Sure, buy your 4-year old a sewing machine!

For Christmas this year, my daughter wanted a sewing machine.  I'd gotten her this one last year, but slightly different colors:

And though it meant well, it broke fairly quickly and was more trouble than it was worth because it frustratingly did not sew like a sewing machine. It's a toy. Plain and simple. So please, if any moms out there are looking to actually purchase a "starter" machine for thier children, do not waste your money on this!

I feel bad bashing this because my aunt actually bought Eleanor one of these this year and gave it to her on Christmas Eve.  And she totally loved it because she remembered how she had one and it broke.  She was 3, so she didn't really know that she couldn't actually make anything with it.  So on Christmas eve, she was excited to play with it!  My nephew, (who also loves to sew), joined in and and quickly realized it's limits.  I actually let him use mine when he comes over and he's pretty good at it.

So anyway, if you buy it as a "toy", then fine.  But just don't expect to get anywhere or be able to teach someone sewing with it.

So this year, when she told me Santa was bringing her a new sewing machine, I decided to look for a real one.  I got an email from Jo-Ann Fabrics about a sale on Janome sewing machines.  I've never used a Janome, but I've heard good things.  They magically had these Hello Kitty themed machines... I thought... how perfect because my daughter is def. engulfed in the whole Hello Kitty universe.



I didn't know what to expect, but I ordered it . And I have to say...  I am so impressed with this machine.  Granted, it's not meant for 4-year olds. This is a machine I would use for myself.  But I thought, why am I going to buy another piece of junk that's just going to get tossed in a year?  It's doesn't have a lot of little extra nonsense, but that's better.  The singer I got to replace my old shark machine has pretty swirlies on it... but honestly, I think this Janome is better.  As soon as I took it out of the box I could "feel" the difference.  It was heavy, sturdy, and just overall put together well.   And the biggest excitement was discovering the vertical bobbin, which to me makes so much more sense! I used a Bernina once at Fabricland when I was visiting my Aunt... and it was "love" at first stitch!  (wow... I just wrote that) But anyway, those had vertical bobbin casings and I thought that was so much better because there's less a chance for tangles and hiccups. Berninas are WAY OUT OF MY PRICE RANGE... but a girl can dream....

So mega points for Janome on this one.  I feel like overall, sewing machines just aren't made like they used to be.  Especially brothers. My mom has a back up machine that's a brother... and it's so light that you have to spend time holding it down while you sew. She hates it too, but it's good as a back-up when you're desperate.  Maybe that saves money somewhere in shipping?  lol...

In conclusion... you're never too young to start sewing!  You know your children well enough to judge when they're ready...  I just wish I started at 4...

 

 

xo FITTSmcFITTer

Saturday morning Jam session

Sometimes I think I'm as addicted to my kid as I am to coffee.

I don't really care to waste time wondering if that's good to bad, but in the meantime... I thought it'd be nice if we had some photos of us doin' what we do when we're hanging at home on a saturday morning.  This jam session happened after we built a snow fort in the living room.  We froze our toes off the day before so I decided to be lazy and just bring the snow in so I could enjoy coffee and the couch while she enjoyed the snow.  

I think it's important to stop organizing, stop packing, stop worrying, stop everything and just enjoy being exactly where you are right this moment.

I usually forget that and just run around the house like an  angry person and stay up all night fretting and scheming.
So for my new year, I'm going to not plan to do anything or stop doing anything.  I'm going to just try to remember to enjoy what I have today, and realize that I can live with much less.

And I'm going to put down all the sad pages...





Along with the happy ones.



I'm still trying to get my december daily mini album finished, so I'll get to that...  it's just these darn impromptu photo shoots that get me side-tracked!



I feel like I don't know what the heck I scrapbooked about before Eleanor?  I don't know what I did? lol.  I know all parents say it, but it's so true...  have no clue what life used to be before I had a kid.  All I do know is that it's so much better.  No matter what hard times we're going through.

:)  xo Fitts

Halloween Spread

And the follow-up scrap layout of the Halloween pics!
I only really had a handful of pics due to the whole... darkness and rain... stuff goin' on. And I didn't get to see the family as much as usual so I didn't get my goofy nephew pics.



