cork...

i have some of those cork squares, i think they are even 12 x12, or close, that you can hang up on the wall with sticky squares of foam and they make a bulletin board anywhere...you know the ones? well i gave them up as a bad job a few months ago because i put them up but they kept falling down and i added A LOT of sticky squares and they still fell down. today i thought, maybe what i wanted to put on it before was just too heavy. so new idea...between my kids, what i have to bring to enrichment tonight, and all the other things i am supposed to remember, i actually have some sewing projects that need to get done, and some people are actually paying me, so it might be good if i really got them done in a timely fashion huh?



here is a first draft of my project board by my sewing machine/table. i like it. for now. i am sure i'll tweak it later but a good use for one of those blasted cork panels. the stickers are all removable, the same ones i used on avery's dresser and on our doors in our house.

i also want to try to put one to use with this idea, for a mouse pad, looks cool!

out of the funk...

i said before that i was at a sort of creative stand still, for whatever reason. Saturday was a friend's baby shower and i decided that morning to make a blanket for baby girl and this is what i came up with. i am happy with it. i like the ribbons around the edges for small babies to play with etc.

then when the kids were taking a nap i spotted the pillow form i bought a long time ago to make a pillow for avery's room to go in her rocking chair that's in there. it's been ethan's pillow in there, which doesn't go with her bedding at all. so i made it and i really like how it came out too. yay for sewing. i am happy to feel back in my groove again. i have come to the conclusion that it is in my essential make-up that i need to create something at regular intervals so i can feel balanced and happy:)

front:

back:

mourning...

grieving...feeling sad for...

i have this problem, i like to go to thrift stores and it wouldn't really be a problem at all, except that sometimes i find fantastic things there, and it is so amazing that i look around as i put it in my cart and say "man...it must be like kismet or something...it's truly my day today!" yesterday at saver's was not my day (although i did find a leap frog leap pad for $1.99)....

there was this table.

and that seems to be what i am unconsciously mourning. this tourquoise, beautiful, old but in REALLY good shape table. pretty big, it came with five chairs, all in good shape and a SOLD sticker on it.

somethings just don't leave me for whatever reason...like when i saw the set of three tall light yellow lockers in Saver's that inspired my months long search of lockers which now happily reside in my house...one wonders if such a table, or anything like it would exist somewhere else for me to buy...probably not for $69.99 though.

hallelujah....pass the tax refund!

yay! our tax refund is being processed in our checking account as we speak! whew! that makes me feel a lot better:) now i just have to work at not spending it on things that aren't as important as rent until kendall starts his job huh?:) i'm just going to enjoy the time when we don't have to pay Uncle Sam for taxes and we get that blessed child credit:)

trip to the doctor...

this was a routine doctor's apointment for avery, her 18 month. she is doing well, she weighs 19 lb 5 oz, and is 31 inches long. her weight is in the 5% (of course), and her length is 25%, her head is 90% i think he said, but she looks proprtionate:)

she got shots (2) and she was a trooper! only cried for a moment after and calmed down well. i was proud.

the only thing of concern is this,

on the inside of her bottom lip. he thinks it's a mucous cell or something of that sort and it will have to be removed by an oral surgeon. so we will go through the referral process...long and who knows when it will actually be accomplished:) but we'll look forward to that.

what do you think???

so apparently i am at a creative loss lately. it's been a little while since i made anything, like from scratch and brand new...or remade something, which is the subject of our conversation today. i found this at DI the other day (it's a tea light holder with 8 tea light holes) and for some reason i have always been drawn to these types of things...why, i don't know. so i want to refinish it because as is...not that eye catching or just not what i want. so what do i do to it? put on your creative hats here people! do i paint it? if so, what color? do i mod podge it? if so, is that flame retardant? what else can be done to it? i don't want to leave it the way it is necessarily...so speak up and be heard!





(and yay for new batteries for the camera...it's still kicking, just needed new juice!)

valentine's day this year...

was lots of fun! kendall surprised me with everything...he took me to Anzio's Landing to eat and then we went to an improv comedy show at the National Comedy Theatre of Phoenix. That was something we liked doing quite a bit in Utah but we'd never been here. The food at Anzio's was delicious! i still don't really know how much it cost, so if you go and it's expensive sorry:) the comedy place was good, really funny, but it's a HOLE IN THE WALL. you will totally miss it the first time you go there. the sign is tiny, we drove past it and kendall looks at me and says, "i am so sorry if this is totally terrible!" he was genuinely worried but it was really good, it's very family friendly and people had their kids with them:) so all in all a very fun time was had by all! i got a new sewing book, he must love me if he's giving me more amunition to spend my time sewing:)

it looks like a really great book with projects i already am itching to try! yay for valentine's day:)

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

happy love day to all!!! i hope you all have a very special day with those you love! we are kicking ours off with cinnamon rolls, eggs and smoothies! have a fun day!

Meet the Cat in the Hat...

