CHeapest POstcard # 1

Crunch time

I am leaving to CA soon and I don't know how much I will be able to post while I am gone. I guess I mostly just wanted to say I am really excited to see my family. I am sad to leave Jones for 2 weeks. I am extremely exhausted and worried I will end up leaving a messy house. It is fun to feel for the first time since I moved out of my parents home that I am not going home, but leaving it. I love my home, and my life here, it will be missed, but well worth taking the time away to be able to see my family and all the new babies!

Car seat Cover!

This is not exactly what my old car seat looked like. Mine is the cheapest one at walmart right now a simple black and tan plaid. It definately lacked in personality though and since Tober will be taking ove this one once she turns 1 I wanted to spruce it up in a gender neutral way.

Because I am still doing the lemon squeezy decades challenge my head was In the 1940's and because it is

Summer I couldn't help but think of swimwear. Between this pic. OUr yellow striped tent at the air show and Dana's striped car seat, I was inspired to make this new cover!

I love it! It turned out exactly like I hoped and was worth having to hand stitch it through my machine cause the fabric was so thick!

What was great about this project is that it was cheap and I was able to use my old cover as a pattern.

I used a simple canvas material for the stripes and a cotton for the red. I washed the old car seat cover and used the batting, as well as adding more, since this was a cheap car seat it wasn't very padded to begin with. To save money I cut the trim off the old cover so that I wouldn't have to buy new elastic, but this was really hard to attatch and if I had the money I would probably just buy new materials next time.

I am really happy with the results and even though C is a little freaked out by the change {very typical :)} He only has to use it 2 more months.

one project complete, a bunch more to go!!

Friday..errands

As soon as Jones got home from work today I began errand running so I would have the things I needed complete all things I need to complete before I go to CA {on tuesday!!}

My accomplishments today are:
Half completing a super secret project for GG
making another diaper cover
Half completing car seat cover for C
finishing the 7th Harry Potter book

Still to do:
make 3 more diaper covers
finish the 2 unfinished projects above
do all the laundry and pack, leaving the house completely clean!!
prepare lesson for Sunday.

I am super excited about everything I have been able to make, I know I probably shouldn't have takenon so much, the car seat cover for example was a last minute addition, but I have been meaning to for awhile and after Dana over at MADE did this post I knew it was excatly the inspiration I needed to get it done. Plus now I don't have to fly with my dingy old cover!!!

C

I have quite a list of things to accomplish before I head down to beautiful CA, but that isn't what I want to post about right now. Right now I want to put it in writing how much I love C bug, and all his cute 3 yr old-ness. C {or my Honey as his 3 yr old friend calls him} wakes up every morning and first thing says "I am so happy to see you are you happy to see me?" followed by "I had good dreams" Because that is what I usually talk to him about when he wakes up. Then randomly and often he comes up to me and tells me Momom I love you. He almost never wants to do the things I ask him unless I specifically say can you help me, then he replies ummm Yes! And sets out to do whatever task I asked of him. He loves making tents more than anything else and asks every nigtht if he can sleep in one. He has taught me so much about being a Mom and it has only been 3 years. I wonder how much more time I have with his freely given kisses and I love you's.
And of course my thoughts are cut short by my 10 mo. old pulling on the computer and begging at my feet. I suppose There is a list to conquer anyways. Love you, my honey.

Diaper cover

What you will need,

PUL Fabric

Thin Elastic

Velcro{I bought hook and look sew on velcro, It is softer}

Matching thread

tissue paper* optional

First things first I took a diaper I already had and pulling it to stretch the elastic traced it onto some spare fabric I had, Then I used this piece to trace the diaper shape to the PUL. Remember to add an extra 1/4 of an inch to the leg sides to fold over the elastic. also at the top and bottom I added an inch or so of fabric because I like the flip diapers that have flaps for the inserts to tuck into.

because one side of the PUL is plastic like it can stick to your foot so they suggest buying a teflon foot for your machine to make these daipers, I didn'y want to spend the money but a great alternative is to use tissue paper! or baby powder on the plastic-y side.

Next I did a zig zag stitch all along the edges.

Then take your elastic and hold the piece at the top of the leg, pull and stretch to the bottom of the leg and cut  that length. You will then need to sew the ends of the elastic to the very edge of the fabric on both ends. After you have done this step you can fold over the edges on both legs and straight stitch the inside edge making sure the elastic is tucked nicely inside.

I am sorry I didn't get a picture of this next step.

You take the back of the diaper which is the longer side, here is a finished look at it, if you can see you are

going to fold the edge down to create a flap on the inside of the cover. at the top of the flap there is elastic. before you fold it over you will want to stitch the ends of the elastic pulled tight to about 3 inches from the end of the back on both sides. Then fold it over and sew and straight stitch along the inside next to the elastic. When you let go the elastic will scrunch up and look like the picture above.

YOu will end up folding over the front too but first you want to sew the velcro on, I chose to do a zig zag stitch all around the edge followed by a straight stitch.

Then I did the same thing on the velcro on the back

This is just my first one and the second is already amazingly better!

I went to Joann's, Bought some PUL and started to make my own Diaper covers. I spent $18 on all the materials and will get 5 medium diapers and possible one newborn diaper/ or small wetbag for my purse. I am happy with the results so far, considering this was my first and I didn't really follow a pattern or tutorial I think it turned out great. It was easy and worth the work. A similar diaper cover would have cost me anywhere from $12-$15 each, mine will end up costing me about 3.50 each! yay. Plus I got to buy a new color, which is always fun, I think this blue will be cute on Tober.

I hope that made a little bit of sense, as always ask if you have any questions!

Curiouser and curiouser..

