vinyl tablecloths make the best...

outdoor decorative pillows. for rainy and snowy seasons you don't have to worry about the water seeping through. in hot sunny weather you don't need to fret over it being sun bleached because you get a whole heck of a lot of vinyl in a vinyl table cloth for small money, and you can make more once the first set get worn down. now if you live in a super windy area like yours truly, make sure you add some rocks inside your pillow to hold 'em down...

these turned out a little on the bright side, but i also found some olive-y greenish sage-y color for the next set. i just thought with all that white stuff the red would look super flashy and nice!

out with the christmas, in with the...hearts?

christmas tree down: check
christmas decor put away:check
christmas aftermath still a frenzy in the kids room: check
driving to go see the in laws this weekend to celebrate late christmas with them: check
winter decor put up:che....wait i don't have any "winter" decor...not a fan of snowmen, i like snowflakes but i don't have too many...soooooo
valentines decor put up: check
next week i'll show you some more, and i'll finally show you what i've been working on with my vinyl tablecloth...i know you've been holding your breath.
i got a few snapshots of the little one and her own personal pony.

she absolutely loooves that dog, er pony, and he tolerates her just fine...that makes me very happy.

she makes me happy.

now you've gone and made me cry...

dear middle of nowhere people,
well what can i say. i know some of you have started to read this silly little blog of mine, so i thought i would take the opportunity to say to you all THANK YOU. thank you thank you thank you. never in my wildest dreams did i think possible that you could already outdo yourselves in taking care for my family. everything from calling to making sure i'm okay, to waking up to the sounds of a tractor fixing my broken pipe, to looking out my window and seeing yet another tractor clearing off my driveway of the pesky white stuff...today you proved me wrong. to my surprise i opened the door not once but twice to wonderful ladies of the community (a sheriff included...yeah we're that cool) with their arms full to the brim with presents for my little ones (AND SOME FOR ME TOO!) to give you a little perspective, i wrapped up our presents that i went out and bought in white...YEAH, do you SEE any white in there? oh it's peppered in there but it's drowned in a sea of wonderful gifts donated by you guys to my family. so yes thank you for making up for someone not being here. *blubbery mess*

and GI Joe husband, the community also sent out a huge package of necessities for you and the guys overseas, as well as letters written by all the elementary school children, well all except nate's class. no, i got those wonderful letters here waiting for you when you come home to us. so to all of you out there in big cities and not out in the middle of nowhere, i'm really sorry you don't know these people, they have got to be hiding their wings and halo's somehow, because i'm pretty sure that's what they are. dog gone it, i really need to invest in water proof makeup.

the official christmas picture

well it was taken in sept. when GI Joe husband was here...look how warm we look.

merry christmas. may it be safe, warm and cozy!

sundays suck, and things to come

i hate sundays, it's the hardest day of the week for me. it's suppose to be the Lord's day and a spiritual day. not so much for me, it's pretty much my own personal hell (yup, it bumped walmart with kids off the list), but i go because i have to, God told me to. enough said about that...only roughly 7-8 more sundays to dread and go through till GI Joe husband gets home...7-8!!! i can't wrap my mind around that! it's not real till he's here.

anyways... i'm always on the lookout for some vinyl tablecloths with good prints...why? oh well you'll have to come back next week to find out what i make out of it! i was so happy to find this tablecloth at walmart, pretty cheap as well, so that makes it even better. i'm starting to work on them today! any guesses?

our weekend

then i decided to torture myself and the kids by trying to take a picture...these depict happy moments...but don't be fooled.

ps: i'm pretty darn proud of myself this year for letting the tree be decorated by my children. notice the gaps and clumps of ornaments, GI Joe husband knows that's a big BIG deal. i totally let it go and didn't care. next i'll let them decorated their bedroom...ahahahahaha! no way never going to happen.

well at least they all looked up for one of them. happy holidays from my crazy crew to yours.

snow snow go away...

please don't come back another day! i'm laying low this weekend, watching kid movies, staying under a lot of quilts while eating popcorn and reading, and drinking a lot of this stuff due to...

all of this stuff...
spent most of the week shoveling the white stuff off my walkways...good exercise...yeah that's what i keep telling myself. here's to a little let up on the white stuff, have a good weekend. i'm not going ANYWHERE. anyone got some good reads they want to pass my way?

tutorial: bandanna skirt

these skirts fit a 2-3 year old...you can adapt it for older girls by adding layers and extra bandanna's (maybe i'll make a tutorial of that later on)

first off get yourself a bandana

fold in half and press with an iron.

next cut in half with some fabric scissors. (took this picture with my left hand, yeah i'm talented like that)

this will be the bottom part of your skirt, it adds length and a little embellishment as well!