On February 16th the Cat himself will be at Pottery Barn Kids at Scottsdale Fashion Place mall 10-noon....check it out...so cool

click here

broken stuff???

we go through cycles where a number of things we own, break. we just paid $400 + dollars to fix the honda to make it workable...it needed double that to make it good good again. but we didn't do that. my hair dryer smells like burning, our camera won't stay on for more than a minute recently, the tire on our jogging stroller kept going flat (even after we replaced it)....and my mixer had rust on the beaters the last time i got it out to use. had to chuck it. lame. it's not unexpected, we are nearing the end of our college career and kendall's dad has already guessed that our two BMs (blessing mobiles=cars) are going to kick it for good the minute after kendall graduates. i just hope nothing else goes the way of all the earth before we can afford to replace it...it's funny how this does happen, like clockwork, i am very intrigued why that is....does it happen to you too????

nursery girl!

so...i'm not sure what is up with avery...she is still having a hard time with nights. i don't know if it's her ears or what. and she's fussy during the day, maybe it is her teeth. who knows, right?

anyway, today was the first sunday avery was able to go to nursery at church (class for 18 months to 3 years) and she loved it! she had a lot of fun, she didn't have a problem with me leaving and she wasn't crying any of the times i peeked in the window:)

here is avery, this morning....playing in the lockers, she actually opened the locker, and pulled out the bags i had in there and so she could go inside, so i figured i'd take her picture in there:) funny girl. her 18 month actual birthday is on thursday of this next week..she is getting so big. she says more things that are actually understandable and she is so much fun! this age is super cute and hilariously funny (most of the time:)) love that girl so much!

too soon...

i spoke too soon. it is now 1:35 am as i write this and i have just laid avery down again. she tells me with very forlorn pointing and wimpering that her owie is in her mouth. new dose of ibuprophen and one hour later...we'll see if we get some rest or not.

the problem with trying lots of things...

is that you are never sure which one worked....avery for the past week has been having trouble after we put her down for bed. she's been crying and screaming and it's just not what she normally does. kendall says that when it's just him home and he puts the kids down, she cries for a while after he puts her down, routinely. i had a hard time believing that but the man doesn't lie so it must be true:) usually, when i put her down, she doesn't make a peep. so her screaming like this was unsettling and kind of odd. so i thought, maybe it's her teeth. maybe her teeth hurt...maybe she's hungry, she's probably due for a growth spurt...then kendall said, maybe she was hot, and then i thought...man, she's almost 18 months old, maybe the routine we have right now isn't sufficient for her anymore, and maybe her bedtime is too early (usually in bed by 7:30). maybe she's just not tired enough. so tonight i gave her some ibuprophen to take care of any teeth issues, we made sure she ate a good dinner and then she ate a whole thing of yoplait yogurt before bed. we turned the fan on in her room, because, even though it's february, it sure isn't freezing here in AZ, and then we got the kids down around 8 instead of 7:30 and then i read some stories with her before we did her normal bedtime routine of lights out and songs etc. and tonight no screaming...but what worked??? whatever it is, i am just glad it did:) the awesome and sometimes frustrating thing about parenting is that it changes just when you get used to something and many times...for inexplicable reasons. oh well, we will keep trying to figure it out. maybe audrey's right and it was the moon:)

fat quarter...

okay, what's a fat quarter??? it's a measurement of fabric. it's a 1/2 yd. of fabric cut on the fold and then you have two fat quarters...so i just joined a swap of said fat quarters at stitches and scissors...you should check it out if you have an interest in fabric and or sewing or getting stuff in the mail:)

button...

as in cute as a button? maybe.


anyway, if you would like to put a button link on your blog to the All Sewn Up blog. feel free. here is the pic. if you don't want to, please don't. you just go ahead and do whatever makes you happy!!!! if you need help creating the link: right click on the picture and save it to your computer. then go to your blogger dashboard, go to layout, click on Add a Gadget. then scroll down and click on picture. then caption it, title it whatever you want and then in the space that says "link" put http://jwsew.blogspot.com/ then select the picture from where you put it on your computer and click done! voila! little button for you:)

but remember. only if you wanna!!!

finished...

recently, any spare time i have had has been dedicated to reading Brisingr the third (but no the last as i thought...) of the Eargon books. it is 748 pages long...and frankly it took me a little while but now i am done and can concentrate on the book for book club Goose Girl or anything else really:) they are good books, but the guy loves a long book, i shudder to think how long the fourth one will be!!!

azithromycin

so we got an anitbiotic for avery after her bronchitis had only improved a little bit with the breathing treatments last week. the doc gave her azithromycin, a five day round of it and it helped enormously. i loved it really. friday was her fifth day and saturday we found that she was covered in red bumps!

yes, folks, that's right she's allergic to it. what? crazy. this is her first time having antibiotics so this is our first opportunity to find something like this out.

ethan had strep throat when he was 13 months old, his first big illness (my kids tend to go in for big ones when they get sick for the first time huh?) and he got amoxicillin and he was completed covered in a raised red rash all over his body!

awesome. so now we are thinking we need to get them ID bracelets with a medi-alert on the backs of them because they have different allergies and it might be hard for grandparents etc. to remember these things....still in the works.

i'm not allergic to anything that i know of, kendall is allergic to molds etc. so somehow i think that carries over with the penicillin family anyway, in my mind. who knows! an allergist we talked to (when ethan had his reaction) said that he would probably grow out of it, but (how do you know?) because everytime you give the medicine, as long as they are still allergic, the reaction will get progressively worse and worse...i don't want to subject them to that and just have an epi-pen ready (mariley, i need to take notes from you how to use one, just in case) SCARY! anyway....so that's what's new with us.

otherwise avery is beginning to voice a lot more things and that makes me very happy and ethan is hilarious and will quote entire scenes from Kung Fu Panda for us, really amazing memory but he totally fits in with all our movie quoting mania we have in our family!