adorable growth chart alert

If you're like me, one of the projects you want to do but have never gotten around to is creating a growth chart to track your kiddos growth. It's seriously been on my to do list since Henry was born, ahem, 3 years ago. It was probably the first DIY I pinned on Pinterest.

Whoops.

sunday stitch vol. 3 - attack of the octopus

It's that time again, and boy, this week's project was a doozie. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I just purchased the book Little One Yard Wonders and was excited to jump in and make the adorable octopus hiding within its pages. Last week's stuffed robot was a huge success, so this would be just the same, right?

Right?

Only my friend and shop owner at City Craft, the wonderful Callie, warned me that this project was a bear. Those of you that are fortunate enough to know Callie will attest that she has a super positive attitude, so if she says that something is a pain, you'd better watch out. 

Man, was she right.

I heeded her warning and proceeded with caution. I knew I wanted to make two of them - one for Henry and one for Max - so I was smart enough to cut the fabric for both octopuses at the same time. And yes, it's octopuses and not octopi; I googled it. That way, if the first one was a huge pain in the ass, it would significantly increase the chances of me completing the second one if the fabric was already cut.

I made this face literally the entire duration of this project.

quilt club: half square triangles

Time for Modern Quilt Club with City Craft! This month's homework assignment was to create a block (or, ahem, an entire quilt for you overachievers) using half square triangles. It was a great, easy, not intimidating first homework assignment for people like me who have made quilts, but have never bothered with silly things like patterns or measuring.

What's a half square triangle, you ask? You take a square of fabric, cut it in half from corner-to-corner (creating the hypotenuse...see, I know stuff), and you have a half square triangle. Pretty basic, and it's the building block for many awesome quilts. Oh, and quilting nerds call this a HST for short.

I loved how we all had the same mission, and everybody came back with something completely different.

Here are some pretties from this month. Warning, this might make you want to make a quilt.

This guy was my block. It is made up of a couple of gorgeous vintage fabrics from my stash (thanks Grandmommy) and a few modern fabrics to create a chevron pattern. My thought is that I'll do a different color block each month and make a ROYGBIV style sampler quilt at the end. We'll see how that goes.

summer bucket list #14: yummy (healthy) frozen yogurt popsicles

One of the more delicious items that I added to our summer bucket list is making homemade popsicles. It's crazy-simple, yet somehow, I completely forgot to do this last summer. Whoops. We'll chock that up to pregnancy brain (along with everything else I neglected to do last year).

These are beyond simple to make, like to the point that it barely qualifies as a recipe. There are thousands of things you can do to customize them to your liking.

sunday stitch vol. 2 - snuggle bot

Back again for another edition of The Sunday Stitch with Hi and Hello. I'm still riding on my sewing high. I start to get withdrawls when I go more than a few days without firing up the old machine. I know, it's weird.

This week I dove into Let's Sew Together and made this adorable little Robot. I named him Snuggle-Bot. Henry calls him R2D2, which drives the Hubs insane, because obviously he looks nothing like R2D2. Well, that made Henry settle on the name all the more.

This was a pretty simple little project and happily, I had all the materials just lying around. Well, I did run out of fiber filling about halfway through. But other than that, it was another great project to bust through my stash.

so southern pinto bean soup

Pinto bean soup is a staple of the South. And when I say "the South" I mean the oooold South. I grew up here in Texas and remember eating my Grandmommy's version as a child. She tells me about the version that her mother-in-law made.

Food is always better with a story. Am I right?

My Grandpoppy grew up in rural Arkansas. He was the baby of 7; 5 older brothers and 1 sister. I think they may have been "over" having kids by the time he came along. His parents let his aunt name them. She chose the name Wenford. Seriously? That's not even a word. Which is why he went by Ray, or Ben, or a myriad of other names (a funny story for another day). But he was an awesome grandpa and I love and miss him so much that we gave Max the middle name of Ford after him. Because I love Max enough not to name him Wenford. Also because Grandpoppy made me promise before he passed away that I wouldn't give any of my children his awful name. He was awesome.

They lived on a cotton farm when he was a child. His dad would go "to town" twice a year for supplies. It was a full day's journey each way. By wagon. As my dad says, they may as well have been living in the 1700's.

