Clothesline Apron

I love to hang up my clothes to dry outside on the clothesline. Let's just ignore for a moment the green-ness of it, of the energy we're saving or the money we save by not using the dryer so much. It's also very relaxing, very calm, and extremely satisfying. I feel much more like I've accomplished something than I do when I load up my dryer. And usually the kids play in the sandbox while I work, so it's a win-win fun situation for all. :) (Though I have been known to get busy and forget to bring them in before the dew sets in, completely negating all the work I did...shrug. Well organized and completely on task, I am not, nor will I ever be. Let's just be honest here.)

But anyway, to my point...I've been carrying around my clothespins in the plastic bag they came in. Not very attractive or even very practical. It's a small, narrow ziploc-type bag, and so hard to reload with pins as you pull clothes off the line. Often I just chunk them in the basket with the clothes and run the risk of them falling through the holes onto the ground (and either getting found by my children-- who have been known to smoosh fingers in them--or by the lawnmower, and we know how that would go...) I kept saying...I need to make a bag to hold them, but we all know how THAT goes. I've been saying that since last year...

So, recently, I purchased this book One-Yard Wonders by Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Hoskins, and lo and behold, it had a clothesline apron in there, all pretty and polished, and I knew I had to make it.

And so I did. Yesterday.




My only complaint, really, was it's a bit too small. Once I've put all my clothespins in there, it looks very misshapen and overstuffed...because it is. shrug. We'll see how it holds up. At any rate, it's very cute, and now I want to make a new apron for the kitchen. Hmm...which pattern to choose?

Pink

Anyone that knows my daughter knows that nowhere in the words to describe her do the words DAINTY, GENTLE or CAREFUL appear. Seriously, the girl is "rough as the cobb," as my mother would say. She is so tough on shoes and pants, that I'm doing good for either pair to last a month without a hole. I mean, really, how many kids tear up a new pair of shoes from the INSIDE out??? (And how do you do that anyway???) The state of her torn jeans is such that I'm beginning to wonder if they have her playing tackle football at recess...and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if she was. She is equally rough on toys...she even broke the handle of a tupperware teacup I bought her for her toy kitchen. Tupperware. (me shaking my head). And my old talking Bugs Bunny doll that somehow managed to survive years of my own childhood abuse, and many more years in storage in an attic I'm pretty sure gets hot enough to bake cakes...she had it beheaded within five minutes. Not on purpose, mind you. But still.

But even though she is more likely to be seen playing football than dolls, that she is in no way a prissy, girly-girl...still, we have entered the PINK stage.

sigh. She's driving me nuts. Pink PINK PINK....oh, and purple. Purple is okay.

I am NOT a pink kind of person, usually. Not that it's an evil color or anything, only, well, orange is my favorite, and I don't wear a lot of pink, either. When Little Bit was born, I even scoured the stores to find her a nice little coming home dress that was NOT pink!!! (Finally found a cute one that was mint green with tiny little pink ribbon roses at the yoke) And I dressed her in a lot of NOT pink when she was little, though I did not shy away from pink entirely. I'm not, like, insane about it or anything. I just don't really like pink that much.

But now I have to practically argue with her to get her to wear any other color. sigh. Here we go...

Of course, having thought back onto my own childhood, I, too, was pretty much a tomboy. I never wore dresses or my hair down unless we were going to church, and I could often be found outside digging for worms. And even I had a pink and purple stage--I remember it, actually. Though I favored purple, which Little Bit used to. shrug. Maybe she's just up for a change. Of course...once I got a little older, I threw off anything pink...or lacy...or ruffled... Yeah, probably just a phase. :)

Let's hope so...I don't have a lot of pink fabric in my stash. LOL

Pretty Spring Flowers

Spring is in full bloom at my house, and all the flowers are coming out of hiding, enjoying the nice spring weather. My roses are finally blooming, happily, including my two new bushes I recently planted. I think I have 10 total, now. I plan to put one in the front soon, though to replace some plants that didn't make it through last summer's drought that I didn't like enough to replant. (from the people who lived here before) The boys try to pick everything they find blooming, including the roses, which scares me to death. Finally, they're sorta' starting to get it, and will say. "I can't pick those. They will hurt me." Bless them! I also recently planted a raised garden bed, but that will be another post. I hope you all have a lovely Tuesday!

Easter Goodies

Just thought I'd share a couple things I got finished for my shop for Easter. Running kind of late, I know, but I'm also working to get some stuff done for the craft fair in early May (which may not happen unless I REALLY get on the ball!)
Here's a sock rabbit, a little amigurumi rabbit, and a couple amigurumi Easter eggs with a little rattle inside, for those kiddies too little for the real eggs...or the chocolate ones. :)

Lemon Lime Sherbet

This is the baby blanket I made for a dear friend of mine's new baby girl. I decided to name it lemon lime sherbet because of the lovely colors of white, pale green, and pale yellow. It reminded me so much of those colors in sherbet. :) It's actually some baby yarn I bought at a cute little yarn store in Cambridge, England. I had actually bought it to make my twins' blankets, but then decided instead to make them out of a much thicker (and warmer) yarn, which turned out to be pretty smart, given how cool it got very quickly after they were born. Anyway, so I decided to make it for my friend's baby, and I am quite pleased with how it turned out.

The bunny is actually a freebie pattern from Wee Wonderfuls website. I embroidered the little bunny and stuffed it. I thought it would make a good new baby toy for when she starts being able to grasp things, because she can gnaw on it to her heart's content, and it's just the right size for little hands. I hope she enjoys it! :)

I just LOVE making baby things!!! It's such a happy project, and each stitch was filled with love and prayers for this new little person to be welcomed in the world!

Happy bithday, little Rachel!!!

Old Sink, New Sink

We've been wanting to replace not only our faucet in the kitchen, but also the sink, itself, for some time now. Our first choice was cast-iron, which I still love and plan to have in my "gonna' stay here" home one day. And we did, in fact, purchase one, brought it home, and would you believe it...it was WARPED! CAST IRON! But sure enough, it was not straight and would not fit flush with our countertop (and yes, we checked it was not the countertop, but levels don't lie. The sink was NOT straight.) That, plus after careful consideration that we weren't sure our current cabinets were set up to hold that kind of weight for any prolonged amount of time, we finally just went with stainless steel. We, are, of course, trying to fix up our house as nice as possible but also trying to be frugal on what we invest in it, as we know we will eventually sell.

Anyway, this sink is a good 2 inches deeper. LOVE that feature way more than I thought I would. And it also has completely flat bottoms, as opposed to our old one that has curved corners on the bottom. So, more room, over all.

I love it. I don't even have to say a word about the faucet with sprayer. Come on! Just LOOK! :) It's awesome. Esp. since we still had the contractor grade one with broken sprayer. Fun.

So, I am very very very happy with this new addition to my kitchen (along with my new convection oven, but that's another post...) and proud of my wonderful hubby who is so good with tools!

Before:


After:

Pray!

Just want to remind everyone out there to pray for all the people going through so much fear and saddness in Japan. May God help them all!