mommo

Sweet Chicks

I was going to title this post "Chick Love" but I was afraid of the googlers who would come and not appreciate these particular chicks.  I saw something similar to this chick above at a little boutique. It was a different color and slightly different- and $8, which is not in my budget.  So I appreciated it from afar and then left it there. A few days later I came upon these darling fuzzy chicks -without the crowns-at Michaels and they were 3 for $2.  So I brought them home and made them tiny hats and crowns with paper and my stash of glass glitter. This guy is for a sweet girl we know celebrating a birthday soon. Here is the whole crowd. Its funny because we have all been really taken with chicks lately. M picked out a box of fluffy pink chenille chicks at the same Michaels on another day and has been toting them all around town. We have had to backtrack a few times through stores when she unknowingly spills them out of her little basket.  I made her a little blanket for them and she put them to bed in this little doll bed.

There are only four left but she still really loves them. And this last little bit is a couple of baskets we made for a miniswap that was set up a bit late.  I made this same set up for another little friend last year. I got the baskets for a buck each at -you guessed it- Michaels, and the little chicks were purchased cheap (or should I say cheep)there too. The baskets were unfinished so I painted them,added the monogram and thats it. The little blankets I whipped out of scraps. Kids so love the little tiny cute things, don't they? I love this idea for easter. Cute, cheap and easy.

And here is a peek inside... I love their little black beady eyes. For such a small bit of fluff, these chicks seem to have such sweet little personalities to me.

Sweet and Simple

Sometimes I just want to get my craft on but I only have the tiniest little window.  And sometimes I want to make something cute and sweet but I don't want it to drag on too long or I need it in a hurry. Because of all that, I came up with this very (I think!) cute little bag. I was at Kmart and found the cutest Martha Stewart kitchen towels (these are not them) and I thought they really deserved to be more than something I would wipe crusty mushy crap on all day.  So they were the second part of the inspiration.  The bag above was made from a kitchen towel I bought and a piece of ribbon from the stash. It took no time at all and if you skip the embroidery, it will take even less time. So here are the directions:

1. The embroidery. I found the center of the top of the kitchen towel (the ruffle was already on the towel) and used my disapearing ink pen to write the name and then quickly embroidered it.

2. Pin it. The next thing I did was to make two equally spaced pleats and pinned them. At this point you also want to pin your straps in place. Be careful when you sew it that you remember the straps and don't just sew over them all wonky and then have to rip out and do over.  I only did that once but it was annoying.

3. You guessed it- sew it across the top.

Then flip it and do the same to the other end being mindful to match up the strap lengths so that they are equal.

4. After sewing the second end, put right sides together and sew up the side seams. I did two rows of stitching all around because this is intended for a child so I wanted it to be a bit more durable.

5. Turn and thats it! The towels tend to be a bit stiffer so they have nice body.  I think this would be so cute to do in lieu of easter baskets. Or for goodie bags at a kid's party.  For little sewers its a good easy and quickly gratifying little project.

Ahhhhhhhh

I can't tell you the last time I have had a morning to myself, by myself.  Usually I am working or at one of the kid's schools. So today a little window presented itself and I raced home so the two of us could be together- me and my sewing machine.  I made three little tiny blankets, a towel bag (all these will be shown later) and that little number up above.  If anyone is interested I can dig up the pattern number though I will say I had to tweak it because it was, evidently, designed for a child who was shaped like a huge bulky rectangle.  Or some super kid with tremendous lats and the pecs to match.  M picked out the fabric and I wasn't crazy about it at first but it turned out pretty cute. She wore it all day and when I asked her to take it off so I could fine tune a couple of things she said, "No. It's my favorite dress".  The rick rack on the bottom is from my vintage stash. Nice match.  Not bad for a two hour window. It just felt good to finish a project. To make something that I could hold up and say, "Hey! Look what I made!". Ahhhhhh.

So I am finding that the little souvenir plate/ butter plates, whatever they are that have so enchanted me, are not so easy to find. But look at what I did find on ebay. I am so in love with this color. I think the fact that they look like old fashined hard candy must have something to do with this love affair.

Don't you love the back? The little heart is too cute. Love my swirly orange plate.

Thrifting treasure

It has been a long cold winter, devoid of any really good saling finds. Until last weekend! We went to a sale with so many great things and the prices were pretty good too. Look at these plates- I researched this and I think they are pressed glass butter plates. They are about 3 1/2 inches across and completely charming! They were only $2 each and I think I want more! Here is a close up

And then I found these- I bought two of them- one for each kid. They are kid sized and in perfect shape.

