i have to say...

creepy crawlies in colorado

Isn't she lovely?  I named her Broomhilda, Hilda for short. 

We found her outside frolicing in our driveway yesterday.  Aubry screamed when Hilda ran towards her feet and let me say that it was the highest pitched girly-scream EVER! 

A few years ago, my oldest daughter caught one of these and put it in a jar in our garage.  In the morning the captured tarantula was nowhere to be found which was completely disconcerting to me.  For about a week I wasn't sure if I was going to be sitting in my car and find a tarantula crawling on my shoulder or on the dashboard!  Lucky for me, the escapee seemed to have made a good getaway.

Hilda didn't stick around either and she ran for cover in the bushes across the street.  This, of course, was fine with me!

Bye-bye, Hilda!

links, links, links!

***Happy Things has done it again with her chenille baby-bib tutorial.

***If your little girl likes to dance, try this tu-tu tutorial.  (Thanks to Mopsy for the link!)

***I came across this link for a tutorial to make a fabric basket.  You really must click over and see how lovely these are!

***Going Sew Crazy has a how-to for a little girl's skirt with a ruffle.  I hope to use this one soon!

***Firmly Planted tells how she made a white-board for her schoolroom for only $25.00.

I have added a link on my sidebar called "tutorial links", and this is where you will be able to find a long and growing list of all of the tutorials that I come across after I post them each week.  My hope is that this is a useful resource for someone!  I know it will make it easier for me to find the links and avoid clicking through my own blog to find them!  ;)

Have a great day!

the attack of the killer tomatoes

OK, so they are not attacking and they are not killer, but they are covering my kitchen counter! 

We picked this bunch on Saturday and, looking outside at the garden, I see that we can pick this same amount at the end of the week!  I guess my goal of having a freezer full of tomatoes for winter-time is going to come true after all!

waving good-bye

My 16 year-old babe left for her first day of college classes this morning. 

It is funny that when you actually reach those long-range goals for your kids, you don't feel so much a sense of success as you do a sense of loss. 

I will miss her today...

Did you know there is going to be a total lunar eclipse early tomorrow morning?  Here is the information for Colorado.

In general, I don't hang out with my kids until after 8 AM so I can't decide if we will be rising at 5 AM to see this or not.  Decisions, decisions...

stuffed blue bear = baby

...for this post, anyway! Being without a babe and trying to take a picture of a baby carrier is tricky.  My little stuffed blue bear ended up filling in just fine, but I did worry a bit about what the neighbors might think when they saw me---the lady with 5 kids who homeschools---modeling a stuffed bear like  it was a newborn babe!  Hopefully I got away with it!

I made this for a blogging friend who was looking for a mei-tai carrier.  I used this tutorial and I made the straps approximately 3-1/2 inches wide with fleece lining over the shoulders for comfort.  Admittedly, I put the straps on upside-down on my first try, but with the help of my trusty seam-ripper, all is well!

Making this carrier reversible would be simple and you could make a side suitable for yourself as well as one for your hubby (cars or camo fabric?)

This site has great directions for tying it on front or back, and it also sells the carriers in custom fabrics.

The only way to make this cuter is the addition of matching diaper bag:

Happy sewing!

sewing seeds--no sewing required!

Earlier this summer my daughter traveled to Africa to work at an orphanage.  This was a life-changing experience for her and also a blessing for the kids.  As many of you know, we were able to gather over 125 handmade skirts to send with her as part of project called Sewing Seeds.  The girls who received the skirts were thrilled to have something new and lovely and all their own.  (Please see the photo album in my sidebar to get an idea of who the kids are).

This time I am hoping to do something special for the boys in the orphanage and possibly something for all of the kids.  Another group will be traveling back to the orphanage in either November or January (Danika will not be going with this group) and we are hoping to stuff their bags full of two things:  denim shorts for the boys and shoes for all of the kids.  So many of you have mentioned that you would like to take part in this if we ever did it again, so here I am asking for you help.

With the fall clothes on the racks these days, the summer clothes have been relegated to the clearance shelves, and this works in our favor!  Here is what is needed specifically:

Boys shorts: most of the boys are ages 1-8 and all of them could use a pair of shorts.  Shorts made of denim or another durable fabric would be perfect.  If you are unsure of what size to buy, I suggest you buy for your own children's or grandchildren's size since this worked out perfectly last time.  My hope is to collect 50 pairs of boys shorts.

Kid's shoes:  the weather in Africa allows for summer-type shoes year around.  Sturdy sandals of some sort would probably be ideal so that socks are not needed.  The girls range in age from 1-13, while the boys range in age from 1-8.  I would love to collect 100 pairs of shoes.

If you are interested in contributing please leave me a comment or email me. 

The thing that I love about doing this is watching everyone come together to help the kids.  Together we can bless a large group of kids who have many needs, not only by giving them shorts and shoes, but also by letting them know that someone cares for them.

"Sow the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of my love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you."---Hosea 10:12

***I would like to have everything by September 30 if that is possible!

***Gently used shorts or shoes would be great too.

Thanks!

i can't decide

Is she dressed more like Pippi Longstocking or Punky Brewster?

With my older girls, I was a lot more picky about how they dressed than I am with Aubry.  I think this has to do with the fact that I know that she is our last babe and that I want to avoid making big issues out of the small things, like clothes.

We have been seen at the grocery store in princess dresses, ballet tutu's, and pink ninja ensembles (Aubry, not me!), and I have found that it is not as embarrassing as I thought it could be.  And even if it is, I just don't care.

I will admit to "filtering" things, though.  Yesterday we received a large box of hand-me-downs and before I even showed them to my gal, I went through them and got rid of the ones that I would never let her wear, but that I knew she would love. 

I do have to draw the line somewhere!

handbags for the three amigos

My daughter has two room-mates who are the type of girls you always hope your kids will hang out with when they move out of your house.  They are responsible, they take care of each other and they have fun while they sort through the details of living life together in their tiny apartment.

Because it means so much to me that they look out for my girl (and my girl looks out for them!) I made them some bags from my Moda Uptown fat-quarter pack. These are the easiest bags I have ever made and they even came out reversible--on accident!  They were a hit with the girls and one of them even told me that when she writes her novel one day, I am going to be one of the characters in it! 

Ha!  I guess I will be forever remembered for being a purse-makin', daughter-lovin' mama! 

That is just fine with me!

***This post is part of Show-and-Tell Tuesday .

abundance

A couple of weeks ago I was beginning to wonder if our tomatoes were ever going to ripen.   These days I am not worrying about that AT ALL!  We have red, ripe tomatoes all over the place and the concern is becoming what to do with them. 

This year instead of canning them, I am simply boiling them for one minute and then slipping the skins off and stuffing them into quart-size freezer bags.  This is a surprisingly quick process and I am sure that upon defrosting them sometime in the dead of winter, we will be able to chop them up and make tomato sauce or salsa and that we will be thrilled at the end-of-summer tomato taste! 

My one regret is that they won't taste good sliced and sprinkled with salt and pepper.  That treat is only possible now!

I am off to pick tomatoes...