WIP Wednesday!

This week is going by wonderfully, and I feel so blessed to have this opportunity to stay home with my children.  This life of staying home with them feels so much more fulfilling.  Don't get me wrong, we  still have some bad moments and some "what were you thinking?!" moments, but overall, I am very happy with my decision to stay home.  Hopefully, our finances will be happy too; guess we'll see.

The weather has started to cool down here; which is probably helping with my inner joy.  The kiddos and I have been playing outside more; that is definitely good for all of us!  I would love to get some weeding done but our yard is garden spider central this year and I just haven't felt like dealing with  them.  We've also seen more snakes this year.  Well, maybe about the same as last year but this year they have been closer to the house.  I do not do snakes.  I'm terrified of them.  I've taken huge steps this year-I have gone to the serpentarium twice.  Once was at feeding time.  I still can't go into the little boxed in area of snakes at the pet store.  I can go near the glass at zoos and serpentariums, but not pet stores.  I think I feel like their tanks are less secure.  I will not go in to my brother-in-law's house for that same reason.  I believe he has 8 snakes?!  No thanks.  Anyway...

We planted some seeds: various beans, lettuce, carrots, and some herbs.  The lettuce has sprouted but I can't ever seem to get it to grow past this first stage.  Most of the beans have sprouted.  No carrots, but they take longer I think.  No herbs, but it's probably too cold for them.  I WILL learn how to successfully garden!  Planning on taking the boys to the farmer's market today.  Last year they had some delicious apples, so I am kind of hoping to see them again this year.  I would love to find an orchard nearby to take them to, but I think the closest is still a few hours away.

Switching gears...

WIP WEDNESDAY

I have found that having various projects in the works can be nice to switch things up, but can also start to frazzle me. 

I am hoping to get my orange yarn in today to finish the orange kitchen towel with the black stripe shown in last week's post.

I've also started crocheting a blanket but need the orange yarn (and black) that should come in the mail today.  I made this blanket for my cousin.  At first I was a little bothered by the size-it is more of a lap blanket than full afghan.  But, I think it will be a good lap blanket or I could always add more to it.  We'll see.  I was really happy with how the colors popped against the black.  I don't have much done so you'll have to wait to see as it progresses. 

I've got my fall table runner together and have started quilting it.  I finished the first set of diagonal lines and have started doing the other set.  SO far, no bubbles.  The material seems to be a little puffier than I would like.  But, after the start I had with it on Friday, I'm not complaining!  It seems I have to learn the same lessons over and over.  1) Don't try to start something if you are already frustrated and not able to focus completely.  2) Read up on necessary steps before jumping in.  I was irritated Friday so decided starting to quilt the table runner would be a good idea.  NOT.  My 2yr old woke up during the process but I continued on in my quest, even though I knew better.  I couldn't install the walking foot (not focused because it was actually easy) and when I ran my project through to do the first and second diagonal lines, the backing shifted drastically.  Well, that put me over the edge.  I thought the walking foot was supposed to keep that in line!?  After I calmed down, I did some research and found that the walking foot does not work miracles.  I learned about taping the back down and pinning galore.  It made a hug difference!  Now this table runner isn't perfect but so far I'm happy with how it is looking.  I'm using YLI quilting thread and so far I like it but don't have anything to compare it to.  I think fussy cutting the leaves distorted my squares a little (all operator error).  I think having a clear template would be much easier, will have to put that on my list.  So, what do you think?

 

Finally, my last WIP for today is a Halloween table runner.  I started cutting squares out last night but think I may make it a little longer:

 



Alright, time to try and squeeze in some school work before the munchkins wake up.  Have a blessed day!

Motivational Monday! Even though it's Tuesday

Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!  We visited with my family-always a good time and I still get homesick after visits.  Well, today seems like a Monday-bumping my head on lights, dead battery in my camera, computer refusing to work properly, but it will be okay,

So, this week is my first week of doing "preschool" things with my kids.  I plan on going over to the Onslow County Partnership for Kids to see if I can pick up some learning materials to work a theme around.   If there is time. I would like to swing by the library and get some related books. 

Last semester, I had to make activity lesson plans for various age groups.  For my preschool plan, I made a button board.  I believe I found it on education.com (they have a lot of fun ideas).  It's a great way for kids to practice actually making shapes by wrapping yarn around the buttons, grouping by button characteristics (size, color, number of holes), and practice creativity by making their own pictures. 

