Another awesome GIVEAWAY!

Check out Stephanie's blog here for an amazing giveaway worth over $300! Oh, the things I could do with one of these babies...

T-Shirt Bag Tutorial!

Don't you love it when you write up your post, think you've posted it, then check 6 days later, and realize that you only saved it, but didn't post it?!

Here is the Tutorial I posted saved last week for you. Enjoy!

I needed two bags, so this tutorial is for two, but can easily be adapted for fewer or more, as needed.

Materials Needed:
2 T-shirt, different colors (the size of the shirt will determine the size of the bag.
2 yards 5/8” grosgrain ribbon (you need 1 yard for each bag)
4 Eye holes/Grommets
Coordinating sewing machine thread
Contrasting Embroidery Floss
Freezer Paper
Tailor’s chalk/pen/pencil
Scissors
Hammer
Iron

Other tools (helpful, but not necessary):
Rotary Cutter
Clear Ruler
Cutting Mat
Yard Stick
Safety Pin*

1. Cut off the top of the t-shirts, just under the arm holes. I just have a 12 inch clear ruler and a 15 inch cutting mat, so I lined my yardstick up, armpit to armpit, and drew a line. Then, I used my rotary cutter to quickly cut through both layers of the t-shirt. And, look! The sides are done! Now for the top and bottom…

2. The unfinished side (the side where you just cut), is the top. Turn the t-shirt inside out, then fold over 1¼ inches. Decide where you want your first grommet to be and pin. Put a second pin about an inch from the first, making sure the pins are going through only 2 layers of fabric.

3. Flip the shirt right-side out. Measure down ½” from the top where your pins are, and make a little mark by both pins.

4. Follow the instructions that come with your eye holes, and attach them to your bag.

5. Flip the shirt inside out again, and put one end of your grosgrain ribbon through one of the eye holes. Beginning at that eye hole, fold top over 1¼”, and pin making sure to keep the ribbon at the underside top of your fold. You want to make sure that your pinning begins at one hole, and ends at the other, so you can thread the other end of the ribbon through the second eye hole.

6. Make sure the ends of the ribbon are hanging out of the top, and using the LEFT side of your presser foot, sew a hem all the way around, and be sure to backstitch at both the beginning and the end, and avoid catching the ribbon while sewing.

7. Find a font you like, then just type whatever letters you need, and print them out. For the “T”, I used Harry P font that I downloaded from dafont.com. It is Bold faced, outline (in Format, then Font), and 350pt. The “L” is the Transformers font, also from dafont, outlined, and 350pt. Then, trace the letters onto freezer paper.

8. Flip the bag again so the right side is out. Your bottom hem will be where the bottom hem on the t-shirt is. So, using that as a guide, decide where you want your image/letter to be placed. With the SHINEY SIDE DOWN (against the fabric), iron the freezer paper onto your bag.

9. Place pins as a guideline around where your image is, and turn inside out (I know, there’s a lot of flipping and turning!).

10. Cut off a chunk (I used a sleeve) from the other t-shirt, and pin to the wrong side of your bag, in the middle of your pin guidelines. Pin through both layers of fabric, and the freezer paper. Then, you guessed it, turn it right side out again.

11. Using your image as a guide, straight stitch all the way around.

12. Carefully pull the freezer paper off. If you rip too hard, you may also rip the stitching out - trust me! Now, for the hard part…

13. Verrrry carefully, cut just the top layer away about 1/8" - 1/4" from the inside of your stitching.

14. Using ½ - 1 strand of embroidery floss, hand stitch around the letter, making knots every few stitches.

15.  With the shirt inside out, and using the bottom hem as a guide, sew a seam 1/4" from the shirt's hem.

16.  Turn the bag rightside out, pull the top so it is completely flat, and tie a knot in the ribbon.

  
And, Voila! You are done!

Giveaway with K!

So, I've been super busy getting things ready to reopen my etsy shop, and we are leaving for vacation in two days, so I'm going to try to get that promised tutorial up this afternoon or tomorrow. Until then, Kindra is having an awesome giveaway - check it out here!

