Valentines!

Valentine's Day is always fun!  Getting ideas from blogs this year made it even more fun :)   

I found an awesome tutorial for this charm pack garland...I figured it was a perfect project for my girls.  We made 2 of them, one for us and one for Grandma Becky.  Sarah and Eliza did it almost all by themselves! 

The day before Valentine's, I saw this idea.  I thought it would be perfect for Family Home Evening.

I changed it a bit.  I knew I didn't have time to dig through my scrapbooking boxes to find the cute paper, or to put the amazing hearts together.  And, no branches of our trees around here are dead to make a tree like theirs...(let alone having colored rocks laying around) so I did my own twist...

I cut out construction paper hearts (creative, I know--but very do-able).

For Family Home Evening, we watched this video, then everyone wrote on a heart something they liked about a person.  They wrote a heart to everyone in our family.

 

The cool thing about having a pretty big family is that when we were done, we had A LOT of hearts!  We heart-attacked our pantry door, where we can all read the fun notes--over and over again!  It was a great activity, and really  made us focus on what we really did love about each other.  I think it will be a yearly tradition. 

Hope you all had a great Valentine's day too!

Thursday Thoughts

A few things that make me smile today:

Evidence from my little man that he is learning...note the phonetic spelling (and it's crossed out because he decided I'm not so mean--though he does still need to do his schoolwork).

A finished project.  The tutorial was awesome :)

And the house/project/grading/plot plans are ready to turn into the County on Tuesday....it's been a process.  (Oh, and the exercise room...it's really our school room.  We had to change it as people at the County thought we were starting a school, we didn't want to deal with those kind of questions.)

Crawlin'

 
Last week, we entered one of my favorite baby stages...Crawling! 

Favorite? you may ask....OH YES!  By the time my babies are 9-10 months old, they are aware of so much and they want to be part of it.  They get so upset when they are stuck sitting.  They are so much happier when they can get to where they want to go.  Sure, there's the unloading of bookshelves, the endless sweeping, mopping, and vacuuming, but hey...happy babies are worth it!

Other happy 9-month tricks include clapping (hooray!)

And grabbing whatever she can.

Growing so big, so fast.  Here's to a happy Monday!

Sweetpod #3

Sometimes inspiration comes when we least expect it, and not always when we think we have time.  Time has been of the essence lately as we are trying to get settled and using every extra spare minute doing "house stuff,"  as I research the best doors, appliances, or a building permit form.

I got my Visiting Teaching route just after we moved in the ward and I was able to see our new sisters soon after that.  While we were visiting one of them, she told us how her car had just gotten broken into and the thieves stole her baby carrier. 

The thought came..."you could totally make her a SweetPod!"  My thoughts came next... "I can't, I don't have time."  But that same thought came into my head over and over for a whole week.  Along with it were other thoughts:  "Never suppress a generous thought."  "You have everything to make one."  "You just need to do it." 

Finally, I got smart, and did as the spirit directed and made her a SweetPod.  I went through the stash and found some dec fabric and canvas left over from this pod.  I also found some awesome Moda Cross Weave I had in my stash.  At first I wasn't sure about the color, but I think the blue really pops out and looks great! 

I had all the buckles, webbing, and foam, and even a SweetPod tag from Jessica, so it was all ready to go.  I think sewing it up was kind of therapeutic for me as I thought about all of my Denver friends that I miss so much.  And it felt great to MAKE something...I needed that.  So, as always, service always benefits us more than those we serve.

 
We tried it on for size (Hazel had to make sure it tasted OK).

And three weeks after my first impressions, I gave away the SweetPod to a very excited and thankful mother.  It felt so good.

Halloween

Yes, I  know it's December...kind of.  This Southern California weather has me all confused.  I guess people go by the calendar more than the weather here.  Having lived in places where the weather significantly changes with the calendar (except for a dozen or so crazy days in Colorado), I'm not quite used to it, but here's our Halloween update (which we did celebrate the end of October).

I've been kind of divided on Halloween the last bit.  I found this post awhile back, and I think it summarizes my feelings.  I'm glad someone with the same ideas was able to say it better than me.

So, being new to the ward, we planned to go to the ward party.  Now just to figure out kids' costumes....  Hazel and David were easy.  Bring out the pumpkin sweats that fit and the dino costume I made 2 years ago.

 I tried to get the girls to wear their same costumes they had 2 years ago, but the funny thing about kids is that they grow.  So I told them they had to choose something simple...preferably with their own clothes.  They thought and thought, and they came up with a good plan. 

