I know I should be sewing right now. I want to put more in the shop, but instead I’m sitting here. Not doing much of anything. I know the kids are in the other room making a mess. I’m hiding. Now doors are slamming. I should probably stop hiding and go check on them before they break something….

30 minutes later. Nothing broke. A towel got soaked a baby got clean and the house filled up with teenagers! I’m over at my Mom’s. I’m supposed to be making dinner, but since she brought home 5 teenagers I opted just to help.

I have been a slacker this week. Very little sewing got done in my home even though I set 3 days aside for it I probably sewed less than 30 minutes in 3 days. I did however vacuum my apartment (move the fridge and stove vacuuming) scrub my bathroom, scrub my stove and pick up the clutter. That was day 1. Day 3 you can’t tell I did anything. So sad. But life.

Now you are wondering what that 30 minutes of sewing amounted to. Don’t be shy it’s okay to be curious. I patched some holes in a friends purse. I made a quickie shawl (for that same friend) to go with her dress for Echoes (a dance at the high school). And then I made some uber simple ties for Caiden! Wanna see? Of course you do!

So last Saturday FLOC (our youth group) put on a spaghetti dinner with a baked goods auction and then a youth auction.

It went great! The baked goods and the kids sold really really well! Yes I said the kids sold… We auctioned off our youth to the people in the church. (No one was forced. It was on a volunteer basis.) But they have an 8 hour day to spend with whoever won them and they will be doing everything from fishing to hanging campaign signs and yard work. I even bid on one of the girls. It was so much fun! There was a bidding war for her. I wasn’t going to bid on her because she comes over pretty regularly and she’ll help with anything I ask anyway. But it was either that or an 8 hour day playing barbies and dress up with a little girl she didn’t even know and well the guy was being ’smart’ so I had to outbid him! She was grateful and we are going to split up her day into a 2 and she’s gonna help me with the kids birthday parties which are just around the corner!

So Wednesday was my 25th birthday. Can we all say hooray!! for lower insurance rates! Yes I know it is kind of sad that’s why I was looking forward to my birthday, but well it was…

Anyway it was a rather nice birthday. I spent a few hours hanging out with a very good friend while our kiddos played together AND she made me a cake! Technically she made me two cakes, but she refused to give the first one because it wasn’t her best work. In fact initially she wouldn’t even let me see it! After our play-date I had dinner with Mom and Dad, green pepper steak one of my favorite dishes. Then it was just a quiet evening in with my monkeys. It was nice.

Thursday another lovely friend came out and made me dinner! And again the kids played while we chatted and I watched her cook

Friday night Danielle and I went to a Dance aerobics class that I guess is kind of like Zumba. I dunno what zumba is though so ya… I was terrified. TERRIFIED. Why? Because I only dance in front of my children and I never exercise in front of anyone else. NEVER. The class was great! I have terrible coordination! But we laughed a lot worked up a sweat and I felt GREAT afterwards and that’s the important thing. Right? Right. The instructor was awesome too. Please forgive me for not remembering your name. I was too busy being nervous to catch it. Sorry.

Oh and I stocked the shop! Go have a look around! Who knows you might like something you see! (And don’t forget I love to do custom work and I’ll special order fabric!)

Technically this is last night and yesterdays news but we are sharing it today…

Caiden got his first real hair cut! Not a trim to keep it out of his eyes but a REAL haircut and now I miss my baby! Oh well it’ll grow back!

Have you ever heard of the toy society?

Company Overview:

The Toy Society is a small street art project spreading the love throughout the streets. Nothing to it really just a bunch of handmade toys looking for a nice home.

What started as a small street art project in Australia is slowly spreading around the world.

Should you come across a member of The Toy Society on your travels collect them up and take them home with you! But don’t forget to let The Toy Society know your toy is safe and sound by emailing thetoysociety@gmail.com!

Mission:

Sharing the love

Products:

No ‘products’ here, just handmade toys made with love and traveling the world looking for a new home.

*Taken from their site

These are my current contributions… I thought that they had a really neat idea and it’s a good excuse to practice some of my softies (and other people’s too!) Why don’t you give it a try?

