Right now

Snuggling this baby (who has a runny nose)

After school playing

And a little bit of napping 

Finished!

All my boys have a special quilt from Mama and today I finally finished little T's!  I started it just a month or so before he was born and I'm so happy to finally finish it and be able to snuggle him in it.  I love how it turned out.  So so soft kinky on the back and silky satin binding for my little finger sucker to hold.

We're on the road for a weekend in Yosemite but I'll be sure to update and link up with the different fabrics I used when we get back Monday. 

fabric in the mail

A happy little box was waiting for me on the doorstep when I arrived home from picking the kiddos up from school.  I ordered the chevron minky on purpose because its going to be the backing for little T's baby quilt and the others because, well, it added up to $35 on fabric.com and then I got free shipping so it just made sense to get them too. You know what I mean. I am in LOVE with these little farm prints and the Heather Ross print is getting squirreled away for a granny square quilt I've had in my head for awhile.

fabric: Minky cuddle mini chevron in Topaz/Snow (which is on sale now!- unfortunately was not when I bought it a week ago, blerg)

Heather Ross Far Far Away Frogs Blue

Farm Friends Chickens Blue

Farm Friends Pigs Red

another mini baby quilt

 

more fun with the ruffler!  tomorrow is my birthday and josh asked me if I wanted a day of pampering and I told him what I really wished for was a morning with no kids to just sew all I wanted.  and being the delight he is, he agreed and took the boys all morning and afternoon.  I have to admit I was a little befuddled at first when he left as to where to start but eventually got to working.    mostly I wanted to play with the ruffler so I put together another little mini snuggler.

I wanted to play with batting and fabrics.  I didn't use any batting for this one to see if the minky was enough.  I put it through the wash already to see how it would shrink up.  

And now I'll add it to the shop!

A New Mini-Quilt

A few months ago I was in my local quilt shop and came across this fabric.  I had been looking for some fabric to make the special "auntie Tyra" quilt for one my my bestie's new baby and when I set eyes on this fabric I fell hard in love with it.

It also inspired me to go out and buy myself a ruffler foot for my birthday.   It is so fun let me tell you.

The fabric design is a log cabin quilt pattern without all the sewing.  I loved it.

But there was also this fabulous yellow fabric that I couldn't say no to.  

I loved the combination of the three of them together.

The final product for my friend's baby will have minky on the back but I wanted to quilt it up just to see it together.  So I'm calling this a mini quilt and a doll quilt and putting it in my etsy shop.

Here:

Today I liked up with:

baby changing pad {for the shop}

When C was born I made a changing pad out of oil cloth and liked it so much I made a few more in my shop.  A few weeks ago my kindergarten teacher emailed me with the exciting news she was going to be a new grandma and she wanted me to make something for her to bring to the shower.

I had an extra one from back when I made my own that was still in my shop but she was looking for something more pink/brown so off to the fabric store I went.

Now that its been five years since my brand new mom self made that first one, I've learned a few things about toting diapers around.  There were some things about the original design that I thought needed a little improvement on so instead of rolling it, I had it fold up and added a belt around it instead of a tie to keep it together. This also allowed it to keep a spare dipe and wipes all there together in once convenient pouch.

So now I think I need a new} one for myself and a bunch more for the shop using some of those fabulous oil cloths and vinyl fabrics I found at my last visit to Harts!

Bread {Part II}

Today I tried out one of my pre-mixed breads and it turned out great!  I was worried that since the ingredients would be mixed up and out of order it might get messed up but it turned out perfectly.

I thought I'd share my recipes in case anyone else out there is a bread machine baker like myself.

Honey Oat and Wheat Bread

1 1/2 C warm water

1 1/2 T olive oil

6 T honey

1 1/2 t salt

3/4 C quick cook oats

2 1/2 C bread flour

1 C wheat flour

1 1/2 t yeast

Rye

1 1/4 C warm water

1 1/2 T olive oil

1/4 C molasses

1 1/2 t salt

2 T dry milk

1 3/4 C rye flour

1 C wheat flour

1 1/4 C bread flour

2 1/2 t yeast

Set it on your wheat bread setting and bingo!  You've got fresh bread!

Pretty much my favorite thing in the world these days is a slice of honey oat and wheat bread toasted with butter and honey after I've put the kids to bed for the night.

