Hoarding...not fabric, just junk

You know that show Hoarders? I've watched a few episodes. It's actually a little disturbing. Have you ever wondered what those people were like as children? What made them into the adult that lives amongst garbage?

 I introduce you to a future hoarder. I'm a little disturbed. 

When school ended this year I just put the kids backpacks in the closet and didn't feel like going through them. Today I decided to empty out Luca's backpack. This photo doesn't really show how massive the pile of shit really is. What is not shown in this photo is one shoe, a shirt, a bandana, a mitten, and oh yes, a small tupperware container with a dead moth. Really. 

Summer Sunset Dress

Today I'm guest posting over at Luvinthemommyhood for Sewing with Knits Mondays! To see the tutorial for this dress go on over for a peek.

Er, um... panties anyone?

Recently I've been inspired by all my fellow sewists who have been venturing into the world of unmentionables. I guess they aren't really all that unmentionable since many of you are not only mentioning them, but making them and photographing them.

So I ordered a lot of stretch lace. Like probably enough to make a few hundred panties. Some of the lace I ordered is not really panty worthy. More like ice skating costume elastic. Luckily the majority is great and I can't wait to try it out. I'll keep you posted.

Some Seersucker

A few weeks ago I bought a variety of seersucker fabric from fabric.com. I do find it difficult to buy fabric online and I have my fair share of "Oh no that is so awful it must immediately go into a pile far far away from my eyes."

Out of the  pile of fabric that arrived there were more than usual that fall into that category. Here is one that does not have to be banished.

I love the wide stripe and light summery feel of the fabric. I made a pair of pants based off of an existing pant that he has outgrown. I totally guessed on the length so they are about 2 inches too long. Good thing they look cute rolled up. 

Do any of you notice that when you buy lot's of fabric you sew less? I've been getting packages in the mail at an alarming rate, yet all I have to show are these pants.

Chicks

Today we went and bought a few more chickens. Six to be exact.

Someone had a hard time not squeezing too tight.

For now they are living in a bird cage in our living room. Soon they will join the older girls in the yard. 

 

Newsprint

I'm not sure if you all enter a lot of giveaways on blogs, but I do. Well, I did. I never won anything so I just gave up. 

Leave it up to my husband to win the first giveaway he's ever entered. Our newspaper was having a giveaway for the month of June and lo and behold he won. Do you want to know what that lucky duck won? A freakin' iPad. The really cool thing is that he was actually the runner up. The first winner never claimed the prize. I know, go figure. 

When Chef went to the newspaper offices to pick up the prize he spotted a cart with newsprint rolls. Upon closer examination he saw they were for sale! They call these end rolls, but wow there must be 100's of feet left on those rolls. He said they had two different widths. He bought the narrower (42") for just $5.00

I was almost more excited about the paper than the iPad. Almost ;)

Did you all know you can go to your local newspaper and buy this stuff? I had no idea. I wonder if it's common. I'm going to test it out and see if it's good for tracing patterns. Probably not transparent enough.

The kids were so excited about the giveaway. They want us to enter more. They clearly think iPad is a huge roll of crafting paper. I plan on winning an iPad for myself so I'm back on the giveaway hunt!

Uh Oh...

So I thought I'd just check in and let you all know that absolutely no sewing/crafting has occurred in this house for quite a while, but I am more freaked out about Blogger right now. I couldn't even find where to start a new post. Is this the twilight zone? Are you all experiencing the changes? Well, those of you using Blogger.

My sister and her man took a road trip to visit us this past week. They are gone now and headed for Solvang. Next stop L.A. and then back to Vegas. Like how I included their entire itinerary? 

About 30 minutes after she left I already had two pants cut out for Vinny and a shirt. No sewing yet, but I was kind of jonesing to get something done. 

4th of July around these parts...

So Chef had planned a backpacking trip with the big kids for this weekend. It involved great preparation including bear vaults (yes, I'm serious), rental equipment, mapping, planning, packing, organization...

 {crappy photo via phone camera at 4:30 a.m. prior to departure}

They were all prepared. I was to stay at home with the young one. It was all planned I tell you. Until...

The Forest ranger failed to inform Chef that the Sierra snow pack had not yet melted and basically the trail was impassable. Yes, the same Ranger that kindly gave the kids Smokey the Bear pins and wildlife coloring books before waving buh-bye.

14 hours into the trip my phone has a text saying they are on their way home. Uh oh. Not according to schedule people. I'm not panicked because when there is a real emergency Chef would not leave cryptic text. He's slightly smarter than that.

So they left home at 5 a.m. and returned at midnight. I won't get into detail about the treacherous few miles that these little munchkins hiked. They were pretty discouraged.

To make things a little better we took them to Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz for the Fourth of July! There were only about a gazillion other people at the beach, but we still had a great time.

Rocco tried to dig a hole to China

 I wish I could say I made this adorable bathing suit but Lands End made it

Vinny ate lot's and lot's of watermelon

It was a lovely day

Little Thoughts

So the other day when I picked up Rocco from Summer school Vinny screamed "pee pee" (one of his few words) really loud. At first I got real excited, like helloooooo, this is certainly a good sign for the potty training. The excitement ended when I saw he was pointing at this sign.

Uh, yes that kind of looks like someone sitting on the potty. Sort of. This story actually reminds me about the time Rocco embarrassed the shit out of me. Read it and we can all collectively go hide under a rock together because I know you will feel for me on this one.

p.s. I do have myself a fancy schmancy handicap placard for my car thankyouverymuch since I am the proud owner of one badass blind child.