Sew Disastrous

Baby Pinwheels

2010-08-10T16:35:00.004+02:00

I feel like its been a lifetime since I've completed a quilt probably because it has! I needed a break around Christmas time and started back up again in February I think. Well my daughter is due is three weeks and I wanted to make a quilt for her to play on the floor. It went by super fast and it felt so good to complete something. I've been sewing other things like baby clothes and curtains for her nursery so its not like I havent been sewing at all ;) Just not too many quilts. I used a tutorial from Moda Bake Shop and just make a lot less blocks and added some prairie points, which actually was not as bad as it might seem when you begin them. You're sitting there thinking, " how many more of these do I have to make" and it seems daunting but not bad :)

So i just now figured out my spell check is in german for some reason, that's why it hasnt been working. Grrr. some of my websites come up in German and while it is in english for some reason its spell checking in German. Grr...again. I'll try and fix that ;)

The Daily Grind

2010-07-08T12:50:00.003+02:00

What's that you may ask? Well we don't really have one in this house, a daily routine that is. We do and we dont. Landon does have his routines and I kind of just work around those, well that isnt really working for us (i.e. mostly me) anymore. I never really thought about how much being a housewife and mommy entails and so I never had any routines like cleaning daily or the usual stuff. Recently I was reading a post in a forum about having a daily home journal type thing. Well sounds kind of silly to me but I researched and looked into it and its not really that silly after all. You have things like grocery lists, daily meal planning, daily cleaning task, weekly etc and its basically a guide to get your stuff done. Let me tell you...I NEED this! I'm not a person of habit and I do things as I feel like not as I should, so instead of doing laundry tuesday and thursdays I do it whenever I feel like...creating a bigger load of laundry in the end.

Basically I've come to realize if you do these things daily or weekly on certain days you're going to have more time and more engergy then if you save it all till you feel like doing it. Good thinking huh ;) With baby number 2 on the way, I myself need a little structure. I knew kids did, but I never thought that having a mommy routine was necessary. Hopefully if I get in this habbit now I wont sway when little Audrina makes her debut, which I'm getting more and more nervous and excited about :) I'm nervous to have two kids and excited to have a girl and its so much to take in right now thinking that its only 60 days away!

Summer has finally landed in Germany! We've had nothing under 75 the last two weeks. I know everyone complains about Germans not having air conditioners but it doesnt seem to bother me, except at night. With this nice weather came my husbands urge to get a fishing licesence. Yippy! Not...in germany you have to take a three day class and pay more money than I'd like to but he did it and now he'd like to fish everyday. His jobs and tasks are falling by the wayside. I'm gonna have to nag a little to get him moving on Audrinas shelves and our coffee table. Yes our coffee table he promised he could build me and then it got set aside.....not surprising. Anyway I've bored you long enough, I didnt mean to go so long between posts. I have been sewing a little but its hard with all this sunshine. Enjoy your summer with all the camping, swimming and possibly even fishing ;)

PS my spell check doesnt seem to be working so any spelling errors feel free to ignore ha ha

Oh yeah...

2010-06-16T11:06:00.006+02:00

I need to update my blog!! I sit here and think about it everyday and have so much to post that I tell myself I'll do it later...like everything else. Oh my. My son now goes to daycare two days a week which is great for getting things done, except I'm always doing things I dont want to do while he's gone. Not things I want to do like sew or something. I have been getting some sewing done though...and I'm in love with making baby girl clothes. God has given me a blessing in more than one way :) I'm horrible at adult clothes, but baby girl clothes, I ROCK! Ha ha. Other than all the sewing we (uh my husband) painted the nursery finally! I know I have 2 1/2 months but I just wanted it done so I have somewhere to put all her stuff! Its a little messy-ish but it'll get there eventually :) Pink and blue with Owls...still waiting on my pottery barn sheets to make curtains...ha ha.

Her bedding is all done, I couldn't be more proud :) Her name owl picture came from FarmHouseFive, I want the clock to match and they have 15 and 20% off right now! Check them out for sure, there stuff is soooo cute.

Her little dress turned out way cuter than I could have imagined. I used the Bella Baby dress pattern from etsy. And of course had to make baby shoes and diaper cover to match :) Both were tutorials found on the internet and it was all super simple.

I'm just now starting to realize my life is going to become very hectic soon :) I cant tell you why that hasnt sunk in yet but it hasnt ha ha. Jeez, I have no time to blog now just imgagine when I have two little ones, Ahhh!!! I have so much planned to sew I probably wont get all of it done. I'd love to make her more outfits, some binky clips, so much stuff. I'm constantly running to the craft store, even though they dont carry half of what I need and Joann's takes a month or more to ship to me. Its hard getting anything sewn over here! I guess I'll be quiet now and just update again when I have time, I have another appointment tomorrow and Germans think we need fetal monitering for 3o minutes starting at 25 weeks. Its a little aggrivating.

Quilt-a-long!!

2010-05-25T21:02:00.007+02:00

So Pickles & Bacon is doing a quilt along and I'm super excited I actually caught the beginning of it, I always seem to join in the middle. I'm still working on the wonky log cabin ha ha, I think that was last year :] Oohps. So anyhoo you can find that quilt a long here, its a ☆ star sampler ☆ and it sounds Fun.

I *think* I will be using the Swanky (by moda) layer cake...♥ it...and not sure what for a solid, whatever my quilt shop has because I have to order the layer cake as it is! Grr... I don't like living in Germany sometimes. SOOO come join us, just click that link and she'll tell you all about it...or click on the *red star* on the side bar ;)

100 days

2010-05-23T22:14:00.002+02:00

The official countdown to my due date is 100 days. Its going by so fast, I dont think its quite sunk in yet that I have baby number two on the way. Its hard for me to imagine any baby other than Landon, he's been my one and only for two and a half years now and I love him to pieces. I hope he'll forgive me for having a baby sister ;) So I have three short months to continue to prepare. It seems strange but I'm not stressed at all. This pregnancy has been so easy going, I've felt so good the whole time. Completely opposite of Landon. Hopefully sometime this week we're going to clean out the baby's room and paint. My husband isnt in a hurry but I'd kind of like her to have a room so we can put all her stuff somewhere. I'll leave you with some pictures of my stuff and my little man...getting so big :(

Nesting...

