Fleece baby pants

I'm not giving up on sewing. Not really. Not for good. I was told to change the needle on my machine, and I'll try cleaning the fleece dust out the serger. Hopefully, that will do the trick.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the adorable fleece pants I actually finished. I forgot to take pictures before the baby shower, so the sweet mama e-mailed me a few. (Sorry they are not the greatest quality!)

You wouldn't guess such simple little things would be such a pain. I guess I still have a ton to learn!

I thought the pants looked a little plain, so I sewed a ribbon on the front to look like a drawstring tie. The ribbon matched some onesies I already had on hand perfectly.

In spite of my troubles, I will definitely try this pattern again.

The sewing gods are against me!

I actually made time to sew this weekend! I cut out the fabric for my fab Kitchenaid cover, prepared white fleece for an adorable pair of baby pants to give at a baby shower, and got the quilt binding for my baby's quilt. So what could go wrong? Um...everything, apparently!

I started sewing on the pants first. In spite of my careful pinning, the legs ended up off kilter and I had to unpick and resew in two different places. Then, when I sewed the waistband with a zigzag stitch I realized it had skipped a ton of stitches. I unpicked that, tried again, and the cycle repeated itself two more times. I finally settled on doing a straight stitch and ran out of bobbin thread 2 inches from the end. I changed it and finally finished the pants 30 minutes late for the shower. (Super cute, BTW. I forgot to take a picture but will try to get one soon.)

Tonight, I started putting together the Kitchenaid cover. I sewed on the bias tape and got a little too close to the edge on one spot. I tried again only to realize I had sewed on the wrong side of the fabric. I serged it off (I love a finished edge) and my serger went wonky. I had to rethread my serger 4 times before it started working properly, but then I couldn't find the rest of the bias tape to continue so I moved on to the quilt. All was going well until I hit a major pucker. It was nothing I could fix so I tried to minimize it, started serging again, and the serger went wonky again.

I give up.
I'm pretty sure I'm cursed.

Tooth Monster Pillow

I picked up some adorable fairy fabric a few months ago and have been thinking about making Tooth Fairy pillows out of it. I have all the plans in my head already. =) The only problem is, I have 3 boys and a pink fairy-covered pillow isn't going to cut it for them. I had a few ideas bouncing around in my mind for a more masculine tooth holder but nothing spectacular. Then, today, I saw this:

How cute is that??? I can totally do that.

Giving credit where credit is due:
The post I saw is Mummy Crafts, but originally came from TheLongThread.

Valentines

I love candy, make no mistake. I'm just not a fan of my children coming home with bags full of it every time a holiday rolls around, and I suspect many other parents feel the same way. So, to do my part, I try to find candy-free alternatives for birthday treats (glow bracelets), Halloween (glow sticks and pencils), Christmas (Silly Bandz), etc. For Valentine's Day, we did silly straws and pencils. I picked up the supplies for 46 kids at the Dollar Tree for a whopping $6 and put everything together during an episode of Psych after the kids went to bed. (Normally, I would have them help but I've been swamped with homework and a sick kid this week.)

It's super easy. I typed out the messages on a 4x6 cell table on Word, cut them apart, punched a hole in the top and bottom of each Valentine, and stuck the straw through.

With the pencils, though, I had to make 3 notches in each hole to make it big enough to slide the pencil through. A larger hole punch would have been helpful. Oh, well. They still turned out cute, right?

I hope you all had a fantastic, romantic, sweet Valentine's Day!

Long time, no see

This month last month has been especially hectic with the start of a new semester for me, tons of homework (including two visits to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts- so fun!), a lot of company at our house, hubby out of town for a few days, classes and doctor appointments for the little monkeys, visiting the Minnesota Children's Museum, taking care of sick kids, and helping my 2nd grader understand math homework that is challenging him for the first time ever. (Carrying numbers is a tricky concept!)
Today, I get to spend the day catching up on the cleaning that I didn't do this last week while my mom was here. I also finally made bread! After I got my awesome, amazing, life-saving Kitchenaid mixer and learned how to make bread in it, my family has not been able to go back to store-bought bread. Homemade is just too good! I usually have to make four loaves at least every other week, but I often give some away and we go through the rest pretty darn fast, so when I get too busy to make more we have to use pitas and waffles for our PB&J. Yesterday, my 4-year-old begged me to please make some soft bread. So I did! I also made Cranberry Bread in my Pampered Chef Mini Loaf Pan. YUM!
Last, I made the hummus I've been craving all week. If you've never had hummus, try it! It's delicious and versatile. We use it as a dip for vegetables and pita chips, and I spread it inside my pita sandwiches or on a tortilla for a wrap. Hummus is high in protein, fiber, amino acid, iron, vitamin C, folate, and vitamin B6. This recipe is my favorite and it's super easy. You can also add things like pine nuts, sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and spinach, or avocados.

As far as crafts go, it's just been too hard to pull the stuff out and get things made. However, I've made several stops at JoAnn's and have plans to whip out a few simple projects over the next couple weeks. My first is a cover for my beloved Kitchenaid. I'm so excited! As usual, I'll be winging it, but it should be pretty easy. With the weather FINALLY warming up, the 4 feet of snow will be melting so I'll be able to kick the kids outside and actually get stuff done!!! Come on, Spring!