Birthday presents

The problem with having children with birthdays in August and September is that it's too far away from tax time, and too close to the winter holidays.  Money is always short, and there's a great deal of stress involved in trying to make sure your child(ren) have a good time for their birthdays.  To be honest, it really SUCKS when their birthdays come around and you're perpetually broke from trying to make ends meet, never mind trying to save up for Christmas/ Hanukkah/ whatever holiday you happen to celebrate at that time of the year.

This is why I have taken to trying to make gifts for my kids.  No, they don't always appreciate the work I put into their things, and they also don't always entirely LIKE the games/ toys they're given, but that never seems to make me stop trying.  This year, I am making my daughter a "doll-making kit", but I'm having difficulty thinking of what else I should give her.  I know birthdays shouldn't be all about gifts, and I do try to teach my kids that they're really not, but sometimes I feel like that is the best I can do for them when it comes to their birthdays, and since we may be away from their father when their birthdays roll around yet again, I feel like I really need to make sure that they get something really special from me, and hopefully Daddy will be able to move with us by Christmas.

Oh, before you ask, no my husband is NOT military.  He works for a local grocery store and is trying to get transferred to a store in our target area, but so far isn't really having much luck.  He's on the list for management, which is a good thing, but honestly, who knows how long that could take to actually get?  But since he doesn't want me homeschooling the Littles, and I refuse to put them back into the school system in the county where he lives (they did not help my younger son in the entire 5 years of school that they had him, in fact they did him more harm than good) it looks like we will have to find a home and move back to the area we were in for all of last year, provided we can find one that's in our target price range and size.  THAT is where we will likely run into some problems, as my budget for housing is EXTREMELY small, but I'll manage, I always do!  :)

Birthdays

Have you ever forgotten about a loved one's birthday? I almost did this year, and I feel TERRIBLE about it!  See, this is my daughter.  She is every ounce of spunk and determination you see in this picture.  She is my youngest, and my only girl.

And she turns TEN in just over two weeks!!!  Here I was, thinking I still had over a month to plan everything, and now I'm kinda totally freaking out about it!  I haven't made any party plans ( though I have an idea in my head for one, I don't even know where we may be living in two weeks!), I haven't been telling my husband every ten minutes that we need to figure out what we're giving her, since 10 is what I consider to be a milestone birthday, and OMG NOW I'M TOTALLY FREAKING OUT!!!  Last year my parents gave her some toys, I made her a felt crown that she wore all day, and I made a few gifts for her, specifically the aforementioned crown, a "jumping pixies" game (tutorial can be found here), and  a rainbow ribbon wand (simple tutorial found here, though mine didn't look even 1/4 as lovely as theirs did!, but my little Lovey loved it anyway), the ideas for which were all obtained thanks to Pinterest and some of my absolute favourite blogs.  So now I have 2 weeks and 2 days to come up with gifts for her, and not only am I running out of time, but I'm out of money as well!  But no fear, I will definitely come up with ideas for things to make her, I always do!  And when I do, you can be sure there will be pictures posted.  :D

Dolls

Have you ever made a toy for one of your kids? Over the years I've made so many toys for my kids, it's not funny. And the past few days, when I couldn't sleep, or when the Littles were otherwise occupied, I've been able to sit down and make things. Specifically, I've been making little (and by little, I mean like 3-inches-tall, little) dollies for my Girl. I've been making them for years, but recently discovered a blog that gave me a great idea on how to make their feet and hands work so much better than I had been making them! And oh BOY have I been making them a LOT! lol Here are some of the ones made over the past few days. :)

These three are the very first ones we made, and by me I do mean me and the Littles. My sweet 11yo made the one on the left, and he was too impatient to sea her dress together, so he used glue instead. lol The middle one is my first try, and I rather like her. The third mg daughter started, got angry at when she couldn't get something to work right, and threw at me to finish, which I did, and now of course, V loves her. lol

(Please ignore the messy workspace, I have very limited room for my crafting, unfortunately) this little lady is my first attempt a fins on a bendy doll. I definitely need t tweak my fin pattern (too thick in the middle, too thin at the waist) but other than that I think she went fairly well. 

