Home Ec Project #1 & Visitors!

I'm taking a "home ec" e-course that I'm quite thrilled about.

As I've said before, I'm mostly a self taught sewer, and am slightly self conscious about my skill. I've been searching for sewing classes in my area that I would be able to attend to improve my skill or learn things I may not think up to teach myself. Unfortunately the only classes I've been able to locate have been about 3.5 hours away, and well... that's just a bit unrealistic, even for me! So I've turned to books and e-courses.

The first project I've completed is napkins! And I think they're super cute!

I had some extra fabric laying around and my mom sent me a little stash of randoms a while ago, for sewing, so I had some green ric rac around as well. Combine the two and viola!

My parents arrive today for an 8 day visit and I'm super excited! Mom and I are planning an overnight Christmas shopping trip into St John's, NL, and I am counting down the hours! This will be the first time I'll have been away from both boys overnight (not counting my hospital time while having Eli as time away from Zac... because that was HARDLY a vacation!).

This week is shaping up to be quite enjoyable!

Paper Dolls

I am so excited...SOOO excited!

I printed off these fantabulous paper dolls tonight and can-not-wait to cut them out.

Originally I wanted these little babies so I could stick them on some magnetic paper and give them to my nieces for Christmas, but as soon as the printer spit them out and I was able to see them in my greedy little hands I fell in love.

Head over heals in love!

I don't know what I'm going to do with them yet... I'm thinking putting them on my cork board in my sewing room and making them part of my daily ritual, but I'm still slightly undecided... I'll keep you informed though!

I Love

I love that Zac loves being creative!

I love that he has the time of his life making a styrofoam picture (with a bit of my help).

I love that he enjoys posing for the camera.

I love that he likes helping me bake a cake.

It makes me feel like I'm doing something right when he would rather spend that time with me then Max and Ruby!

I love that Eli could colour and draw and play with crayons for hours.

I love when he pretends to be a pirate...

and a cowboy...

I love when he sleeps

I love when they play together (even if Zac isn't wearing any pants)!

I just love my little guys!!

To Do Book

I am a "To Do" list junky.

I make them in the morning, I make them in the afternoon, and I make them in the evening. And then I loose them, almost the instant it seems, after I complete them...

I have always wanted to sew paper on my sewing machine, but have been terrified. I was convinced it would ruin my machine... make it smoke uncontrollably and then explode from the mass of noted thread throughout the insides while the motor over heated.

Tonight I decided to concur one of my fears while dealing with my issue of To Do list loosing...

I had an old spiral bound book sitting around that needed a good dose of beautifying so I pulled out the scrapbook paper and set myself up to sew paper... on my machine...

It all worked out! No exploding machine, no tangled thread!

It worked, it worked, it worked!!!

I also love the look of the book! (not the best pictures I'm afraid, something about taking pictures at night...I'll post more later) I can't wait to start my lists and know where they are!

I can feel the productivity rising already!

Printing & Organizing

Zachary is almost 3 years old and Eli is 1.5... in that time, we have not printed a single picture...

until today!

For some time now I have wanted to do up a scrapbook for each of them. I want the first year of their lives to be documented month by month and then after their first birthday I had no set goals, just to continue on randomly or with special events.

Because we were printing 323 pictures I was really hoping the order wouldn't be messed up in the processing and that they'd all come to me in the order I submitted them in... but they didn't! I have spent my evening sorting through all of them, dating them and writing the age of the boys on the back. I sorted them into piles for each boy, each month of their lives and family events.

Then I stacked them all up again and put them back in the box with dividers...

I could not be happier that that's finally done!

Tomorrow, let the scrapbooking begin!

Quilt

I made my first quilt a while ago now and just realized I never made mention of it on here!

It was very exciting!

Because it was my first quilt I opted to try a rag quilt. I'd heard they are easier and a little more forgiving, so I hoped onto Etsy and got a pattern from Sweet Baby Jamie.

It was excellent! She was very clear in her instructions and it came out to be the perfect size for a throw on the couch. I love it!

I've been working on my second since the day after I finished my first. It's taking a little longer then I had originally expected. The pattern turned out a bit smaller then I liked so I've added panels to both ends and sides making it a better cuddle up with a movie blanket.

I'm in the finishing stages now, but I'm learning quickly that with quilting, each of the stages takes a loooonggg time!

Test Cookies

I'm making cookies next summer for my brother-in-law's wedding. We're going to package them with the guest's names on them along with a heart cookie with the happy couple's monogram.

Tonight was my first test run of a few recipes...

I was kind of disappointed with these ones to be honest... they looked wonderful, but not exactly a recipe worth sharing...

That being said, slap a little left over icing on it and they were fantastic!

And then I ran out of cocoa so tomorrow night, recipe #2 will be tested...

my waistline is not going to forgive me for this I don't think!!