Still sewing...

Although I haven't been sharing here...I've still be sewing up a storm. Thought I'd share some of the things I've made over the last couple of months. At least some of the stuff that I've taken pictures of.

Here's Audrey's Halloween costume. Not the easiest one I've sewn, but love how it turned out. It's big too, so Audrey will probably be Tinkerbell again next year. 

 

 I started this wall hanging last January and didn't get it finished. I wanted it done before this February so before the Christmas sewing began I finished it up.

I also sewed up some skirts for a friend of mine who has 2 little girls.

I also finished up 2 small wall hanging as well as an advent calendar that I started before last Christmas (2010) and didn't get finished (I finished it up just in time for this last Christmas, November 30th). There aren't picture because I guess I didn't take any pictures of it. :(   Maybe I'll post some when it comes out of storage next year.

Here is some of the sewing I did for Christmas this year...
2 notebook covers...

 A lion head taggie...

 Stuffed Elephant...

 6 pillow cases...

And 3 pajama eaters...

Not pictured, I also made up 5 pairs of pajama bottoms and after Christmas another pajama eater. I think there's probably other sewing I've done as well, but can't remember right now...it's all a blur.  Oh yeah, I also sewed up some sweatshirts for a friend who needing something to wear for an ugly sweater contest...her husband won. His was a red sweatshirt with a toilet seat cover of Santa's face sewn on the front. :) The hubby was glad I didn't make him wear it! I also did a little crocheting in there too.

My plans for the new year include finishing up more works in progress as well as starting (and finishing, hopefully) some new projects. I'll keep ya posted! :)

No excuses...

I've got excuses, but nothing good. So, yep...haven't been blogging lately. Hoping to get better, but no promises. :) So, we can just say I'm starting fresh and we'll see how it goes!

Keepin' busy...

Although I haven't been good at posting for quite a while...we've still been keeping ourselves busy. Thought I'd do a whole post just on all the stuff I've been sewing on the last couple months. I'll catch you up on the kids and some of the stuff that's been going on around here in some future posts (and I promise not to make you wait too long).

I've made a couple totes over the last couple of months.

 This purple and teal tote I made for my friend. She got the fabric and I just put it together. I love how it turned out! If you wanna make one of these yourself you can find the instructions here.

 A cute little tote. Just the right size for date night! And I love the pockets on the outside. Instructions for this one here. I'll be posting more about this little bag in a later post.

 Nathan decided he needed a satchel like Flynn Rider from Tangled. How could I refuse that? So I pulled out some of Chris's old work jeans and this is what I came up with. No pattern, just did it as I went.

And a new bag for me! Found the instructions here. Only thing I wish I'd done was make the handles longer...other then that. Love it!

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Some sewing for Audrey...

A little summer dress made with some cute bunny fabric. Bought the fabric for $1 a yard and the buttons came from my mom. Love making stuff for pretty much nothing. 

A cute little dress made from some of my favorite fabrics. I just LOVE the cherry fabric. So summery and cheerful! Not quite finished here. Needed some lace on the bottom.

 

 And of course had to make some matching bows/flowers for her hair!

Here's my cute Audrey wearing the finished dress. She doesn't look so happy in this picture, but was really excited to put the dress on when I showed it to her.

Made some jammies for her for the summer. Can anyone guess what I used???? It's a vintage sheet I bought at the DI for $2.00. Made 2 sets of these jammies with enough let to make at least 2 more if I wanted to. I'm planning on making me some sleep shorts to match. :)

 And a little wallet for the little girl. She picked out the fabrics, that's why there's puppy and fishes.

The outside.

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A little mix of different things I've done recently.

 3 matching afghans. A friend in my ward had triplets and so made her matching afghans for them. She had 2 girls and 1 boy. So cute! Love the pattern used. Will definitely be making more of those.

 For Father's Day I decided to make Chris a little something...did some applique and a little freezer paper stenciling. Chris thought I bought it, so I guess I did good. :)

 Made a CTR towel for my nephew that got baptized. Love how it turned out. Gonna make more of those too. Instructions here.

 An oven mitt...a Christmas present for my brother and SIL.

And some necklaces for my cute nieces.

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And last...but not least, some new quilt blocks....

 Bow tie blocks.

 Starflower.

and the Rail Fence.

I've made other stuff too, but that's all the pictures of stuff I could find!

Sorry that was so long. Come again soon, I'll be posting again...I promise!

Favorites: Old Movies and Musicals...

