southern living house tour

Southern Living's newest house tour just opened down the road from our house a few weeks ago. We took the kids to the grand opening, mostly for the free Coldstone ice cream and also cause I love an open house... even if there is no possible way I will ever live in a house like that! Anyway, there was a clown there doing face painting and balloons and the 3 big kids got their faces painted. She did a great job! I did not have been camera with me, so this picture was taken post Cheeto eating once we got home!

i just can help myself!

All the scraps from my Good Folks throw were lying on my sewing table and I just had to do something with them! This was sew much fun, I just started picking out strips of fabric and sewing them together, no measuring, cutting or pinning, just sewing and trimming until I had a big enough square to cover an old pillow! After all the pattern sewing I have done lately it was refreshing to just "wing it" and not worry about getting it perfect... I even included a bit of selvage in one of the strips. O course all this blanket and pillow sewing means I am going to have to make/find a new cover for our futon, currently it has a fitted white sheet with black flowers on it... not exactly a complimenting look for all the color and patterns in my Good Folks!

happy memorial day!

The kids found a pile of t-shirts this morning that I bought awhile back to embroider or applique and wanted me to get to work right away! I was able to applique a puppy on Max's shirt before we headed out to a friends house for lunch. The template for the puppy came from Anna Maria Horner's blog. Micah's shirt is up next (if we can find it, somehow it disappeared while I was sewing Max's puppy).
Here are the girls in their matching outfits, all smiles and ready for church.
Hope you are having a wonderful Memorial Day!

weekend sewing

I finally got Regan's outfit sewn with week. I ended up having to take the top apart and re-make it, as the first one was too small. I think it turned out really cute, of course Regan has something negative to say about EVERYTHING you spend lots of time and effort on making just for her... I think I am done making her clothing, she is just too picky and after all the time, love and money I put into it, she will probably wear it today (because I will make her wear it) and never again!

top #1

re-done

I found a few minutes yesterday in between gardening, taking apart/moving our swing set and napping to sew together the top for a throw quilt. I got this stack of Anna Maria Horner fat quarters with my birthday money back in February and was planning to make a quilt with it. I was inspired by this blanket by Soule Mama to keep it simple and make big blocks instead lots of smaller ones. I think the large squares really suits the Good Folks prints as many of them have large and varying patterns. Now I just need to get some backing fabric and batting to finish it up!

freedom!

butterflies!

We woke up this morning to find 2 butterflies out of their chrysalids and another came out while I was in the shower! We are watching the other two closely, hoping we get a chance to see one emerge!

i almost forgot!

I promised to post pictures of the Mother's Day gift I made for my mom. I used Anna Maria Horner's free pattern found here and Heather Bailey scraps from Tallulah's dress.

It turned out pretty cute and I think I have enough scraps to make another for myself :) The pictures are not the greatest, but you get the general idea!

strawberry season, oh how I love thee!

We picked nearly 8 quarts of strawberries today and made jam for the first time! How it turns out is still to be determined as it is cooling on the counter right now. I followed the recipe in the Certo pectin box for cooked jam and it was fairly simple. I did make quite a mess though, as I doubled the recipe and my pot was not quite big enough...oops!

Those of you who know anything about canning may recognize my "unsafe", inversion method of sealing the jars, but it worked for my mom for many years and I decided to "risk it" and do the same. I have a feeling most of it will be eaten up before that is even a concern anyway!

field day

Last week we had field day with our homeschool PE group. We had beautiful weather and there were lots of fun games, prizes and cupcakes for the kids. Here are just a few of the almost 200 pictures I took!

chrysalises moved to their new home

Amazing, in a mere 24 hours all 5 caterpillars when from crawling around their jar to fully chrysalized (I might have just made that word up). Here is one last in-jar shot...
You can see some of their shed skins mixed in with the silk, food and waste.
A couple of them still had part of their last skin still stuck to them, I did not want to risk the chance of knocking them off the paper disc, so I just left it there. If you click on the photos you can see them close up.
See how they get those gold spiny dots, pretty cool looking!
Did you know that the caterpillar basically turns into liquid inside the chrysalis and then a butterfly forms from it? Amazing!
The chrysalis faze is 7-10 days, so we should have butterflies by next weekend!

our catapilars are entering the pupa stage!!!!

a little sunshine on this cold, rainy day!

The mail man knocked on our door on this rainy afternoon with all sorts of surprises...
Let's take a closer look...

Oooh! We've been waiting for these! And just in time to start our butterfly unit this week!

A pretty new mug from my mom for mother's day! (I mailed her gift today and will post pictures once she's gotten it).

Two patterns that I have been eying on Sandi Henderson's site. Can't wait to get sewing!

Our next math level, only 5 more lessons in Alpha!
Hope you found some sunshine in your day too!

happy mother's day!

So far my morning has been filled with sunshine, happy smiles, lots of hugs, hand made gifts and donuts (a new iPod shuffle too). Hope that your mother's day is a wonderful one too!

burda + bailey = sew cute!

I have been holding onto this pattern for a year, waiting for the perfect fabric for all those wonderful ruffly layers. There will be two outfits made, today I finished the first, a dress for Tallulah.

The Heather Bailey Pop Garden half yards I ordered earlier this year were just calling out to me...

aren't those colors wonderful?
It isn't pink, which seems to be all Tallulah wears, but I think she likes it anyway, and once Regan has her coordinating capri's and top I am sure I won't be able to get them out of them!