Not Just a Box

As all parents know, this time of year we often see our little ones having more fun with the boxes their new toys came in, instead of their new toys. Right?

I had seen this idea to make a box more fun one day when i was cruising around pinterest....wasting time. There was a surprise waiting inside this big box for Delilah when she woke from her nap the other afternoon.

That's right, this is no ordinary box.....it is Not a Box(check out the book it is pretty cute)...it is a box of lights, a disco box!!!

She entered hesitantly, but once inside she was amazed by it all. She makes the cutest sounds of wonder and amazement!!!

You can see the joy all over her face.

I love how something this simple can entertain and captivate a little one for so long. Even my big kids(9 and 7) were quite taken with it!

Lets be honest i want to crawl in there for a little while and just enjoy the pretty lights and let all the busyness of Christmas go away for a bit.

Merry Christmas to you all. Thanks for being such wonderful blog friends. I hope you all have a great Christmas with your families, friends and loved ones.

Leslie

In the Throws of it All

Time seems to fly by so quickly in the time between the holidays. The days get past before i even know what has happened.

There has been plenty to blog about, i have just been remiss in taking the time.

There has been a big birthday to blog about. Our sweet little has turned 1. There will be more pictures of this to come, for all the aunties that might want to see.... How has a year flown so quickly?




There is a new money making craft project to blog about!!! I have never made money from my sewing before but i am committed and in the throws of it now. I made one of these for a little neighbors birthday and they were a hit. 10 have been ordered!!!



There have been other crafts(crochet and sewing)made around here to blog about too!

And of course there all the yummy treats to blog about and share this time of year. I can not make my blog friends a plate of this goodness, though i wish i could, but i can direct you to the links where you can find the recipes and make them for yourselves. Both of these are to die for....peppermint bark rice krispie treats from Our Best Bites and below is caramel popcorn from Making More with Less.

Who knew making your own was so easy and fast? We saw her post and had it made and we were eating it within half an hour.

Leslie

Gingerbread House of the Century

My awesome friend JOnelle makes an amazing gingerbread house every year. This years, set to music, was awesome...no amazing...no fantastic. So amazing that i wanted to share it with any of you that were willing to watch it out there. You really must!!! She(and husband) is so talented!!!

Gingerbread House 2011 from Jonelle Yates on Vimeo.

Tree Pants....Destination Germany

I learned from Sew Mama Sew blog that this is tree pants, not a tree skirt. I guess because it is square not round.

Who knew?! :o)

This was finally done and a long time in the making for my very dear and wonderful friend Jonelle in Germany. She, many moons ago, asked me to make her a Christmas tree skirt in blue, white and some silver. Then she trusted me to make something for her. Time passed, a baby was born and 2 Christmas's later it is under her tree instead of in my WIP pile.

I made it reversible, not so much by design, but because i wanted to make sure to use all of the fabric i had bought for the project. Chris(hubby) suggested the straight line quilting, hoping that it would look a little like a snowflake(roughly). All in all i am calling it a success....mostly because i know she loves it and it has a wonderful home.

love you Jonelle

Leslie

Scrappy Rail Fence Quilt Complete

It is all done, and off to a new home! Auction complete. I love how it turned out.

This is my first experience quilting with minky and i think i am going to have to use it again. It made this little quilt go from cute to so warm and cozy and thick!!! So nice i might need one for me!

I had some concerns with how I was going to hand stitch the binding using the minky as backing, but i did not need to be worried. It worked out just fine. I think the only down side to using this stuff is the fluff and fuzz it leaves all over the house when you are cutting and sewing it. Oh my goodness.

I used simple straight lines for quilting. The best was the way the pattern showed through on the back.

Leslie

School Fun

Aren't my students cute!? This is how we homeschool with a baby. By the seat of our pants, with many hands on the baby and lots of patience.

This day we had begun reading a book about a little boy who took his first flying lesson when he was 10. Then i remembered that i had seen this cool paper airplane while i was stumbling around the internet.


The Soda Straw Plane, on this awesome blog called All for the Boys.

this is all you need....a soda straw, some tape, scissors and a 4x6 or 3x5 card.

Cut the card into three strips.

Tape two together into a circle to make one end of the plane and then tape the last piece into another circle to make the opposite end. Tape them onto the straw, putting the straw on the inside of the circle, as straight as you can.

Then fly that plane. It is amazing, and flies worlds better than your traditional paper plane.

The kids had so much fun. And that is how i want every hoemschool day to turn out, in a perfect world. :o)

Leslie

The Toughest Event on the Planet

So they claim!!

This weekend, past, Chris and his friends participated in the Tough Mudder. A long, wet, muddy obstacle race! They loved it! It is like a little boys, ahem, I mean big boys dream.

These first two shots are shortly after they had gone through the starting obstacles....wet freezing cold giant mud puddles.

