Winter Storm Projects

Well, the storm is really still coming. So far today it has been just raining and is just now starting to freeze over and switch to snow. Some parts are supposed to get up to a foot of snow, we will probably be closer to the 1-3 inches range. But I digress...

First project up is a beautiful clock that my husband assembled from a kit! He had to sand, stain, finish, and then put it all together. He has been working on it for the past week or so and I think it turned out beautifully!

don't you love the winter facial hair? :)

pardon the coffee table full of toys...

Second, I am up to 20 stars for the wonky star quilt. I am looking forward to cranking out a lot of these while I am at our quilters' guild sewing retreat. We are all crashing at a local hunting lodge for the weekend with our sewing machines, bathing suits (for the hot tub), and lots of (ahem) drinks. I will get to participate in only the first of these activities, but that is okay. I am looking forward to hanging out with the ladies and getting some work done!

Third, I have 3 more girl baprons done! I had the lilac thread in the machine, so they all got done at the same time. Next, some boyish ones. :)

Fourth, a sneak peak at the latest church themed quiet book. Getting pages ready for the hand sewing to commence over our vacation!

Timothy's project for the day? Figuring out the complexities of the piano's foot pedals. :)

Impending Doom and Pinterest

I have this sense of impending doom when it comes to my crafting time in association with the birth of our second child. I have several crafty friends who have multiple children and I do have hope for my crafty future, but not for the few months after her birth. Which is fine. I will be busy with other things and it will be a nice break. But I must cram in as much as I can now.

While I still can. :)

The wonky star quilt is coming. I have cut out 98 sets (4 squares each) of white fabric (over 6 yards!) and have close to 70 full sets of colored stars. I also have enough for 13 more sets of colored fabric, but they are all different colors. I'll use these along the edges where I need partial stars to square out the pattern. So far, 10 stars are done. 87 more to go.

I also completed 6 boppy covers this week using this pattern. It is a really easy pattern and I am getting quite good at zippers! I find that if I pick 2 fabrics for the cover (one on top and one on bottom) I can get 2 covers out of each pair of 1 yard. 6 yards of fabric and 6 zippers equal 3 for me, 3 for my sister Amy. :) No pictures until her baby shower!

Enter Pinterest. An obsession for me at the moment the sparker of waaayy too many good ideas. The last thing I need on my plate is another project. Today, however, I actually competed some of the projects I have pinned!

First, Jared helped me make betty crocker mixes for cookies. I love not having to pull out all of my canisters of flour, sugars, baking soda, etc. to make one batch of cookies, but just reach for a package that needs just a couple of wet ingredients added. However, I really don't know what kind of flour they use and how much other preservatives they used. And they can be expensive! Enter these recipes. It took us a whole 30 minutes of mixing, writing on bags, and scooping ingredients and I now have 6 sets of cookies ready to go, only needing butter, 1 egg, and a little vanilla. Yay! Recipes are here. I am thinking if packaged with typed directions or even in a mason jar that these will become an awesome youth group fundraiser.

Next, I made some baprons (aprons for babies). The directions and pattern can be found here. I decided to make a whole bunch of them. Look out all of you pregnant friends and family members! :) They were really easy to assemble and are so soft...they are lined with flannel! I have 2 made, with 9 more cut and ready to go. I did change the pattern from a tie back (which I find annoying) to having a snap or strip of velcro. This may restrict the flexibility to size accordingly to the child's neck, but I am going to experiment. Timothy is sleeping or I would have had him model...maybe tomorrow. :)

Third project of the day is to start prepping for a church quiet book. I have had some ideas spinning in my head for some time now and have seen a couple of versions this past week that solidified my ideas. I bought all of the materials today and will start cutting tonight. It is going to involve some hand stitching, so I figured that I can start it up now and work on it in the car when we drive to Michigan and back in a few weeks. Pictures will be coming!

Where was Timothy during all of this? Mostly sleeping (I work during naps), but he did get a new set of chunky triangle crayons yesterday and he enjoyed some daddy art time this afternoon (the paper is hiding behind Jared's computer). We figured he was ready when we went to Walmart and he was completely satisfied for an entire 20 minutes with my pen and the shopping list. :)

Only on Ash Wednesday...

would my husband be burning palms on our back porch during his lunch. :)

This is an amazing blog

My mother-in-law found this blog, shared it with me, and I will share it with you, if you are interested in learning more. It is a different story and a different child, but give you an idea of what tube feedings is like. Start reading in June 2009.

http://www.anunexpectedpath.com/