I picked up this pre shirred fabric in a bin 20% off. The best part was the top was already surged and the bottom was hemmed! YEY!
Measure around the chest of the child (or who ever it’s for) give yourself an inch for sewing. So if it’s a 25 in chest cut at 26.
Pin (or not if you are a lazy sewer like me)
Sew!
That’s it! Makes a cute and easy summer top! Or could even be worn as a skirt! I don’t bother with sewing straps in cause the shirred part keeps it up!
Since I had my youngest daughter I have been allergic to wheat. Not gluten, but actual wheat wheat. So obviously I make a lot of wheat free junk. In an effort to separate recipes from crafts I’ve started a sister blog called Wonder Wheaties. If you’re interested in taking a look it’s here!
I almost did some sewing today… almost. I even turned the sewing machine on and had a piece of fabric draped across it like I was going to accomplish something. But my crappy chicken dinner dinged done and it was time to go. After dinner, dishes, a little elliptical, putting the kids to bed and picking up I was done too. So instead it’s on the ‘to do’ list for tomorrow. On another note my loving eldest daughter is grounded, for the first time ever.
We have an Ipad. It was suppose to be mine, but the kids took it over (like most other aspects of my life) and they play games on it, sometimes I play too cause it’s fun. Well my oldest daughter was given our I Tunes password to update some of her apps and that was that. Unbeknownst to us (mom and dad) she was racking up the I Tunes bill feeding her virtual monster pets at ten dollars a pop. So while I was budgeting a grocery bill for 5 she was feeding her ‘pets’ gourmet monster berries ‘for free’ via my charge card. How much did her little bundle of joy eat? Well the total bill was about $200.00.
I made a chore chart and she has the summer to work off the money, each chore costing about a dollar not including what she already has to do. She is also electronically grounded and is missing a big summer party. In her defense the game is a little bit if a rip. You play and play until the tenth level and BAM they slap you with a charge to play any further. So parents be warned! Don’t let your kids play Monster Petshop!
I heard that the documentary Being Elmo (free on netflix if anyone has it) was really really good. I was a little reluctant to watch it cause really how good could a doc be on a red furry annoying puppet? Well, I popped it on as a ‘safe’ movie to watch while the kids were still up (Zombieland would have to wait) and WOW IT WAS AMAZING! It was so good in fact that my eldest daughter (9) watched it again the next morning. Even my husband liked it. So needless to say this sparked some hamster wheels in her and she wants me to help her make a Jim Hensen style puppet. Has anyone ever done this and was successful? I looked around the web and found this place to buy a pattern from called puppetproject.com. They have some really amazing puppets on there that I won’t post cause I don’t like to steal pics. Anyway were going to order the pattern this week so hopefully she gets her puppet soon! I’m excited!!
Backstory- So since Ein’s last poop-a-sode we discovered he had a swollen anal gland. For those of you who don’t know what that is, basically a doggie bottom hole has two glands on the inside that collect oils inside of them (WHY!) and sometimes they are trying to get rid of that oil when ya catch em scooting on your carpet (so gross). Anyway his were swollen (possibly from the diarrhea episodes) and we took him to the vet to get his sac squeezed. Basically they shaved his bum, squished the nasty sac and gave him some antibiotics to take. His butt healed, end of story.
So it’s been getting hot (summer) and I wanted to take him to the groomer for a summer cut. I take him to this little hole in the wall with this nice old lady who always does a great job for a great price. Well this time she shaved him down along with half his leg skin, not kidding. When I came to pick him up, she told me she had gotten it to stop bleeding and it should scab over. And if I felt it was necessary then I should take him to the vet and she would pay. I was pretty mortified and took him home freaking out. His tissue was showing so I decided to call the vet and make an appointment to get it looked at. Of course when we took him in the vet said he needed stitches. The next day I took the bill to the groomer and she was super sweet and nice and promptly wrote me a check for the amount. (YEY!) Here’s some pics, I expect more pooping in the house in the near future because he’s pissed for obvious reasons.