The kids were all so excited to see everything they could and to cheer on the daddies. Good thing my friend, the other mom, was thinking and brought them things to make signs with, because shortly after this shot we saw them coming....

...filthy dirty from head to toe, in ears and across teeth, and everywhere else imaginable. Bumped, bruised and bleeding!
They say their feet have never been softer after running with shoes full of wet sand all day.

At the finish of the race they were given a beer and a headband to prove that they had done it. Delilah is modeling it quite nicely, and no we might have shared the headband with her but their is no Dos Equis for dos babies.

And the clothes, well they really will never be the same.

Hooray Chris, you did it. Months of planning and training are over. We are so proud of you, tough mudder!!!

Leslie

WIP Wednesday

When Wednesday's come around i always try to decide if i am feeling wordless or have i been crafty lately and do i have WIP's i can share. Mostly the answer is wordless, so i show you a cute picture of my kids. This week i have actual projects to share. Hooray!!!

I unearthed some of my Amy butler stash from the very bottom of the pile and put together this topper! I did it with strips(fast) but added the diagonals to make it a little more interesting. Husband thinks i should try to overcome my fear of FMQ and go for it. Do you think? Or hand quilting?

I have also been working on a baby quilt...it is a scrappy rail fence. I used the same fabrics i had in my fall table topper and just went for it...trimming as i went to get the right size and i really think i like how it came out. The blocks are trimmed to 6" making the quilt about 32"x40".

I think i will be backing it in minky to make it really cozy and a little more interesting, and then it is going to auction for my husbands work. I hope it finds a new happy home. :o(

it is the WIP Wednesday anniversary, go see what all those crafty ladies have made.

Leslie

Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry

I am barely making the deadline in time!!! I wanted to share a quilt i just was not sure what one. So i went to my trusty quilting assistant, Avery(my 9 year old) and she voted for Delilah's Delilah quilt.

Not very long after she was born that Tanya Whelan came out with a new line called Delilah...how could i not buy some and make something for my sweet baby Delilah.

And with a few small charm packs(love those) and a little bit of time and a lot of love i made her this quilt....Delilah's Delilah.




I can not believe how much she has changed in what feels like just a few short months. Why does the first year have to fly by so fast?



There are so many amazing entries in this years festival over at Amy's. I love finding new creative ladies to inspire me. I am going to cozy up with one of my quilts and a cup of tea this weekend and have a marathon blog session....ooogling all the pretties! If you have not been there already you should definitely do the same.

Amy'sCreativeSide

Leslie

Halloween Snapshot!!

Here are the kiddo's in costume. not sure what that face Mitchell is making is all about.

Delilah was a frog, Avery was a Eskimo girl and Mitch was a fangless vampire. I think he did not want to scare anyone.....enjoy Aunts and grandparents.

Update

We got walloped by mother nature this time.....tons of heavy wet snow and leaf laden trees do not mix. On the right of this picture you can see where 3 trees went down early in the storm, leaving 2 trees in a row that used to have 5. Sad trees.

although it was beautiful the next morning with the early sun making it sparkle!!


now i want fall back!

Leslie

One Can Not Believe One's Eyes!!

This is the view out my backdoor today. Can you believe that? It is not even official winter here yet. Or does this make it official?

No, i don't live out west in the mountains somewhere....i live in the North East where we don't get this much snow during a storm in the winter.

I don't think there has been a storm that dumped and accumulated snow this early since i was a little girl!! They are forecasting 12 inches!!!

Are you kidding me?

Updates to come....

Leslie

Fall Topper

Recently i was looking at my bare dining room table and thought it needed something. I had this runner that had been displaced when we sold the table it used to live on, so i threw it on...why not?

But the weather cooled down and breezes began to blow and the leaves started falling from the trees and somehow this springy green table runner seemed out of place.

SO Saturday i cut some strips of varying widths from a stash of fabric i had set aside for a quilt and made this log cabin block....bordered it with some solid brown and osnaburg i had in my stash.

It is more of a table topper than a runner...and i think it needs a little something on it to make it look more complete...that will come.

I used quite a few of my favorites in there....the DS tan floral...Momo wonderland floral...and the pez in red. love those pez. Did you know American Jane is selling them again?

I am linking this up to Amylouwho's sew and tell.... and Crazy Mom Quilts! it is so fun to see what everyone else has made. Go check it out.

Leslie

Wordless Wednesday...scrap bucket fun!!!

Leslie

Flea Market Find

I love going to flea markets!!! This past week was no exception. They are always so full of so much fun stuff that has so much potential.

This is my find!!! Isn't it amazing! I can not believe that i walked past it once without seeing it.

The price was amazing and it is in pretty great condition. A few marks and a stain but i think i can take care of those. Anyone have any tips or hints on cleaning old quilts?

What struck me the most about it was the simple colors. It is vintage but the colors are so modern. It is all hand pieced and hand quilted with such tiny tiny stitches. I love it!!!

Leslie