On the road

The truck-loading part of the move went well on Monday; we were kind of camping out in the house all weekend with the boxes. I can only imagine that is what it's like to live in a mouse maze. Now we are on the road, but I am too tired to write tonight, so more later, hopefully with pictures.

Packing Day

Wow! I am tired! I spent Wednesday night and Thursday getting the house ready for the movers to come pack. Dh helped. Two very good friends took the kids for the day on Thursday; one in the am and one in the pm, and again in the am today. This was such a big help. We packed everything we need to take with us and prepped the house so that the movers could just come in and pack everything that was left without me having to follow them around saying Don't pack this, Don't pack that. It was a lot of work, but not as much as doing the whole move ourselves, and now that my part is done I can sit back and watch them pack. At least for the moment, if I sit for too long I will probably fall asleep. I think we got to bed around 2am both nights. On the up side I did not have to get the kids up last night! We have given up on the night time potty training, for now. What? I never told you about the potty training? Well it was interesting. More on that later, for now we have gone to night time pull-ups, and it was so nice to just let my kids sleep all night!
I had better get up now and check over my five lists again before my doughnut high wears off. I will update more later.

Updates on the move

We finally have a date for the upcoming move. We will be packed up on Friday the 19th and our things will be loaded on the trucks Monday the 22nd. We had to split it over a weekend because that was the soonest the movers could schedule it. We will probably head out on our drive early Wednesday the 24th; if we can get our inspection done on Tuesday. Wish us luck!

More Gallon Jar Fabric Dyeing

I am so glad that Dh came home from OTS, because I really needed a babysitter so that I could go to this workshop! (and I am only half kidding :)

I have taken this workshop before and when I saw that it was being offered again I jumped at the chance. This is so much fun, but it's just not something I would try to do at home (lots of kids, no space, etc.), so the workshops are a perfect opportunity for me to enjoy fabric dyeing!

Here is the jar/fabric/dye after sitting 24hrs.

Here is my first look at the fabric during the rinsing process. It was a lot easier this time because I only had to rinse it by hand once, really well, and then put it in the washer through two no-soap cycles to rinse it the rest of the way.

Here it is fresh from the tub. Look at the colors!
After two "rinse" cycles I washed it once with dawn and a SHOUT Color Catcher fabric softener sheet.

Here it is after a high-heat run through the dryer.

Here is a close-up of the colors and pattern after ironing.

I had intended on more blue, but I had pushed so much fabric in to the jar with the reds and yellows that I only had a small part left for the blues at the end.

Here it is all at once. I chose not to pre-cut it, and dyed it in one five yard piece.

I love fabric dyeing! I am not a huge fan of the tie-dye look, but this fabric is so cool I just don't care. Taking a white piece of fabric and turning it in to something amazingly unique and colorful is addicting! And for a perfectionist like me it a huge relief that the out-come is totally unpredictable. Sometimes I get so caught up with making my projects perfect I forget to enjoy the process, but with this you have no choice. You throw in the colors, let go of control, and enjoy the surprise when you pull out the fabric!

Seed Bombs

I just read about the coolest idea: Seed Bombs! This is my idea of gardening- throw it over a fence and walk away. I think even I could pull that off. Now if I could just get motivated enough to make them... oh well, it's a cool idea either way!

Off To Florida

For those who don't already know, our latest bit of news is that we are moving to Florida. We have accepted a job there and will be moving some time before July (I think. The plans change everyday.)
It will be hard to leave California. We have lots of friends here, and wonderful memories of our home of the last six years; but we are looking forward to our new adventure, and we are really excited about getting a house and being closer to family!

Babygirl is already packed and ready to go.

Sew Busy

I thought I would get a lot more sewing done while Dh was gone, since I would have so many evenings to myself, but unfortunately procrastination and sewing machine repairs got in the way of my big plans. I was, however, able to finish two little projects.

Here is the teddy bear that I long-ago promised to Sunshine. I started it months ago with fabrics I had on hand and a pattern I made, but I took a break about half way through when it wasn't looking quite right. I came back to it with fresh eyes a few weeks ago, and I am really happy with how it turned out! Sunshine really likes it too; I let her choose the colors for the face.

This is the purse I started at the sewing workshop, Spring is in the Bag.
Again using fabrics I had on hand (I really should try to plan ahead); the apple fabric was left over from a bag and the blue lining is from a fabric dyeing workshop.

Each student brought their own fabric to the workshop and the pattern was provided by the teacher. It was really cool to see how different each purse turned out. I love the green and blue but next time I would probably choose something a little more feminine. I added the ribbon to my purse to dress it up a bit.

I customized the pocket to my cell phone too.

It's a great summer bag!

So pretty!

Here is a cute little picture of Sunshine in her gymnastics outfit. It used to be Aunt Kara's, and Sunshine just loves it!