teacher bag and an item off the list

Here's an item now off my to-do list. My sister has just finished up her student teaching and wanted to give her supervising teacher a teacher bag similar to the one I made for her. I made a few changes based on feedback from her using it now for the entire semester.

Like the first bag, it unzips on the sides to lay out flat.


One side has a large pocket for folders (tan spot on the left), a three pocket section (black with dots area), and a clear pocket sectioned into 4 pockets.

The other side has a large pocket for folders (tan on the right of picture), pencil pockets (black with dots) and a zipper section (tan).

She picked the fabrics and we had Carole at Frog Belly Soup do the embroidery. It's good to know someone who can do an 'emergency embroidery' job. I finished just in time. I'm overnighting it to her first thing in the morning.

My favorite part is still that there are a number of places to carry file folders without spilling out the papers.

Ok, back to packing boxes and sewing puppet curtains.

time to go

oh dear, it's started. The move has begun.



This would be the tip. The rest of the iceberg is spread out somewhere in the living room.

pretty bracelets

My Great Aunt has been making the most beautiful bracelets.


Not only are they lovely, but they are very special. The beads are ones that she makes herself and they contain bits of dried flowers from different occasions. All of these particular bracelets contain flowers from my Grandpa's funeral.


Flowers from a baby's birth or a baptism, a special birthday party, a wedding, or an engagement would all be nice made into a special keepsake. I know she does make them to sell, but (despite my encouraging) she hasn't started selling them on etsy on online anywhere yet. I think she reads here most days, so I hope she is encouraged by seeing pictures of her creations online and hearing my compliments.


I asked my Grandma to ask her if she'd like to guest write here and share her contact info or perhaps share how she makes them. I just think they are such a fantastic idea for a meaningful gift. Wouldn't a tutorial on making these be nice? hint, hint.


This blue on is my favorite. I love the color. This one was for my Grandma, she looks so nice in blue and wears this color a lot.


I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. The car came home so loaded down with stuff that I had to sit cross legged the whole way home. I have some other things to share soon, the move is starting soon... so it could be a bit.

time I'll never get back

8 hours later and here's what I have... back where I started.


I spent about 3 hours quilting the top (got mostly done) only to spend at least 8 hours pulling it all out. Now, after some careful realigning and extreme pinning, I'll get started on the quilting again. I had planned to spend the Thanksgiving road trip hand sewing the binding on. Hopefully this doesn't put me too far behind. blah.

In other news, buttercup bags are listed in the shop now. I'm already down to two. I'll tell you, selling items that are already made is much more fun that selling orders to be made. I'm going to have to remember this!

fruity turkey

I take no credit for this adorable fruit turkey. One of Lou's buddy's mamas brought it to the class Thanksgiving party. It's a honeydew melon with a half pear face. She tooth picked on raisin eyes and pepper feet. The feathers are grapes and pineapple chunks on skewers. I don't know what the break and waddle are made from, but you could use red pepper and yellow apple?

shop news

I have some fun new things listed int he shop. With the move this month, I'm trying to have more ready to ship items this season, instead of my normal all custom orders. Those really get me at this time of year! I have more things to list, just need to get them photographed and listed.

Produce bags and drawstring bag holders


Earring frame holders


eye spy bean bags


new coffee cozies

score!

Here's are the finds of some pretty good dumpster diving.

I'm pretty excited about it. There are 1200 more per month where these came from. I have a new yard barn coming soon. I think I just found what I want to fill it with.

The blue one laying flat is already being worked on.

Mr. Happy corn zipper

Meet my new friend, Mr. Happy Corn Zipper. I picked up Mr. HCZ because I didn't want to buy wrapping paper from a friend's kid. Look how happy he is.


Oh and look at his fine work. One zip at a time he just cuts the corn right off without the big mess.


He made quick work of that corn.

