It’s no secret that I like to work on my crafts and be creative.  The next creative project that I am going to be working on is me!  I have been having weight issues ever since I had my kids.  I was always the skinny girl who could eat anything and never gain an ounce.  Over the years my weight adjusted from being active in college to working behind a desk.  I always felt comfortable with my weight even when it adjusted a bit as I got older.  However, since I had the kids I cannot get rid of all of this extra belly weight I am carrying around.  When I was pregnant and you saw me from the back I didn’t even look pregnant.  I was ALL belly!

I went back to Weight Watchers but it wasn’t working for me this time.  I just couldn’t keep up with keeping track of my points.  As I have been doing some nutritional reading I see that I was not necessarily eating the correct foods and making the correct food choices so I ended up being hungry and feeling deprived and out of points.

I saw a nutritionalist who said that I needed to increase my daily vegetable intake and limit the bad foods and the extra snacking that I was doing and it worked alright but I didn’t stick to it.  I lost my motivation.  The more I thought about it the more I realized it was because I was losing weight alone without the support of other women going through the same thing as I was going through.  I still didn’t have a clear understanding of how to combine the right amount of proteins, carbs, etc into each of my meals and snacks.  So many of the diet programs have foods that I don’t like to eat or that I know my family won’t eat.  I just could not figure out how to eat basic foods while still losing weight.  What I would consider a healthy breakfast ended up being pretty much all carbs.  I was getting very frustrated.

Enter Curves.  My Husband’s Aunt lives out of state so I emailed her for her opinion because she owns a Curves.  She told me the benefits of their new Complete weight loss program and their Smart program.  I thought about it and I am now signed up!

I am so excited about this!  I had been a member of Curves years ago when they had first opened in our area but stopped going after I got married and had the kids.  Since that time they have come up with these great new programs.  Our local Curves is very close to where we live and their hours work great with our schedule.  I have now been assigned to a personal coach and I begin the weight loss program on Monday.

The weight loss program, Complete, has a fantastic website that you use for planning your meals.  After completing your profile you are then given the first week’s meal plan…which contains regular food!  If you don’t like something on it you just switch it for something that you do like on the list.  You can also print out a grocery shopping list for that week based on your food choices.  No points, carbs or calories to count.

I was also given a pedometer, starter set of vitamins and protein shake as well as a cute grocery shopping list to keep on the refrigerator.

I will work out 3-4 times a week at Curves with other women who are also trying to lose weight like me.  I will be able to meet and go over everything with my very own personal coach.  They have Zumba classes available.  They have daily videos to watch that are only a few minutes and will help you on your weight loss journey.  The Smart program gives me a card that I put into each machine as I am working out.  It records my workout and shows me if I need to increase it.  At the end of the program I can check the computer and view my workout and see how many calories I burned, etc.

This program is what I needed and what I have been looking for!  A lot of one-on-one training and support with regular foods.  This food plan is something that I actually want to stick to!  I am so excited about getting started.  It is a 90 day plan and my goal is to lose 20 pounds in those 90 days and right now I am very motivated.  I am hoping that I will not lose that motivation since I will be going through this Complete program with so much support.  I am so looking forward to recreating myself into a thinner, healthier and well-balanced woman and mother!

While I was in the attic the other day I came across a dollhouse kit for a Victorian cottage.  I had totally forgotten that we even had it up there so I brought it back down with me.  I thought that maybe I would give it a try and put it together at some point.  When the boys saw it they were so excited and started asking for the glue so that we could get started.  I tried to explain that it wasn’t quite that simple so I ended up showing them how the parts of the house come in sheets that need to be separated and glued.  I explained that it was something that we would have to do in steps over time.

Since we were home most of this afternoon I told the boys that we could start the dollhouse.  With wood glue and glue sticks in hand two very excited boys and their mommy started dollhouse construction.  At first I was a bit worried because I had not looked at the directions yet and when I did I saw that there was a lot of detail work that had to be done first.

We had to start with the two front pieces and all of the window frames and sills had to be glued on both sides.  After awhile Matthew lost interest and went to  play with his toy animals, dinosaurs and trucks in the family room while  Gabriel and I continued working on the dollhouse construction.  It was a nice time being with both boys…and of course we had on an episode of Scooby Doo.

I told the boys that we had a lot of gluing to do and that it was going to have to dry in between each step.  They weren’t too happy about that but there wasn’t much choice.  We started by using a glue stick to glue on the plastic windows.  Then we used the wood glue to glue on the window frames and sills.  Gabriel was working very diligently on his gluing so he was disappointed when we had to take a break but he was good about it.

