Day 18

Today I did a lot of work on another pair of flowers that I am choosing the most complicated way possible to make...hopefully they will look good when I'm done! Sorry no pictures yet.

Day 17

Ok, I resewed the patch on Nathan's scout uniform, so he can wear it to scouts tonight looking snazzy. I just didn't have the energy to fix it last night, but I'm glad it is centered now.

So far today, I have crossed off 7 things on my to-do lists, and I'm in process with several more. Also been working on laundry, organizing and cleaning up the living room, and a bunch of other work stuff that isn't on "the list" but needs to get done anyway. Joshua, Henry and I have all had lunch. Joshua is sleeping and Henry is just about ready to get down and hopefully go down for a nap.

So that's the update!

I need to post some pictures on facebook of these cute little boys of mine.

Hopefully I'll have some crafty things to post later!

Day 16

No crafting today, but I did spend several hours sewing the patches on to Nathan's new scouting shirt - he's the 11 yr-old scout leader now. I hated nearly every moment of that sewing experience. I broke a needle...but it didn't seem like it bent...but that my fingers snapped it in half. I used the half a needle to finish sewing the patch on...but it didn't have the sharp tip, so that was pretty challenging. I sure love felt.

I have a LOT of things on my to-do list for home/family/church stuff, so I asked Nathan to come up with a number of things from my list that I should challenge myself to do before we could watch Lost tonight. At first he said 10...but then I went back and looked at it again and saw that I could only logistically do 12 of them, so he brought the number down to 6. I did 1. Sewing on the patches took me at least 2 hours. I was so frustrated and exhausted by the end, that we agreed it was ok to watch it anyway.

Unfortunately, the most important patch that I sewed on there is not centered...it's kind of crooked, so at some point soon, I need to take the stitches out and re-sew it. It won't be nearly as difficult as doing all of them, though.

Nathan just went into the bedroom and Henry had a dirty diaper, so we changed him and he slept through it...he cried really hard when I laid him back in his crib, though. But I think he's done now. Nathan is on the couch...I'm not sure which of us will be the one to try to sneak in there first.

I love my boys. All three of them!

Day 15

Ok I'm getting a little tired of the day numbers at the top...but I think I'll stick with them anyway. I finished the owl - he looks GREAT. My kitchen table is so covered that I can't find room to take a picture of him, but I'll do it tomorrow and post the picture for all the world to see! Buddy was more work, but I think I'm most proud of this owl...even more than the corn...though the corn was also more work.

Day 14

Today was a very nice day - Valentine's day...and a good day at church, though I missed my sweetie. He and Henry stayed home cuz Nathan couldn't do much walking (neither could Henry, so they kept each other company). Then family came over and we had dinner and watched more Olympics.


Today I started working on the owl. I didn't like any of the owls on the other playhouses, so I found a different owl, and I'm going to use it.

Day 13

We'll see what I get done today. My poor hubby hurt his knee really bad at basketball this morning, so I'm going to take care of him. Joshy woke up before 5am this morning...so hopefully he won't have too rough of a day, too. Henry's fighting taking a nap - crying in his crib...but nothing's new there. *sigh*

Nope - no work on the playhouse done today.

Day twelve

Today I went to the fabric store and bought turquoise felt and white felt adhesive letters. I was then able to finish the mailbox that will be sewn on to the playhouse. The green part opens and I'll cut a hole in the playhouse, next to the front door, so they can open the door of the mailbox and put letters in! I think this was Jill's original idea from the playhouse I referenced in my first post about this project. http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/2009/10/felt-playhouse.html
We'll see if I get Buddy finished tonight. Off to put Henry to bed, play a game with Nathan, Tawnia, and Emily, and then watch the Olympics.

Well, Henry went to sleep, I lost miserably at Qwelf, and while we watched the Opening Ceremonies, I worked on Buddy. I was debating about whether or not I'd stuff him at all, or have him be detachable from the playhouse. I've decided he'll be sewed on and stay that way. I sewed a back on him, to hold all the small pieces together even better, but he's just got too tiny of a neck to be played with much at all. I hope Joshua likes him!




