polkadotbug

Splish Splash

How cute is that?!  They had their first bath together and they loved it.  I was worried that Abby was too little but she sure proved me wrong.  She was a little maniac.  They’ve had a few since then and I’ve decided that bath night has also become “clean the entire bathroom night” because the entire place gets drenched.  They have so much fun though and Abby kicks and screams when it’s time to get out. 

Gosh, it brings back fond memories of bathing with my brother when I was little and how he had this neat little game of seeing how long he could hold my head under the water without actually killing me.  Those were the days…

The other day I was laying some fabric out on the floor when Abby ran over and snatched it from me.  I went to see where she disappeared to and found her in the other room getting cozy.

It’s so good to see that she has quickly fallen in love with Anna Maria Horner too!  Man, my kids have good taste.

I’ve been experimenting a little more with Andalucia and made a couple little fold over clutch bags. 

I have this problem lately where I just can’t stick to one thing- or even 15.  I’ve been jumping all over the place trying new things and I just can’t organize a thought.  I guess I am just an experimenter at heart.  It doesn’t help that I have a million blogs that I can’t stay off of and I want to try making every last thing that I see.   Oh well, at least I’ll never be bored- just confused.

Go Buffalo

I had to do it. It seems that people around here are just eating up the Buffalo items.  There’s City Love, an entire store dedicated to Buffalo merchandise, and now the "Believe in Buffalo” apparel is rapidly becoming a hit. 

We all know that appliques are popular, so why not a buffalo in fabulous fabric on a cute little tee or onesie? 

It would be even cuter on Abby but I keep forgetting to put it on her and take a picture.

I also had a little project to work on for a friend of mine.  Her friend is having a baby boy and she wanted some gifts.  I found this adorable robot fabric by David Walker and ran with it.

I made 2 bibs, 3 burp cloths, a diaper and wipe case, and even a little ball and bunny.

Hope she likes it!

For all of you fabric and craft addicts, Fabric Family and Fun is having a great give-away.  She runs the wonderful Above All Fabric shop on Etsy that I frequently purchase from.  As always, feel free to enter and give the stuff to me if you win.  :)  I still haven’t won a give-away yet!  Too many darn eager crafters to compete with. 

Zippers!

I did it.  I conquered my fear of sewing in a zipper.

Our aunt was here for Thanksgiving (hi Jeanne!) and requested one of my tote bags, but with a zipper.  I have to admit that I did panic a bit.  I’ve been admiring and fearing them since I started sewing last year. 

I did my internet research and found a few zipper tutorials to work off of. Like here and here and here.

Then I went to the store and bought an enormous zipper.  I ended up buying a coat zipper.  I didn’t realize that until afterwards, but that’s ok.  It does its job well on a bag too.

Not too bad for my first shot.  The one thing that I couldn’t do was the top stitch.  My mighty strong Singer can’t go through both the quilted lining and the zipper.  Maybe I’ll get a stronger machine some day…

Jeanne made some good fabric choices too,from Amy Butlers Daisy Chain line. 

I was so excited that I did it that I just had to try a few little bags.  It’s cake!

Please don’t mind the wrinkles. :)  I didn’t add interfacing to the larger one so it’s quite a flopper.  It definitely makes a difference to just add a lightweight interfacing. 

On a different subject, Andrew and I are getting very excited for the trip we’re planning.  It looks like we’ll be sitting on the beach for a week on Cape Cod in July.  SWEET!!  This will be our first little family trip and I can’t wait. 

It feels so good just thinking about a beach after the past week of frigid temps.  We had to miss Andrew’s company party on Friday night.  He left work at 4:30 and didn’t get home until 7 – it’s normally a 20 minute commute.  There was no way we were getting back in the car and heading back downtown.  I had already driven the kids to Grams (in a white-out) for a sleepover to prepare for our evening out.  Kinda disappointing, but we did go out to dinner close to home.  That was followed by a movie on the couch and a night of uninterrupted sleep.  

It was a treat.  At the same time, it’s so sad going to bed and walking past the empty bedrooms.  That’s just the emotional person that I am.  We’ve never even had a babysitter outside of family.  I get laughed at a lot about that.  Call me a dork it you’d like.  Yes Caren, I am expecting a comment from you on that one.

Starting Off Slow….

I can’t believe this.  I’m not one to make resolutions but I thought I’d try this year.  I have been reading everyone’s inspiring lists of goals and resolutions for this new year of ours and felt compelled to try something. 

Not a whole list though, just one thing. 

I didn’t want to pick something too difficult, or something I’d feel too bad about not accomplishing if I started slacking.  I just decided that I wanted to try to tend to my blog more.  I have such a great time reading so many other blogs and I really want to be part of the loop.  I want to open up a bit and say more and throw myself out there… sort of.

It took me 2 weeks into the new year to even post about that great resolution of mine.  I know I don’t have too crazy of a life over here in Western New York but there must be something I can find to write about - even if it’s just something little. 

I think my problem so far has been that I felt like I couldn’t post unless I had something crafty to show.  Forget that.  If you read my blog only for crafty things, then you can skip the ones that may not be so crafty.  I can’t imagine there are too many people who read my blog at all, let alone for my crafty stuff.  There are million other people crafting more interesting things and blogging about it!  That’s where I find my ideas.

Ok, here is one crafty thing I did over the holidays.  I know I said I wasn’t only going to post about crafty things, but I do have a few to share.  I’ll start with this- a sweet little handprint project on some fabulous Andalucia fabric that I stuck in an old wooden frame I had sitting around. I just had to find a reason to get some of that on the walls – in the bathroom. 

I love it. Handprints are too cute.  It makes me smile every time I have to use the bathroom, that still doesn’t have a door….