In my spare time...HMPH ...as if! (hair flip)

I found myself making Audrey a quilt at 9:00 last night. First of all, I turn into a pumpkin at 8, which means as soon as the comfy pants come on, I am DONE with anything involving thought for the day. But she asked so nicely (read:overly persistent!) She needed it, for "like, watching tv, or covering my baby dolls, and sleeping with"  How could I argue with that???  Finally me, the sucker I am, told her I'd do it when I got around to it. 9:00 on a Saturday night.   When I finished it,I was able to put it on her as she slept, giving her a nice surprise when she woke up. Worth every, tired, frustrating second. Oh, and did I mention I have NEVER made a quilt before. It was my maiden voyage, and I think it turned out a-ok :)

With this quilt that Audrey was dreaming up, we had to make a few trips to the store. I loaded the babes up on their bikes, and we rode to Joanns to pick out some fabrics. When she found her fabric, we needed batting. But batting is cheaper at Walmart, so yesterday morning, we loaded up on the bikes again to head out to Wally World.

As we were finding our quilt supplies,  projects I'd seen on blogs kept popping up in my mind. Here are a couple of things that I've pinned on Pinterest lately (if you've never heard of pinterest, you HAVE to check it out...it's a great place to "pin" all of the things you see online that you know you'll want to refer back to later. Genius!) Tutorial links are on the captions, giving credit where credit is due :)

My kids would LOVE these! This is one I actually am excited to do for them.  So simple,  yet something they would totally use!

I guess I have a thing with ruffles, what can I say?

When my kids were babies, I learned really fast that the cute bibs you get as shower gifts are USELESS! Nothing stays on them, so guess what I'll be making for some mom's to be????

I fell in love with this shower curtain and knew it is EXACTLY what I need in my house. Hopefully this is project #1, but I know my stuff usually comes last :(

I finally made my ruffle bag! (and I can't wait to make more)

So for about a year now, I've had this little picture of a ruffle tote bag hanging on my computer in my studio. I always thought it was cute, but never had a free minute to experiment with the design. Fast forward to about two weeks ago. I get an email from a friend that read something like this..."I love this (picture of cute bag) for it's straps. I love this (picture of another cute bag) for the fabric....and I love THIS BAG!" And what was it? Oh yes, the very same ruffly bag idea that I've been looking at for over a year! I took this as a sign. I needed to do it NOW! So I told her I was not only up for the challenge, but excited to give it a whirl. Here is what I came up with:

It makes me want to twirl around!

I kept the ruffles to one side...didn't want to get TOO crazy!

I put a magnetic snap on this bag. I wanted it to have a slouchy,hobo look.
But I do plan to design a double handle- tote style with a zipper for all of you zipper fans! 

Up close and personal with the ruffles :)

My 6 year old took these pictures to show the size of the bag on me.
She may not understand cropping and backgrounds but  you get a nice view of my garage.
Sparkly clean thanks to the hubs :)

I'll have to tell the hubs to get out and pressure wash the driveway. It doesn't look sparkly like the garage!
 But Spencer doesn't seem to mind. He'll sleep anywhere!

They say real cheese comes from WHERE????

I am a Wisconsin girl, through and through. And the fun excursion my friends Amy, Cara and I took our kids on today proves one thing: THE BEST CHEESE COMES FROM WISCONSIN!!! Cara even had a friend visiting from Florida, who made the trip PERFECT by walking around with her camera on her neck like a real tourist, Lol!

I had been told by a friend that if you ask, they might let you see the factory. So I did...and while they couldn't take us to the room where they make the cheese (sanitary reasons, which I am GRATEFUL for!) but they had huge windows which allowed us to see the process. But our generous tour guild, Kert showed us and the kids an entire tour of the rest of the facility. It was fascinating! I never knew there was a demand for 1200 pound wheels of cheese, but I saw the picture to prove it. The wheel was ordered from Texas. I guess everything IS bigger in Texas!

