Infinity Scarf

I took a $2 shirt from Walmart and made this:

 

 

Good thing I made friends with this blogger.  She has a great Infinity Scarf Tutorial.  My measurement are a little different since I had to piece together four pieces, but that happens when you cut up a shirt.

Children and Chores

It has taken me almost seven years to come up with a chore system that works for me and my children.  I spent many hours creating fun chore charts with games, rewards, pictures, bright colors and anything else you can think of.  You know what finally worked?

 

Simplify

 

That one word seems to work with most things in life.

 

I found a simple magnetic chore chart one day while I was shopping at Target for a little under $10.  It came with all sorts of magnets to mark rewards and keep track of chores. 

 I threw those away.

 

 Then I added some extra lines using a wet dry erase marker, which can't be wiped off unless it gets wet, to divide up chores between my two kids and assigned them a color.  All chores written in blue are my son's chores and in green are my daughter's chores.

 

 

 Now here's the other trick.  They DO NOT get paid or receive any type of reward to do their chores.  I believe every person in the family should work together to maintain a household.

 

We sat down and had a family discussion about everything Mommy has to do to keep the house clean and running smoothly.  Then I asked them what they would like to be in charge of and they picked their own chores.  Sometimes they switch with each other, but they know what they are in charge of every day.

 

No video games, TV or outside play until their chores are done.  Some days they choose not to do their chores because they don't want to put in the work to have fun.  That's fine.  We do that as adults.  But it's quite funny the next day when they have to do more because their chores have piled up!  Good life lessons.

 

Once I set it all up, the system ran without me.  I do check every once in awhile to make sure they did their chores and occasionally I need to reshow them how to do one of them. 

 

 

We've been using this system for almost a year and it works great!  Much less work for me to do and the kids are learning responsibility.

 

I did a quick search and here is a site that lists age appropriate chores.  And if they can't read, draw a picture!  I'm not the best artist, but my four year old knew which chore to associate with each picture.

 

Happy Thursday!

 

 

Vanessa

 



It's The Small Things

Spring Break usually equals fun.  Not this time.  We've been stuck in doors for almost five days because of sick kids. 

During times like this, I need to find joy in the small things to keep me going!

 

I had a little fun with the kiddos breakfast.

 

It's cloudy and rainy again today.  Isn't it beautiful?

 

My quick witted daughter: "Hi, I'm Guy.  This is belt."
Anyone?

 Happy Tuesday!

Vanessa



Ruffle Slip

After a three week separation from my laptop due to my power cord dying, I am finally back.  I cannot believe how much I relied on my laptop for so many things.

 

We had the Utah Plumbtickled Create a few weeks ago.  I do love the ruffled look and how it turned out.  I bought a full length black slip and two yards of some soft mesh material my friend told me about.  It was at Walmart for a whopping $2 a yard.  I cut the mesh into 4" wide strips and then ran a basting stitch down the top.  Lucky me, the basting stitch ruffled the fabric for me, so all I had to do was sew it onto the slip.

 

Between the ruffles and the slickness of the slip, I had to unpick three times, but I finally finished it a few days later.  I ended up running the ruffle up to the next row when I came all the way around so I didn't have to figure out how much material to use on one row.  The great thing is, you can't even tell.  I love how it turned out!

Smiles,
Vanessa



St Patrick's Day Recipe Wins!

St. Patrick's Day has always been a big celebration for my family.  Mom made Irish soda bread and we had corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and carrots.  But what I remember most was waking up and rushing out to our tree and the ferns to see if we were able to get the Leprechaun's pot of gold before he left at sunrise.  We never did catch him but each year we found the copper coins he left behind since he only collected gold. I loved this tradition and my mom would share her family's stories and Irish lore. Darby O'Gill was one of the few movies we owned and we all knew the music by heart.  I remember the year a friend brought back a stone from Ireland for my mom  and she has kept it in a safe place ever since.  I truly hope one day I can take the journey with my mom to our heritage and learn even more about the Kennedy & McGivney side. There are also the sad parts of Irish history and we learned about the potato famine and the other struggles they had.  I will never forget some of the passages from the books we read and it makes me proud to know  a part of my history and pass it along to Hagberg.

