Still Here!

It has been a busy summer!  

All most all of the baby chickens have started laying!  Just waited for the last two and we will be in full swing.  

Things are coming along in the gardens.  That has been quite the learning experience.  Where I thought would be the perfect spot for a vegetable garden has turned out to be very hot.  Too hot, even for those sun loving, heat loving, drought resistant plants.  So we have made some improvements to the soil and that has seemed to helped some.  We will make even more next spring and summer.  Meanwhile, I've planted some things for a fall harvest against the back fence and in containers on the deck.  Next spring, I want to have raised beds along the fence lines.  However, our yard is lined with lots and lots and LOTS of rocks.  So I started moving those.  Oy!  It takes a LOT of work!  But I'm happy with how everything is coming along.

We decided to homeschool our kids this upcoming school year.  EEK!  Very excited and very nervous.  I know its the right choice for us though.  Roo will be starting 1st grade, Doodle will start Kindergarten! Little Bit is happy as long as she's doing whatever Mommy is.  :) And since she's two, she has PLENTY of time to just be my little shadow.   Where has the time gone!  I just don't know.  

In other VERY exciting news, we are adding a new member to our clan!  And she is just the cutest darn'd thing I have ever seen!!

Here is our sweet Rose.  One week old. OH!  The cuteness!  I can't handle it.

Here she is this past Sunday.  Three weeks old.  Eyes open and ready to take it all in.
My sweet puppy.  I can not wait for September to be here, it can not come fast enough!

I am making a doll for my littlest niece, who just turned one!  It's nearly finished, so that will be up soon!

The Seafarer Top

I FINALLY got the chance to sew something for myself.  I have been wanting to really since I started sewing a few years ago but never found a pattern that I LOVED and had to make. Basically, it was just easier to buy for myself.  

Cue, The Seafarer Top.  

I saw this top on a blog tour for the pattern and I had to have it!  So many different options, it can look like a like a completely different top each time you sew it.  Not to mention, it's another quick sew!  I made it within a nap time.  Gotta love that!

I got my knit from Girl Charlee. They have great knits!  All kinds of styles and colors, that are cute.  Which is hard to find for knits.  

















For my top, I did the hemmed sleeve, with a neckband and waistband.  I did find that the pattern, for me, runs a little small.  I was hoping that it would come out a little looser.  I could have figured that out, had I taken my measurements before cutting and sewing; but I didn't, so the top fits a little snug, but totally wearable.  I bought another fabric to make this shirt out of, so at least I know for next time! 

Weeds for Chickens

We've been outside A LOT recently.  Just playing, gardening, hanging out with the chickens.  :)  As I've been working on our garden, I've been thinking of ideas for the side yard that is currently dirt, rocks, and a wood scrap pile.  So I walked over there to find HUGE weeds.  Seriously, it was like a forest back there!  So I started pulling them while Roo and Doodle caught all the rollie pullie bugs.  :)  They made homes for them and put grass in.  Doodle decided her bugs wanted a river to swim in.  Yeah, those ones died.......eh well!  

When I finished pulling the weeds, I tossed them into the coop for the chickens.  They were SO excited since they aren't allowed out in the garden anymore.  Sorry ladies, you eat my plants and you can't come out. 

I told you it was a lot of weeds!  :)  They had fun picking through them and getting little bugs first, then they ate all the greens.

If you are wanting a good idea of what weeds are good for chickens, here is a great post!

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Strawberry Planter

Our chickens have had quite the hay day(s) in our little garden area.  Nearly all of my plants are eaten.  :(  I am actually pretty bummed about it.  The plants that I planted for them, they won't touch.  Just the ones I don't want them to touch.  I even researched plants they love.  Oh well!

So in an attempt to save what plants I have left, I put my strawberries in a make shift planter and really love the look of it.  Our friends gave us these old wire hay troughs.  At least that's what we guess they were, and they are working great.  I lined it with burlap to hold in the dirt and it's also great at holding in moisture too.  So we will see how they do.  The strawberries that have already popped out are ripening, so that's a good sign!

