jump up and down

i heart handmade

When it comes to gifts, I definitely prefer those of the handmade variety, both in the giving and receiving departments.  I do especially try to give handmade, although occasionally it doesn't happen.  But, during my blog break, I was able to make two handmade gifts - one for Peter's best buddy's birthday (sorry, I couldn't help myself - all that alliteration was too tempting) and one for Ryan's cousin for her wedding.

For the birthday boy, I used the serger one last time to whip up an all purpose tote made from red corduroy and a fun sea faring print I got from JoAnn about a year ago.  I filled it with a notebook and box full of fun things - a crayon roll (also handmade - this was my first attempt at making one of these), pencil, scissors, and glue.  I thought the bag can be used to carry all sorts of things to all sorts of places - quiet activities to church, toys to the doctor's office, pajamas to grandma's house, etc.  This was definitely easy to put together - I did it the night before in a couple of hours and the birthday boy seemed pleased. 

 When we got married, I vowed that I would never give any couple a gift from the clearance table.  I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but we had four hand mixers and none of them could be returned - and believe me we tried at about ten stores!  So, we kept them and when we would hear that someone didn't have a hand mixer, we would give one away.  I think it took us about five years to get rid of them all.  Anyway, from then on I decided I would either buy something off of the couple's registry or give something that you could not have too many of - like towels!  Incidentally, we did get about a bazillion towels for our wedding and I couldn't be happier - eight years later and I still haven't bought a single bath towel and probably won't have to for at least another ten!

So, my handmade gift to Ryan's cousin of appliqued towels and crochet dish cloths definitely fits into the can't have too many of category.  I took some of my Amy Butler scraps, cut some pears and apples out of Heat and Bond and put them right on those cotton dish towels.  Then with a little zig zag around the edge, they were ready to go.  This was such a great way to use scraps.  I think I see Christmas gifts in the future and possibly some for the shop. 

playdates and sergers

Summer is here and I couldn't be happier!  It's still a little cool here, but not so cool that you can't go out and enjoy a little sunshine.  I have a few things up my sleeve to make this summer lots of fun for me and the kids - more on that later.  But what really made it start feeling like summer was a visit from my friend Phoebe - we were pals when we both lived in California and both moved at about the same time to other locales.  Her cousin, Karen, lives here and Phoebe introduced us and shortly after I moved here, Karen and I were pals too!   Phoebe was in our neck of the woods last week and stopped by for a fun visit.  I made a plate of hummus, carrots, cucumbers and pita, and a plate of Mary Beth's Chocolate Chip Cookies - these really are the best!  They've replaced our previous favorite recipe and an empty plate can't lie! The boys played hard, running in and out of the house and jumping.  We chatted and caught up - it was a great afternoon!  Phoebe - thanks for stopping by and Karen - thanks for having us over!  (and yes, Ned is crying in that photo - he was having a hard time that afternoon.  I only look like I'm grimacing because I was trying to take the humorous approach to dealing with my fussy child!)

And I had a few requests for the model number on my Mom's serger, so I'd thought I'd share it with all of you for future reference.  It's a Janome MyLock644D.  I've been very impressed with it so far - I don't have much serger experience, but I think that speaks for this machine's ease of use.  I also keep meaning to share the book my Mom lent me that I've also really liked.  The actual owner's manual doesn't have any photographs, just black and white drawings and I am a visual learner, so this book, The Complete Serger Handbook by Chris James has been very helpful with all of it's full color photographs.  This would be a great book to get if you inherited a serger from someone or bought one second-hand, but didn't get the owner's manual.

I hope you all had a great weekend - I'm sad it's over, but excited for my first week of summer to start!  Happy June everyone!

why I love blogging

About a year ago, when I started blogging, I also started reading Sarah's blog.  I quickly discovered that she lived in Davis, the town we had just moved from a few months earlier.  We loved living in Davis for the six years we were there while Ryan went to graduate school at UC Davis.  It has the best farmer's market, bike paths down every street, wonderful weather (ok, except for those couple weeks in the summer when it's 110), green living, fun people, great parks, double decker buses, lots of fun things to do - am I painting the picture for you?  We really did love it there!  It was a great place to spend six years.

