More No Sew projects

I competed a lot of little projects in a short amount of time.  These are some of the others. Munchkin requested a dog house, and then put her littledog in it to play.

Buddy wanted dinosours and then proceeded to put the dinosaur into the dog house.

The kids all played with these for a while.  They had fun and liked putting different legs on different dinosaurs.

It is fun to make stuff just to let the kids play.  They are some of the cheapest toys, and they like to help me make them. 

Ice Cream

I picked up a new book at the quilt show.  No-Sew projects with fabric for Kids.   It has a lot of new projects that are very simple and quick.  Most of them use fabric scraps and iron-on interfacing.  I have a feeling I will be making lots of projects out of this book.  I just need to buy some more interfacing and velcro.

Princess loves my new book so this week we taught her how to use the iron.  She did some cutting and created these with some help.  We completed the project in under an hour and she loves all her ice cream flavors.  (Lemon, chocolate, bubble gum, vanilla, mint, raspberry, strawberry and blueberry)

 Then she went up and set up an ice cream stand to sell ice cream to her brother and sister. 

There is a project involving making mobile's and dog houses.  I don't know which one will happen next.

Illness and stuf

The night after the kids played in the dirt illness found our house AGAIN.  Buddy started it at about 10 PM and ended up going to the ER for an IV at 8AM.  He was severly dehydrated and they gave him some meds to stop the vomitting that was still happening.   About 20 minutes after Daddy left, when I was about to take Princess to school, she started vomitting.  Thankfully hers was not severe, and she was feeling much better by dinnertime, she was back to normal by Saturday.  

But my plans to go to a church retreat got modified and we spent the weekend hanging around the house and engaging in germ warfare.  So far no one else has gotten sick, and Buddy was able to eat a single pizza crust for dinner tonight.  I am hoping that at some point this week everyone will be healthy, but knowing us, that may take a while. 

Of course Daddy had to take a picture this weekend.  Buddy fell asleep on the bathroom floor Friday afternoon.  The kid was so tired after being up all night and then still being sick the next day. 

 This is also what we spent a lot of time doing, hanging out on the couch and cuddling.  I just felt so bad that I couldn't really do much to help him feel better.  It just takes time and it was horrible to watch him feeling so bad.

Quilt Show

I did manage to escape the house of illness for a few hours on Saturday.  I went to the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival.  I haven't been to a quilt show in a very long time, and it was great.  After walking around for 4 hours my feet really hurt, but I was inspired to work on some new projects.  I also spent some money, because the vendors were spectacular and there is not many good quilt shops around here. 

I was a little dissapointed that most of the quilts were machine quilted, but they were all beautiful. These are some of my favorites.... They are not great pictures, but it was very crowded and it was hard to get anough room around you to get a good picture.

This one was cool, they acually quilted a food service apron on her, and the food on the plate was 3 dimensional and very realistic.

 This was machine quilted, but the detail on each of the ships was amazing.

 This I just liked for the color, it had a dark background, but the bright colors for each of the blocks and the borders drew your attention. 

 This one I liked just because it was fun.  It would look great  for 4th of July.

 This was a variation of a white on white and was hand quilted with colored thread for parts of it.  The reverse applique in the middle really made you look at it several times.

 This one I just liked because of the details in the flowers.  The whole quilt re-used too many of the same blocks to really look creative, but each of the blocks was well done.

 This just made me smile, not many people would make worms look cool and fun, but the person succeeded.  It was a beautiful and fun quilt.

 This quilt was copied from a puzzle that I have seen before.  This woman took the picture of the puzzle and turned it into a quilt.The background is a watercolor technique, but the quilts and balloons are pieced and then appliqued.  The overall quilt was beautiful.

 This one was a collaboration from a quilters guild.  The girl and her outfits each have circles of velcro, so you could actually dress the girl.  Each woman in the guild made an article of clothing.  It would be a fun toy to have done a little simpler and placed in a children's classroom or a girls bedroom.

There were a lot of quilts with 3-D elements, and I don't usually like those, but this one was really pretty.

Now comes my favorite, I have started to do needle felting, and have done some little needle felting projects, but now I have a new goal.  This woman used wool suiting fabric and created a crazy quilt with a combination of techniques. 

 The background is all wool suiting fabric, and some of the animals are simple machine applique, with the wool suit fabric.  Some of the other animals are needle felted onto a machine applique piece and then all of the little pieces are pieced together.

