The pigs were flying.....

They must have been because I actually sewed something. On an actual sewing machine. Take a minute to catch your breath from that bombshell before reading on.

For awhile now I have had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to sew. Not sew a shirt or make a quilt or hem some pants, specifically I wanted to sew a bag. I have seen messenger-type bags on Etsy and thought that they looked pretty simple to do, but knowing my very limited sewing skills I thought it may be too difficult to do without some instruction.

Then, last week I got a wild feather where the sun don't shine and decided to just give it a try. Who cares if it was crooked and unstable?? At least my adoring children would love it. Hopefully.

I asked Ron set the sewing machine up, put the bobbin in, and thread the needle for me. These are all things that somehow my husband knows how to do. And I just don't. He keeps trying to show me but when things have more than 4 steps involved I tend to get distrac.......

What was I saying??????

Just joking.

I also can't for the life of me sew in a straight line so don't look too closely at the following pictures. Thanks.

The first bag was my original creation. I was sooo proud of myself for sewing something that would withstand a wallet and a pack of gum inside of it without falling apart. I love how it turned out. Afterwards I decided that in my next bag I wanted to try to add a magnetic clasp and a pocket. I know what your thinking. I'm crazy, right??? Well.....the second bag has both of those things (it actually has TWO pockets if you can believe it) and I made it for my friend Sue for Admin Assistant Day today. She loved it and all was right with the world.

So here you have them. Andrea originals. Thanks for taking a peek!

Dandelions

The fam and I were outside in the backyard earlier this evening enjoying the PERFECT 70 degree weather we had today when I noticed that the dandilions have invaded our backyard YET AGAIN (I wage war on these little punks every year and they always seem to win. Grrrrr).

Back to my story.

So I holler to Ron who is putting in a new hose....."Hey Ron, we have a bunch of dandilions again this year!"

Jennifer, who was standing somewhere in my vicinity, turns to me and says, "Those damn lions!!"

Personally, I think she hit the nail on the head with that one.

Skating

A quick share:

A few weekends ago we headed to Delaware for our niece Karyssa's 8th birthday party. It was held at a skating rink on a Sunday and it was PACKED. Steph has been skating quite a few times and has gotten really good on her skates! Jen has only been a couple of times (and each time only skated for a few minutes before she decided she was done). This time she actually stayed out the entire time and even tried doing it on her own!!

Here are a few shots from the day (not the best since the lighting was terrible and there were so many people.....everytime I would have a shot set up someone would skate right in the way!!! LOL)

Before and after: haircuts

Steph and Jen had both been BEGGING me for weeks to get their hair cut short. Combing out knots after bath time had become such an event that I was more than happy to oblige!

Here are the before shots:




And here are the afters:

Home improvement project #764

With the emergence of Spring came the feeling that a few things in the house needed to be cleaned out, refreshed, re-done.

This year we have decided to take on a few very intense home improvement projects (including new kitchen counter tops, appliances, and floors) as well as a few very difficult outdoor projects (a few of which have already been started). I'll try and share the progress along the way.

However, just the other day I got the "spring itch" and just needed to do SOMETHING to the house. So I decided to re-do the windows on and around my front door. Here is the before picture. I almost forgot to take it and as you can see I had already begun to scrape the old fake-stained-glass from the bottom two window panes when the pic was taken.


Scraping in progress:


And here are the tools of my trade:


I did the fake-stained-glass on the windows maybe 7 or 8 years ago. I hated the fact that people could look right inside the house from the street. It also freaked me out that as soon as someone came to the front porch, before they even knocked on the door or rang the doorbell, they would put their faces up to the glass and peek inside. On more than a few occasions I nearly jumped out of my skin as I was going down the stairs and saw a strange face looking in my window. I wanted a bit of privacy but I didn't want to ruin the window frames by putting up curtains. So, a trip to the craft store and off I went fake-stain-glassing. At the time I thought it turned out OK and it did provide the privacy I was looking for. However, over the years I grew to dislike it (not only for the tacky-ness factor, but also because it completely blocked all natural light from entering the windows).

Here is a shot after all the fake-satined-glass was removed. Ahhhh...natural light. It stayed this way for a few days as I pondered what I would do next and I ALMOST left it like this......until I remembered why I disliked the windows in the first place.


Another trip to the craft store and this is the final product. The entire project cost UNDER $3.00 (hooray for 50% off coupons from Michael's!) I really like how it turned out. It looks more sophisticated and lets in a bit more natural light while at the same time hampering the efforts of any would-be peekers in the future.



Next up: Before and afters of the backyard projects.

Jenny-isms (volume 2)

Here's the scenario:

We are in the car this morning on the way to take Jen to daycare.

It's raining pretty good outside so I have my windshield wipers on.

Jen is being extremely quiet in the backseat (which always makes me nervous).

After a few minutes I hear her little 4 year old voice say:

"Mommy, you have to have your windchimes sweeping so they can take all the wet off....right?"




*giggle*

Yes Jen.....my windchimes are doing a good job of sweeping away the wet.

:)