Bags

bags might be one of my favorite things to sew. they are useful which is a big plus for me. i try to always make useful things! and you can make them relatively quickly, and there are so many fun options!

these are Martha Stewart dish towels from a few years ago, that i have been holding onto...and i finally decided to use them for this project! these two were for mother's day recipients.

i love this fox. i am really loving foxes right now.  i saw the image here and was able to make my own little guy:)  so cute! i made three of these bags

and i made three of these bags too, one for mother's day and 2 for teacher appreciation. (obviously i didn't get pictures of the other two before i needed to give them, one was a purple R and i had another S in a medium blue color). inspiration here

the fox bags and stenciled initial bags were made out of drop cloth fabric that i had left over from my curtains and my first ottoman attempt.  the back of the dishtowel bags are also drop cloth material.  it didn't take long to make these bags, i just did them in snatches of time....cutting them out one day, sewing straps another time i had a minute...sewing them together in another 15 minute snatch of time i had...that's how projects go lately.   whenever i have a little bit of time i work on a project for a few minutes and then baby needs me or kids need food, or to be read to, so then i leave it for a while...and come back to it later:)  right now i have binky leashes and reusable snack bags cut out...waiting for their snatches of time to get worked on:)  it's important for me to figure out when i can work on things, even for just a few minutes :)  keeps me sane.

i have one or two more pillows for my couch that i want to finish...i'll keep snatching those minutes:)

Camryn is 6 months old!

holy cow!! 6 months flies by huh?

happy girl

this is a girl who definitely has brothers...culprit this time was blake

cute girl, she loves to have her fingers in her mouth

on may 9th Camryn started eating some rice cereal

she loves it!

maybe a little too much! we had to cut back on the rice cereal because she's having some nursing issues now...or maybe that's because of her reflux, MAN i wish she could just TELL me what is going on you know?

Avery graduated from preschool! she had such a fun year with Mrs. Newitt.  she is SOOOO excited to go to kindergarten! very excited!

we were at Nana Kay and Papa Jerry's house in Surprise, and the kids had been swimming...we decided to forgo formal naps that day but Blake persevered and slept on this chair:)

she loves to chew on her blanket, like really loves it!

Kendall has taken to calling Cam "ginger" because her hair is staying reddish...then Ethan suggested calling her "ginger newt" funny boys!

this was on her 6 month birthday:)  she has sweet little chunky legs, i love this girl so much! she is giving us a little run for our money right now, but she is such a blessing and a love! her smile is amazing and brightens up our lives so much! she is amazing!!!

Third Time's a Charm!

alright friends, total disclosure right?  Remember when i made my ottoman for my really pregnant self so i could put my feet up?  well in case you don't or don't want to click, i stenciled a drop cloth and wasn't super exact when i was cutting it to be stapled because i thought, no one is going to see those edges right?

well i didn't finish the edges and the above picture is what the end result of my haste and not finishing the edges was...hanging threads, really really ugly!

then Blake took a sharpie to it in multiple places.  and i hadn't glued the foam down to the table so it was shifty too...bad karma!  so i took off that cover, got some strong spray adhesive and glued that foam down...worked like a charm!

Then i recovered it in a tiny orange stripe that i got from Home Fabrics for $3 a yd. Score!!!  i cut precisely this time and finished the edges and i was super pleased with it.  

but of course, Camryn spit up on it on like day 3 of life, (i had recovered it about a week before she was born:)) cause i laid her on it to change a diaper. then we spilled gripe water on it a few times...it wasn't looking too good...

i knew when i was first deciding to make one that something impervious to liquid would be best, but i didn't want to do a fabric then cover it with vinyl, too much thickness and i didn't want to mess with the two layers, and a faux leather i found at Home Fabrics was pretty but expensive and too dark for the room, with such a dark couch.

so i decided to get this laminated cotton from Joann's (when i THOUGHT i had 50% off coupon, turns out it was $1 off on sale so i couldn't use my coupon, grrrr...i had made a special trip to get it too and didn't find out about the $1 off until after it was already cut, lame! i digress...)

and i LOVE it!!! didn't take long to change out, totally is holding up well and any spills just get wiped right off...

bonus is it is bright and light and lovely.  and it feels fine when i put my feet up on it, i was afraid it would have a sticking effect when your legs rested on it for a while, but it doesn't, it's great.

so now i am recovering all our pillows to be brighter/lighter in response to the ottoman change.  mother's day/teacher appreciation projects interrupted my pillow sewing but i will post both of those groups of projects soon:)  

yeah for learning something every time i do, and redo, a project:):)