Change of (Web) Address

High Cotton, formerly Life on Surrey Lane, has a new web address.  Please click on the link below to be redirected:

http://www.highcottonhandmade.blogspot.com/

Name Change

Just a note to let you know that Life on Surrey Lane will be undergoing some changes in the next few weeks, starting with a name change.  If the blog head on your screen reads, High Cotton, you're in the right place!  I'll be updating my web address soon as well as playing around with the design. 

More info on High Cotton to follow...

Birthday Pics and A Few Others

I just got my camera back and wanted to include a few of these birthday pictures for my memory. 



My mother-in-law put together this thoughtful grouping of McCord photos.



I made McCord's birthday cake, and come to think of it, that might be why he wasn't too interested in eating it.  Perhaps something went wrong?!  There are two layers inside: strawberry (red) and vanilla (blue).  The candles came from Target.



McCord's cousins Emily and Kyle helped me decorate the cupcakes in our red, white, and blue theme.



And here's the birthday boy with his daddy pre-celebration, wondering what all the fuss is about!

And we've been playing with finger paint. 

My parents kept my sister's kids while she and her husband were out of town for a couple of days.  So McCord and I went to see Aiya and Doe Doe and his cousins Bayer and Calla.  The idea was for me to help my parents out, but instead, I may have caused more trouble.  We took all the kids outside, stripped them down, rolled out some brown packing paper on the sidewalk, and let them play with finger paint.  Bayer and Calla were over-the-top excited; McCord was not too sure how he felt about it, but that didn't keep him from getting messy. 

Bo and I are so thankful that my in-laws came to visit us this weekend.  Bo's dad brought the pressure washer and his mom brought lots and lots of food to stock our fridge.  She also washed the windows after the men did the pressure washing.  We are so thankful to have parents who have been so willing to help us make our new house feel like home. 

Today marks 1 month that we've been in our new house and every day that goes by, we love it more and more and look forward to making many family memories here. 

 

Peanut Butter Toes

Those last few months when our house was on the market were tricky.  How to keep it clean with a crawling, sticky, dirty little boy who likes to leave piles of chaos everywhere?!  I found myself constantly cleaning up and cringing when Mc would pull things out of the kitchen cabinets and leave them strewn across the downstairs (or splash in the dog bowl, or pull all of the records and CDs off of the shelf, or ..., or... or......).  And that's not the kind of mom I want to be.  Instead, I want to encourage his curiosity and let him explore, play, learn, and discover.  So a couple of weeks ago, we went outside and played with peanut butter.  Our intention was to make one of those bird feeders you probably made as a kid - you know the kind, with a pine cone, peanut butter, and bird seed - and we eventually got our mission accomplished, but it was the playing with peanut butter that McCord enjoyed so much and what made me feel like I restored my sense of motherhood.

Our birds like Peter Pan peanut butter.
We found this pine cone a couple of months ago when we vacationed at Mansfield Plantation.

Here we are getting excited about peanut butter - Rocky of course wanted to be a part of this project!

And how peanut butter ended up on his toes, I'll never know!

We hung the feeder right outside our kitchen window.

 It took our birds about 2 weeks to find it, but when they discovered it, the feeder became quite the hangout.  We learned that the little birds preferred it over the regular feeder.  We had Carolina Chickadees, Tit mouses, and Wrens.  What a joy it was to watch these birds.  McCord - as busy as this little guy is - would immediately quiet down and get real still when watching the birds.  He enjoyed watching so much, I would pull his highchair in front of the window so he could sit and watch while he ate. 

Update on our house:

We've been packing!  The official move date is IN TWO DAYS.  The washer, dryer, and fridge are coming tomorrow, and we've already had Terminix and a maid out.  Bo's been taking loads of boxes to the house every night. The painters came yesterday and did the first coat of paint on the walls, and I can't wait to show you the before and afters.  Pictures soon, promise!

A Dress for Bess

My friend Kasie throws spectacular parties (if you've been reading for a while, you might remember this post about our baby shower with more pictures here) and I know that her daughter Bess' 2nd birthday will be nothing short of fabulous! 

Kasie asked me to sew a dress for Bess to wear to her party.  The criteria was turquoise and orange, goldfish, and ric rac.  She sent me this dress on etsy as inspiration.   

...and here's what I came up with

The goldfish's body is tacked down, but the tail is loose so that it can swish on it's own as Bess skips about.



Ric rac peeking out of the pockets

Box pleats and buttons on the neckline

and buttons up the back

And this morning on our early morning walk, Bo spotted this beautiful tiny birds next.  It was abandoned and fell out of a tree in our front yard last night. 

It's hard to tell from this photo, but our little resourceful bird even incorporated the twine that wraps up pinestraw into the bricks and mortor of the nest! 

Meet Henley

My sister gave me a bunch of vintage sewing books for Christmas, and I took one look at this chicken bean bag and just knew I had to make her for McCord.  I mean, what child doesn't need a gigantic chicken to bounce around with?!!!

This has definitely been the most involved sewing project I've worked on.  I must be crazy addicted to sewing, because:

• I had to borrow the overhead projector from our church to enlarge the pattern printed in the book over 2,000%.  I remember it was a cold, rainy day much like today, and I had to load Mc up in the stroller with several rolls of craft paper, markers, and painter's tape.  When I projected the pattern onto the wall it took up our entire Sunday School classroom. This of course, was back in the glory days before McCord was a crawler!

