Title?

So, even though I feel like I've somewhat fallen off the 'being creative' wagon for a bit, I actually have been working on things from long ago in the to-do list.

For example, I finally made a hair bow holder for the girls room:

There are tutorials all of the place for these, but they are so easy to make or even to explain how to make. Since there are lots of colors on my girls walls, well only 3 but still, I decided to make one that's white on white and I love how it turned out!

I bought a picture frame from a yard sale, spray painted it white (with a clear coat on top for durability). Then I cut a piece of cardboard to fit, mod podged some white paper on it since I used eyelet, I didn't want the brown to show through. I cut a piece of fabric about 2 inches wider and taller than the cardboard, and mod podged it on (no topcoat). Lastly, I cut some ribbon a few inches longer than the long side of the cardboard, hotglued in place, and presto! Done and done.

And to think, I had thought about making the girls some more bows for Easter.... I think I would like to make another one of these, but with an oval frame next time. Maybe we could put the fancier bows on that one, and keep the more daily ones on this one. We shall see.

Another in the works project that we've been working on is finishing up the living room. I love love finally having our own house, and feeling like I can paint the entire thing (and not have to repaint soon). Here's what it looks like at this very moment:

My husband moved the TV over to the right wall, and we moved my sewing table and all it's glory downstairs last night. We stood there looking at what felt like a naked wall now. We're thinking that we'll move the smaller bookshelf from the other wall and put it in the corner, we'll get another to balance the wall. But, we're also thinking of getting some high-back chairs as well. I'm so happy!

Here's some ideas of chairs I'm lovin:

Ikea Stolkholm, multicolored

San Rafael Chair, Pier 1

Mitchell Armless Swivel-Green Floral, Target

Josette Chair, Pier 1

Cadman Puzzle Chair, Pier 1

Temani Chair, Pier 1

Banana Chair, Pier 1

I think my most favorite are the Mitchell Chair from Target and the Banana Chair from Pier 1.

What do you think?

Fastest Jammies in the West

To MAKE of course... hahaha.

No, I do not live in the West, never have, maybe someday. And, unfortunately these jammies don't have any cowboys/cowgirls on them either. Oh well.

Regardless, this is the easiest pajama dress to make, for reals.

*Fits girls from about 5 to 10, depending on how long they like their jammies.

Supplies:

• 1 yard fabric 54" wide (1 1/2 yard of 44" wide)
• 1 1/2 yards lastin or fold over elastic (FOE)
• Sewing machine
• thread
• ruler
• scissors/rotary cutter with mat
• decorations of choice

 What To Do:

1- Cut 2 rectangles of fabric measuring 15 inches x 9 inches (with the grain lines parallel to the 9" side). These will be the sleeves.

Also cut 2 rectangles of fabric measuring 30 inches x 22 inches, with the grain lines parallel to the 22 inch side. Theses will be the front and back.

2- Fold your fabric in half with your fold on the left, and your two 9 inch sides on the right. Mark 5 inches down from the top outer corner along the 9 inch side, and 4 inches over from the top of the outer along the 7.5 inch side. (photo above)

3- Place a ruler as though you were drawing a line between the two points, and cut along that line. (photo below). Be sure NOT to cut the side where the fold is!

4- Repeat the last two steps to the other sleeve, and to the top portion of the two larger sections that were cut for the front and back. When you fold the front/back pieces in half, fold them so that your rectangle will measure 30 inches x 11 inches when folded.

These cuts will make your raglan style sleeves.

5- Using a serger, or a narrow zig-zag stitch, sew a sleeve to each side of the front, and one side of the back like this:

6- Take your lastin, and using a smaller zig-zag stitch, sew the lastin along the neck edge and the bottoms of both sleeves about 1/2 inch from the edge. Be sure to stretch the lastin as you are sewing.

7- Sew the remaining sleeve/body seam. Now your jammies should look like this:

8- Finish the jammies by sewing each side seam going from the edges of the sleeves all the way down to the bottom. Don't forget to add you labels if you have them!

Optional details:

- Sew lastin to the bottom 6 inches (or so) of each side seam, giving your jammies a rouching on the sides and a rounded bottom.

