Felt Anatomy

So, the project I've been working on for my girl is this felt anatomy toy. This is my first project with felt so I was trying out different ways to sew with it that I've seen on Pinterest.

Don't let this thing fool you. It's life size =) My hubby so graciously let me use him as my tracing model, so imagine the torso of a guy measuring at 6'1".

Large intestines around small intestines.

Small intestines

Liver

Eyes

Stomach

Kidneys

Heart

Lungs (These are unfinished because I'm thinking of adding the trachea to make as one piece rather than 3..

Somehow I didn't get a shot of the brain, oh well. Must be hiding somewhere with mine. Hah!

Reusable Shopping Bags

While I was cleaning the other day I noticed how many plastic shopping bags I had stuffed under my kitchen sink and my bathroom sink. I do reuse them in my trash cans around the house but it still seemed to be a bit much to have so many just building up. While it is a solution for some people to make one of those hanging plastic bag holder things, shouldn't the solution be to minimize the amount coming in altogether? I whipped up three of these fabric bag to use for shopping. They have a 9" by 12" bottom and stand 15" tall. I used a heavyweight decorating fabric without a lining. There are only two seams and turning edges involved.

When we buy groceries, we buy mostly fresh so it only made sense to make some produce bags also. I wanted them to be breathable so that if I had my hand full and needed to just toss them in the fridge or on the counter without worrying about them over ripening. I used a bridal tulle and stitched using a short, wide zig zag stitch. I amde a drawstring type closure at the top so that the bags are adjustable for many types of produce.

Not bad for a nap time's worth of work, eh?

Special Post For My Grandma

I don't know if anybody would recognize these, but I was given these scarves a few years back by my grandma. They belonged to her Aunt Vivian. I've had some of them packed away in a box for a while because I didn't know what I wanted to do with them. Then, while I was visiting Missouri over Thanksgiving I found more of them in my old room at my parents house. They too, ended up joining the little plastic tub I keep miscellaneous craft stuff in. This month, I organized a fun craft swap on Craftster to swap goodies for Pregnant Mamas, New Babies, or Toddlers to age 5. My swap partner had a 4 year old and requested some soaring silks. It's basically a wooden bead (I used 1" round beads from Joanns) tied onto the corner of a silk scarf. Then the child can make them glide across the room and such. It was the perfect project to pass along some of these beautiful scarves to be enjoyed by others.

Liar, Liar

Ok, so I know that I promised to post photos and details about what I've been making for my little one. I have most of it put together but I took a break this week and whipped up a few other things, so here's information about those things.

Pot Holders insulated for heat that I made for a fellow Craftster.

I used a jelly roll I had and stitched together a top then used an old towel for the backing to give us a nice bath mat

Matches the bath mat and is kept upstairs by the sink for impromptu bottle washes. Also backed with an old towel.



Draft dodger, door snake, what ever it is. Lol. There was a terrible cold wind that was coming up through our front door. This solved the problem using a little fabric and some dry beans.

I also used new recipes for almost every dinner this past week and made myself try to do new things in the kitchen. I know it sounds lame, but I just made my first pizza dough from scratch the other night. Yeah, let's all laugh now that it's taken this long. I made some delicious calzones with them and will be making my own pizza crust forever now. Also made my own pie crust to make a chicken pot pie (which Jake ate most of), and recently the most delicious mushroom soup I've ever tasted.
I also had a few swap packages I've sent out. Besides the pot holders, I've made mama cloth, felt toys, and an eyeglasses case.
So see, I've been keeping busy =)

