We had a double party to go to last month and it coincided with the ORBC of Ticker Tape quilts. We had another snow day so it was the perfect chance to play. I dragged out the scrap bins and gave the two oldest kids the chance to design their own quilts to give. They laid out the designs and I did the quilting. William made one two but I literally haven't made anything since we did these in February.
By Liz, age 9. She wanted it to be a scene. She she did the cutting and layout. I love the frog in the pond and a butterfly too.
Here is the back of the quilt.
The backing. He wanted something cheerful and fun.
Made by my 7 year old son. Love that he wanted every last inch filled up!
I had to start with this photo because it is a huge job finally done! So much unnecessary paper in boxes. There will be more to do but that was an 1 1/2 hours of shredding. Poor machine. Now on to the Hot Spot of the week.
Simple Mom is awesome and had us do the pantry and fridge this week. The challenge was working around the kids this week during spring break. It took longer than it should have but I wrote down everything we have that is food related. Not sure when I'll catalog it all but its a start and I found things that we need to re-stock. I made notes on most of the photos so click to read them if you wish.
Fridge Before.
After. Cleaned and re-organized. AH.
In the basement we have the beginnings of long term food storage. I love the space but it can get unruly too. Before.
After. Rounded up the vitamins to one box, the cleaning supplies to one area, and generally re-grouped all of the items we have. It's time to get some more cereal and a few other staples.
Noticed more food on my way back upstairs. The canning we did last year and the canning supplies.
I forgot the before picture here but it was a mess. Everything is nicely contained now and labeled in the spice cupboard.
The beast...The pantry before:
After!! I want a new shelf on the top right to house some more items.
My newly freed beans all beautifully labeled. I had all of the jars in another cupboard. Don't know why I was hoarding but they finally came in handy!!
Love how it all turned out. So much work! Now to just enter all of the food items and make a food inventory that will work for us will be the really challenging part! Maybe by this summer.
This project wasn't too bad just time consuming because it involved the kids trying clothes and getting rid of some of them that don't fit or they never wore anyway. SimpleMom is awesome!
This is #3 sons dresser who is 2 1/2. On the right is all of things for fall. On the left are the things he can wear now and through the summer.
#2 Sons dresser. He is 5. A collector of things, actually they all are! We sorted and tried on and we even got the bottom drawer to be empty with all of the organizing. The top drawer is still his "stuff" drawer.
#1 Son dresser. The top drawer is a mess of stuff still but the clothes are all organized!! The bottom drawer has the things for fall.
These are the Sunday clothes. I culled these down to one suit each and two white shirts. Their other button up shirts are now folded in the drawers with the rest of the shirts.
Daughter's dresses an the school spirit shirts. We actually cleaned out her things a while back. Still a lot of dresses but it is more manageable now and she actually wears the things hanging her.
Consignment pile!! Not sure if it is worth the time but we'll see.
Thrift pile.
Pile made by said 2 year old while I had to attend to something else. Grr.
Processing the 8 under bed boxes. One for each kid, one shoe box and three--3!--with baby clothes. Two of which are mostly girl clothes. Did I mention that she is now 10! So, they are culled a bit better and a large box is filled to send to our newest niece.
Coats. Coats and hats, scarves and mittens galore. We both come from cold/wet places and we have amassed a pile of coats. They are now confined to the one big box with hats etc. in the top box. I may have zipped these a little early. Spring came but we keep having some chilly days with north wind.
Kids cubbies. Current shoes and spot for their book bags. I really need a 4th cubby but this was free and does work wonders with containing school things.
The coats all nicely washed and ready for spring. This was a jumbled mess. In between seasons is challenging at best. They now have a wind breaker and a fleece hanging here.
Part of why I don't blog more is technical difficulties. I know it is user error but it is SO frustrating. I walk away wondering how did I screw up the formatting on the post so badly! So, more posts in progress for some future date. As for now I'll keep working on Hot Spot #4: Pantry and Fridge.
I received an email today from the How Does She? gals that made me happy. I have been pondering how to get a home management binder together and have been looking around.
I know this post is ridiculously late. It's been in limbo draft land for weeks. Here are some of the things I make for my sister and her family and my brother in law and his wife.
A needle book made of felt. With buttons to fix a suit they have.
Placemats and napkins made with one of favorite fabrics.
Book bag with library card pocket (the owl face.) It is also
reversible.
Here is the bagged stuffed and ready to ship!
I made the monster for my nephew and the hand bag from a favorite shirt whose sleeve were way too tight! The little flower is a pin.
More placemats, napkins and flower napkin rings and coasters. I love how these turned out. The flowers are on clips that can be removed from the black satin rings.
We made homemade paint and playdoh. But the thing they loved best was the Oomlick (cornstarch and water.)
And then I had the great idea to make a volcano using our newly made playdough and the usual baking soda and vinegar mixture. That was a lot of good messy fun. All sorts of things were consumed in the lava floe!
Then to top of the day of play I made mini apple pies. Oh. My. Yum. I am still working on this as this batch came out great but subsequent ones not so much. I've even tried silicone pans but to no avail. :(
