All the pillowcases!

As you already know, I had a goal to make 10 pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer Case for Smiles Program in the month of February. I am pleased to let you know that I met that goal & thanks to 3 others joining me in this effort, we were all able to collectively donate 45 pillowcases! It was very gratifying experience for me & I loved the freedom of picking out lots of fun fabrics for each case. I used some remnants that I already had in my bin to make 4 cases & then got to hit JoAnns for more! Fun! Here are 2 of the 4 I made with scraps- they were the first two I made. And by the end of pillowcase making, I had the dimensions & steps memorized! I was pumping them out like a machine! Ha!
Here is my favorite fabric combo that I put together for a boy. I absolutely LOVE this monster fabric! In fact, I still have 2/3 yd left of it that I think I will make Eli some pj shorts for this summer!
And here is my favorite combo for a girl. I splurged on this cat fabric because I loved it so much. It wasn't on sale, but I just had to get it!
Thanks so much to Rebecca, Mom, & Lisa Griffin for joining me in this effort! I hope you benefited as much from it as I did. Rebecca & I definitely want to do it again & the next time we are going to focus solely on older teenage kids. When we dropped off the pillowcases, the woman at the drop site was overly excited over the several ones that could be for older kids (we had a mixture of some camo, football, baseball, peace fabric, paisley, etc) because she said they have a harder time getting those in. So next time- older kids, for sure!

More valentine making...umm.. a whole month later!

I promised that I would post pictures of the valentines that we made for Jackson's friends at school & then I totally dropped the ball. I totally forgot! Sorry! They were so cute (& yummy!)

We took an idea from here that I had bookmarked around Christmas time. I knew these would be versatile enough to do for a variety of occasions. We melted some red candy "chocolate" & simply put a popsicle stick in a marshmallow & dipped it in! After we dipped it, we rolled it in candy sprinkles & voila! Randy did have to take a scrap piece of wood & drill some tiny holes in it for the sticks to sit upright to dry. The tutorial called for styrofoam, but those of you who really know me know that i absolutely can not handle the sound of styrofoam. It makes me shudder all over. (In fact, just thinking about it right now makes me shudder!)

But the pops turned out really cute! The pics just don't do them justice!

And I'd even venture to say that they tasted like a yummy treat too... I heard no complaints!

Jackson is SEVEN!

A few weeks ago, on the 3rd of February, Jackson turned 7. I can't wrap my brain around the fact that he has grown into a 7 year old already. I know I say that with each passing birthday, but seriously? Can't time just slow down a bit??

We had just a "small" family birthday celebration. Of course, small is a relative term when you are talking about this family- that included 6 grandparents, 1 great grandparent, 4 aunts & uncles, 8 cousins & of course the 4 of us! It was a cramped house for sure, but now you understand why sometimes we just have to keep it family. Where would we put anyone else?

I barely even attempted to make a theme this year, trying to keep it really simple for my sanity (it's been a super busy month!) but i decided that a simple baseball cake & some baseball favors wouldn't be too difficult. So that is what we did! I did however, make a special surprise inside the cake: I started with bowls of batter... adding food coloring..

Then got this- pretty layers! So I layered them up & iced the cake like a baseball.
This was Jackson's first look at the cake. He had no idea that I was making him a baseball cake! But the best surprise was the inside! A rainbow cake!

It turned out so great! I was proud of myself because i can NOT ice a cake (which is why i always go with cupcakes!). Thankfully, my sister came over to offer moral support & to be there in case i needed any help!

For Jackson's birthday, we got a Wii! Sounds crazy, I know. We never do extravagant gifts like that but for Christmas he really wanted a Nintendo Dsi, which was going to be about $150. Yikes! To compound that, Eli really wanted one too & I just couldn't go there! So we asked Jackson if he could wait until his birthday & that if he wanted one, he could save his birthday money & pay for part of it with that & we would supply the rest of the cash. Then, we got to thinking that if he got a Wii instead, then the whole family could enjoy it instead of the boys fighting over the one Dsi. So we asked Jackson if he'd rather have a Wii instead. He decided finally that he would, so I got to checking Craigslist & found a steal! I got the Wii system plus 2 remotes, 2 nunchuks, a Wii balance board, with the Wii Fit game, plus Guitar Hero with 2 guitars & a microphone, and Wii Sports, Wii Play, & Wolverine games all for just $165. Seriously- steal of the century! And Jackson contributed some of his birthday money to that as well! So it ended up costing less than getting a Dsi anyway. Yay!