Now, this little beauty actually does have a face, though she didn't when I took this picture. Right now I'm trying to decide if I want to leave her as-is, or if I want to add little leaf wings to her back. And though you can't tell because they're covered, she has lime and green striped "tights" on her little legs, which make me think of a flower stem. And that works, since her dress is made up of disassembled faux flowers! :)

I don't have any single pictures of the doll on the left yet, but as you can see I made another with a flower dress. I and truly rather enamoured of these types, and foresee several more being made in the future. Also, I need to fix the eyes and mouth on the right-hand doll, as her eyes are too light and her mouth is too dark. But for now, at least, I have decided to leave her wing-less, though I may well make a removable pair that can be shared amongst the bendies. Oh, and I have SOOO many other ideas for bendies, just wait! I need to make a few improvements to the ones already made, and I have at least two dozen more ideas running about in my head for others, so I'll be sure to post pictures of them as I go. I'm truly having fun with these types of dolls, and I'm very glad I rediscovered their simple construction! :)  The tutorial for these little lovelies can be found here, at The Enchanted Tree.  I love these little things, and I think my daughter will enjoy playing with them as much as I have (so far!  lol) enjoyed making them.  :)

Teenagers

What is with them, anyway?  I mean, I've met some of the best, most well-adjusted, sweetest, kindest, amazing teenagers ever, and then...  Then there's my kid.  16 years old, constantly talking back, giving attitude, causing trouble...  I swear, he is just such a jerk it's not funny!  And I was the total POLAR FREAKING OPPOSITE when I was his age!  I just about never talked back to my mother, I did as I was told, usually when I was told to do it, though sometimes it would wait 10-20 minutes if I was already in the middle of something else, and he is...  I need an antidote for the boorish, anti-social, self-centered, egomaniacal teenage male, and I need it fast...  >.<

Crafting

I'm a Pinterest addict, have I mentioned that?  No?  You should check out my boards sometime, you would totally understand.  lol  Well recently, I found a page to make something called "Bendy Dolls" and realized that I've been making them FOREVER, only I never called them anything!  So here is the link to the craft I am going to attempt to make with my Littles today.  If they prove successful, then I shall post pictures of them later.  :)

Sleep.

Do you get the requisite 8 hours a night?  How about at least 6?  There was a study done a while back (can't remember when or who did it) that says our bodies work on 1.5 hour cycles, and you need at least two of these cycles of REM sleep in order to be able to function.  I, my friends, am living proof that this is not true, as I very frequently manage to not only function but pretend to be a normal person on less than 3 hours of sleep.  Today seems to be one of those days.  I really do TRY to sleep earlier, but for some reason, it never seems to happen.  Take last night, for example.  At 11pm, everyone was in bed.  As I lay there, staring in the dark at the ceiling, I thought to myself, "Maybe you need something else to help your brain unwind.  Why not try a book?"  Thinking this was a wise idea, I grabbed a book my sister gave me a few weeks ago, but that I had only managed to read about 4 pages in.  This was probably around 11:15 or 11:30.  I finished the book around 2:30, with no signs of tiredness happening any time soon.  So I picked up the second book in the series (there are three that I have, I don't know if there are more than that though) and read it for about 10-20 minutes, then realized I really needed to get to sleep because the alarm was set to go off at 8:45, and I really wanted to be able to get up then and be productive today.  So I turned on my white noise app, and laid down, fully prepared to stare at the ceiling for a few more hours before finally falling asleep.  Surprisingly I fell asleep quickly, but UNfortunately, I woke up much sooner than expected.  I'm guessing my hubby must've bumped the bed or something, because I woke up as he was getting ready to leave for work this morning (he went in as 6am today, and will be going in at the same time tomorrow) so by 5:45, I was awake.  I thought I could go right back to sleep, but that didn't happen, so I tried moving into his spot on the bed, to see if that would help me sleep.  After about 20-30 minutes of really trying and wishing that I was sleeping, I gave up, got dressed, put away the laundry that was sitting about in my bedroom, and came out to the computer, to discover my 16yo sound asleep on the couch with his glasses still on!  lol  So of course I removed his glasses (I really should give him back his contacts one day soon, lol) and sat down at the computer.  I've been here ever since, but I think I'm going to go do some dishes and start breakfast.  Maybe the smell of strawberry syrup and French toast will wake up my Littles so they can eat and work on some summer workbooks for a little while.  Most likely I will be back later, and possibly even with PICTURES of my attempt at a simple breakfast for my kids.  :)

