Before...

 Remember before, back in June when I was wanting to tackle a furniture makeover project? Well, I finally found a piece of furniture to redo. I've been looking mind you...an occasional garage sale, craig's list, but I haven't found a piece that ''spoke'' to me (or was talking to me for under $100). Until yesterday when driving down the street to my street, a lady was putting a dresser at the curb. As she was taping a FREE! sign on it I speed dialed B and told him to bring his truck around the corner, I wanted this.

 It is solid wood, SUPER heavy and tall for a dresser. At least four feet. I love the detailing on the sides...and the solid {what I think to be, brass} handles.

Now it's in fairly decent shape when you consider the age of the piece and the fact that it was free. Every part of it is solid wood; no pressed cardboard, no veneer...just solid wood. The drawers are each in their own cubby, solid shelve in between (no plywood cheapo piece separating one drawers bottom from the others top). That being said, there are no sliders/tracks for the drawers so they are rough to pull out. The top one has issues. It will need plenty of TLC to become what I envision.

What is it that I envision? Well I'm not sure yet. Originally I wanted a piece that could become a kitchen island or a TV stand...this isn't that. But I love it and I will hopefully begin my project soon. You know when it ins't 103 degrees outside. And after I buy a sander. And decide whether I want to paint or sand. And before I do that, I need to figure out where it's going. What's it's purpose?

Good thing it was free, eh?

DIY Carseat Cover

Last weekend I washed Peanut's old infant carseat cover. After washing it, and letting it air dry it was looking pretty sharp. All the spit up stains and random carseat crud came out just fine on the actual cover, as well as the infant cushiony insert. Then I remembered that I gave the winter carseat cover that we used with Peanut, to an expectant mom last year. Well here we are having a baby in Sept/Oct. Obviously by Nov/Dec, we'll need a cover for the carseat. Especially when carrying her into and out of the boy's school each morning at 8:45am. Yes, I could just cover her seat with a blanket, I know that. But while carrying her, I'll be holding Peanut's hand while Bubba and Pooks walk in front of me. One gust of wind and the blanket flies up (or off) and I'm in the middle of a parking lot with 4 kids, one of whom is about to get super cold. I need the cover/blanket to stay put. So I decided to make one...are we really surprised? That's the theme this pregnancy.

Here is what it looks like finished:

I promise it is super super easy, took about an hour start to finish and I watched Burn Notice while doing it.

You will need:

- 1 yard each of two coordinating fabrics (I used a cotton print and an anti-pill fleece)
- wide grosgrain ribbon (I used 1.5inch)
- coordinating thread

Instructions: 
**It's important that if you are using a cotton fabric, to pre-wash and dry your fabric first. It will shrink when you eventually wash it and then it may not fit correctly. Fleece will not shrink so it's not necessary to pre-wash**

1. Cut the 2 main fabric pieces to be about 36″ x 33″. Round the corners if you'd like. (I actually used one of the boy's old blankets as a template because it was the perfect size.)
2. Pin the fabrics together, with the RIGHT sides facing in/together, sew with a basic straight stitch, leaving a 6-8" space for turning. Trim corners. If using 2 cotton fabrics, press seams open. If using fleece, it really won't matter.
3. Turn right side out, using the 8 inch hole that you made on one side. Be sure to poke out the corners so they are nice and pointy.
4. Fold the 8inch opening to the inside, pin your opening shut.
5. Topstitch around the entire thing, taking care to sew the opening (that you used to the turn the blanket  right side out) shut. I sewed about 1/4" from the edge but 1/2" is okay too.

Now you have a blanket. Tada, you're all most done! Now we're going to attach the ties.

-Measure out 2 pieces of ribbon that are about 24-26 inches long each. Toss the blanket/cover over your carseat, adjust the blanket as needed and decide where you want the ties to go. Pin the middle of the ribbon piece, where you will want the ties.

Where you pinned the ribbon, sew across the width of the ribbon, several times to secure the them tightly. You'll end up with about an inch of stitches. I recommend using a zig-zag stitch or a small X-box to really secure it. 

Now, tie your cover on and viola, you're done!

And when you baby is the car or store, simply push the carseat handle back and push the blanket over the the handle. You don't need to un-tie it everytime. (The carseat handle should always be down/behind the carrier when in the car...never over the baby.)

Oh and did you notice the matching strap covers I made? Yeah well when I washed the cover and the infant insert that came with the seat, they came out spotless. However, the strap covers didn't fair so well. They came with the seat and were the same material/cover as the insert but for some reason, I just couldn't get the stains out. And it was obvious they were dirty, especially next to the nice clean cover. I know that your are not suppose to use aftermarket strap covers {often times they are too big and it's impossible to get the chest clip to where it needs to be. Also, in the event of a crash, they can compress down and leave the harness straps too loose} so I wanted to clean/replace the ones that the seat was safety-tested with. I washed them by hand and in the washing machine, to no avail they do not look clean. And in my pregnant state, it's really bothering me that they look dirty.