I grew up heading off the the library and my sister and I would rent VHS video's that they had there. My parents would help us pick out movies sometimes and I came to really love movies from the 50's and 60's as well as pretty much any musical there is. I thought it would be fun to share with you some of my favorite movies from that time and ones that I still really love. Yes they are corney...but that makes me like the all the more I think.

Tammy and the Bachelor...starring Debbie Reynolds and (a very cute) Leslie Nielsen. 

I absolutely love the song Debbie Reynolds sings called "Tammy". It's also sung by a group from the era The Ames Brothers and I LOVE both versions. You can listen here. 

"Gidget" is also a fun one to watch...it's even more corny and silly then Tammy...but one of my favorites none-the-less.

 I do remember watching "Gidget" on TV with Sally Fields, but this is the movie with Sandra Dee. I loved the movie so much that I even own the book about the real Gidget. And I actually own all 3 Gidget Movies...Gidget, Gidget goes Hawaiian and Gidget goes to Rome, although the best is the first. Here's a song by a great group that I again LOVE to listen to that sings in the movie...The Four Preps singing "Cinderella"...they also sing the song "Gidget"

And my ALL TIME FAVORITE movie!!! 

"Seven Brides for Seven Brothers"!  

I remember watching this the first time when my parents took the family to California to go to a Square Dance something-or-other and we went to my uncles while they went off to dance. I fell in love with it then...I'm not sure how old I was, but didn't see it again until I was older and started getting the video's from the library and saw it again. Jane Powell and Howard Keel have amazing voices...I love the singing, I love the dancing, I love the red heads (oh, did I say that), really everything about the movie! My favorite scene in the movie is the barn raising. You can see it here. 

Do you have any favorite movies/musicals from this time???

What we've been up to...

Here's what's been going on in the Hepworth household over the last couple of weeks...

Poor little Audrey got sick at the end of January, she had a rough couple of days. Took her to the doctor and found out she had an ear infection with the possibility of having RSV, so kept her home a couple days to watch her breathing and luckily she got better pretty quick.

I've been sewing of course. Made a Valentines wall hanging, which didn't get done for this Valentines, but I'll be making sure it gets finished up for next year. Got the pattern here. Used stuff out of my stash. I LOVE how it turned out!

And with the left over 1/2 square triangles, made up a block to make into a pillow...

Also finished quilting and binding the Halloween quilt! Finally!! Now just need to add the button eyes on the kitty's and it's all finished!!! 

Nathan's been learning how to win at his Toy Story 3 Wii game. He really enjoys his games...

The kids have also played games with daddy. Here they are drumming away to Guitar Hero...

Audrey's being silly, she strapped herself into her booster chair and started walking around...

The kids have also had fun hanging out in sleeping bags in Nathan's room and watching movies together...

I made Audrey of Valentines skirt of course, no pattern, just made up as I went...

And made a Heart quilt block...

And started on a St. Patrick's day table runner...

I have been trying to start working on some decorations that can be used for the different holidays. Plus they are quick and easy so in theory should be quilt finishes too :)

Made Nathan a tote to take to church to carry his Book of Mormon. Used an old pair of jeans for the outside with a pocked on each side. The inside is flannel from some old pajama bottoms that I had cut up ready to use for some project. It also have some pockets on the inside for paper and pencils. I used a piece of the flannel to put a letter "n" on one side. Again no pattern used here, just made up as I went. I think it's pretty cute myself.  

And of course, I've also started a new quilt top. Actually it's almost done. Got the instructions for it here, been wanting to make a whirly gig quilt for a while and love how it's turning out. Already have plans for quilting it. Hopefully another quick finish (fingers crossed).

Other things going on...

*I've started a sewing group with some of the girls in my ward and my sister. We are meeting every 4-6 weeks, making a quilt block and will be working on small projects as we go. We had our first meeting the first week of February and will be meeting again next week. I'll post more about this later. 

*Nathan is getting ready for Kindergarten in the fall and is doing such a great job learning his letters and numbers. He surprises me each day with the things he knows! He is excited and keeps asking if when he turns 5 if he gets to go to kindergarten. I keep telling him yes, but he will have to wait a couple months after he turns 5 before he gets to go. We'll see how he takes it when he doesn't go right to Kindergarten after his birthday. 

*Audrey is working on potty training. She's doing great at daycare, hasn't had any accidents yet, and we're working on it at home. She seems to get distracted playing at home and forgets to get herself to the bathroom, but today she did go all by herself and didn't even ask for any help! She's getting so big!! 

January Experiment (s)..

