A new sewing project…

Most of you probably already saw this on facebook. It’s a zippered Ipad cover I made for my team leader at work who is leaving us to go work with babies down in the new life maternity center at the hospital. Waaaah! I’m SO excited for her but majorly sad for myself because I absolutely LOVE working with this girl and she’s a phenomenal leader. But, at least New Life gets to benefit .

So anywho, she just got an Ipad that she was pretty excited about but didn’t have a cover yet for it so I decided to design this for her to put in the gift basket my unit put together for her. I searched high and low on Pinterest, Etsy, and the web in general for a freakin’ tutorial on how to make a zippered Ipad case that didn’t just zip on one side. I wanted her to be able to unzip it, fold it behind if she wanted,  or leave it open, but ultimately not have to take the Ipad OUT of the case like she would if it was just a zippered sleeve. But I couldn’t find it anywhere! I could only find the hard cover, fold-over kind with snaps or velcro, and the plain zippered sleeved ones, so I set out to design my own. (Now, if someone finds an easy peesy tutorial for this on Pinterest, don’t even tell me because I’ll cry that I had to reinvent the dang wheel for nothing!)

Here it is unzippered and open. It has a simple pocket to the left, elastic on the right to hold the Ipad in place, and an eyelet for the camera.

Some of you are probably already wondering how this would protect an Ipad. Well I made the cover padded by quilting the outside fabric with batting underneath. I had some fun adding to it’s look by “stippling” the padded top fabric so that it would look extra puurty. Here’s an up close and personal pic so you can see what I mean:

I was sweating out the zipper part because I’d never done anything like that before and everything else was coming together so nicely. I would have been pretty heartbroken to get that far into the project, only to have the zipper part not work out or look right (since it’s one of the last steps in the whole process!) So Overall, I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Anybody know where I can get different colored 30 inch zippers besides black and white?? That’s all I could find at Joann’s .

Ok, the kiddo’s in bed so this momma needs to start working on his Halloween costume!

Night y’all.

-Linds

Eli is so proud of himself….

Behold Eli’s dresser drawer:

Ok this one is for you Steph…Let me get everyone else up to speed on the significance of the above photo. Lately Eli has been doing really well with following instructions, particularly those of the clean-up-after-yourself variety. So anytime Eli does what daddy and I ask him to do (and Auntie Stephie & Grandma for that matter) we clap our hands and cheer really loudly for him, making it a big production. Then he BEAMS and starts clapping his hands all proud of himself. It’s seriously the cutest thing. (He even takes the wash rag out of my hands and wipes up his tray!)

So back to the photo. Tonight daddy and I are getting Eli ready for bed when he proceeds to open up his top drawer and pull anything within reach out and onto the floor, literally just flinging stuff all over. I said, “Eeeellliiiii. What are you doing?” (in my I-mean-business tone.) He looks at me like “what’s your problem momma? I’m just having fun and being curious…” So I tell him to stop pulling his clothes out and to put them back in the drawer. He looks at daddy to make sure I’m serious, and gives him the “can-you-believe-this-lady?!” look, and eventually bends over to pick up his flung jammy bottoms and shoves them back in the drawer. “Yaaaay Eli!!! Way to go bubs!” –frantic clapping of hands. He naturally beams and then starts to grab for anything to stick in the drawer as if to say “You think that was amazing?! Check this out! I can lift this big ol’ boot AND my plastic toy and stick it up there too!” Ha ha ha! It was the funniest thing ever! Daddy and I were rolling.

Seriously freakin’ LOVE that kid. Gah!

Night night loves,

-Linds

Family outing…

With Aaron’s hectic work and traveling schedule, we’ve been making a conscious effort to do a full family day on Sundays. Last week we went to the apple orchard and to a fall fest and this weekend we decided to check out Wild West town. It’s nice for kids 3 and older I would say, although younger than that and they get in free . They offer kid activities, food, a museum, and a live “gun fight” show that was pretty cute. Overall, if you have older kiddos it’s worth a visit. My phone is still on the fritz and I’m counting down the days until I can upgrade (17!) so I’ve been stealing my honey’s phone to take pictures. He doesn’t care for that too much so the 11th better come quickly….But then that will mean I’ll be THIRTY!!! AHHHHH! I’m ok with it though, I just can’t believe it.

Here’s a cute pic of my little bug in a canoe on the lazy river:

Such a big boy! I could just eat him up!

