Work on it Wednesday

Baby it's cold outside, not really but it's cold in my deep freezer. We have a huge deep freezer in our garage. While I love it and could store a nearly endless supply of red label meat in there, occasionally you have to dig down deep to make sure some block of mystery meat from the dark ages isn't hiding in the bottom long forgotten. So, I'll be donning my gloves and doing the fun job of cleaning out the freezer. On a side note, if you don't have a freezer you should get one. Mine has paid for itself many times over. I can take advantage of sales, buy stuff in bulk, cook and freeze meals and still have room to spare. It's really saved us from eating out nearly as much and I think it's made our diet a healthier one. Even a small one would be great. If it doesn't save you some money, you let me know about it.

Work on it Wednesday

Well, I definitely need to work on getting myself to the gym, but since that's only an hour out of my life, I really should come up with something else to do with the rest of my day. I think I'll finish putting together my recipe collection. I've worked on it before and I have it about 70% done, but since I have so many recipes it's taking me a while to finish it all. I also want to split it up into two volumes, a dessert one and a main course/sides one. If I have time I think I might go through the kids shoes and get rid of the ones that no longer fit. Seems simple enough right?. Nothing super exciting, but hey that's life in fast lane. Next week though, I'm going to tackle that junk drawer. It's a mess so I need a week to mentally prepare, lol.

Work on it Wednesday

Well...what to do? What to do? Ever have one of those days where you have so much to do that you're spinning because you don't even know where to start? No home improvement projects this week except perhaps testing a few more paint colors for the half bath. I like the yellow, Mister likes the blue. I was thinking blue would be ok...but wouldn't a navy be really cool? I don't know though, it's a pretty small bathroom.
O.'s birthday is coming up and I want to make her a special outfit for it, so I think today I will cut and sew. I really should make a couple pairs of pants for E. too since his legs seem to keep growing even if he's still my little peanut. I also want to work on my couponing, I'm really trying to embrace coupons to determine if it really saves us money. I'm pretty frugal already when it comes to groceries so I don't know if the amount of work this all entails will make up for the savings...we shall see.
Well...what am I waiting for, I have a lot to do.

Things I've made...a photo tour

I was looking through my photobucket and came across a ton of things I've made in the past and never shared picture of so I thought I'd do that now. I'm not in the habit of taking pictures of stuff I make regularly...it's not an automatic for me. With blogging I'm getting so much better about it, lol. So many times in the past I wished I had remembered to photograph my efforts. So...here you go, some of my efforts. I've learned a ton along the way, including serging, trying new techniques, morphing patterns, and how to throw the directions out to window. It's been fun!




A backpack for O. from the Sewbaby totpack pattern. I love that I made this for about $1. I got all the fabric from the PTA thrift store in Chapel Hill. Gotta love a bargain.



A bag I made for a craft swap I participated in. Love that Kaufmann fabric. I still have some more I plan to make myself a bag from.



2 knit dress morphed from an Ottobre (3/07 I think) and using yummy Chez Ami soft jersey. O. loved those dresses...I'll have to make her some more.



Dress made from thrifted curtain fabric found at a thrift store. I believe this fabric is also Kaufmann and called faces in the crowd. It's a really fun print.



My first redondo skirt made w/a great chez ami print (wish I had got more). I detested working with the bias tape and have abandoned that method in favor of an easy peasy rolled hem on other redondo's I've made.



My faux mini boden outfit copied from the catalog. This was the first time I tried applique. Obviously I hadn't done the satin stitching yet when I took this picture. I love how it came out.



A sweet little tunic made from a fun print with purses on it. For some reason I didn't take a picture of the coordinating pants. They're really fun too,gauchos made out of a blue knit fabric with oversized multicolored polk a dot.



This outfit is one of my all time favorites and with the exception of O's quilt probably the most I've ever spent on fabric for a single project. I got these 2 prints at Elegant Stitches. The crossback jumper is reversible and the little bloomers...oh so sweet. The pattern is a reproduction from Simplicity and I remember having the very same outfit when I was little so I had to have one for my sweet girl.



This was the first patterns I ever tried from Ottobre. It's this great sweater knit I got from a Sewing Mama. I didn't think to line the hood since the pattern didn't tell you too and I hadn't quite stepped out of my "must follow the pattern" box at the time. Now...I break all the rules, pattern be damned!


Hope you've enjoyed this jaunt down memory lane and that it was as fun for you as it was for me.

UFO's...they're every where

Since my sewing space is miniscule I cut fabric for projects on the dining room table and since it's kind of a pain to drag everything out, I cut a bunch of stuff at once.However, sometimes I cut more things before I finish old projects and they kind of uh hmm...back up on me. Currently I have in my to do basket the following things.
1. double duty diaper bag
2. a quilt that needs to be tied and bound (binded...whatever)
3. a pair of denim capri's for me
4. a Oliver + S tea sundress for O.
5. a sweet sundress for N.
6. 6 pairs of undies for O.
7. a bag for the gym for me
8. a pair of lounge pants for S.
9. a camp shirt for M.
10. 2 pairs of shorts for E. & M.
11. a slim t-shirt for E. from Simple + one
12. a TDK coming and going bag
13. a Miss Molly dress that I modified to be a tunic.
I think that's a lot...but I am determined to finish these things. And did I mention that I bought fingering weight yarn (sock yarn) and dpn today so I could knit some socks. Am I crazy? So, if you ever hear me complain that I'm bored and don't have a thing to do, just remind me about this list, will you?

Whew! Thank goodness that's over with!

Christmas...the holidays, all the chaos. I'm so glad for things to settle back down to it's normal crazy pace. I've just been thinking about projects I want to work on this year. Well, there's
1. O's quilt
2. The slipcovers...I know, when am I going to make those things already?
3. The weekender bags (one for me and one for mom)
4. Kitchen stuff (new curtains, pot holders and trivets)
5. Living room curtains
6. Master bedroom curtains and bedcover (I'm thinking I'll do a quilt, queen size...how ambitious)
7. Clothes for me (skirts, skirts, skirts!)
8. Jacket for O.
9. Summer clothes for the kids (including swim trunks & swim suit)
10. Purge, purge, purge baby!
11. Me! Doing the things I love and being with the people I love
12. My HMB, really using it to it's fullest.

13. The yard...I really should get out there and dig in the dirt!
14. The house...an ongoing project.
15. Finances...well, saving for that European vacation so A. & I can go on our 10th anniversary. We have a little over 2 years. It would be so cool to go.