Rainy Day Activities

Rainy Day Activities!

We've been busy even as we waited for the sun to come out.

(Sorry the picture doesn't show much detail, but I didn't want to make this blog longer than it needed to be by posting individual pictures.)

Thanks to Pinterest, I decided to try something new with my Easter eggs this year.  Using 100% silk ties I had a lot of fun transferring the print onto the eggs.  I was pleased with how well it worked.

Seth had his very first visit to the Dentist.  He loved every moment of it!  He had so many questions for the staff, I'm surprised they had time to check his teeth.

I tried my hand at converting this....

into this!

Aunt Janice came over and practiced her face painting skills, much to Seth and Ellie's delight.

Seth and Ellie created a little art for Aunt Janice's office

We had a little fun making and eating octopus hot dogs

And Not So Rainy Day Activities!

Ellie turned 3 and we had a little family party at the park.

Aunt Janice painted a lot of butterfly faces that day and I had fun trying out a little cake decorating on her birthday cake.

Feeding the baby ducks.

Seth and Ellie on their new rides!

BRING ON THE SUMMER!

The Woodson's on Parade

For Mom's birthday this month, she ask for updated photo's of each of her children and their families. We've always got plenty of the kids, but not much of all of us together.

So we recruited one of our lovely and talented young women from church, who is taking a Photography course at the college, to help us out. She did a fabulous job and shot over 200 pictures.

Here are some of my favorites

(Kissing Ellie's Owie)

Seth (4 1/2) Ellie (2 1/2)

Thank you Danika, you're the best!

(Self-Proclaimed) Cutest Church Bags Ever! Part 2-Girl's

Two cutest things I ever created! And then I made them church bags to match!

This post is all about making Ellie's (girl's) bag, to see how I made Seth's (boy's) bag, click here.

I ended up getting off easy with this bag by finding such a cute jumper to start with. They had already done a lot of the embellishing work for me!

My idea was to use the entire skirt area for the bag, so I just cut off the top of the jumper high enough to be able to fold it over for a top edge without loosing the built-in belt.

I wanted to have a little stiffness and structure to the top so I looked in the cupboard for a plastic container that was the same size around as the waistband. This one was just right. I cut out a strip all the way around just under the rim, then I cut that into 2 equal halves.

By inserting them in their natural 'round' position and sewing the waistband closed around it while the skirt was wrong-side out...

then when the skirt is turned right-side out, it naturally holds the bag closed!

Now this is a loose kind of hold and when the bag is full of all Ellie's treasures it can gap open (but not really sag); if you want a bag that really stays closed you might consider glueing a magnet onto the middle of the plastic strips before placing them in the waistband. Just be sure to double check that you glue them onto the inside/wrong-side of the plastic so they are facing each other when the bag is turned right-side out.

(This is just a picture of the waistband holding itself closed with the help of the butter tub being inverted)

Next I just stitched along the top of the bottom ruffle to create the 'pouch' that changed the skirt into a bag. (P.S. I later came back and moved my seem down as far as I could on the bottom ruffle without it showing past the top ruffle. Turns out the the bag was just too shallow to hold all Ellie's stuff with my original seam placement.)

I then tried to use the ties from the built in belt to make the handle for the bag by 'tying' a fake bow and stitching it into place and embellishing it with a fun button.

This sounded like a great idea, but when I put anything in the purse to test it out it just kind of flopped all wrong. the handles were just in the wrong place to work right.

So plan B: Cut off the bow and button, downsize the belt to be 'fitted' around the back of the waistband, then sew the bow back into place.

This actually worked out better because now the bag looks just as cute from the front or the back having embellishments on both sides.

I found some cute ribbon at the fabric store and after tying a little knot in the middle of my two ribbon pieces/soon to be handles, just because it sounded like a good idea, I sewed them onto each side about equal distances between the center and the outer edge. Now the two handles are perfectly placed and complete ONE CUTE BAG!

(Self-Proclaimed) Cutest Church Bags Ever! Part 1-Boy's

Now I ask you, are they cute or are they cute?! (And yep, I do mean the kids and the bags :o)

A few months ago I decided the kids were ready to have their own church bags to carry a few small, quiet toys, a snack, and Seth's scriptures/Ellie's song book in so that I didn't have to keep cramming everything into my bag. I tried to find some at my favorite shopping spot- the Thrift Store, but it failed me. I found a few that I thought would be ok for Ellie, but when it came to something for Seth nothing looked 'churchy' enough. About the best I could find was a backpack, but I didn't want to distract form his suit he wears. I decided then and there I was going to have to make my own, but I wasn't quite sure what it would be.

Then I got the brilliant idea to make it out of a suit! Well, if Seth was going to have one made out of a suit then it only seamed right that Ellie have one made out of a skirt or dress. So back to the thrift store I went.

(For those of you who don't really care how I made them, now is the time to go straight to "comments" so you can tell me how brilliant I am and how cute they are :o)

For the rest of you, here's what I did:

I wanted to find a suit with a print that couldn't be mistaken for anything other then what it was, then I found a co-ordinating tie.

Let the cutting begin

I took my two main panels from around the big pockets on each side. In hindsight I should have put the right sides together before cutting out the second panel, just like they would be when I was ready to sew.

(I had cut off two shirt points from one of Seth's shirts to see how they would look for the plans I had for the pocket).