I look forward to St. Patrick's day more than most of the holidays and each year we try to invite friends over to celebrate.  This year we had the friends who gave us the nickname Hagberg and though we went for the more Americanized corned beef (tradition Irish food would be a lamb stew, chicken boxty or even a shepherds pie) but we did try Colcannon this year.  It is a traditional Irish side dish with potatoes mashed with cooked cabbage and onion.  I imagine it was also a way to get food to stretch during lean times.  It was a simple but tasty side and so it may be 2 days past it I hope you add it as a "try something new" recipe.  We mixed the two recipes linked since we liked the cream cheese in one but wanted the bacon in the second.

The best of the night was the Irish Dairy Cake.  It was amazing out of the oven but now 2 days later it is a perfect pound style cake.  I am hoping to get some berries to add to it for dinner tomorrow night.  Don't try to count the calories-just make it and enjoy eating it.  

My table looked festive too with my St. Patrick's Day topiary!

Happy crafting and I hope you are enjoying March!

~

Eva

(I will get better about taking pictures, I promise!)

Plumtickled Create Craft Club March

Its that time again!  

The Plumtickled Create Craft for March is inspired by the creative blog See Kate Sew.  She had so many tutorials that it was hard to choose what were were going to focus on at our Craft Clubs this month.  Vanessa and the Utah gals all fell in love with the Lace Ruffles Skirt Tutorial and I loved how simple yet adorably cute her Bow Tie tutorial turned out.

Vanessa's event is Tuesday, March 19th at 7 PM.  I know she is planning on a fun night and if you saw the pictures from last month it was a blast for everyone who came.  Feel free to send an email to us if you would like her address to attend.  I know I wish I was close enough to as this lace underskirt would be a great addition to my closet

My event (Eva typing today) will be on Saturday March 30th at 7 PM.  I pushed it back a week since our youth have a church Roadshow the original weekend I had planned to host it in Southern CA.  Again, just shoot an email to us or message us through our Facebook page if you want the address to attend. Isn't the Bow Tie perfect!

Be sure to check out the tutorial links above for either craft and bring the materials listed to the events. Or if you want, check out her other tutorials HERE and chose your own to do and bring the materials and craft with us.

If you are hosting your own craft event this month, post pictures of your crafts and fun on our Flickr account.  We would love to have you link to our event by Saturday March 30th!

Happy crafting/sewing for March!

~

Eva

Tutu much fun!

It's week was a ton of fun because we got a quick visitor, well visitors, from Wednesday to this morning....yep our humble abode was invaded by my Sew It To Me counterpart Vanessa and family.  It has been almost 18 months since we saw each other last and I can't believe how big her kids have gotten!  I was also really excited for their family to see how big Hagberg has gotten.  He loved playing with his cousins and seeing his Auntie and Uncle.  I especially loved when Cousin D said, we are cousins right and both Vanessa and I said, "yeah, you are."  We are definitely family to each other and I loved seeing the kids play and bond.  Gotta keep the friendships going another generation.

I did get some crafting done this week, as well as sewing too but my project to share today is a fun no sew tutu.  We have friends from up north visiting Disneyland this weekend for their daughter M's birthday.  It is a family affair and tomorrow Hagberg and I are meeting up with them for the character breakfast and to give her a present.  I knew I wanted to make something so I Searched online and found a tutorial and viola finished product is below.  I used about 40 yards of the 6 inch tulle.

I really hope she loves it and I thought it was a quick and fun project.  It's moments like this I wish there was a girl I could have fun with but I am always grateful for my dude and enjoy finding fun boy projects for him.

PS I waited to post since I didn't have the pictures on my computer.  She loved it!

~

Eva