Here's the wire planter

 I didn't do anything fancy with the burlap.  I could have sewed the liner for a cleaner look but I just layered it in so it covered everything and then added rocks to the bottom for drainage.

Then I put in the dirt, and three strawberry plants.  I buried some of the stems so the would spread into more plants.  Maybe will have 5 or 6 by the end of summer.   Our friends gave us three of these planters so I took another one, turned it upside down and put it right on top.  

 So far it has kept the chickens out.  This weekend I will be clipping their wings so they can't fly over their fence into the garden.  :)  

It's also been a week since I have made this and the burlap has relaxed around the planter and the dirt isn't spilling out.  So it's much prettier to look at.   Well, as pretty as rustic can be.  Which I think is REALLY pretty.  So there ya have it!  :)

Pleated Playsuit Pattern Testing

Have you seen the blog Elegance and Elephants?  I love it!  Right now she's doing a series called Knock It Off, full of great knock off designs made for A LOT cheaper than you can buy them for.  It's very fun! 

Anyway, she has a pattern called The Pleated Playsuit (sizes 18 months to 9 years! and working on smaller sizes!)  and I got to be a tester for the pattern!  There are two options, pants or shorts.  So I tested size 2/3 in the shorts and it fits Little Bit PERFECT. 

 

It sewed up real quick, and the instructions were very clear.  Probably one of the best of all the PDF patterns I've made.  Great pictures, which always help.  

  

It has the cutest little detail of faux piping on the pocket.

I ended up making two, that's how quick it was. 

The pattern is available TODAY! And she's offering it to everyone for FREE! Can't beat that! So head on over there and grab your copy!

And here are some in action photos for your viewing pleasure!  :)  (ok, I lied, more than some.)

Chicken Wire Frame

I have seen these all over Pinterest and decided it was time to make one!  We have LOTS of chicken wire lying around so that was easy. I also have some old frames waiting for new life, so this project was begging to be completed.

From this:

   












To this:

I removed everything from the original framed picture, spray painted the frame a light green, and stapled chicken wire onto the back.  I have old family photos that I LOVE so I used mini clothes pins to attach it to the chicken wire. I'm working on getting more old photos of family (like the hubby's side) to put on there too.  I stuck it on our entry table and love it!  

Easy and quick!  Another DIY win!

Summer Sewing Part 1

I'm working on adding to the kids summer wardrobe with some handmade things.  So far I've made a pair of shorts for each of the girls. 

For Doodle's shorts I used Oliver and S Puppet Show Shorts pattern.  They sewed up really quick and I love how the have a vintage feel to them.  She's pretty skinny but I sewed up the size 5.  They might be a little big, but that just means she can wear them a little longer.  :)

I used a pink and white seersucker fabric from JoAnns.  Nice and light for warm summer days.

For Little Bit, I made a pattern for some simple knit shorts.  Like seriously, SIMPLE.  It took longer to cut the fabric than it did to sew it.  :)  

The hem of the shorts came out a little wonky because the knit was SO stretchy.  But that's ok!  She won't care, at this age anyway. ;)  
There are TONS of tutorials out there for how to draft your own patterns.  Basically, if you're making shorts, you grab a pair that fits, turn it inside out and trace around it.  Making sure to add a seam allowance.

 

I'm not a GREAT outliner so to make sure my seam allowance was going to be even all the way around, I attached a pen to my pencil with a rubber band and went around my pattern again.  Instant seam allowance.  :)

  

I'm hoping to find a simple shorts pattern for boys so I can sew some up for Roo too.  It's easy to find some summer patterns for girls, not so easy for boys.  But I'm not THAT confident in my sewing skills to draft patterns for my boy.  Maybe I'll stretch myself and try.  Why not, right?