We are all about the photos today people!

Snowman assembly line

Slackers

Rocky… being Rocky

Arianna rolling in the snow…

The perfectionist a.k.a Papa

The snowman

This is what happens when you don’t hold on to the sled and Papa turns…

This too…

Fun at the Herrick’s

Hanging birdfeeders

Sunrise… (okay so it was a school day… but half days don’t count right?)

Okay so I’m going Tuesday to get my hair cut and then sometime next month I’ll get it colored. This is the part I struggle with though. I have such a hard time choosing what style I want to go with! So I thought I’d enlist some help!! So ya help. Give me your opinions! They’d be highly appreciated!

Okay so the one above is what I have now (or what I had before it grew out)

This and the one below are the two I’m leaning towards the most

I don’t want these bangs. They would not work for me. but I like the bulk of the style.

My daughter has been whining for… oh… a month at least because there has been no snow. We didn’t necessarily want snow, but Grama and Papa bought her a new sled for Christmas so we were hoping for at least some snow. Well last night it started and it took a few breaks, but not long ones and this morning when we woke up…

She was so excited and I had a hard time keeping her inside long enough to eat and get dressed!

We had a lovely Christmas Eve yesterday. Today has been mainly spent watching the kids in the snow and huddled under blankets on the couch. Best way to spend Christmas if you ask me! Here are a few photos and hopefully I’ll get my lazy butt in gear and start blogging regularly again!

Have a wonderful and

blessed Christmas!

is….

Comment #22 Gwen!

Congratulations and I can’t wait to make you some new bibs!

I know Thanksgiving hasn’t even gotten here yet, but things like making gifts for people take time!

We have a pretty small church 90 people on a good day. But we have a lot of kids that attend and their parents don’t. A lot of kids that come from very poor homes and every year they (meaning the Angels in Training) put up a tree with the kids names and a mini Christmas list on it.

This year I want to make the kids some gifts. Why? Because I think it will mean a lot more than someone going out and just buying them something. Of course the kids love and appreciate anything they get. But I think they’d really like some gifts that people really put some time and thought into also. So I’m starting this week on dolls and such. I haven’t decided what to do for the boys yet though.

I thought that I’d see if any of you crafty mama’s out there wanted to donate anything?

Or maybe you’d like to do this for some of the kids in your life! If so tell me about it! Write a blog post and comment here or just tell me in a comment. I love when people do stuff like this for kids!

So for those of you who have been living under a rock don’t know, I am the proud owner of Monkey See Monkey Do Children’s Boutique. And when I say proud I mean it. Because 1.5 years ago I couldn’t even sew a straight line people! Now I make adorable (okay so maybe I’m biased) kid stuff.

I experimented with a couple bib patterns and different materials before I thought of using pul and decided on the current pattern. I love these bibs! So far nothing I’ve given the little guy has soaked through. Plus they are way cuter and don’t crack like the plastic bibs from chain stores.

So why and I going on about my bibs? Because I’m going to give away 2! and the winner gets to pick the (in stock) fabric!

So here is how to enter:

1. Mandatory entry! Go to Monkey See Monkey Do and pick out your favorite item (past items that you’ve seen photos of qualifies too) and then come back here and tell me what it is!

2. Fan us on Facebook and then leave a comment about it!

3. Follow us on twitter and then leave a comment about it!

4. Tweet this giveaway up to 3x a day and then leave a comment about it! Must include the status link! (make sure to leave a separate comment for each tweet)

5. Subscribe to my blogs RSS feed and then leave a comment about it!

6. Comment on another post in the blog and then leave a comment about it on this post!

7. Add my blog link to your blog, website wherever and then leave the link in a comment so I can see it!

8. Blog this giveaway and leave the link in a comment.

9. Post this giveaway to your facebook and leave the link in a comment.

The giveaway ends Friday, November 13th at 1 pm est

**Make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry!

Oh and here is a comment from a lovely mommy:

I love your bibs. The PUL in the middle really helps keep their shirts clean and dry. Now if only you could come up with a PUL hat to keep R’s hair dry when she tries to “shampoo” with her yogurt!