P52: Week 2 {Made With Love}

SOOC; Nikon D5000; f/ 5.0; 1/30; focal length 34mm

This is my son, Micah, with his quilt.  It is the very first quilt I made.  I made it especially for him.  The quilt is full of imperfections and mistakes.  There are no straight lines and the binding is horrible, to say the least.  But him... That little boy is my greatest work, to date.  Both he and the quilt were made with love.

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Next week's theme is I Dreamed A Dream.

52 Faces: Week 2

This week, we had rain that brought with it warmer weather.  On Monday afternoon, the rain clouds stayed away long enough for Micah and I to get these shots.  He has always been fascinated by shoes.  A while ago, he started trying to put his own shoes on.  Recently, he realized that he can put his feet in mommy and daddy's shoes.  

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Look At What I Did

Back when I first gave birth to Micah, I attempted to make the monthly onesies that are so popular in the blog world.  It did not go well.  In fact it was a big fat FAIL.  {Second paragraph}  In short, I couldn't get the images to transfer using iron-on transfers. If only I knew then what I know now.

I stumbled upon a blog post tutorial of freezer paper stenciling. Blame Pinterest.  If you google freezer paper tutorial, you can find all sorts of tutorials, such as HERE, HERE, and HERE.  Those were the first three that came up when I googled.  The following is not a tutorial.  I'll leave that to the people who know what they're doing.  But look what I did!

I used a tee shirt that I had already.  

Cut out stencil.  I ended up using a razor blade knife, because apparently my Wal-Mart doesn't carry Exacto knives.

Iron on the stencil.

Add the fabric paint*.  Not too much at one time.  You don't want it to start drying before you get to it with the brush.

Paint it into the cutouts.  Again, a little at a time.

Allow it to dry a little, and peel the stencil off.

Finished product.

The last step is to wait for it to completely dry, then run the iron across it to seal the design.  But I was too excited to show this tonight.  I'll try to remember to let you know how it holds up.

So I had a few mistakes, of course.  I didn't allow the paint to dry enough before I removed the stencil.  That led to some of the fabric paint* smearing onto my fingers then onto the shirt.  I made sure to iron down all the little nooks and crannies, so that the paint wouldn't bleed under the stencil though.  It was also not that simple to remove the stencil that I had ironed down so well, especially the lettering, because there were so many small pieces where the stencil tore. Be sure to iron without steam.  That worked well for me.  I wasn't sure if the steam would interfere with the freezer paper sticking to the shirt.

All in all, I love this little craft project.  It was a little time consuming and tedious, because I had to very carefully cut out the stencil, but not too bad.  Seriously, I went to Wal-Mart at about 8:30pm to get the supplies, and finished at about 11:00pm.  Two and a half hours for one shirt.  However, I look forward to doing many more of these types of projects.  I have 150 square feet of freezer paper to go through after all.  Micah will definitely be rocking some custom shirts.

* I used Tulip fabric paint.

30x30 Remix: {Outfits 1-3}

So I've finally started my 30 for 30 Remix wardrobe challenge.  {Number 12 on my birthday bucket list.} I had actually started before, but every day I forgot to take pictures.  So I had to start again.

Outfit 1: I wore this outfit to church.  The pictures are the best I could do with what I had.  It was raining outside, so the lighting was not good. {I really need a tripod and remote.  At least the remote.}

Outfit 2: I wore this outfit at home.  It was comfortable, and allowed me to play with Micah without wanting to change clothes.

Outfit 3: I am wearing this outfit mostly at home.  I do have to go to the grocery store later.

So there you have my first three outfits.  Nothing spectacular, but they work for me.  Look for more outfits every three days or so.

Making a Camera Strap Cover

Everyday, I hop around the internet from blog to blog.  Tonight, I happened across Cindylouh's post that shows how to make a camera strap cover.  I had seen several tutorial's for camera straps covers before, but they never really caught my interest.  Actually, I was convinced that Mikey wouldn't be interested in a camera strap cover.  Since I've recently found the charger for my smaller Nikon {Nikon Coolpix P100}, I decided to try one for this camera.

Some of the supplies.  I also used the sewing machine, a tape measure,  and green thread.

