Kiersten’s Blog

I wanted to share the Mother’s Day gifts that I mailed out the other day.  You know, the ones I was mailing when I was told I was a bad mother.  Anyway, I almost forgot to take pictures of them, so these were taken in the back of the car when I got to the post office.  Maybe my mother and mother-in-law will be kind enough to take pictures of them hanging in their homes.

London drew the pictures and I traced them onto fabric with a water soluble marker.  I then embroidered the pictures, erased the marker, and framed the pictures.  London told me who to send each picture to (my mom got the butterfly and Kerri got the bee)and which colors of thread I should use while embroidering.  I was so happy with the way the turned out!  What a fun way to preserve her art!

Not far from us is a Home Fabric store.  I love that store because their fabrics (most of which, obviously, are home fabrics) are quite inexpensive.  The closest one to us, however, is closing.  Although the downfall is obvious, the perks are really, really inexpensive home fabrics right now.  I went not too long ago and picked up some great finds.  I chose one specifically to re-upholster my sewing table bench, but I decided that I would rather use a different fabric that I already had on hand.  I love the way the bench turned out and I’m glad I used the fabric I did, but that left me with two yards of a different fabric that I had no idea what to do with.  That was fine with me.  I knew I would need it someday.  Thursday was someday.  I suddenly decided that I had a bit of free time and wanted a table runner for my kitchen table.  I thought that fabric would look lovely there so I got to work and cut out enough for one side.  I then realized that I didn’t need to use the same fabric for the back side.  In fact, maybe I should do something different and I could have a really cool reversible table runner.  I had this green striped fabric that I bought at Ikea.  If you have never bought fabric at Ikea, you wouldn’t know that they only sell it in one-yard increments.  If you’re lucky, you’ll get the end of the bolt and get some free fabric.  I ended up with 1 5/8 of a yard for the price of 1 yard ($3) of clearance fabric.  Score!  I liked the fabric as-is, but thought it would be way cooler if it wasn’t striped, but chevron patterned.  So using this idea, I started cutting strips and sewing them together.  Now, this whole table runner project could have easily been finished in an hour, tops.  But since I decided to change it up a bit, it turned into a much, much longer project.  I was up late that night sewing strips of fabric together.  When that wasn’t enough, I had to cut more and sew more on.  I finally went to bed with enough length, but not enough energy to cut it out.  I finished on Friday after a lot more time spent.  In the end, though, the result was totally worth it.  What I thought would be the back side really turned out to be my favorite.  I love the zig-zags!  I love the other side too, but wouldn’t it be boring if that was all it was?  So there you have it, a lovely reversible, washable table runner (never mind the dead flowers on the table).

Lately I’ve been quite busy.  Or at least I think I’m quite busy.  I feel like I have so many things to do and I’m not getting anything done.  Today I cleaned my kitchen.  That was a lot to get done and anybody who has seen my kitchen in the last 2 days can attest to that.  There has been valentines “stuff” all over and I had this bouquet of beautiful flowers just sitting in the middle of the mess.  Sure, there’s still a bunch of valentines candy and cards from kindergarteners, but things are picked up and now the flowers are the only thing on my table.  Speaking of flowers, yesterday Taylor came home from work with a bouquet of roses for me and another bouquet of tulips for London.  I love that she’s his girl too.

I feel like this last week has been a whirlwind.  I need to spend some time tomorrow preparing for the bread class I’m teaching on Thursday.  I’m a little nervous.  I also need to find time to practice my violin.  That always gets pushed to the back burner.  As I was teaching violin today, Ashton was upstairs, mad.  I brought him down and sat him on the couch and he just watched my lesson.  He was so good!  When London was his age, she HATED violin music.

With all of the craziness going on around here lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about what’s important.  I went to a funeral today for the father of a good friend of mine.  His life was cut short because of ALS.  As I listened to the stories his family told, I thought about my family.  His family doesn’t remember the things they got done.  They remember the times they spent together.  And with that, I give you some photos of time spent with my kids recently because I hope to remember this:

Ashton is a bit obsessed with trains for the time being.  Daily he stands (or squats) there in the middle of the track just watching it go around, and around, and around.  It’s a good thing I bought rechargeable batteries.

making valentine bags. I love Ashton's cheesy grin

London all ready for the Kindergarten Patriotic Program at school. I'm proud to say that I made the whole outfit (although she did design her shirt) and I think she looks adorable!

I guess I must just be at that age where a lot of people I know are having babies.  I went to a baby shower yesterday for a boy due next month.  Using a pair of Ashton’s old newborn pants, I made a pattern and got to work.  Here is the first project made with my new sewing machine.  I was especially excited about the “stretch” stitches that I could do, making it better to sew with the knit fabric I chose for the pants.  I think the outfit turned out really cute (and if you’re wondering, the rocket is on the backside of the pants.  It may be bad symbolism for what comes out there in those pants, but cute nonetheless).