Children and Chores...

For some kids, chores are simply things that need to be done before they can go about the process of having fun and enjoying the day.  They do them automatically because they know that doing them will get them to whatever it is they want to do that much faster.  Then there are kids who see their daily chores as torture and torment of the vilest and wickedest nature.  Unfortunately my children fall into this second category, and will go out of their way to do everything BUT their own assigned chores.  I'm trying to break them of this habit, but it isn't going so well.  I'm trying, though, always trying!  For example, my 11yo was told to put away HIS clothing the other day.  HIS clothing, no one else's.  Well, instead of doing that, he sorted EVERYONE'S laundry, but left his sitting in a pile on the floor!  lol  I'm tellin' ya, they make more work for themselves and they STILL don't get what needed to be done in the first place actually DONE!  It can be rather comical, but also most vexing.  But we're working on it, and I'm trying to change their bad habits to good habits.  :). It's not exactly working yet, but hey, I'm still trying! lol

Christmas on the brain...

It's barely July, and I am already thinking of Christmas.  I really must be losing it, seriously, I have to be to want to start on Christmas stuff now!  But alas, that's just how it is!

My thoughts right now are that I should pick at least four things from different boards on my Pinterest and make those for my Littles, as well as some things for teachers, neighbours, etc.  So now I have to decide which of the things in my boards I'm going to make for the kids, which are going to be clothes, which toys, and what to make for others...


My 11yo will be simple to make things for, and since there really aren't that many patterns for boy clothes out there that I would be willing to make him wear, likely he will end up with more of the toy-type handmade gifts than the clothing ones.  Which I'm sure he won't mind, since he loves anything and everything that I make for him.  He really is the sweetest child I have ever had.  :)

Coming up with things to make for my daughter is probably going to be the most difficult thing imaginable, especially if you've ever encountered the Pinterest board of things I want to make for my girl!  If only I actually had people who read this thing (I'm under no delusions here, I know this isn't exactly a popular blog, I've seen how many page views I have, and it's decidedly lacking, lol) then I could ask for reader opinions, but instead I'll likely just ask on Facebook and see what some of my friends think.  lol  it's still going to be extremely difficult to manage though, because there are THAT many things pinned there...

I suppose you're probably wondering why I haven't mentioned making anything for my husband or my 16yo, but if you've ever been into any sort of crafting, you already know that husbands and teenagers rarely ever appreciate something handmade and with a great deal of thought, they would rather you buy cheaply-made, commercially-available crap and electronics, though my hubby DOES enjoy cooking gear too, since he is a chef by trade.  So pretty much other than that sort of stuff, I'll not be making anything for my biggest "boys" for Christmas.  Although, maybe some homemade shaving cream, or something like that?  Hmm...  Methinks a search of Pinterest may be in order now...  :D

And of course, I am ALWAYS thinking of things to make for friends, since I simply can't get through most days without their help.  And I am very happy to admit that I have MANY friends who I consider family.  I love them as much as if they were family, possibly even more so, because they are my CHOSEN family.  I may not see some of them all that often, but whenever I have a problem or need someone to talk to, my family of choice is almost always there more often than my birth family.  I gotta say, my friends really rock.  :)  So that's it for now.  I'm sure I'll post updates and things as I go along, hopefully with pictures of the things I've decided on and how I made them.  This should definitely be an interesting next few months!

