Jadens pre-school Valentine treats

Pre-school Valentine treat sack , originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

OK, so I went a little overboard. :oD
Well this is Jadens very first Valentines Day party after all.
It has a "Love Monster" finger puppet, mini M&M's, 3 Hershey Kisses, 4 conversation hearts, little valentine eraser and a paper heart.
The only problem was that there are 20 kids in his class so this was quite a bit of work.
I'm just proud that I actually got it all done before midnight the night before! that is so the normal me.

Assembly line creating.

I guess I get that from my mother.

Cut them all, sew them all, attach eyes to them all. And as soon as you can roar you're done!

Roar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy Valentines Day!

Now this is better

Now this is better, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

I wanted to get a new "girlie" infant car seat for my new baby girl that's due next month but it's not really a need it thing , just a want it thing. :)
I looked all over the internet for a pattern or instructions on how to do this and only found a universal pattern for about $14 that looked a little more trouble then it was worth so I just took the buckles off and washed/dried the pad and canopy (it had been in the garage for a year and a half... yuck!)
After that I layed it down and traced it onto some paper. I have an old ugly sheet that I used to make an initial mock of the cover and it fit fine! I was really suprised that it worked right the first time actually! LOL
This fabric I bought to make her a blanket with from a quilt shop with a matching pink polkadot flannel for the back, I like to make the 1 1/4 yard square blankets but this will be more useful I think.
I have just enough left over to make a Binky Blanket and maybe a burp cloth to match.
I have more pictures at flickr if you want to take a look here.
Happy crafting!
Julie

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great 2007 and an even better 2008 to come!

I know 2008 is going to be full of surprises for me and my family.

Some of the changes coming up:
A little girl on the way this March with tons of nursing and diaper changes
I'll be graduating from cosmetology school.
Cosmetologist certification testing.
Hopefully start working part time at the cute little salon in my little town and get to meet lots of new people that live close by!
Having my patterns published and patented by Simplicity patterns.
And I'm going to try really hard to create all the design swirling in my head and make them to sell in my Etsy shop.


One thing I've already learned this year....
Eating homemade salsa and chips, smoked oysters and finishing it off with a glass of Pepsi isn't the best thing before you lay down to take a nap! gads!

Well I hope everyone has a wonderful day and 2008!
Love and peace,
Julie

For the love of monkeys

For the love of monkeys, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

I did an online trade with a sweet lady at Birthdesigns for one of her beautiful phrase cuffs.
I hope her little monkey enjoys my creations.
onesie with a monkey and bananas,
Red Heel sock monkey and a little snack sack lined with water resistant diaper fabric, perfect for holding apple slices or cheerios. :)

Bonnie made me a sweet cuff that says...
My sweethearts... Jaden, Gus Gus, Jilli and Dan with little hearts stamped in between the names. very darling.
I think we both made out like bandits!

Getting big!

Getting big!
Originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

It's hard to believe that Gus Gus is already 2!

Gus is really into tractors and Daddy is really into John Deere so what better theme to do?
The problem I ran into was a huge lack of Deere themed items.
I think I did alright though,
The banner really tied it all together I think.
His big brother helped me with the coloring, he has such and eye for color. LOL

What you do when there isn't any party supplies you like...

Look how pretty!
Originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

I didn't find any John Deere birthday supplies for Gus' 2nd birthday in town (at least at the couple of places I looked) so I decided to just do it myself.
Green plastic table cloth, 1 1/4 yds of John Deere fabric with the edges ripped for accent and plastic cups that I decorated with puff paint tractors and then I sharpie markered the names of the guests on there cups.
The dirt cake has a tractor doing cement work on one corner with a chopped cookies and cream candy bar.

I'm finally back

Things have been very busy around here the past 9 months!

Not only have I started and almost completed cosmetology school but I got pregnant too!

That part wasn't planned (can you tell? LOL)

I've also kicked the depression I was feeling so that's been a wonderful side effect to being busy.

Certainly no time to think about sad things when I'm out of the house by 7:30am and not usually home till 6pm or later 5 days a week.

Now about the pregnancy... we found out this one is going to be a girl!! yippee!!!

I am absolutely in love with my boys and I'm really excited to get to have a little girl too so I can make dresses and dolls for her. :)

This little girl is due to make an entrance on March 31st 2008, which happens to be Jadens birthday. I've been sticking with "J" names which was how my immediate family was named so with Jaden and Jacob already we decided on Jillian.

Jillian Sage and she'll be called Jilli or Jillibean.

My husband suggested JilliAnn, I think because my mom was JoAnn but I'm not sure I like that as well as Jillian but we have 3 1/2 months to decide I guess.