I'm so happy to have met this new happy friend. Hopefully his good mood is contagious and all of my kitchen utensils can get little smiley faces.

another cute skirt pattern

I got asked (can I say that if I actually kinda beg first) to test out another pattern for Jessica at Happy Together. I love working with her patterns. I'm a little worried though. She is getting so good at her first draft that she's not going to need us testers anymore.

Here is her post about it with all the lovely pictures of the cutie models in their stylin skirts. She has the pattern for sale in her shop now. My poor pictures fail in comparison to the other mama's. Maybe I have more laundry to fold. and dishes to do. and pee-ed up sheets to take care of. Maybe they already know how to get dry erase marker off the couch.... ? They might even be able to explain why there is a sock floating in the toilet at my house.


Bee really likes these skirts because she knows where each fabric came from, a shirt from mommy, an old sundress, daddy's work shirt, even one of Lou's old stained t-shirts.


This one is her favorite. She's clearly a rock star.

Since Bee only wears dresses and skirts (by her own choice), we went to the shirt drawer first and chose t-shirts with no skirt to be worn with. Then we went to the t-shirt remnant tub in the basement and selected material to piece together to be match with the shirt. I figured our chance of matching were much better this way.



I've said it before, but even if you aren't a pattern fan (and I am not), Jessica's patterns are like that. They are like a girlfriend sitting down and telling you how to make something. It's how I'd write patterns, which might happen some time after the socks stop ending up in the toilet.

Shoeboxes are done

Here are our boxes, done and on their way to a little guy and little girl somewhere in the world. There's probably a drop off site near you!

alternative turkey themed snack

I shared this snack a week or so ago and it's been a popular posting. We made them for Lou's preschool class snack.


I came across another turkey snack idea and thought it was sweet too. I knew you'd think so too. If only I needed another themed snack idea this season. This turkey snack is from Oopsey Daisy.


I signed up to bring rolls again to Lou's thanksgiving party.


Looking at that roll post again makes me miss these jammies of Lous, and the sunshine in this picture.


I am hopeful there might be a little sunshine today, it seems like it's rained for a week straight. Apparently, my happiness is fueled by sunshine (and frozen cokes). I think a vacation may be in order this winter. A very sunny vacation.

take one thing off the list

I'm crossing one thing off my list, getting things ready for the craft show. I'm just sneaking stuff on the edge of my neighbors table really. I get bored making more than a few of most things, so it's an assortment of items. 3 earring frames, 4 produce bag sets, 3 buttercup bags, 4 eye spy bags, 2 nursing covers, and 35 coffee cozies. Whatever doesn't sell this weekend is stocking the shop next month.

excuses... excuses...

I am kind of MIA and plan to be for the next few weeks. Here are my excuses.

I am up every two-three hours in the night right now... Bee is desperately wanting to stay dry at night. She's five, but is such a sound sleeper and doesn't wake up at night for anything. She's been potty trained for a long time of course, but we've ignored the night time thing until now. I have to wake her up. I set my alarm and get up every few hours to take her to the potty. Good grief, it's like I have an infant. I am hoping only a few more days of this and then we can go to once or twice a night. Mostly, I'm tired. two hours must be the right amount of time to assure you never enter REM sleep.

There is a craft fair this weekend. My neighbors are letting me throw some stuff in, I'm trying to get a few more things ready.

I have several large projects in the works. It's a homemade Christmas here and I'm trying hard to keep up. Plus, the Christmas orders on Etsy are starting... I need to stay up on that.

It's dark and dreary out. It's this time in the year that I miss Florida. Motivation levels are low. It's easier to bundle up and hide inside. Sweat pants make me feel lazy.

I am on a new no-computer during the day plan. Between planning for school, blogging, regular email stuff, ebay, etc, it was getting a bit much. All computer use (ok, at least 95% of it) is being saved for after kiddo bedtime.

We are moving. It's not far, but it's still a move. Things are getting in that state where you don't want to put away laundry since it's going to get taken back out of the closet again in two weeks. It's starting to get messy around here.

