Better?

Help!

update: so found some super cute fabric by the same company that makes the snail, turtle, frog, etc. fabric. see! super cute. But anyway, I'm thinking maybe add these tone-on-tone fabrics in so it isn't quite so busy?


first off, click on the picture to make it bigger and see it better.

So I have 5 fabrics and this set up is 6x5 (obviously, I know you can count) Anyway, that means (again, obviously) one square of each fabric per line. So should I just do it in lines like this or try to mix it up? And actually, after measuring it against the brown blanket I am going to make it either 7x5 or 7x6. so, do I keep the lines?

edited to add** do I need to find more fabric like this or this and add it?

And, yes I know that Beka needs her blanket before the baby does but this one will be completed quicker giving me a little bit of crafting satisfaction.

Photos

Catie with her cracker that she nibbled into the shape of Australia

Emily in her nest of pillows we set up for her. She loved it even though she doesn't look happy in this picture.

My chair is done. And now we've given the Hadfield's the couch. Josh think the chair is too pink though. And they are worried about it marking too easily. What do you think? I will admit when I bought the fabric it looked country red but it is a lot more pink now. So I'm a bit worried as to what the couch will turn out like.

weekly ramblings

so, there's so many things to write about but then when I sit down I can't think of what to write. --excuse me, gotta go unlock the back door so a child can throw her pull-up away in the bin-- okay, I'm back. see, life just keeps moving on and the same old things happen most days.

Sunday--pretty normal Sunday. Larry Sauvageot preached for the last time as they headed back to the States on Wednesday. (Mom, I sent a little something back with them for you because they are in Flower Mound next weekend. So make sure you catch up with them.) The school is using the church building for a few weeks so every Sunday night after church the guys (and some of the ladies, too) change the auditorium to a classroom. I always claim Emily as my job for the evening. =)

Monday--ummm...don't remember what happened Monday. oh yeah, I cleaned the house except for the girls' bedrooms. Then I had a Tupperware party on Monday night. I was just hosting it so that my friend Roseanne could do her first Tupperware demo. And so that I could have some ladies over for fellowship. Ends up I got over $200 worth of free product. Can't complain about that!!!

Tuesday--woke up barely able to walk. So Josh stayed home for the morning because I had no milk, bread or cereal. And I had to go the grocery store. By this time I could walk, my back was just sore. We all went to the store and spent way over my weekly budget. Oh well. Then we headed to the pool for swimming lessons. Even though Josh was in the water with Emma she still cried most of the time. At dinner we gave her the option of not finishing her swimming lessons but that meant that only Catie would be going to the pool on Tuesday afternoons. She decided to keep trying the lessons.

Wednesday--Jennie and Emily came over for a few hours. The school is being required to write and hand in a document showing how the ACE curriculum fits with the national education standards. The most frustrating part for Jennie and I is that it is all written in language that no one really uses. We have to read through it, decipher what it means, figure out which of our objectives meets that goal and then rewrite our objective in their language. FRUSTRATING!!! We didn't actually get anything done yesterday but by the end Jennie knew where to start.

Thursday/Today--So far, we've cleaned Beka's room. I also made some Betty Crocker blueberry muffins (on sale at the store this week) and a simple syrup so that we can squeeze some lemons and make lemonade. I might throw in the last orange we have too. I also need to get some yeast from the store because I tried a bread recipe yesterday but it didn't rise at all. I think that yeast is at least 6 months old so that is probably the problem. I also need to get some pancake mix from Nana's Pantry for Saturday morning. And while I'm there I might grab a can or two of Dr. Pepper and maybe some Cherry Coke. =)

Friday--Not sure what we'll do besides the normal stuff during the day. Tomorrow night we have the junior youth (ages 9 -13) overnight activity. I'm thinking we have about 6 leaders for 12 kids so I'm hoping to stay home with the girls. Then we'll just get up and go in to make pancakes on Saturday morning.

Saturday--After making pancakes for the youth, I'm headed up to the S's for Susan's Tupperware party. I'll have to find something to buy since I got everything on my list from my party. They have these super cute containers that are made for using in the freezers. But what I like about them is that they have snowflakes embossed on the sides and RED lids. So cute. But they are $65!! And as I mentioned before I have no money left in my weekly budget. What to do??

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my brother-in-law Jason. I have two brothers-in-law named Jason but this is the one that married my sister. Which I'm sure you could have guessed from the photo. =) Anyway, hope your day was a good one, Jason!!

Question...

Can these fabrics be made into a quilt-y baby blanket? Would it be unisex or not? I would make a kinda patchwork with the animal fabrics and then back it with that yummy chocolate brown bumpy minky. Yes or no?

I might finally be coming out of the first trimester blahs. Today I'm very inspired to create. Too bad my craft room isn't quite ready for an onslaught of crafting. Oh well, I might pull out my cutting stuff and get some pillows and Beka's quilt cut out. And maybe this blanket too.

