Making applique shirts

Trying something new again. I thought I would try making applique shirts with Africa on them (more about these shirts HERE). So...I picked up some t-shirts for the girls and myself and we decided on some cute material and headed home with something called "wonder under" to figure out how to make these.First I found an image of Africa online and printed it. I enlarged it for my shirts and used the standard size for the girls. I made a template out of card stock to use to make my design.

I traced the shape on the fabric with a pencil. I wanted to chose fabric that would be forgiving with any mistakes. Then I cut a piece of the wonder under about the same size as the fabric. Then followed the directions on how to iron it onto the fabric to make the applique. It was really quick and easy.
Then I cut out my shape and gently peel off the paper backing. The material is left with a shiny backing that will iron on and stick to the shirt.
After positioning the applique in the right spot, follow directions on wonder under packaging and iron onto the shirt. This sticks the applique onto the shirt so I could do a ZIGZAG stitch around the edge of the shape.

Here is Tissy's final result. I think it is adorable. I have more pictures on my adoption blog (HERE) of the other ones. It is just too cute. I thought these would be cute with hearts for Valentine's Day, or flowers for spring. Lots of ideas. (I did wash and dry the shirts before I attached the applique, just in case there was shrinkage).

Oh the things I find when I go upstairs to tuck my girls into bed...

Creative play. It never ends here at our home. These girls come up with some of the most unique ways to play. I have blogged about it before, so here I am again sharing what they were up to.

I walked into their room and burst out laughing when I found this.

Can you tell what it is? A Woody (from Toy Story) doll dressed up as an old woman. Too funny. The girls then wanted to give me a tour of all the characters in the play. Here is Pharaoh Huggy. Can you tell we have studied ancient Egypt this year (and this huggy was also inspired by Kidmo).

And we also have Florence Nightingale. She takes care of the sick.
Of course Taylor Swift was in the story too. I then asked how they knew about Taylor Swift, and they heard about her from friends.
This is a king (actually Huggy) who was looking for a bride in their story. Somehow morphed from Princess Diaries 2.
And their story included an orphaned boy. I know where that one comes from. =)

And last but not least, the Egyptian dancer who entertains everyone.

What it reminded me, was that they just want to share their world with me. And for that afternoon, the girls world was a pretend story. They loved it that I took the time to be interested in their life.

balloon animals

Just had to share these cute balloon animals that were decoration at our adoption shower. They were just too cute. Of course we loved that they were African animals.



The girls got a little balloon animal kit from a friend this weekend at the shower (click the peapod to see that post). Tally wanted to learn to make the basic balloon animal. She carefully followed the instructions and was the first in the family to figure it out.I was really impressed with her determination on this one. I also found it interesting that she learned by either reading the instructions or having them read to her. Not looking at the pictures. I am always fascinated how children learn.
She isn't quite up to making those cool animals at the top, but she is having fun learning something new. I just love when my kids can do something that I can't do. And sad to say, the day will quickly come where they are teaching me things, instead of me always being the teacher.

We PASSED court !!!!!!!!

I am now officially a momma of 4 !!!! Praising God for all the details. Thank you for joining us in our journey.

baby it's cold outside !!

Just curious...what do you set your thermostat at? With the cold snap all across the country, I bet most of us are running the heat. Do you set it lower for night time? Do you adjust it when you leave the house? Do you use space heaters?

Right now, ours is set for 64. Some rooms are warm and others are chilly. The family room is nice and cozy with the fire place burning. But...we have not played in the bonus room for a few days. TOO COLD. Brrrr

homemade christmas gifts from the girls

Just like we did last year, we all worked hard on homemade gifts for Christmas. Sorry for the delay, but I am working on a different computer and I needed to learn how to upload the pics before I could share them. I will add more photos later as part of my blogging journal, but here are a few pictures of the girls with their gifts.Tally made Papa a pillow that she hand embroidered and sewed on the machine. He loves sailboats so every thing for Papa has sailboats.Grammy gets an apple for her Christmas tree. She loves apples (my dad was raised on an apple farm, so they are special to our whole family).

Tissy embroidered on a hankie for Papa. Yep...that is another sailboat.

After last years homemade napkins, she decided to make some for Grammy. She embroidered a custom set for them. A sailboat to represent Papa and Sudoku to represent Grammy.
Tissy embroidered Africa on a piece of cloth for me to turn into a pillow. She needed help on the machine so we will finish it together. Notice the little heart near Ethiopia? I love it !!!!
Tissy embroidered on a hankie for Grandpa (Chuck's dad). He gets a car for his design. Good thing our grandpa's use handkerchiefs. =)

One of our favorite things to make is a little pouch out of felt. Tally made this one for Grandpa. He can use it to hold special goodies like gift cards.
Tissy made a little watermelon for Grandma. She can put it in her kitchen with her collection or hang it on her Christmas tree.

The girls came up with all these ideas on their own. I was so proud of their creative ideas and thoughtful gestures. They are such sweet girls and they want to share their love for us in such special ways.

Snow Day

We had a snow day today. And for some girls who are used to the tropics and the sun...it was a BLAST. They bundled up and had fun playing out in the flurries. All the schools were closed and most people stayed home from work (can you tell it doesn't snow much here???).

Big Adoption News...

We got great adoption news today. We have a court date.
Click the peapod to head on over to the adoption blog for details.

unplugged

While I have been off line...

I have managed to...

• learn to play Wii tennis (we are borrowing a wii for a bit)

• packed up all the christmas stuff
  

• relearned to play a song on the piano (haven't played in over 20 years)

• made a quilt from old baby clothes for the girls

• read some books

• narrowed down our "american" name choices for the boys

• sorted and reorganized my coupons

It hasn't been ALL bad not having internet for a few weeks. But I do miss you all. I should be back up and running this week. And with plenty of pictures of all our happenings.

Happy New Year my friends.