The entire day of the party, the Wii was played from about 10am until about 9pm. It was craziness, but we haven't played it non stop like that since. We just let the boys splurge on their media time since it was new & they were both very excited. Plus, Aunt Becca brought the girls over (& their games & remotes, etc) and they girls joined in. Then when the party started, everyone took turns playing. It was so much fun!

So Happy Birthday, Jackson! We love you so much & we can't imagine our lives without you. God blessed our family by giving us you! You are such a sweet boy & bring us so much joy & laughter!

And here's a few more pictures from the party!

One More Week!

Hi everyone! I just wanted to pop in & remind you that the end of February is here & I will be taking the pillowcases from the previous sewing project post (to benefit ConKerr Cancer) to the local drop site a week from this Monday. (March 7th) So that gives you all another week to get things done if you were interested in participating. If you don't know what I am referring to, scroll down & read the next post!

Thanks to those of you who have already pitched in! And to those who have contacted me and/or given me your pillowcases! This was so much fun & it felt great to have others on board with me! After talking to my sister and a friend from church about this, we think we will do another project like this very soon & maybe do it together & invite lots of people to come- even if they don't sew, they can cut fabric, iron, piece fabric together, etc. Or this could be a great way to get your feet wet sewing with some friends there to help, if you needed it!

And if you just checked in to see more family stuff, don't worry- more is on the way... LOTS of pictures to update you on the last several weeks. So stay tuned!

Sewing up some Love: For a Cause

So, it's February, right?

And February is all about showing some love, right?

Well, I have decided that I want to show some love this month to some children that are fighting cancer. What caused this? You are wondering, I know.

I linked back to an old post from MADE (one of my daily blog check in points!), initially because I wanted to make Jackson a pillowcase made from some baseball fabric he loves and Noodlehead (another daily blogstop) had linked me there after she posted about making some pillowcases this morning. I had the original post by MADE bookmarked from months ago, but I had never considered making pillowcases for this cause I guess because the post was from way back in 2008. Then, after reading the entire post again , I realized that there was a link to ConKerr Cancer in it & I clicked on it. I wondered if the organization was still taking donations of pillowcases and if they were, where the closest drop site was. I was expecting Duke or UNC hospitals to be the drop site but if you can believe it, there is a drop site in Clayton (amongst many other places in the RDU area). From my understanding, the pillowcases dropped at these local sites will benefit Duke and UNC hospitals! Yay!

So, my goal is to make 10 pillowcases by the end of February. I will use up some of my stash & help little ones fighting that beast called Cancer. I am only telling you all this because I wanted to give you all the opportunity to do the same! If you want to help this cause, I will collect all the pillowcases & make one large drop at the end of the month. So get to sewing & contact me if you want to join in! This would be a great beginner sewing project & a simple one for those of you who are seasoned pros! Even if you can't commit to 10 pillowcases, every little 1 helps bring cheer to some child!

Here is a link to ConKerr Cancer (click HERE) if you want to check them out & read about how they have helped over 300,000 children so far and how to find your local drop site if you would rather find a site near you.

And here is the link again to MADE's pillowcase tutorial, which uses the measurements from ConKerr's site, but gives all those lovely photos of each step along the way if you are a visual learner (like me!!) Click HERE.

Now, go dust off your sewing machine!

Blast from Valentine's past

I was cleaning out my old photo folders on my computer tonight (because my computer is starting to get bogged down & run slow...) when i came across this old video. I have no idea why I didn't post this last year, but I just had to when i came across it! This is classic Jackson right here, people! This was just last year, but whoa, has he grown since then! His face looks so "baby" here to me even though it was just a year ago!

And excuse the mismatched table. We refinished the table but never refinished the leaf (yet) & it must have still been in place from Jackson's birthday....

Enjoy! I giggled several times! And make sure you watch until the end to hear Randy's advice to Jackson... classic Randy!

