While they were sleeping...

Naptimes. Nighttimes. Those little eyelids are shut, and I'm doing something. But this week was especially busy, infact I have had so many finished products within the last seven days it is boggling my mind!

Last year I made an apron for a wedding gift for a friend. My granny was in love with it. She begged me to make her one for Christmas. I never did. : ( Poor gran. But after a year of dropping hints, I did remember to finally put it on my to-do project list last week. So today during naptime, I whipped up this vintage beauty. I know the picture is terrible, but the result is quite nice! It has darts to create that illusion of a tiny waist from the 40's... you know the one we all wish we had!

Monday night, of yesterweek, Jesse and I boiled, peeled, halved, jarred and processed peaches until midnight! It wasn't that bad... we had the laptop with us, and it kept us company with a few episodes of burn notice. And if canning wasn't enough, we had a whole box of peaches left and no jars, so what is a girl gonna do? Make it into fruit leather of course. I made 9 trays of it. I don't have a dehydrator, so I actually did it in the oven on cookie sheets. Delicious. Time consuming. Takes all day in the oven. Result is eaten in less than five minutes. YIKES! So actually don't have any fruit leather left to show for all our hard work.

Next on the list. Magic panties. Yes you heard that right. Magic panties. How can panties be magic you say? Well I am so glad you asked because I was just about to share! You see I like to consider Lyla potty trained. But she is barely 2.5 years old, and so accidents happen. Do you have any idea how distracted a little girls can get? Very, and then pee happens. On my floor. On my carpet. In the car. In the store. At night. Ok, that sounds like she has a lot of accidents, but usually it is only like 2 a week. Not bad I think. And it is usually my fault... but back to the panties. So accidents are ok unless they happen outside the house (store, neighbors house, etc.) Then there is pee on someone else's floor and that is embarrassing. So I wanted to fix that, without having to make Lyla wear a diaper or pull ups. I wanted her to still wear panties. So I created the idea of regular panties, with two layers. Inside one, slightly absorbent; the outside one....waterproof! Genius right??? Ok, so the inside layer is flannel, I just used old receiving blanket, and the outside layer is waterproof PUL, which Joann's just started carrying, how awesome is that? It feels like fabric but one side is coated in waterproof material. So the panties trap the pee. So they feel and look like regular panties, maybe a little bulkier because of the two layers, but over all they are pretty much the same. So the best thing about these panties are that when she has an accident it doesn't run down her legs and onto the floor. And her clothes don't get soaked in pee. We don't have to change her outfit (no more extra clothes in the diaper bag!) We just have to change the undies! Now granted, there isn't alot of absorbent material, so the entire inside of the panties are completely soaked, but at least it isn't her clothes, right?

Last, but not least.... the missionaries called and asked me if I had a dress that would fit a 4 year old for a family that is investigating the church. The girl didn't have any clothes to go to church in. No, I didn't have a dress, but I made a little, blue, linen skirt with a cute little tie belt. It was adorable!!!! Sadly, no pictures.

Uhhh, so lots of projects. Which was nice. But then I realized, I can't get in this habit, because eventually there will be more children, and not alot of time when they are all sleeping at the same time. Which is sad, but true. So I am weaning myself of projects. I made a master list, to finish the ones I am working on already, with due dates. Then the sewing room door is going to be locked. And I can do ONE project at a time, and only ONE per month. So adieu, lovely sewing room, I will reacquaint my self with you when all my little babies are in school!

Going Places!

Spencer thinks he is such a stud these days! He will be walking before Halloween for sure. Then I will have 2 trick or treaters!!!!

Priceless

I. LOVE. MY. LYLA. GIRL!

Lately when we are out and about... everyone notices Spencer. His big, round, blue eyes, and his curvy, addicting smile. And every time Lyla hears people raving about her brother, I can sense her feelings being hurt. She gets sensitive, and wraps around my leg, and gets whiny. And it breaks my heart. Yes babies just attract attention, I just wish Lyla didn't notice how much attention Spencer gets.

So.... since I think Lyla is just wonderful, here is to my sweet girl.

I notice you, and I think you are beautiful, and I rave about you every chance I get! I hope you know it is more important for people to notice WHO you are, not WHAT you look like. And you ARE super! I love that daily you ask me "how are you doing today mom?" I love that you notify me when I am being a "cranky pants" and that I need a nap. I love to watch you discipline your baby dolls for doing "naughty things", and then turn around and "nurse them to sleep". You are going to be a fantastic mother some day. And you already are a fantastic daughter. I love you. I am so glad that you are mine. Yes you are my touchy soul, and it is definitely hard to get you to be as light and smiley as Spencer, but that is because you are YOU, and you are different than he is. You are special. Just be you.

And in honor of you, here are some of my October favorites so far:

How crafting works around here

My friend down the street was talking to me about doing an advent calendar for Halloween. Which led me to look at Halloween advent calendar blogs. Whilst blog hopping, I ran into one where a lady took an old clock, and used scrap book paper to refinish it, and added a witch cut out into the middle and put the hands back on. The clock was broken so she put them at 12, and said the clock was bewitched to stay at midnight, and that it was her witching hour clock. How cute, right? And how much work, right? Who has the time, right?

I loved the idea of a "Witching Hour" clock, so I put a spin on it, and I used polymer clay, because I already had it, and I know that it works like silly putty and will pick up any image printed with toner. So I designed it in 2003 Microsoft Word (I was exceedingly limited, ugh!), printed it out, rolled out my clay, and put the paper on it, and baked it. Here is the finished product! Of course it isn't a real clock, so I just put a clay hand on it that is stuck at 12.
Now that being said... I am going to get on a soap box. Everyone blogs with their best faces on. We are all out here sharing our lives with others, because we have this need for others to validate our amazingness by commenting on the amazing things we have done. I am so guilty of this! And when I read peoples blogs, I always come away feeling inadequate, less than perfect, and with need to do something over the top so I can write a swell blog post about it, that everyone will comment on.

So maybe this isn't you, maybe you read all those blogs where the women can cook, sew, take care of her perfect baby, clean, design, take a amazing photos, is super spiritual, and always looks beautiful, and maybe you walk away from it not feeling like an empty soul who can barely keep it together most days. But if in the off chance you are like me, and feel like most blogs are geared at making us feel worthless, then let me share something with you:

This blog post was to show my cool, easy idea with you, not to make YOU feel like I am super woman and you are not. I want you to know exactly what went on at my house to make that decoration... everything that went into it that you don't see in that photo: What should have taken 2 hours, took a week. I only worked when Spencer was asleep. Lyla was one the counter playing in my clay and rolling it in the pasta machine, while I worked. I worked in my underwear on several occasions, because I didn't get around to showering or dressing (sad but true). My otherwise clean house was exceedingly messy. I had piles of clean unfolded laundry on my bedroom floor. I was also guilty of yelling at Lyla on two occasions as she stuck her finger through my project to make it look "pretty".

So let me say this, when we see a fabulous blog, and think to ourselves how the heck does she balance everything so fabulously and have all that time to do all that fabulous stuff? Just remember, you are fabulous, and you are amazing... and while that lady was doing all that fabulous stuff, something had to give. Her life wasn't pristine like the picture or blog would have you believe.

Ok, soap box over.