I Could Be Fake

Mini update re: child custody.

admin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 14:10:29 +0000

There isn’t much new actually but I thought I’d post a quick mini update.

Got a notice in the mail this week from the judge dismissing my petition. I knew this would happen, because remember they denied my request to waive the filing fee. I didn’t send the filing fee so they did not proceed with the petition I filed.

The sperm donor never did sign for the petition copies I had sent him. But the court did mail him a copy of the dismissal notice, which just says “Petition for contempt and petition to change a court order dismissed.” so he has at least that information.

The kids still have not heard from him since the argument with Gillian. One month.

Bryan and I spoke with both kids about adoption. They are both okay with it. And I spoke to a lawyer online via emails back and forth and it’s not going to cost as much as I’d thought and we have to file here in NC, instead of up there.

So that’s where we’re at right now. I just try to stay busy and not think about it. I think if I think about it too much it’ll just stress me out.

Fabric trash bin for the car.

admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:42:54 +0000

I am proud to say I designed this little trash bin for my car because I was sick of the plastic bags I was using, they just aren’t pretty. My center console has this little compartment and I have no idea what they are for. They are 4″ long, 1″ wide and 1 1/2″ deep. I decided to make use of that random little space.

My cousin saw mine and asked me to make two for her van. I made hers longer, since they will be hanging in her random compartments on her doors instead of the center console close to the floor.

First decide how long you’d like your trash bag. For mine it was 12″ from the compartment lip to the floor so mine is less than 12″, my cousins is about 12″ when finished.

You’ll need:

one 26″ x 10″ rectangle with outer fabric
one 26″ x 10″ rectangle with lining fabric
one 7″ x 10 1/2″ rectangle
piece of ribbon approximately 4″ long (or make your own bias tape like I did)
two pieces of fusible web 10″ x at least 1″
1/2 cup of rice

Iron your fusible web about 1/2″ down from the top of the short edges of your outer fabric, on the wrong side.

Fold your outer fabric in half, right sides together, matching short ends. Sew along both long edges.

Box the two bottom corners.

Repeat with your lining.

Flip your outer fabric right side out and fold your seams in. Iron the seams. Repeat with your lining.

Slide your lining into your outer bag, wrong sides together, lining up the side seams. Pin at the side seams and around the front. Leave the back unpinned for now.

Take your 7″ x 10 1/2″ rectangle and fold it, right sides together, so the short ends meet.

Stitch along one short end and the long end, leaving the other short end open. Flip right side out, iron, then add approximately 1/2 cup of rice.

Push your rice to the bottom, squeeze the fabric above it and pin. This will keep the rice down and out of your way while you’re sewing.

Pin and stitch your ribbon or bias tape approximately 3 1/2″ from the closed end of your rice pouch.

Put your rice pouch, ribbon side up, in between your unpinned front and lining layers, centered between the side seams, like so:

Pin in place. Take your bin to your machine and sew around the edges, approximately 1/4″ from the edge. Voila!! Your car trash bin is complete!!!

Scrap buster: Mug Rugs

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:54:52 +0000

I keep seeing mug rugs all over the place and decided to make a few. They are small, easy and oh so addictive. They’re also great scrap busters!!!

The first one I made, the green one, is smaller than the other two. It’s the first one I made, and while I sketched it on graph paper first, I cut the pieces smaller than I was supposed to so it came out smaller than I intended. It’s still big enough for a coffee mug and a snack though.

I Googled my heart out and could not find anywhere the “standard” size for a mug rug. The ones below are 8″ x 6″. I think that’s a pretty decent size.

What do you think? I think they’re so cute!!

Justin Beiber is…. DISGUSTING!!!!

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:57:12 +0000

My Hannah:

Something Hannah said this morning. So funny.

Potholder fail.

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:15:24 +0000

I tried making some potholders with scrap fabric and an old fleece blanket. They came out great… If you don’t mind burning your hand, haha.

I did not make them thick enough. Next time I will test before I sew. I should have doubled the fleece I think.

It’s a little upsetting because they came out nice. But funny that I screwed them up so bad! I feel like such a dumbass, haha.

