Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Catching Up



Little hands learning about all the little creatures of the summer. This little guy, along with quite a few of his buddies, have taken up residence in our yard lately. Hazel is not one to shy away from touching something, so she went ahead and gave him and little back rub. And to prove that it was okay and that I wasn't totally creeped out by the guy, when in all actuality I truly was, I went ahead and gave him a little pat on the back too. What us mama's do for our babies.


The garden in finally in full swing and looking great. Now we're just picking at it a little bit at a time and waiting for it to really start producing.


In the front of our house, I have a flower bed that runs the majority of the length of the house, and each year I plant wild flowers in it and just let them take off. Right now the poppies are taking over. There's orange, red, pink and there are a few bachelor buttons, baby's breath, toad flax coming in and soon the cosmos will be blooming away too.


Don't these look yummy? Adam's grandpa sent out some of his raspberry plants last spring  and they're finally producing this year. I've been getting about a handful every three days or so. I'm trying to save some so I can make a small batch of jam at the end of the season, but they're so yummy they don't always make it into the house.


I have been on a sewing spree lately. I have a list a mile long of the things I would like to make. Now getting through all of them is another story. I've come to realize that if the finished products weren't so cute, I would just give up sewing all together. I'd rather be embroidering. These are a set of potholders that I made for hubby's cousin who got married a couple weeks ago. All I did was use a Charm pack to make the fronts. I'm now convinced those are one of the best things to have on hand to whip up something quick.


Next on my sewing list were some pretty cute doorstops that you can find here.  I will give you a heads up though, these directions were really hard to read since the file is a little blurry, so I would recommend getting some blurry glasses that help you read them, or have a little bit of a background in sewing so that you have some idea of whats happening in the parts of the directions that you can make out. Over all, it was a pretty simple project for the beginner sewer and they look a lot better than the weed killer bottle or the gallon of paint that have been holding my mudroom and laundry room doors open.



After those were done, I decided to start on some goodies for Mary and my youngest niece, Cupcake. I found this cute pattern for Mary Jane's the other day and I just couldn't resist. Now just so you know these are the test run and didn't turn out so hot, as you can probably tell. This is my first time trying to make baby shoes and I will tell ya, they are a pain. I put the straps in two different places because I wanted to see what was going to be most comfortable on little Cupcake's feet. Once I know which strap works better, and if they're the right size, I'll get to work on some super cute ones and show those off to you.  Next on my list for fun little shoes are these for this winter.


And finally, I wanted to show off my new pretty. I just love the old blue Ball canning jars. I picked this one and a couple other fun looking ones up at the local antique store for a pretty reasonable price. They make great vases, but I've also seen them used to hold powdered sugar, brown sugar, and even powdered laundry soap. Also, I was AMAZED by how much some of these old jars can cost. There were a couple of them for $100 and even one for $200! The lady said it all depended on how old they were and that the amount of bubbles in the glass made them worth more. Who knew? I just know I'm not that hard core of a collector to spend that much on one jar.



"Live in each season as it passes."
-Henry David Thoreau-


2 comments:

Gumbo Lily said...

Fun sewing projects! I made those little baby shoes once and they are fussy and a little difficult. Should try it again.

Don't give up sewing. You only improve with practice, practice, practice.

Jody

Rachel said...

Ahh, sewing is super fun!! Love the stuff you made, I just might try those door stops. Love the shoes, but I think I need more practice for that.