Here are the kids, the sun was a little high at the time we wanted to take the picture :)

The huge windows and the view into the cheese making room.
That is the back of Kert(on the right), our wonderful, informative tour guide!

We made Will sit in the pictures and go along to the factory, although he is clearly WAY TOO COOL for such things!
From left:Will, my BFF Amy, Aidan,Sabina (those are her three wonderful babies!) then Chloe and Audrey, my two daughters. Oh how I love them all!

Chloe and Audrey showing off their hair nets for the tour.
The kids loved them, they wore them until we got home. NERDS!

These are wooden boxes filled with cheese wheels.
There was a crazy huge amount of cheese in this place!

That is a vat holding a wheel of cheese that is solidifying. Something about the whey coming out...
Kert explained it better than that. And yes, it is bigger than my daughters.

The kids are demonstrating how CHILLY it was in there. Fah-reezing!

These kids love each other so much, I just love this picture.
Oh,Aidan <3 (on the left)

Time to sample! Yummmmmmm. Those are squeaky fresh cheese curds.
They were still warm!

For information on Hennings cheese, check out their website. I honestly love their cheese over any other WI cheese maker. And we have some great ones THE BEST in our state.

Fun day, great place. Finished it off with local ice cream, scooped while we paid for our cheese:) I highly recommend making the trip if you ever get the chance. And anyone who wants to argue that cows are happier in California, please come check out Wisconsin. No question :)

This is what kids do when Mom's not looking!

I was cleaning off my camera this afternoon to make room for pics of my 12 new purses :) (FINALLY!)
Apparantly while I was cleaning my house today, Audrey, my 6 year old decided to take my camera and make a couple dozen tutorials. I picked one to share... I just love her little feet that show up every once in a while! And I should mention that I also found a bottle of nail polish in my studio. She painted her own nails just for her video. (my Mom pride is just spilling over right now!)

If you 've ever wondered the ins and outs of making Melting Bead crafts, this Tute is for you, compliments of Audrey.

Crawling my way out from under 12 purses

So it is summer, I have two kids home all the time and I still have to work to earn money. So what does this all mean? I decide to make 12 purses, which on a normal day is easy-peasy. But when all of my attention can't be focused on my work, I have found that these summer days are not very productive! So I am crawling along at a snails pace, anxious to see these finished! Basically, I'm writing this to show MYSELF that I have, in fact, made some progress :)

To keep order and to help me track what goes where, I cut out all the "parts" I need for the outside of these purses. Then I had to label them, so I would know what goes where. Thank goodness for sticky notes :)

Yes, I had to make a chart. I never makes charts, because that is too orderly for a scatterbrain such as me! But it was the only way I would know which fabric pieces I already cut, which fabrics I had to find,match and cut, and finally how to put them all back together again. I will repeat, thank goodness for sticky notes!

Ok, so to the general blog reader, it might look like I didn't get very far, that I only moved piles around a little, but REALLY I got a lot sewn and ironed! You can't see it but I finger ruffled 12 outside pockets yesterday. I was really proud of myself.

Next time I post about these purses, hopefully they will somewhat resemble something you might like to carry!
 Wish me luck.
Hold on.... the kids are calling me. Ugh.

Eeek! Summer....

So our weather says fall, (at best) but the fact that my kids are home says summer. I say...bummer. For now at least. I decided a year or two ago that it takes 3 weeks, no more, no less to adjust to the new schedule. So I have accepted that work will not go as planned, the kids will fight, and I will hear the dreaded two words, over and over again. "I'M BORED" or the backup phrase when they learn that being bored is not an option..."I'M HUNGRY". Words we as adults have learned, unfortunately can be interchangeable :) (Just ask my 8:30 pm sugar cravings!)

So I am almost one week into the three week window. I can do it....I can do it! Hold on, what do I hear? I think it's peace and harmony! Oh, wait, they are just watching tv. Bummer.