Project of the Year: How to Fit 7 People in our house... for the long haul

So we tried to buy a bigger house. It's a long story. It didn't happen.

So, now I am left trying to make the house we are in work. We had our 5th child last April, 10 days after my husband was made a Mormon Bishop. That meant that we were somewhat committed to living within a certain geographical area while he serves in this capacity.

We found the perfect house. We saved for a down payment. Then the loan was sold, the new bank won't foreclose and it for who knows how long. Then the owners declared bankruptcy, and before heading back to Mexico, completely stripped the house. They even took the air conditioners and the 2 car garage shed!!!

So we probably don't even want that house anymore.

We looked into building.

The one builder who would build us a 5 bedroom house counted everything as an upgrade. It looked like we were going to add over $100k to our mortgage just to get one. more. bedroom.

We didn't feel good about that option.

And trust me, we have looked at every single home for sale in our ward boundaries that would be big enough. They would all be a huge step down from our current home except for that one. more. bedroom.

Some even have fewer bathrooms than we have now.

So that really has left us one option: Staying put.

And really, it's not a bad option. I love my house, I just need one. more. bedroom.

So, I finally had a brilliant plan to turn our front balcony into the worlds smallest bedroom. If we can get the permit ok, construction should begin by the end of next week, and finish up about 2 weeks later.

But the reality is that if we truly want to be comfortable in this home for the long run, there are a few other changes that need to be made. I am slowly getting rid of stuff. It's like peeling off a band aide. I know I should just rip it off at once and do a total purge, but I'm doing it slowly. And painfully.

But we won't get into that.

Another solution that I came up with is to use the walls in our garage for extra storage.
I hired a handy man to put these up on each side of my garage.

They are each 16 feet long, which means I have 32 linear feet of extra storage space! I think I'll be filling them up pretty quickly, but with some purging along with it, I think we'll be able to make it all work out.

So, over the upcoming weeks and months, I hope to be able to share with you ways that we have made this house work. It will involve a lot of little projects and many before and afters.

And, if any of you have any great ideas to help us fit, I'm all ears!!

Lime Green and Red Christmas Stockings (#59)

12 years ago, I bought a set of 6 matching stockings. At the time, I planned on having more than 4 kids, but six was all they had. So, they lasted us a long time. 

But, last Christmas I knew would be our last time using them since I was pregnant with baby #5. So, I bought some coordinating red and lime green fabrics, and planned to have them finished LONG before Christmas season rolled around this year. 

As you know, this year ended up not being anything at all like I had planned. 

Needless to say, these stockings were NOT done by Christmas Season. In fact, I finished them on Christmas Eve at 7:00 pm.

Just in the Nick of time!

My 6 year old was so worried that Santa wouldn't have anything to put out gifts in!
I hurried and hung them on the "ice cream parlor" Then she was concerned that they weren't hung on the fireplace mantel.... Santa will understand. We have too many to fit there now!

 You can see our tree in the mirror there, we decided to put it in the front room because with the super tall ceilings would could get a really tall tree. Ours is 10 feet and it is beautiful. So, I liked that I had something to hang the stockings on in the same room!

 Here's a few close-ups. I quilted the fronts of them after blanket stitching on the toe and heels. I did each cuff a little different, mixing and matching fabrics and trims. I also made these bigger than our last ones, they were kinda small, and once they had an orange and apple in them, you couldn't fit anything else.

We also didn't have our own names embroidered on the previous stockings, so it was lots of fun to not have to guess whose was whose.
And here they are in the daylight:

And yes, I did notice that they match my lamp shades!

Satin Christmas Stockings (#58)

My husband and I have a lot of siblings.

A lot.

I am the 2nd of 7 kids.

He is the 2nd of 13 kids.

Yep, thirteen.

So, we don't give a gift to every single sibling, we do a gift exchange.

This year we had his younger brother who has 2 kids.

 I decided to make them stockings. I am also in the process of making a new set of stockings for my own family. For us, I am making them all out of cotton, and I am quilting them.

