What Symbrachydactyly Can Look Like at 5

A few times each year, I receive emails from families that have found my blog while researching Symbrachydactyly. My eldest daughter was born with it and while I don't discuss it much on the blog, I'm always open to discussing it. In fact, at any time you can click on the "Symbrachydactyly" link on the top of my blog to learn more or of course you can email me.

Why don't I mention it much? Honestly, it just doesn't come up much in our lives. The first year of Kiddo's life was dotted with visits to hand surgeons and specialists. I joined every limb different group I could find and researched a ton. I grieved, I questioned my actions while pregnant and then I came to terms with it. After that year, well yeah life went on. 

I could write pages on the all things my Kiddo can do, but it would be easier to maybe highlight the few challenges. She can't do monkey bars (I never could either and I have 10 full fingers). She has some trouble carrying very large objects. And that about wraps it up..seriously. She is at the very top of her class and has reached milestones beyond her 5 years. Am I worried about her? When I have worries or struggles in regards to Kiddo, they are the very same I have for her siblings. 

On Kiddo's 5th birthday she received a *pink* BB gun and real archery set (no suction cup arrows here!) My husband is a hunter - born and raised.. and so will my children. That's the start and end of my words on that matter. Rather, I'm incredibly proud of watching my daughter wield both her gun and bow without any issues in regards to her special hand. My husband is training her now to use both, but once she turns 6 she will be taking professional classes as well. The pride she exudes is contagious and whips the breath right out of me. She is truly in her element and is so very comfortable in her skin. It is quite simply magical to watch my husband and daughter when they are practicing.

How does symbrachydactyly look at age 5? 
It looks beautiful, confident and inspiring!

Teaching Kiddo To Sew

My husband and I have long planned two of Kiddo's 5th birthday gifts. I wanted to give her a sewing machine and he wanted to give her a pink BB gun - I guess we are both eager for her to follow in our footsteps. Both gifts were something that would not be shoved in a toy box and forgotten in a week. Both gifts encourage bonding, one on one time with her. I desperately wanted to buy her the Janome Hello Kitty sewing machine, but since I have a total of 5 machines already it was hard my husband to swallow the idea of bringing in yet another machine. We agreed to gift her one of the machines my mother had given me as a backup machine. I decked it out with hand cut vinyl stickers including her name. At 5, that's about all you need to do to make her happy.

Ever since she opened her gift last week, she has been requesting time with me to learn how to sew. The first gift she wanted to make? A quilt for her baby brother due in a few months. Yes, she knows how to melt Momma's heart! We finally had time today during Baby Girl's naptime and we decided that Sundays will be our sewing lesson day.

I was really nervous as how to begin, but we took it slow and made it fun. I let her choose some fabric from her birthday stash and my own. We then practiced basic straight stitching with her on my lap moving the fabric while I manned the presser foot. After just a few times she was eager to start an actual project. We decided to do a small quilt for her. My first two quilts were gifts and I encouraged her to make her first project a gift for herself, something she would always have.

After just a row of sewing the squares together, Kiddo again wanted more independence with the machine. She eased off my lap and squished into the front part of the chair. She manned the presser foot, lined up the fabric and used the safety pins ALL by HERSELF! I was astonished and so very proud. During our session I did let her once sit on her own and try it completely solo, but it was a little too much and our seam allowance went a  little crazy. Kiddo learned the importance of a seam ripper, though of course I did that part.

This session she completed all 4 rows of the quilt. Next week I will help her piece the rows, measure the final size and finish the quilt. Her pride in this amazing accomplishment is one I will always remember. Yes at age 5, children can learn to sew. I can't wait to see what project she picks out next!

Back To School Dresses

It was impossible to have both girls look in my direction, smile, and not have their dresses flipped over their heads. Alas, it was the first day of school and you HAVE to take pictures..right, right? 

Do you like their dresses? They love them and I adore them.. The fabric is Blend designed by the truly amazing Cori Dantini, the line is "Beauty is You". I am crazy about this fabric.. amazing quality, style, and color tones. Couldn't you just see those as an Anthro dress?

The pattern is by the fabulous Jennifer Paganelli - it is the Molly Peasant pattern. Sis Boom patterns are insanely detailed and include tons of sizes. I can't say enough about this pattern. I'm in the process of making two more for a dear friend's angel pie. Love it, love it. You need this pattern.

A few more gratuitous pics of my pretty girls..

Kiddo had a fabulous first day! Yay! Hope your kidlets are enjoying their return to school..

Stitch - Fall 2012

Yay, I love posts when I can reveal a project! I designed these fun clothing dividers for Stitch magazine. They are easy, fun, and great for school age children.

