Baby Quilts

Baby quilts are my favorite kind to make. 1. You can do whatever you want, they don't have any preferences to consider. 2. They are always cute. 3. They are small so they only take from 3-10 days, depending on how complex and whether you do laundry and clean the house while you are working on it... ;)
This was for my friend in our ward having her 3rd little girl. I mostly used scraps I already had, so bonus!

And since it was the 3rd girl the older sisters needed some doll quilts to match so hopefully when those moments come when they want to be a little 'too' helpful they can be diverted to the dolls...

This was for my very best friend who is having a little boy after 2 girls. Ever since I heard it would be a boy I've had the idea floating in my head that I wanted to do a quilt based on the poem What Are Little Boys Made Of? This is what I came up with. It was so fun to make because I got to do lots of different quilting methods. Regular piecing, paper piecing, applique, and embroidery, then I machine quilted it. I love the way it turned out. I had a small mishap when my embroidery machine gummed up on the last line of the poem, but luckily it resulted in only a small tear that I was able to patch. No way did I want to start over, it took FOREVER to get it all centered and stitched!

A close up of the cute doggies on both of the quilts. I love the little 3D feet that hang off. Fun fun!

This was for friends from law school having their first baby. Josh, the dad, and some other friends threw us a baby shower when we were expecting Kegan, even though we'd only known them a month or so. And they even got presents for Kiara, which is incredibly thoughtful. So I knew I wanted to make something special for them when we heard they were expecting.

Missionary Cake

I got to make this cake for a friend in our ward. Her son's birthday was the same day as his farewell, so if you look close, Happy Birthday is written on one of the stripes of the tie. This combined my clothing making skills with my cake making skills since I had to figure out how to make the collars 3D.

I'm DANCING!!!

You might say I'm doing the potty dance. No I don't have to go.... I certainly wouldn't be blogging about that. TMI!!! And although this borders on the TMI, oh well! ZANDER IS POTTY TRAINED!!!! Well, I'm slightly premature in saying he is trained, but we've had an accident free day. DOWN WITH DIAPERS!!!!! Started on Tuesday, mostly for Tuesday, Wednesday and half of Thursday it was me just taking him every so often and making him RUN to the bathroom when he starts to go (he's been minus pants, plus underwear all week). But Thursday afternoon and all day today he's told me when he needs to go. HURRAY!!! Won't you all join me in a celebratory dance?!!!

Sewing For My Girl(s)

My niece is in town and I decided to make her and Kiara some matching outfits, just for fun. We had a photo shoot when I was done. So fun!

Playing around with Picasa 3 (free photo editing program)

They are almost 'twin cousins.' Only 12 days apart!

This is a dress I made for Kiara - just because...my friend wanted to see it, so here it is.

Boys Room

I think many moons ago I mentioned I was working on a big project. Well, as often happens with big projects....I lost steam. I got one quilt finished and the other three quilt tops sat on my sewing table waiting for me to get a Round Tuit. Well, I decided to give myself some rules. I have a few friends having babies soon that I want to make stuff for. I am also into some good books (culinary mysteries - right up my alley!) and have been spending every free moment reading them... So I told myself no more trips to the library until all three quilts are done. Also, no new baby projects until they are done. Sooooooo. The last three days have been spent at my sewing machine, and here they are!!!!

guest/stuffed animal bed

Payton's bed

Kegan's bed

Zander's bed

And the color coordinated closet.

We built this into the room and boy is it great! It's been done for several months and the organization is working out wonderfully. I did have to straighten the shoes for the picture, but generally, it stays this neat. I still want to do some pillow shams for each bed and I'd like some curtains instead of the ugly blinds....but all in good time. See what happens when you give yourself the proper motivation?

Somewhere Over the Rainbow!

My niece had a Wizard of Oz birthday party. So here is her cake! Complete with rainbow, ruby slippers, yellow brick road, shrivled up witches legs, poppies and lollipops. Oh, and I had a moment of genius when I was picking up the foam core board for the cake plate. What if I glued scrapbook paper on it to make it prettier? And lo and behold, they had some that was blue gingham! (The pattern on Dorothy's dress). Too perfect!

Some darling child stuck his fingers in it before I got a picture. GRRRRR!!!! Considering it takes much yelling and shooing away of my kids to keep cakes perfect before delivery, I was very frustrated when some other kid got to it. But it still looked great and tasted great, so all was well in the end.

Awwww! and AHHHHH!!!!!

Awwww! moment:

So a few weeks ago the kids and I were at the dentist getting our biannual teeth cleaning. Kiara came out in tears. "I have two cavities mom! I knew I should have brushed my teeth when you told me to instead of playing around." I wisely refrained from the I told you so and just comforted her. Well today was the day for the fillings. She has been worrying about this ever since. Payton also had some cavities, but he could care less. So on the way to the dentist this morning Kiara (who was quite pale) asked me to turn off the radio. "Why?" I asked. Well, she wanted to say a prayer! What a sweet girl! She went back quite calmly and did wonderfully. She was only slightly shaky when she came out declaring that it was only like a small pinch and she shouldn't have worried about it!

AHHHHHH!!!! moment:

At the dentist I decided to read a parenting magazine after I read the newspaper and caught up on all the Lincoln County shootings and accidents (my home town dominated headlines today). Well, one article caught my eye. It was about talking to your kids about puberty. I skimmed the article thinking "glad this is not eminant in our house yet, but it'll be good to see what it says." Well, it gave an age range of when different things start happening. Ages 9-15. "Hmmm." I thought. "Nine seems a bit early, but ok, whatever." It wasn't until in the car on the way home when Kiara reminded me that we need to plan her birthday party that it hit me. You see, this would be her NINTH birthday. AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!