I waited until the second day and they were half price so I got the two for $45 which was fine, though a little pricier than usual. I put one in a corner for my seven year old to have a reading corner and the other is getting cusions made and will be part of her five year old birthday room makeover. (details on that later). Dont you love them! So it was a good foray back into the saling season!

Photo dependent

I finally got the camera issues settled.  It seems so funny that I am so camera dependent but I love the images.  So this post is a bit overdue but atleast I have the photos! But before I go there, thank so much for the nice comments about the Hurricane and her surgery. She really is such a joy and I don't ever want to take her for granted. (Or my other one for that matter). Like last night at bedtime. Usually she loves me to sing "Close to you" (The Carpenters) and it knocks her right out. But last night she was in a seriously odd and giddy mood and ended up singing the whole song with me, her little fist in front of her mouth like she was holding a microphone. When we got to the part where you sing "Sprinkled moondust in your hair..." She sang out, "sprinkled poopdust in your hair..." And just disolved into humoungous peals of laughter- so very pleased with herself. Because every four year old knows that there is little funnier than poo. 

So onto the mail goodies! I am participating in a swap called "special swap" that Lynne has organized. It is a nice small swap with tried and true swappers so its always a good swap with nice people.  This is what I found when I opened the box!

How fun is that? Everything was wrapped beautifully. Its so nice to receive something so carefully put together. My swap partner was Amanda - you should go check out her blog and be sure to notice the very cute banner she has.  One thing in the box that I had no idea how great it would be to use was a set of pink measuring cups and spoons. I don't think I would have ever thought to buy a new set for myself even though I have to hunt for the crappy ones we had everytime I wanted one. I can't tell you how nice it has been to have a nice new complete set of new measuring cups and spoons. Sometimes its the simplest things! She also sent the "One Skein" book which I have wanted forever, some sugar sprinkles for the kids and I to use, sweets and this gorgeous yarn! I wanted to take the Malabrigo to bed with me! And then get a load of this-

She spun it! Its just sooo lovely! The colors are incredible. So thanks Amanda! What a great package!

It has been decidedly less exciting in my mailbox since.  But atleast it is sort of sunny when I go get the mail now. I am so relieved spring is on the way. The time change is fabulous- now I just have to get used to getting up so early. I have a nasty cold which doesn't help but it is worth it to be outside later in the evening.  Happy Wednesday to you all!

Three years today

For the last couple of weeks I have either been working overtime, cleaning up puke or snuggling sick kids. That is until I succumbed to the nastiness myself. As much as it sucked to be that sick, I had a whole day all alone in the house where all I did was sleep and watch a movie. A whole movie. One that wasn't animated or rated G.  Trade offs, I spose.

Well, today is a pretty special day. It is the three year anniversary of my sweet girl's open heart surgery.  As much as I think I can put all of those feelings behind me, I can't and that is actually o.k.  The photo above was taken the summer after the surgery and you can see her scar on her chest.  She was 2 months shy of her second birthday when she had it so she was just a tiny thing.  Plus she had a funky heart so she was tiny because of that. I still think its nuts because she was in the 50th percentile before the surgery and within the next ten months she shot up to the 95th and grew about 4 shoe sizes.  Amazing what a healthy heart will do for a girl.  Tonight we went to celbrate and have a family fun night, eating out, going to the paint your own pottery place and the Baskin Robbins for ice cream.  I think an anniversary like this is a good time to reflect on the joy that these kids bring to our lives.  One of the biggest things that still sticks to me to this day is that as scared as I was going into the hospital that morning, it didn't take long to realize that we were the lucky ones. We would be bringing our daughter home and she would be fixed.  We met wonderful people there who did not share in that fortune.  It is a good place to gain perspective.

Every March 2nd since the big day, I try to commemorate it in some way. Last year I cut off a foot of hair and gave it to locks of love, this year I organized a toy drive for the hospital at work and am trying to start my first Project Linus quilt.  This year I also volunteered at the children's hospital holiday party and will make it a yearly thing. 

We had a check up a few months ago and everything still looks great!  Its all just so crazy and amazing and I am so glad that she was born in these times so they could fix it.  It is almost not March 2nd anymore so I had better get to bed. Any ideas on how I can commemorate next years anniversary?