Even in preschool, I would have daily battles with Kiddo over what outfit to wear that day. Now we decide on the clothes Sunday night and hang them by each day of the week.

Don't want to do embroidery? You could just do different colored fabrics and have fun with it.

I'm considering making this pattern an "in-the-hoop" machine embroidery project in a couple months. What do you think?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Top o' the morning to you! Happy St. Patrick's Day!! I hope if the leprechauns visited you last night, that they did only fun pranks and left you some sweets. We never had one visit before, but I had caught word that the crazy little green man was planning a visit to our home.

We spent yesterday afternoon making him some fake gold. We spray painted gold on lima beans; very quick and fun. We were hoping that we could entice him with our gold and possibly trap him!

And then right before bedtime, Kiddo had a mini melt down. The idea of a little green man magically getting into our home while we slept, peeing green in the toilet, changing the color of our milk, and possibly even being trapped in our green bucket was just all too much. Couldn't blame her..kinda sounds like a bad college roommate! So in a last minute effort to keep Kiddo's sanity, but still have fun, I left our pot of gold on the doorstep and left a note asking the leprechaun to please refrain from coming in.

Luckily we had a very understanding leprechaun and he did abide by our wishes. And he even left treats! A bucket full of gold chocolate coins and chocolate potatoes. (OK, so they are really divinity chocolate eggs..the leprechaun had a fit at See's when he discovered the yummy potatoes had been sold out for a week..big sad face!)

We had a fun morning with Lucky Charms cereal and green milk. Kiddo was pretty sure it would taste awful, but was delighted to learn the flavor did not change. I haven't yet told her that um..something else will change color in about 4 hours..we will cross the bridge later..

 Baby, Daddy, and I had devoured our green eggs. Seriously, our breakfast tomorrow is sure to be lame in comparison..

I made the girls matching St. Patrick's day outfits so that they will not get pinched today! Why isn't there an adorable picture of them wearing it? Kiddo refused to wear it and Baby is in hers, but playing at the park with Daddy. Oh well..

 As I was appliqueing on the heart and shamrock, it occurred to me that almost all the outfits I make for the girls with appliques.. are hearts. Eh.. I'll need to work on that one I guess, but I still think it's adorable. And all the hearts are just because I love my little Irish girls soo much!

Hope you have a wonderful day! We have our corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes in the crock pot. Nothing like finishing dinner before 9am..

And don't forget that next week I will be posting a daily tutorial of Easter pillows - it is sure to be an eggcellent series!

Plus Kisses Boo Boo Packs - Moda Tutorial

Are you eager for summer? My family and I have already spent several days lounging in our backyard. When you have lived in Utah for a few years, you would be amazed that 60 degrees feels warm!

I made these fun boo boo packs for the Moda Bakeshop. It is quick, easy, and if you are like us then you will need several this summer!

I had a question this morning about how long the rice is "good" for. Well.. I haven't issues yet to be honest. We have a different set that is a year old, but I haven't found a need to change it out..

Also, I mentioned in the post that these are great as little heaters while camping. What we do is place them near the campfire (not too close.. my husband has singed his before!) and toss them into the bottom of your sleeping bag. It is truly a wonderful thing to slip into a warm sleeping bag and quickly have toasty toes!

I hope you will check out the tutorial!

Putty In My Hands

Wah! I'm still fighting with my Yudu original machine & Cardshop.. Hopefully in the next week I can report back all my findings...

In the meantime, I was able to screen print these for Kiddo's Valentine party at school! In one container, there is home made Kool-Aid play dough and the other one is chock full of chocolate.

Why the green paint instead of traditional red or pink?? Well green is Kiddo's favorite color and her request!

Be sure to stop by tomorrow for our Valentine card to you!

Children's Relief Nursery

This year I will be participating in the Children's Relief Nursery based out of Portland, Oregon. I am donating my Piecing History Together art quilt. Here is a little bit of information about the organization in their own words:


"For the 11th year in a row, Children's Relief Nursery will be hosting Portland's Original Iron Chef on April 20, 2012 at the Portland Art Museum. Our most significant fundraising event, proceeds from Iron Chef helped keep hundreds of Portland's most vulnerable children safe last year.

Did you know that every eight minutes there is a report of child abuse or neglect in Oregon and nearly half of the victims are infants and toddlers? We focus our work on early intervention, because the best solution is to prevent abuse and neglect from happening in the first place.

