Saturday, April 16, 2011

Beanbags!

I did my first couple beanbags today! The second came out better than the first but the boys are enjoying both of them :D

I decided to do the paw print fleece first. I didn't have to stitch it inside out, and I had the thread to match. Plus it was high contrast, and Ethan liked it a lot :)

I started by cutting squares roughly 5 1/2 by 5 1/2 inches. I wanted the finished size to be about 5x5. The squares weren't even. When I go to Walmart, I'll pick up a pack of chalk to draw the cutting lines for the my next ones. Here's the second one pinned.



Next I stitched the 2 squares together. The rest of the pictures are of the first one I did. Since I forgot to take a picture of the first one pinned, I had to use the second.



Here's what I used to fill them. It says do not use for children's crafts but my mom, who has been crafting forever, said that was for legal reasons only ;) I decided on this filling because it was at Walmart where I was shopping, it wasn't very expensive ($5 for a 2# bag), and it's washable!



I left an unstitched hole big enough to fit a large funnel. That's how I filled them. I ended up using about 4 oz of the filling. I could have used a little less in the first, but it ended up perfect for the second (it was cut a tad bigger).



After I filled it, I stitched up the hole I had left. Here it is stitched and stuffed.



The other side.



And here is the finished product! The stitches aren't exactly straight, and I had trouble trimming the fabric even, but know what? I'm happy with the size, the boys are having fun with them, and I'm excited to have made a toy for them myself!!!



Here's Gabriel getting ready to throw it, again :) He kept throwing it and saying, "Ball!"



Here are all the fabrics I got to make beanbags out of. Each piece is 1/4 yard. I should be able to make 8 beanbags from each. Maybe more. The paw print and ducks are fleece. The next two animal prints are flannel. The light blue is minky.



I'll post pics of the finished product as I make more of them! Eventually... ;)

Saturday, April 9, 2011

A (Gasp!) Evening to Myself :)

I had been fighting some depression last week. That-time-of-the-month wasn't helping matters any, but it was more than just that. I'm with the boys 24/7 except for church. Ethan will sometimes sleep other than with me for an hour or so, but Gabriel still won't. So I go to bed when they do, and read and/or surf in bed to wind down after they fall asleep. Yep, I am LITERALLY with them 24/7!

Friday evening Jesse unexpectedly told me he would watch the kids so I could get out of the house for a few hours! BY MYSELF!

First stop - Jesse wanted me to get burgers for him and the boys. Then I had my choice of where to eat supper! But where to go?! I finally settled on the Mexican place we had eaten at for the last Mom's Night Out. It was fairly quick, not crowded, and yummy :) I ate a chimichanga filled with shrimp and grilled veggies, Mexican rice, and refried beans - all of it with white queso. YUM!

From there I went to the mall. My phone was getting old and had been acting up so I went to go play with the phone I was looking at replacing it with.

Next to B&N! I passed up the Godiva double chocolate cheesecake at Starbucks and decided to get something at a (better) coffeehouse later. I replaced the boys' Hop on Pop board book that we can't find and Ethan has been wanting to "read." Then I sat with my nook and decided to take advantage of the Read In Store option on it. I had 1 hour to read any book available on my nook. A while back I downloaded the sample of "Raising Your Spirited Child" and was anxious to read more of it! So that's what I did for a while. I was able to browse more of the how-to's and saw that the rest of the book was better than what I had read so far! I ended up buying it LOL

I left before my hour was up and headed to the coffeehouse. It's only about a mile from my house so it was the perfect place to wind down! I figured that even though it's near the university and usually crowded, it would be quieter on Friday night. I was right :) I sipped a decaf chocolate iced coffee and read more of Jane Eyre. Some light jazz was playing in the background, and the later it got, the more deserted it was. By 11pm there was only one other customer in there. Other people came in and got coffee to go, but not too many. I didn't leave for home till 11:45 - 15 minutes before they closed.

It was so nice to get out by myself for a while! It did so much to recharge my batteries :) I hadn't been sleeping good, but I have since then. And my patience and tolerance with the boys has been better.

This introverted Momma REALLY needed that me time!!!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Feeling Crafty

Monday I picked up some fabric. I wanted a project that would be easy, not take up much room to do, and cheap. I also wanted it to be for the boys. So I ended up with 5 different fabrics to make beanbags! I got 2 flannels, 2 fleece, and a minky. Gabriel LOVES soft textures right now, so I chose accordingly! Once they're cut out, I can sit in the living room and sew them up (by hand - I don't have a machine) while the boys play. I ended up picking up a bag of the washable stuffing beads at Walmart today. It was $5 for a 2# bag. If I pick up one a week till I have enough, it won't be a hit on the budget, and I won't be making them faster than that anyway! I'll try to get a pic of the fabrics and upload it.

I love to cross stitch! I love to be creative! But since Ethan was born I just haven't been able to do much :( And I really miss it! I get creative in the kitchen but that just isn't the same... While I was pregnant with Gabriel I handmade Ethan a pillowcase for a travel-sized pillow. That's the only thing I've done in a loooong time. Other than bringing my cross stitch to Mom's Night Out sometimes and working for about an hour there.

Really looking forward to working on something for the boys :D

Delay (Ethan's Assessments)

Our social worker was out sick last week, so we're rescheduled for next week! They'll be doing the interaction eval with Jesse and Ethan. Gonna be interesting...

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Our New Feathered Friend

About 6 months ago we lost one of our budgies (parakeets). We still don't know what happened to her. She went from fine to gone in 24 hours :( She was our only bird in the living room (the rest of the flock is in the bedroom). We all really enjoyed her being in there! She was great company during the day. After we lost her, I missed her presence. Ethan would walk up to the cage every so often and just look longingly at its empty contents.

We wanted another bird for in there. But we didn't know what kind. It had to be:
1. Quiet - that's the only room with a tv and we didn't want to have to turn it up to hear over the bird's vocalizations
2. Okay with being away from the other birds
3. Laid back/not easily scared - after all, we have 2 young boys playing and making noise in there all day!
4. Inexpensive

Saturday we had the opportunity to see a lot of birds all together. We didn't go in planning to get one, but we walked out with this beauty!


She's a Rosy Bourke. She's not tame but she's definitely not scared of us! She even will eat with the boys playing only inches away from her food dish :) Some of her species are handfed, but she was parent-raised. I think we'll be able to tame her eventually though! If not, and till then, we're happy she's not skittish with the boys!

It's so nice having a bird in there again! Ethan talks to her often in the sweetest voice! Gabriel went up to her yesterday and said Hiiiii!!! She chirps back when we talk to her and is just a friendly little sweetheart!

BTW, we don't know if she's a she or a he LOL You can't visually sex them. So since we don't know, I just couldn't call a pink bird a he if we weren't sure ;)

As for her name... Our bird names have always had themes. She belongs with the Jim Henson characters - Mokey was one of the main characters on Fraggle Rock, one of my favorite tv shows of all time!