Cold Legs

We live in what my husband likes to call "Little Siberia" at the base of a mountain. It gets really cold here so after we put our kids to bed I usually get out a blanket to wrap up in and I park the laptop on my legs. Usually we watch tv together in the evenings but I always have the laptop open on my lap. I really only use it about half the time but I don't want to put it back on the desk because it keeps my legs warm!! So I made this funny printable to remind him of why I do this (since he thinks I spend WAY too much time on the internet).
p.s. (Maybe I do, but he doesn't need to know that.)

Peep Tree

My mother-in-law loves Peeps. I love them because they melt in my mouth and are creamy-good. But the first thing she does when she buys a package of Peeps is open the plastic so that they will get hard. Since we are going to her house for Easter I decided that we should make her a Peep tree. I got some wooden skewers and all of the colors of Peeps that Target had. (I guess blue was a popular color this year because there weren't any left.)Then I got a pot that I had painted years ago and washed it up and put some styrofoam in the bottom of it. Then we just threaded the skewers through the Peeps and stuck them in the styrofoam. When the pot was full I put some pink Easter grass in the bottom to cover the styrofoam. Now I just need to figure out how to get it to Colorado in one piece.

Pet Pocket Pillowcase ~ Prepaid Project #15

This project all started with our recent trip to Sea World. My son chose an orca swimming toy and my husband won a giant orca by playing the ring-toss game. When we got home, my son re-discovered my Shamu stuffed animal that my dad brought to me from Sea World when I was a little girl. My son has been toting all three Shamu toys around the house since we got back.

He likes to sleep with his stuffed animals so I thought it would be fun to make a pocket on a pillowcase so that my stuffed Shamu could sleep with him without falling off of the bed. I already had all of the supplies so I was thrilled that this project would be prepaid!

** Disclaimer; Tutorials are like math for me. I am not that great at showing how I got to the right place, I just did. So please bear with me while I try to explain how I did this. Having said that, it's pretty simple to figure out by looking at the pictures.**

I started by using a standard pillowcase as a pattern. I laid out my two pieces of coordinating fabric and cut them to match the size of the already assembled pillowcase.

One of the things that I did different from a regular pillowcase assembly is that I made the coordinating fabric panel about twice as big as normal so that I could sew a pocket on it before I attached it to the main fabric panel. I laid the stuffed animal on the coordinating fabric (which I had already folded over to make it double-sided) so that I could see how big of a pocket I needed to make. Since I was using fabric scraps to make this project I had to sew two scraps together to make a piece of fabric big enough to make the pocket. After measuring how much fabric I needed, I double-folded all of the edges of the pocket fabric and ironed them. Then I sewed a straight stitch across the top and then I pinned the pocket to the edging fabric, making sure to only go through one layer of the fabric. I decided that the pocket needed to be able to expand but it also needed to fit only on the edging fabric. So I folded over the middle of the bottom of the pocket to make about a 1 inch box pleat. I also folded the top and pinned both so that I could line up the pocket with the edge and pin it straight. I sewed that pocket down both sides and across the bottom onto the coordinating fabric. Then I folded that fabric over itself and ironed the edge and sewed a straight stitch down the side, just to help it keep it's shape. Then I sewed that fabric onto the main panel of the pillowcase. I also sewed some ric rac on top of that seam to cover it up. I decided it looks kind of like waves in the water since it matches the main fabric so perfectly. Then I folded the whole thing over, with the right sides inside, and sewed down the side and the bottom of the fabric, creating the pillowcase. After sewing, I turned it right-side out and ironed it. My son was so excited to put our Shamu in his sleeping pocket! Since the orca show was one of his favorite parts of Sea World I think this pillowcase, and his little friend, will be loved for a long time. And the best part was that it was prepaid!!
I'm joining this party going on today;

Prepaid Projects

I have done many prepaid projects over the last few months and I posted them to my family blog. I'll be updating this blog with those projects over the next few days since my family blog is going private this weekend. So.....more prepaid projects, coming right up!

Prepaid Project #5 ~ Baby Onesie Makeovers

My baby girl had several long-sleeved onesies that she barely wore last Winter because by the time she fit into them it was getting warm outside and she started wearing more short-sleeved clothes. I decided that since they looked new I could make them cuter and give them to my sister for her baby girl to wear this Fall. I cut out the appliques from fabric scraps and used Wonder Under to attach them to the shirts and then I sewed all the way around them. Fun and easy!! Have I mentioned that I looooove Wonder Under?? It's fabulous! It holds fabric in just the right place while I sew around it and it gives the appliques some added stability.

I think I'll make some hair things now to go with her cute new shirts. And I have a couple more girl onesies to do and some new boy onesies for gifts too!

Prepaid Project #4 ~ Bat Shirt

Does it look like that bat is flying??? Yes? Yes. That's because our little guy rarely stands still!!

He wants to be a bat for Halloween again. (Yeeeessss!!!) Last year I sewed some wings and some ears on to a black hoodie (he doesn't really like costumes so I figured I'd go for a clothes-like costume and he loved it). This year he can still wear the same hoodie but I wanted to make him a shirt to wear under it because he's a little heater-box boy and doesn't leave jackets on for very long.

A few weeks ago (before I started my prepaid project plan) I found some plain 5T shirts at Dollar Tree so I grabbed them. (Disney and Hanes brand...so they are made out of good fabric.) I already had some black knit. So I drew out half of a bat on some paper and measured it on the shirt to make sure it would fit and then I cut it out. Then I folded the knit and laid the pattern on the fold and cut out the bat. Then I traced the bat on to Wonder Under (fusible web) and I ironed the web on to the bat cutout. Next I folded the shirt in half down the middle of the front and marked it with a pin. I lined the bat up with the center and ironed the bat on to the shirt. Next I sewed all the way around the bat with black thread using a regular straight stitch. I asked him if he wanted his bat to have eyes and he said yes so he picked some buttons for the eyes and I sewed those on. I think I might add a silly smile to the bat's face with some embroidery floss before he wears the shirt for Halloween. He's pretty "batty" about bats (haha) so this shirt will get worn a lot. And I'm pretty sure he won't wait for Halloween to wear it...hopefully we can keep it stain-free until then.

Prepaid Project #3 ~ Doll Diapers

I recently saw this tutorial and knew that I needed to make some felt doll diapers for one of my prepaid projects. Not for Andi's dolls...for Jacob's. Since Andi was born Jacob has periodically been carrying one or two of his stuffed animals around, pretending they are babies. I gave him a few of the newborn diapers to put on his "babies" but they didn't fit the smallest stuffed animals. So this tutorial was the perfect thing to fix his diapering needs!

Jacob is so happy that his "babies" are all diapered up now!