Our mission is to keep children safe and families strong. Our vision is to prevent child abuse and neglect, because all kids deserve the opportunity to reach their full potential. Our early childhood program builds successful and resilient children and preserves families. We work with at-risk families with children from birth through four because early intervention in the first years of life substantially affects a child's future. In our first year, we served 58 children. In just a decade, our program has grown to serve more than 250 children annually."

As a mother, helping children lead safe and happy lives is a cause I'm in great favor of.

If you are a quilter or another type of artist, I encourage you to share your gift to help those in need. Please contact Dana at:  dana@crn4kids.org and she can give you more information. 

Another Toddler Thanksgiving Craft

I tried again to find a "job" to entertain my sweet toddler while I tried to get work done. I found a super cute Thanksgiving fingerpaint project on All Kids Network. Isabelle is crazy about painting and I rarely let her at home - just too much work with her busy hands and the baby. However I'm trying more and more to move out of my comfort zone so that she can learn and enjoy.

I cut the corn and stalks last night. My husband insisted that I cut some green leaves for the cob as well. Husbands are funny, aren't they? But I gave in..

On her own she painted the corn very similar to the original tutorial.

I didn't even instruct on what she should do. Love her orderly pieces of corn.
And then well.. that got boring I guess. We ended up with a crop of muddy corn! She had fun and I got no work done, but we had a great afternoon together while the baby napped.
And I have more cute Thanksgiving decorations. Granted they are muddy brown, but they are made with love!

Turkey Garland

The Baby still insists on 2 naps a day while I'm lucky if I can get Kiddo to be quiet for 1 nap. During the morning nap I try to work while Kiddo plays or reads. The reality is Kiddo wants to hang on my leg and have constant attention. It's hard to balance this. I want Kiddo to feel loved and have that special time with me, but there are some days that I'm so busy that I quite simply need to work. I thought if I had some dedicated crafts for her to do while I worked, that we might both be happier.

Early this morning I searched Pinterest for Thanksgiving inspired child crafts. I found this post on the blog, Chasing Fireflies. I loved it! I thought it would be a great activity for Kiddo and would be super cute as a decoration. I made a pot of coffee and chopped up Kiddo's doodled construction paper in festive colors. Now if you spend some more time punching holes in the "feathers" your Kiddo's life maybe a tad easier, but.. I'm lazy.
During Baby's nap I gave Kiddo the colorful stack of feathers, a skein of yarn I no longer loved, and a yarn needle. Kiddo is around my sewing tools 24/7, so I feel very comfortable with her using a blunt yarn needle. She's 3 1/2. Please use your own judgement with your kids... I showed her a few times how to punch through the paper using the needle and off she went.
Did I get more work done? Probably not. My leg is still the place to cling to no matter what craft is available. However, she did finish a beautiful strand of garland all on her own. It looks awesome and fun in our playroom. And I actually love that the feathers are from doodled paper.. looks more like us..
What was I working on? Well it's top secret, Peeps! But here is a tiny peek..

Linking up to: Tatertots & Jello

PB Knock Off - Rose Petal Canopy

My friend, Sabrina, asked if I could try a knock off of Pottery Barn's Rose Petal Canopy. It retails for $99 before shipping. Isn't it awesome? I'm working on redecorating Isabelle's room into a Tinkerbell fantasy, and I thought a giant flower canopy would be amazing in there. Personally,there is NO way I could ever install this above her bed - she would play into the wee hours of the morning. Instead I imagined it as a special reading/play corner that she would enjoy.

Want to try it? I was able to make it for less than half of what Pottery Barn charged and it will take you just a few hours to make. Now, I did a fair amount of sewing, but you don't have to. Where ever I sew, you can use Fabri-tac or hot glue. It won't be as tailored, but you are only having to construct the rose petals, which are high up and won't be scrutinized..

What do you need?

*IKEA plain canopy (I found my in the store for 19.99, it is not offered online - boo!)

*batting

*5 yards of pink tulle (you can buy tons more and go crazy if you want though)

*4 yards of shiny pink fabric ( I bought 2 lt. pink and 2 dk. pink)

*1/8 yard of green velvet

* 3 make-a-links (the are little links that unscrew)

* medium hook to install into the ceiling

How much time do you need?

Plan on this being a weekend project. It takes a couple hours and if you have kiddos, you won't be able to do it all at once.

What do you do?

Cut your tulle into long strips and tie around the canopy ring. It's kind of like making a no-sew tutu. The great thing about the IKEA canopy is there is TONS of white tulle already installed on there for you! The extra pink tulle is more for accent color.
Cut giant flower petal shapes out of your batting. I did a total of 6 petals -3 lt.pink and 3 dk.pink

You can absolutely add more if you wish.