 But my sister-n-law is a little classier... and so I went in hunt of the right fabric for her. I loved this green:

 It reminded my of her wedding colors... which were pink, brown, and this green. (You can see the diaper cake I made in those colors here, and the quilt here)

 I thought that green, with the flowers and sequence might be too girly, so for the boys I found a satin red with fuzzy polka dots. I thought they coordinated ok when I added the ruffles in opposite colors.

I forgot how hard it is to work with this kind of fabric, and I am excited to be back working with cottons again! But over all I was happy with how they turned out! Kendra called yesterday to say that they had gotten them and that they were already hanging up!

Minion Trick-or-Treat Bags (#57)

 This year for Halloween, most of us went as Minions from the Movie "Despicable Me 2" I Made these treat bags for my little girls:

I used warm and natural batting to make them stiff so that they would stand up, and when they set them down on the ground, all their candy didn't spill out...

I appliqued the eye ball(s) and embroidered their names.

 Then I lined the inside with orange fabric.

I was happy with how they turned out, and so were my girls!
P.S. I also made the skirts... but a friend made the hats for me.

And now for the part where I confess (If you just came to see the bags, you can skip all this part!)

So, I have 5 kids. That's a lot. 

a. lot. 

And my house is too small. We've been trying to buy a bigger one, but that just hasn't worked out, but that's another story. Point is: Since we don't fit in our house, something has to give! So, we looked in the garage, and through the house to see what stuff we could give rid of. This is a hard process. 

Especially for me. But I am not a hoarder! wait! Are you throwing that away?!!? Nope, not at all.

But, I did spot out 6 huge boxes and totes full of costumes. 

Yep, SIX!

(Actually there were seven, plus a bag, but I didn't see those until today when I was putting the boxes of Halloween stuff back into the hoarders den garage)

I don't repeat costumes very often, so I decided that I could narrow that down to 1-2 boxes (which I did! But that is another story!)

So, as I was downsizing costumes, and Halloween decorations, and everything thing else, which I've already decided is going to be a long hard process, I got to those jack-o-lantern treat buckets. You know the ones. They are iconic trick-or-treat loot holders.

But they take up a lot of space in storage, they don't flatten down, and don't stack inside each other.

So, I gave them away when I was giving away costumes.

And that's when i decided to make these treat bags. Because they match their adorable costumes, and they will flatten down and store easily. And I decided that even though they are minions, they are "Halloweenish" enough to use every year.

And your reward, for reading this far?

You get to see my adorable baby in his yellow minion costume!

And one more thought while I'm confessing: As I was putting my now reduced boxes of costumes and Halloween stuff back into the garage, I started eyeing my boxes of Easter decorations... and especially the Easter Baskets, which also don't flatten or stack inside of each other, and I think I'm going to say good-bye to those and make a squattier, fatter version of these treat bags to be our Easter baskets... then they could each have the kids names on them, and be personalized, and- best part- not take up so much room in the garage!

A Personalized Pendant Banner and Pillowcase (#55 & #56)

Here is the Pendant Banner with my little guy's name on it! 

I made it using fabrics that I already had on hand. Below is a picture of the process- a little bit- I should have taken it sooner, because I wanted to show the process of how I decided to do it, by laying out the fabrics, threads, etc.

 I did some letters applique and some are embroidered, all of them are in different fonts.

See that rocking chair? I want to paint it the color of the quilt hanging over it! won't that be fun? BTW the quilt was my husbands when he was a baby, isn't it funny how things come back around? Lime green and ric rac? Totally in again!

Confession:  I hung it on the crib to take a pic of the backside (all done in the turquoise polka dot) and realized there should have been 6 pendants... yep, I totally left one off!

Now, I realize that I don't do tutorials (c'mon, I have 5 kids, I'm lucky if I ever have time to take a shower!)  But I do give tips!!!