It was actually much simpler than I thought it would be.  The hardest part was definitely turning the strap cover inside out.  I almost gave up, but I persevered.  I'm glad that I did.

I didn't take as many photos during as I thought I would.  Once I got started, I was so focused on sewing straight lines that I just forgot about the camera, even though it was sitting right beside me. My lines probably could have been straighter, but it works for me.  Overall, I like the strap cover.  It's a little shorter than I wanted it to be.  That's because I used pre-cut fabric that I had stashed.  I didn't have fusible light fleece interfacing either, so I just used what I had, which is quilt batting.  It was a little more messy to work with, but it worked for me. I also didn't iron the finished product.  I kind of like the puffy look.  I can feel how the strap cover helps cushion the weight of the camera.  I'm planning to make one for our Nikon D5000 too now that I've made this first one.   It's heavier than the Coolpix, so any relief is welcome. I think I'm going to make it reversible, just so I'll have options.  Now I just have to find fabric.

Scavenger Hunt: {Jan 8}

I'm joining Ashley for Scavenger Hunt Sunday.  The list of items is One Color, Laundry, Empty, One Dozen and Soft.  I must admit I had fun with this scavenger hunt.  I probably won't enter every week with the other two photo challenges that I'm doing, and my real world responsibilities {like parenting, cooking, cleaning, etc.}, but I'm going to try.  Here are my scavenger hunt items...

One Color:  This one just sort of happened.  I was thinking about doing several different things, but this shot worked. Green also just happens to be my favorite color.

Laundry:  I had the vision for what I wanted to do for this item immediately.  I didn't count on the fact that my laundry room is smaller than I thought. Here are both of the images that I chose.  The second one is the shot I was attempting to get.  It didn't come out quite like I wanted.

Notice the laundry reflected in the washer.

Daddy's, Mommy's, and Micah's laundry.

Empty:  This one found me.  I was headed to set up the shot that I had envisioned.  Then I noticed that my son had emptied my cup of markers as his personal form of entertainment.

One Dozen:  My husband helped with this one.  I was brainstorming, and he suggested that I try a shot of a dozen pairs of my shoes.  He's convinced that I have too many pairs of shoes.  I told him that it is impossible to have too many pairs of shoes.  I changed it up a bit and shot a photo of a dozen pairs of my family's shoes.

Dress shoes, sneakers, house shoes, and sandals.

Soft:  My husband helped with this one too.  He suggested I shoot Micah's stuffed animals.  They are all really soft.

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Alphabet Soup

Here are my ABCs:

A. Age: 28

B. Bed size: King - When Micah manages to sneak into our bed to sleep with us, he takes up way more space than his little body should need. We need the king sized bed we have.

C. Chore you hate: Laundry, particularly putting it up.

D. Dogs: None, but I want a miniature poodle really badly.  I am also thinking about a Maltese.  One or the other.

E. Essential start to your day: Hitting the snooze button.

F. Favorite color: Green

G. Gold or silver: Silver.

H. Height: 5'4"

I. Instruments: voice {if you want to call it an instrument}

J. Job title: Stay-at-Home Mom

K. Kids: Micah Tremaine

L. Live: Atlanta, Georgia

M. Mom’s name: Agnes

N. Nicknames: Tasha

O. Overnight hospital stays: Yes, two.  Once to have a very large fibroid removed, and again when I gave birth to Micah.

P. Pet peeve: Bad drivers.  I may or may not have a tiny bit of something vaguely resembling road rage.  But only from the comfort of my own vehicle. And I never confront other people except in my head.

Q. Quote from a movie: "Hakuna Matata.  It means no worries."

 

R. Right or left handed: Right.

S. Siblings: Two brothers and one sister.

T. Time you wake up: Whenever Micah wakes up.

U. Underwear: Whatever is comfortable.

V. Vegetables you dislike: Onions

W. What makes you run late: Not knowing what to wear.  I also tend to underestimate how long it takes to get from Point A to Point B.  This equals perpetual tardiness.

X. X-Rays you’ve had: Dental x-rays.  No broken bones, to date.

Y. Yummy food you make: Peach cobbler.  This is my specialty in the family.

Z. Zoo- favorite animal: Big cats.  Lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs. I like them all.