yummy booties!!

I do not know many people who can resist an adorable little baby . .so sweet and cute that you just want to gobble them all up (metaphorically, not in a creepy way). Give them kisses all over there little cheeks and play with their little fingers! Ahhhh . . must stop baby envy, do not need another! LOL.

I have the chance to get to know Carolyn of LilBabyThangs who makes the sweetest little booties and patterns . . . I can picture how much more adorable those sweet babies who get to wear her booties look and the joy it brings her to know that there are sweet little feet with her booties on them, all comfy and cozy!!

She has a wonderful tutorial on her blog to help those of us who just cannot use a pattern (I am the type of person who can make many things . .but I cannot follow a pattern for anything, so pictures really help me). I recently purchased one of her patterns and will be posting my finished result :-) I'm SO excited! Visit Carolyn's blog at: http://lilbabythangs.blogspot.com/

Here are a few photos of her work and a bit more about Carolyn ........

Camping on a mountain-top for 5 months with 6 boys, ages 2 to 19, and keeping your sanity would definitely rank as a ‘most memorable experience’ . . . and it certainly is one of Carolyn of lilbabythangs. To Carolyn, it is all worth it, as long as she is home in Montana.

Carolyn calls much of western Montana home and says, “I need green, the woods, the sound of the breeze through the trees, the streams babbling, the animal and bird sounds to soothe my soul, my nerves and allow me to hear myself think.”

Carolyn has lived around the United States, including Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Pennsylvania - she finds her best inspiration in Montana. And she must be very inspired! Carolyn makes the sweetest baby booties and wonderful patterns. Carolyn has even had 2 patterns put in the Clotilde catalog! Congratulations to Carolyn on her amazing work.

Carolyn puts a great amount of effort and joy into crafting her patterns. She says, “I enjoy the pattern drafting and getting it perfected on the computer so it will print up nice, the most, [of her creative process].”

Lilbabythangs are created by Carolyn when she has peace and quiet, order and no interruptions! She says, “I have things in order, so I clean up and clean off - I just don’t put away well, till I have to. And I really hate interruptions.”

Thank you, Carolyn, for sharing yourself and your creations with us and Etsy!

so I'm a slacker

Gah! So, I had every intention of getting that scrumptious artisan up on Monday and I have it half ready . . I just get so caught up in things sometimes and forget - -like NONE of the rest of the Earth's population has ever done .. I know. LOL.
And Tuesday was run around and get ready for school day. SO I will get it posted today . . . are you ready for it?!?! Who is it going to be?!?!?! Hehe -- come back to find out.

Jelly roll-ups

So I am getting ready to send off my little guy to school on Thursday and trying to think of all the things I need get set - - lunches, waking up on time, and all that good stuff. And do all this without getting to sad . .. he is starting Kindergarten and in our state they have full-day kindergarten, ahhhh . . . and staying excited for him.
So, I have been really immersing myself into Etsy and my new team and also looking at healthy lunch goodies and in general avoiding thinking about it.
I found a cute sandwich idea and tried a version out on my daughter, who is 4, for her before bed snack and she is completely addicted . .it's hilarious. She nows thinks the best food on Earth is a 'jelly roll-up' ie: a piece of bread with the crusts cut off, then rolled flat with a rolling pin. Spread jelly of choice on it and roll it up - -yummy-licious. LOL
So, In honor of her discovery I am going to do a jelly-mini and find the most scrumptious looking BigSkyMontanaEtsyTeam member to feature, right after lunch.

Volunteer year is nearing

I am so not ready for so many things this year . . my goodness, my little guy starts kindergarten in a few days. *sigh* My hubby is going to be finishing his degree (the perpetual student that he is just cannot wait any longer), so that means full-time school and full-time office for him, at least it's internet classes and the easy ones that he didn't take while at the U. And this will mark my daughter's last year at home, she will follow her brother into kindergarten.
But, there is one thing that I am so ready for and cannot wait to get started on . .. GFWC Polson Women's Club starts up its new volunteer year in September!!!
We are still getting things together and trying to figure out what we can do each year, however, we all have so much enthusiasm for getting things done and helping others! It is so great to be with such a fun and excited group of ladies. We will be looking into space to have consistent meetings this year . . . doing on-line business and utilizing 'meeting' time to make things happen to give us more time for doing and have planning done in spare time when we find it . . . revising Bylaws to allow for on-line voting, business sessions, etc . . . and coming up with some superb new projects and writing some fabulous reports to go along with those!!
All my club friends mean so much to me and we are excited to welcome new friends all the time. We will be hosting a Leadership Day in October to help women understand that there is a leader in all of us . . . no matter what you want to lead!!
And we will be working on our Domestic Violence Awareness Cookbook - a matter that is closer to everyone than they want to admit. We encourage everyone to go and become one of the Million Voices Against Domestic Violence and pledge to speak out against violence! No one should feel afraid to go home our to be with someone who uses the phrase 'love' when they really mean control. Click on the link, then click the "Join the Million Voices Campaign".
Ohhh . . . I am so excited and so ready for this!!