And lastly, and maybe mostly, this boy! This BOY! He is... becoming so much more work... so much more trouble.... so much more. oh boy. I just finished up James Dobson's Bringing Up Boys... Now I've moved on to The Strong Willed Child, also by James Dobson. I was just thinking this weekend that he is going to be a teenager some day. I'm going to be one worried and crazy mama by then. I'll be gray haired and a frazzeled ol mess.

So anyway, I'll be hit or miss for awhile. I have stuff to write about, it just may take awhile to get it all here.

shoe boxes and braggin

The kids and I are working this weekend on our shoe boxes. Drop off week is November 13-22. You still have time if you want to join us. Not sure what I'm talking about? Find more information here.

unrelated photos: Lou had leader day at school recently. His favorite part of the day was leading the friends in he pledge. You get to stand on the chair... pretty cool. That's one of his sweet teachers, who he pronounces as Ms. Yuli. We're still working on some of the letters at our house. The other teacher went to my class for the day so that I could be with Lou.


Bee made us proud recently when she won the Collosians 3:23 award at school. One child from each class gets the award each quarter. She could use a little of that work ethic at home, but we sure can't complain. That's Bee's sweet teacher that she is with.

"Work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people." Col 3:23

thanksgiving wall hanging- really now

I really have it now. Yesterday's post was titled Thanksgiving wall art, but I didn't actually have it ready to show, I just talked about it.

I finished it today. I love it, it makes we want to do more smaller quilty projects and never big ones. Two days is much nicer than a months long project.

I snapped only one photo before my camera battery died.


I had the orange as a fabric to be included in the outer part, but it was getting plenty big. I wanted to use only fabric in my stash, but I did go pick up the dark brown.

I said it all yesterday, but I saw this Thanksgiving wall hanging at AJ's Bow-tique and I love it and knew I wanted to make one up. It uses artwork from Bunch of Craft, which is where I saw the link to AJs Botique in the first place.

thanksgiving wall hanging

I saw this Thanksgiving wall hanging @ AJ's Bow-tique and knew I needed the supplies, like within the hour. It's a fun and quick quilty like wall hanging. It uses artwork from Bunch of Craft, which is really where I saw the link to the wall hanging idea.

I bought this printable fabric at Joanns. It's not what was used in the one at AJ's Bow-tique. It came on a roll so you can cut to size and not waste any. It essentially like this version that I made homemade awhile back. I do think it's really nice and worth the money.


The first two tries, I messed up. My fault mostly. So, I had some extra partial printouts. I cut some up and made up a coffee cozy. I sent it out to a customer this morning so they can test it out for me. I am hopeful that the ink doesn't run.


I do have a successful printout that is in currently being worked on for the wall hanging. In fact, that's where I'm off to right now. It turning out really well and is making me happy. I had to put away this quilt for a few days. The quilting is not going well. It may require me to rip out hours worth of quilting. hours. makes me mad just thinking about it. mad.

I'm a gypsy

I forgot to share my Halloween costume. I'm a gypsy. It's either because I move a lot or I buy and sell children. Either one.

Speaking of me moving a lot, this gypsy mama is moving again. The last move, about 14 months ago, was 745 miles. This time... boy oh boy is this a big move.... We are moving about 25 feet. Seriously, we are moving next door. This will be house number 18 for me. Cause I'm a gypsy.

Just because I dress up as one doesn't make me one. Last year, Hubby and I were Handy Manny and Kelly. We are no more handy now then we were then. Hubby maybe.


Since I brought up Halloween again, check out these spiderweb pretzels. They are on the list for next yer!

gone fishing

One of the blogs I follow is One Inch World. This week she did a post about some various kid activities that didn't fit into other posts. One of the activities she shared was such a simple little project, but one I hadn't thought to do before.


