Here in North Carolina, the beginning of September means it’s time for the crazy storms, getting ready for Halloween and planting the Fall vegetable garden.  I planted my garden this weekend and we have been having tornado warnings all day today, so the only thing left for me to do, is get out to the fabric store to buy fabric for my kid’s Halloween costumes.

Riley (my Daughter) wants to be Sleeping Beauty (it’s all about the pink dress) and Drew (my Son) is going to be Shrek.  We started calling him an Ogre when he would make very loud Ogre”ish” noises, so the costume will be perfect for his cute little personality.  I have the Sleeping Beauty pattern… nabbed it on Ebay several years ago because it’s out of print, and the ogre costume will be fairly easy to put together using a white tee shirt that I will put a few stitches in, some brown pants, boots and I’ll sew up a quick ill fitting vest.  I am so set this Halloween!

The storms have been a little scary.  Tornados touched down in my area at least twice today, so we put some pillows and blankets down on the floor in our interior hallway just in case.  The kids had such a blast pretending there was a “monster” storm coming and diving onto our blankets.  I love their little imaginations!

As for my garden… it was in sad shape.  This Summer has been so hot, that I didn’t get out there to weed as much as I should have.  The newspaper that I laid down on the soil did a great job of blocking out most of the weeds, but there was still a lot of work to be done before I could put in my new plants.  First thing I did was pull all the weeds, and then I pulled out all the squash, cucumber and tomato plants.  I left two tomato plants in that I planted late because they are just starting to produce their crops.  I also left all the jalapeno peppers and green peppers in because they are still producing and doing really well.  When I was pulling out my plants, I noticed that there were a ton of squash bugs hiding in the weeds and on the newspaper that I had put down as a weed blocking mulch.  I don’t want a bunch of squash bugs Wintering in my garden, so I threw some cracked corn right into the beds, and sent the chickens inside to clean things up for me.

I love gardening with my silly chickens (some of them ran when my husband was trying to take the picture, but there were about 15 chickens in the garden with me doing their share of the work).

I HATE throwing out scraps of fabric.  I am just not a wasteful person, so I don’t throw much out, I try to reduce, reuse, recycle. 

I couldn’t find a good use for those small scraps of fabric leftover from cutting quilts or making items for my daughter.  Finally I saw an awesome idea on disboards one day where one of the crafty people on there made rag burp cloths out of the scraps.  I did one and LOVE it!  My daughter uses it as a changing mat for her dolls.  Super cute. 

It also will be a great little extra for any of my baby having friends!  In my opinion, you can never have enough burp cloths.

Labor day is a time to remember the contribution of workers to our country. Knowing the value of hard work and efforts that are given to produce quality service and products, I took this time to reflect that even though my crafting is hard work, it is also my passion. It is easy to work when you do what you love, and many find that they may have to perform duties that they do not have a passion for.

My thoughts are with those that work hard to provide for their families. I hope that everyone can take time out to spend with family and friends.

Have a great Labor Day!

Now that Irene’s visit has come and gone, I now have to pause some of the projects that I am currently working on to clean up our yard. Even though I did not live directly in the path of the hurricane, we still had some strong winds and rain.

I will be picking up branches, leaves and some other debris from my yard and my pool will also need a good cleaning. I was glad that we did not have many large branches or trees fall.  The clean up should not take that long, allowing me to get back to the thing I love, crafting!

Do you have any stories about hurricane Irene?

What we did to refresh the event:

Read about it after the break!

It’s All About the Location – Air Conditioning in June?  THANK YOU!!  It wasn’t easy, but we found a place that would hold all of us, a clubhouse in Frankfort.  It was much more expensive than the previous shelter at the park, but worth the investment.  Being able to be out of the heat and in comfortable chairs was great.  It made the day more enjoyable and we didn’t have to fight flies off our food.  It also had a good  outdoor, but secure area for the kids to play.

Silent Auction – this was a huge hit!!  We needed to be able to raise money for the better location and the idea came from Mary.  We had about 40 items, all donated and we made enough to rent the building for next year.  Some of the things in the auction: homemade wine, family mementos (I bid HUGE on my mother in law’s old canning jar), gift baskets, handmade aprons (like the one I made below) you get the picture!  They don’t have to be high priced or even new items, just things that people will enjoy and get to compete over.  Anything with the family name is always a big hit!

See this apron in our store!

Traveling Awards – Farthest traveled, youngest attendee, senior attendee, etc.  I purchased some inexpensive plaques from a local trophy shop for about $7 a piece.

Gift – Custom printed magnets and buttons with the year.  I found these inexpensive ones on eBay.

Family Tree Share – As the keeper of the family tree, I preprinted some really cool diagrams and held  a 40 minute mini-class with tips on how to search for geneological information.

We got such great feedback and had a fantastic time, so we’re planning to outdo ourselves again.  Strap in clan, it’s going to be a blast.

Here’s a tiny peek:

The Photobooth is coming! – My daughter and I had my husband build this for her Ever-After Party and it was the hit of the day!  We’re packing this massive thing up with all the props to take it 600 miles.  These pictures are just so much fun and my niece, a budding photographer, has agreed to work the camera.

Face Painting - For the youngest attendees, always popular, I’ll be asking my tween granddaughter to help and perhaps her amazing brother could show some of the younger boys how to make origami.

Online Family Searches – I’m working through the details, but we are planning on having a laptop hooked up to allow all the newest additions to the family to be entered on to Ancestry.com.  Who knows how many new contacts we’ll find?