You can scroll down to compare the picture with the image I posted before. I don't want to re-post it next to it, cuz then the imperfections would be clearer. A LOT of work, but I'm happy with him, imperfections and all!

Day eleven

I worked on organizing all the scraps and pieces of felt today, but wasn't able to create anything. Hopefully tomorrow!

Day ten

Today I made some red flowers to match the yellowish flowers I made before. They're pretty cute. I also made the mailbox, except for the lettering on it. Buddy the dinosaur just sits there waiting and waiting for his turquoise detailing...

It was hard not working on it yesterday, especially since I wasn't feeling very well. I'm feeling somewhat better today, though, and having Tawnia come over was super helpful. Gotta love my sis.

We got some great news on the grad school front! Nathan got accepted to Portland State - we haven't gotten the letter yet - he called to see if all his application stuff was completed, and they told him he was accepted! I'm very excited that he's accepted, and nervous to figure out the financial part. I'm hoping he'll be able to choose between two (or all three!) of the schools, and that at one of them will work out money-wise. We should hear back from Oregon State and University of Washington by the end of the month, I expect. Once we make that decision, it will be nice to have some certainty for the coming year.

Well, it's 8:20...Henry is asleep, or at least quiet...and Joshua is talking and singing with his animals in bed, so there is still plenty of time for crafting. I'll update this and post pictures either later tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on what else I get done tonight.

Day nine

I am banned from working on the playhouse today - as a self-imposed punishment for staying up way too late last night. I've been avoiding that for the most part since I started this project, but last night I was working on it until after 1am. Not cool. So I'll work on it again tomorrow.

Well, at least I am getting a lot done today. I keep looking at all my craft stuff in the haphazard bags and boxes covering our kitchen table, and I want to work on it, but instead I'm doing laundry, making a bunch of calls, filing paperwork, sending emails, organizing our tax documents for the past 6 years...all sorts of productive boring stuff. Also, looking at craigslist apartment listing in the possible cities we might be moving to depending on where Nathan gets accepted to grad school. Let's just say, I hope we get some good grants and loans.

Day eight

While trying to go to sleep last night (and feeling awful...thank goodness it mostly went away by morning!), I was thinking about different ways to attach things to the playhouse without using velcro...I'm going to try experiment today with what I came up with. Joshua wants oranges and pears on the tree with the apples, and I'll make those velcro since the apples are, but I'm thinking of using a different method for some of the other things. I'm not sure quite how difficult it would be to redo the squirrel, frog, and bird...I'm not excited about trying...so maybe I can make something else with my new idea and then deal with changing those later. We'll see.

Well, I got the 4 Monday reports completed this morning, and a bit of other stuff, got Joshy his lunch and down for a nap, and now I'm hanging out with Henry (who of course just woke up from his nap). I'm working on doing "Buddy" (I posted a picture of him a few posts ago). I decided to just make him the size of a regular sheet of paper, since he is a little T-Rex anyway...but I'm having some major challenges making him. I've got the eyes and mouth figured out...and they look decent...but the claws are going to be a lot of work. Making teeny tiny pieces of stuff with felt is difficult because it all starts to rip apart. Hence, the teeth don't look quite the same. I think it was ambitious to expect them to, though.

I don't like posting partially finished things, but since I don't have any turquoise or light blue to make his diamonds and triangles, I might post him partially finished tonight. We'll see.

Nope - I got Buddy all the way done except for the turquoise shapes, but I don't want to post a picture until he's done. Didn't accomplish any other stuff...but while Buddy looks a bit different from the picture, I'm still proud of how it's going.

My Dad has a job interview on Wednesday and I really really hope he gets it. My mom's knee is hurt bad and I really really hope it is able to be treated and heal. My brother is going to Europe and I really really hope he has a great time there.

Ok, I thought I was done at 11:30 or whenever I posted that, but then I decided to go and do something else. Here are my first flowers. I wasn't happy with any of the flowers I saw with the other playhouses, but I really liked the idea of having them come out of the window box pockets (like on Jill's house). I used pipe cleaners inside the felt stems and thought they would be more sturdy if I bent the long pipe cleaner like this and put a flower on each end. They should fit more snugly in the window box pockets this way. I like how they turned out!

