I Spy Bags - Finally!

I've been talking about I Spy Bags now for what seems like a year. Well, I finally have some to show off! Never heard of an I Spy Bag? They're bags made of fleece or fabric filled with poly pellets and little buttons or trinkets. Kids can manipulate the pellets through the bag to move things around and see what all is in there. Keeps little fingers busy!

 In my I spy Bags, I add fun buttons, colorful little stones, beads, and whatever else I might find that would be fun for a child to find. I also add letter beads that spell out various phrases, or I can make a name if you choose. For example, on my "Go Green" bag (above), I added the prase "Go Green". Silly, I know.

These bags are made from super soft fleece, but regular cotton fabric could be used as well. If you wanted to make a bag of your very own, check out Katie's tutorial over on Little Monkeys. In case you're wondering about the bags pictured above with the circle window, I did those on my embroidery machine instead of a regular sewing machine. You could achieve the same effect on a sewing machine, you just have to have a satin or zig-zag stitch, and be able to sew really good circles. :)

Or, if you just want to take the easy way out, you can check out what I have to offer in my shop. The bags pictured above are available now! More patterns and designs will be added soon.

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Happy Birthday, Little Man!

My boy turned two today. It's hard to believe that this little guy was so tiny, not so long ago. It seemed like he would never grow into those jammies!

And here he is, two years later; getting taller by the day, learning from everything he sees, and also learning how to be a little charmer. You have to watch out for those sparkling blue eyes.

He's mischievous, sweet, daring, cuddly, happy, charming, and a bundle of energy all rolled into one adorable little person.

And I wouldn't have him any other way. Happy Birthday to my little guy - never change.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

I think last night was quite possibly one of the worst nights of my life. As I mentioned the other day, we took a trip north to visit my parents. In Pennsylvania. We live in Georgia. That's 12 hours. With a 4-year old and an almost 2-year old. Yeah.

The drive up wasn't too bad; it seemed to go quickly, the kids slept well for the most part. Of course young mister Pukey McPukerson displayed his newfound affliction - car sickness - before we even got out of the state of Georgia. So that was fun. Little did I know that that was only the beginning! But we made it in about 12 hours, then crashed as soon as we got in the door at my parents' house. The hubs and I weren't worth anything for the next two days, but the kids and grandparents were happy, and that was the point.

So, we had a nice visit, did lots of fun things, but then it was time to leave. We decided again to drive at night that way the kids would sleep, wouldn't need as many stops, blah blah blah. You know what they say about 'best laid plans'? Prime example right here.

We got everything loaded up and hit the road around 8:30, figuring that was plenty of time for dinner to have digested at least a little bit. Well, 30 minutes later, Pukey McPukerson made another appearance and we had to stop. Got that cleaned up, jammies changed, everything's hunky-dorey. For about two hours.

As soon as it wasn't my turn to drive anymore and I finally had a chance to take a nap, the little man decides he doesn't want to be in his carseat anymore, after vomiting yet again. I figured I would be able to lay down on the floor of the van and cuddle with him a bit and we could both nap. Disclaimer: I know kids should be buckled into carseats at all times, and I know it's illegal, so don't send me hate mail.

Have you ever spent the night on the floor of a moving mini-van with a sleeping toddler using you as a cot? It's not pleasant. Thank goodness for stow and go seating is all I'm saying. So, it's 2am, I'm trying to get comfortable with a vomitous kid sprawled out on top of me, and I'm completely miserable. I decide then and there that we're flying to grandma's house next time. I don't care how much it will cost! We'll see how that goes.

Anyway, so I've been out of town with severely limited internet access, which is why things have been a little quiet around here. I'm now behind in my posting for the Ultimate Blog Challenge, but I'll be catching up throughout the rest of this week and over the weekend. Stay tuned for more!

**If this post seems kind of rambling, it's because I'm still sleep-deprived. :)

To Grandmother's House We Go...

Note: This blog may or may not contain information about crafting.. :) Tomorrow night we're hitting the road, driving from Atlanta to the middle of Pennsylvania. Overnight. With a 4-year old and an almost 2-year old. It's a 12-hour drive. To say I'm not looking forward to it would be the understatement of the year. So why do we do it? Because flying the four of us to Harrisburg would be ridiculously expensive and too much of a hassle. Why not take the train? Honestly, I would love to take the train; but again, ridiculously expensive, and it would actually take longer than driving would. Go figure.

So, to grandmother's house we go. Over the river and through the woods, times 5 (at least). We've made this drive so many times, it really barely phases us anymore. We've come to the conclusion that traveling at night is the best option for us; there's less traffic, the kids sleep at least part of the way (bliss), they need fewer stops and less entertainment. Of course they're generally so excited that they're going to see their grandparents that they finally literally pass out from sheer exhaustion. But that's okay, I'll take it.

If I had been thinking over this past weekend, I would have made up some entertaining projects for the kidlets to do while they're literally jumping up and down in their car seats with excitement. I've been wanting to make "I Spy" bags for quite a while, but for some reason just haven't gotten around to doing it yet. That actually might be a fun project to do with Grandma while we're there, then they can play with them on the way home. Hmmm...

Also while we're visiting, I'm planning to tackle a few craft projects, such as the simple skirt I mentioned yesterday, a fabric business card holder or two, and maybe a few zippered pouches.

The one downside of visiting my parents (aside from the drive) is the lack of high-speed internet. I'm not sure how I'm going to survive! I can't even pick up 3G on my iPhone most of the time, since they seem to live in a 3G void. How can that happen in this day and age? But, I committed to posting for 30 days, so I'm going to do it. I might have to hang out at McDonalds everyday and take advantage of their free wi-fi, but at least they have a playground...