- Sew button(s) or bow(s) to the front of the jammies for decoration (and that way they can easily figure out the front side of them).

Side note: this pattern can be easily adjusted by simply changing the dimensions of your original rectangles to make other sizes, and besides, it's a jammie dress, it doesn't need to fit perfectly.

Just a reminder, my patterns are for your personal use and enjoyment only. They have not been tested, so if you find an error feel free to let me know at lyannajeandesigns@gmail.com.

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From The Library This Week

I go to the Library all the time, so much so that I have a place on my bookshelves just for library books.

Lately I have been reading the Elm Creek Quilts book series. I need to go get book 4 this morning (from the library of course), and I only started about 3 weeks ago. One book a week feel nice, not too much reading that I feel like I'm sacrificing other things. I love it.

Some of the other books I picked up are:



This book is really great because between all the recipes it actually reads, with stories about the author or experiences they had to develop the recipes. There are tons of recipes, tips, and beautiful pictures of instructions as well as final products. It gives me the desire to stay home all week and bake to my heart's content! Oh, the smell of fresh bread... mmm. This one needs to be in my personal library for sure!



Put 'em Up! is a great home canning/preserving book. The recipes aren't just plain boring, like a lot of home canning books I find that are a bit older. There are 'new' twists on recipes, and some of them seem just daring to me like pickled zucchini, oohhhh. There are plenty of photos, and even some basics info for new canners. Pretty awesome.



Another book I picked up (more food stuff...) is Root Cellaring : the simple no-processing way to store fruits and vegetables. This book appealed to me on so many levels! Not only does this book advise you on how/where to build a root cellar, but it shows you exactly how to pack the foods to optimize their shelf life. Simply AMAZING!! To top it off, this whole thing is encouraging a way to store foods without having to process them, no canning/freezing. Now I want to buy a farm more than ever before, it's funny that a root cellar may now be one of the first projects completed once that happens... more planning.

Of course I had to get some quilting books, nothing like some awesome eye candy!



This book is simply inspirational! Amazing, beautiful, wish I had that kind of time book. Check it out for sure.



Last, but definitely no least, is City Quilts. Can you tell I love quilts with a simple repeat? There are a couple of quilts that I absolutely need to make from this book. The simple lines, the straight line quilting, the choice of colors, breathtaking. The quilt I love the most from this one is the last one it the book. I can't remember the name of it, but it's the one with every color of the rainbow. Just awesome.

So, if you're not the library kind of person, I highly recommend each of these books to you! It was quite amazing that I managed to like all but one of the books I got from the library the last time I went, I usually don't have such good luck.

Yellow Cream & Sugar or White Sink?

What has been the best part of this past week in my end of the world you ask?

Well, I'm not entirely sure actually...

We've been up to so much this week, when it rains it pours around here, come to think of it maybe that's the only way my husband and I know how to do things. Like Crazy, haha.

Last Saturday we went to church for our Primary's Easter Activity. They did a few crafts, had some cupcakes, and of course an egg hunt. This is the cream of the crop as far as my success with taking pictures went:

Next came our some what last minute decision to redo part of the kitchen, um like now. We wanted to change almost everything about our kitchen when we first moved in.

Can you blame us? The dark red wallpaper in the photo below is just the beginning of the hideousness. Once I find the photos I took of our kitchen before we touched it, I promise I'll post them.

My husband got some counter-top for dirt cheap, not exactly my cup of tea but we could definitely work with it considering how cheap we got it. And, of course I had to get a white sink, wishing the whole while it was a ginormous farmer's sink (next house...). It fits beautifully though, and I think anything else wouldn't really work with the size of our kitchen.

Isn't is soo purty?? Just ignore what's on the wall behind the sink, we'll get to the back-splash, hopefully soon. Wow my cabinet looks dirty....

I also had a little time to do some thrifting this week, BOO-YA!! Oh how I love thrift store shopping, minus 4 kids of course, but had no such luck with this week's trip.