yippie ki-yi-yeay

Here is the diaper bag that I made for my sister's co-worker. I hope that it is something that will be liked and well-used. After quite a bit of trial and error, I am happy with how it turned out. It is on the larger side, rather than smaller.

The measurements are: bottom is 15" x 7 1/2"
top is 14 1/2" x 6 1/2"
and it is 11 3/4 inches tall
the handle strap measures 33", with out length for the clasping/ connecting pieces

DIY Scrap Stage

It's amazing how much extra wood someone has after they have deck built. My in-laws had a remodel done last summer and there has been a huge pile of left-over wood just sitting there. And then, when I re-did my son's room, I took out a shelf in the closet made with a large board that was just sitting around.
So . .. what can I do to use that instead of it rotting? Well, the kiddos love to play dress up and have puppets and all, so why not make a stage. A simple, easy one since tools are not plentiful around a geek house.
I found several 3 1/2 inch screws and the drill bit and the hack-saw and got to work.
There were 2 4x4's of roughly the same length as the width of the large board and then a 2x4 that was only a few inches longer than the length of the board. Phew! Not too much cutting to do at all.
I measured the 2x4 against the board and then cut it off with the hack saw. Then placed the 4x4's on either side of the board and marked spots for those, then spots for the 2x4, so they would flush together at the front area of the stage. Using the drill (thanks goodness we at least have that LOL), I put 2 screws through the top of the stage and into each 4x4 - one at the front of each board and one at the back. Then, I screwed the 2x4 into the 4x4's with 2 screws on each end.
Phew . . . hardest part done :-)

Then, I went on a paint-finding adventure in the garage (can you say, save too much stuff) and found an interior, non-oil light blue color and painted the sides and top with 2 layers each (dried for about 12 hours in between) - I even had some kid help for the painting, teaching them how to use even, smooth strokes and they both put in a very good effort. We let it dry for 24 hours and brought it in the house to decorate with water-based acrylics. I let the kid's decide on all the pictures I would paint and also had them painting at the same time.
Then, after another 24 hours of drying, I sprayed the surface with a sealer to protect the paintings from feet and such.

The project itself was so much fun to do together and now it's a very popular part of the dress-up/ pretend play room, which will eventually be turned back into my daughter's room - she's been sleeping on brother's bunkbed for awhile now.

What's a girl to do?

Crafting can be a total wreck!
You are sitting there, happily creating a piece of work that is just going so well and turning out wonderful . ..when *poof* into your brain full of current craft project jumps
ta da
NEW, SPARKLING . .. gotta do it RIGHT NOW or I'm going to die of craft mania idea!!

Stop . . .wait . . . working on project that was not happening and now totally feeling it . . .cannot, must not stop. *I need to stop, I absolutely MUST at least write down my idea . . . must make one teenie little sketch* says crafty brain that has no sense of in the now, or maybe too much sense of in the now!

So . . . what is a girl to do?!! This cannot be a disease that only I posses?!?!

And I try to explain this to people who do not craft and they look at me like "what the hell is your problem? Being able to just come up with ideas?! Isn't that, like, amazing?!"
No, no, no!!! It is not, I am going to go crazy. I cannot follow through on anything when this happens?!! How do you NOT understand?!?!

GRRRR . . . so, gotta figure something out. Alas, until I do so, I will forget wonderful ideas in the pursuit of current projects or drop in the middle of current project and leave a big ol' mess and make my teenie, tiny sketch/ note/ whatever and then pursue said project until another evil idea comes coming hopping along.


