Summer Sewing

I've gotten to do a little sewing over the past few months, trying new things out, which has been fun. Here are a few pics of things I've done.











My friend, Angie, told me about this pattern you can use to make a dress from a men's button-down shirt, and it looked SO cute....mine didn't turn out nearly as cute. The back of the shirt will be the front of the dress and the buttons will go down the back, pretty clever. I messed up quite a few things with it, but I love the idea and might try it again some day. It's tricky finding a cute men's shirt in the right size. I was supposed to use a men's medium to get the right size for the straps, and one of my problems was that I thought I could get a women's small to work....not so much. But it was fun to try. If you want to try it, here's the link.

I loved this pattern, but it came out about 3 times smaller than I have much use for. But I'd love to try it again and just size it up. I used some canvas I ordered on JCaroline's canvas blowout sale, and I loved the way it worked for this shoulder bag. It's a great bag for my camera, a little cash, some chapstick, and my keys. Or just my wallet and nothing else. :-) But it was fun to make and I'll hopefully try it again and make it a little bigger. Here's the link for this pattern.

I thought it would be fun to try to make some small balls out of scrap fabric. I made one, but I'd like to try to make some coordinating sets of varying sizes. Angie's baby boy (coming really soon!) will get to play with this one when he's a bit older.

This was a fun bag to make for Angie's birthday. It would be good for the library or the pool or even a grocery bag! I loved the fabric. Here's the link for this pattern.

I love the model's pose in this picture!! I made matching dresses for Angie's girls, Emma and Addie. I think both of them came out way too short, but owell. Angie's my guinee pig for all my sewing projects I think! Can you tell what this is made out of? Here's the link.

My friend, Charlie, asked if I'd make her a purse, so I had fun picking out fabric for her. I love this bag. It's fun and easy to make and I love the style. Here's the link for this pattern.

I have a lot of things on my project list....it's just finding the time and energy to do them! I love creating things, it makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something tangible and it's fun to see how things turn out.

A Weekend with the Girls

Jason and some of his buddies from college have been getting together every year for a long weekend to have some fun and refreshing guy-time. This year a few of their wives (Kelli, Byranie & Ashley) came to stay at our house for the weekend so we could have some fun while they were away. It was a great weekend, albeit a tad crazy at times with 7 kids 4 & under and 4 of us moms in our place. But we had fun and so did the kids. I think by the end of the weekend we were surprised (or at least I was!) that we had only left the house for a total of about 4 hours. It was a beautiful weekend, and it's too bad we didn't get to spend more time outside, especially since Ashley had never been to California!, but it was just hard with all the various napping schedules of everyone! We had great conversations on the couch after the kids had gone down for bed, and it was just fun to get to know each other better and just to be together. I hope we can do it again.

And before the girls came, we got to have Jason's sister Bridget and her family from Colorado stay with us for a night as they drove up the coast. It was a bummer he missed them, but we had a good time together, and it was fun to get to show them where we've lived for the past 5 years!

Livi, Brianna, Carson, Sean

Carson, Micah, Elias, Ashley in the background with baby Natalie sleeping in the tent, and Leif....I love that he's putting the bucket on his head. :-)

Reese

Kelli & Leif

Livi

A highlight of the weekend was jumping on Livi's bed to some Bible music, especially the B-I-B-L-E song, it was cute. They had so much fun.

One of our outings was to the park and a walk to get coffee.

Livi adored baby Natalie.

The girls (and Carson)...Byranie, Ashley, me, Kelli

4th of July Fun

We weren't able to have fireworks in our town this year due to all the fires all around the state, but that didn't keep us from having fun. We started off with our traditional red, white, and blue breakfast of waffles with strawberries and blueberries and whipped cream, yum! We went to Mission Springs Camp for their annual carnival where the kids played games, went on the bouncy slide, and overloaded on sugar....cotton candy and snowcones. They were thrilled they got both. It was a fun time. We were going to go to the parade on Scotts Valley Dr., but we were all tired and needed a rest before we went to Skypark for another fun time of music and food and carnival-type games. Carson got a try on a rockwall & Livi amazingly wanted to go into the bounce house and had a blast. Livi was putting on quite the dance moves to the band that was playing, she was cracking us up, as usual. It was a good day of celebration.

Ice Cream Anyone??

Middle of the night ponderings

Carson's always been very strategic, dare I say manipulative, when it comes to not wanting us to leave his room when it's time to say goodnight. Last night he woke up close to 4am, and at first he was barely awake, but wanted his music back on. Sometimes that's all it takes, but other times, like last night, it becomes at least an hour of going up and down the stairs to his room trying to get him to go back to sleep. Last night he had some questions he just had to ask. The first one was "Why are there bad people in the world?" Such deep thoughts for a young mind in the middle of the night, but we talked about it briefly, till he was on to his next question..."How do they make yogurt, and how do they make it fluffy?" And then, the last one of the night..."How fast does Bumpa's (Grandpa's) car go?" He seemed satisfied with my answers, and we left on a positive note. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to handle his middle of the night wakings, which don't happen very often, but when they do, they're usually not brief and I end up getting mad...that technique doesn't work. I guess I just need to be grateful that he is usually a great sleeper. I do feel tired today, as it was a tad hard to fall back asleep when it was getting light at 5am! I can't believe how early it starts getting light now! And the birds are so happy at that time of day.

On another sleeping note....Livi is on night 4 of sleeping in the day bed that has been in her room. She likes it and has slept great every night. I'm so glad. Last night we had to convince her that she really did want to sleep in her "big bed", cuz she thought it would be more fun to sleep in her crib again, but we didn't want to do the back-and-forth thing, so Jason, in all of his wonderful daddy-ness got her to realize how cool it was and she snuggled right in. So tonight Jason took the crib down. Meanwhile I was in Carson's room cleaning up from what looked like a tornado had come through, and I just couldn't bare to go in and see the process, it made me so sad. Not that Livi was growing out of it, but just wondering if there would ever be another baby in our family to use that crib. After 5 years of having it up and being used, it's sad to see it go down, not knowing if that was our last time in that phase of life. We'll have to see what the Lord brings about.

Creamy Chicken and Vegetable Soup

This recipe is awesome. Lemon juice in chicken soup, who'da thunk.....but it is SO good. It makes for a great summer meal, especially when combined with these. You gotta try it!

summer

Thing I love about summer:

1. Warm cement after the sun has gone down and it's dark outside.

2. Fresh flowers or herbs in a mason jar on the dining room table.

3. Water.....pools, lakes, oceans, rivers, sprinklers, hoses, in a cup, ice.

4. Fresh breaths of morning air, so thick with sweetness and warmth.

5. Everything just feels a little free-er, relaxed schedules, longer days of light, lighter clothes.

6. Farmer's markets!!!!!!!!

7. The best fruits of the year....nectarines, peaches, cherries, strawberries...yum!

8. Bike-riding to get ice cream.

9. Picnics

10. Reading outside with an Arnold Palmer (lemonade & tea)