But I'm glad I thought to take some pics around our block before it rained...



I'm enjoying another bowl of mashed potatoes as I type this... I had a sandwich in the car... but I was hungry again when I got home... and luckily Daryl didn't eat all the mashed potatoes.



And here's the making of the 12x12. The other side is PL style...



And now!!! Onto CHRISTMAS PROJECTS!!! WEEEEEEEEEEEEE

All dressed in Vintage

So I had the awesome pleasure of playing photographer for a beautiful friends wedding. I still have around a billionty more pics to edit... But for now I just thought I'd share a couple with the brides permission... Without revealing people or places... Just yet anyway.

What was awesome about this wedding was that the dress was in its third generation of brides... From grandma to mom to daughter... So sweet! Of course by this round,it needed a little TLC... But it was absolutely gorgeous!
My fav was the tule underskirt...

And the veil was a simple classic style... brilliant!

I have to hand it to you photographers out there... It's a week later, and I'm still sore.  That's probably the most excercise I've gotten in years!  If anyone else ever asks me to be the wedding photog...  I think I'll need to train a bit first.  Holy bajeez what a work-out!  And probably more fun than flipping tires...  at least in my opinion.  I could be wrong because I've never actually flipped a tire... lol.  But I know a lot of people who do it on a regular basis...

To me, fall is the best time of year and what was supposed to be a rainy day turned out to be absolutely perfect!! Who knows though... in a few years, fall could be in january.  Which would be cool cos that's my b-day month... tee hee...  then I could have a Halloween birthday party!

So overall, it was an awesome day and I was honored to be a part of it.  Congrats Meg!  You made a perfect bride and I hope your new life chapter brings happiness, joy, and blessings!

xo, Fitty

Apple seedy yes indeedy!

So despite the back of the hand slapping we always receive when we go here, we somehow ended up back at Russo's in Chesterfield for Apple picking this year.
We thought about not going and trying another place but... we thought misbehaving again at the same farm is more fun than behaving at a new farm?!
We think at least. Next year we'll discuss again briefly and then probably end up back there letting our kids ride in the wagons, move the gourds out of place, and throw hay.


Eleanor knows how to spell her name, but I don't think she knows how to spell mine.. which made it funny when I realized the wagon she picked had my name on it. Yes, that's how you spell Fitty on wagons.  On the interwebs it's F  I T T Y.  Wagons, K A R E N.  Got it?  Good.    And Collin on a wagon is spelled K A T H Y.   It has something to do with the Secret National and International Association of people who use wagons for secret agenty purposes.   How do I know about it... heh...

I love how this blog has turned into a big crunchy photo share...  I've been busy but I don't even have to promise that I'll be scrapbooking these pics...  they are just too yummy! I might even do a mini album!



This is the newest member of our clan, Collin.  I just can't stand the adorable that pours outta this one!!!  He's the little nugget belonging to one of my besties Mary.  Right now he's also the easiest to grab shots of because he's not running around chasing other running around boys while throwing rotten apples.  So I was able to snap a few of those bad boy blues!!



Can you stand it!

And with each new pic of Eleanor, I say it's my fav... just like the latest song you wrote, you might as well throw out the rest.. But in this case, I'll be keeping them all. This one reminds me of an Olivia Newton John record album cover... Have YOU never been mellow?



I probably shouldn't point out the dirt smudge on her nose... coz before I wrote that, I was the only one who noticed.



oh, and they have pumpkins too.. all mine lost their stems rolling around the back of my car... :( boo!



Horsey is the ewesh when it comes to what Eleanor carries around with her, but the little sewing kit she found in one of my bags is a new addition. I don't know if she thought she might need to sew some apples back together or something. When we got home she did tell me she was mad at me for not fixing Luke's stuffed Sonic yet... It hasn't been a week yet, but I guess I should get right on top of that. After all it is a neck wound and this is the stuffie ER!!