He was born in the early 1930s, and everyone was still trudging their way through from the Depression. He told my dad a few times that the only food they had to eat sometimes was pinto bean soup and cornbread. Sometimes just cornbread. This meal is cheap, and there were lots of mouths to feed. Their house had no electricity or running water. Grandpoppy would tell me that they could see through the cracks in the walls of their house straight to the outside.

Makes me realize that most of what I complain about does not actually qualify as a problem.

So his momma made the soup, and her momma probably made the soup, all the way back until goodness knows when. Everybody does it a bit differently. It's one of those "little of this, little of that" kind or recipes.

This is my version. Probably a smidge fancier than my Great Grandmother's was. And it is awesome, and it makes me feel connected to my Grandpoppy.

the perfect baby shower blanket (baby not included)

My sweet friend and coworker Emily is due to have her first baby in September. We worked hand in hand on a project through my second pregnancy. Both the project and my baby were delivered at the same time! I wanted to make something special for her as a "thanks for putting up with me through nine months of hormones while wearing a hard hat" kind of thing.

Another former co-worker Kristi (graphic designer, seamstress, and modern quilter extraordinaire) made me a very similar blanket when Henry was born, and it has been my all time favorite for both babies. There are three really great things about this gift:

• It's large. At about 36" x 42", it's perfect for swaddling giant beast babies like mine. Since Emily's husband is approximately 7 feet tall (exaggeration) and weighed in at 11 lbs when he was born (NOT an exaggeration), it should fit the wee lad nicely. It's also a good size for a play mat on the floor.
• It's customizeable. I used soft cotton on both sides. Kristi used a flannel/cotton combo. It's tough to find flannel in Texas in June (go figure), so I went with all cotton.
• It's personal. Nothing like a handmade gift. I added a monogram to make it extra special.
• It's simple. Couple yards of fabric and thread. Yeah, OK, that makes four things. Sue me.

sunday stitch vol. 1 - donuts and cowboys and blankets, oh my!

I'm linking up with my pal Maryam over at hi-and-hello for her latest feature, The Sunday Stitch. We both love to sew, but sometimes life just gets in the way. You have big plans to create some kick-butt stuff, but then one day you turn around and you've neglected your poor sewing machine for months. I'm hoping this little feature will motivate me to create something, even if it's just a little something, each week.

I was talking to the Hubs the other day about why I love to sew. I don't really like the measuring, or cutting, or pinning, or ironing, or binding. I get irritated when my machine jams or my corners don't line up.

So what is it that I like about sewing? I like that I can put effort into something, and at the end of the day (or week, or whatever) I have something to show for it. So many things in life take much effort, but take months or years to really see the payout. Like, I don't know, parenting. But sewing has a faster return on investment. Not instant gratification, but good old fashioned satisfaction for a job well done. He was a distance runner for 8 years, so he gets it.

Well, that got sappier than I intended.

Aaaaaaat any rate, each week I will (hopefully) give you a peek into some of the things I've been working on. Many of the things I make aren't really tutorial-worthy, so I'm excited to have a place to share them just for fun.

This week I've actually been crazy inspired to sew. Here's what I've been up to:

A Cowboy Vest for Henry (click here for tutorial).

A baby shower blanket for my friend Emily (tutorial coming next week).

A donut pillow from the A Beautiful Mess ladies. I made this pillow literally within an hour of them posting this tutorial. Is it weird that a grown woman just happened to have all of the supplies for an oversized donut lying around? I'm going to go with no.

I catch myself saying over and over "if only I had a little girl to make that for!" Well, here's the deal. I'm a girl. That's good enough. Also, I don't plan on having any more kids. So why deprive myself of the stuffed donuts that will make me smile?!

I also finished my quilt block for Quilt Club this month, but I'm going to wait to share that until after our meeting this week. I know, you're on pins and needles (pun intended).

Phew, that was a lot of sewing. Don't expect me to bring it like this every week. But what I'm most excited about is the fabulous mail I got this week:

Oh YEAH. I cannot wait to dive into these books. Let's Sew Together and Little One Yard Wonders are chock full of projects for the littles. As you can see from most of my sewing posts, the kids are nearly always right by my side when I sew. I love the idea of getting (and keeping) them involved in the process as they grow. It's kind of my goal in life to raise men who: love God, can cook a meal, do their own laundry, and sew something. You're welcome, future daughters-in-law.

