Snowed In!

Our drifts are so high we can't open any of our doors except the garage doors! I think it's a good day for baking, if our electricity stays on (it keeps flickering on and off). Monte didn't go to work, only his boss made it in, but he was thinking about closing the office for the day.

How depressing is this?

It's April for crying out loud! We are in the worst blizzard we've had in over a year. We can't even see our neighbors' houses, and our electricity was out for three hours. The good parts though - Monte got to come home from work early, and made it home safely. Also, since our electricity was out, it was starting to get cold in our house so the three of us snuggled up together on the couch with blankets while Monte read to Isabella. It was so much fun, we kept doing it even after the electricity came back on! We're expected to get up to 15 inches, but hopefully it will melt fast!

How to Make a Cloth Book . . . and other winter projects

Warning: This will be a long post, if you're not interested in sewing you might want to skip it.

I was wanting to make a cloth children's book for my friend's baby, so I looked long and hard on the internet for some kind of pattern. I got a few ideas, but there's not a whole lot out there. So this is what I tried.

I used quilters batting to stuff between the pages in order to make them stiff. I attached the letters with Liquid Stitch.

And here is another one I just finished tonight for Monte's niece's first birthday this weekend.

I used a stencil and fabric paint on white felt for the letters, then zigzaged that onto the fabric. Make sure all your pages are completely assembled before sewing them together.

This is just an applique I bought, then handsewed on.

I cut the grass and flower stems from green felt, then attached it with Liquid Stitch. Then I sewed the flower and butterfly buttons on. The "cloud" is some furry trim I attached with Liquid Stitch.

I found these in the trim section in the fabric section of Wal-Mart. I hand sewed the top section only of each of them, so they can be pulled and dangled.

I used quilters batting between the pages of this book too. I also sewed a couple of layers of tissue paper in between to make it sound "crinkly".

And here are the rest of my projects I completed this winter.

I use this big tote bag to pack up Isabella's things for overnight trips. I bought the bag, and cross stitched the design on.

And as I've mentioned before, I'm a little obsessed with purses! I decided to make some, and see if they will sell at my garage sale this June. Who knows, maybe I could make a little money on them.

And that about wraps up my sewing for the year, other than some more purses I want to make. I'm looking forward to spending my free time outside for the next few months!

Out. Of. Shape.

Yup, that's me. Isabella and I went for a walk today (it's 55 degrees, YAY!), not just our usual walk, but a VERY, VERY long walk. We had already walked further than we normally do, and then I decided to walk to the park, which is on the complete other side of town from where we were. I forgot about the HUGE hill at the park. While I was walking up the hill, I could not get the vision out of my head of me either passing out, or dropping over dead from exhaustion and rolling down the hill, with my baby in the stroller rolling down after me!! But no worries, we made it, but I'm guessing I'll be very sore tomorrow. (And to think - I used to be a runner!)

Mimi

Apparently that's my new name, at least Isabella's name for me. No more "Mommy" or "Mama", who knows why she started that, but I'll go along with it, I think it's cute!

A Great Weekend

Monte's mom came to stay with us for a couple of days, and offered to stay with Isabella for the day on Friday so I could go with Monte to his insurance exam (about 100 miles away). It was such a fun day! I went shopping while Monte took his test. He's been studying A LOT for it, but it is a very hard test, and a lot of people have to retake it. He called me at the mall when he was done, I asked how he did. In the most depressing voice, he told me he would just tell me when he got there. So of course, I was all nervous thinking he didn't pass and now he would still have to spend the next days and weeks studying. When he got there, he just sat down and said (still in a very depressing voice) it was really hard, harder than he thought it would be. I was still holding on to the tiniest bit of hope, since he hadn't actually told me that he didn't pass. So I asked him how he did (almost positive I knew the answer) and he replied, "Oh, I passed!" I couldn't believe he tricked me! I am so proud of him, and I am so happy he can relax now, instead of always studying and stressing about the test. We went out for a celebratory meal and had a long Barnes and Noble date, I bought The Toddlers Busy Book, which I could have used during these past long winter months! I also got this book for Isabella. It is honestly the sweetest children's book I've ever read, it gets me a little choked up each time I read it to her.

Saturday was beautiful, it got to 67 degrees! We walked to the park, but Isabella, who loves her own swing, was scared of the baby swings at the park. Today it's back to being cold and yucky outside, but it's April, so hopefully it won't last for too much longer. Now I'm off to work on a sewing project that I HAVE to get done this week, no more procrastinating!

Mission Organization

At the risk of sounding like a complete organizational freak, I thought I would share what I got accomplished today. I started staying home full-time in November, and since then I have felt like I needed more structure. I thrive on schedules, routines, etc. Every morning I think of certain things I want to get done throughout the day, and every day I seem to find a way to avoid doing those things, I feel like I waste a lot of time! Well, not any more! I typed up this loose schedule for myself today.




I made one schedule template that I will use every week, and then just write in whatever pertains to that week. I have a place for notes where I put little odds and ends that I want to get accomplished during the week, like work on a certain sewing project, send a birthday card to so and so, etc. I'll have to change the template when the weather gets nice, and we spend a good portion of our day outside gardening, canning, etc. I sort of got this idea from someone else's blog that I read from time to time, I did get the idea of "What I can do for Monte today" from her blog also. He's been pretty stressed out with a new job and constantly studying for his insurance exams, so I thought this was a good and fun idea. Not that today's task is very fun (iron all his dress pants for work, but I DESPISE ironing). Like I said, it's a very loose schedule, there are obviously things we do everyday (playing, reading, etc.) but I didn't feel like I needed to go into a huge amount of detail. (I'm not THAT organized!) In case you can't tell, I'm very excited about this, the smallest things excite me!