Randy Bon Jovi

Who needs Jon Bon Jovi, when you are married to Randy? This video is just a little snippet of my life with him. And this is one of the reasons I love him so, because he keeps me laughing. And i am sure this is a side of him that many of you could have never imagined. Those of you who only see him in his shy, reserved self. But, at home, he lets loose...... Here's the proof. This was the boys bath time & I couldn't resist recording once he started singing....

C-U-T-E valentines!

After reading this blogpost from I am Momma: Hear me Roar (one of my absolute favorite blogs), I just knew that this would be 2011 valentines for Eli. He is still young enough that I can get away with cutesie, so cutesie it would be! Here is the topper that i made on www.picnik.com following the tutorial directions. The best part? It was free to make!
We will be attaching them to folded over cardstock & then stapling the whole topper to the top of snack bags filled with valentine colored hershey kisses. So cute & so simple!
If you have never used picnik, I highly suggest it. It is also where I made my blog header....And from looking at those pictures... I think it is about time to make a new one!

Anyway, back to valentines.... I will post pictures of the valentines that Jackson will be making once we make them. We are making a variation of these "sugarplums" that i bookmarked back around the Christmas holidays, but will be using red chocolate, and valentine sprinkles. I still need to come up with some catchy phrase to add to the wrapping though! Any suggestions on a catchy phrase, are welcome! The best I can do today is : "A sweet for my sweet" and I am just not sure that will do for a 7 year old!

My Birthday Boy!

I know that I say this with each birthday that rolls around with each child of mine... BUT, I seriously can't believe Jackson is already 7 years old. SEVEN???? Is it already time for 7?? I don't think he has ever been so excited about a birthday, either. He has been hyped up for over a week waiting for his big day, so I tried to make it special for him in little ways since his "family birthday party" isn't until this weekend.

It was a busy day too, because he had school and it was his night for basketball too. Sooo, I worked my little hiney off trying to get everything done! For breakfast, I made him a bagel with Nutella & sprinkles. It is so funny to me how simple, little things can bring a smile to his face. I love that.

I rearranged my work day just a bit so that I was able to bring cupcakes into his classroom at afternoon snack time. This was my way of sharing his day with his friends since we weren't inviting any of them to our little party. And as an added bonus, I went ahead & checked him out of school a little early. Snack was over at 3:10 & I wasn't about to go get in the carpool line right after that!

Then it was home to get started on dinner! Jackson's favorite meal is pizza, so pizza it was going to be! I had to make a pizza crust though and give it time to rise for 2 hours! Which meant dinner wasn't going to happen until after basketball. (Eli was traumatized, for real!) While the dough was rising, I started working on the cake for his party on Saturday. (More on that in a following post, but let's just say that it involved food coloring & 6 layers!) However, the pizza turned out yummy & I made him his very own pizza (in a heart shape!) while the rest of us ate slices off of a bigger pizza. His pizza also had heart shaped pepperoni's! See? I told you that it was the little things! :) He refused to let me cut it up for him, because he wanted to eat it like this:
And eat it he did! Every last morsel....
But before he finished it off, he asked me to take a picture of this last heart shaped pepperoni!
Happy Birthday to my biggest little man! I hope seven is a great year! And i hope he enjoys his party on Saturday! (Shhhh... he's getting a Wii!!)

A visit from Uncle Jeff & Aunt Malissa

Last weekend, my brother, Jeffery & sister in law, Malissa, came up for the day. Randy was giving Jeff his old CNC router & they needed to work on it a bit to get it back to working order & Randy had to give Jeffery a "class" on how to use the thing! It was literally an all day affair... I am talking like 12 solid hours of work! While they worked, Malissa helped entertain the boys (i LOVED that!!) and Rebecca brought the girls over about mid day to join in the fun too...They played baseball in the front yard for a really long time!
And poor Malissa got nailed in the leg by one of Jackson's hits!

For dinner, Rebecca made Mexican Cornbread for us all (at my house). It was ready while the kids were in the middle of watching Dispicable Me that we got from Redbox. Soooo, we improvised.... Me moved the kitchen chairs so the kids could still sit in the kitchen, but still see the movie.The table was all taken up with the CNC router anyway, so the rest of us just stood & ate or sat on the living room floor to eat & watch the movie at the same time.

It was lots of fun & I think we should get together like this more often. I can't remember a time that my brother came up for the day without it being for a birthday or something. It was nice for just us siblings to get together & spend time hanging out!