Friday, June 29, 2012

Orange silicone mug

This has been a hell of a week.  Sunday I had a stomach bug.  Then Monday night a sore throat snuck up on me and I have pretty much been couch bound since then.  I have lost 5 pounds since Saturday.  That was the only nice part :) Here is how you know I am really sick: I am drinking a hot liquid, I am eating soup at a diner in the summer time, and there was chocolate cake in the fridge when Hubby went out of town and that same piece was there when he got home.  Only sick Kris would leave chocolate cake uneaten.  

This mug I found when we were in AZ visiting my mom.  I gave it to hubby with his other Father's Day gift.  Hubby drinks a lot of hot tea in a day, he has been using them everyday so I think they are a hit. I actually tested one out too.  I really like the silicone on the mug, it kept my hands warm and wasn't too hot to hold.  I was drinking chicken broth out of the mug.  It's one of those things that I do when I am really sick.  It is so gross but I really hate eating chicken soup and will only eat it if i am desperate and I never eat soup in the summer unless it is a clam chowder and I am by the ocean.  I am not usually a hot liquid drinker but it is the only way I could drink fluids this week, my throat was so swollen.  

I did muster enough energy to take PB to a baseball game and cross some things off our summer bucket list.  Chase Utley, one of the Philadelphia Phillies, was injured and played on our local team as part of his rehab.  I was lucky to get really great tickets on the first baseline for PB and I and there was no way I was going to miss a chance to see him play.

SBL #46: go to a baseball game is complete.  We have plans to go to another game too, with Hubby this time!
PB turned his hat around and his sunglasses upside down and then Utley hit a home run!!!
Here is Utley running the bases after his home run!

SBL #20: Sidewalk Chalk
This seemed like a silly one to put on the list but the chalk was put away for the winter and I kept forgetting to take it out.  PB loves to draw and he was drawing with the neighbor girls.  He pretty much just makes lines but I am really hoping to expand his chalk drawing this summer.

I hope you have a happy and healthy weekend! Summer is not the time to be sick!!

Monday, June 25, 2012

Anthro-Inspired pillow for cousin D

My cousin, D, emailed me and asked me if I could make this pillow from Stuff Steph Does.
I said, "Of course!" and got started.  I teased the fabrics here
D asked for blues and greens.  I am not a green fan, but I do like some lime green and chartreuse. Especially when it is paired with Navy.  I followed the tutorial but I printed the pattern at 92% because she wanted a 16X16 pillow.  Also, in the tutorial, Steph used glue to tack down the edges, then straight stitched and then zig zag stitched.  That seemed like way too much work for me so I used wonderunder like I have used for other applique.  Steph had piping on her pillow which looked really cool but I was out of time so I omitted it.  

I made a flap for the pillow to slide into so she could remove the cover for washing.  Also so I could just mail her the covers in an envelope and she can get the pillow forms by her house. I would have loved to get a side by side pic of the pillows on my couch but I only have 1 16X16 pillow.  It is orange :)

The back color piece was a happy accident.  I cut the back too short so I added the center color from each pillow on the back.  I really like it so I am glad I made that mistake. 

Here is the second pillow.

This was a time consuming project.  Tracing all the shapes on the wonderunder, cutting them out.  Figuring out what fabrics to put them on so no fabrics would touch each other, ironing on all the wonderunder, cutting out the fabric, ironing on the pillow and sewing around each shape.  I did all the tracing and cutting while PB played on the driveway.  It took a few days.  Then I sewed most of the day on a Sunday to finish.  

Here is a close up.  I did 2 different colors for the zig zag around the petals.  I used turquoise and green.  
I changed it up and switched where the colors were just to make the pillows look even more different.  

So even though it did take a lot of time, it was so worth it. I seriously love these pillows and am really thinking about making one for myself.  I would really like to redo the pillows in my lounge.  I think this one might work, but all in orange fabrics :)

Friday, June 22, 2012

PB's Orange Swim Gear

Of course PB is all decked out in orange for the pool!! We went to AZ for a long visit last week to visit with my Mom and to celebrate my Nephew's birthday with my Bro and SIL.  
Here is my Nephew and PB you can see the rest of his suit here.  Funny thing is I bought this suit on clearance when he was a baby and he finally fits into it.  It's a 2T and I have to tie the inside strings really tight.  What is even funnier is my Nephew just turned 1 and is only 6 pounds lighter than PB. HAAHAA!!
We had such a great time in AZ.  I love being with my mom.  This trip felt like a true vacation because PB wanted to do everything with Gammie so I got a break.  He wore my Mom out! I actually read the entire 50 shades series when I was there.  I am not a reader and usually only will read magazines but everyone was reading it so I wanted to see what the fuss was about.  Anyone else read the series?
The best part of the week was spending time with my Nephew.  My Bro and SIL were packing up their house when we were there and preparing to move pretty far away.  So we got to watch this little guy a bunch.  He is so adorable!! He is crawling and he crawls over to his dog and puts the nose in his mouth and then keeps crawling.  I just had the best time with him.  Luckily PB wasn't too jealous, he was so happy to be with Gammie.  