i cut the 2 strips the length of the bandanna (mine was 21 and half inches) at 4 inches width (you could cut it wider if you want the skirt to be longer)

fold in half and press with an iron

place raw edge towards the bottom of the skirt with the "right side" of fabric facing up

sew your strips onto the bottoms of the bandanna

press down with iron

this is what your bandanna halves should look like

right sides together, line up your seams where the bandanna and the bottom strip come together, sew together both halves to create a tube.

hmm where did my picture of me sewing it go? okay, well it's lost but you don't need it

now to make the casing for the elastic on the waist band, first fold over around 1/2 inch of the top, press that down with an iron

fold over one more time around 1/2 inch again and press with an iron again

next sew as close as you can to the bottom open edge of your casing (this will help to slide your elastic a lot easier)

go around the whole skirt and leave open about an inch so that you can put your elastic in the casing. (make sure you back stitch when you start and end so that it doesn't unravel as you put in your elastic)

with a safety pin slide in your elastic (it can be thicker than what i show here, this is all i had at the moment!)

once it's all in, sew the elastic together and cut off excess, and go back and sew finish the hole you left open for putting in the elastic.

if you have any question feel free to ask! hope this tutorial is helpful though!
comments closed

aprons and hotpads...

go check them out HERE

tell me you wouldn't look smokin' hot in one of these numbers? i walk around all day in mine and i feel like i want to put on some pearls or something. watch out donna reed!

i did finish these for the boys' teachers. my boys have the BEST teachers this year. i really can't express how grateful i am for these teachers, especially my oldest son's. she's pretty much an angel. she's patient and loving and understanding of him. i see so many good differences this year and i KNOW it has a lot to do with her! these hot pads were made with "recess" charm packs and muslin. i think they turned out pretty cute.

tomorrow i'll be posting the tutorial for the bandanna skirt.

a binding we will go...

i've been working my fingers off it seems these days binding. binding my quilts that are finished, and binding for other people (.12 cents an inch) not bad money. i love that i get to help people finish their projects, the happiness and gratitude they express is pay enough, but the money is well needed to feed the fabric addictions over here soooo....yeah the money is nice. i really don't mind doing this part of people's quilts for them, especially when i love it so. when a quilt is bound, it is finally finished and looks lovely, crisp, yummy,and ready to hang out under with a book. just all around a happy maker. i'm off to bind two more right now for others, and hopefully finish up my table runners sometime later this week. i'm posting new aprons in the shop tomorrow, so come back and check those out. they are darn cute and your hubby won't be able to stop thinking dirty thoughts about you in it. hey, maybe you could get a "betty" of your own with the help of one of these aprons! haha! i'm TOTALLY joking, well not really.

she's such a "betty"

i think that's her name.
GI joe husband took it upon himself to buy me a sewing machine. yes, you read it right. HE bought ME a sewing machine. GI joe husband loves to research (that's why he went and got himself a PhD. so he could one day teach at a university and do research), so when i told him what my next requirements for a sewing machine would be(never ever EVER thinking that i would get something even close to it), and what brand i wanted....he started to research and well guess what he found...an even better sewing machine than what i would of bought for myself. for half the cost of what it originally cost. with perks and a lot of equipment i don't even know what any of it does yet.

and in reading the manual i see that she can quilt, embroider, clean, cook, and do my taxes. i wonder if she does pedicures as well?

she scares the hell out of me.

thank you jake.

happy birthday to my middle boy

i can't believe you are 7! some fun facts about you:
*you love star wars everything and anything
*you are a hard worker at school and at home
*you are much more mature than you 7 years
*you are great at reading people and when you see someone who is sad you do things to help them
*you are our "lets go out and play together. you too mom." kid
*you love to read
*you get along with most
*you are my easy going kid with a great imagination
*you keep me sane amongst the chaos sometimes
*you take care of you siblings even when not asked

happy birthday kid you are one special dude, when dad gets home he's going to be so surprised at how totally awesome you are!

a winner and a confession

well thanks for playing! yes, here's to another fun year but with a husband in the picture! so i asked the random integer generator thing a mi-jiggy to get me a random # (uh, no way was i going to pick out the winner and have the rest of you get mad at me!) so here's your RANDOM # 23 and the winner: is lisa who said:
Hi V.
my first time here... and I've really enjoyed it. I'll probably be coming back to do some more browsing around here. love the bandanna skirt. I'm thinking my girls have some in their dress-up box.. i may have to sneak a couple to try this skirt out.would love to be entered into the giveaway... cute bag!have a great day.

alright LISA !!way to be the integer generator's random #!
i've gotten a few requests for the bandanna skirt tutorial...no worries next week my friends next week. not only that but i'm updating the shop with aprons, stitcheries, and charm packs and table runners next week so please come back and check it out would you?
so lisa give me your address via email and i'll send out your little bag on monday.

