Back in my right mind

Sorry about the crazy post yesterday. It seems that some people get the easiest kids; the ones that sleep through the night when they are brought home from the hospital, the ones that are easy-going and come-what-may, the ones have no problem occupying themselves whenever and instinctively know how to sit still. This is not what the good Lord blessed me with. Mine are all strong willed, high energy, and seem to know exactly the moment when I am not looking to start to cause problems. With 4 kids, there is always 4 things going on at the same time, plus my own. Then of course the phone rings, the dryer or oven beeps, or some other something happens! Life gets even more complicated when I add in my oldest who has a combination of ADHD, Oppositional/Defient Disorder, and (now we are finding out) Asperger's Syndrome. He really changes the atmosphere of the group. He increases the tensions and energy, and is often the center of many fights and arguments. We are only just beginning to figure out what is going on with him as far as the Asperger's diagnosis and how to fix all the craziness that it brings into our home. I will say that is it something that we long suspected, but it does help to get the reassurance from medical professionals.
My kids truly are blessings, and I won't trade their personalities for anything. Their stong wills will be perservance later; their high energy will move mountains. They are all quite smart (even taking into account a bit of subjectivity!) I take my job of training, molding, and caring for these precious little ones very seriously. Sometimes so seriously that I feel like I am going to lose my mind-but I guess that I why God also blessed me with my great hubby who comes from his long hard day of work and picks up the pieces.

So enough of all of this stuff, and back to the good stuff next time. I have a tutorial on making a wool hand bag that I have photographed, but will put up when I have time. Right now, I need to get the littlest munchkin down for a nap.

Thanks for listening!!

Stress levels reaching max, patience reaching all time low....

Right now, I have a screaming headache. I could have something to do with my 3 year old running around making Jedi noises at the top of his lungs. The 1 year old has a love affair with the silverware drawer and has discovered how to get herself completely, and I do mean completely undressed, which she likes to do with a dirty diaper. My 7 year old is yelling about the Wii when he should be reading his book. My 9 year old has lost my guitar tuner, which he is blaming on anyone else, is refusing to practice his guitar and when he finally is coerced into playing, he is playing the wrong chords so as to make everyone who is within earshot cringe. My husband had a late meeting at work (although thank God he has one!) so his dinner is sitting out on the table and the little two are trying to eat it (and have managed to polish off all the cheese). I haven't gotten to the ol' list of presents that need to be made, so I have a bit of stored-up frustration there too. And if Hubby doesn't get home soon, I'm going to be late to church for choir practice-better hit Confession first!!! Let's hope the Motrin kicks in soon..... Tomorrow will be a better day!! (Or else!)

Life gets in the way of blogging

So, I've been busy the last couple of weeks. I've been getting ready for holiday craft bazaars. I've always sold rosaries, but this year I've decided to add first communion dresses. My sewing machine has been busily humming away the last few weeks making my two samples, and I still need to make a couple more. I have about 10-15 people interested, so I might be busy this winter and spring.

All of this business resulted in 2 consequences: A veritable mountain of laundry (This is some of it folded!):

I also realized that in order to make all these dresses, I would need more space than the folding table in the family room! So I cleaned out a room in the basement and now I have my own sewing kingdom!

Hallowee'n Costumes

The way I do DD's hair, everyone thinks she looks so much like Cindy Lou Who for the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. I didn't have to think that hard to come up with a costume idea for her.

DD#3 chose to be his hero and alter-ego: Super Why for the PBS show.

I have finished the front and back sections of the felted purse. I still need to do the side/bottom strip and the handles. Slow, but steady progress! Happy sewing!

Craft Show Craziness

I've had a craft show this past weekend with rather short notice so I've been rushing around trying to get many rosaries made for the show. The show was for breast cancer patients in the parish that hosted the show and it felt wonderful to donate a good percentage of the sales to that cause. I have 2 more shows on Nov. 1 and Nov. 8.

I have been thinking about adding a "line" of First Communion dresses and maybe Baptism gowns as well. So I bought some fabric to make a prototype or two and show it at the craft shows to see what peoples reaction to them will be. That should be an indicator for whether or not to proceed with this crazy idea. Of course, I got some fabric for clothes for myself (I need some tops). I also got some fabric for a halloween custom for DD#1 and some patterns that didn't make the photo.

Last weekend, we went apple picking and pumpkin hunting at our local fruit farm. We had a great time. DD works well in the backpack carrier, otherwise she would eat the rotten apples on the ground and generally run off in any direction. This way she is happy to sit up there, take in the view, and taste test the apples. She prefers one in each hand.

DS#3 picked about 10 pumpkins; I think this is the one he went home with! DS#1 took the longest to find his, he needs to make everything dramatic-he even needed to go to the farthest reaches of the patch just to make sure he had the "best one". DS#2 picked his, was happy-so much like his dad!
Happy Sewing!

Curtains and Robe

As promised, a photo of all the finished robes, and DD decided to hope into the photo, too. She loves the camera.

I also photographed the bedroom curtains I finished a couple of weeks ago. They have a goblet pleat on top. I wanted something interesting and a bit formal since the curtains are heavy. I will post instructions when I can figure out how to get the scanner to work with the laptop.

The colors of the close-up picture are a little more true to life than the full length photo. Now I just need to paint....

Finished Projects

This is DS#2's version of his robe (simplicity 3575). He picked the pattern and the Indian's fleece. Baseball is his favorite thing. DS#3 and DD needed to be in the photo as well, and for some reason DS#3 new way of being photographed is to pose like that.

I have a photo of DS#2 and The Banker in their robes together, but it must still be in the camera, so I'll post it later.

I am trying to figure out how to knit a lacy design (all I have done so far is straight knit and purl), so I practiced by doing this washcloth for DS#3.









I am working on a felted/fulled wool purse, but it is huge and taking forever. I like long projects, but my old purse is falling apart, so I hope it holds together until I get the new one finished. When it gets finished, I will post instructions for how to make one.
















I knitted this sweater for DS#3, but it took too long for me to do, so now it is for DD. To make it more feminine I added pink butterfly buttons. It is my second knitting project (the first was a scarf-imagine that!) Everything was fine until I added the button band, and then it got all stretched and woobly. I'll have to figure out that bit before I do that again!

First Post

Here it is, my first post on my first sewing/knitting/craft (with some parenting "humor" on the side) blog. I am a SAHM with 4 kids, 3 boys ages 9, 7, and 3 and a girl age 17 months on Wednesday. In fact I have the name "Lizsewcute" for her - my little Elizabeth and I call her my "button" hence the "Cute as a Button". I know it is used elsewhere and I hope it doesn't cause confusion, but it sums me up-I'm into my kids, I sew a lot for them, especially now that I can make cute, little, pink dresses!! I am also married to a wonderful man, The Banker. He hasn't cared too much for the stuff I've made for him, but there could be a reason for that: it's a bit too cutesy. I made him some pajama pants with Darth Vader that I thought he really would like since he likes Star Wars but didn't like it so much. I made him and DS#2 a pair of pajama pants with a doggie print that DS#2 selected, but The Banker didn't like those either, but DS did and got a thrill out of wearing the same pajamas as Dad. Lastly, I made The Banker a Cleveland Indians robe with Cleveland Browns pockets and belt. I also made a matching one for DS#2 who loves his, but The Banker just rolled his eyes. I'm not sure why concidering he said he wanted a warm robe, like mine. Who knows?!!! (the Browns fabric on it does look kinda goofy, but not enough to not like the whole thing...)