New Passions

I mentioned before that I had a new project I've been 'poking' away at. Well, I finally finished the little present I was making for Muffin's Easter basket, and thought I'd share. ;) First the explanation of why I made what I did, then we'll get to the how.

Little Muffin is enthralled with eggs. I know, of all the things, right? But she loves to eat them, play with them, crack them, and hold them. (Don't worry, the ones she carries around all day are the play kind, not the ones from my fridge!) Also, when Muffin plays with... well, anything, she does this little narration or story telling thing. You know those bead maze things they have at doctor's offices? We have a small one, and when she plays with it, it goes something like this:

(Imagine a high-pitched little two year old voice)

"Come on Baby Marcus, you need your hat on. We have to go to Nana's house. Let's go to the market. Oh, don't push Paisley. Let's go get Madelynn.....OH! Daddy's home...." and so on. In this scenario, each bead on the maze is a person. She does this with anything she plays with. The other day she had a bendy straw named Uncle Marty. I digress.

So after being inspired by an article in Martha Stewart, and an etsy shop (link to come later, her shop is currently closed due to orders she has to catch up on for easter, so I can't find her) I decided to combine these things and make Muffin a family of egg people! Our family, that is.

The method? Needle felting. It involves poking a barbed needle into wool roving thousands of times, binding the fibers together until it becomes the shape you want.
This is the roving before anything is done to it. That' the needle on the left. The green and yellow tool is 5 of the needles in one, so it makes the process go much faster, but I've found it doesn't work well until you have at least some structure to the roving. The roving and needles can be found online, or possibly in your local quilting fabric store.
I house our family in a six pack egg carton. I know she will love putting them into the carton.
This one is the Mommy egg, of course. I gave myself a bun after several very strange attempts at a pony tail.

New baby girl, Mr. Baby, and Muffin. The lady who sells these on etsy has you send her a family picture, and she will make them for you. She sells a set of six for $70.00!! I can understand, since it is very labor intensive, but what else do I have to do while watching Dora and Wonder Pets? Side note: you know your child watches too much Dora when she can count from one to eight in spanish and you didn't teach her. ;) She actually does that better than counting in english! Should I be worried?

I will admit, I think they are pretty cute!

Daddy Man and doggie Bee. Daddy has a gotee, not giant lips. The little pink lips are hard to see in this picture. I am hooked on needle felting! It is repetitive and pretty therapeutic, until I jab the needle into my finger. Must get some gloves or something.

I tried a new bread recipe this week- no starter needed! I know, the starter is probably really good for you, but I can't even remember to water house plants....how am I supposed to remember to feed the starter? I got this recipe from one of my favorite blogs (can you tell? I've mentioned her like 4 times) called MADE. For the recipe, go to her tutorials section. I did half wheat flour, instead of all white like the recipe calls for. Isn't it beautiful? And soooo yummy! We couldn't help but dig into it before I had a chance to get a picture.

This week Daddy Man turned 26, and Muffin gave him some special cars for his birthday present.

He liked them a lot. (Bit of an understatement) I came home from garage saleing Saturday morning to this:
The goal was to launch the car off the coffee table and get it to land on the cereal box. And, of course, to slide down Daddy Man's ramp. I love watching Daddy Man and Muffin play together.
One last thing. (I really should post more often to avoid these mega-posts.) I made Dana's 90 minute shirt for Mr. Baby. It turned out pretty good.
Transform a men's shirt into a kid's shirt, with added contrast ribbing on the neckline. I need to make the neck smaller next time, but it worked out. I LOVE making clothes for my kids. Not only is it inexpensive, it is sentimental. It reminds me of the outfits my mom used to make my sister and I as kids. Mind you, they were not quite as cool ;) (It's ok Mom, it was the 80's. It's not your fault) but I love those outfits! I think the one with the crayola fabric, with the crayon buttons was my favorite. I am happy to make a little piece of history for my kids.

It's Called a Boobie

Muffin is my sensitive little cuddle bug. She loves tolay in my lap while I rub her hair, face, arms and back. She would probably do this all day long if I had the patience! She even tells me exactly how to do it: "No, don't do it harder little Mommy, just like this." Or "Get the back part of my ear." Yes, it's quite entertaining. At least she knows what she wants! Anyway, this morning we were sitting on the couch cuddling while I talked to my sister on the phone. I was telling my sister that Muffin had her head on my chest and I was rubbing her face. Muffin pipes up and says, "No Mommy, it's called a boobie! Marcus has a chest." Thanks, Muffin, for clearing that up. This comes from our discussion a few months back when I explained that girls have boobies. She asked if Marcus had boobies, and I said no, Marcus is a boy, so he has a chest. At least I know she understands!

This picture is for my Mom and Sister. I did her hair! She let me do a braid after her morning shower, and kept it in all day! Amazing accomplishment.

And I will leave you with the thought of Mr. Baby making dinner in the kitchen. I like to train them early. ;)

In my continual quest for a new project to keep me sane, I decided to try my hand at making clothes for my kids. Why not do a project that is fun AND practical? Yeah, I can be practical! (I try, at least) I used this tutorial from one of my favorite blogs, but didn't do the knee-pad part. I used a men's dress shirt I found at Salvation Army, and look how cute it turned out!

I just happened to have the perfect shirt to match the pants, made by my Sister. These pictures are before I hemmed the pants, but you get the point. I left extra fabric in the hem and extra elastic in the waist so I can make the pants bigger when needed. I wish there was a way to let the buns area out.... :)

Next up: The 90 Minute Shirt and The Shirt Dress, both from the same blog. This is so much fun!

