Mish mash

Chem girl decided she wanted to be a designer seamstress for a day. A trip to the local fabric store and she came home with fabric ready to cut and design. She doesn't like patterns and prefers to 'wing it' (like her mama ;).

She saw a shirt similar to this in a magazine for $50 and there's no way she was paying that price.

The back had a very wide elastic band on the purchased top. However our local fabric store doesn't carry anything wider than 2" elastic. In spite of that she made it work.

She saw this piece in the remnant stack and fell in love with it. Her finish work is quite impressive. It's a flimsy knit and those of you who sew know exactly what I'm talking about. Very fine sewing machine needle and a fabric that slips all over the place. She did a great job. Think it's time to have her sew for me ;).

*sigh*....while we were gone Mr. Bettis apparently needed to create his own entertainment so he dug out the placemats. They're housed on our baker's rack in the kitchen.

This is the third (or is it the fourth?) time he's dug these out. Guess I need to find another place for the mats. See the flip flops in the left hand corner? I'm shocked he didn't chew those all over the floor. Guess if we were gone just a wee bit longer they would have become this week's trash.
Tomorrow is our eldest daughter's (Vet girl)bridal shower and we're wrapping up the final touches. Sunday is the youngest daughter's (Chem girl) birthday celebration. Pictures and details to come later. It's a busy weekend.

What's on your weekend agenda?

Oh where, Oh where has this blogger been?

Saturday morning at 6:30 am we transported the Piccolo Pirate to her school. The band was leaving for a 5 day trip to Philadelphia PA and NYC.

Her first big trip to the Big Apple.

Kids (including mine) looked as if they had just crawled out of bed. But there was excitement in the air.




I managed to get a few of her friends to stand still long enough for a group pic.

7:20am (20 minutes later than the scheduled departure) and they were off.

The DH and I ran home to get ready to leave in the opposite direction for a bridal shower. We were running 1/2 late. The DH was driving and I was knitting. Approximately 10 miles from the house a little voice told me to ask the DH if he picked up the gift. And I think we all know the answer to that question.

We turned around and backtracked. Now we were 55 minutes late. Unfortunately along the way we were held up in traffic due to an accident. That put us 1 1/2 hours later then intended.

1:00 pm:
The shower was for my soon-to-be new DIL. She is marrying #2 Son in May.

Her favorite cake is carrot cake and it was decorated to match the shower invitations.

The spread of food was awesome and there was even champagne punch. No, I wasn't hanging out at the punch bowl the entire time although with the ex husband's snooty wife in attendance, it was a thought........LOL




I wanted to give her something special and I've racked my brain for weeks. Finally the lightbulb flickered. I am known as the "cookie mom". My kitchen was the home for the kids' friends to hang out over the years and they always raided the fridge for milk and the cookie jar for cookies.

So I put together a gift basket of necessary items to bake cookies.

A cookie scoop, stainless steel mixing bowl, chocolate chips, nuts, 2 knitted dishcloths, Pampered Chef measuring cup (love that thing for measuring shortening, butter etc), crocheted El Cheapo Scrubby, dish detergent (to clean up the mess), handsewn apron and a cookie scented candle in case the cookies flop and she can light the candle and serve Oreos to #2 Son instead.

Red ribbon and a handsewn apron ornament were the finishing touches.

Of course my sense of humor and I just had to make the apron a fun garment. I found this fabric and whipped up an apron just for the New DIL- to -be.
I also found a pair of #2 Son's jeans in a box and before I gave away the box I cut out a pocket from a pair of his jeans to be sewn on the apron. Just a little personal touch:) The ties are ribbon tape measure ties.
She loved it!











Here she is modeling the pin-up guy apron.



















To be safe and so her new husband wouldn't get offended (lol) by her pin-up guy apron, I made the pin-up gal dish detergent apron so he has something to look at while doing dishes.
I raised those boys to help in the kitchen:).















We played games and the toilet paper wedding dress game was fun.
The girl second from the left won for the best "gown".
Another girl and I "designed" this dress so we were quite honored. I think the bow in the headpiece was the deciding factor:).
We put bows on the shoes, bustle on the backside and tied a knot with a piece of the toilet paper on her finger to signify she "tied the knot". It's all about details, folks. LOL
The Bride-to-be received a lot of beautiful and useful gifts and I think she is very happy.

Unfortunately on the way home I recieved a phone call from the Piccolo Pirate & her friends sobbing on the phone. mmmmm...........I wonder if the band director is aware that I have pointy sticks and I'm really not afraid to use them. (eyes-raising here)

Frugal Fannie

My new nickname is "Frugal Fannie." LOL

The DD mentioned she wanted a vest to wear to school. Considering the economy and the lack of $$ in this house to purchase a vest we came up with this. This pink coat belongs to her but the sleeves are too short. She has a nice red & white coat that fits well so we decided she could do without this one as a coat.

