17 in 2017

Posted by Jenny in Dyeing, Sewing and tagged with dyeing, wool sweater, zipper bags January 1, 2018

In the tie dye world there are facebook pages exploding with amazing collections of people’s best dye projects in 2017.

Here are my top 17 dye projects for 2017.

Top sewing projects for 2017:

February 2014

Posted by Jenny in Year 4 Monthly Post and tagged with baby wearing, bag, Books, Breastfeeding, Charlie, Cross Country Skiing, dyeing, Henry, Nola Mae, Pillowcase, quilt, Reading, ring sling, sewing, Snowshoe, wool sweater, Wrap, zipper bags March 1, 2014

February 2014

I have had a busy month. I am pleased with the amount of things we (I) did and the things we caught on camera, considering it was a short month.

Nola Mae loves to play in the water. I am expecting to have lots of fun this summer at the beach. Whenever she hears the water running in the kitchen she comes running and yelling “bubbas” and lately she has spent time in the bath tub. She is making up for the lack of baths she had during her first year of life. Every time I tried to give her a bath she would scream. I don’t really care for extra messes around our house, but when this sweet girl is loving the bubbles I can’t resist.

My friend, at Kissing Glue, shared a few awesome valentine ideas that she has done in the past that inspired me to do this with our boys.

We don’t celebrate anything in a big way, ever, especially on Valentine’s Day. I am okay with that! My Valentine wrote me a sweet letter with all the things he appreciates I do, and he didn’t miss a single thing! My letter is definitely a keeper to dig out on a rough day! He also made me a drink, one of my favorites, that I haven’t had in a very long time! I sure do miss Rusty’s Backwater Salon’s bloody Mary’s!

I love this smile:

We had a little excitement this month with Charlie. I wrote a blog post about Charlie’s emergency visit, click here to read that post.

Someone left the door open and Nola Mae followed.

Her hair is starting to come. I knew it would arrive sometime because I was a bald child until I was two.

Nola Mae nursed her baby doll for the first time this month. She also has read books to her babies!

Reading:

I am proud to say everyone in our house likes to read books. Nola Mae hasn’t shown much interest until recently. Henry and I read books often and she plays in the room and sometimes comes to sit on my lap to look at one or two pages at a time.

She recently has started to bring me books to read to her and even sits in my lap for the entire book! Last week she kept bringing me books, we read these five twice in one sitting. And then she sat there for another 10 minutes reading them by herself.

I came home from night skiing with friends and found this…

When it was time for me to go to bed I found her like this…

Skiing:

Pointy hood, heart booty, cutie pie!

If this girl could ski every day she would be happy. Everyday, she says, “kiing” and puts on someone’s skiing helmet or boots or plays in the skiing sled when I have it in the house.

Babywearing:

I wrote this post this month with photos from one of our snowshoe outings.

Lately I have been thinking, “I don’t remember the last time I wrapped Henry.” I was feeling kind of sad thinking that there may not be another time, since he will be 5 in one month. Then he got hurt in the toy room, dug out my wrap and brought it to me and asked to go on my back until he felt better. He was up there for about 10 minutes and was happy to take a picture so we can remember this moment.

Dyeing projects:

Finished ring sling ice & snow dye:

This could actually go in March’s monthly post because it will be finished in March. But I started this rainbow ice dye on February 28th. My collection of dye projects is growing and I may get a “dyeing project” blog posts done in March and include the finished projects from this dye session.

I bought this basket for ice dyeing, $2.49 at Goodwill. I will need to test it out soon. I couldn’t use it for my rainbow project because I needed a bigger surface. I struggle every time to stack the ice or snow high enough and I think the sides on this basket will help solve that problem.

My sewing projects this month:

I went to the library looking for fat-quarter quilt books and jelly-roll patterns. This is what I came home with…

I used these scraps of fabric that I ice dyed last month to sew these zipper bags and this panel of fabric that may turn into a baby quilt or a tote bag.

