52 Project Challege, 2012 - Page 20

[iowaorganic]

Awesome smokering :)  So cute!  

I have not been crafting this week.  We have all been sick with some awful sinus junk and fever and chills- anyway- My SIL gifted me a big stack of flannel and jersey sheets for making new kid diapers!  I am very blessed :)  Tomorrow night the kids are going to her house for a sleep over and if I am not mowing our yard or sleeping I am going to start hacking them up for fitted diapers!  

I also have a couple of new pinterest ideas for skirts for after the baby...  I am going to make some faux smocked waisted skirts I think- those should fit :)  I just need to finalize my idea....

[mamaofprincesses]

It's done! Finally. Pictures on my blog: www.chronicallysleepdeprived.blogspot.com

(I can't seem to get the link to work, so please cut and paste!)

[iowaorganic]

That is fantastic!  Soooo much detail!  I love it :)

[mamaofprincesses]

Thank you! It's fun to show it to people who have an idea of what went into it. . . 

[AfricanQueen99]

W.O.W. !!  Seriously, that's awesome.  I'd say for that amount of work two years is the perfect amount of time!

[JPiper]

mamaofprincesses~  SO great!  You are really talented!!

I know just what you mean about losing interest or needing to put away a project for a while when you have big life events.  My projects are always intertwined with daily life.  When I look back at things I have made, it's a trip down memory lane.  I didn't realize until lately how necessary my creative outlets are for keeping my sanity (everyday 'sanity' and especially needed during times of stress).  

[gardenbelle]

mamaofprincesses, that is incredible!  What a fun place for you kids to play in. 

iowaorganic, I hope you feel better soon and can get started on those dipes.

As for me, I am working mostly on the quail hutch but it's taking some extra time as I have to wait for DH to come home to do the painting and staining - because I just found out I am pregnant!!!  So excited but cautiously excited.  Yep, I will definitely be adding a lot more baby projects to the list this year if this baby is a sticky one. :) 

Anyway, I did have a chance to work on one project that had to be done because our Spring/Summer garden is going in this weekend.  They are plant markers mainly for my tomatoes because I plan on planting a lot of heirloom varieties this year. :)  Basically, I will just write the name with a permanent marker on the painted box and I'll just paint over it next year if I end up growing a different variety.  I'm so excited to put them to use - they will look so much cuter than the plastic markers that come with the plants.

 

Here's the link if you want any more info about how to make them:

http://52projectsinayear.blogspot.com/2012/03/plant-markers.html

[iowaorganic]

Congratulations gardenbelle!  How exciting!  I decided to start antibiotics finally and let me tell you- I am feeling so much better already :)  The garden rocks are a great idea :)

[mamaofprincesses]

Congrats gardenbelle! I love the plant markers - way cuter than plastic ones, I agree! I should do those - I keep wanting to track what varieties we likes best, and also I'm trying to manage a strawberry bed. . . 

African Queen - Thank you!

JPiper - Thanks for your response. I actually joined this challenge to motivate myself to get back to creating. With babies 14 months apart (and difficult pregnancies) plus the other stuff going on, I just felt sapped the last three years. I've never considered myself all that creative because compared to other women I know, I'm NOT. But it's important to me, so no matter what the time or budget constraints this year, I'm going to find a way to do little projects.

[lifeguard]

gardenbelle - congrats!!! And I loooove the rock idea - soooo stealing it!

[Smokering]

13/52: Cooked, cleaned and tidied up the garden for a small, casual wedding reception held at my house. :) I consider it a "project" because, well, it was a ton of work. :p I made four batches of chocolate mousse, two of coffee ripple ice cream, two of focaccia, four of herby bread rolls, plus a ton of semi-fancily-decorated sugar cookies and some garlic butter. The good news is, we're still eating the leftovers. :) Also, I went a tad insane the say before the wedding, and started doing stuff like shifting plants two inches forward in the flower bed, because they were slightly hidden by other plants and I wanted maximum flowerage on display. I don't think anyone noticed. :p

Now it's done I feel free and inspired, and itching to start new projects! ...Which would be a bad thing, because I have several on the go, including some not-originally-on-the-list ones, and the whole point of this challenge is to decrease WIPs... isn't it? Isn't it? Apparently I suck at that. So I'm going to try to finish DD's curtain and the baby's shirt before I start making four or five large floor cushions, which I recently decided would look neat sitting in a bare corner of the living room, and would also give teenagers something to sit on when we start the youth Bible study we're planning to start, because despite being married five and a half years we have only one couch and no armchairs.

How do you make huge floor cushions, anyway? I've never seen inners for 'em; I could just make them with calico and that loose habby fluff stuff, but it would take a ton of it, especially to make it as firm as I feel a floor cushion ought to be. Is there a better way? And I guess I'd better use a semi-sturdy fabric... and a washable one... hmm. I need regular couch cushions too. I really love the shantung I used for my sister's cushions - it reminds me of my wedding dress fabric - but it's not super-washable, and definitely not good for floor cushions, and I guess the floor and couch cushions should match, so... Hmm. Will ponder it.