And what would a post be without a little Muffin face?

Enjoy your day today. If you have a hard time, try to think of three good things about the not-so-good situation. Have a happy heart!

Today

Oh my word. Can it be? Is this gorgeous bag actually mine?

This is my "you're such an amazing wife to birth three kids and you deserve a special treat and thanks for making me bread" present. (Daddy Man REALLY likes the bread I've been making twice a week) It is the perfect "going out" diaper bag. I've decided this is what I will take along when I go out shopping, or wherever, loaded with one diaper for each baby, a few wipes, a wet bag, a small toy, binkie, and cup/snack. All the extra things that you don't seem to need unless you forgot to load them in the diaper bag that day- change of clothes for 3 kids, extra diapers and wipes, blanket, food, teething gel, etc- will be in my large diaper bag that will stay in the back of my car. No more hauling around a giant bag filled with who knows what. Now I have a streamlined (and very chic, I might add) diaper bag system...in theory. I'll let you know how that goes. ;)

This was a fun little nap-time project. Super easy- just cut the girls out on the dotted lines, pin and sew, stuff, and sew closed. Fun and easy, with cute results!
Muffin calls them 'Paisley' and 'Mommy.' I will admit, they do have our cheeks!
We all took advantage of Daylight Savings this evening and enjoyed some sun. Muffin loves to pull baby brother in the wagon.
She even shared her car with him! He rocks the pink, don't you think?
In the wagon together. They are so lovey and squishy!

Here is my soon-to-be garden utopia. I'm loving the raised bed. Now to Gabe and Sarah's to dig up some of their yard to fill our box!

It's been a week? Is it the middle of March?

Wow, I can't believe it's been a whole week since I've posted! So much happened last week- in a nutshell:

~Mom, Sister, and Madelynn came to visit for a few days. I have missed them so much since moving to Redding. We had sooo much fun watching the girls play so well together, going to the park, and shopping. Thanks to Sarah for watching Mr. Baby so we could gallavant about the town.

~I got a cold. :( Of course, that means that Mr. Baby, Muffin, and now Daddy Man are sick too. Ugh. Lets just move on and not dwell on this one.

~I started using cloth diapers. This is one thing I said I WOULD NOT do, unless someone else did the washing for me. Well, Daddy Mock changed my world when he recommended the (for lack of anything better to call it) "poo sprayer." A revolutionary device that has single-handedly changed the world of cloth diapers forever. No more swishing the gross diaper around in the toilet (oh my word, could we subject ourselves to anything more vile?) or soaking in a pail of poopy water for a couple days. Simply hold said diaper over the toilet, grab the mini shower-like sprayer attached to the toilet, and spray until diaper is poo-free. Then, place diaper in zippered wet bag (these are the best in my opinion-I have three, pictures to follow) and forget about it! It is such a beautiful thing. I also use the biodegradable liners (kinda looks like a dryer sheet) to 'catch' the yuck so I can easily get rid of most of it before spraying. Anyway, I am a cloth diaper convert. Thanks to Jodi's recommendation, I use (and love) bumgenious organic all-in-one one size diapers. They are cute, super easy to use, and hold everything in, probably better than disposables. Look at these great colors!

I love how much money we are saving by using cloth diapers (we figured about $3500 between Mr. Baby and New Baby's future diaper usage) and I love contributing less plastic to the land fills. Daddy man is on board too, and thanks to these easy to use diapers, he's a cloth diapering pro!

~I made my first project for New Baby (creative nickname to come-probably when it's not after 10pm)- a small lap blanket with one of the cutest baby fabrics I've seen in a long time.
Yup, it's a girl!! We really wanted another girl, and were thrilled to find out! I am excited to make many more girly projects for Baby Girl, and had lots of fun with this mini-quilt.
~Little Muffin welcomed springtime with the cutest little sun hat and dress from Miss Bella's Boutique- a cute new store in Redding.
Yes, her shoes are on the wrong feet, but she put them on herself, so I can't complain!
~I have been in a crafting frenzy! I hope to share my recent projects with you soon...I am having so much fun, and even discovered a new kind of project (no sewing or scrapbooking involved) to 'poke' away at. ;)

~Muffin and I started our seeds for our garden. I am thrilled to finally have a proper garden, raised bed and all. Daddy Man and Papa built me a raised bed (can you imagine hunting for zucchini on the ground, nine months pregnant, in the blistering, 110 degree Redding summer? No thanks.) 13 feet by 3 feet, and I can't wait for our plants to start producing. I know it will be a few months, but I find vegetable gardening so rewarding. I love the daily "hunt" for the new veggies that erupted overnight. I get excited just thinking about it!

I don't think I did a great job at 'nutshelling' (yes, I made that word up) it for you, unless there's a giant nut I'm not familiar with...what's that dark brown one bigger than a walnut? Oh well. Looking forward to a new week, with another couple of batches of bread, a fully healthy family, and hopefully lots of projects!

Sisterly Love

Wow. It's been a busy week. Haven't had much time or energy for blogging, but as I was looking through our family photo shoot pictures I found this adorable expression of sisterly love.

I think Muffin is trying to pull Mr. Baby up onto her lap, and straining with the "load." Lately when I've told Muffin, "he doesn't know how to (fill in the blank here: walk, talk, eat raisins-yikes!, etc.) yet because he's a little baby." She says, "no, he's a BIG baby!" Ah yes, Mr. Baby is quite the tank. But so cuddly and squishy at the same time. I love how my kids have no regard whatsoever for the height and weight growth charts. They just won't be bothered with those limitations. :)

More projects to come soon, and a very fun announcement on what kind of little baby is in my belly!