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Toddler Booster Seat Cover Meta Post

February 21, 2011

So, I went this morning to clean out my husbands work car (he’s an animal – just thought I’d insert that bit) and realized that somewhere along the way, the cover for my daughters booster seat has gone missing.  I could just go spend the extra dollars and buy her a new booster, but my frugal heart cries at the thought of that. So of COURSE I’m going to go google it. Right?

I figured I’d share the wealth with you. And hopefully, eventually, post my tutorial of the re-d0 since unlike these other ladies, I’m having to create my own pattern as I have no unlikeable, hideously ugly previous pad covered in the detrius of a toddlers life to use for a pattern. Plus I have found exactly ONE PDF (no longer available – thank you!) for my particular booster seat. Seems everyone has the Cosco’s, and I have the Graco Turbo Booster!

 

Free Tutorials – heavy on the pictures


PDF patterns you pay for

 

Kitchen Booster Seats

 

Extras!


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You The Readers

February 12, 2011

Oddly enough – I’m getting an average of about 50 hits a day. Most of these seem to be on certain posts!

Specifically these (in order)

T-shirt Upcycling Meta Post

Want Your Bad Romance – Creepy Love Songs

Potter Puppet Pals Cake

May is National Celiac Awareness Month

Gluten Free Mad Hatter Layer Sculpted Cake

Pocket Diaper Tutorial

 

As you can see, that’s quite a range of interests! Now that I have my craft room back, and a kitchen that is quite large, PLUS I’m not packing stuff 24/7 or feeling guilty that I’m NOT packing I can start crafting in the kitchen and craft room again! Wonder what I’ll produce next?

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And Back Again for Valentines Day

February 12, 2011

Picture and Makeup by my 16yo

Here’s the link to her deviantart page

Things have changed greatly in my life since I started this blog.

I no longer live in the house I own, I’m renting it out and living in a completely different state now. Because of where we live. I no longer have chickens. I may or may not be able to have a garden. Composting would just be silly – there are so many feral pets around here it’d be a study in frustration to try. I can’t burn my burnables due to HOA restrictions in our area, and put the ash on my garden like I would normally. So between the burnables and compostables, my garbage output has doubled. Which makes me feel sad and guilty. Which I of course dislike intensely. I also left EVERY SINGLE PLANT I owned behind. I want to weep when I think about it. I’m fully planning on going back and getting them. But meanwhile I have one plant my darling husband bought me, knowing how sad I was, and 2 Boston Ferns I found growing under our house of all things! If you know me, you’ll know that the lack of plants, planning a garden, and simply having a garden and the joyous monotony of watering plants everyday is like having a garden shaped hole in my heart. It hurts and I truly feel the lack.

In the Good News. The house we are living in has four awesomely huge bedrooms, a giant open floor plan for the living room/dining room. I’ve got a lovely space to craft, with enough room for hubby and his craft stuff too! Our bathroom has a giant tub that the whole family has enjoyed taking a bath in at one time or another. We’ve got 2 very nice families that live nearby that we enjoy hanging out with. Our backyard is fenced in, so our Big Dog can’t escape to wander the neighborhood as is her wont. The school district that the kids are in (I’m no longer homeschooling the middle child) is a 9 on the Great Schools scale – pretty freaking fabulous. My youngest’s class size is 18. My oldest has some classes in which there are only 9 people and can take such electives as forensic anthropology with actual dissection going on in class! Also fashion, in which she is learning how to sew – thank goodness! – but doesn’t have to learn from me! (and I don’t have to teach her, another study in frustration) She’s very very excited to be able to start sewing all the designs she’s got in her head – especially all the cosplay she wants! The kids really really enjoy school – which is a huge relief from our old house where the middle cried and hated school with a burning loathing passion and I hated subjecting him to those feelings, so homeschooled him. We’ve also got riding lessons, 2 skating rinks, 2 bowling rinks, lots of shopping, a hobby lobby 5 minutes away, ceramics, musics and art lessons. All within 20 minutes. But all the joy of rural living! So I’m really enjoying the area. Just not the actual property my now-house is situated on.

Today we are creating Valentines for my 5th and 3rd graders class. And Valentines for my 3yo and 16yo’s friends. We are also going to be making gluten free marshmallow rice treats with cocoa crispies and drizzled with white chocolate after being cut into a heart shape we may also insert them into lollipop sticks. Depends on how monstrously hungry for treats we are feeling LOL. (check out HERE for a link to a recipe and great pictures on preparing the snack)

Now for pictures of the cutey Valentines! ~ Warning ~ These are NOT ours. These are photos from Google with the keywords ‘handmade Valentine’ I’ll post pictures of ones actually made by Kids later today…

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Craft Room Envy

June 16, 2010
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Currently. I do not have a craft room.