Enjoy!

Oh and while you're making your batches and have to go feed the baby before you can add the bread flour, make sure you push the containers to the back of the counter so your two and a half year old son can't climb up, dump one out and dance in it.  

Just a little tip from someone who knows:)

Bread

So lately I'v been working toward changing the way I buy and cook food for the fam.  I am trying to move toward cleaner, simpler and more local food.  I'm a firm believer in planning meals and keeping things really simple in an effort to keep my sanity with three littles around the house while I'm trying to cook as well as watching the old food budget.

One of the things I've been doing is to cook my own bread.  Bread is easy but can be time consuming, unless you are me and have a bread maker. I keep my bread maker on my counter and make a new, fresh loaf most days.  I used to just use it to make the dough and then cooked the bread in my oven but then I have to be home and tend it and lets be honest, with the three little ones around here we've got a go go schedule and I forget about things like bread rising in the oven.

So I thought I'd streamline the process and premix my dry ingredients.  I'd had these old yogurt containers and they seemed like the perfect size.

So we'll see how they work!

Oil Cloth Bonanza

On Friday I went to my local Harts Fabric to check out what they had in the way of oil cloth for a custom order.  I was amazed at the beautiful selection they had!  I hadn't expected it! All the sudden my head started spinning with ideas for things I didn't even know I needed oil cloth for.  REALLY trying to not buy supplies for projects until I can actually start on those projects which is annoying since I've got a bit of a line up of things that need to be done.  Maybe its just the motivation I need to move through the queue!

afternooning

a few weeks before micah was born, asher discovered to my great dismay that he could climb out of his crib.  from that point on he felt that he had no use for naps and thus began a power struggle between him and I that ended with me throwing my hands up in the air and saying, okay.  you're done with naps. i get it. fine.  

about a month ago something started happening in the course of our regular afternoon routine.  a little quiet time on the couch in front of a show usually led to asher falling asleep for an hour or so which led to MUCH more pleasant evenings with a not as wiped out two year old.  and the added bonus of an hour of peace and quiet for mama to gather her thoughts, have a cup of tea and prepare dinner.

with the weather improving around here 

(81 today with a slight breeze and sunny!) 

we've spent our quiet time with the doors open, enjoying the breeze and smell of outside.  I looked over today from my perch in the kitchen and saw all four of my little charges together, enjoying their quiet in their own ways.

More lucky stars.  I got the file for the February block again that I accidentally deleted so I can make another one.  I think I'm definitely going to do two blocks of each star so I can have a bigger quilt.  I LOVE these blocks and I think I am now sufficiently addicted to foundation piecing.

Linking up today with:

Lucky Stars Block of the month club

I joined up with Don't Call Me Betsy's Lucky Stars block of the month club.  I've been intrigued and totally intimidated by all the foundation piecing I've seen around the quilty blogosphere in the last year or two and finally decided to just jump in and give it a whirl.  I figured a block of the month club would be a good way to try it out. And I love it!

Here is the third block I've done.  Each block seems to take me about two hours.  I'm tempted to make two of each months' blocks to finish up with a nice sized quilt at the end of it all.  I've noticed we have an abundance of lap sized quilts and a shortage of snuggle up sized ones so I've been trying to get to some larger quilt projects.  I did a custom quilting job for a friend and did a quilt that was the largest I've done on my little Bernina 440QE to date and it went really well.  So well I'm less concerned with saving up my big quilts for our yearly trip up to Washington where I can rent long arm time.

  

packing up the last of christmas

I have seen this about a million places on Pinterest and today I thought I might give it a try.  Sort of a little time capsel to keep around of all our friends through the years.  Or it might just be one more thing I'm storing that I really don't need to. 

I put our family Christmas card on the top as our cover and then just hole punched everyone else and bound it with two little rings.  I kinda thought it turned out cool and I'll just pop it in the Christmas decorations boxes and pull it out to add to our Christmas books basket next year.

Fun!  Pinterest win.

