Prairie Mouses Needlebook

Prairie Mouses Needlebook, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

Here's one of the little gifts that I made for my blogpal Louise from New Zealand.
I almost forgot to take a picture of it before it was shipped and that day just happened to be cloudy and the picture is a little crappy. LOL
The main fabric of the needlebook is a faux linen with a antiquie moss green polka dot on the tab, inside and mushroom.
I drew the little mouse with a little needle, thread and embroidery hoop and Louise's initials. I didn't want to use the machine to make the button hole so I just made one with my needle and thread!
I hope you like it!

I've actually been sewing a little

Baby name blocks, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

I had an order for these adorable blocks and I finally got them sewn.
Sandra (the lady that ordered them) has an adorable little baby boy named Joey and she asked if I could put his name on them and stars be stars I actually pulled it off! :O)
I just cut rectangles all the same size and freehanded the letters out of fleece.
Now I just need to make some for my own kids!
Now that the orders are done, I think I'm going to start making some cloth diapers and recycle some t-shirts and sweatshirts into pants for Gus Gus.
Talk to ya all later, hugs...

She's doing better!

Mom's doing better, bless her soul! She kept asking when she was going home and then proceeded to stop declining so they said we could take her home!
She's now at her house and between my 2 Sisters, my Aunt and I we are there around the clock.
I stayed over this weekend and she actually was quite alert and talkative which is really a change and this morning I asked her if she wanted her regular toast with butter and jelly and she turned up her nose and said she wanted an Egg McMuffin from McDonalds!
Now this is the lady that's hardly ate more then 2 bites of anything.
She's a real trooper I tell ya!
I know she's not going to get "better" but every day that I get with her is a treasure. xoxo
I wanted to thank everyone for the sweet and caring words you have all told me, I really can't express how much it's means to me.

Mom

My Mother was put into a hospice care facility yesterday, her health is getting worse and she's not responding to medications.

In the past whenever she's had an "episode" that ended her up in the hospital she would snap out of it and be a little worse for the wear but still able to talk and carry on a conversation but this time she went in for an IV to get her magnesium and sodium up and it didn't do her any good so she couldn't stay in the hospital any longer and this was just the next step.

I am the youngest of 3 children, all girls. Our Mother raised us all by herself because our Father was an alcoholic who abused her and so I really don't have any memory of him living with us, just him coming for a wonderfully home cooked meal that she was gracious enough to serve him. He never paid any child support. I never remember feeling like I didn't have what other people had because Mom was a great Mom. She even drove the school bus so I could be with her while she worked, I have some wonderful memories about that bus. She would make my sisters and I matching blouses for Valentines day and other holidays.

They don't think she's going to last very long . She's had lung cancer for 2 1/2 years now. The cancer stopped spreading but now she has some sort of syndrome that makes her lose her electrolytes and that makes her not be able to stand or stay awake. She's been having problems taking meds and eating too.

I realize the end is near and although I've cried quite a bit I think I'm ready. I used to talk to her on her lunch hour and for 3 or more hours in the evening every single day but sense she hasn't been able to work and living with my sister she didn't have the energy to sit on the phone so that seems to have made it a little easier to handle. I once had a counselor tell me I need to ween her from calling me all the time. I told her that she just didn't understand my relationship with MY Mother and that was just the way it was. :) I think if this had been like this way a year ago I wouldn't have been able to hold up so well.

The picture above is from about 2 years ago, about 6 months after she found out she had cancer and started chemo and radiation this is her in her first wig. I think she was more upset about losing her hair then anything. She didn't look the same but she still looked nice.

I love this picture because it was spring and we had picked some flowers from a bush and made a halo and Jaden was having a good time on Grammies lap.

Mama,I hope you don't suffer. I love you with all my heart.

911

remember when this all happened 5 yrs ago it was a very sad time, I was working and just remember wondering what was going to happen next. Here in Wichita, Kansas we build lots of planes and have a large Air Force Base and everyone speculated that maybe we could be hit if it was a really huge attack.

I just remember feeling weak in the knees and thinking I just needed to call everyone and tell them I loved them. I couldn't help not crying.

My first born son was born just around the time the troops were sent to Iraq and I wondered why I was bringing a child into a world like this, but a child is a blessing and a gift from God and he made me see the joy in the little things.

I don't know what I would have done if I had been working and had kids in daycare that day.

Well, I want to take a minute to thank all the hero's involved in that day and to say a prayer for everyone effected from that tragic event.