My life is a curious one. During the day I spend my time making. Making peanut butter and honey sammies, diapers, Tober smile so big she might break,dresses, funny baby noises, C fly... and on. By night I Go from watching Ms. Marple {british sluething show} to the Good Guys{Modern comedy,with cops and a Mustache} to So You Think You can Dance {best free Show on TV}!, ending with a few pages from a book or blog. Sometimes when I take a step back and look at my life I smile and realize I am the person I always wanted to be. I am happy. {not the same as perfect, but happy}

Today is Tuesday..

Yesterday was a weird day. Tober wanted to nurse every 40 minutes and take a nap every hour and a half sleep for 40 minutes and do it again! it was exhausting and hard to get anything done after I made my diaper inserts, which by the way have now been washed and tested  and work smazingly! Anyways a day like that followed by the beautiful sunny day we have now make me wish I had a bike trailor and could take the kids on a bike ride. The women in my church are doing a triathalon in Aug. that I was hesitant to participate in but after some thinking I have persuaded myself that it would be a good experience. Earlier I had it in my head that I would have to train like Pip and Hil did last year, which was intense, and although I know I will have to train I have Jones to help me and I am only training to finish, not to win or do it in a certain time. There is a good chance that I will train for the tri and not participate, but I hope that doesn't happen. Apparantly this is a year of firsts and pushing myself outside of my comfort zone.

So since I don't have a bike trailer what am I going to do today? What are you doing today?

Going on a trip, need more diapers

Yay! big news, My sweet little sister bought me tickets to CA to see her and her new baby! I am sooo excited!! And so is C, He keeps telling me he is going on a plane to see E.{his cousin}

Although the cloth diapers I have right now work great for me at home, I am washing them every other day, and I am not sure I want to be doing that while down in CA. Unfortunately I dont have the budget right now to buy more diapers but I did have some flannel recieving blankets.

SO I took one of my Flip diaper covers and traced the shape onto the blankets. If you plan right you can trace 4 on each blanket.
*Then I used 2 of the blankets and cut them into long rectangles about 3/4 the length of the diaper.

*One diaper lining consists of 2 diaper tracings {a front and a back}and about 12 rectangles.

*I took a bunch 8-12 rectangles and sewed them together using a zig zag stitch around the edges.

{if your machine can't handle the thickness sew 6 on the front side and 6 on the  back.
*Then I sewed this rectangle to the underside of one of the traced cut outs. Sometimes my bundled rectangles weren't thick enough for my liking so I repeated this step onto the back of my .

*Then I pinned and stitched the front and back together and voila! it fits perfectly in the flip, and is super absorbant! the first 3 I made I didn't sew on a fleece line but the last one I did. I usually just add a fleece liner while I am changing her diaper but I thought "hey one less step, I'll sew it on."  They aren't perfect, mostly cause I was in a hurry to finish before Tober woke up from her nap, but I love them.I hope to make 2 more and also a couple of covers. We'll see, I need to make another trip to goodwill for more flannel blankets.

I intentionally made them long enough to tuck and fold into the flaps of the flip.

Here Tober models how great they look on, not too bulky, she might even be able to fit her jeans now!

Father's Day

For Father's day this year my gift  to JOnes was taking the whole family to the Olympic airshow on Saturday. Friday was a beautiful sunny day and so we had high hopes that Saturday would be the same. Yet We woke up to rain and it never really went away. In true washingtonian fashion We still went to the airshow, afterall if We let a little rain stop us we would never go anywhere! We had quite the set up, and actually made it pretty comfortable. Mom and Pops brought an awesome {and stylish} yellow and white striped tent, which I though t looked pretty chic with her black umbrella leaning against it. A tarp , some soggy blankets and chairs and we were ready for the show. We even managed to bring a cooler with some simple {simply wonderful} food like egg salad and ham sandwiches. And then there was desert, which was anything but simple! Bakerella's burger idea turned out great, I added some coconut as onions, and to my surprise they were atually pretty tasty! overall I was so glad we went even if we got a little damp in the process.

This is the shirt I made Jones. Its a family portrait {more on this later}

Forgive the bad pictures I only brought my Phone with me :(

The men were Champs, and we couldn't have done it without them, although I felt guilty that they had to work so hard for their gift I appreciated so much the role of the Father that day. I am so thankful for all the love, hardwork sacrifice and strength Jones brings to our family.

Love you Babe.

Roaring twenties, and more for Dad

I don't have much to show for it yet but I am working on a dress for the 20's decade in LemonSqueezy's Challenge. I hope when I am finished you will be able to make a connection between it and that time period.

Thursday...what to do...what else LAUNDRY!!! of course. Goals for today: Keep C from beating up his sister. Work on dress.Work on Father's day stuff.

As much as I might want to I don't have thousands of dollars to spend on giant TVs or amazing designer watches like you might find if you try and look up Father's day gift ideas online. I don't even really have the money for some of these awesome etsy finds.

bombs away tie

Iron Bicycle Art

Aviator magnets

Rubberband Rifle

So if you are like me, and don't have them money but want to show Dad you care, here is a simple yet nice idea. Jones had a pair of pants that he really loved that ripped. Instead of throwing them out I saved them and for Father's Day I mended them for him. Good as new!

It may seem like a little thing, but sometimes it's the little things that convey your deeper affection. Love after all isn't always showy.

Father's day Idea Top secret.

This is what happens when I don't have photoshop, I start playing around with free hand :( It is still cute but not what I was going for. It was fun though, felt like being a kid and drawing with my Mom and sisters.

P.S. I have an awesome Father's Day thing in the works but don't want to ruin the surprise for the Dad's in my life so if you are a dude do not follow the next link! Otherwise check it out!

Father's Day