2010-05-20T11:23:00.000+02:00

For the last few days we've been cleaning, painting and reorganizing in preparation for the new baby. It's rough!! We have our bedroom painted, today the living room and then the nursery. Of course I'm not painting but I get to clean up in the process which is enough. Things like cleaning under the couch (ew) and clearing out space in the cupboards for bottles and things. My floors need hand scrubbed too.

I did finish the babys quilt yesterday before my Dr appointment though so I could throw it in the washer before I left. It turned out perfect, exactly what I wanted. Simple and cute, I'll have to post a pic tomorrow because my computer is unplugged, hence why I'm blogging from my iPod, ignore any spelling errors. Sometimes it fixes them sometimes it doesn't. I need that ipad already!!

Well it's back to cleaning and decluttering for me, nesting is hitting me big time this pregnancy. But it makes me feel so much better. A room doesn't get clean like it would if you empty the whole thing out, as in for painting :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Baby Owls

2010-05-18T09:02:00.004+02:00

So my son and I were talking yesterday (he's 2) about decorating the baby's room. I told him we were decorating in owls. He says "That will scare the baby". Lol. He thinks this because for some odd unknown reason he's scared of owls. I'm not sure if he seen something on a cartoon or what happened but he doesn't like owls. He once told me one was hiding behind my bed. He's too funny though. So his baby sisters room will probably be scary to him ha ha. But it shouldn't considering its pink and blue owls with lots of cuteness. I'm so excited to decorate her room. I've been ordering everything I need so that when my husband hands over the office I can get to work. Which should be next month, but we did pick up a crib yesterday and her changing table in now painted white. I'm still working on her bedding but that's going very quickly, I should have pictures up very soon.

Here's an example of where I'm going with this owl thing beings some people are probably thinking I'm crazy right now. Both Pottery Barn and Target make and older girls bedding with owls on it but nothing for babies, I've searched high and low so finally I decided to find all the accessories and just make everything else myself. Luckily lots of people make accessories for this particular bedding, including this name sign, which I've already ordered. So cute! This is by Farmhousefive, they make lots of adorable room decor. They also have an etsy shop. Anyway that's all for now I guess, my husband and neighbor are painting babies room tomorrow so maybe after its pink my husband will move out. Ha ha. I can hope.

Life gets in the way

2010-05-13T09:09:00.004+02:00

This is what happens when life gets in the way, you never have time to blog :) I'm sure I had time I was just lazy. Much has happened in my life including which I probably already posted this but we finally got pregnant! Well beings many months have passed we also found our we're having a baby girl! I'm due September 2nd and we've even already picked out a name. She will be Audrina Lynn. Don't tell anyone but I got that name from The Hills, yes the reality tv show. We love it though, and Lynn is my mom's middle name. So there it is, we have a few more months to go and of course I've been sewing. I took a break from sewing for awhile but now I just have to do it. There's too many cute baby girl things out there that need sewn.

Its my lucky week I guess, all week they've had cartoons about having babies ha ha. Blue's clues, Dora and another one I don't recall the name of but my son is watching them so maybe he'll get used to the idea of this baby after all. He talks about his baby sister often though and he loves helping so I'm looking forward to seeing how he does with her.

We also got approved for a brand new car! I'm super excited about this because right now we're driving a Jetta which is fine but not really as big as we need so our new 2010 Ford Escape will be here next week! We were going to move till recently we decided our apartment is big enough till be finally move back to the states, which could be soon because my husband has injured knees now and might need an MOS change, for those of you who aren't army that is change of job description really. Right now he's infantry (lots of running and physical stuff) and he needs something not so physical.

So that is my quick (or not so quick) update, I need to relieve some of my frustrations so blogging is going to be my go to 'journal' so that I can get it all out! Here's a picture of something I recently sew(ed) ha ha. A dress for baby Audrina from here. Really easy and super cute. Everyone have a wonderful weekend, ours is actually starting today so Yay!

Bad blogger

2010-01-12T10:33:00.002+01:00

I'm a super bad blogger :) I've been busy. Ha ha aren't I always? No really we flew back to the states for Christmas to my husbands moms house so we havent been here for awhile. I was super busy all of December with husbands and son's birthdays and what not. Then I considered not returning to the blogging world then though that's a crazy idea cause I love it so much. Anyhoo I have nine months of nothing to do but cook our baby!! Woo hoo I'm finally pregnant. We're super happy and excited. Even though my husband will be deploying again this summer and wont be here :( That's OK we've done this before we can do it again. Anyway lots of prayers that all this goes well. My first appt. is Feb 9th. I hate it when they make it so far away. I'm only 7 weeks though so I guess I'm not in a hurry. Soo like I said 9 months of nothing but sewing and hanging out with my little guy. So beings I have nothing to do during this time I will still blog also because I love blogging...when I get the time ;) Right now I was about to go start quilting one of those charity quilts so I'll excuse myself to do that..I hope every one's holidays were wonderful and here's to an awesome year of 2010!!

Downy Charity Quilts for kids

2009-11-04T21:20:00.002+01:00

Do you like doing charity projects? Like helping kids out? Downy does a charity program for quilts for kids in hospitals. I plan to do a few and they even have kits to send out so you can complete one along with possibly one from your stash. They aren't hard patterns or very big. They have specifications on the website here. Anyway thought I'd share because I've been looking for a charity I can donate to because of where I live we don't have a 'chapter' so I never know where to send them. But now I have a place. A home for my robot quilt :) I'm so glad to be helping out. So if you have spare fabric and time please consider doing this.

Ellen

Rice in hand...

2009-11-01T15:04:00.006+01:00

Ha ha. I have my bowl of rice in front of me and I'm ready to blog. This might be a long one but I'll try and keep it short. My Janome is kinda, sorta, a little big co-operating with me today. Exciting news..I can finish that baby quilt. I'm also working on finishing two more kids quilts before Christmas. Go me! So as promised a million years ago my living redo...

This is the peeling of the paint lol. Yes I peeled this whole wall. Because the next wall I just painted over the red and it took me 5 coats. So instead I just decided to peel/scrape the paint off and save me a few coats. It peeled of pretty easily.

