Sewing Pajama Pants

What a fun day! A kind lady in our ward, Cindy, hosted us all at her house and showed us how to make pajama pants. She did two sessions back to back so we could switch babysitting if we needed to. Sweet! And she had enough sewing machines, surgers, and supplies for all of us. Dreamy. Anyway, I bought 3 yards of this Valentine fabric at Walmart for $2.00 a yard and some elastic, and we were ready to go! It was a fun and easy project. And most importantly, I finished a project. Drumroll please...........
Yeah, I am having a moment. This may be one of my few finished projects, so I am having a moment of satisfaction. Just don't look at the bottom hems. They don't really have to match up, do they? Isn't the style to have one side look like capris and the other side be long? Hope so. Let's just say I am not a perfectionist. But hey, I finished the project. Just don't look at the bottom.
This was such a fun project. I love sewing. It's fun even if you are not particularly talented.

Sewing at Cindy's; thankfully she led us through the process step by step!



My new pajama pants!

Fabric Stash Idea

Do you have a fabric stash that is taking up storage space? Well, no worries. Let it sit around until next Christmas, and then I have an idea for you that can help with that extra fabric stash.

I have Christmas stockings, but they are "too good for children". Sorta' like when you have good treats around that you can't bring out till the Mommy/Daddy party, or the china, or your "good" lotion and bath products. Some things are just "too good for children".

So, every year, I buy stockings at the Dollar Store that we can throw out after Christmas. Cause what Mom really wants to deal with the icky goo that will be stuck on stockings from sticky baby fingers. Not me! Well, this year I was a little late. By the time I made it to the Dollar Store (the week before Christmas), the white trash Christmas stockings (perfect for children) were not available.

So, what is a mother to do?

Well, I definately didn't want to ruin the "good" stockings, so I was racking my brain for ideas. Finally, I came up with the idea of using my fabric stash to make Christmas bags for the kids, rather than stockings. It was perfect. I ironed the fabric, threw the treats in, tied them with bows, printed off their names, and stuck their name on the fabric.

Great, because when the kids are done with their stockings, I can just throw them in the wash and use that fabric when it is needed. Anyway, I thought they turned out quite cute, and it was an easy solution!

So, just hold onto this thought for about 360 days, and you will have a great idea for next Christmas!

Making Halloween Cards

I love home-made cards. I used to LOVE to make them, I am just waiting till my kids get a little older to re-start the fun. My mother-in-law makes the cutest cards for the holidays for her grandchildren. I was only able to get four of them, as Maddie would not let go of her card for anything. I thought I would share them, as they are so cute, and she has such creative ideas. Love the little ghosts!!!

Robot BYU Football Players

You know how kids come home with all their papers, creations, books, at the end of the school year? Well, little Brandon (8) brought home this book that he had written and it was just SOOOO great, I had to show it off! Clearly we have been successful with the BYU indoctrination!

Here is little B's story as he wrote in his book (he is in 2nd grade---I will use his spelling):
"Robot BYU Football Players" by Brandon


Once in the year 300 there was an inventer named Brandon. In Webruary (he wrote "webruary" on purpose) he invented Robot BYU football players. They could even ice people. They iced Utah, it was very funny.


They played every team. The won the chapenship. They dance & years later theyck wining so they are now in the hall of fame. Brandon is very happy.


Today they are playing the chapenship vs Utah. The Utah are going to cheat. The Utah are going to take batteries out of the Robot BYU football players. Buy the Y are very smart.


They called a whole team game. That means the whole team plays together. The game started. Utah got the ball first. Utah just got a touchdonw. Six to zero. Utah is wining.


But the BYU football players turned it around one hour later. The BYU football players won 100 to six. We won!


The End.

Arts & Crafts

The kids have off for Spring Break, and little Brandon announced to me this morning that we were going to do Crafts today. He even brought out the Christmas gift from Aunt Krista, Uncle Ted, & family. For Christmas, they gave us this Craft Bag, loaded with all types of Craft supplies; paints, scissors, notebooks, markers, play-do, glue, and construction paper. (A fabulous gift idea, BTW!)