I picked up these wooden ornaments a few days ago at Jo-Ann.  Most of their Christmas stuff was 70% off so they were really cheap.  London has been excited to paint them and we were finally able to get around to it yesterday.

I gave Ashton the easiest one, a star, with just one color of paint to use.  He painted a couple of lines, then promptly stuck the paintbrush in his mouth, paint and all.  He decided that it didn’t taste very good, but that didn’t stop him from doing it again.  Crazy kid.

London loved painting her tree-shaped ornament and did a great job, until she was the first one done.  She thought she needed to keep painting so the ornaments on her little tree turned strange colors and there are swirls in weird places because she couldn’t help herself from painting it more and making it “prettier.”  But the glitter fixed the problem and we have a lovely looking Christmas tree ornament.

Our Saturday was full of parties.  London had two different birthday parties, for 3 different friends that she was invited to.  Since I have been all about making gifts lately, I decided to sew up some capes for the girls for their birthdays, thanks to an idea I found on my cousin, Brandy’s, blog.  I love how they turned out, even if they did take way longer than I expected.

Not only did I love how they turned out, they were a hit with the little girls as well.  I’m sure I’ll be making more of these.  I already have one on order from London, but first I need to get cracking on Halloween costumes.  Our ward party is on Tuesday.

We have a tradition every holiday of making sugar cookies.  My grandma has the best (and easiest) recipe.  London loves helping roll and cut them out, but I think her favorite part is eating the dough!  After her traumatic day at school yesterday, we made cookies  Then for family home evening, we frosted them and watched The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Frosting cookies was a new experience for Ashton.  He didn’t like it so much.

He wasn’t exactly sure what to do, and eating the frosting was not an option for him.  In fact, while London was licking her knife, he was saying to Taylor, “Ha, ha, ha” meaning “hand.”

He really doesn’t like it when his hands get dirty in any way, so having frosting on them was not fun for him.  We tried to teach him to lick it off, but he would have none of that. He didn’t even eat his cookie because it was too messy.  Funny guy.  Maybe he’ll be more willing in a couple of months when we make them again for Christmas (Thanksgiving is just too soon to do that again and I need to start making pumpkin stuff anyway.  Hmm, pumpkin sugar cookies?  I need a recipe for that!)

I found this tutorial for a stroller bag a couple of weeks ago and had to make one of my own.  I figured it would work perfectly on my stroller, since I have the same one as pictured in the tutorial (except mine’s a lot more…um…loved).  Since we’re going to Disneyland (again) tomorrow, I thought it would be the perfect time to use this little beauty so I got to work.  I used left over fabric from my valance and wall hanging.  You know, sort of Von Trapp like.  I spent the day yesterday sewing (and dealing with screaming kids at Joann).  Of course it took me longer than expected.  Things always do.  But I had to add a few things.  For example, I wanted some inside pockets, so I had to figure that all out.

Now I’m thinking I should have put an outer pocket on for my cell phone and a strap to hold a pacifier so it doesn’t get lost in the bottom of the bag and then get all nasty with things like sand and crackers that seem to always accumulate in the bottom of every bag of mine.  But that will be for next time.  I’m hoping this will be great for tomorrow.  Now London wants me to make one for her.

I have been sewing a lot more lately.  It seems like I always have a project in the works.  Now that I say that, I have nothing right now that I’ve started, just things that I keep meaning to start.  I have all sorts of ideas for gifts to give people and I’m kind of excited about the prospect of giving home-made Christmas gifts this year.  Of course not everything will be home-made, but I have thought of a number of things I need to start working on.  I was really excited about my most recent project.  I made a mei tai baby carrier and a matching nursing cover for a friend having a baby.  As I was making it, I was getting jealous of how cute and practical it turned out and I wanted one for me.  I don’t even have a baby anymore!  And I have a mei tai!  It’s just not as nice as Christina’s!  Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I used the tutorial here.

We went to a birthday party for one of London’s friends yesterday.  Recently I have decided that we should do more homemade gifts.  I have loved to make gifts for baby showers but this was my first attempt at a birthday gift for one of London’s friends.  I found this great tutorial for a cute little magnet doll.  London named her Lucy.  It looked easy enough so we decided to try it out.  We made two because, of course, London needed one for herself.  She really loves it.  I hope her friend loves it as much as London does.

It was a pretty simple craft.  London did all the coloring.  In fact, she had to color an extra couple sets of clothes because she decided to paint, using the paper with the doll on it as the scrap paper underneath the paint.  Of course there are little tiny pieces, mostly teeny tiny shoes.  I’m pretty sure they won’t last long.  In fact, I think we’ve already lost two pairs and we’ve only had the thing made since Friday night.

This was my first attempt at using Mod Podge.  What a great thing!  I’ll have to use it for more projects.  I’m sure London won’t mind.  We’re excited to have a new toy to take to church today.