And a pic of my two loves on the “spooky” train ride:

I had the best view in the place

Night night all.

-Linds

We need an intervention!

So I tend to go in cycles with how I like to spend my spare time, aka the “nap time” and “bedtime” hours. I bounce between spending all my time strictly reading books, then I’ll get bitten by the cooking bug and abandon my books to destroy my kitchen. But most recently I’ve wanted to do nothing but sew. With the kidlet around now, I only have time to dedicate to one activity since my spare time only comes in 2-4hr increments. Last week I was in a cooking frenzy. This week, back to sewing. I’m dealing with a little bit of mommy guilt though. I think my kid has a fabric “problem” too like I do.

“Ohh a new toy!”

“Hey mom, I love fabric too. Mine”

“No WAY am I giving this back to you momma”

It made me think of that quote from “Mr. Mom” with Michael Keaton (remember that movie from the year I was born, 1982?!? I honestly can’t turn it off when I see that it’s on t.v. Sigh. Good quality family shows right there people) any way he’s having a “man to man” talk with his son about giving up his “woobie”, here it is:

I understand that you little guys start out with your woobies and you think they're great... and they are, they are terrific. But pretty soon, a woobie isn't enough. You're out on the street trying to score an electric blanket, or maybe a quilt. And the next thing you know, you're strung out on bedspreads Ken. That's serious.

Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I laugh every time .

So we start off with our scraps and they’re great, they’re terrific but pretty soon, scraps aren’t enough. We’re out on the streets trying to score remnants (see pic above), or maybe even yards of fabric. And then next thing we know, we’re strung out on bolts of fabric friends. That’s serious. We need help.

If you need us, Eli’s in his room napping, I’m down in my craft room sewing. Toodles!

-Linds

My kid, the adrenaline junkie….

We all wondered what Aaron’s contribution to the gene pool was…Whelp, here it is:

We LITERALY did this over and over and over and over again for 10 minutes straight.

Mom, I don’t recommend doing this with him tomorrow as I’m sure my shoulders and back will be really sore after this :/

Pray for me????

Night night,

-Linds

A new pilot in command…

Eli turned 14 months today . In honor of this big day daddy decided to give him his first flight lesson.

Lesson #1 included:

•  sitting in the pilot’s seat…

Don’t worry he isn’t really flying the plane. Sheesh, what kind of mother do you think I am? I would never let him drink and fly!

• Getting acclimated to the instrument panel…

Wait dad, where did you say the altimeter was again??

• And last but not least, wearing the appropriate head gear (while making sure to look ridiculously handsome like daddy)…

He even helped daddy drive the golf cart around to get a better look at all the gliders. I drew the line at him driving it by himself since I didn’t think he was old enough but I found out from a little boy there that Eli couldn’t ride the cart by himself not simply because he was too young to do it but because, and I quote “he wouldn’t know how to turn everything on.” Ha ha . True story. I got a little chuckle out of that. He was totally serious. Kids say the darndest things .

Hope you all are enjoying a nice labor day weekend!

-Linds

First bike ride!

Yesterday Eli and I went over to play with our buddies Jac and Parker and guess what we did?! Yes, I suppose the title helped you out, smarty-pants, we went on a bike ride . Jac recently got a little bike trailer and so we strapped them in and road around the neighborhood. I seriously don’t think I’ve ridden a bike in yeeeears! And now I see why I didn’t miss it—my va-jay-jay (Ok so more like the space next to my va-jay-jay, the high, upper inner thigh part where the awful seat digs in. What’s the name of this “junction”? Heck I don’t even know) is killing me today. TMI??? Stupid bike seat **grumble, grumble**

Parker just chillin. My child is checkin’ out his surroundings

Just doin’ what they do—swapping sippy cups

I made jac take pics of them in here before we got started because they were just too cute. Initially, Eli had his arm around Parkers neck—just sitting there, waiting for the ride to start. But she is slow in the picture taking department and he moved it before she could get the adorable photo. (That’s ok, we can still be friends, Jac) Love these two.

I forgot what a workout bike riding is, especially since we went up hill the WHOLE way . Poor Jac was the one who had to pull the boys. All I know is I was a hot, sweaty mess with thighs about to combust so I can’t imagine how she must have felt!

Well I can see how thrilling it was for MY kiddo…

Passed out.

Thanks for the play date guys. Next time I vote the boys pull the mommas.

-Linds