First day of summer activities. Work and play.

Happy first day of summer!

$2 Rita's day!

It was a good cool treat for after Saturday jobs (cleaning bathrooms and vacuuming ets), bike riding lessons in my mom's cul-de-sac, swimming in her pool, and all but finishing Julia's blessing dress. 

I have given my kids more responsibility lately and was dissapointed and guilty of not teaching my boys awareness or indtinct. Examples: 

•They asked where to store items from the clean dishwasher. How do they not know where plates and bowls go?!

•Dylan said yes he had washed the pans. Really washed. They are clean! But I kept investigating. He did not use soap or hot water or even a clean wash cloth. (He had rinsed them in preparation for the dishwasher or jand washing and it took way too many questions to get to that realization.)

•They had never cleaned a toilet and did not know what to take in with him. Then had not cleaned around it. 

•Isaac plugged the sink and had water running in it, but I noticed he was pumping lots of hand soap into the dish water. Neither knew to set out a dry towel, use a clean wash cloth, to use hot water, to rinse, etc. I later found the dishes drying right side up with their lids on them. Nice. Keeping the water in, "ay yoy yoy". (I say that too much.)

•Dylan swept the stairs. But left the dust on the tile below. How did he think he did not need a dust pan?! (Side note. Barbie swept our gross floors into our dirty rags pile and left it. Which is actually an example of going above and beyond. She does not know where a dust pan is, nor should she. That was something thoughtful and she probably had my baby strapped to her and had to deal with my crazy boys' drama at the same time. I wrote this before but had not published it yet.)

Wow I have been an enabler, or an UN-enabler. This summer, they are learning to work!

Isaac cried in his bike lesson. And he laughed in surprise as he biked all the way to the end of the street making me run! 

And Julia liked her blessing dress. And her grandma for doing so much of it. 

The dress satin is from my wedding dress. The neck lace is from my mom. The sleeves are from my baptism dress fabric, left overfrom when my mom made it. The over lace is my mom's wedding dress's veil. I will make a headband out of scraps too. 

Another Baby Shower, more gifts to make - yay!

I made something for a baby boy for once. It seems like everybody is having girls. I didn't have enough boy fabric to make a sling like I thought I was going to make, so I made a nursing cover. I really like the fabric and the ribbon too. I've seen some cool nursing covers and made one for myself, but decided to forget the annoying "D-rings." I put them on mine only for one D-ring to slip inside the other and my cover was blown. Lacey made one with strips of matching fabric, if I remember correctly. I sewed bows to the front and ribbon. I also sewed pieces of diaper cloths to the bottom corners and made pockets out of them. I tucked some nursing pads inside that I had left over.
Here's Abigail, trying it on at her Gators baby shower. I also made a sports wipes case with some more of that laminated fabric. (It was on sale, so I got some and am glad I did.) I just wish the background color could have been orange instead of red. That would have been more fitting:)
And what's a baby shower with out a baby and other pregnant girls? Some how I didn't get pictures of the other pregnang girls there, but I did get some of this cute little guy. My boys were home w/ Steven.
My grandma made her a blanket which made Abigail cry. She got 2 other crochet/knitted blankets for the lucky little Mr. Baby Tristan.

Midnight Magic

Magically, this stuff gets done overnight. In stead of wishing there were more hours in the day, I just stay up late. I'm not always in the mood to loose sleep, so these projects have taken a while to complete. I'm pretty happy with the results though. We got estimates for window treatments in our living room. It was over $500. Steven was ready to have them come out to our house for a more accurate custom estimate. I told him that I could beat that price and we could save (yea right) for a camera. I warned him that they would probably look home made, but we agreed. I ordered fabric for a different project from fabric.com (thanks for that tip, Lacey) and Steven liked it more than all of the examples from the drapery store we were looking through. It actually matches the walls and has blue in it for the couches. I made some pillows (and will make more, I just moved them for the pics) from a cheap table runner that I liked. It had tassels on it and I repositioned it. Way cheaper than buying the fabric and tassels! I'm going to make more pillows from the curtains' fabric b/c Steven thinks it'll tie the room together:) I learned an easy way to do pinch pleats in the curtains, something that a well-rounded mom would like. These curtains don't close, but we decided we didn't need them to close ever. So the cost of curtains was $72. Oh, then the tie back tassels were expensive, they were $14 each, but I had to have something so it looks like they are supposed to be open-always. One more thing. They look short, but I kinda did that on purpose so I can vaccuum without worry. If it bothers me, I can let the hem out.

The fabric (chocolate truffle or something yummy sounding, our paint colors are all foods too)Darren built us this entertainment center. He did a good job, don't you think?! What should I put on it under the TV? A set of candles on a tray thingy? more pictures? (I'm kidding about that.) Nothing? I put our wedding scrap book on it.
I also covered the mats and framed some of the spaghetti pics. Steven wants retakes, but this will do 'til we're rich.
I already showed these curtains I made for the play room, but look at the cute silhouettes that Lacey did for me! Don't you just love them?! I do. They match the play room perfectly too - primary colors and the same green and light blue! They're good Christmas gifts, or even birthday gifts.

Just another example of Lacey's handiwork. Just like I imagined/ordered!

My Baby Sling

I highly reccomend this thing. I have a ruptured disk in my neck and it flares up so bad sometimes. I'm not supposed to lift anything over 10lbs. Is that possible for anyone? NO! Especially when I have a big spoiled baby. I put him in one of those snuggli front back packs and was in such a bad mood for the next couple of days because I was in a lot of pain. Who knows exactly what caused that pain, but I bet carrying Isaac in that didn't help.

I really wanted a hip hammoc but didn't get one before Isaac was born so thought I could mannage. I went to a baby consignment store to get one finally and saw this. I was able to try it before buying it. It's http://www.hotslings.com/. I just checked and they're having a summer sale where they're half price for some. They cost $60 though and that's way too much for me. I found it for way less than the sale price. I made one in a different color b/c it's easy to make if you have one to copy.

Here's the one I made. I nursed Isaac in it in the mother's lounge at church. When I was done, I carried him to Primary where I teach the 7 year olds and had somebody take a picture of us b/c it's a different way to wear it (and the baby).

This thing is so comfy and folds like a blanket so I can keep it in the diaper bag. Way better than the bulky straps and bucles! (I tried on a hip hammoc in the store and some other adjustable sling w/ way too much fabric.) That's the good thing about the packages already being opened.

Just thought I'd share!