We were on a hunt for jeans and church pants for my older son (somehow he grew about 4 inches overnight... I know, it happens), found quite a few pairs, and of course something else too.

Check these out:

Oh man, I was so cyked to find these. They called out to me from the shelf they were on. I love that they're yellow, and especially that they are flat-sided.

Can't you just picture them with cream and marshmallows just waiting for a hot chocolate social?!

Another FANtastic part of this week was that I finished piecing the first of my 5 quilts for the custom order I'm working on. Got the whole thing quilted during yesterdays nap time (thank you God for nap time, again).

I quite like how it turned out.

That was my awesome week, how was yours?

Teflon Pressing Sheets

I had never even heard of a teflon pressing sheet until about 2 weeks ago.

Debra Gabel was the guest speaker for our last guild meeting, this woman is absolutely amazing fyi, and at the end of her lecture she gave a short demo for her workshop she was holding the following day. As part of this demo, she showed us her teflon pressing sheets.



My thought was, oh just another quilting accessory that I don't really need/won't really use. So, of course I was hesitant.

And, naturally, when I went to JoAnn's last weekend I saw a plastic-y looking pressing sheet and bought it (only about $7, so would only be out-ed a little $ if I didn't like it).

This morning as I was pressing all my projects I'm trying to wrap up, my 8-year old's library tote came upon the ironing board with it's soon-to-be attached Fancy Nancy patch.

Normally when I am dealing with fusible, I have a cheese cloth that I put under the piece before I initially attach the fusible so I don't get sticky's all over my ironing board. Today I put my new-fangled pressing sheet.

I iron.

I lift Miss Fancy Nancy off of the pressing cloth and all the glue around her is now stuck on my pressing sheet. Moment of panic. Crap, I just ruined it.

Throw it on the floor in sheer disgust.

I finish ironing on Miss Nancy, then put books on top of her because her hands and feet just are not cooperating (another issue to pair with this moment of irritation of wasting money, and on my first use too, err).

I come back to the new 'ruined' pressing sheet. All the glue has dried, stuck forever I think.

Not quite, it all starts to flake off.

Genius.

Go buy one, seriously.

The Tip of the Iceburg

Want to see what stacks of approximately 240- 7 inch squares and 288- 5 inch squares look like?

Like this:

I am half-way done piecing the first quilt of a 5 quilt custom order I recently got, barely the tip of the iceburg.

The two larger quilts are gonna get done first, about 60" x 80" each, and the other 3 will be soon to follow measuring about 36" x 45" each. So happy to get sewing on these finally, the cutting of shirts takes a loooooong time.... seriously. But, having a quilt made from a loved one's clothing can be priceless!

I Can Read

I can read, I can read (sang with my best impression of Wilbur singing 'I Can Talk' in Charlotte's Web).

Hahaha, I know, Mom and Dad must be awful proud right??

What I mean to say really is, I have time to read again. And oh is it wonderful.

My kids and I go to the library weekly, and sometimes more than once. I love books, and I love reading. The only dilemma I had for uhh years was that I didn't feel like I could fit in anymore time to leisurely read. Whenever I actually had time to read I tried to read my scriptures, but it usually ended up being a cookbook, how-to book, or crafty/pattern book.

This week at the library when we walked in to pay our late fees I saw it on the top of a small bookcase and I knew I had to read it, now.

So, I picked up:



I love it, on Chapter 3 already and only had it since Tuesday. I find myself thinking about the characters and what may be coming next while I clean or fold laundry. It makes the takes go by must faster. I have also been thinking about what I want to read next, probably a John Grisham novel (loved ready his pre-babies).

Even though it's been at least 5 years since the last time I read a novel, I am falling in love with reading all over again and it's awesome!! The amazing part is that I'm not even having to find time to read, it's fitting in all over the place. So, if you're a mommy with lots of little ones, don't hesitate to grab a good book, as this book encourages, just cast on.

I've also put together a little "Bookstore" of sorts through Amazon. It features some books that I love and the kids love too, check it out.

On a side note, here's what for breakfast this morning:

Paula Dean's Gorilla Bread

We do really yummy for Conference Weekend, can't wait!