Simple Wallet

Christopher and Patrick have recently started doing "money jobs," which are little extra chores around the house to earn $0.50 or $1.00 depending on the job. Patrick has been asking for somewhere to put his vast stash of money, but I've been unable to find a small wallet at Target, etc. So the other day I decided we'd make him a little change purse-type pouch for his money.

He's one happy guy, always wanting to do work so he has money to add to his wallet. He looked through the fabric in the closet and homed in on a spaceship print...which is flannel. Yup, kid has a flannel wallet. Oh well, it makes him happy!

I drew out a simple pattern and we cut and stitched it on the machine. He learned how to put in and take out pins, how to line up and sew the seams, and how to press VERY CAREFULLY with a grown-up. The only thing I did myself was putting in the lining and topstitching (with very bad tension, judging from the mess on the inside). Then, of course, the piece de resistance, he got to pound on the snap. Oh happy day! Couture it is not, but it serves its purpose and was a great little learning project.

Pantry Cleanout - Round 2

I finally got around to cleaning the other side of my pantry today after I saw the great job my little sis did on her big boys room.  Maybe we can go back and forth, Cindy, and keep each other motivated?  Anyway, this side was more of a hot mess, mostly owing to the fact that I just mash stuff in there to keep it away from little fingers.  Here is the before, complete with toddler trying to get as much stuff as she can before I shoo her away:

Extra food at the top, on the fourth shelf, and on the floor. Art supplies on the 2nd and 5th shelves, of course?! The only thing that was working was the vase/casserole shelf. So I got to work and a two hours later, I had this.

Muuuch better.  All the food together and off the floor and all the art stuff together and accessible again.  The only area I didn't tackle is the coupon/office supply half of the fourth shelf (in the canning jar box), but I have big plans for that involving some scrap wood in the garage and my Kreg Jig, so watch this space :-)  Down in one corner I found this little gem. 

I think it is some sort of basket liner for food from back when Longaberger was the big thing (yes, I'm that old that I've been through housekeeping fads, yikes!), but it works great for markers and crayons.

Of course, it wouldn't be our house without a random box of unlabeled liquor :-)  I set this aside on the floor for my husband to identify and disposition.

So there you have it - again it didn't take nearly as long to do as I took putting it off.  Does anyone see a pattern forming here?

Food Pantry Cleanout

I started the great re-org of 2012 with a small project cleaning up the food side of my pantry.  It's a big double closet and I use the side closest the kitchen for food and the other side for art supplies, extra pantry goods, vases, canning jars, etc.  Here was the before:

It was in pretty good shape.  I just regrouped like with like, cleaned everything off, and tossed a few really old things.  I wiped the walls and shelves, pulling back the shelf liner and wiping both the underside and the shelf itself.  If anyone knows how to get rid of petrified shelf liner, let me know.  I hate the stuff, but the last owners had nasty blue liner on there from who knows when and I haven't been able to completely clean the shelves.  Now it looks like this:

Like I said, not a big change.  I had a pretty good system before and didn't need any new containers, although if you do, right now is a great time.  Everyone has their back-to-college stuff out so there are cheap but sturdy plastic crates in all colors and sizes.  Mine were from a few years ago and they do work better than old boxes for many things.  They have a little ventilation and they're easier to wipe.  Hopefully I'll get to the other side in a day or two, but for now I'll enjoy making dinner just a bit more!

Still Here and Still Scheming

Has it really been 6 weeks since I posted?  Has anyone really noticed?  Well, I'm now back from a 3 week trip to see my family and I'm all energized to reboot our house.  I've got big plans, as usual, but we'll see what comes of them.  My latest idea is to work on a reorganization of the house bit by bit.  Many closets and shelves have not been touched since I got pregnant with the princess, who is now 17 months old. 


I've become discouraged with the constant mess the kids leave behind, but in thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that I can't expect them to take care of and respect their things if their dad and I don't.  Our office area looks like this right now. 

So is it any wonder that the toy area looks like this (and it's actually pretty clean)?

I've come up with two concepts to focus on for the short term:
1.  I need to respect and care for my things so they respect and care for theirs.  That means doing dishes in a timely fashion and cleaning up and putting away books, magazines, projects, receipts, phones, etc. before I have to take them from little hands.

2.  The floor is NOT a place for anything to be stored.  Not trash in the office in need of a trash can, not graduation gear in the bedroom that no one is sure where to put, not books in the bedroom that I haven't gotten around to putting away.

We'll see what comes of this, but hopefully at least a few full garbage bins will give us some much-needed breathing room.

Our New Friend

We have a new little buddy at our house.  Almost every day at lunchtime, this guy makes his appearance to putter around the patio and eat bugs. 

The kids think he's really cool.  Today Christopher decided he was going to draw a picture of the lizard to show him. 

 Patrick, of course, had to follow suit, so here is his masterpiece.

Even Elizabeth got into the fun, banging on the window and pointing to the lizard for anyone who would pay attention to her.

This pretty much proves that boys + anything Mommy might find vaguely gross = good fun.

Great Sewing Room Cleanup

OK, maybe room is pretty generous for my little sewing space, perhaps corner would be better.  Whatever it is, it got cleaned within an inch of its life this weekend.  I was going crazy losing things under the piles of fabric and having everything tangled around random lengths of elastic.  So, I spent an embarassingly short time (far shorter than the time I've spent putting it off) cleaning up and throwing out snibbles and threads, filing patterns, organizing notions, and folding fabric.

First, the before:

And behold, the after: 

Complete with OCD-inspired labeled boxes: 

OK, really I was trying to keep the kids out of Mike's hair so he could brew beer, and they LOVE to play with the label maker (are they my kids or what).  As you can see, there may be no money for fancy organizers, but we have no shortage of kids shoe boxes.  And now that I think of it, I'd rather have little feet growing out of shoes faster than I can buy them than enough money for fancy organizers.  Although both wouldn't be too bad :-)

Chair Cushions Finished!

I finally finished the new cushions for our patio chairs. It was pretty boring, easy sewing times 6, so I'm glad they're out the door, literally. They fit nicely and look much better than the old ones, which were literally crumbling to dust when people sat on them.

 They are just plain box cushions with no welting, because as I said before they'll just get baked.  The fabric is from Hancock's sun resistant line, which means they have a prayer of lasting a year.  The ties are just brown twill tape also from Hancock's, which is a better color match in real life than it appears in the pictures.

 Of course, since I was complaining about how easy the sewing was, I goofed.  They always say "measure twice, cut once" when woodworking, but here it should be "read the notes you made and cut the pieces the right length."  I inexplicably cut the edge bands two inches too short (despite having the right measurment calculated and written down), and had to go back and piece in a little bit at one corner.  I had enough fabric left that I was able to match the pattern, so it's not really noticible, just annoying to me as I hate making mistakes, especially stupid mistakes.

I spent this evening working on my Vogue 8295 skirt, though I've taken it back to more like a 3/4 circle and reworked the yoke to be more of a wide waistband since I didn't like where it was hitting my hips.  It should get a zipper tomorrow and hem soon after, so hopefully I'll have that up soon as well.  Then it's on to some seersucker I got a few weeks ago that I need to find a pattern for.