Earlier this year we thought we might try to get back to Davis for Picnic Day, but for several reasons we just weren't able to go.  Instead we went to visit our family and Ned got sick and threw up all day on Friday and we had a tiff with Ryan's brother (I cringe to even mention this because it is so not like us to argue with family - this is really the first argument we've had with anyone in either of our families since we've been married) and basically our weekend didn't turn out very well.  We came home early and spent Sunday recovering.  And then on Sunday night, I started seeing pictures of Picnic Day on blogs of friends and I started feeling sorry for myself.  And then on Monday I went to get the mail and there was a key in our box.  Keys mean packages and I wasn't expecting one.  I opened up the door on the mailbox and found a box from Sarah inside.  She had told me a while back she would send me a Davis care package - something that I had totally forgotten about until I saw it.  And her timing was perfect - just the thing to cheer me up when I was really missing Davis!

She sent a great tote, made by her (take a look at that fab button detail on the strap -love it!) - such fun fabric and excellent workmanship - french seams inside and super straight stitches.  And she sent another tote bag from the absolute best grocery store in which I will proudly carry my groceries.  Also included were an assortment of treats from Pedrick's Produce - the best produce stand/store in the area -cheap as dirt and fresher than fresh.  My only regret is that I didn't discover this gem until we'd been living there for about four years - I'm not sure how I missed it!  And the books -assorted fun reads and "The Toads of Davis " - one that we always meant to get and never got around to it.  How can you leave Davis without a copy of  "The Toads of Davis"?   Thank you so much Sarah - perfect timing and the perfect package - you really made my day!  And I keep smiling every time I see it - so I guess you made my week too!

and p.s.  Revolution Money Exchange is extending their offer until May 15th - everyone who signs up gets $25 and each referral gets $10.  I actually had someone pay me with it last week - it worked well and so far I'm happy.  I don't expect to use it much at first, but hopefully it will gain more popularity and I won't be paying so much of my hard earned dough to PayPal.

my super socks

Yesterday we woke up to this  (hopefully we are almost finished with it)...
And it reminded me that I had never shared my fabulous new socks.  After taking Peter to pre-school without socks on (I think I was in denial that the snow was back), my feet really needed my new socks.  I actually got them for Christmas from my best friend Cayenne, knitter and spinner extraordinaire.  I have kept meaning to share them because I think they are so amazing.  They are so warm - the perfect thing to warm up my feet when nothing else would work.  And look at all the detail in the cuff!  Isn't she amazing?  I had no idea things like this could be made by human hands.  I have decided that I really need to learn how to knit, if only for the purpose of knitting socks.  Thanks Cayenne! 

Have a great weekend everyone!  Here's hoping for some sunshine and spring weather for everyone!

pink and ruffles for baby

It's been a busy couple of days - a friend and I threw a baby shower for another friend.  I haven't thrown a baby shower in a long time - I think it's been over two years.  There was a time when I was throwing a baby shower every month or two.  And wouldn't you know it, I'll be throwing another one here in a couple of weeks - these things all seem to come at the same time, don't they?

I made these super easy invitations - printed the white part on cardstock and then attached them to a patterned paper with these fun brads that I found at JoAnn in the $1 scrapbook items.  I think they turned out well, especially for a person who doesn't do much papercrafting.

Decorations included a couple of pennant banners and bouquet of colorful carnations.

And I made this for the new little girl who will be making her way into the world sometime next month.  Frilly pants and a decorated onesie from Ginger Blossom and a little bit of Amy Butler.  I have to admit that these were very fun to make.  I'm trying to come up with  some sort of boy-ish version of the pants.  The only thing I've decided for sure is that the ruffle has to go;)!

I love giving new babies a warm welcome into the world - I hope Melanie and Dan's baby makes it here safe and sound and I can't wait to see her in her frilly pants in a few months!