Over the next couple of hours he would check our work and the glue was drying nicely.  I had gone ahead and taken out the pieces that we were going to need next and sanded them so that they would be all ready.  After a couple of hours we went ahead and glued the window frames, sills and flower boxes on the outside of the house.

By that point we packed it up for the day.  It was fish fry time and we needed to get going.  I set the pieces out of the way for the night so that the glue could thoroughly dry.  I will make sure to update everyone again as construction continues.  Knowing my kids I can see how this project will go…Gabriel will be totally involved in the dollhouse construction and then not bother with it once it is completed  while Matthew will not bother much with the dollhouse construction but, once it’s finished, will play with all of his animals and dinosaurs in it!

On one of my many, many visits to Pinterest I found a great tutorial for a Marshmallow Peep at Dandelions and Lace. I decided to give it a try and make a Peep for my brother for Easter. Ever since we were kids he has just loved to eat those things. We used to trade on Easter and I would give him some of my Peeps and he would give me some of his chocolate. When I saw these fleece Marshmallow Peeps I knew I just had to make one of these for him.

It was a very simple tutorial but when I just followed the written instructions somehow my Peep’s tail ended up being backwards. I cut out another Peep and tried again. This time I took my laptop into my craft room and followed the tutorial with the pictures. That worked out much better.

If you would like to make a Marshmallow Peep you can find the tutorial here.

Here is the Peep that I made. It was nice and simple with only 5 pattern pieces.

The head is sewed together first.

The chest is sewn on next. My Peep is starting to look more like a bananna now!

I was doing pretty well until this next step of adding on the tail.  I thought I had done it correctly but then it was on backwards once I turned everything right-side-out.  So, I tried it again and got it right that time.

Once I had the body all finished I stuffed it with some poly-fil and stitched it closed.

One thing that I did differently was that I used fabric paint for the eyes instead of embroidery.  I just dabbed the eraser end of the pencil into the paint and dabbed it onto each side of the Peep’s face.

The tutorial was very easy to follow and I am even thinking about making a few more of these cute little Peeps for my boys.  I think that they would also look nice with my Peep bunny garland too!

I should be picking up around the house…but I’m knitting.

I should be cleaning up the end-of-the-day dishes in the kitchen…but I’m knitting.

I should be doing laundry…but I’m knitting.

I should be practicing my bellydancing…but I’m knitting.

I’m sure that I will at least do the dishes and pick up around the house before I go to bed tonight but those things will have to wait until later…because I’m knitting!

Sometimes you just have to knit!

I am currently working on making a Raggedy Ann Doll for my Step-Father’s Mother.  I guess that makes her my Step-Grandma!  I have made the doll, the pants and the dress so far and all I have left to make is the apron and the doll’s hair.  I am making this from a Simplicity pattern and I am having a lot of trouble with the hair.  I believe I am sewing the yarn onto the wig correctly but it is so thick that my sewing machine needle almost broke and I was not able to keep the yarn straight on the wig.  Needless to say it looked terrible when I finally finished sewing all the way around it.  I ended up looking online to see if I could find out any information on how to make a rag doll wig and I found a few methods but then my mind began to wander.

I found myself thinking about how my Grandma made me a rag doll when I was younger and I knew that I still had it packed away in the attic so off I went up into the attic.  I was hoping that I could see how my Grandma had connected the hair onto my rag doll and then maybe I could copy her method.  When I finally found my box of old toys I decided to have my Husband bring it downstairs for me because I thought that the boys might like to look at some of the stuff.

Right on top was my favorite rag doll, Polly.

 Next to Polly was my puppy.  My poor puppy has quite a bit of damage to his nose and paw.  My mother had been storing these toys in her attic and a squirrel got into the attic and borrowed some softness for it’s home!  Needless to say there was a bit of damage, including my puppy that my Grandma made for me.  I kept it anyhow because it had a lot of happy memories and is just missing a few bits and pieces.  Maybe I will fix him one day.

I also found my clothespin doll kit and my clothespin dolls.  One year for Christmas my mom had given me a clothespin doll kit and I spent hours making them.  There was one box for the kit and then another box for the completed dolls.  She had stocked the kit box with clothespins, doll stands, wide ribbons, narrow ribbons, silk flowers, pins, pin cushion, instruction/idea book and some trims.  I think that I spent that entire Christmas Day making those dolls.  I even took both boxes to my Grandma’s house that day and was working on them there.  I happy to come across those again and I will do a blog post real soon on how I made the dolls.

I used to name each of my clothespin dolls and write their names on their stands so that I could keep track of who was who.

When I was little I used to like to play “wedding” and pretend that I was a bride.  So, of course I had to have a bride and bridemaids made out of my clothespins.

And there were plenty of guests at the wedding too.

I also made a nurse and patient.