I wanted this post to be entitled “weekend sewing’ or more appropriately “the sewing I got done over the weekend” but the weekend came and went and in between loads of laundry, glasses of wine and trying to keep my sanity, there it went, with no sewing involved at all, what sew ever. So, here we have it! Monday sewing! I finished this bag from the blog Sew Mamma Sew. My version should be called the 1000 mistakes bag. I don’t know if it was the straps or the funky stitched sides but it took exceptionally long to finish and now I am going to go soak my hands in ice water. The good part is now when I go take three screaming kids to go meet the husband for lunch tomorrow I’ll have a new bag to show off. (Like he even cares) But I do, and I was tired of my goldfish crumbed lined bag, it needed to go… in the wash.
Also finished today was a T shirt reconstruction. I had bought these cheapo long sleeve T Shirts at walmart for like two bucks each on clearance. So I took the sleeves off to make it strapless. Originally I wanted to make a ruffle take top, but after some complications with body shape I realized a ruffle top might not be the thing for me anywayz so a rose it was… it’s ok… I sort of like it (still trying to convince myself…) I will wear it, tomorrow! Oh wait, I’m going to my hubby’s work, don’t want to look like a stitched up rag doll, ok next day, around the house, while I’m cleaning, ya that’s it.
Also today my daughter almost sewed my fingers together while I was helping her make a skirt! She picked out the funky fabric at a remnants bin 20% off and it was just her size. However after I dropped a few eff bombs after she almost rammed the needle through my fingers I finished the skirt for her, she was happy either way.
Next up: White summer dress (lets hope I don’t look like a whale in it)
Companies usually give their workers a couple weeks vaca, maybe ten sick days and however many holidays they can squeeze by. But mothers across the globe get only one day a year to celebrate their heart warming dedication to their families. Today I’ve been instructed to ‘take the day off’ and have been banned from chores… what to do then with all this free time? Blog, check, weed the garden, check, work out, check, now off to sew a summer bag I’ve been eyeing since god knows when. And after that a nap maybe? GASP!
Here’s something I wanted to share before I go off to enjoy the rest of my day. My husband likes to express his creative side and usually makes his cards he give to me (which I like better). He’s definitely a keeper. : )
I wanted to start switching some of our household cleaners to something more natural and homemade. I ran across some recipes but I didn’t like them too much so I sort of improvised and came up with this. The only complaint I have is it is streaky on windows so I’ll have to wait and see what I can replace good old Windex with or else live with streaky mirrors. Otherwise it makes a good degreaser and general all purpose cleaner for kitchens and bathrooms. I’ve used it on my dining room table about 20 times and it’s no prob. But then again, my dining room table is ‘rustic’ and repurposed from cragislist. If you paid a lot for your table I’d do a test patch underneath.
In a clean old cleaner bottle fill with 1/2 water and 1/2 distilled vinegar. Add half a lemons juice an shake before use.
This is my basic granola recipe I use it weekly because I refuse to purchase crappy candy bars, I mean granola bars from the grocery store. It’s very fast and you can add in whatever you have on hand. The picture has blueberries but I’ve often made it with chocolate chips for the kiddos, makes a good after school snack.
4 1/2 old fashioned oats
1/3 cup honey
1 tbs baking powder
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup brown sugar (or how ever much you want to taste)
1 cup flour
1-2 cups of mix ins
Bake @ 325 18-20min
I never bother to cut them up, I just serve them like brownies. I’ve also crumbled it and eaten like cereal. YUMMY!
So turns out his turds were worth a thousand words… While Einstein was living out the remainder of his days in his doggie crate pooping consistently indoors I noticed a giant ‘cling on’ (a piece of poop stuck to his fur for those of you who don’t know) on his booty. So I took him in the bath tub and proceeded to get a tissue and rip off the stuck on turd myself. As soon as I touched the thing Einstein flipped out and tried to bite me. Okay. Instantly I knew something was up. I turned on the warm water and let the shower run on him comfortably melting the poop off his hiney. After he was cling on free I started to wash him up and he snapped at me again! I finished up his bath in no time so I can do a butt inspection. Turns out he had a bursted anal gland. It was red and open and sore and gross and I knew he needed another trip to the vet. Idiots. So I called and made a same day appt and took him in. They shaved his bum, squished the remainder of his sac infection and gave me some meds for him to be on for 14 days. I tried to argue the fact that I was JUST there and they obviously hadn’t checked his butt sacks otherwise they’d know something was up from the git go. But the vet (Rip OFF) insisted that the two appointments were not related and there was nothing they could do I had to foot the bill. Nuff said. So Ein’s happily running around back to his old self! Oh how much I love pets and kids….