Most importantly, we’ll get to reconnect with family we haven’t seen in a while and meet all the new babies that have been fortunate enough to be born into this amazing group of people.

I can’t wait!!

Got any great reunion ideas??  Please share!

On Black Friday 2010, I asked my mom to watch the kids for a few minutes and dragged my fabulous husband to the local fabric store to hit their fabric sale.  We ended up spending about $70 for various flannel.  I got about 3 yards of each pattern.  For $70 I have given a dozen baby gifts, made several donations and have enough left to make plenty more baby sized rag quilts.

Besides saving my family budget hundreds of dollars, and giving thoughtful gifts and donations to people and causes that I believe in, I am so proud to give a homemade item.  I know how much I appreciate gifts that people put their time and energy into and I am so happy when I can share my love of crafting with others.

Do you ever give your crafts as gifts?  What is your favorite part of giving a handmade item?

We have been so busy this Summer already and it’s fixin to get even busier!!!  I have been consumed with tending the garden here at home and going to the church garden in between.  It feels great to feed my family healthy foods that I have a hand in growing. However, along with my successes, we are having a terrible time with squash bugs and I think I’m going to have to plant some additional plants to get us through September.  I’m so bummed about it because I normally have great luck with my squash crop.

The chickens are also demanding a lot of time.  The coop needs a lot more cleaning when it’s hot out because it gets very stinky.  I had one chicken go broody and hatched out two babies.  When a chicken goes broody, they want to sit on eggs to hatch them.  My kids and I had a great time watching the whole process and now the chicks are about 2 weeks old.  Ask my three year old about how a chick is born and she can tell you more than 99% of adults.  Makes a Mama proud to see how all the hard work I put into educating my kids is paying off… big time.  Nothing beats a child who understands the food chain.

I haven’t given up sewing either!!  I had a childhood friend that was having her first baby and I wanted to make her a quilt.  We visited family last week and I wanted to give it to her in person, so that took up about a week of my extra time.  I went and bought special fabric (I didn’t have any that was just right in my stash) and made a really cute quilt.  She seemed to like it and I hope it gets a lot of use from her new bundle.  I really wish I had gotten a picture!!  Bummer!!  It was all neutral fabrics because she doesn’t want to know if she is having a boy or a girl.  Gotta love a surprise baby!  Both of my kiddos were also surprises!!  I found a cute elephant print and owl print and a green that worked well with both prints.  I used a coupon, but wowsa, those name brand fabrics are really expensive!!

I also made my daughter a little dress for her dress-up box.  She wanted sleeping beauty, so I used a peasant style pattern and princess-a-fied it.  It turned out super cute and she is so happy with it.  I am as well; the cheapo dress at Walmart was $20 and I made this version for about $6.00.  I think it’s much cuter, and also a lot cooler because it’s made from cotton instead of poly blends.

Our trip to NJ was so much fun.  My daughter played non-stop and the baby had fun watching all the kids run around.  We really enjoyed our visit to Liberty Science Center, Liberty State Park and the American Museum of Natural History in NYC.  The kids loved getting out and being entertained while they learned something at the same time.  I hope that we can do activities like this every time we visit.  That area of the country has so much to offer children and they can learn so much by experiencing a subject rather than reading about it.

We have more garden time, chicken chores, sewing jobs, vacation, birthdays, family portraits and more in the next several weeks.  I know we are an active family, but I am exhausted just thinking about our commitments coming up.

What is your family up to this Summer??

Gardening is a fun way for me to express my creativity.  I used to grow tons of roses and other flowers for cutting and displaying on my desk at work and in my home.  Ever since my children were born, I’ve been more focused on growing vegetables.

Last year I was pregnant and my veggie garden didn’t do as well as I would have liked.  This year, I’ve been working really hard to make sure my harvests are abundant.  I’ve also joined a fabulous community garden where everyone works together to grow tons of different types of food.

So far this season, we have enjoyed, tons of mixed lettuce, romaine, spinach, strawberries, radishes, beets, turnips, snow peas, broccoli, asparagus, swiss chard, chinese cabbage, and garlic.  All this from our community garden!!  I feel so blessed to be part of that group.

At home, I have planted, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, Winter squash, Summer squash, zucchini and watermelon.  I’ve also put in some asparagus starts, but they won’t be ready to harvest for two years.  Yikes!!  I didn’t put in any Spring veggies here at home, so we are going to have to wait until the Summer veggies come in.

Today I was weeding (the never ending chore) and noticed that my cucumbers have blooms and my tomato plants have small fruits on them!  I was so excited!!  My three year old was also super happy and excited.  We will have some homegrown vegetables soon!!

We eat a lot of eggs and I hope to sell a few dozen a week in the Fall.  I like that I control what the birds eat, where they live, how much the get to free range.  I know they are happy, healthy and well cared for.

Collecting eggs and playing with and watching the birds are the fun parts of having chickens.  However, the cleaning of the chicken coop is the part that is not so much fun.  I took advantage of my husband being home to watch the children while I shoveled the old pine shavings out of the coop and put the new bedding in.  The coop must stay clean because that is all part of keeping the chickens healthy and happy.  I wouldn’t want to eat eggs from a dirty chicken coop, so I have to keep up with that chore!!!

Here’s some pictures of our coops and our girls. 

Our lovely chicken coop

Two of our six nesting boxes

Water, oyster shell, pop door

What chores do your hobbies create?