 Then she did all sorts of hand embroidery to finish off all the seams and add flowers and details to the entire quilt.  In the end hers was a little busy, but crazy quilts tend to be busy.  It was just beautiful and I loved it. 

  Now I need to gather all my stuff, and I will do the needle felting, convince my mom to piece it and then convince my sister to do the hand embroidery.  Maybe it will get done in about 20 years. 

Dirt

We have been enjoying some nicer weather lately, so the kids have become re-acquainted with their digging spot.   This week I was working in the house when I hear yells of "Mommy, "Buddy" found a snake, come see, come see!!!"  Of course this was his snake, but we added a few of these to the garden by the end of the day. 

 The kids in all their digging fun.   I think they are looking forward to planting stuff in the garden soon.

Independance

We are trying to get our children to be a little more independant and do things for themselves.  We know we are outnumbered and the more they do themselves the better.

This is good, and we actually got to sleep in one morning last weekend.  The kids got up and got themselves breakfast and then watched TV for a while.  We didn't get out of bed until almost 9AM, it was wonderful.  Princess is old enough to help her siblings and they were all proud of themselves, and they got a treat of watching TV. 

Then this week Munchkin surprised us.  I heard noises at 2AM on Thursday morning, and it took me a few minuted to recognize the sound of dishes being moved around.  Munchkin is independent, and had quite the list of accomplishments. 

• Got out of bed quietly, (I think she even used the potty)
• Moved the stool to turn on lights in kitchen, basement and dining room.
• Gotten out 5 bowls and placed them on the table in front of each chair
• Gotten out 5 spoons and placed them next to each bowl
• Set 3 cereal boxes in the middle of the table.
• By the time I made it downstairs she was standing on the kitchen counter getting cups, which she planned on filling with water from the refrigerator.

I finally convinced her that it was time to go back to bed, she had a drink, went potty and I had to cuddle with her for a while.  She finally went back to sleep.   At least I know that she is capable of feeding herself and setting the table.  Quite the accomplishment for a 3 year old.   I just wish it wasn't at 2AM.

Daffodils

 Yes, I found daffodils the first weekend in February, 4 days before we got more snow.  But they were there and I had to enjoy them.  I only found this one little patch, in the sun, but protected under a tree. 
We went for a walk in the Botanical gardens, and it is a quiet place in the winter.  I was looking for some more color and we went into the tropical garden greenhouse.  It was really warm, and there was lots of color.  This is my favorite shot.

The kids favorite part of our walk, watching the planes take-off from the hill next to the airport.  They have a speaker set up to hear the control tower, so they had a blast watching a bunch of planes.

My ever wonderful husband, who puts up with my crazy ideas and tolerates watching planes take-off, just because he loves his family.

SNOW?

In between the last 2 wonderful spring like weekends we have had some snow, but amazingly only a 2 hour delay for school.  Of course, this was the kids.

And me?  I had this to enjoy while they were all outside, I was inside with my coffee and the paper, it was a great morning.

Spring, not really

The weather has been warmer and nice the past 2 weekends, so we have taken walks both weekends.  I wil post pictures of this weekend now, only because I can't wait to show you the new version of our family picture.   I love it and it makes me smile, but for once everyone is looking and everyone is smiling.  That is pretty rare in our household.

This is a great one of the kids and I love it.

Our hiking spot we have been to before (see this post) it has been a long time since we have been there and to see how the kids have grown.  Go look at that post, it seems like such a long time ago.  This is the same tree that we used for pictures then. 

Now this little Munchkin can climb just as good as her brother and sister.

Violin

Munchkin and Buddy had their violin recital this January.  I was very proud of them and they both did a fantastic job.  Buddy is learning very quickly and surprised me at how well he did for his very first recital.

Ice skating

Princess has been sick a lot this winter, so unfortunately she has missed a few activities.  Buddy and Munchkin got to go ice skating with Daddy over MLK weekend.  They were dressed warm and wore helmets.  I heard they had a great time.

Cute pictures

Cute pictures of the kids. I think they were pretending to be dogs or horses, or some other animals.

Caught reading

I love it when it is quiet in the house and I wonder who is into trouble.  This week I caught her doing something great.  Reading in the sunlight at her desk.  I love it.

Chocolate Mermaid #?

At the mall

Girl Darts

Buddy and Daddy love playing with their dart guns.  But then I heard strange noises on a morning when everyone was at school and work.  I found a little girl who had learned how to shoot the dart guns and had managed to shoot all of the darts on the mirror.  She was so proud.