I’m Giddy!

More sewing today. And I’m giddy with what I’ve done. I made shoes. Oh yeah. And it must be addicting because I want to make more! I used this pattern (not the pattern I originally was going to try).

The pattern suggested enlarging/reducing to make different sized shoes. I used my printer and reduced it to 70% for the smaller pair. Once I had the pattern pieces printed I encased them in contact paper so they would be sturdier. (I wrote the percentage of original size on the back of the pattern before I encased them so I would be able to keep them straight.) I also used an xacto to cut the slits on the top piece for the placement of the elastic slits.

I made the big pair in the original pattern size first. Just to make sure I could do it. The pattern suggests using leather for the soles. Since I made these for non-walking babies I used fleece (got a 1 yard 60″ wide remnant from Wal-Mart for less than $2). And I used one fat quarter to make both pairs of shoes, including the lining, and still had a bit of fabric left over. And that was after cutting out one piece again because of a boo-boo. And I used pinking shears to try and reduce the fray factor.

For the slits inside the top for the elastic the pattern suggested making button holes. Well, I’ve only tried button holes on my machine once and I’m not very confident in my button hole making. So I used fray check and doused the areas for the slits. After it dried I used my seam ripper to make the slits. I’m hoping this will help avoid fraying there as well.

In the pattern it also says to pin on the top and the back then sew. I pinned on the top and sewed it on, then I pinned on the back and sewed it on. It was easier for me plus then I had fewer pins at once to contend with.

After making the big pair it took no time at all to whip up the smaller pair. Here is the smaller pair next to my phone so you can see how tiny they are. (Ooooo… so cute!)

And now I’m addicted! I want to make more and more! And I want to be all fancy and embellish them with embroidery and beads. (Partly because I got this book and am feeling inspired to embroider. I also got this book and want to make stuff out of it too.)

So for now, the crafty sewing roll is still rolling. YAY!!!! I hope it lasts for a while.

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I have to share e-mail between my sister and me about this–I sent pictures to my mom and two sisters and my friend Rhonda. It cracks me up. (My editorial comments are in blue.)

Me: I’m giddy so I have to share what I made today. I think they are so cute and want to make more! And they were much easier than I expected. I took a picture next to my phone so you could see how small they are.

Tracy: Way Cute! They are so little. I think you need them in every color to match Baby M’s outfits. {Baby is not named so Tracy is referring to her as Baby M because our last name starts with M.}

Me:Totally! That’s what I said to Nann {another sister}. I can teach her young to want coordinating shoes for all her outfits! An  Imelda in training. {Because we always call Tracy Imelda for her shoe collection.}

Tracy: Yes, I purchased four pair of shoes this month! {See, told ya!}Two replacements, and two fun sandals for summer. Baby M and I can hang out together.

Man, I love my family!

Crafty Sewing Update

I was so excited to be sewing today. In fact, last night as I was in bed I kept thinking about sewing. That hasn’t happened to me for a while.

Today I was able to check off the first three things on my list:

Finish diaper case/changing pad for Sai’s teacher

Pencil roll for Sai’s teacher aide (inspired by this)

Baby gift for Serena. (Sorry no picture yet. I want her to get it before I post it. She needs some sort of surprise!)

I was so in the zone! And I’m still pumped so hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to work on the rest of my list.

Feeling Crafty

For some reason I’m feeling super motivated to do some crafty sewing projects. But I haven’t had time this week! Yesterday was busy with laundry and other errands. Today was spent grocery shopping and doing more errands. But tomorrow is sewing day!!! Here’s my list so far (and, of course, there is no way I’ll get all of this done so hopefully I’ll have time to sew on Thursday and Friday as well):

Sewing Projects

·     Finish diaper case/changing pad for Sai’s teacher

·     Pencil roll for Sai’s teacher aide

·     Baby gift for Serena

·     Soft shoes for baby

·     Baby sling??

Sai’s teacher is having a baby and her due date is two weeks before mine. But her last day at school is 21 March so I want to get the gift done and have it ready and waiting. And then next week Sai’s school is celebrating their classified employees (non-teachers) so I thought I’d make her a colored pencil roll for the teacher aide in his class. Then my friend Serena (a.k.a. Blissy) is having a baby one week after me so I want to get her gift done and sent soon. Then I wanted to make baby shoes using this tutorial. And then maybe a baby sling. I want to get started today! But there’s no time. (And part of the reason that there is no time is because I’m going with April to see Fools Gold because it’s the last night it is showing here in our town.)

Tires & Heros

YAY! We got new tires on the truck yesterday. Joe says he can feel a difference in the truck with the new tires. I can’t really tell.

We took a little bit of our tax money and bought Guitar Hero III for our PS2. OH MY GOSH! We’ve been having a blast rockin’ out.