• And then, I got stumped on sewing a curved dart that I had never done before, so I had to consult with 2 members of our church who are expert sewers. 
• One of them is 90 years old and lives at Westminster.  You can imagine how silly I felt hauling a gigantic chicken pattern, yards of fabric, and a whole slew of pins into the assisted living facility with a baby on my hip!  Of course I didn't want to fold up the pattern pieces after I'd been to the trouble of enlarging them by hand, so in I walked with chicken head and gusset in tow. My friend at Westminster is a popular lady, and several of her hall mates stopped by to see what we were working on.  So McCord and I, and a bunch of 90 year olds had a grand ol' time trying to figure out this pattern.
• Still stumped, another member allowed me to stop by her house for a sewing "pep talk" and lots of tutelage.  Not only did I leave with an understanding of how to sew a curved dart, but with lots of inspiration for future projects.  I am so thankful to have knowledgeable friends who are willing to help!

With advice from wiser sewers, I lined the beanbag with a stiffer fabric I had on hand to keep it from coming un-sewn, so I essentially made the beanbag twice.  Then I added a zipper at the bottom in case it ever needs to be washed. 

Once it was all sewn up, the deflated chicken laid around the house for about a week while I was waiting on the stuffing I ordered online to arrive.  Meanwhile, we get a showing for our house (they always happen at the most convenient times!), so I had to load up Henley in her deflated and very unattractive state, with McCord and Rocky and drive around town for a couple of hours.  I'm pretty sure a deflated, gigantic chicken isn't going to help us sell our house!

Finally, last night my extremely patient husband helped me fill up Henley.  This was quite a comedic endeavor! I'm not sure if it was harder to get the filling inside the chicken or clean up all the million little beads?!!! 

Then this morning, we decided that the Easter bunny would like to give Mc his gift early, so I brought Henley up to the nursery right after he woke up.  Here they are getting acquainted. 

I think they'll be fast friends! 

...and this is the smile I hoped for!



Easter Playsuit

I've been working on a sewing project for Mc to wear this week as we get ready for Easter.  Here's McCord's new Easter onesie with coordinating diaper cover. 

...and it wouldn't be complete without a cottontail on the booty!

McCord says,

"Happy Easter, ya'll!"

And, while we're talking sewing, I mentioned a project that I was working on that may be a total flop, and it's almost complete.  I really hope it turns out, because otherwise, the Easter bunny will have to find something else to bring Mc in the eleventh hour!  Remember this fabric?

I hope to show the finished project soon!

A Gigantic Post on Sewing

One of my friends said that she wished I posted more on my sewing projects.  So at the beginning of March, I planned to post on everything I made in February, but now here it is almost April, so I'll just have to cram everything into one post.  I didn't remember to take photos of all of my projects, so a few are missing, but here are the majority. 

McCord's friends, Wylie and Charlie celebrated their 3rd birthday and Wylie got a "Wylie Doll" while Charlie got a superhero cape.  I didn't photograph Charlie's gift, but you can see a similar one here.


  My mother-in-law (aka: M-I-L) got these kitchen towels for her birthday...

...and my sister-in-law, Meredith, got 2 towels for her birthday as well...

...to match her insulated casserole carrier.

This is the casserole carrier I made for my M-I-L.  I found a great tutorial for this pattern here. 

And check out the cool tags my sister made me!

McCord went through a major teething phase in February, so I made this elephant for him to chew.  I found the pattern here.

And another teething toy for Valentine's.

And my sweet friend Jessica welcomed her second child, Eliza a couple of months ago, so I made her this onesie and the teething elephant.
 

Bo and Mc got matching monogrammed sweatshirts for Valentine's!

I made my niece, Calla, this dress - complete with a little mouse that she can carry around with her in the pocket.

My friend Catherine liked the pillows I made for my sister-in-law so much she requested that I make some as a special gift for her M-I-L.  I don't think she's given them to her yet, so if you happen to know her M-I-L, don't say a word! 

I love how the ponytail came out in the silhouette.

A new paci clip for Mc.

And a personalized onesie for my brand new nephew, Will!

This is not really a sewing project, but thought I'd include anyway... Bo has always loved the John Belushi Animal House sweatshirt, and asked that I make him one.  This project was super easy - I just purchased iron-on letters from Walmart and applied to a navy sweatshirt.  I think he likes it.  Next fall, I have to make one for Mc.  How funny would that be?!!! 

Here's a onesie I made for Mc.

And a similar onesie for the smallest member of the Bailey Bunch and Mc's newest buddy, Ben.

The color in this photo came out kind of crazy, but here's a shirt for Cousin Bayer to wear for his birthday.

 ...and since I'm pretty sure, my 5 year old nephew, Bayer doesn't read my blog, here's a quick peek at the tee pee he's getting for his birthday on Sunday. I so wanted to get a picture of my own little chief having a pow wow inside it, but he was fast asleep by the time I wrapped this project up tonight. 

Doesn't every child deserve a special place to hide, conduct "top secret" business, and cuddle up and read, color, and pretend?  Well, I hope Bayer enjoys his new fort.

Over the past couple of months, this little guy has become quite familiar with all of the sewing shops in our area.  Here he is helping me pick out some fabric.

And I am so excited about the next project I have lined up. 

Here's a sneak peek of the fabric...

I won't say yet what it is in case this project totally flops.  The pattern came from a vintage sewing book my sister gave me for Christmas, and it required it to be enlarged over 2,000%!!!  Needless to say, no one locally could copy it for me that large, so I had borrow this ancient old thing from our church:

Not sure if anyone has used it the past few decades or not... but needless-to-say, my assistant came along for the whole ride.  Here he is entertaining himself on the floor of our old Sunday School classroom while I traced the sewing pattern on the wall.  More on that project to follow....