Next project on the list: stuffed robot. Obviously.

Have you guys been sewing up a storm this week? Drop a comment with a link to your project if you have one, or hop over to Simply Crafted's Facebook page and share a photo (or two!).


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summer bucket list #3 - splash pad

We crossed another item off our Summer Bucket List this week when we visited Klyde Warren Park in Dallas. This park is the bomb. Fountains everywhere, a stage for outdoor concerts, an open air library, a restaurant, and food trucks galore. Oh, and the biggest, cleanest family sized public bathroom you've ever seen...and the entire ceiling is a giant stained glass style skylight. It's gorgeous. I didn't take a photo because, well, it seemed creepy. 

I'm ashamed to say that this was my first visit, even though my office where I worked day in and day out was within walking distance. One big bonus of our summer list is that we will finally to do all of the great things in our city that we tell visitors to do.

To be super honest, parking downtown just makes me crazy. You either have to pay a billion dollars or be lucky enough to find a meter and have change or have the stupid app on your phone. Mostly I avoid it at all costs. Thankfully, my friends Maryam from hi and hello blog and Jane from Art by JC Cheek told me that Nasher and DMA members get free parking. 

Sah-weet.

And, no, not all of my friends have blogs. Just these two. And like 4 more. That's it. I think.

cowboy vest tutorial

Howdy partners!

As a boy mom, I'm always looking for crafty things to make for my little guys, but honestly, it's fairly slim pickins. So when Henry asked me last week to make him a Cowboy Vest like Sheriff Woody and Sheriff Callie, I jumped on that horse faster than a tumbleweed in a tornado.

{Sorry, my inner Texan is coming out on this one. I'll try to stop.}

Being a true Texas girl, I just happened to have some cow print fabric lying around (doesn't everybody?) and some left over red jersey fabric from Henry's Super Hero Cape, so no trip to the fabric store required. I love it when that happens.

Henry used to have a cowboy vest in his life. We borrowed this beauty made my my boss and friend Lindsay for her little buckaroo the prior Halloween. OMGeeee my belly was so big. This was just 9 days before my due date with Max. I was having contractions and thought we might just have a Halloween baby.

He didn't come for 13 more days. Figures.

we bought a zoo! (membership)

We are busy plowing through our summer bucket list at the Lenney house. This weekend we loaded up the fam, along with sister Meredith and Mr. Kendall, and headed to the Dallas Zoo. I'm a little embarrassed to say that even though we live in Dallas, we had never taken the boys here. In fact, the Hubs and I hadn't been in almost ten years. Whoops. Being TCU graduates and all, we are Fort Worth Zoo snobs because, well, it's awesome.

If you live near the area and haven't been in awhile, I highly recommend that you check it out. They've made some major improvements. We had a great time checking out the exhibits, splashing in the kids area, riding the monorail and carousel, touching a snake, and best of all, Henry got to feed a giraffe. Have you ever seen one up close? Their heads are ginormous.

brilliant zoo tip: dress your kid in bright colors and stripes to very quickly locate him in the crowd.
it also seems to attract animal attention, which was awesome.

swinging between the two suckers, I mean, willing participants.

he was totally brave, as long as I touched it first.
sidebar- I know you're not reading this blog for fashion advice,
but check the related links below for info on my minty dream fossil watch and shorts!
the mint glasses are from Target

that face

riding high

watching momma and baby apes

I can relate, momma.

I love all the statue photo ops

best part of the trip

deep thoughts with gorillas

chomp

holy crap, a family photo where nobody is screaming!

momma, we're going faaaaaster!

this kid

This post was mostly an excuse to show cute pictures of Henry. Max was just happy to be outside, rolling along in the stroller.

We just happened to get a coupon in the mail for a discounted family membership, so it will pay for itself in 2 visits. Just $89 for a full year, including parking. Score. I love a good deal.

What are you guys up to this summer? Any good zoos in your hometown?


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