Kitchen/DiningRoom Remodel

Just a day with Josh at the house!

Little Boy Bath Towel Tutorial

Here it goes: My first tutorial attempt.

 So, I started with a full sized towel, a rag (that matches the stripes in the big towel), and another towel that I had used half of for pot holder filling at Christmas.  I cut off a twelve inch strip across the the top of the half used towel. I made it twelve by eleven and then cut off a slightly angled piece across the top on the folded side.  Then I sewed across the top and down to the fold.  I used the finished edge that came on the towel for the front of the hood.

 I cut the rag in half at an angle and after finishing off the rough edge with a nice zig-zaggy stretch stitch, used a strait stitch to sew the angle pieces to the two corners 

 The towels were folded in half when I bought them so there was a nice fold mark to match the center of the hood to.  Make sure to keep the right sides together.  The blue hand towel triangles should be on the inside so the little one can put his/her hands in them.

 It pinned up nicely and sewed like a breeze, again with the zig-zaggy stretch stitch. Part of it already had a finished edge (from the edge of the towel) but the other side didn't which is why I used the zig-zaggy stitch instead of a strait stitch when attaching the hood.

 It's hard to sew and take pictures at the same time; don't do it very long or else you may just sew right off your project.

 My helper.  Watch out for those little grabby fingers.

 "Mom, this looks like fun."

 Trying it out; he doesn't like it so very much.

 Here it is folded up.  It looks like a regular hooded towel except it's now ready for a little boy to use.  

A friend and I were discussing how our poor boys got our daughters's left over princes and butterfly towels so I decided that Mr. Parker needed his own "boy" towel. Since this is my first try, it's not very exciting; I hope that they will be more exciting after this with more boyishness.  Maybe I can add bear ears or fishes on the next one.

TuTu Madness

 So, like any good crafter, I like to completely overdue every new craft right out of the gate. I wanted to make a tutu, but once I was half through the first one, I knew I would be making more. In fact, I had to run to the store before I was finished with #1 because I knew what I wanted #2 to look like.

My lovely niece is modeling #2 for you; I think if I made one of these for her birthday gift she would be quite happy. She does love it when I sew for her; however, she likes to give everything away, too.

Number 1 did not have yellow in it. I am not sure it was a necessary addition but it's cute too. 

The rainbow is pretty...

Meet #1; I like the pretty colors and full it is.  I tied two colors at a time which I didn't do on number 2 but will be doing from here on out.

It's full and fun!  I will try to update this with more pictures of the tutus on, maybe one on each girl.

My Rag Rug

When I as younger, one of my aunts made beautiful rag rugs. I have always wanted one; as I got older, I wanted to make one.

 So, I used fabric-I-own to make it, so I can't take much credit for the colors.

I cut about 2 inches into the fabric and about one inch wide so I could tear my strips. Wow. What a mess! 

I like the look of the torn edges but it takes so long!

My mom asked: "Are you using my rotary cutter to cut your strips?"

Me: "No. Brilliant!"

The strips came along much quicker when I used the rotary cutter.  The main difference, besides time, is that when I tore the strips, the mess occurred at that time.  When I cut the strips, I made a mess everywhere I crocheted. Sorry Dad.

 It was easy to make.  I made a chain the length I wanted (to fit in front of my couch) using the biggest crochet hook I could find and single crocheted till it was as wide as I wanted.

Once I had finally tied off, I noticed that I had gotten a little wider as I went along.

Oh well.  I love it anyway.

The kids liked it. It worked well to put Baby Dale on when I propped him up in his boppy.

Perfect.

Another craft well done. 

Ben and Nick Birthday Gifts

Here are the boys's gifts: 

 I have been following a lot of blogs with the help of Pinterest.  I found both of these patterns through there.

The frog will get a crown tomorrow if I have time before the party at 2.

The spider's link is here:
http://craft-with-confidence.blogspot.com/2010/09/spider-bug-buddy-tutorial-bug-3-of-3.html
The frog, here:
http://www.lilblueboo.com/2011/07/a-stuffed-frog-prince-a-tutorial-and-download.html

Daddy and the Babies

Here are a few pictures of Chris with the kids.

 Chris held Dale on his lap and shared his hat with him.

 They were busy getting stuff done.

 Daddy holding Dale after a bath. Dale was all wrapped up in his fuzzy blanket...all warm and snuggly.

 Jess was helping Chris whisk the rue for dinner.

Chris had cooked down the ham bone to make a stock; 

He made ham and potato soup for our dinner last night.

 Jessica was a happy helper.

Here are the two of them in the kitchen.  I love our little family.

Jessie's Poncho

Last year, I started to crochet myself a poncho is this very subtle orange.  When I finally finished it, my daughter and niece both wanted to run around in it.  They were sticking their hands through the holes in mine for sleeves.  I still had at least a skein of the orange yarn so I thought that Jes would like a poncho of her own.  I finished it last night.  I based it on the pattern linked on the bottom of this post.

 Lion Brand makes you sign up for access to their patterns but it doesn't cost and they have a pattern for almost everything.  

When I finally finished the poncho last night, the pattern wasn't handy so I made up the finished edges myself; I like my finish better then the pattern.

I would have taken a better photo except my camera battery died at this point; when I find my charger, I will take another better shot.  It really wasn't very hard and would have been done by now if I hadn't started it right before the Christmas season.

http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/chs-scallopEdgePonchoKids.html?r=1