I've been reading all the great crafty blogs and getting very inspired to craft so I promise to be posting some crafty posts soon. :)

So I'll leave you with the Christmas photos I took of the boys this year we're sending out as cards.

Have fun and happy crafting!

I'm taking a blog break for a while. Have a great time everyone. xoxo

Me vacuum sealed

Me vacuum sealed
Originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

Fresh from the meat department, no expiration date.
looks like I put a little lotion on my face and neck too, I guess for longivity.
All done with photoshop.
(look at what strange things I do when I'm bored while nursing at the computer!) LOL!

I'm trying out a new baby sitter!

I've never had a baby sitter for the boys except for my oldest sister Joni, she watches the boys when I have a appointments for hair, doctor or lately my sewing classes to learn how to work all the bells and whistles on my new Bernina. The only problem is, is that I feel like I owe her for baby sitting and she refuses money and she's on a diet so I can't bring her candy or sweets! LOL!
That's what I'd want if I was watching someones kids... let me tell ya!
I brought her a bouquet of flowers the time before last but her kids are all older so trading is out. I am eternally grateful for her helpfulness but Hubby and I just decided that we needed someone that we could call on to watch the boys when we needed a date night and a baby sitter would be great.
Someone that would be thrilled to make a little cash and I wouldn't feel like I owed them anything except a little $. :)
She's 14 and coming over in the morning to play with the boys while I try to get some sewing done. Spring break is this week so it's perfect to try her out.
I so hope the boys like her and she likes them, I want to get all my non-essential stuff cleaned out of the basement this summer and have a huge garage sale and donate a bunch so I can have a true craft room (not just behind the sofa!) with a place for the boys to play while I'm sewing.
I have lots of craft supplies that I will probably won't ever use so I've been toying with the idea of listing it in my shop for cheap. Like Sam Walton of Wal-Mart always said "Stack it Deep and Sell it Cheap!" I just need to get the deep stacks out of my basement!
So wish me luck on the baby sitter thing and hopefully all goes well and Daddy and Mama can go have a date some night! Yeah baby! :o)
We soooo need it.....

The computer is back! Yipee!!!

Can you believe it? 1 month and 10 days later, I can seriously say that I will probably never purchase anything from CompUSA again.
I called the other day when we were at the zoo and finally got thru to the tech department and they said my computer was in, did they call my house or my cell to tell me like they said they would? NO!!!
I would have been really mad if I went all the way home (45 miles one way) and found out it was in. gurr.
THEN... when I went in to pick it up the power cord wasn't with it and I asked the guy where it was and he said "let me go check" and he came back with a piece of paper that said N/A where they check for power cord!
I never took my laptop case out of the van so I know I left it with them, well like a wimp I am I said OK, I'll check at home but I will be very angry if it isn't there and it's still at the store! It wasn't at the house of course, so I called and they just happened to have one that would fit.
So I sent my husband to work with my precious laptop and he stopped by and picked it up on the way home from work.
Unless somethings really really bad, I don't think I'll ever turn my little baby into there tech shop again!
On a better note, they didn't wipe all my information off the computer so it's just like it was when it left. yipee!
Have a great weekend everyone. xoxo

Me and the boys at the zoo

Me and the boys at the zoo
Originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

I picked up a really cute picture frame the other day at Hobby Lobby that's decorated like it's a scrapbook page and has MOM and a sweet definition on it, so I decided I needed a cute picture with me and the boys for it, and today was supposed to get up above 75 (it did!) and yesterday my Mother-in-law called and wanted to go to lunch and shopping for my birthday so I figured a cute picture would have to wait. We ended up meeting for lunch and we all went to the zoo together and then shopping. Fun day indeed!
Then I woke up at 5:45 am and realized that the hubby was still in bed! I guess it was just going to be too pretty of a day today to go to work, when I asked him if he had hit the snooze button too many times he told me he was planning to stay home and take us to the zoo! We have a family membership but the zoo is huge and we usually don't get to all of it, well we did today and I am beat!
I usually go to bed around midnight but I think I'm heading there at 10 tonight! Too much sitting in the house all day and all this sunshine and walking wiped me out! I'm a puss. :oP
See my shirt? I got bleach on it the other day and decided to get my bleach pen out drew some flowers and squigglies and butterflies, it
's OK but I think I'll add some fabric paint to decorate it a little more.
I'll post pictures when it looks right. :o)

New Binky Blanket Sample

New Binky Blanket Sample
Originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

It's a bit smaller then the original just because it's a sample.
I can't decide if I want to call it..
Binky Tamer
Blueberry Mama Binky Boss (my favorite so far)
The Binky Wrangler
I would love to hear imput from anyone! :)

