New Year, New Start

Wow! It's 2011! I can't believe how time has flown. I've been married 5 years, I have 2 kids, both growing quickly into little people. Where has the time gone? As I reflect back on the year, I am a little disappointed on how unaccomplished I feel. I always want to craft more, see more friends, enjoy life a little more. This year I'm dedicated to start new and try to do it all again. So this year, I do have some resolutions: (1) craft more, spend more time doing what I enjoy, more time decorating the house, making kids clothes and just enjoying the craft store (but without spending too much money!) (2) spend more time without the kids, meaning dedicating more time to my hubby, myself and my friends (3) enjoy the kids more, basically stop looking at each minute of the day waiting until I get some time alone at night, all in all, enjoying each moment of everyday, the stressful and the fun!

Now with those 3 goals laid out there, I hope that I will find more time to blog as well. Which technically goes right along with my resolutions - crafting more and having more time with friends (since you Kate, are my friend, and my partner in crafting!). We definately need to get back to crafting days, and I need to be better at calling and having more interesting things to talk about. So with this is the start of a fabulous year of enjoying life, crafting and friends!

I'm back, but a little behind.

Hi Laura,
I am sorry its been so long since I have written. This summer was very busy with lots and lots of travel! My husband and I traveled to South Africa for the world cup in June for several weeks, so no crafting there. And then most of July and August were super busy getting ready for a BIG work event held in early September in St. Petersburg Russia. Since then I have one busy bee! I hope to have lots to share over the next fews weeks. But to keep you tied over until then, here are few picture of my work from before I dropped off the map to travel the map.

This is the Eloise Eyelet Cardi I made for V's 3rd birthday. I just had to make her something hand knit. I know she is three, but this girl loves her handmade. Great job!!!! She is girl after my own heart. I think next year we can get her started with her own needles and yarn!!!
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/eloise-eyelet-cardi


This is a dragon I made for R's 1st birthday. Its from the same Knit Picks yarn his baby blanket was knitted out of. The original pattern name was Norberta, but I like to call him Norm. It seems slightly more masculin, but only slightly so.
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/norberta

Man I must your kids! They are both too cute!!!!

I have more pictures, but they are stuck on the camera. I hope to post again this week.

I know you have been a busy bee too. What are you up to?

Kate

Inspiration: I Spy Quilts

Kate,
It's me again! I'm back on a crafting role, hopefully I'll have to catch up again soon! :)

I had to post this inspiration. I remember you were going to make (I'm not sure if you ever finished them, I can't remember) "I Spy" inspired items. This blog (CraftHours) I follow features a dad (yes a DAD crafter!) who shows lots of options for I Spy quilts. I'm thinking I'm inspired to try this with a bunch of the scrap fabrics I have and I'm sure to collect more scraps.

Hope to see you soon!
Laura

I am alive...and crafting!

Kate,
WOW! It's been a long time since a post. Believe it or not, I have been up to some crafting this summer. I feel like you and I both have valid excuses for slacking off on the blog this summer. With you traveling to South Africa (so jealous!) and my hubby being away for most of the summer, there is little time or energy to keep up with the posting. But I promise, I am back! I need crafting to keep my sanity!

So what have I been up to this summer? Here's a few little things...

More snack bags and sandwich wraps for member of the MOMS Club. Just a little something I've been doing for the moms. Ecofriendly and super easy to whip up.

Yoga mat bag. This was my sister's birthday gift, including a new yoga mat.

A beach/sand toy bag. I whipped this up so cheap - less than $5 and in less than an hour. Thanks for Martha Stewart Crafts for the idea. This will be great for when we head on our beach vacation. Surprisingly I didn't already have one. I think a mesh bag is critical when having little kids.

Can't wait to see what you've been up to. And I will be posting again in the next two weeks with some more projects in the works.

Laura

Destruction of a sleeping bag

Kate,

Remember that tedious princess and the pea sleeping bag I made? I (and V) loved it and it's gotten so much use every day. Unfortunately it has been destroyed by my washing machine. Completely my fault, now I'm sick to my stomach. V had peed on it during naptime and just like I have two previous times, I threw it in the washing machine. I dont know what was different this time, but when it came out of the dryer, I noticed it had lots of tears. I dont know if it's fixable or not at this point. It has tears along at least 8 seams of the "mattresses".

Do you have any advice? I guess I could always resew it and downsize it a bit since some fabric will inevitably be missing now.

Here are some pics of the damage:

I have some more projects to post about that I've been working on, but I'm too depressed right now, maybe later this weekend.

- Laura

More Snack Bags from Scrap Fabric

Kate,
Wow! It's been a really long time since I've posted and a while since I've spent some quality time with my sewing machine. But I'm back, for a little while. As you know, I gave up the fabric store to save some money. Well, it didn't last too long, but I am still avoiding it for the most part. My weekly trips just to browse have stopped, I only go for necessities. For example, I only went to buy some thread, velcro and a yard of nylon for a few projects.

I've been working on more snack bags. Part of the eco-friendly transition. I'm trying to rid my house of ziploc bags and wasted plastic. I have already been using a sandwich wrap for Victoria, but still needing bags for snacks and such. (We are really into picnics with the warm weather, at least twice a week!) So I made some snack bags. All using scrap fabrics I had, all I needed was some nylon. They're cute, practical and I'm already putting them to use.

Here they are. And if you want to make some of your own....here's the tutorial I followed....http://ihavetosay.typepad.com/photos/reusable_snack_bag_tutori/index.html. They are super easy and quick, I made all of these in like 2 hours time (and that's with the kids awake and R attacking the sewing machine pedal all the time). I made them in all sorts of sizes, basically whatever sized fabric I had left.

I do have a few more to make. And I have some other projects reusing my scraps in the works. Like heming up too short pants into capris and shorts for the summer and adding some fabric to too short shirts to refurbish them. We'll see how they turn out. I'm a little nervous, but I figure I'm donating the clothes anyway, so I might as well try to get use out of them.

By the way, love the knitted bunny. Too cute!!! I dont have the patience for the finishing of those sort of things. You are an inspiration.

Hopefully I'll see you soon! Laura

Finally Finshed

Hi babe!

Well I have finally finished a project that I started a year ago FEBRUARY! What a slacker! Well, I hate seaming. And toys are all seaming. So at least she is done. She is mighty cute. Right?

I also finished this bear for the Mother Bear Project. I dropped him off at Lovely Yarn in Hamden, MD. My sister Emily and I spent the day there. Cute shop, lovely staff. Obviously, I need to work on my embroidery skills.

I was going to post more, but the sun just came out. Off to my porch with a book.

Miss you tons!

Kate

PS. Have you noticed that my pics are looking better? Thank Brian, thats all him :)