so i went to go see something again....

remember my disappointment in the twilight movie? well i re-read twilight, and decided i may of been too harsh on the movie the first time. so when it came to my little town, i rounded up the troops. let me tell you there is nothing funnier than 6 women climbing out of a minivan all jazzed up about teenage vampires. what was the outcome? i loved it the second time around. because i already knew it wasn't the book. still cheesy, yes...but edward made it all okay because the eye candy was delish. i may of even been heard to say "i want to have edward's babies!" yeah, i have good friends that just laugh at me and my stupidities. favorite part in the movie: when bella is washing her truck and edward is looking oh so fine leaning up against it with his hair all messed up and his blue puffy jacket. i'm going to go buy GI joe a jacket that looks just like that and i'm going to make him grow out his hair like that. meow... what only 50 somewhat days left! ahahaha! pretty sure i'm going to hear about this one later on. does anyone know how long till the dvd comes out?

one year anniversary giveaway

yup, it was one year ago this coming friday that i finally decided to start a blog. so here you go you freeloaders. didn't get to win last time i gave this little cute bag away? didn't know my blog then? well here's your chance. go ahead use me to get free stuff, it's okay i won't think any less of you (no really, i won't. i'd just think you were being thrifty and you know how i feel about a cheap find and how much cheaper than free can you get?) so leave me a comment and i'll pick a winner friday morning at 10 a.m. mountain standard time. and hello to all you first timers coming to visit from this that and the other (thanks jodi for the shout out!)

my holiday season resolution

so it's not yet that time to make a new years resolution, but i thought this holiday season i was going to make a short term resolution. like a one month-er instead of a 12 month-er...this last year i made the resolution that i was going to stop talking about the things i wanted to accomplish and just go ahead and start doing them. even if it meant that i would fail at a few of them. it was a great year to finally start making clothes, selling things online and in a store here in the middle of nowhere, attempt to learn to play the drums (i sucked royally at that) and now learning to play the piano (i don't suck as bad at that). did i get to try everything i would of liked to try? no way, i still want to try to learn to knit and crochet, i would love to try my hand at silk screening ( i would need resources for this), make soap, grow a bigger garden...oh and i'm sure there are many more interesting crafty things i'd like to try in the coming years. this year has taught me not to be afraid to be bad at some things and just go and do it. it's been a good year.

with the holiday season in full swing often times we forget ourselves in the rush of christmas shopping, neighbor gifts, teacher gifts, family gifts, the decorating, the un-decorating, the whole hustle and bustle, so this made me think, i'm going to take care of me this season (on top of all the other crazy stuff) i'm going to continue to make sure i get to the gym every day (and the days i miss i'll jump in place for 30 minutes while the little one sleeps, my kids think this is funny) i'm going to continue my goal to not drink carbonated drinks on a daily basis, i'm going to add more vegies to my diet and less carbs (but don't touch my chocolate!), i'm going to go to bed earlier (not so hard these days without the caffeine!), i'm going to laugh more with my kids, i'm going to read scriptures more often, i;m going to soak in baths more, i'm going to continue to get on my knees and pray for help, i'm going to read good books and some stupid ones too, i'm going to do whatever i want to do to make me healthier all around. that's a pretty scary list there, but i think i can handle it for a month.

have a great weekend, i'm going to try to also!

before and after:: the fireplace (and a confession)

well you guys guessed it alright! another thing i didn't love about this house was the fireplace. very 1970's...

also in sort of an awkward place (the kitchen) but that's where everything happens in our house so i guess it's in a good place (trying to look at the positive here!)

so i painted the fireplace (what a pain in the rump to get all the nooks and crannies), and then i painted the wall behind the mantel the same color as my wall behind my buffet. which is also the same color for my WHOLE KITCHEN now (yeah i changed the buttery tan color, it just didn't go as well). love this color though!

it's still not my dream fireplace, but it's an improvement... baby steps! baby steps!!!

oh and here's the big stinkin confession news:

wait for it...

it's been 7 whole dog gone weeks since i've purposely drank Diet Dr pepper with caffeine in it! ( i say purposely because there has been two times since the 7 weeks that i "accidentally" had a fully loaded diet dr pepper. unbeknownst to me the person gave me one with caffeine not the caffeine free so i can not and WILL not be held accountable for that)...and the even more awesome news is that i try not to drink the caffeine free stuff either! only for special occasions. ha! i kicked the trash out of that habit! my mom would be so proud if she only knew that i still had the problem!

sad to say i'm not as funny as i used to be without my drinks, and i don't know how to have a good time without it, i'm sort of boring these days, i go to bed early, and wear a house coat... but at least i'm drink free baby! i'm no longer a caffeineholic! whoot! whoot!