Going home after vacation is the worst.  We have been home all week and I still haven't finished the laundry.  I actually finally unpacked the plane bag yesterday.  My brain still feels like it is on vacation so it has made this week interesting.  

I am just so glad it is the weekend. I hope I can finally get back on track!!
Happy Weekend!!

Monday, June 18, 2012

Anchor's Away!!

This is the anchor I made for my friend, S's first dance recital at her very own dance studio.  I shared the paddles I made here.  Her recital was on Saturday.  I actually had to miss it, which I was really bummed about.  A few of PB's friends were dancing in the recital and I would have loved to see those cute little girls.  We were in AZ to see my Mom and celebrate my nephew's first birthday.  We got back last night. 

S was going to drape the anchor in netting and some christmas lights to make it more festive.  I can't wait to see how it looks!!

I used this foam insulation from Lowes to make the anchor and paddles.  If you have never worked with this foam, it is awesome!! It is really light, PB can lift a whole sheet, no problem.  It is really easy to cut. You just have to score it with an x-acto knife and then snap it at the seam. for the curves you do have to cut all the way through.  It is also flexible.  I have used this many times to make props when I was a musical director back in the day.  I made a cornice for above my bathroom window.  We even used it on a headboard.  It is awesome stuff and you should check it out if wood is too hard for you to use.  TIPS: do not use hot glue, spray paint or anything caustic on this, it will melt the foam :)

ON TO THE ANCHOR:
I cut the anchor shapes out of 2 pieces of foam.  Then I cut 4 inch segments to make the sides.  I poked toothpicks in and used white glue to hold it together.  This worked really well but it took a long time to dry, like 24 hours.  I also reinforced with masking tape.   Then I put toothpicks around the whole side with glue before laying the top on.  

You can kind of see it in the above pics but the side was not looking so hot so I cut 5.5 inch pieces of poster paper and with straight pins attached it to the sides.  That is also how i closed over the pointy part of the anchor and the inside hole.  

Then I painted the whole thing with acrylic paint.  I did a top coat of a shimmery silver. Then I pinned silver ribbon to the edge to hide the yucky edge.  
This is how I made it stand.  I took a long piece of foam and screwed it into the back.  YES screws will hold and screw right in!! Then the piece that hangs back can be taped to the floor so it won't move.  

Friday, June 15, 2012

PB's orange dinnerware

Check out PB's big boy cup and plate.  They are so orange!! 
He has to learn how to drink out of a cup for preschool next year.  It is going OK, there are lots of spills.  No better place to practice than dinner on the patio right?
Happy Weekend!!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Owl cards for card swap

I saw this post over at mmmcrafts about a month a go and knew it would be my next card for my card swap.  
I never made paper cards before.  I always do the same fabric cards.  I will say that this took a million times longer than my fabric cards.  I spent many afternoons working on them on the driveway while PB played outside.  I was really excited to finish them.  Looking at my calendar, I don't actually know when the next swap is.  I had it in my head that it was in a few weeks, I think I might be losing my mind.  I'll share the cards I get after the swap.  Those ladies make the nicest cards.  Since this is my first attempt at paper, I hope they will be kind and ignore my little glue marks :)

Monday, June 11, 2012

Giraffe growth chart for my nephew

Yesterday was my Nephew's first birthday!!! I can't believe he is one already.  He is growing too fast :) This is what I made him for his birthday.  
It's a giraffe growth chart.  The one on the left is one that my Mom's friend made when she was pregnant with me.  That thing is 32 years old!! It has all of my major growth markers on there. It now hangs in PB's room and I am adding his growth milestones on it too.  Well My nephew needed something to chart his excellence so I made him one.  All I did was copy the one I already had. I am sure the person who made this followed a pattern, but it was 32 years ago, think it is still out there?  Remember the quilt I made him last year?  Well I used many of the same fabrics. 

Here is a peek at how I did it:
I lined up all the fabric strips to be a little wider than the giraffe.  I sewed all the strips together.   
Here are all the strips not ironed yet.  

I took some fusible fleece and with the sticky side up I cut around the giraffe.  Next I ironed it to the back of the strips of fabric sewn together and cut around leaving about a 1/2 border of fabric hanging off the fleece. Then I did a little bit of swirly quilting.  You can see my quilt lines in the next picture.  I just randomly sewed lines to give the giraffe some texture.
You can see the extra fabric here.  Then I laid it facedown on the brown backing fabric and cut.  

We were dog sitting when I made this, Cooper really was a big help :)
I made a tail and the nubby head things separate and sandwiched them in between the outside fabrics.  Then I sewed around the giraffe right at the edge of the fleece.  I left an opening on the straight side to turn him right side out.  
Here he is all turned out before he was ironed.  No ears yet.  I ironed him and sewed the opening shut.  
Before I did the hand sewing, I sewed on the measuring tape.  I was lucky to find this perfect matching blue.  I did 2 lines of stitches so it wouldn't hang off the fabric.  
Then I hand sewed the ears on and some buttons for the eyes and mouth.