Jay wants to play but doesn’t really get it or have the coordination to do it. But he still wants his turn. He was being super cheesy trying it out.

Sai loves playing. He’s getting pretty good. He does it in training mode (so he doesn’t get booed and the song won’t end until he is done AND it can be really slow). He’s getting really good at Slow Ride. I thought he might get frustrated but he doesn’t get frustrated and he gets better and better each time he does it. I’m impressed. Plus he gets his foot going and really gets into it. (Look at that picture…Joe and Jay were looking for something under the couch. It makes me laugh.)

I’m so-so at Guitar Hero. I’m working on it! I get into it, too. I have to tap my foot along. It helps me to play the notes better. Plus, I do better when it is a song I kind of know. I don’t know many of these songs–I’m not really a rocker-type chick. The boys are good at cheering me on.

And here is Joe, the family Guitar Hero expert. I think he has more fun than the boys.

Now we need to get a second guitar so we can battle it out. I’m afraid Joe will always be the winner. But it’ll be fun!

Another Day, Another Doctor Visit

I had another OB check up this morning. It was all routine. Everything looks good. The baby wouldn’t hold still for the doc to listen to her heart. She kept trying to evade him and kick my in the ribs in the process. My doc wanted me to start thinking about birth control once the baby is born. I think we had a good laugh because I told him I had been thinking about it what I wanted to do. He said it’s still to early to schedule my c-section but it wouldn’t be more than a week before my due date. So sometime between April 25 and May 1. That’s only TWO MONTHS AWAY!!! (I thought it would be funny to have the baby on April 24 since that’ll be Joe’s one year anniversary of his heart attack, but he didn’t think that was funny.) Now I get to start visiting the doc every two weeks. Oh man! It makes me think of all the stuff I still need to get done!

I have this mental list of things I need to get for the baby (car seat, clothes, diapers, etc.). But I’m kind of holding off for now because my friends are throwing a baby shower on March 15. So part of me wants to wait and see what we get so I know what I need to buy to supplement it and the other part of me wants to go shopping! I’m going to stress myself out!

In other news… we got our tax return this morning. YAY! Now we can buy new tires. Last weekend we went tire shopping to get an idea of how much we were going to spend. We also noticed that our tires are REALLY bald. In fact, Joe took one tire off and put the spare on because the tire was so worn down we could see the metal inside the tread. Scary! (They’re the original tires so there’s something like 70,000+ miles on them.) No driving outside our little town until we get new tires. We wanted to wait for a sale but we can’t afford to wait. Instead we are just in time for the free beef with tires promo. (We live in the national head quarters for Les Schwab, so of course, that’s where we will go.)

I Should Have Seen the Signs

Wednesday is my regularly scheduled sewing sewing day with my friend Rhonda. We didn’t do it last week because she took her husband’s grandma to Bend. So I started cutting out fabric for this week’s project. This week she was sick, her son was sick, she didn’t come. But I sewed on without her.

And I should have seen the signs and stopped sewing. But no. I kept trucking on. And this happened.

I’ve never had this happen before. The fabric on the bottom went under the plate thingy on my machine and then came up where the bobbin thread comes up. I had to unscrew the plate and rip out stitches. Ugh.

The pattern I was trying to follow is the Yellow Brick Road by Atkinson Designs. I’ve made a quilt using this pattern once before, like about 15 months ago (in fact, it was the first quilt I ever attempted). It was easy and I liked how it turned out. Well, today, I had big issues. I didn’t read the directions very well (I guess I thought that since I’ve done it before I didn’t need to pay close attention to directions). I so messed up! Once I realized I messed up it was beyond fixable because I had sewn and cut and…ugh! I managed to salvage my mistake. But in the end I had three different blocks and only one of them was actually from the pattern.

 Here’s a sneak peek. I actually got a lot done on it today. It won’t take long to finish it up.

Added to all this I had Sai home sick from school. Last night he got stomach cramps and the added need to run to the toilet. At one point he passed gas and instead of his usual giggle he made this face and said “I think I pooped.” Yeah. Not pleasant. So I kept him home so he wouldn’t have an accident at school. When I called the school this morning they said that it has been going around. I’m pretty sure he got it from a kid in his class because yesterday when I dropped Sai off we saw this kid running to the bathroom clutching his tummy. I asked him if he was OK and he said that his tummy hurt and he needed to go to the bathroom. If only that mom had kept her kid home!!!

Major

Jay hit a major milestone last night. At least Joe and I think it is major (say it like Posh, please ha ha). Jay slept through the night all by himself in his own bed for the first time ever!!!! It only took 2 years, 8 months and 6 days. He went to bed at 8:00 PM all by himself and didn’t wake up until 6:45 AM. It would have been an awesome night for me if I wouldn’t have had to get up for the bathroom and blasted leg cramps. Plus I get hot and throw the covers off and Joe’s on the other side of the bed buried under two blankets.