For Beka's quilt I've decided to use the Beatrix Potter fabrics and make this quilt. Not exactly like the other girls' but still kinda shabby chic.

p.s. this is post #300!! that's a lot of rambling

Dad's Birthday

Make a Smilebox greeting

In case you didn't believe me...

Today

• I asked Josh to let me sleep in for one hour while he got up with the girls since I didn't sleep well.
  
• He did.
  
• But the girls played in Beka's room and were very very loud so I didn't really get anymore sleep
• Beka (as normal) was poopy this morning.
• But Josh changed her. =)
• It poured rain today.
• But the girls went out and played in it anyway.
• Then I gave them a shower. Clothes change #2 for the day.
  
• And it isn't raining anymore.
  
• So I took advantage of the wet (read: sopping, waterlogged) soil and pulled weeds out of my garden in preparation for re-planting.
• My backyard looks like a jungle because in the 3 weeks since it was last mowed it has rained too much to get it mowed again but the rain helps the grass grow really, really fast.
  
• I still send the girls out to play even when the grass is almost to their knees in some spots.
  
• Beka decided to do a poo in her undies at the beginning of nap time. So frustrating. Clothes change #3.
• Beka then had a really long nap.
  
• And woke up sopping wet. Clothes change #4.
  
• Time to change my sheets as well.
• Still doing one load of laundry a day. laundry room floor is still empty. But couch is a little full as I don't feel like folding clothes of an evening.
  
• I'm 14 weeks pregnant. Aren't I supposed to be over the tired, sick, hungry part of this?
• Josh is bringing home dinner since nothing sounds good to me. =)
  
• Then we have Bible study at the Spross'.
  
• Speaking of the girls, they have been playing in the sandpit. The sopping wet sandpit.
  
• Cue clothes change #5. I think we'll make this a change into pj's to avoid clothes change #6. =)
  

Fabric, tupperware, juggling and swimming. Oh My!!

Today is going very well. We had our homeschooling done by 10 this morning. Then we went shopping. There is a guy who comes a couple times a year and sets up shop in one of the major shopping centres and sells fabric super cheap. So I decided to check him out before making the drive to Bundaberg/Spotlight. Well, I found macro suede for only $7 a metre!! It originally sold for $40 a metre!!! And they had 20 metres so I bought it. Less than $150 to re-cover the couch and chair. Not bad, I say. Now I just need some webbing and some buttons to cover but I doubt they'll cost much. I also need Josh to get the trailer and take the couch and chair to Poppy's in the next day or two. I'm so excited.

Tonight, Roseanne is having a Tupperware party. As always, it isn't about the Tupperware but an evening of sitting around laughing, talking, eating with friends. Should be fun.

The girls have been quite funny lately. I need to write things down that they say and take more pictures and video. That way I can share it with you.

This week for Five In a Row (some of the homeschool curriculum we are using this year.) we are reading "Clown of God" by Tomie de Paola. It's a bit so/so being a legend and all but still interesting reading. Afterwards we watched some juggling on youtube. (in the process we also watched one of my favourite Cirque du Soleil routines on the trampolines. I posted it below if you want to watch.) The girls are fascinated but we have no hope of learning to juggle I think. =) Later this week we will do some stained glass art projects and make soup. We also checked out eggplants in the grocery store since they talk about him juggling with eggplants and the girls didn't know what they were. They wanted me to buy some and cook it but I told them I don't know how. Plus I'm not a big fan of their taste/texture.

So, tomorrow we have library in the morning and then swimming lessons in the afternoon. Pray that it doesn't rain and we can have the swimming lessons. Catie just jumped in this year and is so close to swimming. Emma cried through most of last week's lesson but Josh has promised to go with her this week.

Chocolate pudding, updated!!

So, I found the recipe I was looking for. I knew the one I had didn't have dry milk powder in it. Yeah, it was in one of my cookbooks. "Make-A-Mix" by Karine Elliason, Nevada Harward & Madeline Westover. Love that book. We can't get Bisquick over here but they have a quick mix that is just like it. And it's cheaper. And their meatball mix is so yummy. By the way, I just checked out that link and it is a newer version of my cookbook. If you have it or know someone who does I want the recipe for that YUMMY looking pie on the front. I don't have it in mine.

Anyway, I'm home alone tonight after not feeling well all day. Josh took all 3 girls to church this evening!! So I made up the mix and then made up a batch of pudding. It's cooling on the stove now. I can't wait!! =)


Guess what!! My poor old couch died a long time ago. It started ripping within a month of us buying it. So we've bought a couch cover that works but doesn't really fit. We checked out the cost of recovering it but that was going to cost almost as much as the couch cost new. But Nanny and Poppy Hadfield have offered to re-cover it for us. So this week I'm off to buy fabric and then we'll take the couch and fabric and my little rocker/recliner to them. I'm so excited. Our couch and the recliner are so comfortable but look so bad. YAY!!! And probably for 1/10 of the cost!! DOUBLE YAY!!

