My little Seamster

Ya know how I mentioned that Dayton has been wanting to sew alllll the time, and the other night I was finishing up a project and he was just chomping at the bit to do something.......anything. I had seen this bib tutorial so I found the perfect boy type project. The kid was determined to do it all on his own. I drew up the pattern, and he cut it out perfectly....FYI this kid has some mad small motor skills, he always has. We always joke that he will be a great surgeon someday :D

Then he pinned in to the fabric and the terrycloth and cut them out...perfectly

He reallllllllly wanted to do the sewing machine all himself, but I let him run the foot pedal and taught him about backstitching and helped guide the fabric.....a little



He turned it inside out, and I tried to do the topstitching for him, but after one side he said "Mom, I can do the topstitching! I can do it!" So he did. He did let me help a little more with the ties though :D

And here is the adorable little bib that he made for his new little cousin Aiden :D I think he was pretty proud, and so am I !!

And if that wasn't enough, he wanted to make a denim flower pin for his teacher. I cut him a strip, and he did the running stitch all on his own. I didn't take a pic, (I know, bad mom!!) I was so tired but it was a cute yo yo style denim flower with a big pearl center and a pin on the back. His teacher loved it and he was so excited to give it to her to put on her 100 pin jacket.

The concentration is so cute :D

I have so many more projects to share, I have been doing lot of sewing and it is so fun! I'm trying not to make my posts so long so I'll save it for another time soon :D

Whos life is this??

I ask the question in a happy-go-lucky, wondering sort of way :D It is so wierd how the constant changes and adjustments creep up and then you look around and think "wow, things are different! Where did the life I used to know go??" I suddenly have a constant house full of teens and pre-teens (and other random kids, for that matter) having weekend parties. I wish I was a cooler mom (or less busy or had different priorities or somethin) and had fun treats and food for all these kids but I'm lucky if I even know who is coming and going these days. I am grateful though that everyone enjoys hanging out here and I am in more control what is going on with my kids. I am also very fortunate that my kids have such good kids as friends. I complain, but deep down I do like it. :D Personally, so far I think teenagers are pretty funny. When I walked in the door from Utah the other day, there were about 7 of Cades friend upstairs playing Xbox and pool. I yell up there "I'm HOME" and I hear a chorus of "We missed you sister Lamb! We missed you SOOO MUCH" LOL Har Har, suck-ups!

The usual weekend and afternoon scene in my boy loft. There are usually twice as many though. As you can see having it nice and decorating are loooow on the priority list.

Speaking of coming home from Utah, I need a brag moment. My house was all picked up, and Mark really hit it out of the park. He was at work when I got home, but he had completely cleaned our messy bedroom (I just didn't get to it before I left) including changing the sheets, putting away mountains of clean clothes, cleaning the bathroom (even the TUB!) and leaving me a "todo list" which included catching up on TV shows, taking a long bath, relaxing, and several other things that I can't list since this is a family blog and all :) It was nice to be missed. THEN to top it off, he had spent probably a good 2-3 hours pulling all my coupons AND nesting them and dating them for me!! I about fell over I was so shocked and happy!! BIG brownie points for that one, I was 4 weeks behind!! I love that guy!! I seriously could not be luckier!

My mom sent me the craft book "Hello Cupcake" and this was Sadies first venture into it. I thought it was so cute!

Utah trip #2 recap: Good times! We had a great time catching up and spending time together. I honestly have THE BEST SIL's ever. I love them. We had so much fun at Christine and Steves (as usual!) and got everything done that we wanted to and on schedule so we had alllll day tuesday to shop ourselves silly. I wish SO bad I could open a Rodworks franchise here in AZ. They are looking to do one here, it would be so up my alley. Oh well. We hit Cherry lane for accessories, and Kneaders. Have you been there?? Its probably good that we don't have one here...


They have a cute little boutique and you can gift wrap anything you buy there at this station, that is if you can pull your face away from your french toast....


Yes, that is whipped cream butter with strawberries and a little tub of warm homemade maple syrup! Oh. My. Heavens.