I used the long, skinny part of the tie (minus the very tail end) to make a finished edge for the top of the bag. I just unstitched it and folded it over the top raw edge

and sewed it into place.

Originally I had planned to use 4 different ties to make the bag handle out of, but in showing my plans to Aunt Viv, she suggested that she thought it would be cute to somehow make a tie coming out of one of the pockets. Sounded darn cute to me!

I 'tied' my tie by using a small strip of leftover skinny tie to loop around the fat part of the tie at just the right length to come out of the pocket, then just put a few hand stitches in to hold it in place.

(Even though you can't see it, I did include the skinny end of the tie behind , just like a regularly worn tie would have.)

Although I pinned my shirt points in place first, I didn't sew them until after I had placed and sewn the tie in. I figured that it would be easiest to adjust my shirt points that way, just in case my tie moved a bit and they no longer lined up just right. Then I stitched the shirt points onto the pocket flap.

Now this is still a working pocket if it needs to be. I should note that I considered making this into a non-functioning pocket (there is still a plain, but very usable pocket on the opposite panel) by sewing buttons through the shirt points and panel, but I decided to leave my options open for now. I can always change my mind later and add the buttons then.

Next I cut out a strip from each sleeve including the cuff buttons.

I just tucked in the raw edges and sewed along each long side to flatten it out a bit, then I attached one handle to each side panel with the cuff buttons on opposing sides.

Finally I sewed my completed panels with right sides together along the remaining 3 sides, turned right-side out, then...

WaLa! Super cute boys church bag!

Ellie's "girl's" church bag will be part 2

My New Creative Outlet

I like to Create.

Anything.

Everything.

Whatever whim floats across my mind.

I am not devoted to any one particular medium- I just LIKE to create! I've dabbled in a lot of things over the years and enjoyed them all. Cooking, Sewing,Writing, Painting, Decorating, Beading, Crocheting, Glass Painting , Photography, Quilling, Gardening, Basket Weaving, Nail Art, and any number of a hundred other things that don't immediately come to mind. I'm not claiming to excel in all these endeavors, but I like to dive in nonetheless.

Lately I've been wanting to get back to sewing. I took lessons when I was young and classes in Middle School and High School, but haven't done much with it since- that is until I found a simple little project that I wanted to do. I didn't have a machine, so I borrowed Aunt Viv's portable machine. I had such fun with that one little project that I started thinking about getting myself a portable machine and taking on more projects that started flooding my mind.

Then, as the perfect answer to my need, Aunt Viv called me one day and said they were redoing Grandma and Grandpa's basement and wanted to know if I wanted to have Grandma's old sewing machine and the cabinet that Grandpa built for it.

YES!

I found the perfect little nook for it at the top of Mom and Dad's stairs (If my trailer wasn't parked here at their place, I would never have had room to put this kind of machine in my 5th Wheel).

So let the creating begin!

I saw a version of these aprons on a craft blog, but they had only used half the placemat and made little waist aprons. I thought, what's the point in that- my kids are messy from the neck down when they spill! I gathered up a variety of placemats at the thrift store and ribbon at the dollar store and made up a bunch of these on Thanksgiving morning so that the grandkids that were eating here that evening could wear them (even a few waist aprons for the older girls, if they wanted them). They were a real hit with the young ones.

Seth is a much neater eater and only wears his once in a while when he is wearing something nice I don't want to get messed up, but Ellie wears hers almost every meal (and truly needs it!). I had only made 2 for her and just couldn't keep up with keeping them clean in time for the next meal, so I hit the thrift store again the other day looking for more.

Perfect!

This time, knowing how much she wears them and loves them, I splurged on some cute ribbon at the craft store- spent a whole $2 on this roll :o)

I also tweaked it a little to better fit her small frame. I put the waist ribbon just above the halfway mark and contoured the top to eliminate the gap at her neck she would occasionally loose food down.

Much better fit and too cute to boot!

Next came about a project because Ellie got a baby bed for Christmas for all of her baby dolls. It was a cute bed, but didn't having any bedding with it. I started thinking of the box full of fabric sample books I had drug home a couple of years ago for free from a yard sale. Looking through them I found a book full of children's prints.

I pulled out all my favorite pink prints and cut them into random size squares and rectangles and puzzled them together until I found a result I liked. Because I'm not above cutting corners when it's ok to do so, I then fabric glued them into place and zigzag stitched over each raw edge. Then put some soft fleece on the back, zigzagged at each fabric square "corner" and put a binding around it.

Ellie loved it so much I used all the remaining children's print samples to make a quilt for her.

Seth didn't like being left out, so we went and picked a special blanket the two of us could make just for him.

All winter long I have been looking for a bathrobe for Ellie (we had found one for Seth at the thrift store and she wanted one too). Apparently it is nearly impossible to find a robe for a two year old- I should note that I finally found one, and I do mean only one, at Macy's for over $30. I refuse to pay that kind of money on something a two year old will grow out of next time I turn around!

So when I went looking for a soft fleece to back her quilt with, I decided to get enough to make her a matching robe with. I could only find a pattern more sized to a four year old, so not having a clue as to what I was doing, when I cut out the patten I took it upon myself to downsize it.

Proof the Lord even blesses fools- it fits perfectly!

Thank you so much Grandma for the sewing machine and Grandpa for the beautiful cabinet it sits in. I am having a blast!