First we cut out the sleeves.

Then we tore open the side seams and took in the sides so it was more fitted in the waist. The sleeves had a ribbed cuff tucked underneath the sleeve bottom. The DD cut the ribbing out and we attached it to the armholes.

Now her friends want one......LOL

This was the result.

Notice the gloves. I made those for her last year for Christmas. Matched perfect. Not quite the "yarn me some mittens" that Jessi made......lol

When I say I'm being frugal that's exactly what I mean. I looked at a bag of bows. Oh my gosh! Why are they so pricey? My thought on the whole bow thing is, you may as well open the trash can and throw $$ in it. The "money cow" here met an untimely death (lol)so I can't afford to throw $$ in the trash. I found this site and grabbed magazines (no, not the knitting mags) and started making bows. It is addicting. Fascinating to see how the pages turn out when made into a bow.


These are a few of my favorites. I found two of them being carried by Phoebe the cat. I have no idea why that cat likes paper. She is always tearing at ribbons and bows on packages. These will look pretty on my brown paper and yarn "ribbon."

This weekend will be spent making candy and finishing up gifts. I will show you the fabulous markers that I got from Anita on the next post. I couldn't help but use them already and I'm trying to finish the projects. So pics will be forthcoming. Have a good weekend!

Ms. Swiffer's Sweater

The economy is a mess! As you all know. Meaning, it's a very frugal Christmas here. So I've been busy in spite of Mr. Lyme Disease and Mr. CRPS. And yes, I have dubbed it them a Mr. They're a pain so why wouldn't I? LOL

DD and I made Ms. Swiffer a sweater. We used left over fleece but you could use flannel, cotton anything at all. Works beautifully. Picks up dog hair like no one's business. We flipped it over after use and ran Ms. Matilda Sweeper's nozzle on it and it was ready to be used again. We are now making Ms. Swiffer a wardrobe of sweaters:)

These are Footsie Tootsie warmers. I found the pattern on Tipnut. Anita and I love this site. Go check it out. It's fun.

These are quick and very useful. Used flannel and fleece for the outer cover.

There's an inner bag made from flannel that is filled with rice. You could put some smelly herbs in there like lavender but I didn't have any and remember, I'm saving money this Christmas.

Besides I have already rescued one of these from Mr. Bettis's mouth and I wouldn't want him to think it's food.

So much for him heeding Chan & Sissy's advice about being good.

Open the bag and remove the inner bag. Pop it in the microwave beside a cup of water and turn on for 3-4 minutes. Put it back inside the cover and you have a Footsie Warmer.

I tried it and it stayed warm for over an hour. I used it on my back since Mr. CRPS decided to overtake my joints now. This little warmer gave me some relief and I love it.

p.s. I am still frantically knitting but sewing is so much faster when said frantic knitter is running out of time:)

The Flying What?

At the daughter's school. You see, she is the Marching Band Field Captain. Don't ask. I have no idea what that title actually means. The Band Director (in his infinite wisdom) decided our daughter was "too short" to be the Drum Major despite the fact "she had an excellent interview/audition and is well qualified." Uh? So a new/old concept has been implemented aka Field Captain to "give her a job because the chosen drum major can't handle anything but directing."

In other words, she does the grunt work with no recognition. We have let on to her that it is an important job but she is no dummy and has seen right through that little scenario. She will, however give it everything she's got.

This is the first part of the grunt work. The director built this contraption for the band show. Then called her because he knows she sews and directed her to hand sew all of the fabric onto the very LARGE parts of the flying thing. It was a daunting task for a 16 yr old.

30...... yes, 30 yards of fabric to be hand sewn.
25 hours of hand sewing.


Then he had the nerve to "drop by" and inform her that he wanted the large parts reversed because he changed his mind?! The parts that were already sewn, mind you. Is he nuts? When he left, she called and we could've burned him at the stake with our conversation! LOL




This is the "thing" completely hand sewn. She doesn't want to see a sewing needle for a long time.










While resting on the porch I saw Squirly Squirrel. He was playing and having a ball in the yard. Of course Mr. Bettis and Miss Gypsy went crazy but Squirly Squirrel simply ignored them. Occasionally he would turn and raise his head to peer at them, then he would proceed to scamper about the yard.






This butterfly took rest on our bush in the back yard. It looked so serene that I had to take a picture of the beauty.





p.s. I'm a knitter who gets cranky if I can't knit at least one row in a day.
Does anyone else get cranky when they can't knit at least one row a day?