I made my first bias tape ever last night!
I used the instructions I found online
HERE and HERE And then I used a Bias Making Tool you can get just about anywhere but here's a pic HERE
It was pretty easy but time consuming the first time, but now I know what I'm doing so the next time should be alot easier! hopefully!
One of the good things about making my own is that I can have just about any color or pattern I want and a little fabric makes a ton of bias tape! LOL!
This sample is also made out of white flannel instead of terry, it's so much easier to sew on, not messy and has nice results.
I'm going to check into the high quality flannel the quilt stores sell to see if it doesn't pill as bad as the regular stuff.
The colors are much brighter in person, I haven't installed my photo shop elements program on this computer.
I just called CompUSA and my computer is still in Texas! ARG!
Oh and I also found my cell and I was the one that lost it, NOT GUS!
(I'm sorry I blamed you Gussers xoxo)
It was in my computer hutch in my address book that I was using earlier that day.
I found it at 4 am when I got up to let my dog out to go potty, the house was quiet (amazing!) and I actually got enough signal to hear it ring 2 times!!! Yipee!!!
Have a great weekend everyone!

$$$ Cha Ching! $$$

Well, my husband stopped by CompUSA and talked to the store manager, he was very apologetic about the all the problems and poor service and said that they had fired most of the tech help in the past month and that he was very sorry about what had happened.
I guess he really didn't want my husband to call his superior because when he asked Dan "what can I do to make this right? Dan replied "refund my warranty fee!" and he did!!!!!
He gave Dan $397.00 cash!!!
Wow! that's going to make a dent on paying our new computer off!
The manager told Dan that it should be back later this week, and that he had called down to Texas and talked to the guy that was actually working on my computer so I guess we'll just have to wait and see when it comes back.
I told Dan to "give'm hell sweetie!" just before he went in the store and I was just thinking it would be nice to get a stack of rewritable CD's for free to make up for the inconvenience, I think my sweetie did A WHOLE LOT BETTER THEN THAT!!!!

Oh also today Gus got ahold of my cell phone and I can't find it, the phone only works intermittently here at the house so if I call my cell I get one very muffled ring and with 2 little ones in the house I can't hear where it's coming from before someone yells or starts fussing!
I guess when the battery runs low it will start doing those annoying chirps and hopefully I'll find it then.
So wish me good vibes on the computer and finding my cell phone! oh!

Has it already been a month?

My computer is still in the shop and I've called them at least 5 times I get someone different in their tech dept each time and they told me that there was a problem with the computers numbers and the ones the home office has on file for my extended warranty, I thought we got that taken care of about a week and a half into it being in the shop, then I called Monday and they said it was in FedEx's hands the guy on the phone didn't have many answers so

I decided to have my husband go in and talk to them in person, sadly at least around here if you have a man do the talking most of the time you get things done. Dan went in and talked to the guy at CompUSA yesterday (March 5th) and the guy pointed to my computer on the rack and said it hadn't ever left the building!!!!!!! They have had my computer and told me it was in Texas being repaired and it's never even left the building! Can you believe that S#IT????

I am at such a lost without my computer, we went and bought a new little laptop that's going to be mainly for Dan when I get mine back because it has all my programs and favorites on it and I'm just used to it. I had been thinking about getting another computer because I don't like to share mine (I know!)
I tried for a while to get along without a computer in the house by cleaning all the time but that only lasted for about 3 weeks. The house looked great but it's starting to look a little more like it's old self again. *grin*
I've been crafting a little but Gus is getting his bottom molars in and he's being VERY clingy, staying up till 11:30 at night but at least he's sleeping good once he finally goes to sleep and so it's a bit of a challenge to sew with a toddler on my lap, I can nurse at the keyboard but sewing is a whole nother matter.

I've also ran out of the washcloths that I use for my Binky Blankets so I have to sort of reinvent them, I'm leaning towards french terry but I have to just find the time to get a new batch made up so I can make new listing for my shop on Etsy.
Hopefully I can get some made up this week and listed, If anyone wants one before I get them listed on Etsy just drop me a note and I can get one made up for ya.
Oh also, I decided to make all my items in my shop F REE SHIPPING!!! cool huh? I thought so!
Take care and I'll write again soon. xoxox

I will be off line for a few days, I need to have my laptop serviced and I don't know when it will be back (hopefully quick!)
When I open it there are strange blue shadows and sometimes not screen at all and I just have to be a big girl and let it go to the doctor for a few days.
Say a prayer for my computer if you would! ;o) And I'll be back soon.
Take care everyone,
Julie

Teacup pot

Teacup pot
Originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

This is HUGE!
I found this cool giant tea cup flower pot at Wal-mart. sweet
:)
I have been meaning to replant the tall plant you see here for, ummm, about oh, 3 years (hows that for procrastinating?) and finally did it.
It was originally sitting on my window sill above my kitchen sink somehow surviving on the original little bit of potting soil it came with.
I'm a bad plant mama but it just kept living and growing new leaves!
I guess if this little baby is this strong she deserves a nice new pot and a little ivy roommate.
With this thing on my dining room table do you think I might maybe be able to keep my table clean? doubtful.