I’ve had one a couple of times in my life. The first was just trash. Yes, I had a room. But really, it was more of a place for my stuff to be out of sight. No organization, no decor, no pretty. No creative impulses because it was UGLY.

My second room, I only had for a few months. I accomplished SO much in there though. The room was well laid out, I had a cutting table, I could see my fabrics and other creative inspiring things. But…. then I acquired a husband and 2 more daughters and my craft room is now a super girly pink/purple bedroom LOL.

My honey and I have been talking about decorating, what we’d build a house to be like if we won the lottery, and more earthbound ideas. Like turning our carport into a 5th bedroom, with a huge closet and bathroom. Which would maybe make enough room for a craft room for me! Either way. I’m going to keep checking out craft rooms. I’m going to keep droooooooling and wishing until I too, can attain such wonderous-ness as is my own personal, designed by me, place to create. And of course, I’m going to keep pictures, links and draw designs for my own space, nevermind I don’t even know the SIZE or SHAPE of the mythical place. A woman can dream right??

And now, start your drool…

This first room is brought to you by Allsorts.  Her gorgeous turquoise and red craftroom is bigger than my living room. So my jealousy knows no bounds!

If you’d like to see MORE of her extremely creative inspiring space, click the 2nd link.

And the Second Craft Room by Gypsy Intent, her (presumed) etsy shop is Here:

and Gypsy Intents Photo Stream on Flikr is here

And now for Heather Bailey!

Odd how I keep picking rooms with the color turquoise in it! Hopefully I’m picking for cool ideas and design rather than just color!

If you’d like to see the pictures larger, click the link above and it will take you to her blog about her craftroom. Clickable pictures and all!

And now for Wrens Nest Cottage.

You can see the rest of her craft room pictures (and bigger with more detail) here

And now we have Saucy Sprinkles.  It amuses me how she talks about herself in the 3rd person.

I love the details of how people store their things! These are some pretty sweet details too! A lot of these things I think I can pick up at my local Dollar Tree and they’d help Immensely with my organization problems!

And here we have Soule Mama.  Her space is probably most like what mine will be. Bright and full of lovely sunlight, cluttered, full of various kinds of inspiration, from vintage suitcases to pictures of loved ones.

Lastly we have Tofu Studio!

And again with the bright bright light and turquoise pops of color… Love those curtains too!

 

And here’s bits and bobs from all over google that I forgot to put the credit in the pictures when I saved them. If these belong to you or you recognize them, could you let me know in comments and I’ll promptly fix them!

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from → Creating, house, pictures

‘I’m sick’ post…

May 21, 2010

Yes, once again I’m sick. My darling toddler gave me the intense coughs. Luckily however, SHE’S better. Thank goodness, as she’s been sick with a high fever and the yucks since Monday!

So since I’m sick, and out of books, and I’ve watched all my stacked up tv programs on HULU this week while holding the aforementioned sick toddler…

Now I’m window shopping. yay!

Here’s my styleboard for my Master Bath. I’ve already got a dresser style dark wood sink installed a couple of years ago. Now to match huh?

Spiral Owls...
Kaboodle
Spiral Owls… by flisleshnitz

if you’d like to see the master list of all of these cool items…just clickety!

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Super Duper Bloggy Giveaway of Crafty Goodness

May 17, 2010
tags: , ,

Yes, you read that right!!

Sew, Mama, Sew! has THREE BLOG-FULS of crafty goodness!!

Crafters from all over the world have gathered together along with their blogs and posted a giveaway. Sew, Mama, Sew! Then gathers up all the threads of their links and posts them all on one of three blogs

Giveaway Day + Supplies and Materials

Giveaway Day ~ Handcrafted Items

Giveaway Day ~ Sewing + Knitting Supplies/Materials

As for me. I’m applying to a lot of them. However, everything I win (unless it’s a kid in my house size) will be sent straight to a friend of mine who lives in Tennessee and lost almost everything to the flooding there. She needs crafting supplies as almost all of hers were lost, and this is an awesome way to try and do something for her!

I’ve already applied for a really beautiful market bag and the extra material to make one, some sewing supplies, cute little ninja rabbits AND found a lady that is gluten free with an awesome-cute blog.

See if you can find these guys!

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from → Creating, giveaways, sculpture, sewing

Gluten Free Mad Hatter Cake

May 9, 2010
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What I did:

Take 4 boxes of Betty Crocker Gluten Free Cake Mix – 2 yellow – 2 devils food

2 Family Size boxes of instant pudding mix – 1 chocolate – 1 vanilla

Make cakes according to directions – but add 1/2 of the family size package of pudding to it during mixing.

