Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Why I'm a terrible blogger lately...

I've got a few projects I keep planning to post about, but a couple things keep getting in the way like...

1. SNOW.
 Here in the Pacific Northwest, we've been getting hit with some pretty strong winter storms.  In Eastern Washington, where I live, it seems especially bad because we NEVER get this much snow (technically its a desert here - thanks to that lovely Rainshadow Effect) and never in November!  When this pic was taken yesterday, we had about 4 inches.  It continued snowing most of the day yesterday - I think I heard we ended up with about a foot.  I dont dare look at the weather forecast anymore...since my husband's a Driving Instructor, I'd just rather not know.  Driving with 15 year olds is bad enough...driving with 15 year olds who have never driven on snow before is even worse!

Anyways, so we've been spending a lot of time in the snow, which I'm not a huge fan of because its cold and wet and a huge mess to clean up afterwards...but we get a little Cabin Fever going on if we stay inside all day long.  And I need all the sanity I can get!

(And, in case you're wondering, that is my Monster in the pic above, who does happen to be a boy.  I just put off pulling out our winter gear this year, and when I did I realized he's too big for the coat he wore last year, and too small for the next hand-me-down I have for him.  So he's wearing purple...and a flower hat because its the only one he'll leave on his head.  Seriously...I made him one pretty much the same style just more boyish, but he always rips it right off.  Which is why its now in my Etsy shop.)
(Caught this snowflake on the t-shirt I used to cover my camera...I dont think I've ever actually seen a "traditional" snowflake like this!!! )

B.  ETSY SHOP.

I've been sewing like a lunatic, trying to stock up my etsy shop because I have a spot reserved in the Somewhat Simple Studio Boutique!  So, on Friday morning make sure to check out Somewhat Simple to see all the fun shops and the discounts they're offering!

My shop, Loved Anew Creations, is under "Baby/Kids" and you'll find a code there to use to get 15% off your order!

PLUS...if you mention in the "message to seller" at checkout that you read my blog (you don't have to be a follower, although thats always nice...I'll just take your word for it!) you'll get a FREE GIFT too!

I'll post more on this Friday morning, I hope, because I've got to get my rear in gear and get back to work!



OH!  One more thing I forgot...
I joined a Holiday Craft Swap over at the Tshirt Diaries...because I love getting packages in the mail, and I love making things for others!  If you want to join too, click the button below...you have until Dec 4th to join!



Thursday, November 18, 2010

Batman Slippers



My hubby L-O-V-E-S comic books, superheroes and all that jazz.  He's passed that love onto our kids it seems; my Munchkin can name just about any superhero by sight but, until we bought the Beauty and the Beast DVD this last week, she really didnt care much about princesses.

Go figure that my only girl just wants to be one of the boys!

Anyways, its getting colder so I thought my little Monkey could use another pair of slippers...since he's only 3 1/2 months old he can wear them anywhere, not just in the house which is great!

I used my tutorial for Wool Sweater Slippers found here.  The sweater I used for these had rabbit hair, so its little fuzzier than I like, but they are so soft!!!!  The Batman Logo is made from recycled t-shirts...scraps leftover from the Batman bibs I've been making.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Iron Crafter Top 10!!

I remember back in college I was astounded by the fact that there was an entire TV station dedicated to FOOD.  No, I didnt live in a cave before then...we just didnt have cable.  And considering how much time my roommate and I spent watching the Food network, I'm glad we didnt have cable - I would have been a hermit!

Anyways, one of our favorite shows was Iron Chef America.  One of the Iron Chefs would face off against a challenging chef and they would have one hour to use a secret ingredient to make all these courses.

The excitement of not knowing what they have to use, and the challenge of using it to create within a short time frame is what hooked me.

Which is EXACTLY why I'm so hooked on Fireflies and Jellybeans' monthly Iron Crafter competition!  I entered my Toddler friendly "Board" game using Paint chips back in August and made the top 10. 