I found Home Fabrics to fuel more of my fabric obsession. I have been home 3 days and have already gone to the mesa location! Wait till you see what I made!! Yes, I need help. LOL I even shopped at the SLC DI and got a couple of treasures. I met up with my friend Karenna and it was so great to catch up. The drive home was so crazy, we hit a downpour of rain in Utah (Like SHEETS of rain with low visibility) then a monstrous dust storm through the Res, it was super scary. Then in Flag it was Sleet, hail, snow, and then more rain. Oh well, at least it wasn't hot and I'm an awesome driver :D LOL j/k

Father and Sons Campout. Mark always gets good pictures of the kids for me :D

Since I have been home I have been doing lots of hair, and that is a big blessing. I did some sewing too, I'll post a bunch of pics soon :D

Random

*I'm tired....too tired to go to bed

*I just made my list and schedule to be ready to go to Utah on Saturday.....Ug. I scheduled some sewing though! I am DYING to dive in to my new fabric!! Its adorable! FYI Scrapbooks Etc. now carries fabric, need I say more??

* I'm going to Utah with my SIL Maureen to visit Raquel and help her move. Looking forward to everything but the drive. And Sadie gets to come this time, she deserves it!

*Homeschooling is going great, just the 2 older ones, they are working hard. Its amazing how much they do, but it seems like our days just fly by!! They are liking it and workin hard and it has been good having them here. Mostly.

* I am beyond addicted to home decorating blogs and food blogs. Mostly decorating and sewing and projects though. I added a few to my sidebar, but the list of sites and projects I have come across and saved in my favorites is long. Really really long. I'm dying to try some stuff, there are some unbelievable talented people out there!!

*My top priority craft projects when I get back from UT are: A burlap wreath for summer, a burlap ruffle runner for summer, recovering a chair I have, Making aprons and these super cute headbands, 3 new kinds of fabric flowers, a braided fabric headband, and I got the cutest skirt pattern to make skirts for Sadie and I for summer. I kid you not, that is just the high priority list. I even have most of the stuff for all of it! Then there are about 2 thousand other things I would love to try.

* I took the boys with me for a quick stop at the Hob Lob today, and Dayton insisted on getting a little green sewing kit. He is wanting to sew SO bad! How can I resist that?? I got the little 5 dollar kit for him-honestly, there is a lot in there! And he says the first thing he is going to make is a fabric flower for me. Awwww. I helped him make a little black ribbon flower for me, and then I made him a superhero wristband. I need boy projects that are fun and easy :D I'm thinking pajama pants or a pillow case or a little church bag with cool boy fabric. He wants to hand sew though. All by himself. Little cutie. He saw some music printed fat quarters and wants to go get them and make something for his piano teacher, miss Wendy. Don't you just want to squeeze him?? LOL

*I need a maid DESPERATELY

SO thats my random stuff going on now. Later, skaters

The best time to wear a striped sweater......

Is when you make it into a pillow!! So I have been bitten by the crafting and even more so the sewing bug lately. I have been dying to make something, anything!! Today I took a little side trip to Goodwill and I picked up a couple of sweaters. It was actually hard because I saw a lot of adorable sweaters that i would wear, from J Jill, Colwater Creek, Talbots, seriously cute ones! I had to keep moving, I had a mission, but lets say, I need to find some more fun things to do with sweaters! I need to live somwhere colder so I can wear them more! anyway. I grabbed a couple, I had to keep telling myself "There will always be a thousand (literally) sweaters at Goodwill, they will always be 5.99 or less, you can always come back!"

I got this one because it matched Sadies new room perfectly

The pillow I originally wanted to use, ^ but it ended up too big so I changed to this one: An oldie that is too fragile to wash, but too dingy to actually use on a bed

I cut the sweater body to the size I needed

And sewed it just like a regular old pillow like in 7th grade Home Ec, except its a cute ribbed chenille accessory.


This was literally a 30 minute project! And I'd say 15 of those minutes were spent hand sewing the little hole after it was turned and stuffed. I am a TERRIBLE hand sewer. I have to work on that one.

Since it was so easy......I decided to do another one :D

> This was a Lane Bryant sweater, so it had a little more chenille to work with.......4.99! But what to do with the edging.....I didn't want it to go to waste!

YEAH! I love it! Hopefully since I have lots of red in my house it won't seem too christmasy, and I might add more of a cluster of chenille flowers, but I think its a good start. YAY me! I finally crafted!