Obsession in the Making

These things should come with a warning: HIGHLY addictive! If you remember from my previous post HERE, my mother in law helped me make our own pocket style snap cloth diapers and soakers. At that point, we were still using a disposable diaper for overnight. The handmade diapers did really well for the first 3 months or so and then I noticed they were leaking around the leg elastic and had started to smell a bit even when fresh from the laundry.
I've been trying to nail down my specific laundry routine and I think I've finally got it perfected. I start with a cold wash using 1 Tbs detergent (We use All Free & Clear) with 1/6 C. powdered Calgon water softener. I then follow that with a hot wash using 2 Tbs detergent and 1/2 C Calgon and an extra rinse. Thanks to Kelly Wels and her amazing team over at The Cloth Diaper Whisperer, I now know that we have extremely hard water - 14 grains- and the Calgon is necessary to really get the diapers clean. It's also necessary since we use a front loading HE washer which weighs the laundry to determine how much water is needed for the load. Cloth diapers are so absorbent that when the water goes in it all gets soaked up by the diapers, and doesn't really leave any water to do the actual cleaning.

We were using our dryer back when we were only using the handmade diapers and it was getting the job done for us. Then I bought this lot of BumGenius 3.0's (24 diapers, 24 doublers, 24 newborn soakers, 5 Hemp soakers and a diaper pail) through a lady on Craigslist and she had always dried her diapers by hanging them in a sunny window. The sun acts as a natural bleaching agent and helps to keep your diapers looking great and the diaper isn't being tumbled around pulling on the Velcro of the others and stretching the elastic out. So, as you can see, I used the window in Talia's room (which is really more a playroom/closet for her than anything since she sleeps in our room) to make a makeshift clothesline. Now we save the extra money our dryer would be using to dry these lovelies. you can also see the pail liner I made from PUL (Polyurathane Laminate fabric). This goes in our step pedal metal trash can that Jake's parents got Talia for her birthday and with two, there's usually one in the laundry and one in use.

Even though I really love our BG's, I really miss the pretty prints of our handmades. That being said, I can see myself slowly building quite a stash of beauties. We will definitely be using cloth for our next little one and that will give me a chance to buy some beautiful diapers that are in a newborn size...Now if we could just get working on that little one... =)

2012 Goals

I know we are already a couple weeks into the New Year, but I still wanted to share with you a couple of our/my goals.

• Pay off our car. (We are already halfway paid off so to pay off the rest will be pretty easy.)
• I happen to have one student loan from my very first semester of college. It's a small one but we are going to pay it completely this Spring also.
• Buy a small house/trailer completely debt free. With all the amazing things in the works for us right now, we should accomplish this over the summer =)
• I've been keeping my photography more as a hobby and last year made a bit of money off it. This year I'm aiming to make $5,000. I know that doesn't sound like a lot but the point to making goals, especially to make a yearly goal, is to set them so that they may actually be accomplished, so $5,000 it is.
• I'm also going to continue the goal I've had for the past couple years to love people more, even if I truly cannot stand them.
• Live more simply and more handmade.

I have these written down so that I can see them everyday but I just wanted to put them on here in case they inspire anybody else. =)

More Crafted Christmas

Leather mustache key chain for Dave

Fleece Hats for Hunt girls

also made matching scarves

Ascot for Dave

Sewing organizer bin for Adri...Seriously wanted to keep for myself =) Pockets on the two outer sides without handles.

Lined with various sized pockets on inside to hold her sewing and crafting tools.

Apron for Sarah Mason. I also bought some wine glasses and etched them to leave an "M" monogram but completely forgot to take a photo.

Made some of these holders for extra toilet paper for Becky, Adri, & Jess. (Ignore the empty roll making this photo look so terrible.)

Diaper Bag I made for Jess. She had commented not just to me that she really like the diaper bag I made for myself so I made a matching one for her in this pretty pink and yellow that Becky picked out. It has a gusseted pocket on the outside for bottles and a large front pocket you can see in the photo. the inside is lined with 6 pretty good sized pockets and still leaves plenty of room for extras. I really love mine, so I hope Jess really loves hers. This is probably the most extensive of all the projects I made this Christmas. She posted photos of the inside and showing how much fits on her blog, Together Forever.

Coordinating changing mat for Jess's diaper bag. This print is a waterproof raincoat like material and has solid yellow on the other side. I didn't get a photo but it also rolls up and secures with an elastic loop and button.

