Little Transporter

While I have been busy with my little project this last week, Ben has been busy with his own. We made a video of Josi when she was about Hyrum's age. I wanted to put it on here, but I haven't found the disc we saved it on. Ben thought it was time to do one with Hyrum. This one didn't turn out as well as we hoped it would. We need to work on the green screen thing. But, here it is anyway. We hope you enjoy!

A few More Outfits

Okay, so I am at the end of my doll clothes Christmas project. I finished that last few things I wanted to make for Josi, with the exception of a diaper bag, which I haven't completely decided I want to make yet. So, anyway...

This is the dress I made. It was really a pain because the fabric frays really easy. I am a little scared that, even though I serged all of the edges, it is going to fall apart with a little rugrat tugging it on and off of the doll. We'll see.

Josi had a Christmas dress made out of this 2 years ago. And the sheer stuff on top I got as a remnant. I am going to make Josi a dress this year with it and it was wide enough, that I used the opposite edge for this. Believe it or not, this is the plainer of the edges.

A few of the details. I made a headband for it and I sewed little buttons on the cuffs to look like they button shut. You can't really see them in the picture I think.

Jammies for the girl baby. Josi had jammies just like these once.

This outfit I made for a friend.

I sewed little buttons on that I found on clearance at Hobby Lobby! The shirt actually snaps up though. Easier for little fingers. I will do the same with the blue shirt I made.

Cargo pockets. They snap shut too.

And the pies de resistance....

Little briefs! So cute.

Another outfit

First of all, sorry Amy about all of the creepy dolls:) Second, sorry to all of you who don't really care about my sewing projects. This is just the easiest way to share the pictures with my fellow seamstress mom.

I made another outfit for the boy baby doll. This one was really easy.

I had cut it out yesterday so all I did today was sew it up and add a few things like the cargo pockets on the sides of the shorts and I decided to do this "cool" collar instead of a regular collar; mainly because I didn't want to try to figure it out. I think I will make another pair of jammies and a dress and call it good. Maybe I will try making a little diaper bag for her too. It's just been so much fun!

(: Anybody want to pay me to make some for their daughter? :)

More doll clothes

So I decided to just edit this post instead of a writing a whole new post.

I made another outfit today and it took me most of the day. I can't believe that Josi hasn't caught me yet. This one is for Josi's boy baby.

Onesie:

This is actually the last part of the outfit that I made, but it goes on first so...

I just down-sized a real baby onesie. It never fit either of the kids right, so I just gave it to them to play with. Today I just made it fit the doll.

Jeans:

This is what took me all day. I really shouldn't have put so much detail into them (they are just for a doll) but I couldn't help myself. They just need a fastener on the front, like everything else I have made. I didn't have any denim, so I used this stretch twill I had.

Jeans- back:
I even put on little pockets :)

Jacket:
And this is what I made first thing this morning. This was fabric I had saved ( to make Josi a pair of shorts with it, but never got around to) when I turned a pair of sweatpants into shorts. The string is from the blinds. Kinda lame, but I saved the strings when I shortened the pull cords. I knew I could use them for something! I was going to make matching pants, but I accidentally cut out one of the pieces wrong and didn't have enough to fix it. That was when I decided to make the jeans.



So, it is after 11pm and I just finished another doll outfit. I was laying in bed and had the thoughts of how to make some jammies and I didn't want to lose it by tomorrow. So I got up and made them. Again, I just used the original outfit as the basis and adapted it. I think it took me an hour to figure out the feety part, but after that it went together pretty easy.

I really like they way they turned out. I just need to add some snaps and they are all done. And of course this was all just leftovers from jammies I made Josi once.

Christmas gifts

I was trying to think of what I could give to Josi and Hyrum for Christmas this year, that wouldn't cost much. I finally though of making some clothes for her baby doll with fabric that I already have. Here is the first outfit that I made today. I don't have any patterns, so I just used the outfit that the doll came with as a template and re-designed it to make this shirt and overalls. I had to change it a little in the middle because it didn't fit right; luckily it needed to be smaller, not bigger.