And with that, the lost boys and I bid you farewell! Happy OCTOBER!!! YAY YAY! I mean HAPPY I WISH IT FELT LIKE OCTOBER AND NOT A RAINFORST THAT MAKES IT HARD TO DECIDE WHETHER TO PUT THE AIR ON IN MY CAR OR JUST LEAVE IT OFF AND FEEL COLD AND STICKY AT THE SAME TIME OCTOBER OCTOBER!

Keep Happy in a box, that way you'll never lose it.

So one of my favorite people to follow on Youtube is a gal who's channel goes by the name of PAPERSPEAKS.

Her name is Mel and she has a fun sidekick Pat ( a big white gloved pointer ).  She's a super duper nicehead and she does a lot of hand-made journals and cards and really cool stuff.

She recently posted a challenge to create something that would be like an aid when you're creatively blocked, or, as she put it, when you've lost your mojo.

And it happens to all of us no matter what we're into.   We play a crappy game of baseball, we sing bad notes, or sometimes we just wanna sit in the corner and cry.  And it's times like that where even the thing we love doing the most seems like a waste of time.  Though it probably doesn't seem like it... I feel like that quite often. I just wanna pack up my paper and photos in boxes and try to forget that I ever enjoyed scrapbooking. I start to wonder who I'm doing it for...  Will my daughter dread having her entire life documented in volumes when she's older?  I'm pretty sure the dog (s) don't mind.

Well anyhow... what I decided to make for myself was a recipe box just simply filled with photos that I like to look at. Because for me, the photo is what makes me want to scrapbook.  It's not the scrapbooking stuff...  it's taking a photo, printing it out and thinking...  SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE... this photo is so delicious I could eat it!  And what makes it hard is that I take a gazillion photos a week, so just picking out a few to scrapbook is tricky. So for me ( for you for me... )  scrapbooking isn't solving my problem of getting photos out of boxes (or hard drives) and into scralbums, it's just highlighting what's in the boxes. I may actually get some good ol' fashioned photo albums and coordinate them with my scrapbooks.  So I can have the bulk of a photo shoot in a photo album, and then the real important stuff in the scrapbook.

So this was one of those CTMH recipe boxes I've had forever.   I had two.. but Roo decided to make one also.  She filled hers with smurf.  Who doesn't get a little happy from a box of smurf?

So I have different sized photos in here, some I took from Pinterest, some I took from my own photo stash, and I just tabbed the tops so I can pull em' out easy.

So out of all the challenges I've missed, I'm glad I was able to sneak this one in, because I think I actually will pick through this box when I'm feeling blue.  There's plenty more room in it to keep adding stuff so now as I come across something, I can just toss it in there.

Here's a link to what Mel made to help get her Mojo back.  I love it!

And thanks again Mel for the great challenge idea!  Looks like everyone got a very good something out of it!

Pictures of Eleanor - Jackson Park

I think the only way to stop me from taking pictures of Eleanor everywhere she goes is to get a puppy, or have another kid. I don't know if it's because I just like taking pictures... or that she's always a willing and pose-able subject... or it's just a mom thing. I honestly thought I'd get tired of taking her picture by now... but I honestly feel like she gets more beautiful everyday. (That's def. a mom thing...)



So anyway... I usually do a lot of APP editing to my photos. So the previous two photos I ran through one of my fav. photo apps called Phototoaster. I'm sure I've mentioned it before..
But here's one of the photos in the raw below so you can see the diff. I didn't do much, just added one filter called Aquatic. ( my favorite filter I've ever come across in any app!! Who doesn't wanna look like they're in water? Not anyone I know!) So I think this one filter added so much! It pulled her out of all that green background and really made her the feature.



So there are a lot of cool filters in this app... you can mess with it on your own, or they have pre-sets. Very worth the $1.99 for the 5.0 version. I've used the fiddlesticks out of it! I think photo apps are the only ones I pay for. Especially if you scrapbook... and are doing project life or smashing... or any of that... it's the quickest way to edit aside from pluggin' your camera into your computer. And most of ya'll know how to print from your mobile devices so... what's the prob. Spend a dollar and save your memories in a artsy way! Didn't you just spend $1.82 on a bagel this morning? And that's gone already isn't it??? ...thought so.

