Fruit Salad

Last year for my birthday I bought a really FUN sewing book. Now, I WANT to sew, but I am seriously afraid of my sewing machine. Or anything that requires electricity and has an "on" switch, to tell the truth LOL (including this computer). But last weekend my desire to sew overcame my uneasiness, so I pulled out the really FUN book, Sew Pretty Homestyle, and made a couple of the projects in it.


First I made the pears. I know pears do not come in yellow polkadots or blue floral (my kids think I must have flunked kindergarten), but the fabrics match my kitchen, so that's the colors I made them :) They weren't actually that difficult, thank heavens. Now all my kids want me to make them their very own pears. What would a boy do with a stuffed pear? LOL



Next, flushed with the pear success, I turned to the strawberries. Being smaller, they were a little trickier. It didn't help that I kept forgetting that I needed to sew the RIGHT side of the fabric together LOL Then I decided that instead of stitching the seeds, I wanted to do beads. Every project needs a little sparkle, right? When I got the leaves I decided to take the easy way out. They were supposed to be sewn from fabric, but just sewing those single pear leaves was enough to convince me that I should use wool instead. I made them in pastels to go in my bedroom (once again, convincing the kids that I flunked kindergarten, because everyone KNOWS that strawberries are RED), specifically to go in this pink depression glass bowl. I think I may have made a couple too many; they're scrunched in there pretty tight. But that's where they're staying, at least until I change my mind.


You know, I still have a pattern for apples that I could try :)

Must be lazy...

Sadly, it has now been ANOTHER month since I've posted! I have to say though, that September has been a little crazy. Getting the kids back into the school routine has been hard. Especially now that S is in middle school/6th grade. It's a whole new world once you leave that elementary school, for me as well as for him! And having a half-day kindergartener is throwing me off too LOL I just can't keep track of everyone! It's so much easier when they all leave at the same time and all get home at the same time. But on a positive note, E, who has been homeschooled for the last 2 years, is really enjoying 5th grade at the school.
It was also my birthday this month, which leads us to the subject of the birthday curse LOL Seriously, my birthday IS CURSED!!! I have spent 2 birthdays in the last 6 years in the ER with injured kids. The other 4 years, someone has been injured right around my birthday, but not on the actual day. We actually joke about what is going to happen THIS year? LOL Luckily there haven't been any serious injuries, but it never fails that someone will be injured (stitches, broken collar bone, falling off a jungle gym, biting through bottom lip, dislocated elbow, you know, the usual). This September seemed even worse than usual. Not only did A bite through his lip, but every time I turn around I am either tripping over something or running into something. I'm one big bruise! LOL Thank heavens it's almost October! :)
Right now I am working on a cute wall hanging. If you have the BHG Holiday Crafts magazine for this year, it's the 12 Days of Christmas project on page 61. I have all the images stitched, and I'm going to get the pears done today. I'm cheating and using felt to back my pears, then blanket stitching around everything. The whole sandwhich everything together was too much work LOL I'll try to post some pics in the next day or two.
I hope you are all enjoying beautiful fall weather! It's crisp and cool here!

a little shopping

I saw a really cute votive candle holder idea on the junk drawer blog (see the link in my blog list on the right, since I have no idea how to put the link in this paragraph LOL) . She mentioned that she purchased the votive holders at Micheal's for 60% off. Well, I couldn't pass up "cute idea" and "good sale" LOL So yesterday E and C and I dropped in at Micheal's. I obviously found a few more things than just votive holders! I didn't find the same votives that Maria found (I like hers better, but that's the way it goes sometimes), but these were pretty, and they were 60% off. You can't tell from the pic, but they are frosted glass with a clear fancy design on them. There were 4 different designs, so I had to double up on a couple of the designs. Now I just need to find a cool muffin tin. Go check out Maria's votive holder on her blog! It's so adorable!

Everything in the pic was on sale except the glass bottle (which I'm going to fill with sand and shells when we visit Bear Lake next month) and the shell package (which was only 59 cents, which is as cheap as on sale LOL). I actually got the little pink/peach box for my sister (don't read that line Jeanette!). I love the shape of those boxes, so fancy! Oh, and the big "A" that you can barely see is something I plan to decorate for A's room, eventually LOL I also picked up 3 large foam stamps and 4 sets of their acrylic $1 stamp sets. And 9 little American flags, for the kids to wave and to put on the graves of both my grandfather's on Monday (they both served in WWII).

I ended up with quite a bit of stuff for $30! Yippee!