Triple Clicks

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Let the Sewing Begin!

First things first.. 

My blog posts won't be as frequent, things are getting a little crazy and I'm finding it hard put to sit down and be able to a blog post every week... I'll try for every other week-but unless I happen to have content, I can't promise you'll hear from me every week.

We are considering revamping the school curriculum. I LOVE Abeka, I LOVE having the lesson plans... But the cost (while completely worthwhile) is daunting.  With Andrew starting to get into grades where consumables won't be needed as much, we are considering making up our own lesson plans using books we have (we are major book hoarders around here).  So that's on the table.... 

My sewing plans have started for vacation things around here.  First thing is to get my mending pile down to a manageable level-mostly because I have to un-bury my sewing machine first.   

Then I will be making my Bible cover.  

 There's my plans...


I made a list of what I want-pocket for writing, marking, note taking tools.  A pocket for note cards to keep track of the verses the kids are working on.  And place marker ribbons.  My husband bought me a new bible for Christmas, but forgot to check to make sure it had place marker ribbons.... so those will be added to my cover. 
Then I took measurements of my Bible, and added a reasonable seam allowance. Then I measured what I wanted, and wrote those sizes down along with seam allowance. All that's left is the picking of fabric from my stash and the sewing.   

The next project will be a toy bag for vacation. 

There's my plans.  I got the idea from Pinterest of course, with the Clarks Condensed Blog and their shared pattern and idea.  
I plan on using fabric I have and making roads and decorations on the inside with either sharpies or scrap fabric. 

We are still on break from school this week.  We'll start again next week.  It's cold up here with lots of snow (Loving it!!!).  

Have a great day!

~Tabitha

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Winter Is Here!

I love snow.  I love watching it snow, I love seeing the snow on the ground.  I do not love (or even remotely like) the sub zero temperatures that come with winter for us.  I am, however, thankful for this nice warm fleece robe. :D 

Winter has definitely found us (finally killed the fleas!!! YAY).

There has been a picture floating around Facebook for awhile, it's a link to blog where a genius made her daughter a nice, warm, winter poncho... Us parents know you aren't supposed to buckle your kids into their seats with their coats on, it loosens the belts up and makes it unsafe... and it is a HUGE pain in the rear to take the coat on and off when making a bunch of stops-but it's necessity. 

Then comes this lovely mommy-genius over at Reality Daydream blog.  She made her little girl (cute little thing) a nice warm poncho for such a time as this...  Her tutorial is in the link, it's easy, a lot easier than it sounds..  My sister in law saw me share the picture and enlisted the help of my mom to make her little girl one. She loves it so much I decided to make Hannah one, too. 


This lovely genius-mom idea allows a nice warm coat, a hat that's harder for my little one to take off (and it's soft, so she likes it), and it can stay ON HER while buckled... Flip up the back side so there is nothing between Hannah and the seat, buckle UNDER the front side so she stays nice and warm and safe.  

I did get the hood a little big, and the only thing I messed up on was when I cut the circle I cut on the fold instead on the open side of fabric resulting in one layer being two semi circles vs a circle, so a few extra seams-but that's ok.  

Even with the help of all three big kids, this took me 2 hours... Well, 3, but I did had to stop in the middle to take care of Hannah.  Most of it was scrap fabric from previous projects-the brown minky fleece is from Hannah's baby quilt... The white minky fleece I found 1/2 yard piece for $1.50 in the Walmart ends bin.  

We've only used it a few times, but I'm loving it, and as you can tell from the big Hannah grin, she loves it, too.  

In other news, we are more than half way done with school.. We are at the point in Andrew's lessons where doubling up is no longer an option as most of the reviewing is over, so a lesson a day, we have 68 lessons left.  Barring major sickness we should have no problem getting done before vacation.   He is reviewing his cursive.... I don't want it to be perfect, but I do want to know he can write it legibly.  We basically just started the cursive over again and most letters he is doing awesome at. That's the beauty of homeschooling-you can go slow, or completely stop and master a problem area before moving on.  

Our shopping is this weekend.  The next few days will be busy for me getting everything ready for that and keeping Hannah happy. She hasn't been feeling good at all.  

Have a great week and stay warm! 

~Tabitha