While I was making zipper bags I dug out my bag of unfinished zipper bags.

The three ring slings I made this month. The last one is for a child to carry a doll and strong enough for an older sibling to carry a real baby.

I wore this sweater last winter. It slowly shrunk on me and so I felted it to make a stuffed fish. Wouldn’t it make a cute fish? Well, it fit Nola Mae perfectly. So she will wear it this winter and I will have to come up with something else to make with this wool sweater.

I found a different sweater for the felted wool sweater fish. The loop holding the wooden teething ring is Velcro.

Fingerless gloves I made from a felted wool sweater. I added the four heart beads to each glove. I have great appreciation for the beautiful work my aunts and step-mom do with their jewelry making!

This black sweater had a lot of love in it when it came to me. I added a little love when I made these little pillows for two sisters who miss their Daddy.

Jack asked me to find a bag that would fit his shoes, a t-shirt, a small towel and a pocket for his wallet for when he goes to racquetball. I thought it would take me awhile to find the right bag so I thought I would just make him one. It was fun, quick and easy. I didn’t buy a single thing for it. The lining fabric came from my friend, Anna. The padding and outside fabric came from my mother-in-law and the handles were the end of the strap from a Mei Tai that I made for our cousin, Jessie. I was surprised that the blue matched perfectly. I have a box of the trimming from straps of bags and aprons that I have made for this very reason!

January 2014

Posted by Jenny in Year 4 Monthly Post and tagged with baby wearing, basketball, Charlie, Christmas tree 2013, Cross Country Skiing, denim upcycle, fruit, Grandma Lynn, Henry, marker, Nola Mae, play house, Reading, ring sling, Robbie, Sledding, Snowshoe, upcycled, wool sweater February 3, 2014

January 2014

When the weather is very cold outside and the boys still need to get out, the barn is one of those places.

After Christmas was over I started trimming branches off the tree to burn in the wood stove. I slowly trimmed the branches and when it was time to take the ornaments off I continued to burn branches in the wood stove until it was a manageable size for a big boy to carry outside.

Charlie carried it down to the burn pit and I started it on fire.

Nola Mae carrying a box down to the burn pit to burn.

My Dad and Lynn came to visit us for a weekend.

Almost every day Nola Mae puts on someone’s ski boots and tells me “skiing!”

I bought 40 pounds of grapefruit this winter. This was the biggest one.

The boys went away for a weekend with Jack. Jack took these (and many more) great photos, these are my favorites.

I got this idea from my friend Sarah. I filled these balloons with colored water,

and decorated our igloo with the ice balls.

Nola Mae photos:

She enjoyed playing with my cake decorating tips by making towers with them.

Henry did this to Nola Mae while I was doing some laundry.

Nola Mae just reading (warms my heart).

Another “heart warming” photo, when one sibling sweetly kisses the other.

I told Nola Mae to watch me out the window while I fed the dogs, started the car and checked the skid steer’s hydraulic fluids. This is where she was when I came in. Usually, she stands on the shortened chair so I was a little surprised she found this good seat in the window.

We had a great month of skiing.

This winter two kids in the sled is a heavy load! I got a good work-out and a nap out of both of them.

Breaking a new snow shoe trail during a snow storm…Nola Mae wasn’t happy when the sled tipped over because the trail wasn’t wide enough for the sled. Eventually she fell asleep and she didn’t notice when it happened.

Upcycle projects:

This upcycled trivet made with denim and scraps of yellow and orange fabrics., inside lining is fleece from an old baby blanket and the backing is two pieces of corduroy that were given to me. This was my contribution to the Art Exchange for the Vater family Christmas.

Jack’s Art exchange item:

Jack made two other cigar box guitars. If you have facebook you may be able to view a video he made click here to see the video.

In my research for a upcycle project I found a denim rug that I wanted to make for my kitchen. I have used this wool rug, weaved by Jack’s aunt. I like a rug under the sink area and have always thought that I needed a rug that had an angle for that spot.