This wall was also red, I just painted over the top. These were the only red walls thank god I didn't paint all of them. What a pain!

So these are my now white walls. The light fixture in here is not my choice. I'm limited to my option for things because we rent. Let me tell you when my German landlords seen those red walls I think they had a heart attack. My TV wall isn't finished. I'm doing a frame wall there with all empty white frames. I might paint a blue box around the TV area. We'll see...
My influence for this room came out of no where. I just had a vision one day and here it is. I have more accessories going in here they just havent arrived yet.

Its a little messy due to my son so ignore that lol. Over all I love the blue and white. Our couch and chair was my husbands pick..obviously and I couldn't replace that so I just redid the pillows added some new curtains and accessories. Its really more beautiful than these pictures show :) I now have a sticker on the back wall and I'll have another on the TV wall. Instant update...add wall decals. They are awesome and there is such a wide variety. Target is one place you can find them. Also many etsy sellers have them. I wish I could pain my coffee table white but I don't think my hubby would let me :( Oh well. It is what it is. Its not dark anymore that's for sure. It really opened up this room to have it white.

I should have some quilts up soon! And my finished room in a few weeks I hope. I also re-did my sons room. Vintage airplanes.

Wooden letters that were in his baby room redone with airplane paper. Super easy just trace the letter on printed paper and glue to the front.

His curtains made by mommy which don't fit the window but we wont always live here with these weird german windows. Anyway that's his window. We also added a new rug and bed cover. I want to switch him to a twin size bed but we'll see how that goes. Maybe not just yet.

So my son says 'come play' even though I need to clean! He just doesn't understand this. Lol. Have a wonderful Sunday and rest of the week. One more week till Daddy comes home! He's been gone 4 weeks now. So we're suffering :(

Who doesnt like free fabric?

2009-10-27T09:35:00.005+01:00

The Fabric Shoppe is giving away free fabric on her blog! If you're interested in the free fabricc giveaway go here and take a look. Her blog is also very beautiful so check out the rest also.

As for me I'll be blogging about my living room makeover very soon :)

A baby is Born

2009-10-14T23:05:00.003+02:00

My best friend had her baby girl Aliyah today 7 lbs 11 oz (i think). I'm over joyed at this event and I couldn't wait to get home to call her and see how she was doing. She's great the baby is great and beautiful. I wont post a picture, she might not like that :D What makes this the most amazing thing is that today is my birthday. I feel like an aunt to this little darling so its awesome that she was born today, on my birthday. I cried...lol. More good news I went shopping today...found some things for my living room makeover. A light candle stick and some glass thingies. Ha ha. Once I put my whole room together I will post pictures. I'm checking out Urban Outfitters right now, they're stuff is wonderful. I could spend a fortune. Anyway aside from my husband being gone still for another week, my birthday was awesome. Two of my good friend went shopping with me, we had cake and coffee (a German tradition on occasions) and then ordered Chinese. Perfect, minus the hubby. I will try to post some pics soon. I've been working on my robot rail fence. I love it. I just have to sew some blocks together.

Oh and I got baby's stuff for his room all set up...believe it or not he was very very upset with me changing all his stuff to airplane stuff. He's over it now but he was very mad for a short time. Enough rambling. Have a wonderful upcoming weekend.

Quilt Festival...Fall 2009

2009-10-09T22:51:00.003+02:00

Park City Girl is having a Quilters Festival...again. She did one in spring also that I caught the end of and couldn't enter. So here I am. Blogging again tonight :)

I'm up late anyway might as well make it good. So the quilt I'm entering is a basic disappearing nine patch I did for my MIL for her birthday this year..she turned 50. But it was the first quilt I ever tried an all over free motion quilting on. It was about a twin size.I tried to do feathers they turned out more like paisley?! All in all it was a great experience to free motion like that on my little Brother machine. I got over my big fear of free motion and it turned out pretty good. I haven't quilted a long time. Well probably two years now. I started when my husband was deployed to Iraq, i really needed a hobby and this is what I chose. Fabric is by Moda. Outer borders by Connecting threads.

An up close and personal of the quilting

The quilting could have been so much better but for my first big piece and not knowing what I'm doing...not bad.

PS if you can help quilting on a small machine...don't do it. You'll do more wrestling than anything else...on a good note you might build some muscles.

Operation Redecorate

2009-10-09T22:15:00.004+02:00

I've been so busy since my husband is gone for 17 whole days!! I go crazy, so I'm going crazy redecorating. Or trying while chasing around my little monster. I started with my sewing room, then moving on to my sons room which will be vintage airplanes! He ♥ 's airplanes. Then the living room will get an update moving from gold and maroon so blue and white. But I have black couches so hopefully it'll all work. I want a zebra print chair for in there also. Moving on...I bought totally cute new fabric I'm making a rail fence with...my birthday is next week so I'm going shopping on good ol german economy. They have the most wonderful decor stores the stuff is so cheap. ♥ Love it ♥ So here are some pics to go with my spew. Is that how you spell that? Lol.

***Before***

***After***

Recovered my chair

Sewing machine cover

Adorable new fabric

I'm not done with my crafty space but its going. I'm just using fabrics I have laying around so it might not all match :) And I'm using up stash so I can buy more :D One of my husbands rules...of course. Have a wonderful weekend!

I ♥ Faces...Completely Candid

2009-09-22T15:58:00.004+02:00

If I keep entering every week I just may win in the the next ten years right? Ha ha. I love doing this because taking pictures is purely a hobby for me which keeps it fun. And of course my favorite subject is the little monster himself...My son Landon. This week is 'Completely Candid' at I ♥ Faces. Let me tell you I have at least 15,000 pictures the last time I looked which was several months ago so finding this one off the top of my head of course makes it a favorite of mine. We were outside blowing bubbles and he was chasing them, simple as that. And he was one happy little boy, like usual. Its actually a little hard to pick a candid with toddlers because they will never pose for a camera :)

Come join the fun at I ♥ Faces

A season for Babys

2009-09-21T10:34:00.005+02:00

It must be baby season. Everyone I know is pregnant or having their next little bundle of love. Not us though we decided to put that off for awhile till I get a degree in nursing or at least start...which I'm doing very soon. Just basics. I've had to many 'requests' for baby blankets right now from my family that knows people who are having baby's. Oh my! That's ok baby blankets are my favorite, so cute and little. Little being very good so it doesn't take a long time ;) I have a very cute tutorial for baby blocks and a tagged blanket too by Moda Bake Shop. I'm going to do a few sets of those for some friends too.

