Times When I Question my Parenting Skills

Sometimes, I think I may be raising the weirdest kid on the planet, but he is funny. Lil' Kay was invited to a birthday party this weekend for his friends Brandon and Heather. They're twins. I asked him what he wanted to get Brandon as a gift.

"Ummmm..... maybe a picture of me?"
"A picture of you? Why?"
"Well, so he could put it in a frame."
"That's weird. Would you want a picture of Brandon for your birthday?"
"No!" (Said like I was totally out of my mind.)

So, I'm taking him shopping tonight for gifts. I worry that maybe he's a bit selfish, but I think that's a little normal for a six year old, especially an only child. I'm just not quite sure how to get him to think of others before himself.

New Addiction

I'm sure there are plenty of you out there who are already familiar with Swap-Bot, but I'm a newbie. And when I say "newbie", I mean really new! I just signed up last Friday. I've already signed up for my maximum number of swaps as a newbie (5). I've even got one all packaged up and ready to mail!

Getting mail is very high on my list of things that I love, right after, God, family and country, probably! I'm also a big fan of making and buying stuff for other people, so swapping is right up my alley.

I just finished a swap called $1 Store Scavenger Hunt. Yesterday, Lil Kay and I took a trip to our local Dollar Tree to find five things: Something you would display; something you would find in a drawer; something you would find in the bathroom; something you might find outdoors and something you would buy for yourself. I'm not telling you what I bought, because I don't want to accidentally ruin any surprises. So, I'm sending off five items and someone else is sending me five items. Can't wait to see what I get and find out if my partner likes what I sent!

Now I'm working on a swap involving stationery. Notecards and letter sets and pens and stickers, oh my! Maybe this will inspire me to catch up with my pen pals!

More Fruit for Your Basket

I finished up the watermelon pillow last night, and I'm excited with it. It was easy and it's cute! I'm thinking I'll work on the pumpkin next. Or maybe the strawberry.

New Stuff!

You know, since I'm not really busy getting ready for the baby that will be here in two months (insert eye roll), I've been working on some new stuff! It's a line of patchwork fruit pillows, and I'm pretty happy with how the first one has turned out!

So, in case you couldn't tell, this is an apple. I've also got sketches drawn up for a pear, a pumpkin (which I know isn't really a fruit), a slice of watermelon and a strawberry. I think I'm going to go with the watermelon next.

Tell me what you think!

She Made It

Mermaid, originally uploaded by BeckyKay Designs.

I am so stinking proud of this that you would think I'd made it myself! My sister Jessica showed me this beauty last night, and it was love at first sight.

This pretty little mermaid is at least two feet tall. (I haven't measured her yet.) She's made from fleece, so she's soft and cuddly, and I'm thrilled with how the fleece hair turned out. What little girl wouldn't want to snuggle up with this friendly beauty?

She will be debuting at the Hillsboro Arts & Crafts Fair in Hillsboro, KS in September. If there are any left, we'll add them to the She Made It store after that!

Transformation

Earlier this summer, I picked up this cute little sewing box at an auction for about $12. I've been wanting one of these for ages, but have never actually won the bid. This was my lucky day, I guess! It was one of several items up for grabs in a "your choice" kind of deal. I waited as the bigger pricier items were snatched up, and then managed to get this for a song.

I brought it home, slapped on some primer and paint and voila! Total cuteness!

I have to admit that I meant to go for a deeper redder red, but I'm a total nincompoop when it comes to choosing paint color by those silly little swatches at the paint store. I need a 12x12 swatch to really get the feel for how a particular color will look. But I'm still happy with the results. My favorite part is the vinyl decal I purchased from Single Stone Studios! It is actually a 23" long decal that I cut in half so I could have birds on both sides of my sewing box. The directions that came with the decal were super-easy to follow, and the quality of the decal is excellent! I'd highly recommend them!

I've always wanted to be one of those people who can take a flea market find and turn it into something lovely!

If you'd like to see a play by play of how this project went down, you can check it out here!

The King of Pillows

I have today and tomorrow off work, so this morning, Lil' Kay and I met my mom to choose fabric for Sally's baby quilt. While Mom and I were choosing fabrics (and let me tell you, that is a time-consuming task) Lil' Kay found a dinosaur fabric panel that he absolutely loved! Now, fabric panels are typically used to make a wall hanging or small blanket, but we decided to turn this one into a giant body pillow!

I did the cutting and sewing and then turned Lil' Kay loose with a bag of polyfil! He did a fabulous job of stuffing his pillow, but it took a lot of "fluffy" to fill it! He kept telling me, "It's almost done!" and I kept say, "No, it's not!" He was quite the trooper. I really expected him to get bored when it didn't fill up as quickly as he wanted, but he just kept stuffing.

Lots of "fluffy" later, Lil' Kay had a huge body pillow covered in his favorite dinosaurs. Lately, he's been trying to determine the "king" of everything -- king of dinosaurs, king of animals, king of candy (which, by the way, is chocolate). He was very quick to dub this project the King of Pillows!

Stay Tuned

Tiki Mon, originally uploaded by BeckyKay Designs.

I know I haven't blogged for a while. It's because I'm working on lots of projects that I want to share with you, but not until they're finished!

My new craft area is in the works. I have my cute little sewing box almost done. My belly is getting bigger by the minute. And, I've got a fun little project for the nursery that I just ordered supplies for yesterday.

That little guy up there is my most favorite firework that we blew up this year! How could I resist that face?? And when we ignited him, his eyes and mouth lit up! So that's what I'm up to! Working on projects and blowing things up!