I caved

So today, I caved in. The contractors have been gone all week, and I have heard nothing from my landlord about the rest of the work.
So, today, I got frustrated enough to unpack my sewing room from the closet, move the cat box into the closet where is belongs, and I set my sewing/dining room up the way it was before the renovations started.
And to top it off, I actually got some sewing done. The first thing I did was a secret sewing project with one of my boys. We made a set of pillows that are going to be a gift. They are soooooo cool! He helped by stuffing them. Well, he picked out the fabric and the project too. I can't post pictures yet, but once the recipient gets them, I'll post pictures. Here's a hint, I used my Cricut to cut out the image I appliquéd onto the front. Cricut + Heat & Bond = Awesome! So awesome in fact that I'm working on an idea to teach a class on it.
Once the pillows were done, I finished cutting out the last pieces for a 30's romper and started sewing it. It's around halfway done right now, and I hope to finish it tomorrow. Only 3 weeks until the craft fair! EEEK!

Until next time...
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Boy Stuff Swap on AGPlaythings

So, before renovations began on my townhouse, I signed up for the Boy Stuff Swap on the AGPlaythings forum. I went back and forth about it since I haven't developed the character of my only boy doll, Jack. Jack is an Our Generation doll by Battat. The quality is no where near American Girl, but hey, Battat was smart enough to make boy dolls (well, at least for a little while). I purchased Jack the day I found out from my ultrasound that I was having a boy, back in 2002. We had gone shopping for baby stuff at Target, and we just so happened to walk by the dolls, and I had to take a look. At the time I had two AG dolls (Molly and Felicity), but they were at my mom's house a few states away. We joked and said it would be funny if our son came out with blonde hair and blue eyes since that is what Jack has. Well, my son has blonde hair and blue eyes. :)
This picture of Jack has him in his full meet outfit:

This picture was taken in 2006.

Jack doesn't get as much attention from me as my other dolls do, but boy, when my kids and their friends play with my dolls, Jack is one of the first ones chosen.

So, since this is a swap, I'll show you what I received since it arrived before I shipped my box: On my Facebook fan page

Now, while I didn't get pictures of all of the cool little stuff I sent out, I did get pictures of the items I made.

Shortalls (I remembered why I hadn't used this pattern in 10 years, I really wanted overalls)

Football PJ pants upcycled from my husband's old PJ pants

In my other crafty endeavors since my last post, my mother and I paired up to make an Angry Birds themed party for my youngest son.

She made the king pig cake my son requested.

And the birds as cupcakes (the one at the bottom of the picture is green like the pig)

And I had the task of making and filling the piñata

I took it from this...

to this. He wanted a king pig with a mustache, even though it's only one or the other in the game. And this was one tough pig. We had to start off with a kids' baseball bat, and it still took a lot for this pig to fork over the plastic eggs and candy. 

I wish the renovations were done on my house. They are for the most part, but there still needs a few things done before it's finished. My sliding glass door needs the trim and shoe molding put on, and the wall that it is on needs repaired from where they were working on the other side of it and cut through. And my living room needs painted. 

I came close to a tempter tantrum yesterday since I have so much that I need to get done both in my house and in my sewing area, that it just infuriates me that I can't put my house back together until they get done. And well, they left early on Friday, and I haven't heard anything from them or my landlord since. **sigh**

Redesigned the blog again!

So, the polka dots just aren't cutting it for me anymore. I looked through what Blogger had to offer, and after narrowing it down to a few background images, I settled on this floral print. The first thing that caught my attention was the color. Another thing that I love is that it is simple and elegant.

So, nothing new in sewing today. I packed up my sewing room when I got back from taking the kids to school. Everything is now in my pantry/storage closet, except my table, chairs, and desk. The white shelf is from my laundry/storage room outside that is still being worked on.

