— draw that pig, encouragement, Family Time, Sneak Peek, Winter —

A Peek Into What I’ve Been Creating and Loving This Past Week

February 4, 2018

WELCOME to my weekly post where I share about what I’m creating right now and what I’m loving, and give you a peek into what we’ve been up to this past week.

*** What I’m creating …..

This week in my humble sewing studio I’ve been working a lot with laminated cotton. Have you heard of laminated cotton? It is wonderful fabric, especially popular in the world of sewing up baby and kid items! Laminated cotton is :

  • Non-toxic and kid safe
  • Waterproof
  • Flexible and lightweight
  • Machine washable

Laminated cotton is made of a base of 100% cotton fabric. A thin layer of polyurethane is adhered (using heat) to the printed side of the cotton fabric. This coating does not contain BPA, Phthalates or lead. Because the coating is so thin, the fabric remains relatively soft and pliable while gaining the benefit of being waterproof. Discovering laminated cotton opened up a whole bunch of ideas in my world of sewing for babies. Think: changing pad covers, bibs, splat mats, wet bags and more! Waterproof fabrics that are available in beautiful prints AND easy to work with and care for? Yes, please!

I use Wonder Clips to hold my laminated cotton in place while I sew. This prevents holes in the fabric.

This week I’m sewing up changing pad covers to fill several Etsy orders. These changing pad covers are awesome to use in a home nursery or even in a daycare center! If your little one springs a leak during a diaper change, or a diaper blow-out gets away from you, no need to throw the whole changing pad cover in the wash. Simply, spray, and wipe clean! Easy, peasy. Order yours in my Etsy shop here.

This School Days fabric would look awesome in a daycare center!

And while I had my sewing machine all set up to sew laminated cotton, I also whipped up two little zip pouches for my friend’s dog. Seems her pup keeps braving the electric fence. Then he starts wandering too dangerously close to the highway, and nosing his way through a very large national park! She bought him a doggie GPS tracker, but needed a way to keep it dry and secured to his collar. I hope these help!

Two mini zip pouches for Kodi! The laminated cotton will keep his tracker dry, while the elastic straps will secure the pouch to his collar.

My kids and I also finally got around to making some hard lotion bars. We had ordered the ingredients and intended to make these for Christmas gifts. But, well ….. you know how it goes. I need to remember to plan my handmade Christmas gifts in the summer. Really, I do. Anyway, these will make great teacher Valentine’s Day gifts. And there are a few extra for us, too! Have you ever tried hard lotion bars? They. Are. Amazing. All natural, simple to make, and superb at moisturizing dry winter skin. They deserve a post all of their own — coming soon! In the meantime, if you can’t wait, you can surely find tutorials all over the web to give making them a go!

I was thrilled when James said he wanted to help! I had figured on a girls-only project.

 

Waiting for the lotion bars to harden.

 

Ta-da! All ready! And in a cute snowflake shape for winterized skin!

*** What I’m loving …..

My family has taken a beach vacation to the shores of South Jersey every year since I was born! And I have continued this tradition with my own family. I love that I was able to put down a deposit on our beach house rental in Ocean City for this July. Squee! I can’t wait! We will be there for Rhianna’s birthday, and she is already planning her “beach-themed” birthday cake. 🙂

I’m also loving that my kids and I have been reading fairly consistently these past few weeks. I finished my first book of the year You’ll Get Through This: Hope and Help for Your Turbulent Times by Max Lucado. Although I wasn’t too sure I was loving this book, I decided that it was well worth the read in my eyes after all. The author uses the biblical story of Joseph — his abandonment, enslavement, mistreatment and more — to demonstrate how God uses intended evil for ultimate good. He makes parallels throughout the book to modern, real-life “Joseph-like” scenarios as a way to encourage us all to keep the faith and never give up because of our circumstances in life. In the end, I did come away with a more open mind, and some worthy quotes for my own inspiration.

On my nightstand now (and in my work tote) is Crystal Paine’s Say Goodbye to Survival Mode. I am a long-time fan of Crystal, and, in fact, I did listen to parts of her book in the past (before I had to pay full price for whatever app that was). I never did finish listening to the whole book, and I know this is an area of my life where I could absolutely use some direction and encouragement. So this is my current read.

My kiddos, too, have been reading more. James finished his library book last week, and Rhianna needed to renew hers. So we took a jaunt to our local library yesterday.

James has been choosing from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.

And we even got in some snuggly reading time on the couch last night!

Rhianna has been reading a book about all things outer space and galaxies, etc. I’m so impressed! The book reminds me of an upper level textbook!

And lastly, both kiddos have been expressing an interest in signing up for Little League (softball and baseball). So, they signed up yesterday, and soon we’ll be off and running! I think they are still trying to find their interest niche (besides video games, for the love). They don’t seem to love sports, and both are a little timid in this arena. But I do encourage them to step out of their comfort zone at times. So I am VERY proud of them for making the leap.

How was YOUR week? I hope you made some memories, made some progress toward your goals, and took some time to care for yourself, too! I would love to hear what is going on in your life. Leave me a comment below. <3