I also made a dress. Not the prettiest fabric I'll say that now, but the pattern was nice until I messed it up ha ha. Its the Socialite Dress by Anna Maria. Sew Mama Sew did a pattern review that was very very helpful to me. It didn't turn out too bad though. I just have to go back and add waste ties so that its not so big looking on me. The neckline on mine is up much higher than it should be. I'm not entirely sure why. Just know that when you're sewing the yoke you need to be accurate, that's where I messed up.

Our weather is rapidly approaching fall. Its still warm during the days but pretty chilly at night and all the leaves are starting to turn. I might take the little man outside for some pictures today. Cant believe my boy will be two in December. Time flys...

Gone so long

2009-09-06T18:02:00.005+02:00

Who stays inside and blogs during summer? Not me apparently. I love doing this but I wish I had more time. I debated not keeping it up but I guess I'll keep trying. I need one constant in my life. Who knows soon I might just have things to blog about. Like depoyment :( We got word that my husband will more than likely deploy next summer sometime. It keeps running through my head and makes me more than sad trying to figure out how I'll explain this to a 2 year old. By that time Landon will be 2 1/2. I guess I'll hurdle that jump when I come to it. I havent been up to too much though still doing some quilting mostly hand stuff I can take outside and to the tv :) Enjoying the sunshine while it lasts which fells like not much longer. I'm super excited for fall though. My favorite time of year. All the colors and the decorating. I think landon will be buzz lightyear this year for halloween. I'm still trying to talk my husband into being woody ha ha. I'm hooked on a new show too. I've already watched seasons one and two of Mad Men. I'm hooked. I cant wait for all the new seasons of my favs to start this month. Even though I just have to download them on my slower than slow internet connection. Ok I'm done boring you. I'll leave you with a few pics. Shout out to my BFF Sara whom I know reads this :)

I ♥ Faces...Feet Week

2009-07-21T13:58:00.004+02:00

It's I ♥ Faces...Feet Week. So normally its focus is on a face but this week is a little special. Focusing on...feet of course. I do not usually like feet, especially my own. But when I got a new camera and my son was still fairly young, I'd say around 9 months, we had to test the new camera and that means taking pictures of absolutely everything. This is one of my favorite photos and I have it framed on my wall, even though it has my very own feet in it. But baby's feet make it a cute pic :) I'll probably never win the spotlight on I ♥ Faces but it gives me good ideas of which of my pictures I should post on my blog. It makes me dig into my millions of photos and find the good ones. Without further ado...our feet.

If you're interested in taking part in I ♥ Faces contests just click that link and head on over. You can post entries Mondays and Tuesday...so you still have time! Its just something fun to do.

Toddler Free to good home

2009-07-14T19:21:00.004+02:00

He's 19 months old, brown fur, blue eyes, cute as ever just very messy :) He's not house broken (aka potty trained), he's a picky eater, good with kids but not animals. He loves to help unload the dishwasher or sweep and mop the floors but chances are you're cleaning up after him anyway. He poops approximately 4 times a day, you'd be lucky if he eats a full meal but he will drink juice till he cant drink anymore, providing you let him. He requires 24 hour round the clock attention and I'm not exaggerating. He still wakes up at night and wants to sleep in Mommy's bed. Which I gladly let him do so I can get some sleep. He's not done teething yet. He loves to read, watch baby Einstein but cant do either one for more than 15 minutes. He loves going for long walks and playing in the yard. So big yard is necessary. Theres not too much more I can say about this little bundle of hellion (I mean joy). Nobody told me raising toddlers was sooo much fun!! PS you can have the dog too :)

This is for comedic purposes only, my son drives me crazy but I love him way too much to give him away :)

Yes I did do that.

2009-07-07T20:02:00.004+02:00

I posted a tutorial that I found a few weeks back for an applique pillow...well I did do that. Surprisingly I finished something, not that it was anything big approximately 21" square but that's beside the point :) I've been dragging lately with my quilting and it felt good to finish something regardless of how big. Now if I could just finish my hubby's and move on. You can find the tutorial here and she has so many other patterns that are too adorable not to do so I encourage you to check out her blog and buy some patterns. They really are just adorable. So here is my finished 'pillow' that I actually just did as a wall hanging, for now. I might turn it into a pillow later. For now its just a pretty quilt on my wall.

Beachy

2009-07-02T10:04:00.002+02:00

Some pictures from our trip to the beach while we were visiting Washington. Landon absolutely loved it. He wouldn't stay out of the water. The weather was not perfect but it was warm anyway. Much like the weather is here today. I just wish some sun would come out. Instead its 85 and cloudy which always means muggy. Of course. The husband and I are trying to clean out unneeded things out of our house. There is lots of it. If you ever feel like your house is cluttered or messy watch the show 'Clean House' I believe its on TLC. Great for making you feel better about yourself lol. Have a good 4th of July weekend everyone.

A few little things...

2009-06-28T15:40:00.004+02:00

So since I've been back in Germany I've done a few small things, nothing grand. I'm going to be working on several baby things for my BFF who lives in Washington. We really reconnected on my trip back home which was awesome. We just click its great. She's having a few complications with her pregnancy so extra thoughts and prayers would be spectacular. I'm so super worried about her and that little girl. Its so wonderful she's having a girl though because I really want one too so I can do all this little cutesy stuff but beings we aren't exactly ready for that I get to do all of for Sara. Yay :) Anyway my projects

These are magnets I did. The top ones are fabric covered buttons that I covered myself with scraps of fabric and fabric covering button kits you can buy at Joann's or any craft store I'm sure. Then just glue a magnet on the back. These certainly aren't new I've seen them just about everywhere. So cute though. Then glass marble magnets you put a picture behind them, I've been cutting mine out of a Hancocks fabric catalog, you can find a tutorial here. I've been using rubber cement and super glue which is turning out good so far.