Kansas City

On Friday morning, we attended the funeral and graveside services for our beloved aunt, but weren't able to stay for the luncheon. We had a loooooong drive ahead of us, so we hit the road right after we changed our clothes.

We managed to miss the construction by taking a different route home. Did you know there's an ocean in Nebraska?

So, we finally made it home around 7:30pm, dropped my uncle off at his house, and picked up my dad and boys for the last leg of our journey down to KC for a family reunion.

Saturday was reunion day, so we went, chatted, ate too much, admired my great-uncle's sculpting, then left in search of the Rainforest Cafe.

We ate at the Rainforest when Awesome was 2, so he doesn't really remember it.  Bug was almost 6, so he's been talking about how awesome it was for the last 3 years.  Well, it's gone.  So, my little brother took us to the Legends mall where we found T-Rex, which is a lot like a prehistoric RC.  The wait was over an hour, so we just wandered around a little, talked dad and lil' bro out of Hooters, and wound up at Wild Bill's Legendary Steakhouse and Saloon where Awesome rode the bull, and found out our waitress' grandparents live in my hometown.  Small world.

We could have easily spent the entire night just wandering around Legends.  Definitely a place to visit if you're ever in KC (just don't stay at the Doubletree Hotel - they charge for everything, including local phone calls)!

I'll be back soon with a little tutorial I'm working on!

Chadron Adventure

So, I know I said it would be Tuesday or Wednesday when I would post it again, and here it is on Friday.  I've been reading - a lot.  In the past 2 weeks, I have managed to read The Boarder, The Help, and the 3rd - 6th books in the Stephanie Plum series.  I've just started Water For Elephants, have Middlesex, Under the Tuscan Sun (I've seen the movie 50 times, but have never read the book), and I Capture the Castle (I recently watched this movie on Netflix, and loved it, then I found the book by accident at the library).  The local library is also holding the 7th - 10th books in the Stephanie Plum series that my mom is going to pick up for me today and bring them out when she comes to pick up my niece and nephew who are spending the day with us.  I won't even mention the dozen or so new books sitting in my bookcase that are waiting to be read, too!

A pic of the autogate that is on the road between the two Stewart farms.

Last Thursday was a very frustrating, very long, and kind of scary day for us.  We left town around 7am, and expected to be in Chadron around noon, local time.  (*When ever I say or read the name "Chadron", it's always with a french accent in my mind.  Don't know why that is, but it is.)  Due to various reasons, but mostly due to the ungodly amount of road construction we encountered, we arrived about an hour and a half later than planned.  On our way, we pulled on to Autogate road to take a couple of pictures of the house my great-uncle had built for Irene when they were married.  We didn't have the heart to head over the next hill to see what horrible shape the old family farm was in (that's another long, bitter story).  We were being spied on as I was taking pictures and picking wheat trying to stop the few handfuls of wheat that kept jumping into my hand.

We got into town, checked into the hotel, then looked for the Highland Cemetery south of town.  Apparently, there are 2 Highland Cemetery, and the one I thought we wanted was only about 3.5 miles out, but the one we really wanted was around 25 miles out of town, not too far from where we had stopped to take pictures.  We didn't know that when we had stopped.

My mom and uncle had an appointment at 3:30 with the estate lawyer, so I dropped them off, then went to pick up some flowers for my 2 great-uncles, my grandparents, and my aunt.  And off I went.  I stopped at Greenwood Cemetery to make sure everybody there had flowers, and looked nice for Friday's graveside services.  Then, I went to the Catholic cemetery where my grandparents' stillborn baby girl is buried.  I was able to find a bright hot pink Gerbera Daisy for her, and as I was shoving it into the ground, I was disappointed to notice that her view of the crucifix is now obscured.

