We made it through another year.

Yesterday was our 8th Anniversary. We didn't do much as we have a horrible track record with this day. The only near tragedies this year were Elijah getting lost on a school field trip, thankfully he stayed put and was found quickly, and my in laws almost buying a house less then a mile away from ours. Last night after the in laws went back to the hotel Neil went out and got sparkling whine and carrot cake for us to enjoy while we watched TV. There will be big trips and such in the future but truth be told I prefer the low key.

Tutes and other things I want to try.

Warning this is a post mostly for me. My bookmarks are getting way out of hand so I'm going to start storing my ever growing list of tutorials that I so very badly want to try here. I also have the three websites with great tutes in the right. They are thehandmade dress, sewmamasew, and just tutes. The crafty crow also has a huge number of great kids projects.

top
http://www.jcarolinecreative.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=JC&Screen=CHILDTOP

bunny
http://www.craftbits.com/viewProject.do?projectID=1282

bag
http://www.jcarolinecreative.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=JC&Screen=HOBO_BAG

http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/camerabag

http://asweetfantasy.blogspot.com/2008/01/pop-tarts.html

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=222947.msg2407971#msg2407971

http://web.archive.org/web/20060827101158/www.sewyoungsewfun.com/freeprojects/tictactoe/tictactoe.html

doll house
http://uklassinus.blogspot.com/2008/08/fabric-dollhouse-tutorial.html

http://rosie-baby-crafty.blogspot.com/2007/08/i-spy-bags.html

http://www.purlbee.com/fabric-beach-balls/

http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2008/10/how_to_dinosaur_play_mat.html

story bag felt
http://myzoebug.blogspot.com/2007/12/just-one-more.html

http://ayumills.blogspot.com/2008/05/tutorial-fabric-basket.html

retro hat
http://madebypetchy.blogspot.com/2008/06/free-pattern-toddler-hatbonnet.html

Japanese patterns
http://handmadenokokoro.web.fc2.com/katagami_index.html

felt frosting
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46123497@N00/368874161/

felt cupcake
http://coconut-lane.deviantart.com/art/Cupcake-Pattern-61005446

felt food
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=118558.0

http://www.freeneedle.com/

waldorf dolls
http://simmy.typepad.com/echoesofadream/2006/10/basic_instructi.html

http://oneredrobin.com/2006/11/30/how-to-make-a-notebook-pencil-holder/

http://starrysheep.com/crafty/?p=103

http://www.handmadecountry.com/ezine/cinnamon.html

fabric bucket
http://pippijoe.blogspot.com/2008/05/enough-of-all-containers-this-is-last.html

create cover
http://lauragunn.typepad.com/paintinmyhair/2008/09/post-1.html

water bottle holder
http://pinkchalkstudio.com/blog/2006/07/10/whiplash-challenge-water-bottle-carrier/

http://dorriebelle.tripod.com/id30.html

http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2008/10/how-to-make-ragged-squares-quilt.html

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=177482.0

http://fabricfloozie.blogspot.com/2009/02/tutorial-womans-shirt-into-toddler.html

knotty jumper
http://bridgetbaxter.blogspot.com/2008/04/happy-anniversary-to-you.html

smocked sundress
http://everythingsewing.net/smockedsundress.htm

free smocking plates
http://maggiebsmocks.typepad.com/smocking/

girl tutes for skirts and dresses
http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=212

talking talking talking

Technically Emily has been talking for a good while but the past few weeks she has really had a language explosion. In addition to Mama, Daddy, Elahah, dat, and bup all of which she has been saying for sometime, bc lets face if it you can point and yell dat who really needs other words, she has added a number of new words and phrases most spoken in a sweet quiet tone. I'm not used ot quite since Elijah did not come with volume control. Emily on the other hand seems to like to get her feel for words first. She also seems to get inflection a bit. I'm still not totally sure the boy gets that but according to Edla its a boy/girl brain chemestry thing so I guess its fine. She now referes to herself as "baby" and points to things she wants and asks "baby's?". She can also say happy and will loudly inform you that "baby happy" when you try to move her away from something. She also chants "happy, happy, happy, baby". In addition our growth spurt has brought some food words. Specifically apple, more milk, and bubey (blue berries). Plus the terms yummy and yuck. Oh and a definate Mommy followed by yelling mommy mommy mommy if she isn't imedatly rescued from wherever she is.

Stash Reduction

OK I'm really annoyed that Oprah did a show on simplifying before I got around to blogging about my ongoing attempt to reduce my stash of well everything. It all started last year when grocery prices started to climb. This caused me to start looking around the kitchen and trying make meals out of mostly food we had. I also started discovering things like the fact that we had 4 separate containers of bread crumbs all of which have now been used. Anyways I ramble. That lead to me sorting my scrap booking and sewing stuff and deciding to whenever possible do projects without buying new supplies. This is harder with sewing because when I first found the sewing mama's site I wanted a big "stash" like everyone else but now I don't like that fabric as much as I did when I bought it. I'm also finding that many times I can't do what I want with the fabric that I have. That said it is going well and I am fully committed to getting to the point where I only buy what I need for a project to be completed within a reasonable amount of time. So that's my ongoing thing. I also threw away three big bags of toys recently and I don't think my kids have even noticed. We'll see where this goes but I think having less stuff is a trend that will continue around here at least in some ways. After all a little girl can never have too many dresses and mommy needs her pleater to make some of them.