Sweetheart Girl’s First Sewing Kit

I was looking through some old pictures, and I realized I had wanted to blog about the little sewing basket I put together for Sweetheart Girl’s 5th birthday last month.

Before I begin, I should say that I saw a similar project on another blog that I stumbled upon quite a while ago, but I cannot find it again!  I need to give credit to someone, but I just don’t know to whom it belongs… so…sorry to whoever you are!

I was able to find this adorable basket at a thrift store that I believe once held a little tea set.  The little nooks and crannies were perfect because I was trying to figure out how I would be able to do that on my own!

I bought some yarn needles, cute big buttons, and a sturdy, plastic embroidery hoop, and I had everything else at home.  I cut some ‘bobbins’ out of some sturdy cardboard for the yarn and knotted one end of the yarn and taped the other end.  For the ‘fabric’ I used shelf liner, netting from a bag of limes, and tulle.  I also gave her one of my extra measuring tapes, a thimble, and some ‘pretties’ (lace, etc.).

Sweetheart Girl LOVES it!  Here’s a picture of the very first button she’s ever sewn!

I just love her crazy ‘fresh from the bath’ hair.  She’s inherited my frizzies- sorry, baby girl :)

Notice her dress up shoes?  Those are the one item she asked for, and she received seven pairs from the grandparents and a friend- needless to say she was a very happy birthday girl!

Eventually I’ll start teaching her some basic stitches, but for now she’s just having fun (and learning how to keep her yarn from getting all tangled up!).  Of course, I’m not much of a seamstress myself so I’ll probably practice right along with her!

Soooo Busy!!!!

Whew!  Since coming back from Mexico (which was fabulous!), we haven’t stopped!

After being gone for just a few days, there was a lot to catch up on, and by Thursday, the kids and I needed to get out of the house!  So we met a friend at the children’s museum, and spent the morning playing there.  This is the first time that Twinkle has interacted with the exhibits so she was fun to watch.  Apparently, Minion 1 developed a fear of the dinosaur section and wouldn’t let us go in it!  It’s a small section and I was able to stay out with Minion 1 while the big kids went in- but he about fell apart at the thought of Minion 2 and Twinkle going in- it was hilarious (in a sympathetic way, of course).  Here are a few of my favorite pictures:

I'm blaming pregnancy brain, but I can’t even remember what we did Friday, and Saturdays are always busy with church soul-winning, errands, and preparing for Sunday morning.  Due to our other activities, the house was extra messy, and we had guests coming over for Sunday dinner, so I REALLY needed to clean house!

Sunday was an absolutely wonderful day.  My husband preached a great message on separation and holy living, and it was really a challenge to our church to step it up!  Our afternoon was filled with good fellowship, and the evening message was just as convicting (for me, anyways).

On Monday we took the kids to the county fair, and spent a few hours there.  The first thing we did was watch the shark show.  We got good seats, but we had to wait for a good 20 minutes or so.  When the show was starting, they played the JAWS theme music.  That music scared Minion 2!  It took a little convincing to get him to stay and watch the show!  We explored the 4-H area, the petting zoo, and saw a couple more shows, and then this mama needed to go home!  I was beat!  A few pictures from our day:

Tuesday, our church hosted a Bearing Precious Seed conference.  This is a ministry out of Ohio (I think) that prints Bibles, New Testaments, John and Romans, etc. in many languages and sends them out all over the world to missionaries and churches that request them- all in the good ol’ King James!  Really, all we were doing was opening our building for them to use, but somehow there was a miscommunication and we found out Monday morning that we were supposed to serve breakfast and lunch for them!  Oops!  We were scrambling a bit, but a dear lady from church (thank you- I know you’re reading this!) came and helped, and everything was pulled off without a hitch!  The kids were great, which was such a blessing because staying calm and occupied while Mom is busy all morning and preachers are in a meeting is no small feat for 6 children!

All that last minute stuff was really a blessing in disguise for me, though, because I had not planned on going to the meeting, as there was no need for it.  However, I had not even thought that the couple running it were dear friends, and I would not have seen them if I had not gone.  The time spent with Miss Bonnie was so precious, and I’m so thankful the Lord arranged all of it!

Tuesday night we observed the Lord’s Supper with the church family, and that is always one of the best services of the year for me.  It’s still amazing to me that Jesus Christ was willing to sacrifice Himself for me.  I hope it never becomes ‘old news’ to me.

Oh, and Tuesday the paperwork was signed on the house!  Praise God!!!  We spent all day Wednesday there beginning the cleanup work!  The fridge and freezer smelled so I began cleaning that.  On the surface, it didn’t look too bad…but then I started taking the inside apart…ugh!  I found a back panel that I think the previous owners didn’t realize was there because the original tubing for the water line was still there- anyways, they definitely never removed it because behind was blood and food drippings and particles.  When I took apart the door shelves in the freezer, there was mold everywhere!  It took me over an hour to get that thing cleaned out to a point where I felt I could be comfortable putting our food in there!

Okay, to wrap up this novel, Thursday I was wiped out and sick (I felt it coming on since Monday) and was of no use to anyone (not entirely true because the family did get to eat, and I did get the girls’ disaster of a room organized and ready to pack), and today we spent another day at the house cleaning, fixing, and prepping.  I’ll show pictures of the house in a later post.

Well, I’m off to bed- oh wait, it’s only 8:15…there is a pile of laundry on the loveseat that I should probably attack..

An Update

Well, I’ve been busy and in the midst of early pregnancy woes, so I haven’t felt like blogging in a quite a while!  So here’s a quick update:

Pregnancy: By the end of this week I will officially be in my second trimester!  I’ve been dealing with typical first trimester stuff- all-day nausea, exhaustion, and the general feeling of apathy towards anything that seems unnecessary and expends too much energy!  However, I really can’t complain, because I certainly know many women who have it much worse, and I myself have felt worse in previous pregnancies!  And I forgot to mention…there’s only one baby this time!

School: McAwesome finished his schoolwork last week, and Hero has just a few lessons to complete this week.  Hero will be done today or tomorrow!  They are, of course, very happy, and I am slightly concerned that this will be too long of a break before we are able to begin next year (our summers are always very busy!).  I can already see signs of boredom so I’ll have to stay on top of that.  The reason that we picked up the pace to get done this early is…

We’re Moving: I haven’t blogged about this yet, but it’s been in the works for several months now.  The house we’ve rented for the past 5 years is up for sale, and (long story, short) we’ve found a wonderful home to rent that is almost bought.  However, it’s a foreclosure house, and apparently the bank just doesn’t care if they get around to selling it!  We were supposed to close March 15th, then it was delayed to the end of March.  We were supposed to close last Friday, but the bank had still not sent the paperwork to the title company!  Grrrr!!  Supposedly, we’ll get it this Friday, but I’m not holding my breath.  We don’t have to be out of our current home until the end of May, but the new place needs a bit of clean-up work first, so we’d like some lee-way time!  Well, more on the house later…

Weekend Getaway: My husband and I are leaving this Thursday to visit some missionary friends in Arivechi, Mexico.  We’ll be bringing them some supplies, and they have some special events over the weekend.  The kids will spend the night with our close friends on Thursday, and my parents will come get them for the weekend.  We’re very excited to get some time together, and it’s been ages since I’ve been able to go visit and help in any kind of mission work- something that was vital to bringing my husband and I together in the first place!

Well, that covers the basics!  I’m slowly starting to feel better so hopefully I will keep up a little better from now on!