I made a little t-shirt and overalls.

I need to add a few snaps or buttons in a few places, but those I don't have.

Back view.

And a headband. I learned how to make these cute flowers at our Relief Society Super Saturday this weekend. I just made a smaller version and sewed it onto the headband. For the center I had some little fabric flowers for scrapbooking and the button was an extra with a sweater Josi had.

So, so far I haven't spent any money. Maybe I can bum a few little buttons from my mom :) She has a million of them.

Success of a Sort

I have three little watermelons. I hope they grow!

The radishes and beets I planted have sprouted. However, something is eating them. The beets have no leaves and several of the radishes have been ravaged. I need to get some Diatomaceous Earth to kill the little suckers.

My beans are doing great. They are getting loaded with blossoms and I am really looking forward to fresh green beans. Yum! And don't they just look beautiful in the morning sun!

And I think the greatest success is my fresh corn! One ear is absolutely perfect aside from being a little short. The normal sized ear is a little under pollinated, and then the itty bitty one is totally naked on one half (the bottom side).The puny ear was from a plant that grew from last years corn that I tried to plant, so it was probably a genetic thing passed on by last years puny ears. I hope it tastes as good as it looks.

Garden Progress

Here it is. Some of the corn is getting taller. I actually got a green pepper that was a little bigger; it was almost 2 inches. The beans are starting to vine up the tomato cages. I planted a few more herbs to replace the ones that died while I was away. The water melon is growing more too, has a few blossoms, hopefully it will get some fruit. I have one volunteer tomato plant hiding behind one of the bean plants that is still growing. It grew from one of the tomatoes that died while I was gone. I planted some radishes, beets, lettuce and spinach as well as some more beans and peas. The weather is finally cool enough the last week, that I think these cool weather plants will thrive. We have actually had the windows open during the day it is so nice.

Yard/Garden Progress

Well it has been about a month since I last posted photos of the yard. The grass and garden are doing pretty good. I actually have to mow it once a week.

Here are the picture from last month and the one I took today.

You can see the three main spots have all filled into one big patch.

It is about the same area as the shed which is 8'x8'.

And this is the other side of the yard. This has all grown into one large patch too.

And there are several small patches forming that have several runners spreading out.

The older picture didn't include the bottom patch, it was barely visible then.

Here you can see the corn that I planted in the back 3 rows and the beans in the front one. I had to plant new seeds about 1 1/2 weeks after I planted the first time because they weren't coming up.







And here are a couple of pea plants. I had to replant them a couple of times. I just planted for the third time so we will see if any more come up.

Creative Juices

We have all had our creative juices flowing today.

I am sick of the summer. I hate the heat, I hate the water and electric bills, I hate being stuck inside or frying outside. So in an attempt to nudge fall in, I decorated my half-wall with an Autumn-y garland.

I bought a couple strands of leaves last spring for, like, 50cents in the clearance section of Hobby Lobby. One was missing half the leaves so the cashier let me have it for nothing. It worked out to be the perfect length once I cut off the naked part. I just need to add some pumpkins or something.

Here's a closer shot.

Josi and Hyrum spent about 45 minutes on the back patio drawing with chalk. Here are some cute pictures.

By the end, they were chalky from nose...

all the way...

to toes!

Fun Hair Day

Today I decided to something fun with my hair. It started as just a doubled ponytail with the end sticking out on top. But I turned it into this cute bun with the ends sticking out all around. This picture isn't the best. Hyrum was the photographer.

The other day Ben said I should try to do Josi's hair in all-over braids. Most days she just runs around with a tangly mess on her head, because she just won't keep hairbands in. I'll put them in when we go to the store or church or whatever, but as soon as we get home, she pulls them out.