Oh, can you see Gus peeking from behind the cup?
If you didn't notice before, he was peeking through my Bernina in my post about my new sewing machine. what a ham.

Have you tried these?

I finally broke down and paid $9.99 for these little things that look like dog toys and you know what? THEY REALLY WORK!!!!
They have cut down the drying time of a load of jeans by at least 20 minutes and are really handy for drying my cloth diapers.
They basically work by making the clothes not just lay against the sides of the dryer which in turn allows more air to get in between the items and they dry quicker.
These little gems claim to reduce static , make your clothes fluffier and reduce drying time which saves on electricity and all in all I think it really stands up to it's claim.
There supposed to last approximately 3 months too.
Isn't it nice when something actually works? I believe so!
I'll give this item 5 stars. Now go out and get ya some! I found these on the laundry isle of Wal-mart.
(I am not affiliated with this company nor am I getting any kickbacks either. darn it! LOL!)

I got a new toy, it's a Bernina Aurora 430!

My Bernina
Originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

I have a new toy!
Now if I can just figure out how to use all it's bells and whistles. LOL!
I decided to take a little bit of my inheritance from my mom and go get something she would have definately approved of, this little beauty also has the embroidery attachment that I went ahead and got so I can personalize items that I sell.
I set up the embroidery part and sewed a couple things but with the kids not on the same nap schedule it's getting harder and harder to get to play with it so for now it's just for sewing.
I told DH that he could go get a small tractor if he wanted and he just opted for a new tattoo. (crazy, I know!)
I'll have to take a picture of it when he gets it done, he designed it himself with Cherokee symbols that say I love my family.
Ahhhh sweet.
I tried to convince him to get one that said "Property of Julie" but for some reason he decided that wasn't what he wanted. :'P
Actually I got a tattoo of a barbed wire heart just above my left breast one year for Valentines day and gave him a coupon for a barbed wire tattoo so he got one that went around his upper arm.
DH's wedding band is gold with barbed wire that he designed himself so the barbed wire design kindof means "I love Julie/Dan" to us. Corney but it works.
Have a great day!

Lip Gloss Sweater

Lip Gloss Sweater, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

It's cold outside and we got about 7 inches of snow last weekend so I have been using the chapstick this winter.
I seen a crocheted one online somewhere and being that I really don't have the patients to crochet or knit I decided to just use a little piece of wool sweater that I had left over from making Gus some Butt Sweaters.
I love rick rack and yo-yo's so this is what I came up with.
I might start offering them in my shop, whatcha think?

Gifts for baby Mattie

Gifts for baby Mattie, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

I have a friend that just had her 5th baby on the 12th of January and being she is a little girl I just couldn't resist making something girly.
I had thought about putting little ruffles on the bottom of the legs but little newborn babies don't really need that, these are the softest fuzziest flannel pants!
I took them over today which happened to be her mama's birthday too, but little Mattie was sleeping in the bedroom so I didn't get to see her. Oh well. Maybe next time.

This is what I gave...
Little flannel polka dot pants
Hand embroidered onesie
Reversible baby shoes
Big pink gingham seersucker baby blanket with fleece M

I forgot to take a picture of the back of the pants, I hand embroidered a piece of pink ribbon with her name "Mattie" and stitched it to the back waste band.
I also made a little size tag with NB and stitched it, like these aren't small enough to remember! :)

Busy busy

Things have been crazy around around here!
Gus turned 1 on December 29th and had lots of fun with his little smash cake, he really didn't make all that big of a mess until Daddy squished his hand in it. :)

Gus took his first real steps the day after his birthday but still likes to crawl and be carried around most of the time. :)
His top molars are almost completely in now and that makes for a very clingy baby in the evenings but a little baby Tylenol seems to help. He really enjoys scrubbing his toothbrush on them whenever he can. This makes 10 teeth already! We like to call him a little piranha (because he loooves to bite) and little monster (because he loooves to growl too).
Then I also gave him his first haircut, I still need to get a picture of that. I don't think I did that great a job because he just wouldn't sit still! Surprised? I'm not!
He also started saying a couple of different new things like UH-OH! , Yeah (while clapping) and he can now make the sign for milk so I know he wants to nurse. It's so cute to see him make the sign, it looks like he's
milking a cow. squirt squirt squirt
It's also getting harder to get much done on the computer because he wants to slap the keyboard and when I'm sewing he just will not stop unplugging my foot peddle. arg!
But I have been still able to get a few things done though...

