decking the halls

We as a family have been getting into the Christmas spirit by decorating, creating and sewing!  Early last week we had my parents come over for dinner and some decorating of our tree.  Charlotte had a blast decorating, Oliver loved playing with the ornaments and all the adults loved watching the kids be kids at Christmas! See if you can find the mittens that were required for decorating the very spiky Christmas tree!

Between the constant snow and the giant tree in our house the kids have been having a great time!  They have really used the Christmas tree as the biggest toy.  We have let them take select ornaments off and put them on about three times a day, needless to say the tree looks like a toddler and a baby have decorated it!

This is the perfect time of the year to get crafty!  One of my bestest of friends came in this past weekend and besides going to a craft show we also did a good bit of chatting and eating, we had a chicken pot pie with her name written all over it!

Charlotte and I have also been busy sewing!  She has taken a pretty big interest by sitting on my lap and helps lock my stitches and directs the fabric through the machine.  This is what we have been working on the past couple of days... burlap monogrammed stockings for all four of us and two pillows with the left over fabric!

We hope that you are able to get into the holiday spirit by decorating and redecorating, creating and sewing like we have!

-melissa

turkeys for our turkeys

I am lucky enough to have this whole week off from school and Jay has been home all week as well!  Needless to say, we have been pretty busy getting the house ready for our first Ohio Thanksgiving Dinner.  Between painting and decorating I have made enough time to do some Thanksgiving crafting of course! For Charlotte's first Thanksgiving I made her a shirt for the big occasion and I thought Oliver was due for one as well.  I scanned the web for some ideas and thought a charming tie idea for O would be excellent and C would look darling in one of those ribbon clad turkeys.

Both of these shirts were simple and cheap to make!  I used the same base fabric for both shirts, scraps for the detailed fabrics and bought 8 inches of ribbon from the off the spool stuff at JoAnn's.

I used the same appliqué technique as I do on all my quilt letters, I buy heat n bond in huge quantities… you will see how I used it on another project next week!

First I ironed heat n bond to all of my fabrics, drew the the turkey shapes on all the pieces, pulled of the back paper lining and laid out the shapes on the turkey body.

Next, I used my machine to attach all the pieces and hand sewed the turkey's pretty little green eyes on using needle and thread. I also attached all the ribbons on a scarp piece of fabric that was the same size as the head on C's turkey.

I then sandwiched the front of C's turkey to the pretty ribbon feather piece and sewed all the way around the turkey.

Finally, (really, the whole process is pretty short.  This is totally a nap craft) I placed the finished pieces on the shirts the kids would be wearing that day.

To see the super cute end product you will have to come back to see how our first Thanksgiving went.  We are expecting thirty people and tons of great food and memories made!

-melissa

when the cat is away the mice will play... and tie dye!

Jay has been gone all week long.  Last year on these long trips he takes I would feel miserable.  i would get bored and antsy and pretty lonesome.  Now that C is basically a little human being (let's face it, last year she was kinda like a boring burrito) she is so much more fun!  We really had a great week filled with playing, pooling, meeting up with friends and of course crafting. C got to spend some time with her besties this week...

We got to have a front porch dinner picnic after a big storm went through and we lost power, yes that is a cold can of beefaroni that I served my child (she ate at least 3/4 of the can!)

And of course I did some major crafting.  I worked on a couple projects for my new classroom that I am getting next year.  You will see the pics when they are finished.  I also made C some 4th of July apparel.  What good US citizen does not have a nice tacky shirt to wear on the 4th?! (of course her father and myself will not be wearing one, but babies can get away with anything!)

So for C's 4th of July outfit I got some cheap tie dying materials...

Tie Dyed three shirts using different methods (I hadn't done this in a while, so I was a little rusty with the process)...

Chose my fav...

Then wanted to try a technique I had seen on pinterest.  I had seen some cool shirts that had been written on with a bleach pen.  Well it turns out that a bleach pen costs about 5 dollars AND I am super cheap, so I made my own.  I used q-tips dipped in bleach to make stars over the tie-dye and it seemed to work just fine!  I can see how if you are wanting to do something with sharper lines, the pen would be helpful, but this worked for me!

So we had a successful week, stayed busy and the cat is coming home tonight (yeah!) plus we are all ready for the fourth...tacky baby t-shirts, shades and of course some glow bracelets!

-melissa

a swinging father's day

Sorry this post is so late, we have been doing a lot of this lately...

We really did have a very nice father's day here at the Hess house.  C made it through church this year (unlike last), we had a nice lunch, Jay got some photography equipment and we packed to take a trip to the beach with Jay's parents.

Just before father's day we were busy cutting, sawing, painting and burning.  We decided that since both parents were now in their retirement homes that they needed something to build some memories on, like a homemade tree swing.

I had this idea for a while and of course I was very sure of myself that this was the gift that we must give, but no idea how to actually build one.  That is were Jay always comes in, I have the crazy ideas and he has to figure out how to pull them off.  So after some research on Jay's part this is how we built our swings.

First we gathered the supplies at the local hardware store.  You will need (to make two swings): 10x8x2 pressure treated wood, braided rope, three inch outdoor deck screws, four metal quick links and a wood burning tool.

Then Jay cut the long piece of wood (8x10x2) into sections.  Each swing needed a piece that was 32" and two pieces that were 4" for support.

Before you attach the three pieces together draw a design and use a wood burning tool to create a message or picture on the swing (this was my job!)  I decided about halfway in to put some safety glasses on due to the fumes from the burning gun making my eyeballs burn!

After you are happy with your decoration it is time to assemble.  Screw the 4" pieces onto the bottom of the 32" piece.  This will offer some support for when grandparents and grandchildren alike pile on the thing in years to come.

After you are finished assembling the swing, polyurathane the whole thing so it will last for years.

-melissa