Doorbell Tile

More fun with vinyl last night.  Those of you mama's know the inner rage that happens with the doorbell rings and then you hear a baby cry from upstairs.  Oh the pain!  With Micah still being such a little guy, he naps three times a day, sometimes four which basically means our house is in a constant state of possible nap disturbance.  Awhile back I put a little note above the doorbell which was imidiately effective and people were very respectful of it.  Unfortunately paper, even paper wrapped in a baggie (tacky much?) still became faded and worn (and ugly and tacky) so I knew I needed something more durable.

I wanted a gentle message so as not to scold or boss people as they stepped up to our threshold and thought this did the trick.  I wish I had a little sleeping baby graphic that wasn't cheesy but I am always a fan of birds so there you go.

I thought it turned out nice and it might become a new gift for the new mamas in my life.  or maybe I'll make a few more and pop them in my etsy shop. 

today I'm linking up with: 

Christmas House

I needed a hostess gift last night and thought I'd whip up a cute little Christmas ornament to tie onto a bottle of sparkling cider. I popped over to my Christmas ornament Pinterest board and thought these by Retro Mama might be cute.  (and funnily enough she's posting about her Christmas houses on her site today!  Check out her blog, I LOVE her stuff)

I added a little Christmas-ish holly on top and dabbled a bit on the free-motion cursive (to which now I'm totally addicted)  Might have to make a few for my own sad little tree.  I'm pretty sure my kids can't break ornaments like these, or at least if they do I won't find them sitting in a ring of crushed glass Christmas balls like I did last Friday.  (grrrrrrrr.....)

but that's a different blog post altogether....

Today I'm linking up with:

  

Breaking out the Silhouette! (finally)

Last year for Christmas my super rad sister-in-law planted a bug in my mom's ear that I might enjoy a Silhouette. And then Christmas morning came and I opened it up and freaked out, I was so excited. I had so many ideas and things I wanted to make with it but it took a few months to get a computer that I could use it with and then there was the craziness that was a new baby's arrival and our summer vacation and so on. And I still hadn't used it! Till last night. I got the kids to bed and brought it all downstairs to sit by the Christmas tree and figure it all out with a couple episodes of Foyle's War in the background. It was fun and oh so addicting. I finally fumbled into bed about 1:30 am (!!!!???) with two projects that had been jingling around in my head since I got my Cameo and heard of chalkboard vinyl.

Chalkboard vinyl is fun and super easy to work with.  I was worried that it wouldn't erase well but it really does.  This is a big improvement over the stained dollar store dry erase board I was using.

And I've been wanting to do a little thing like this over our big family picture in our entryway for pretty much as long as we've had a big family picture in our entryway.  I still have two little flourishes I want to put on either side of the lettering but the learning curve of working with the vinyl pretty much used up the small amount of black that I got so I've got to order some more before I can do anymore there.

But I love it!  Expect to see more with the Silhouette now that I've figured out how to do it.  Anyone have any good projects they've done that they really liked??

Today I'm linking up with:

  

Baby Booties

I'm sort of obsessed with my baby wearing mama made booties.  I made two little pairs that he wears ALL the time on my big drive up to Washington back in August but lately I've been craving a little more variety for his feet.  Unfortunately I just haven't had a lot of time to make them.  Last night, however, after sending my kids to bed early for reasons only partially their fault, I found myself with a little time on my hands.  So I made a yellow bootie. One yellow bootie.

Maybe tonight I'll make another one.

Postcard Quilt top complete!

I've been working my way through my bin of WIPs and last night I finished my Postcard quilt top! Woo hoo! I started it with a pile of old fashioned type scrap prints that individually I didn't really like but put them together and now I think it looks beautiful. I used Kona Mellon for the boarders and sashing to give it that civil war era look and I think once it's quilted up it will look great and be a nice autumn colored quilt to put out. Or I've even been toying with the idea of hanging it in my big blank wall space in my living room. We'll see! For now I'm just really happy to be making such good progress getting through those WIPs.

for the new mr. and mrs.

Earlier in the week my friend mentioned a little project she needed for another friend's daughter's wedding. (follow that?) anyway, the mother of the bride had an idea of sending the newlyweds off on their red-eye honeymoon flight with personalized travel pillows. It gave me a good excuse to break out my embroidery machine and hamg oit with a dear friend. Despite some computer/sewing machine communication difficulties, we got it done and I think they turned out really cute. Great gift for someone heading out on a big trip!