Day seven

Today has been a busy, good day. Enjoyed church, had a good dinner here with friends, watched a few minutes of the Super Bowl here and there, and now the boys are going to bed, and I can work on my two hobbies as of late - crafting this playhouse and watching Lost.

Tonight I finished making two letters for the mailbox (I can't make the mailbox yet because Joshua wants it to be made of dark blue felt and I don't have any yet - also I want to get some felt letters to spell MAIL on it). But anyway, here they are:



Also, I broke my last needle threader. Argggg.

Day six

Ok so Henry is down for a nap...though he isn't actually asleep, so I may need to go in there and check on him...and Nathan and Joshua are at the library. I ate breakfast and put a load of laundry in, so now I really really want to get some more stuff done for the playhouse. We'll be gone much of the day, and the boys' naps are always flip-flopped lately - rarely overlapping much at all. So this may be my best little chunk of time.

Two more apples today, and my apples are complete!

And yes, the bottom one has a little green and yellow worm coming out of it!

Day five

Another day with very little time for crafting, so my only accomplishment for the playhouse was to fix the apple stem from my first apple so that it looks less like a pumpkin stem, and will match the other apple stems I made, though they haven't been put into apples yet.

Joshua also decided that on the side of the playhouse with dinosaurs, he wants there to be Buddy from Dinosaur Train, so this is what I'll need to make:

Day four

A very busy day...so just one carrot completed! That completes my carrot trio.

Day three

Today I have been doing a lot of tracing and cutting, but no sewing yet.

Both the boys are down for their naps, so it's a good time to do some work on this, but I had to make myself get a bunch of the apartment work done first: make 6 phone calls, sort out our online accounting challenge, schedule a plumber to replace a garbage disposal, schedule the turnover vendors for an apartment coming available, make new flyers and brochures and put them outside, respond to and file various emails, and get a mailing for a resident ready to go. There is more that could be done, but nothing else that MUST be done for work today, so now I feel free to do some crafting.

Off I go...

:::BIG time lapse:::

As of 11:35pm, I had completed 3 lettuce leaves and a green frog. One of the lettuce leaves will be sewn to the playhouse, and the other two will velcro on, so Joshy and Henry can pick the lettuce. They are bright green on one side and dark green on the other, with some wax paper in between to make them a bit crackly. I'm sure it's been done before, but I was proud to think of it ("it" meaning the wax paper...not the lettuce - that was from Jill's playhouse) on my own tonight. The frog will also velcro to the playhouse. I like him a lot. When I did a Google image search for green frog, Joshua really wanted to use this frog umbrella picture, rather than what I chose for the frog template.
Sometimes I overrule his ideas. It's for the greater good - I hope he'll appreciate it later.

I have a bunch of stuff (two apples with stems and one carrot with greens) cut out and ready to be sewn together...I just despise sewing the velcro rectangles on things...I need a better thimble and to make sure I use a strong needle. I bent one yesterday. It took me until velcro piece number 5 to think to pin the velcro on before starting to sew. *sigh* These are the kinds of things I would think of...if I already knew anything about sewing. Oh well. So I didn't pin 4 of them...there are a LOT more to go.

Day two

Today I finished two more items...a second corn cob and a yellow bird to perch on the "My Garden" sign that Joshua requested for one side of the playhouse.

Oh...did I mention I don't have a sewing machine? I'm fairly certain that TWO corn cobs is plenty for this garden I'm creating.

Day one

Today I went and bought a bunch of 9x12" pieces of felt in various colors, polyester fiberfill, some green pipe cleaners, big and small "good" scissors, some velcro, and a good supply of googly eyes. I came home and proceeded to get to work. Here is a picture of my first creation - a carrot.

By the end of the night, I'd made much more than a carrot! Here are all of my creations.
The corn took about an hour...my favorite was the squirrel!

My new adventure

I saw these felt playhouses online...it's basically a slipcover made of felt that you put over a card table, and it becomes a playhouse. I am going to make one, and it is going to be amazing. I'm going to track my progress on here as I accomplish things! Of course there will be pictures.