Add full amount of cake to circular cake pan, treated according to directions, and cook as per directions

Cool them off

Swipe the top with your chosen cake filling (I chose cheesecake with homemade strawberry preserves)

the bottom layer looks funny because it's dyed green

Continue until they are all stacked well together

Then I put the whole shebang in the fridge for a few hours and let it chill out

A few hours later….. I took it out and started carving on it. If it had been taller, I’d have inserted the skewers in it already to make sure it stayed up. But since I was making a Mad Hatter Hat, it didn’t really matter much if the cake got a little skewed from straight huh?

So carving

I inserted the skewers at this point, picking a point about an inch from the edge and aiming slightly inward to make sure they went in at an angle. I put in four, just to be safe since it *did* go to my daughters prom, and there was going to be loud bass, teens bumping into the display table and lots of dancing…

Then I put the crumb coat on…

Then I put it in the fridge for about an hour and went to go read….

After my lovely refreshing read… I went to go make the marshmallow fondant. Then dye it and roll it out.

making texture on the fondant with wax paperTexture on the fondant with wax paper

texture on the fondant

The actual Hat. I got in a serious time crunch at the end (I was 20 min late, as I was chaperoning) The fondant got too sticky to deal with well, so it doesn’t look as well as it should have. But all in all, still pretty cool. The teens were impressed. Even better, the only people that had a clue it was gluten free were my daughters close friends. Not ONE person commented on a ‘funny taste’ or anything of that nature.

I also got some requests to make birthday cakes for friends!

Would I use Betty Crocker Cake mixes again? In A HEARTBEAT!.

If they’ll work for a cake like this, they will work for anything!

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from → Creating, food, Gluten Free Cooking, pictures, sculpture

May is National Celiac Awareness Month

May 5, 2010
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May is Celiac Awareness Month.


So first, some facts about Celiac Disease also known as coeliac sprue, cœliac disease, c(o)eliac sprue, non-tropical sprue, endemic sprue, gluten enteropathy or gluten-sensitive enteropathy, and gluten intolerance.

  • 1 in 133 Americans have Celiac Disease or about 3 million people. These are very similar to percentages in other countries (barring pure Japanese, Chinese, Hawaiian and some African peoples)
  • Odds are at least one of you readers has undiagnosed Celiac.
  • 98% of people with Celiac disease go undiagnosed OR their symptoms are diagnosed as another issue (I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia 10 years ago).

Some Symptoms:

First – I want to note that you don’t have to have all of these symptoms. You could have nothing but a sense that you just aren’t feeling right. What did I have? I starred those ones.

  • Funny looking stools (Loose? Hard? Small? Large? Foul smelling? Floating? Clay, Light tan or Gray-colored? Highly rancid? Frothy?)
  • Muscle cramping*
  • Sores in/around mouth
  • Skinny feet (loss of fat padding)
  • Bad gas (ie: hurts, smells awful, constant etc)*
  • Depression*
  • Inability to concentrate*
  • Bone issues
  • Hyperparathyroidism
  • Lactose intolerance
  • Easily bruised
  • Systematic lupus
  • Parasitic infection*
  • Fungus problems (severe athletes feet, candida overgrowth)
  • Nose bleeds*
  • Failure to thrive in babies
  • Vomiting
  • Red urine
  • Hypocalcaemia/ hypomagnesaemia
  • Panic attacks
  • Stunted growth in children
  • Voracious appetite
  • Obesity*
  • Abdominal cramps, gas and bloating
  • Anemia
  • Borborygmi (stomach rumbling)
  • Diarrhea
  • Fatigue or general weakness*
  • Fluid retention
  • Gastrointestinal symptoms
  • Gastrointestinal hemorrhage
  • Hypocalcaemia/ hypomagnesaemia
  • Infertility
  • Iron deficiency anemia*
  • Muscle weakness*
  • Muscle wasting
  • Nausea
  • No obvious physical symptoms (just fatigue, overall not feeling well)
  • Osteoporosis
  • Pallor (unhealthy pale appearance)
  • Peripheral neuropathy (nerve damage usually in extremities)*
  • Vertigo
  • Vitamin deficiency*
  • Vomiting
  • Extreme thinness
  • Bloating – especially in stomach
  • Back Pain*
  • Dehydration
  • Night Blindness*
  • Dry Skin
  • Severe food cravings*
  • Heart Issues (usually odd beats)*

Conditions and Disorders Associated with Celiac Disease:

Dermatitis herpetiformis is an itchy, blistering skin disease that also associated with gluten intolerance. Rashes usually occurs on the elbows, knees and buttocks.  Dermatitis herpetiformis can also cause significant intestinal damage identical to that of celiac disease. However, people who suffer from dermatitis herpetiformis may also be entirely free of noticeable digestive symptoms. Treatment with a gluten-free diet, in addition to medication to control the rash, usually brings about significant improvement.

