Just in time for the 8/31 deadline!

Whew, that was close!

Sew Mama Sew is hosting a giveaway — a fabulous  Husqvarna Viking serger giveaway — so fabulous that I’m breaking the blog silence to post my entry. I’m supposed to answer the question: How would your life be better with a serger?

Honestly, I’m not going to lie, my life would be better with any sewing machine made in this century.  I do love to sew but my 1969 Singer can only take me so far. And I’ve always wanted to learn how to use a serger!  (I borrowed my MIL’s serger for about three years wherein I replaced the blade and tried to read the manual and poked it with a stick and could never figure out how to use it.)

If  I win this contest, I promise, I’ll take a class.

The very specific reason that a serger would make my life easier is this:

This is one mammoth project. I can’t even really remember how it ended up on my figurative plate, but I can tell you that there was a lot of, “are you SURE you want to do this?” involved, to which I crazily answered, “yes, I am SURE.”

My kids attend a small Catholic school so they wear uniforms. And we have a very large, active uniform exchange, where you can trade in your old uniforms and take what you need in return. We’re all about reusing! But these have been reused so many times that they’re moving on to being recycled. This year someone realized that the UE hadn’t been culled in approximately 3857230 years. There were a lot of items (see photo!! six HUGE garbage bags full) that were stained, ripped, just plain worn out, or that didn’t meet our current dress code.

So I volunteered to inspect them further, remove what’s wearable so it can be donated to Goodwill, and then take on the massive task of repurposing as much as possible of what’s left. For every shirt that has a stain on the front, there’s a back’s worth of fabric that can be made into something else. Fabric from stained polos makes great rags. The worn out plaid skirts are begging to be made into hair accessories, pouches, and doll jumpers. I have a list of button crafts as long as my arm. And so on.

I’m not sure my Singer can handle this one! Help!

ooh, so crafty and clever

This makes me want to head to the Goodwill! Awesome!

and so it begins…

My seven year old completely FLIPS over holidays. To preserve my sanity, I put little guidelines in place — like, no Christmas cards before December first, no Valentines before February first, etc.  Otherwise, my entire house is overrun with piles of cards and crafts and other holiday paraphernalia, months before the actual holiday. And by the time the holiday rolls around, it’s all either buried under other crafts, or scattered throughout the house and when it comes time to use them or send them to school, I have to spend two hours tracking them all down.

Two weeks is doable….and of course, at o’dark thirty on Friday morning, my four year old bounded into my room, saying that her sister insisted it was time to start writing out valentines.  She keeps me on my toes, that one….

The $14.99 difference

Behold, the craft corner from hell…

before:

and after:

I cannot even put into words how happy this makes me. And I wonder how long it will last…. *sigh*

complete and total creative block

Yo.

240 menu cards — I need to have these done tomorrow. And I have nooo idea what I’m doing. Papers, size, it’s all up in the air.

I’m going on 6 hours of sleep. No creativity. Gah.

the shower

Doesn’t that look SO YUM?

My best friend and I threw a shower for our about-to-be-married friend this past Sunday. Sticking to our MO, everything was all matchy and adorable and we worked our tails off for four straight days…I said, just imagine if we had time and a bigger budget!

What I’ve been up to – HATS

Hi there!  Good thing I have a faithful sister to keep us going.  I’ve been a bit preoccupied lately.  Remember that crochet class?  After four glorious weeks – it’s done.  Here’s some fruit:

 

 The top hat is a “Kid’s Flower Cap” by Ann Norling.  I did the carnation atop – which is amazing to create – takes very little time and produces great wow factor.  The second hat was my homework for the class.  Quick and fun.  Both are crocheted with Elann Sonata – thanks to Julie’s generous giftcard donation. <high fives sis>  I also created a cupcake purse – which looks much better on the counter stuffed with newspaper than filled with a 6 year old’s stuff and carried on her shoulder.

M-M-Martha!!!

I had a kidless day today – and ran some errands (I just freudianly typed errant). One of my stops was at Michael’s to check out their bead selection. Well – on April 29th, Michael’s unleashed their new line of Martha Stewart craft supplies. Everything from wrapping papers, to twines, to glitter, to glues, etc. It is all amazing. The cutest thing was this bandana paper – there’s a whole bandana themed party – ugh – ohsocute. Look out Julie – there’s a miniature Tiny Party in a Box. Now excuse me while I go apply for another JOB!!!

farm chicks

I just added a new site to the blogroll — the Farm Chicks, who I met at the Southern Living Fair last fall while visiting my friends the Soapchix. Holy cow, cutest site — these labels totally made me think of my sister. 😀

New Love

Hi! Jodi here. In case you haven’t noticed, we Oberg’s (the sista’s maiden name), are VERY passionate about the things we love. I have a new love. Crochet. Last night was my first class of four sessions at Shuttles Spindles and Skeins. It was 2.5 hrs – and I loved every minute of it. First off, we got to pick our yarn from a bunch of skeins on the table. Laying there was my favorite periwinkle in Saucy COTTON – and a G hook in green (g g green). Now, when learning to knit you don’t use cotton because it has no give to it. But the ply of this cotton makes it ideal to learn crochet – because it doesn’t easilly split.

Margaret Tullis – my instructor is absolutely fabulous. Her babysitter taught her how to crochet and tat nearly 50 years ago. This woman knows her stuff. She’s quite honestly a textile historian of sorts – knows all kinds of info about origins, different countries traditions etc. She’s amazing.

Luckilly, all 7 of us were already knitters so we had some base knowledge to go on – made jumping in quite enjoyable. You know how you cursed your first time knitting – felt like you had fumbling fingers and all? That just didn’t happen with this. I took to it like a fish to water. It was great. I love the cotton, love how it looks, and you can cover a lot of ground rather quickly. Very fun.

I originally took this class to perfect my beaded sock making skilz. This is going to be so much more than that! Did you know crochet was outlawed in Germany for a while?