This month's secret ingredient was sweaters, which happens to be my current obsession!  I entered my Wool Sweater slippers and guess what...I MADE THE TOP 10!!



Now its up to everyone out there who wins this contest...go and vote for your favorite (it doesnt have to be mine although I would LOVE as many votes as possible!  But there are plenty of other cute ideas to choose from).  Just click on the link above, and then click on the star underneath the project you want to vote for...you can vote once, and voting closes on Friday.

Go check it out!

Halloween costumes

ALL THREE kids are down for naps...HALLELUJAH!  This NEVER happens, not all at the same time, so I fully intended to use my time wisely...by taking a nap myself!

But first, I wanted to throw up a quick blog about our Halloween costumes.

Since we are a family of 5 we went as THE INCREDIBLES!

I dont have the best pictures...it was a crazy afternoon/evening with a crazy amount of last minute costume making.  Theres a lot of things I would do differently if I had more time...the biggest one being put a REAL waistband on my costumes, not just the hem of a black shirt!  I had to safety pin my pants to my shirt and pray really hard that everything would stay in place!  (Which, considering I've had three kids in the last three years, was praying for a miracle.)

Hubby and the Munchkin

Dash (SO appropriate, my Monster was EVERYWHERE and that was before he got any candy!), ElastaGirl, Violet, and Mr Incredible, who is giving Jack Jack his binky.  Thats the closest we got to my Monkey being in a picture; he was so good he slept almost the whole time!

For Jack Jacks costume, I took one of my Munchkins old Pink sleepers and dyed it red.  Since it had bunnies on the front, I took a piece of white T Shirt and painted the "I" emblem on it and glued it to the sleeper.

For Dash, I bought a red long sleeve shirt and red (girls) leggings from Walmart, like $3 each.  If I'd had more time/energy/less kids to haul around I could have found these cheaper at thrift stores perhaps, or found what I REALLY wanted: red thermal underwear!  But these worked fine.  I painted the emblem on the shirt with fabric paint, borrowed a pair of black socks to put over his tennis shoes (he kept slipping on non-carpeted floors, it was really funny!) and made some black "underwear" out of a maternity t shirt.  (I LOVE cutting up my old maternity t shirts!)  Oh, and I took a strip of black fabric and stitched it around the neck.

(She INSISTED on posing like this.  I think we may have trouble with this one as a teenager!)
For Violet, I did almost the same as Dash, except instead of leggings I had to buy tights because they were out of red leggings in her size.  Shes also wearing the yellow sash, which my Monster WAS wearing but managed to pull off at some point.  For the black underwear I actually had an old pair of leggings from my youngest sister that I cut the legs off.  I had planned to use the legs for the high "boots" that Violet wears, but SOMEBODY wanted her pink polka dot rain boots.  Oh well.

For ElastaGirl and Mr Incredible, I made the pants out of two ginormous red tshirts that were on clearance at Walmart.  My black "underwear" were from the old maternity shirt, Hubby's were a pair of black leggings that I never wear.  The legs of those leggings made my "boots" (I turned them around and used the cuff as the top so I didnt  have to add elastic.  I just had to bring it in lower on my leg, which was easy enough.)  The "boots" for hubby were the sleeves of the maternity shirt.

My shirt was a white one I've had for years and had plenty of stains.  I bought Hubby a white shirt at Walmart because I was running out of time and energy.  I dyed both mine and Hubby's, then of course painted the emblem on.  Am I forgetting anything?  Oh the yellow belt thing is knit ribbing I found at Goodwill awhile back.  I made an actual waistband for Hubby's costume using the elastic from an old pair of maternity pants, but like I said I ran out of time to do mine!

I hate looking at these pics, because of how unflattering this costume was on me!  Not that I'm gonna be too hard on myself...its kinda expected to still have a tummy less than 3 months after giving birth - especially when its your 3rd kid!

And you know, being ElastaGirl, some parts are more stretched out than others! :)