Planning, Planning and more Planning

I have a confession.  I'm a great planner, I can plan until I'm blue in face...but when it comes to the follow through, I have issues. And yet, I can't stop planning. It's a vicious cycle. 

The past week my sewing machine has been at a stand still forcing me to choose what projects are essential to get done before baby gets here.  

I have to finish my mama cloth and the baby blanket.  Andrew's car seat is getting cushion, Eva has a skirt that needs fixed, and my husbands's footstool is in desperate need of recovering-which will really be more stapling onto the wooden frame than actual sewing.  I would absolutely LOVE to get the baby clothes, wipes and nursing camisoles done, but I'm not counting on it anymore. I can only sit for so long and considering the amount of.....help (yeah, let's call it help from my well meaning kids who are learning) I get when I sew, my patience and nerves only last for so long. Grace LOVES to put her fingers where they don't need to be.  So we'll see how far I get.  

I also have to clean out our room where the bassinet and rocking chair go (including shampooing the carpet) and have baby clothes easy to get to... Girl and boy since we don't know what we are having.  

I have a few meals to get in the freezer (lasagna and stuffed shells..possibly waffles, we'll see).  

Anybody else overwhelmed yet? 

On top of all the baby stuff, we have home school (my crazy kids about had a heart attack when I mentioned the word 'break', so I'm getting extra worksheets ready for when I can't help along with the daily work) needs attention, we have the normal daily household chores... And we added a trip to Fargo in March.  They are having their annual Red River Bible and Prophecy Conference.  While I didn't get to hear much last year, and doubt I will this year,  I can always turn the live stream on and listen that way while the kids get their energy out.  Meeting the pastors (visiting with ours and his family from Missouri was fun!) and being able to be there was great.. So we decided we'd go again this year.  We are both completely looking forward to it, but it's a little extra planning for me-quiet activities for the kids, snacks that are Eva safe (learned the hard way last year).  

While I won't start planning the next school year until we get the materials around May or June, I'm looking into different ways of organizing everything.  It's so much easier on me to have everything planned out and ready to go than to fly by the seat of my pants.. So I'm on Pinterest almost daily looking for ideas.  


...SOOO... like I said.. anybody else overwhelmed yet?  ;) 

Have a good week! 

~Tabitha

Fabric Shopping Trip 2/16

A good friend gifted me a JoAnn's Fabric gift card. :D  So the kids and I went shopping yesterday.  While we did have a few different stores on our list, we only made it to JoAnn's.  

My belt broke on my old Singer sewing machine...so we were planning on going to the Singer dealer to get a new one. The problem? Nobody showed up.. so I went in search on the internet and found it. :D All sewing is halted until that belt comes in, so I'll be cleaning and twiddling my thumbs until Monday.  

The money for the belt came out of my thrift store money (seriously need some sweatpants here), but since I couldn't go to Singer I couldn't go to the thrift store...you see how this is going?  Yeah, so we made it JoAnn's for fabric and such, Walmart for vitamins and diapers and Firehouse Subs for lunch-you gotta eat there SO GOOD and their soda machine is awesome. 

Anyway-here's our takeaway from JoAnn's.  The only thing that wasn't on sale were the snaps-but I had a 50% coupon for them. :D We need fabric for the baby's quilt, fabric for a footstool, fabric for a car seat cover, fabric for cloth wipes, white thread, a pattern and heavy duty snaps.

So here's a rundown of what we got for fabric. Minky, denim, Marvel comics, and scrap flannel.

2 yards of denim. We bought a footstool from Big Lots...ohhh... probably 3 or 4 years ago now.  The original faux leather came off a long time ago.. I recovered in scrap pieces of denim-which worked great for a bit, but it is coming apart at the seams, so this piece will be one big (I'm hoping doubled) piece, no seams to be torn apart where our feet will be. On Sale for 8.99 a yard. Without the sale price, it was 29.98, with a total of 17.98.

2 yards of Minky.  My sister introduced me to this fabric. So soft, warm but not too warm.. In my opinion, PERFECT for the backing of a baby quilt. :D Originally priced for a total of 29.98, on sale for 8.99 a yard.  Total of 17.98. $20 for a homemade baby quilt. I think we can deal with that. 

Scrap Flannel.  I found a pattern on Pinterest I fully intend on making and it will be a blog post.  You take terry cloth and flannel and make a cute, absorbent and soft on one side wipe. After 3 in cloth diapers, I think I deserve some nice wipes (and we have a bathroom towel with holes). I really wanted something more baby fabric-type (those cute little feet and hands pattern or something), but I also knew getting a remnant would make it a little cheaper. It was a remnant, so cheaper to begin with, but still on sale after that.  Originally 6.99, sale price was 2.40 at just under a yard.

