Christmas time...

 Christmas is only 3 weeks away! Sorry I haven't written in so long after saying I was going to update at least once a week. I didn't even announce on here that I am expecting again. A little girl due in February! I wish I could say that is why I haven't written but I have just been busy and not thought about it in a long time. Anyway back to my post. Christmas is almost here and decorations are everywhere! I love Christmas time, the lights, the bells and the music. It is so easy to get caught up in it all. Let us remember the true reason for the season. That Jesus came as a little baby and was born in a manger to save you and me.
    
     "And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn." Luke 2:7

This is our Christmas tree. I wish it was real but it isn't. It is hard to get into the Christmas spirit with it being so warm here and this year we aren't going home. We went home back in October for my brothers wedding instead. I am really going to miss my family and the traditions from back home. I miss snow too! I know some people will say how can you miss snow but I do.  I am thankful to have my husband home for Christmas and our little boy to celebrate with and my goal is have a very Merry Christmas!
Do you have any Christmas traditions in your home?

Sewing for Clayton

A couple of weeks ago now I did some sewing for Clayton! I made this little summer outfit! 

If you look close you can see Charlie Brown from the peanuts cartoon.

This is Clayton's 4th of July outfit. I appliqued the anchor on the shirt and then made the 

shorts and appliqued the little anchor on them. I am excited to see him wear both!

I have not been much into making things for little boys, sewing for girls is more fun. 

I am glad I made something for Clayton though. I am sure he will look adorable in them! 

Have you been working on any sewing lately? 

Fabric shape blocks-My first tutorial

Today I decided to make some shaped blocks. I bought this push toy for my son Clayton and it had a place for shapes but I bought it used so they were gone. Now I am going to show you how I made them. This is my first tutorial so be patient and feel free to ask questions.

I decided to use this fabric. It is cotton I believe.

 I then made a pattern out of regular printer paper. I made my square 1 1/2 inchs, my circle was about an 1 1/2 in diameter I am guessing and the side was 6 inch long and 1 1/2 inches high, my triangle was 2x2x2 with the sides being 1 1/2 inches high by 2 inches long. You could make them what ever size you want. 

 1. I cut all the pieces out of fabric and interfacing.

 2. Sew the interfacing to each piece wrong sides together. (If you have iron on interfacing you just iron it on.) You could use a straight stitch or zig-zag. I used a stitch that is kind of like a sergering stitch.

I started with the circle.

 Circle-Start by sewing the long piece together on the ends, making sure to leave a place to flip it right side out.

 You should then have a piece like this. Next sew the ends on it. This was tricky so go slow and adjust a lot! Now flip it right side out. (Now you can stuff it but I waited until they were all done.)

Next the square- First sew 3 pieces together 2 on the side and one on top connecting the 2 like this.

 Repeat with next 3. Now you sew them together. Remember not to go all the way to the end so you have a seam allowance for the next piece you need to sew there. Does that make sense?

 Don't forget to leave an opening for flipping and stuffing.

Last one the triangle-first sew the 2 sides together on the short sides then sew the first 

triangular piece on like this.

 Next do the bottom piece. Now it should look like this.

 Now you just sew the last side on leaving an opening of course and then flip it.

Now you just stuff them and hand sew the openings closed.

 Now you have 3 shaped blocks. Mine did not turn out perfect but it was my first try.

 From the top. Also I think it would have been easier to start by 

making bigger ones to get the hang of it.

 Now he has some blocks to use with his toy!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any questions or anything just let me know. 

I am going to try to blog at least once a week. I have not been doing very well and want to do better.

Until next time!

The beginning of March!

I have been trying to keep busy though with all the rain we had last week it has been a little hard. I decided to make myself an Easter Dress a while back and I was able to finish it. I bought the jacket at the thrift store and made the dress. I am pretty happy with how it turned out!

I am very excited about Easter this year. Clayton and I are going to spend it with my brother Thaddaeus and his wife Cari and I am hoping to put together a basket for Clayton. I am very thankful that I have family to spend it with.

We have been getting a ton of rain lately, so we haven't really been doing a lot.

Though this week as been much better!

We went Bowling with the FRG on Monday. It was fun though I did very bad!

Here I am trying to get Clayton to push the ball.

I hope you enjoyed hearing about some of things we have been up too!

Clayton is growing so fast! He got his second tooth last week and I am sure he will be crawling before to long.

"Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father

in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Ephesians 5:20

Touring the Kri Dewaruci!

On the 1st I took Clayton to go tour the Indonesian Ship Kri Dewaruci.

That had pulled in here for a couple days. It was pretty neat!

This was down in the ship.

These were the legs of the table.

The wood carvings on this boat were awesome!

On the deck!

The whole ship! One of the cool things about living here is you get

to see lots of different ships that pull in here!

Long time no writing...

Sorry it has been so long since I have updated here. In February we did a lot of things. We started in late February to take walks at least a couple times a week! I am working on getting up to 6 miles.

We also got to watch this Aircraft carrier leave port. That was neat. I wish we could have toured it.

It also got chilly with a lot of rain! Clayton also got his first tooth!

Clayton also learned to sit up and does it quite well!

I love being a mommy! God has blessed us so much with Clayton!

January so far...

This month has been busy. Getting back into a more normal routine after the

holidays and other little things!

One little project I have donethis year is I made strap covers for Clayton's car seat.

I think they are so cute! Now that I made the diaper bag I keep looking for

other things to make out of the scrap material.

We (Clayton and I) went to a different botanical gardens with some friends. It was a very pretty place! This is the pond with fish and ducks in it!

Here is the famous tree there. Lots of tourists come just to take pictures of this tree!

It is very pretty!

Last weekend we went for a drive and drove around part of the island and stopped at this beach. It was nice but a little chilly for swimming. One nice thing about living here, you can go to the beach in January!

We finished off our weekend with a trip downtown to the cheesecake factory. This the tiramisu cheesecake, it was very good! We were so full after eating that we only ordered on piece to share but next time I think we should just go for dessert!

We have been savoring the time together and God has been so good to us!

Clayton has started rolling over and does it a lot! He doesn't like to do it in front of the video camera though. He is growing fast! He will be 4 months this coming Wednesday!

I am thanking the Lord for his blessings!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a blessed Christmas :) We did! We went home to Michigan for Christmas. We had the best time visiting family and friends! Here is my family's Christmas tree!

Here is the snow we did see though I have to admit to being a little disappointed about there not being enough to play in. I hadn't seen any for a year give me a break. Here the seasons don't change so you miss it.

Here is an ordament from our tree here. We got a fake tree since we weren't going to be here for Christmas. I bought a few ordaments and we enjoyed it's beauty! Really didn't do much for New Years Eve, Clinton had duty the next day and I was pretty tired so we watched a movie and hit the sack a little early. I thank the Lord for blessing us this holiday season and I hope he blessed yours!