And this comes about today because the diaper bag I have been despairing over and feeling not too confident about has come to life! I guess the idea of writing it down did help . . .I feel it coming together in my head and in the fabric! Ohhhh . . it is too great now . . .want to have another wee one so I can have one. But, that is a whole other story!

the craft project I just cannot get done

Ok, so awhile back when I first got into making my ReClaimed Creations and told my little sis about it she said one of her co-workers might want me to make a diaper bag, to which I was thinking . . .oh, gosh, I am not sure that I could really come up with something unless they have a good idea of what they want. Then in June the girl said that she would really like me do do a diaper bag for her sister, because reusing and that kind of thing is really up her alley basically. But, the baby wasn't due until mid-September, so no big deal, just tell her how much I owe her. And I ask, ok, so what does she like, do you have any ideas on colors/ theme? Well, she's really excited it a girl, so something with pinks and cute. Um, ok, big, small, medium, patchwork, solid, applique?
"I don't really know. you're a really crafty person, you'll come up with something great."
I am very flattered, but very overwhelmed, seeing as so far I have only made purses, wrist cuffs and trick or treat bags (other than Halloween costumes). I diaper bag is something that you have to cram so much into, use forever, be able to wash frequently (at least I did), etc, etc.
So, I made one attempt and it was something that I absolutely hated, hated so MUCH that I barely took the time to tear it apart for the salvageable pieces.
So, now I have cute out material, have another plan and have several pieces decided on, but cannot, no matter what I do convince myself to "go for it again". I have a vision of a really cute but not overly cute bag, some really great fabrics and everything is ready, but I cannot make that darn thing come together?!!!
I think I have a case of craft fright!!!! Argghhhhh. I sat down today, with my newly cleaned space, all my pieces cut and organized and just could not get far at all! Maybe writing about it will help me, a journal entry of sorts?
I will work on it after bath time . .I will . . .I will! I so can make the vision in my head appear, right?!?!
OK .. . extracting children from tub, wrinkles and all.

Icky girls

One of those too funny kid moments. Driving in the car 4-year-old daughter says she wants to be older than her brother, I told her that it's nice to have an older brother so if boys are bugging her when she gets older that her brother will take care of them. I said to son, 'you'll just tell those punks to leave your sister alone, won't you?!', to which I get gales of laughter from both, since mommy does not normally say things like that.
Then silly mommy proceeds to say to daughter, when you get older you'll be able to tell your brother which girls to stay away from. *thinking, oh, crap . .. why did I just say THAT!*
And then I get asked 'what girls would I want to stay away from mommy?'
'Um, icky girls,' replies mom who should have kept her mouth shut! OMG!
To which smart little girl in her car seat says, 'Yeah, the icky girls. You know icky girls are the ones who don't take a bath-tub when their mommies tell them to.'
To which mommy replies with gales of laughter! I least I am saved from explaining what I really meant.

Gardens and volunteering . . .what else!?!

Summer is coming to a close and I have so many fun ideas running through my head, but no time to get them going. And I have to keep remembering to weed the garden!
My first year at attempting to plant a decent-size garden of veggies and a patch of strawberries. I did not get the bigger area planted until after the snow in June, so it still has alot of growing to do. I have a bunch of peas and the cucumber plants are getting huge! The beans are starting to come out and *cross your fingers* the corn is maybe going to do something. If nothing else it will look cute transplanted into front barrels in the fall :-) I also am hoping on some mini-pumpkins for Halloween and for fall, but not sure about them. All this in 100 square feet and the strawberry patch is about 40 square feet. The kids ended up eating all of those as they came up red - we only got about 10 berries (3rd year plants and they were transplanted from another person's garden)
Fall will be here all to soon and I will have more time on my hands - maybe?! One of the kiddos will be starting Kindergarten and soccer and all that goes with sports, etc!
I recently joined a wonderful Etsy team called Big Sky Montana Etsy Team. I have not been much of a help there, though!
Now that I finally finished the Summer newsletter for GFWC of Montana - a 20 page issue at that- I will have more time to devote to Etsy and my crafty self! The newsletter is all layed-out and published by yours truly (on an volunteer-basis)! It is a good amount of work, but SO much fun when all said and done.
Then, over the week I got school shopping done and my craft supplies are getting sorted through! I so need to destash, but I cannot bear to part with anything! Even my ever-growing collection of cereal boxes - never know when those babies might come in handy. They are great for painting on (for the kids and myself) and making pillow boxes out of.
My volunteer efforts are slowing down for the month, but will be starting up the new volunteer year with a bunch of projects and aspirations! I am the State Leadership chairman and still the newsletter publisher, as well as president of my local club.
Well . . . I do have quite a few things to get started and several to finish. So, you think I should hop to it?!! LOL - I better get all my crafty supplies gone through and get to work this weekend. I have a diaper bag to finish.