I Love Bathtime!

Dear Attila,
I love when you take a bath and get squeaky clean.  I love when you get out of the tub and you look like a wet rat.

You smell like dog shampoo and you can't figure out where the stinky new smell is coming from.  And, Gus is completely bewildered about what happened to you (he always goes second in the tub).

 You think you taste funny too.

Then, when you snuggle to get dry, the hair behind your head gets crimped and corkscrewy.  I love that.

And the rest of you looks like a Pomeranian. But, I know you are much smarter than that!

Makes me want to sing Hakuna Matata like a little Simba in puberty.  It makes  you look really fabulous.  Just like when you wear your very snappy glo-stick glasses.

You are one snazzy pup and I love you lots!

Love, Your Doggy-Momma

Graduate School Sends Me To Therapy

... Or maybe public school is putting the final nail in my coffin!  I am reading a book for my Ed.S. class on Saturday that is talking about putting in priorities.  I was with them through the first grueling chapter.  Then, I got to chapter 2.  And it became glaringly apparent that these wonderful individuals have never stepped a piggy into a public school during the day.  A scheduled parent conference does NOT count! 

The authors are talking about scheduling tasks and if it isn't scheduled it isn't urgent.  HA!  No one got  a request for a lesson plan at 11:00 (for Friday's lesson) that was due by 3:15 in their time that was tied to their paycheck.  Think closely about merit pay teachers!

I lost a little respect... which is a real bummer since I have another 247 pages to read.  I'll post some pictures tomorrow hopefully :)

Makin' the Guest Room Spiffy

Approximately two years ago when Brad and I started look for fabric for our bedroom, we went to the $7.99 fabric store in Durham, North Carolina.  Their website is here.  Anyways, I don't think we found anything while we were there, except this little brown and blue sample fabric for $2.  It is perfectly matched for our guest bedroom with a chocolate brown comforter and colonial blue walls.  I have had delightful plans for a fancy throw pillow to spruce things up in there.  They have been well-developed over the two years.
The time has come and the plan has been completed.  At first, I was going to make a bolster pillow, the ones that are round and tie like a tootsie roll.  I used my Pillows for Dummies pattern and this dummy messed it up.  I would just like to say that they could make the double up the fabric sign a little more obvious.  I was so busy measuring to make sure the fabric was straight, I missed the part that said, make the pattern twice this size - whoops.  My mother very kindly set me straight after I was just positive the pattern was incorrect. 

Anyways, I ended up trimming it down to make a regular old plain pillow with an envelope back - fancy pants!  It was actually easier to do the envelope back than wrestle the whole thing to sew around the outside. It came out nicely.  The back fabric is from the white sheets from my latch hooked bath mat.  The only thing I had bought (this fiscal year at least, was the $8 pillow on sale at JoAnn's).  And here are the pictures, which is what you all wanted to see I'm sure. 

On the bed straight...

...or at an angle - which reminds me of my darling brother everytime I see a pillow on its point

The front.

The back (and yes, I know it is a little crooked)

And, a picture of my little helpers and their best friends, Mike the Tiger and Zip the Zebra.  Oh boys, you are so spoiled.  Mike is under Attila's booty if you can't find him (and two nylabones are there too).

And here is Attila checking the light near the pillow.  He says 2 thumbs up Mom!  Love those precious faces!

Hide Your Hooters!

Hooter Hiders, Boobie Blankets, Nursing Covers... many names for a fancy blanket with a strap!

Mandy and her ready-to-be-born baby Kinley were on the end of another test-project of a nursing cover!  I used the tutorial from Our Seven Dwarfs.  I did make a few alterations, like increasing the size of the terry cloth corners and making the whole thing a fizz bigger.  And no, I cannot at this time remember how big I made it. (We will blame this on the 6th graders).

Anyways, I loved this fabric - I found it at WalMart of all places (let's here it for Wally World for bringing back the fabric section!) and the terry cloth too!  The D-rings and boning came from JoAnn's.  Without further ado, here is my classroom-next-door-neighbor Catherine modeling the nursing cover!

It has boning in the center so that you can see down to check on the baby but the nosy person next to you in the mall can't see in!  Also, the next strap keeps the baby from pulling down the blanket to reveal a baby-gear malfunction!
The bottom corners are terry cloth squares folded into triangles for double-thickness for baby wiping messes!  They also double as pockets for all kinds of trinkets - like pacifiers and other goodies! 

They look super on classroom desks too! 

It turned out really great and I was super proud of it... I am pondering putting Velcro on the terry cloth to hold the pocket closed instead of gaping... maybe next time!
What do you all think!

Pacifier Clips

I love my friends from graduate school!  We have become very close throughout many ridiculous assignments in our Masters program and now our EdS.  My wonderful graduate-school-addicted friend Mandy is having a sweet baby girl very soon!  (Kinley, we can't wait to meet you!)

I have been working on a few projects for Kinley and Mandy - one of which is passy clips!  I used ribbon and suspender clips with a little bit of Velcro to make these bad boys work!

(Sorry for the bad pictures - I took them at school!)  I made an orange and white striped one for UT and a black, red, and white one.  I was out of pink ribbon which is probably what she needs for all of her outfits!  I think they turned out really great.  The suspender clip is on one side and the other is Velcro to go around the pacifier handle (?).

I had everything in the house except for suspender clips - not bad for project leftovers for less than $1.49!

A Moment of Silence

... for impending greatness!  That's right - tonight is the kickoff (pun intended) of the college football season!  It is the most wonderful time of the year!  I have hung my house-divided wreath (seen here) on the front door and am already pulling out my college tees for Friday at school!
We watched the beginning of the Wisconsin-UNLV game and the Badgers were blowing them out!  Awesome!

Crafts will return tomorrow, but tonight ESPN reigns supreme in this house!

Dish Towel Holder

Where on Earth do you put your dirty dishtowels while you are waiting to wash them?  My washer is downstairs and hamper is upstairs - so I am not hauling them up (plus, then they smell like food...)!

For the past year, they have piled up on my dryer waiting for towel washing day.  It looked like this:

It looks like a train wreck!  So, I saw a drawstring bag with a embroidery hoop holding it open on pinterest.  After a quick trip to the Hobby Lobby, I whipped one up for my own craft room!

So much better!  It holds about 8 towels too!

It hangs from the closet on a ribbon and I even have clearance over the washer lid!

Love it!  What do you think?