weekend wishes

Whoa! I've just recovered from a nasty week of the stomach flu {along with my kiddos}, and I'm ready to get my craft on!

Here's a list of things I hope to complete this weekend {h.o.p.e being the operative word}:

via Noodlehead

via Kiki Creates

Have you seen this all over the internet? Amazing! Why didn't I think of it?

I hope to do two duvets similar to this for the girls' room.

and possibly this dress {x2 for my two cuties} by

Kelly Crawford at Sewing in No Man's Land

btw - what an awesome blog she has! All sorts of tutorials for gorgeous things.

I found her through Project Run and Play; something I'd aspire to do one day if I were

as awesome/talented/inspirational as those ladies!

Have a l o v e l y weekend

rainy days

We've been keeping busy in the rain around here... I've been sewing a lot for the girls.

Here's what I made last night.

I also made myself a cute t-shirt which I won't show you because it turned out about 2 sizes too small.

just keep swimming

We've been super sick around here for the last couple of days, but I thought I'd give you the epilogue on the goldfish situation.

We now have, not two, but three happy, healthy goldfish. "But how did this happen?" you might ask. Well, when it comes to animals, for some reason, I am incapable of applying logic. I am a HUGE sucker for them... I once adopted a dog from the pound and we didn't even have a house to keep it at!

When I noticed Nemo floating at the top of the bowl, upside down, he was still {though barely} breathing. Any normal person would have flushed him. Instead, I took him out, and placed him in a cup in the laundry room while I made the switch. I came back after putting the girls to bed and he was swimming around like nothing had happened. The girls woke up the next morning and right away realized we had 3 fish now. "Nemo the Second," has been renamed, "Sparkles," and Dave is celebrated throughout the house as the amazing, spontaneous Daddy who just decided to bring home a new pet!

flush

A few weeks back I mentioned on FB that I am a serial killer - of houseplants. Seriously, I can't keep one alive more than a few weeks. But before I turned my killer instincts to plants, I kept killing our pet fish. It wasn't just me, I usually had help... the neighbor boy who dumped an entire bottle of food in the bowl, or my dear child who poured "non-toxic" cleaner into the next fish tank {she wanted to "clean" the fishies}. And never mind the beta fish which PETCO assured us were much, much heartier than goldfish {dead in 24 hours}. In 3 months we went through approximately 10 fish. Then we got "Dorothy" and "Nemo" hearty little fish from the 15 cent feeder fish section {no use throwing good money after bad}. We've had them for 2 years now... I once forgot to feed them for about a month and they still survived.

Sadly, today I found Nemo, {or was it Dorothy -only Emma can tell them apart} floating upside down at the top of the bowl. My first thought was my sensitive 4 year old. She can barely hold it together during a Barbie movie, she'll be crushed to hear one of her pets is dead. Sure it's only a fish, but she really does love them. I thought about how I was going to tell her, how I'd explain it to her... how sad her little face would be. And then I had another thought, and did something I never thought I'd do. I sent Dave to the store to buy another orange 15 cent fish. Yep, we replaced it and she hasn't noticed yet. I always thought I'd be that parent who took advantage of these moments to teach my child about real life. Usually that is what we do. We are honest with our kids, they learn their lessons. Today I realized, she's 4 and she has plenty of time to learn about real life... today, just this one time, I will save her from that heartache, because as she gets older there will be so very few times I can do that for her.

So, welcome Nemo the 2nd! I promise I'll try my very best not to kill you.

Shwin & Shwin Tutorials

It's been awhile since I've done any serious sewing. When I stumbled across this blog , I was literally running, with scissors, to Dave's closet. I used one of his old work shirts to make this

adorable top for little Ashlyn. I can't believe the awesome kid clothing tutorials they have over at Shwin and Shwin. These are some serioulsy talented ladies. They have a contest going right now "Toddler Runway". If only I had found this blog earlier I would have loved to enter. Oh well, there's always next year!

Yes, the mess in the background is a true story