I have a little brother-in-lay that is on his second tour to Iraq in a very dangerous area, I'll be praying for you Tyler!

May God bless you all!

xoxoxo

Just plane cute banner

plane_banner, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

Fun huh? You can make your own at Glass Giant.com.
Then you should also go visit Fodey.com they have the coolest newspaper story generator that looks really convincing!

Have fun! xoxo

Update

fabric flower bobbie pin, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

The AC is still kind of on the fritz but it's been unusually cool here in Kansas so we've been managing but just barely! LOL
It's keeping the house about 5 degrees cooler then outside but without all the humidity.
My Internet came back on after I called and canceled with the company I had and ordered with AT&T so hopefully this will be a more reliable service then with the old version.
I was quite thrilled to find out that we could get the AT&T Internet because living in the country our options are very limited.
The old service was almost $50 a month and the new will only be about $14 so I am really happy about that.
It starts on Monday so wish me luck that it actually works!!! :o)

I thought I would show you the little decorated bobbie pin that I made a while back, it's pretty pinks, oranges and a lime green center all hand stitched with a little green leaf. I feel "cute" when I have it in my hair. :o)

I really need to get my sewing table cleaned up so I can get to making some more stuff to put in my Etsy shop, I've been selling things really good and the Lord knows I need the $$$ but I just don't seem to be able to find the time! I thought with my Internet being out I would have been more productive but I just found myself playing with the kids more and thats really more important then sewing, my fabric never grows up but my babies will and fast.

I better go and get to sewing!!!
Take care everyone!
Julie xoxo

Net and AC on the fritz

Hi everyone,

I'm taking a few days off because my internet is on the fritz along with our air conditioning. arg!

Thank goodness this weekend has been on the cool side, the AC is staying at about 78 degrees but that's about what it is outside and it's supposed to be getting back up into the high 90's so I hope it get's fixed soon.

I'm just using a friends wireless access so I won't be posting for a bit. I bet I get a whole lot done without the ability to surf the net all the time like I do!

Take care and send me all the positive vibes you can spare!

Hugs,Julie

Here's the new Kings crown I made for Jaden recently.
I wanted to call him a prince but he quickly clued me in that he was KING!
This was made from a sweater that I picked up at the thrift store for $1 and then I felted it in the washer which took about 3 times and it's pretty dense! I cut it out and did a little needle felting to add "jewels" and a green letter J and then whip stitched around it to finish.
I added a little elastic and covered it with matching red fur in the back so it'll fit for a while. Pretty decent for my first try at felt crown making don'tcha think?
Well the King was happy anyways. :o)

Here's a shot of the King playing on my laptop.

He likes to navigate around at Nick Jr playing games and watching videos.

He starts asking to play just about whenever I'm on the darn thing!

If I'm not in the mood to share I just tell him Nick Jr. is taking a nap and so far that seems to work. I know bad mama! :oD

When he was about 2 1/2 I left him playing on Sesame Street tickling Elmo and he came in the kitchen saying "E" "E" "E" and I agreed with him then he opened his hand and there laid my cute little "E" button from my laptop!! Do you know how hard it is to get a key back on a laptop? Let's just say for about 3 months every time I used the E key it did this Julieeeeeeeeee. I was determined I wasn't going to give my up my computer for who knows how long so I ended up fixing it myself. I did built airplanes for 6 years, surely I could get a key back on a laptop!

It only took me about an hour and lots of !$%*& words to go with it! Oh did I ever tell you about the time Jaden stuck a pencil in my sewing machine where you plug in the foot pedal and broke off the lead? I now it was just the 2 yr old curiosity but MAN was I mad. I fixed that too. I figured I better try before I spend $50 just to have the guy take 2 minutes and fix it and say "here ya go, good as new!" A good tip if you ever decide to take something apart like a sewing machine is to take a picture with your digital camera BEFORE you take anything apart, then you can look at the pic and see how it goes back together! LOL live and learn!

I wanted to share my yummy Sloppy Joes recipe

Now I know how hard it is to make something for the whole family that everyone will eat, especially with picky eaters like my Jaden, so I thought I'd share one of my staple recipes that always get gobbled up and I always have the ingredients on hand, not to mention it's easy peasy! Tonight when I made it I decided to actually measure the ingredients and write it down, I've always been sort of a pinch of this, dash of that kind of cook so if you want just adjust the amounts of really any of the ingredients and it'll still taste great!