I've been really busy making custom Binky Blankets for my Etsy shop and for wholesale orders too.
I have so many ideas swirling around in my head that it's hard to decide where to start! So make sure you check my shop for all the new items I plan to be adding in the coming weeks.
I recently added patches to the shop so if you have something personal you'd like to have one of my designs on, you can get a patch and add it yourself!
Here's a pic of one of the custom orders I did recently that included a couple of patches.--->

I was also having a little problem with depression, I didn't want to admit it but I was in such a funk and my house work was suffering and that makes me all that more depressed so I went to my doc and asked for something to help make me feel better. This was quite a step for me because I just didn't think it was that bad but now that I've been on my new medicine (Zoloft) I have just been so much happier and less easily angered.
At first it made me very sleepy and that lasted for about 2 weeks then things leveled out and now I don't really feel any side effects except for being consistantly happy!
And ya gotta love that!!!
I wanted to share this with everyone because I want you all to know that there isn't any shame in getting medicine that can make your quality of life better. I've looked back and can see so many times in my life that if I had been taking something like this I would have been so much happier.
Sometimes I just have to take a step back and say "I need to take care of myself!" for a change so I can take better care of my family.
Being care giver for my family can sometimes be a little overwelming, but wonderfully now it's just not that overwelming after all!
I hope to start blogging more, it's a bit of a challenge with Gus on the move but I'm going to give it extra effort.
Take care everyone!

Me and the boys Christmas 2006

Me and the boys Christmas 2006, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I thought it would be fun to set the timer on the camera and take a picture of me and my guys I'm kind of surprised it turned out OK, now I should have dressed us up in cute clothes :)

Gnome hand embroidered t-shirt

Gnome hand embroidered t-shirt, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

Here's a little gnome I stitched a few months ago because I just love gnomes!
I took 2 pictures I found on the net and put them together, drew them on the shirt and stitched it on.
I think I could have done a much better job on the hat and maybe filled in the red on the mushrooms but after doing such a sucky job on the gnomes hat, I decided to just leave the shrooms outlined.
And the shirt is really white, I guess that's what you get when you're too lazy to set up a table top light box for photographing items when the suns down. :)

Happy 70th birthday Mom

My Moms Christmas drawing, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

Today would have been Moms 70th birthday, she was only 2 months away.
While my sisters and I went through her fabric stash I came across some of these Christmas drawings that she had done from a pattern, what's so funny was that it was intended to look like a little kid had drawn the pictures but with the way Mom wrote she was able to pull it off.
I think she did this at a time when she was wanting to craft and we were all too busy to want to do any crafting with her and so she did these.
Drawn on muslin (the correct color is in the bottom picture) with permanent fabric markers and colored with crayons.
I think these are just adorable. I'm going to add some Christmas fabric around the edges and make it into a pillow.
I think the pattern was something like Brown Paper Bag or something like that, I searched and couldn't find them any more.
Here's a close up of the Santa. :)

It's all about the legs

Baby legs are the current rage so I thought I would try my hand at making a pair for Gus, come to find out, Jaden really likes them too! These started out being a pair of toe socks I picked up at Target then I cut some knit from an old t-shirt and made a cuff and sewed it on the end!

All together it took about 5 minutes! The reindeer are grippy so they are great for traction.

here's Gus sitting in front of the Christmas tree modeling his new leggings!

Now here's a pic of Jaden, I had to find something else to put on him because he wanted to wear the leggings because Gus was wearing them.

These are tattoo sleeves that I got for my hubby for Halloween. Aren't these funny?
Jaden thinks he's cool beans!

Do you ever do stupid stuff?

OK, so I buy a package of Andes mints mini chips for making cookies or whatever with, with the full intentions of just nibbling here and there on them. :oD And I put them in the freezer in a zippy bag along with a metal spoon and not thinking much about nuthin' I go into the kitchen and pull my little "treat bag" out, scoop up some bits and put the spoon in my mouth and WHAM! the stupid thing sticks to my lips and tongue! stupid stupid stupid (note to self: use plastic spoon next time) Just add this to my latest stupid stuff I've done list.

On to something that isn't stupid....

Here's cute site that I ran accross www.Jelene.com she makes the cutest pictures I especially love the dog in a banana car!

Have a great week everyone. xoxox Julie

Sunday was a bad day

It all started out well enough. I washed 3 loads of laundry, 1 load of dishes and vacuumed all before noon (this isn't normal for me to clean that much in one day!) I was feeling pretty good until I tripped on my canister vacuum and sprained my toe. ouch! I thought maybe I broke it but I didn't thankfully!