Friday the 13th

I am so looking forward to this day. Have been all week.

at 10 the girls and I are headed to the Coffee Club for morning tea with friends. (my friends not their's) =) We'll meet Roseanne and Jennie (and Emily too I'm sure.) should be nice.

at 1 we are headed to the Hervey Bay Historical Museum to meet up with friends who are going through the museum with their homeschooling group. We're gonna tag along for fun. (side note: Josh and I had some wedding photos taken there as seen above.)

at 6 we are headed to our friends' house for dinner. They have a little 6 week old baby boy. That should be fun too. Plus we haven't caught up with them outside church for months.

It'll be a busy day but hopefully a fun one. Have a great weekend!!

Laundry...triumphs and tragedies

Triumph #1
earlier this week you couldn't walk into the laundry room without stepping on (lots and lots of) clothes.

Triumph #2
I put up my new curtain from Mom. so cute.

The other curtains are going here. I taped them up to try them out but they fell down. But there is a 3-4 inch gap between the reg. door and the screen door so I need to get a curtain rod to go in there and then I'll put them up. Thanks, Mom.

Tragedy #1 Still have heaps to fold.
The rain means these clothes have been on the line for two days. plenty of extra rinse cycles. =) Hopefully later today they'll finally be dry.

Tragedy #2
This is my couch right now. And that is after folding a basket and a hamper full of clothes plus whatever I could reach off the couch from where I was sitting last night. The girls' piles had gotten quite high and they get overwhelmed trying to put lots of clothes away so I stopped. But those are put away so now I need to finish this before those others on the line come in.

But finally, I have one load in the wash and none in the hampers. YAY!!! It's only taken me a month to completely catch up. Now to keep up with one load a day.

Wedding Pics from Gwen

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Wedding pics

Just some pics from the wedding. Between the wedding and the reception we went to the Botanical Gardens for some wedding photos. The girls and Gwen were checking out the ducks. And Gwen was the photographer and took heaps of photos. I can't wait to see them. The girls ended up being "flower girls" but they carried in a simple heart shaped balloon instead of flowers. They were very cute. And I got the roses done for the cake. Dorothy put the ribbon on the cakes and the candles too. I just did the roses. There was a small mishap with the cake on the left when it was being delivered. It kinda fell apart and the fondant was patched up. So I just followed the patched lines with the roses and then tried to make the cake on the right look similar. Not necessarily how I would have chosen to place the roses but they were happy.

hmmm...

*my roses are going crazy lately. so I brought some inside and floated them in a bowl*

So, lately this blog hasn't had anything crafty on it. Between heat, nausea and lack of creative thought there isn't anything crafty being done in my house. We're barely keeping up with the dishes and school. And we're not really keeping up with the laundry. But I thought we should have something creative on here. So without further ado...

Did I show you this? I got bored way back in October or whenever it was that I got to be home alone (remember that's when I painted all the samples on my bedroom closet doors) Anyway, I also made this that night for the girls' bathroom. Why the bathroom? I don't know. I have plans for more to go in there. Anyway, it was fun. I painted paper with my fingers and then cut the shapes out and pieced it together. I really should do the other ones I have planned. I enjoyed the process and the outcome. (all those white smears are the glue. I took the photo before it dried.)

So I laid out all the "bluebonnet trail" charm squares. I've gotten about half of them sewn together. I'll keep it simple and put a small white border, a bigger red border and then bind it in blue.

This is about half the red roses I need for a wedding cake. I still need some ivory roses and green leaves. Should've started this weeks ago. Of course that would've been totally out of character with my procastinating self. Anyway, wedding is tomorrow!!!

So, there you go...something crafty. We're headed to the pool today with the school. And then when I come home it's on to lots and lots of roses. Wish me luck!!

News

So, this is mostly old news now but thought I'd put it on here anyway. Actually, it's been on here for a week or so if you scroll all the way down to the bottom. But, here it is officially. We are pregnant with Baby #4 due mid-late August!! =)

Chocolate pudding

Made tapioca pudding last week for Catie's birthday. Since then, I've been wanting some chocolate pudding. You can't buy jell-o mixes here except from the USA foods website. And they're out of cook and serve chocolate pudding. And I'm out of the ones Mom brought me. Anyway, a couple years ago I made a bulk mix and tried to find that recipe but couldn't. So I looked online and found some. Just thought I'd post them so that I'd be able to find them again sometime and because they are cheaper for me than buying the mixes and probably for all of you too. And it's just as easy as making it from the box.

Mrs. P's Gluten Free Kitchen

Cornish Heritage Farms

Our Morning

Jennie had a dentist appointment and the rare time of no family being able to watch Emily. So, instead of starting school this morning we are having fun feeding, playing with, changing, fighting over, etc. little Emily. What a great way to start the week!!