Yesterday was a no-school day. Mondays are not good school-free days. It’s my big laundry day and post-weekend clean-up day. The boys were good and cleaned up all their toys and their bedrooms after breakfast. But it didn’t last. I spoiled them and took them to McD’s for lunch. And they played outside for a bit. Then Jay was ornery and tired. He took a nap but didn’t fall asleep until after 4. And Sai got cranky with me because I wouldn’t let him watch cartoons–he gets super cranky after watching cartoons and won’t turn them off. I started thinking about, and dreading, spring break. What am I going to do with them for NINE DAYS?! I wish we could afford to go away for the break, but even if we could I don’t think we would be able to go because it’s one month before the baby is due. And then I can’t even think about this summer. June, July and August with three kids and I don’t know what else will be thrown our way. I’m just trying to get through April.

I about blew off my dad’s birthday this weekend! I thought about it in the morning and didn’t call. Then it came to me much later that night and I hurried and called as we were getting the boys ready for bed. My poor dad had gotten food poisoning so he didn’t have the best of birthdays. But both of my boys wanted to talk to Grandpa and wish him happy birthday which made me glad because they don’t always like to talk on the phone. And then today is my sister Jenny’s birthday. I wrote it on my hand so I won’t forget. But I’m almost OCD about hand washing so that won’t stay on for long. I did try to call earlier but no answer. So I hope she is doing something fun but more than likely she’s at work.

Sai-ism #1

The more my kids grow and learn the more they say things that crack me up.

Sai talked about President Abraham Lincoln in school today. So at dinner Joe starts talking to him about what he knows. Sai told us he was shot and that he had a speach. Joe added that he was president during the war but he helped the war end. Joe also told him that he grew up poor and wanted to learn so he read lots of books and went on to become a lawyer. (Now, here is where I wish I had a photographic memory or something.) So what does Sai say? “He was the lawyer for Jesus.”

Oh man. I was trying not to laugh because I knew he would get mad if I laughed. It was so funny.

And then he gets all confused with all the presidents out there…. Pres. Bush, Pres. Lincoln, Pres. Hinckley, etc. So he’s talking about Lincoln again and called him President Linckley. I think only a few of you will get this, but I had to share because I found it so funny. And I did giggle and he got mad: “Stop laughing Mom!!”

Dreamin’

I keep having this awful recurring theme in my dreams. It’s that I have a huge ugly baby with teeth. And it scares me!

In my most recent dream my baby was born 14 lbs 1 oz. It had teeth and ugly scraggly red hair. I’m fine with having a redhead but in this dream it was so ugly! I was afraid to touch the child.

I wonder why I’m so worried that I’ll have an ugly baby. Maybe because Sai and Jay were such cute babies (and are still cute boys) that I’m worried that a little girl won’t turn out so cute.

Ugh

We are experiencing technical difficulties. Our computer mouse has decided to give us fits. It doesn’t like to move the cursor left when you move the mouse left. At first I thought that maybe the innards were dirty, so I cleaned it out. Not fixed. Then I thought it was a mouse pad issue, like something under it or a bump in it or something that interfered with left-ward movement. Nope, still not fixed. Joe and I have decided that we are in need of a new mouse. Heck, this mouse and keyboard are older than our oldest child so maybe it is time to upgrade. To wireless mouse and keyboard. Ooooo… I found a set on sale and I’m sorely tempted to buy them.

Saturday night Joe and I took the boys out to dinner. Oh. My. It was good. For Christmas Joe had gotten a $75 gift certificate to this place called Barney Prine’s Steakhouse. We finally cashed it in. First, we called to make sure they were kid-friendly, and they are. Let me just say, I’ve been unable to sit down and eat a big meal lately (no room for my stomach with all that baby in there). I’ve just been eating small frequent things (which makes me feel like I’m snacking all day). But we show up at the restaurant and I went crazy! First we had an appetizer of baked brie with sun-dried tomatoes on garlic crostini. Then Joe had the soup of the day and I had a Caesar salad (only ate half). For our entrees Jay had chicken with potatoes and veggies, Sai had fettuccine, and Joe and I both had broiled New York steak with horse radish butter sauce (YUM) and potatoes and veggies. I ATE THE WHOLE STEAK!!! And most of my veggies and some of my potatoes. Then, when I thought I was stuffed, I fit in dessert. Bananas Foster. Mmm… Joe had Peaches Foster and the boys had vanilla ice cream. It was so good. Our bill ended up being $74.40. We couldn’t have planned it any closer if we had tried. But then it came time for a tip. Between the two of us we didn’t have enough for a tip unless we gave it to our server in quarters, dimes and nickles. So our server ran my debit card for $0.01 and then I added a tip on. It was the best–and biggest–meal that I’ve had in a long time.