I have taken up a couple new hobbies,
Sewing and Quilting.
This is my first sewing project. A car seat cover for my friend Sarah. For my birthday she made me a hotpad/kitchen towel combo. That was her first sewing project. I was so touched that it inspired me to make her something in return.
It took a whole lot of time but I finished it just in time. She said she gets tons of compliments on it. I am so glad my hard work paid off.
For my Infant & Toddler class I had to make a toy. As many of you know my trademark baby gift is a snuggly. I decided to make one for the toy assignment.
Soon I will have a new niece named Amelia, Ame for short. I decided to make this snuggly for her. As you can see I learned to embroider so that I could personalize her snuggly with her name.
This was quite the frustrating and difficult project. Since I had no pattern or instructions, I had to make this from looking at a store bought snuggly. That made this all the more difficult. I had to redo it four times. It is a good thing I purchased a lot of extra material. The end result was well worth the effort I put in. It is such a higher quality snuggly then the store bought ones. I don't know if I will ever make another one though, haha.
I started making baby quilts. I haven't made any quilts since 1997, but I remembered the special stitch that I learned from a lady in my ward. I don't have a picture of the first baby quilt I made but it was a strawberry shortcake quilt and I gave it to my friend Kaitlynd.
This is the summer baby quilt I made for my friend Sarah. I used flannel and tricot.
This is the winter baby quilt that I made for baby Camri, Sarah and Jared's new baby girl.
Sarah loves cats and receive many cat baby items at the shower. I think Hello Kitty is appropriate, haha.
Scott's family came to visit at the end of June and beginning of July. I decided to take Braden and Brielle each on a date, doing activities they picked.
Brielle originally chose to go to McDonalds because she wanted the toy from the happy meal. I didn't think that was a good reason to go there, so I had her pick another place. She chose Olive Garden.
Brielle didn't want to order off the kids menu. Of course since she was with me I let her have whatever she wanted. What are aunts for if not to indulge their nieces and nephews. She chose one of my favorite dishes, Steak Gorgonzola Alfredo. However, after the Breadsticks, Soup and Salad, she was pretty full and only got a few bites down. She felt a little bad about it, but I told her it was ok and we would take it home for later. Which worked out good for me since I got to eat it, haha.
After a little rest she decide she had room for dessert. A dolcini with chocolate and caramel.
Brielle chose to go see Epic. It was a super cute movie and I highly recommend it.
Since I have started making quilts I decided it would be cool to make quilts for my nieces and nephews. Of course to make it special they need to pick the material. Originally Brielle picked a horrid black, white and orange leopard print. I was thrilled when she found the Rapunzel material and decided on it.
For my date with Braden. We went to see The Croods. It was a cute movie. I really like Belt. I wouldn't mind having Belt for a pet. Braden was so cute, he sat there happily sucking down the tigers blood slushy I got him. I was glad to see him enjoying himself so much.
After the movie we went to Coldstone. Of course he could have whatever he wanted because he was with me, Lanie the ever indulging aunt. He got Oreo icecream with oreos, reeses peanut butter cup, white chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, rainbow sprinkles, gummy bears, coconut and hot fudge in a waffle bowl. It seemed like quite the disgusting combination, to me but he liked it. He brought his leftover icecream home and Denisse ate it. She said it was pretty good.
Braden loves blue. He chose blue for both sides of his quilt. The shades don't match and I urged him to get white on the Micro fleece side so it would match better, but he wanted the blue, so blue he got. I am going to sew the edges so that the sides meet exactly at the edge. This will make it so neither side can be seen from the other side. That way it won't matter that the blues don't match. It will be interesting since I haven't bound the edges like that before.
Brooke is still a little to young to go on a date without her mommy. So I bought her a cute new outfit, Pink Minnie Mouse shirt with a skirt/pants combo. It is so cute. As soon as she saw it she went over and grabbed it. I am so glad she liked it.
While they were here I helped get the kids to bed. A few times I gave Brooke a bath. Of course you can't have a bath without bubbles and toys. I put a lot of bubble bath in so the whole top of the tub was covered in bubbles. I got her a big cup to pour water, a rubber ducking to squirt water and a bunch of miniature my little ponies. I sat at the edge handed her toys and let her put bubbles on my arm. The morning they left the first thing she said when she woke up was "Lanie Bubble Bath, Lanie Bubble Bath." When I came out of my room she came over and grabbed my finger and led me to the bathroom. It was so dang cute!!! I love that little girl. I am glad she likes me so much. Maybe next time they come to visit she will be old enough to take on a little date.
I treated all the kids to iJump. This is an awesome place with wall to wall trampolines. They also have foam pits to jump into.
This is going to be a place we will have to go to every time they come to visit.
While we were there I saw a little girl around 4 years old do a complete 360 jumping into the foam pit. I thought it was so cool that I told Braden and Brielle that if they could do a complete turn when they jumped into the foam pit that I would give them a prize. They spent the rest of the time trying to do a 360 turn. The below video was their last attempt. Brielle got so close. Maybe next trip she will be able to do it.
For my Infant and Toddler class I was assigned to make a book with everything we had done and with all the handouts we were given. Each section had to have a decorated divider. I used pictures to decorate my dividers. For the medical section I wanted a picture of kids with bandaids on them. So I asked Kara to help me out. I was thrilled to see the kids have large cute kids bandaids, each in a different spot. The kids even played it up with sad faces. This picture couldn't have been anymore perfect if I had taken it myself. I just love their little faces. They crack me up.
I have a new collection. I have Seventy Beanie Boos. These are the ones with the giant eyes. Aren't they cute!
My favorite one is Sherbet. He came all the way from England just to join my collection.
I have also decided not to be a teacher. There are so many of them out of work. It just isn't a stable profession. I have also decide I can't live in poverty. Since I am not going to get married in this life and have to be able to support myself in the lifestyle I am accustom being a teacher just isn't going to work.