This is a round robin I'm participating in. I did the last round starting with the black borders. Then all the way out to the pink with the friendship stars. I think (personally) it turned out awesome. I kept sing TNT dynamite to my husband lol. We're doing four rounds so it gets passed around to four people then you add a row at the given dimensions. Fun fun. If you're a quilter I encourage you to take part in one sometime. It really expands your creativity.

So this is what I get for updating my blog all in one shot. Too long of a post. I'll save the rest for later. Thanks for reading.

Headed back to Germany soon

2009-06-18T19:47:00.002+02:00

So I know I haven't posted *at all* but Saturday I'll be headed back home (thank god) to Germany. I know hubby misses us like no other and we really miss him and home. Landon is finally sleeping normally and now we're leaving in two days. Uh. Go figure. So I will get back to my crafting/sewing life and I'll be happy :) Visiting is nice and all but when you move out on your own, that's your home and you miss it when you're away. And boy do I miss is. Landon had tons of fun at Nana's house though so that's good. We went to the beach for the very first time. He absolutely adored it I've never seen him like this. Just so happy. He's learning 3-4 new words a day and he can do things I ask him to. Growing kids are amazing. I'm definitely posting photos once I get home.

Little Runner

2009-05-31T11:54:00.002+02:00

Yesterday our squadron had a mile run. Well if the soldier brought his family he only had to run one mile if not he had to run ten. Needless to say, I was there with my soldier. So I had to get up 6 am to go run a mile. Number one I haven't been up at 6 am since I don't know when number two I don't run. EVER! I've been know to do a little Pilate's or yoga here and there but run...not in my blood. However, it wasn't half as bad as I expected it to be. I ran/walked a mile in 12 minutes. In high school I walked one in about 19 so that's pretty good :D Oh and my little runner is all dressed up in his Adidas jogging suit even though he was in a stroller. Haha. He's cute though.

On another note...I'm going back to the US of A to visit my grandmother, leaving Tuesday. I'll be back the 20th. I'm not sure how much blogging I'll get done but I'm hoping to get lots of quilting done. And shopping of course. Going back to America is like a big shopping spree for me, being stuck over here in Germany where I can only order things online is tough. Especially when it comes to fabric. Its awful. Just take my word for it. Until we meet again, have a wonderful June.

Pictures and Giveaways

2009-05-28T01:11:00.004+02:00

I just finished editing some pics. I recently realized my son, bless him, has been sleeping all through the night for several nights. He's 17 months old so imagine my excitement. He hasn't always woken up but since he was about 11 months old he has, yes its been a joy. Anyway with all that sleeping throughout the night I'm up at 1 am photo editing, and entering blog giveaways. These pictures really show how genuinely happy my son is, awesome moments...

As for the giveaway, its not my giveaway but there's about a billion at Sew mama, Sew! go enter them all!!!

Another awesome giveaway...A Vintage style hat box, its adorable by the way. Find it here.

Actual Sewing

2009-05-26T15:01:00.005+02:00

I guess beings my blog is 'supposed' to be about sewing and quilting I better do a post on that subject :D I've been researching hair accessories because this is my newest interest. I found a super cute reversible one here, super easy and very cute. Little girls and adults. Here's my two I made today

Next up is an adorable blog I found in the process of looking for hair stuff. I cant get over how cute her stuff is. She is from Australia. You can find her blog here, she has tutorials on some of her stuff and several places sell her patterns. The pillow is def. on my to do list. Its just too cute.

Donate!

2009-05-25T12:03:00.002+02:00

Cancer is something that runs all through out my family in many forms. So its something I'm very serious about helping out with. Here is a story of a mom who's son was just diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and she needs every ones help so if you can please visit her page here and help out. If not maybe just leave her some positive wishes. Thank you. Happy Memorial Day.

Pool Party

2009-05-24T10:48:00.005+02:00

We had so much fun outside yesterday. We woke up, hurried to get ready so we could run downstairs and play. I had to find a bubble recipe first though and something to use for a wand. Who knew, dish soap, corn syrup and water makes bubbles. So we spent all day outside, except for lunch we had to come back upstairs. It was truly so relaxing and wonderful though. We rarely have Daddy home to do things like that. I'm so glad though because I got some great shots. No silhouette shots for next weeks I ♥ Faces challenge :( I just cant seem to get a good one. So far today its looking beautiful too. So I'm sure we'll be outside most of the day. In a way this nice weather is bad because I CAN NOT sew inside when its so nice outside. I take my hand sewing outside but I have so much backed up I need to get done. And I leave for the states in 9 days. Anyway here's my best shots from yesterday, this is out of 500 photos. Enjoy. I hope everyone is having as nice weather as us here in Germany.

Remember

2009-05-22T12:16:00.003+02:00

I'd like to dedicate this post to all of our serving men and women. And those that cant be with us anymore. This is a picture of my husband while he was serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom 07-08.

I praise god that he came back to us but others were not so fortunate. I'd like for everyone to just take a moment to give those men and women a thought. I've heard countless times recently that our soldiers do not feel like fighting a war is what it used to be, where when they came home everyone was grateful and people actually showed it. It disheartens me. These boys give up so much to fight for a country they don't feel supports them. So I ask you, if you come across a soldier, airman, marine or any of our enlisted, just acknowledge them. You don't even have to say anything, if you look them in the eyes and smile, they will know. And of course remember those who couldn't come back from war. Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

Sunny Weather

2009-05-21T10:33:00.009+02:00

I call my son my sunny weather or baby sunshine he always repeats sunshine :) He makes me very giddy. He so adorable. Anyway blogging about pictures today. Yesterday was so beautiful we went out and got some good shots. None without drool running down his face ha ha. I had to upgrade my flickr account because I wanted to use their cool stuff to edit my photos. I'm currently waiting on my photoshop CS3 to arrive, even though most times I still love using Flickr or Picasa. I also did some self portraits. I see photographers all the time with their avatar like this so I wanted to see what I could do. Its an interesting perspective. I had fun editing them though. I just with I had that photoshop for some things.