She used pipecleaners to make fish for a little magnetic fishing pole. We've done paperclips on fish cutouts, but that never goes well. The little clips fall off and the fish rip. Pipecleaners are perfect for the job, plus, Bee could easily make her own fish while Lou started fishing. I just hotglued the superstrong magnet on the end of a ribbon and tied the ribbon to a stick we had in the garage. There may be a kite come spring that is missing a part. I can't think where else this would have come from.


I had the perfect leftover super strong magnet from my magnet finger glove for preschool, the one with WAY too strong magnets on the finger tips. We had so much fun with this over the past few days that Pillow pet wanted to join in .

cosmetic bag

My sister suggested I sew up some cosmetic bags to give as gifts this year, specifically for her to give as gifts. She's sweet like that.


I've seen several tutorials for them so I knew the general construction plan. I did however consult this specific tutorial. It left unfinished edges, so I came up with my own solution. I have since revised that solution and now have an easier plan to hide the unfinished edges when I make a second. I also slightly changed the bottom of my bag which made it unnecessarily trickier.

I used some of the fabric my brother and his wife brought me from Japan.I've had a hard time deciding just what to use it for. I lined it with a vintage pillowcase. I felt like they were good fabric together until I was done. I would have used something different for the lining in retrospect. This is the prototype, so that means it's for me or for the kids, so it doesn't matter.

When I make the next one, I plan to take more pictures and make a tutorial showing the changes I made and different bottom.

turkey games- preschool style

This week is Turkey week at preschool. We've already done the Thanksgiving story, so it's all gobble gobble this week. Here are a few Turkey related games and songs I have ready.

I am reading Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey. It's a cute little story about children going on a field tip and sneaking the turkeys out under their shirts. I thought after that book, we'd sing this song using pieces to go on my glove. I will encourage the kids to sing with me. It's always better than me singing alone. This is a counting up rhyme. Those are more rare and almost always preferred for three year olds.

"One little turkey running through the barnyard, farmer's looking everywhere far and wide.
Here comes Mr. farmer, don't let him see you. Stomp stomp, flap flap, run and hide. Two
little turkeys running...."

Then I have 6 turkeys cut out in different colors. I will pass out two feathers per child. The turkeys will lay on the floor in the middle of our circle and we will sing this little song to collect the feathers back in.

(to the tune of Mary wore her red dress)
"Turkey wore her red feathers, red feathers, red feathers. Turkey wore her red feathers all
day long."
(We will continue with green, brown, orange, red and purple)

When all the feathers are in, we'll count them and compare the different numbers. I may lay a fabric numeral on top of each turkey to show the number of feathers. With older kids you could add different sets of feathers, etc.

Then, I'll pull one color from each and make up this guy. We will sing:

"turkey wore his rainbow feathers, rainbow feathers, rainbow feathers. Turkey wore his
rainbow feathers, all day long."


Assuming I still have everyone's attention (frankly there may be someone under or on top of a table at this point), we'll play 'which one is missing.' I'll maybe sing the directions, because: 1. I love to sing and 2. things sung are more interesting to three year olds (only one of those is true).

"Turkey feathers, turkey feathers, green, purple, yellow - red, orange and brown. Close you
eyes and wait for me. Now open your eyes and tell me, which one is missing."

At a separate time in the morning, we will attempt this activity. I will give the kids a little cup of cereal. I would have thought to use bugles, since they look like cornucopias, but I don't always this that far ahead. Candy corn might have been ok too. I will call out specific numbers for them to cover up. We will work on colors too. You could easily program these with shapes, letters, number sentences, etc.


I made up a larger version to put on the flannel board while the kids have their own smaller one. I think this will be easy for a few, but there are just as many that will be lost, perhaps on a table somewhere. Last week we had a similar corn activity and there were a few spots for each number. That was very confusing to them. Hopefully this simplified game will go better.

Here are a few other activities that I found online that didn't make it in today's plans.

Turkey name feather game

Alphabet turkey activity

I've linked up at some of these fine blogs.