On to plan 2: make new ones that were the same size and thickness as the old ones. Maybe not the best choice but I do not feel like the new ones compromise Sweetcheeks safety at all. They are the exact same size as the ones I removed, the difference is they are clean (yay!) and these velcro on and off so I don't have to un-thread the straps each time they get dirty. Plus they are pretty stinking cute ;) I did not provide instructions or a tutorial for strap covers because unless your seat came with them, they really can be unsafe.

randomness

i have quite a few pictures to share, but they are so very random. from haircuts, to crayon rolls and even murder?! aaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

 ***

saturday night auntie M stayed with us and her and i attended a murder mystery party. we knew ahead of time that she was to be Starr Bright, a hollywood star who was on the verge of losing her contract due to an alcohol problem and i was to be Agent Hollywood, Starr's agent. it was so much fun! we really got into character and had a blast. as an agent i was decked with cell phones, a bluetooth, a hands free set, pens everywhere and several watches. Starr Bright, well she was a hot mess. here is auntie M with her ensemble, minus a hot pink feather boa that shed far too much to be brought into the house. notice all the bling? yeah by the end of the night she had green marks from all of her jewelry. ha!

"oh jeez Starr, you're a mess!"

hopefully she got better pics than I did...b went all crazy paparazzi on us but they weren't very flattering! 

 ***

so that was saturday. before that, on thursday, the boys all got haircuts. again! their hair grows SO fast. while i couldn't get a single pic of them looking at me, i did snap a few while they were playing. lately they act like getting their picture taken is more painful than having to get vaccinated, so good pics are few and far between.

and this one i thought was particularly funny; simply because you can see the detesting glare from pooks and peanut but there is bubba, cheesing it up!

and without the binky he looks so grown up! (you know, minus the bib catching his drool)

 

***

and lastly with Valentine's day just around the corner, i was trying to figure out what to get the kids. scratch that. what to make the kids. lately i've been on this homemade kick. using my sewing machine to create i spy bags and capes, i needed an idea of what to make next. i've been hitting up the fabric store like it's going out of business and everything was on sale. (ha, i wish!) i've picked up a 1/2 yard here and a full yard there of fabric that i just *had* to have or knew that the boys would love. 

after stumbling across this blog, Make It and Love It, i figured it out. a crayon roll! i know that they will love it, i know they will use it and more importantly, i knew i could actually make it! i have a sewing machine (and a great one at that) but i am self taught and use my seam-ripper, a lot! so after just a few hours (seriously, like maybe 3 hours total) i whipped up three crayon rolls. what is a crayon roll you ask? (well, you'll have to wait for my camera battery to charge, then i'll snap up some pics and you will see) it's to hold crayons in. then the whole thing rolls up, ties with a ribbon and you can throw it into your backpack or diaper bag for when you're out and about. you know at restaurants when they give your kid 2 crayons that only God knows where they have been? yeah well no more for the these brothers.

i've been slacking, i know

i've just kinda been in a blogging funk. the kids are still doing cute/gross/funny things, i just can't seem to find the time or energy to always blog about it!

peanut turning one was bittersweet; i'm glad that he is healthy, growing and learning and discovering more and more each day but i miss my ''baby''. he is still a cuddler. he would rather be worn in a carrier than pushed in a stroller. he still takes 2 naps and loves his bottle. but he is getting so big! he can now climb the stairs-completely to the top without looking back (and without needing any help). he can point, clap and stretch up his hands when you say ''so big''. he knows how to open the kitchen drawers and can walk across the entire room with his wooden wagon. his personality is really starting to show and he's starting to interact more and more with his brothers each day.

at his one year check up he weighed in at 21lbs 2 oz and 29.5 inches tall. he is perfectly healthy. we're are suppose to wean him off of the bottle but, eh we're working on it. honestly he wouldn't even take a bottle the entire time we were nursing--i think introducing it at 10 months was a mistake [in hindsight] but when he wouldn't take a sippy and i was an emotional mess we did what worked. on a normal day he only has 3 so i'm not too concerned. (okay okay, i'm not concerned at all. call it 3rd time mom syndrome but it doesn't bother me in the slightest).

bubba and pooks are doing great too. homeschooling is going pretty well, somedays are better than others. bubba's attention span is quite a big longer than pooks' so i think he's benefiting from it more but that's to be expected. (sometimes i have to really remind myself that pooks' is only 2.5!) bubba knows all of his colors and shapes. (okay we haven't yet delved into into hexagon/pentagon/trapezoid, etc). he can recognize almost every single uppercase letter of the alphabet when it's on a menu, sign, object, etc. he spelled out 'tomato' at breakfast on sunday. we're really starting to work on phonics and sounding the letters out, as well as introducing the lowercase letters.

pooks does better when it's more hands on activities. he loves painting, coloring, cutting, and gluing but he won't even attempt to write his letters. he can count to 5 all by himself and recognizes a few letters. he knows all of his shapes but not his colors. everything is either blue, pink or orange. maybe he's just being a toddler, maybe he is colorblind i guess only time will tell for now. it isn't really at problem at this age, so for now, we're just gonna keep an eye on him.

we're learning all about thanksgiving this week. turkeys and food, fall and autumn, what we are thankful for, scarecrows and farms, etc and then incorporating numbers into that as we can.

today we made turkey's from painted handprints, then talked about the turkey's 4 feathers and what we were thankful for. i explained that being thankful for something meant that you were happy to have it. it might be something that everyone has or something that no one else has. it can be a person, place or thing, etc. i didn't want to coach them too much--i knew they would have some pretty interesting things to be thankful for. so without further ado, here is what they came up with:

we'll do bubba's first-
just in case you can't read it (i scanned this btw) he is thankful for: our house, cars, Kansas City, Matt and Rachel and...bugs? hmm, okay bubba!

pooks was equally strange unique
he was thankful for family, trains, glue and carrots. he doesn't even LIKE carrots but apparently he is thankful that they are there, you know, to look at.

aren't they just the cutest? i love this age!