I know we are already a week into February, but obviously I'm not on top of things here on the blog, so bear with me while I take a little time to get caught up here. I do have a few things to tell you about but first...

Back to what this post is about...I wanted to try some new things around my house to help things run a little more smoothly, and with it being a new month and a new year decided this would be a great time to start. I am please to say that my experiment has been a success!! And I will be continuing to make changes around the house to keep things running better and better...hopefully! (Probably just jinxed myself).

So what did I do exactly??? These are my experiment(s)...
I have set aside 2 days a week to do my laundry, (Tuesday's while watching Biggest Loser, and while Chris is at scouts, and Saturday) all laundry is to be washed and put away before Sunday, anything not put away gets left until my next laundry day to finish...and since I don't want that to happen, laundry's been getting all done by Saturday night! I used to spend Sunday doing most of my laundry and all of the next week trying to get caught up and laundry folded. I now know when my laundry day are and I've been able to stay on top of it. I've been really good at washing and when it gets pulled out of the dryer folding it immediately. What a difference, I don't have piles of clean laundry all around the house waiting to be put away all the time.

Another thing I decided was that if I was making a dish for Sunday dinner that I can put together on Saturday night then I would. I've only done this once so far but was so nice to come home from church throw dinner in the oven to heat and not spend an hour putting dinner together.

I have planned out all my meals for the whole month. I LOVE doing this. I've done a couple weeks at a time, but having the whole month...it's so nice to be able to put together my grocery list for two weeks at a time (only have to go to the store in between for perishables and misc items that we forget) and when I get home from work, look at my calendar and know exactly what I'm making and know I have everything to make it. Now I come home from work, get working on dinner and don't stress about what we are having that night.

Also as soon as we are done with dinner, or any cooking or baking...I do the dishes. This keeps my kitchen cleaner (of course) but then I don't come home from dinner to dirty dishes that I have to do before cooking.

The kids have also been in on this experiment. I have been working to get them to help pick up more. This definitely doesn't always work since they are not always cooperative, but they've been better and are learning. We are trying to get them better at picking up their own this instead of us always doing it for them.

Lastly, before bed each night I go through the rooms and pick up anything that's been left lying around and just do some general pick up.

This experiment of mine has really been great...for me at least. I feel that I am getting the house more organized. I have more time to do things for me (exercise, sewing, etc), and am more patient with the kids. YAY!! It's still a work in progress, things are not 100%, but they are definitely helping the whole family. We have more time together and because I have more time for me, I am a happier mom and wife.

Been working on some sewing...

I was able to take the week after Christmas off to spend at home with the kids and do a little sewing. I didn't sew as much as I would have liked, but did get a few things finished. I did sew a few things I can't show yet since they are gifts and we haven't finished with all of our Christmas giving yet. I'll post those later. 

But here's what I've been working on...

Some ruffled wristlets...so fun to make! Oh the possibilities!! You can find the instructions here. 

These were given to some of my friends at work.

 

A few quilt blocks for Audrey. I made Nathan a quilt for when he got moved out of his crib. And now it's time for Audrey, so she'll be getting a quilt sometime soon. Here are the first of the blocks. They will be turned into a Disappearing 9 Patch quilt. 

And I started on a new table runner...

Audrey got a cute little puppy for Christmas and he needed a little blankie...so I made him one from some fabrics I had left over from another project...

 Super simple and quick!

I was also able to finish some crochet projects. Some afghans that were supposed to be done for Christmas...but nope, they weren't. 

One for Nathan...

And one for Audrey...

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I've decide that I need to do some more sewing this year, some new and of course to finish old (UFO/WIP's) projects. I want to try to sew at least 1 hour each week but with kids and life that doesn't always happen. I was able to sew for a couple hours yesterday while Audrey was napping and Nathan was watching a movie.

A few quilt blocks...
Churn Dash in neutrals

Churn dash in red and cherries...

Snowball...

A pillowcase for one of Nathan's friends who's having a birthday this week...

And some more work on my new table runner...

I got quite a bit accomplished yesterday...and I was able to enjoy a mommy movie too! I watched Phantom of the Opera while I was doing my thing. 

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And today while Chris watched Sunday Football I sat on the couch and worked on a project that I've been wanting to get finished for a couple of years now...

Got the quilting all complete!! I was going to do a fancy design around on the border...but decided that would take WAY too long and went with simple instead. It's been trimmed down and is ready for binding (still has the basting stitches in)! Yay!! First of my old projects is gonna get finished!! Maybe I'll have to try to finish 1 project each month...we'll see.