Maybe through all my kids "artistic" messes, my children have been trying to tell me that they need some Arts & Crafts time. I am clearly a little slow, but I have to say, all the kids (except for Ethan; he just wanted to play on the computer!) were so thrilled to be able to do art. I have to say, I was also really impressed with their creativity. It was also nice to let them make a mess in a controlled setting. Maddie kept saying gleefully, "I messy. I messy." She would hold up her filthy painty hands with pride!

So hopefully, next time, it won't take quite as many messes before I find a way to fulfill some of their creative needs in a positive way!

(Yesterday, the weather was beautiful, in the 60's. Today, on the other hand, it is cold and there is snow on the ground once again. So, it is a perfect day for Arts & Crafts at our house!)

The fabulous Craft bag from Aunt Krista & Uncle Ted

Benjamin showing off his work of art (he constructed the orange building out of play-doh)

Maddie cheerfully exclaiming "Messy hands, messy hands"

Maddie's watercolor masterpiece

Brandon's play-doh art; the sun, the moon, and the stars!

Brandon also made this chain!

Decorating with D.I.

Thanks for your inspirational post VANESSA!!! I love the idea of sharing our "finds." I just love the fun in finding a good deal, especially when it is the perfect solution for your house!!!

So, here is the perfect cabinet that I have been looking for since we got our big screen TV placed on the wall about 6 months ago. I hated looking at all the wires hanging down onto the floor from the TV, hanging on the wall. Really not attractive, but I didn't want to go and waste a lot of money on a piece of furniture, that I knew I could eventually find discounted. The problem has been that our TV is about 50 inches off the ground, and it is very hard to find a piece of furniture at about that random height. Thanks to DI, I found it today.

Here is the cabinet which now hides most of the obnoxcious wireage. I love it, and for $100, it was perfect!!! It is about 39 inches high, which is an odd height, but perfect for this space! It is solid wood, and very heavy. We are probably going to paint it, any suggestions?



This is a great barn picture I found at DI for $15 (about 3 months ago). It is also quite large, it is painted on five or six slats of wood. I had been searching for a big picture to go in my formal dining room! Gotta' love finding a good deal.


I love pictures. I know, try not to fall over from shock! Anyway, I just love to find frames at garage sales or DI, get rid of the picture inside and place my own enlarged photos inside! This one I found from a garage sale in TX for $10 (thanks to my inlaws for sending it to me). I love the frame with the distressed wood. Didn't like the picture, so I put in a picture of my kids.


This is a frame that I bought at DI. It had a hideous picture. I had the idea to use it for all the 8 by 10's of my kids. This frame was $6. A total score!!! It was also a fun project. The flash was not too friendly; but you get the idea!

I am thankful for my husband!

OK, I have got to brag on my husband! I don't know what I would do without him. I have to brag on him. I so appreciate all the projects he does for our family! He and a couple of his "computer geek" friends from work all got together last Friday to build this arcade game. You can install a system that has 1000 games. He is building the same system that costs $1999. at Costco; for SOOOOO much cheaper. I thought it was so cool that they could do this awesome project! I love how handy Brandon is! He was so excited to build this! He still has to paint it, install the monitor and put on the stickers to make it look like a real arcade, but can you see the vision coming together? I just had to show off his project!

From Trash to Treasure!

Well, I am so thrilled with the outcome of my garage sale bedroom set. Brandon painted it a "barn" red, it came out a little brighter than anticipated, but it looks so great in little B's room! I couldn't be more pleased. It is so amazing what paint can do to the most drab brown, old furniture! My $200 bedroom set looks so much better. I am so grateful to Brandon for all the painting and work he put in! It sure paid off! There is another dresser on the other side of the room that you can't see from this angle! We are also going to paint a bookcase and desk that are not in the picture! Thanks again Brandon!!!
After adding the mirror!

Little B's Bedroom Makeover!

