Back in the kitchen.....well, the dining room (which is where all the good crafting happens).

Hello blogging world!

It has been a very long time since I have posted anything.  And I certainly have missed it.

We moved and got very busy with house renovations, then morning sickness as we found out we were expecting our third, who arrived in June.  Life is finally back into a bit of a "normal" swing and I can't wait to start sharing some of the stuff that we have been up to.

Because I have baby brain, and babies on the brain, a lot of my recent projects have revolved around little ones.  We are cloth diapering full time and I am always looking for the best and most frugal ways to do things.

We have been absolutely blessed with great deals on second hand fitted cloth diapers and built up a very nice stash slowly for a really reasonable price.  Because we are using fitted diapers, they also require a cover and we have found wool covers to be comfortable, great for our little ones very sensitive skin, and cheap (now that we have discovered making our own!).

So, here is what I have made so far!  I have a fabulous friend who had a wonderful stash of 100% wool sweaters and was happy to share and we are splitting the goods.

My first night of sewing I was able to make 6 pairs of longies!

All these pairs (except for the top center ones) were made using the arms of a sweater.  They literally took me about 15 minutes per pair from cutting to wearing!  I am not one to usually just wing things my first time through so I followed an excellent tutorial at The Sewing Dork.  She added elastic to her waistband, but I just made my waist bands about 2/3 the size of the actual waist and went without elastic.  I also haven't added any cute little embelishments yet, but I think some stars and pockets might be in the works!

These sweet little soaker capris are the ones from the top center picture above.  My friend really wanted some capris for the summer season and I am so glad she thought of it because they are SUPER cute!  I made these ones using Max and Meena's Maxaloone's pattern.  It was also really easy to follow and I love the contrasting color bum patches!  The leg cuffs also roll down to make them full length when the summer evenings cool down.  Cutting and sewing for this took me about an hour - maybe a bit more, but I had to nurse several times in between cutting and sewing.

Sorry for the dark picture but here is my handsome little guy trying out the black pair of longies made from the sweater arms.  The fit is awesome!

The final pattern that I tried was Katrina's Sew Quick Soaker Pattern.  I really liked this pattern because it was easy to sew in an extra layer of soaker.  So both the red and black shorties and longies have this extra layer and they have great absorbency.  

All in all it was a great project and I am super excited to have 7 new pairs of pants/capris for my little guy.

Give it a try!  And let me know how your projects turn out.

Nadine

Back to Work....

Hello world :) It has been a very long time since we have done a blog post! Well, it is no secret that consistency is a struggle for me and I have been on hiatus from many things. Mostly in part because we moved to a new city (well, pretty much out into the country) this summer and then found out we are expecting our third child so I have been out of action for a bit. However, now that life is settling down again, I felt that old nagging feeling to do some crafting.

Setting up our new house has been a wonderful, fun and tiring experience. We have pretty much painted the place head to toe and made it our own. And now, I am settling in and really starting to decorate more. We are very visual people in our family and so I have taken on a few craft projects (as always, inspired by Alicia!) that would be great visual representatives and pieces of art for the family. The first one we attempted was our family rules.

Hubby and I took some time to really think about what is important to us and what is important in how we raise our children and we really wanted to focus on the character traits that we are trying to build in them. I googled several other great blogs that had also created similar rules and artwork and took a lot of inspiration from them. Myra over at My Blessed Life had some great family rules done in an artistic style that totally appealed to my sense of style. Rachelle, who is the mommy blogger at Fingerprints on the Fridge, also had some great ideas and a wonderful step by step tutorial that got me started!

We chose the perfect time to take this project on because Michaels Art Store had all their canvases on sale so we were able to get decent size canvases for a decent price. After buying a few foam paint brushes, a large bottle of matte mod podge and a different paper pad each, the project cost about $40 each.

So, following Rachelle's instructions, I painted my canvas a nice green color that goes well with the yellow walls in our new place. I spent a good hour or two choosing the papers that I liked and putting them in an order that seemed to balance out wild and crazy with a little more subdied.  I tried to stagger my rules so that there was a mix of longer ones and shorter ones and that they made some sort of sense in order at least in my mind.  And this is what I got!  It felt like a long process, it took me 2 days to complete this project - but it was a lot of fun.  I spent a couple hours the first night and several hours the next day to finish it all up.  I was very greatful for my cricut machine that allowed me to cut out the lettering in the sizes and fonts that I liked and saved me having to try and hand paint anything.

As commented on many of the blogs I read on this project, the paper did wrinkle and ripple as modge podge was applied.  Despite my best attempts and sureness that I had worked with paper tons and would be able to get it to stay flat, it did what it wanted.  So, if you decide to take on this project, be forewarned!  It will wrinkle and crinkle, but if you can embrace this, it actually does add an authenticity to the project making each piece quite unique and now that it's done and hanging on my wall I don't notice the bumps much at all.  So here is my final product!

Because I had so much fun making mine, and I have the cricut, I also helped Alicia with her family rules as well and it's amazing how different they both are, but they both totally suit our personalities and family homes.  Here is her finished project....

Happy crafting and don't forget to let us know if you decide to make your own family rules!  

Nadine

A free giveaway!!

Good morning everyone :)

A free giveaway is coming up!  We are trying to build up our pinterest interest in our Easter Ebook.  We are going to be doing a free giveaway when the followers for Nadine's pinterest page reach 50!  Be sure to tell all of your friends.

To follow me, just click the red button on the left side of our website that says "Follow me on pinterest".

Also, we need to know, what would you like to see more of on our blog?
We have done a lot of random things in the past....eco house cleaning, gardening, homeschooling, cooking.
What peeks your interest the most?

Cheers,
Nadine

Some of the Easter crafts from our home!

Hey everyone,

There has been so much talk going around about our new Ebook I wanted to share some of the crafts that have been done.

Over at A Moment in our World Stacey has posted pictures of the crafts she and her kids did.

And here are a few final products from my household:

 
The eggs are from the craft and teaching on how Easter eggs relate to the Christian celebration of Easter!  I think this project was really cool because it was done using all natural products (and it's edible afterwards!)

My DS had a fun time creating our palm leaf here, but had more fun dancing around with it to worship music afterwards :)  Should have got a video....

Nadine

Hey everybody! Very exciting, we are starting to get in the reviews on the Ebook The Bunny, The Egg and The Cross and have some awesome bloggers for you to check out as well :)

The first review to come in was from Stacey over at A Moment In Our World.  She is a stay at home momma from Australia who homeschools her 2 boys.  The review was really great and she also has some links up on her blog to some wonderful resources that she has developed that are available on Teachers Pay Teachers if you are looking to incorporate school work that is Easter themed as well many other educational resources.

Thanks Stacy for supporting us!
Nadine