THEN... I was getting ready to go into my Mom's house to help out with the estate sale and Dan had pulled my mini van out to weld something from my Moms house for me and when he finished I put it in the van through the back hatch and decided I should pull the van into the garage because with the wonderful Kansas wind I didn't want Gus to get sick, so I finished putting the welded item in the back, pushed the close hatch button on my key fob and heard the beeps that say the door is going down and got in the drivers seat and started to drive into the garage....BAM.... the hatch had not gone down and I hit the garage and broke the back glass and wiper blade mechanism on my new mini van!!!!

Tempered glass shards went everywhere, I put a small dent in the top of the garage door frame. shoot! (OK, so I said a few more choice words then that!)

I started crying and went inside to tell Dan and went back out to clean up the mess.

THEN... Gus woke up and fell off the bed. He's fine, nothing a little breast milk wouldn't fix. I felt like a clumsy stupid dumb a** and a bad mother all in a matter of an hour. I used to have a real problem with letting myself get into a real lather and spiral into a bit of a mild depression when stuff like the van and Gus getting hurt happened, I would start badgering myself, telling myself how stupid I am and so forth. But I realized one time that if I was my own best friend I would be sitting there telling myself "OH STOP THAT!!!! your not stupid or a bad mother!!!!" and that has helped me a ton. I find myself getting over things allot faster and being more apt to just getting up and getting on. Good advice for anyone.

Kind of like "don't cry over spilt milk".

I was going to take pictures of the broken window for all your pleasures but didn't take the time and just decided to get that baby to the car fixin' doctor.

Baby Gus is fine, I WILL NEVER PUT HIM ON ANYTHING ELEVATED TO SLEEP AGAIN! I already made a little quilt pad to put on the floor for naps. If anyone knows of something that would work better, please let me know. :o)

Oh, I thought I might add that we co-sleep so I don't have a baby bed and our new mattress from my Mom is a double pillow top so the bed rails hardly ever go about 1 inch above the top of the mattress. The problem so far on putting him on a pallet on the floor is we have laminate floors and even though the house is a comfortable temperature it's cold on the floor. I guess it's still better then falling!

Oh a little happier note, we just about have everything ready to go at Moms house for the estate sale and I brought home 3 large storage tubs of really great fabric!!! I think Mom would be happy I'm keeping it.

Take care everyone!

She's still taking care of me :o)

The other day I went to my Mom's house to help my oldest sister go through all the things in the house because we're going to have an estate sale and she needs my help, well my sister took down a bowl off the top shelf in the kitchen and priced it and started to put it back towards the back but it bumped against something so she asked me to reach and see what it was. I pulled down another small glass bowl and said "maybe I should check farther back" well.... I touched some paper and pulled it down and there in my hand was an envelope with my name Julie wrote on it in my Mothers handwriting and inside was $50!!!!!!!!

You see my Mom had a real nack for saving money and she would save mine for me if I needed her to (whether I wanted her to or not!). Apparently she had asked me at one time or another if I wanted her to save said money for me and I said yes. Well I started crying and said "Thank you Mama!" and my sister was hooting, hollering and saying that we should split it 3 ways! I THINK NOT! :O) IT HAD MY NAME ON IT!!! LOL!!!

She really is still taking care of me I guess, because when we brought her home from the hospital with Hospice she had been really out of it and sleeping non-stop and my sister went through the kitchen and cleaned and lined the shelves with paper and ran out just when she got to the shelf that had my money on it. strange!

I'm trying not to dwell on my Mom's passing and boring you all, but I wanted to tell you about what had happened because it made me happy.

Also, Mom came to me in a dream the other day during a nap and I simply talked to her and told her I missed her dearly and asked her how Heaven was and she said she was temporarily set up in a nice little room kind of like a nice hotel room but she would be moving to a really nice home close to all her family. She spoke like she was having a wonderful time and I got a since that she had lots going on and she didn't have time be sad missing us, then the phone rang and woke up. shoot, I was having a nice conversation with her, maybe she'll come back and visit someday.

No I'm not nuts! Remember I talked about my Grandmother visiting me around the time she died? Who knows but I like the visits, so keep them coming Mom! Now what to do with the money???? Pay bills? Naw... how bout some food? :o)

Halloween Puppy

Halloween Puppy, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

I know it's a little late..but here's Jaden in his Halloween costume.
He's a puppy!
I'm glad that I picked this type of costume because it was down right cold outside that night.
He's wearing black sweatpants and a black sweatshirt with little furry cufts on his wrists and ankles then I made a furry neck band with ribbon that looks like a dog collar where I put on a couple of keychain circles and a tag that says "Puppy", I then took a black adult stocking cap and cut the top and sewed some floppy fur ears and sewed them in. I was able to put a coat on under the sweatshirt and some little black gloves so he was as warm as a flea on a poodle!
I hooked the retractable dog leash around his waist and he barked as we walked down the street. Too cute!

