Well this winter we've had a few problems with our wood burning stove...unfortunately. We always seem to have problems no matter what we do. Any ways our carbon monoxide detectors kept going off. We thought it was the batteries at first. I was scared there was a problem but we called and talked to a fire chief in town and he said 90% of the time they go off is because of batteries. So we changed the batteries and they stopped...for a while. About a week or so later they started back up again. We changed batteries and they stopped. We kind of thought that one of the detectors had a short in it with the battery and was the cause of the problem seeing as they are all wired together so if one goes off they all go off. We tried a few experiments to try to test the detector including putting up a carbon monoxide detector that we bought years ago for our old house that was a ton of money. Well the high dollar one wasn't going off so I figured it probably was just the one detector, but I was still nervous. I called the fire department and asked them how much money it would cost to have them come check the house. They said it was free but that they'd have to bring out the big engines because that's where they keep their detectors. I said OK and I talked to Blake about it. He reassured me that everything was fine and we didn't need them to come...well the next night the detectors started going off again. I told Blake we needed to have everything checked out...and he gave in to my request since it was free. Well looky looky, my sneaky suspicion was right. We had carbon monoxide in our house. It made me want to cry when I found out that the highest levels were in our boys' room downstairs. We got it all aired out and were told we needed to do a few things before we started using our stove again. Grrrrr. We had to wake up the boys and bring them upstairs. We ended up staying the night at Blake's parents house to have some "fresh" air. The firefighters were super cute with our boys. They showed them their thermal imaging video device thingy, and of course let them wear their coats and get into the fire truck. Billy wouldn't have any part of it, of course but Ben and Brendon loved it! Ben was so excited because, like most little boys, he wants to be firefighter when he grows up. Since this occasion he really really wants to be a firefighter.
Brendon I don't think wanted to get into the truck. But he did wear a coat. Man the firefighters are getting younger and younger these days...or maybe I'm getting older and older. You could tell he was the youngest and I think they said the newest (for their department) because all the other firefighters were teasing him a ton. They even teased him and I said something too about his uniform being really clean like it hadn't been used or "broke in" yet. He said he had a dirty one in the truck he could get out. It was pretty fun and it was a good, fun, interesting experience...but one I'm kind of okay with if we don't have again.Now onto my crafts. This is the diaper bag that I made. I bought the material several months ago. I think maybe in October or something. But I had to borrow a machine and I had other things going on that I had to finish first so it took me a while to get this done. I kind of took the pattern off of my old quilted one that I bought forever ago. I think for as little experience I have that I did OK. I mean it could have turned out way worse. If it did turn out horrible my back up plan was since it would already be quilted to cut it up into squares and make a rag quilt out of it. I think I'm fine with the bag though!
It did turn out a little bigger that I had wanted it to be. I guess that was due to lack of vision on my part. If I were to do one again I know exactly how I would do it and wouldn't have to look so long and big and it would still have the amount of pockets that I would need and it would be WAY easier! You know you learn a lot from things like this but this bag will work and it was dang expensive to make you just go with it. This is the front. There are three pockets. The one that my wipes are in. The polka dotted one that has a Velcro flap and the third is behind the polka dotted one.
This is the back. These two polka dotted pockets weren't originally supposed to be there but it ended up having to be that way. I already had the pockets finished and quilted so I wasn't just not going to use them. But I think it makes the back look kind of neat and they are the perfect size for a sippy cup or bottle.
This is the inside. There are four pockets on each side. Plus the big center pocket.
This is just a better picture or the quilting and pockets so you can see what it looks like. I have to say it's nice to be able to carry all the stuff I want to carry again...although on Sundays it's heavy, but I don't have to take any other bag either so you know. It's a toss up. Well the next pictures are something I'm pretty proud of myself over. I had planned to do this with the left over material but I had to buy more. Still way worth it.
This is side one. I just measured a few of her 9-12 month dresses and decided how long I wanted it to be. And then just subtracted the inches that I wanted the trim to be. The straps were easy and then I just had to do the elastic and hand sew the buttons. Finding buttons to match was the hardest part of it. So I wanted it to fit as a dress for 9-12 months. As a tunic for 12-18 months and a shirt from 18-24 months. I think my planned worked so I'm excited. She could actually wear it right now but it goes down to her ankles...which is fine, just a long sun dress for now.
This is a close up of the top. Sorry for some reason this picture just keeps uploading sideways so...whatever. I did 2 buttons stacked cause I couldn't find any that were big. The thing that I'm impressed with is that I actually achieved at making it reversible!
Here's the other side. Blake likes the polka dot side better...but I'm in love with paisley material! You can't really tell but inside the paisley it is teal blue with some red green and yellow. This fabric is not photogenic.
Close up of the top on this side. I'm going to make bloomers for it but I haven't had time yet. I've kind of had cold feet about it too because I don't have a pattern...so I was just going to guess, but a friend of mine said she had a pattern and that I could borrow it so score on that one. They will be reversible too. You might wonder why reversible, but I wanted to have a dress each way and I figured it would take up less closet space this way, and kind of be fun. She can't wear them both at the same time...well now she can...haha.Well that's it for today, everybody else is doing good. Smiles all around
