Shirt, Shirt, Shirt

I have been wanting to play around with my embroidery machine lately, so I got it out the other day and went to town on some shirts for the kids.  First I made one for E, the little girl across the street.  Her mom had gotten me a pack of t-shirts and I promised her I'd give her one with something cute on it.  Minnie worked out great!  :)

Mickey for G.

Mario for J.

H's is a work in progress.  It's embroidered, but I want to make it into a dress.  The shirt is just too big right now, so I want to recon it a little bit.

Also, just to make you laugh, the first day J wore his shirt he was in the bathroom washing his hands before lunch and looking at himself in the mirror.  He was singing "Mario, Mario, Mario, Mario, Mario Shirt!"  over and over and over.  (He's a big fan.)  It was priceless.  Future Mario wizard, anyone?! 
 

"Min"-ity Dress

Yesterday I posted about an infinity dress I made for a friend.  I was looking at the extra fabric and realized I had enough for a mini sized one for H.  So I thought it might be fun for her, plus it would show how cute the dress is on, versus just on the hanger.  She loves it.  So nice and cool and comfy.  She wore it to church on the 4th and stayed nice and cool. 
Here's a few pics.

And a shot of her "posing".

I swear she thinks she's 15, not 5.  We are in trouble.

Infinity Dress

When my sister Karen got married this past fall I volunteered to make the bridesmaid dresses.  They turned out really cute and comfy.  Perfect for Vegas!  I posted some pictures on my facebook page and a friend of mine asked me to make her one.  So last week I made one for her.  She requested black.  Sadly, the pictures do not do it any justice at all.  It has really long straps that are meant to be tied all different ways.  Hence "infinity" dress.  It looks like nothing on the hanger, but then can be strapless, halter, tank, etc. depending on how you tie the straps.  Here are a few more pics.

My friend really liked it and it fit great!  Hopefully she'll have some fun times in this dress.

Jammy time!

On Wednesday June 30 we went to Cuff's Berry Farm for some strawberry pickin'.  It was a blast!  The kids did great.  H picked an entire quart herself, and the boys did a great job eating the fresh strawberries. 

Then on Thursday while the boys were napping H and I made our first ever strawberry freezer jam.  Numsters!

I'm already wishing for next year when we can go without a huge belly, and another little person to eat strawberries galore.

Boy Blue Hat

I promised J that I would make him a hat just like I did for the other two.  So I started on a hat from the same book again.  It was a quick one and I really enjoyed it, but as I was finishing up the pattern I thought it looked a little small.  Not small around, but short.  And sure enough, when I tried it on him it was not quite right. I actually finished this a couple of weeks ago, but just got around to taking a picture of it.  It has a cute cable right down the front and will match his navy blue winter jacket pretty well I think. 

But its so short that it doesn't quite cover his ears.  That just won't work here in Wisconsin.  So I've already cast on another one just like it.  I'll just make it a little bit longer this time! :)

Crafty Friday #4

Sandcastles!!  Normally at this time of year we would all be heading to Michigan to build some real sandcastles at my Mom's cottage.  However nothing is getting this preggie girl into a car for 10 hours.  :)

So we made some fun sandcastles here at home with pretty colored sand instead.  The kids loved this project!  I think it was their favorite one so far.  Definitely messy, certainly fun.  They got to glue and shake and pour sand.  I'll probably find sand everywhere later, but that's ok.

We started by drawing pictures of castles onto cardboard.  (Cereal boxes cut up, if you want to know).  J had a little trouble, so H offered to help with his. He insisted that his was a Robot Castle, by the way.  No girly princesses for him, thankyouverymuch.

Next I outlined their drawing with glue.  Just good old Elmer's.

Then we poured and shook the colorful art sand in little trays.  They LOVED this part.  And it was pretty fun to see what they wanted to be each color.

Then I let them add more glue after their pictures were pretty full.  They also wanted to do another one right away so I let them just go to town with the glue without drawing first.  The free form ones were cute, too.  H informed us that hers was Confetti.

The final products turned out really pretty.  Not as fun as a real sandcastle at the beach, but pretty good for a Crafty Friday project!  :)

H's Castle and Sun.

J's Robot Castle.

I have a feeling I'll get a request to do this one again.  It was certainly a success!

Birthday Buddy Bag

H and J were invited to our little friend Ellie's 3rd birthday party.  We thought it would be fun to make part of her gift so I used our freezer paper stencil technique to make a cute tote just for her.  We also included a Color Wonder princess kit inside for some sparkly, princessy fun.  Hopefully she'll enjoy having a bag all to herself with her name on it!

Crafty Friday #3

This time we worked on some cutting and gluing skills.  I had the kids draw a picture that I then outlined with a Sharpie.  Then I used an exacto knife to cut out some of the shapes.  Meanwhile the kids went to town cutting things from magazines.  I told them to choose anything that they liked.  They both did great, but J really was funny with the scissors.  Apparently he needs to practice!

Then we glued the the magazine clippings to a paper to make a collage.

H got a little help from her Aunt Molly after J was done and taking his rest.  H is a lot more committed and particular in her crafting, I am finding. :)

The final projects turned out pretty cute.  J made a spider web and H made a flower, an ice cream cone and a cherry.

I had to do this one too.  I went for a sewing machine.  It might end up in a frame in my craft room.  It's so bright and happy.

Picnic In Progress

So now that we are going to be a family of 6 we don't have a picnic blanket that we would all fit on.  And I have been saving Joe's jeans for a while.  So I cut up 5 or 6 pairs and serged them together.  The back is a light blue sheet that got too pilled.  No quilting for me though.  I'm just tying it together.  And I plan to add straps so that when I fold it up I can carry it over my shoulder.  I've tied  most of it, but I'm not done yet, so I'll have to post pictures when I'm done!

Crafty Friday #2

 G's Monkey

This one was really fun!  I had been dying to try out freezer paper stencils for a while, so I thought we could make some fun tote bags.  I printed out some cute images and we went to town.  I cut out the image outlines with a craft knife and then ironed the freezer paper stencils onto the bags.  The kids dabbed away with fabric paint on sponge brushes and went to town!  They loved the results.  G napped so I made his, but the big kids did great on their own. 

After the paint dried we peeled off the freezer paper.

 J's Robot

H's Butterfly

Now they each have a "liberry bag" for taking books back and forth from the library.  :)