I finally sat down with her today and braided it all. Her hair is so fine, it only took a couple of hours. She looks kind of bald.

I decided to put it all in a ponytail to keep the unruly ones in place. I think it turned out pretty cute. I'm not sure how to secure all of the ends though. I just used hair-snot (gel) for now, but I don't know how long it will last.

Of course, Hyrum had to get in on the fun too. So I used my hair-snot to give him a fauxhawk.

What should we do to Papi's hair when he gets home :)? Just Kidding, babe!

Coming Along

So far the grass in our back yard has been filling in pretty good, for my planting method. I have just been transplanting runners that have taken root where they shouldn't be,and moved them into the back yard. All of this grass started as a tiny little clump or even just one little runner at most 8 inches long. This back corner really took off while I was gone. Back in that corner is where the drip line ends. I left the end exposed with a cap on it so that when I finally get to build my retaining wall, I don't have to dig to extend the drip line. I just have to put on a coupler, run the line down through the planter and then back fill with my free fill dirt I will get off of craigslist. Well, the end cap shot off while I was gone. So every time the dripline ran, that corner got flooded. The grass and weeds loved it and this time, most of the plants on that line survived.
This is the view from our dining room window. If you squint and focus just on that corner it looks really good. It gives me hope for the lawn.

These shots are both taken from our balcony, so it all looks really small. The largest spots are actually between 4 and 5 feet at their widest spot. So far the grass is just in the corners and right next to the patio. Despite the heat (112 today in Phoenix), it is all doing really well. I have planted some more little runners in the middle. Hopefully they will start to take off as well and fill in more. I am also hoping the rainy season will come soon and help out.

This is the best photo. (remember to squint and only focus on the green :) The green is quite accurate in this one. The other pictures look too yellow because it is so bright outside.

Starting Over

During my 3 weeks away, my garden died and the grass in the front looked pretty sad. Ben actually got bored enough once to mow it, which is amazing to me because one of our "deals" when we decided to get a house, was that if I wanted a yard, I had to take care of it. Not a big sacrifice on my part, because that is my favorite chore. Any way, come to find out, a sprinkler in the front yard had broken so one corner got flooded while the rest got underwatered; Problem 1.
Problem two was one of the sprinkler heads in the garden popped off at some point so half of the garden (as well as the patio and balcony) were getting flooded while the other half of the garden got underwatered. Long story a little longer, I only have one little watermelon plant, 3 bell peppers and a jalapeno that survived, as well as chives and thyme. Of course, the weeds thrived! The saddest part is that the tomato plants were loaded with tomatoes.
So, on Saturday I basically started from scratch. I had some bags of manure that I got for free off of Craigslist that I added. The soil was practically white it was so nutrient-less.
After I got out all of the weeds and dead corn, tomato and brussel sprout plants I found I had two little volunteer corn plants and I was able to save one of them. I also had a few ears that were all dried out, one had some of the kernels that had germinated, so I decided to try planting a row of corn from my own plants. We will see how that goes.
A few months back I had found a list of planting times from the county extention website for Maricopa County (that's here :) and between July 15th and August 1st is time to plant peas, beans and corn. So that's what I did. No pictures this time. Right now the garden is mostly just boring, slightly darker brown heaps of dirt. Once I get a few sprouts I will post pictures.

Twilight tour

On Monday Kristin called and asked if I wanted to go with her and Julie & Kayla and her friend Cherrie(sp?) to see some of the places they used to film the movie Twilight. I read all of the books and saw the movie (which was a little disappointing, but not as bad as I thought it would be thanks to my low expectations). It was pretty cool.

This is "The Cullen's House"

And this is "Bella's House"
People actually live in them, so we could only see the outside. We also went to St. Helens where they filmed the scenes that take place in Port Angeles. We saw the bookstore which was actually a lawyers office and the nearby alley, the dress store that was actually a hair salon and the restaurant that was actually a house (with a restaurant across the street) and the theatre which really was a theatre.
Thanks, Kris and Juls. I had a blast.