I had some time to kill, as I was still waiting for mom to call me to pick her and uncle up, so I went to the viewing.  I looked and looked, but failed to find Irene in that face.  Mom's godmother was there, so I chatted with her for a few minutes till mom called.  I picked them up, and we were debating on whether we wanted to head out to Highland Cemetery before we ate or after.  The skies to the north were really black, and the southern skies didn't look much better.  So, we put off supper for another hour, and were hoping to miss the heavy rain.  It barely sprinkled on us the entire time we were driving.  The whole way out there, mom was making worrisome comments about the rocks hitting the car...it's her new baby.  When we got out at the cemetery, we did notice a huge temperature change, but just shrugged it off.

We got past Chadron State Park, on our way back to town, when we started noticing things.  "Huh, looks like there was some rain while we were gone."  "Do you remember seeing those branches down earlier?"  "OH MY GOD!"

This is what was on the ground when we went back by Greenwood Cemetery to check on the flowers.  For the most part, the flowers survived.

This window is just down the hallway from our rooms.

The trailer park on the South edge of town got hit the worst.  The next 3 pictures are from there.  The middle one is part of a trailer that was tossed into a field along the east side of the park.

So, yeah.  I saved my mom's new car from complete destruction.  Okay, maybe not complete destruction, but it sounds good!

Aunti Em! Auntie Em!

So, we're in Chadron. It took us 1.5 hours longer than expected to get here. Early this evening, we left town to go find a cemetery out in the middle of nowhere. We were only gone about an hour, and we came back to a town that was damaged by horizontally flying quarter size hail, strong winds, and a tornado. Our hotel had lost power for several hours, but it's back on, now.

The funeral is tomorrow morning, then we're leaving (after a stop at the lawyer's office - we're still trying to get Faye's estate business finished), but I'll fill you in on the excitement, with pictures, and a tutorial next week. After the funeral, we'll be driving 6 - 7.5 hours (depending on construction) to get home. Then, we pick up my dad and boys and drive another 4.5 - 5 hours to Kansas City for a family reunion this weekend. So, yeah...it might be Tuesday or Wednesday before I get back to blogging!

Bittersweet Birthday

Irene (Wolvington) Stewart

July 16, 1926 - July 15, 2010

Dear Irene,
Although my memories of you don't begin until my 4th or 5th year of life, I know that you have always been a part of it. I still remember eating at "our" restaurant when you showed me how Indians fed their babies. I don't remember how old I was. It was sometime during the four years after Charles died, but before we lost Grandma. You dipped my straw into my soda, put a finger over one end, then told me to open my mouth. Once the open end of the straw was over my mouth, you moved your finger, and the soda was released. I believed you at the time, and now it's just a funny story.

I remember chasing (and getting chased by) the geese at your house in the country. Your country home always amazed me. Just up the hill from Faye's, it seemed so little from the outside, but so big on the inside. I remember helping you, Grandma, and Mom in the kitchen, getting ready for one of our big family dinners. Then, eating in the dining room that always seemed so huge. There were three doors off the living room, one I knew led to the kitchen. I assumed the other two led to your bedroom and the bathroom. It wasn't until just a few years ago that I found out you never had indoor plumbing there, and that your home is even more amazing because Charles built that house as a wedding present for you.

The weather here has been kind of unpleasant. Lots of heat and humidity. My mother-in-law's flowers seem to love it. The boys brought home a couple of bouquets from her garden. I don't have many flowers planted, yet. Just my hydrangeas (I've gotten 16 blooms from my tiny little plant this year!) and one rose bush. Jeremy accidentally sprayed my other roses with weed killer. It's starting to come back though. The Lily of the Valleys that I transplanted from Grandpa's are doing well. They've almost completely taken over the entire bed I put them in! I also planted a lilac bush, I'm hoping it'll hide the dumpster soon! We'll be putting new siding on the house next year, and as soon as that is done, I'm finally going to plant my "field" of daisies.

I had planned to call you today, to tell you happy birthday and to surprise you with the news of our visit in a month. I found out yesterday afternoon that if I call, you won't answer this time.  You'll be celebrating your 84th birthday with Grandma, Grandpa, Faye, Charles, and many other loved ones.  Give them all big hugs and kisses for me!  I'll see you next Friday, though, and I'll bring some flowers.

Love,