Last night my keep me awake dilemma was my husband snoring :(

Yesterday my son was getting into something he wasn't supposed to and I told him no don't do that. Then he preceded to do it again I said "Landon what did mommy say" he says "roooar". Lol. He does that because we ask him what all the animals say snake, bear, lion, etc. I just didn't expect him so say that's what mommy says. He a hoot. He says funny things already. He's going to be one of those kids that say hilarious things all the time.

PS Over the weekend, Please remember our soldiers. Its why we have this holiday. So just keep that in mind at the BBQ's.

I ♥ Faces Week 19 Photo Contest

2009-05-18T12:47:00.007+02:00

I found a website for entering photos into a photo contest called I ♥ Faces, They do a different contest every week, you can enter Monday and Tuesday. I've always considered myself some what good at taking pictures so here it is...he looks like he's just laying on his ball being cute but he was resting. When he first started crawling and rolling over he'd just get tired and need a break. Luckily he looked adorable doing it.

I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb book photo contest. If chosen, I grant I ♥ Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites.

PT Obsessed.

2009-05-16T15:43:00.003+02:00

My current obsession. Pregnancy Tests. My son is 17 months old and my husband and I decided to start trying again...hoping for a girl. Well we've been trying for three months now and every month its the same thing. Pregnancy test after pregnancy test. I start them 5 days early and cant stop. I just keep hoping and praying that we're pregnant. And I just keep getting disappointed. Its not that its been sooo long its that we only have a certain amount of time and then we stop trying. Which this was our last month. My husband being in the military we don't want to have me giving birth while he's deployed again. We want to save that special time for when he can be there. But we're about 10 or 11 months from that point so now we must quit trying. The next time we can start is R&R in over a year :( Its not all bad that we have to wait. I just get this feeling that its not going to happen again. That was my 'keep me awake' worry last night (I have a different one every night). So sad to admit we have to stop now. I'm still a week away from testing time but my body seems to be getting my hopes up, nausea at times, headaches, tiredness, constant eating. No sore breasts though which is my main indicator that I just keep waiting for. Every month its the same. I just wanted Landon to have a baby brother or sister (preferably the latter) to grow up with and play with. Ah oh well I guess, at least we're smart about it and I'm not going to try to do it alone again. He missed so much the first time, gone for 10 months of Landon's first year. So needless to say we're not doing that again. My gripe for the day.

Completely Out of the Loop

2009-05-15T16:40:00.006+02:00

I have come to realize I am out of the loop that is the world. I was reading another Lady's site and she was talking about saving and how in the year ___ that all the money would be gone. WHAT? I have no idea whats going on! I had no idea what she was talking about. When people talk about math, LOST completely. My spelling has gone totally down hill, I make sure to spell check everything and then I still get things wrong. I blame it on living here in Germany where I have ten channels on TV. I do not watch the news or really anything for that matter. I spend my life in my kitchen and sewing room. Ask me about quilting, hair, makeup etc and I can tell you about anything you need to know. Ask me about world problems or situations and I have nothing intelligent to lend to the conversation. And even if I hear something my brain does not soak anything up. I don't get it. I want to be smart too :( And I'm not. I can accept that. Perhaps the reason I have not attended college accept partial beauty school, that I was unable to complete due to...getting married and moving out of country. Well I guess maybe with some books and magazines I could know whats going on in the world. Nope too busy reading the twilight series. I would ace a quiz on that ;) That's me though, completely air headed.

My son is getting big :) He's about 34 inches tall and 29 or 30 pounds I would guess.

Recent projects.

2009-05-13T09:43:00.004+02:00

Some recent stuff I started working on is Grandmothers flower garden which is hand pieced using a method called English paper piecing. I told my husband I was making it for our future daughter providing we ever have one so I have quite some time...considering I'm not even pregnant haha. And the next is called New York Beauty which could go together better in my opinion but it isn't. It paper pieced and has curves! Aren't I adventurous. I have like my quilting list of things I'd like to try and those are two of them. I'm going to the states in a few weeks and I'm going to take my hand piecing stuff so I can work on it. Its very portable. It fits in a small Tupperware container. You can find the paper piecing tutorial I used here, you can print out the hexagons pin them to your fabric and off you go. You can find the New York Beauty pattern here. Happy Quilting.

My son is a talker more than ever. He'll be 17 months in a few days. He talks and talks all day long problem is he's not speaking English. He just rattles on about god knows what, its pretty hilarious though. His favorite thing to say is HUH? All day, I hate it. Not a very intelligent word but he must have learned it somewhere haha. And he called his daddy Tyler. He yells at the top of his lungs TYLER!! I tell him no that's daddy. Wonder where he learned that :D Anyway not much else just thought I'd post an update.

Name Change

2009-05-07T13:44:00.002+02:00

You may have noticed the name of my blog changing. Well that's because I couldn't decide what to name it. So I landed on Sew Disastrous. I hope I didn't steal any ones :( I did a google search and it didn't bring anything up so I think I'm good. Some things I sew turn out to be a disaster so that's how I came up with it. And the So Sew ya know? Lol. Anyway I think I'm done changing blog headers :)

Apron Tutorial

2009-05-07T09:26:00.012+02:00

Apron Tutorial

I think I have all my steps in order here and I hope this is easy enough for most of you. It was super easy for me. This is a barista style apron its short, hits me mid thigh but I don't like the long ones that stretch past my knees. Its reversable. I have brown on my opposite side. Materials you're going to need are

two coordinating fabrics (shown below) approx 22" square. I have a long torso so you may want to make yours longer or even shorter. Just measure how long you want it on yourself with a soft measuring tape.
two approx 6" square pieces of fabric for pockets
2 approx 5" x 44" wide strips for waist ties
1 4" strip for neck strap
I used a rotary cutter but its not necessary.
Some double sided fusible two appox. 6" square pieces
sewing machine
coordinating thread

My coordinating fabric

For this step you will need to measure across your chest, how much you want the bib part to cover in my case I needed about 11 inches across and 7 inches down. So you have your fabric layed out folded in half. From the fold you're going to measure half of your chest size number. I needed 11" so I measured 5 1/2 inches in. And marked there with a pen (i used a washable pen, it doesn't really matter as long as it doesn't bleed through) And then I marked 7" down from the upper right hand corner.
You're going to draw a half circle shape to connect these two places. There could be an easier more accurate way but this worked perfect for me. You may be able to use a bowl I just drew mine free hand.