Inspiration/Positive quotes on glass stones

I got all of the quotes off her Pinterest.

Also made Adri this hounds tooth makeup bag. (Or bag for whatever she wants, but I purposely made sure it could fit an eyeliner pencil in it. Lol)

Crafted Christmas Goodness

Fabric travel high chair for our trip to Missouri



Add a beautiful little model.
(She even looks willing in this photo. lol )

Photo canvases for my mom.

Laptop case for my little brother in Broncos colors.

Hanging organizer for my cousin Katelyn's sewing stuff.

Patriotic table runner for my grandma.

I think I'm going to use this detailing on many more projects, I just love how it turned out!

Laptop case for a swap.

These are a few of the gifts I've been making lately.. I couldn't post all the photos because some are Christmas presents for Jake's family and considering they read this, probably not a good idea to spoil it. I've also been doing a lot of online craft swaps but totally spaced on taking photos of those projects. DOH! Let's see..I made a sketchbook cover, makeup brush roll holder, fitted crib sheet, homemade cloth wipes, a few crayon rolls, an apron, some embroidery hoops and some hair accessories. November was a busy month for me to say the least.

I'm Doing It..

..CLOTH DIAPERING!! I've thought about it before and even tried it with two diapers I had borrowed from a friend. I wasn't too excited about it because I think I didn't give them much of a chance. The fit wasn't perfect on Natalia. Since I wasn't sure how they were supposed to fit 100% I adjusted what I could on the borrowed diapers and lived with it. Also, I think since there were only two, I didn't get the full diapering experience. I mean, once the diaper needed to be washed, it was back into disposables for a while. Then when she actually pooped in it, the rinsing part was no fun at all. Anytime a cloth diapering post came across my blogger newsfeed, I found my self reading it and thinking "I can do that" even after I had dismissed the idea. Then one day while strolling through my local Joann's I noticed they had started carrying PUL. I was beyond ecstatic. Then I saw they were also now carrying a Baby Boutique instruction book to sew cloth diapers, Fold over elastic, snaps, snap pliers, appliques..I mean EVERYTHING. I picked up the book with a coupon and took it home to browse. This book had so many styles of diapers to make along with photos and instructions. I called my mother in law and asked if she would be willing to help me with the sewing process. I went back the next night to buy my supplies. I knew I had now committed myself to follow through with it since I was now out some money.

I had actually used the measured cuts the book listed and planned to get 12 large diaper covers. With 4 yards of PUL we actually ended up getting 12 large covers and 15 medium covers! We then spent the ENTIRE day cutting the flannel diaper lining, cotton outer fabric, along with the batting and flannel for the 6 layer soakers.

My hand hurt from cutting so much.

For the soakers we then sewed stabilizing horizontal lines on the soakers and zig-zagged around the edges. Trim, and zig zag again.

For the diaper covers you layer the cotton on the PUL and insert your snaps. Once they are all on, you layer the flannel lining fabric on top. I folded mine into the approximate diaper shape to save room on my table as well as make sure I don't get confused when I'm sewing them.

I don't have any photos of the actual sewing together part because Becky did all that. I'm still a beginner I feel in the sewing department and I didn't quite trust my ability on something that I will need to function correctly every day for a long period of time.

I then added the snaps on the tabs to finish them up. After two FULL days of cutting and sewing We've got 5 finished diapers. Only 22 more =)

I just love how they turned out. The back left has a super cute alphabet flannel lining, back right has light blue with cute little sheep.

Front left has grey flannel, front right has lavender plaid with tiny colored polka dots.

The one is the middle has a blue lining.

Who needs pants now when your bum looks this good? Looks like my next venture is Baby Legs.,, If you remember from this photo

I'll just have to find some very cute sweaters or tall socks to make some more fashionable ones than these, but still same concept... and that will be a whole other post.

*Note: This post was originally posted on my personal blog back a few months ago. We now have wet bags I made, a DIY diaper sprayer, as well as a laundry system set up.

I'm getting to be pretty good at this domestic stuff =)