**super sad face**

So, last night while I was clearing off my desk and table I set aside my current projects (patterns and fabrics) and packed up all of creations for next month's Craft Fair. This morning as I packed everything into my my little pantry/sewing room I left my projects and my sewing machine towards the front. Why? Because tomorrow I'm heading to Charleston Scrapbooking to hang out with the ladies there and get some sewing done while the contractors are working my house.
Wednesday is my Momma's birthday, and we have a lunch date (she has a cake decorating class that evening). I'm not going to say how old she is, but what I will tell you is that she doesn't act or look her age.
Speaking of birthday's, my youngest son's birthday is Sunday. We are celebrating on Saturday with an Angry Birds theme. My little monster is quite addicted to this game, and hey, it's educational since it teaches about angles and such. Yeah, we'll go with that. He'll have a green pig cake (3D pig) accompanied by "bird" decorated cupcakes. We are planning on using a green ball pinata and decorating it as a pig, and then filling it with Easter eggs full of candy. Game concept: Pigs steal bird eggs, birds get angry, and birds launch themselves at pigs. If you aren't familiar with this addictive little game, search on Google, and you'll be hooked.
If I haven't said it yet, I'll say it now: I AM SO READY FOR THESE RENOVATIONS TO BE DONE!!!

Wow, almost 2 months of no posting.

So, I've been a bad blogger. I haven't touched either one of my blogs in almost 2 months. It's not that I haven't had the time, it's just that my time has been constantly interrupted. My landlord has finally decided to start some much needed renovations on my townhouse, and it's been two weeks now, and we still have a ways to go. Starting tomorrow they're are going to be working on the rear wall of my unit, and well, that sucks, since that is where my sewing desk is. The sliding door is going to be replaced (which is right next to my desk) and the sheetrock along the whole wall is going to be redone. Upstairs in the boys' room is probably going to need the same treatment.
Here is the front of the house before they started:

This is from May of last year. Not much changed before then and now, except it's gotten a little worse with all of the rain. Turns out there was a lot of termite damage. So, they had to replace the studs. In taking out the old studs, they tore up the sheetrock, so they had to replace that too. Here's a picture from inside of my living room:

Here it is after they were done for the day. A little more was needed for the windows and the rest of the band across the middle.

And this is how it looks now:

It still needs a little touch ups here and there (including the massive amount of cable wires), and then painted, but this is pretty much it. As for the plywood on the window, well, it's a long story.

In taking out the wall, they also took out my window. When they put it in, they put it in backwards, so they had to take it out and do it again. Then they put it in too close to one edge and too far from the other. **SIGH**  So, after the sheetrock guy came to do the mudding and taping a few days later, he left a mess. I was scraping mud off of my window and the window sill, and cleaning the dirt/dust/whatever out of the tracks of the window so it would slide open and closed. I vacuumed the track while it was closed, then opened the window and showed the contractor what the sheetrock guy had left. While the window was open I vacuumed that part of the track. Once done vacuuming I grabbed the WD-40  to lube the track up (just like I've done to the sliding doors in the rear of the house numerous times). Well, when I went to close the window, it wouldn't shut. Something in the top track was catching it at the last 2 inches. After tugging and pushing, it wouldn't budge. Are you kidding? It's getting ready to rain! Ugh! So, I reach up to the top of the window and kind of knock on it to loosen up whatever it is that is blocking it. Well, it didn't work. Instead the window broke. It looks like somebody punched it. While, yes, I can punch, I can't punch square on that high. Thankfully, the contractors where still packing up, so I asked them for help, and they happened to have a piece of plywood they could put over it as a temporary fix. I then used plastic bags to stuff into the gap it left. The sheetrock guys had left his mesh tape behind, so I used that to tape up the broken window so keep it together until either the landlord replaces it or I replace it.

So, yes, this is what has pretty much kept me from blogging and sewing the last two weeks. The contractors are here from 8am to 4pm during the week, and everyday I have to rearrange some part of my house for them to work. Right now my dining/sewing room has my laundry/storage room stuff in it (except the washer and dryer).
All in all, I will be SO glad when all of these renovations are done!

Now, I have been able to get some sewing done of rainy days, in the evenings, and on the weekends done. Here's what I've done since I've last posted (cell phone inside at night = poor quality):

I am going to be a vendor at Charleston Scrapbooking's Craft Fair April 15th - 17th. I'm so excited! I'm fluffing up my inventory, and hoping that it goes a lot better than the last two times I've tried selling in person. If you're in the neighborhood, stop on by!