1 yard Marvel Comic.  We have a car seat without a cover (don't ask, it just doesn't have one).  Now I wouldn't want to sit on a hard plastic seat, so I'm not going to make Andrew.  So he helped pick out his favorite.  I'll make it a little cushiony with the leftover quilting batting from the baby blanket.  Original price was 10.99, on sale for 6.59.



Miscellaneous... Heavy Duty Snaps, thread and a pattern.

Andrew's chair I did a few weeks ago needs more snaps, so we needed to get more heavy duty snaps. This was the one thing I got that wasn't on sale.   But I had a 50% off coupon. Originally 6.99 for 7 snaps, I got for 3.50.

White thread.  I'm getting a little low and since I'm sewing some things that matter what color of thread I use, I wanted that specific color-white.  Although in retrospect I'm wondering if I should have picked up some brown since I got brown Minky fabric.  Oh well, maybe I can find some at the local thrift store.  Two spools of white thread. Originally 3.99 each, on sale for 2.39 each. 

The pattern. I searched hard for a free pattern for a baby in a bag.  Found a few free ones that were printable.. So printed them off and took them to my mom's... We attempted..but the neck just didn't look like it should and comparing it to one I have already, it just doesn't look RIGHT. So I decided to spring for a pattern.  Since I was paying for a pattern, I got one that had the footy pajamas in it-I swear toddlers go through those so fast, you blink and the feet are full of holes.  I might have to scale down a bit for a newborn, but I bought the bigger size for the footy pajamas.  The baby in a bags will be a blog post too.  The pattern was originally 13.95, on sale for 8.37.  It is cheaper on the Butterick website, but I didn't have a gift certificate to the website. :p


In all, I spent $64.02 at JoAnn's.  I would say that isn't too bad for all that.  I saved 45.50 by shopping during the sale. Which is AWESOME. 


Until next week! 

~Tabitha

Grocery Shopping Trip February 11th

Well, I changed things up a little month.  I've been making a few extra trips to the city this month and was noticing deals that Walmart has early in the morning.... So I decided to hit them up first and fill in with Hyvee.  I really dislike Walmart, but you gotta do what you gotta do to make the budget happy. Our Aldi's is opening sometime this summer, so I just gotta keep going until then. 

The kids and I hit up Walmart, Sam's, Hy-Vee, Dollar Tree and the bakery outlet.  And the gas station and fast food places for lunch-but you never hear about those. :p

Now first off, I paid $23 for gas in the van.  :D I'm loving these prices. :D $1.33 average right now.  

At Walmart, a few of the regular grocery items were cheaper than HyVee, but we really hit the mark with the meat sales. Brats and sirloin steak blew me away with price simply by buying the packages that were near the date. 
4 pack (maybe 5, but I know I counted 4) of sirloin steak 9.36
4 pack of brats 2.98
The steaks are a birthday dinner request for Dennis and Grace's party next weekend (Grace's is the 17th Dennis is the 18th) ,  and my crazy kids don't like steak, so they get brats.   The rest of the savings at Walmart were within 10 cents of what things cost at Hy-Vee, but since I was there, I picked them up.

Sam's Club, I didn't save more than the buying in bulk prices... But I did have a $10 gift card from a survey site that helped when I found prices were wrong on the website.  

Hy-Vee had some sales along with some digital coupons.  They had a dozen eggs for .99 (limit of 2). A digital coupon for yogurt and ice cream-so hubby got Ben and Jerry's and the kids got Itti Bitz (crazy Gracie also doesn't like ice cream, so I'll be making a cake, too). They also had Nutty Bars on sale (a must for hubby's lunch), 4 for $5-just the little boxes, but cheaper than the big boxes.  And Pepsi 6 pack bottles on sale 5 for $10, must buy 5.  

Dollar Tree I got my usual and a few extras.. aluminum foil, kleenex, trash bags for the bathroom trash, magic erasers (make cleaning the bathroom easy), toilet bowl cleaner, auto dish detergent and roaster pans with lids (starting my baby baking this month). 

The bakery outlet was also the usual, 12 loaves of bread, 2 hamburger bun packages  ($.75 each) and a couple boxes of bite size donuts.  

Other than that, we hit up Subway, Taco Bell and Taco Johns for lunch.  Yes, we all got something different.  


Minus lunch and gas, I spent $371 yesterday.  Not near as low as we'd like, but for the extra ice cream and cake decor, and the steak with the birthdays, not TOO bad for a family of 5 for 4 weeks.  


