The bottom part of John's computer chair was worn

through to the wood underneath. Milo helped me

take the chair apart, and we put a new cushion and

some new fabric on it. Not an exact match,

but much better than the old worn seat.

Wedding Dress

A few weeks ago, Stephanie posted about a 

white dress that she had made for her daughter.

For some reason, I had never thought about making

Ruby a white dress. After reading about Mabel's

white dress, however, I decided that it made

perfect sense for Ruby to have one.

After all, she and Milo get married nearly every day.

I used the Audrey dress pattern from Violette Field Threads,

although I made the skirt as long as possible,

per Ruby's request. I used a polyester fabric that I 

thought would wash up well (and often). 

Ruby chose two ribbons to tie around her waist.

Ruby and Milo have had a lot of fun using the dress

for their weddings, but Ruby also likes wearing it to church.

Halloween Crafts - School edition

3rd Grade Ghost by Maxwell

Haunted House by Jonah

Karate Duffel

Dana and Rae celebrated "The Boy" over the last month,

and one of their guests shared this tutorial.

Bentley needed a bag for his karate sparring gear,

so I used the tutorial to make him this duffel.

I used some dark denim, and 18" separating zipper,

and plain 1 1/2" wide webbing.

I needed the bag to be large enough for his helmet,

so I increased the measurements.

I cut two zipper linings, each 18 1/2" x 5";

two 10 1/2" circles for the ends;

and for the body, a rectangle 32" x 18 1/2".

I bought 76" of the webbing, and then realized that

I should have bought more because my bag is wider.

It worked out okay, the handles are just shorter.

Also, the circles seemed just a bit smaller than the

body of the bag, so I ended up gathering a little around

the zipper on each side of the bag.

I spent about $10 on supplies, including a 10 pack of

sewing machine needles tough enough for denim.

Ninja Party!

Jonah had a few ideas for his party this year.

First he wanted a zhu pet party,

then dolphins, then ninja.

We went with the ninja theme.

He wanted to invite a ton of friends, but I limited

the number and he painfully selected 7.

When the kids arrived, they colored a ninja and

I stapled it to a bag for them (to keep their goodies).

Then, John told them a story about a ninja,

and they began their ninja training.

Each was given a black belt (fleece),

and we went out back. There, they practiced kicking,

punching, flipping over the swing set bar,

moving like a ninja, throwing stars, and nunchucks.

Once they were trained, they donned their hoods

(black tricot fabric) and began the search for their

ninja crystals. I had stolen those, and was reading a

magazine with the crystals beside me.

Using their super ninja skills, they were able to

retrieve the crystals (camo candy filled eggs)

without being caught.

Then we sang happy birthday, ate cake, and

opened presents. After that, each of the guests

was given a couple of little ninja toys.

Somehow, a couple of treat bags got switched,

but other than that, the party went really well.

(Thanks to John and all his help.)

For Mindy

I saw something similar on Etsy,

and made this one for Mindy's birthday.

Valentines - 2011 Edition

Ruby's class made their Valentines together,

and then exchanged them. I found this idea

on Make and Takes, as well as a link from

from a commenter to this shop where I bought

monster clip art because it was too hard/late to draw.

Ruby surprised me by writing her name herself!

She did the R completely on her own,

then I wrote the other letters down for her to see.

The "b" is upside down because her paper got flipped.

Jonah's teacher sent home a brown paper bag

and a picture they could color and use to decorate it.

Jonah wanted his to be covered with soccer balls

that look like his soccer ball (from Aunt Brianna).

He spent all of Friday evening and a good part of

Saturday morning working on it.

Then, Milo ripped half of the soccer balls off.

Poor Jonah was pretty tired of crafting,

but he fixed his bag just before bed on Sunday.

Maxwell's class made their boxes at school!

The Valentines for all three boys were from a

Design Mom post a couple of years ago.

I chickened out, though, in mid January,

and decided to crochet some little bracelets

instead of teaching the kids to knot them.

It went a lot faster, but probably didn't turn out

as cute as the knotted ones would have.

Bentley did his box decoration by himself this year, too.

He is really interested in basketball,

so he knew right away that he wanted that theme.

He chose heart shaped basketballs and wrote swish

by the hole in his box (the hoop).

He opted for Valentines (advertisements) from his

karate studio instead of the tags from Design Mom.

Next year I think I might push for the monster

valentines or something like this or this.

Because I have lots of spare time. :)
Really, it is just nice to do something fun and creative.

We have to have valentines anyway, so why not

make it fun (stressful) for myself?