All I had to do was cut out a piece of cardboard from a box, glue paper onto it, and use pop-up adhesives (used for scrapbooking) to stick the buttons on.  You could probably use a hot glue gun instead.  I wouldn't recommend traditional glue only because it may be hard to get the buttons raised up enough for the yarn.  Well, Friday, my kids found it and of course started fighting over it so I let me 4 yr old make his own.  He decided to group the buttons by color which bothered me because they are supposed to be random.  But, really, it works because he was practicing grouping while making it :)

So, here are the button boards.  They were good in the car too, except my 2 yr old needs supervision because he's still in destructive mode and tries to pull things apart.

Switching gears, I managed to get 2 kitchen dishcloths/washcloths done over the weekend.  I made an orange and a black one to go with the black kitchen towel.  I'm also working on an orange kitchen towel which I'll prob feature tomorrow.

A while back, I ordered a pack of scrap triangles from a shop on Etsy, Kelly's Sewing Basket.  They're mostly fall and Christmas themes and I've been trying to come up with ways to use them.  It's such a beautiful mix of fabrics!  Here are some of the things I've been thinking:

With these fabrics I'm thinking either one piece for a potholder or a set of 4 coasters. I'm leaning more towards the coaster sets. What do you think?

 

For this one, I'm thinking of making these into squares for a table runner.  picture quality is not too great, sorry!

 

These are some Halloween Fabrics I have...quilted table runner maybe?

 

So, the purpose of this post is to try to get motivated for the week.  I wanted to show you some of the projects I would like to get around to doing and am hoping this will help motivate me to get moving on them! 

What are your goals for this week?

Check back tomorrow for WIP Wednesday!

Finished Fridays!

Well, I am finishing up my first week as a stay-at-home mom.  Although technically it wasn't a full week, but that's okay.  I think I am in vacation mode-I just float around and try to do the things I really need to do.  But, the more interesting things keep stealing my attention.  I think one of the biggest challenges for me is going to be staying disciplined as far as keeping up with my responsibilities and not trying to spend my whole day playing on the computer and crafting.  :)

Next week, I am hoping to start preschool with my boys.  We have an awesome program that lends learning materials and toys for free and has materials you can use for a minimal fee.  I think I am going to take them there Tuesday and let them pick out a theme/unit.  Then, we can go to the library and find books on that theme.  I can design the rest of the week's learning experiences around what they pick out.  I really hope this works! 

Craft-wise: I am hoping to get some more crocheting done while out of town this weekend.  I'm thinking some orange and black washcloths and an orange dishcloth/kitchen towel with black stripes.  I cut out squares of fall fabric to make my first hand-sewn table runner, but you'll have to wait until Wenesday to see how that's coming. 

This post is called Finished Fridays, not only because we are finishing up the week (which is always fun), but I am hoping to have finished items to show.  This Friday, it is the black dishcloth that I was working on this week.  Here is the finished product:

 

If you would like to see the listing for it on Etsy, click here.

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend! 
I would love to see what you have finished this week-post a link in the comments section!

I'm Back! WIP Wednesday

It has been a LONG time since I've posted.  So, here's the quick update:

I quit my job working in a lab for the city to go back to school to be an early childhood teacher.  I got a new job working at my sons' daycare because they would pay for my education.  I lasted almost 6 months there before I finally had enough.  Bad management, lack of support, etc.  It was not the kids AT ALL.  Which brings us to today.  I decided to quit work last night; today is my first day as a stay at home mom.  What I should have done was give my two weeks notice or even let them know yesterday when I left that I wasn't coming back.  But, I didn't.  And while I feel guilty for going about it the wrong way, it wasn't worth the trouble and hassle.  I feel more guilty for leaving my coworkers to more stress and for leaving the kids and their families.  But, it's time to move on.  For now, I'm going to focus on school and my boys.  My older son is 4 so I'm going to  look into doing preschool at home with him.  Hopefully in January I can start a Master's program in teaching.  So, there it is in a nutshell! 

So, now, I'm hoping to get at least a little more time to put back into my Etsy shop.  We'll see!  Here is what I am working on: 

It will soon be a kitchen towel in black and orange.  I'm hoping to do a range of colors, specifically fall and holiday right now.  Also, hoping to make matching washcloths! 

Feel free to link up your WIP blog posts-I look forward to seeing what everyone is up to!  Also, be sure to check out Freshly Pieced's blog to see what she and other talented artists are up to!