The first place I saw this type of playhouse was here: http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/2009/10/felt-playhouse.html

Though Jill posted links to all sorts of other playhouses, none were as creative as hers. I'm using some of her templates and then venturing off on my own! Joshua has been very opinionated as we've looked at all the ones on Etsy.com and he has chosen what things he's interested in. It will be a lot of fun. And hours and hours of work.

2010 goals

This year, I set a LOT of goals, but they are all do-able. I set a bunch of monthly goals (10 things I'd like to do each month!), and then 11 one-time things. Then I also made three goals that I want to accomplish multiple times. All of which have boxes by them, so I can have the extreme satisfactoin of checking them off! I have crossed off 7 things already!

Some of my goals are more personal than others, but I'll share some of them. Some of the things I want to do each month are write in each of the boys journals, and write in my own journal. I want to go on a date at least once a month, do my magnetic meal calendar I made (and try to actually go by it!), and stay on track with the scripture reading I'm doing online. I have it set up to complete my goal in a year (which ends in like September or something), so I'm going to make sure that I stay on track with that, and record my percentage at the end of each month. I'm not good at reading every day, but I've decided that's ok. As long as I finish in a year, and am caught up by the end of the month, it's ok if I read 5 days worth at once (each day is 18 verses), or whatever. This is on readthescriptures.com and it works for me. Thanks Jen, for that great resource!!

Anyway, other goals include Henry's first year scrapbook and Joshua's second year scrapbook (I'd love to get his 3rd year one done also...but I'm trying to be realistic). I also want to try to go on 4 hikes, get Joshua potty-trained, create a Sunday activity bag for Joshua (with his name on it and "only Sunday" books, coloring stuff, a stuffed animal maybe, snacks, etc.), move away from these apartments, leave stuff in good shape for the next managers, and my first goal that I'm working away at...

I have a weekly to-do list that I have split up with work on one side and home/family/church (personal stuff) on the other. I write a new one each week, but include everything that I didn't do from the previous week with a line under it, and so on. The stuff on the work side always gets done - either that week, or within a couple weeks. The stuff on the other side sits and sits and sits and sits...and I want to change that. I have stuff on there from months ago, and it's not difficult stuff, I just haven't put it as a priority. So my general goal is to put it as a higher priority, but my specific short-term goal is to get everything done that was on my list at the end of 2009, by the end of January. That was 10 things. They'd been on there for months. Last week, I accomplished 6 of them. I have already accomplished one this week, so that's only 3 more (and one is to post on this blog!). And seriously, the other two aren't really very difficult, and will get done by the end of the week. So yeah - I'm excited about that. Maybe some week I'll be at the glorious place of having done everything from that week AND all the other weeks. Amazing!

It's possible, though last week I added, "put up pictures," which is a HUGE task. We want to go through all the frames on the walls and put updated pictures in them (we have barely any pictures of Henry up (2, to be specific), other than on a big collage poster I made in November). I'm also doing a new little organization system for some of the small toys we have - I'm coloring big colorful labels on clean ice cream buckets (we have about a billion of them), for baby toys, play food, etc. I need to do one for bath toys, and maybe another baby toys one, and then I can cross that off. It is possible that won't get done this week. And THEN I'll be adding some of the goals from my year to-do list on there...but I'll try to wait until it is realistic that I'll be doing them soon...rather than letting them sit there for months.

Anyway, I know people would rather see pictures than read journal-type posts, but I started this blog to be a journal, and it helps me write it.

I do, however, have a goal (though it isn't written down anywhere, so I don't have to feel guilty for not doing it) of posting a 2009 monthly thing...of some of the major things that happened each month. I've seen that on three friends' blogs now, and I like it! On this computer, I only have pictures from April-October, but Henry will be moving into Joshua's room soon, so we'll have access to the computer WITH the pictures on it at the only times that I have long stretches to do things like a blog post with pictures (at night when the boys are sleeping).

I've had a cold since before Christmas - Nathan gave me his, then he got over it briefly, then he got a different cold, which I didn't exactly get...cuz he had a bad cough that I never got, but this cold just keeps hanging on.

I made a sweet fort today, while Joshua was sleeping, and we're in the middle of playing in it, so I'm going to post this and get back to the fun!