Blueberry Mama's Sloppy Joes

1 lb Ground Beef

1/3 C. Chopped Onions

1 Beef Bullion Cube

1 C. Ketchup

1 tsp. Mustard

1/4 C. Brown Sugar firmly packed

Salt & Pepper to taste

Scramble ground beef with the beef bullion cube and onion until well cooked, make sure you smash the bullion cube mid way so you don't get a mouthful of salt! Drain off any fat, now add ketchup, mustard and brown sugar. You might want to add the brown sugar a little at a time and taste it as you go so you don't make it too sweet for your family, mine likes it just like this but I'm sure all families are different. Remember... you can always add, but you can't take it away! :o) Put a couple of big spoonfuls on a hamburger bun and garnish with pickle slices if you want.

As you can see this little guy really loves his mama's Sloppy Joes!

My Husbands never been very excited about Manwich (OK he hates it), but once I started making my Sloppy Joes he looks forward to me making it every week or so and that makes planning meals all that much easier in my opinion! Dan takes it the next day for his lunch and I usually pack enough for his buddy to have a sandwich because he loves it too!

I'd love to hear if any of you out there try my recipe and how your family liked it!

Take care and enjoy!

Julie

I was a Sunshine Family girl!

Me and my cousin Brian Christmas 1974, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

Look at how proud I was with my new dolls!
This is me (6) and my little cousin Brian (2) on Christmas Eve 1974.
My Aunt had this and lots of other pictures of me growing up.
They had been at my Grandparents home and when they passed, they got packed up and stored in my Aunts basement.
I've been asking her for them for the past 4 years, but I wasn't being buggy or anything. But she retired recently and I guess she decided to go digging and delivered me about 12 pictures or more of me as little as 6 weeks all the way up to about 16. Funny how I always thought I was rather hefty all those years, well not when I was 6 weeks old silly! But looking at the pictures I wasn't really that "Large" until I hit about 17. What a waste of worry.
Now about the Sunshine Family!!! Oh I really loved these dolls!
I think I played with them for years!
Isn't it a little funny (and not planned) that Brian and I are practically dressed like the dolls? I'm in pants and his pants are a different color and print, but gosh!!!!!
Brian is 5 years younger then I am and he and his wife are expecting their first baby in September, I'm really excited for them.
I remember his first Christmas, he was born December 7th and on Christmas Eve Aunt Betty had dressed him up in the cutest little Santa suit and I thought I had a real doll to go with my new Baby Alive. Aunt Betty has a picture of me sitting in a chair packed with pillows holding Brian in one arm and my Baby Alive in the other with the biggest cheesiest smile I could muster for a 5 year old.
Oh by the way my husband is only 4 months older then Brian that makes him 4 1/2 years younger then me. huba huba!
Talk about strange I was enough older then him to have memories from the time when he was born.
And his mom is only 4 years older then my oldest sister.
I was the youngest child and he was the oldest child.
I wonder if I was as well behaved as I looked in this picture?
Probably not. :oD

How to watch the movie

I've been trying to put this in the last post but for some reason it shows for just a second and then disappears!
To watch the movie just click on it to activate it and then click on the arrow to make it play.
I hope it's not to annoying to watch! I think Jadens giggling is funny, but then again I'm his mama. :o)

<
Here's my little guys being funny. Gus is trying to learn to stay sitting up and Jaden thinks it's REALLY FUNNY!

I hope you enjoy it.

Look what I got in the mail!

Look what I got in the mail!, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

My new dear friend Laurie over at Old School Acres offered to make me a copy of her totally adorable new Japanese craft book on how to make little stuffies out of socks and gloves and it is sooo cute!
It must have took you an hour to make that many copies Laurie!
I was floored when it arrived packed full in a manila envelope with a Teddy Bear magazine, 4 different vintage fabrics, a delicate vintage hankie, handmade post-it note packs and a sewn fabric embellished card she made herself!
Oh, Laurie you spoil me!
It came at such a good time, I really needed the lift.
I stopped on the way home one night from the hospital and picked up some gloves to make the little puppy on the front page of the book. I grabbed 2 sets so maybe I can make a boy and a girl and use some of the fabric to make a little dress for the girl!
Ahh inspiration!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Now go check out Laurie's blog and say hello! Here

Binky Blankets and Memories

Mushroom House Binky Blanket close up, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

I decided that I better get busy and get some more Binky Blankets whipped up and listed in my Etsy shop because all but one of the last bunch sold, yippee! I listed 7 so I've been gettin her done! :o)
So here's a little look at one with a little fairy mushroom house reminiscent of the little Smurfs house I had as a child. Man I loved those! I even had a little car too.
I'm 38 now and I still have Smurfette up in my medicine cabinet, I think one of my dogs got to her but she's a trooper and still looking pretty as always.