Fold your fabric over and place the batting petal shapes on top and cut around. You will want to leave at least a 1/2" seam allowance.

Sew your petals. You want your fabric right sides together and leave about 5" space opening to turn. I sew somewhere between 1/4 - 1/2" seam. Don't sweat it, this doesn't need to be real precise.

I clip the edges of points close to the seam line - it helps create sharp corners. If that sounds like a foreign language to you, don't worry about it - it's not important..
Turn your petals out to the right side. Gently push in your batting and ease into the petal shape.

Topstitch around the petal closing the hole. I also stitched up the center a bit to make it look like the veins of a flower petal. This helps quilt the batting to the fabric so it won't shift later.

Cut the green velvet into a 5" x 10" rectangle. Fold fabric over so right sides are together. Stitch up the long side of the rectangle. Pull fabric out to right side through one of the openings.

((The size of the green velvet will depend on how long you want your stem. Measure the length of the hook & links to determine how long to cut it)

Hand sew the ends of flower petals to top of the IKEA canopy, near the base of attached ring.

Secure the hook into the ceiling following the package instructions.

Attach your make-a-links together and screw into the ring on the IKEA canopy. Thread your green velvet stem over the links. Attach canopy to ceiling hook. Position green velvet over all the hardware. You can hand stitch the ends closed if you want, but I didn't find it necessary.

Sit back and watch your kiddo go nuts over their humongous flower canopy!

Isabelle is pretty crazy about it! Her cushy reading chair is at the base of flower and she loves to hide there!
You can also change things up a bit to make it more for a little boy. How about an Army bunker? You can replace the pink tulle with brown & green to make it camo-ish. And instead of large pink flowers, you can buy camo fabric and make large leaves. I bet your little boy will go crazy hiding in their super cool fort!

It would also be cool as a cloud and rainbow! Just buy rainbow color tulle and cut cloud shapes from white felt instead of petals.

So many ideas!! You can absolutely create this without the IKEA canopy, but it was a fabulous base to this project for only $19.99! Otherwise you will need to construct the canopy base from scratch.

If you have any questions, please holler! I tend to type faster than I think - so please,please shout if you want to make this and you were lost on a step.

Have an idea for a knock off? Let me know!

What's coming up?

I'll be doing an Antro apron and Pottery Barn Pirate Mast.

Linking up to:

Not Just a Housewife

Todays Creative Blog

Someday Crafts

The CSI Project

Sun Scholars

Iron Craft #15 - The Incredible Edible... Easter Basket!

This week on Iron Craft, we were challenged to make something with the incredible yummy Peeps! OK, I know lots of people don't like the gooey goodness - but I do! In fact a few weeks ago I made a Peeps wreath. I was actually stumped on ideas for more crafty goodness when it comes to marshmallows. I've seen so much out there in blogsphere and didn't want to copy. I finally decided to go the edible route. Cause culinary arts is crafty too, right??

I imagined a completely edible Easter basket! I've seen how to make chocolate bowls with balloons several times, but never had a chance to try it. Oh my goodness, Isa could NOT contain herself while I was working on these. She was beyond tickled that Mommy was making balloons for dessert. It was actually super easy! I just melted down some high quality chocolate in a double boiler. Place a big ol' glob of it on a greased cookie sheet and swirl the sides of a blown balloon in it. Place in the fridge till it's hard - and all done!

After my "baskets" were done, I got to work on the grass. I dyed some vanilla pudding green and mixed in some coconut shavings. I think this would be adorable with some of that edible Easter grass, but I was late in the game and could not find it anywhere! Top it off with a yummy Peeps and you're done! A completely edible Easter basket that will put your kiddos in hysterics. Not sure why it's so funny... But I think it's darn cute!

On a side note, I was thinking it would also be a hoot to make these as an embyro egg for maybe the scientist in your life. You can make basket into an egg shell by using white chocolate, keep the vanilla pudding white and a touch of yellow dyed pudding for the yolk, and lastly top it off with the baby Peeps chick!

Gratutious Cute Kiddo Pics

Isa HAD to color with her sunglasses on

and at the kitchen island like a big girl.

And well.. Julie likes food!

Bananas in particular..

Lenz Monzters Will Eat You Up!

Have trouble getting the kiddos attention at the photo shoots?

Are the kiddos afraid of your BIG camera?

Tired of searching in your camera bag for a toy?

My Lenz Monzter will ease those kiddo struggles!

It fits over your lens.

There is a squeaker in their tongues.

It's bright and camouflages your camera without obstruction.

It's totally custom and handcrafted.

It's available!

Holiday Monzters will make their debut this month!