After you draw that line you're going to cut it out, so that you have this shape, make sure you're not cutting your fold. I had my fold facing toward me. Then I layed my back fabric under it and cut out the shape again.

So now I have two exact pieces. They should be shaped like an apron ;)

Next I'm going to cut my pockets. I cut mine about 6x6" and I did two you might be able to fit three on there.

Now with my pockets cut out I'm going to iron all sides under just very little. Maybe 1/8 of an inch.

Now measure across the back, this is where your backing fabric is going to go so you have lined pockets. You're going to need to cut backing fabric so that it doesn't show on the other side and a sheet of double sided fusible to fuse the two together, making sure that all your turned under edges are fused under that backing fabric.

Now you're going to pin your pockets on making sure they are far enough away from the edges, You can put them wherever you like just make sure they are 1/2 inch away from any edge. You're going to pin them on the right side of the fabric.

You can also pin pockets on the other piece of fabric because its reversible. If you'd like to do any embroidery like names or anything you should do that on this step.

Now you're going to sew the pocket on the two sides and bottom, don't sew the top ;) It wouldn't be a pocket then. You wanna sew just 1/4 inch in or even less if you can. Make sure you back stitch so the pockets don't come off.

Now I'm going to take my two straps which are 5" wide and about 44" long (width of fabric) I want to sew them wrong sides together on the cut sides. Not the fold. sew all the way down making sure to back stitch because when you turn them inside out they will unravel if not back stitched. And you'll need to sew up one end, I just turned mine a little under and sewed it up.So here it is turned inside out and pressed. I made two for my side straps and a brown one for my neck strap. The neck strap you will have to decide how long you need it. Pin it on your apron and then adjust it to fit. Neck strap

So now we have to pin our straps on. Neck strap is pinned so that it lays on top of the apron. I didn't think to get a close up of this so I hope you figure it out lol. You want it facing opposite of how it should go. and the side straps are going to be pined the same way on the inside so that everything will be inside when you sew it up. In this picture I just showed where to pin then not how so pin them opposite of the picture shows. If you're confused on this step let me know I'll take more pictures. You just don't want anything hanging outside.

Pin neck strap about 1/2 inch away from the sides and side straps 1/2 inch from that top corner.

This is where its all pinned together notice there is nothing hanging outside everything is inside. You're going to pin these right sides together. Sew all the way around leaving an opening big enough to turn this right side out.

Here's the hold to turn it right side out about 4 or 5 inches. Then just sew that up and you should have the apron all straps hanging right. My straps will wrap all the way around or just tie in the back. And you're done. Hopefully that turned out right and nothing confused you. I've never done a tutorial before so tell me how I did and lets see those aprons!

My Apron

2009-05-06T20:23:00.003+02:00

So I did that apron after all. I was inspired by a few different aprons one by Jcarolinecreative and another was a pillowcase apron and the one I used to wear when I was a barista at a coffee shop in Washington :) I love how it turned out, its reversible has two pockets and the ties you can either tie in the back or bring them around to the front. I made mine extra long. If I get enough comments I'll post the tutorial, I took pictures along the way. This one hits about mid thigh, I wanted it shorter than most. I used Deb Strain for Moda Bistro Coffee Fabric. I love the coffee theme. It turned out so much better than I expected. Thanks for looking :)

Pictures of the Little Guy

2009-05-06T13:52:00.005+02:00

I have some pictures I took a few weeks back, well could be months who knows, that I really liked and wanted to share. I love using the macro lens the pictures are just stunning, you'll see what I mean. And ther's nothing like shooting outdoors. None of these pictures were edited except some cropping. Enjoy.

Mission Appealing Toddler Food

2009-05-06T12:53:00.004+02:00

Day 1

So far so good. He had apple cinnamon oatmeal for breakfast and some honey nut cheerios. For lunch he had apples with peanut butter which he scraped the peanut butter off and at the apples. I have no problems with him eating fruit or veggies its just everything else. He also had mac and cheese which he loves most of the time with chicken and broccoli mixed in. At the noodles and broccoli, no chicken. Not a big meat eater. For dinner we're having Chicken Parmisiana and veggies. Hopefully something will go down :) I'm going for making his favorite foods into healthier foods just my adding more things. He is the pickiest eater. Some days he loves one thing and the next he wont touch it. So thats all on the toddler front. Messy, picky, fit throwing toddlers who refuse to eat or nap. Oh what am I going to do.

Recent stuff.

2009-05-05T22:29:00.006+02:00

I havent posted in quite awhile, so much for keeping this up to date. I cant even say I've been busy because lol I havent. I finished all four of the twilight books which gets me back to quilting. Yay. I've finished 3 quilts in the last month and started one for my husband.
First up is one I did for my mother in law for her birthday, machine pieced and quilted with a free motion paisley design. Took me quite some time.

Next are some fabric postcards I did for a recent swap. Nothing fancy I like to keep my stuff simple for the most part.

Thats everything quilty I have for now. I'm planning on doing an apron hopefully today so I'll post pics later. Enjoy your week.

Digital Scrapbooking

2009-04-19T09:02:00.004+02:00

I used to paper scrapbook but i liked quilting much more so I packed up all my stuff. I just started an interest in it again but in digital instead. I found some great sites for free pages and things. One is The Shabby Princess they have lots of free stuff and sell stuff too. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Oh god here it is...

2009-03-23T13:00:00.002+01:00

Twilight. Enjoyed the movie immensely. I'm not one of those overly obsessed teenage girls who thinks Edward Cullen is the 'hottest' guy alive because in real life he's not attractive. I find him more attractive when he's all pale and weird. I was not waiting in a line over night to purchase this new movie. Hubby and i were just cruising our PX and I seen it and thought well lets watch this and see what all the drama is about. I knew nothing of it before I bought the movie, I just read all the stuff you see everywhere on the Internet. Anyway I loved the movie I did. I cant understand why it causes so much controversy because its just a movie. You either like it or you don't. Who cares? Apparently all the teenagers of the world who want to debate Twilight and Harry Potter. Jeez. I did find out that the producer originally wanted Henry Cavill to play his part. Oh how I wish that would have happened. Then I'd be one of those obsessed girls. Anyway I'm going to order the books now because I want to see what happens next and the next movie doesn't come out till Nov. 09. I think this is a love story worth falling in love with. Its an amazing tale of forbidden love which is always the best kind. I'd give this movie a 9 just because nothing deserves a ten, I loved it.

