graduate

This was the last week of pre-school. How proud are we? It's been a wonderful experience. We all enjoyed the field day celebration.

Butterflies. How fitting. She wore them on her first day, too.

An apron for every artist

My new apron!

I love it!

I made this apron using the pattern from Craft Apple. It was so easy to follow! And, it has already made a difference in my sewing rthym...no longer am I misplacing down a pair of scissors, my invisible pen, or my trusty seam ripper.

I made two at the same time, one for myself, and one for Steph. Learning many things from her (and more to come I am sure), I cut both the aprons out at the same time. I stitched up one, then put that one on and utilized it in stiching up the second.

She had no idea it was on the way. Sometimes it's fun to send something "just because".

Baby Girl Blanket

I made this gift a while ago, but have been waiting for the right light to take the picture. This is a gift for a friend of mine who recently had a baby girl. I intended to make a blanket that the child can enjoy through toddlerhood, rather than newborn baby hood.

Learning from my experiences, kids love very, very soft blankets with the satin binding. I made this blanket with materials that were super soft. The back is a soft pink polka-dot mink, the front a soft flannel with small roses on it. I added the flower patch for some more interest in the front.




I found the satin binding very difficult to work with. I don't like to hand-sew, so I thought I could just stitch in on in one sitting around the blanket. I wasn't sure how it would press against the mink, so I thought, sure, this would be no problem. Um, no. I must not know how to work with this stuff correctly because it took me way too long, and way too many ripping of seams. I ended up hand-stitching some of the binding in the back. This was not one of my best works. However, I think a small little girls hands will still love to rub the blanket against her face, and pinch and rub the satin with those little fingers. She won't notice the bad stitches for years to come....

Spring gardening AND Mother's Day 2008, Version 2

Last weekend was a super busy weekend. Not only did we go Strawberry picking, but I got a chance to play in the garden. After picking the berries, I planted about 19 plants! Yes, 19! They are all summer blooming, so the fruits of my labor will be enjoyed throughout the summer.

Can you believe this is my garden? I am in awe. We planted this patch when I was pregant with Nathan. It is turning out so well. The grey small plantings are lamb's ear from our dear friend, Connie's garden. The flowers are various peonies. They are nothing but pure enjoyment for the eyes and nose. They are so fragrant. I only wish they bloomed year round! The tree in the back is a pink Japanese Dogwood. They bloom later than the normal American Dogwood, but they are worth the wait.

The plants that I planted will bloom in the summer, so this garden will have year round interest now. The show starts in the spring with the Azaleas, to the peonies, to the Astillbe, the Stella D'Oro day lillies, the Black Eyed Susans, and the grasses will show all year long (not shown in this picture). I am very proud of this patch (can you tell?)

Closeup of the pink dogwood.

Here is a picture of my lovelies in front of the garden. Corinne is wearing the ladybug dress that I referenced a few posts back. It came out great. It was a pre-shirred fabric that was sold by the yard. In most cases, all you have to do is zip up a seam, hem the bottom, and the item is done. However, in this case the fabric had a strip of ladybugs at the bottom that I didn't want to loose in the hem. Instead, I took up the fabric right underneath the pre-shirred fabric. I added the red strip at the waist and I added ties to the top for straps. I think it came out very cute, and Corinne enjoys wearing it.

The same day we went to the patch, and planted 19 plants throughout the yard, Corinne and I made a cake to take to Mother's Day #2. We were inspired by a kids cookbook given to her as a gift. I think the cake came out very much like the picture in the book. It was a lemon cake, and it was GREAT!

Strawberry Picking

Last weekend we went strawberry picking at a local pick your own farm. It was a great day to enjoy the weather. The strawberries were EVERYWHERE! This was our first experience doing this as a family, and I think we can say we all had a great time.

We all worked hard, picking the juicy berries warmed by the May sunshine....

Really hard at work....

All hands pitched in.

Little hands just couldn't resist the taste of freshly picked berries. What could be better?

I think this face says it all. :)

I have not had a lot of time to post lately. I have a list of projects I want to share, and I have pictures of my garden that I want to share and save here. But, today, I saw this article written by Stephanie Pearl, and referenced by Amanda Blake Soule (whose book I am going to purchase as soon as I can get to the store to use my Christams gift certificate from Kenny) and I couldn't resist sharing with you moms out there. You have to read the part about dress-up play.

I love being a mom. I love it. And I love sharing my stories, reading others, and trying to remember to cherish each moment. When my young children are doing something that is either annoying, or exhausting me or Kenny by pushing our limits, or trying to define out their boundaries, I try to tell myself that I will miss these days. I really don't look forward to the day that my daughter or son tell me they hate me, or "I don't know what it's like to be a teenager" in a teenage rampage, or the day they don't want me to hug them when I leave them at school. I am eating up this wonderful time of play, sharing, learning, and pure enjoyment.

Some photos of fun play. A favorite past-time activity: building. These were taken at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. We didn't make it to the actual museum part, rather we hung out in their GREAT play room, but one day we will return to learn more about building...

Nathan's castle.

His humble servant, helping to build that great castle.

She decided she needed her own.

A Homemade Mother's Day

What a cute little box! What could be inside? Is it a lunch box?
No, it's a Mother's Day gift for my mom, who loves her cup of tea DAILY. :)

I knew I wanted to make her a handmade gift since she knows how much I have been sewing lately, and I didn't want to do something that she has already received as a homemade gift from one of her other daughters. The handmade items - scented tea coasters and a personalized coffee cozy. All items are lined with Insul-Bright, so they can be used with hot drinks.

I used a modified version of this tutorial for the coasters. I liked the idea of making the coasters washable, but I didn't want bias tape all around the coaster. So, I cut the back in half and used bias tape for the back split, but I sewed the front and back pieces right sides together instead of adding the bias tape all around.

I also sort of quilted the top. I fussy cut some fabric, added binding, and stitched along the lines of the fabric. I tried out different decorative stitches to make each coaster unique.

The spice insert is removeable, as shown in the above picture.


I followed this tutorial to make the coffee cozy, as my mom also enjoys a trip to a coffee shop occasionally. This was my first experience embroidering by hand. It was not hard to do, and I got into a rythm at the end. I used Steam-A-Seam to connect the pieces instead of Wondertape (I could not find Wondertape at the fabric store). I think if I make this again, I may add velcro instead to make it more adjustable. I told my mom that she'd have to let me know what she thought of it not being adjustable.

I enjoyed putting this together think it was a well received gift.