Creative Cousins

It seems like the last little bit we have not seen the cousins very much so we were especially surprised when we got the call asking if Gwen and Spencer could come over for a little bit.  Of course we are always willing to have some fun with them.  LA is just too far away!

As the girls were sitting around wondering what to do I asked if they wanted to sew something.  Being that they are both new to the craft I tried to think of something that would be easy, and cute.  So we decided to make monsters, well sort of.  Using the craft stash from Grandma June, the girls picked out this super cute fabric.  I gave them paper to draw the shape of their monster, creating a pattern.  Next they got to cut them out.

Putting right sides together they sewed the pieces together.  Gwen said that sewing was a lot easier than she thought.

Miranda on the other and said she thought it was harder.  Both girls quickly got the hang of it, although applying the correct pressure on the pedal was the hardest part.

Then they turned them and stuffed them.

Next came the hand stitching.  They stitched the  hole closed, then sewed on buttons for eyes.  Grandma June had the biggest button collection.

Then they cut out mouths and sewed them on to the face of their monster.  Meanwhile a little monster who will remain nameless, let her own creative juices flow.  

This is powdered sugar.  The funny thing is when I saw the bag on the counter last night, I thought 'I should put this away.'  Then about 15 minutes before this discovery, I thought 'where is Lauren?'  Too bad I have yet to act on those promptings.  One of these days Heavenly Father will get through to me!

 The mouth got a little skewed but I think she did a great job for it being her first sewing project!  I didn't get a picture of Gwen's before she left, but it was equally as cute!

Project: Complete

About two years ago my friend introduced me to the idea of recovering dining room chairs with light fabric and then putting plastic over it. It has taken me a while, but on Thursday while Jeremy was at Yosemite I decided I would bite the bullet and get it done before he got home. So I took all the kids to JoAnn's, bought the necessary fabric, borrowed a staple gun. I should have taken some before pictures of the dining room chairs, they were in pretty bad shape, at least the ones the kids sat in.

It was really easy. They are not perfect but I am pretty happy with them. I also got fabric for the snack bar chairs.



Yesterday after lunch the kids got a chocolate covered ice cream bar. As I was cleaning up and realized that Hannah had spilled some of her chocolate on the chair, then it smeared. It was so exciting to be able to wipe it up! The dining room table needs to last about 2.5 more years. We figure at three the kids are no longer banging the prong end of the forks into the table while throwing a fit when we we insist they eat their veggies, or they didn't get the right spoon, or they wanted water instead of milk, well you get the idea. So way to go me, not only did I start a new project I completed it and even fixed a few lost screws!