A few other notes... I am attempting belly wrapping for pregnancy support when we have to out and about.  It's supposed to help with the ligament and pelvis pain.  The wrap I used while we were shopping did not do it's job, the fabric is getting old so too stretchy, but I re-wrapped myself in my ring sling when we got home and I had rested for a big and that helped A LOT.  (Watch this video on YouTube too see what I'm talking about.)  I'm hoping to get it figured out so I can get my sewing done that needs done.  I want it all done by the middle of next month-just so I have everything ready.  

Also, upon talking to some seasoned homeschoolers on a local group on Facebook, I found out you can sign up for an educator's discount for OfficeMax and Office Depot.  So... I went and signed up this morning.  It's free to sign up and you get rewards for spending so much.  It can't hurt anything for sure.  

Have a great weekend! We're expecting snow up here in the frozen tundra of South Dakota (lol).  :D  

~Tabitha

PVC Chair Cushion

I'm sure you've seen all these different things people are making out of PVC pipe lately.  I found instructions for a PVC chair and enlisted my parent's help-so I can't tell you how they did it-but I can give you the link I printed off for them... which dad took and made a throne instead of a chair. :D But Andrew says it's comfortable lol. He thought it needed to be sturdier so used bigger pipe.  Well... Sort of, after rescouring my Pinterest, I can't find the instructions anymore... So here's an article that features many ideas to use PVC pipe for, I know I found instructions for the cushion, but I can't find that either.

Here's the finished chair,  I found this outdoor material when I was sorting my scraps. I would say there was about a yard and a half and I think we measured it to be around 48 inches, but it was cut from something else. 

So I took the raw edges, cut them straight and sewed the seam 3 different times, inside out to make sure it was strong, I also used some upholstery thread I had sitting around-that much stronger. I turned it right side out and sewed the ends shut.

Then came the fun part- getting the heavy duty snaps on (note the sarcasm).  I tried to space them evenly but I clearly did not get enough.. Get extras, like 3 packages worth-just get A LOT lol.  I have four on one end and five on the other and it's barely enough, so next time I'm at a store, I'm getting more.  To know how far apart to put them , I wrapped an end around the pipe and added about of inch of extra space so it has wiggle room when he sits and wiggles, then marked an 'x'.  Hammered on the snaps... about four different times as it didn't cooperate the first times.. and attached. 

Here's the chair without the cushion.  I had dad put the seat about 12 inches off the ground to fit our little kid table.  

Here's Andrew trying out his completely finished chair. 

In other happenings, I've been doing some sewing for the baby. You've seen the cute little slipper shoes in the middle. On the left in a little snuggie blanket I found on Pinterest.  Crocheted granny square with an elephant ( so cute!!!!) and a first attempt at a light weight baby in a bag-it needs work before I share the instructions.

~Tabitha 

Cloth Nursing Pads-Time for baby sewing!

I'm sewing for baby again.  I had to use my mom's sewing machine for this project as I haven't figured out how to make it work on my old one yet.  

I found this pattern 5 years ago when I was expecting Eva and have made some for every baby since-they keep getting lost. Like socks.  On the plus side, these are easy to make.  Actually, I think it was a different blog, but same idea.  I usually still buy a box of disposable pads for when we are gone from the house (especially for those first few weeks of my body trying to regulate my milk supply), but these work pretty awesome.  

For my project, I used an old sweatshirt and an old sheet. The sweatshirt provided the fleece (1 layer-the outer layer) and the sheet provided the flannel (3 layers).  Like I said, these are VERY simple make, but the cutting out can be trying.  My mom and I were still overrunning the kitchen table after 3 hours of cutting when dad come home. :) Good thing he's used to our projects.  I used the back half of the sweatshirt, which got me 15 pads.  For the pattern, you need a saucer, a marker and a piece of paper.  Trace around the saucer and cutout. There's your pattern.    

Everything together, after I cut them all out, I grouped together one fleece piece and three flannel pieces. 

To make them contoured, you have to cut a wedge out... I'd say that's about 1/8 of the circle (rough guesstimate).  The pieces you cut out make great stuffing for homemade stuffed animals!!  

This step is really the only tricky part-and I can tell you, my mom's sewing machine and I had many words about who was in charge!  You need to sew the edges of your wedge together... You will want to overlap a little-but not much or it will be uncomfortable when you wear it.  Most of them I had sew this part 3-4 times to make sure I was catching all the pieces. 

Once you have that done, you sew around the outside edge, trim off any excess fabric and you're done. 

 The inside edge (love the hot pink thread?! lol) 

The outside edge.

