A newly published book about ways to turn time with your grandchildren into fun, creative learning activities is "Camp Grandma Next-Generation Grandparenting - Beyond Babysitting" by Marianne Waggoner Day. The author of this new book, Marianne Waggoner Day, use to be an executive for a large commercial real estate company. After she retired from her job, using her executive skills, she put together a creative yet educational way to spend time with her grandchildren. Instead of just "babysitting" her four grandchildren, she organized her time with them and began to teach them useful life sk ..read more

I've been teaching sewing to beginners for a few years now and thought I'd share ten of my students' favorite simple sewing projects.  If you're looking for some simple projects to teach to a new sewer, you might want to consider teaching them how to make one of these. These projects are cute, fun and about as easy as they come for beginning sewers!  1.  30 Minute Stuffed Animal here. 2.  A Sling Bag is a fun beginner project, especially for tweens. Go to this post for ideas on how to make this bag and a link to the free pattern ..read more

"Please Grandma, would you make me a red bird costume?" I asked my granddaughter what she would do if she was a red bird. She responded, "I'd fly, of course!" As you can see, she now can spread her wings and try to fly!  As I gave her this red bird costume, we talked about how she really wouldn't be able to fly but she could have fun pretending to fly. I didn't want her jumping off her two story deck thinking she'd be able to fly! You know how children's imaginations can go wild!  Occasionally, this red bird was able to flap her wings and jump just enough to get some air. N ..read more

How many of you have a child that likes to pretend they are whimsical creatures? A few months ago, this little girl and I were Facetiming and she asked me to please make her a mermaid costume for her birthday. I can never turn down such a request-- especially from a grandchild. So I whipped out my favorite mermaid pattern and got to work!  When I was visiting her family in Australia, they took me to the beach for several days and I had a chance to photograph her as Seaena the mermaid. She made-up a story of her life off the coast of Australia and how she and her mermaid baby liked to ..read more

Get ready to turn heads with the cutest baby in town on Halloween!  Last year when the cute baby in the photo above was born to my niece, I asked my niece what she wanted or needed for the baby. She told me all she wanted was a baby carrier costume. Music to my ears! Costumes I can do! They're one of my favorite things to create! But a baby carrier costume? I was stumped. I honestly had never heard of such a thing.  I asked my niece to share photos with me of what she had in mind. She showed me this image of a shark costume. Since the article only explained how to crea ..read more

Are you and your family Halloween fanatics? Are you into choosing a theme for your family costumes? If so, and you love dressing up, you'll love this post.  My youngest daughter's family loves Halloween and getting all decked out every year. She's a redhead and so is her daughter, so she thought it'd be perfect to choose a Flintstone family theme. To prep her young kids, she let them watch a few episodes of the Flintstones, since they had no idea who they were. Talk about making me feel old!   The Dino costume was created by using Simplicity pattern #2506, view C. I used a l ..read more

Before this spunky girl went on a trip with her family, I got a request to make her this nautical J.Crew "Knock-off Sundress."  I made this same dress last summer for two other granddaughters after my daughter fell in love with this style at J.Crew. It was a bit too pricey, even at the outlet, so I figured out how to make it.  It's summer weather around 80% of the year where my cute granddaughter in these photos lives, so even though it's almost September, she'll be wearing this for another couple of months. Good thing I didn't wait too long t ..read more

Earlier this year, when my seven year-old grandson requested I make a Periodic Table of Elements quilt for him, I was surprised. I did not know what the Periodic Table of Elements was when I was seven.  Of course I said yes, not knowing how on earth I was going to create such a thing. I told him it would be his eighth birthday present. That would give me precisely six months to make his requested quilt.  Now that this quilt is finished, it truly is a perfect gift for my little science lover. So how did I finally figure out this complex quilt? My first ..read more

Do you need a perfectly simple, yet cute baby boy gift? Today, I'm sharing with you two of my favorite gifts to sew.  This bow tie and these baby booties both take around 30 minutes to whip up from start to finish, which makes them top contenders for simple baby boy gifts. Plus, look at them... they're darling!  The free pattern called "Baby Booty" includes a photo tutorial. You'll find this on Michael Miller Fabrics blog. It can be downloaded here.  Once you download this pattern, I'm suggesting you do the following to improve the sewing process ..read more

First things first... we have a GIVEAWAY happening here today! I know you all love giveaways, because I do too. Two lucky readers will have the chance to win one of these cute doll sets I'm featuring here on this post today. But you'll have to read this post in its entirety to find out how to enter. So, stick with me here. It won't take long, I promise. Now, back to the task at hand... Have you seen these cute doll panels make by Moda? When one of my granddaughters visited us recently, I hoped she'd enjoy sewing one of these kits with me. Turns out, she really did! K ..read more