Guess I’ll start over.

Easy Menu Planning Board

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:25:49 +0000

I found a menu board on Pinterest that I thought was pretty sweet and wanted to try to make it myself. My board is based off the photo, however, if you’d like to view the original and the instructions that go with it, you can find that here. My instructions are different.

You’ll need:

1 piece of 12×12 card stock
1 piece of decorative 12×12 scrapbook paper
1 piece of light colored solid cardstock
a few scraps of scrapbook paper
an old 10×13 picture frame, with the glass intact
tape runner
glue gun
7 clothes pins
Other: ruler, pencil, scissors, paper cutter

I started with an old 10×13 picture frame. I cut my background scrapbook paper (I used paper from Basic Grey) to 9×12. I put a tiny bit of glue runner on the back and attached it to the back of the paper that came inside the frame, centering it, so that there is a white border around my paper. Then I just stuck everything back in the frame. So I basically framed a piece of pretty paper.

Next I figured out on scrap paper what size to make the boxes. My measurements are below, measure it on a scrap piece of paper and use that as your template. Use the template to trace and cut two boxes. You can get two pieces off one piece of card stock. Put the long measurement on one edge in the corner, trace and cut, then flip it and trace it onto the opposite side of the card stock. You should have a nice strip in the middle of your card stock, which we will cut later for the clothes pins.

Use your paper cutter to score the folds. You can see my score lines in the photo above. Score and fold on the lines. Cut two 2 1/2″ x 3 1/4″ rectangles out of your scrap paper. Use the glue runner to attach to the front of your boxes.

Then use a little tape runner to glue the boxes like this:

Using your leftover card stock, cut 7 pieces that are 2 3/4″ long x 5/8″ wide. Hot glue these to your clothes pins.

Hot glue your boxes to the glass on the right side of the frame. Be quick, you want to get the box on the glass before the glue dries!!

Hot glue your clothes pins evenly spaced along the left side of the frame. These will be hot glued to the frame, not the glass.

Cut your meal strips out of the light colored solid card stock (I used three colors): 1 1/4″ x 3 3/4″.

I put some stickers on the leftover card stock, cut around them then hot glued those to the frame as well. If you’re using a pack of Basic Grey paper or Close to my Heart paper, it’s easy to coordinate because the solids, patterns and stickers all come in one pack.

Now what you do is write the meal on one side of the meal strip and the ingredients for the entire meal on the back side of the strip. How you use the boxes will be up to you. I’m going to start with all meals in the top box, make my menu (using the ingredients on the back for my shopping list), and next week take those off and put them in the bottom box, and make a new menu using the top box. And cycle thru them.

Pretty sweet I think.

Fabric “basket”…. Or a tote with small handles.

admin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:08:45 +0000

Last year I made Hannah a quilt with these fabrics and had some leftovers that have just been sitting in a box. Leftover squares I didn’t end up using, leftover strips. So I decided to make her this basket/tote for her random toys that can’t fit into the way I currently organize the toys in her bedroom. Ha.
I started with two of these:

And ended up with this:

She’s four, so of course she thinks it’s the coolest thing ever.

Coat Hanger Organizer.

admin — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:03:32 +0000

I made this coat hanger organizer yesterday morning. It didn’t take long and it was sew easy.

I didn’t even use a pattern, if you can believe that.

The only thing I don’t currently like about it is the empty plain space at the top. But I guess I can either applique something on there or Gillian can use the top to put all her pins on there.

Here are some quick instructions:

First cut a rectangle of fabric that is the length you think you want, and about a half an inch wider than your hanger (I used a child’s hanger because I have an over-abundance of these).

On the wrong side of the fabric, trace around your hanger, you want to trace around the top part of the hanger and slightly up the hook.

Now measure your pocket pieces. You’ll only be sewing down one long end of the pockets, so you’re making a tube. Turn it right side out and iron.

Add some details or whatever to your pocket pieces. You can see I just threw some squares on there.

Pin your pockets in place and sew down the bottom edge of the two top pockets. Next, sew pockets, whatever sizes you want.

