I am STILL doing my happy dance!  There were 25 applicants for the 18 available spots in the pre-k program at the school for this fall and I have REALLY been sweating it since for us it's all or nothing - if they only accepted three, or two then we couldn't send any of them.  I am SO HAPPY to report that they all four got in - YEEHAW!!!  Would it be terrible if I started counting down now?

        

The Birmingham News reported that WalMart.com is celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday and the 13th annual Read Across America day by offering children's books for $3 and up with free shipping for the rest of the month. Get more details and a list of books at WalMart.com.

        

Click Here to download a free Dora the Explorer game when you register to receive updates on Nickelodeon Video downloads and other Nick, Jr. offers. Thanks to Robin at Pink Coupon Cafe for this tip!

        

Well I didn't win the sewing machine - but I DID win the Pilsbury Honey Biscuit giveaway over at I Heart Savings   I am excited to have won two coupons for free cans of Honey Butter Biscuits along with a butter dish and knife.  The last time I remember winning anything, I was about ten and actually drew my own name out of a hat during halftime at a basketball game, maybe my luck is changing.  Thanks a bunch Michelle for the opportunity!

        

I wrote a post at the Sewing Business blog today about an Extreme Sewing Contest and it looked like so much fun that I just had to enter.  The grand prize is a brand new Janome sewing machine and as you can see from these pictures my ancient, but much loved Bernina could use a rest.  To enter the contest all you have to do is submit a picture of yourself "sewing" in an extreme location.



I've got four year old quadruplets, a five year old son, and not near enough sewing time so I figured if you can't beat'm, join'm!



My husband, the beekeeper, thought this was hilarious!  Since I'm allergic to bees, it was definitely extreme sewing for me.  Thank goodness it was a rainy day and all the bees were snug inside!

        

Wow!!  I can't believe that it's been almost two months since my last blog post.  It's been even crazier here than usually lately since my mom (and huge help with childcare) was sick for about a month due to an allergic reaction from poison ivy, and I've been working on two big course construction projects.  I've got one of them done, and the other is about half done so I thought I'd take a short break and come apologize to anyone who might have missed me   I plan to do a much better job of keeping up for the rest of the year!

Also, I found out that WalMart is giving away free samples of Garnier Nutrisioniste eye cream (while supplies last) and I simply LOVE this stuff so I wanted to share.  Just go to this page at WalMart and fill out your name and address so you can get your own free sample.

        

Last year we planted several butterfly bushes around the kids' play yard, and this spring we planted a bunch of cherry bushes on the other side of the play yard.  Of course there's no way that cherry trees would do well in our southern climate, but these cherry bushes were supposed to be hardier and we had hoped to maybe have some cherries next year.  Unfortunately, only one of them made it through the heatwave we had this summer, and I don't think we're going to get any cherries without at least two bushes for pollination.  The good news is - the butterfly bushes are looking beautiful and are doing their job!

        

I recently got one of those tiny netbook computers since I work mainly online, so that I can get online from anywhere without having to lug around a lot of equipment and now I don't how I ever lived without it   Well I found this adorable hot pink case for it on eBay for cheap ($6 - it's awesome and has lots of pockets), but when it got here I HATED the strap.  It was way too long, especially for such a small case, and when I tried adjusting it to shorten the length it became too bulky to carry comfortably.



I found some similar clips at Michael's and then had a great time trying to decide which ribbon I wanted to use.  I really could've taken the original strap apart and used the those clips, but I decided to save the strap just in case I might need it at some future point.

I folded the original strap while it was still attached to the netbook case to figure out what length I wanted - I determined that I wanted the final length to be about 10", so I cut a 21" piece of the ribbon to allow for doubling and for a seam.

Next I laced the two clips through the ribbon, overlapped the ends 1/2", and stitched the ribbon closed so that it resembled a ring.  Then I laid the strap out flat with the clips at either end, with the seam where I wanted it, and pinned it in place.  The final step was to stitch within 1/8" of each long edge of the ribbon and across at each end to hold the clips in place.

I LOVE the new look and it's so much easier to carry now.  Someone truly ambitious could even make a variety of different handles for their laptop or netbook case to suit every mood!

 

        

We were very lucky that Jacob's cousins, Sarah Lynn and Mark, were able to make it to his birthday party - this is the first year that their annual trip from Korea came near his birthday.  Our cousin Chris was also able to make it down from Pennsylvania and the kids were all happy that he got to come to the party too.

Of course I think they were more excited about our surprise guest, SpongeBob SquarePants!  Jacob is a huge fan so we sent him an invitation quite awhile back, but we were all suprised that SpongeBob was able to make it   A HUGE thanks to Aunt Diana for hooking us up with SpongeBob and for an awesome party, and to all the guests who gave Jacob a special day!!!

                 

        

 
I saw someone wearing a similar version of this cute no-sew shrug, so it's not my original idea, but that shrug was made from an adorable, designer label t-shirt with a fancy finished collar and sleeves, while this one started out as a cheapo blank long-sleeved t-shirt that I got at the craft store for $3.

The first step was getting rid of the icky collar and cuffs, which I carefully cut off close to the stitch line and then stored in a sandwich bag for some future project.



Next I measured to find the center line of the shirt and drew in a chalk cutting line, I also drew in a bit of a V-neckline at the top by measuring three inches down the center line and three inches off the center along the neckline.  For the tie strips I measured over two inches off the center line, and up ten inches from the hemline - which I later changed to nine inches as you can see from my chalk lines.  I would recommend that you try on the shirt before doing any marking and figure out how short you want the final shirt to be, then mark it with chalk or a pin, so that you don't have to move the shirt around once you've got it nice and flat and have started marking.

 
The final step is to cut along the lines - you should cut the horizontal lines first, over to the mark for the ties, then along the outer tie lines up to the new hem, and then lift the ties to finish cutting the back hemline.  Now you can lift the shirt if you want to finish cutting the centerline.  There is no need to finish the edges since they won't unravel and they'll roll up quite nicely after washing.  If I can find a pink long sleeved t-shirt, I might just go to the extra effort of finishing it with a lettuce edge using the serger.

It's been getting cool in the mornings and I've been LOVING having this shrug to throw on when I run my kindergartner to school.  Unfortunately the hubby's been hiding all his shirts since I've been on the prowl for another that I can cut up and keep in the car for chilly days and the rare trip to Waffle House