bean bag, anyone?

Hey! Remember me? Sorry it's been so long. I have a pretty good excuse: We finally finished building our house, and then we moved into it a few weeks ago (yay!). I learned that packing, moving, and unpacking is really difficult when you have two little knuckleheads running around. I also learned that I will never build a house again (even though I love the house and am very thankful for it). I promise to update my other blog soon so that you can see the finished project. Everything is still a complete mess right now!

These two have also kept me very busy. And now with Charlie starting Kindergarten (tomorrow!) I'm totally frazzled. Did I also mention that I am 16 weeks pregnant? Yep, I just finished up with my crawl-into-a-hole-to-die morning sickness phase a couple of weeks ago, and I'm finally feeling like I have a little more energy (maybe to unpack?). I'm really good with timing, huh?

So, I haven't sewn anything in a couple of months. However, I have been clearing some items out of my collection of homemade goods. Remember this bean bag? Well, a certain little 2.5 year-old likes to unzip it and release all of the beans from captivity. I've decided that one of those foam chairs from Pottery Barn is a good investment for that little devil (and for my own sanity!). So... this bean bag is up for grabs! It comes complete with a bag full of refill beans to plump it up.

I did make this bag quite a while ago - look at how little my menacing Marcus was when I completed it! So, it does bear the signs of being gently used and loved. If you live in the area and are willing to pick this up from my house (old or new!), I am happy to give it to the first person to contact me through a comment to this post.

I'll have something new to share very soon - not by me, but by my crafty friend, Anna (who actually has an organized sewing room that she is currently using). Let's hope the dust on my machine clears soon - at least by Halloween!

:) Shelly

Felt is my trusty friend.

Oh, I just love felt... it never disappoints. And, I have so much leftover from the Playhouse Teepee project.

Charlie and I made this yesterday during Marcus' long siesta. Charlie can count to twelve well, and I think that he actually has the number sense to understand value in smaller numbers. Once he hits the teens, though, it gets pretty wacky ("eleventeen" is my favorite). So, we traced his hands and feet in felt, cut them out and glued them on to a piece of cardboard (much like how we made the Weather Wheel). Then I labeled each finger & toe with a number from 1-20. I hung it right next to Charlie's Weather Wheel, above his chair at the kitchen table. This way we'll have lots of opportunity to practice.

I also used felt to fix another project that I've been tackling on and off for quite a while.

I made this bean bag way back when Marcus was wee and I was still nursing in the middle of the night. Marcus' room is teeny-tiny and cannot possibly fit a chair inside of it, so a bean bag was a quick, inexpensive solution to my need to sit on something other than the floor at 3:30 am.

Charlie is as much a fan of the bag as Marcus and I both are, and the bag has found its way upstairs in the living room as a result. These boys are pretty rough on the bag, though. This rough play has caused the appliques to tatter and fall off. So, it was time for a do-over. I was never totally in love with the design, anyways - it was too much!!

So I spent a ridiculous amount of time ripping all of the applique stitching out with my seam ripper. Seriously, it is embarrassing how much time I dedicated to this bean bag. But, once I started, I figured "I'm into this thing, so I'm going to finish it!" So, once the bag was free of its old design, I cut out some cute little woodland animals to sew on - out of felt this time so there would be no fraying. Need a template? bunny, squirrel, birds

I decided to keep the design simple this time and just sew on three animals. It is hard to tell by my unsophisticated camera's picture, but the bunny is gray. I was delighted with the color scheme of gray-brown-blue.

In fact, I was pretty happy with these little guys in general, especially the bunny.

And Marcus loves the fact that the bean bag is back in action. I'm sure it will be destroyed in a matter of weeks, but oh well. Then I can practice my new mantra, "Ahhh, boys!" (shrug and eye-roll).

(Not Doing the) Laundry List

A thin layer of dust has accumulated on my sewing machine since I finished the playhouse teepee. I've been tied up with some non-sewing projects that were definitely not as fun as sewing. To avoid the carpal tunnel syndrome and blurred vision settling into their respective places while I labored away in front of my computer, I did take quite a few daydreaming breaks to plan my future sewing projects. I have some beautiful oil cloth to make a little protective something for my kitchen table chairs, and I'll be outfitting some preschool superheroes soon.

My older son (at age 1!) models a birthday present for his BFF. I'll make similar capes for his preschool classroom with some of my scrap fabric. I know, you are wondering about scraps - I tend to buy more fabric than I need, especially when shopping at fabulous stores like The Quilting Loft, so I have some pretty large "scraps".

But, today I found this! I've been looking for a project to do with my older son (who is totally obsessed and in awe of my sewing machine) while my younger guy naps in the morning. Today Big Brother went to preschool with a toy screwdriver stuck into his waistband, so I'm thinking this project is PERFECT!

Oh, and I have some fix-its to do, too - like the windows on the teepee, some problematic pockets on my favorite bag, and a the roughed-up embellishments on my sons' bean bag.

Speaking of scrapping, here is the beanbag I'm needing to remedy. The fish are made from some of my favorite fabric remnants, but the boys are pretty rough on the bag, and now the fish are starting to fray (Don't be fooled by Little Guy - he is big and burly now). I'm deciding on which strategy I will employ to improve this beloved cuddle spot.

Hmmm... what to do first?! Or maybe I should clean the house? Naw.