As much as I LOVE my old sewing machine, it does not do the zig zags... I don't have that attachment.  So I needed to recruit my mom's machine.  If I had been able to do all the sewing in one sitting, I would have been done in a few hours... As it was, baby was protesting that chair that day, so I was back and forth taking breaks from the chair.   I also used whatever thread I grabbed, mom didn't care as long as it wasn't white or blue (that's the colors she uses most), she just grabs an assortment at a local thrift store when she needs some unless she cares about color.  

The trimmings were used to make a stuffed animal for baby that I started crocheting last week-but that's a different blog post. :D 

On a side note-if there are any Kmarts closing near you, might want to go check out the sales! 

~  Tabitha 

Tablet Cover Tutorial

My mother in law got a tablet for Christmas and needed a cover.  So I scoured Pinterest and found a great tutorial from Sew So Easy  that I was able to convert to fit her tablet. 

Now.. Two very important things I learned...

1) Machine quilting is a pain in the butt-as you can see, my lines are very crooked.  

2) I HATE BINDING. Hate it. Absolutely and completely HATE IT.  But unfortunately, I have a ton of it to use so I'm finding projects to use it for... Perfect. :D Minus my sanity lol. 

The tutorial called for quilted material... Well... That's funny... No money, small town.. So I made my own. WHY OH WHY DIDN'T I JUST USE COTTON!??!  But it was a learning experience.  Yes, let's call it that. 

So I went through my fabric stash and found fabric, cotton for the inside (old t-shirt), cotton for the outside (old t-shirt) and padding (old sweatshirt-and I mean OLD-this sucker was new in '90s). 

And I started measuring and cutting... With the help of my goons, of course.  Oh...another thing I failed to realize.. The pretty fabric was part lycra.. grrrr... 

So, mom's tablet measures 10.5 x 7 inches.. So I followed the instructions on the tutorial and added for seam allowance.  I cut (roughly, because I had no idea how much the quilting part would scrunch it up, so I wanted extra, then planned to trim when I got it quilted).  8.5 inches wide by 26 inches long.  All three pieces, pinned together then quilted.  

As you can see, it's pieced together a bit, since I was using scraps-and my old clothes, they simply weren't long enough for one continuous piece. 

After my quilting adventure, I trimmed so all the sides were even and added the bias tape-picked by the kids, of course! Then about three inches down on one end, I cut the curve-which didn't turn out even, but that's ok! 

Then added the bias tape... Really, REALLY wish I knew how to work the foot on my sewing machine to make the bias tape go on, but I don't... So I pinned the inside, sewed, then folded over and sewed the outside part.  

You put the tape on the curve end first.. Then on the straight edge that's at the bottom.. Fold it up in half so that the top of the pocket is even with the bottom of the curve (the flap).  Pin on your bias tape and sew..  

After adding a button, snap or your choice of enclosure, you are done.   Mom brought it back for a snap... Because snaps are easy, and Eva picked out a bright yellow snap-despite protests that it should be purple-but grandma didn't care.  

Even with the quilting, it was an easy project.. and if I had had the prequilted material, it would have easily been done within an hour.

~Tabitha 

Transformers Birthday Cake

At our house, I usually make the birthday cakes.  The kids get to choose the color of icing and the character they want on it.


Our middle girl turned 4 this past Sunday, she picked Transformers.  I knew that cartoon would come back to bite me in the butt. 

So I scoured and looked and tried to figure out HOW I was going to a Transformers cake... I couldn't find anything so I figured we would just get a cake topper from Amazon when we ordered her present... We forgot-which ended up fine because her present was late anyway.. 

So I scoured and looked on Pinterest. I'm not an artist.... Then, two days before I made the cake, a light bulb turned on.  So I started looking some more for how to transfer an image.  I found a few great links (here and here), after discovering I did not have the right ingredients to make the decorating gel, I went with the second link as I had everything to make butter cream icing.  

I found a black and white coloring page of the Transformers symbol, printed it off.  Put it on a plate, put wax paper over and proceeded to outline with my buttercream.  Froze it for 15-20 minutes while i decorated the rest of the cake, minus the top.  Then came the interesting part... While it didn't flip great, enough went onto the cake for me to able to freehand, then I did the rest of the top. 

The biggest part-she recognized it.  :D Better than other character cakes I've attempted.   

Sorry I didn't get any pictures during the process, I was trying to hurry as Eva refused to nap and hubby was trying to keep her occupied in the other room so it was a surprise.  

On other notes... Kmarts are being closed, so watch the news and maybe you can get some good bargains! 

~Tabitha