Then cut a rectangle as wide as, but slightly shorter than, your front rectangle piece. Hem one short end of it.
Place this back rectangle on top of the front rectangle, right sides together, lining up the pieces at the bottom of the organizer, like so –>

Sew around that. Now measure and cut a small rectangle to cover the top part of the organizer. Make sure you hem one short end of that too, and make sure it slightly overlaps the other back piece. Pin that in place, right sides together, and sew up the sides and around your hanger marks.

Trim around your seams, flip right side out and iron. Make sure the straight pieces are tucked in at the top. Slide your hanger up in there. Easy.

You could also make a small tube to cover the hook of the hanger if you wanted to. I didn’t do that because the hanger is purple and it matches the fabric.

My new purse and matching coin purse.

admin — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:05:43 +0000

This weekend I made this lavender scented rice heating pad for my Aunt. The last time I made her one was four years ago and it wasn’t as nice. She still uses it. Figured it was time to send her a new one! I hope she likes it.

The pattern for the rice pad was from Sew4Home. Love that site.

I also made myself a new purse. I know, it’s boring, my cousin already informed me of that. I should add a big bow, she said. Bows are not my thing, simple is my thing and since this is my own purse I’m leaving it as is. I was just going to do the black but figured that was way too boring so decided to add some of the other… Greenish/blue fabric. That is fancy enough for me.

The purse and matching coin thing are from “Amy Butler’s Style Stitches”. I love the purses in that book but most of them are HUGE and I will never make them. The teardrop purse was a nice size though.

Forgive my cell phone photos.

That’s not all I did this weekend!! I smoked my last cigarette at 9pm Sunday night!!! I’m chewing the nicotine gum, which I guess is kind of cheating but it’s certainly making quitting easier. And after my mother I do need to quit. Can’t believe it’s taken me four years after my mom died to get it thru my head that this is some serious shit. Better late than never I guess. Hopefully I can stick to this, I’ve never made it more than a week, but then I’ve never used the gum to help me out, either.

Little bit of good news.

admin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:35:55 +0000

Yesterday I downloaded NH’s “Petition to Terminate Parental Rights” form. I will filling it out and when I came to #8 I was a little confused:

The court has jurisdiction because the child is present in the State or is in the legal custody or legal guardianship of an authorized agency located in the state, and the child, parent or guardian resides in the county.

So I called the courthouse for the umpteenth time in the last few days and asked the woman to explain. I said we’re military so we’re not currently present in the state but our original custody case was filed there in 2006. She asked for the case name, she looked it up, and put me on hold.

When she came back she told me we have to file the petition to terminate parental rights forms in NC, since we have lived here for three years and the children are here with us. This is also where we will file for stepparent adoption.

Awesome news! This means we don’t have to worry about flying all five of us to NH to appear before a judge!! We will be doing everything right here in the county where we currently live. What a relief.

NC laws are almost identical to NH laws regarding stepparent adoption and termination of parental rights. The only difference I could find, in my many many hours researching, is that in NH the age a child has to be to consent to an adoption is 14, in NC the age is 12. So by the time we do this, Gillian will be 12 and she will have to sign the paperwork and appear before a judge.

She’s cool with it. She seems to think that if anything happens to me she can stay here with Bryan. Last night I explained to her she would not be able to, she would have to go live with her bio-dad. She said they can’t really force her to do that and I told her they can and they will.

We’re not pressuring her. We asked her what she wanted, what she prefers and that we will not push forward with this if they don’t want us to. Her main concern and only question was whether or not her aunts would still be her aunts and if she could use her middle name because her middle name sounds better with what would be her adopted last name.

I went to JAG yesterday but they were closed for lunch, when I went back they were so ridiculously busy that I just turned and walked out, then came home and called. They told me to call back today and they will make me an appointment for next week.

I also emailed a few law firms in town with just some general questions. We’ll see. One law firm emailed me back already and it seems that it would be cheaper than I thought it would be to hire a lawyer, considerably cheaper than the number I had in my head.

That is where we’re at for now. Can’t really do anything for at least six months…