I have very sweet memories of my mom letting me pick out a little smurf just about every time we went to the mall to pay the Sears bill, she was a single mom raising 3 girls without any support from my father but she still managed to buy me lots of those little Smurfs.
I actually played with them and my Sunshine Family dolls quite a bit!
I don't ever remember thinking we had it bad, I guess we had lots of love between the four of us ladies and we still are quite close.

I asked my Aunt the other day if she had any of my old baby pictures that had been at my grandparents home and she said she would look and sure enough she brought me a large manila envelope of my childhood photos.
There's one that had a picture of me and my cousin at Christmas Eve and I have my Sunshine Family dolls sitting like I was queen and my husband pointed out to me that my cousin Brian and I were practically dressed like the dolls! How funny is that?
I need to get them scanned so I can share them here.
Now I just need to go to my mom's house and see if I can find my dolls, boy did I play with those for allot of years!

You use cloth diapers? Why????

Well, yes I do! Why????? So I don't have to buy disposables anymore! I finally got the guts to do it, what started it all was a trip to the thrift store where I eyed a couple of stacks of flat fold diapers tied with a string for $1 for 12 and there were 2 bundles. I thought hey! I could sell those on Ebay! They sat on the counter for about a week and I decided they were probably a little too heavy to ship so I just kept looking at them thinking I wanted to do cloth diapering but could I really do it? I'm proud to say we are on day 3 and no leaks!
Gus is big enough that he doesn't do the poo every day and with all the research I've done it really isn't all that bad. What's another small load every couple of days? Nothing really. I wash a load about every day anyway.
Do you realize how much money you could spend if you had it and wanted to do cloth diapers? well there are people selling what they call All in Ones that are basically just a cloth version of a disposable for $55 each!!!!!! insane I tell ya!
Now my 2 dozen flat folds cost $2 and I found a very nice Bummis wrap for 75 cents. Then I won 3 more nice used wraps for $17.50 (Ebay), 7 Snappis fasteners for $10 (Ebay), 5 wrap seconds from Prowrap for $31 and that totals $61.25! I was buying a $15 box of diapers for Gus every week so these should pay for their selves in a month. Then it's money that can go to other more important things. Fabric? *wink*
I also decided to start taking my canvas and mesh bags with me to Wal-mart to have the cashiers (OK me!) bag my groceries in them. I have a garage that isn't attached and I seem to always buy heavy stuff so I can carry more in these bags then those cheep plastic bags. I tell myself that's my only reason for doing it but deep down I think I really want to be more environmental.
I'm starting to feel a little bit crunchy! Look at me I'm a Breastfeeding/Co-sleeping/Sling Wearing/Cloth Diapering Mama! (and I love tie dye too!)
Real reason I ...
Breastfeed : IT'S FREE, no bottle washing, it's already warm!
Co-sleep : I'm a sucker for a snuggly sleepy baby and my baby sleeps and doesn't cry, and I don't have to get up to go feed him!
Sling wearing: I make spoiled babies and they like to be carried.
Cloth Diaper: After a month or so these babies will have paid for them selves!
I think I've rambled on long enough, if anyone cloth diapers or sews your own I'd love to hear about your experience!

blog blah

Hello everyone!
I've been having a little trouble getting into the blog thing this past few weeks, didn't you notice? Well, most of the problem has been worrying about my mom, she had a bad fall on Friday and it wasn't much of a surprise because her sodium was low and with lung cancer, at least in her case that makes her weak and topsy and not very good at making sound judgments.
I guess she had been sleeping and my sister had checked on her, then her husband checked and a little bit later he checked again and she was on the floor not able to get up. She had a large knot on the back of her head and a big bruise turned up a little later on her back. When she has trauma her body just shuts down and she goes to sleep and looks like she's going to die. It's very upsetting, but she has always snapped out of it and at least gets where you can talk to her, so hopefully that's going to happen this time too!
This week marks the 2nd year that she's been suffering from her cancer, I've had a hard time with it because I have such small children that I want to know her and it's made it hard for me to do my part in caring for her. My 2 sisters have older children, 4 each and most are in high school and they can stay home alone or with each other. Last time she was in the hospital around mothers day she was in quarantine so I couldn't take my children in to her room while I visited.
Well enough about my problems!!!!!
Now I have been doing a little crafting, I'll try to get some pictures of what I've been working on.
Have a good week!