Baby Gus fell asleep in Dad arms so he didn't get go to the festivities in town, but when we got home he was awake so we dressed him up in his teddy bear outfit and went to Grandma CJ's house.
All in all we got just the right amount of assorted candy so it was lots of fun.
It took Jaden a few times to get the say "trick or treat!" to get the candy. He wanted to do the trick part! I would say "sit puppy" and he would sit. Silly pup!

You'd be mad too if someone was getting sick on your head!

Pumpkins, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

I actually got a pumpkin carved today! Can you believe it?
I know, not very original but Jaden and I had fun, he pretended like he was the pumpkin and was asking me to be careful and gentle while cutting out his features. Silly boy.
I decided to make a little pukie guy, I guess the little guy is scared of heights and got sick on his Pa. Hahahahahahahahaha!
I have 3 more that can use a carving so I think I might look around the net and see what I can come up with...
I'll post updates if I get anymore done.... now off to roast some punkin' seeds...yum!

And here's another pic of little Baby Gus in the jumper I made for Jaden for his first Halloween, it fits Gus great and my Nephew wore it last year! I wonder how many more babies will get to wear it before it gets retired?

I also made a decorated shirt for Jaden this year, I'll post a picture of it soon.

My Diaper Keyring Fluff

My Diaper Keyring Fluff, originally uploaded by mama_blueberry.

Now what do you do when you want to show your cloth diapers but it's getting cold outside to pull your babies pants off and show them off?
Well you carry it around on your keyring that's what!
I made this little darling just like it's big brothers only miniature, It's even washable!
I'm thinking about selling them in my Etsy shop!
Whatcha think?

My first fancy AIO cloth diaper

Well, I know I can sew but sometimes I don't give myself very much credit.

I bought this pattern for the Very Baby Very Basic All in One cloth diaper pattern recently from The Diaper Shop and I've been just looking at it for a couple of weeks, and with all the sad things going on I haven't been motivated to clean my house just so I can start sewing so I finally cleared a pile and cut out the diaper. I think it turned out pretty cute, it looks just like the pictures on there site minus the little Very Baby tag, so I was pretty surprised! I tried to sew with Jaden around and he just can't keep away from the mesmerizing magic of a sewing machine in use so it was a little challenging to say the least! LOL I was reading in the Mothering.com diaper making forums that one mom suggested sewing while the children are sleeping and I think this is a grand idea, but today Gus went down at 11 till 3 and Jaden went down for his nap at 2 and he'll probably be down for 2 1/2 hours so today that just ain't going to happen, but that's OK. I was just too motivated.

Here's Gorgeous Gus modeling his new diaper, I think he approves. :o)

I wanted to make some like this so my husband can't say that "Cloth diapers are just too complicated for me!!!" (he builds airplanes for goodness sake!), this style is called an All in One because it works just like a sposie but you wash them instead of trashing them. Now what's his excuse? :o)

I made it with an outer layer of PUL fabric which is a waterproof fabric on the inside and a soft polyester on the outside and the inside is 2 layers of Super Flannel with a flannel double that has I think 6 layers so I think this is going to work really nice. I have enough fabric to make probably 4 more just like this.

I should have got in gear earlier this summer so I could have made some really cute prints and just put on a t-shirt so I could show off my cloth diapers! It's really fun to see peoples expressions when I say I use cloth diapers. (she must be really stupid and/or poor!!!) Well, not stupid or poor, just on a tight budget with a huge imagination and a sewing machine! ;o) The premade Very Baby diapers retail for about $18.50 on the net!

I'm also going to go Saturday to check out a shop in a nearby town that rents space in their gift shop so I can sell my baby items locally without going to craft shows to do it. Man those craft shows are a ton of work and with Baby Gus now I don't see any craft shows happening very soon!

I'm tired

We had her funeral Saturday and I couldn't believe how it seems like time was standing still, we had only been there an hour or so but it felt more like 6, I was so exhausted by the end of the day that I didn't even dream when I went to sleep which was probably a huge blessing! We all went to bed and forgot to turn off the computer or the living room lights and we left the front door unlocked!