Eggs...

There is nothing so simple, yet so vastly complex, as an egg, is there?  I mean, think about it for a minute.  Eggs are used all the time in recipes for different foods, and also eaten on their own, they can be baked, fried, poached, boiled, used to make delicious savory sauces, and also as delightfully sweet desserts.  But have you ever actually thought about that box of eggs in your refrigerator?

As I've mentioned, we just spent a little over a year living on a farm that was very much a WORKING farm.  We had cows, pigs, ducks, a turkey, Guinea fowl, a dog, a cat, and more chickens than I could count on any given day, with more hatching all the time.  So really, we were never at a loss for eggs!  But...  For the first time in probably more than a year, I cracked open two eggs from a store-bought dozen, and nearly started to CRY.  The yolks were so PALE!  The melted butter in the pan almost had more colour than they did!  I wish I had some pictures of the eggs our chickens up north laid, because they were BEAUTIFUL by comparison, they were a bright, deep, RICH almost ORANGE golden yolk, and they had AMAZING flavour!  I actually once accused my mother of having added yellow food colouring to the scrambled eggs she served for breakfast during a family trip once, because the yolks were THAT bright.  Not the pale excuses for yolks in these commercially grown, store-bought eggs.  So tonight, and until I can find a source for farm-fresh eggs again, I shall be mourning the loss of my wonderfully bright-yolked eggs from chickens I know and love...

Independence Day and exhaustion...

...  These two almost always seem to go hand-in-hand for me, and this year was no different.  I had planned to make a simple dress from a dollar store t-shirt for my daughter a few days ago, to wear to a dear family friend's party Thursday, but then I kept getting distracted from it until about 10pm the night before Independence Day, YIKES!  I was initially inspired by the cute t-shirt dress with the braided collar Ashley made for her younger daughter over at Make It & Love It, but I couldn't find a single one of her cami's do use as a pattern!  So instead I grabbed one of her tank tops, and laid it out on the shirt, totally forgetting to remove the pocket first, but thankfully when the dress was cut, the pocket stayed on and I was able to pick it off after cutting the dress out.  YAY!  Since the only T that I could find that was the appropriate size was grey, I just HAD to dress it up with some red, white, and blue now didn't I?  And THAT is where the trouble started!  lol  The dress was so simple to make, I'm sure I'll be making at least a dozen more, but WOW, I didn't realize how much more difficult making things like clothing can be when you no longer own an iron!  Yes, you read that correctly, we no longer have an iron.  At some point over the last year that my husband and I have been apart, he managed to lose/ throw away my expensive, cordless, Oreck iron!  Needless to say, I am DECIDEDLY less than pleased!  However, the dress is cute and I am quite satisfied with the results.

So, I mentioned that it's a dress made out of a size 3X t-shirt from the dollar store, right?  Cuz it absolutely is.  And in order to give it some pizazz for this wonderful holiday, I used three sheets of craft felt, one each red, white, and blue, and cut four stars from each one.  These were SOOO difficult to get on!  I had pins in more spots on this thing than I think I have used ever, except when I had to pin-pleat a shirt I was making for my son, and I couldn't get my sewing machine to gather the piece I needed gathered.  Sewing on those stars...  Yeah, I don't think I will EVER do something like this again, EVER.  (Of course, having said that, now you know my brain is secretly plotting for me to do exactly that another 50 times before the end of the year, right?  And I'll only find out about it after I've made the first 30.  lol)  But enough jibber-jabber! 

Here is the dress before any pinning/ sewing took place, it only has the stars laid out where I wanted them to be:

That was about the point when I realized I was going to KILL myself trying to sew down each of those stars individually, with nothing holding them to the dress front to make it NOT move, and no stabilizer or interfacing to help give the fabric some heft and make it not move about as well!  Ah well, such is life, right?