The following photos are not edited.. but I might still go back and play with em'.  I have to go through the other 70 and see if any are print-worthy.



OH, and lemme just plug another app while I'm at it. Though this series of pictures were not edited, I did throw them into a collage app called DIPTIC. It's basically just that... a collage app, but you can move your frames around which comes in handy. And I think you can add text... (honestly haven't used it that much...) And it's FREE!



I was actually shooting in monochrome for the first half of the park visit... which I normally don't do. I don't know why, but I tend to edit the color mostly after... but I like the way the monochrome ones shot...



And the hair-style she's sporting is called... combed out after being in a bun for two days! I actually trimed it a bit this morning due to many many knots. So it was fluffier than usual.

Well I'm gonna put my cheese and crackers away and call it a night!

xo Fitter

Weekend Revisual: Project life July 20-21, 2013

Hi there frens!

Had a great weekend!  Just wanted to throw out some weekend pics, and then how we put them together for a weekend project life spread!

This first collage was actually made with a windows app called Turbocollage.  So far, a benefit is the ability to use a lot of pics in one collage.... like 20!  So I was able to sum up a birthday party pretty completely in three 4x3' spots on my PL layout.  Well... plus a couple 4x6's that stood out...

Here's some of the other pics we used:

And here's our spread!

And here's a video Roo did to tell you a very quick version of the entire weekend's activities...  she also goes on to demonstrate some Gelatos...  so if you're in need of toddler entertainment...  it's right here....  in a barbie dress.

Thanks and enjoy the rest of your crafty week!

Day in Revisual: Big time Rush Concert

Ladies with Lenses - a twelve by twelver

WEEEEEEE! What we did with the Studio Calico June kit (so far...)
The following pic is actually the back of the 12 x 12 layout. Sometimes the back looks cool enough to use as a background for another layout.. haven't decided yet. But this is all my sewing nonsense...  no thyme or reason... or sage. But def. cinnamon!


So anyway, this post is really about spending time with your kid(s). A lot of people tell you to enjoy them while they're young and don't hate you yet... so I decided to listen damn it!
It's all true and that's why I'm just trying to enjoy every second with her. I have a couple jobs, like most moms these days so most of my day is spent away from my daughter, but when I come home... I feel like spending time with her is more important than rushing her off to bed. Schedule Smedule!
So we have fun no matter the day or time! And since my daughter is a veteran at making videos of herself... I decided it would be fun to do a youtube series with her.
We call it Ladies with Lenses. When I got all those stickers from Paperchase, I also found a pencil topper that was a pair of glasses. They were so cute, and as soon as Roo saw them, she immediately took em' over. So when she grabbed them during our first "share" video, the title of the series was born.



And we invited Norma in to take part in the lenses wearing!

She looks nerdtastic in them I think!
So in true Project Life fashion, I decided this was an opportunity to make a layout as well to document the start of our video fun... however long it lasts...



The products used are all from the latest Studio Calico scrapbooking kit:

ROUNDABOUT Scrapbook Kit

Cardstock:
Kraft (American Crafts)
Vanilla (American Crafts)
Surf (American Crafts)
Blush Red Medium (Bazzill)

Patterned Paper:
Carte Postale "Canal Street" (Basic Grey)
Pack Your Bags (Simple Stories)
Divine this line (ILS)
Jet Set (Simple Stories)
Today (Paislee Press)
Pier "Carousel" (Crate Paper)
Optimism (Studio Calico)
Sky Atlas (Studio Calico)

Embellishments:
Black & White Die Cut Clouds (Studio Calico)
Acetate Alpha (Basic Grey)
1 Yard Airmail Divine Twine (Whisker Graphics)
2x2 Stamp Set ( Life-Love-Paper for Studio Calico)
3x3 Photo Overlays (Crate Paper)
Silver Stars (Basic Grey)
Camera and Geo Tag Resin (Freckled Fawn for Studio Calico)
Urban Traveler Chipboard Stickers (Simple Stories)

So I have plenty left for tons more LO's and PL's.

Here's the building of this layout via Youtube:



Thanks for stopping by Fitty's Arty blog!