Life, Silva style!!

Hello again.

Tap....tap, tap, tap...HELLO? Testing...One, two...three.

Is this thing on? (cough)...(cough)...Wow, it sure is dusty!

Ok, is it bad that I forgot my password to my blog? I wish I were kidding. I haven't been on here in a very long time. About a year, to be exact, and I almost gave up trying to login because I could not remember the password! Ha!

Since there is no way for me to cram an entire year into one post, or even a couple, let's just say that lots has happened.

For starters, the kids and I are a grade higher than the last time I was here. In a couple of weeks, I will officially have two high school-aged teenagers. I kept back-spacing because I really did not want to type that. Because if I type it, then it is real. Make sense? I want time to slow down just a little because my kiddos are growing up so fast and I'm not liking it. Not one bit! Marko will be a sophomore and Gabriella will be a (gulp!)...freshman. This just boggles my mind.

This year is also my senior year as an undergrad. (How did that happen?!) It's both exciting and kind of scary. This personal goal of mine of earning my bachelor degree is becoming more and more of a reality every day (obviously), but it also will mean that the only life I have known for the last three years will change, and I don't do well with change. This is probably because I bounced around so much as a child, that I just do not do well with it now. I was talking to my husband about the fact that this is the first time in my entire life that I have began school somewhere and actually finished the school year in the same school. Actually doing this was completely foreign to me. The fact that I have done this for three years now just amazes me.

Somewhere during the last year I also decided to apply for grad school. I am even entertaining the idea of a double major and I plan on meeting with my advisor to discuss this further. This is definitely not set in stone. Yet. (:
I was recently blessed with an amazing, very much sought-after scholarship that will make this year completely stress-free as far as tuition, etc. I also made the honor roll. These are two things that I am proud of because I seriously work my butt off on this crazy educational journey, and it is kind of satisfying to see that all my and my family's sacrifices are not in vain.

My hubby recently decided he was ready for a change also and started a new job! God is amazing, and His timing is always perfect. I am confidant this was the perfect decision for our family and I know that hubs will be very successful.

There's not a doubt in my mind (:

Fabric bucket

The latest creation my Brother and I made is probably my favorite so far. If anyone has spent any amount of time over on Pinterest, you've probably seen those fabric buckets that are so versatile and just, well, fun!
I saw one a couple months ago at Target that I was thisclosetobuying, but decided that I was too cheap to spend $30 on it when I could just make it myself.

This is the one I made:

I had two placemats I bought on clearance for a $1.50 at Target about a year ago, and they were perfect!
I just cut the bottom 3" off lengthwise to make the handles and sewed the two placemats together. I then quilted some fabric together for the lining and had it all finished in a couple hours.
The hardest part in making it was measuring the fabric for the bottom. A dinner plate was too small, so I had to improvise. I ended up having to trace one of my large frying pans that ended up being the perfect size! (Wish I were kidding.) Hey, just keeping it real...

They would make great gifts for any occasion, such as a baby shower, and gift it filled with a pack of diapers, some onesies, wipes, and a stuffed animal.
They can be used for towels, yarn, quilting materials, or toys. The possibilities are endless.

I think I'll put one under my bathroom sink to store rolls of toilet paper, or maybe I'll put it in Marko's room so he can store his guitar magazines.

The best part? You can make them in any size you need. (:

I plan on making quite a few more to give away.

And making it myself ended up only costing me $3! Not bad. Not bad, at all!

Oh, and I need to remember to make a trip to Joann's to buy a compass so I can take my frying pan out of my fabric bin! (:

Have an awesome Friday!!

I'm loving my summer SEW much!!

I've really been taking advantage of my homework free summer! And I've also shown my sewing machine, whom I lovingly refer to as my Brother, no mercy. None. Nada. Merciless as in never, ever, ever giving the poor guy a break. Not even potty breaks...unless, of course, I need one! But that's ok because in just a few short weeks, back in the closet he'll go until Christmas break. Or better yet, that would be a good time to send him in for a good cleaning and to get oiled. Kind of like a spa day!
So I wrote yesterday of my first attempt last week at making a quilt and how it was a huge success, and how I'm totally a professional now. Ha!

Well, I just finished up a chevron chenille blanket that I l-o-v-e. Here she is:

I have to add that while I absolutely love my blanket, I really do not like the cutting part. At all.

I knew I was facing perhaps my biggest "cutting job" EVER with all the zigzags, so Gabriella and I made a run to Jo-Ann to buy a sharpener for my 2,388 pairs of scissors and ended up also buying 3 of these:

(Source: Fiskars.com)

They are Fiskars package openers that were on clearance for $1.97 each. Can you believe it?! They are listed at $14.99 online (!)

Well, I was on a mission, so I also bought one of these chenille cutters:

(Source: Google)

After the half-off sale and a coupon and my handy-dandy student discount (normally gives me 10% off, but during the month of July it was 20%!!), I ended up with a grand total under $11. Score!
After trying the chenille cutter, I immediately did NOT like it. It seemed to rip and tear the flannel layers and left the edges sort of stretched. I just didn't like the way it "mauled" my fabric, so I quickly switched to the Fiskars tool. Definitely the my new favorite tool.
The blade size is perfect for all those chevrons and before I knew it, I was finished. This tool really is amazing! I'm so glad I bought all three of them (at Gabriella's urging.) Thanks Gabi!
You just have to be very, very careful using it because that thing doesn't mess around! It's very sharp, precise and fast. And it is now my new BFF.

Well, after I finished this blanket, Gabriella helped me organize my fabrics and we got them all folded uniformly.

Well...this of course only inspired me to start on yet another project. Which will be tomorrow's post (:

Have a wonderful Thursday!