Score!

I found an ad on Craigslist for a lady that had closed her scrapbooking store in Mesa and is trying to get rid of the rest of her inventory from her home. I paid $36 for ALL of this stuff. I got 114 12x12 pages (cardstock, vellum and other papers), 305 eyelets and dot-lets, 2 sets of acrylic stamps (1 mini and 1 med.), 2 acrylics blocks for the stamps, 2 pages of rub-on letters, a med punch, a border punch, a box of sticker-chipboard letters, another set of rub-on letters, a couple of pages of sticker & embelishments, a whole box of little brad style embelishments and a small ink pad. Wow! totally worth the drive to Mesa (abt 30 min.) Anyone reading this from the phoenix area that scraps, she still has tons of stuff, I could give you her phone number. She is really nice, I was even a few dollars short on cash for everything I had picked out and she gave it all to me anyway. She has it all set up on racks (except the paper, but it's all separated in boxes )so it was easy to go through.

Tiny Harvest

First of all, I got my curtain rods so now my curtains are up. I just have to hem the bottoms now. I really like how they turned out. They really add color to the room. Now I just have to make a few pillows. I didn't have enough fabric left over, like I thought I would though, so I will have to get some more.
Now to my current harvest. I was able to get 5 ears of corn off of my plants last week. They are tiny though. They were only about the length of half a normal ear, but they were the same diameter. I don't think I planted mini corns, but they all were. They tasted really yummy though. Maybe they were stunted by the chlorine water that leeched over into our yard from our neighbors pool either leaking or just draining.

And yesterday I picked these two tiny little tomatoes. The chapstick is just for size reference. I didn't realize I was planting a miniature garden. The bigger one is from a "patio plant" that I thought were cherry tomatoes when I bought them. So it is between the size of a regular tomato and a cherry tomato. The tiny one is about the size of a grape tomato. I thought that plant would be a roma tomato when it started getting tomatoes on it, but I guess they are just grape tomatoes. I don't mind, I love grape tomatoes. And there are several plants that are regular romas, they just have green tomatoes right now.

I had actually picked a grape tomato a few days ago, but I gave it to Hyrum to take inside, and he squished it.

More of the yard and house

So I finally got my curtains done. I still haven't found a curtain rod that I like so they are set out on the couch. Imagine them hanging up. I need Karin's interior design expertise to decide what style of curtain rod I should get. Wood to match the furniture or the rubbed bronze to match the light fixture and table. Tough choices.

I also found the blocks I want to use for my retaining wall across the backyard. Unfortunately there were only 27 of them because I found them on Craigslist. Good news is they were cheaper that way. I haven't seen these anywhere else. I had the picture in my head of exactly what I wanted. Now I hope I can find more of them somewhere.

I am going to have to get a LOT more of them to go all of the way across the back. It will be a very gradual process. This is only 1/3 of the wall. And I want it twice as tall.

I Hate Jam!

But I love Jelly. Jam just has too many little slimey bits in it. And I hate biting into the seeds. Yesterday at the grocery store I found that strawberries were only $1/lb so I called my mom for a jelly recipe. It said I could get about 3 1/2 cups of juice out of 8 lbs of strawberries, which would make 6 pints of jelly. So I bought 8 lbs of strawberries. When I got home I found that I only got the $1/lb on 4 of the 8 lbs, the rest were $4/lb. Still cheaper than buying really hard to find Strawberry Jelly. Especially since I ended up getting nearly 10 cups of juice and was able to make a batch of jelly, a quart of syrup and still have enough juice to make another batch of jelly. I just need to buy another box of pectin. Today was a relatively cool day. It was 76 when I got up and is still only 83 at noon. It worked out pretty well. Way more fun and fullfilling to make it myself than search for it in the stores. And so yummy!