~Eating by Candlelight~

I've given up (put aside for now) a great deal of things but, my one luxury for dinner is to light candles.  I have 2 brass candlesticks(a wedding gift from Duane) that have candles lit every meal.  Callie & Samuel each get to blow one out when dinner is over.  Seth or Simon usually light them for me.  For some reason, just that simple thing, lighting of the candles, makes me relax and enjoy the meal more. Even if it's only hot dogs and mac-n-cheese!! :) Silly, I know.....

Callie decided she wanted her own candle lit for lunch.  I pulled out a class votive holder and gave Callie her candle.  Here she is enjoying her Taco Salad lunch on Tuesday. 

Samuel, after seeing his sisters' candle, insisted that he have his OWN candle lit.  Back again to the china cabinet I went.  Rummage around and found another brass holder(another wedding gift from Duane).  Put a candle in it and he was happy!  Yes, I realize he's wearing a Christams shirt, but I let him.  He'll outgrow long before next Christmas, and he might as well get some more use out of that Ooga Booga shirt I made him!:)

Here they both are, enjoying their taco salads and their lit candles!  They've insisted on candles everyday this week for lunch, don't know what I'm going to do when I take them out for lunch at Wendy's today!!! 

"Can I have some Ketchup, Please?"

Those were the words out of the mouth of my jokester-lovin' 9 year old last night!  After a shopping trip to Kohl's, Seth, Simon & I go through the drive-thru at McDonalds for some ice cream.  As the lady hands us our ice cream, Simon leans over and asks for some Ketchup!!!  The lady gapes at us, eyes bulging out and replies, "What did you say?"  He repeats the question.  She just stares at us in bewilderment!  I explain to the poor girl that it was a joke.  As we drive away, I'm thinking that she just didn't get it!!! lol   The boys laugh all the way home and daddy has to get after them at home 'cause their little brother & sister are sleeping!

~I tackled polo shirts!!!~

I've been wanting to try to sew some polo shirts for a LOOOONG time!  Finally I cut into some wild knit fabric to try them out!  I didn't want to practice on my good fabric! :)  This was my first attempt!  I'm hoping to make all 3 of the boys matching polo shirts for Easter.  We'll see......

~the close-up~

My second attempt went much better!  These shirts are so much fun to make!!! Samuel is not too thrilled with modeling a shirt first thing this morning!

~a close up~

Next up.....I want to tackle putting in a zipper fly!  Pants for Samuel with a REAL zipper are coming up!!!!

LATE night motivation...and doing a happy dance....kids are back in SCHOOL!!!!!

I was motivated last night.  After spending the ENTIRE day cutting out, ironing & sewing heart-shaped items I was SICK of sewing, cutting, glueing, ironing hearts!!!  In fact, I decided I didn't like heart-shaped items anymore!!!  I spied this fabric basket on another blog and knew I just had to make a couple.  I did things a bit differently then the other one I saw, and am happy with the results.

The anticipation of my children going to school today, stirred up the creative juices quite late last night.  I finished one a little before 2:00 AM and put the finishing touches on the second one early this morning.  I used 17 different fabrics for each one.  Makes for a quite colorful basket.  I'm keeping the pink/brown lined one on my sewing machine to keep all my clippings/threads in as I'm sewing.  The blue dotted lined one was shipped out this morning for a missionary lady in our conference.  Hope she likes it!! :)

 

without flash you can see the colors better but it's quite fuzzy...

with the flash....it simply washes out all the pretty colors!!! :(  One of these days, I'll learn how to take a decent picture! :)

Now to get motivated to CLEAN my house!  Two days of being snow-stuck does WONDERS for the way a house seems to FALL APART!! :) 

Look out....it's a sock...no wait....IT'S A MONKEY!!!!

What happens when you take some scissors, thread, stuffing, buttons, a pair of mismatched socks and miss your Sunday afternoon nap?

You create a SOCK MONKEY!!!!

......drumroll please....

~Introducing

.....................................

..................

.........

...

.

~"Mr. Monkey"~

I have longed for quite some time to make one of these adorable creatures.  I was just waiting for the right pair of socks to jump out at me!!!  I found these pairs at Dollar General on clearance!!!  That made me even happier!  I spent my Sunday afternoon creating a new stuffie that my daughter immediately claimed as "Mr. Monkey"!  I wanted to name her Millicent.  Boy, you'd get a kick out of hearing Callie say THAT name! ;)

She wanted a picture of "Mr. Monkey" on her head!  I'm going to have to make another one now--for ME!

Getting a head start of summer play shirts for Samuel.  I tried some reverse coverstitching on these and I LOVE the results!

The orange one was the sample and turned out WAY too wide.  That's what you get for sewing while your son is sleeping! :)  Oh well.....it will work as a sleeper shirt!

Still have 3 more cut out waiting to be sewn up into something wearable!

