Strength

There are days in our lives where we look for strength. As humans, as men and women, and as mothers and fathers.

These past few weeks... with the flu, crazy work hours, etc. The word strength was needed very much in our home.

Thursday morning, Goosie became very sick with the stomach flu. I have never seen her this sick before. Holding her body as she was exhausted and limp, I just needed a glimmer of strength. We knew it was just the flu but being so tired from all the other nonsense that we get caught up in daily... we were just getting so tired.

Then... Boomer comes up to Goosie on the couch and hands her her thermos of ice water to drink. Then, he brings her a doll. He bends down close to her and says, " You okay?"

At two, he is strong for her... even though he is the little brother.

Yesterday, they had been up and down the stairs due to tornado sirens... and... they took it in stride. Goosie goes to sit on the bench near the window and Boomer decides to join her. And... I was snapping some photos around the house. I look over and I snapped this picture. They were together on the bench holding hands.

In our children... we find our strength.

No Sew TUTU!

I FINALLY attempted the no sew tutu for Goosie! I had sworn to do this for Christmas and never got around to accomplishing that goal... so with Spring around the corner... there was no better time than to try this out for sure! I did two because I wanted to experiment... the first attempt... I did it with a ribbon waistline and the second time... an elastic. To be honest, I prefer the ribbon but I am sure that is a matter of taste. On the ribbon waistline, I used velcro. Now, once Goosie recovers from the stomach flu... it will be photo time!!!!!

The Tea Towel Skirt is D.O.N.E.

I have accomplished my FIRST ever sewing project! The Tea Towel skirt... instructions in previous post, is DONE! I feel as though I have jumped a major hurdle. I know it was a simple project but one that resulted in a $2.50 skirt that my daughter can wear. I added some ribbon trim... which added to the tea towels... I have to say that I can't wait to find a few tea towels that are a bit more adorable but I am so glad that I pulled out the sewing machine and started!

Goose was happy to oblige me by modeling her new skirt :)

Sidebar: when I posted this... the slideshow would not come up on blogger... feel free to click "view all images" and they will appear! THANKS!

Stand back... better yet... save yourself!!!

I am about to break out the sewing machine! Save yourselves!!!!! From my teeth gritting, quiet cursing (there are children in the house), and frustration. I am going to attempt THIS!

Leo took Goosie out on the search for dish towels and did not find one as cute as this tutorial... but the ones he found had lines so that should make it somewhat easier. IF I can accomplish this skirt... it will cost no more than $1.50... because he found great deals on tea towels at T.J. Maxx. Since I had bronchitis... and now, pleurisy to boot... they went on the search.

I have bought a self healing cutting mat and a rotary cutter... and now I regret not paying attention to my Grandmother in her sewing room when I would go to Virginia and spend a week with her in the Summer. She was a seamstress and people would bring their sewing to her throughout the week. She had a room at the front of her big brick house that was just for sewing... and I believe, Soap Operas, too :). She would make all types of things along with my Great Grandmother... if they weren't baking pies and frying chicken... they were sewing. My children go to the park to this day with one of the quilts that my Great Grandmother made. We use it, eat picnic lunches on it... and feel like we take a part of her with us to enjoy sunshine and good food.

If I can pull this one sewing project off... WATCH OUT, Ladies and Gentlemen! It could be as bad as the Cricut bug I seem to have!

What's YOUR fortune?

I do not proclaim to be a talented scrapbooker by any means but... I came across this neat project when "surfing" blogs one day and it is one of my favorites! I found the instructions here.

If you use your Cricut, I found that doing the circles in 3 1/2 inches gave you nine circles per 12x12 page. I know that the instructions in the link said 4" circles but I made mine a bit smaller to maximize the use of paper. I liked that the link had fortunes included if you wanted to use them. AND... I liked that it isn't a gender specific craft! Also, I used a hot glue gun to keep mine together and it worked perfectly. I didn't have the adhesive tape the instructions required so I tried my trusty glue gun and it worked!

Now... I want some Chinese food :)!

She loved it!

Aside from the extremely cheesy pose... it did look really cute! I know that most of these are made for babies but I adapted this for my Goosie since she loves flowers and all things pink!

We added the touch of a "side pony tail" and off she went to a birthday party!

I made one with a smaller flower so we will see what types of poses we get from THAT headband!

Weekend Craft Projects

Staying inside proved to be a good thing this weekend! I was able to get a few projects done yesterday. I cut vinyl for the first time with the Cricut and Alden and I made a birthday present for her classmate, Lexi. Lexi is having a birthday party today and we wanted to personalize her gifts so the vinyl and these finds from Michael's made the project an easy one!

Lexi loves to draw and color so we cut the vinyl to personalize her craft station and filled it with items such as a sketch book, crayons, watercolors, washable markers, construction paper, etc.

I had time, while resting from that darn bronchitis, to take two headbands (for kids) from WalMart and embellish them. I found some polka dot ribbon and made it into korker ribbon. Then, sewed coordinating buttons onto the headbands and TADA... new spring headbands! The flower ones were SUPER easy... I did stitch the flowers on a bit and then hot glued to reinforce.

We are headed to the fabric store before the birthday party to find the smocked material to start making Spring dresses!