These two, I thought, were pretty good to0 (please remember that I was only about 8 or 9 when I made these!).

I found a pink crocheted doll dress that my Grandma had crocheted for me.  I remember that my Aunt Mary had a blue one at her house and I had the pink one.  I need to go to the craft store to buy a new plastic doll so that I can display the dress in my craft room.  I will post a picture of the dress on a doll soon.  My old plastic doll just didn’t make it through all the years.

It was such a nice surprise to come across some of these old crafting items.  There were, of course, some toys that had been saved in the box but the crafts were the best because I still do crafts today.  I didn’t realize how early on in life I was exposed to crafts and how many years I have been doing them.  I will always be grateful to my Mom, Grandma, Great-Aunt and Great-Grandma for the introduction to crafts that they gave me.

It was really nice to see all those old items again.  The dolls, Barbies, Smurfs (yes, I remember when they came out the first time!) and Strawberry Shortcakes will be going back up to the attic again but my rag doll Polly, my clothespin dolls and the pink crocheted dress will all be staying downstairs with me to be proudly displayed in my craft room as part of my crafting history.

I found this great Pin on Pinterest for Peep Bunny Garland. You can find the complete tutorial and template here at Dana Made It.

Materials:
1/2 yard of felt (I was able to get 25 Peep bunnies per 1/2 yard if I traced them right next to each other with their bottoms touching)
Brown fabric paint
Pencil
Ribbon/fabric/bias tape for bunting

I started out by tracing the template onto my felt, with the felt folded in half so that I ended up with a bunny front and a bunny back. I used 1/2 yard each of pink and green. Once I had traced my bunnies I cut them out and painted their faces.

The faces are very simple to paint and only need to be painted on the front piece. I used an inexpensive fabric paint, it was $1.29 for the bottle and I hardly used any of it. I just put a little bit of it on a paper plate and, took the eraser side of a new pencil and dipped the top of it in the brown paint. I then pressed it onto the bunny front. I did two eyes and a nose.

While the bunnies’ faces were drying I sewed the bunny backs onto bias tape. I wanted to use extra wide double fold bias tape but I didn’t have any so I used the regular width bias tape. If I make another one of these I will definately use an extra wide bias tape. You can also check the original tutorial at Dana Made It as she gives another option for the bunting.

Once the bunnies’ faces were dry I pinned and sewed, one at a time, one front bunny onto one back bunny. I topstitched all around the bunny and that was it. I left a little bit of bias tape on each end of the bunting so that I could use those ends to hang up the garland.

I am looking forward to the boys seeing the Peep bunny garland in the morning. I think that they will really like. I know I do!

It’s no secret, I’m totally obsessed with Pinterest!  It’s always so exciting to go to Pinterest and see all of the new projects and tutorials and inspiration.  I don’t think that I have ever gone onto Pinterest and not pinned at least one thing.

Even though I do a lot of pinning I have also completed a number of projects that I found on Pinterest in either the form of a tutorial or just plain old inspiration.  I have made a reusable Swiffer duster, a mik crate cover, freezer pop holder, a jar of salad and jar wraps.  I am currently working on a Peep Bunny Garland and a stuffed Peep.  I will post about those projects as soon as I am finished with them.

I was proud of the Pinterest projects that I completed.  That is, until I looked at my Pinterest boards today.  It was as if I was seeing Pinterest for the first time!  I looked at my Sewing board first.  There are several projects on that board that I plan on making so I have already printed the patterns for them however, there were so many projects Pinned on there that I had forgotten were even there. I’m not sure which one to do next. Should I do one of the projects that I already have the pattern printed for or do I choose one of the other projects? Decisions, decisions, decisions.

My Eastern Crafts board also has a lot of great Easter crafts on it. Of course there are more projects than I have time but one project that I really want to make is the Peep Topiary Tree. I thought that was so adorable. The only problem with that though is trying to keep everybody from eating it until after dinner! I also want to try the Resurrection Rolls. I think that those would be yummy and a great teaching opportunity for my boys.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Once Easter is over I will probably get back on my Sewing Board and my Project To Make For Kids board and start on some of those projects. I will be sure to post my finished projects.

To me, Pinterest is like all of my knitting patterns.  I have more knitting patterns than I will ever be able to use and I have more Pins than I will ever be able to make…but it sure is fun trying!

Welcome Spring! I don’t think that I can remember a nicer first day of Spring. The temperatures have been higher than normal for this time of year and it feels so good.

We have been taking advantage of this wonderful weather by working out in the yard and preparing it for the Summer. We started out by raking all of the pine needles that had fallen over the winter. The boys were happy to be outside and helping with the chores. Gabriel was helping with the raking.

Matthew was helping by picking up sticks.