Samuel wanted to be a cowboy...jeans (check), denim shirt (check), cowby hat smashed in the dress-up box (check), all he needs is a vest.  I had left-over fabric from Eliza's indian costume, so I cut out 3 pieces, sewed 4 seams--done (gotta love non-fraying faux suede!), 

The girls wanted to be pioneers, They had shirts and Eliza had a skirt, we even had a bonnet--with a big purple marker stain in the back.  So, just 1 skirt for Sarah, 2 aprons, and 1 bonnet ("could you make a new one for me please?") 2 bonnets.  I just happened to have a bonnet and apron cut out from Sarah's pioneer costume 3 (or was it 4?) years ago, so half the job was done on that.  I had some white muslin that I cut out another set, and I sent Sarah into my stash to find fabric for a skirt.  I used this awesome ruffle skirt pattern and sewed up the skirt, bonnets and apron pretty quickly. 

Hooray!  5 costumes done and ready for the big trunk or treat! 

The candy made it all worth it, I'm sure.

 

Though, I'm trying to decide, is it a good thing, or a bad thing that I was able to come up with 3 costumes entirely from my fabric stash.  I'll say it's good, and try not to buy more stuff.  After all, it's a pain to move it!

The craziest 2 months of my life!

So, I've been a bit under the radar this last bit...Here's my recap of our crazy end of summer.


End of August:
Landlord is crazy.  He's threatening us.  We don't feel safe.  We have to move.  Tomorrow.  Stay up and pack until 2 a.m., maybe get 1 or 2 hours of sleep...living off adrenaline.
In the morning:  Load 2 26-foot Penske trucks in 2 1/2 hours (thank you awesome ward!)
Leave that afternoon for Utah.  Arrive 1:30 a.m. (thanks Jared!)
Sleep well for the first time in weeks.
Next day:  Unload stuff into Brother-in-law's garage (thanks Joe!).
Day after that:  Take Jeff to the airport for him to continue working in Denver (so hard!).

2 weeks later:
San Diego job is coming through (whew!)
Meet Jeff (who is driving a Penske for his brother) in Cove Fort, UT to drive to San Diego.
Next day:  Arrive in San Diego, help unload 2 26-foot Penske trucks for Brother and Sister-in law
Next 3 days:  Look at rental houses in San Diego.  On 3rd day, find the perfect one--it's still available, Hooray!  I fly back to Utah, Jeff flies to Denver.

1.5 weeks later:
Got the Job in San Diego.
Load stuff from Brother-in-law's garage into 2 26-foot Penske trucks (do we see a theme here?).  (Thank you family!)
Next day:  Drive to San Diego!  (thanks Mom and Dad!)  Arrive just in time to unload a few mattresses and find some sheets.  Sleep well
Day after that:  Unload the trucks and get moved in!

The next week:  Unpack and get organized.  Unpack so there are no boxes in sight.  We're sick of living out of boxes!

Since then:  Family is back together, loving San Diego weather (currently 85 degrees!), using cloth diapers again, school in full-swing, visited the beach twice, started sewing a little bit again, finding my way around, terribly missing Colorado friends, emotionally recovering from the drama.

Next step:  Build a house.  After these last few months, it shouldn't be too hard, right?

The Nursery

This post seems a bit anti-climactic as we have already moved and most of the nursery stuff is in boxes.  There were a few more items I was going to add to the room:  a throw pillow for the rocking chair and a female Jack Rabbit for fun.  But the house sold really fast, and these items are on the "to do when I finally settle down and get out my sewing machine again list."

I think most of my decor (except for the quilts) came from this post on the sew 4 home blog.  I have most of the links for the tutorials on my nesting list page. 

I had a lot of fun making all these and the fabric was awesome.  I can honestly say that after sewing all these things with it, I never tired of it. 

So, here it is:

The crib is really the focal part.  It was fun to do all aspects of the crib. from the bumpers to the skirt to the sheet.  I just love how it all looks!

Above the crib, I took scrap fabric and stretched it in wood embroidery hoops I got at Jo-Ann's.   Cheapest wall hangings I've ever done and they add so much to the room!  The quilt hanging over the crib, I took pictures and blogged about it at the end of this post.  I love it more and more every day.

The changing table area turned out great.  I would sit and stare at it while I was nursing in my chair.  The boxes are really stuffed with cardboard (and are so functional!!).  The quilt was so fun to make--and surprisingly easy.  I followed a quilt-a-long and the top came together in no time.  I quilted it with my walking foot and after it was bound, I sewed little rings in the back for hanging.  Perfect!

So there it is.  I couldn't be more happy with the way it all came together.  It really was amazing.

I also have to share one more thing...I made curtains for the boys' room and they were so hard to leave behind.  They were perfect with the animals on the wall.  I'll be making some more just like this in the future, I'm sure of it!