Getting Tested
There are some simple tests that aren’t absolutely 100% , but it is WAY TOO EASY for a doctor to give you one, barely accurate test, tell you it’s negative (and be absolutely wrong) and damn you. Your chances of cancer are aprox 50% higher if you are eating gluten and your body is intolerant of it. Did you read that?? You basically have a 50/50 chance of getting cancer if you are an undiagnosed Celiac! Does cancer run in your family? Maybe it’s not Cancer – it’s Celiac!

If you are going to get tested, check out here first:
http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/celiactesting/index.htm

The other thing is, if you hardly eat gluten containing food as it is, and you get tested, your results will be wrong. You need to be eating the equivalent of 2/3 pieces of bread for about 3 months before you get tested. (it’s the reason my 16yo hasn’t been tested, she felt so GOOD when she quit eating gluten she and her Doctar are not willing to loose 3 months of her life just to have the test diagnosis and he’s willing to call it ‘presumed Celiac’ instead)

If you think that you might be gluten intolerant, and your doctor is reluctant to test you. First, my mom, who has been a nurse almost 40 years says that when she, and most doctors were in school, they were taught that Celiac was very rare. More than that say Multiple Sclerosis. So quite a few doctors, unless they keep up on their research, think that Celiac is a ‘fad disease” and are reluctant to test.
Insist. Celiac is also a disease for those who are more well off. Turns out doctors are more willing to test you if you are in a higher Socio-economic bracket!

If you can’t get tested. Then go gluten free anyways. Give it 2 weeks at the minimum. If you feel better. Awesome. I suggest you write in a journal. Chronicle what your body ACTUALLY feels like before and after. After 2 months. Eat gluten. If you get immediately sick, there’s your answer. Or you could be like me, sick comes later. First I get extremely irritable and make everyone around me miserable for days. It’s pretty hard for me to see what I’m doing at first. Because hey, I’m pissed, and I think I have a right to be. But it’s the gluten. I’m normal off of it, on it, I’m a miserable bitch. Because next comes the body pain, the neuropathy, and then the fatigue, flu like symptoms and just general malaise. For about a week. Then I’m more susceptible to illness for about another month. Yes, it takes that long to recover. Some people are so sensitive after quitting gluten it takes them almost 6 months to recover after being glutened. You can imagine those people don’t let gluten in their house.

Also, even TWO YEARS ago, it was difficult to find gluten-free food. Now, most companies (barring buttheads like Cambells) make their food with a gluten-free label, Heinz, Progesso, Lays, General Mills and Betty Crocker just to name a few. Nowadays you don’t have to be an extraordinary baker to get good tasting food. Yes. It’s more expensive. But personally, this is good. It makes it so I rely less on ready made products like bread and donuts to eat and more on healthier things that are fast cooking (like eggs mmm and cheese). General Mills is even coming out with a ‘hamburger helper’ and ‘Bisquik’ this Summer!
So don’t use the difficulty of eating as an excuse to not go gluten-free. please.

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from → Day to Day life, food

My 16 Year Old

May 2, 2010
tags: , , ,

My oldest daughter turns 16 on Monday.
My first thought is “She can’t be that old already can she” and my next thought is one of pride and worry. Isn’t that every mom’s right?
I am SO proud of Morgan.

Almost 17 years ago I was given the unexpected news that I was pregnant. Then a few moments later, was told I either had an eptopic pregnancy, or my appendix was about to burst. Either way I was told, I was having surgery SOON.

That I might loose this precious baby I’d just learned about.
Then I looked at that thought. I wanted her fiercely, she was MY CHILD.

Understand. I was 17 at the time.

Just going into my Senior year of high school. I was so very lucky and loved in who my parents and some of my family. Other girls in my condition had been kicked out by their parents, they were living on the street. Or they were forced to marry in one case.

My parents. Well, my mom is a nurse. My dad the foreman of a cattle ranch at the time. Mom just did what nurses do. She became patient, supportive and nurturing, and taught me in 8 shorts months how to do it too. My dad. Well he wasn’t happy. Not at all. But the minute he saw his Grandchild. Well, lets just say Morgan LOVED taking naps on his bare rounded belly LOL.