Binky Blankets

Binky Blankets, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

I have some new baby items in my Etsy store!
Somehow I manage to get the kids occupied to get some sewing done! :o) Amazing!
Well these little handy things were designed out of necessity, when Gus was brand new he had a really strong sucking urge and after nursing was well established I introduced the binky to him, it was a real nipple saver for me! I remember Jaden nursing on me for hours.
I let my babies nurse on command but he took to the binky but didn't depend on it by any means.
So the reason I came up with this was because at night I would give him his binky and then I couldn't find it in the middle of the night and I got to thinking how it would be nice to have something to help me find it and the Binky Blanket was born.
It's really handy for cleaning spit-up too and you can see where it's at when it gets dropped, how many times have you lost a pacifier when you went shopping?


Update: All these Binky Blankets are sold!
I guess I need to get to sewing!

So much going on...

Hello, I've been gone for a few days and feeling guilty about not posting.

Lots of things have been happening around here, I had my mom over for 3 days, her lung cancer is stalled for now so I feel blessed to get to spend time with her and to have my children get to spend time with their Grammie. Because of that, I haven't been spending as much time on the computer. My mom is a very handy person to have around! She likes to hold Baby Gus most of the time she's here and he seems to be demanding that allot lately, now if we could just keep him from spitting up on her so much! :o)

On other news I am the new owner of a family heirloom that came from my Grandmother! It's a Hoosier cabinet! I haven't checked out yet to be sure it's actually a Hoosier but it's that type of cabinet. I don't care if it is or not really because it holds some really great memories of a woman that I loved dearly. Here's a picture of it in my home.

My Grandmothers Cabinet Originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

Sorry about the blur but I took about 8 pictures and finally gave up! I don't remember if this counter top stuff was on here when Grandma was alive, but I wish it had the original metal top. Oh well I say! I need to go down to the basement and find my other treasures that she personally gave to me, one was her coffee grinder and a little tea pot that she hand wrote "to Julie, love Grandma" I know that doesn't sound that impressive but she was over 100 when she died and it was amazing that she could actually write at the age she was at the time.

I miss her very much, she was the Grandma that everyone wanted, she had very long gray hair that she wore in a little bun and she could grow just about any vegetable that a country woman would want. Her fried chicken was too die for, we always had sliced tomatoes and sweet onions that she cut like an apple, we would dip the onion wedges in the real mashed potatoes and homemade pan gravy when we had Sunday dinner, ahh memories.

Just about a week before I found out about grandma's death I had had a very clear dream that Grandma came to see me at my bedroom window and told me that she would always love me and that she was sorry about all the problems we had had with my father (her son) that had problems with alcohol and she looked so wonderful and healthy and at peace. In my dream I had made a window box that had grass and pretty flowers and a little mini pond with swimming baby ducks and I told her that I had made it for her. I know this sounds silly but it was so real and wonderful that I got to say goodbye to her and to tell her that I loved her and to please come back and visit me. Then about a week later I was told she had passed. Talk about getting goosebumps! But if I had to have someone visit me from the other side, I would definitely want my Grandma to be the one!

OK, have I made up for my absence? Oh, you want something crafty, huh? I'll get right on that for ya! Well I need to get to bed, so everyone have a wonderful week and don't get to warm!

PS: that's right I have wood on my ceilings and floors and it's also on the walls in the living room too! Yeah, western decor baby!

Pom pom chicky

Pom pom chicky
Originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

Here's a little pom pom chicky I made the other day with handmade pom poms.
Snow Bear inspired me here but hers are sooo much cuter!
It's funny how big the pom pom's start out and after all the trimming they get pretty tiny.
I sent this little gals sister to live with my 4 yr old niece and out of all the stuff I gave her, like the pink monster with pillow and blanket and a princess crown, she snatched this little peep and hauled it to her bedroom. I guess I should have just made her 3 of these and a little nest.
I was always drawn to little things and I still am so I can see why she liked it so much. :o)
I picked up some cream and black yarn at the thrift store yesterday and next I plan to make a little herd of sheepies.