Summer time with my Brother (:

I have been MIA for a while. Truth is, I was hanging out with my Brother, and together we were busy, busy, BUSY creating things.
Now, I love my real, breathing brother, but the the brother I'm speaking of, of course, is my beloved sewing machine that is completely ignored the entire time I am in school. I know...I feel so bad! But everyone knows that as soon as each semester is over, I lovingly pull the Brother out, dust him off and we pick up right where we left off. (:

Well, when I pulled the Brother out, I had lots of projects in mind and I really didn't know where to start. And I could hardly contain my excitement when I had Marko pull out my giant stash of fabric. I was seriously like a kid on Christmas morning!

Well, I don't know if I've ever mentioned this before, but I have always loved quilts. Loved them! I find them fascinating because of the amount of work put into them and I love the fact that if taken care of, they can last years and years, and can be handed down from generation to generation.

About a couple years ago, I suddenly decided I wanted to make a quilt someday and I have actually been working on a quilt for myself for about a year now, off and on. Well, more off than on because, well, I didn't know what the hell I was doing, so I was just started cutting triangles and sewing them together.

Kidding...Sort of.

Well, this summer, I finally took the bull by the horns and completed the top layer. Now, anyone that knows me can vouch for the fact that I never do anything on a small scale. Nope. Kind of like my cooking. I am just physically incapable of cooking a normal, family-sized portion of anything. In fact, my very first attempt at making tamales resulted in my making almost 20 dozen!! And my attempt at making a quilt was no exception. I suppose most people would, you know...make a baby quilt to begin with, right?
Well, mine is none other than a flipping' king sized quilt. Totally not kidding!!
Believe me when I tell you that many, many times, I questioned my sanity at having taken on such a huge project when I had no idea what quilting was all about. And I'm not lying when I say I had zero knowledge on what batting was (I do now!), or what binding was (ditto!) or even how to begin to put that on (Yep!)

So...this is the top layer:

After I finished my top layer, I thought "Okay...now what?!" I literally had no idea how to proceed. I also had no idea what I needed for the layers (or even how many layers I needed.) So I asked the nice ladies at JoAnn's. Boy, they saved my life! They told me I needed to buy batting and pointed to the general direction of where their batting was sold. Imagine my dismay at getting to the aisle and finding a million choices. Ugh. I finally decided on 100% cotton because, well, I'm from Texas and I love the cotton fields I saw growing up and I love anything 100% cotton. That's not the only reason. I guess I chose cotton because I really can't stand polyester anything. Again, I didn't know what I was doing, but I'm pretty sure I made the right choice.

So it was at this point that I brilliantly decided to make a small quilt to, you know, practice on (!) Duh.

And this is what I ended up with:

I'm pretty happy with it. It isn't perfect, but rather "perfectly imperfect." Not bad, considering it is my very first attempt at quilting, right? (: Plus, it's still good-sized for a practice size. See what I mean about not doing anything "small-scale?" The part of the quilt hanging over the fence is still almost double the part showing. And I learned a lot, which is exactly what I wanted. I also learned some tricks on the binding that work amazing!

I plan on finishing up my quilt before school starts in a month and I have to hide my Brother back in the closet until Christmas break. I know...I'm such a bad sister. Ha!

And I've decided to make a quilt for Marko and Gabriella's beds as well, you know, since I'm a pro now (:

My Brother and I also made a chevron chenille blanket that I'm loving! But that will be tomorrow's post.

Have a great week!

#cantbelievesummerisalmostover

Turn the other cheek!

I've mentioned how Gabriella loves make-up and actually is the go-to person for any make-up tips, etc. for everyone that knows her personally. I mean, this girl really knows her stuff! She's like a walking, breathing, make-up encyclopedia; she spends most of her allowance on make-up, and has quite an impressive collection of make-up now.

Well, recently, her godmother went with me and Gabriella to Sephora, which, by the way, is Gabriella's absolute favorite store and she was amazed, AMAZED at Gabi's knowledge in beauty products. Even the saleswoman and the manager commented on how they loved listening to Gabi explaining everything to her godmother. I'm sure they also loved the fact that Gabi's sales pitch resulted in her godmother making a good-sized purchase (:

Since Gabriella is only 13, i allow her to experiment with all the make-up she wants at home, but she knows that once school starts, it's only mascara and lip gloss, even though she knows how to apply make-up better than most adults!
Anyway, a few weeks ago, I received a coupon from Victoria's Secret in the mail and Gabriella asked me if she could have it. I remember I was loading the dishwasher and I didn't pay too much attention to the coupon, but I heard her say that it was for some free blush with a bra purchase, and of course, she was pretty excited about it. I thought it was odd to give away blush for buying a bra, but I was busy, so I quickly forgot all about it.

Last week, she was going to ask me if I would take her to VS to get her free blush, and was crushed because she discovered that the coupon had expired the day before! I got the coupon from her to check the date myself and started laughing so hard I may have even snorted!
The coupon stated that it was for a free Cheekster, which, at VS, is this:

(Via Google)

I literally laughed so hard my cheeks hurt! Hahahaha...Pun totally intended(:

Gabriella laughed too and said "I hate VS!...that was SO misleading!!"

My daughter's definition of cheeks is clearly much different than VS's!!

Bloglovin' part two (:

I finally jumped on the Bloglovin' bandwagon! And I'm, well, lovin' it so far. (: I've also added a widget to my sidebar so you can "follow" along on this crazy ride called life.
Oh, and in case you're wondering, my previous post's gibberish was what I was instructed to do to enable the switch. Haha.

I have to admit that I've been wanting to do this for a while now, but just never found the time. Until now.

This Bloglovin' is pretty awesome in that it conveniently sends you an email to alert you of a new post on the blogs you follow! There is even an app for your phone so you can be alerted that way (!) How awesome is that?!

Simply amazing, I tell 'ya.