Not What I Had Planned for Today

This was not what I had planned to do today.  Three serving dishes fell from off the very top of our kitchen cupboards after I shut the door. Luckily the cut was not nearly as bad as it looks and Calvin did not get hurt at all.  I did get everything done I had planned for today, but I had to stay up late to do it, and I had some help from two amazing sisters in my ward.   I allowed my foot to bleed while I went and got my shoes and moved Calvin from a chair to the family room.  I had to take care of him first. I didn't want him to get hurt too.  The cut is maybe a 1/4" long.  I am sad to lose those serving dishes, but they are just things.  I'm grateful that I wasn't injured too badly.

A big white platter, a blue serving bowl, and a big yellow pie plate.

The cut is the small spot on the left side.  

Calvin's Babies

We have been talking about babies a lot at our house over the last few months.   About how they cry and sleep a lot and how Calvin can be a good helper when baby brother gets here.  Over the past couple of weeks, Calvin has brought me a few 'babies' to hold. 

 This was the first baby he brought to me.  It was a shirt all scrunched up.  When I opened it I found a toy car. 

This was the next baby.  He had a hand towel from the bathroom all bundled up around his baby.  I held it for him when he handed it to me.  When I opened it a little later, I found that what he had lovingly wrapped up was a glob of peanut butter.  Ha ha.

He always loves wrapping up baby "Maka" and holding her until she gets away.  I do have to help him with the dog swaddling.

Life with a toddler is always interesting! I sure love seeing his creativity come out. 

Covering Boxes

When Calvin was born, we lived in a smaller apartment than we do now.  When we were trying to come up with how to handle his clothes, Mark came up with an idea to cover cardboard boxes.  We asked his mom to bring home boxes from her job as a lunch lady at a middle school.  She came through and we had several boxes of all the same size.  Mark built some shelves in one of our bedroom closets and we put his clothes in there.   However, I never got around to covering them before Calvin was born and then I didn't bother to do it later.  When we moved upstairs, I found out the boxes fit under the crib.  I think about 10 months ago we found a little dresser for Calvin at DI.  I moved his clothes into it, but saved the cardboard boxes.  As I was getting the baby clothes all sorted last week, I realized that I wanted to do this.  I already had the material, so I set out to do it while Mark was doing homework.  I measured the boxes and figured out dimensions.  The first one I made was too small to fit in the box, but I perfected it.  I wanted to share the process, mostly for my own memory in case I decide to do this again someday.


First I measured out a rectangle that will fit my box.  I made sure to add extra fabric for seams.  Then I cut out squares in the corners.

Then I sewed the four seams together to make the corners.  I made sure to sew them all on the same side.  

Now I had my inside, and I needed to add my fancier outside fabric.  I cut a long rectangle and then sewed the ends together to make one continuous piece of fabric. 

Then I sewed the fancy green fabric to the white inside.  

Next I made a casing on the other side of the green fabric.

I threaded a piece of elastic through the casing.  

After I finished threading it through, I sewed the ends of the elastic to each other and then sewed the casing closed.  Then I put the covering on my box and Voila!!  I had a fancy place to put baby's clothes. 

I hope once we get his crib all set up the covered boxes will be a nice accent to the sheet I made earlier.  

A Year and a Half in the Making

I like to make things for Mark.   For Christmas 2014 I made him a pair of pajama pants and I started making a button up shirt for him.  Well, as Christmas got closer and Calvin needed a lot of attention (he was hospitalized for a few hours due to croup, and we had just moved apartments), I kept putting it off.  I wrapped up the part I had finished along with the picture of the pattern so he would have an idea of what it would turn out to look like.  After the holiday, I faithfully DID NOT work on the shirt.  It had many new elements that I had never encountered in my sewing experiences.  It was scary. 

I have completed several other projects between this time and that.  I can't even list them all.  I have spent countless hours sitting around too.  Until about three months ago, I hadn't touched it.  I don't know what possessed me to pull it out, but I did.  Then, shortly after that, we found out our baby is a boy and I wanted to make matching ties for all three of my boys, so it got set aside again.  This week, I have been nesting like crazy.  I have the urge to get ready for this baby.  My sewing table is right where I intend to put his crib.  It will need to be moved, and I'm sure I won't feel up to sewing for at least a few months after I have this baby.  I have a couple of projects for the baby that I have been working on, and want to complete still.  But something about this shirt just called to me the other day.  It was sitting on my ironing board just waiting to be worked on again.  It was the only unfinished project that I had.

So, I was a bad mother and made Calvin watch his favorite show all day.  I sewed on the cuffs, the collar, and the front bands.  I also hemmed the bottom, and did all the buttonholes and buttons.  This is what I did on Thursday.  I told myself I would just work on it, but then I stayed up until 11:30 and finished it.  We had a crappy dinner at 9 that night and Calvin went to bed way late.  I could have finished sooner, but I got a migraine about 4:30.  I'm grateful for my new prescription, because the headache only lasted a few hours, and I was able to get back to work more quickly than I otherwise would have been able to.  If you've made it this far, you're probably tired of reading about all this just for one measly picture, so without further ado....

New Sheets for Baby

Our baby still doesn't have a name, but we still have about 5 weeks left to decide.  I hit the 35 week mark yesterday.  We are planning on giving the crib to the baby and getting a bigger bed for Calvin.  I am trying to get some things done so we can rearrange our rooms to accommodate the sleeping needs of our family.  Right now my sewing table is where the crib will go.  I'm trying to get some sewing done before we move it.  A few months ago I made matching ties for all three boys.  While we were looking for the perfect fabric for that, Mark found some green and brown and cream striped fabric.  He thought it would make a great sheet for our new little guy.  I suppose we could have gotten away without a new sheet, because Calvin has done just fine with only two sheets.  But it was a fast and easy project that helped take my mind off the terrible night I had last night (it involved a terrible headache and vomit, and that was just me).  I'm glad it whipped up so fast.  Here's hoping that I can complete all the other little projects I want to do before baby comes.

Helping Daddy in the Yard

Calvin loves being outside.  I'm so grateful that we live in an apartment that is part of a house.  This has given us a great opportunity to have a yard and play outside with some privacy.  Also, it gives us practice to take care of a yard before we actually get one.  Calvin likes to be outside with his dad. These pictures were from the end of April.

Calvin was kind of in the shadows, but he is on the left side.

I bought him a dollar store shovel and he loved using it (it's broken now).

After all that helping out, he zonked out with his hand in the chip bag.  I walked away for a few minutes and he was out when I came back. 

Kind of unrelated, but I started a planter with a variety of seeds.  I hope they'll do well. 

Octopus

Well, I finally finished the baby's octopus.  Calvin loves it and wants to keep it for himself.   I've had to hide it from him.  There is a little rattle in its head, which I think will make it fun for the baby to play with.  Now I just need to get my house organized and go through the baby clothes.  And get the sleeping arrangements figured out.  And make more freezer meals.  And get the car seat ready.  We've only got a little more than a month.  I better get "Kracken".  Ha ha.