TIP: First of all, I didn't come up with this idea myself, I saw it years ago, before Pinterest, so I can't even give this person credit or link you back to their blog... sorry.
But, you know how when you buy a set of sheets at Target, they come packaged in a little packet made out of the same material? Don't throw those away! Use them for a pendant banner, and it will automatically match the bedding! (That's what the "A" above is sewn onto)

 And here is the pillow case I also made:

 It's also made from the crib sheet packet and scraps I had in the color scheme.
I remember Vern Yip saying that he didn't really like to do Theme Rooms except in kids bedrooms (I think he said that while doing a transportation themed kids room on Trading Spaces- the one where he had a train going all around the room- it was cool!)
And I completely agree- kids rooms are a great place to do themes... but I admit, I'm very hesitant to do that. Why? Cause kids grow up so fast, and even if you have the money to be redoing their room all the time, it's still a lot of time and work. I think I prefer to do color schemes instead of themes because they grow with the child a lot easier and give you more flexibility.
You can see my oldest son's rooms color scheme here. It is classic red and navy. I made his first quilt when he was 3, and he's still using it (he's almost 13!)
So, for this little boy, I chose turquoise and lime green with pops of orange, black, and white. I think it should grow with him too.
Oh, and one more adorable picture- wait for it, wait for it...

Aww, every mother knows there's nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby.

Card Making- aka what to do after surgery

 So, last week I had surgery (very boring- read on!) and with the "down time" I thought I would make some "Thank- You" cards...

 To give to all those people who have given us gifts, or helped us out with the birth of our new baby boy, and the surgery....

 I also made a few birthday cards and Birthday gift tags, because with 5 kids, my kids go to a lot of Birthday parties, and we've run out of cards. And I don't want to spend money on the card- I want to spend it on the gift!

 Plus, I was getting bored of "Thank You" cards and had to mix it up a bit...

 I ended up making a total of 48 cards. That might seem like a lot... but we know a lot of generous people... so actually I hope I don't run out soon!

 I went to my scrap booking stash. Because we all know I'm not going to ever actually finish the scrapbooks I bought all those supplies for- not with those digital scrapbooks around!

 So, I just worked on cards until I ran out of the ribbons, or paper, or brads, or whatever I was using, and then moved onto something else.

 It was fun, but it took me 3 days, and even with the 4 oldest kids at Grandma's house (which was the only reason I could even drag out the paper and leave it all out for 3 days without worrying that it was going to get destroyed, or had to be all cleaned up so we could eat meals in the kitchen!) I wanted the mess gone, and my kitchen back...

 So I put it all away and hope that I have enough cards to last for awhile.

 Plus I ran out of envelopes...

 I liked this card better without the baby foot/hand prints...

 I really don't have anything else to say, but I figured if you were still with me this far, we should keep the conversation going.

 I either took a lot of pictures, or made a lot of cards... or both...

 No wonder this took 3 days?!?!?

That's all, you made it! Whew! (Now I need to write in all those cards... man, I need a nap!)

A Cell Cake

 So I guess here in Texas, 6th grade science students are assigned to make a 3-D model of a cell. An edible 3-D model of a cell. It can be either a plant or animal cell. My son chose to make a cake, including fondant.

 I had to keep telling him to make the fondant pieces smaller so they would actually fit in our little, tiny ball cake. But, I think in the end he did a great job.

I'm happy to report, that I also actually remember some of the names of the parts of a cell from when I took science... just a few years ago.
I drove him to school, which I don't normally do, so that his cake would arrive unharmed. That may have been a mistake, since he ended up getting there early, and after turning in his cake, decided to go outside and play soccer with some other kids until school started...
He got tripped playing soccer, and broke both his arm bones (which I believe are the Ulna and the Radius- see I remember lots of things from science!) and now is in a cast and can't play soccer at all.... So this smug little smile you see below?- that was the last time he smiled all day... even after the morphine kicked in at the ER...  As much work as the cake was, I wish it had fallen and gotten broken instead...

 

UPDATE: 5/3/13 3:52 PM

MY SON INFORMED ME THAT HIS CAKE WAS VOTED MOST ATTRACTIVE! THAT MEANS THAT HE GETS EXTRA CREDIT! AND TO THINK WE WERE GOING TO TRY AND WIN MOST DISGUSTING AT ONE POINT! THERE WERE 3 AWARDS: MOST ATTRACTIVE, MOST ACCURATE, AND MOST DISGUSTING!