I've held up pretty good, but this morning I opened the closet and there was her jacket hanging on the hook from one of her last visits. So I cried while I brought in my share of the flowers. The jacket is a pink fleece so I was thinking about making a little pillow to put on my bed to sleep with. Mom would probably be mad that I cut up a perfectly good jacket though! :o)

My 3 1/2 yr old has been doing really great but I wonder when he's going to notice that Grammie isn't anywhere. She wasn't moving or talking for about a month so who knows. When we were sitting at the grave site the pall bearers rolled her casket on the stand and he said "cool" wouldn't it be nice to be able to handle this stuff with stride like little kids? I think if he asks where Grammie is I'll just tell him that she went to heaven and leave it at that. I don't want to get him all worried about that sort of stuff if I can help it.

On a little happier note, I took the kids to see Disney on Ice with my niece and great nephew and it was pretty good. What I hate is how expensive all the toys are and how they shove them in our faces! The tickets were $18 each with $3 for parking and then they were charging $18 for a small bag of cotton candy and a cheap 101 Dalmatian dog mask! Now I don't know if I've made it clear that I am a rather new tightwad but I just about choked at the prices! Everything at the show was $15-$30 and I seen kids with costumes on and arms full of toys. geez I told my niece that if we do this again we need to go to the Disney store and buy some stuff on clearance and pack it away for the next show! :o) My mama would be proud of my thriftiness. Oh and talking about being tired, me and the boys laid down for a nap at 1:30 and didn't wake up till the phone rang at 4:30 and the show started at 5!!! Thank goodness my husband helped me get the kids dressed! I realized after we got home that I had put Jadens tennis shoes on the wrong feet! I really was tired. ;o)

Take care everyone and thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your sweet and heartfelt kind wishes for my family and I.

God Bless you all. xoxoxo

She's gone

Mom passed away this morning at 7am peacefully in her bed in her own home. My sister was with her and noticed that her breathing had gotten labored so she quietly told her that it was OK to go and that we would all be alright and she died a short time later.
JoAnn Oaks will be missed more then I could ever put into words.
My mother was very strong and knew how to take care of herself and her family and we were her life.
I had a chance to tell her one of the last times she bounced back from being so close to dying that I was so proud of how she raised us girls all on her own and how grateful I was for all the hard work she always did for us and that I loved her with all my heart so I was at that place where I could let her go to heaven to be with everyone she missed.
Mom would have been 70 on December 5th this year, way to young to be taken but she had a good life and has a family that loved her very much.
We decided to bury mom in a pretty red fleece top with her fanny pack purse that she ALWAYS had one and her hiking boots so she can go camping on Heaven Mountain instead of Colorado this time. I'm going to put a fresh pack of her favorite Wrigley's Double Mint gum in her fanny pack so she has it if she needs it.

I love you mom, I'm sorry about putting this picture of you on the net, but I think you look cute in your little cover girl pose. *wink wink*

Little found dog

How cute is this little doll?

This little lady appeared on my doorstep about a week and a half ago with just a little collar on but no tag. My Hubby had picked up Jaden from my Moms house where I was staying over night and when he got home she was on the porch shivering.

Dan actually put her in the garage with a dog bed, food and water, he must have really felt bad for her because he's the kind of guy that would prefer that ALL pets stay outside, but alas he married a woman that would have ALL pets stay inside sleeping in a huge double king sized bed...kids/pets/parents and all! LOL

Well after I spent the weekend staying with Mom, I got home and took a look at her and she just followed me in the house like she was home. She had obviously rolled in most likely horse poo and she really stunk so I gave her a bath in the kitchen sink and she was very well behaved. Monday morning I called Animal Control and told them I had her so if anyone was missing her they could come and get her, if I had had them pick her up they will destroy her in 3 days and I wouldn't let that happen so I just gave them my info.

She slept on the floor in the bedroom on a towel and even in Jadens bed one night and she is totally potty trained!!!!! Quite the sweetheart.

Well anyways, our friend put an ad in the little local paper for a found dog, and her owner put an ad on the local cable channel saying she lost a dog only we don't have cable so we didn't see it, she even called AC and they said they didn't know of any dogs by that discription!!! So just as luck would have it someone seen both and called her owner and then she called me. 9 days later she was returned to her family! The lady was really grateful to have her back and I mentioned how great the instant engraved dog tag machine was at Wal-mart but being so thrifty I offered to make her some Shrinky Dink dog tags...

We had temporarily named her Lucy...as in "I love Lucy" but come to find out her real name is Nikki, not to far off I guess. It was so cute to here Jaden say "come here Woosie!"

The dog tags aren't perfect but they will certainly do! I made her 3 just in case they don't hold up but I think they will, Nikki only goes outside to potty.

This wasn't the first dog to show up lately,about 3 weeks ago a large black and white dog showed up and I called AC and 2 days later his Mama called and they came and picked him up. His name was Jack, do you think Jack told Nikki that our house was the doggy safe house? "bark bark... go to that blue house with the white fence and they "bark" will help you find your way home!"bark bark" Who knows.....bark!

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.