Promoting Picasa

2009-03-19T14:46:00.000+01:00

I just wanted to say I love Google Picasa. I have photoshop but with this program I can do simple things in a few seconds and they make my pictures look great. This is one I did with the program in about 1 minute. And its FREE what more could you ask for? Love it.

German Playground

2009-03-19T10:26:00.004+01:00

Landon and I had our first run-in with the german kids at the park. And the german moms. It was super nice yesterday so everyone went to the park. I though oh no they are going to talk to me! And they did and I had to nicely reply "I dont speak german sorry". They always give me a look after that :( Sometimes I really long for another american to live near us. I dont have a car while my husband is at work so we can go where the americans are. Germans dont want to be friends with people they cant talk to. Not that I blame them. But Landon was very shy. A little girl a little younger than him I think came up and wanted to play with him. The boys he wanted nothing to do with. Only the little girl lol. Go figure. Silly boy. Some pictures...

Just Updating

2009-03-18T11:33:00.002+01:00

I havent posted a new blog in awhile. I've been concentrating on my family for the most part. Less screen time is better for the mind :) I'm going to start posting more pics though because I'm starting a photography 'class' thing that I'm doing online. Its such a nice day I think landon and I will go out and take some pictures! I'm loving my new Nikon D90. Other than that just getting the house more organized. Spring cleaning if you will. Thanks for reading :)

Getting things squared away...

2009-02-24T14:49:00.003+01:00

My husband and I have decided to start trying for baby number two. I want to wait till April or May because the Chinese calender says these are my best months for conceiving a girl (I know that sounds a little foolish but 90% of women say this works so why not). Along with changing your diet and so on couldn't hurt to try anyway. But before all of this I want to try to get things squared away in the life we have going right now. Nothing drastic just going through junk in the house, spring cleaning, spending more time together with us and Landon. In order to do all this I need to stay away from the beckoning laptop. Most of my life is spent on here on various networking website, blogging of course, photoshop etc so I made a sort of vow to cut back on the screen time. Except blogging, gotta keep the fam updates you know.

With spring and summer coming I will be taking tons of pictures with my new Nikon D90. My very generous husband bought me one and three different lenses so I'll have tons of fun with that. How exciting!! I also need to get two quilts quilted and I'm starting a queen size for myself so I will try to get all of these done within the next two months because two of them are birthday gifts that I need to have done by April. We get to take leave in June so I need to have all of my stuff in order by then. We'll hopefully be flying home to Washington so that we can spend some time with my Nana who is sick with Leukemia. My mom might meet us down there too (flying down from Alaska). I hope. Anyway I will be updating my blog though so no worries :D
Wish us luck on a baby girl this time!!

That's all for now,
Sincerely Yours Truly

It puts the Die in Dynamic....

2009-02-20T10:26:00.010+01:00

My latest quilt. uh. umm not what I hoped it would be. I really thought with the colors and the fabric, the bright colors, something dynamic would come out of it. I was comletely wrong. I do not like this quilt very much at all. I planned to give it to my neighbor who has been an awesome friend to us over the past three years we've lived in Germany. I might not do that now. bah ha.

I also finished place mats yesterday. Perfect binding on one or two. Its great that the first thing you try you screw up and you learn so that the rest are perfect but you still have that screwed up one. Oh well.

We had a busy day yesterday. Cleaning, quilting, baking, cooking, playing. Landon Talks more and more all the time. We were playing with the camera yesterday and I kept saying 'say cheese' sure enough he started saying cheeeeeeese everytime I did. He tries to say apple too he just says app. I started calling him my pb. The peanut butter to my jelly :D He's my bud. I told my husband sometimes I feel more like the baby sitter because he gets away with everything. How can I dicipline something so cute :D So he wanted cookies and I wouldnt give them to him so he just carried around the package with the most aweful disgusted look on his face whining and crying. It was veerrry dramatic. As you can see>>>

So of course I caved and gave him the cookie.

I am soooo ready for spring and it just keeps dumpin snow. Poor hubby has to shovel the driveway everyday. Landon cant go outside and play, the sun wont come out. I'll even take the cleaning that comes with spring if it would just get here.

Toilet paper castles

2009-02-18T11:09:00.003+01:00

My son loves to build with the toilet paper rolls. He's too funny. We messed around with some settings on the Canon. We're currently having trouble getting Landon to take naps :( Sad. No time for mommy. I'm going to try out a new hair dye today hopefully I get good results. I'm always messing with my hair and then regretting it shortly thereafter. Blonde is such a hard color to achieve. Its snowing again. I just keeps coming down. I guess that could be a good thing because I just planted bulbs lol. I know I'm a little late. We'll see if they bloom before the end of summer.

I've finished all the quilt tops I can for now. I need my fabric to come so I can put borders on these two and quilt them before April. My friend is having a baby so I want to do a grandmothers flower garden for her. I'll have to do it by hand but it'll give me something to do when I don't want to machine quilt. Oh and I want my new machine to come. I'm really hoping I made a good decision with that one. I have to trust the pictures :O We'll see.

My Photos

2009-02-17T20:03:00.010+01:00

This is alaska Mt Rainier

Pike Place of course

Germany

My son Landon and I

A little about my photos. A lot of these were taken in what I call home. Washington state. I started taking pictures when I was just out of high school. Its one of my passions. And now I have a new subject, my son. The best one yet. I usually do photos in the spring and summer and occasionally fall. Summer is my best time, its full of life. I also love photo editing in Adobe photo shop CS3 extended. Its a very complex program that can do so many things. I shoot with a Nikon d40 currently I'm hoping soon to upgrade to the d90. I love this camera. Anyway I hope you enjoy them.