Some of the drawers (to give you an idea of the color---definately not the barn red I was expecting it to be)
Well, all the monkey's (Brandon, Ethan, Benjamin and Madison) kept jumping on the bed! Luckily, not one has fallen and broken his or her head! However, they did break Brandon's bed finally. So, we were looking for some new furniture for little B. I can't stand to spend too much money, as my little boys can be a little rough on furniture!(as you can see from what happened to his previous bed!) So, I felt very lucky to find a bedroom set of furniture at a garage sale for $200. That included a full bed (with headboard and footboard), 2 dressers, and a nightstand. I could see that this ugly bedroom set had great potential, just needed a little paint! Thank goodness for my fabulous painter husband Brandon! He has painted so much furniture in our house and has done such a great job! (So, men, if you don't want to be stuck in a painting rut for your whole marriage, just make sure you do a bad job the first time!) Anyway, we were trying to paint the set a barn red! Unfortunately, it is looking more like Spiderman red; which was not my intention! So, I will show you some of the drawers to give you an idea of the color! Hopefully we can get it in his bedroom and take some pictures of the makeover in the next couple days! I should have taken a pic of the furniture prior to it being painted! It was pretty bad! It definately looks better, even in Spiderman red!

"Mommy, you haven't sewed since I was four"

This is my "fall" inspired quilt that I almost finished a couple years ago, I have to edge it, still! (I just LOVE fall colors; can you tell?)
This is my Halloween quilt, that I finally edged and finished. I LOVE IT! It is from the Moda "Bittersweet & Boos" line I loved a few years ago. This was easy, just sewed many fat quarters together. The squares have witches hats, the word "boo" and pumpkins!
I LOVE my new IKEA drapes; look fabulous with my burgundy leather couches!
The velvet "wine" curtains were highwaters, so I bought a moss-colored velvet panel, cut it up, and added it to the bottom of each one. See, I can recycle, just not the way most people do! I love the result. I love Fall, it is my favorite season!
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My goldish drapes I got at a yard sale for $1 per panel; LOVE THEM! They look great with the green couches!
My Target deal, I found these for my formal dining area for $7 per panel.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to sew. I find the sound of the machine so calming and soothing, and I love the creativity and fun of sewing quilt blocks together. I found it so funny when my 7 year old son Brandon came home from school and was so amazed to see me sewing. He said, "Mom, you haven't sewed since I was 4!" I thought, that's about right. He then told me how much he loved me sewing for him and he wants me to sew him a new quilt. He can be so sweet! It just makes me melt to make quilts for my babies that they can enjoy! When the adoptions began, I had started on several quilt projects. (I had a goal then to make a quilt for each holiday. Ha-ha, we won't discuss my lack of progress in this goal area.) I started with Halloween and a Fall quilt since they are my faves! I did most of the work, but just never finished the edging! (Back then I was ashamed at my ability to finish only about 80% of most of my projects. What time does for you. I wish I was an 80%er now. Now, I am lucky to get about 50% or even 30% accomplished. I cannot begin to tell you how many projects are "on the list" currently!) So, today, I was very happy, a couple years later, to finish the Halloween quilt. I have to say, this quilt is SOOOOO yummy and beautiful. I also am in the midst of finally finishing Ethan's Star Wars quilt that also had to be edged! Now, I still have to work on my Fall quilt and then I may even, dare I say, begin yet another quilt project. I have all the fabric, and then some, for a fabulous Christmas quilt!!! Oh, how I love quilts!

We have also been working to put many window treatments up around the house. I was so excited to put some new IKEA drapes up which I LOVE! Anyway, what is it about Fall which makes it PROJECT time! Who knows, but I love it! When I once again find my camera (I chronically lose things and then they reappear---perhaps the kids are once again enjoying playing hide and go seek with my things!) then I will take some pics of some of the final finished projects. It is amazing what some color, drapes, and quilts can do for a home! I was also able to use my old velvet wine drapes from my Springville home. I just had to cut up some moss velvet curtains to add several inches to my old "highwater" drapes. Now, they look new, updated, and I am loving them! It is fun to do some new projects; especially when it involves the sewing machine! I have made up for my sewing inactivity the last couple years this last week!

Not exactly "Ghost"

The pottery class rocked the house. We had so much fun, it was the best $2 ever spent; not that we really created any works of art. Very fun and relaxing. Again, I was thinking we might have some really incredible "Ghost" type pottery experience, but since Brandon and I were not alone we could not reinact certain parts of the Ghost movie. Here are some pictures of our experience.
Pottery: the new manly activity. Shows you are comfortable in your manliness. By the way, the vase Brandon made is most fabulous.