[iowaorganic]

smokering-

I know here you can get big 20" firmly stuffed pillows at Hobby Lobby or JoAnns.  They are ok- but not awesome or cheap.  I would almost go with bed pillows- push all the stuffing to one side and serge them into a square- you have a serger I think don't you?  I made a cover for ours out of wild patchwork- it was fun and now I am over it- definitely go washable :)  If you are looking more for foam- well that should be easier to find right?

[gardenbelle]

.

Edited by gardenbelle - 4/2/12 at 3:30pm

[OkiMom]

Garden- Congrats!! Lots of pregnant ladies on this thread this year

I haven't gotten ANYTHING done.. Ive gotten the stomach flu twice (yes, it was more than just morning sickness, my girls caught it too but luckily DS didn't).. I need to get working on a scarf and curtains this week. I need to send the scarf to Canada for a friend there and the curtains are needed so people stop looking in our windows I just need some motivation and to feel well enough to do it..

[mamaofprincesses]

Okimom, I don't know how you manage to get ANYTHING done with your little ones and being pregnant! Good for you for being so ambitious. I hope the morning sickness subsides enough for you to at least get curtains!

[greenmamato2]

I'm falling behind a bit it seems, but life is definitely taking me by storm.  I'm almost 9 weeks pregnant now, so I'm still fighting off the 1st Trimester morning sickness / exhaustion / etc.  On top of that, I have been working hard to get some services in place for my oldest daughter (she's 10), who has severe special needs.  I think we're finally getting things going with that - yay!  I'm also applying for jobs (as if my life wasn't busy enough lol).  WHEW!

I AMMMM planning on sewing up a Waldorf Doll today that I'm making to trade with a friend for some of her used cloth diapers.  :) That is on the agenda for today after 400,000 loads of laundry get done and folded. :P

[Smokering]

If you can, try to find some Easter Eggers or Ameraucanas, the kids will love the eggs. :)

I took your advice! :) Bought a pullet online... it was listed as Araucana, but looking at the photos on Wiki, it looks more like an Ameraucana with a topknot? I dunno. Anyway, it's grey and endearingly stupid-looking, and it lays greenish-blue eggs. :) And when we went to pick her up, the guy gave me her mother (about 18 months old) and a Black Orpington (2 years old) for free!

So now we have three chickens pecking around their cage. We bought a fancy kitset house/hutch thing, which has nice bedrooms and nesting boxes and looks very picturesque on the front lawn; but it's too small. It said "houses 4-5 chickens", which I thought at the time was bogus, but even these three chickens look a bit squished to me. I can't free-range them because there's a dog on the property, but I'm going to pester DH to make some kind of larger run for them. We might be able to borrow a run/cage thing that's been lying around the orchard, in the meantime - it was used to keep a motherless baby lamb in while she was learning to take the bottle.

Plus, if we get more space, I can get more chickens! :) The two free chickens were older than I'd have preferred, so I want to get a couple more point-of-lay pullets of a good, reliable laying breed - I go through a lot of eggs! I like red and brown shavers. I also have my eye on a Wyandotte and some gorgeous Blue Orpingtons online - just waiting to hear how old the latter are. I love Orpingtons - so fat and cosy!

We decided on a font naming convention for our chickens - so our current three are Georgia (the Orpington), Lucida (the mummy Ameraucana) and Wingdings (the particularly goofy-looking pullet). If we get a blue Orpington she'll be Arial; and if we should ever get roosters (unlikely), we can call them Garamond and Trajan. :p

[mamaofprincesses]

I just googled your breeds, and "endearingly stupid" is right on. 

The black orpington is cute!

[potatocraft]

Hi everyone, I know it seems like I fell off the face of the earth, but really I haven't.  I have finished a few more projects but most have been in a huge 1st tri fog with this little baby to be.  I hope everyone else I getting lots done and I will update all a bit later.

Cheers!

[lifeguard]

smokering - the chickens sound lovely. We are getting chickens this year for the first time but we are still a couple months away as we need to build a coop. I'm still looking at breeds.

8 & 9 of 52 - went through one more bin of fabric & organized. FINALLY cleaned the storage room, set up the work table in there & hung the pegboard back up (we had to take it down for some plumbing work) so I now have a work space!!! And it's alllll mine - dh has a whole room & a workshop. Unfortunately the first project that took up residence on the table is the fox skeleton ds & I found. We washed it & now it is lying out all "assembled" but I want it to be reallllly dry before putting it away for future, um, use?! It was the best place to put it as we have cats & dogs who all would love to munch on old bones.