In the end we had four buckets full of sticks and two wheelbarrows full of pine needles and leaves.

While we were raking and picking up sticks the boys were quite happy to find that their sappling survived the winter. This past Christmas we went with my parents to the Christmas tree farm to help them pick out their Christmas tree.  While we were there the tree farm gave us this little two year old sappling. Since we had a mild Winter and the ground was not frozen we were able to plant the sappling. We are happy to report that it is growing nicely and it too seems to be enjoying this early Spring weather.

Slowly but surely we are getting the yard ready for the summer. Today we greeted Spring with open arms and Spring greeted us with a warm day and some beautiful flowers.  We couldn’t ask for a more beautiful and blessed first day of Spring!

I came across this great tutorial for reusable Swiffer duster refills on Pinterest last week and I just had to try it out.  While I do love to use my Swiffer duster I have to admit that I do not use it that often because of the cost and waste of the refills.  I tend to use it more for touch-ups instead of the heavy duty cleaning.  For the heavy cleaning I bring out the old dust cloth so when I saw this tutorial I was very excited.

I checked my fabric stash and I had just enough flannel to complete this project. The tutorial calls for 4 pieces of 7″x7″ flannel, 4 pieces of 4″x7″ flannel, thread and a Swiffer handle. I followed the tutorial but I think that next time I make a Swiffer refill I will use larger squares of flannel. I may have just trimmed them in the end too much but I think I will try to make my flannel larger, possibly 9″x7″ and 5″x7″ pieces next time.

I followed the tutorial and it was very simple and direct. The first thing was to stack two of the smaller pieces of flannel on top of two of the larger ones.

The four layers need to be stitched together so I folded the stack of all four layers in half and pressed the fold with my finger so that when I opened the stack back up I could see the crease. Then I just had to sew down the crease.

Once I sewed down the creases in both stacks I placed them on top each other. Since I used a printed flannel I placed one stack right side up and one stack right side down. The small pieces on the top and bottom need to be folded over to one side as in the picture below.

The Swiffer handle is then placed with the right side of the handle top on the folded flannel and one on the larger piece of flannel.

Then trace along the outside edge of the handle on the larger piece of flannel leaving a space in your line where the handle has the edge that sticks out. Stitch down those lines you traced along the edge of the handle but do not stitch the space in the lines that were left open.  You can see the lines and the spaces in the picture below.

Once I finished sewing down the lines I tried the refill on my Swiffer duster handle to make sure that it fit, which it did.

Next, I trimmed the first short layer and first long layer to make them shorter. I trimed them close to an inch shorter.

Then make one inch cuts from the edge of the flannel up to, but not including, the seam.

I liked the way my duster looked when it was finished but then after I washed it the duster ended up looking shaggy but it still picked up the dust pretty well. My husband suggested that I spray a little Pledge or Endust onthe refill to help it pick up the dust a little better. I still have to try that but, either way, I am satisfied with my new duster refill. I ended up making a few of them and my mother is testing one out for me too. I will continue to use it, wash it and reuse it and am looking forward to making some more.

The sun was shining, the weather was warm and Spring is in the air. We decided to take advantage of the warm weather and spend a wonderful pre-Spring day at the zoo. We have pretty much been limited to the Rainforest since it’s inside but with such a beautiful day we were able to enjoy the outside animals at the zoo too.

At the zoo entrance we were greeted by the Flamingos who were finally able to come out of their house and enjoy the warmth. The boys like to call the Flamingos “Pink Ducks”. Their pink colors were so vibrant, especially with the sun shining on them so brightly.

The birds seemed to have returned to the preserve area and the boys were scoping them out with the binoculars.

As we moved on to the Northern Trek the boys took advantage of the space and ran, ran, ran! It was nice to be able to see them burn off some of that energy outside.

Once we made our way over to the Northern Trek we saw the bear cubs out and playing. They were so cute just rolling around with each other and playing by the water.

We also saw the camels, polar bears, seals and the lions. We tried to see the elephants but they were inside their house and since we waited too long to go over there they had already closed the building for the day.

For lunch we walked over to the Rainforest and ate in their cafeteria. The food there is so yummy and our favorite cook was there and he always gives out freebies of fries or even ice-cream in the summer. The boys always enjoy the rainforest. I enjoy it too, in the winter when it is cold outside and 80 degrees in the rainforest. However, it was very warm in there with the sun shining in the windows and the warm weather outside. We ate there, did a quick run through and then headed back outside. On the way Matthew stopped to say Hello to the monkey statue.

It felt so incredibly good to be outdoors in the fresh air and enjoying the warm sunshine. I am looking forward to many more days like this! It’s so much fun to see these things through the eyes of your children.