Morgan was two weeks old here at my High School Graduation (and I graduated with a 3.8 gpa thank you).

Morgan was an extremely articulate child, her first ‘word’ was at 9 months. Where she said “I hungy Mommy, wan buhsetti” (and I was making spaghetti)
She started walking the next day. I didn’t know that a 18-19 year old mother was worthy of such genius.  But I’d darn sure try my hardest. I took all the parents I’d ever witnessed, from my family, from my friends parents and from people my family had been close too. I examined their parenting styles, and I decided what was good, and what I would toss. Then I instituted my nightly cross-examination. Where I would lay in bed at night and really LOOK at what I had done with my child/ren that day. What was good, what could be better, and where I messed up. To me this has been so important as a Mother. To look at myself truly, and say ‘you messed up’. Tomorrow is another day, you can do better tomorrow. No guilt, no yelling,  just truth and the will to do better. I think we could all use that.

Now my Morgan. She’s one of those teens that teachers have been telling me since she started school what a pleasure she is to work with. How awesome and smart she is. How sarcastic and funny. What a great parent I must be in association with how cool she is (which I haven’t always found to be necessarily true). Yes, she’s hit her teen mood swings.
But the difference between her as a baby, still in diapers, telling me to read to her. Versus the difference in her now, telling me she is leaving with friends to go take care of responsibilities. Both times she TOLD me, but both times, there was an ask in there too.
Morgan is on her way toward leaving me in a few short years. And I pray that I’ve been parent enough to give her an internal guide on that pathway she’s going to be walking solo. I think so.
She’s pretty awesome

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from → Day to Day life, Holidays

T-shirt Upcycling-Repurposing META POST

April 22, 2010
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from Wikipedia: Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value.

Another word I’m going to ‘throw around’

Verb to repurpose

2. To alter to make more suited for a different purpose.

I’m sure a lot of you readers are familiar with taking something old and using it for a different purpose that it was originally intended. I’m also sure that a lot of you practice upcycling and repurposing on a regular basis.

Our Ancestors used things until they were just plumb unusable anymore. I know my Grandmother says to me “Use it up, wear it out, make do with what you have”.  Examples of repurposing?
crocheted rugs I'm working on

Two rag rugs I’m crocheting out of scraps from other projects. Everyone is familiar with these kind of rugs! Or howabout quilts?

Antique Crazy Quilt

Lately I’ve been gifted with quite a few t-shirts. Some my kids loved. Some my kids friends loved. But others… meh. What to do with them? I’ve seen a few posts from blogs I follow where they’d re-done a shirt into something a little better fitting, or made market bags. That occurred to me. But some of them are just plain ugly, or have slogans I’m opposed to wearing. So I did what I always do.

I googled it. heh.

and OH MAN the sheer QUANTITY of links I found. Then those links led to more links, and to more links. Next thing I know, I’ve got a mission. To write a post about the things you can do with t-shirts. A Meta Post, we shall call it!

So here we go. If you’d like to see a picture of the project, simple hover your cursor over the link and a picture should pop up. If any of the links are broken please let me know! And if you’ve got a project you’d like included, feel free to let me know. I’d like to ask that it be significantly different from the other items included that it’s new information AND that it’s a tutorial or has enough pictures to be pretty darn clear about how it was made. Thanks!!  I’d also like you to note that some of these items are not originally made with t-shirt material. However, they are made out of material (like fleece and felt) that would lend itself admirably to a t-shirt project.

edited to add: Sorry about the BOLDING of links and the smooshing them together and the various colors. WordPress isn’t my original home and html is not my best friend. So in the interest of actually having this post up on Earth Day and having a life the rest of today. I’m going to leave it the way it is while it still works LOL!!

Tops


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ruffle shirt~ << Tea Rose

1 Shoulder Tank Top w/ Pleats

Bottoms

Childrens

Toddler Ruffle Skirt << Sew Much Ado

Toddler Pants << Rookie Moms


Baby


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Baby Romper from a T Shirt << wikiHow

Underwear

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Little Boxer Briefs << Sew a Straight Line

Make Your Own Bras << Queen of the Trailer Park

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Bathing Suits

 
 
 
 

Bikini << Cut Out + Keep – M.a.r.i.s.o.l.

Dresses

Bags

Accessories

Hats/Headbands

Jewelry

Scarves

Shoes/slippers

Mittens

Decor

Ruffle Pillow Tutorial << FloralShowers

Stuffed Animals aka: Plushies aka: Softies

Extra’s

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from → cloth diapers, Creating, ecology, money, re-purposed, sewing, tutorial
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