PB was very upset when I took his giraffe away to make one for his cousin.  He got over it though when he saw the new one and realized his wasn't going away.  He was pretty obsessed with the buttons on the face.  
If there is one thing I would change it's the legs.  They got a little wonky.  I think maybe I should have cut them out all the way before sewing.  
The ears have a different fabric on the back.  And here you can see those nubby head things.  I could look up when they are actually called but I like my way :) 

Here is the back of the head.  I am using some clips from Ikea so they can hang this guy.  My Bro, SIL and Nephew are moving to a new city this month.  I can't wait to see how this look's in my Nephew's new room :)

Friday, June 8, 2012

Orange lawn mower

This is our orange lawn mower.  No, we did not get this lawn mower because it was orange.  It is just a bonus.  It is another Fiskars product.  
It's an old school push mower.  Hubby got rid of our gas mower a few years ago and we made the switch to a greener alternative.  No more smelly, hot days pushing that stinky mower.  The blades are self sharpening and there is some great technology in the design.  It has come a long way since the original push mower.  

The best part...
...it hangs on our garage wall! Hubby can still park his car next to it.  Isn't that awesome!! 

I know you are wondering how hard it is to mow with and honestly it isn't too hard.  But when the grass gets to long or too thick it is a workout.  When it is too thick or long you might have to mow it twice.  Once with the blades set high and again with the blades at the normal height.  So that means you really have to stay up on mowing the lawn and that might mean mowing every 5 days if you get as much rain as we have so far this year.  Also you have to make sure to get a neighborhood kid to mow the lawn when you go on vacation so you don't come home to a jungle to mow.

I actually mowed for hubby last week. He has been working like a dog so I took this off his plate for the week to help him out.  Our yard isn't huge and it takes the same amount of time to mow as it did with the other mower.  The biggest difference is the quiet.  No more blasting the music in my headphones to hear over the engine.  And no waking a sleeping kid during nap time.  

Happy Weekend!

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Summer Bucket List

A bunch of bloggers I love have done some really awesome summer activity boards that are cute and fun.  Check out my 2 favorites,  Stacey's Summer Activity Calendar at Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy! and Delia's B-I-N-G-O Summer Charts at Delia Creates.

If I wasn't totally burned out from the major craft cramming that has been going on here I might have done something creative with it.  Instead I have a list on a piece of printer paper.  It is going to hang on the side of our fridge to remind us of all the fun things we want to do this summer. It was surprisingly easy to think of 50 things we wanted to do.


Some of the items are things we want to do with PB.  Some are goals for Hubby and I. Like the ever so boring replace the patio door and paint outside.  But these are all things that for the past 2 summers we meant to do but just kept forgetting.  Hopefully this will help us get it done!

I decided I am going to capture this list on Instagram and I'll share the things we have completed here on Orange Fridays.

Here is #37 ride a roller coaster. It was a kiddie roller coaster but I am counting it.  I get motion sick and this was a major ride for me without some meds :)  CHECK!

  I am sure some weeks we will have done nothing and others we will have crossed off a bunch.  I am ready to kick off summer!! 

Do you have a list of things you want to do this summer?  

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Ruffle Diaper cover

My friend, J, just had a baby girl.  She had the hat already and asked me to make a matching diaper cover.  
Isn't the hat so super cute!!  It is definitely a homemade hat.  I wonder who made it. I found some knit fabric that matched the flower perfectly.  Dana's diaper cover tutorial was so easy to follow and was quick to put together.  I attached the ruffles after I sewed the cover together and before I threaded the elastic.  

Here is a look at the front.  I think that the knit is nice because it doesn't fray so you can leave the edges of the ruffles the raw cut edge and you don't have to serge/fold under the other edges when you sew.  But it does stretch weird when you are sewing and can get a little tricky.  I had to take out a few seams and redo them.  
Also, am I the only one that takes forever pulling through the elastic.  I am sure that it took me just as long to get the elastic in there as it did to make the cover.  I think next time I make a cover, I am going to use cotton and see how it goes.  Dana's tutorial couldn't me cuter or simpler.  

Friday, June 1, 2012

Orange Hatchet

We have been doing a lot of yard work the last couple of weekends.  My hubby had to have this hatchet last year after seeing our next door neighbor, who is from Jamaica, trim his tree with a machete.  We finally got to really use it this weekend.  We separated plants with it and used to to cut sod.  Yes, using it to cut sod is like using a chainsaw to cut a strawberry, but it was so fun.  
Now, as I write this, I realize this pic looks a little axe murderer-y.  I am pretty sure any pic of a hatchet would look a little creepy.  This past weekend was my first time using it, and I had a great time.  We are lucky that Fiskars products are all mostly orange because they do make some great, sharp products.  

I hope you all have a happy weekend! YAY for Friday!!!
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