Well, about three hours later, I had this.  Well, most of this.  About 3am I got so frustrated with the thread I was using for the hems and the neck- and arm-hole openings, because it kept snapping randomly, that I just HAD to go to Walmart and get new thread!  It was maddeningly frustrating!  But this was done by 4am, all but sewing down the seams to the back of the dress, and she keeps insisting she loves it.  I would honestly be surprised if I discover her not wearing it when I go to bed later!  lol

So my guess is that the dress was a hit.  She loved it, and surprisingly we received several compliments on it today, too!  I like it when things that I make get complimented, especially when I'm not too sure how the finished product would look, as I definitely was with this one.  So I'm very glad it worked out.  And that's it for now.  Happy Independence Day for those still celebrating, happy sleeping and Friday, for those already on to the next day of the week.  :)

Little bit of catching up...

Things have been fairly hectic for us.  As I think I have mentioned, my children and I were staying with my parents in another part of the state, away from my husband.  We had planned a 3-week vacation to visit him and spend time over the summer with him, and at the very last minute, my mother decided she not only didn't want us to come back at all, but she wasn't going to ALLOW us to come back, and had planned to throw away all of our things after we left!  So we packed as much as possible into my car and headed out.  Initially I had been planning to call their bluff and stay, just to annoy them, but then I decided I didn't want to do that to my children, and I would rather not be around people capable of treating their own flesh and blood in such a manner.  So though the kids were a bit buried, we managed to make it here with almost everything of importance.  Of course, we completely forgot the cords for both my sewing machine and my serger, but I still have my old machine down here, so I can use that until my sister can bring me those cords.  Well, IF she will bring them to me, I guess would be the wiser thing to say.  And I have talked my mother out of throwing everything away, she will hold onto it until I can arrange it's transport either back down here or to a place up there, which I am looking for as we speak, as well as a job to pay to live up there.  So for now, I will just make do with what I have and hope I don't go stir-crazy in the meantime.  :)
Today I decided to dig out said older sewing machine, and I made a dress/ maxi skirt for my daughter.  It looks wonderful on her, if I do say so myself, though admittedly I need to make a belt for the dress part, and maybe straps to help her keep it up.  But I haven't decided yet, so we'll see.  What do you think?  Not bad for no measuring tape, no iron, and just a yard of fabric, huh?  :)

This is with it pulled up as a dress.  I didn't realize when I snapped the shot that her head was moving, otherwise I would've taken another picture.  Also, the turquoise at her shoulders is not part of the dress, it's just the shirt she happened to be wearing when I had her try this on.  :)

And here it is as a skirt!  I'm really kinda tweaking about the waist, because of it being as uneven as it is, but she said she loves it, and doesn't want me to change anything about it, so I guess I'll just have to leave it.  She really likes it as the long, LLLOOONNNGGG skirt, so maybe it will get more wear that way.  She also said it would make a great cover-up for after the beach, and of course now I'm thinking of removing the elastic and casing altogether and shirring the top instead.  lol

I love making clothes for my sweet little girl, and as far as making clothing goes, this one couldn't be simpler.  Simply sew a tube of fabric (for her I used 1 yard of fabric that was about 42" wide), hem one end for the bottom edge, then either add a casing for elastic at the top or hem and shirr the other side for the waistband.  Couldn't really get much simpler than that!  I have another yard of this fabric and I'm seriously thinking about making a jumper for it, but I'm having trouble finding an appropriate pattern.  I'm sure I'll find something to make from the other yard of this, and I have so many ideas, not only in my head but pinned to Pinterest, that it's not funny!  Up next, if I can find a suitable fabric, I think I'll be trying to make a sort of t-shirt dress, only without sewn-on sleeves, if that makes any sense.  Ambitious, aren't I?  :)