Samuel tried on the shirt and he said, "Mommy, I LOVE this shirt.  It's so warm and comfy!"  Makes sewing all the more rewarding when your child says stuff like that!!!!

15 coin purse & tissue holders.  These will be shipped off to Mexico tomorrow.  Hopefully the snowstorm isn't as bad as predicted and I CAN get to the post office tomorrow!!

A close-up (fuzzy one) of the boxed corners of one of the tissue holders.  Don't you just LOVE that lime green mushroom fabric???  I do!!!

~Need a BIG room JUST for costumes~

I jokingly told me boys last night, that by the time they are raised, I'm going to need a BIG room just for costumes.  They have spirit days & pep rallies throughout the school year that require some new and creative costume for me to make for them.  This weeks' theme for the elementary was something to do with Noah's Ark.  Personally, I think my boys are a little big to be dressing up like an animal....soooo.....they are dressed like a hammer and an ark today.  I was very happy that these costumes cost NOTHING to make.  I had the brown fabric leftover from a children's worship theme I did years ago.  (It was actually stored in the attic!)  The silver fabric was scraps leftover from a Mr. Goodbar costume made for Simon last year.  For the animals, we used little people animals and the blue water is a rib knit hand-tacked onto the ark.  I'll take that off when he comes home and store it back with my knit fabrics! :)  It took a couple hours on 3 different evenings this week to make these.  I'm happy they are finished and the boys love them.  Can't wait to see the other costumes when I go to the pep rally later this afternoon!!

Seth wanted water/waves for his ark.  I thought it was a very creative idea!  I love it when the boys get involved in their costume making!

Mr. Hammer, with his sidekick, Mr. Nail

Mr. Nail was Simon's idea! :)

Samuel's 5th. B-Day!

Samuel turned 5 last Sunday, January 17.  He had talked about his birthday for WEEKS!!!!  Thanks to some wonderful ladies at church, Samuel had a big lasagna dinner and a chocolate birthday cake.  My mom & I went out shopping late Saturday night for a few gifts for him.  He was one VERY excited boy after church to open his presents and eat his special meal!  I can hardly believe my baby boy is 5 already!!!!!

~Seth & Grandpa watch Prince Caspian~

Samuel LOVES construction equipment!

Mommy & Callie sang "Happy Birthday" to Samuel!

The construction playmat I made for Samuel the day before his b-day!  I found this fabric on clearance at Hobby Lobby and thought it would be the perfect gift for Samuel.  He LOVED it!

Daddy bought Samuel a new John Deere tractor set.  I hid it under the perfectly smoothed out playmat while he wasn't looking.  When he turned around and saw the bump on his mat he had to fix it. 

He was excited with his find!

Callie plays with Samuels Hot Wheel set from his Uncle & Aunt.

A neat game from his Grandpa & Grandma McIntosh.  We've all played it with the kids! :)

Seth takes it easy.

Samuel playing with his birthday gifts.

Callie begged Samuel to let her play with his new toys.  He was NOT happy with sharing with his little sister.

Samuel's birthday dinner compliments of a wonderful couple at our church!

Samuel blows out the candle of the cake made by another lady in our church.

Samuel being silly!

Callie hid when I tried to take her picture.

~The story of the Candle~

Once upon a time, a mommy went shopping.  It was the day before her sons' birthday.  She had no gifts, no cake and no candles.  She had spent the last several days in the hospital with her oldest son and had no time to plan a nice party for her youngest son.  Late Saturday night, the mommy went out shopping with her mommy.  They bought lots & lots of liquid food for the oldest son.  They bought gifts for the youngest son.  The mommy decided to splurge and buy a 'fancy' #5 candle for the little boys' cake.  She got home and put the candle down.  She wrapped presents and got the table all ready.  Someone came and brought dinner and a cake for the candle.  They even brought a can of candles for the mommy to use.  The mommy said, "No, that's okay!  I bought a candle for his cake."  She gave back the can of candles.  The gifts were opened.  The food was eaten.  The cake was brought out.  Where was the candle?  It was NOWHERE to be found.  She searched high and low.  She had every member (minus Seth) of the family searching for the candle.  She was very sad when it could not be found anywhere.  She scrounged around in her drawers and came up with one lonely balloon candle.  That would have to do.  The candle was lit.  The pictures were taken.  The candle was blown out.  The mommy said, "I imagine we'll find it sometime later."  Sure enough, it was discovered on the fooseball table underneath an instruction booklet for the Hot Wheel set.  So mommy sent the now 5 year old boy off to get his picture taken with the #5 candle that missed being put on his cake by a few minutes.  The candle is now stored away in the drawer in hopes that it will be found to put on a little girls' cake in 2 years time!

Seth, who NEVER has an ounce of fat on his body was sporting a double chin from all the fluids & swelling.  He's looking like his mommy now! :) 

I saved the best for last.  Duane's dad & Simon washed and dried the dishes!!!!!!!

Simon hides being the dish towel!!!