January 15, 2012 - New Projects

One day my mom sent me an email with a tote bag pattern made out of Granny Squares. The woman's tote bag was made with round centers and square blocks. I really didn't like that bag's design, and because I have a fondness for square Granny Squares, I made up a bag of my own....

 
So this got me thinking. At Christmas time, I had my family's gifts in plastic bags on my side of the room. I had a really narrow walkway from the end of the bed to my pillow. So I started thinking that if I made more of these bags, then they could be used as gift holders for my family. Then during the year, as I find gifts for my family, I could wrap them up and put them in these bags. Then for the family's gifts, instead of stressing out that 1) I have nothing to give, 2) I don't want to have their gifts on my side of the room, I could then give the bags filled with gifts to the family members. The handles for these bags are situated just right that they "hang" on hangers in the closet. Cool idea huh?

I've just completed another bag....

This bag is a bit smaller then the first one, but its still a great size. Inside is a pillowcase that I'm using as a liner. I then cut a strip to line the handle. I have to adjust the pillow case to each bag as that no two bags are the same size. For instance, this bag is 15 1/2" wide. A standard pillowcase is a bit wider. So I just cut off the pillowcase to the size I need and re-sew a new seam. Then for the handle, I cut a 4" wide strip from the same pillowcase, machine sew the Granny Square handle to the pillowcase, then sew the extra length of the pillowcase handle to the pillowcase bag "liner" and crochet the Granny Square ends of the handle to the Granny Square bag.
The purpose of the liner is that if you were to put something small (a pencil for instance) in the bag without the liner, the pencil or small item could work its way through the openings in the Granny Square bag. Having a liner there, prevents this from happening. It also gives the bags some strength/ sturdiness.

So what do you think of this idea? I think its pretty neat and another great gift idea for my family.

Till later...

January 5, 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Ok ok, so I've been a bit lazy when it comes to putting up new posts lately. I've been doing other things and just haven't gotten the ambition to write anything new for awhile.

Christmas was so much fun!!! We had everyone at our house this year. Of course when having family come over for the day, one starts the immediate sense of "Oh No, My House isn't clean!!!" So you start running around the house like a chicken with its head cut off finding things to clean in the hopes that once cleaned, will stay clean for ever!! In the real world, it doesn't work that way, so once again you find yourself cleaning the cleaned areas meanwhile forgetting that you have other areas that the family will be in that are in dire need of cleaning. Its enough to drive yourself crazy with. Or at least that how it worked out in my house. So then you get the brilliant idea to make a list of all the possible places that your family will be in and you "hire" your kids and spouse to work on those areas on the list. They too then get stressed out because they know that once their area is cleaned, that ultimately you yourself will go back and re-clean their cleaning. Finally you face the fact that your list of cleaning, is done and you sit back and relax only to realize that what you once thought was clean, is now the biggest mess you have ever had and you start getting upset at the dust bunnies, because they seem to be allergic to cleaned areas. Its a never ending cycle fighting those rotten dust bunnies. Does anyone ever win the fight you seem to find yourself in with those dratted dust bunnies? I don't think so.
So Christmas morning was coming on strong. Chris and I stayed up till about 2am in anticipation of our kids waking up and seeing all the gifts that had their names on them. It was going to be a great year for the kids. Finally, it was time for bed. Now, even though I am a grown up, I was just as excited as the kids for the morning to get here. Chris wakes me up at 5am to say that its time for presents. This is after not only going to bed at 2am, then talking till almost 4am, but now its 5am and we are wide awake. The kids are still sleeping, and so with us getting up for the day, Chris then goes and wakes the kids up. Sammy says that its too early, and Alex says, I don't wanna get up yet. Chris on the other hand wants everyone up and opening presents, because like little kids, he wants his presents right now!!!
So now we are all up and are just getting into our presents when the dust bunnies start dancing and falling from the ceiling fan. It looks as if there was dust bunny snow falling and that created another mess to clean up. The darn thing is, that I had dusted our ceiling, and the fan and yet, those darn dust bunnies decided that having a clean ceiling and fan was the wrong environment in which they live. So we then finish with opening our gifts and start the cleaning process all over again. Meanwhile Chris is in the kitchen getting our Christmas meal going. This in turn creates a million dishes, causing the kids to get all upset because its their job to do the dishes.
Finally after another run through the house, going over the cleaning list to make sure things are still cleaned, our family comes to the house.
We had so much fun!!

 

 

So as you can see by the pictures, Christmas was really fun. This Christmas I had decided that I was going to make it "Traditional and New." I had made quite a few presents, and there were a few store bought ones as well. Because this is what I had named Christmas this year, my kids decorated the tree with mostly home made/school made ornaments. I completely left it up to them. 

We had lots of food too. Ham and scallop potatoes, a green salad, cake, cookies, punch and much more. We all ate till we couldn't eat anymore. 

Thank you's go out to my family for having a Wonderful Christmas. I hope you think back on it often and have a smile. Love you guys!!!!